Roxi Rabbit

My Roxi Rabbit doll is named for a pet rabbit I had years ago. She was an 'opal' mini rex and liked to chase the cats around the house. She would kick up her heels as she turned the corner.  I wish I had some pictures to show you, but she got sick very soon after we brought her home.

 
  It takes me about 9 hours to make one doll; which means I'm basically running a one woman sweat shop, but I really don't see people paying that much for a doll... cute as it may be.
   Most of the time is spent sewing, stuffing, and embroidering the bunny's face. It probably wouldn't take as long if I didn't obsess over the amount of stuffing and the placement of the eyes and nose; but, let's face it, that's not going to happen.

  I don't really know how or why, but every rabbit I make is slightly different. Not just in the way I embroider the face or the way I stuff it, I somehow end up knitting it a little differently each time.
The one in the middle is the first one I made, the prototype rabbit, aka my rabbit.
I sign each one with a green 'J'. Mom says I should number them, I might start doing that.



For some reason I can't make a pom-pom that won't fall apart when pull on it. I have to take a needle and white thread and sew through it repeatedly all the way around, before I sew it on.


 Buy one at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/118366145/roxi-rabbit   

   
   Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day! 

Easter Chicks

It took a while, but I finally figured out a pattern for hand knitted chicks. I wanted them to look like day old chicks, which pretty much look like a little ball on top of a bigger ball on stilts. I couldn't make the stilts, so I sewed little feet on them. I'm not sure how many people know this, but chicks have blue eye when they hatch. They turn yellow or brown after a couple of months.

   When I was knitting the second yellow chick I thought to myself "It would be cool to make one that looked like a Barred Rock or Australorp chick." Both are black with patches of cream. (I'm calling it a Barred rock chick, because surprisingly Australorps have more cream on them.)


 I've never seen a chicken with an orange beak and/or feet, but everybody's chicks have them so I thought I'd offer it. 

Some things I've learned while making the chicks:
  I stink at making eyes (I'm working on it) and color working in the round is hard. (But I still prefer it to making it flat and having to sew it up later.)
Below is the listing.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/127592485/hand-knitted-chicks?ref=shop_home_active

                  Happy Easter.  
 
                                 Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a Bat-tastic day!

Snakes and seeds

After a 2 week hiatus my Chinese New Year Snakes are back available for sale, and with a new color: black and gold.



I got the Eucalyptus and Ancho chile seeds I ordered from Johnny's seeds today.  Guess I'll be planting soon. This is my first time trying the grow Eucalyptus. It's an annual in places were the ground freezes, which means you can't come count on it coming back in spring, so I'll be keeping it in a pot and moving it in to the green house next winter, assuming it grows. I love the smell of Eucalyptus.

 My Mom loves Ancho peppers, also called Pablano peppers. They're the ones you're supposed to use for stuffed peppers. They can take the place of bell peppers or hot peppers in recipes. 

Hello Spring

It might be taking forever, but slowly we're getting the garden together. Despite the fact that almost none of the seeds are coming up. Probably because the cats keep walking on them. Every day we see cat foot prints directly were the seeds are; like the rows are really sidewalks for cats.
Yesterday Mom and I went to Lowe's, she finally broke done and bought some tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants.
  I planted foxglove seeds twice this year in February, well, three times if you count sowing directly into the garden and sewing seeds in planters separately. Nothing came up.
   When I saw a bunch of gigantic Foxgloves at Lowe's in the 50% off shelves I thought "How could I not buy at least one?"  They had them shoved into these shelves that weren't half as tall as the flower stalks and so when I picked the healthiest looking one that hadn't bloomed yet it was bent at pretty much a ninety degree angle. "'You'll have to stake it." Mom said. I nodded, I've heard of people having to stake foxgloves. I drenched the foxglove when we got home. Within an hour the top of it was almost pointing up. Today it looks like this.  Weird, huh?  No stake needed.

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!