Hosta and Froggy

Have I introduced this little monster? No?

How about this character?

No, not Froggy either?

Hmmm, it seems I've been a little remiss lately, working away on projects but then forgetting to blog about them after they are completed. Both had their debut as Show and Tell at guild meetings, but then got tucked away and forgotten.

This little handspun one-eyed "Imaginarium Monster" was completed in April. She was crocheted to fulfill a challenge for the guild's spin-in coming up this fall. Last year each person who came to the spin-in was given a skein of yarn from a former guild member's estate and asked to "do something" with it for the following year. Mine was a skein of rather scratchy natural coloured handspun.

The yarn was too coarse for anything that might be worn close to the skin, and in it's natural colour was rather uninspiring, so it sat forlornly wondering if I would attend the Spin-In without it. Then one day while overdyeing a shawl with black dye I decided to exhaust the extra dye in the pot by throwing the unloved estate-challenge skein in to sop up what remained. The skein turned out a satisfactory charcoal colour. That over-dyed estate-challenge skein made it most of the way through the pattern but I had to supplement with my own handspun yarn to complete the arms and leaf-hands. I look forward to bringing "Hosta" to the Spin-In.

This little guy some of you might recognize as he seems to be popping up all over the internet in various forms. He is from a pattern by Claire Garland called simply, "Frog". I've seen some renditions of the finished frog selling for US-$125! I initially thought that that seemed a lot for such a small project. I thought perhaps I'd make a half dozen or so to sell at the Christmas Craft Market. 🤣

Um -- NO. Make that a HELL NO! Way way too fiddly and too much work for me to make over and over again. No fear of there being a plague of frogs coming off MY needles! And after all those shaping decreases and increases there is no way I am going to cover up all that work with a little handknit sweater like I see many of the frogs wearing.

I've got a couple more finished projects to show, but they can wait for another day.