Hermit Crab Costume

For previous Halloweens, I've basically chosen Silas' costume for him. But this year, he knew what he wanted to be months in advance: a hermit crab. So, I got to work, made felted claws which are really just elongated and pointier mittens, and then crafted a hat with googly eyes.
There wasn't really a lot on Ravelry or the Internet to go on in terms of patterns, particularly for the hat, so I made it up as I went along. I had all the yarn in my stash already (brown sheep lambs pride), so it was also a low cost costume.

The costume was a joint effort with my husband. He took a bike helmet (same one we used to turn Silas into a turtle his first Halloween) , and used papier mache to sculpt it into the shell you see below.
This last picture was taken weeks before Halloween, when I had just finished his mitts and hat. He was very excited to be a hermit crab and would grab my hand and gently pinch it. "See mommy, I'm a nice crab!" Yes indeed.

In costume

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For those of you who don't read my other, more frequently updated blog, here are a few pictures of Silas in his Halloween costume, featuring the digger sweater I knit and the bulldozer his dad made. Both the sweater and the bulldozer will get plenty of post-Halloween use :)

Other than the whole Halloween thing, I've been knitting and felting little trees like mad. I need to have 24 completed by December 1st and I'm well on my way. I'll try to include a post with pictures of that project soon.

Big Digger for a Little Boy

With just over a month to spare, I've finished the knitted portion of Silas' Halloween costume. He really could not wait for this to be finished. I completed it last Wednesday night after he'd gone to sleep, then slipped it into my bag so that I could show it to my friends at work the next day. In the morning, Silas got up, found my bag, took it out and said, "I want to wear it!" And so, he wore it that day and also on Saturday and Sunday, when dh and I took him out and about for a couple of photoshoots. We went to the farmers market and then down to the waterfront to see the boats. I also could not resist taking pictures of him wearing a front-end loader while he sat on a front-end loader (he's got permission from the owner to "drive" it whenever he wants).

This was a very rewarding project. I used Knit Picks Cotlin yarn and liked it very much. It makes the perfect sweater for our cool but certainly not cold fall days. Lucinda Guy did a wonderful job on the digger motif. What machine-obsessed little boy wouldn't want this sweater? Can't you feel the joy?:

Big Digger, or Halloween, here we come!

Like many toddlers, Silas thinks that big construction vehicles like diggers and bulldozers are the coolest things ever. He is pretty excited for the costume I've got planned for Halloween 09. This sweater, from the fabulous Lucinda Guy's Handknits for Kids, is perfect for what Silas and I are envisioning! Silas can't wait for this sweater to be completed. He keeps opening the book and asking for the bulldozer page. He’ll then spend a good deal of time staring at the picture. He has asked me several times if he could help me make it because he wanted it to be done right away, and one day he even grabbed the needles while I was working on it and said "I want to help."

I started making this at the end of August. I wanted to give myself a big cushion of time in order to avoid scrambling to finish in time. Not necessary. It's knitting up so quickly, and now that I'm past the digger motif, it will be easy breezy from here on out. Not looking forward to the seaming, but I'll live.