Edie - My Eighth Elephant Rug

Meet Edie!  

She was created for a very special little girl who is scheduled to arrive in October.  I have to admit, I was a little rushed to finish her.  I needed her ready for the baby shower on Saturday and I was up late on Friday adding the finishing touches.  The procrastinator in me was showing.  I try really hard to stay organized and on task, but sometimes it is just too much and my brain convinces itself there is plenty of time. (There is never plenty of time!)

My friend, Gina, is the baby's grandmother.  When we found out Aubree's nursery would have an elephant theme, we knew we couldn't go wrong! It does seem to be my specialty after all.  I was a little nervous because I had just seen a post from the designer of the pattern regarding a change.  I almost thought I should stick with the original design.  Why change something that was already working?  But, I had faith in Ira Rott!  I have been using her patterns for awhile now, and she never ceases to amaze me.  The changes wouldn't even be noticed by the average person.  They were just tweaks to make the flow of the pattern better.

As the present was unwrapped, I heard the oh's and ah's from the guests.  It always makes me feel good to hear the pleasant surprises and amazement.  I guess I just don't see it as well as everyone else. Don't get me wrong, I know they are beautiful creations.  I just tend to pick apart my work and I will always notice the little mistakes.  Okay, okay I am working on changing my outlook.  The mistakes give them "character".

Congratulations to the Cole and Walker families!  I can't wait for Miss Aubree to arrive!

I'm not sure what my next big project will be, but be assured, you will hear from me again soon!

RR

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Naming my Rugs

Did you ever wonder why I name my rugs?  The answer is pretty simple.  They seemed to be such a big hit and I knew I would be making several.  I didn't want to loose track and I didn't want to name them after the recipients.  Sometimes, I don't know who is receiving them.  Some of the names bare a slight resemblance to their intended.  I just didn't want to name them after anyone in particular. They really are very large projects and I wanted to be able to remember each one individually. Projects that takes days or weeks to complete are always memorable, but naming them gives them character!

After realizing I had hundreds of pictures, I knew that naming them helped.  Now, if I am looking for pictures for an exact elephant, I can remember details like eye placement and bow colors to help determine which is which.  They do seem to run together some days, but I can usually figure out which one I am looking for fairly quickly.  I am hoping to keep this blog going to make sure each one is documented thoroughly.

As always, I hope you enjoy following these projects.  If you would like to look back at any of the previous rugs, you can click the links below the pictures.

Orchid

Busy Bee

Ellie

Horton

Lissa

Bright Eyes

Telly

Eloise

Edie

Thank you for visiting, I hope to see you soon!
RR

Eloise - My Seventh Elephant Rug

This is a very late post. Eloise was finished 10 months ago.  I purposefully avoided posting anything about her because she was a gift for my cousin.  When my Aunt asked me to make one, I was so excited, but if anyone in the family would have liked or shared the post, my cousin might have seen it.  I just couldn't risk it.  It has happened to me before on the Owl rug, Bright Eyes.  Then, life happened and I forgot to post her!

Oops!  I forgot to crop out the shoe!

As I love to point out, this is a pattern that was designed and written by Ira Rott.  She is one of my favorite designers.  Her patterns are so well written and easy to follow.  I have since purchased several other patterns from her, but haven't had time to try them all.  The owl and the elephant are the most demanded by far!  Ira pays very close attention to her customers.  She has just revised the pattern and I can't wait to work it up for my next customer.

I will see you all in another week or so when I post the elephant that is currently on the hook.

RR

Telly - My Sixth Elephant

Mr. Telly was a trying fellow.  He wasn't any more difficult than the others, I just couldn't make myself work on him non-stop.  I had to walk away and do something else every once in awhile.

Telly was commissioned by a fellow Etsy user that wanted him for her son's nursery.  She had found someone else's posting, but I don't think that shop had enough time to do a special order for her.  She contacted me from my posting for Horton.  She wanted him to be lighter than my other elephants.  I found the light grey yarn on another website and sent her a picture of a swatch of the yarn.  She said it was great!  Almost immediately I received her order and payment.  Her only request was the lighter grey yarn and try to do the eyes as close to the example as possible.  So, I told her I would get the yarn and start on him right away.  Well, who knew that a standard grey yarn from a popular company would be so hard to find!  None of my craft stores carried it and I was too scared to try another color because I had sent her a picture of the yarn and she approved.  The defeated shopper that I was, went home yarnless. (I know, it's not a word!)  I jumped online and ordered it from Amazon and it was delivered two days later.  I was so mad at myself because I felt I could be almost done with it by then.  My buyer was not upset in the least.  She knew it was going to take some time and she wasn't in a hurry.

Here is the picture that she sent me to work from:

I worked on him on and off for a week and a half and he was finally finished.  I had just put on the finishing touches and took my final picture.  I then opened her original picture to make my final comparisons to see if something needed to be changed.....I almost lost it.  The eyes were so WRONG!!!  They were huge in comparison!  I panicked and send her a picture cautiously asked what she thought and told her that the eyes would not be very hard to change out.  (It really wasn't that big of a deal to change them, I was just so irritated at myself that I could get to this point without noticing the difference.)

Here are the pictures of Telly:

As you can see, the eyes are huge.  I do know how I messed up, I just can't believe I didn't notice.

Well, her response was an amazing "I like yours better!!  I think the eyes are adorable!!"

Would you just look at those extra exclamation points!?!  I was over the moon happy!  She liked it, she really liked it.

She is my first real sale on Etsy!  I wanted her to be beyond happy with Mr. Telly!  He is going out in the mail today. Here's hoping for a great review!

My next project is....surprise!  Another elephant!  I will be working on a few smaller projects while I am working on her.  So, who knows what my next post will be.  I have a few things in the works that you are all just going to LOVE!

RR

Bright Eyes - My First Retro Owl Rug

After I finished my fourth elephant, I created a Facebook page to showcase some of my work.  My sister commented that she is looking for an owl for a baby shower.  I showed her this pattern from Ira Rott Designs and she loved it.  I had free reign on the color pattern, it just needed to be grey, white and yellow.  I initially intended on more yellow around the ruffles, but was quickly running out of that color.  So I improvised and made the ruffles a solid grey instead.  I mean, who was going to tell me it was wrong!?! LOL!

So here I am introducing you all to Bright Eyes!  She is very far from perfect.  I just didn't have the time, or yarn, to do a test run on her.  So, don't look too closely.  As I was photographing her, I also realized how hard it is to take a decent picture in my house.  There is just not enough light to give the colors any justice.  I tried to lighten it up a bit in the picture settings, but it just messes up other colors.  At some point, I may have to invest in some better lighting.  But for now, you get the idea.  It wasn't as noticeable on the elephants.  They always looked a shade or two darker than they really are, but for a solid color, it wasn't so bad.








My next project will be another elephant. I have received a request from my first paying customer that is not friend or family.  Initially, I was not going to do custom orders for the elephants, but she really wanted one in a lighter grey color.  So, after some discussion and planning, I am going to do it. The yarn had to be ordered, so I won't be able to start on it until it gets here on Thursday. (Who knew I wouldn't be able to find light grey in a store?!?)  It will be my weekend project and I will post pictures as soon as it is finished.

Lissa - My Fifth Elephant Rug

Lissa makes me so happy!  I made her as a birthday gift for my 15 year old Godchild, Melissa.  Note the name similarity.

She is now sitting happily in Melissa's room.  You may notice that I skipped out on the eyebrows on this one.  It is a part of this pattern that I struggle with most of all.  But, I don't think she needs them. I probably won't always leave them off, but for now, they drive me crazy.  If you look close, you will see her ears are a little crooked.  I know, I know, you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out, but these little mishaps are what I look for to make each one better.  I know they will never be perfect, but I try to improve on each one.

My next project is not going to be an elephant, but you just wait, you will love it just as much!

I would just like to add, one more time how much I love the patterns from Ira Rott Designs.  If you like to do knit or crochet, you should really check her out.

My next project is one of her projects, I can't wait to show it to you!

Horton - My Fourth Elephant Rug

Horton hears a.....Oh, nevermind. He is just my inspiration for naming my first male elephant. Everyone meet Horton!  He is a playful looking little guy with lots of personality.  He is my favorite...so far!

I am also starting to realize just how much personality you can put into these elephants.  Just by moving their eyes around a little, you can create a completely different emotion.  Horton feels a little solemn with his gaze.  Don't worry, he is a happy little guy, he just knows how to wrap you around his tusks with a simple look.

He is currently listed as sold on Etsy, but he will soon be back.  He is just in a holding pattern until his replacement is finished.  Keep an eye out in my shop, or contact me directly if you would like to purchase him.  Click this link if you would like to browse my shop:  RitzyRicki