Book Review: Faux Taxidermy Knits by Louise Walker

I bought this book on my own - no one asked me to review it :)


I haven't knit anything out of this book yet but I have many patterns marked. This book is too adorable for words but I'll try to form the words to do a review because, well, the review would be weird without words.

I found out about Louise Walker through her Etsy shop because I was looking for taxidermied animals. Fake ones, for my office at work, as I'm wont to do. I still plan on buying one of the kits because they come with everything you need, including the backing. I'm leaning towards the T-Rex head, personally. But check out her shop for kits and patterns, every one more awesome than the last.

Her book came out in 2014 and includes 2 sections: Wearables and Habitat. We have 15 patterns, ranging from basic knitting level to advanced. The basic patterns are just as entertaining and intriguing as the advanced and intermediate patterns. Take a run through the patterns on Ravelry here.

I'm going to run through my absolute favorites that I plan on casting on soon:

The fox stole, which is also the cover photo, is a must have for me. I love my scarves but the thought of wearing this foxy fox around my neck in the winter makes me very happy! It's an intermediate pattern with quite a bit of sewing (the body, ears, legs, tail are all separate pieces) but I'm quite ok with that.

The Polar Bear Paw Mittens are a must for the cold Midwestern winters (with this winter being the exception to that...weird weather). These are 2 color mittens with afterthought thumbs.

The Mink Wrap is another awesome scarflike wrap made to look like the fancy pants mink stoles. Made with 3 different colors you are basically knitting 2 minks and putting them together with a hook and eye closure. Very high society!

We move on to the Habitat patterns. Naturally I want the moose head and will most likely buy the kit to get the backing and such. My wall is begging for this guy. Yours probably is too. Even without the kit, the book gives pretty detailed finishing instructions on how to get your moose properly put together and mounted.

My kitchen is begging for some pheasants! Knit with super bulky yarn and being a beginner level pattern, I should be able to get a nice line of pheasants knit up quickly

The Bear Coasters are also on the list. They look like tiny bearskin rugs for your mug. Love them!

While I don't plan on knitting this one, the one advanced pattern in the book is impressive. The Tiger Rug. This is rug-sized for your floor and is really well done. Magnificent beast!

All in all, this book is well done with beautiful photographs, detailed patterns and lots of instructions. Love animals! But knit them, don't hurt them.

Purchase from Amazon

Selfish? Or just really thoughtful to yourself....

February really got away from me! I finally got some down time this weekend where I could just knit, read and watch movies. Be a vegetable. And it's been lovely.

 I had wanted to write up some goals for this year but I guess my first goal should be to get motivation to write my goals. Regardless, I believe this year will be a stay at home year working on my house and myself. I only have 2 trips planned: a weekend in NYC and a week in San Francisco. Just two? We might throw in a trip to Chicago as well, since it is so close :) Next year, though, my friend and I are talking about a cruise to Italy and Greece and I'm all over that one. That makes my mantra this year "Do you need that? Or can that money go to Italy?". See where this is going? YARN DIET.

I started myself on a selfish kick as well. Which leads me to ponder why knitting is called selfish when you knit for yourself but no other hobby is called selfish. Is there selfish crochet? Selfish crossstitch? Selfish woodworking? I don't think so. In fact, in Buddhism there is a saying

This is the truth. You cannot care for others if you don't care for yourself. So instead of selfish knitting, I'm going to engage in zen knitting.

I'm kicking off my zen knitting with Yarngasm's Box O'Sox KAL. Kristin organized this to be selfish knitting so, at the end of year, we, for ourselves, are the proud owners of 12 new pairs of handknit socks.

On The Needles

I started a pair of vanilla socks just because the yarn I had bought (yarn diet? what?) was so beautiful laying there in the skein. I need to see what it could do. I found a group on Facebook called Addicted To Sock Knitting and have been using that as inspiration. Witch Candy Yarns posted some photos about her shop update and her yarn was amazing. I ran right over and purchased Indian Bead Belt. It's sparkly and gorgeous

I know how many WIPs I had but I'm tearing through these socks so it's ok :)

I also started back on my Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. That was a WIP from a while ago but it has been languishing. It's an easy knit and I usually work on that while watching movies.

Off The Needles

The narwhals are done!

I really wanted to make narwhals for my niece and nephew once I saw the pattern. Rebecca Danger has the cutest toys and they are pretty easy to make. I'm really happy with how these turned out although as soon as the kids got them, they started poking everyone with the tusk :)

The kids picked their favorite colors and those are some fine looking narwhals!


With the Spring-like weather coming in, I think my mood will approve and creativity will come out. It's not been a bad winter here in Indiana but Winter tends to bring me down. I can't wait to fling open the windows and welcome in Spring!

Until next time....

WIP it. WIP it good.

As part of my new year 2016, I decided to go through ALL of my Works In Progress and either frog them or finish them. Some of these things have been on the needles for years!!

I only ended up frogging one item, but the yarn is a gorgeous Malabrigo in chocolate brown and bright blue so I think that will just end up being another project really soon.

So here's what I have to finish this year:

My Viajante

Martina Behm is a talented designer. I've already made her Hitchhiker and Trillian and started tackling  the Viajante. Whew. This is made from lace yarn and I think it's going to take forever. It looks like I ended right at the point where I need to join so I'll at least keep it out so I can keep it moving. It will be pretty when it's done since it's in Gnomeacres Gnomey Night (inspiration: Starry Nights by Van Gogh) and it has sparkles!

Blanket

That's all I can say about this :) It's a present for someone who may or may not read the blog

Socks

Rose City Rollers pattern and that's all I can say about this as well :)


Love Bites Sweater

From the Vampire Knits book, I chose the Love Bites sweater because I realized I had an awful lot of grey Berroco Vintage yarn and I wanted a simple sweater to start with. It's casted on and has several rounds already worked. Technically a guys sweater, I am knitting the smallest size. It does call for dropping stitches but I think I'm going to try something different. In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, she had a sweater that had random purl stitches all over the body. I like it and am going to try that with this one.

Best picture I could find

Sparkley Gradient Shawlette

I've already made one of these shawlettes in a rainbow gradient and love it. I got this yarn as part of the Sunnydale (again - Buffy) yarn club from Dizzy Color and it's so pretty. I'm already through the green and have hit the blue. Easy pattern to memorize.

Boneyard Shawl

A Stephen West design, I'm diligently working through this. It will be an awesomely large shawl to wrap around myself in the office. Still on skein one of two of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in the Minestrone colorway.

Exploration Station

Another Stephen West design, this was a mystery knit-a-long but I got diverted. Still going to finish it! I really like the bright colors I picked but, now that I know what the finished design looks like, I'm thinking some neutral colors would look good too.

BRIGHT!

Iced

My first cardigan. I left it at the entire body completed with one sleeve done. What? Just a sleeve and a yoke to finish. But when I pulled it out to look at .... eh, I need to rip out the bind off of the body and lengthen it. Maybe that's why it just languished. Still will be a very very cozy cardigan and it will get finished.


Hermione Socks

First sock leg is still on the needles. I know the yarn came from the Tempted yarn club but I don't have the label anymore. Still working up very pretty and I just need to knuckle down and get them done!


I Flunked The Written

Buffy again! This is a pattern that came with the Sunnydale yarn club. Very pretty and I'm using one of their yarns, O Soave Fanciulla. Dizzy Color does an amazing job at taking inspiration and making a beautiful yarn. This will get done as well!

O Soave Fanciulla

I found some projects I inherited from a friend who passed away. Unfortunately, there are no patterns with the projects or even labels for the yarn, so I will be frogging those and re-vamping the yarn for another use.

The next post will be what I'm planning with new yarn (what? yes, new yarn because I'm an idiot). But I really need to get some of these off the needles!!!

I Don't Know Where To Start.....

I've missed you, blog. I don't think I have many readers but I've missed documenting my creative exploits for the world. I think I've missed the creative exploits most of all. It took a lot of effort to make the post back in August and work on the alpaca fleece. Quite literally, since that post, everything has been at a standstill. Expectations were high and I couldn't reach them.

Without dwelling on 2015, I'm going to challenge myself for 2016. What I do, what I create, will be for me. Sure, there will be urges to create for others but they will be surprises, not by request. What I learn, I'll learn for me. Not to earn more money, create a side business, blah blah. No deadlines, nothing specific. So I guess my new year's resolutions (if they can be called that) are: be happy, create, learn.

My loosey-goosey goal is to blog at least once a week, hopefully more. If I don't meet that, eh. The world won't end. :)

Just so there are pictures and fun things on this fresh-as-a-daisy post, here's what I have been up to:

A cruise! Again? Oh yes, to Cozumel and Costa Maya. This time we were out for 5 nights and it was just wonderful. Winter in Indiana is cruel sometimes and getting away to sun, sea and sand for a bit was rejuvenating! I much prefer Celebrity Cruise Lines to Carnival as I'm just not much the party girl/drinker as the young kids can be. I turned 40 on December 7th and this was my present to myself (as well as a purse and earrings bought on the ship). Hello, new decade! Let's have fun!

Deck 16 - Solstice - far away from hub bub

Cozumel, Mexico - little bar we had lunch at. Look at the view!

Beach we lounged on in Costa Maya. Just a little bit longer....

I managed to read 3 books, cover to cover, while on the trip (my reviews are on my book blog here). And I got a pretty good portion of a sock done. Speaking of socks, FOs and WIPs!

I lovingly call these my Bloody Damn Socks. I dyed the yarn myself and it turned out mostly what I was envisioning. I wanted more gray/silver but mostly just got dots. I still really like how they turned out. I used Knit Picks Bare Sport weight yarn along with Jacquard Acid Dyes. I used the pattern Just Yer Basic Sport Sock (my Ravelry project page).

I had decided sometime in the summer to make my mom another pair of socks from yarn I bought while in Daytona Beach. I loved how they striped up and look beachy.  I used TOFUtsies made with 50% superwash wool, 25% soy silk, 22.5% cotton, 2.5% chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!) so they are apparently antibacterial as well. Good for a diabetic who just broke her leg? (You heard me. Beginning of September. It's been a rough remainder of 2015). Yes. Mom loves these and I guess they are comfy because there is no elastic so she doesn't have to worry about the sock pressing into her skin or cutting off circulation. Yay. Also, this is just a plain vanilla sock.  (my Ravelry project page)

This was crazy. Knit with size 35 needles my fingers cramped after a row or 2. My friend's little boy outgrew his baby blanket I made 5 years ago and I decided he needed a big boy blanket. I found the yarn in a clearance bin and it was a) boyish and b) so dang squishy. I used up every scrap of yarn and it turned out nicely sized for the kiddo. And ... he loved it! Yay 2! Basic Diagonal Comfort Blanket pattern from Lion Brand (my Ravelry project page).

Very basic bulky hat that I knit for my brother. He lives in New Mexico and works road construction at night. It gets pretty dang cold out there so he needed a warm hat. I'm in the process of making him socks but damn, the man has big feet. No Ravelry page for this. So very basic.

I don't really stalk Etsy shops. But I wanted a skein of Hand Turkey bad enough I contacted Lara at Gynx Yarns to see when she would be making more. She let me know the date and I stalked. And I got me a skein! (Wow, her stuff sells out quickly). My first sport weight socks (My Bloody Damn Socks were the second) I screwed them up repeatedly. I was worried I wouldn't get them done by Thanksgiving but I did, with a day to spare. I never worked with Gynx Yarns before but I really loved how this worked up. I'm a fan. (my Ravelry project page).

HO HO HO. :)  So this is the only half-finished object I'm posting right now just because I have way too many to post. But the yarn is gorgeous and I'm really eager to get back to finishing this. I started off in The Walking Dead Mystery KAL and purchased this TWD yarn from Jimmy Beans to tackle the first clue. This is as far as I got and I'm not sure why. It's beautiful yarn, perfectly zombie, and a great pattern. Again, I think life got in my way. Jimmy Beans Ravelry group is here and you can check the Walking Dead MKAL and everything else they have going on.

I did teach a class on sock knitting and I think it went well. Perhaps too much for one class though. I have some more ideas on classes for 2016 so I'm hoping they will be well received and I can share the joy of yarn and needles with everyone. 

More posts to come. Stay tuned!