mama, please make me a cuddly

It all started with the hat.  The "mama, I want a pig hat that's just a pig" hat.  I have been knitting for many years, so making hats is pretty simple for me.  No problem, I thought.  I WILL make a pig hat that's just a pig.

I wanted it to be quick work, so I went upstairs, picked out some extra large, extra pink yarn and extra large needles.  For those of you who haven't been in my house, I have a bit of a problem with yarn.  And fabric.  I have an entire room devoted to yarn.

And fabric.

It's not remotely organized..  BUT..  I am pretty well equipped to make anything that tickles my fancy at any given time.  Unfortunately, my daughter picked up on that pretty quickly....

So in the heat of the hat challenge, I just started knitting a basic ear flap hat, putting on a nose, ears, and eyes at the end.  I didn't use a pattern and I made it in 3 hours, while my daughter took her nap.

She doesn't nap anymore.  And she knows that I can make a hat in 3 hours.  I don't quite know yet if that is a good thing or not......

Next up was the teddy bear.  She had a dream about this little tan bear with a blue nose.  When she woke up and couldn't find the bear anywhere, she sort of flipped out.  She was heartbroken that she couldn't find the bear.  And she was still so sleepy and didn't understand that the bear wasn't real.   It was very sweet..

I featured the teddy bear in an earlier post that you can read here.

So by the time my daughter came up to me and asked me to knit her a baby gazelle, I realized that I had set the bar way too high.  But..............

I did it anyway.

I so love a challenge.

I used to knit sweaters for kids, sweaters for myself, scarves..  clothing items.  But oh how I love to knit or sew little guys for my little guys.  The excitement in their faces when they see the newest creation is so unbelievably rewarding.  And having them see me make them (well if they aren't sleeping or at school), is even sweeter.  I am all about inspiring creativity here in the Karimipour Household.

This one kind of has a weird stance...

He (oh, I'm sorry, SHE) looks so uptight in this one.

Gazelles have a stripe.  And a wee little tail.

And although they may not have fluffy blue eyes, baby gazelles do have wee little horns.

Horns, not antlers...

Ta daa!  I'm really proud of this little gal...  the white stripe going down the front and on her belly is a little screwey, but that's ok.  It adds character.

This little lady was the most fun to make.  I wrote my own pattern for the gazelle (which was a challenge indeed- it took me three days and three tries), but this little lamb started out in a book as a bunny.  I made some changes with the body (changing yarn, needle size, and knit stitch- I also halved the book pattern because I wanted it tiny, and I did actually change the pattern a bit to just have one seam in the back as opposed to two seams down the sides), and changed the ear position, but mostly it was out of the book.

Although I love making things on my own, sometimes it is really such a breath of fresh air to use someone else's work...

So here's a big THANK YOU to all of you out there who shed your blood, sweat, and tears to bring wonderful creations into the world!

spur of the moment teddy bear

I am a hoarder.  I always kind of knew it, but since we moved back into the house, I have made a serious effort to move the way of purger.  (Unsuccessfully mind you, but a girl can still dream, right?) Alas, I discovered today that I am, without a doubt, still a hoarder.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we.

This morning, while making breakfast, I hear a couple of 4 year old feet hurriedly running down the stairs.  "Mama, where is my teddy bear?  The tan one!  Where is it?"  "You don't have a tan teddy bear, honey."

To that, my daughter launches into a full on still half asleep panic.  "No," she says, "I do have one!  Why don't I have one?  Where is it?  But it was in my dream!"

Ahh, there it is.  The dream.

"Ok, honey, well calm down and you can tell me what it looks like."  "She, mama.  What she looks like."

Oy.  Here we go.

She explains her size, "she has to fit in this bag."  The bag in question is about 2"x4"x4".  "Her arms go like this, and her legs go like this."  I wish I had a picture of her little body, perched on her pink cube seat in a slightly askew balance, arms and legs extended in all directions.  So I draw the picture, to scale, complete with eyes, nose, and mouth.  "No, mama, the mouth goes like this.  And it has to be brown.  The nose has to be blue, and the eyes are black."  Done, done, and done.


















I drop her off at school, and plan to go to the fabric store after I give my son breakfast.  First, I decide to go upstairs, just to check, to see what I have.

And here we are, back at the beginning.

I find tan fleece, blue fleece in the exact same color as the chosen marker for the drawing, brown embroidery floss, and unspun wool from a project of years past.

Hoarder.

I couldn't believe I had everything...  So I return to the kitchen, to my trusty sewing machine (because it is most convenient in the kitchen, serving the double purpose as a step for my kids), and begin.  An hour and a half later, teddy bear! And it was not so hard to do!  Very easy, actually.


















I had such a good time making it, and I was so proud of the results, that I thought it was the perfect day to tackle my other project, my first painting since July.  Yeah, that wasn't as uplifting.  Not having painted for ten months took it's toll....  It wasn't bad, but definitely not my best.  Curious?  marlakarimipour.blogspot.com

And now both of my blogs are connected.  And the circle of life continues...