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.

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.

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!!