The Olive Sparrow

Of Kids and Lambs and Blue Eggs

These images - the second batch of our wonderful March break week, was meant to be posted a few weeks back. Yet looking at the pix and processing them for this here blog made me realize how seasonally appropriate they are. 

Enjoy!

 

 

At the farm of my friends co-worker and friend in Mount Albert, Ontario. 

Angora Goats and kids (2 days old), sheep (sorry I forgot the exact breed), wonderful medley of different breeds of chickens and their gorgeous eggs, lambs - a bit early this year, papa-sheep before and after his shearing, Huxley and the youngest daughter of the farm with a lamb. 

I did not notice how beautifully subtle and harmounious the colours of the animals where with the landscape until I started to process the images. 

Easter is such a wonderful festival to celebrate the re-awakening of life in nature! This has been the greenest celebration I have experienced in my almost 25 years here in Toronto. It is wonderful. I hope you have a chance to go for a walk outside and fill yourself up with reawakening life.

The Olive Sparrow Child - Baby Dolly

Aa dear client requested if I could possibly make a small baby doll in a sling for her daughter's birthday. Although the deadline was very tight, timing worked out wonderful to create this little as of yet unnamed baby. 

She is about 9.5" or 25 cm tall.

Cuddling in her sling.

Wearing teeny-tiny diapers that close with little snaps. 

The sling fits a 44cm Olive Sparrow doll with the baby snuggly cuddled around mami-doll.

Fluffy baby hair.

Wearing her itty-bitty hat.

Smilling and waiting for her pickup at the studio. 

 

My client and I discussed that they baby should be somewhat unisex in appearance, so that her daughter could pretend to either have a baby-girls or a baby-boy. I think that was successful, as both my husband and my son couldn't right out say which gender the baby is. 

While working on the baby, I also started another small doll. I just picked out the colours for her clothes and hope to work on her later today - now, I'm going to let Huxley create some bean bags on the sewing machine - a first for us and we're both very excited. 

____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with finished seams and some are fully reversible.

 

 

 

What we did...

... finally some pictures of the first part of our March break outing as promised. We went north in the search of snow. We found some, although not the copious amounts what we had hopped for. Living within the seasons has been very challenging when the seasons don't play along.

I take our winter books up from their storage downstairs at the beginning of December, together with the Christmas and Solstice books. After the holidays, usually January 7 when we put the Christmas tree away, all, except the Winterbooks go back downstairs. At the same time we also turn our nature table into a winter scene. This year we had used both shelves on the little sidetable that we use for a nature table - upstairs was King Winter in his winter wonderland, on the bottom shelf Huxley put Mother Earth and her children by creating a wonderful cave for them. 

Here is where it becomes challenging. Waiting for winter, for snow, for activities as they happen in the books that talk about winter. I think it is high-time that some books are written that show our winters as they are and also suggest some activities to do without snow. I have a gander that we will have more irregular weather like this ahead of us (smile). 

To try to find some winter, we planned to visit my dear friend Mary and her family in the north (from us it's about 2.5hrs due north) in Bracebridge, Ontario. We stayed there for a few days and had lots of fun. Here some pictures to share.

Bleached leaves - wonderful colours and gorgeous shapes.

Cadmun, the family german sheppard, black lab mix. She celebrated her 1st birthday while we visited. 

Resting.

Marys' youngest - full steam ahead!

The path behind Mary's house - this is the snow we found and glorious it was.

Mary with two of her three Children, Pauline (who teaches at the same school as Mary) with her children.

Funghi growth on a dead tree trunk.

On the second day of our visit it was so warm outside that the children played on the deck with only their shirtsleeves on. 

Muskoka at its best!

Woodpecker geometry. 

 

Thank you again Mary for putting us up for a few days!

 

A little taste of home

This time of the year is when we eat traditional Fastnachtschuechli at home in Switzerland. They are sold in all the local grocery stores and are only available in February and March (if my memory serves me right).

Fastnachtschuechli are to celebrate carnival Swiss-style. I miss this time of the year very much, as Halloween just doesn't capture my heart the same way. I loved the lightheartedness of the Swiss celebration.

This year I decided to start a tradition of making the Fastnachtschuechli (can you tell I love saying it... Giggle), on family day , our mid February statutory holiday.

Yummy....

"Guetzle"

Having left the country of my birth - Switzerland - at the young age of 19, most of the traditions that I crave are traditions of my childhood. Sadly though, many of these can't be replicated here in Canada. Mostly due to the fact that you need crowds of people celebrating together - the Swiss are not culturally inclined to congregate in groups outside of Switzerland though, so I am missing out on much.

Some of the festivals that I really loved where the National Day celebrations on August 1st - big bonfires, rockets, crackers, sausages over the open fire (veggie sausages i.e. Quorn sausages would do quite well for that too). I also love Advent celebrations. Ah.. the memory of the smell beeswax candle dipping that was open to the public during late November and early December still brings a smile to my face. Somehow though, Advent is just not activily celebrated here. I am also in my most busy Olive Sparrow time during the fall and Advent, so mostly I also lack the time to fully immerse myself into the quiet time of preparing for the bit day.

The one tradition that I insist on honing here is to "Guetzle" (this comes from the word "Guetzli" - which is swiss-german for cookie) - so "Guetzle" is specifically used in Advent when one is baking a myriad of different Christmas cookies. My hips don't need a lot of cookies to keep their svelete shape, our family is small, I work by myself - yet "Guetzli" baking I want to do. I usually make upwards of 15 + different types.

About 5 years ago, my husband and I started to give my home-made cookies to his clients as a small gesture of thank you. We also gift neighbours, friends, my galleries that are in town, a few of the people in the public housing complex in our neighbourhood and often a spontaneous selection of people dropping by our house over the holidays. 

This year I made 50 baggies of cookies, each weighin about 1/2 lb. So this years output was around 25 lbs. Plus about 2 lb for us to have at hand for guests staying here. 

Many of the recipes I use are very old, traditional swiss cookies, combined with a few new ones I just like trying out. I also make some chocolate truffels every year, this time around I gave white chocolate ones a go - they are okay, but I don't think I will attempt them again for a while because the chocolate didn't firm up properly and I had to improvise with additions of cashews - they taste okay, but are not what I had in mind.

Another favourite is the Basler Läckerli - a ginger-bread-type with lots of dried fruit and candied peels - this year I added some of the sour cherries from our tree and I love the bit of tartness amongst all the honey sweetness. Nidelzältli are my sons favourite - cream, sugar and a bit of vanilla - essentially a soft granular fudge. There are also Brunsli - chocolate and almonds with eggwhites, rolled in sugar when rolling out - yummy... Chräbeli are my best friends grandmothers recipe - a traditional Anis cookie and the same dough that is used for Springerle (which I make with a lovely angel mold). Nusspraline - walnuts, coffee and icing sugar, not baked, but left to dry, then glaced with more coffee and icing sugar. 

The essential Swiss Christmas cookie is the "Mailänderli" (Milano cookie) - a shortbread cookie with an egg-wash

Here is the recipe from my mothers home economics cookbook from 1948:

500 gram all-purpose flour (but you can also put part spelt or whole wheat in it)

250 gram sugar

250 gram butter

3 eggs (+ 1 egg yolk)

finely grated peel of 1 organic lemon

___

Put flour, butter, sugar, eggs and the lemon peel into a large bowl and knead well, but not too long (so that not too much gluten develops).

Put dough into fridge for a few hours or overnight

roll out on a little bit of white flour

use your favourite cookie cutters to cut out shapes

transfer shapes to baking sheet (I always use parchement paper, not buttered)

brush egg-yolk onto each cookie

bake at 350 fahrenheit for about 12 - 15 minutes until the egg yolk has gone a beautiful colour.

Let cool and enjoy!

I love cutting out tiny cookies, so that each one is one bite. Takes a bit more time, but looks so pretty. As children, this was our standard cookie that we could help with. (the dough also tastes amazing - my son says so as well.)

On that note, I am now going to work on a few more dolls that have to be finished in time for Saturday. 

 

Olive Sparrow Children - Mandy, Wendolin, Sir Jamie

The quality of the following pictures is such that I considered not showing them here - they were taken at 2:30 am the night before my first show. All of us-the dolls, the camera and I didn't have all our wits about. But it would be sad to not show Wendolin, Mandy and Sir Jamie - Dolls that have found a home to date. 

First up though, a picture of all the dolls in a group shot.

From Left to Right, back row first:

Pauline 48cm, Mandy 48cm, Suzy 55cm, Eloise 50cm, Milena 45cm, Antoine 52cm, Wendolin 55cm,

Front Row: 

Pete 31cm, Astrid 35cm, Daisy 31cm, Sir Jamie 35cm, Katinka 31cm, Claire 35cm

 

First I'd like to introduce Mandy, about 48cm, wearing leggings, a tunic and embroidered shoes. She will be joining a family that already has Olive Sparrow Children.

Mandy is made from my re-designed pattern for the 48cm doll. She can sit freely without leaning against anything, she has long legs, a more trim body and feet that look great in and out of shoes.

Green-eyed little girl... She is a real sweetie.

 

Next in order of introduction we have Sir Jamie (yes, I have been listening to the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon while creating Sir Jamie - giggle). 

Sir Jamie is a boy doll, a night or a squire. He Is wearing a silk shirt that shimmers like chain-mail (Huxley was my assistant in choosing the fabric and said that the other very shiny silk works, however, this one looks like Sir Jamie has seen a few sparring sessions). His tunic is made from leather, tied with a hand-twisted rope, his shoes are leather too. Like any good squire, he wears leggings. His height is 35cm.

The cape is made from a silk kerchief and has appliqued gold emblems on it. The hat was knit in a beautiful heathered grey wool.

Underneath his hat/helmet, Sir Jamie is suave with his short cropped curly hair.

There are definitely more knight boys in my future. I'm also thinking of a knight and princess pair (possibly with crowns and kingly/queenly gowns to go along with it). 

Sir Jamie is also going to live with a wonderful family that has a selection of Olive Sparrow Children already.

 

Here we have Wendolin, or short Wendo (named after a very, very dear friend of mine)

Wendo was the first 55cm doll I made from my newly developed pattern and I had a very hard time letting her go out into the world, alas, she was sold at the first show I attended, to a new client. 

Wendo has very nice feet, another improvement to the new pattern, and she can sit on her own. 

Wendo's hair is extremely soft and a new hairstyle. I used two very closely related tones of wool to create natural highlights. 

 

This concludes the 3 dolls that have been adopted to so far. I will be listing the other dolls that are still available in my Etsy show in the next week. If there is one you see and like, feel free to send me an e-mail for more information. 

 ___________________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

Busy Hands

A week of dying felt for crowns has resulted in this:

and hands that are not to be shown in public.

 

These hands though have also helped me do some of this (photo is just a very small sampling of all the ones I've tied off this week.

These are tiny heads for small figures on bendable wire frames - like my little knight from a few years ago. 

Today I'm back at the studio, tying off heads for larger and smaller dolls and running errands all in the name of the Olive Sparrow (boy that birdy is driving me hard these days... tweeet, tweet, tweet).

On other happy notes, our bunnies have been reunited and seem to be doing great. Eddie had his "little boy operation" and enough time has passed so that it is safe to put them back together. They are so happy (insofar as it's possible to see a bunny smiling).

The Olive Sparrow Child - Rohnan

Summer, ah, you elusive season. We spent time driving Huxley to and from day camps - fun camp, canoe camp, farm camp, sport camp; we spent a week in Tobermory in a rented cottage - with daddy sick for 3 of the 7 days there; we hung around the home and got errands done; we visited my most lovely friend in Bracebridge; we went to the Toronto Zoo, Toronto Island, the wave pool in Richmond Hill, African Lion Safari, the Art Gallery of Ontario; we slept one night in the tent in the back yard; we touched sting rays, elephants, baby goats, wild chipmunks; we saw an owl, lots of snakes (water snakes and land snakes), frogs, wild lions, water snails, wild rabbit, marmot; we sang songs about not skating in buffalo herds; we went to the local public swimming pool; we watched cartoons; we ate ice cream from a great new ice cream spot up on the Danforth; rode in a speed boat; swam in Georgian Bay's turquoise coloured water; hiked along the Bruce Trail; collected rocks at Dyers bay; touched the flowerpots on Flowerpot Island; ate Birthday cake (mine); made a dream catcher; watched sunsets and stayed up until dark; roasted marshmallows over an open fire; and spent lots of time swinging in our hammock at home. All this wonderful activity, combined with my computer deciding that it had no more room for any new photos is the result of my absence from my beloved blog - a break I needed too. 

Today we are at the end of the first week back to school and I have spent this week in the kitchen putting by tomatoes. Three bushels have been processed, another one is awaiting my hands labour. 

Rohnan, an Olive Sparrow Child flew the nest in mid August. His pictures got misplaced and I only found the card with them the other day, so here he is:

 

Rohnan is 30 cm (11") tall and was created for a little two year old boy that is a new member of my dearest friends extended family. The little boy has blond hair and blue eyes, so does Rohnan. 

His shirt is made from a re-claimed linen blouse. I wanted a real shirt, but because the little boy is only 2, did not want to put real buttons or snaps (I do not like velcro for dolls clothing), so I sewed a fully lined shirt and sewed it stitched with embroidered buttons. 

The hat is knitted out of quivit yarn, handdyed to match the blues of his vest, which in turn was made from a felted very soft woolen sweater. 

Deciding on the colours for Rohnans' pants was not easy. I was debating between a khaki green and the bluish linen I ended up using. Huxley helped my decide, he stated that for a two-year old boy it would be wrong to have a doll that has pants that could be military pants. Even after I pointed out to him that adventurers and safari men also wear khaki, he maintained his position that it wouldn't be suitable for the little boy. My dearest friends own son also preferred the lighter pants - Rohnan seems to be very happy with them. 

Like so many little boys, Rohnan is very daring and loves his wooden truck. I asked him to please come down and stay safe, which he did promptly - with a huge smile on his face. 
 

Rohnan jumped down and was off to his next adventure.... 

________________________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child - Fairy

A lovely fairy has flown away to be with her chosen fairy-mother. She arrived at the birthday of the little girl who turned seven yesterday. As some fairies can sometimes be a bit tardy and easily distracted, she only arrived at dinnertime.

 

A fairy traveling cocoon. Imagine, a fairy can't just travel through the city outside of the cocoon for everyone to see, she needs to have a place she can feel save in and also know that this will make her appearance a bigger surprise for the little girl.

 

Fairies can be shy, out little one was at first very shy when I took her into the garden to take pictures of her. 

 

But she hopped onto the chair I had set out for her and decorated with her favourite flowers -- Windflowers, also known as Wood Anemone.

The mother of the girl shared with me the little girls favourite doll from the book Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker - The Windflower Fairy. 

Our fairy turned to face me after I promised to let her read from the book that has her picture inside.

 

 

 Here is her poem, as written by Cicely Mary Barker in 1923

While human-folk slumber,

    The fairies espy

Stars withough number

    Sprinkling the sky.

 

The Winter's long sleeping,

    Like night-time, is done;

But day-stars are leaping

    To welcome the sun.

 

Star-like they sprinkle

    The wildwood with light;

Countless they twinkle--

    The Windflowers white!

 

 

("Windflower" is another name for Wood Anemone.)

I have just completed a felting workshop with the lovely Marjolein Dallinga from Bloomfelt so I wanted to create some wood anemone inspired flowers for the Fairy to take with her to the little girl.

Our fairy was soon curious and not so shy anymore, as she looked around the garden and after a while, she even loved having her picture taken.

Since the little girl would love to take the fairy along with her on outings, it was fitting that there would be a hat for the fairy to wear. Fairy hair is so easily tangled up in sunshine and sometimes the wind tries to carry strands of it away. (Birds also love to have it in their nests, as it protects the eggs and the newly hatched young ones).

  

 

The Fairy loved playing with the flowers and soon forgot that she was ever shy. 

 So we went back to the first spot and she stood there for me to take another picture.

 

I'm very much inspired by the Fairy books and I hope that there are many more that will come to life in the months and years to come. Making a Fairy doll holds special responsibility, as it is an essence that needs to be captured, more than a like-ness.  

___________________________________________________________ 

The dress of the Fairy was sewn from two layers of very fine cotton batiste. A pink one and a blue one. This way it has the almost irridenscent quality of the lilac in the picture of the book. The long wrap around her shoulder is also cotton batiste.

Curly, wavy hair was a special requisite that the little girls mom made to me me. I remember my mother many years ago knitting up some left over wool, washing and drying it and then unraveling it to create textured wool to decorate a dwarf's face with it. I love the springiness this creates in the doll's hair, yet it looks different from the boucle yarn often used for curly hair.

The Fairy is 52 cm / 20" tall 

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

Still here...

Sorry for the quiet from this neck of the city... will do an update post in the next few days. Had a very busy few weeks getting work ready for my agent.. and getting ready for two new family members to arrive by the end of this week. 

just one little 8"x8" piece that is now with my agent.

another 8"x8" that I really love.

 

and something a little larger: 30" x 30"...

It's bunny time.....

 
The bunny was created without a pattern, but had been inspired by Fabiola from Fig & Me . I used a wired figure (with the large head bead replaced with a tinnie-tiney waldorf doll head. The body was wrapped with wool and skin fabric before I sewed the knitted bunny-outfit right onto the doll. I left the feet and hands wooden. The bunny also has a large fluffy tail made from a pompon:

The itzy-bitzy little bunny is needlefelted. I had made him last summer while visiting one of my closest primary school friends in Switzerland. He's about 1 1/4" long.

 

This is our little nature shelf. We had a nature table in the living room for a few years, but it got to often neglected and forgotten. Now we've got a very small shelf in the kitchen above our table where we eat our meals. It's a wonderful way to decorate for events. I won't tell you how between specific times it often holds a myriad of unrleated bits and bobs... namely lego, tape dispensers, papers, etc.... wait.. I did just tell you.. (grin)...

And now.. drum roll please... our dyed eggs for 2011!....

I dyed them using german-made colour tablets and vinegar. The eggs needed to still be hot before inserting into the dye, so I was not able to put the rubberbands on.. I tried, but after dropping a way to hot egg.. I surrendered to dip-dying.

Have a wonderful and happy Easter, a time for renewal and reawakening...

 

Stitching away

Working on a little something for myself.. will show you what it is when it is finished.

 

Ingredients: 100% black, kinda glossy linen fabric; 100% silk hand-dyed thread; hand stitching, patience, slowness, rough edges, square, healing

inspired by: annekata and a procrastination at the studio and looking through some Japanese craft books 

Giddy...

... and humbly said also darn proud...

Challenge: medieval day at my nieces' school

Her wish: to be a jester

Total cost $5

Time: about 1.5 hrs.

Materials used: 2 long-sleeved mens t-shirts, some bells.

Tools: 5-thread serger, scissors, niece on hand to keep trying it on.

Skills needed: not much.. but willingness to try, to cut, to have fun.. and then to giggle like crazy... who would have thought that half a long-sleeved shirt worn on your head sideways could so easily turn into a jesters' hat.. not me.. 

Puppy-love

Need I say more:

My in-law's puppies. Our last visit with them (the puppies), as they are ALL going to their homes by the end of the week (and not our home...). A wonderful experience for Huxley (and me).

 

Finally!

Today it happened! I've arrived at a chippy that I'm truly happy with. I also drafted the pattern for him and hope to do the detail photos for the instruction sheet by next week. 

But here he is in all his chippy-glory...

I couldn't resist and had to make him a little tiny acorn...

 

The pattern will be suitable for immediate/advanced knitters/needleworkers I think. Would you be interested in testing my pattern for me? If so, please leave me a comment with your e-mail and in a bout 2 weeks I will e-mail you my instructions for your feedback. 

Knitting the "hide" of the chippies is not that difficult. You'll have to be able to cast on, knit, purl, cast on within the knitting, cast off,  knit an I-cord. The shape of the chippy becomes apparent through "sculpting" with needle and thread while sewing him together. 

When the pattern is finalized, I would like to offer it for free as a pdf file here on the Olive Sparrow Blog. I might also sell an extended instruction sheet that has additional animal instructions on it.

Do you like my final version?