daisies

i've decided the little green daisy dress is film-related, because i'm thinking i'll give it to the post supervisor of shorts in motion because her wee girl has had a rough go of it in the couple of weeks that she's been around. is that cheating? oh well.

i have five little daisies made so far, two to go. i went looking on knitting pattern central for flower ideas, and this was the closest to what i was looking for. i'll post my final modified flower pattern once i get some pictures up.

but i can tell you one thing - hand-knitting with fingering-weight wool on 2mm needles is reminding me all over again why i got the knitting machine. yikes.

almost finished!

well, it is ages since i have posted, and this isn't film related, but i've almost finished the wee dress/cardigan thingy (based on a nightgown pattern, but of course i had to change some things) that i started ages ago. in my defence we've been very busy with family and of course all i want to do is nap!

without further ado, here is filmcraft's first ever machine-knit project:





i have a million ends to run in, and i want to add little daisies where the bodice meets the skirt (and yes i know, the making of flowers is what has stopped me from getting the in the mood for love sweater finished, but i don't care).

help!

crap, crap, crap. can anyone point me to a source for spare parts for a fifty-year-old knitting machine?

this morning i was picking up some dropped stitches (whoops - i do that a lot) on my knitmaster 4500, and the latch on one of the hooks broke!

where on earth can i find a replacement? does anyone have an idea? i know some knitmaster (aka knit-king) users will buy additional machines just to use for spare parts, but i don't know where I would find one... i guess if i have to, i can take one of the end hooks and use it, and just never knit anything using the full width of the machine? that wouldn't be as bad as missing a hook in the middle...

poop.

meanwhile, here's something to amuse you: a knitting machine made of lego! link courtesy of kidoodles on the knittingmachines yahoo group.

photos!!

finally, some photos of totoro! there was a laundry emergency yesterday morning, so i didn't get the photos off the camera until now. but here he is, in all his fuzzy glory:





i'm especially please with the whiskers - they stand out nicely, without being prickly.

download pattern here: knitted totoro pattern

camera!

filmcraft has a camera again! i took pictures this morning of totoro (the neighbours must think i'm insane, playing with toys on the front lawn in my pyjamas), and will post them as soon as my husband gets out of the shower (apparently there is some software that needs installing before i can actually get at the pictures - serves me right for not making sure there was a card in the camera in the first place).

so soon! any minute now, i will edit this post and add some photos!

knitted totoro pattern!

Well, no new photos due to the ongoing tragedy of the camera, but after much futzing, I have finally typed out the first ever filmcraft knitting pattern for the felty totoro toy! It's in pdf format. let me know if I've messed it up somehow, as I'm feeling a bit out of it, to tell the truth (apparently light-headedness and dizziness are common symptoms among preggos - who knew?). (edit) I just realised I left out the most important part - yarn! gauge!! I told you I was feeling out of it... I knitted this guy out of a double strand of White Buffalo unspun (which comes in a weird sort of bale of six-stranded raw wool - I split it so I was only using two of the six strands), about the same weight as a heavy worsted yarn, on 9 mm needles (U.S. size 13). I just want to fall asleep right now, will fix the pdf in the morning... (edit again) okay, I think I have it fixed... now I'm really going to bed!

here he is!!

my neighbour totoro:



as you can see i still have to tack his ears into place, add his whiskers, and embroider in his nose and pupils. but you can certainly tell what it's supposed to be!

coming soon: the pattern.