hello pineapples: cats

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What I did on my spring vacation

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was set up at the Halifax Crafters sale. It went fairly well - not as well as the Christmas sale, but that is to be expected. I really love being at the Crafters sales as I find all the other artists/artisans to be so inspiring. I need to come up with a better display for the September sale. Not exactly sure what I'll do, but I'll come up with something.

My favourite guy at the sale (and sadly, I only had my camera phone with me) was this dude:

His name is Reginald and he wore a tutu. I really need to get better at taking pics of my work. But the tutu was an afterthought, so I didn't think to actually get a photo because I was focused on the sale itself. Anyway, Reginald was the first pair I attempted to sew on my machine. I screwed that up in so many ways, I just couldn't manage to make a monkey out of him. But I still had this body and other appendiges that were so goofy, I couldn't just abandon him. So I played around one day and came up with Reginald. I'm going to keep messing around with other sock/plush creatures and monkey accessories (like tutus). Need to keep things fresh.

Something new I'm trying is embroidering eyes on the monkey and then sewing the buttons on top of that. My reason for doing this is that I prefer monkeys with button eyes, but customers with wee ones like embroidered eyes (for the safety of their own little monkies). So this is what I've come up with:

Right after the fair, I headed off to the Palm Springs area to visit with my parents. My mom and I spent some time working on monkeys. My mom is my source for awesome socks. Check out the collection she has for me:

Those are just some of the 75+ pairs of socks. Her cat Deano was a fan of our craft time:

I succumed to a nasty flu on my return, but now that I'm getting better, I'm getting back to thinking about crafts and monkeys. Right now I'm working on one of the red monkeys that the cat is sleeping on. A baby shower is coming up. The red & black monkeys, believe it or not, are a hit with babies. Most people like to buy the more pastel-ish monkies for babies, but the wee ones love the bright contrasting colours. A friend's kid would just stare at hers for ages. And at two months old, that was as much of a sign that she liked the monkey as you could ask for.

Some of the leftover monkeys joined their friends at Love, Me Boutique on Saturday. I still have a few hanging around the house and may look into putting them on etsy in the near future.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 0 comments

filed under: cats, crafting while traveling, sock creatures, sock monkeys

Sketchy internet connections and cat toys

I've been housesitting this past week and trying out various cat toys on The Cat that lives there. The Cat doesn't have many toys, so I've been bringing some by to see if she likes them. She seems fond of the "postmodern mouse", which is really two squares of fabric sewn together, stuffed with stuffing and catnip and has a piece of ribbon for a tail. Mr.P says this sounds more cubist than pomo. I suppose he is right, but The Cat really doesn't care what it's called, so long as she can eat the ribbon. She seems to approve of toys she can eat (like the little furry mouse toy that took about an hour to destroy).

While watching Supernatural last night, I made a very cute felt mouse toy for her (no picture as I've loaned out my camera), which she promptly ignored. Apparently, the more time spent on making a cat toy, the less time the cat will spend with it. It is some sort of Universal Law of Cats. Elaborate? Expensive? Fabulous? Ignore! Cheap? found on the street? perhaps the packaging belonging to a fancy toy? Excellent! One of the first plush creatures I had ever made is hideous looking, but is the favourite of our "foster cat" Hastings (I use the word foster loosely, as he's been here three years):

(that picture was taken after collecting the fluff from around the living room. He has since been sewn back together and is still a favourite. Hastings carries him around the house or kicks it with his back legs while biting it. It's far cuter than it sounds).

Off the topic of cats, the housesitting has meant that my access to internet connections have been extremely limited. My friends have their wireless locked down so tight that they no longer remember the password. Their neighbours are all too smart to leave their wireless connections open. And the coffee shop nearby has free wireless (or a neighbour with free wireless) but not so many power outlets, meaning that my mac runs out of "apple juice" and dies. Oh woe is me. And just to frustrate me a little bit more: my home connection is being sketchy! Bah!

Of course, I should remind myself that it is probably going as fast as my dial up connections of days gone by...but I won't. I've gotten used to fast, wireless internets and I like it.

Okay, must go hunt down a purple wig and a Clinique bonus time gift.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, October 25, 2008 0 comments

filed under: cats, not a craft

Surprise! I'm a semi-finalist!

I had wanted to enter the Mochimochi photo contest and had grand plans to do so. Alas, for various reasons, my grand plans had to be put aside, the time wasn't there to stage an awesome photo. But I had taken this photo of my stackable cat at the vet:

I added it to the Mochimochi flickr pool and went about my business. I've been a bit behind in reading blogs lately, so when I clicked on Mochimochi in google reader, I was stunned! to see that I was a semi-finalist. In fact, I'm so surprised that I've been overusing exclamation marks left and right.

I really hadn't thought my little guy would even rank, but, hooray me! I'm a semi-finalist! (my reaction was, and is still,: "what the eff? I'm a semi-finalist? seriously? awesome!"). (my original plan was to ask the vet to post, but I quickly saw that he was too busy with real cats to hang out with knitted cats).

I knit this stackable cat while my cat Alistair was in quarantine at the vet. It was knit to look sort of like Alistair. Here's a shot of Al for comparison:

If Alistair were square and made of yarn, I think he'd sort of look like the stackable cat. But unlike Alistair, knitted cat was much easier to take to the vet. Check out Alistair in his carrier (going home, away from the vet...you'd think that would make him happy):

not so happy kitty.

Anyway, if you've got a minute, you should go vote for my stackable cat. Because votes would be awesome (even if I'm not the best one there).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Thursday, August 07, 2008 2 comments

filed under: cats, contests, knit, mochimochi, plush

My first solo project on the sewing machine

I've attempted to use a sewing machine in the past, but always with limited success. I made stockings as a gift for my bro and his ladyfriend this past Christmas, and they turned out a little wonky and puckery. I also had to call on my friend (and owner of the machine) to rescue me from bobbin troubles a number of times. Bobbins are not my friend. I really want to own a machine with a drop-in bobbin so that I don't have to figure out how to load them properly. I'm also a little bit terrified of the machine and often go too slow. And I have a knack for breaking needles. I broke two on this project.

But, despite the fact that I was on my own for this and that I had to wind and load a bobbin and change the needle twice, the project was (mostly) a success:

(you can see all the dangly threads on it. That's after I cut off most of them).

The project involved sewing a piece of fabric onto the top of an old pillow sham. I then used stuffing from an old pillow and stuffed it so it was still thin and flat and blanket like. The idea was to create a bed/pillow for my cat to take to the vet. He's hyper-thyroid and getting treated with radioactive iodine. It's the same treatment that people get for the same problem, but since it is for an animal, the nuclear safety people say that he has to be quarantined for at least seven days and that anything in the cage with him for that week has to be incinerated. That meant I couldn't send him over with anything that I wanted back.

The fabric I used is the same as what I used when I re-covered a blanket (known at chez Pinapples as the "sick blanket") that is a favourite of the cat. I knew it would be a hit when he decided to lie down on it while I was still trying to pin it to the sham.

My stitches got tighter and neater as I moved around the edge of the blanket.

Start:

Finish:

I've still got a ways to go before I can consider myself to be a competent or even mediocre seamstress, but for now, I'm happy with sewing things that don't fall apart.

and the cat seems pretty happy with my skills as well.