I’ve been very busy with yarn the last week. Last week my sister-in-law taught me how to cast on, knit and purl on some circular needles which she let me have afterward. She also gave me three grocery bags full of yarn, mostly wool and cotton and pretty much all hand dyed. She has her own business making baby and kids outfits; Holden’s Landing. I really enjoyed figuring out the knitting. I knit two random squares/rectangles and changed my mind on both so they were each frogged. I didn’t want to just knit for knitting’s sake, I wanted to learn while actually having some goal. I finally found a project at Lion Brand; the Royal Pet Afghan. I’ve made one of the four squares so far. Working in the Homespun is as much a headache in knitting as in crochet. I have a couple crochet projects running at the same time, so to mix things up I’ve worked on those. I’ll probably start the next square soon. I’m glad to have been able to make sense of knitting so quickly as I’d heard that once your learn crochet or knit it’s hard to learn the other. I’m definitely not as fast and still kind of awkward holding the needles sometimes. I realize that there will be a learning period and reflected on how long it took me to get really comfortable with crochet. Depending on how often I knit I will improve accordingly.
I started working on the Futurama brain slug. The large one is very large! Approximately 6 to 7 inches tall. It took a massive amount of fiberfill and scrap yarn to fill. I finished it yesterday and all it needs now is an eye. The project instructions show an eye cut from felt and sewn or glued on. I was thinking to crochet some circles to keep it all truly crocheted. Still mulling that one a bit though. Might be a fun Halloween costume; add some straps and wear it on your head! Next I”ll have to try the little brain slug companion.
I joined a Crochet-Along hosted by The Itsy Bitsy Spider. I have two pumpkins in mind so far; one in an orange sport weight and another in a variegated yarn from my sister-in-law; I think it’s wool. I’m half way done crocheting the orange pumpkin and I’m eager to finish. Last night was a crocheting marathon between finishing the brain slug and starting the pumpkin over the course of 3 hours. I need some customization ideas for the punkies (a coworker of mine spoke English as a second language and couldn’t say pumpkins- I love punkies!).
I have so many projects in my mind right now! Along with the current projects in knit and crochet, I have a pillow in mind to complement the Mario blanket I gave my nephew last year for Christmas. I have my experience from last year and would like to improve on the method I used to make it (square by square/pixel by pixel). I recently learned how to do Tunisian Entrelac in the round via My Life in Knots. Entrelac in the round actually produces what is to be seen as diamonds, not squares like a pixel image would be. I have to print out my image and plan out the colors and what order to crochet them in. I’m ready to start this project after hunting around for a softer peach flesh tone. I was finally lucky at AC Moore and found Caron Simply Soft Light Country Peach. I cannot wait to start this! I’m sure I’ll have it on the hook by this afternoon!
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!
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 other day I was chatting with a friend when I realized she would be a perfect victim for my next amigurumi project. She’s a big fan of elephants and they are something I wouldn’t have sought out on my own. I scoured the ‘net as usual and found a Lion Brand elephant amigurumi pattern to my liking. I actually ran into it on someone’s blog; Barefoot Daydreams. Her little elephant is so darn cute that I was immediately in love. The little trunk is the zinger for me.
While working this pattern I learned something important: read through the pattern at least once before starting. I was working on the body which starts from the tush and works its way to the tip of the trunk. Before starting to crochet the face and trunk, the pattern says to stuff the body. For some reason I assumed that I would finish off and then crochet the face/trunk piece later. Turns out that after stuffing I was to continue to crochet but I had already cut the yarn. I just pulled my new yarn end in and continued to crochet as if nothing had happened and luckily there is no visible transition and the elephant was completed with out a hitch. Another fabulous feature of the elephant is the tail! It is a chain with a couple half double crochets to make a nice little triangle shape.
The cuteness of an amigurumi is based so much on the eye placement. Placing the eyes incorrectly can cause an ami to look odd and not quite right. Whenever I look at where to place my eyes I do a lot of testing. Too far apart and it can look dopey, too close together can have the same result. I’ve had a hard time attaching bead eyes at the same level on the face so a couple times I’ve just offset them intentionally to avoid the problem. This can add to cuteness luckily! I am thinking about getting some of those animal eyes so I stop using up my black bead stash.
My friend welcomed her orange elephant friend as did her cats. She immediately knew what his name would be: Humphrey. I crocheted him in orange because it is her favorite color (plus I’ve never worked in orange). My friend turned out to be my perfect ami project victim. Who’s next?
I
‘m still on my amigurumi kick and now I’ve combined it with my cat kick. I spent an afternoon scouring the net for cat amigurumis with some luck. I found one cat that I thought was really cute but no pattern. I decided to try it as my first adventure into making my own thing patternless. The body and legs are super cute but then it was time to make the head. I decided not too seek out a basic head pattern from another book which lead to me crocheting half a head and then pulling it all out to try again. The poor cat nearly had a flat pancake for a head. I see my understanding of going in the round to create a sphere isn’t quite up to par yet. I tried again with better luck, no more pancake head. Nope, now the cat has a slight conehead. Oh well, a good adventure into making a head. Then I had to figure out how to make an ear. The ears are nice triangles but a bit on the long side, almost batty. The next time I adventure into making my own head I will probably look at patterns for heads I’ve made before to avoid mis-shapen craniums. I do very much love the little white ends on the feet, for me this is the key to cuteness is this kitty.
After that misadventure into patternless amigurumi making I tackled another cat. The pattern I found at MarmaladeRose’s blog was a conversion from knit into crochet and very cute. I started working on the pattern and after a few rows of the body realized that it was double crochet which wouldn’t stuff nicely. I also had the problem of not having a small enough hook. I was using a 3.75/F hook when it called for a 3mm hook. The next smallest hook I have is a 2.25/B1 hook which is a lot smaller than a 3mm. With the F hook it was going to be very large and have too much space between the double crochets in my opinion. I pulled it out and switched to the 2.25mm hook and decided that I’d attempt to work the pattern in single crochet. The pattern that MarmaladeRose made includes some great photos to help you along. I’m such a visual learner that I was quite happy to just figure it out from the pictures.
I started by crocheting the head and then I went onto the body. I sewed up the body and stuffed it up. I was happy already with the turn out. Then I sewed up and stuffed the head. Oh my! It was way too big which was really scary. I sewed the head on anyways to see if maybe I could manipulate it in some way. No dice. I wish I had taken a picture of it but it just rubbed me to wrong way to even do that. I decided to detach the head and pull it all out. This was a lot of fun since I had already woven the ends in and hidden them nicely. Patience my friend.
I started again on the head this time comparing it to the body size. This whole ordeal was something like 2 hours of detatching and reworking but with successful results! All I needed then was a tail which was like the cherry on top. The next day I did a little photoshoot with my crochet kitty, my real cats and some afternoon sun. Couldn’t be better.
My husband now wants me to crochet one in black to be our little Onyx. LOL!
My amigurumi bunnies have gone home with my niece and nephew after today’s Easter excitement. I put them out in the yard as part of the Easter egg hunt, placing them carefully on large rocks in the newly planted flower bed. They were pretty cute sitting there awaiting the egg hunt. I don’t have a very good picture of the bunnies but take a peek at them anyway.
Those bunnies are hardly hiding.
The best picture I got of the cute little white bunny all put together is one from before Easter. I had it and the blue bunny set out on my dining room table just to enjoy whenever I walked by. I have a vase with some Forsythia branches in it as a little Easter tree sitting on a colorful spring table runner. I love vibrant colors and spring gives me the chance to play with them. The white bunny ended up with ears slightly longer than the blue bunny which I like very much. The thing that gets me is the little pink nose, it just makes me go “Awe!”
The pattern calls for the paws to be sewn together by running a piece of yarn through the two of them and then securing it to the body. For the white bunny I decided not to do so and it’s just as cute. It doesn’t make for the same expression as it does on the blue one though. On the blue bunny I played up the cuteness by putting the eyes and ears at a slightly cocked angle which goes very well with the paws together. I believe the expression is called “Baroo?” on Cuteoverload.com. The white bunny is slightly less animated but still has a lot of personality (I still say it’s all in the pink nose). I might have to make another white bunny for my own amigurumi collection. For now I have to decide what’s next in my adventures of crochet. I’ll most likely start with finishing my plarn totes.
I’ve been a little busy and slightly defeated lately. I completed the colorful plarn bag but am not happy with the length of the straps and so I’m at a stand still. Since then I haven’t done any crochet really. With the approach of Easter I wanted to try making an amigurumi bunny. I searched for different patterns and found 2 I really liked. One is a Baby Snow Bunny found at the Darncat Crochet blog. It sits on its belly like a real bunny would and darned cute. The other I had bookmarked many moons ago at Marjorie Crochets and it’s more a cutesy comical bunny with exaggeratedly long ears. I couldn’t decide. So I asked my husband. To my surprise he was kind of excited to be included in this decision. I will probably try making each bunny but which one was to come first?! We decided on the cutesy bunny found at Marjorie Crochets. I completed one in a variegated blue/purple Red Heart yarn and intended to take a picture before putting it together but got carried away. After it was all put together I had a little photoshoot with it. The pattern calls for toy eyes and nose or just thread. I checked out my bead stash and founds some black beads to my liking. Another thing I discovered during this project is that my husband is an excellent needle threader. I’m not so bad but after a couple misses he offered and had it done quickly. Who knew?! I sewed the eyes and nose on before stuffing the head which is a first for me. 
Previously I’ve just used thread or yarn to make the facial features and always after assembling the whole amigurumi. It was quite easy to attach the beads while having access to the inside, plus there is no need to try and hide the tails as they will be inside already.
After completing the blue bunny I decided to make another. It is an easy pattern to follow and I’m very satisfied with the results. I’m half way through putting together a white bunny now and this time I remembered to take the pre-assemblage photo. For the white bunny I sewed a pink nose using some pink yarn. I’ve also decided to go with bead eyes and again sewing them on before stuffing the head. I should be done with my white bunny tonight! These bunnies have been a great distraction this weekend before I realized that I had strep throat and needed a doctor. Now my concern is how to remove the strep bacteria off my cute bunnies! Any tips?
The attack of the amigurumi has continued with the creation of a little devil, a cupcake, a bird, and a little bear. The little devil was created from a book titled “Creepy Cute” and it seemed like a good place to start in that book as it didn’t have too many little details to make. There are other characters like a ninja, a vampire, a zombie bride and groom. The devil was perfect because it required red and black of which I still have a bunch. Plus it kind of reminds me of a cat. That red yarn is darned hard to photograph though, ugh. I made the little devil without a hitch and it’s a cutie! My favorite details are the little horns and its tail.
The cupcake was a pattern I found online at Ana Paula’s Amigurumi Patterns. I liked the idea of trying out the cupcake because a) it looks delicious and b) I get to sew on colorful beads. Before starting this project I had to scrounge around my yarn stash for some brown yarn. I ended up reclaiming some from a very sad looking scarf which worked out perfectly. The brown yarn is a bit on the soft side and just as with the turtle from my previous post it doesn’t keep its shape or sit quite right. I should really pay closer attention to the yarn softness and crochet a lot tighter to counteract that potential issue. After making the cupcake I think it might be cute to crochet a bowl of fruit and I’ve already added a pattern book on food to my Amazon wishlist for this purpose. The photo of the cupcake is terrible and I may reshoot to do it some justice. I was exploring the house for settings and ended up just putting it on a plate. The photo is blurry because I had to skip the flash or the pink icing looked white.
The little bird is teeny and precious. I found this pattern online as well but this time on Deviant Art. The user Sparrow-dream created the pattern herself and wrote it out for other people to try. I like the shape of the bird and how the head and body are one piece so less sewing. The little wings are too adorable! The pattern called for pipe cleaners for legs but I decided to create legs using a chain which looks a little odd since they kind of curl a bit. I also did something a bit different for the comb along the top of its head. I used the same instructions for the edge of the cupcake icing to make its comb. I also skipped the felt beak and just sewed on a little bit of pink for the mouth.
Now to the most recent amigurumi to participate in this invasion; a little brown bear. The bear pattern came from the book “Tiny Yarn Animals” mentioned in my previous post. I started making a beaver and then decided on making a koala and then just made it into a bear. I don’t have any gray to make a koala anyway. So my beaver turned into a bear. I took an idea from the koala pattern and even made little ears with pink inside which is darned adorable. This little bear has eyes, a nose and even a silly little grin. I didn’t get any good photos of it though so that’ll have to get done another day along with the cupcake.
I’ve been very busy with yarn the last week. Last week my sister-in-law taught me how to cast on, knit and purl on some circular needles which she let me have afterward. She also gave me three grocery bags full of yarn, mostly wool and cotton and pretty much all hand dyed. She has her own business making baby and kids outfits; Holden’s Landing. I really enjoyed figuring out the knitting. I knit two random squares/rectangles and changed my mind on both so they were each frogged. I didn’t want to just knit for knitting’s sake, I wanted to learn while actually having some goal. I finally found a project at Lion Brand; the Royal Pet Afghan. I’ve made one of the four squares so far. Working in the Homespun is as much a headache in knitting as in crochet. I have a couple crochet projects running at the same time, so to mix things up I’ve worked on those. I’ll probably start the next square soon. I’m glad to have been able to make sense of knitting so quickly as I’d heard that once your learn crochet or knit it’s hard to learn the other. I’m definitely not as fast and still kind of awkward holding the needles sometimes. I realize that there will be a learning period and reflected on how long it took me to get really comfortable with crochet. Depending on how often I knit I will improve accordingly.
I started working on the Futurama brain slug. The large one is very large! Approximately 6 to 7 inches tall. It took a massive amount of fiberfill and scrap yarn to fill. I finished it yesterday and all it needs now is an eye. The project instructions show an eye cut from felt and sewn or glued on. I was thinking to crochet some circles to keep it all truly crocheted. Still mulling that one a bit though. Might be a fun Halloween costume; add some straps and wear it on your head! Next I”ll have to try the little brain slug companion.
I have so many projects in my mind right now! Along with the current projects in knit and crochet, I have a pillow in mind to complement the Mario blanket I gave my nephew last year for Christmas. I have my experience from last year and would like to improve on the method I used to make it (square by square/pixel by pixel). I recently learned how to do Tunisian Entrelac in the round via My Life in Knots. Entrelac in the round actually produces what is to be seen as diamonds, not squares like a pixel image would be. I have to print out my image and plan out the colors and what order to crochet them in. I’m ready to start this project after hunting around for a softer peach flesh tone. I was finally lucky at AC Moore and found Caron Simply Soft Light Country Peach. I cannot wait to start this! I’m sure I’ll have it on the hook by this afternoon!
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