A galaxy far far away...or why I've not updated recently

We had a very cool 6th birthday party. A Star Wars party. Since the party was held at a party place, we just had to do invitations and provide food and drink.

I opted for not going nuts on the preprinted party material and kept it at just the table covering. We got grey silverware and grey napkins. And we seriously had a bunch of Star Wars toys so we used them as table setting.

I thought about baking a Death Star cake, but there was a special request for cupcakes...

The light sabers were made by dipping small pretzels in chocolate.

I also dipped large pretzels in chocolate and made the light saber handles. These were given to the kids.


It was a fun party. The knitting will be in the next entry.

Panda

I knit this for my young friend who has a 15th birthday coming up this weekend. I never can figure out what to get for her each year, but recently, she's let it be known that she likes panda bears. And you know, it's not like she can have too many pandas. So I looked through my patterns and found the perfect one. It's from Noah's Ark by Alan Dart.


I knit him in worsted yarn instead of DK because I didn't want him to be teeny tiny. The pattern can be found in the simply Knitting magazine or his book, Irresistible Toys to Knit.

Stats:
Date started finished: a week because I was thinking about modifications.

It's actually a very fast knit, it took me a bit because I had to think about how to redo his legs and body so that he's more sitting, and less standing on all fours (like a cow). I wanted him to not be on 4s because well, I normally see sitting pandas.

yarn: acrylics
needle size: US2
mods: Many.

Here's my modifications:
Body: Done in the round because well, I try to do all of Alan Dart's patterns in the round when ever possible.
Head: Done also in the round after the neck part.
Arms: Done in the round. Went with casting on 10 stitches, knit a tube for a bit and then decreasing by k2tog and then thread through and pull. Stuffed and sewed on.
Legs: Done in the round. Cast on 14 stitches, knit 2 rows, increased 2 stitches at stitch 1 and 7, knit a few, decrease again, k row, decrease, knit.

Here's some more shots because he turned out so nicely. btw, that's a lucky bamboo that my mother gave me in the 90's (maybe 1996?).

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl!

Why was I not at Maker Faire this weekend? Well, I have a birthday party this weekend for my wonderful little Creature A.

This year, we decided on cupcake cake and a party at the park. And we opted to supplement the store cake w/ home-made minicupcakes. I saw these on this site and had to try them. They are so cute!

Okay, ...I've made flourless chocolate cake from scratch, cookies, cream puffs, English toffee, tortes, tarts, cakes, etc...but I've never made cupcakes!

So, first attempt. Utter failure. I read that you're to fill the cup anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 full. Yep, I opted for the 2/3 full. Oh, what a mess. (nothing to see here...please keep moving...)

Try II. Went to get more of the mini-nut holders and big box M store did not have any! Did find them finally and made these.

Note how I went the other way this time and filled everything only to half. And the white cake shrank! Ah, well. Trusty intarweb told me that I can add more frosting to compensate. Aha.

Here's what they look like after frosting.

We got a store cupcake cake (only served 14) and you guessed it, only the adults ate the itty bitty cakes. The kids all went for the big giant cupcakes. Anyway, the party was loads of fun, for everyone but you guessed it, little Miss Creature. She didn't feel good in the morning, and napped (very unlike her) in the morning. She was a bit clingy but we put it down to party stress...nope. As we were loading stuff up to go home, yep, there was erpage.

As for the nut holder cups? Went to MickyD's today and they had literally stacks of them...darn, I wish I had known, wouldn't have needed to traipse all over town looking for these suckers. Could have just used the Double Arches ketchup cups.

Okay, back to knitting.

Presenting Miss Dangly

I had everything done but her eyes and thanks to everyone who commented, I went with the eyes close together.

I also made her a little crown and a little tulle skirt. I hope M likes her.



And yes, she is doing the splits.

Dotting the eyes

According to Chinese folklore, dotting the eyes of the dragon is what makes it come alive. In Western culture, the eyes are the windows to the soul...

So, I actually sometimes follow that thought of putting eyes on last. Not because of the folklore, but it sure does make a difference when you put them on. And that's just weird having a toy head staring at you...

Well, may I introduce you to Ms. Dangly. I'm having issues with her eyes. Which to use? far apart as per original pattern (free)
Fish eyes

or close together?


I guess I should give you some specs:
yarn: Patons Merino in pink and white
needles: US3 dpns (probably could have gone down to US2, but didn't)
start: March 5, 2008
finish: mostly done March 7, 2008
mods: circular knitting except for the tail.

This is a birthday present for my buddy M who's turning 3. I will be making her a couple of outfits since she's a big girl.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, it was my birthday.

What did I do? Well, I started the day going to the gym, only to find that the roads were flooded and I couldn't actually get there. Okay, I ended up finally getting there after taking a detour through the local jr. college and did my Sunday morning spin class w/ Jean-Claude.

Then it was off w/ the family to a lovely brunch (my choice) where we had dim sum. And on the way back, I asked to be dropped off at a yarn shop (that was open only for this weekend for a sale for charity) where I spent the afternoon looking and purchasing some yarn. Uhmm...did I mention I was already there yesterday too?!

And I got to knit. And my children are lovely (except the baby is a tad sick).

It was a good day. The only thing is that I didn't get a cake. Oh, well. That would have negated the gym workout (and then some).

Pictures coming later.