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Wellcome to my blog

My name is Martina Staniek, and I make OOAK (One Of A Kind) Teddy Bears and other soft sculptures.
I also knit and crochet - i always on the search for those very diffrent and fantastic pattern.
Last year i learned to Spin, and now i also create wonderfull and unique yarn.

I would like to introduce to you my creations and keep you updated with other happenings which are important to me.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Brown cabled cardigan

 

and one more of my cardigans with hat

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Yellow cabled cardigan

 

also an older work of mine from 2010
at first it had a normal collar, but i always had a cold neck, so i made a new collar :D

gelbe jackegelbezopfjackeneuerkragen

White cabled Cardigan with a huge Scarf

 

my first knitting in Germany, sadly i used acryl yarn, i need to redo this one day :D
and the scarf is a few numbers to bit, blocked its 55cm and 3 meters long

weisse jackeweisser schal

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Felted bunny - a new felting project - part 1

 

yesterday and today i was sewing on curtains, i finished 2 of 3 windows, so still 2 more to go tomorrow.
i will show you some pictures when they hang in front of the windows :)
Then i started to work on a bunny today, because the need to do some felting became urgent.
Its the instructions from this blog here : http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Futichka.livejournal.com%2F116035.html

first the original bunny which i try to copy

and here the bunny i got from it :)

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Click the links to follow the instructions

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Monday, December 26, 2011

Updated the FREE STUFF section of the Blog

 

I updated the Free Stuff section of the blog

I think i listed now all the important links i had in my bookmarks.

There is a lot of instructions and shops in German and from Germany, but that’s because i live here :)

If you feel there is a link missing which HAS to be there … please feel free and send me a Mail.
you find a comment Box on my Homepage.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS - - - My shoulder still needs a break

Because my shoulder and elbow really hurt the last couple of days, with throbbing pain in the shoulder on Thursday, I ordered myself some break from felting, sewing and knitting. (and housework :D )
But i was doing something on my blog :D
On the right you can see a new Link : Instructions - Felting instructions -German and English ….
here i share my well hidden bookmark treasures with you.
I will add there more and more as i feel like it.
On the plan are Teddy bear instruction links, free pattern and Resources.
It is a lot of work to go through my bookmarks, i think i got thousands  - and work out what i will need and what is useless.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Mini tests are done

 

And i am not really happy with them.

Here with different eye sizes, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mm.

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Because I got a lot of 6mm eyes, but just 1 pair each of 3, 4 and 5 mm … the bear got 6mm eyes :D
The teddy is 5,8 cm tall. I don’t think i can go smaller without going crazy over it.

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And i really dislike his profile …
The middle seam on the lower side needs to be adjusted, but i have no idea how to do such things :(

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I did a bit of adjustment to the first try, because it was way to flat.
It is better now, but not like i want it.
I would like to have the top nearly straight and the bottom part more curved.
Any help from anybody ? :D

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On the plus side of this teddy  - you can fit the parts in all the left overs from other bears and don’t have much to throw away :D

Monday, December 19, 2011

Mini bear tests and a knitted cardigan

 

I didn’t forget about you :)

I just didn’t do anything yesterday …. we were at the restaurant over the street and had a lovely Christmas dinner with my mans family.

I had steak with potatoes and garlic bread and some glasses of Lambrusco.
It was so lovely … I really love to go there for a meal, the cook is a master of his class.

Today i modified a bit on a 5cm teddy i started on Friday… the muzzle is a bit to short and the ears to big, so i made them new.
Now i need to sew the whole thing together, but it is 1 am, and i think i am going to bed :D

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Then i finished today the nasty part of my cardigan. This lovely piece i am knitting while watching TV.
Every evening some 2 or 3 hours :D Started it on the 25th of October and it goes very slow.

It is knitted in 1 part. Starting with the collar, doing some stripes from the shoulders to the wrist and then taking for the back the stitches up from wrist to wrist and knitting till under the arms.
The front is not so bad, it is just from wrist to the middle.
So this part is done … now i started to knit all around the front, back and front again.
I closed just a small part of the seam under the arms, so i can take up the stitches needed there, because i think i don’t have enough wool to finish the whole project - so i didn’t knit the pieces at the wrists.

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The cardigan is knit with 2 kind of wool - the one is some cotton yarn i bought last summer, in a nice toffee colour and then i got me some medium brown mohair wool to mix it with the cotton yarn.

I knit it in a pattern i like very much, cross 2 stitches to the left and 2 stitches to the right.
purl the next row, and then over the last one, cross 2 stitches to the right and 2 stitches to the left. The effect is really lovely.

But this pattern uses a lot of wool - so I think I will run out of cotton yarn …
I will just knit as far as i get, and decide then what i will do to finish the endings at the wrists and the ending of the cardigan.
If i order some more cotton yarn, i need to take 300 gram - but i think i need just 100 or maybe 150 gram … AND the minimum order all together needs to be 50 euro …

Friday, December 16, 2011

Little Happy is finished

 

Here he is … smiling happily to be alive :D

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He is 14,5 cm tall, made of 1cm high faux fur with mini fabric as soles and paws, shaved fur in the inside of his ears.

His face is needle felted. He is filled with polyfill and got steel shots in the feet.

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Very agile as you can see :D

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Loves to be cuddled and hugged and fits just perfect into a hand :D

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He will be the surprise present for my mother in law for Christmas

Little Happy’s is all parts

 

I forgot again to update yesterday :( sorry

I closed all parts on one side, made some steel shot packets for the feet.

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Then i turned them all, and put a piece of wool into the supposed joint holes to find the place

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can you see in the last picture … its … right … its 2 left legs … I did it again …
And I was SO careful not to do it … But always when i am specially careful - I do it.
Guess I will stop to be careful :D

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

getting along with my small brownish faux fur bear

 

Yesterday evening i was working on my “new” “old” project.
Red running stitch all around the sewing lines on all parts.

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i was a bit fearing the cutting off from the hair on the fur side, remembering the pain of boredom it was with the grey fur from Drucilla, but what a lovely surprise, it went along easy, the hair parted easy and the cutting off went fast.

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So tonight i will spend an other hour on it and start to sew the parts together - 1 side of each part :D

I also was asked how i keep all my active projects apart … so here is the secret to this :

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exactly … iceboxes :D

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Some mini Teddy’s - and carry on an old project

 

Today i was trying to felt mini teddy’s … with not so spectacular results.
I tried 2 … a red one and a pink one… 3,7cm small.
They are 5 way string jointed … which is NOT so nice looking … it makes the limbs look like broken and crumbled and twisted.

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Which means, i need to practice them more and more and more …
Probably i will start with bigger bears of some 8cm height and work myself down to smaller exemplars.
But at the moment, i got a bad hurting shoulder - muscular ache - from my 24 hour felting excess from Friday to Saturday.

So i would be glad to take a felting break … and do an old project of mine …

I started it a few month ago, and put it aside because the head didn’t want to work out like i wanted it to.
First i tried to scissor sculpt it, but the fur is so tight, i couldn’t find the middle and the muzzle seams.
So i decided to cut off the hair and - guess what - right - felt a face :D

Which turned out to be not as easy as i hoped for - not so much from the size, but the profile of the little head was not so optimal to do some felting on it.

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But i guess everyone of you knows the corner, such projects tend to end in ?
In this corner this teddy went too !

But it wasn’t forgotten, i still kept thinking how i could manage to make him a nice head.
Today i pulled the box out again where he suffered and gave it a mean and nasty thread sculpting to give the head a little more felting friendly profile.

I already tried an arm before i cut out the rest of the bear, and found out, this bear will be a nasty one to finish, because the limbs are so tiny, and the hair so many, i can’t sew around.
I can sew one side of the arm / leg - then turn, and finish the sewing from the outside …
Already did so on the 1 arm, and was swearing all the time while i was sewing ….

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BUT i think the end might be worth the swearing - sweating - moaning - and the trouble ….
So see for yourself some pictures of the soon to be bear :

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Tonight i will start with the red running stitch on the sewing line, and cutting the hair from the seam allowance.
I am sure i won’t be able to finish it tonight, because i will call it an early night tonight, last night the smoke withdrawal didn’t let me sleep again.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Mikkael is born

 

After some messing around and trying around and looking around, i got inspired by an sweet little dragon, and i thought, cool this one I am going to try.

So i got my wool and my needles and the picture and started off with needling a little head …. here you can see the outcome :

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cute … isn’t he ? :D
So the next thing i started was the body … 4 numbers to big for the head … but ok, the head can be made bigger - not really a problem, is it ? :D
Next i made legs, and failed terrible.
What followed was a body, some leg pieces and a head in a box and a mighty angry me in front of the pc.

Next day came along and i was all up to new testing's.
But by then i thought … he doesn’t really look like a dragon, does he …. he much more looks like a turtle. So i had to go to the internet and search for turtle pictures.

Lots of lovely turtle pictures, but not really any i wanted to make, i wanted it to look cute and baby like.
That was when my man - Jörg - told me to make it a bit like a ninja turtle.

Oh boy, i thought … means i have to cover the whole head green … yuck.

But ok…. the idea wasn’t all that bad, so off i want with poking the wool like mad … so concentrated on poking again, that i completely forgot to take pictures of the work in progress …. i am sorry, just the finished baby is here …

HERE you find the link to the pictures and description of : MIKKAEL !! :D

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isn’t he cute ? :D

Fantasy - Mikkael

 

Hello, I am the mighty Mikkael.
No i am not a Ninja Turtle - i am a fresh hatched Baby Turtle.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Barney is finished

Today i finished Barney.
Here is the link to Barney, in case you missed the posting.
He is my first bear with hanging ears. I always liked the look of it, but no teddy till yet could wear them without looking stupid.
Little Barney on the other hand, he did look just strange with normal ears, so down the went, and further down, just till the fit nicely where they are now.
Yesterday i went to town, got me some more wool for my cardigan, and some black felting wool, and a little piece of fabric
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It is very slippery and tight knit, so i make little bags out of it to fill with glass or steel pellets.
I just don’t feel comfortable to fill them in without any securing them.

I do have to get used to it, to make more pictures on the way. But this might take some time, i am very photo-lazy :D