Lions, Whales, and Penguins, Oh my!

In August I splurged and bought a fantastic book: 

I already own the two previous books, Knit your own Cat and Knit your own Dog. I have since discovered that there is also Knit your own Farm! But as I have knitted nothing from the first two I think I should knit more from this latest investment before venturing forward. (Although I really want to knit the cow!) 

The first pattern I knitted was the Penguin. 

He was fun to knit. A little fussy, but He turned out fine - I think. 

The Lion? Oh boy - that was different. 

He's tricky. Not so much in the knitting but in assembling. It took me a whole day just to sew him up and stuff him right. That's other part they don't really talk about - how to stuff the animals. Where to add more stuffing etc. 

Here's Jacques babysitting both Lion and first Whale. Lion is not facing the camera as he doesn't have his face on yet. (I still had to embroider it!) 

The Whale pattern I purchased separately on Ravelry: 

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wasabi-7

 I've had my eye on this pattern for a while. $6 is expensive for a knitting pattern - I've paid less for a full sweater pattern! But since I kept thinking about this little guy I finally decided, well, he must be worth it! Above is my first Wasabi - he is about 5 inches long. I'm not sure I can give him up.

My second Wasabi is here:

and was knitted for little Miss Eleanor, a co worker's daughter. We had a baby shower on Monday for them and we were encouraged to bring our favorite, lesser known, children's books. I gave Hippopposites. But  I finally realized why I love this little whale, it reminds me of one of my favorite children's books: Burt Dow: Deep Water Man by Robert McClosky. I can't wait to make more - especially one each for my niece and nephew.

How I love Philadelphia...

My rain barrel arrived! 

That enormous blue monstrosity is 55 gallons of rain water storage! Free from the Philadelphia Water Department and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. All I had to do was attend a one hour "workshop." This was basically a presentation about how and why these two organizations have partnered to try to reduce the amount of storm water flowing into our extremely aging water infrastructure and what kinds of projects are available - heavily subsidized - to Philadelphia residents to help in the endeavor. The program is called Rain Check and you should definitely check it out! 

The program was amazing. Not only can one get a rain barrel, but there are many other projects we can invest in. Including this storm water tool:

 This is the one I think I'm going to add to my garden. It is the more economical alternative to the wooden box which does the same thing but costs $150 more, even if it is more handsome. If you click the link to the storm water tools, be sure to scroll down to the video which explains all that you receive - including the soil and plants! 

Other projects include: removal of cement back yards, "permeable pavers" for patios, and a rain garden. For rain gardens it must be at least 10 feet away from any basement. So if it is between two houses, neighbors can pool their rebates (up to $2000 each) into one project! 

Ever since I took the workshop in July I have been incredibly excited to receive my rain barrel. This is my former way of catching excess rain: 

             

A 5-gallon bucket to catch what runs off the roof. 

Well, the cats like the rain water better than tap water, so whaddyagonnado?

These are the kinds of programs, ventures, opportunities in Philadelphia that make me really truly love this city.

Next step? Painting the blue monstrosity! Stay tuned... I'm thinking ladybugs or snowflakes. Not sure which.

Happy Labor Day! Still catching up...

Fiber Fun Day! 

Our third annual Fiber Fun Day happened on the Sunday after I came back from California. For the last three years a few good art friends get together and we do a lot of tie-dying and all kinds of things. It is a day to experiment, have fun, gossip, eat, and have some nice cocktails. I found a new pattern on ravelry.com for weightless produce bags: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/weightless-produce-bag They are fun to knit because they are so quick and they are perfect for purchasing produce. There will be a lot of people getting some of these for Christmas! I knitted four while I was in California for the express purpose of using them for Fiber Fun Day. I'm pretty happy with the result. 

Erin needed new pillow covers. 

Using Popsicle sticks, she folded the fabric for the above pillows. They look fabulous on her new futon!

I also bought some onesies for my niece that I wanted to dye. This was good planning because 1. She had already had a poop explosion on one and it was now, according to my sister, unwearable -  2. My sister was very unhappy because she loved these onesies, and 3. Jesmyn is outgrowing said onsies! 

I love these onesies too! So I had no problem making more. We used RIT clothing dye for most of our projects. Its reliable and easy to use. This year I found a lot of new colors at Joann's. It was super fun to experiment. 

The color on this one isn't showing well, it's a much more subtle gradient. A really gorgeous sunset. 

                         

The really fun onesie was this one. I wish I had made it for my nephew when he was little. It looked like a funny dinosaur when I was done unwinding all the ginko nuts. It still wasn't quite girly enough for me so I added the iron-on bees. Not sure it worked. 

                      

                    

But speaking of bees...

I found some amazing images at work. The Burpee Seed catalogue from 1885 is a treasure! The bee is from a different catalogue, but works quite well here I think. 

I picked up some white Tshirts for my nephew and dyed them to match the image. 

The giant bee: 

The American Grown Prizetaker Onion:

Peas:

The Small Sugar Pumpkin


The iron-on before:


Other iron-ons cut and ready.

I'm so thrilled with the results of all of these! My niece and nephew are going to be the coolest kids in school!