quaking aspen

So, here’s the project that sort of started it all… my interest in craft-blogging (though eventually that’s not all I plan to do here), and getting a blogger account and everything. It was a complicated, largely illogical train of connection, so I won’t bother you with the details, but instead will tell the story…

I stumbled across craftlog on some crazy google search, on crochet or knitting I believe, and poked around a little. My interest was immediately caught by this entry, as I've loved foxes my whole life. I'm always very partial to making toys as well (clothes don't hold my interest nearly as well). Well, I suppose it's not technically a toy, but whatever. I {heart} anything fox. And look at his face! It's so cute!

So I was spurred into knitting again. I'm more proficient with crochet than knitting, but in either case, I rather go in cycles. I find a project I like, I get all obsessive with the buying of the needles (if necessary) and the choosing of the yarn, etc, etc. Then I finish it (if I'm lucky), and am done for a while till the next appealing project idea comes along. Unlike scrapbooking and writing, which I want to do All The Time. But that's another story.

So I went and found the Vegan Fox Stole pattern, and printed it, and the photos of the finished article, for guidance and motivation, and various other fox pictures, for inspiration. Then I went in to our local Purls (yarn shop) and looked up the specific recommended yarn, so that I would know what the heck I should be looking for, in terms of type of yarn and so on. I really appreciated the way the pattern discussed the yarn, the purpose of each type and so on.

It was such a chore to decide, I probably would've bought a kit if they were actually selling them. But they weren't. So I ended up using much more red and autumnish colors than on the Craftlog, which is fine. (It was so hard to decide. I still want to make another one using the fabulous Crystal Palace Splash Mink color yarn -- a lovely silver fox perhaps. Anyway.) Instead of the merino I used Lion Brand Chenille Thick & Quick (Terracotta color), which seemed to work fine, that's the only yarn in the face. If I did make another I would probably try something a little more like the merino, but it did turn out nice and soft. For the Splash yarn I used instead Bernat Boa (color, Phoenix -- I do love how all the Boa yarn colors have bird names), which is the same construction of yarn, though not as luxurious -- though I did buy more for another project, shhh I can't reveal it yet, nothing that exciting though, sadly. For the Fizz I used Lion Brand Fun Fur (color Copper) -- it worked fine but it's not as sparse an eyelash yarn as the Fizz, so the body and tail came out rather fuzzier than I thought it would. It also would probably look a bit different if I had picked a darker color of "guard hair" yarn. But anyway. If I were doing it again I would probably use the Fizz. It's okay the way it is though.

I think Maitreya is right about the error in the pattern (maybe I should let them know?), it's row 3 of the Body section, because you just did a purl row and it tells you to do another, which (I believe) would make the body curl the other way like it did for her. So what I did was just add:
row 2a: k12, p1
and go on from there as it directs. Seemed to work for me. On the whole this was a very easy pattern. Even inexperienced me could do it, though figuring out how to knit i-cord was a little rough at first. I got a how-to book out of the library and used it a bit on the spots where I was rusty.

Mine does not have claws, though that was the first thing a friend of mine wondered if it had when she saw it. Funny. I didn't stuff it either. I used teddy bear eyes and a nose, which made it all really easy to attach. If I were to do another, for my purposes, I wouldn't bother with the hair clip in the mouth, I'm not sure if I attached it right, but whatever.

What are my purposes you ask? It's my writing apparel -- I throw it around my neck to let myself and others know that I am Working. It's very warm too, I might add. I also curl him up on my scrap table. (He has no name as of yet. Any suggestions?)

Posted by falwyn on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 5:24 PM | Permalink