Mr. Pigeon's Present

Not even woolly pigeons can escape the dodgy Christmas jumper...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

That was how Salamanca looked just before I left it. I trained to Madrid (nice place to visit), stayed the night in Alcalá and flew to Edinburgh on Saturday. Can you guess from the photo below who was with me on the plane?

We attracted some strange looks from other passengers!

I came home to a lovely parcel containing the "Linus" pincushion I ordered from (the softie award-winning!) squirrelmomma. I can't believe how perfect the stitching is and it even came in a little pink bag.

That's all for now but check back soon for pictures of Mr.Pigeon's Christmas present :)

2 more sleeps :)

Two more nights and I'll be back on British soil and will hopefully have lots of exciting things to show you. Tonight after I have done a bit of packing I have the exciting job of attaching wings and feet to 7 pigeons so that when I get home all I have to do is sew on the eyes and make their little bags and passports. 5 of the 7 pigeons already have homes to go to so there will be two appearing on Etsy very shortly.

This also means that for the next two weeks I will have a good internet connection and don't have to post at 8am to be able to include photos :D

Order:

It's cold and grey outside so instead of more grey pigeons have some colour...

Jake the Woollysaurus

Coco the Clownfish

Tortoise

This was part of an order for somebody at 'work' (I say 'work' as I don't do much besides drink tea and eat cake and don't get paid either) who is going to give them to the children she looks after as presents. The fish and dinosaur are my own patterns but I can't take credit for the tortoise. I bought his pattern from Etsy a while ago. I also made another hen but ufortunately the photos of her are blurry. Never mind, I'm sure you've had enough bird-related posts :D

Pigeons in waiting

Here they are 007 - 016 sitting on my shelf with their numbers tied around their necks so I know which is which. Most of them are still waiting for eyes, beaks, wings and feet.

I should point out that 009 is a knitted pigeon. I tried to adapt the crochet pattern for knitting and the result is an even more skittle-like bird.

011 is "una paloma blanca" and those of you who have bothered to count may have realised that one is missing. "Where is 012?" I hear you cry.

He's at the rugby club bar...

PS: apologies for the dull photos- I blame winter.

Pigeons of the World...

As the third little hen flapped her woolly wings and flew the nest yesterday (i.e. was handed over to her new Spanish owner) a strange thought occurred to me as strange thoughts often do. Do all pigeons (or all hens/ flamingos) speak the same pigeon (or hen or flamingo) language? For example would a German town pigeon be able to understand a British one?

Here is my conclusion...
Click here or on the picture itself for a better look :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

This is his present - his pigeon counterpart. Mr.Pigeon 012 is wearing a blue striped Rugby Shirt (with the number 50 on the back), holding a little rugby ball and comes with a little crocheted pint. As I lost my small hook he came out chunkier than the others but that's quite appropriate for a rugby pidge. The only thing I couldn't do was crochet bruises or a black eye on.


I strongly discourage anybody from attempting to handsew small garments for spherical objects- not easy!



The card follows a very similar theme :) There are 50 birds for 50 years. The one I posted was coloured in but the photos weren't great so here it is in black and white...




A larger image can be found on Flickr here if you want to count them all.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOKE and HAPPY ADVENT too!

Poor Mr.Pigeon

Poor Mr. Pigeon has been sulking in the corner muttering about migration all afternoon. Apparently he hasn't taken too well to his hen friend's popularity. He emerged from my bag at work this morning to cries of "I prefer the hen" and "No, the hen's much better" and not even his special Christmas hat managed to persuade them otherwise.

The little hens on the other hand have been doing very well for themselves -there's even a small waiting list for them :)

First day of advent (and therefore daily chocolate) tomorrow! YEY!

Hasta la vista, amiga gallina!

This morning (after taking a few photos) I said goodbye to my second chicken (...or hen- I never know the difference) as she was wrapped up as a birthday present and handed over to start her new life in Spain.

Her tag says "Hola! Me llamo ________. Soy to amiga gallina. Cuídame bien, por favor" or "Hello! My name is ________. I am your hen friend. Please take good care of me"

She's been called "Caponata" after the Big Bird-like hen in Spanish Sesame Street. It's also the name of a greek dish of some sort but don't worry, she should be nice and safe- the meat of choice here is pork (...but with omelette being a national favourite she'll have a lot of work to do...)

Country Christmas Crafts

Being so far away from your sewing machine, fabrics, fancy wool and kitchen is hard enough without your mother sending these lovely photos of the Busy Bees 'open house' day she went to...


Busy Bees is in Co. Durham and we went there about 3 years ago to do a little pre-Christmas craft workshop (which is what the lady mainly does) in her craft shed. There are american folk art/ country style painting, sewing and ...er...other workshops and of course most importantly tea and cake is included :D

Mmmmmmmm.

This was my attempt at a Christmassy "pail". It's a very easy pattern and I've since adapted it to make a pail with sheep on and a pail in the same fabric as the cushions in my room. Very addictive.

Aquatic heroes and felt-bots

Have you ever wondered what to buy your fish for Christmas? No, me neither but I reckon any fish would love ACTION SHRIMP...

...don't ask - the way my brain works even scares me sometimes!

In other news: last week I found "Women's Secret" (a name which is supposed to sound classy and sophisticated as it's in English but makes me giggle every time I see it) in Salamanca and couldn't resist the robots range which all comes with little felt robot badges attached. Can't wait to get home to start making my own version :D

Pidges and Puds

The lovely Val from DottyCookie very kindly posted the pattern for her fab Christmas Pudding patch and I couldn't wait to try it. Of course, not having an iron my knitting rolled up so I solved the problem by making two patches, sewing them together, stuffing them and making a plump pudding instead. It was very quick to make and it was the perfect size for....yes, you guessed it...

But Mr. Pigeon couldn't eat a whole woolly pudding all by himself...

Hat-tastic

When I woke up to find the grape juice on my window sill covered with frost I decided it was time to crochet something to keep away the cold. I also just happened to have watched Legally Blonde for the somethingteenth time and wanted to make myself a crocheted hat with a flower similar to the one in the film. This is the result...

The hat (which isn't pointy- it's folded in half) was surpisingly quick and easy to make but the scarf took aaaaaaages. (I watched Sweet Home Alabama whilst making the scarf to keep myself entertained - predictable but a good film to crochet to).

They're both my own pattern so if you would like to make your own just e-mail me and I'll type up the instructions which are currently scribbled on the corner of my German homework.

An early Christmas present from your feathered friend...

Yes, this little bird is so excited by his new knitted santa hat that he wants to share the pattern with the world.

If you don't own a pigeon then don't worry! These could be made for little dolls, used as tree decorations, as christmas egg-warmers etc. The diameter of the hat is about 3.5-4cm but you can easily make bigger hats by using larger needles or casting on more stitches at the beginning.

Mr. Pigeon's Christmas Hat Pattern

Using 3mm knitting needles cast on 22 stitches with white yarn.


Garter stitch 2 rows (that's normal knitting)


Change to red yarn and from this point work in stocking stitch (SS = knit one row, purl one row) throughout, starting with a knit row.


SS 6 rows
K1, k2tog, k16, k2tog, k1
purl
K1, k2tog, k14, k2tog, k1
purl
K1, k2tog, k12, k2tog, k1
purl...


You may have spotted a pattern! Continue in this way (decreasing at each end of every knit row) until you are left with 4 stitches. Cut the yarn leaving about 15cm. Thread through a needle and draw up the remaining 4 stitches tightly.



I then folded the had in half lengthways and used mattress stitch to join the two edges. My glamourous assisstant is demonstrating the nice neat seam...

To make the pompom wrap white yarn around two of your fingers lots and lots of times then tie in the middle with another piece of white yarn. Cut through the loops and trim until it looks like a real pompom. Then sew it onto the top of your santa hat.

Ta-dah! It's as easy as that.

Gocco gocco gocco gocco....

Eeeeeeeeeeeee! The excitement is setting in. I've just ordered my own Christmas present online- this print gocco machine thingy and can't wait. I've always wanted to make my own stationery. It's torture to know that it'll be sitting at home and that I can't open it until the 25th.

If you've never heard of a gocco here are some links to some pretty amazing gocco-printed goodness:

• The Gocco Pool on Flickr
• wonting.nyc etsy shop
• The Small Object Gocco tutorial

I'll be spending the next 45 days coming up with ideas for things to print with it...

Cardtastic

Yes, it's a card. Try not to get too excited.

I needed to make a card and couldn't resist the colours on this paper. Then I decided that it looked nice on my bookshelf next to Miss Hennypenny (who coordinates with it) and kept it for decorative purposes instead. That happens with a surprising number of things I make :D

Something fishy...

It's a crocheted mobile...
I'm going to put some beads on the string in between the fish/jellyfish to make it more interesting but so far haven't had any luck finding any.

Mr. Pigeon's Guide to Spain 2

Today Mr.Pigeon looks at what Spaniards do in their spare time...

A Woolly Treat

I've been having fun with a french knitting thingy and some beads... It would make a nice badge. Mmmmm...if only it was real.

Sidekick

Mr. Pigeon 007 was missing something.

Just like his idol 007 James Bond Mr. Pigeon had a classy bow tie, was well-travelled, popular with the ladies and had a licence to trill but unlike Mr. Bond, Mr. Pigeon had no glamorous secretary. This all changed with the arrival of Miss. Hennypenny...




(That's a top-secret MI6 super computer in the background as well as an exploding lip balm and missile disguised as a rubber)

Cupcakes and Castles

Cupcakes For Clara (one of my "lovely places to visit") has two lovely little badges to dowload from the blog. As there's a reward for being pictured wearing them in public, Mr Pigeon 007 and I embraced the challenge. Here we are in Segovia wearing our Cupcakes For Clara badges with pride. Incidentally, the alcázar in the background inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle.

Mr Pigeon's Guide to Spain

As you may know I am living in Spain until the end of January. To fill the gaping void left by my sewing machine and wool supply (both still at home) I've turned to doodling.
Allow me to present part one of Mr. Pigeon's online illustrated guide to Spain. Unfortunately I couldn't make it large enough to read but you can make it bigger by clicking on it and selecting "all sizes" on the flikr toolbar...

Mr Pigeon's Guide to Spain
Originally uploaded by Charlie P : )

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