May 29th, '13

First, a Zebra!

Free pattern found here :D My Crocheted World

So after finishing Twipt, I started on this little guy. He's been sitting there, half-finished, for about three days. I want to give him a fluffy mane, but I don't have a wire brush just yet. So, nyeh. I have to wait till payday to pick one up, but thankfully that's this Friday, so yay :D It will be a new technique that I'm trying out to make the fluffy mane, you can find it here on deviantART.com Brushed Yarn Hair Tutorial. I am so excited about it! I just want to get it done already, so I can take pictures and see my coworker's smiling face.

This piece was pretty good practice for spherical shapes, but not enough. It's more of a pear shape, than a circle, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be. I also learned that if you're going to add hair to a plush with multiple parts, you should add the hair first and then assemble the piece (after sewing the head on, if need be). I say this, because now that I've left the hair for the last step, it's off-center in the back.

You can't see it too well, but that line is crooked. I mean, it's straight when you look at the guy head-on, but it's not centered compared to his body shape. Well, it's a lesson learned. I also need to buy bigger safety eyes. I had to embroider him a bit around the eyes to make them seem larger. I think it worked for the most part, but until he gets his mane, he looks like a piglet! 

And Now to Show-Off My New Book!

I found mine at Barnes and Noble BarnesandNoble.com

I am ecstatic about having this book! I bought it on a whim when a few of us went to our local Barnes and Noble store. I always like to browse the crafts section, see if there's anything that's at my skill level. Usually, I see a lot of knitter's books, and crochet books for scarves and outerwear. I've seen this book before, but I wasn't into crocheting at the time. Now though, oh man, it is ON! I can't wait to crochet something out of this book, like the zombie worker, or Dracula. As a bonus, they are all sphere shaped! So I get to practice that too. It's a win-win. 

Just Couldn't Resist

So, I shall call him Twipt

Look at the pretty yarn!

So after I decided to finish up this tiny owl instead of starting a new project, I finished it that night :) He's still lopsided though! I did a bit better this second time around, since he was so small. You can see from the photo that he doesn't have a nicely curved "u"-shape. Minor details really, but things I need to work on nonetheless. I had fun with his wings, and with the embroidery on his stomach. Here's a side view of him, to show the wings.

Here's a shot of the two owls together.

They look like an evolution set!

And now it's time for something completely different!

Is it a cupcake? Or is it ice cream? You decide.

Since I've noticed that I need help crocheting spheres, I'm trying to focus on crocheting the darn shapes with my next few pieces. This is the first and even though it's not originally what I was going for, I still like it. I followed this pattern for ice cream found using deviantart.com. It didn't come out like the picture, my pieces are definitely not as rounded as I'd like. I'm really happy with the bottom half though :) Looks like either a cone or cup with whipped cream. I'm glad I added the seed embroidery, because otherwise it looked pretty plain. I also added stitches to the green part, but you can't see it very well.

Man, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this again :D It's exciting, I'm actually seeing improvement with my work. My next journal will probably be a photo dump of a few of my past ami-dolls that I want to show off :D

Latest Adventure ..

A Night Owl! 

Reasoning behind the madness :D Let's See Some Improvement!

This is my latest little creature and I'm absolutely in love with him! I should have written down the pattern thinking about it, but I usually confuse myself while trying to do that. I had the most fun while doing the crest, the yarn has such pretty colors! It was a little bit of a challenge, but it was good practice. I'm most proud of how well I was able to hide the stitches from sewing him together. Usually, I don't tighten them very well, but this time they are all nice and hidden. His dimension's are four inches high and five across; stuffed with polyester fiberfill; 6mm safety eyes were used; size G6 hook with acrylic yarn.

I'm working on an accompanying piece, a smaller,vice-versa colored owl. Instead of doing a crest, I'm going to sew details onto his stomach. I've started him, but I have a few other ideas that have been scratching at my brain. I'm deciding on whether I'd like to start up a second side project, or finish the owl first. I know that seems like a pretty obvious answer, but I like to jump around projects. It gives me that new perspective feeling when I switch back and forth. 

One of the ideas I have is to make a zebra for a coworker of mine that's recovering at home. She loves  zebras, and her favorite color is pink. I have black and white yarn, and I think raspberry pink should work. This will be my first attempt at crocheting a four-legged, standing animal. I haven't looked yet, but I'm sure there are a few patterns online that I can reference. I think the hardest part will be the head and neck, I'm still learning how to crochet basic spheres without lumps! (That was actually one of the problems I had with that night owl.) 

I think I'm just going to finish what I started, and go for the little owl. It'll make for cute pictures anyways :D

Where Do I Begin?

Guess We'll start with the Early Days ...

I was first introduced to the art of crochet when I was a young girl, about ten or eleven, by my grandmother. I lived with her at the time, and I had seen her pulling out some craft gear, one item being a crochet hook (thinking back, I think it was an afghan hook because it was pretty long.) I was immediately intrigued, I wanted to do whatever it was you did with one of those things! My grandmother, "Sweetie", always encouraged us when to do what made us excited and happy. So, we went to our local craft store (probably Michael's) and she bought me some yarn and a starter crochet kit. I don't think I ever finished a single thing; well, maybe one scarf. I mostly concentrated on keeping my edges straight, with the help of a tissue box, courtesy of Sweetie.

I didn't stay with the hobby for long, I was becoming a "pre-teen" and the internet became my life to say the least. It wasn't until high school that I became interested again. I found my old crochet kit in a box, without the book of course, and was instantly excited to create again. I started a few projects, scarves and an attempted beanie, but only ever finished one. It was a scarf, made with a dark rainbow yarn with hues of purple and blue, and I even embroidered a skull on each end. I was so happy, I showed it to everyone I knew and everyone they knew. Then came the day when I lost that scarf, also losing my passion to crochet.

It's been ten years since then, and I'm happy to say I've come back around! I was moving into my new place and I came across, guess what, my crochet hooks! I don't know how I never lost them, but I'm glad they kept finding their way into my art gear. The first piece I attempted was actually an amigurumi (literally meaning crocheted or knitted stuffed doll) football for a coworker. He was moving to another state and I thought it would be a cool going-away gift.

It's embroidered with "#227 Modesto", our store number and city.

I found a pattern online and did my best to follow it. For a starter piece, I'd say it's not bad, a little lumpy and I didn't have proper filling for it, but not bad.

After that, well, I fell in love with crochet again :D My goal is to eventually start up my own side-business, but I've yet to prove to myself that my skills are up to the challenge. That's the point of this blog in fact, to keep track of my progress. I'm excited to see where this takes me, I'm committed this time around <3