Hello September

Pretty much the same as the title. 

I attempted to think of "non-craft related" blog post ideas... but then things kind of went KA-BOOM!, so there's nothing of non-craft related thing to show pictures of. 

Thus, here are some pictures of craft items that may interest you: 

 Woodland animal fabric! They will make very cute (and hopefully inspiring project bags!) 

A whale with baby safe eyes! This one is a free download that can be found here.

 To the right is a yarn cake that was made with a yarn winder! Yup, I took the plunge and bought a Knit Picks Yarn Winder-- for $20, it's a great value! I've been having a yarn-winding obsession lately! The only complaint I have is that there are no "directions" in the sense of how many yards/grams are recommended for one cake. I accidentally let one skein get so big the machine made a loud click. But it still works, so all is well!

A slug that has been named Violet! The name was obviously inspired by her colour, but has thus turned into a demand for two more slugs named Klaus and Sunny. 

Sunny should obviously be yellow-- any colour suggestions for Klaus? 

(Yay for book references!)

And last, but definitely my favourite, is my self-designed lion! :) 

Isn't he adorable?! 

His name is Singh the Lion. For a first animal design, not too shabby, right?! 

Singh will be making an appearance at the State Fair as my "Crocheted: Toy" entry. Fingers crossed!

Check out this blog for more Finished Objects!

Amigurumi, again!

Before the Amigurumi Break, there had to be some amigurumi completion, right? :) 

Hence, here are two recently Finished Objects!

 Remember the monster from the WIP Wednesday a few weeks ago? Here he is! His official name is Friday Monster. He was given to my grandfather after he managed to spend a whole Friday out of the hospital! (The two Fridays before, he had been admitted). 

And another finished item is a Monkey! He got some not-so-positive reviews, so he may stay tucked away in my personal collection. While he was supposed to be an entry in the Entry Competition, he's not nearly as big as I was hoping for; thus, another monkey shall be made (if time allows!) 

Now, I have some exciting craft-y news coming up! I'm hoping to share that within the week. And I'll have more finished items to show you next Friday! :)

Want to see more Finished Objects? Visit Tami Ami's Blog! Have a great, craft-filled weekend!

Amigurumi Break

Last week off before University courses begin again! I thought I'd spend the whole break crocheting my heart out, especially focusing on amigurumi.

But for one reason or another, I kept getting disappointed with the final amigurumi results-- all  I could do was focus on the little things that could be better. Instead of feeling like I was going to keep failing, I took an Amigurumi Break! 

With that said, I went on a hunt for another pattern. A bag? A blanket? A scarf? Yes to all the above!

 This is the one project I'm probably most excited for. The yarn is NaturallyCaron.Com's "Spa" yarn-- 70% acrylic and 30% bamboo. The pattern is Bellflower Infinity Scarf (Ravelry link). 

 Another scarf I have in the works is a Sampler Cowl. These motifs come from the book Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs. (Is it irony if the motifs I was most drawn to were squares? Oh well!) 

I'll be making another square like the bottom-left one in different colours. Then when I get my hands on the book Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia, there will be 4 rectangles in between each square. It'll be bright, fun, and perfect for winter! :) 

Finally, more motifs! These will make a bag for my grandmother. I need one more motif before I start weaving in ends and sewing them together. The motifs are much bigger than they're supposed to be, so instead of 12 motifs, I'll only use 6. The pattern can be found here: African Flower Bag.








But what about a blanket? Well, I'm holding off until the new Crochet Today is released. Their last winter issue had beautiful blanket patterns, so I want to see if there are any in there that really call out to me. 

And that is my Work in Progress Wednesday! Check out Tami's blog to see more WIP Wednesday posts!

(not-so) Finished Objects

Oh, goodness. 

Well, I missed Saturday's post... and Wednesday's post... Can I give the excuse "It's been crazy"? 'Cause it really has been! There are no finished objects to report, but I thought I'd give a sample of ALL my "Work in Progress"s today. 

We'll start with this one! I'm using a pattern from the Craftsy course Design Your Own Monster. 

He uses elements from a few different patterns. All parts are crocheted (including the eyes and nose). However, I had to special order the Safety Eyes in order to complete him... hopefully he'll be completed soon!

Next up is the one I'm really excited for! Another FreshStitches' pattern, this Monkey will be entered into the State Fair as a Creative Competition entry. I am hoping he finishes to be at least 15" tall, as his category is Handmade Stuffed Animal, larger than 15". I'm really liking the shades of brown in this one, though! 

Next up is yet another FreshStitches pattern (it's a healthy obsession, I promise!) This one is free on Ravelry, Mr. Scrappy, the Scrap Animal. I'm not a fan of scrap projects at all, but as it's a category in the Fair, I thought "Hmm, may as well use the scraps I have laying around!" 








There are many, many more Work-in-Progress projects laying around, but they are calling out to me more than a very long blog post. :) Have a crafty-weekend, everyone!

Ravellenics

Yup. I missed Wednesday's post, mainly because I had no major WIPs to report. 

But yesterday, I had the opportune time to start and finish an item-- waiting for the UPS truck to arrive with my portable air conditioning unit! 

Want to see what I accomplished?

It's an Ice Cream Cutie! My very first self-designed amigurumi project!  He has all the sweetness of regular ice cream, with no sugar added! 

 My original design looked absolutely nothing like this, except for the colours and wavy arms. 

If I were to remake it, I'd find a way to make the scoops more scoop-like.

But it's good for a first amigurumi design, right?! :) 

The Ice Cream Cutie crossed the Ravellenics finish line yesterday afternoon. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Find more Finished Objects on Tami's blog! 

A Finished Snail

Happy Friday!

This week flew by! I started a lot of items, but only finished one. Luckily, it's the snail! 

Ready to see the pictures?? 

She's pretty adorable, if I do say so myself. 

TAH-DAHHH! 

As many of you guessed, it is indeed Stacey's pattern from FreshStitches!


You can get your own Milton the Slowpoke Snail pattern, as well as many other adorable animals, from her book Crocheted Softies

Check out more Finished Objects on Tami's Amis blog. She is the brilliant mind behind these fun blog posts. :) 

WIP Wednesday

Can you believe it's Wednesday?! Better question: Can you believe it's August??

Well, as it's Wednesday, lets show the WIPs going on in my little corner. 

 (Much better photos in this post!)


First, lets take a look at the snail-to-be! 


The tan-ish colour is absolutely pretty horrid. It has a pink undertone that makes my stomach turn. However, I'm hoping that by pairing it with a maroon shell, the tan will stand out more than the pink undertone! 


All that's left is the main body and stitching it all together. Hoping to have this to show for Friday's FO blog post!

 Remember my garden? I talked about it in this post. The picture to the right shows how the Marigolds have grown! The ones closest to the camera is the patch that's under the wanna-be screen in the original garden post. 


The picture below is of the growing Wildflowers. I lost quite a few accidentally when I mistook weeds for flowers. The weeds killed some flowers, but those patches are growing back after pulling the weeds! 

   

Check out more WIP Wednesdays on Tami's blog!