The holidays are approaching; as can be noticed when you go shopping and the Halloween, and, gasp, the Christmas decorations are out! For knitters and crocheters the holidays are nearing because any gifts to be made take time. I have quite the queue of items at Ravelry waiting for me. Some highlights are Miffy of Dick Bruna, Brainslugs of Futurama, and a cupcake hat. I’m also considering making a Luigi pillow to go with my nephew’s Mario blanket that I made for him last Christmas; the reason this blog exists! I need to do some yarn shopping before starting these projects and then I’ll be ready to start! I have been working so intensely on Snuggles for The Snuggles Project but am now ready to move onto something else. I’ll be sure to throw in a Snuggle here and there using the left over yarn after finishing some of the projects. Changing gears is always nice, it takes things that were old and dull and makes them new and interesting again.
Speaking of The Snuggles Project, I’ve completed some more Snuggles again. I’ve been making them all double stranded, one strand always some color of Lionbrand Homespun yarn. The Snuggles are so soft using the larger N hook and the Homespun yarn. The purple and pink on the right is Katmcab’s Hexagon Snuggle but without the scalloped edge. Then I added a scalloped edge to the brown one from the previous post. I ran out of the blue just when I finished the last bit of the edge- whew- very close call. I didn’t have another blue like it in color or texture. Although many of the Snuggles are made with scraps of yarn I really don’t want them too look very haphazard; the Snuggles are intended to go home with the cats when they are adopted from the shelter. I would hate that the family who adopts it ends up with something ugly and they decide to throw it away. I’m not all that impressed with the brown Snuggle now but I’ll keep the pretty scallop edge in mind to spice up other Snuggles. Lastly, I have a Fishy Mat by carly*original designs that I started on the plane returning from my vacation. I made the blue circle on the plane without the pattern so it turned out a wee bit larger than it should have. I ran out of the blue Homespun when I got to the tail and decided to make the tail in another color. I recently attended a knitting Meetup in Newington at Starbucks and one of the group members had brought a bag of yarn she wanted to pass on. I dug through the pretty colors and picked some Homespun type yarn in bright colors. I felt it was a nice addition to the Fishy Mat. After adding the tail I wanted to break up the blueness of the body and decided to add an eye in the same bright colors. The eye could have been bigger but I’ll do that for the next one. Now I’m contemplating a mouth. I also messed around with the tail to make it more pointy and swishy. One day I’ll figure out how to write my own pattern so I’m not altering other people’s patterns. It’s on my to-do-list. Here’s the big fishy: 
I just returned from a vacation visiting my family. I finally purchased an N size crochet hook and that led to me buying yarn while on vacation. I crocheted 2 full Snuggles and 2 partial Snuggles. Having the N size hook has been great. I finished off the brown yarns in another double crochet format and continued using the two blues in a Fishy Cat Mat pattern. I have some ends to weave in and finishing to do adding 4 more Snuggles to my August total of 5 or 6 (I have to double check things).
August has arrived and I haven’t blogged in way too long. I have been finding time here and there to crochet, pretty much all for The Snuggles Project. I really enjoy crocheting and doing it for kitties in need makes me happy. As usual, I have a couple photos to share! The Snuggles Project group I’m a member of at Ravelry.com has themes for each month. June was Single/Double Crochet and July was color of your favorite pet month. I have yet to check what August is. To mix things up in July I decided to try my hand at cat toys since they aren’t any different than amigurumis. I made a couple Snuggles and toys in June & July. On to the photos!
After making a lot of Snuggles in May I spent some time making some appliques to add to completed Snuggles.
This one is a Single/Double Snuggle with 2 yarns and a heart added on for extra love!
I wanted to try an oval for a fun Snuggle shape. This is based on The Perfect Place-mat by Monique MaiGnan.
This is the seed stitch done 2 rows in color A and 2 in color B. I was going to write a pattern for this but I don’t have the base
chain stitch count right yet. I’ll have to try again. I added tassels after a Snuggles group member at Ravelry.com showed off her tasseled beauty.
I hadn’t tried just crocheting a square Snuggle although they are usually square. This is based on the Cheerful Squares baby afghan at Lionbrand.com.
Lots of the same colors. I bought some Vanna’s Choice yarn at Ocean State Job Lot for $2 a skein and some Red Heart Super Saver with a coupon at Michaels. Now that we’re in a new month I’m working on new Snuggle plans. Katmcab at Ravelry.com has a scallop edged Snuggle pattern I’m excited to try out. I have a Snuggle tubby in my queue that I’d also like to try but it might have to wait until after summer camp is over.
I’ll probably keep working on the toys. Any suggestions would be great! The yellow flower toy depicted below is actually just a flower crocheted twice and sewn together. I stuffed it with a grocery bag hoping it would crinkle but not much luck with that. I’ll have to try out a thicker bag to see if it’ll crinkle better. I’m also thinking about getting some bells or other goodies to stuff into the toys. The mouse and the long purple thing are stuffed with some catnip so I’ve had to keep those from my cats. I crocheted a fish for them and added catnip; they like it.
Where did May go?! Poor Pikachu has been waiting for eyes while I work on other projects so he’s going to have to sit and stay at 98% done. I’m a bit nervous about how to do the eyes, I just can’t bear the thought of possibly ruining his cuteness with poor eye execution. For now I’ll keep thinking about how to do them. *thinks: black felt circles…*
I haven’t been sitting idle staring at Pika. I’ve been hook and yarn in hand staring at his eyeless face crocheting fiercely though. I discovered I needed an amigurumi break and felt that Pikachu was a good final battle; that is, when he actually gets a face. After a lot of digging around in the crochet section of the interwebs, I ran into a charity called The Snuggles Project. The project was created in 1996 when its founder was saddened at the thought of all the shelter animals sitting in their barren shelter cages so she set out to create ‘security blankets’ for them called ‘Snuggles.’ This was a perfect interruption to the amigurumi battle that had been waged in my living room since January ’10. I managed to crank out 12 Snuggles; some experiments in patterns, some basics, some just plain old experimental everything. This was a lot of fun! I even tried out a pattern written by a Snuggles Project group member at Ravelry.com. Which brings me to my new addiction: Ravelry.com! So many patterns, beautiful things, and great yarny camaraderie! I’ve learned so much between the Snuggles Project and the great stuff at Ravelry. In the Snuggles pictured on the right you can see some of the fun I’ve had this May. I learned an ‘Abstract Cats‘ pattern by Teresa at The Art of Crochet, which I’ve had my eye on for a couple months now. The Snuggles are perfect for experimentation. I created my own little double crochet pattern that shows a cat face. You can see the black cat on the yellow background, that was my second time with the pattern but first time with changing colors like that. It turned out ok, not quite as I would have liked. The red one is the first attempt at the cat where the outline is made of skipped stitches. I’m more satisfied with that. I’ll probably try the same thing again but substitute a puff stitch for the skipped stitch which will create a little 3D cat face, and if you’ve watched any movies lately you know everything is better in 3D! I also added the seed stitch and the single, double pattern to my crochet repertoire.
After making the abstract cats pattern Snuggle I had to adapt it to make something for MY cats. I made a cat ‘tub’ with the abstract cats as the sides. Before I even finished Kes was trying to snuggle in it so I knew I had an instant success. Now that I’m done she is still interested in it which is good. We’ll see if the interest picks up a bit when the weather turns to fall and winter since it’s rather toasty now. I think I should have used a smaller hook for the sides so that it would be a bit stiffer. The base circle is 2 strands of Red Heart and an L hook. I kept the L hook for most of the cats around the sides before I realized that a smaller hook would be better. I changed and it tightened up just a bit. The cat likes it regardless, she’s just happy that it’s soft and snuggly.
My next project was a small pillow to use for sleeping and upcoming travels. I’ve had a little stuffed animal since I was 10 that I’ve been using as a support pillow. What’s so odd is that it took a long time to learn how to sleep with it as a child and now as an adult I’m just not comfortable without the support. 
I decided that since I’m starting 30 in the eye I should graduate to a pillow of some sorts. I’ve had no luck finding a pillow with similar dimensions since the stuffed animal (a cat of course) has a long rectangular shape to it. After completing the cat tub and seeing an item with purpose, unlike all those cutesy amis, I realized that crocheting a pillow in my preferred dimensions wouldn’t be very difficult. I had a nice soft yarn from Red Heart called “Soft Yarn” in black that just begged to be used for this. I looked up how to crochet a solid rectangle and once again found myself at Teresa’s site but this time via one of her Youtube instructions. I started off with the video but found I needed the written directions as well. For the back, or other side, of the pillow I decided on a single, double crochet for a nice texture without the boringness of single crochet rows. I noticed that the solid rectangle still has some gaps since it is in double crochet and as with anything that has corners in crochet; corner gaps. I bet there’s a way to avoid that, I hope I’ll run into it during my crochet travels. For the pillow stuffing I decided to take an old t-shirt and make an inner pillow which worked beautifully! I knew the jersey knit of the t-shirt would be perfect for something that needs to be soft and flexible. I could hardly contain myself as I sewed up the crochet pillow seams and got ready to put in the t-shirt pillow. It came out perfectly and I can’t wait to try it out tonight.
So although Pikachu never got the gift of sight this May at least 12 cats will have nice, homey Snuggles in their shelter cages, my cats have a new bed, and I have a new pillow.
Reveal number six has arrived! If you’re not sure what it is then you probably were not a kid in the 90s or a parent of a kid in the 90s. Or the other group; adults who like Pokemon which isn’t me actually but this fellow is cute. The face is coming up next!
I bet some of you have figured it out by now and this should confirm your suspicions.
The 4th reveal for the amigurumi. Open to guesses, wild or not!
Here’s the third reveal for the Ami Mystery. Any guesses yet?
I’ve added more to my little mystery ami friend. The mystery will most likely still continue until the next photo, then some folks might have any idea of what it is. Short but sweet today.
Beware if you are a firebreather made of yarn, I’d hate to see you burn away to nothing! The pattern I found is called “Baby Snow Dragon” so maybe it doesn’t breathe fire but instead it breathes ice. The pattern is found on CrochetMe.com, another site I’ll probably join. Anyways, I’ve crocheted this very cute dragon out of a sage green yarn left over from another project. I love the creativity of this pattern and how it’s not just simple shapes put together. As I mentioned in the previous post the cuteness can be enhanced or squelched by eye placement. Sadly my little dragon suffers a bit in the eye placement category and looks slightly odd. The eyes are placed too far apart but are too much of a hassle to remove and do again. The dragon has no wings so it must be a ground walking dragon. It has some cute spikes along its back. The ears and spikes are pretty clever because the patterns are the same, the difference lies in how they are finished off. The spikes are flattened to show their triangular shape and the ears are cinched together to create a more conical shape.
I’ll definitely make this pattern again with some different colors to mix it up a bit. I’ll also pay close attention to where I put the eyes to avoid any more odd looking dragons. I could have some fun with the little arms and maybe put something in between its paws, a treasure of some sort! I’d also like to figure out how to make its feet more interesting as well as its muzzle. After crocheting the dragon I realized that I’ve worked another pattern by this artist; the little Easter bunnies! I liked the personality that the bunnies had with their little paws and eyes as well. I suppose I’ll have to look at more of Marjorie’s patterns since her patterns have popped up twice in my collection.
A Mystery
Now to our mystery. I’ve found a pattern at Ravelry.com on a subject that a friend of mine is a big collector. I haven’t told this friend that I’m crocheting it. I thought it might be fun to do a step by step photo mystery. Guess are welcome and encouraged! Below is the first photo:
The holidays are approaching; as can be noticed when you go shopping and the Halloween, and, gasp, the Christmas decorations are out! For knitters and crocheters the holidays are nearing because any gifts to be made take time. I have quite the queue of items at Ravelry waiting for me. Some highlights are Miffy of Dick Bruna, Brainslugs of Futurama, and a cupcake hat. I’m also considering making a Luigi pillow to go with my nephew’s Mario blanket that I made for him last Christmas; the reason this blog exists! I need to do some yarn shopping before starting these projects and then I’ll be ready to start! I have been working so intensely on Snuggles for The Snuggles Project but am now ready to move onto something else. I’ll be sure to throw in a Snuggle here and there using the left over yarn after finishing some of the projects. Changing gears is always nice, it takes things that were old and dull and makes them new and interesting again.
Speaking of The Snuggles Project, I’ve completed some more Snuggles again. I’ve been making them all double stranded, one strand always some color of Lionbrand Homespun yarn. The Snuggles are so soft using the larger N hook and the Homespun yarn. The purple and pink on the right is Katmcab’s Hexagon Snuggle but without the scalloped edge. Then I added a scalloped edge to the brown one from the previous post. I ran out of the blue just when I finished the last bit of the edge- whew- very close call. I didn’t have another blue like it in color or texture. Although many of the Snuggles are made with scraps of yarn I really don’t want them too look very haphazard; the Snuggles are intended to go home with the cats when they are adopted from the shelter. I would hate that the family who adopts it ends up with something ugly and they decide to throw it away. I’m not all that impressed with the brown Snuggle now but I’ll keep the pretty scallop edge in mind to spice up other Snuggles. Lastly, I have a Fishy Mat by carly*original designs that I started on the plane returning from my vacation. I made the blue circle on the plane without the pattern so it turned out a wee bit larger than it should have. I ran out of the blue Homespun when I got to the tail and decided to make the tail in another color. I recently attended a knitting Meetup in Newington at Starbucks and one of the group members had brought a bag of yarn she wanted to pass on. I dug through the pretty colors and picked some Homespun type yarn in bright colors. I felt it was a nice addition to the Fishy Mat. After adding the tail I wanted to break up the blueness of the body and decided to add an eye in the same bright colors. The eye could have been bigger but I’ll do that for the next one. Now I’m contemplating a mouth. I also messed around with the tail to make it more pointy and swishy. One day I’ll figure out how to write my own pattern so I’m not altering other people’s patterns. It’s on my to-do-list. Here’s the big fishy: 
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