cute cuter cutest!

Imagine my delight when a little stack of these adorable new books of knit toys showed up at my house the other day from KnitPicks! But the real thrill was inside...

It's my sloth! I am so excited that my pattern for a trio of knitted & felted sloths was included in this ridiculously sweet collection of knit toys. If you've been a reader of this blog for a while (a long while), you may remember when I first got excited about the two-toed sloths and decided to knit a life-sized one. Sloth was born about six years ago (around the same time as the Little Pea), and has now made the big time as a knitting pattern - with two cute little friends.   

Sloth immediately became a beloved friend in our family. I hope he'll be one for lots of other knitters now, too! The pattern is available as part of the Cute Cuter Cutest book, as a stand-alone pattern to download, or as part of a kit made with KnitPicks Wool of the Andes worsted.  

quick peek

I have a new pattern coming out tomorrow via Knit Picks.

Can you guess what it is?

fiber fun weekend

seymour the PR llama

I had a lovely time at S.A.F.F. 2011, the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair! Snuggling with cute llamas and alpacas (like Seymour here) was one of the unexpected treats of my weekend.

This was my first time at SAFF, since normally our family camping trip falls on the same weekend. I've been looking forward to this event ever since the spring, when the camping trip date was announced and I realized I'd be able to go! YAY!


sock yarn from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks

In the past, sheep & wool festivals have been all about yarn shopping for me. At SAFF this year I decided to spend my money on workshops instead (well okay I did buy some yarn and stuff). But mostly it was learning. I took a workshop on steeking with Aimee Abernathy, which was lots of fun. I learned how to steek! I loved it! Now I'm dying to cut up all the knitting I can get my hands on! Almost! As soon as I got home I unraveled half of the vest I made recently for the Little Pea and started reworking the top half to have steeked armholes. That's how much fun steeking is!

But even better than steeking... Spinning!


Robyn shows us the wheel

Oh, spinning. It's so wonderful. The instructor, Robyn Josephs, was amazing. First we learned how to spin with a drop spindle. Then we got on the spinning wheels and went crazy. After three hours, I was completely hooked. I left the class walking on air, and grabbed some roving and a drop spindle to take home.


merino top dyed by Lunabud Knits

Spinning lit up some very primal neurons way down deep in my brain. It was such a meditative, all-encompassing activity. You can't think too much, or you'll mess it up. You have to let your fingers think for themselves, your feet pedal by themselves, and get your thinking part of the brain out of the way so that the intuitive part can take over. I need more of that kind of serenity in my life.

Now I just need to save up for a spinning wheel.

And I'm thinking that maybe when I grow up I'll get a little farm and populate it with adorable Jacob sheep. Really, could they be any cuter??

hot critter::two-toed sloth

It's time for the next installment in the Hot Critter series, which has brought you such wonders as the Neuse River Water Dog and the Star-Nosed mole. Today's hot critter is the Two-Toed Sloth.

As you may already know, a creature appearing here in Hot Critter means that said creature is about to get knitted up into a cuddly home version, which is as true as ever in this case. HWWLLB just had a big birthday, and one of his gifts was a knitted, stuffed and felted sloth - his very favorite animal (I'm almost done with knitting it).

So why would someone have a sloth as their favorite animal? Where to begin??

There aren't very many sloths in the world - in quantity or in variety. There are only two species of the two-toed sloth, Choloepus Didactylus, and Choloepus hoffmanni, and just four species of her cousin the three-toed sloth. Sloths are reclusive and prefer remote areas far from humans - which is easy to understand. Because sloths move so incredibly slowly, the can't run away from logging trucks or wildlife poachers, so with habitat destruction eating away at their homes in South America, the sloths are slowly disappearing (they do everything slowly).

Sloths spend their lives hanging in trees, thanks to their powerful claws. They are also pretty good swimmers, but if for some reason they hit the ground, they are extremely vulnerable. Those awesome hanging legs are near useless on land, where they are easy prey for large cats like jaguars and ocelots.

The sloth is solitary, and takes life very slowly. She spends all her days hanging in trees, sleeping as much as 15 to 20 hours per day, and eating mostly juicy plants. She sleeps, eats, mates, births and rears her young all while hanging upside-down from trees, and baby sloths hang onto their mothers for several months after birth.



Believe it or not, there isn't much more than this that the world knows about sloths, two-toed or three-toed. Because of their solitary nature and preference for remote areas, sloths have been severely under-studied. There are a few institutions who rehabilitate injured sloths and study their behavior and biology - the Avia Rios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica, and the UNAU Foundation in Columbia are two examples, and they deserve our support.

It seems like it's time to revoke the sloth's "deadly sin" status - living a life of quiet solitude, practicing vegetarianism (mostly) and staying away from troublesome people - sloths are a lot more like Buddhist monks than degenerate sinners. If you admire the sloth too, watch this space for the forthcoming sloth softie and knitting pattern, which I am currently working on - slooowly.

meet the lewisis

Here they are, external gills and all...

Nectorus lewisi, the Neuse River Waterdog, in actual size:



And in size jumbo:



These are the new hot critters around these parts.

In case you don't remember why I was knitting a Neuse River Waterdog, what they look like in real life, or how they speak with a downeast North Carolina accent, flip back to this guest post by Les to learn all about them. But in brief, Neuse River Waterdog is a threatened amphibian species here in North Carolina. I knitted two of them; the first was actual size, and I also made a jumbo version - just to be more huggable.

They're both made from Manos del Uruguay, except for their external gills, which I made with locally-grown and dyed roving from Three Waters Farm. I really appreciated everyone's encouragement on the needle-felting. It was so much fun! It is a lot like drawing with yarn, and I am totally hooked. I want to poke needles into all the yarn I see!

The waterdogs are spending most of their time hiding under leaf litter in the backyard, looking for slugs and other tasty bits to munch on, and writing letters to the Environmental Management Commission about the water quality in their native streams. The big one is considering becoming a Riverkeeper, and the small one prefers to stay home and read decorating magazines.

Mr. and Mr. Lewisi both thank you for your interest in their species, and for not pouring grease down the sink.


off to a public hearing on sediment control

hot critter: neuse river waterdog

This is a guest-post from Les, who has chosen the next animal to be knitted & felted: the Neuse River Waterdog. And watch for a star-nosed mole pattern this Friday!
===


Nectorus lewisi, or “Mudpuppy” as he known to his friends.

Lewisi has also been known to buy beer and get into “gentlemen’s” clubs with an ID which bears the name Neuse River Waterdog. Keep an eye out for this one, which is rarely seen by human eye. Lewisi is active at night and apparently spends summers buried deep in a leaf bed in the Tar and Neuse Rivers which run through Eastern North Carolina. This is the only place he’s found on earth.

In an independent effort to make it on the NPR show Soundclips, I caught up with Lewisi for a brief interview earlier this year and I recorded it. Here’s the transcript:

Les S: So, what’s with all the names, I mean Mudpuppy, Waterdog… which is it?

Nectorus Lewisi: Well, don’t make a bit difference to me which ya call me by, but some folks say I’m called dog cuz I sorta yelp when I’m picked up, but hell, you’d yelp too, I mean those dang kids u’ll squeeze the dick’ns outta ya… Sides I need to stay in the water, I’m a fully aquatic salamander… I likes it wet, ya know? Suck’n dissolved oxegen wit my external gills, dat’s my thing!

LS: Yeah… those things are wild they stick off your head like little fairy wings… the chicks gotta dig that..

NL: Listen pal, you’re walk’n on thin ice now, dees gills are a pain in my slimy ass. Tween these dang girly gills and dees short arms I was the butt of every Eastern Hellbender’s smartass jokes. And they’re sensitive to boot…

LS: You mean you’re sensitive about them…?

NL: Naw, I mean they’re dang sensitive… you know me and my old lady can only make it in the most pristine parts of the Neuse and Tar rivers… used not to be that way, but all ya’ll two-leggies gots to go and dump pesticides, untreated runoff, hog crap, and god knows what else in the only place I can call da homestead, we get no respect.

LS: Well, I wouldn’t say “no respect” word on the street is you’re up for possible designation as the North Carolina State amphibian.

NL: Yeah?... well, I’ll believe it when I see it.



LS: So, Lewisi, tell me your secret… how DO you keep that slender figure of yours? Lots of rock-slime suck’n and feeding on roe I presume.

NL: Hell naw! We’re carnivores… invertebrates, vertebrates, carrion… long as it’s meat I’ll eat it… [mmmm]…[yelp]… [snap]…. [scream]…

[sound recording goes to static]

And that’s when the little %@#* bit my little toe off. So if you’re reading this, Muddpuppy, know this… I just got my permit from the Wildlife Resource Commision in the mail gunn’n for you!

===
Ha ha, you know we'd never condone violence against threatened species on this blog! Thanks Les for showing us the muddy world of the Waterdog.

This is going to be a fun one to knit. I'm thinking those external gills may present me with an opportunity for my first foray into needle-felting. If you have any design suggestions... send them my way!



waterdog drawing by Les S.

cris the critter

I always have such good intentions for keeping trains of thought going and connecting one thing to another on the blog... oh, well. I'm easily distracted, I guess. So here we are, just a few weeks behind schedule, with the latest installment of Felted Animals that You Didn't Imagine You Might Want to Knit, But They're Kind of Cute So What the Heck?

Please meet Cris.



She is a felted & stuffed version of Condyluria cristata, the star-nosed mole. Please note that she has exactly 22 tentacles around her nose and 5 claws on each foot, just like her real-life cousins in the wild (I-cords are a mole's best friend). Read all about the amazing world of star-nosed moles here.

For those of you who find moles kind of icky (I know not everyone gets as geeked on wildlife as I do), I hope that you don't find Cris too freaky. She is a sweet and snuggly little mole, but she's the terror of earthworms and other underground wigglies. If you're a grub, you better watch out. Those tentacles can grab 14 grubs per second. Felted grubs, I mean (should I make some felted grubs for her?).

Poor Cris has been sitting around my house for weeks waiting to be stuffed and sewn shut. I don't know what it is about a needle & thread that can make me procrastinate for so long. I can pick up the knitting needles 1,000 times to start a new project before I'll pick up the needle & thread to finish one.

I'm glad she's finished though. Cris's body is made from Lamb's Pride worsted, which makes her very fuzzy and soft. Her nose, claws and tail are made from Cascade 220. She fits nicely into the palm of your hand or a large pocket, and would make an excellent good-luck charm while spelunking, digging holes, or exploring an underground steam tunnel. Hopefully I'll get to take her on an underground adventure some time soon!

Our next animal for felting will be selected by Les, who had his birthday yesterday. If he picks a cute animal that other people might want to knit & felt too, perhaps I'll publish the pattern. But as for Cris... if you really want to knit a star-nosed mole, I'd be glad to write up the pattern and put it on the blog - she was not very hard. But somehow I am not expecting a clamor... we'll see. It would be fun to see a rash of stuffed star-nosed moles all over the internets!


off to find a wiggly treat

happiness is...

...a moth nursery.

Yesterday I was sitting on the porch waiting for a ride, and I swear I could hear chewing. I looked to the left, and saw this beautiful guy on the moonflower vine twisted around our front porch railing:



I ran inside to get the camera. And then I saw this one:



And this one:



And this one:



And then I noticed all their poop all over the porch:



I don't know exactly which kind, but I'm pretty sure these are all the babies of a sphinx moth. I think these are three different phases of the same caterpillar (Bugheart, help me out here....). Their mama, who I *think* is a Carolina Sphinx moth (a.k.a. Tobacco hornworm), was hanging out on the front door last night. In case you don't know, the sphinx moth is a big giant moth that makes beautiful green caterpillars who strip your tomato plants, moonflowers and other things absolutely bare, and then they go on to the tomatoes. HWWLLB is out there right now trying to move some of them into a big bush in the front yard that we don't like. But I think they're too smart for him (and I'm secretly cheering them on).

I love a sphinx moth. HWWLLB calls them "flying shrimp." They are about the size of a jumbo shrimp, actually. Some are scary looking, and some are quite beautiful. I think the Carolina Sphinx fits into the beautiful category, myself. I think I am officially declaring the Tobacco hornworm / Carolina Sphinx moth larvae to be the new Hot Critter.

...happiness is also a long bike ride.

Before the moth nursery discovery, I was feeling really bad. Bad mood, sad, grouchy, just miserable. So Sis and I decided to take a long bike ride. We rode about 15 miles, I think, out to Umstead State Park, a big loop inside the park, and then back again.


these are our bikes at the park entrance - just to prove we were there.

It's amazing how some vigorous exercise can make you feel better, especially when it comes with a little change of scenery. Riding around the city, you see some interesting things, but mostly you're just dodging cars.

But once you get to the beltline crossing, (which you do over an amazing bridge above the highway), you're in the park system, in this case the woods around the Art Museum. You get to ride through the Art Museum park, full of wonderful statues, then out on the road to Umstead, which is the only road I've ever seen in Raleigh with bike lanes.

We passed horses with babies, long-horned steer, and a pond full of painted turtles. One of the turtles came up to the bike path for some sun. As we descended into the shade of the park, the temperature seemed to drop and drop, and it was like we were entering another land.

By the time we got home, I was pooped, but smiling. There is nothing like a long bike ride to work out whatever funk has a hold of me.

And then there was all that caterpillar poop waiting for me on the porch. A perfect Monday.

hot critter: star-nosed mole

I may be about to launch a new feature here on the blog: hot critter. This is because I am now officially in love with the star-nosed mole after having a minor encounter with it this week at work.


hello, my name is condylura cristata

The star-nosed mole is amazing. It has a sense of touch beyond what we humans can even imagine. The “star” around its nose is actually a group of 22 super-sensitive tentacles. The tentacles are incredibly efficient at detecting food. A recent study found that it takes a star-nosed mole less than 1/4 second to detect, identify, and eat a piece of food – that’s half the time it takes a human driver to hit the brake after recognizing danger. The tentacles can touch something like 12 objects per second as the mole navigates its environment. The star-nosed mole detects 14 times as many edible organisms as its closest cousin, the eastern mole, in the same amount of time.

This means that the mole is incredibly efficient at gathering small food. It beats out all its competitors, like eastern moles, hairy-tail moles, shrews and voles, at gobbling up the tiny edible delicacies (like larvae – yum) that are so abundant in their marshy habitat. And they can even find food underwater!

The star-nosed mole is also the only semi-aquatic mole species in North America. They live in swamps and marshes and are great swimmers, but since they paddle with both right legs, then both left legs, they swim with a zig-zag motion. They can also follow a scent trail underwater to find food. Check out this slow-motion video of a star-nosed mole sniffing through underwater air bubbles.

Here in North Carolina, the star-nosed mole is listed as a “Species of Special Concern” due to its dwindling numbers, especially in the east (thank you, habitat destruction). Next time you’re out in a swampy marsh, be sure to say hello.

And if you see Madonna cruising London with a pet star-nosed mole sticking out of her handbag, you'll know you heard it here first: hot critter.