Resolution Round up 1/31

Its the end of the month so I am going to share my progress.  I restrained myself and only worked 4 motifs this month which completed the hind set of feet/legs for the Hippo.

Sorry for the washed out look of the photo its over cast today and my phone aparntly likes blue hues.  These colors are greens blues and purple.

I find I am actually a little bit excited to make the next few motifs.  Spreading it out like this has keep me interested in the project and since its a fairly tedious task with a small hook keeping my interest is key to not burning out.      
                        
I am wondering if I should keep the joining round all in that purple, or if I should deviate and do a few in the other shade of green that I have 2 skeins of.

Finished with reassembling....

So here it is.

I didnt have the space when I started to lay it out so I didnt realize the orange and green where in rows and I had already gotten 2 rows worth sewn in randomly.

The darker of the rainbow colors like purple and the darker green show through at the corner joins in spots. 

I hope she enjoys it once it gets back to her, she can wash it now with out it falling apart!

Blanket repair for mom

So this is a blanket a family member made for my mom.  The first time she washed it we found out it was sewn together using plastic thread.  Which melted, broke and made a mess of the blanket.

My much much much much older sister tried to pull out all the melted plastic, in the process disasembling what was still left connected with it.   So I have no idea how it was supost to look originaly.  I am just going to wing it, since the boarder is still attached and a round of squares  are still attached to the boarder I am going to be sewing this from th outside in.

I plan on working it in a corner to corner style, I started by closing up the edges around the blue square connecting it to the edge of the green and orange that where still attached to the boarder on either side.   Then I start on the other side of the green, connecting it to the blue, I picked a pink square out of the pile of loose squares work its edge acrosss both green and orange then sewed up the side of the two orange squares. 

I am hopping by doing it this way there will be less matching sides up issues.  It seems like not all of the squares are exactly the same some have more/less stitches than others.

I am just doing a simple whip stitch with that ball of rainbow yarn, starting on the back side and securing with a knot at every corner I get to for extra paranoia.

I may try slst'ing the next row together on the back side to see if that works up fast and feels sturdyer.

Chinese Dragon PDF [Pattern]

It is finally finished so here for your crocheting enjoyment!!

This is a very generic Chinese Dragon pattern, you can add more details to it to make your favorit dragon, like working it in red and gold will give you a Mushu style Dragon as apposed to this blue and white Haku look.

Click here for Chinese Dragon PDF
 I would rank this as between Easy and Medium.  Mostly because of the wiring work put into it to pose and have him standing unassisted.

I do think if/when I make an other I will move the legs a bit farther back by 4 to 6 rows.

I used Red Heart Soft for the hair because I like the shine, but I recomend in the pattern to use normal RHSS I realized to late that the shine in the soft makes the hair next to impossible to style unlike a normal acrylic or wool/cotton would.

Blanket Repair

 Ok so this pink and blue blanket is 3 years old its one of the first blankets I ever made.

This is the first repair I have needed to make to it.   I was/am a bit under the weather so the day they pulled it out of the laundry and saw this the text's and phone calls poured in.  My niece is really attached to her blankets (White and pink is #1, pink and blue #2 and the others are just at random) and I just spent most of christmas fixing her white and pink blanket (you can see it below) which semi traumatized her because she thought I was going to take it away forever.  Now that #2 needed repair and I couldnt take it home to fix it so she sat next to me on the floor the whole time she wasnt on her moms lap just to make sure it wouldnt leave the house.

I started out by picking up the bottom loops of the blue row, and leaving them on a strand of the original pink yarn,  There was not quiet enough of the original yarn left to fix it as the point it broke was badly frayed.

This was a pretty easy fix, as the row that came undone was just a mix of  * sc, ch 3 (had to do this threw the bottom of the blue loops), sc * all in the same chain space, then skip a st.


 You can see in the photo, I took my hook out of the working stitch, slipped it threw the bottom loops of the next row, worked a ch/slst on the bottom of the first stitch, chained, then worked an other ch/slst, and sc'd on either side.

I did not have a matching pink so you can see the patch row stand out quiet a bit.  Due to alot of streatching and wear the stitchs are all worn out and stretched so my patch will take a while to match the gauge of the rest of the blanket.     
               
After fixing this one, I did some small work on the pink and white blanket tucking in some tails that I forgot to do at christmas.

Then the blanket I made her for christmas needed a fix.

I am not quiet sure what happened, well no I know what happened I am just not sure how it happened.

The pink and black blanket is made with this wobbly yarn that goes from super bulky to lace weight thin.  I worked it in a basic never ending granny, and some how my starting round unraveled.

The mystory here is I could not find the end of the yarn where it unraveled.  Aparntly it had been in the dresser since christmas, and when #2 broke they pulled it out and soon noticed this hole.

I know I started this blanket with a magic ring, that I weaved the tail into at least twice around.  Now there is no starting tail or any loose end, so I took a scrap of pink that I used on the other blanket, and as with the other blanket I picked up the bottom of the stitches and cinched the opening closed making sure to secure the round in 3 places before attempting to hide off my tails.

The new pink matched the pink in this pink and black yarn very well so I didnt even notice after tucking the tail's where they where hidden.

Here is the blanket monster herself.
Miss Jordan clutching onto blanket #1 for dear life, with blanket #2 tucked under and behind her.

She was so happy it was fix she give me this great big grin.

I managed to get an other grin out of her when I got the pink and black blanket finished and passed off to her as well.

She is lucky she is so cute.  I still need to fix my moms blanket.  Sorry mom!!  I promise I will get to it next!

CD-WIP update

He is not finished yet.  I spent about 4 hours brushing out his hair with a slicker brush, then trimmed it up a bit.                
                 
I will probly brush it some more and give it an other trim later but for now I will leave the hair as it is.

I still need to work out a pattern for ears, and decide if I want to add in a eye lid or any other details.

Sadly I didn't realize how heavy his front end would be so I can not put him in the pose I had planned.  Which would be a springing spiral pose as if he was getting ready to launch himself into the sky his top end is just to heavy and the wire is not enough support.  So I know now if I make an other CD I need to either double up on the wire, possibly twisting it cable style for better support or get a thicker stronger wire that might be harder to manipulate.

At some later point I am going to play with posing him and see if I can come up with something I like better then this pose.

Feeling Sheepy [Pattern]

I finally finished it!  So here you go a PDF Download of the Feeling Sheepy pattern.

To make one like mine you will need two yarns and 2 hooks. Bernat Blanket yarn, and Red Heart WW.  If you don't have bernat, and don't want to buy a ball just to make this tiny guy you can crochet holding 3 strands of any ww yarn together as a replacement but you wont get the same 'fluffy' look.

Sojourn Anthology (1&2)

Beth and Wayne are two of the amazing authors who have published stories in the Sojourn Anthology. 

 Now they both have second stories being published in Sojourn Anthology 2!

As part of the launch of the second anthology Beth did an AMA event on Facebook (back in December) with some of the other authors.

Most authors did a giveaway to random questioners, and that's were I come in.  Beth wanted something cute and small she could gift out to people who 'showed' up to the event.  I quickly whipped up two octo's for the winners.

If you are interested in the books they are for sale in physical and ebook format from amazon.  They are a great collection of new fiction writers and I enjoyed reading them although I will admit as with any collection of short story's I liked more then others.  Beth managed to build characters with depth and intrigue, Wayne's story telling just sucked me in leaving me wanted a bit more.

Here are to short snippets from both of their stories in the new book.

Metamorphosis - Beth Roper

It took patience and cunning to stay alive in the Edinburgh Vaults and Spider had developed both until she was as good as her namesake. Life in the underground sapped everything but the drive to survive until the only beauty she knew was the stars she saw on infrequent trips to the surface and the snatches of ballads she sang to herself when she thought she was alone. Anything else would leave her vulnerable to the predators waiting at every turn. The fact women were disappearing from the Vaults wasn’t a surprise, that someone was looking for them was.
Jax Sinclair could feel a story in the air. It was here in this labyrinth of tunnels, buried under the South Bridge. A bigger story than the penny dreadfuls he was used to writing. His reporter’s instincts would have led him here eventually, but Kat’s visions had pointed the way. His fiancée dreamt nightly of waltzing with a stranger “made of ice” in a grand hall. He would have written it off to her vivid imagination except that she spied a drawing of a missing girl in the paper and swore it was one of the musicians in her dream. The trail led to a brothel in the Vaults, and Spider.
Against her better judgment, Jax convinced Spider to help him uncover the trail of the missing women which took them from the squalor of the Vaults to the elegant drawing rooms of rich men grown bored with drinking and whoring. Their boredom led them to pass times infinitely more dangerous and playmates who cared for nothing but their own pleasure. Would Jax and Spider survive the games or would they become trapped in the heart of winter?

Story  - Wayne Cole

I glanced at the sky and longed for the sun that used to light it. After all these years even a simple star would have brought me joy, but they were gone too. I stood on the snow covered hilltop and looked down at a small stone town. There were torches lining the streets and the snow had been piled up against them. At the very center of town a large bonfire burned and about twenty people were gathered around it trying to get warm. I had never been to this town, but I had seen this before. Ever since the sun had been blocked out, most surviving towns looked similar.

I strained my eyes and found the elderly man I was looking for at the edge of town. The old man walked slowly to the bonfire and the crowd parted to make room. He wore old torn leather armor and a coat so shredded it was little more than rags. With each step he leaned heavily against a poorly carved wooden cane. The man carefully lowered himself to sit on a large rock right at the edge of the fire.

As he began to yell out to the crowd there was a strange energy about him. He had a smile on his face and his movements became more fluid. His voice started out raspy, but quickly smoothed out into the practiced tone of a storyteller. It seemed as if the years were melting away and I couldn’t help but smile myself. I sat on the hill and prepared myself to hear his story.

 

Feeling a bit sheepy

 I wanted a quick project to whip up while working on the dragon.  So I started up this small sheep!

He is sporting some hand painted silver green eyes.  I still need to work up some small little legs but that will need to wait for day light hours when I can see my stitches in the black tweed I will be working them out of.  I am using the same bulky yarn I used when I made a llama last week.  I some how never got a photo of it to share before it was sold.             

This is a bulky baby blanket yarn, it screamed llama at me in the store.  So I bought it, but now I have a huge ball of it still left so I need to get cracking and make a few more llama's and if the sheep goes over well some more sheep.

I am not sure what else I can use the yarn to make.  SC stitchs look like fluffy tuffs of wool which IMO makes for a perfict llama and sheep body. Do you have any sugestions?

I am jotting down notes as I work so long as I dont lose them I will try to get a pattern for this guy out.

CD- Wiring the legs and toes

 Above is the finished front set of legs, fully wired and sewn into the body.  They stand up all on their own with no instability.  I realized as I was taking the photo I had sewn the legs in farther up the body then I marked had off.  I think once he is finished and I pose him it wont be noticeable or even make much difference.


What I did was take 2 pieces of wire about 12 inches long.  I bent the first piece in half and slid it all the way threw the body where I wanted the legs to to, then slipped the other piece threw the bend and interlocked them by bending it.  Think of it like to U shapes with one dangling from the bottom of the other.   I used the piece that was going threw the body to pull the other leg wire inside the body so the join is hidden in the middle.  I had been trying to catch the spine wire at first to try and have the legs connected joined over it but I was not able to pin it down the way I was putting the wiring though.              
                      
I slid the legs onto the wire after I was sure the leg wires where locked together and wouldn't fall out.  I took this time to sew the top of the legs into the body. 

At the toes, I took the wire, bending one side to the front middle toe and the other to the back longer toe.   I bent it back onto itself snipping it just short of the leg section, I found I had about 1 1/2 inch worth of waste wire.  I then used my tail end of yarn to pick up the sides of the toe and sew over the wire with a whip stitch closing the toe up over the wire.  I made sure to sew up the two front toes in the same manor, and criss crossed over the bottom of the leg to close up the small gap.

I did not stuff any part of the leg or toes although in hindsight I could have stuffed the top of the leg with a grape sized amount of stuffing and just rolled the leg a bit to get the stuffing to evenly distribute through it.

I just need to make an other set of legs for the back, then I will get started on all the small things and adding the hair along the spine.

The results are in...

 

First off as I was un pinning the dragon to take him off the board I realized I had made a mistake.

I blocked him perfectly, there is a nice straight line.  It just goes down his belly.  I accidentally blocked him upside down, and yes there is a top and a bottom, the eyes are set 2 stitches above the 1/2 way mark so they are visibly on the top section so I couldn't just flip the whole project.

The blocking still worked well and like I said the belly has a nice straight line, but because I could not see exactly where I was pinning though on the other side the top is not as straight.   So if I do make an other dragon, or decide some of my other amigurumi could do with some blocking I know now that its possible to block 3Dforms, and easy to do.  Just need to triple check, is it right side up, and is it straight before steaming.

I did manage to run a bit 17 gauge rustproof wire through him from nose to tail.  This is wire I had on hand from when I was trying to make a chain mail dice bag for my husband (someone else made and sent him one before I finished so I just set it all aside) I know it came from our local hardware store, its electric fence wire, I went with it because its specifically says its rustproof, and soft enough I do not need anything special to manipulate it just some needle nose pliers that have a wire cutter built in.  I was able to make a small loop with the tip of the wire and tie off a slip knot onto it with some scrap yarn, I then threaded threw my darning needle.  I worked the needle threw the body (popping out every 3-4 inches and working back into the exact spot I came out of) using the needle and scrap yarn to pull and guide the wire all the way through.

I also got my base line down for adding in his spin hair.  I took about a yard and a half of the hair color (blue) and used my yarn needle to embroider a chain stitch all the way down the spine.  You can see in the photos it is not 100% straight but its dang close.  Once I get all the strands of hair connected and brushed you will not see the spine and it will appear straight.  I will be taking 4 inch strands and using a larks knot to attach them to the chain stitch going down one side of the spine and back up the other side so the mane will look nice and full, also so the hair line will look the same on both sides as apposed to if I just held 2 strands and went threw both loops of the chain the sides would look visibly different.

The cats both seemed to think he was a toy meant just for them to attack while I was working on him so there was almost no way to work with him or even get a photo with one one of the two kitties taking notice and literally jumping in on the photo opp.  Dayton in the front, Connie in the back if you can spot her, they thought it was a game of who could attack first when I was running the wire through (it was waving all over the place) not to mention I did have about 1 foot of yarn dangling off the tail end from where I had finished embroidering so that was probably my first kittie attracting mistake.

Chinese Dragon WIP (and steam blocking acrylic)

I am currently working on making a white and blue Chinese style Dragon.

I am keeping some rough notes, so I will have a bare bones pattern to share at the end of it all.

For those of you thinking it looks like a white snake and not at all like a dragon, well yes it doesnt look like a European Dragon with a stocky body and huge wings.  Chinese dragons do not have wings at all as its believed they have mystical power they use to fly, they are said to be a long serpentine body with 4 legs, and a long ridge or hair line from head all the way to the tail.

I had seriously been thinking of wiring this guy as I worked him up but that did not happen.  I might wind up trying to slide some wire in him now that the base of the body is finished.

I had to pin and steam block him, as all crocheters know when you work in the round you get a bit of twisting as you work.  Well with a small diameter tube you tend  to get a lot of twist so much so it twisted all the way around, and that would make it more work for me when I try to run a Ruff down the spine.

So my awsome husband ran down to the basement and got my blocking mat so I could 'block' my dragon.   The first1/3 of the dragon was pinned down fairly easily it had almost no twist, it was when I got to the last 1/3 that the twist was really bad.  I had to put 12 T-pins into the end tail to get my rows to line up as close to perfect as I could.

From here I went back over double checking the line of the spine was straight, which is good because I had it twisting off still so I was able to fix it fairly painlessly.  I then used my garment/upholstery steamer I got on sale (only $19!!)  and slowly steamed it.  Holding the steam head about one inch from the work for15 to 20 seconds per section with a 3 1/2 inch head over 2-3 ft of dragon before moving on.  I went over the body till the 10oz of water I had put in the machine was used up (give or take an ounce).  I know I got at the least 4 passes of the body fully with some focused steaming on the tail end where the worst of the twisting occurred.  You can get the same blocking results with a iron that has a steamer setting I would just recommend you hold it farther away as the iron's heat itself will affect the yarn (2-4 inches).


I have taken out most of the T-pins but the head and last tail pin there has been no attempt to twist back up but I will be leaving it pinned over night so that it can dry up as the steam did leave it a bit damp.

I also got some time to paint up some eyes so he will be sporting custom painted eyes, I was going for a silver sky blue, I will try to get a better photo of the head later.

On Sunday I will hopefully know if I will be hosting a 30-60 minute pannel at a local anime/geek convention KawaCon.  Its been up in the air for a  while now when I was ask I said yes right away they just have to work out details on their end, it on hinges on if they have an open room and time slot.

Also I will be out at Animeggroll Sunday (1/18/15) helping people make/finish some Octos from 12-2!!

Resolution in the making... (the colors)

Here is the start of my resolution.

I have narrowed it down to these colors for my Happypotamus that I will be making at the leaset 1 african flower motif a month.

From top down, left to right the colors shown are; Shoal, Indigo Heather, Wonderland Heather, Tranquil, Marina, and Clarity.  These are all Knit Picks Palette 100% Peruvian Highland Wool (50g/231yd), that I managed to get for a steal during the 'Big Damn Yarn Sale' back in November.  The lighting sucks, its winter here so no out door photo shoots so the colors in the picture are a bit washed out compaired to IRL.

Since I have the most of  Shoal and Indigo (2 balls each, where I only have one of everything else) I believe one of them will be my main join color.  One of the things I find irritating about a project like this is its a LARGE item being made so it will take up more than a ball of yarn but the pattern does not give any yardage amounts, just how much the shell of the hippo un-stuffed weighed.  So I may have enough, I may have way to much, or I could just run out half way threw.      
                      
                           
With out farther ado- I give you January's First Motif

 From middle out I used Wonderland, Mirina, and Indigo.  The lovely Dayton thought it was a toy for her and grabbed it before I could get a photo of it for scale with the 2.00mm hook I am using

Semi matching hat for the momma

So for Christmas I made my niece this lattic hat.          
             
Here she is sporting it with her new (faux) fur coat, getting ready to go out in her new hat.            
             
I love that smirk shes giving there.

Anyways her momma talked me into a yarn shopping trip, which is where I got the yarn for the fox cowl I posted about earlier.             
              
While there we picked up yarn to make her momma a matching (same style) hat.


Jordans hat, is wool chroma in mesa base, with black acrylic overlay.
Christines (the momma) hat is turquis base (RH soft), with an overlay of Black Canyon (LB Heartland) which has nice specs of gray through out it.

I freehanded it from what I remeber doing last time. 

I stared with the black, for 2 rows before bringing in the base color the base rows once I got the increase sections done where just alternating rows between DC all (BC), and SC 3 (BC) with overlay FPTRB cluster(OC).

If you ever attempt a lattice/diamond hat keep an eye on the color changes, its easy to make them too tight, which will affect the stretch and fit (making it much smaller).

I found I did this on my first overlay row and had to unravel both colors back a full row which is not fun but hey I learned from it and now I can share that advice with you!

Baby Boy Blanket

This is a gift for one of my cousins who is having a boy.  Its a circular chevron in the round in the colors baby blue, and chocolate. 

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone who has not attempted both a circular blanket, and done chevron before.  I had a few issues while working it with rippling but I manage to work most of them out, by doing a round with no increases (the brown rounds).  I also started my rounds in a bad spot, where my joins where on top of a skip/decrease section and it floated to right after and my count got messed up so on the next color change I just cut the yarn and did a standing DC start 3 stitch's from the tip of the point before my previous join.

I do not have a pattern, as I worked on this on the go at a friends, and during new years at a party and didnt write down what I did but it should be similar to any of these patterns on Ravelry.   FYI if you dont have a Rav account make one now, its free, they wont spam you with emails, and there are ton's of patterns including some of mine you can find with there customizable search tools.

Mr Bean Teddy

Almost a month ago I had someone request me to make a pattern for Mr Bean's Teddy Bear.

I did not have the time to write it from scratch for free and test it so here is my untested pattern based loosly off of  this design by Sarah Bradberry knitting pattern.  I thought I would share it out with everyone.

Head Pieces
Head front/snout
1- chain 12, ch 1 turn sc 12
2- sc all
3-Sc 2, inc, sc 8, inc, sc 2 (14)
4- sc 1 inc, sc 10, inc, sc (16)
5- sc 3, inc, sc 8, inc, sc 3 (18)
6- sc all
7- sc 4, inc, sc 10, inc, sc 4 (20)
8- sc, inc, sc 16, inc, sc (22)
9-sc 6, inc, sc 8, inc, sc 6 (24)
10- sc all
11- sc 7, inc, sc 10, inc, sc 7 (26)
12- sc, inc, sc 22, inc, sc (28)
13-15 sc all
16- sc, inc, sc 24, inc, sc (30)
17-19- sc all
20-sc, inc, sc 26, inc, sc (32)
21-22- sc all
23-sc 9, dec, sc 10, dec, sc 9 (30)
24- sc, inc, sc 26, inc, sc (32)
25-sc 9, dec, sc 10, dec, sc 9 (30)
26-sc all
27- sc 8, dec, sc 10, dec, sc 8 (28)
28-sc, inc, sc 24, inc, sc (30)
29- sc 9, dec, sc 8, dec, sc 9 (28)
30-sc all
31-sc 9, dec, sc 6, dec, sc 9 (26)
32-sc, inc, sc 22, inc, sc (28)
33-35- sc all
Unclear what she wants here- either work 14 row decreasing down to 8 stitchs or work 14 rows of sc then decrease so I am just going to write out 14 rows of decrease as thats what I think would look right
36- sc, dec, sc 20, dec, sc (26)
37- sc, dec, sc 18, dec, sc (24)
38- sc, dec, sc 16, dec, sc (22)
39- sc, dec, sc 14, dec, sc (20)
40- sc, dec, sc 12, dec, sc (18)
41- sc, dec, sc 10, dec, sc (16)
42- sc, dec, sc 8, dec, sc (14)
43- sc, dec, sc 6, dec, sc (12)
44- sc, dec, sc 4, dec, sc (8)

Head back
1- Ch 12, chain 1 turn, sc 12
2- Ch 1, turn, sc 1, increase, sc 8, inc, sc (14) 3- chain 1 turn (do this at the beginning from now out unless I state other wise -.0) Sc 1, inc, sc 10, inc, sc (16)
4-Sc 1, inc, sc 12, inc, sc (18)
5- sc, inc, sc 14, inc, sc (20) 6- sc, inc, sc 16, inc, sc (22) 7- sc, inc, sc 18, inc, sc (24)
8- sc, inc, sc 20, inc, sc (26)
9- sc, inc, sc 22, inc, sc (28)
10-sc, inc, sc 24, inc, sc (30)
11-25- sc all (30) --this could be confusing she might want you to work the decreaeses across these 14 rows or she may have ment work 14 then decreass--- if it looks wrong compaired to the front section skip 11-25 and move straight to 26
26- sc,dec, sc 24, dec, sc (28)
27-sc,dec, sc 22, dec, sc (26)
28- sc,dec, sc 20, dec, sc(24)
29- sc,dec, sc 18, dec, sc (22)
30-sc,dec, sc 16, dec, sc (20)
31-sc,dec, sc 14, dec, sc (18)
32-sc,dec, sc 12, dec, sc (16)
33-sc,dec, sc 10, dec, sc (14)
34-sc,dec, sc 8, dec, sc (12)
35-sc,dec, sc 6, dec, sc (10)
36- sc,dec, sc 4, dec, sc (8)

Ears -make 4
1Chain 22+1, sc 22
2- dec, sc 18, dec
3-sc all
4- dec, sc 16, dec
5- sc all
Repeat the decrease at the begining/end alterating with rows of sc till you are left with 8 stitches

Arms-make 2
1- Chain 16+1, sc 16 2-21- sc all
22-sc, inc, sc 4, inc, sc1, inc, sc 5, inc, sc (20)
23-43- sc all
44-sc, inc, sc 6, inc, sc 2, inc, sc 6, inc, sc 1 (24)
45-56- sc all
(change to pale hand color yarn)
57-62- sc all
63- dec, sc 8, dec, dec, sc 8, dec (20)
64-sc all
65-dec, sc 6, dec, dec, sc 6, dec (16)
66-sc all
67-dec, sc 4, dec, dec, sc 4, dec (12)
68-sc
69-dec, sc 2, dec, dec, sc 2, dec (8)
70- sc all

Legs make 2
1-chain 22+1 sc 22
2-64 sc all
65-dec, sc 18, dec (20)
66- sc all
67- Dec, sc 16, dec (18)
68 sc all
69- dec, sc 14, dec (16)
70- sc all
71 dec, sc 12, dec (14)
72 sc all
73 dec, sc 10, dec (12)
74- sc all
75- dec, sc 8, dec (10)
76 sc all
77- dec, sc 6, dec (8)

Feet bottoms make 2
1-ch 2+1, sc 2
2- inc all (4)
3-inc, sc 2, inc (6)
4-ince, sc 4, inc, (8)
5- inc, sc 6, inc (10)
6-16- sc all
7-dec, sc 6, dec
8 dec, sc 4, dec
9 dec, sc 2, dec
10 dec, dec (2)

Body- make 2
1-chain 12+1, sc 12
2- inc, sc 10, inc (14) 3- inc, sc 12, inc (16) 4-ince, sc 14, inc (18)
5 inc, sc 16, inc (20)
6 inc, sc 18, inc (22)
7 inc, sc 20, inc (24)
8 inc, sc 22, inc (26)
9-59 sc all
60 dec, sc 22, dec
61 dec, sc 20, dec
62 dec, sc 18, dec
63 dec, sc 16, dec
64 dec, sc 14, dec
65 dec, sc 12, dec
66 dec, sc 10, dec

I have not tested this pattern at all (dont have time/material).  I would love feedback to know if it works or has any major flaws.

What does the Fox say?

I took inspiration from 'The Flint Fox Cowl' in making this for my niece.

I didn't like TFFC pattern, it had an odd texture and the sizing was way off only the smallest size would have come out right, and her sizing for everything else is very vague, and when I started the toddler size the hood section came out big enough for me to wear it so I scraped it and started over making it up as I went.  (Her gauge said with bulky yarn ((I am using the same yarn she did)) and a L hook 2 1/2 stitchs = inch and my gauge matched that so it wasn't a gauge tension issue) Also her yardage was off by almost 2/3 a skein.

I worked from the bottom up. Here is what I did for a toddler/child size--
I used up 3 full skeins of bulky orange  (318 yd), just under a full skein of dark gray (100 yd), and a very small amount of silver for the front of the ears (less then 10 yds)            
Dark Gray, Chain 60 (+2 to turn)-hdc across (60 st do not count turning chain as a stitch)

Alternating Front Post HDC, Back Post HDC for 2 rounds (=3 finished rounds)

Then I switched to orange, and hdc 7 rounds.  (10 finished rounds) 

Then I worked a shoulder section decrease by *hdc 5, dec*  repeating around (11 finished rounds)
I did an other rounds of shoulder shaping *hdc 4, dec* around. (12  finished rounds)     
            
Here I stopped working in rounds and worked 12 rows back and forth evenly in HDC.         

I flipped the peice inside out and slst the top of the flat pannels together to form the hood, taking extra care at the end, I did a decrease twice so as not to have a sharp point stitcking out when I flipped it back right side out.            

Using the dark gray I worked a round of HDC around the opening of the face, chaining 4 (+2 TC) and worked back across (4 hdc into the chain ) the face section. I worked this back and forth for 4 rows.  To get the collar to lay right I whip stitched the edge of the start of the collar and the bottom of the chain 4 together to make a point right in the middle and pinned it in place by sewing a botton over it.

The ears are 2 peices that are SC together, you just hold them together and work threw both pieces as if it was one.

Mr- sc 2, close the ring.  ch 1 turn, sc 2, ch 1 turn increase across (4 st), Ch 1 turn sc across, ch 1 turn sc inc inc sc (6), ch 1 turn sc all, ch 1 turn inc sc4 inc (8), ch 1 turn sc all (work this for 3 rows)

Make two in dark gray and two in white/silver then SC from the bottom up putting 2 stitchs into the point do not work across the bottom of the ear as you will be sewing it shut as you stitch it onto the hood.

I stitched my ears into place 2 rows from the join of the top of the hood, right where the folded brim/collar of dark gray end's

You can stitch the brim down to hold the fold or just leave it as is so it can be flipped out on particularly windy/rainy days.


When I started this I though I might make one for me, but I bought the yarn based on her yardage and I know I wont have enough so I might make a faux fox scarf instead.



Bonus! Got to hang out with my niece and managed to get a shot of her in the hood!  Little stinker knew what we where up to so getting a good shot was not easy.

Happy New Year/Holidays!

So for me the holidays have come and are over.  I went to Christmas with gifts and wound up fixing that pink and white (not made by me) blanket for my niece (that I have fixed before) and bringing home a blanket of my moms (also not made by me), which should be easy as its just sewing squares back together.

I want to have a resolution that I can stick to this year.  So I though hard about it, and there is a pattern I have been wanting to make its called the Happypotamus by Heidi Bears but I have been avoiding because of the amount of motif's you have to make and sew or join as you go.

So my resolution for 2015, is to create at least 1 african flower motif a month or more till I finish a Happypotamus.  There is a total of 44 motifs that make this hippo so if I make 3 a month I will finish it in time for Christmas 2015.  I hope I get it finished by June so it can be a birthday gift to myself but that will require 7 motif's a month.             
                           
I know I could just sit down and knock it out in a week or two but I dont want to burn myself out, that and I have other items I need to work on- Fox Cowl, an other lattes hat, sewing together a granny square blanket, making a star burst baby blanket, and I might be doing a Amigurumi Pannel at a upcoming convention called Kawa Kon which could be really exiting.  If I do get a panel slot I plan on making a few  example ami's from small simple things to larger items that I might choose to give away during the panel to anyone who has interesting questions/wearing awesome cosplay.