Christmas Gift Pattern-ish

I was wrapping gifts today, and I was thinking of all the yarn I had and if I had it in me to squeeze out one more thing before christmas.

So here it is took me about 3 hours give or take as I was working on it on and off.

The close up is more true to the color of the yarn, I just have not had any luck with lighting lately.


This worked up fairly quick, I used 2 skeins of Twilight Merino Wool, 1 skein of Grape Crush Angora, 1 skein of Acrylic/Nylon blend Silver.

To make this I just held all 4 yarns together and working with a Q hook (16mm) I chained 62 stitches made sure not to twist my chain I slipped into the starting stitch and worked in the round for 12 rounds, then I ran out of the Angora I switched over to a N (10mm) hook with the remaining 3 strands I put two single crochet into each stitch for one round to finish it off.

I am not sure who I am going to give this to.  I am tempted to keep it for myself but I dont think I would put it to good use, I already forget the blue wavy cowl I made last year every  time I go out.  Its a nice thick cowl that would be verry warm, and since its very cold out now I hope who ever ends up with it uses it and loves it.

By the way it is long enough that it can be twisted and doubled up to add extra warmth and  coverage on the head.

Dragon Finished

So I am finished with the dragon for my nephew. he wanted a green and black dragon so I hope he loves it.

It is just over two feet long from nose to tail.  I hand stitched  a running chain along his head and neck then did a row of staggered single and double crochet along the neck.  I used a fine tooth comb to tease the yarn out making it soft and fluffy.   I wasnt able to find a way to make the wings posable with out a wire of some kind and I was asked not to use wire in him.

I think I might make an other dragon for myself later.  I searously need to make a light box for taking pictures in its winter here and there has not been a nice sunny day in a while so all my photo shoots have been indoors and the lighting does no justice to the work.

Giveaway Winner!! -- Update

Since only 5 people entered the contest I am choosing to only do 1 winner.

The first number pulled was 5, which is someone who posted as Anonymous. I would love to congratulat them and sent them a gift but I asked for people to use a name for a reason as anyone can claim to be the Anonymous poster.

So I had the numbers repicked

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Congratulations*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Fair Rabbit

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Congratulations*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

 Please pick out which bunny you would like, or have me pick one randomly for you.  Then send me an email at the address shown to the left.  Please make sure to make the subject line Giveaway Winner  and included the bunny you would like, an address for me to ship the prize to.  


Fair Rabbit has failed to contact me, so I am drawing a new winner.

Congratulations Linda! You can pick out a Unicorn, and since I know I will see you on Christmas I don't need to ship it. 

100 Posts! Giveaway!

So I am officially over 100 posts.  I know I mentioned a while back that when I hit 100 posts I would be doing a giveaway so here it is!

Rules- Anyone, anywhere can enter.  If your are under age (younger then 18) please make sure with a parent or guardian before entering as I will need a physical address and name to send the prize to.

To enter all you need to do is to leave a comment on this post.  In the comment mention which item from the list you would like, you can leave it up to random luck and just say any, or say you want specifiably a Unicorn/Bunny/Cthulhu but you don't care which color, or you can even pick the specific one from the pictures. 
If you don't say what you want I will pick for you.
 Any double comments will be ignored as an entry so double commenting is not going to earn extra entry's.  Replies to an other comment will not count as an entry either so make sure you are making a comment on this post and not replying to someone comment.  If you decided you want something different then what you original commented just reply to your comment with any corrections. 
All comments left by Anonymous will be disregarded you need to make sure you leave a name so  when I announce the winner the prize can be claimed by the right person.
Winner will be announced in a new post which will be titled 'Winner' I will leave an email address as well as instructions on what to put in the email so that I can ship them the prize they pick.  So keep your eyes out for it and rember to leave a comment!
 Contest opens the second this post goes live, and ends December 1st 2012 at 12:00am my time (Central Time) so any comments made after that time will not count.

Prizes- One of the fallowing items
Amigurumi Unicorn - Rainbow mane or Silver mane
Amigurumi Bunny- Assorted colors see image
Chibi Cthulhu - Assorted  colors see image

Again anyone can enter, the winner will be chosen by a random number generator, numbers will be assigned to comments in the order they are left.  So friends, family, friends of family, followers, and even strangers you all have a equal chance of winning.  If enough people show interest I might let it choose three winners instead of just one.  So feel free to share this post with friends and get the word out, the more people commenting the bigger the chance for multiple winners.

I will be mailing the prize or prizes out the first week of December, so long as the winners get back to me in time, after Dec 7th if the winner(s) have not responded a new winner(s) will be announced and they will have 7 days to respond.  That way it will hopefully get where ever it is going before the holidays.  If your local (live in Missouri nearish st louis) we can meet up so you can pick up the prize in person.

Good Luck!

(All amigurumi was made in a smoke free, pet friendly environment.)

Baby {doll} Blankie -Update- Finished!

I was asked to make a baby doll blanket to acompany a gift for my niece.  One of her grannies is getting her a baby doll set but she wanted it to come with a blankie she knew Jordan would love.  I am using a skein that I picked up at a yard sale, its very soft, Lion Brand Homespun in the color Waterfalls.  Is an amazing shade of blue that has shine to it with out looking metallic.

It is just the basic granny squar pattern only with out color changes so I just slip to the next space to chain up

Pattern-
Chain 4, DC in 4th ch from hook, chain 2, *dc2, ch 2* repeat 3 times

slst into the top st of the starting chain, slst over to the chain sp working in the space chain up 3, dc2, ch 2, dc3 , with out chainging- dc3 into the next ch sp, ch 2, dc 3- repeat 3 times

sl st into the top of the starting chain, and work 3dc into each space and on the corners -3dc,ch 2, 3dc-
going as big as you like

I plan on stopping at about 16-18 inches wide as its for a baby doll that will be pretty small. If anyone has any issues working one up let me know and I will try to help out!

Odd angle on this shot, the blanket is square

Close up shot with flash

Close up with out flash

Dragon --free form crochet--

So a few weeks back my nephew asked my mom to call me and ask me if I could make him a dragon.
I said sure, I dont have a pattern I am working from I am just free form crocheting.

I used Cat safety eyes, and am stuffing as I go because I am working this dragon head, neck, body, tail in one piece.

I still need to work up 4 legs, 2 wings, then add all the small details.

I am still debating on if it should have spikes on the spine or if that would make it look to much like a dinosaur.  Right now my husband says it looks like a Long neck dinosaur so I want to make sure when my Nephew gets it it roars dragon and not dino.

It was requested to be wire free as its going to a kid who will probably be throwing it at people, so I am still trying to figure out a way to make the wings and have them not look floppy, with out having something hard inside them.

I am thinking of finding some flexible boning but not sure how I would be able to work it into the wing in a way anyone would not be able to pull it out or have it fall out.

Truthfully I am thinking so much on this that it seems like I am procrastinating.  I find that I have lost the spark that was inspiring me for this peice, and I have crocheters block.

I know what I need to make, I just cant wrap my brain around making them in the way I invision them in my noggin.

For the little baker --Pattern--

 

These where requested, to go with a custom made kid kitchen.  Four hot pink, and black pot holders and a black and pink oven mit.

The oven mit threw me for a loop tyring to make the thumb, I thought would be easy.  Next time if there is a next time I will make the thumb sepratly and attach it at the end.   I ran out of the pink I was using part way threw so one of the pink with black trim's pot holders has a thicker trim than the other but I kind of like that.

Child Pot holders pattern-

Chain 4, DC 2 into the first chain, *chain 2 dc 2 into same spot* repeat two more times (so you have 4 clusters of 2dc's) chain 2 slst into the first dc

From here out you will DC into each DC an on the corners (the chain space) you will DC2 chain 2 DC 2 join with a slip to the first dc

I worked these kid sized ones for 4 rounds in the main color then did a round of sc (4 sc in each corner) in the trim color.  In the last corner sc 2 chain 8 then sc 2 and finish round.

Child Oven Mit

MR- DC 10

DC inc all 20

Dc all  

-repeat for 3 more rows-

In contrast color, do a row of SC

Switch back to main color

Dc all the way around but stop two stitches from the end, chain two then slip stitch into the first dc

that space we just made is the area for the thumb

In contrast color I worked 8 sc into the space (two in the previous row  two in the sides of each dc and 2 in the chain) then I worked it for 3 rounds, and decreased ever other stitch on  the 4th  and 5th rows and weaved the end shut.     --If I ever do this again I will make the thumb sepratly, by Mr 4, Inc all (8), sc all for 5 rows then sewing it into the mit.--

In black, work dc all the way around the mit, puting 2 dc into the chain 2 space

work in Dc for two more rows.

I did a scalloped edging, instead of chaining up after the slst.  

Starting from the slst dc in the second st from the hook 4 times, skip one stitch then slst in the next stitch,  repeat once, chain 8 and slst back into the last slip and repeat the Dc4 slst pattern all the way around.

 

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. I am doing the challenge again this year, I skipped doing it last year but in 2011 I managed to finish with like a week of time still to go.

Basiccaly the challenge is to start writing a story, and by the end of the month have atleast 50,000 words finished.  I dont expect to hit 50,000 words in the time frame this year because I just started writing my story... and because I am a tiny bit lazy and easily distracted.

This years story is going to be about a character I made up for my gaming group where are playign Dungeon World right now, but due to some  controversy and conflict I wound up not using.  So I am not giving up on her I am actually going to turn the character into an amazing heroin.

The tale is told from Estrela's point of view, she will turn everyone's concepts of what a dragon is upside down.  Hopefully my idea of what a dragon is will be a fun contrast to what other people think, and they will enjoy it.

I was thinking of blogging updates of the chapters as I finish them, I am just hesitant because I dont want to run off readers who come for the crochet/crafts aspect of this blog. I just think posting here will be an encouragement something that makes me excited to write and get it online to share with people who may enjoy it.  Also they might catch things I miss, I horrible grammer, and spelling and spell check does not always catch it.

So I will start off by saying my novel is in the fantasy gener, it will have many races like elfs, dwarfs, dragons and all that good stuff.  Hopefully it will be done in a freash new way with some twists and turns that are surprising.   If there is no real responce or views to this I will scrap the idea and just go back to keeping to crochet/crafting.


So I will stop with the gabbering and get to it--

A Dragons Tale

by Sarah Cole

Chapter 1

It was warm,  I couldn't ever remeber being so warm before.  The warmth wrapped around me cocooning me.  Everything was so bright as well but I could not tell where the light was coming from it seemed to be coming from me, but that's just silly why would I be glowing.  I reached out but my arm was stopped less than an inch from where it started.  I really was cocooned.

 Panic flashed threw me so fast that every muscle in my body flexed lashing out.   Cracks of seeping darkness started to creep and lash out around me.  Darkness engulfed me I struggled fighting against it only to be slapped in the face with a blast of cold air.

Gasping I jerked upright my arms swinging in a Wooshi form, my left arm bent low tucked in at my waist while the right slipped out in front palm up fingers straight.  My legs straddled the tree branch I had been nestled asleep on I braced them against the tree.  The dream really threw my sences into overdrive.  I was at the rest waypoint, tucked up into the tree just where I went to sleep last night.  Day light was just breaking threw the sky waking up the woods.

I sucked in a breath, the cold fall air burning on the way in waking me up fully.  I looked around trying to see what had woke me up.

The waypoint was barren, cold and slightly damp from the moring dew.  The only prints leading from the road where my own.  Off in the distance from the road I can hear a creaking rattling sound of a cart.  I allow myself to relax my mussels and slide down from the tree.  Pulling my cape around so it hung properly I drew the hood up to cover my sleep tangled  brown gold flecked curls and to throw shade onto my pale eyes.  I took caution when I knew I would be forced to interact with humanoids.  They where often startled by my eyes, they where a pale gold most of the time, but they often reflected my mood.  I tried my best to match the human forms but some things just always remained the same no matter what form I took.  Bruin said that was the one way you could always tell if an animal form was him or not, there was always one thing he couldn't change regardless of what form he took.  He was always blind in every form, the eyes of the animal where scared dark pits .  Its not always the eyes he would emphasize that, just because it was his eyes or mine, others would have different traits they would carry into every form they took.

I was short compared to most over worlders.  I did not have the height and slenderness that came so easily to the Elfs, nor was I short, stout, and sturdy like a dwarf.   When I made my two legger form Bruin made me keep adjusting so I never looked to much like one race over another.  He always called me a pure blending of the races.  He never mentioned the prejudice I might have to deal with, races that believed in pure blood lines where often downright hostile in my presents. I would stick to the outskirts of citys full of pure blood races that where more hostile.  In the 83 years I have been traveling the over world, the races have melded together in alot of places so I was not as out of place in those citys.  Sadly I could not stay in any one place for to long. 

I age far more slowly than the over worlders.  I am 103 years old.  Bruin says dragons are the longest lived creatures on this planet, that dragons shaped the world with their magic making it possible for other life to thrive and coexist.  I would still be a child to those of my race, my  outward appearance is that of a young adult whom has just reached the age where they could strike out on their own or start in training to take over their family's business.  

I must keep traveling, not only so people dont notice I am not aging as they are, but to try and find a way to save my race.

Winter head wrap or Neck warmer.

 I decided to make a project for me since I have been working on stuff for others for some time.

I was out at a festavil with my sister and bro-in-law and the squirt and I keep seeing these chunky head bands.  They where all imported from china made from flimsy yarn and probably would fall apart in its first washing but I still wanted one.  At last I spend my money on other things like hydration and did not buy one but I figured I could just make one.So here it is my first go at this pattern I wrote as I worked.  It is super simple if you can double crochet, increase, and decrease you can do this.

You just need to know a few things

• How big the persons head is that wants the item
• Your crochet guage - which means how many stitches and rows it takes to make an inch (or your perfured method of measurement)

Start off by chaining 4

DC in the 2nd chain from hook, Dc in next chain (also last chain)

Ch 2 DC INC in both st's

Ch 2 Dc, inc, inc, dc

ch 2 DC 3, inc, inc, dc3

What I am doing here is Increasing in the middle two stitches you can increase till the band is wide enough for your liking, for a child I would stop increasing right here.  For my head band (fits my head at 22 inches) I did 2 more rows of increase.  

Once you have your increase as wide as you want the band to be measure it from the start point to the mid section of your last completed row.  Take that number and times it by 2 so if you have 4 inches, you would times it by 2 to be 8inches.  This number is important for me that would mean I would need to crochet an other 14 inches of just even back and forth rows.

Now depeding on your yarn, hook, and guage these numbers WILL differ for most people, I used a I or J hook with a #5 Bulky yarn but I crochet it tightly as I tend to do so my guage was about 3 stitches and 1 1/4 rows to an inch.

So what you need to do is just DC back and forth stoping to measure every know and then till you get the lenth you need  (( Head size {22} - Increase section{4*2})) Once you hit that lenght you will start your decrease rows which will be the same lenght as your increase rows (its why you muliplied by 2) As with the increases, I did all the decreasing in the middle section.

Picking up from where I left off in the patter--

Ch 2 dc 3, dec, dec, dc 3

ch 2 dc,dec, dec, dc

Ch 2 Dec, Dec

Ch 2 dc 2

Leave a long tail.  

Using the long tail sew in a button that is roughly 1 inch wide, it should slip snuggly between the DC's from the starting row to secure the head band, and if your band is a little loose just go up a row or two.

I plan on make a flower for my head band from my previous post, like the ones I made for my sisters birthday gift.  I will use an alligator clip to attach it so that I can have multiple flowers to dress it up or down depending on my mood.

I wore it out today because it is getting cold here and the wind was picking up, it was nice and warm, and when I got to the store I just pulled it down so it sat around my neck keeping the warmth from my jack in.  It is not only cute but it function as a multipurpose warmer.  My jacked is a tight jean jacked and doesnt have the space for a bulky scarf to be tucked into but this winter head band/neck warmer worked great for me and did what I needed it to do.

As always if you make one I would love to see it.

As always I used the American terms for stitches.

Flowers! Irish Motif

I still need to get myself over to a crafting store and pick out a away to attach these flowers so she can pick and choose which one she wants to wear when ever she feels like a change of flower.


I am thinking alligator clips if I can find them in the right size.

Its been overcast for the past week so I just took shots of the flowers inside with the best lighting I can manage, I need to build me a light box I just dont have the space upstairs for it. I took some close up shots of some of the ones that just didn't come out in the group shot.  I hope Christine really likes these.  Most of theses where made with a bulky weight yarn with exception of the top middle (pink and grey) and the bottom middle two (yellow/blue and white) they where made with worst weight.

I didnt write down the pattern as I was working these they should be a basic Irish motif flower, but here is basicly what I did-

Chain 4 slst into first chain to form a ring
Chain 5 and dc into the ring, *chain 2 dc into the ring* do this 5 times then slst to the 3rd chain in the starting chain. You should have 6 chain spaces now.

Chain one, in the first chain space -sc, chain 1, dc2, chain 1, sc- repeat across all chain spaces you should end up with 6 peddles slsp into the first sc and cut off end.

Switch color and put a slip knot on your hook to start, slip stitch around the starting chain three from the BACK side of the flower  then chain up 6,  DC around the next dc post  (working from the back side of the flower this whole time) chain 3 and repeat all the way around, slst into the 3 chain in the begining chain up.  Again you shoould have 6 chain spaces.

Chain one - sc, ch 1, dc3, ch 1, sc- repeat across all chain spaces (I did a few peddles sc, ch1, dc, tr,dc,ch,sc to get a more pointy peddle) slst FO

For the one with a 3rd round -
Put a slip stitch on the hook and from the back side of the flower slip around the starting post of the last round, chain 7, dc around the next post, chain 3 repeat till you have 6 chain spaces.

Chain 1 --sc, hdc, dc2, hdc, sc -- repeat around finish off.



These work up quick and you only need a few yards (I believe I used less then 4 feet for the smallest flower)

UPDATE here are some shots of the flowers all finished and clipped onto the hat, yes I clipped them all on at once that way none of them will get lost.  I dont think she will ever wear more then one at a time, this is just so I know where they are.

Birthday Gift

 So I asked my sister what she wanted for her birthday (stipulation I was making it out of yarn that she had previously commented on wanting something made out of) and she bombarded me with tons of images of hats.  Here is the finished hat, its done up in the Puff Stitch with a DC boarder.  I originally planned on adding a short brim to it because a lot of the images I was shown had them, but this pattern sucked up this whole skein of yarn I barely had a foot left when I did my tail tucking.   

So no brim, but what do you think of adding a set of detachable flowers so she can pick and choose what flower she wants to wear with it, as sort of a dress it up, dress it down, dress it kookie how ever she feels that day. (And however many flowers I made -.-)

This way she can place the flower any where she wants and it is not stuck in some random location I picked that might not work well for her.

Sorry for photo quality I took these last night just to show her to make sure she liked it I was going to take photos today but its overcast out and they would not look any different.

The Backup plan-FINISHED

Its finished I am happy with how this one turned out.

I took an indoor shot and two outdoor shots, I had to spin the hat around on the head form so the image could be seen with out the nose making it misshaped.

The Black Mage badge alone was just around over/under 500 stitches with my E hook.  So not sure if I will be making something this tasking for a while.

Hope he loves how this one turned out!

Black Mage from Final Fantasy

 My older sister want to know if I could crochet a hat for Johnny, her husband.  She wanted a Black Mage from final fantasy and wanted it worked into the hat.  This first image is the results of my first try at making a Black Mage hat, I was unhappy with how it worked up.  Do to the fact that I could not start the BM until after I finished all my increase rounds I was not able to get the whole mage on the hat it grew to long.  If I had tried to start it earlier the increases would have made the color changes and rows not line up properly.   I also had to fight the image from twisting.  What I mean by that is as you crochet in the round and slst to move up a round your stitches will slowly slant or twist or spiral in that direction.  To fight that I had to increase right before all my color changes and decrease right after.  I failed to take into count that all the bulk of the yarn will bulge which created a 'dip' along the colored portion that my inc/dec helped exaggerate.

Backup Plan

I started my backup plan even before I showed her the hat.  She liked it from the image I texted her, but I just was not happy.  I wouldn't charge someone for this hat if I had been paid to make it I would offer it for free or offer to re-due it at no extra cost- that's how much I disliked how it came out.

Now there is nothing particularity wrong with the hat, its just long and would need the brim folded up which in turn would cover up the gist of the image defeating the purpose of having it. Also the brim was wibbly wobbly, but whatev's Johnny said he liked it and would wear it.  So then I showed them my backup plan. I free form crochet a black mage that I plan to stitch onto a plain crochet beanie.  They loved that idea!  So I just need to remake a basic black hat and stitch it onto it.

I made this free form one with my E sized hook so it would be a bit smaller then the one made as part of the hat which was worked with and I hook.  I tried to block it by damping it with a spray bottle and pinning it to a sheet of cardboard so the point of the Mage's hat and his brim would lay flat and not curl up on itself so when I do stitch it onto something it wont pull at the stitches and warp the item.

Now you see me, now you...

Camo

My mom asked me to make a Camo hat with ear flaps so here it is! I hope John likes it.

I used the Red Heart SS Camo, their specialty skeins are smaller but there was enough to make the hat, and have some left over not sure what I will do with the leftovers.

The cat that couldn't smile and other things...

Finished Grumpy Cat Hat!! In the sunllight!!

I was asked to make a 'Grumpy Cat' hat, and a Zebra Hat.  Grumpy cat aka Tardar Sauce is a cute Kittie that was born with feline dwarfism and a huge under-bite leaving her to look grumpy. She is the inspiration for this hat.

I will update with images as I work!

I really hope they turn out well.  I really like how the GC hat turned out, it was sunny enough out I was able to get a natural light picture of it, it does have a pink nose my camera just didn't pick the color up.

Will start on the Zebra tomorrow!


I finished up the Zebra Hat today, it ate up the rest of my black yarn  trying to make the mane stand upright, and not flop to the sides.

Never ending granny spiral

I was asked to make a blanket with rainbow colors, I suggested a granny throw and they came back at me with this pattern Rainbow Special by Michael Sellick.  There are a few things missing from the pattern, and a few typos in it so if anyone wants to make one, you need an odd number of colors. The pattern implies you need 6 colors (two balls of each) but really you need 7 because of the spiral you need an odd number of rows or your granny wont be able to turn the last corner. Why you might ask, well simply because granny's work in groups of stitches and chains, if you used and even number you will not have a chain on the turning corner when you start your next spiral round.  Also I found on the blue and green round directions there is an error and since these are to rows they tell you to repeat, it will effect your whole blanket if you don't catch it early.  It tells you to '3dc ch2 2dc in chain space' at the corner, you DON'T want to do that it will make the blanket lopsided.  Every time you get to a corner you want to do '3dc ch2 3dc in chain space' its how the diagram shows the corners done.  My last sugestion is for your hook, this pattern works best if you used the right hook for your yarn, normaly the lable of your yarn will tell you what size to use, in my case my yarn called for a size K (10 1/2 or 6.50mm) hook.   So working with a K means my blanket will come out a bit larger then the pattern says because it calls for a J hook, likewise if I went down a hook size instead of up it would turn out smaller.

Once I got started, and got all the colors going it has been pretty easy.  Even fallowing the directiosn he has for how to set up your yarn work well but I some how managed to get my red and white tangled..

Finished!!

First round of all colors complete.

Give a Hoot..

I got in a few more orders for Owl hats, sorry I didnt post wip shots.  Two of these hats have already been sent on their way.  Up next is a never ending granny afgan and I will make sure I post WIP shots, but  I cant start it till I get a color change confirmation.  After that will be a Grumpy Cat Hat and a Zebra Hat then I will be on hiatus to give my wrists a break.