Owls are the new Elephants

I used to collect elephants. I had a small obsession. They paraded across the mantlepiece, congregated in crowds on my bookshelves and infested my dressing table (mainly in jewelry form). It used to be a sort of tradition that my relatives would gift me elephants from their far-flung travels. I did this too. A certain small pink cross-eyed ceramic elephant reminds me of a trip to the Barossa Valley wineries with my family and future husband the year I finished school. However, I loathe dusting (Let's be honest here - I loathe housework in general) and so the elephant collection downsized to manageable proportions. The ones that survived the cull had to have a really memorable story attached.

When I was collecting elephant in the 90's, they were everywhere. They were literally the animal du jour for crafters everywhere. Any gallery, tourist trap, kitsch souvenir shop had a handmade elephant. It wasn't at all unusual to be an elephant collector (or all that difficult either).

I've decided that owls are the new elephants. Like an elephant you don't need to be anywhere near anatomically correct to portray an owl in craft. With an elephant, its all about the ears and the trunk and the basic body shape. For an owl, it comes down to the eyes, the beak and generally birdy shaped body.

Owls are everywhere in the craft-i-verse at the moment. I've blogged about owls before (See X is for Xmas Owls or Owlishly Warm). There are owl ornaments, owl toys and garments adorned with owls. 

So when one of my work colleagues had a baby recently, I gave into the urge and made a toy owl for him. (It is actually highly appropriate, his mother's area of research is Owls).

I didn't find anything that really grabbed me when I went pattern hunting. I knew what I wanted though. Something soft and squishy, washable and chewable, not too big for a baby to hang on to and rustic looking. So I thought, what the hell! I'll design my own. I found some scrap paper and sketched an owl to size. I haven't done a lot of designing but I understand the principles of gauge vs. finished size and find it relatively easy to crunch the mathematics to match my knitting to the shape of a paper pattern.

Here's the design sketch and the start of the body in progress.

Here's the owl in progress sitting on my lap as I work on a failed set of wings.

After all he's pretty easy. Here's My Recipe for a Cute Little Owl.

• Two basic body pieces. These are made out of a solid tweedy cotton yarn for added chew factor and durability.
• 4 circles for eyes (The outer eyes are crocheted and the black inner circles knitted).
• A tummy patch
• A shaped and stuffed sort of pointed cylindrical beak
• and two oval shaped wings.
• Garnish with button hole stitch in contrasting colors wherever possible for added cuteness.

Yarn: All DK weight (8 ply) from the stash. All natural fibres - cotton or wool or wool blend
Needles: 4mm

 

I did take notes whilst I was making this and expect to write this up as a (free) pattern just as soon as this mad marking and exams month is over. That just means I'll have to make another one or two to test the pattern!

Project 365: Week 18

Catch up, Catch up, Catch up. It's the theme of the moment at the moment.

I'm frantically writing lists - looking at the tasks I need to do, the time frame I have to do them in and then quietly going crazily insane whilst attempting to scale the pile of marking and teach my class with my usual maniac enthusiasm. I'm OK as long as I don't think too deeply about what I should have done at any point of time.

So I'd like to give a small shout out to the landscaping team at work for brightening my days with their efforts outside my office window. They've kept me thoroughly intrigued with what was going to happen next in the massive garden redevelopment project. It has been a source of much joking speculation amongst my fellow office occupants. There's also the entertainment factor of watching other people undertake hard physical labour in adverse weather conditions whilst you are in your cosy office attempting hard intellectual labour.

Day 119: The end of the fire season. Washing and airing the daughter's fire-fighting after her last batch of controlled burning. They were is serious need of this. I swear they were so black with soot and stuff they almost stood up by themselves.

Day 121: I think this is in fact a close relative of the iconic artwork - Blue Poles. I here by give you - Red Poles. Aligning these suckers seemed to involve alternate intense periods of sweaty labour and silent contemplation by the work team.

Day 122: The gift basket for the new baby waiting for delivery. Due to a complicated series of misadventures, I had temporary custody of this in my office for a few days.

Day 123: Look the mushrooms have grown up now. They've flattened out and opened up. More disappointingly, they're now a boring brown instead of that cute yellow.

Day 124: I feel this photo may need a "This photo may distress a few viewers". I get a phone call from my little sister yesterday evening saying, "There's a mouse in my dishwasher!". "There's a WHAT in Your WHAT???!" I reply. "Fine. I'll come and deal with it in the morning". That's my role. I deal with vermin. She doesn't. When I go to remove said mouse, I find a dead rat face down in a wine glass. This leads to speculation about what type of wine a rat might drink - red or white? I remove said rat. Need to give her cat some severe re-education about how inappropriate it is to chase vermin into slightly open dishwashers. Cat feels no need to listen to any boring lectures suggesting its conduct may be lacking. We DID rewash the dishes! TWICE!!

Day 125: The coolest thing to do with old suitcases. The amplifiers / ipod speakers on steroids my son fell in love with at first sight. Sunday morning at the Camberwell market with my girls on a shopping mission. Success! One tailored long black wool coat for the giant European adventure for one daughter and a suitably pre-loved classic leather jacket for the other at $10 each. Looking longingly at old tailor's lasts (cos' who doesn't love a disembodied wooden foot) and hat forms but decided my taste in classic industrial decorating objects and my actual budget are worlds apart.

Day 126: Granny wants a Latte Machiato. An update on the great granny rug project. 140 squares completed of the 300 I need. It looks so cool though when you lay them out on the floor and see what you've got. 

Project 365: Weeks 16 and 17

Dear Blog,

Apologies. I have clearly neglected you. For a whole month! (Past experience with me should make you resigned to this state of affairs though).

OK. Here's the stage of the year when life seems to run away with you and one day blurs into the next and the weeks fly buy. I've officially dropped the ball on this photo a day thing. I've missed the odd day here and there before now but these two weeks I've nearly missed more than I've taken.

I think I'll just keep trying and post what I've got and attempt to do better for the rest of the year.

It's been a few weeks of constant classes and intense exam writing and proof reading and marking - none of which lends itself to pretty pictures (and then there's the privacy issues too).

Day 106: The owl hat in its natural habitat. I think wearing headphones on the top of your head is a fashion statement from the same styling school as wearing your sunglasses on the top of your head - possibly pointless.

Day 108: This was supposed to be titled 'Birds on the Wire'. However, the birds decided they didn't want their photos taken and flew away when they saw the camera. A cold grey frosty early Autumn morning.

Day 109: These mushrooms appeared virtually overnight in the work car-park. They're growing on the root system of tree that used to be there before it decided to fall over for no reason and kill a few cars that were quietly minding there own business. This one's for my middle daughter. Her area of scientific passion is Mycology - also known as the scientific study of mushrooms. She's even off to a fungi conference in a month or so.

Day 110: Knitting designer. One of my work colleagues is the proud parent of a new baby boy. She's an owl researcher. So I decided to make a toy owl for the new arrival. Here's the first stages of the design process, a sketch and the start of the body.

Day 111: Shades of red. I have decided that I possibly own a few too many red jumpers and cardigans. This is the current batch drying inside having all been worn over the last few days. It hasn't exactly been conducive weather to drying them outside. My eldest daughter has been known to go shopping with me and when I point something out to her, say "it's very you Mum, but you already have a [insert clothing item name here] exactly like that!" I fear she may be right...

Day 112: Happy birthday little sis. My sister had her birthday last week and we mutually agreed it was time for me to make her something for a change. So meet this cool garter stitch scarf. It only took a week and it's soooo soft. The yarn is 80% wool, and 20% soy protein! (I know - do you wear it or eat it?)

Day 114: Check out how much those mushrooms have grown! Maybe they're mutant mushrooms looking to take over the planet.

Day 115: Productive use of a public holiday. You know that owl I was designing? Well here's the finished toy. He turned out just how I wanted him too.

Day 116: Lunch with my middle daughter. A quiet interlude after some essential odd jobs involving banks.

Day 117: Matching beanies. After the the near incident of the great beanie kidnap attempt over Easter, I made the eldest daughter one of her own to discourage future attempts at beanie theft from her brother. I think they need to work on their synchronised modelling skills though.

Project 365: Week 15

Week 15. Just your standard daily grind with a fun family Sunday day out with the kids.  Oh, and my resident Chef has been cooking all manner of delicious things.

Day 99: Twilight / Sunset in the car park at work. Some quiet evening marking in my office whilst the boy plays ninja. Looking out over the water tower. This stores the water for the water engineering lab.

Day 100: It's time for a garden progress update. Today they build an octagonal something or other. Yesterday my entertainment was watching burly men manhandle heavy rocks. The consensus is it may be a raised garden bed, but a water feature would be cool too. The other occupants of my office think that it is highly appropriate that they built an Octagon outside the maths / stats peoples' office!

Day 101: Home-made Tortellini. My better half has been flexing his culinary muscles as he has some time at home. These were like beef and parmensan meatballs wrapped in pasta. Amazing!

Day 102: Authentic Dutch croquettes. The ugly ducklings of the Dutch Food world. They look even worse before they are crumbed. Imagine if you will a giant tray of these in my fridge last night pre-crumbing. A tray of brownish long things. Yes, there were toilet humour jokes galore from the boys. However, a couple of slices of fresh bread, some exotic mustard (sun dried tomato and garlic today) and a few hot croquettes squished in the middle. Sheer heaven. Going to give some to my sister as it's her birthday today.

Day 103: It should always look just as neat from the back. I'm on such a knitting hot streak at the moment. This is going to be an owl hat for middle daughter's European Adventure. Brushing up on my skills at intarsia knitting. This is just one evening's work! I started it last night whilst watching the footy. At hat in just a weekend is an achievable dream.

Day104 : End of a day immersed in a weird, weird world. We went to Melbourne Supanova to catch up with our favourite Aussie Fantasy author Kylie Chan and get our hands on a pre release copy of Book 7 in her magnificent series. We saw the Hoff in passing (twice) but I was more exited by seeing his car Kitt. Watched random people parade past dressed as half the cast of Star Wars, the men of the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones and a barrage of Disney Villanesses. Had lunch next to a group of random Sailor Scouts and watched a live Cos Play chess game where pretty much the entire pawns of one side were Doctor Who in his various incarnations. Oh and Kylie signed all our books and we chatted about the new season of Doctor Who.

Day 105: New artwork for my walls (Slightly squished after a day of being carried around. Kylie signed this for us yesterday. At the top it says, "The Larkins Rock". Thanks Kylie. You rock too. Mutual fan club!

Project 365: Week 14

Non-teaching week. Mid Semester Break. The tail end of the Easter Holiday. School holidays for the boy. Life is running at a different pace this week. Work, but no classes. Catch up, marking and some focused educational web design. No getting up kids up early and dragging them to the bus. Oh, and a lot of high quality knitting time!

Missed a few photo ops this week too... Lazy enough that I forgot to get the camera out.... (So I wish to formally apologise to Tuesday 2nd April, Friday 5th April  and Monday 8th April 2013. I'm sorry I didn't recognise your highlights this week.)

Day 93: Road tripping with the better half. The reason might be prosaic - medical appointments in 'the Big Smoke', but it's nice to spend time together. Half a new beanie knitted in the car and a romantic lunch in a shopping centre food court. Hey after 20+ years of marriage, romance is where you find it!

Day 94: I think I inadvertently collect statistics textbooks. If I wanted to be known as a mad collector of some sort or other, it definitely wouldn't be for this.... The pile of new and current textbooks on the floor of my office. Today I reviewed a book for a publisher to help plan for the new edition.

Day 96: Look a breeding pair of slouchy beanies! I made the one on the left for the boy as an Easter present. Future doctor daughter was home over Easter and took a shine to the beanie. We did have to search her bag when she left to make sure she hadn't quietly taken it home with her. So I made an identical one for her this week.

Day 97: I gave in. I made the jacket a vest... It looks OK but I miss the dream of the cardigan that wasn't meant to be...

Project 365: Week 13

It's Easter = a small break from the craziness of everyday life. A time for a deep breath and quality lazy time with family.

I missed a day this week. Wednesday was frantically busy and while I saw a scene worthy of a photo, a series of planned burns along the side of a country road at twilight as I was on my way to a tutoring job, I was on a tight timeline and it was too dark to photograph effectively by the time I returned home. So you'll just have to imagine black scorched earth with piles of glowing coals like a giant devil's campfire.

Day 85: The boy has a maths SAC tomorrow. We've been frantically cramming. No, I've been helping him learning how to use mathematical mapping for transformations of equations. The husky puppet was helping.

Day 87: The next chapter in the continuing saga of the garden outside my window. I think it is morphing into a rock garden. I'm sure there's more to come. This was the last day before the Easter break so it will be interesting to see what it looks like when I get back.

Day 88: We picked that pumpkin. It was about 9 kg. Today was Good Friday. This is traditionally a Pyjama day spent watching the telethon for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday appeal. The resident chef made delicious home-made pumpkin (and odds and ends of leftover roast veggie) soup for our lunch. I did briefly consider posting a photo of the Pyjama party on the couch but decided against exposing my blog readers to that sight.

Day 89: Easter Saturday. Helping the boy pad up for a contact sparring session. Lacing up the chest guards makes me think of lacing up the back of a corset top like on a debutante or wedding dress. The big tough guys didn't appreciate me repeating this observation as I was tying up their laces. For the boy we have to lace as tight as we can go. For a few of the older guys, there almost isn't enough string left to tie a bow at the end (and they're wearing the largest size chest protection)!

Day 90: It's Easter morning. The traditional Easter Egg Hunt is on. Even though the children are now young adults, this tradition must be maintained. However, clearly chocolate for Easter breakfast still makes for hyperactivity. One of the kids when vetting this picture for blog worthiness claims that there is something Gollum-Like in my eldest daughter's regard of her cup of eggs. "My Precious!"

Day 91: Easter Monday at the footy at the MCG with 76,299 other people! Here are the two teams lined up for the National Anthem at the beginning of the game. Hawthorn vs. Geelong games are somewhat of a family Easter tradition. Once again Hawthorn stuck to tradition and got narrowly beaten by Geelong (7 points this time). The Geelong supporters in my family rubbed it in. It was still a great day even if I am an unhappy hawthorn supporter yet again.

Project 365: Week 12

Week 12 wasn't particularly memorable for any one aspect in particular. I had a full teaching load for the week but the classes seemed to be productive. I'm pretty satisfied that in most cases what I was trying to teach was getting through. It was also the week of meetings and public forums with massive consultation sessions going on at work for the proposed merger between our campus and another university. It's the second last week of school before the end of term for the Year 12 and everything seems to be coming up in an enormous rush with massive assessment tasks due for all his subjects either this week or next (and some of them are highly unusual).

Day 78: This is what happens in my place if you forget to close the back door at my place. The chickens come inside seeking love and affection. They do a very good job of cleaning up under the table and are happy to pose for photos but can be inclined to leave little unpleasant presents for you to clean up.

Day 79: This sign is on the inside of the toilet doors at work. It makes me laugh. And yes, all the laminate surfaces in the entire toilet block are that fetching shade of green. It should be immortalised as a shrine to late 70's architecture. I suspect that it is also rugged enough to survive a nuclear blast given that is still in serviceable condition approx 35 years after it was built. Apologies for the dodgy flash glare.

Day 80: OK this is getting ridiculous. Today they pulled to poles out (with great difficulty I may add). They are concrete capped top and bottom and filled with sand and therefore weigh a tonne. I think we can no longer refer to this space as the garden outside my window. It shall now be known as the construction site formerly known as a garden. I await further developments with interest.

Day 81: Pumpkin! Our veggie garden is almost at the end of its productive life this season. Apart from a few late tomatoes, there is only this massive pumpkin which is almost ready to pick. The only problem is: We didn't plant pumpkins! Why pumpkins grow in out veggie garden is one of life's great mysteries.

Day 82: Board breaking rig. The boy getting organised for his Year 12 Physics EPI (Extended Practical Investigation). He is investigating the amount of force required to break from one to four boards similar to the ones we use in taekwondo. All of this has to fit in the back of my car to go to school on Monday!

Day 83: Giant Mr Potato Head! We went to Farmworld, our local farm field day. It had over 700 stalls with everything from farm equipment to cows and alpacas and gourmet food, farm clothing and boots and information stalls for the posh boarding schools. We looked at how the government departments were interacting effectively with the public and new small cars with the middle daughter. I suspect the giant green machine Mr Potato Head is sitting on top of is a potato harvester.

Day 84: My car at the end of the day with the wreckage of a physics prac. Paving stones, a box a of broken boards, the level... Wait, that's where my bathroom scales got too!