Daily Craft - Grin and bear it!

Excuse the super-cheesy title of this post.  Sometimes I just can't help myself.

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased some yarn from a lovely lady who was offloading some stash on behalf of a family member.  She had several balls of Berrocco Chinchilla, which screamed "stuffed animal!" at me the second I saw it...ok, so it didn't literally scream it (because that would be seriously freaky), but if you were to feel this yarn, you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.  Now that I've used it, I'm actually incredibly sad that the yarn is discontinued because for the purposes of making cute little teddy bears like this guy, it's pretty much perfect.

I've not made a ton of stuffed animals before, a couple of amigurumi pieces for a friend's baby shower aside, so I was thrilled to finish this bear (even if he did sit in a bag with only one eye-ball for a week).  It's impossible to see your stitches when knitting with this yarn, so it definitely required going slowly so as not to make any mistakes.  I also had a good time at Joann's trying to find the buttons that most look like eyes and nose.  It has to be said that I'm really happy with the end result and, without closely inspecting him, you'd never know he was knit.

The good news is that I have enough of the Chinchilla yarn, in a few different shades of brown, to make another 4 or 5 of these bears.  I'll have a whole family of them by the time I'm done!  Any suggestions for a name?

Daily Craft - A ferret update

As promised, I have managed to obtain a picture of Terra the ferret, enjoying lazing about in her new knit hammock!  It seems that my knitting does have ferret approval and I couldn't be more proud.  :)

Daily Craft - A hammock for Terra

I can't believe I've had this blog up and running for nearly a month now and haven't said squat about anything crafty (actually, it looks like I've discussed food mostly...after all, I do like to eat!)

To christen my blog with my first crafty piece, I have just finished knitting a mini hammock for a very special recipient - a ferret named Terra!  I'm a member of a swap group on Craftster, and a little while back received a request for a custom knit hammock for Terra.  I didn't even know what a ferret hammock was at the time, although it turns out that they're like hanging sleeping bags with a crawl space for the ferret to snuggle in.  Apparently ferrets need bright and bold colors to really stimulate the senses, so I went with a red top and pink bottom, using both colors twisted together for the ties.  I think it's super cute, and my comedian of a husband has requested one for himself.  :)

For the years I've been knitting, I can officially say that this is the most random thing I've ever knit.  I'm also quite concerned that Terra won't like it.  I've never had to seek approval from a ferret before, but there's a first time for everything!  Terra's mom has assured me that she'll love it though and will be providing action shots soon.