What I've been up to in that elusive free time

So, while I haven't had an enormous amount of free time, the weekends do present themselves with enough for some knitting.

A blog that I follow around here: Rebecca Danger- led me to find some of the cutest patterns in her Etsy store. I've had these for way too long now, to not have casted on sooner. But I'm glad I got around to making them.

The first one I made was the orange and yellow striped creature on the right and her baby the yellow creature in the center. Daphne and Delilah. This one pattern alone was what caused me to search Rebecca Danger's Etsy page for the other patterns.

I of course made both of them wrong- because I didn't use the super easy, but at the time-not-known-to-me magic loop method. So I used DPN's instead...I sucked at the top closure. But at least they look related.

Daphne has a pocket that Delilah fits into, and it's oh so cute.

It took me about 2 weeks to get them both completed- but that's with minimal time to work on them both. I won't be using the DPN's for any other monsters, because the ladder effect was rediculous, and I thought I had moved past creating ladders with the DPN's (if you have no idea what any of that meant, I'm sorry...it's knitting. I'm a little crazy about my knitting)

Sammie The Sock Monster was of course the next choice to make. I have a friend who really likes socks, and as soon as I saw this pattern I had to make it for her. I'm thinking of making another pair of socks for Sammie, just because I don't like the roll at the top of the socks. I learned a new cast-on method and decided that they must be re-done. I learned and used the super easy-as-pie magic loop method of knitting, and was sad when the patterned called for DPNs for the arms and legs...magic loop is so much better!

That's all I've been working on (well minus a tattoo design). No it's not drawings, but I hope to get back to that soon. So I can have something festive to show you. Hope this tides you over until that time comes. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Red Weenie Dogs for the Win!!!

Does this dog look like it's having fun, or what? It's all smiles! Although after having just stepped outside for a few minutes I realize this look could also be because of the heat. And it would be water splashing around it instead of grass blades. Does someone have a portable air conditioner that I can hang around my neck?

Anyway, I'm not sure what this dog's name is, I snagged it from Proxy's owner's facebook page. I don't think it's her dog, but one of her family members, maybe?

I like this dog because it's a red dapple weenie-dog. I used to have a short haired version of a dog like this- and it made me smile to see such a happy weenie dog sprawled out in the grass...mine was a bit too fiesty to ever enjoy the grass...although she might have enjoyed barking at anything and everything- I sure didn't, but she might have.

Ok, enough of the walk thru memory lane. I hope Shell is ok that I drew another picture from her cute supply of dog pics. I couldn't help myself- I may need a 12 step program to prevent the further drawings of people pictures without permission (hey, at least I personally know these people that I'm drawing their pictures for...I'm not stealing copyrighted images.)

This one is on 8.5" x 11" printer paper- as you can kind of see, it's askew/off center, I liked the placement of the dog in the original photo, so I kept it with the drawing. I used HB, B, 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils. I started this a few weeks ago when I had 10 seconds to spare at work...I finished it this morning while I had a pretty decent chunk of time to myself.

More drawings to come? We shall see...

Pelicans

I finally caught a break and had a few minutes at work yesterday to complete this drawing for one of my co-workers. She has a thing for Pelicans and really wanted a drawing of them.
With the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf, I found it very fitting, sort of like a tribute to the Pelicans, since all I have been seeing on the news lately are oil covered birds. Makes me want to grab a big box full of bottles of Dawn hand soap and make a trip south to help out.

This is on 8.5" x 11" printer paper, using 4B, 2B, B, and HB pencils. I've been "working" on this for the last 3 weeks, but total time only took about 3 hours to complete.

Hopefully I'll have some more time today to work on a tattoo design I've been working on for over a month. It's really hard to only have a few hours after work to be creative, I'm really glad I got some free time during work hours yesterday.