Commision time!

 Made a cute keychain sized Groot as a commission request from Wendy.

I hope he is everything you wanted!  He will see you as soon as quatrain is over.

Its been a while...

 Its been a while since I have picked up a hook.  It feels good to make a project again.  I went with my default chibi dragon because I know the pattern well. 

 Since I felt stiff making the smaller pieces I decided to embroider details on instead of making the small horns or ears, I did this before with my Magma Dragon but this time not in quiet as much detail.

Out side of crochet, I have been doing alot of sketching and watercolor as its easier on my shoulders and back.  

Also been organizing my crochet stuff as it has gotten a bit buried and lost due to not being able to use it.  Some of my favorit hooks are still missing, and some of the eyes and other attachments but I am hoping once I get a dent into my craft-mountain I will be finding all the things I keep looking for when I have an idea for something to make.

I also got 2 project bags over christmas that I love and have been slowly filling up with the items I always need on the go with a project as I find them.  I also got a cart for crafts that helps keep my colection of hooks all in one space.  Its a bit wobbly if you put to much weight in it but it holds up and gets the job done -- would defently recommend if you can get it on sale or 50% off.

This time I mean it

 So I went back and worked some more on this guy.  I am not sure the differences are as visible to others as they are to me.
I bulked up his head a bit more to give him more of a brow line.  I trimmed him up a bit around the ears. 
He will be going off to Animeggroll this weekend to find his forever home.

Is this the end...?

So Falcor is tentivily finished.  Its been a long long process.  I feel like something is still 'off' with him but I just cant put a finger on what I can do to improve him so for now I am done working on him.  I finished adding all his belly fur, and felting his ears, nose, and face.

I know the photos do not show him off to his best angles, I might need to go in and trim some more around the face.

Update!!

I am still crocheting, just going at it very slowly!!
This is my current progress on the Falcor project.  It takes forever to brush out the yarn and felt it in, been working on it for 3 hours today and only got about an inch worth of the belly done.

Out side of this, I am doing Inktober -- but in cats.  Its keeping my creativty going.

I know this is a short post but I have not posted in a while and wanted to do an update.

A little creativity non fiber related + Lowcarb cake at the end

So one of the things I can do with out alot of pain (still get pain if I do it to long) is draw.

I had been watching a lot of videos lately on drawing, while taking a break from doing all the long and very tedious felting on my Falcor project.

It seemed like everyone was playing around with Posca paint markers, and shrink film.  So I wanted to do the same.  This is my first test batch  of keychain/zipper pulls.

In the first image is the unbaked pieces, and a six inch ruler.  The second image is of the baked pieces with the same ruler to show the shrinkage.

I baked them at 300 (the package says 300-350) for two minutes.  There was a ton of curling, and Deadpool had flipped completely over by the time I pulled them out.  I did have to press them flat from some curling,  Deadpool also kept a bit of concaveness if I had a heat gun I might be able to blast him and press again to get him flatter since I dont want to reheat the oven for it.  The right edge of the pokeball also curled in some what and I just wasn't able to uncurl it where it touched itself but it still came out nice.  Also Pikachu's eye shine did not seem to shrink at all making his eyes look almost all white, not sure what happened there as the white for Deadpool eyes shrunk nicely.  Happy's foot snapped off while I was pressing on that piece which means if I do more pieces with smaller details I need to leave some of the clear around  them like I did with the whiskers.  Happy also did not shrink as well as the other pieces, but he was the largest, and possibly should have been left in longer -- learning lesson for me. He is a bit wavy and after snapping on foot off I didn't feel like I could finish pressing him till flat without damaging him more.

Out of them all I am loving how the Hyrule Shield turned out it has a bit of buckling to it but it came out just as I had thought it would.

Now that they had cooled off, I wanted to seal the painted face's with mod podge.  That was a mistake. 

I did not realize it right away as the mod podge I use is opaque while wet, but the black, and the yellow both reactivated when the MP went on smearing them both.

Its not as obvious on the shield but I did the Pikachu first and some of the yellow transferred over.  Luckily non of the other colors on the shield seemed to bleed.

Deadpool is taking quite a while to dry, but it looks like he did bleed over a bit as well which is sad, I was pretty happy with him.  The black was the only part that smeared all over.

Outside of that I am also baking a cake today -- its my Hubbys birthday!! 
Its a low carb vanilla cake, they fell just a bit while cooling, but I am hoping they are tasty.  I used a keto pancake mix (1cup) as a sub for sugar and 1/2 of the flour, coconut flour (1/4 cup), real butter (1/3 cup),  4 eggs, 1 vanila bean scrapings (as well as a few splashes on extract), 1 box sugar free vanilla pudding mix, and 5 splashes of milk (till the batter looked 'right'). 
I mixed all the wet +vanilla scrapings+pudding, then shifted in the dry and threw it into a 350F oven for 25 minutes, it two 6in round backing pans lined with parchment paper on  the bottom, and sprayed with coconut oil on the sides.
I plan on icing the outside with a Cool Whip+SF Pudding mix, I plan on putting a layer of SF strawberry preserves between the layers.

Finaly finished!!

Lace Wrap (pattern by Marly Bird)

So 3 skeins of chroma, and roughly 6 months of working on it through the pain, and its finished.

Its been storming off and on for the past few days so I did a photo inside, the colors are a bit washed out but there was nothing I could do about that.  Its way more vibrate, but I am happy with it and glad I have finished it.

Now I will just have to focus on working on my Falkor.  I have done so much brushing of yarn that I feel like I have breathed in yarn fluff any time I get my kit out that I have been keeping the project in.

I am currently up to felting fur onto his rear legs, and along the sequin section on his back I will update on it when I have made more progress.

 

Stabby stab stab...

 Day one of felting....
That was about 3/4 hours of brushing ironing and stabbing.  I got in a nice felting kit, and a new slicker brush that are making this go faster.  The leather finger/thumb covers have saved me from repeated stabbings (stab count 1 so far).

 Day... um I forget 3 maybe?  Tons more brushing and stabing and brushing, and more stabbing.

As seen from above, I am felting from the tail tip up towards the face.  My felting needle has spear'd a few of the sequins causing them to burst in half and fly at my face. 

I am almost out of brushed yarn to felt so I am stopping here.  I will need to measure out more yarn loop it on one of my sticks to brush it out and flat iron it smooth.

Yes I am using disposable chopsticks to secure the yarn to for brushing and flat ironing so far it holds up well and keeps my fingers away from the really hot flat iron (burns so far 0).

Sorry for the messy work space pic's, my desk tops black laqaurd top pealed off and I havednt finished making it look arty with scribbles, or sealed it against water/liquid.  BUT thats a project for an other day.

Finaly got started on this....

So I have been toying with this idea for a Falkor for a while, as someone requested it but even after reaching out to them I have not heard back from them.  BUT as a fan of Never Ending Story the idea stuck with me, when I was in to much pain to crochet I would jot out notes for it, scrible down possible patterns, what might work best on the scales and fur ect.

I have the base made, now I just have to cover it in fur.  Which means I am going to be brushing out and flat ironing a ton of yarn.  Then felting for days to get it all onto the base.

I know it doesnt look like much yet but one the fur is laid down it should start to show some personality.  I just need to get my hands on a slicker brush (find the one I own or buy a new one).

Some amigurumis!!

 Here are some of the amigurumi's I have been trying to crank out to take into Animeggroll.

I got 3 of my small octo's done, used a chunky dark teal for the first one, and normal ww for the second two in random blues.

I tried my hand at making a bat like creature, and a weird water dinosaur like monster.  I finished it all off with something I havent worked up in a while, a Chibi Cthulhu. 

I am still working slowly, so sorry for not making post more regularly I just wanted to wait till I had a selection of amigurumi before making a post.

I am also still working away on that shawl I am working on it chroma, almost killed off my 2nd skein which means I am going to have to dig out the last 3rd skein which should finish it off.

This whole working slow is not easy.  I have been doing about 2 rows on the shawl every other day and an amigurumi every here or there.  I have a hard time when doing ami's right now because I am compelled to finish them in one go.  I dont have the temperament to leave a small piece unfinished and push through the pain to get it done.

I think out of all of these, I loved working on the bat the most.  I did the wings a bit differently then I have done them on any of my other pieces and I think I really like it and will do the wings like them more often. 

I really like how the water dino turned out but I am not sure about the yarn I picked for it, I didnt realize it had some of those darker toned colors in it (specifically the swampy green) I liked the pastel rainbow colors that where in it.

WIP Update on Chevron Waves Lacy Wrap

I have made it all the way through one full showing of the colorway, and am about 1/2 into the next repeat.  Got about 12 inches of work completed -- which for me is painful mentally to be progressing this slowly; but is preventing it from being painful physically if I went at it like I would normally have before shoulder issues.

I fear I will not finish this till mid summer.  Or even later.

Current WIP

So I am currently, very slowly working on a Lacy Wrap it will be slow going with both my shoulders acting up.  I am using the light up hook my MIL got me for christmas and the Chroma Lace weight 'Groovy' yarn.

The pattern is one of Marly Birds, I am fallowing the 'free' version (she has a pdf with chart version with out ad's as well), there are some questionable areas where things should be explained better, or whats said is not what is shown. So far I am getting a big of bunching up/rippling which I think comes from the straight edge start before going into the ripple work.  I am hoping when its blocked that will go away.  Also she uses a linked HDC but the description for working it does not match the video she tells you to watch to learn how to do it, basically fallow the video but work into the middle loop instead of the one shown in the video and you get close to what she wrote -- but in the end I just wound up working HDC as doing the linked HDC did not really show much of a difference in look or structure.  

All in all, the pattern looks super cute, and I am hoping it will be a good distraction for a while.

If you dont hear from me for a while its due to health, and grieving the loss of my baby girl Chloe.
She started having seizures right before Christmas, and after new years we found out it was cancer and the seizures started coming to often and none of the medications we tried helped and we had to let her go.   She was our best girl, the sweetest dog, and gave us so much love.

 

Shoulder updates

So a short update, I am on my 2nd round of shots.  This round did show a noticeable different but the pain is coming back.  I also just restarted Physical Therapy, and it HURTS but I am hoping it will help.  I will be going back to the Ortho at the end of this month, possibly for more shots.  After a long talk with the PT, I am looking at 1 to possibly 2 years worth of work before my shoulder will be back to its peak -- which might not be the shape it was in before it was hurt (which sucks).

Good news -- I have been given the go ahead for light to moderatly light crochet work, for short periods of time.  I was told not to push or stress my shoulder/arm so I am looking at only easy basic projects.

Now that that is all said, crochet news!  I am working on a new fingerless mitt pattern, the involves a faux knit ribbed cuffs, and square 'windows' for some breathablity.  I will be working up the testing mitt but it will take me a while as I am going slow which is so hard for me. 

Share photos of your favorit projects to help cheer me up!!!!

Testing

Fur-glue drying

 Ok so I am sitting here with my heating pad cranked up on my shoulder.

Why, well because I wanted to test out my plan's.  I though only crocheting 10 stitches by 3 rows wouldn't hurt to much.  But I was wrong I guess, I didn't take into account brushing out the yarn and flat ironing it might strain my shoulder as well.

I am happy I tested it out.  I need to get a new slicker brush what I have seems to eat up and snarl 1/2 the fiber. 

So on to what I did to test my ideas on how to attach brushed yarn fur to the main body of my crochet.  I got some fabric glue, that claimed to work on multipul fabric types, and stretch with the fabric when dry.  I started by measuring out a few loops of yarn, about 10, and tying them all together and snipping the bottom to make a sort of tassel.  Which I then brushed the heck out of, and took a low head flat iron for hair and ran the brushed yarn through.  I made sure to alternate between brushing and using the flat iron till I had the fur like consultancy I was happy with.

First I took my fur and snipped 1/3 of it from the bottom making sure to hold it firm just below cutting.  Then I used some painters tape to hold that raw edge just long enough that I could add the fabric glue along the top 1/8th inch raw edge that I just cut.  I used a scrap piece of paper to smooth the glue out, moving from just below the glue pushing to the raw edge.  I let that sit long enough to firm up enough to remove it from the tape then glued it to my small swatch, upside down so when the glue was almost dry but still tacky I flipped the hair over and patted it down hiding the glue seem.

Now at this point, I was kicking myself thinking this would be a ton of work especially if I have to wait for each small strip to dry up before I can work on adding more to a project.  Thats when I rembered I still have my felting needle, just took 20 minutes of digging to find it and I was good to test out my new idea.
I chopped off some more fur, and pinned it to the top of the swatch, and went stab happy (WARNING be very careful when using a felting needle the barbs on it will make a nasty gagged rip in your finger/hand) trying to felt the fur strands to the swatch.

Now that all being said, glue was a waste of time, after it was dry I went to run my fingers through the fur only to have the strip of fur detach from the swatch with almost no force or pulling.  I tried the same with the felted, and it held up mostly, only a few strands slipped out and I think that can be chalked up to my not spending enough time felting at it.  I only had a 1 needle stabber going over this so it was easy to miss, or 1/2 felt spots.  I think felting is the way I will go but I am going to see about getting a multi needle felter when I start the Falcor project.

Oh also I decided on trying to use some sequined edging for the strip of scales that goes down his backside, I will have to sew the strip by hand but its a little less work then trying to crochet with sequins and keep a clean straight line.

The more work, and testing I do the more I realize making a Falcor will be a very time consuming and difficult project.  I know the hair alone just brushing out enough of it will take days not to mention felting it into the body.   Then there is the hand stitching needed to attach the sequins, the wire armature so he is poseable, and lastly actually writing and crocheting (testing) a pattern. 

I am thinking no one will probably buy it for the price I will be asking, because I know I will be putting a butt ton of hours into it even being a fast crocheter I expect this to take me a month to 2 months start to finish once my shoulder is back in working order that is.

Updates and stuff...

So I have seen an orthopedic doctor about my shoulder finally (well a week or so ago).  He said the soft pad between my arm bone, and shoulder bone is the issue.  Its as hard as a rock, instead of being elastic like rubber bands.  I had myself a panic attack while he gave me some shots that are suppose to help, although he did say it could take some time (ie hours/days/weeks) to show improvement.  So far I do not see any difference in range of motion or pain.
I am going back to see him again in 3 weeks, and will most likely need to get more shots.  I have been told to go easy on my shoulder movement (that was after 3 weeks of physical therapy with no improvement) so I have been doing other things like drawing that dont require the use of my shoulder. 
I really miss doing crochet, so since I cant right now I am plotting out making something for when my shoulder is working again.
This is something I was requested through a friend, but every time I try to contact the requester I always get voice mail.  Despite that this is something I am really interested in making anyways.
Yes that is a badly drawn Falcor from Neverending Story drawn by me.  Its going to be my inspiration for making the crochet version.
They way I am thinking of doing this will be very different from anything else I have done.  Falcor has scales along the spine of his back, and long fur.  So I am thinking possibly sequins along the spine for scales, and brushing out some long strands of yarn to turn into 'fur' that I will have to find some way to attach, I was thinking making locks of the fur and using fabric glue to attach it to the main body.  Before even attempting it I need to do a glue swatching, gluing 'fur' to a small swatch of crochet fabric.  Then I will see what works, what doesn't work, and what looks good of what does work.   Before getting to far into the project and finding out my plan might not work well I want to make sure its feesable.   If any of you know of a good glue that works well on acrylic yarn that drys clear or semi clear and flexible please let me know.  The other idea, sequins, I am having a hard time finding ones that I think look right, they need to be iridescent and a pale pink/peach color.  I am also struggling with should I get sequins I have to sew on indevidualy, get edging strips (I have not seen any yet I think would work) of sequins, or get sequined fabric (which would leave me with extra fabric, and the price is insane). 
That being said I hope I can get back into crocheting soon.  I will be missing out on this years ResoBox Amigurumi Exhibit, and there will most likely be no crochet Christmas gifts either.

Request

You guys might have seen this pattern floating around on Facebook, I got a request to make one. 

It took me a while working off an on (due to pain) but he is finaly finished!!

Now this is not my octo pattern, I worked it up from a photo I was given but if you guys want to make your own there is a pattern for it, for sale, over on etsy.  LilCrochetLove is the orginal pattern designer, and she even sells kits with almost everything you would need to make your own.  Since the pattern is very basic (aka beginer lvl) it should be super easy for anyone to work up.

Hey...

So I have not posted alot since April/Feb, most of that is due to the fact I have not been able to crochet.  I have finaly gotten to deal with my shoulder/arm/back issues and am hoping with the help of my PT I will be back to hooking soon.

In the mean time, what I have managed to get done, some things I bought, and a 2 week struggle to make something that should have taken me a day at worst.

 Got a set of light up rechargeable hooks off Wish.com and I can not wait to use them for something.  They have a USB charging cable that came with them, and a nice fo-leather case.  If you can not tell, there are 2 brightness settings, and 9 interchangable hook heads.  I love that the handle is chunky like an ergo handle.

 In my last post you saw the single's I was spinning from this batt, well here is the 3ply I made from the single, still have a full 4 oz on a bobbin that needs plying, and 8 oz of batt that I just dont have enough bobbins to spin which is why I ply'd some up.  Its easier to use the EEW on my arm/shoulder then crochet but I still has some pain and had to take breaks.

 Modeling by Tracey, is a project that took me 2 weeks when it should have only taken a day or two at most.  I had one of those thin print summer scarfs with a batman motif that I love but I am not a summer scarf person.  So I wanted to come up with a way to still use it, and with a little googlefoo I found some photos of people turning scarfs like mine into a light summer vest/coverup, so I just copied the photo as best I could, it was simple being a pineapple motif in a racerback style that I thought was just too cute.

If you want to try making one, find a cute motif (it will help to chart it out) and take your scarf fold it in half and thats where the mid point of the motif should hit--I made the racerback as one piece before sewing it onto the scarf.  Once I got the back stitched on, I pinnned the straps to where I could easily get the vest on/off (ok I lie... I sewed them on eyeballing it messed up and had to pull my stitches out and properly line them up) before sewing them down (the second time).

EEW

 So I have been playing with my EEW mini.  I spun about 0.5oz on the bobbin.  I think my single is far more constant then when I use my Ladybug, or it could just be I have more skill from working with the wheel so adapting to the electric wheel was not as hard.  

My only complaints are the tension, it is not adjustable so I have to crank the speed up to get it to take up, and the power cable is super short had to order a extension cable so I dont have to sit on the floor next to an outlet to spin. 

This fiber had alot of small specs of other fiber randomly through out it that where felted creating some slubs that I think will even out if I ply this up.  I still have 1.5oz of this fiber left to spin.  I am spinning from batts which is also new for me.

I also show a photo of the single with a halls cough drop (normaly people use a small coin but I use whats handy) for size.

ITS HERE

So a while back, I backed a kickstarter for a Mini Electric spinning wheel.  I will admit I did not think it would succeed but I  am more then excited about getting one!!
This wheel is TINY, and so light weight when I picked up the package I thought it was empty.  Its about the size of 2 buisness cards next to each other and as wide as one.
I have not got it spinning up yet, but I plan on trying it out tomorrow while I baby sit.  Right now I am going to try and make up a pattern for a bag to hold/travel with it in.

Some creativity.....

 So at some point between  mid December and January my crochet hook case with all my hooks (except those stuck with projects) disappeared.  So I finaly broke down and got a new set, that came with a case.  I have nothing against bright pink, but I really wanted to dress up the case so I used the soot spirit vinyl I made a while back on it.  I think once I find the Totoro I cut at the same time I will add it to the other side.

I am liking this case, I was able to slide a stitch holder pin into the tag on the case, and slide my 2 stitch counters that came with the set on the pin.  I wont loose my counter, and it will be easier to keep track of where I left off in a project, or when I am making a new one how many rows I am in.

Out side of that I have been trying to crochet a new fingerless mitt design with some lace weight yarn, and have been struggling with it.  As in I have frogged and reworked it a dozen times.  I am currently working up a ribbed band hoping this time I will like it and it will turn out.

Outside of crochet, I have made a few shirts!
I am a huge Firefly fan, so this first one is inspired by a Wash quote "I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar".  Its the Serenity silhouette on a leaf (suppost to look like its drifting in the wind).  This is the first project I made with foil, I love the shiny'ness of it.

This second one is a gift for my niece, I let her pick out a dragon to go onto a shirt for her.  I kind of wish I had cut the dragon a bit bigger but when I was working the design in the cricut software I didnt have the shirt yet to size it and was guesstimating.  I liked how all the small details in it worked out, she wanted shiny so I used the same gold foil.

The last shirt I did, is an other Firefly inspired design.  This one comes from one of Kaylee's favorite works 'Shiny'.   To make it more then just a shirt with wording on it, I made the
tittle a tiny Serenity, and used a font as close to the font used in the show.  I also gave it a bit of a distressed look to help match the font.