Smaller and smaller we go!

I've started the gloves! Having Ceri (WoollyMonster) doing miniature work as well is great encouragement. This is using 0.5mm needles with 1 strand of embroidery thread - there are approx. 30 stitches per inch. Since they're fingerless I'm going to cheat and pinch the fabric together between the fingers rather than make teeny individual bits, so the piece below is the pattern to follow. It's slow going - the thread is very slippery and the needles very bendy!
I've also been working on his sweater (he wears alot of clothes, this one!) I couldn't find a properly scaled verigated yarn I liked, so I bought a thicker brown embroidery cotton (original colour seen in the second pic) then dyed it with black and white acrylic ink.

I like how the colouring turned out, but it turns my hands gray when I knit it! No doing this on the bus. I'll probably coat it with a diluted matt glaze when it's done so it doesn't powder gray all over the set.And here's part of the sweater vest! He puts this on after waking up from falling asleep in his chair - a way to add character and incidental animation (hopefully!) Knitting's been great for giving me time to think over the next storyboards and really try to develop it fully.
And... can't film without a nice orderly set room! I've been spending time trying to get the spare room I work in to an 'everything in it's right place' mentality. It's coming along but slowly! Too much stuff.
Detail - paints, Sculpey and supplies.

Contracts are Signed!

Wednesday I headed down and signed the contracts for the artists fund. It's official! And just a little intimidating. I have until January 31, 2010, to have a completely finished .mov or beta sp tape submitted by 4:30pm. Storyboards are about 75% done, and character/set design are about 40%.
I should be finishing the vest in 1-2 more days, and will be making a sweater but with slightly larger needles (2mm) and only 1 strand of veragated yarn so it'll go much faster.
I can now order supplies, and start getting serious about this! Pictures and notes to follow!

I'll be working full time at my day job during this project, so it'll be a time crunch for sure! That said - I have a little unrelated animation planned to film tomorrow, as a fun celebration - hopefully find time for it and post it this weekend!

and a little bit more....

Mini-cables! This is 14 sts wide by 30 rows on 1.5mm needles and 6 strands embroidery cotton.


After a day of browsing sweater styles I decided Henry's sweater needed a little something extra. I decided on a simple cable stitch after realizing my dreams of grandeur and complicated plans...didn't translate as well. On a larger scale this stitch would be much easier to recognize! So simple it is.
This is a basic cable stitch, for any of the knitters out there:
Rows 1,3,5: K4, P6, K4
Rows 2,4: P4, K6, P4
Row 6: P4, slip 3 onto cable needle, K3, K3 from cable needle, P4

It's a little too big for the scale of the sweater, so I'm going to drop the cable stitching down from 6 sts to 4, and add a 1 st column on either side to switch the sweater back to the good side of the stocking stitch for the rest. There'll be two twists, approx. where suspenders would be. For colour I'm thinking a veriagated brown/grey cotton - should be able to pick some up this weeekend!

On other animated news I am now a cheerful owner of an airbrush (Paasche Millenium) Anyone have favourite compressors? I'm now joining the overwhelmed masses at choosing one just right.