Off to RESOBOX Amigurumi Exhibition in NY

These guys are all boxed up and will be on their way to RESOBOX this weekend.

22 items, no direct repeats.

1-Horned Owl, Snowy Owl, Cthulhu, Scarfed Doll, seahorse, horse, catagurumi

2- Abnormal Unicorns (rainbow/blond), Donuts

3-Octopi, Flower Hat Octopi

5- Assorted Dragons

If you will be in New York during the Dec 12 2014-Feb 28, 2015 please drop in on RESOBOX and see all the Amigurumi that has been sent in from all over the world for this exhibition.

I would love to visit but will have to settle for seeing it threw other peoples photos.

Some more Octo's and Dragons!

 Just an update on things I am making.


I finished off a Storm/Rainbow Octo, and a yellow and navy Octo.

I swapped over to doing dragons, I finished an orange and yellow firy dragon, and a brushed white and blue airy dragon.

I opted out of doing horns on the Air dragon for the fluffy wispy ears and chest ruff.

Debating on making an earth and water pair next.  Unsure what colors I would pick for them as brown isnt a popular color in the dragons and I am not sure how to do a blue water dragon that doesnt just look like the air one.

Flower Hat Octo-Jelly

I am moving on to making some items for Animeggroll to take to the Japanese Festival.  This is my flower hat OctoJelly.

You may rember my trial run of this pattern back around June 27th.  Well I worked it out so they now have 8 legs instead of 6.      

The pink and tangerine (rhss colors) was my second go at this pattern.  It still didnt feel right to me, the flower part made gaps that where just to big for my liking and the stitch count on the decrease after tentacles was leaving even bigger holes, so I made farther adjustments with the navy, sky, and steel (rhss colors) OctoJelly to reduce holes on the flower and eliminate any gaps/holes on the closing rounds.        
           
I plan on making a few plain OctoJellys and at least 4 of these Flower Hat OctoJellys.

I think I like the tri-color look of the Flower hat OctoJelly better then the bi-color.  I think I will make an other pink, tangerine, and bubble gum FHOJ with the flower in bubble gum and  tangerine, leaving the body to be worked in pink which is lighter then bubble gum.

Heck now I am getting all fired up about color combos.

I am now thinking of a 'Stormie' OctoJelly with the flower in shades of grey the body in white to look like a storm cloud and the legs in rainbow color but I need to figure out what the extra 2 leg colors should be.  Maybe gray, white, or a lighter/darker shade of one of the rainbow colors.

Hrm pink flower with punch trim  (maroon) and purple body...

What about yellow flower with navy trim and a same yellow body?

Or a white and red like the Japanese flag with the 'red spot' of the flag being the red flower with a white body.

I just realized I am now using color inspiration and the blog to procrastinate from cleaning... shhh dont tell anyone.

Octo Amigurumi Rewrite!

I got a request to rewrite my Octopus pattern, some people where having a hard time reading the Blue font agains a grey backround.  So here it is---

Amigurumi Octo

A beginers tutorial and pattern

You will need the fallowing--
A small amount of yarn any color you like- if its balled the size of a tennis ball should be more then enough to make one or even two
A stitch marker so you can see where your rounds starts and stops-  I used to use a scrap of contrasting yarn but I have had it get pulled out on accident (I think the cats do it on purpose but i will call it an accident till I catch them) so now I just use a bobby pin and it works great but like i said you dont have to go out and buy some fancy set of stitch markers a scrap of yarn will do (unless you have kitties like mine)
Crochet hook- Any size will work but check the lable of the yarn you are using (if there is no label just the thinner the yarn the smaller the hook the thicker the larger) The smaller the hook the smaller the finished item with turn out and vice versa large hook large octo.  I just used a US size F hook because my yarn is WW
Stuffing of choice -I use polyfil
Eyes - I used Safty eyes because they are child safe , but you can felt on eyes, or sew buttons on as eyes, or even embroider on eyes!
Yarn needle for finishing.

HEAD
You can start any way you feel works best for you I show two methods for how I start


 Start A Chain 2, then make 6 sc in the second chain stitch from the hook (the first loop)

 Start B Magic Ring 6 sc  (here is a video of how to start with a magic right it was made for my Penguin but its the exact same process )

R2- Increase (Inc) in each stitch (12)

 R3- Inc, sc repeat all the way around (18)

 R4- Inc, sc2 repeat (24)

R5- Inc, sc3 repeat (30)

R6-11 SC all (30) (you will repeat this round till you have 11 rows)

 R12- This is the decrease and leg's round- you can choose if you want to work the legs as part of the body (so you dont have to sew them on later) or if you want to have more then 6 legs just work the decrease and ignore the parts in bold where I have you chain a length to add in the legs.  I am going to have you do a FLO (front loops only) decrease which means you only hook under the loop closes to you and not both loops of a stitch this leaves a more eye appealing decrease and does leave a large gap that a normal decrease can cause.
 Work one dec, 'chain 22 (or if you want the legs longer/shorter chain more/less) DC twice into the 3rd chain stitch from the hook (I tend to add 3 or 4 if I am working with a thin yarn to get the twist really started), then 2 DC in each chain (or more if you want a tighter spiral) then SC into the next st' sc2  repeat from begining You should end up with 6 legs and 24 st's

 R13-Dec sc 2 (18) The dec should fall right at the leg spirals so you can just pick up a stitch on either side of the legs and work those for the dec and sc all other stitches

 R14- Dec, sc (12)

 From here you want to finish off the work, start by attaching your eyes and any other features you may like, then stuff.  I like to weave my working yarn tail threw the front loops of the last round of stitches and cinch it tight then secure and sew it shut. If you did the legs separate this is when you should find a placing you like and sew them in. I find between rounds 12-13 look best. The images I have of my progress where worked with the legs not attached but the process is exactly the same if you fallow the pictures and work them as part of the body.


I sorta rushed threw this so if something is unclear or worded in a way you dont understand just ask and I will help out!!

Felted eyes with a Jellyfish fuffle above the legs

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.