Remember this sneak preview photo? Well the rest of the story can now be told.
What does one give a colleague as a going away gift who is fully capable of knitting himself anything one can think of as a gift? I have worked with this colleague for about five years and wanted to give him something unique and yet meaningful; something I spent personal time on as well. This colleague, let's call him Chris, knits beautiful things; another colleague wears a lovely cowl he knit for her. And I've seen scarves and hats he's done. I racked my brain trying to come up with something that meets all these requirements and then it hit me.
Chris is a good egg. He's taken on responsibility to see things through even though it wasn't necessarily in his job description. He's been willing to tackle tough situations, gave me ample warning when he saw things were about to go bad (not that I always heeded that warning) and added joy to the workplace. Chris has furthered his education allowing opportunities to open up for him. So he will be moving on up to a deserved big promotion soon.
This is what I made:
You may have seen an egg with bacon before here. This time I embellished the egg with a single crochet around the edge to make it look fried. Additionally I knit the bacon in a different colour that I think actually looks better than my first attempt. The patterns for both come from Susie John's 20 to Make: Knitted Fast Food. Oh, back to the good egg, I purchased the yellow plate (to match the yolk) and a plate holder at the local loonie store (dollar store) along with the red letters. Within a few hours the entire project, including the gluing of the egg and bacon to the plate, was complete.
The bacon and egg were blocked using a new technique, at least to me. It is called killing the yarn. This technique only works on synthetic yarns (which is what I use for knitted food). A very good steamer or steam iron and an ironing board or flat surface are the only required tools. One holds the steamer close to the yarn but never allows the iron to touch it. The heat from the steam seems to break down the yarn making it much softer and causing it to drape beautifully. It is the steam/killing technique that helped emphasize the crinkles in the bacon and made the egg white look so uniform. I'll have to remember to use this blocking method on more of my acrylic knitting because the end result is so improved.
Of course I read about this in one of the chat rooms I follow. One writer said: I often kill acrylic baby blankets, they morph into lovely exotic feeling fibers! No longer just acrylic! And the mums that receive them use them over and over because they do hold their new drape. (She seems to like the exclamation point. Me, I'm trying to cut back!)
Here's Chris with his gift:
This now completes gift #2. Warning #1 and #4 may be some time off. We'll see how daring I get.
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| Gift #2 |
What does one give a colleague as a going away gift who is fully capable of knitting himself anything one can think of as a gift? I have worked with this colleague for about five years and wanted to give him something unique and yet meaningful; something I spent personal time on as well. This colleague, let's call him Chris, knits beautiful things; another colleague wears a lovely cowl he knit for her. And I've seen scarves and hats he's done. I racked my brain trying to come up with something that meets all these requirements and then it hit me.
Chris is a good egg. He's taken on responsibility to see things through even though it wasn't necessarily in his job description. He's been willing to tackle tough situations, gave me ample warning when he saw things were about to go bad (not that I always heeded that warning) and added joy to the workplace. Chris has furthered his education allowing opportunities to open up for him. So he will be moving on up to a deserved big promotion soon.
This is what I made:
You may have seen an egg with bacon before here. This time I embellished the egg with a single crochet around the edge to make it look fried. Additionally I knit the bacon in a different colour that I think actually looks better than my first attempt. The patterns for both come from Susie John's 20 to Make: Knitted Fast Food. Oh, back to the good egg, I purchased the yellow plate (to match the yolk) and a plate holder at the local loonie store (dollar store) along with the red letters. Within a few hours the entire project, including the gluing of the egg and bacon to the plate, was complete.
The bacon and egg were blocked using a new technique, at least to me. It is called killing the yarn. This technique only works on synthetic yarns (which is what I use for knitted food). A very good steamer or steam iron and an ironing board or flat surface are the only required tools. One holds the steamer close to the yarn but never allows the iron to touch it. The heat from the steam seems to break down the yarn making it much softer and causing it to drape beautifully. It is the steam/killing technique that helped emphasize the crinkles in the bacon and made the egg white look so uniform. I'll have to remember to use this blocking method on more of my acrylic knitting because the end result is so improved.
Of course I read about this in one of the chat rooms I follow. One writer said: I often kill acrylic baby blankets, they morph into lovely exotic feeling fibers! No longer just acrylic! And the mums that receive them use them over and over because they do hold their new drape. (She seems to like the exclamation point. Me, I'm trying to cut back!)
Here's Chris with his gift:
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| Finally caught him not talking as I took the photo |
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