Totoro Tuesday

I found these little glass Totoro in a San Diego shop. It was a chance meeting and I had to to go back and clean out the store's stash. I try to talk myself into being sensible when it comes to Totoro. I mean...there are people starving, and is it really dignified for someone my age to collect Totoro? Luckily blogless Kathy gave me the push I needed and the little group came home with me. Here they are posing with some cell phone charms in the 99 cents oak leaf/acorn thingy I picked up at Savers the other day. They are all quite tolerant with the filter experiment "vignette white".















I frogged my stash busting scarf to make a blue bunny. Again I tried experimenting with a larger head, but it made for larger front legs, too, and resulted in a very masculine bunny. I don't know if I'll keep the nose and whiskers or not. The Crystal Palace Country silk has been in my stash for many many years. I think some of it has found it home!! I fell off my yarn diet and got some kid merino for more bunnies. I'm not sure if stuffing counts, let's say not. Anyone know of a place to get cheap wool stuffing that doesn't charge and arm and leg to ship to Hawaii? I ordered Brown sheep mill ends from The Sheep Shed to try out. I can practice spinning on it, too!































The spinning is going a little faster. I'm going for the thinner yarn, now. I adore my spindle from the Isle of Wight:) I'm lusting for the "bog oak" spindle. Fascinating stuff, bog oak.

All my pumpkin yarn has been spun up and knit into carrots. I updated the pattern on the side bar to include the formula for enlarging them. I'm looking for a project for my purpley/blue "art yarn".

Drop Spindle Progress

Being a knitter who likes quick fast projects, I really want to spin fat yarn. The down side is that the roving disappears pretty quickly. So I'm attempting to spin thinner singles and even tried plying some of the green.

learning to spin on drop spindle
Originally uploaded by acornbud

Then of course I have to figure out what to make out of the fugly yarn. Since I had so much of the NZ Corriedale in the pumpkin, purchased from Mielke Farms, I could only come up with pumpkins and carrots. The quirky, coily green made perfect tops. The lighter carrots are handspun purchased on Etsy from smallestfriend.
Rabbits are happy! I'm going to have a lot of carrots.

Totoro Tuesday

The plover are back marking the changing of the season. Next week is September already. And as someone on FB mentioned, soon it will be Christmas. Yikes!

The gray hair didn't wait long after my decision to stop coloring to pop out. I woke up dreaming I had a huge skunk stripe and also alopecia areata! My hair was so short I couldn't even comb it over!


Kim has been challenging me to inventory my Totoros. The sorry fact is that I don't have space large enough or lens with a wide enough angle for a group photo. Instead I have decided to post every Tuesday give or take 1/2 a day while I count.

The first entry and most recent Totoro is Beaverslide, stuffed with wool and some left over corn stuffing. The pattern has evolved over time and every Totoro is different.

Unlike real pets, kids or even plants, Totoro makes no demands, takes no care, is always on time, and never gets sick or throws up on your couch.

I'm going to spin at least 10 minutes every day on my drop spindle until I get it. My lovely BFL has arrived from Jen and I'm planning another lesson with Opal in September.

I went to see Eat, Pray Love over the weekend. I only read the Eat part of the actual book. There were some words of wisdom, and Julia Roberts was great, but the movie was only so so imo. Really how many times does a Javier Bardem actually walk in to a woman's life?

Another Pink Bunny

Pattern: Knitted Bunny, by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer.
Yarn: Cotton/Angora from a thrift store sweater, Madil Kid Seta in oyster. Following Nanea's and blogless Sandy's idea, I held two strands of the sweater yarn and one strand of the Kid Seta together. The little extra fuzz really helped to dress up the rather drab yarn.
Needles: size 6

After making the first bunny I knit a couple extra rows for the head portion for a larger head. I used two cables from the yellow Charted Knitting Design: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker. The larger head idea was stymied by the fact that I sewed the bunny up backward and did not notice until I passed the point of no return. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I decided to let my gray hair grow out and the gray matter of my brain is seeping out.

I also sewed the legs together by putting the right sides together, then turning them right side out, and I like the way the feet came out better.

He is stuffed with some matted roving and bits of left over quilt batting. I made the smaller stand up ears this time and like the way they turned out.

Small Project Bags

Small Project Bags
Originally uploaded by acornbud

I finally made a few bags for the shop.

My Bernina has forgotten how to sew backwards and my camera battery doesn't hold a charge very long anymore. I've gotten a lot of use out of both of them, but still do not look forward to having to fork out money to get them fixed. It's lonely without them when they are in the shop and not working, sigh. Somehow weeding just isn't as much fun, imo.

Look, Ma, I'm Spinning.

Today was lesson two in spinning on Opal's Majacraft Suzie Pro. She gave me some nice Superwash BFL to practice on. Thanks, Opal! I studied some books and some you tubes. This time I tried drafting with my right hand since I'm so very right-handed and that's how I draft when I drop spindle.

I forget to keep drafting toward the orifice and hold on to the fiber too tightly resulting in the yarn not feeding in and winding on the bobbin. I do get some funky corkscrews which Opal refers to as "art" yarn. She tells me it's nice...liar, lol.

One thing I found to be true is that she does indeed have a very manly looking cat named Sammy. I saw him twice and he gave me a look. I'm not going to pass judgement on the cat, though.

Opal was working on one of her amazing bead creations.

Knit Totoros on Fence

Knit Totoros on Fence
Originally uploaded by acornbud

I knit a Totoro a day for 5 days. And now I'll rest.

More Totoros

I'm on a mission to use up the bits of blue and gray yarn in stash. Some of the balls are pretty small and bulky weight so I'm just making them up as I go. They seem to have gotten a bit rounder around the tummy and their ears are getting bigger. I'll soon run out of roving to stuff them with. Shipping to Hawaii seems unfairly high at times. I may resort to polyfil, sigh.

Opal gave me a spinning lesson today on her Majacraft Suzie Pro. I tried this once before at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool on a Babe. Um, let's just say I don't get it yet, lol. Opal was working on a fantastic necklace for her mom. Her cats were all in hiding. Maybe they are imaginary cats?

Norwegian Totoro, FO

Pattern: Mimouna's Totoro (Norwegian)
Needles: size 4
Yarn: 100% hand spun Romney wool, dyed iwth indigo plant dye by Kathie Rayfield, Athol, ID. Tummy knit in cream Beaverslide worsted.

I used Google translate to get the gist of the pattern. A cover is placed in the bottom and knit in. My lid was too big so Totoro became rather bell-like and his tummy was a little too large. I stopped at 60 stitches for the tummy. It's a very nice pattern and I may have to try it again.