Home Crochet

Amigurumi Cthulhu Plush

Posted in Crochet, Plush , on February 20, 2010 ,

Oh the great Cthulhu has risen yet again in fiber-y goodness. This time he is a tiny cute plush, crocheted from the free pattern by Amber of the Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins blog. I can’t seem to get enough Cthulhu, can I?


Amigurumi Corn Plush

Posted in Crochet, Plush , on February 20, 2010 ,

This is an ear of plush corn that I made to give my (Canadian) husband when we moved back to Indiana, as corn is a very iconic symbol of the Hoosier state. Crocheted from acrylic yarn and stuffed with polyfill and love.

Personal pattern not available.


Amigurumi Lion Plush

Posted in Crochet, Plush , on February 20, 2010 ,

This is a tiny plush lion that I designed and crocheted from acrylic yarn.

Personal pattern not available.


No Jam This Time

Posted in Knit & Crochet , on October 13, 2009 ,

Well… I take that back. Ok, so we did make some no-sugar-added blueberry jam this weekend to complete our jammin’ adventure with 24 jars! 10 jars of peach, 7 jars of grape, and 7 jars of blueberry. That means plenty to send off to family and friends as gifts this season and plenty leftover for me to pair with peanut butter for lunch.

It’s getting chilly out and I can smell Fall again. This normally wouldn’t be so extraordinary except I’ve lived without a true Fall for the past three years. I had almost forgotten my favorite season; Calgary’s summers usually crash landed right into Winter, and I realized this past week that I really missed the season of cooler sweatshirt-and-long-sleeved weather with beautifully changing golden and red leaves everywhere.  That little nip in the air along with a fresh hockey and football season has brought back one of my favorite things about Fall; cuddling on the couch watching [insert hockey or football game here] while I knit. I recently have had a lot of Cthulhu Toque orders crop up, and I realized that it’s probably due to the cooler weather rolling in. It’s about time to start thinking about toques and scarves and all of that gets me energized to pull out the yarn and needles (or hooks) and get to work.

Speaking of my Cthulhu Toques, I’ve got plans in the making for a toddler sized (due mostly to the several requests I’ve received) version as well as a few other little surprises. I just hope I can find enough time in the day to make and do all of the little creative plans I’ve got in mind AND get a head start on my Christmas gift knitting. Stay tuned!

Have you noticed the cooler air? Don’t you think your head would be a heckuva lot warmer if you were being snuggled by the tentacles of the mighty Cthulhu?! Of course you do. Be sure to check out my Etsy shop and get your awesome Cthulhu Toque before the weather gets too cold! Are you a crocheter? You can also just purchase the pattern…

Rawr!


My Craft A.D.D. is Taking Over!

Posted in Knit & Crochet , on April 7, 2009 ,

Does anyone else have craft A.D.D.? You think you’re absorbed in a project, but there hiding in the back of your mind is another project… one that keeps whispering your name.  Then when you’re supposed to be focusing and working on your current project, you can’t stop your mind from floating back to the possibility of this other project, how it will look when it’s finished, what supplies you need…  it’s been like this for me all week.

I know that I learned things backwards; I learned to knit first, then learned crochet and have been pretty much doing crochet-only projects since. But I’ve recently been wanting to get back into knitting projects, and of course I’ve already got an idea or two in mind. Once I learned crochet I found working things in the round to be so much easier than fiddling with DPNs, but recently thanks to some support and information on the Ravelry forums, I am feeling confident enough to try the Magic Loop method… and maybe even to drag those DPNs out of hiding. The problem is now that I feel confident that I can achieve this, all I want to do is get started. I won’t let myself begin yet another project, though, until I finish what I have “on the hooks” as I’m worried my current crochet project will just never get finished. *ahem* like that crochet sweater I started months ago. The poor side-to-side cowl neck sweater is still sitting on the back burner because I’ve let myself start something else. I am determined to finish it, though!  Even if it means I won’t be wearing it until next winter. ;) I know that there are many people out there who have lots of WIPs at once, and so I know it’s not a bad thing, but I worry that if I give my craft A.D.D. an inch, it’ll take a mile. I guess I just hate the idea of too many unfinished projects lying around. I must stay strong!

And that brings me to the elusive “something else” that I am working on currently: a crochet hobo bag. And not just any hobo bag — a felted one of my own design. It was time for a new purse and this will be my first felted project! I didn’t really want it to be of my own design, especially with it being my first time felting, but I can’t seem to find just what I’m looking for already. I know that to felt the bag it needs to be around 25% bigger than I want the finished result to be (give or take a little) and because I couldn’t find a (free) pattern for a felted hobo style bag that I’m dreaming of, I’ve decided just to wing it. I’m getting a little nervous, though, as the sides take shape — it seems really big. Maybe too big? I just hope it felts up as planned and ends up being about the right size in the end. I won’t know until I try, right? And what better way to learn than to just jump right in. Wish me luck!


Houston, We Have an Armhole.

Posted in Knit & Crochet , on March 8, 2009 ,

While this news may not seem incredibly exciting to most, for me… it’s huge. It feels like I started my first crochet sweater months ago now, and today I finally had a little spare time to not only work some more rows on that, but I also finished another Huug the Hug Monster(c) that had been sitting half finished for the past three weeks, too. But OMG, my first armhole of my first sweater. Someone call the media.

The sweater I’ve been working on is from Lion Brand’s site, called the Side-to-Side Cowl Neck Sweater. It’s basically done as one big giant piece — go 18 inches, skip 25 sts (first armhole), then go another 18 inches and leave another 25 sts skipped (second armhole) with only one seam up the side for the body. Then the two sleeves are done separately and attached where the skipped sts are. It seems like one very tall rectangle, but the bulk of that will turn into the cowl part of the neck, once I finish the backside. At least that’s the plan.  This is the medium size, but I swear it feels huge — then again, that might be because the neck is not defined yet. Did I mention this is my first sweater? lol. I sure hope to finish it before winter is over. Though with the nasty cold and snow we just keep getting, I’m starting to think winter will never be over in Calgary. I’m also starting to realize that I’m more of a small-project-instant-gratification crafter vs. big-project crafter, hehe. However, once this sweater is done, the amount of gratification and pride will far outweigh the length of time it took me to make. I don’t spend nearly as much time working on it as I should.

And here is my latest Huug — in pink! Isn’t it cute? I am thinking of putting the previous blue one I made and this new pink one up for sale in my ArtFire studio. What do you think?

Lately I’ve had an itch to knit something. I’ve been crocheting so many things over the past several months that I can’t remember the last time I picked up knitting needles other than to move them aside as I rummage around in my case to find the right sized crochet hook I need. The problem is, I still have a fear of working with DPNs… so after getting used to and enjoying the fact that I am able to use a crochet hook to go round and round and make tiny little things without having to switch to DPNs, I can’t seem to figure out what to knit.  Any suggestions? I was thinking about the Calorimetry band or perhaps the Isabeau purse.  Of course, this is AFTER I finish the crochet sweater ;) So we could be talking about next winter at this rate, lol.

Have a great afternoon :)


Celebrate Valentine's Day With Crafts!

Posted in Knit & Crochet, Sewing , on February 14, 2009 ,

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Lucas and I went out to breakfast at the Pfanntastic Pannekoek Haus, a dutch pancake house here in town that we love, despite the nasty cold I have. We spent the day lounging and I even completed a last minute craft for him. (See below.) … this evening I baked him my “famous” lasagna and we watched the hockey game. Go Flames, go!

So… now that I’ve given my Valentine’s Day present to Lucas, I can reveal all of my crafty goodness here to you!  First on the list is the big one… a completely handpainted, custom Mahjong game/tile set!

A little backstory: a few months back, some friends of ours, Caley and Kali, (the Ckalieys) had us over for dinner and game night. They had recently been taught how to play Mahjong, and they were eager to share it with us. It was somewhat of a learning process for all of us because they were a bit rusty and hadn’t had much practice, and it was fun! They had bought a Mahjong set and taught us to play that night. We enjoyed Mahjong a lot and look forward to playing more with them. Lucas has even been playing Mahjong online lately. That’s when the idea for this present hit me.

It took a lot of searching … I was unable to find blank actual Mahjong-type tiles or anything quite the same. However, I did find that there were people out there selling blank domino tiles with holes drilled into them lengthwise to be used as “beads” for designing jewellery and such. So I bought a large lot set of 350 of these blank wooden domino beads from a seller on eBay.

Once they arrived, I sorted through and picked out 145 tiles. The version of Mahjong we play is a 144 tile set with 1 extra tile to be used as the Prevailing Wind Marker. Then I set to work handpainting all 145 tiles myself, with Wikipedia’s page on Mahjong with little images of the tiles as my guide. I know my characters aren’t perfect, but I am really proud of the turnout. Once the faces of the dominoes were dry, I turned each tile over and then painted the backside of each orange… Lucas’s favourite colour. If this was to be Lucas’ custom handmade Mahjong set, I wanted it to be tailored to his likes.

Anyway, once I was done with the painting part, then I had to spend a few days using spray sealant/clear coat to give each tile a bit of extra durability and shine. The fronts and the backs, of course. Then we found this great paper-mache box at Michaels craft store (Lucas didn’t know what it was for) and I painted it black on the outside and brown on the inside to be used as the storage container for all 145 completed tiles.

I still need to print off the custom instructions I put together based on Wikipedia’s info, but the gift was very well liked, and I can’t wait to use it the next time we play Mahjong.

There are a TON of photos — I took lots along the way as I worked on this. To see them all, check out the photobucket album here… there you’ll be able to see close up photos of the different suit sets and all of the tiles, as well as “in-progress” photos. I posted this one to Craftster and my deviantART account as well.

Today while trying to get some rest and get over this cold, I worked on a little crochet Valentine’s project… a penguin stuffie. I chose to make him as Tux the (Valentine’s) Linux Penguin in honour of Lucas and I both completely making the switch to Ubuntu (Linux) on all of our machines… even mine! Here is a picture of my Tux sitting with my Ubuntu netbook.  It’s hard to tell due to the flash, but Tux is holding a little light pink heart in his left wing there. This gift was well received, and he was a quick and cute project. :)

So that’s it for now! Check back with me later in the week, as I have some Huugs to finish up and share :) It’s Family Day on Monday, so that means a long weekend for us — yay! It’s a good thing, too, as I think I’ll need the extra day to get over what’s ailing me. :( Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Thanks for stopping by.


Belated Freebie Friday: CU Crochet Paper Overlays

Posted in Freebies, Knit & Crochet, Scrapbooking , on November 22, 2008 ,

CU Crochet Paper Freebie

CU Crochet Paper Freebie

Happy Belated Freebie Friday! Sorry I missed getting this posted yesterday. It’s just a quickie freebie, and this time it’s even commercial use friendly! Today’s download includes a set of CU crochet paper overlays. Add them on top of colours or embellishment/paper shapes or layer colours on top of them and play with the various blending modes to achieve the crochet paper look that suits your fancy :)

Four overlays included, photographed by moi. Please don’t forget to read the CU TOU included with the download. Enjoy! I’d love to see some crochet papers you create with this one. This week’s set was inspired by my recent crochet projects as I try to get gifts done in time for the holidays.

Download my CU Crochet Paper Overlays HERE!

My husband Lucas turned 30 a few weeks back and his birthday wish was for me to make him a matching toque and scarf. I finished the toque on time but just recently finished the scarf over last weekend’s disappointing Chicago Bears loss to the Packers. (*grumbles*). He loves the set so much that he even blogged about it. I’m so happy that I’ve made something he really enjoys and uses daily now that our Canadian weather is getting colder. It’s nothing fancy, but he loves it and that’s all that matters!

Lucas modeling his matching toque and scarf set

Lucas modeling his matching toque and scarf set

Have a fabulous weekend :)


Some Finished Projects

Posted in Knit & Crochet , on October 19, 2008 ,
Finished Froggie Beanie

Finished Froggie Beanie

A few days ago I showed off a few crochet projects I had been working on.  Last night I finished a couple of them! The crochet handbag take 2 is still in progress, but I finished the froggie beanie and even had time to squeeze in a little doggie sweater for Winston.

Finished Froggie Beanie

Finished Froggie Beanie

Somer’s froggie beanie turned out pretty well! I took a few pictures to show it off, thanks to my fantastic models Lucas and Oliver.  They were very helpful in photographing the froggie details!  I think Somer will like it and can’t wait to get it shipped off to her.  Ribbit!

Finished Froggie Beanie

Finished Froggie Beanie

Winston's Sweater

Winston

Winston loves his very first official sweater.  I made it in Chicago Bears navy and orange colours of course and plan to make a matching sweater in XL for Oliver.  I ran out of orange yarn so Oliver will have his as soon as I replenish my supply.  It took two takes to get the sweater sizing just right for Winston… the first time around because he’s so tiny to me (in comparison to Oliver I guess) I made a small size.  The general sizing info seemed like it would fit, but the small turned out to fit him too snugly.  I made another one and this time in a medium size, and it turned out so cute!  It’s a tiny bit big on him and hangs a bit in the tummy area, but I’m sure he’ll grow into it.  Isn’t he cute? I can’t wait to make Oliver’s now.  I used the Lion Brand free crochet striped sweater pattern by Shiri Mor.

Winston and the Cone Collar

Winston and the Cone Collar

And speaking of Winston, he endured his neutering surgery like a champ.  The vet called fairly early on Friday afternoon to let me know that everything went well and that he’d be ready to pick up around dinnertime.  We were warned that he’d be a bit groggy due to pain meds and that he’d probably not be very active.  When he came out and saw Lucas and I were there to get him, it was the exact opposite; he was SO excited to see us and SO ready to go home.  He has been taking it easy, though, and unfortunately has to wear the cone collar when we’re gone or at bedtime to make sure he doesn’t lick the incision site.  Doesn’t he look like the saddest little schnauzer you ever did see when he’s wearing it? He’s doing very well, though, and should be all healed up in a week or so. :)

So hopefully I’ll line the crochet handbag later today between football games and finish it off so I can get it off my WIP list.  I feel like I should have a lot more to do but really I’ve made a huge dent in my Christmas crafting list.  Hooray!  Happy Sunday, and GO BEARS!


Current Crochet Projects

Posted in Knit & Crochet , on October 16, 2008 ,

So in the background this past week I’ve been hard at work on three crochet projects: take 2 on the crochet handbag I tried at the end of August, a hat for Somer for her birthday coming up in November, and a small crochet pumpkin.

Work In Progress - Crochet Handbag Take 2

Work in Progress - Crochet Handbag Take 2

The second try on the crochet handbag is going… ok.  If you remember, I had followed a great pattern for the first take but the finished result seemed to be a bit too wide and not quite tall enough for my purse needs.  I decided I’d make a second handbag, adjusting a few lines of the pattern to make the overall bag not as wide and a bit taller.  I am not sure now that the purse will be big enough just in general now that it’s not as wide.  But I didn’t like the awkward space in the corners of the bag when I made it as wide as the pattern called for; at least for my personal preference.  Maybe if I had just changed the height to be taller, the width would’ve balanced itself out?  I am not quite finished with take 2, but it already sounds like attempt 3 is taking shape.  We’ll see how it turns out after I add a closure, line it, and add the handles.

Work in Progress - Froggie Beanie

Work in Progress - Froggie Beanie

The beanie is something I’m pretty excited about.  I hope Somer doesn’t read my blog before her birthday next month, but I just can’t not post about it.  It’s a frog hat, and I’m nearly finished with it; it’s from a pattern here by Crochetroo, and is so darn cute! :) It’s basically a double crochet beanie hat done in green (I chose Vanna’s Choice in Kelly Green, my first time using Vanna’s Choice. I really like working with it and will be using it again on other projects that call for a simple worsted weight yarn.) and then there are two double crochet eye “bulbs” that you attach on top.  The pattern calls for googly-eyes (which in general I despise) but I think they’re a perfect fit for this project and will give it just the right finishing touch when I hot glue them to the center of each eye bulb.  I just have to go out and purchase some googly-eyes!  It’s a quick crochet and I started it Tuesday evening before House came on and then finished up the beanie portion last night in no time. Today I plan to do the band and then work on the eyes. Even though it’s spanning over 3 days, the amount of time I spent each day was very small and this could easily be done in one evening I think.  It gives me ideas for making a teddy bear beanie, using the same pattern just in brown and not adding googly-eyes at the end (so the eye bulbs of the frog would be teddy bear ears.)  Not that I have time to add more things to my queue for Christmas projects, but oh well.  Love the pattern!

Finished - Small Crochet Pumpkin

Finished - Small Crochet Pumpkin

And the small crochet pumpkin is one of my favourite finished objects right now.  It turned out so cute! :) I followed the YouTube tutorial by Teresa, who is tjw1963 on Ravelry, and she is the founder of the Video Crochet group there which has been immensely helpful in my learn-to-crochet endeavour.  She has some amazing videos on YouTube for all kinds of projects and demonstrating a huge variety of crochet stitches.  Her blog accompanies her video tutorials in case you want written instructions for each pattern to follow along with, too.  As most of you know, this past week was Canadian Thanksgiving, and my husband and I were invited to my friend Michelle’s mom’s house for dinner.  It meant a lot to us, because Michelle’s mom and grandma treated us like family, and we really felt special being invited to their family Thanksgiving dinner.  I made this little crochet pumpkin and attached a thank you tag to it and mailed it off today to thank Michelle’s mom for including us.  We plan to return the favour and have their family over for American Thanksgiving next month :) Michelle is such a good friend; how nice it was to feel like family, too.

So that’s what I’ve been up to in the fibrearts world!  Once I finish Somer’s froggie beanie I plan to get started right away on matching doggie sweaters for Oliver and Winston.  I can’t wait!  They’ll be done in Bears colours, of course: a beautiful navy blue and pumpkin orange. :love: Little Winston goes for his neutering appointment tomorrow morning first thing, so keep him in your thoughts!  It sounds like he’ll have to wear a cone for a bit until the incision heals, which will make for some admittingly hilarious photos. Am I evil for thinking that? lol :lol:

See you tomorrow for Freebie Friday!