FO - A Pair of Pachyderms, aka The E. Le Fante's

I'd like to introduce you to some new friends I made recently, Emma and Edmund La Fante. They're simply the sweetest friends anyone could have, and they never forget to bring their host a gift! They're the life of the social scene, both sparkling conversationalists. Themed parties are the current trend; although Edmund prefers more low key get-togethers, but always dresses up when his wife asks sweetly! Since it's her husband's favorite, Emma doesn't mind camping (too much!) and she's got quite the sweet tooth for s'mores. They both love taking long walks in the park under a full moon; *they're such a romantic pair!* Edmund loves picking up fresh flowers for Emma, and she adores him for his spontaneity.

I made these for my sister's baby shower, from Susan Anderson's pattern. I used Red Heart's Soft yarn in grey for Edmund and Lion Brand's Cotton Ease in berry for Emma; each was trimmed in contrast with the main color of it's opposite. I really like the pink I chose, it's a nice rosey pink and it goes very nicely with the grey.

This was my first successful DPN project… the legs worked up super fast, but I'll admit the bodies were more challenging. For whatever reason, I found it easier to knit two together than to knit into the front and back; so I ordered some new DPN's from Knit Picks. The new needles helped immensely. I used Eunny Jang's lighter circular beginning*, which worked out great. I didn't have to go back and thread the first bunch of stitches with a tapestry needle to close the bottom up, just give the tail end a good tug! Easy peasy!

I only wish the seaming was as easy, I procrastinated it until the last minute. It's not actually hard, but probably my least favorite part of knitting - so I try and avoid it as much as I can. At least I didn't have to weave in all of the ends, most of them were knotted off and then drawn through the bodies or heads of the elephants.

See Emma and Edmund on Ravelry! (Will only work for Ravelry members, but it's free!)

*It's at the end of the post, just scroll down until you see Lighter Circular Beginning.

More Cake Pops!

After weeks of worth, I must say I'm glad to have my sister's shower over with. I enjoyed working on it, but to be completely truthful, I should've given myself 3 days to prep and I only planned for 2. Two batches of chex mix, 2 1/2 dozen cake pops rolled, lollipopped, dipped, decorated and packaged, a store bought sheet cake (thank god!) and 2 dozen peach roses - it's all over. I even managed to not take pictures of my sister's present - a pair of pachyderms that also happened to be my first DPN project. Hopefully I'll be able to snap some pictures at her house of them!

Anyhoo, after it was all over, I had another 3 dozen cake pops to decorate for myself (as a bit of a reward.) Of course, I had to use my favorite combo of Tiffany blue and white for a few of them. I tried to do bows, but my candy melt was a bit too hot, and poured too messy to distinguish a nice bow from, oh well. I did also manage to decorate a few to match the ones I made for the shower* (although I'll admit I got lazy at 12:30AM the morning of the shower, and used only blue to decorate all of the 4 colors... instead of the awesome-color-coordination going on here.) You know, it's the blog world - of course I'm going to try and make it nicer. Don't we all? Now I'm paranoid it's just me!

*I used candy melts to match the colors in these Martha Stewart bags we used for the favors. Call it the perfectionist in me! Hehehehe.