Long Cowl or Short Scarf

Here it is being blocked on my baby-sized ironing board, next to one of the fingerless gloves from my previous post!

It's made from the most gorgeous wool, its called Chantilly by Moda Vera, and its all soft and fluffy and cute! It does split really easily so its a little more effort to keep it all neat and tidy, but using a 8.00 crochet hook its pretty easy keep it all straight.


Close ups!




Pattern found here

Fingerless Gloves

I'm half way through making these fingerless gloves for my sister, and they're really cute and I think I'm going to have to make myself a pair!

Here's my progress.
Before:

During:

After:


I'm half way through the second glove, hopefully finished today!

Pattern is here:
Alice Inspired Mitts

Sadly the really cute pattern is marred by the fact that its based on something Alice wore in Twilight/New Moon/whatever, but if I don't pay attention to that, then all is right with the world. :)

Shawl

Made my mum's christmas present tonight, a Solomon's Knot Shawl. Took me about 5 episodes of Bones, with the mandatory cat interruptions, wool detanglements, and general absent-mindedness. Plus a little bit of time learning the Solomon's Knot in the first place.





I used Moda Vera's Burro in grey-blue with a 6.0 hook,and stopped the pattern three rows short, cos I'm not a fan of the point at the bottom. Easy beginner shawl! Hooray. :)

Solomon's knot tutorials : Here and a video one here

Futurama Brain Slug!

I love Futurama, and what better way to show that than making my very own brain slug?

Here's Hermes wearing his:

I can't remember where I first saw a crochet one, but I knew I had to make (at least) one asap. Pattern is well written and its simple to make. Hardest part was sewing on his eye, two buttons that fit so perfectly together you'd think they were designed for this exact purpose, I just didn't have a long enough needle!
I think I'm going to put him on a hair comb, one of those plastic thingies that you slide into your hair to hold it in place? I'll be all set if I ever need a costume!

Free Brain Slug Pattern, from Hookandneedles.com.

More hearts

Still making Christmas presents for everyone, I'm getting stuck now, I've made heaps, but still stuck on what to make my family!

The big heart is a pincushion. I used a 5.0 hook and some fancy slightly fluffy wool, which was hard to crochet! I trimmed it with some pink sequin trim I bought from Spotlight.

The small hearts I used some variegated crochet cotton, and a 2.25 hook. I attached some keyring chains to the top also.

The basic pattern I used is here at Pepika. For a couple of the small hearts I modified the pattern ending, I didn't end the heart so suddenly, I added an extra few sc stitches here and there to give the hearts a more pointy base. Sadly I can't remember exactly what I did with them, because I was just experimenting!





I recently reorganised my craft things, and made myself a sewing kit out of an old make up bag I bought years ago. These are my needle holders: where the mirror used to be. I've got magnetic strips running under the purple felt, and another stuck to the back of each of the needle collections, so they're easily removable. I separated the needles by type: wool, beading, general, cross stitch. I'm still finishing the pincushion and the rest, but these took so long to do, because I kept changing my mind!

Octopus

Isn't he cute?! :)
I found him over on Ravelry, along with a ridiculous amount of other projects I want to make. Next I think I'm making a hat. Which is totally besides the point. Here's the Ravelry Pattern Link. To the octopus, not a hat. (Although, I really, REALLY want to make this hat for my boss for some reason: Shark Hat! Maybe his birthday in Jan. What 28yo fisherman with a good sense of humour wouldn't like that hat?)

When making this octopus, you have to remember that he needs 8 legs. And even if you know this, and think I'm a moron for pointing out that an OCTOpus has 8 legs, it's different when you have to make those eight legs. It's boring. And just as I get into the rounds I have to stop! So I guess I'm complaining that they are boring, but too short? Haha, I'm totally running on pure caffeine at this stage, its 6:10am and I've slept about 8 hours in the last three days, now. And for no reason, other than reading and crochet. Which are, always will be, and always have been totally valid reasons for losing sleep. :)

Aaand, back to octopus tips:
Just tack the legs into place so that when they aren't lined up properly, you can replace them easily.
This took me a few goes:

He's not perfect, but I'm not moving those legs again. I just couldn't get them any better! They're sewed on tight this time.

My lovely blue octopus has plastic hacky-sack-type beads in his body/head, and aquarium filter wool in his legs (I upgraded my aquarium filter and no longer need the excess wool... figured it may as well go to a good cause!) I put both of the types of stuffing materials into a cheap nylon stocking first to keep the beads in place, and so that the whiteness of the stuffing didn't show so clearly. I'll do it again next project too, it's useful, especially for the beads.

Used a 4.0 hook for this, and about half of a 50g ball of wool which had a recommended needle size of 5mm. And two plastic safety eyes.

Anyone know why they are called safety eyes?

Minor updates

I've been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks, I've managed to get myself slightly more than full time hours at work lately, which leaves limited amounts of time for my hobbies of both reading and crafty things, when I'm used to part time hours.

But I've made a few things:

First up, I finished my tribbles juggling balls, and they are very fluffy. I managed to make each very distinct by using a different wool for the netting, one is squishy, one is hard and the other is kinda pointy, somehow. It makes it easy to keep track of the juggling patterns, so that's a handy unexpected bonus of my planless diving into projects thing I do.

Next:

This little dude. I made him up all on my own, no patterns involved. I'm so proud of him! :) But it will be interesting if I ever want to replicate him. But I'm sure I'll manage. I have plans for this little fella, but I'm not mentioning them til they're done, so I don't spoil the effect. Or hype it too much, if I can't manage it.

Also I came home to this on my whiteboard the other day:

I laughed so hard.

Tetris Magnets

I should really use my proper camera for these things, shouldn't I? Instead I use my iphone camera, because then I can just upload it straight to photobucket with the photobucket app... but enough on my laziness*; these are my first attempt at making something with plastic canvas! I used the perforated plastic 14 count stuff, cut it into shape first (which I am really bad at when it needs to be a specific size) then stitched. I know I'm missing one of the L shapes, I cut it so stupidly it would have had a section that was only three stitches across! After I wrapped the edges I glued a strip of magnet to the back using PVA to begin with, but yesterday I bought a hot glue gun(!!), so now I'm using that instead. It's much better, and even more fun than PVA.



* So I did take new photos with my camera, and I found the cord and the usb card reader so its just as easy to use the camera now, and they look so much nicer, and will from now on. Mostly. :)

I was so excited to see that I got some spam mail the other day, because it had a HUGE fridge magnet in it, and magnets like that are perfect for chopping up into little crafty pieces. So imagine my excitement when I got another yesterday! Its currently soaking to get rid of the paper.

And because this makes me laugh when I look at it, my whiteboard:

Evolution of a Fluff Ball

I recently found my old juggling balls I bought for $2 from the Reject Shop about 15 years ago, but they needed a makeover! I tried crocheting the fluff, but that just led to tangles and not being nearly as fluffy as I wanted. So I'm sewing the fluff to a crochet net instead.

Faux Book-box

I started out making a squishy book, with a plastic container as a size guide but that idea morphed into a cover for this ex-fishing hook box. I stitched individual cover panels & a spine panel in the brown, then I created the sides in a long strip decreasing width to fit the latch and hinges in off-white. Then I stitched it all together using a wool needle, and gave the top its white side. To help it all stay together I poked strategic holes in the plastic box so I could sew the crochet panels in place, and who doesn't love playing with candles, bobby pins and plastic?
It's not quite finished, but at least that is the majority of one Christmas present down!




And for someone who had about three colours of wool to her name before two weeks ago, I'm doing pretty well, don't you think?

Crochet Flannel Shirts?

Normally I don't do the whole progress updates, but I like this photo:



I may or may not have been making Dolly rock out to Bad Religion with me while I was latch-hooking on the hair... Dolly can headbang like no ones business, let me tell you.

Hopefully after I get my delivery of button eyes from ebay, I'll find a good pair to use and then I'll trim the fringe and give a little bit of an overall hair cut but until then, Dolly can play at being a rock god for a little while longer. Maybe I should make a guitar... Or a beer hat & a flannel shirt, and leave it as an air guitar, who else could say they have a handmade bogan crochet doll? Oh, the possibilities.

EDIT: OMG, I just realised Dolly needs a mullet to be a true bogan. And a little VB can. And a ute. And really be nick-named Dolza, Dollo or Shazza (don't want to discriminate).
ANOTHER EDIT: I got my buttons in the mail just now, and I found one that's perfect! Too bad its a singular button rather than a pair. :( But now I know what size and style of eyes I want to use, so that's a start!

A Doll!

I'm full of ideas for people for Christmas, but in order to make all the things I keep thinking of, I needed to learn to make a doll. So here one is.
Apparently I cannot follow a pattern that well, because when creating two legs and two arms from the same pattern, I ended up with noticeably different sizes. Didn't help I BROKE the hook I was using, stupid cheap piece of plastic crap. Serves me right for choosing the cheap option! But then I bought a set of pretty new shiny metal hooks from Ebay. :)

Here's the pattern I was using: Basic Doll Body

Crochet Bird!

Today I suddenly felt like learning to crochet things other than misshapen squares, so I learnt how to read a crochet pattern, how to do a magic ring (I'll put in a link in the morning) and after a few or more false starts I made a love bird! If I don't call it a love bird it looks more like a snow-bird or an albino, and lets face it: love bird sounds far better... I'm pretty happy with it, I finally managed to get the initial stitches right, and I counted it properly! Next time I'll try something in better colours so I don't seem to be making an egg cosy with handles.





I don't have the link for the pattern right at this second, but Ill update with it tomorrow as well. :)

EDIT: Since its now the morning, here are the links I promised:
Bird pattern: Birds of a feather
Magic Ring crochet wizardry: Planet June - Left handed AND right handed instructions!


And another edit: I decided I really didn't like his eyes, so I gave him black button eyes instead:

We do what we must, because we can.

Portal project part 1 of 10!

Firefly

Whipped this up while watching Serenity.



Think my next will be "No power in the 'verse can stop me" cos I love that film, and quotes are fun to stitch while my mind is to unsettled to concentrate on more complex things.

Side note, I'm a fan of black aida, and I love the look of the fluro yellow thread on said black aida! I didn't realise the floss was so slippery though, it kept looping, separating and being generally crazy-thread. Doesn't help that my fingertips are as rough as guts currently and would catch on the strands all the time too, damn works cleaning chemicals!

The cake is a lie

I love Portal!




adapted from a pattern on the Sprite Stitch forums, that my iPhone can't be bothered linking to right now, but will when I get on a desktop. I may have used my own cake pattern, but I'm currently not sure which one I used. :)

EDIT: Here is the link I wanted to share, which itself in turn links to the cake pattern we used: spritestitch.com/forum...

Celtic knotty bookmark

A bookmark!


This took me FOREVER, I had real problems keeping track where I was up to in the pattern! But I finished the stitching, so now just to back it. I'm not sold on how to best do this.. In any case I edged it with Fray Stoppa - crappy name, but FANTASTIC glue :)

and because I am quite proud of this work, here's the back :)

Babyish Things Today

A punchneedle Blue! On a foam-like background, and with a magnet attached.

Because I'm pretty proud of my first freestyle punchneedle, here's one on an angle to show the contours:




And an un-ironed cross stitch, of Baby Pluto!:

Punch Needling

So I finally discovered punchneedling.
I'm totally a fan.

I was in Spotlight (yes, I go there often; it's a 5 minute drive from my house -- when the road isn't underwater, anyway) to buy Pluto colours for the Baby Pluto cross stitch I'm making my sister when I discover this kit on sale for $5: sorry this is the best link.

So I bought my little ginormous punchneedling needle too and sat on the couch and tried to figure out what all the fuss was about.
This might be as good as Age of Empires II as being something to do when feeling a bit bloodthirsty. Just putting it out there. Stab and repeat. But instead of destroying a civilisation you get a bit of pretty. So I guess you still win.

I'm not putting up a photo, cos if you click on the link above, surprise, surprise, mine looks exactly like that one. :)

Baby Pluto will be done in a day or so I think.

Tiles!

A long time ago I was given some really pretty mosaic tiles, but I never came up with a good use for them... until now.




This is for my hair straightener to sit on, cos I'm so paranoid that one day I'll leave it on and it will melt my bench and start a fire and burn down my house... I figure a layer of tile in between heat and potentially flammable materials will slow it down a bit! Plus, its just a bit of pretty.

I bought the board from Spotlight for about $3, tile adhesive and black grout from Bunnnings for about $20 and have plenty left over for use on the rest of the tiles, so not a bad afternoon in all.

Snoopy

My Dad is also ridiculously hard to think of gifts for, he tends to already have everything he could possibly need or want!

I figured a Snoopy cross stitch could be a good present, 'cos he collected an impressive amount of Peanuts books during the 70's and even shipped them to Australia with him when he moved from NZ.

CLOSE UP!

Font sampler.

I was playing around with quotes I wanted to cross stitch, and I accidentally made these awesome patterns that didn't fit in a normal sized photo frame, and had heaps of off cut adia in that size that I wanted to use up, so I played around with some fonts, seeing which ones came out well cross stitched.

This got kinda wonky somehow, I was seriosuly careless with my counting. Bad bikyclist.
I love the font used for 'taken' but it uses so many stitches!

Snow Pea

My brother is the hardest person to buy presents for, its just ridiculous. So I gave him an ultimatum: if he didn't come up with a list of potential presents for his birthday, I'd be giving him cross stitch.

He didn't deliver, so I made him this:




We both love Plants v Zombies, so it was fun to make and I knew he'd get a laugh out of it. It now sits above his x-box, for all to see.

This was my first attempt at making up a pattern from scratch, and it came out damn well, if I must say so. Screen cap to photoshop, then painting in each pixel the exact right colour, and then to the KG-Chart LE to make it a 'proper' cross stitch pattern.
Pattern can be found here.

Canvas

I painted these a while ago, just felt like it.
And, yes, that is the back of my microwave.

Nerdy Cross Stitch.

I made these for my siblings, from patterns I found online:



This was my version of this, I had to double their size to fit in my frame, and for my VERY first patterning attempt, it's not awful. I'd not taper in the base of the mushrooms next time.
I also made the original size for a friends birthday, but never took a photo -- its in the best frame too. :)

and of course:



for my brother. Its sitting on his bookcase in pride of place, cos it makes him laugh.

Hearts!

Some cross stitch:



I was feeling a bit bleak that day I guess, judging from the text.
This was the first tetris heart I did, from a tattoo picture I found off google, I believe (search google images for 'tetris heart' you'll probably find it too). I realised after it was done that I didn't have all the colours right (the z blocks are all over the place) and I never liked that I had several of the same sort of block touching. So that's when I made up my own pattern -- it took AGES to get right, but I did it! Hooray.

So to celebrate I put five of them in a frame.

Trio of Pink

Using up scraps of adia, scraps of wood from a previous project and some pretty card stock.