Crochet owl hat

Hello! This week I finally finished a WIP - omg, right? My second cousin Killarney is going to be one in August and my mum was trying to decide what to get her. Mum was kinda set on an owl hat with little ears, but neither of us were sure how to do that until I found this cute fox hat in Target.

(Taking selfies in department stores is a thing that normal people do, right?) I felt a little dumb for not working this out - the hat is a rectangle and the corners become the ears. Easy-peesy!

And this is what I came up with ^_^ Killarney's head is 44cm in diameter, so I crocheted a rectangle 24cm wide and 28cm long. The width has two centimeters added for a seam allowance, and the height is what I thought looked good on my "baby head stand-in". (I've still got my fingers crossed that it fits!) Luckily, it turned out that one of the decorative glass domes that I have on my bookshelf is exactly the same size as a baby's head. 

Weird, but useful.

I used a baby yarn that is super soft (I detest ichy hats!) and also changes colour - oooo! ^_^ I like that it's pastel without being *too* pastel, you know? I used a 3mm hook, and just did trebles. I actually did make another version of this hat using single crochet, but it turned out way too stiff  - _ -

 

The eyes are just basic circles, made using another type of verigated baby yarn that I found in my stash (this one just changes between white, purple, and blue) and a pretty dove grey yarn. The beak is yet another type of baby yarn, again from my stash. My Nana Tess was really into making baby clothes, so I have heaps and heaps of baby yarn that I've inherited from her. I like to think she'd be happy it's finally getting used up! The beak is just a granny triangle, made with trebels (yet again!) ^_^

As is almost always the case when I finish a project for someone else, I'm still wondering if it needs anything more. I was thinking about adding tasels to the corners, or a scalloped edge on the base, or maybe some pupils and/or eyelashes ... but I also don't want to go overboard. Mum likes it how it is, but I do still have a month to ponder adding things to it ...

What do you think?

- Lisa x

Felt owls with free pattern!

Hello! Today was a Crafternoon day ^_^

I made these super cute felt owls ...

... which will possibly become a mobile, or maybe just some tiny plushies. 

And I also made this little pattern so that if you want to, you can make some felt owls too! Yay! 

Instructions:
1. Click on the image above to download the pattern from my Google Drive
2. Cut out all the felt pieces, making the body one colour (i.e. pink) and all the body parts except for the beak and eyes another colour (i.e. blue). Make the beak brown, and the eyes black.
3. Sew the eyes onto the eye mask with 6=six strands of black embroidery thread using the image on the pattern as a guide. Whip stitch the beak to the eyemask using two strands of brown embroidery thread. Whip stitch the eyemask to the front body piece using two strands of embroidery thread using the contrasting colour (i.e. pink thread if sewing a blue eyemask).
4. Sew three lines of zig-zag on the tummy patch with two strands of embroidery thread. 5. Whip stitch the tummy patch to the front body piece.
6. Starting at the top of the left wing, running stitch the owl body closed. Ensure the wings and feet are placed so that they will be caught by the closing stitches.
7. Leave a small gap on the left side of the head for stuffing; after stuffing, stitched closed.

- Lisa x

Making a 70s macrame owl look pretty again

 I really like owls and vintage stuff and cool things for my house. So when my mum happened across two smelly, old, woolen owls in a bin outside an op-shop, she grabbed them for me. She took them off the sticks they were threaded onto, popped them into a plastic bag, and then flew interstate with them. (She was coming back from interstate, she didn't make a special owl-bringing trip, btw)

Here they are! Fabulous, aren't they? When I opened that plastic bag, they STUNK! But, I felt that they had potential. First, I washed them. An important first step! I actually soaked them in a potent mixture of nappy-san and washing powder for a day. That made them a bit more palatable. But, they were still ugly colours. I don't know if the photo really captures that. The brown/orange one looks pretty similar, but the white one was actually more of a was white, now is stained yellow one. So, it was time for some dying! I brought some washing machine dye from Spotlight. Brown/orange was to be black, and "white" was to be red.

I did the orange/brown one first. I filled up the machine, put in the dye and vinegar, and dropped the owl in. The cycle was set for half and hour. When it finished, I opened the top of the washing machine, and there was brown/orange owl. Not dyed and also *dry*, looking up at me like, "You think you can defeat brown/orange owl!? NEVER! NEVER I SAY!". I seriously don't know what that owl is made of. Some creepy '70s fabric is my official guess.

So, then I tried "white" owl. I used red dye. Same thing, machine, dye, owl. When I came back, "white" owl was gone and in its place was ...

PINK OWL?! 

I can't win at dying. Still, it is fluffy and clean, and quite a nice shade of pink. So, I threaded it onto two blue vintage knitting needles, trimmed its tail and fluffy eye parts, and hung it up. Against our original '70s wooden door (I don't actually know that, but our house does *look* very seventies ... brown bricks, feature wall of brick, dark brown wooden staircase ... so I just assuming that the door is. Maybe someone in the '90s was like, "you know what? The '70s was awesome. I'm going to make an ugly house that looks like the worst decorating ideas of the '70s!" You never know.) it looks quite good.

So, I kinda failed. But, now we have a pink owl. And can that ever *really* be a fail? I don't think so ~_^

- Lisa