Tag: Crochet

I only purchased two skiens; Caron Simply Soft

Aynaria 7 Comments

Caron Simply Soft Lt CountryPeach

I normally use acrylic yarns for testing new crochet and knitting projects…

The yarn is usually cheaper, which means I’m not as concerned about damaging the yarn, if I have to rip out the stitches. Over the years, acrylic has changed a lot, and giving the buyer a huge array of choices.

I only use acrylic, bamboo, or cotton blends yarns for my vegan friends.; I’m vegan too, and although I will crochet and knit items that aren’t, when it comes to making things for myself. I make sure its vegan.

But even if I weren’t vegan, I’d still only wear fibers that weren’t created from animals. Why? Animal fibers such as wool, mohair, and cashmere, make me itch like crazy! I have no problem crocheting or knitting with those fibers; I just can’t wear it near my skin.

 After dropping off my daughter at school, I returned one skien of yarn at my local WalMart. While there I had a nice discussion with the customer service employee who took my return. We got on the subject of crocheting and knitting hats, and she talked about the different ways she creates hers. Thanks for the tips!

After our chat,  I decided to take a stroll back to the craft area to see what they had. Uhm, I wasn’t planning on buying anything. /whistles innocently

And what did I see? Caron SimplySoft yarn. 6oz of the Lt. Country Peach was priced at $1.00 apiece, so why did I only purchase two? I must be insane!

These will work nicely for my paler complexioned amigurumi crochet dolls. If only, I could find appropriate caramel and chocolate tone yarn for some darker amigurumi dolls. I can also see myself using this yarn to make baby afghans for our church. Our Lutheran church has a ministry that gives crocheted afghans to church members babies that are getting baptized. The afghans are crocheted by volunteers within the church. While our church does a lot of outreach work; homeless shelter, food pantry, quilts created for those in underdeveloped countries, we have numerous ministries that look after our own too.

Ok, let’s ignore the fact that I disobeyed my no more yarn for a while shall we?

I only spent $2.12! In all seriousness, even when I was purchasing a lot of yarn. You know to build up my stash while I was learning crochet? I didn’t spend a lot on it; I had a budget and stuck to it. The only time I purchased yarn, was when it was on sale. Partly because I was new to crochet, and didn’t want to waste money purchasing yarn that I might mess up while learning to crochet. But it’s a habit that has stuck.

You know, I really should have purchased more than two skiens…

Amigurumi Coraline; work in progress wednesday

Aynaria 27 Comments

This week is flying by, hard to believe its Wednesday already. Not too many work in progresses to show today, that’s because most of my projects are complete!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to feature them and my amigurumi Coraline in Finished Object Friday. I’ve missed the past two.

But, back to Work in progress Wednesday…

Coraline is one of my favorite books by Neil Gamon…

By the time I discovered Coraline, I’d already read numerous books by Neil  Neverwhere, MirrorMask, American Gods, Angels & Visitations… are just a few that I read. I love his writing style, and although Coraline is considered a children’s book, the dark plot kept me hooked, so much so that I finished it in one sitting.  That’s not the first time I’ve done that with one of Neil Gamon’s books.

Amigurumi crochet Coraline daughter book

Towards the end of last week, I did a search for amigurumi and Coraline. Makes sense, right? I’ve only been making a ton of amigurumis over the past few weeks. Might as well start checking out amigurumis based on some of my favorite book and gaming characters, right? My search led me to Sharon Ojala’s lovely site, and her crocheted amigurumi Coraline. More on Sharon, including links to her free patterns, at the end of this post…

I really loved Sharon’s Coraline, and started making my own… uhm well my daughter’s  amigurumi Coraline towards the end of last week. I wanted to deviate from the free Coraline pattern, but my daughter requested it be similar to Ms. Sharon’s, ok I can do that…

Since my daughter was enamored by the Coraline she saw, I dug up my worn copy of Coraline and gave it to my daughter to read. She loves the book, and has almost finished reading it. Since she started reading it, she now carries the unfinished Coraline with her, when I’m not working on it.

I was really excited about starting this amigurumi project, making amigurumi animals, isn’t new to me, but I am new to making amigurumi dolls. Because of that, I’m having fun making Coraline. To be honest, I could have had this doll finished a lot sooner, but I’m taking my time with her, savoring the experience, and learning some brand-new techniques such as crocheting the legs in a different way than I’m used to, and crocheting actual fingers!

Thus far, my favorite part has been creating the face, and rooting her hair. I’ve done plenty of hair rooting, but this is my first time to hair root an amigurumi doll.

Amigurumi crochet Coraline 2 05 09 12

And here’s a closeup of Coraline. I wanted to embroider the eyes, but my daughter wanted buttons, and so buttons it is.

Coraline is almost finished. Coraline’s hair needs to be trimmed, and I need to complete her legs, boots, and create the arms, and fingers. I’m looking forward to crochet fingers, since I’ve never done that before.

Hopefully I’ll have this completed by Friday, perfect timing for us to watch Coraline the movie, again!  Yesterday, my daughter was sick, so she stayed home from school. We watched the movie, instead of waiting until Friday.

Will I make another Coraline? Of course, I adored the book, and have had fun creating the first Coraline for my daughter, but I want one for myself.

With my crocheted Coraline, I’ll be making some modifications with the Coraline I create; different hair, outfit, facial expression, I’m looking forward to making one for myself.

Where can I get the free pattern for amigurumi Coraline?

This pattern is a free design by Sharon Ojalo, if you haven’t checked out her website, Homemade Obsessions, you should. Sharon’s extremely talented, and friendly. I’ve enjoyed chatting with her via Facebook. In addition to the free amigurumi pattern for Coraline (which also has a video tutorial) Sharon also has numerous other free amigurumi crochet patterns, so stop on by her site, and check out what check out her amigurumi patterns.

Sites I’m linking too

  1. Tami Amis WIP
  2. Yarn Along
  3. Frontier Dreams
  4. Crochet Addicts CFS
  5. The Crochet Way

Pattern Testing; Cuttersaur is complete

Aynaria 4 Comments

About a week ago, I mentioned that I was testing a crochet pattern.

Shortly after I started crocheting I joined the Free Pattern Testing group on Ravelry. Of course, I wasn’t planning to do anything with it at the time, but I did want to stay in the loop with the designers. Here’s what users see on that forum…

This group is for helping budding designers and willing testers to come together and help each other in an open barter system. Testers get the benefit of getting free patterns and designers get the benefit of free testing.

What a perfect way to keep tabs on budding designers, by hanging out in the pattern testing forum, right?

But back to my first pattern testing project..

Not only was this my first time testing a crochet pattern… It’s also my first time using a super bulky yarn for an amigurumi project and creating a hat this way. I thought, this could be interesting…

What’s great, is the pattern turned out how it should.

Here’s the thing…   If I’d tried this pattern a few months ago, parts of it, would have been a bit confusing. Why? What’s obvious to someone whos experienced, won’t be obvious to someone who’s either new to reading patterns or brand-new to the craft.

Part of being a pattern tester is alerting the designer of mistakes, and perhaps offer suggestions to make the pattern more readable.

Pattern Testing Cuttersaur 1

When I sent my survey questions, I mentioned that it might be a good idea to explain parts of the patter better. My reasoning was that people new to patterns or crochet, might not understand some of the vague terms. I also gave suggestions. With those changes, I believe the pattern can be created by most of your newer crocheters.

Guess what? I’m still new to crochet. It’s only been about five months now, but I have learned a lot, crocheted numerous projects, devoured forums, and literally hundreds of crochet videos, so I have indeed come a long way with crochet. The beauty is, there’s still so much more to learn!

Initially, some crochet patterns were quite frustrating since the details were vague. I had to do internet searches to find out what they were talking about, because the designer assumed the user would be able to interpret those vague instructions; not so…

I ended the email, by thanking the designer for allowing me to try out her pattern. I also told her that my daughter has now claimed this Cuttersaur for her own. Which is true. My daughter has named it “Mob” (why I have no idea) and has it perched on her nightstand.

Ravelry users can check out her patterns by clicking on Babbling Bats designs. She only has three patterns listed. Perhaps she’s a new pattern designer? You can also follow her blog. She writes about cooking, crafts, and freelance writing.

Pattern Testing Cuttersaur 2

 

Will I use this crochet pattern again?

I most likely will make this pattern again, with modifications. I’ll use a worsted yarn; possibly a furry yarn? I’ll also embroider the eyes. I wanted to embroider these, but due to the super bulky yarn, it was slightly difficult.

The bottom line, testing a crochet pattern was a good experience; even if I were a bit frustrated with using super bulky yarn… initially.  I love my worsted yarns for my amigurumi projects. More important, the crochet designer did a great job responding to people through her pattern testing thread. I appreciated that.

Oh by the way, the scarf wasn’t part of the pattern, I decided a teeny tiny swirly twirly scarf was in order for this little critter, and decided to whip one up quickly to accompany this little amigurumi. I also decided to weave yarn into the hat, and tie it into a bow. My daughter loves bows.

You’ve come a long way, baby…

Aynaria 8 Comments

Perhaps I’m dating myself with the above title, but it’s true…

My crochet skill has come a long way, and that makes me feel great!

I started crocheting in December 2011, it didn’t come easily for me. That was frustrating. With crafts picking up a new hobby (sewing, cross-stitch, knitting, jewelry making) has always been easy, so going full speed ahead was rarely an issue.

Not so with crochet…

My first few weeks of crochet were frustrating!I was struggling with the hand placement, my single crochet stitches were too tight, or too loose! sighs

There were many occasions when I wanted to pull out my dreadlocks, or just abandon crochet, and I did for a few days, but I always returned. I’m stubborn after all, also I had inspiration from gorgeous crochet creations I’ve seen, and the helpful crochet video tutorials made those first weeks a bit easier. But I’m persistent, and kept practicing, and in time my crochet improved.

Crochet Amigurumi Octopus 2

Amigurumi crochet octopus

Now I’m at the point where I can make quick crochet projects such as this amigurumi crochet octopus above. It took about thirty minutes to make. My daughter was thrilled, when she awoke this morning, and saw this amigurumi.

I attached it to her backpacks zipper, using a simple chain stitch, I then added slipstitched that entire row; to make it sturdy.

The facial expressions were embroidered before stuffing the amigurumi crochet octopus. I didn’t use a pattern, I’ve seen many pictures of these adorable critters and decided to create my own.

I still have a long way to go; after all there’s seems to be hundreds of crochet stitches to learn; and yes some of the new stitches I’m learning now. Like the shell stitch and broomstick lace…

If you’re new to crochet, don’t get discouraged, keep practicing, if you know someone who crochets, ask them for pointers, or check out videos on how to crochet. The videos I link to in my how to crochet post, were the ones I used when learning how to crochet. I enjoyed the fact, that Teresa does part of each video in slow-motion; perfect when learning something new.

You’ve come  long way baby, was an ad campaign for Virginia Slims cigarettes. It was created by the Phillip Morris company. It began in the late 1960s, and I believe it continued into the 1980s.

I (vaguely) remember seeing the ads in magazines during the late 1970s. The target group was young was professional women. Although I’ve never smoked cigarettes, I remember that slogan.

Crochet Amigurumi: Coraline update

Aynaria 5 Comments

The Other Mother Coraline

The Other Mother, is a character that I’ve enjoyed in Coraline, sometimes I forget and refer to the book as “The Other Mother,” since that character was seared into my brain.

Over time, Coraline and The Other Mother have occasionally swapped roles when it comes to my favorite character from Neil Gamon’s book… The Other Mother was a bit off the rails with her approach, and she’s definitely evil, but even with those glaring flaws, I found her appealing.

With my old site; VeganMomma. I knew a blogger who went by the same name; The Other Mother. Of course… she was also a Neil Gamon fan, and as I recall, it’s something I asked when I first made a comment at her virtual home. By that time, I’d read many of Neil Gamon’s books. And so began our online friendship.  We visited one another’s blog, chatted via email, and clued each other on various authors during the time we corresponded; but that came to a halt, and I never knew what happened to her.

I wish I could remember her real name, but I can’t. I do know she lived in New Orleans, and I know her blog became silent shortly before Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana.

Whenever I think of  the book Coraline, or the character, The Other Mother, I do think of my blogging pal and wonder if she, her son, and her husband are fine. Some didn’t survive.

Amigurumi Crochet Coraline unfinished face 2

Crochet Coraline head

This afternoon, I had a chance to work on my amigurumi crochet Coraline; I didn’t get to improvise as I’d like, since the first Coraline that I’m crocheting, is being made for my daughter.  “Mommy, I want you make it just like Ms. Sharon’s!”

As mentioned in my earlier post, Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions is the one who created this free pattern. So yes, with this first crocheted Coraline, there won’t be too much deviation.

I’ve always liked to root dolls hair, but this is my first time rooting a crochet amigurumi doll. The technique used is similar to what I’ve done in the past. I used a crochet hook to attach the “hair aka yarn.”

Amigurumi Crochet Coraline unfinished face 1

Crocheted Coraline: rooting Coraline’s hair

The face, is always the fun part for me, because I get to add a bit of personality to my crochet amigurumis through their facial expressions.

I really enjoyed embroidering the eyebrows and the nose.

It’s a shame you can’t really see the detail of the nose. I worked on that to make it look like a normal nose. I wanted to embroider Coraline’s eyes, but my daughter wanted them to be, “just like the pattern!”  So we used buttons. No worries, I’ll be making my own crochet Coraline, very soon.

Next up is embroidering the mouth, I’ll print out a few photos taken from Coraline the movie, and see whether any additional features need to be added before I start stuffing Coraline’s head.

Resource: Free coraline crochet pattern by Sharon Ojala of Homemade Obsessions

Am I attending Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2012; not this year

Aynaria Leave a comment

I was looking forward to attending the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival 2012, but that won’t be happening, since I’m a bit busy.

Earlier this week, I learned there’s going to be a multi-cultural discussion held at my Lutheran church later today; One of our pastors recommended me. I’m guessing, the pastor suggested my name, since I’m already active with the homeless shelter ministry, food pantry, and the quilting group.

I was thinking that if I go, my chances of attending the festival are slim. There was hope for Sunday, and I was planning on attending the festival immediately after church. We attend the early morning service, so it’s over by 10:15. Turns out they are having a catered luncheon for those involved in the church’s music ministry. Since my daughter sings on one of the children’s choirs, we’ll be attending the luncheon. It’ll be catered, and they have a DJ also, so it should be a good time.

Naturally, I’m a bit disappointed that I won’t be attending the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I was looking forward to seeing all the vendors, and perhaps meeting people I’ve chatted with from the various online communities that I frequent, but there will be other years.

Am I disappointed, yes! But I do believe I made the right choices, and I’m looking forward to the activities I’ll be participating in this weekend.

Today, is gorgeous, and so I’ll be gardening when my daughter and I return to the house this afternoon.

Also, the evening will be spent hanging with my daughter and perhaps I’ll have a chance to crochet Coraline.

Amigurumi: Crocheted Coraline

Aynaria 5 Comments

Coraline will be my first crocheted amigurumi doll. It seems appropriate, after all, I’m a huge fan of Neil Gamon’s work,  and have read Coraline many times.

Coraline Neil Gamon

When my daughter was five-years old, I read Coraline to her. It’s a children’s book.  Part creepy/part goth, with a twisted adventure that kept me consuming the pages, until I reached the end.

By the time I’d read Coraline, I’d already read many of Neil Gamon’s adult books. I was pleased that I enjoyed this “children’s book” so much.  What’s funny is, even though parts of the book scared her, she still wanted to hear the story. She’s definitely my daughter, she already loves horror,  and loves Stephen King’s books.

Speaking of King, I read my first Stephen King book, The Shining, when I was seven or eight-years old. I purchased it at a local five and dime store, tucked it safely in my book bag, and brought it home. I still remember the price; it cost me 0.25! The year was 1977 or 1978; and that was a lot of money for someone who received a meager allowance. But even at that age, spending my allowance on books was worth every penny!

And so began my fascination with horror, and I read through countless stacks of horror, along with other genres throughout my life. It didn’t take long for me to become jaded, and horror books or movies no longer scared me, but that still hasn’t stopped me from reading them.

But back to Coraline…

Last evening, I’ve printed the free crocheted Coraline pattern from Sharon Ojala website; Homemade Obsessions. If you crochet, you should check it out. Go on… it’s free!

When my daughter saw Sharon’s free pattern, she got excited and asked (quite nicely, I might add) if I would start working on her, and I did. I didn’t have any peach colored yarn, so I used white.

Amigurumi Crochet Coraline unfinished head

As you can see, Coraline’s head is almost complete.

I’m doing things a bit differently than Sharon, since my next step is to add her facial features; eyes, nose, and mouth. That’s always the fun part, for me, since I get to embroider. Perhaps, I’ll add the hair too, instead of waiting. I’ll be rooting the yarn, to Coraline’s crochet head. Just like I’d root for a regular doll. I was pleased to see that Sharon uses this technique too. After that’s completed, I’ll start working on the body. Who knows, I might have my crocheted Coraline completed before the weekend is over.

I wonder if any Neil Gamon fans read this site, at some point, perhaps a Coraline doll would make a nice giveaway?