When you really need a needle...

Don’t you hate it when you can't find that one specific needle you need? I spent most of last night searching for my US10 17” circular needle made from my Denise set. I need it so I can use the cord to start on testing the adult sized Cadet Hat, but of course it is no where to be found. It is so frustrating, and I am pretty sure that Peanut carried it off somewhere! I once found him in his bed (a laundry basket filled with clean clothes) laying next to a different needle made from my Denise set. I know this my fault because I should put the needles away after I use them, but this is virtually impossible for me to do for some reason. I just wish Peanut wasn’t so fond of knitting needles! Today I will be heading out to Mind’s Eye Yarns and Woolcott in search of a US7 16” circular needle, so I can get started on that hat. I am considering just buying a whole new Denise set since I want the pink cords anyways… We’ll see! Maybe I’ll need to get some new yarn to make me feel better.

In other news, our sister Diane is having a baby and is due on April 23! She is totally obsessed with wanting to dress her baby up in animal costumes. I figured I would make her a baby gift with a bunny toy, bunny booties, and Kiddie Cadet hat. I just finished up the bunny booties yesterday, yah I know I am a little behind, but my knitting got kind of suspended while we were working on getting this site up.

Project Specs
Pattern: Bunny Booties from Animal Friends Felt Booties (CH-22)
Pattern Source: Fiber Trends
Yarn: MC Patons Classic Wool In #201 Winter White; CC Classic Wool in #210 Petal Pink.
Needles: US8 and US10 straight needles and US5 dpns
Date Started: 4/18/07
Date Finished: 4/20/07
Modifications: Used whipstitch to seam the ear pieces together instead of slip stitching in place. Needle felted face detail instead of using just embroidery.

I thought that these would be a super quick knit and I could make these in a day (not including drying time after felting). Well they aren’t really quick for something this small! There are a lot of intermediate steps it seems and a lot of stuff that is just boring, like making 8 different ear pieces and then having to seam them all together. Just not what I really consider fun. Also the extra steps needed to make the cuffs (which are useful) are tedious. Making these was pretty much a snoozefest. There is a mistake in the pattern too, they never once mention to seam up the booties. I seamed them pre-felting, but if this was one of your first projects you might not necessarily know to do that.

I was really amazed at how well this white felted. It really created a nice tight fabric. If I need to felt with white in the future, I will definitely go for this yarn! I decided to felt them by hand because they were so small. This was actually my first time hand felting, and I think it went pretty well! This was also my first time needle felting. I needle felted the eyes and nose using a 36 gauge needle, then did the white eye detail using a 40 gauge needle. I used the Petal Pink for the nose, a tiny scrap of Patons Classic Merino in black for the eyes, and Winter White for the eye detail. I embroidered the mouth and eyelashes with embroidery floss. Pompoms made from white were attached to the back of the booties as tails.

Overall I think the booties turned out cute, and they could be finished in a weekend. If I was making this pattern again, I would definitely attach the ears a little lower on the head so they would be more secure (mine kind of detached themselves during felting). Anyways I hope she likes them!