Oink

I just finished a cute new toy pattern called "Oink".

It is a free pattern from Spud & Chloe written by Susan B. Anderson.  I have knitted several of Susan's patterns and just love them so I knew right away that I needed to make this one.  He turned out so cute.  He has a "Pinky" high bounce ball in his tummy so that adds some nice weight to him and some bounce if he gets tossed.  I was able to knit him in just a couple of hours while watching a movie with my family.  Embroidering the face always intimidates me.  I'm not sure why because it always turns out OK but the eyes really give an animal it's character.  I guess I don't want to make my sweet little creation look angry or sad.  So, as I do quite often, I decided to make polymer clay button eyes.

I used tiny little button shank blanks (the three little silver things in the center of the tile) and added clay.  White for the back ground (thin white circles are wrapped over the edges to the back of the shank) and two thin slices of a pink bulls eye cane for the eye.  I added a tiny black ball of clay for the center.  The finished "Oink" eyes are in the lower left corner of the tile.  It looked so great that I decided to go ahead and make up a few more pairs of eyes to have on hand for future projects.  I looked through my huge collection of canes and found some great choices. 

I really like the spirals.  They give a little bit of a dizzy appearance.  The blue pair on the top row is from an eye cane so they should look the most realistic.  The flowers will work well too. I used a pair like the orange flowers on my Tiny Turkey I knitted last November (another Susan B. Anderson pattern).

And I am still knitting away on various squares. 

After finishing my first Mitered Crosses square using Noro Silk Garden Sock for the cross and Knit Picks Bare Sock yarn as the back ground, I decided that the finer Knit Picks yarn would make the whole blanket a little too stretchy between the crosses of a finished blanket.  I had a tiny little ball of Silk Garden Sock in the neutral color so I used that on my second square and of course, I just love it.  So, I decided to go ahead and place an order for more.  So, while I'm waiting for that to arrive in the mail, I'm concentrating on my log cabin squares right now.

The current count for the Barn Raising squares is 14.  And the count for the Log Cabin squares is 13.

I helped to proctor for TCAP testing (Tennessee Comprehensive Achievement Program) this week in my children's school so I had at least six hours of uninterrupted knitting time to work on my log cabin squares.  It was great!  Add in a softball game yesterday afternoon and soccer practice this evening and I should make some good progress.  I'm aiming for 18 log cabin squares and then I'll see if that will be big enough for a lap blanket.