Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled:

Having pretty much taken almost everything there is to take when it comes to classes at my volunteer job, I ended up doing a class in lost wax casting. This is a freaking hard thing to do, as it turns out. What it boils down to is this:

(a) Make whatever you want to make in metal, but first you sculpt it in wax. Turns out that sheet wax and sculpture wax are real pains in the ass to work with, don't stick together that well, don't sculpt that well, and show every bump. So I did not like that part too much.

My goal was to make a guitar pick holder necklace, as I have been pondering buying one or several and thought they seemed kind of expensive. (Now I think they are dirt cheap.) I cut a piece of sheet wax based off of the size of two guitar picks, then made tendrils out of sculpture wax to hold the picks.

(b) Stick a couple of pieces of sprue wax to your wax piece (forms tunnels through which the metal will travel) and attach it to this cylinder doodad holder.

(c) Mix investment with water, pour it into cylinder. That sits around to dry, is later put into a kiln that burns out your wax, leaving a temporary mold. (Neither the mold nor your wax will survive the process. Hence the "lost.")

(d) Get ahold of some metal, which goes into this other doodad machine along with your cylinder. You pick up an oxy-acetalene torch and heat up the metal till it's liquid. Then you set the thing spinning for a few minutes, during which the metal goes into your cylinder mold.

(e) Take out the cylinder and clean it out in a tub, which dissolves the investment. You have a metal piece, which you then need to stick in some vibrating machine and pickle to clean off, cut the sprue channels off of, file, grind, etc. to make it all clean.

Eventually, I came out with this:

Front and back, minus picks.

It holds three picks. I was shooting for six, I guess it shrunk a bit. But three is doing pretty good. And hell, it actually holds things.

This is made out of bronze because I was told it would probably cost $100 to make this in silver. I later sprayed it with varnish a few times to hopefully diminish the future tarnish.

This hat was inspired by:

Everyone seems to be obsessed with animal head hats lately. I wanted to get in on the fad and I don’t even understand why. But every hat I tried on looked really dumb on me, possibly because having a giant face on your head above your real head looks…odd. So maybe I should do a hat that adjusts to your face?
Mornings are super cold and despite all of my layers, gloves, scarves, hats, etc., I still feel cold because my face is cold.
The Bunnyclava is adorable, but toddler-sized, and I’m not entirely sure I want all of my hair messed up upon removing a balaclava.

Hence, there is this hat, which has giant ears and earflaps, but also has detachable/optional facemasks to keep your face warm in the mornings.

The hat pattern was done via the Earfap Hat Pattern Generator. I pretty much did it as written except I only did about an inch of hat in between the thick border and the decreasing at the top, rather than 4 inches. It made the hat way too big to do it as written. Otherwise, there's nothing special to it until you add the accessories. So to make the basis of the hat, please follow this and I'll tell you how to add the weird accessories.

The pattern for the ears I pretty much ended up making up myself. They looked pretty limp once they were put together, so I put pipe cleaners along the sides as a kind of armature (note: you could just leave that out, it didn’t seem to make much difference), and ended up stuffing them lightly to make them less limp and more cute.

Rabbit Ears: Make 4 ears in white yarn.

Standard knit row: k1, p1, k1, p1, knit until 4 sts before end, p1, k1, p1, k1.
Standard purl row: p1, k1, p1, k1, purl until 4sts before end, k1, p1, k1, p1.

Cast on 16 sts.
Row 1: standard purl row.
Row 2: standard knit row.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 2 more times.
Row 7: k1, p1, k1, p1, make 1, knit until 4sts before end, make 1, p1, k1, p1, k1. (Standard increase row.) Should have 18 sts.
Repeat rows 2 and 1, repeat row 2 once.
Row 11: standard increase row (20 sts)
Repeat rows 2 and 1, repeat row 2 once.
Row 15: standard increase row (22 sts)
Repeat rows 2 and 1, repeat row 2 once.
Row 19: standard increase row (24 sts)
Repeat rows 2 and 1 6 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 39: k1, p1, k1, p1, ssk, knit until 6 sts before end, k2tog, p1, k1, p1, k1. (Standard decrease row.) Should have 22 sts.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 45: standard decrease row (20 sts).
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 51: standard decrease row (18 sts).
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 57: standard decrease row (16 sts).
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 63: standard decrease row (14 sts).
Row 64: standard purl row.
Row 65: standard decrease row (12 sts)
Row 66: standard purl row.
Row 67     k1,p1, k1, p1, ssk, k2, p1, k1, p1, k1 (10 sts) Should have 2 sts total in stockinette section left.
Row 68     Standard purl row
Row 69     k1, p1, k1, p1, k2tog, p1, k1, p1, k1 (9 sts)
Row 70     p1, k1, p1, k2tog, k1, p1, k1, p1 (8 sts)
Row 71     k1, p1, k1, p2tog, k1, p1, k1 (7 sts)
Row 72     p1, k1, p2tog, p1, k1, p1 (6 sts)
Row 73     k1, p1, k2tog, p1, k1 (5 sts)
Row 74     p1, k2tog, k1, p1 (4 sts)
Row 75     k1, p2tog, k1 (3 sts)
Row 76     p3tog, finish off.

Rabbit Ears Lining: Make 2 in pink yarn.
Yes, you're pretty much doing the same pattern as the ears minus the ribbing on the edges, and you knit front and back (kf&b) rather than make 1 on the increases. But I'll write it out in detail anyway just in case.

CO 8 sts.
Row 1: Knit all sts.
Row 2: purl all sts.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 2 more times.
Row 7: kf&b, k 6 sts, kf&b.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 once, repeat row 2 once.
Row 11: kf&b, k 8 sts, kf&b.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 once, repeat row 2 once.
Row 13: kf&b, k 10 sts, kf&b.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 once, repeat row 2 once.
Row 17: kf&b, k 12 sts, kf&b.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 5 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 29: ssk, k to last 2 sts, k2tog. (Decrease row.)
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 35: Decrease row.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 40: Decrease row.
Repeat rows 2 and 1 2 times, repeat row 2 once.
Row 45: Decrease row.
Row 46: repeat row 2
Row 47: Decrease row.
Row 48: repeat row 2
Row 49: ssk, k2sts, k2tog.
Row 50: repeat row 2
Row 51: ssk, k2tog.
Row 52: p2tog, finish off.

Sew pink lining to front of 2 of the 4 white ears, lining up the lining to fit within the ribbed pattern. With right sides together, pin 1 side of pink/white ear to 1 side of white ear and sew ears together, leaving the shortest end unsewn. Repeat for other ear. Try to sew them together at the farthest edge/sides of the rib. Stuff ears and pin them to crown of hat, across from each other. Sew on.

There's more than one option for the face mask. I was really tired of having a cold face, and thought, "Well, hey, if you slap a bunny nose on one, that might be kind of cute...

If you plan on using a face warmer, buy 2 buttons that are a 1/2 inch wide. They will eventually be sewn on to the ear flaps. Be sure to line up the button and buttonholes with how they fit on the mask before you sew on the button. The mask should stretch across for a tighter fit when buttoned, so stretch it out, put a pin where the buttonhole lines up with the flap, and sew your button on with regular white sewing thread there.

This is mask #1:

However: I wear glasses. And even though I put some air vent holes in mask #1 right at the nose, my glasses still steam up abominably, leaving me blind in the street. This is why I came up with the somewhat freakier mask #2: with big enough holes at the mouth and nose to let the air out and not trap the steam in. It's based on the idea of beards.

If you have the nerve to wear either mask in public, good luck to you. So far I haven't done it (other than at my volunteer job where you can be wearing anything) myself, so that's saying something.

Mask #1 Pattern uses an adapted version of the Cozy Doctor Mask for the detachable face mask. It adds length and buttonholes to the sides and a bunny nose and mouth are knitted/sewn on.

Detachable Face Mask #1. Mostly done in white yarn, with a bit of pink yarn.

CO 54 sts. Place markers 12 stitches in at left and right sides. There will be ribbing on the far edges to suggest a jawline.
Row 1 (RS): k1, p1, k1, p to last 3 sts, k1, p1, k1.
Row 2 p1, k1, p1 to last 3 sts before second marker, wrap and turn.
Row 3: K to last 3 sts before marker, wrap and turn
Row 4: P to last 4 sts before marker, wrap and turn.
Row 5: K to last 4 sts before marker, wrap and turn.
Continue in this fashion until you have wrapped a total of 5 sts on each side.
Row 12: P across (working wraps together with sts), continue past marker to last 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 13: k1, p1, k1, p1, knit across, working wraps together with stitches until last 4 sts, p1, k1, p1, k1.
Row 14: p1, k1, p1, k1, p across to last 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Rows 15-18: repeat rows 13 and 14.
Row 19: k1, p1, k1, p1, bind off 4 sts, k to last 8 sts, bind off 4 sts, p1, k1, p1, k1. (Combine p1 with last bind off at the end.)
Row 20: p1, k1, p1, k1, cast on 4 sts, p to start of bind off section #2, cast on 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Rows 21-25: repeat rows 13 and 14.
Row 26: p1, k1, p1, k1, p to last 7 sts, wrap and turn.
Row 27: k 4sts, k2tog. Switch to pink yarn, k 2 sts. Switch back to white yarn, ssk, knit to last 7 sts, wrap and turn. (The holes you have made are for air vents.)
Row 28: p 4 sts, yo, switch to pink yarn. P 4 sts, switch to white yarn again and yo, p to previous wrap. P wrap together with sts, wrap and turn.
Row 29: k 5 sts, switch to pink yarn. K 6 sts, switch to white yarn again. K wrap together with sts, wrap and turn.
Row 30: k 4 sts, switch to pink, k 8 sts, switch to white yarn. P wrap together with sts, wrap and turn.
Row 31: k 4 sts, switch to pink. K 10 sts, switch to white yarn. K wrap together with sts, wrap and turn.
Row 32: P to previous wrap, P wrap together with st, wrap and turn.
Row 33: K to previous wrap, K wrap together with st, wrap and turn.
Continue in this fashion (keeping in pattern), until you have wrapped 5 sts on each side (the last wraps will be on the 3rd sts from the edges).
Row 36: P across all sts to last 4, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 37 K1, p1, k1, p1, p across.to last 3 sts, k1, p1, k1.
Row 38: p1, k1, p1, k1, purl across to last 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 39: BO all sts purlwise.

Detachable Face Mask #2: also uses white and pink yarn.

CO 44 sts.
First row: k all stitches, then cast on 8 sts.
Second row: k1, p1, k1, p1, k all stitches to end, then cast on 7 sts.
Third row: k1, p1, k1, p1, knit to last 4 sts, p1, k1, p1, k1.
Fourth row: p1, k1, p1, k1, purl to last 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Repeat rows 3 and 4 for 3 more times.
Row 11: k1, p1, k1, p1, BO 3 sts, knit to last 7 sts, BO 3 sts (bind off purlwise specifically on the last st, I don't care how you do it otherwise), k1, p1, k1.
Row 12: p1, k1, p1, k1, CO 3 sts, purl to bound off stitches, CO 3 sts, re-attach to last 4 sts and p1, k1, p1, k1.
Row 13: k1, p1, k1, p1, k for 18 sts. B) 15 sts, k for 17 sts (18 knit sts on this side total), p1, k1, p1, k1.
Row 14: p1, k1, p1, k1, p to bound off section, CO 15 sts, continue purling to last 4 sts, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 15: repeat row 3.
Row 16: bind off all sts.

Added Nose Warmer:
With pink yarn, pick up and knit 2 sts approximately 3 sts into the mouth hole region at top of mask. CO 9 sts, then pick up and knit another 2 sts at approximately the same corresponding area on other side of mouth hole.
Knit in garter stitch back and forth for 4 rows. BO.