CogKnition

Which Came First?

May 30th, 2010 | Comments Off

Which Came First?
Which Came First?
Which Came First?

Pattern: Which Came First?, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted #0215, Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

I’ve often threatened to keep toys I’ve made instead of giving them to the intended recipient. This time I’m doing it. Sorry, Mystery Would-Be Receiver of this existential conundrum, this one really is too cute to give away. I’ll make you something else, I promise. :)

You’ve all heard me rave about Anna Hrachovec’s patterns before. This little guy is the fifth Mochimochi Land pattern I’ve knit* so far and I don’t plan to stop any time soon! The pattern is wonderful, as usual. The only recommendation I would make is to stuff the toy somewhat firmly. You can pack quite a bit in there and still be able to flip from egg to chick easily.

Which Came First?

*Fun fact! This means Anna ties Eunny Jang for the designer I knit the most.

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CogKnition posted this on May 30th, 2010 @ 11:24pm in Toys | Permalink to "Which Came First?"

Pocket Protectors

May 30th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Pocket Protector

Pattern: Pocket Protectors, from Knitting Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 6 (4.0mm)

Cover of Knitting Mochimochi

Behold! Mystery Project #2 is revealed. Anna gave us the go-head to share our project photos. :)

I cast on for this guy a year ago (which is why the photo is kind of fuzzy—it was taken with my ancient Powershot) and am thrilled to have had a tiny role in the production of Anna’s book.

I’ve made a lot of Mochimochi patterns and I expect to make many more. I am constantly in awe of how clever all her patterns are, and how fun they are to knit. I pre-ordered Knitting Mochimochi as soon as it was listed on Amazon. You can see the Pocket Protector on the back cover.

Pocket Protector
Pocket Protector

The bow on Mama Protector is my own invention, and I also turned the baby into a pencil. Alas, I lost the baby shortly after I knit it. He is surely knocking around our apartment somewhere, probably in some strange nook. I expect to find him when we move. In the meantime, Mama Protector is hanging out in my craft closet next to Weeeds.

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CogKnition posted this on May 30th, 2010 @ 10:08pm in Toys | Permalink to "Pocket Protectors"

Pillow-y Goodness

May 8th, 2010 | Comments Off

Pillows!

Fabric: The patchwork pillows used cotton scraps raided from carrollb‘s stash. The bigger pillows used a heavyweight cotton bought at Yuzawaya.

Pattern: Winged it, with an assist from The Sewing Bible

My success at piecing inspired me to start (and complete) a project that has been on my to-do list for well over a year: make new cushion covers for the living room.

You guys have seen my futon in the background of many photos on this blog. It has this not-very-attractive, slightly Christmas-meets-faux-Southwestern pattern on it. It clashed with my husband’s not-quite-as-ugly but extremely dilapidated couch that he literally found on the street during his poor grad student days. When we moved in together and did the ritual Merging of the Furniture, we bought matching covers for both to hide the ugly and bring a semblance of coordination into our living room. You see the new futon cover in the background above.

But there were no matching covers for the cushions. So we still had this fun pop of Christmas-meets-faux-Southwestern in the living room that still did not remotely coordinate with my papasan.

“I’ll just make some new cushion covers,” I told my husband. Last March. Six months later, we went to Japan and I bought fabric. “For the cushion covers,” I told my husband.

Seven months later, I actually started.

I did the patchwork for the smaller pillows first, since I was now relatively confident I wouldn’t screw that up horribly.

Pillows in the making, fronts and backs

It became clear (somewhat literally) at this point that I would need some kind of interfacing to keep the ugly cushion pattern from showing through the lightweight cotton. I found some lightweight black fusible interfacing at Joann’s, ironed it on without incident, and then cut out the pieces for the bigger cushions. I was still afraid of installing zippers, see, and planned to put that part off as long as possible.

And this is when The Sewing Bible led me to the light.

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CogKnition posted this on May 8th, 2010 @ 11:12pm in General Patchwork, Home Decor, Sewing | Permalink to "Pillow-y Goodness"