I really have no idea why I am compelled to crochet things like this. What sane person in their mid forties would pick up a crochet hook and some pink yarn and create an ipod cozy that looks like a pig? The answer is the same person who made a purple monkey ipod cozy last year. The insane part is that I crocheted them for myself and not as a gift for a small child. The pattern came from the book The Happy Hooker- Stitch and Bitch Crochet. I used sport weight cotton yarn instead of the worsted weight that the pattern called for, so I pretty much winged it and fit the ipod to the cozy as I went along.
Crocheting the ears was the trickiest part. There must have been a dozen little ears in various shapes and sizes strewn across my living room carpet by the time I figured out a pattern that I was happy with. Figuring out the shape of the ear was like working out a little geometry project. Since I happen to like math it was kind of fun trying to work out a shape that would wrap around the corner of the ipod, have a nice cupped shape to it and a little point at the tip of the ear. For the nose, I settled on two crocheted circles stacked on top of each other. One circle was too flat and I wanted the nose to stick out a bit farther. My knitting buddies Beth and Sue helped me select the right size of googly eyes for the piggy. I think the larger sized googly eyes bestows an appropriately insane look to the pig.
The screen cover on the back of the ipod cozy is made from heavy gauge vinyl. I punched holes around the edge of the vinyl with a Japanese hole punch. It's this wonderful little tool that punches lovely perfect holes in a variety of wee sizes. I use it mostly for paper and cardboard, but it worked beautifully on the vinyl. Unfortunately, it also worked beautifully on skin as my poor chopped up fingers can attest to. That little hole punching puppy is sharp and is not for those who are dexterously challenged.
Once the holes were punched in the vinyl and the Hello Kitty band aids were applied to my fingers, the project proceeded with no further bodily injuries.
My new little piggy will get her public debut tomorrow. Adrian and I are traveling to Hawaii for some fun in the sun. This little piggy that plays music will be my companion on the hideously long plane ride.
In further continuation with my obsession of knitting and crocheting wee things, I spent some time before Christmas perfecting a tiny top down raglan sweater pattern. Most of the sweaters that I knit for myself are top down raglans. I love how top down raglans fit, how they can be knit in the round and how easily customizable they are. Making one in miniature was just a simple of matter of knitting a tiny gauge swatch and doing the math. I found some lovely dk weight Jamieson tweed yarn in the half price bin at my local yarn shop that I thought would make perfect little sweaters. I am a big Harry Potter fan as are many of my friends and family so I thought it would be fun to create some wee Weasley sweater ornaments. For those of you who are 'non cosciente', the Weasley sweaters are the ones that Mrs. Weasley gave to Ron, Harry, Fred and George for Christmas in the first Harry Potter book. 
In the movie, the sweaters were lovingly hand knit by Mrs. Weasley in a nubbly tweed yarn and had each boys initial on it. I knit up a couple of sweaters in a variety of fingering weight sock yarn until I had the pattern tweaked. These are my first sweater samples:
As it turned out, I got so busy making other things for Christmas gifts that I only had time to make one sweater that I gave away. The rust colored Weasley sweater went to my friend Sue's daughter Andrea who is delightfully obsessed with Ron Weasley. The initial was embroidered on the front of the sweater with sock yarn .
I would love to make myself a full sized Weasley sweater. I'd knit it in a lovely dark plum donegal tweed yarn. But I would have to work it into my busy schedule of making lovely, frivolous things like crocheted acorns and piggy ipod cozies. I'd also like to knit up a stack of these little sweaters in variegated sock yarn to hang in my sewing room on small laundry line with wee clothespins.
