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!

Superwash Saturday

Craft School Saturday, yay!


    Happy Saturday! Every Saturday, I'm going to either try some new craft technique (sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc) and write about it here. Otherwise, I'll report something craft-worthy that I learned throughout the week. 


Yesterday was a rather yarn-filled day. After ordering some Team Spirit yarn from Red Heart, I felt the need to go to my not-so-local yarn store. I browsed the racks over and over and over. And in the very back of the store was this lovely rack of a variety of yarn that had my name written all over it. Well, it actually had a 40% off sign... but that's what was calling out to me!


I found these super vibrant skeins of a soft yarn. Turns out, it was just the brand I wanted to try! 

Cascade 220 Superwash Sport yarn! They were vibrant, colourful, and 40% off... how could I not get them?! 


Granted, at the time, I didn't know what superwash meant. Or what sport yarn is best used to make. But look at the pretty colours! Coral and ivory. (The ivory is actually called "banana cream")


And this is where Craft School Saturday comes in! 
This week, I learned what superwash yarn is.
"Superwash wool is a special wool product that has been treated or processed in a way that allows it to be machine washable." (about.com) 

There you have it! It just means that it's machine washable!

What about "sport" yarn? Sport yarn is just the weight of the yarn, like how there's worsted, bulky, etc. It's a lighter yarn, similar in size to baby yarn, as far as I can tell. 

So, the big question when it comes to yarn: What are you going to make with it??

I had no idea what I would make with the skeins. There's not enough to make a scarf in a stripe pattern (only 136 yards of each skein) like I wanted, so I thought about other options.


Hat? No. Bag? Definitely no. 


So then it hit me: amigurumi! A teeny tiny little animal. 

Poor lighting = poor picture

It takes a 'D' hook (3.25 mm) in order to not gap between every stitch. It's tedious, but the end result is going to be rather charming. 


Can you guess what animal it will be?


Happy Crocheting!