Give a Hoot Mug Cozy

After doing the Hootie Booties a while ago, I've eased my fears about an owl cable.  It's pretty much the easiest cable there is, and looks adorable.  So, I found a rad pattern for a mug cozy... I'm totally obsessed with making and using them, though I'm not sure anyone else shares my weird obsession.  Anyway, I grabbed a spare half-skein that I've used for two other cozies (told you I had an obsession), and knit it up in an evening.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, too, though next time, I'll be going down a needle size, and also doing 2 fewer ribbing rows at the bottom, so it's not so tall.  

And here's a close up of the owl cable.  I don't really have any buttons that fit for the eyes, and I haven't yet raided the bead stash, but I sort of like it without the creepy eyes added.

A week or two ago, I posted a picture on Pinterest (i.e. crafter's crack) of a cute owl purse that I found on Craftster.org. Shortly after posting, I received a comment from one Miss Carmyn Egge that she wanted one. I sort of shrugged it off, not thinking much of it at the time. Cue thrift store trip 2 days ago, while at the store, I begin texting with her, and she again mentions that she wants the purse and asks if I'll make it for her while I'm "finding myself" (i.e. being a bit of a lazy bum and not working!). Since I was already at the store, I agreed and headed for the men's suits.

I found exactly 2 suit coats among probably 200 that were the pattern I wanted, and only one that was the color I was envisioning. So, I bought it, even though it wasn't quite as big as I was wanting (doesn't hurt to have some extra fabric in case you screw up a cut here or there). So, I drew up a pattern with some freezer paper-- if you sew, I highly recommend using freezer paper for patterns, as it is usually quite wide, it is relatively see through, nice and sturdy, and you can iron it right on to your fabric and cut around so no need for pins!

Of course, right as I was getting ready to prep my cut out pieces, my iron decided to stop working, so my sewing was delayed a day. Yesterday I got a new iron, sewed the lining, and began work on the appliqued front. Fortunately, I had all the other materials laying around... lots of felt from some misguided foray into stuffed animal making, tons of embroidery thread from various projects (some dating back to when I was a teenager and decided making friendship bracelets was cool), iron-on stabilizer (from who knows what), and lining fabric (I have kind of an embarrassing habit of buying fabric, whether I need it or not, and also of buying too much.)

Well, the results are quite satisfying, as you can see:

He's very adorable, if you ask me, and the liner fabric worked very well, and was totally "woodland" themed:

Mushrooms! I've already made a shopping bag and an apron out of this fabric, so it's gotten some use! And, it inspired the little applique on the back. I felt like the back of the owlie was a little boring with just the tweed, so I made a little pretty for it:

Another Mushroom! This bag was so fun to make. Now, it's off to the post office to mail to Miss Carmyn!

Give a Hoot.

So, at work about a week ago, I was working on one project or another, and one of my co-workers asked me if I have ever made an "animal head hat." While this seemed like a bit of a weird question, I assumed that she was getting at something, so I said that I hadn't but had seen plenty of patterns out there that I was looking to try out. One thing led to another, and she finally got to the point-- her two-year-old is going as an Owl for Halloween this year, and she was wondering if I could make him an owl head hat. She'd pay me. Well, I'll do just about anything for cash, so I hunted through patterns, piecing together what I liked from each of them and came up with this:

Turns out that Charlie is going to be a green and blue owl, so those were the colors I went with. Here is the process-- I made the chin strap and then cast on the rest of the hat in the round.

The main part of the hat was in two colors, one variegated blue and green and one light blue. Then I made a flap at the top in green and the variegated. I didn't want to finish it off in the round, because I needed some "ears" for the owl, so I left the top square and just sewed it together.

Then, after everything was sewed up, I made little tassels for the ends of the ears.

After the main part of the hat was constructed, I wove in the ends and attached a button. I found a little blue button that worked perfectly with the color of the hat.

Then I finished it off with the felt eyes and beak you saw above. It turned out so cute. I'm really happy with it, and I think little Charlie will look adorable in it. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the little guy wearing the hat to get the full affect.