Friday, April 17, 2009

Do you have a sock? Then make a monkey!

When I joined Etsy 2 years ago and saw first time in my life sock moneys, they seemed so weird. They still do, but in a very cute way :)

Anyway, some days ago I made a search and discovered that the sock monkey is a lot more than just a toy. It has a history! And very long one... Wikipedia has a long story about it.

In European Street Team we have our own sock monkey maker Strumpfkunst from Germany.I borrowed the photo from her, hoe Strump doesn't mind :) She does make more cute sock animals that you can find from her shop or from her blog.



Of course you can try to make your own sock monkey, but if you have so less experienced like me, maybe it's smarter to buy the first one.
I've never seen in Estonia original sock monkey socks with the red heel, but it's probably possible to get them from other European countries. And in US it defenitely is no problem!

Youtube has a lot of video tutorials about making a monkey and making the right cuts.
For example:
How to make leg cuts
How to cut monkey arms
How to cut snout

I admit I've been very conservative artist and I don't experiment much with different materials and styles. I love knitting and crocheting, even sewing a bit, but that's all.
But as a mother to 3 year old boy I need to stay creative and learn new things too. Maybe sometime in the future you will see my first sock monkey that won't look as great as Strump's for sure!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

My newborn niece new photos

They're finally home from the hospital and the small girl is even cuter. And look at the hair! So long and dark.
We visited my brother's family today and the baby was still sleeping most of the time. And she is much more tinier than Oliver was- weights only 3000 grams.

Every time I see a baby like this I wish I had one too.
They got the dress from last post also and my sister-in-law likes it. It's too big at the moment, but should be perfect for upcoming summer.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Latest projects

The dress is made for my newborn niece. Her 4 year old sister already has one similar to this from past summer.
I would like to make more of the dresses for selling also. Do you think it's a good idea and what kind of colors combination would you like?
I'm thinking of yellow/green, pink/green, but I'm ready to try more.


The shrug is not a new thing. It was finished some months ago, now I just have a cute photo I wanted to share with you :)

You have seen similar tops in my blog before too, but this is a bit different.
The story is funny too. I went to local yarn shop and bought the cotton yarns for this project. 5 balls, because it's usually enough and if I need more, I can always go and get it.
I was choosing the color very carefully, but after I had knitted half of the top, I discovered that the colors are totally different! 2 balls were light beige and 3 balls light brown. I didn't see it in the shop.
First I wanted to unravel it, but I think 2 colors looks maybe even more interesting than one? I had to change the border pattern too, so it would make sense in different shades.

Now I'm dreaming of a dress with similar pattern...

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Selfish post


I did some new photos with my model today and some people already think it's me on the photos. No, I'm not. I'm bigger and darker and I love being behind the camera, not in front of it.
So here's an exception. The model wanted to hold the camera too, and I had to pose. I'm not good at it ;)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Smallest and cutest :)

Look what we have!
This is my brother's newborn daughter, less than 2 days old cute girl. We visited them in the hospital, little one is sleeping most of the time.
All our children have long dark hair when they born, so this cutie is definitely ours :)




Monday, April 6, 2009

Something sweet

My real job, being a journalist and half-time photographer, takes me to different interesting places.
Today I visited a school where children are making marzipan figures. It's amazing how many cute and beautiful things can be made this way. I'm not sure I have enough talent for creating something like this myself, but after half and hour with second grade students I'm willing to try.








Friday, April 3, 2009

More cinnamon pasties

This is my knitting basket. I don't have another basket that could hold more than 70 pasties and I had to take my yarns out.

There is a reason why I baked so much today. I will take most of them to my brother who will be home with his two children this weekend- 6 year old Daniel and 4 year old Deivi.
Their mother and his wife has to go to hospital and on Monday morning their third child, a little beautiful girl, will be born.
So I thought they need something good to eat while they're home without the mother.

At the moment I'm auntie to 4 children, on Monday there will be one more. Besides Deivi and Daniel my sister has also 2 children- Joosep who is 14 and Annabeth who was born last year.

The smallest, Annabeth, will be my hat and dress model this spring if I will find time to finish all things I've planned. Isn't she cute?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

New photos

We have a beautiful sunny day and we used it for taking new photos. Piia, my best friend, is just fantastic- it's still not very warm, so she had to suffer a bit for making this come true.
I like the result, how about you?