Sheep On My Stuff

It's Trisia again -- and she's back with a finished epic elekk!

Smile for the camera, girls!

Yarn used: Lion Brand Microspun in Lily White, Royal Blue, and (now discontinued) Silver Grey. Hook used: G (4.25mm).

The pattern (as noted last time) is from Lion Brand (registration required), but now that you can see the finished elekk, you can see all my modifications. It's the legs, the tusks, the helmet, saddle, and banners that make her an elekk, and I left off a lot of the detail. Still -- very cute, no?

 Also in the works: a new scarf (same as the old scarf):

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Yarn used: SWS [Soy Wool] from Patons. Needle size: Supposedly 4mm, from Boyes, but it is a LIE. They're closer to 4.25mm.

Last time I posed ÜnterSchëpenfloppen with the scarf; now I'm posing the scarf with FloppenCousin, a close (but larger) relative. The pattern is the same (Farrow Rib), and the colorway is the same (Natural Earth). This scarf is being done by request, and unless someone else I really love wants something made out of this fabric, that's it for me -- it splits even more than Microspun, which is saying something! Still, it's very soft and looks really nice.

Yarn used: The now-discontinued Merino Light in maroon (#8 on the color card). Needles used: US10.5 -- 6.5mm.

Beautiful Sheep bleats hello!  Here's our check-in to see how I'm doing on the Bog Jacket. Answer: Quite well; I'm nearly up to the bit where I split off the arms and add some more stitches to the arms. It stopped being mindless garter when I had to do waist shaping (waist shaping is my friend, since I have a quite large bustline and quite small waist), and I'm sort of sorry for that, as I was enjoying having something I didn't have to look at at all. But it seems to be working out nicely, and the yarn is much, much nicer-looking on 6.5mm needles than it was on 4.5mm needles.

Thursday I hope to have a finished SWS plus a bit of progress on that Bog Jacket.  Maybe something exciting like the arm-dividing bit?  We'll see.

I don't know if I'm still on track for my goal of stash yarn-to-new yarn and new project-to-old project ratios. Certainly not after today.

Yarn used: Microspun by Lion Brand in Silver Grey (now discontinued), Royal Blue, and Lily White. Crochet hook used: G (4.25mm).

The black sheep is Trisia (of New Zealand, courtesy the Russ Berrie Co.!), named for my mage in World of Warcraft. I don't have a sheep named after one of my Draenei, because I have only two -- Teuthida, who is one of my two main characters (and a shaman), and Ovilya, who is a hunter... and L19. And Draenei are so... tentacle-y. They just don't seem like sheep to me.

Anyway, in WoW, Draenei can ride on giant elephant-like creatures called elekks. Teu's elekk has blue accents -- armor plating, really -- on all four legs, head, sides, and back. I'll be posting a screenshot for comparison when I'm done -- and while it may look like I'm done, trust me, I'm not even close!

This project was primarily started to use up the grey Microspun I had remaining (about a ball and a half, and I used about 3/4 of a ball on this -- the grey bits are almost if not completely done). I then realized I had the perfect blue to match Teu's elekk's barding, and thought, "Ooh! I could make it an elekk and not just an elephant!"

...which meant I needed white yarn. Doh. (Put this in both the "stash project" and "new yarn project" piles.)

Anyway, you can't see it in this picture, but he is missing two legs -- they're crocheted, just not attached. He's also missing tusks, a hat-piece, and a saddle. I may or may not add the horns (yes, they have horns as well as tusks) and I doubt I'll get very elaborate with the back and shoulder barding, but we'll see. Tusks, hat, and backpiece, and I'll be happy. I am very pleased with the leg stripes.

It turns out I actually started crocheting before I started knitting, but I seldom do it anymore. But once in a while I see a really cute crochet pattern and must try it out. If you're interested, this one is from the Lion Brand website. You need to register, but once you've done so, you can find the pattern here.

Yarn used: The now-discontinued Merino Light in maroon (#8 on the color card). Needles used: 10 point freaking 5 -- 6.5mm. This feels crazy huge after all the socks.

This next project doesn't look like much in the picture, but that's okay -- it doesn't look like much yet at all! It's a Bog Jacket, from the book pictured. The idea is you take a "square" of fabric and make strategic cuts to make a jacket, but in knitting you can do it without all the messy cutting, and with invisible seams. I started this before, actually, but on size 7 needles. I took a good hard look at the project and decided that the fabric was much too stiff. It's looser now and has much more give to it, plus the yarn is going further, obviously, which is a bonus -- because this is stash yarn (yay) and I've only got 15 (very small put-ups) balls of it. However, I do think I'll make it.

The sheep pictured is named Beautiful Sheep. She's one of the oldest ones in my flock, from Bloomington, Indiana. She's actually made by Gund, as are many of my fine sheep.