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!!

EEk an other minion hat!

After people saw Jordans FeMinion I got a request for a male Minion.

I just have to sew in the eye and pluck in some hair, then add braided tassles.

This one has ear flaps unlike the other minion hat I made.

While I was out this weekend my sister bought me this nifty head form so I could easily display hats when I take pictures.

 

UPDATE

Finished the hat and managed to get some pictures of it while the sun was still shining!

I have the front pulled down over the nose so you can see the eye and the hair in the picuter together, I also took a side shot to show off the ear flap and tassel.

Abnormal Unicorn

 Here is my Abnormal Unicorn, I was inspired to make this when I was commisioned to make a Funnie Bunni


Things needed to make this are:
White yarn, roughly 10 yards or less
Gold or Silver yarn, for Horn and hooves less then 2 yards
Blue/Purple/Red/Orange/Yellow/Green yarn scraps for the mane and tail less then a foot of each color
I used an F (3.75mm) hook for the body/head/feet
darning or yarn needled to sew horn and hooves to the body
15mm Safty eye's (or you can felt black felt on)

I am from the US so I am using the US crochet terms the only things you need to know to make this pattern are, MR (magic Ring), SC (single crochet), INC (increase), and DEC (decrease). Some other terms I may use rnd=round, st-stitch, yo-yarn over.

Even if you have never crochet before this should be simple.  If you have never worked in the round before don’t be scared its easy!

Here is a link to the video I made when doing my Penguin to show how to start in a MR its exactly the same.

Head/Body Section

MR-6 (in white yarn)
R1 inc -12
R2 sc inc -18
R3 sc 2 inc -24
R4 sc 3 inc -30
R5-9  sc all -30
R10  sc 3 dec -24
R11  sc 2 dec -18
R12  sc dec -12
R13 dec -6

Hooves 4X

MR 6 (in gold/silver)
R1 sc 6 (color change to white at end of round)
R2 sc 6
R3 sc 6 (leave a long tail to sew into body with) 

Ears X2   -UPDATE 4/7/18-

chain 6, sl st into the 2nd st from the hook, sc, hdc 3, sc 2 into the last hdc turning and hdc into the same st again, hdc 2, sc, slst and finish off.

I have added a chart of this section to help with clarification.  The red chain is the starting stitch, the blue slip stitch is the ending stitch.

Horn

 MR 4, sc for 5 rows or for as long as you want the horn

 

Assembly 

Add eyes, I placed mine between the 7-8 rows. Stuff and sew body shut.  I didn't need to stuff my legs any more then just pushing the tails of my yarn and color changes into the legs, but if you want them firmer sew them half way onto the body and finish stuffing before you sew them the rest of the way.  I sewed them into the rows 10 threw 12, my front lets set wide under the eyes, and my hind legs closer together for stability.
 I sewed the ears on about 5 st's back from the eyes and a row up, on the same row but in the middle of the eyes I added the horn.  From here I did the mane, you can do it any way you want but this is how I did  it, I used a size D hook and used it to pull two strands of a color at the same time threw a stitch starting with the row directly behind the horn.  Make sure if you do it this way you always pull the yarn threw the same way so they all lay the same way. I went in from right to left (eyes facing me) and it made the mane lay to the right (when held eyes facing me).
 For the tail I added two strands of each color  onto a separate strand of yarn. I did a hitch knot, folding the strands over the base strand and pulling the tails threw securing them. I did this for each color then tighten the base strand and knotting it into a loop that I then sewed onto the base of the body. 

I wish I had made the tail longer, I pre cut all my strands for the mane and tail to 4 inch's (folded over so they are all 2inchs long) I think a longer tail would have been more appealing but it was just right for the mane. 


As always if something isnt clear just let me know and I will do my best to explain and/or provide video/pictures. 

Penguin!!!

I started working on this cutie after watching a marathon of Penguin Drum with the people over at Animeggroll.  Its one confusing anime, but I love the penguins they are so cute and expressive.

I enjoy'd working out a pattern for this one.

If there is enough interest in it I will type up the pattern, right now its all in my short hand notes.

I can safely say any beginner to crochet could easily make this!

Snow Owl

 So for a while i have had this idea in my head for a snow owl.  Today I finaly took a break from working on my mohair shrug and made the owl. 

I wanted to give it the puffed up plumage they ge t on the chest but I was tripping over stitches nothing seemed to work.  That is till I perfected doing the bullion stitch, well I didn't perfect it per-say but I was able to get 5 near perfect bouillon stitches out after a lot of failures.  I am not 100% happy with the surface crochet I did to make the feathered ear tuffs, but I am not sure what I could have done differently.  I opted out of adding a beak because the black and orange yarns I  have just didn't look right.  I jotted down notes as I was making it so if people are intrested I can write out a pattern for this little guy.

 I also have an other owl project bouncing around in my head.  Helen Rodel made some gorgeous masks and hoods in 2010 as a one off for a fashion show, and I am going to try and figure out a pattern to make a owl hood, I have wanted one since i first laid eyes on it but as she only made the ones for the run way and never published a pattern I will have to work it out from photos and a lot of hard crochet.  I just need the motivation, and well a stash of yarn before I can start working out a pattern for a owl hood inspired by owls and Helen Rodels work.  Since I am the queen of procrastination dont expect it from me any time soon, I probly wont start on it till I find the right fiberus yarn to inspire me.  Maybe a cream or off white shade of alpaca.....