Monday, April 29, 2013

Crochet Penguin Pattern

This is for Katy Board and anyone else who wants to make a Penguin for a friend or themselves!



What I used to make the Penguin pattern
  1. Size E/4 (3.50mm) crochet hook  You can use a bigger hook it will make a bigger Penguin, depending on how big your hook is it make leave gaps if you find that happening you should crochet with two strands of yarn at the same time or go down a hook size.
  2. Blue yarn (I used 'I love this Yarn' in Royal) You don’t need a lot what I used was just left over scrap from making a few Tardis dice bags ((http://embertouchtehfire.deviantart.com/art/remaining-Tardises-but-more-to-come-288992847?q=boost%3Apopular%20%28%28tardis%29%20AND%20%28by%3Aembertouchtehfire%29%29&qo=1 )) or any color you want your penguin to be
  3. A sheet of white felt (or any color you want the belly and eye patch to be) you willl only be using a 2 inch by 3 inch piece
  4. Felting needle (if you don’t have one you can always sew or glue the patch into place but I love the way it looks felted)
  5. Scissors
  6. Stitch marker - You can go fancy and use a store bought one or make a fancy one, I just use contrasting scrap of yarn something I am sure will not rub off and leave fiber behind.
  7. Safty eyes-  Safty eyes will lock in and are impossible to remove with out bolt cutters or actually cutting into the doll so it will make the toy safe for any age.
  8. Small amount of orange crochet thread or yarn (I used #10 crochet thread because I had a few scraps left over from making toe straps for my baby niece last summer.)
  9. A needle (to embroider the beak, and attach the wings and weave in loose yarn ends) I have a few darning needles and a 'Big eye' that I used ((Big eye is a beading needle that the whole center of the needle is the eye you pinch to open it and it makes it easier to thread, plus the needle is flexible and thin))
  10. PVC pellets (if you want some weight to help it stand straight) 

I am from the US so I am using the US crochet terms the only things you need to know to make this penguin are, MR (magic Ring), SC (single crochet), INC (increase), and DEC (decrease). Some other terms I may use rnd=round, st-stitch, yo-yarn over.

Even if you have never crochet before this should be simple.  If you have never worked in the round before don’t be scared its easy!



For those of you who don’t know how to do a magic ring (MR) its pretty easy and its my preferred method of starting most amigurumi.  





Start by taking  hold of the end of your yarn in your non dominate hand ( that would be my left) and drape it over your hand with the tail end on your palm and wrap the working end (connected to your ball) loosly around your first two fingers.

Then your going to take your hook and slip it under both loops, (in the pictures I am using a larger hook the needed for the pattern so you can see what I am doing clearly) then take the working yarn and wrap it from under the hook over and pull that loop under both loops of the ring.  Then you will yarn over and pull threw the loop on the hook. (basicaly chaining one stitch) Slip under the loops of the MR yarn over, pull threw, you should have two loops on the hook now (in the video I might call the loops hooks because I am loopy like that) yarn over and pull threw both loops and that is your first SC in the round.  Now just keep slipping under YO pull threw YO pull threw both loops, repeat till you have the number of st's needed for your  mr, so if I say MR-8 you would need to end up with 8 sc.  I like to loosen up the working loop and slip a finger or three threw it before closing up my MR to make sure I don’t loose a stich.  Now take the tail end of the yarn and gently pull to close the ring!!





Now onto the pattern.




MR-8

Rnd 1 INC ALL -16   ((Round 1, increase in each stitch, ending up with 16 st's

Rnd 2 sc, inc - 24  ((Round 2, *sc in stitch, increase in the next repeat from * so its sc, inc, sc, inc, sc inc…)

Rnd 3 thru 8 sc all -24  ((Rounds 3 to 8 sc in each st, no increasing or decreasing you will have 24 sc st in each round)

Rnd 9 sc, dec -16  ((Round 9 *single crochet one st, then decrease*  repeat from * ending with 16 st's)

Rnd 10 sc all-16

Rnd 11 sc, inc -24

Rnd 12 thru 13 sc all -24



I took the time here to attach my felt and eye's (I didn’t felt it on I just put the eyes threw the felt and let them hold it on).  After securing the eyes nice and tight I stuffed the head portion to my liking.



I cut the felt a little larger then I wanted the finished part to be because when you felt you will loose about a CM of space all around. If your gluing or sewing make it the size you want it to be.



I folded my 2x3 piece of felt in half, starting with the head I cut as if I was going to cut out a heart but stop half way threw turn and cut down like a tear drop.   I used my crochet  hook to loosen up the fibers of the felt to put my eyes threw, you can make small slits with scissors if you prefer.  Slide the eyes threw the felt and into the crochet, making sure you put their backs on tightly.



Rnd14 sc, sc, inc -32

Rnd 15 thru 18 sc all -32

Rnd 19 sc, sc, dec -24

Rnd 20 sc, dec  -16

Rnd 21 dec all -8



Cut off and leave 4-6 inch tail.  Stuff the rest of the body adding in about 2 Tablespoons of pellets, and weave the  tail threw the st and pull them shut, using the needle weave and tie off the end.  I like to weave tie and weave again and tie off a second time then weave  the needle threw a large part of the body and snip off the extra  so you hide the tail inside.



After you stuff, either glue, sew, or felt the mask/belly patch.   I started at the top with the eyes and worked my way down trying to keep both sides even and flat, when you get to the bottom you will have to pinch the felt in to spots  to get the rounded look if you didn’t cut it just right (which I didn’t)



Now make two of the fallowing wing's




MR-6

Rnd 1 sc, inc -9

Rnd 2-6 sc all -9



Lay the wing flat and using the needle weave or stitch the wing closed  then stitch it onto the body, I choose to stich it into round 11 of the body, only stitching onlge the closed edge so the wings can be flapped.



Then I finished it off with my big eye needle and orange crochet threat I slipped threw from the front to the back of the felt and make to the front and loosely make a knot  then went back in and out in the same spot 3 more times, then lower and smaller three times till I got a small triangle beak.  I  slid the needle threw the front and weaved it back and forth before pull it threw and hiding the tail inside by pushing the needle threw to the back of the head.


If something isnt clear or you need help with a step leave a comment and I will do my best to help you out with video or picture walkthroughs.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Penguin!!!

I started working on this cutie after watching a marathon of Penguin Drum with the people over at Animeggroll.  Its one confusing anime, but I love the penguins they are so cute and expressive.

I enjoy'd working out a pattern for this one.

If there is enough interest in it I will type up the pattern, right now its all in my short hand notes.

I can safely say any beginner to crochet could easily make this!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Completed Crochet Dice!!! FINALY


I finally finished my set!  There will be no D20 because I wouldn't have a way to make it to the scale of the other dice sadly. Left to Right and Top to Bottom - D12, D10, D8, D6, and D4.  Because these are soft and have more of a rounded edge they dont all 'roll'  but if you toss them up they have a random drop thats the same as a rolled dice, you just have to make sure to 'flip' the D10 like its a coin or toss it while holding it sideways.

I belive the D10 was my hardest shape to work out but I am proud of how they all turned out!  

 




Sunday, April 14, 2013

Ruff'ins

I made some Ruff'ins for my doggies on Thursday night!  These are a pumkin and oat dog muffins.  Our poor little Buddy is having a hard time. We took him to the vet and he has lumbare issues which are causing all the mucels in his lower back to tence up till there as hard as a rock ALLWAYS.  She gave us some pills for him but he is such a smart doggie that he knows how to pick apart 'treats' to get those pills out.  These where made to over load his smell so he wont worry about what that lump in the muffing is because it just smells so good he wants to gobble it all up!

Unfortunatly I was winging it when I made these so I dont have an exacte recpie will I will list what I put in as close as possable

1 16oz can Pumkin (NOT Pie mix just pumkin)
4 meduim eggs (Mine where a little smaller then I am use to I was just going to use 3 but I thought what the hell)
2 TBLE Veg Oil
1-2 cups water (I was eye balling it to get consistancy about waffle mix)
Cinnomon--- yes no idea how much was probly a cap full (I have the tall 10oz bottle) I just keep pouring till it smelled like cookies
I put in 2-4 tsp of Molasses I say 2-4 because it was the spoon went in 4 times but I forgot to run it under  hot water before sticking it in so most of the molasses stuck to the spoon you can sub 2 tsp honey
and about a TBLE baking soda, I um also eyeballed this cuz my spoon was covered in mollasses by this time.
1 cup Oat flour
1 heaping cup of Brown Rice floour (Buddy has allergies, you can sup the special flour with whole grain)

I mixed up all the dry in my food processor then added in the wet, pour'd into mini muffin tin and sprinkled rolled oats on top. and baked in an 350 deg oven for 12-18

The doggies LOVE them. I tasted one, and it wasnt... well they smell good but leave the tasting to the dogs!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Soft shawl, warm shawl, little ball of mohair...



I worked on this shawl for about 2 months on and off. I love how it turned out its soft and warm, but the stitch is airy enough I can wear it threw out spring. It spans 6 feet by 2 feet, I love the silver, red, and plum stripes.  

Although I dont think I will want to work with this brand of yarn again unless its given to me as a gift.  This is the Mohair Mountain, in Moulin Rouge that I mentioned in this post, at first I thought it was just the gray and red but as I worked with it its more of a silver/red/plum.  The yarn has no consistency, it has random snarls of fibber that vary in size the largest was about the size of a golf ball, and wobbles between lace weight to worst weight.  The center pull is quiet nice but extremely tangled and since its mohair the tangle's fiber tend to felt together and you need some nice sharp small scissors to sort it out.

I have snuggled up in it to read and watch TV at home, but I haven't had a nice enough night/event to wear it out yet.  I almost wore it on Easter but it got hot out quick so I left it at home.