When I first met her, I was impressed. Kitty is one of those “larger than life” types. She has been all over, seen and done quite a few things, grew up in a well-to-do home, and was still incredibly down-to-earth.  She’s a bit older than I am, but we still bonded and became good friends.  Her sense of humor was wicked, and we found that working together never really seemed like “work” at all.

She turned out to be one of the best bosses that I ever had. If I told her that something was beyond the powers of anyone lacking god-like abilities, she would take care of it, deflecting the negative energy from the management and allowing me breathing room to get the job done. She also stood behind me when I told the owner of the consulting company for which I worked that he was an imbecile for trying to sell customers products that they didn’t need and couldn’t use.

She has also turned out to be one of the best friends I’ve ever had.  When our respective consulting assignments ended, we went off in different directions professionally, but we stayed close. When I found out that I was moving to Texas, I was pretty sure that the relationship would fizzle out, but it hasn’t. She comes to visit as often as she can afford, using Texas as a welcome escape from her hectic life in Chicago.  She has more or less adopted the little grump as one of her own, and the little grump looks forward to her visits as much as she does Christmas.

Several months ago, when Kitty visited, she fell in love with my Crafty Alien Clam. There was something about it that made her laugh whenever she looked at it. She begged me then to make one for her. (She knits too, but her forte is beautiful cabled sweaters, not fiddly felted toys.)

A few weeks ago, she sent an email asking if I could have a visitor this weekend. From what she had said, she sounded tired and disgusted with her job, so I started making plans to give her a weekend full of laughs.

Step #1: Purchase wine.  LOTS of wine!  I’ve stopped into two of the WineStyles in the area.  In one of them, I found a bottle of wine that I knew that she would appreciate.  After all, one of the reasons her job sucks so much right now is that her manager can’t handle a woman who actually knows what she’s doing.

Step 2: Make her a clam of her very own. I finished this one right after she got here.

Crafty Alien Clam #2

The new one is the one on the left.  The other is the first one that I made.    (They both look a bit sloshed! Could it be because I was drinking wine when I finished it?)

Step 3: Yarn therapy!  Kitty loves to go to the Shabby Sheep when she comes to town, so of course, I had to take her there.  Thanks to the GPS on my Blackjack II, we were able to find the shop the first time, with no detours!  It was the first time ever!

If you’ve never been to the Shabby Sheep, it’s well worth the trip!  We poked around the shop for a bit, found more things that we wanted to buy than we can afford, and ended up leaving with large amounts of yarn.  (OK… INTENSE fiber therapy.)  She bought the pattern and yarn for my Christmas present, a beautiful cabled sweater from the Sublime “Exquisitely Soft Organic Merino Wool” book.  She let me pick the yarn and the color… a gorgeous wine color.  The yarn is, as advertised, exquisitely soft.  I can’t wait until Christmas!

Step #4: Mama Mia!   Because Kitty has been so busy, she hasn’t had a chance to see a movie in months.  I knew that she would love Mama Mia.  I was worried at first that it wouldn’t still be in theaters, but it turns out that the “Sing Along” version was just released.  Much to my surprise, the theater was packed!  I’m happy to report that the movie had its intended effect.  Kitty admitted that she hadn’t laughed so hard in years.  (The movie is humorous, but the singing and occasionally dancing audience made it even more fun!)

After that, we went to dinner at P. F. Changs.  Yum!  We had dinner and then brought home a Great Wall of Chocolate desert to share with the little grump.  Needless to say, there were no grumpy women in the house after that!

Step #5: Hubby becomes house boy!  My hubby can be an enabler at times.  This weekend, he dutifully dug out the corkscrew and has kept the wine glasses full in the evening.

Kitty’s visit isn’t done.  Today, we’re doing steps 5 (brunch at La Madeleine’s), 6 (knitting with the Sisters of the Wool), and 7 (house boy becomes grill boy).   Hopefully when I send her off to her plane tomorrow, she will be relaxed and ready to deal with the idiots in her life again!

Meet Frog, Sheep, and Turtle

Lest you think that I spent the entire summer working on nothing (except a tiny horse), meet my latest critters! The patterns are all from Crafty Alien.  These patterns were better than the last ones that I used.  There were no mistakes at all!  Yippee!

BTW, my boss really LOVED the horse.  Several staff members have also commented on how wonderful it is.  The school secretary made the comment that I should make “bunches” of them and sell them.

The more that my co-workers see my knitting, the more I realize that most people have absolutely no clue what goes into it.  There are some people who just kind of shrug it off as no big deal (and who think that knitted gifts are a blatant effort to be cheap).  There are some people who think that knitting is cool and knitted gifts are valued but who also believe knitters can just crank out items without thought.

While I’m sure that there are some knitters who can, I don’t happen to be one of them. I don’t have lots of knitting time.  I also don’t have lots of motivation to knit things that I really don’t enjoy knitting.  So if I give a person a knitted gift, it means that I cared enough to take my time and energy to do it.

I’m sure that you can imagine the look that I gave the secretary.  I then told my boss, “There ya go!  I’ll quit my job and knit critters all day.  She said it was OK.” and flounced out of the room.

Yes, indeed… I do know how to make an exit!

Night before last,  my organizer chirped to tell me that my boss’s birthday is today.

Oops… I’d planned to make something for her over the summer.  What to do?

My daughter jumped to the rescue with a great idea.  My boss likes horses.  How about a Crafty Alien horse?

The idea was a good one!  I always have lots of wool for critter construction.  Crafty Alien’s critters are fairly easy, especially if you’ve made them before and made careful notes of the “gotchas!” in the pattern.  And, best of all, because it’s felted, if the medication made me zone out and do something stupid, it’s easy enough to fix.

I’d made one horse months ago.  For this one, I decided to change the yarn for the body to a different color of Wool of the Andes.  I used the Chestnut before.  This time, I used Camel Heather.

Now, I may have made some knitting errors due to the medication, but I don’t think I made this much of an error.  After felting, this horse turned out rather squat and fat… More like an Australian mountain horse than a thoroughbred.  I might have to do a more scientific test some other time, but it’s something that I want to remember to test for future projects if size is really an issue.

Fortunately, size isn’t an issue for this horse.  Short, fat horses are just as good as long, lean ones.  He’s quite a cutie!

I’ll see my boss tomorrow.  Hopefully she’ll love her gift!

When I finished these guys, my daughter said, “So much for happy as a clam! He looks so sad!”

That he does. It’s a good thing that he has a friend to comfort him!

These two were made from Crafty Alien’s “Surf’s Up” collection. I left the little pearl inside the clam loose so that I can change his look a bit every now and then. On this particular day, he was kind of bummed out. I’m not sure when he’ll be feeling more chipper. Maybe on a Friday!

Aren’t they cute? They came from Crafty Alien’s “Born in a Barn, Vol 2″.

I’m not sure I’m in love with my goat. (How many times can a person say *that* without getting strange looks?) I think I over-felted him a little in my desire to get rid of some unsightly holes in his neck. Still, he’s cute, and my daughter loves him.If you’ve never knitted a Crafty Alien critter before, these probably shouldn’t be the ones to start with. Getting the horns, beak, and tail feathers on just right was a rather fiddly process. The kitties are so much easier to do!

Now is a good time to get in on the Crafty Alien critters. She is having a sale at her web site (link on the right!) for the next week. All orders over $20 are 20% off!

Next up on the critter list is probably a turkey. Or maybe an octopus. Or, if I get the next pattern set, an alpaca, donkey, or bull. I haven’t decided. These guys are like M&Ms. It’s hard to stop at one!

I try to get a few minutes to knit here and there.

Here’s my latest finished object.  Meet Ms. Cow.  She was created from another awesome pattern from Crafty Alien. (I also have a rooster and goat in the works.  Stay tuned!)
Ms. Cow didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d like.  The pattern calls for knitting the different pieces and sewing them together before felting.  I did that this time.  Unfortunately, the black Patons Classic Merino started bleeding black dye profusely the second that it hit the hot water.  Major bummer.  It causd both the white and the pink to look dirty.  (Poor Cow looks like a dirty pig.)  If I do this one again (and I very well might), I’ll be smarter.  I’m going to try to pre-wash the black in some vinegar and water to get rid of the excess dye and set what is left.  Maybe that will make for a cleaner result.

I still think Ms. Cow is a cutie.  If she’s patient, maybe she’ll find Mr. Bull (who will be on the way after the goat and rooster are finished).

First up is another project from Crafty Alien. I actually finished the knitting and felting of this project before I completed the Weasley Sleeves, but the body parts laid on the counter for quite a while before the little Grump nagged me into completion. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to finish the deer because I didn’t put the white piece on the front completely centered as it should have been, but my dd said that she really, really liked him. I think she was right. It did turn out really sweet.


My other obsession has been a Chevron Scarf from “Last Minute Knitted Gifts”. The yarn is from All Things Heather. I received the yarn as a reward for a donation to a fundraiser for books for a school in Africa. For whatever reason, I received two skeins of yarn instead of the advertised one. I tried the green in socks, but I felt the spin of the yarn was just too loose to use with small needles. It’s perfect for the Chevron Scarf though, and it’s so cheerful when paired with the other skein.

The pattern is addictive though. I just can’t seem to get enough of knitting it!

So when she hinted that she wanted a brown chicken, who was I to refuse her?

For some reason, I had far more issues with this guy then I should have. I had one beak already made, but it didn’t contrast well with the brown. Then I made another in a different color. That looked bad too. So I made a yellow one. That one didn’t felt evenly and looked like someone had socked him in the beak. So I made another.

I guess it would help if I wasn’t such a perfectionist, but I really, really wanted it to be knock-dead cute. Angeluna deserves that much!

If you’re wondering, the body of the chicken is made from KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather. I really, really love the richness of the colors. Rather than a matte brown, it came out with subtle flecks of different shades of brown. It’s absolutely lovely and perfect for a brown chicken.

Meet this little piggy! I’ve started calling the little guy Petunia! The curly ears and corkscrew tail are just too much!

This pattern really showed me that the yarn that one uses for one of these critters makes all of the difference. I tried to make this using Elann’s Peruvian Highland Wool, and it was a disaster. It ended up felting much smaller and looked really sloppy. For this one, I used Cascade 220. (I was lucky and had some stashed.) It turned out much better. (I think I could have felted him a little more, but it’s still good.) His ears are a little uneven in size, but my dd says that the lopsided ears give him character.

I’ll stick with that explanation for now!

Speaking of my dd, she still loves all of these critters and is anxiously awaiting the delivery of another.

Stay tuned! There will be more as soon as I get the next round of patterns!

I also finished the chicken! Isn’t he cute?

Of course, I’m such an incredible geek that it wasn’t enough to just have the chicken. I had to have eggs too. And a nest!

Yes, you may follow my daughter’s lead and roll your eyes now.