little things

Posted by marne on November 16, 2008 in knit, photograph | 9 comments

I had big plans for a productive weekend, but then I decided to do some knitting and the laundry is not done, the chicken coop is still in need of cleaning, and we won't even discuss the state of the bathroom. It was necessary, you see, when I went in search of some new pants the other night, and found a cute little jacket on the sale rack at Macy's. Regularly $89, marked down to $19.99! So I had to get it, but it only has 3/4 sleeves, and it's chilly up here in the mountains, and in my air conditioned office, so I thought some arm warmers were called for. I used this easy-peasy pattern, but made a few adjustments. I know my arms are a little larger than average, so I cast on 42 instead of 34. I never did check my gauge, but that ended up working well for my arms. I also made them pretty long, because I have gangly monkey arms, and I wanted them to go nearly to my elbow. Then I finished off the finger-tip edge with a little scalloped crochet border. I think they are quite cozy, and they were super easy and fast. If you haven't knit in the round before, they're a great little project to learn with, since there's no shaping, just straight knitting.

Here's the scallop edge pattern, in case you want to try it: single crochet all the way around the edge. On the next round slip one and in the next stitch, single crochet, double crochet and single crochet. Repeat these two stitches all the way around. I am probably not using the correct crochet lingo, but I'm still a novice, and probably the world's slowest crocheter. I'm getting the hang of it though.

Oh, and I did manage to find one pair of pants. They're a size smaller than I've been wearing, and fit pretty well, so that made me a happy shopper. And they were also on sale.

Since I blew off all my other responsibilities I decided to play around with my macro filters again. I can't get the 10+ one to work, but the 4+ is nice. Here is a tiny, 2" tall meerkat:

He reminds my of a trip to the zoo with my sister and brother-in-law at the beginning of the year. We had our new cameras and took a lot of pictures of the meerkats, because they were so darn cute. I've watched Meerkat Manor a time or two, but they were kind of mean to each other, so I prefer to think of them as the cute little critters we watched that day at the zoo.

And how cute are these tiny mushroom dishes?


They were a Re-ment purchase, and I got pretty lucky to get this little set. Re-ment are the Japanese version of Cracker Jacks, except with these you get one tiny piece of candy, and a really great prize, such as a set of mushroom dished, complete with 1/2" tall salt and pepper shakers.

What is it about tiny things that makes them so endearing? I loved doll houses and miniatures since I was little. I even got a doll house kit one year for Christmas or my birthday. It had all the pieces stamped into thin plywood, and theoretically you would just pop them out and glue them together. My dad helped me with it, and I did my best, but inevitably the pieces would splinter when you popped them out, and they never fit together quite right. I don't think we ever finished it. I still think it would be fun to decorate and furnish a doll house.