Tiny felted robot: "My head is on fire."

I've been wanting to make more tiny felted things, and today I finally had a chance. This is only my second felting project, and it's my first felted robot. He is 100% wool. (Although i did poke my index finger a few times with the felting needle, so he might also share a tiny bit of my DNA.)

I love the idea of using simple natural materials to make a high-tech little dude. I have a feeling I'll make him some friends.

Happy holidays, world.

May your holidays be full of snowflakes and robots and love. :)

I made this year's sparkly, roboty cards with two block prints on 100% recycled paper (yay!) -- one had the snowflakes and one had the robots. They turned out kind of messy, but I like them anyway.

I have robots on my fingernails

And when I play guitar, they look like a rockin' little robot army.

Voodoo cell phone

I recently found a little note to myself that says "Make a tiny voodoo cell phone (knitted) for Kait." I think I wrote the note sometime last year, but I don't have even the vaguest recollection of why I wanted to do such a thing.

Normally, I'm into happy, unthreatening technology (like cute robots), but I thought the idea of a voodoo cell phone was funny, so I figured I'd make one, send it to her as a surprise, and see if she could offer an explanation.

Here's how it turned out:




And here's the back of the tag, because of course a voodoo phone has to come with little pins:



It's only a few inches tall, which I guess you can tell by looking at the height of the pins. I made the blue screen and the buttons with the leftover yarn from the sparkly fringe on my scarf.

The sad ending to this story is that Kait got the voodoo cell phone in the mail today. She seemed to think it was funny, but she had no idea why I had wanted to make her one. I guess from now on, I'll try to include more detail in my notes.

Nano costume

Now that the weather's getting too warm for the nano sweater, I decided to make my little guy a new outfit... that's even warmer. Today I used some of the yards and yards of neon fleece I have lying around (from back when I was planning to sew a person-sized robot to watch TV with me) to make this:

As soon as I put the outfit on my nano, I realized it feels sort of Kelly-inspired, which makes me happy because I like her art.

It was originally going to be a robot costume, with little blue arms and legs, but then I thought, "What's the only thing cooler than robot arms? Robot butterfly wings!"

Yes, I know they look like ears. But they're wings.

The fleece was so thick it was hard to sew, but I guess the thickness will help keep my ipod safe. I used a little bit of clear vinyl to make windows over the display and the controller wheel so they won't get scratched up in my bag. The little costume opens at the bottom and has a tab of fleece that wraps around the back. I know I saw some velcro lying around my apartment the other day, and as soon as I find it, I'll be able to velcro the tab closed.

Yay!! I haven't had time for a craft project in so long. And this one is so soft and cute! I think I want the next costume I make for my nano to look more robotic, but I'm happy with how this one turned out.

NOTE: I just remembered my plan to dress like my nano. I think that's on hold for now. I don't look good in neon green.

Swimming pool scarf

I bought the yarn to make this scarf a few months ago, when I still lived in L.A., but was already planning to move back to New York. When I walked into Yarn Garden (a great yarn store on Tujunga Ave. in Studio City), they had an example scarf on the wall made out of these yarns. The sparkly aqua fringe reminded me of my swimming pool, so I decided I'd buy some and knit the same scarf. The yarn was seriously pricey, but I thought it would be nice to have as a wearable tribute to my time in Los Angeles.

It could've been a quick project, but I've been so busy with moving and working that I didn't finish it until yesterday. This morning I put it on and discovered that the fringe feels a lot sillier than I expected. It reminds me of the fluffy stuff used to make cheerleader pom-poms, so when I wear it, I feel like I should jump around a lot and spell things out loud. If this scarf-related perkiness starts getting on my nerves, I guess I could always trim the fringe shorter, but for now it's kind of fun.

My First Nano Sweater!

Note: I wrote this last night, but Blogger wouldn't let me publish it until just now.

I finally found a few minutes to finish the nano sweater tonight! Call it an iPod cozy if you must, but I prefer to think of it as a nano sweater. I don't want to be a cozy knitter, okay? Other people can make all the "cozies" they want, but cozies aren't for me.

I mean, really, does an iPod need a cozy? NO. Does an iPod need a sweater? YES.

What could be inside that tiny, charming, swimming-pool blue sweater?




My nano!



(I put an image of a cute little animal face in my nano's image folder just for moments like this. I think the backlight had turned off by the time I took the photo, though, because it's usually a lot brighter.)

Considering that I knitted this without a pattern, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The sweater could use a button so it stays closed on its own, but for now, I'll just wrap the cord from the headphones around the outside whenever I put it in my bag.