CON-tamination and Japanese Festival

Left to Right
Snow owl, Dark green Chibi Cthulhu, Penguin, Skel-o-Bunbun, Red CC, strawberry, onigiri, Pink 'LOVE' CC, Girl inYukata, Green CC,

 

 

I am gearing up for CON-tamination  a horror and pop culture convention that is this weekend at the  Holiday Inn South County Center.  The nice people over at Animeggroll have a booth at the convention and said they would sell some of my critters for me!  So I will not be there but do look out for Animeggrolls booth they will be bringing a lot of interesting things with them.

Now on to other news!  I might get to consign some items at the Japanese Festival that Missouri Botanical Garden is holding Labor day weekend (Aug 31-Sept 2).   I am going in to speak with them about it on Thursday and taking in the motley crew you see above for examples of my work.   Most of these guys will be going off to the con Friday, and I did not have  any other work on hand to take in so I hope they are not put off by the creepy horror theme of Cthulhu's and Skel-o-Bunbun's.

How to make amigurumi Octopus Tutorial

So my niece Jordan who gets a lot of my creations absolutely loves my Octo-Jelly's  as they call them.  She is 6 or 7~ish months old (BAD auntie for not knowing) and her mom had to ask me to make her some more because when they take it away to wash it she apparently gets very upset.

I made a Tutorial on deviant art when I first started making them, but I have improved on it or at least made it easier on me to make them in one whole piece.

This little octo amigurumi is probably the easiest to start off with if you have never crochet in the round before.  It simply is a ball, with spirals attached if you fallow the tutorial I made earlier.  The adjustment I made to make it easier is incorporating the spirals into the ball.  On the first decrease row after each decrease (you work the decrease and pull the loop threw three loops) I would chain a length about 22 ch and put 2 DC in each stitch up or more depending on how tight you want to make the spiral part of the whole body then sc into the next st fallowing the pattern for dec and sc's.  Then on the next round the decrease should fall right at the spirals so you just pick up a stitch on either side of it and decrease.  Working it this way will leave you with 6 legs, but you can always adjust the pattern to fit in 2 more I just prefer it this way as the spacing with the decreases works out looking cleaner.

Feel free to use my pattern and give credit to me but DO NOT claim it as your own or sell it if you want to give it to someone link back to here or my DA please.  I ask if you want to sell anything made with my pattern please donate part of your profits to a local No-Kill Shelter or Animal Rescue group even just $.30 will feed a hungry animal for a day. Not necessary but its a kindness I pay forward by not charging for the pattern.

Below are some of my Octo-Jelly's I have made.

Open Commisions!

I have open time for Commissions.  Keep in mind these items are HAND MADE in a ANIMAL friendly environment.  With all my animals its imposable to make sure they dont some how come into contact with my yarn stash, I do however try my best to keep all commission projects in their own bags but if I am not careful I will come back to a cat in a bag on what ever project I just put away weather i put it on top of the 7 foot tall book shelf or try to hang it from the edge of my desk.

I write all my own patterns and am willing to try making anything.  Stuffed toys, dogs, cat,s doll, monsters, scarfs, hats, you name it I will do my best to make it!  I wont ask for a penny till its finished and you have seen pictures of it and are happy with it. I try to keep my pricing reasonable but keep in mind shipping cost are out of my hands, i can give you a reasonable estimate if you provide a zip code (in the US) or country so you will know before hand.  I do payments through PayPal.

My pricing depends on what you want me to make!  But I am fairly reasonable you WILL NOT see me selling a 4in doll for $50 like alot of the dolls on etsy.  See something you like on etsy but dont like the price feel free to ask me and I will tell you if I think I can make it or not and what my price would be!

My small dogs, cats, dolls, chibi Cthulhus are all $10 +S&H  (about 3 to 5in tall)
  

Scarfs ranging 4-6ft long $10+S&H (length depends on the stitches used some will have more stretch as they are worn so they will be made a bit smaller unless requested.  Also can make them longer than 6ft but will have to charge an additional $.50 a foot ((AFTER 6ft)) up till 9ft. Add and additional $5 for a full scarf of complex stitches, or $2 for scarfs with fancy stitching 10in at the ends)


Hats $10 +S&H (depending on complexity if you want a peddle stitch hat like the stitch on my bag  it will cost a bit more because this stitch is more complex and will take me longer to work.)
    




All Images shown here are items I have hand made myself. Just a small sampling of what I can do for you.  You can view more of my work on my DeviantArt account @ embertouchtehfire.deviantart.com/

Hellow internets! *waves*

So I have been on a crafting kick for a while now.  I figured I might as well start a blog for all my creations. 

A little about me-  My name is Sara and I am a stay at home wife (aka laid off in '08 still unemployed) with two dogs Buddy a beagle and Chloe a lab boxer mix and two cats Dayton and Connie and a wonderful husband.   I love sewing, knitting and my biggest kick right now is crocheting.  I am in love with making Amigurumi, which is Japaneses, ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.  

I think it would be awesome to be able to sell the items and patterns I make.  I have sold a few things but all where to friends or family so I have no idea if the 'big bad world' out there would even care for my creations over the tons of amazing stuff I have seen out there already for sale.

Totoro & Sprite

My first ever crochet creation was a Totoro and sprite,  I didnt have a pattern at the time so Totoro is litteraly a baby hat that I just keep making longer and bigger with ear's from a pokemon pattern with some alterations  and the sprite is just a smaller version. I was inspired to make these two after visiting a realy awesome anime shop in my area called Anime Egg Roll.  They had a large display of crochet items that just inspired me to take up hooking.   Their crochet lady eventual moved away and took all her items out of the store.

Blue Octo

 I have tentatively offered up my crochet services currently I have a few items there up for sale.

A Light Blue Octopus pictured to the right, a Dalmatian with hand felted spots, and a white Poodle.

Emmy & Howard

I also made two custom kittie cats for one of the owners of the store as a gift for her mother of the two rescue cats she owns Emmy and Howard.  I made each patter special to get them to look as close to the images provided of the actual kitties as possible. 

As well as doing a custom dog for a friend she dubbed him Mini Watson and made me the most awesome gift of a Pikachu glass charm bead in return.

I think my most popular items I have worked on that seem to sell out quickly to friends or family where my Chibi Chthulhu and my dice bags that are shaped to look like a blue public police box (or a Tardis for you whovians) 

It makes me so happy when someone actually asks me to make them something and they love it when they get it. 

I think if I could find a job where all I had to do all day was crochet my little creatures and creations I would be set for life.  I think it would be a job I would happily get up to do with minimal complaining!