Who Knew?

Did any of you know that the hedgehog pattern was a VERY quick knit? I started it on Saturday evening and finished it mid-day Sunday! I have to admit, though, mine is riddled with mistakes that I can't find, but still - a very quick knit.

About half way finished

Front View
(and basically what it looked like before felting)

The pattern tells you to mark row 2 as the right side, which I did, and it stayed the right side for most of the time, until I looked down and was on the wrong side on a row which was supposed to be on the right side. I guess I skipped a row? There are SO many short rows that it's very easy to miscount - which I did a few times at least. And once you start putting the fur on, you can't look back and see ANYTHING you've just done! Not that I'm complaining at all, because that's okay with me =)

Also, I was starting to run VERY short on yarn, so when it came to the last 20 rows or so, I just didn't do the "Every even row - KNIT" I just did decrease row after decrease row. I still ended up with only about 12 inches of yarn left. (scary) Just enough to sew up the bottom after felting.

After Felting Before Eyes and Nose

I have to say, doing that process for the first time is pretty cool. It's so weird to see all the stitches vanish and become this firm fluffy nearly impenetrable mass. (I embroidered eyes, sorta, after the felting and the stuffing - it was interesting - in retrospect, I should have done the eyes before the stuffing, but it worked okay)

All in all, a very satisfying and rewarding venture. The recipient, who has been begging me for the hedgehog since the Spring, was instantly in love. He hugged it (while it was still wet) and said to it, "I love you." -- **beam** what more could I ask?

Camera Shy

Weird blurry action shot with
odd letter "E" in the upper left corner
which is cool b/c this child's name starts with E

In other knitting news, I am on the last leg of both socks. (ha - leg, socks...) anyway here's how they look now, picture taken just before I started the hedgehog:


I knit a few rows on the Fern Lace Stole last night, too, but in one of the lace repeats I ended up with 14 stitches instead of 16, so I plopped on needle protectors (or stitch stoppers, whatever they are called) and ripped back to a place that had 16 and put it down for the night. Sorry this thing is so blurry. Sometimes the camera cooperates and sometimes it doesn't. It eats batteries SO fast it doesn't make sense. After this shot and another that's much worse the camera turned itself off and refused to turn back on.

And since I don't want to end on a blurry note, I'll give you one more picture:

Sunset a few days ago.
It makes me want to bust out the
pro watercolors and see if I can paint it