hello pineapples

Ring ring ring ring, bananaphone

Something I've been working on recently:



Bananaphone! It's how sock monkeys make phone calls.



(It's crappy photo quality because I used my camera phone)

That's the first one. There are some things I plan on changing to the design, but I'm happy with it. The yellow part is from a sheet of cheap craft felt. The buttons were needle felted on. Then I did some embroidery as I am not skilled enough with the felting to put the numbers on that way. The speaker bit at the bottom started out as felting, but that didn't work so I switched to french knots.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, September 21, 2009 1 comments  

filed under: embroidery, felt, plush

New Plush WIP: Creepy or Cute?

I finally got around to working on a plush toy I've been planning.

Inspired by the monsters sewn by Blythe (a local artist I admire), I felted an old Gap cardigan (that I bought second hand, years ago) with the intention of turning into a toy. The sweater sat around for ages as I collected my thoughts and safety eyes and noses. I started thinking that it would make an interesting bear. Why a bear? I have no idea. Teddy bears have never really been my thing. Despite that, I took the plunge this morning and here my results:

1. pattern made from tracing Ikea PS Brum bear on newspaper:



2. He was a bit too bit too big, so I had to cut down the pattern:



3. Attempted sewing lots of rounded edges, which is still a bit of a challenge for me, and ended up with this guy:



Compared to the pattern's "muse":



And his head shot:



His eyes are crooked and a bit bigger than I'd like (I only have 18mm eyes on hand) and I haven't decided if I should embroider on a mouth or not. What I haven't taken a picture of is that you can see the thread at his seams. Overall, he's either cute or he's a weird craft mishap. I think I need to get back to the drawing board before I can introduce this dude to the world of craft fairs.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2 comments  

filed under: craft mishaps, felt, plush, sewing, wip

Free Pattern of the week: Happy Pride Week Halifax!

Halifax's 20th Pride Week came to a close today, so I thought that I'd make Pride the theme for the free pattern this week (late, as per usual). I was able to go to the parade this year and the weather was fantastic. Despite Environment Canada's threats of rain, it was sunny and hot and made the parade that much better. Aside from a gap mid-parade, it was long (lots of floats) and fun to watch. I capped the day off with a stop at a friend's pride party, which led to me mixing drinks like I was 18 (this morning, I remembered why I stopped drinking rye. Why I stopped drinking most dark booze).

In my search for pride week related patterns, I came across the Craftzine.org entry on Liz Collins' Knitting Nation 4:



Impressive, non? Knitting Nation is an "ongoing, collaborative performance and site-specific installation project" created by Collins, who is an artist and a professor at RISD.

As impressive as it is, it's a bit much for your average knitter. We can leave that to the professionals. Instead, I offer you something a little more manageable:



The "Knit Your Mind Felted Bag" is designed by Donna Druchunas for her Subversive Knitting site. The site is dedicated to charity and activist knitting. So, while not on as grand a scale as the activist knitting seen at Knitting Nation 4, it is activist and a reason to knit yourself a new bag. Druchunas features knitting charts for a number of themes, including a pride flag.

And with that, I wish a Happy Pride to all, and to all a good night.

xoxo.
Pineapples.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Monday, July 28, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: felt, free pattern friday, knit, renegade crafts