Saturday, November 2, 2013

Armadillo Race

I've been concentrating so hard on knitting for Christmas that I completely forgot about other knits that are due sooner.
Well, okay... maybe I didn't forget about them.
Maybe I've been casually ignoring them.
Because I'm modifying how the entire project is knit.
I'm talking here about the lovely little Milo Armadillo, which is due in exactly two weeks and one day when my very preggers friend Sarah has her baby shower.
Milo was last seen being used to torture the cats of the household, much to the amusement of Scott and I.

 We have not regrets regarding that situation (don't worry, no Alberts or Maebys were physically harmed during their humiliation).
I realized how close the deadline was two nights ago, and pulled out the project and the pattern to assess the situation. Luckily, I'm a stuffed-animal knitting machine when it comes to babies, and immediately set about sewing up and stuffing the head and picking up the ears while loosely following the idea of the pattern (and taking notes on my own modifications).
Last night, between handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and keeping one eye on The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Sixth Sense (my Halloween movies of choice this year), I cast on, knit, stuffed, and closed the body of Milo.

The body was one of the bigger hurdles (literally), so this weekend I'm hopeful to punch out the tail and the legs.  The only part of the Milo that may actually slow me down is his shell.  Here's the pattern page for it:

The shell is knit flat and sewed on to Milo's back, with additional stuffing added underneath to give him even more squishy goodness.  I'm going to use a bunch of scrap yarn I have laying around, so the colors may not match exactly, but there is a bit of embroidery involved for the shell.  I've already accepted that next weekend I'll probably have to deal with that lovely aspect of this project, especially since Milo has to be finished and wrapped before I head to the cities on Friday 15th.
Plenty of time. :)
In fact, between grading papers and finishing Milo, perhaps I'll even have to to work on Scott's Dude Sweater, which I may have promised to have finished by Thanksgiving so he could wear it to those festivities...
Even though that probably won't happen, since I have only the back and most of one front done.
Though Thanksgiving is still a month away...
But I do have a Milo to finish...
Hmmm... maybe there's time...
::glances at giant pile of papers to grade::
We'll see how this goes.  I might have to buy more coffee. And sleep less.

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