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.