Meet Horatio

Once upon a time, during a discussion of mystery shawl knitting projects, someone's iPad auto-corrected the word "shawl" to "shark," and henceforth all mystery shawls were referred to as mystery sharks at my LYS. I have not joined in any mystery knit-alongs yet, but sharks do interest me, so I made Horatio.

The pattern I used to crochet him is Hector the Hammerhead Shark by Adriana Aguirre. It's a detailed pattern with plenty of photos - helpful in telling all of his fins apart. I did make one modification: the switch between the white and the gray parts happens at the beginning of each round, which makes the color change start to spiral around his body. To counter that, I just varied where I switched colors by a stitch or two every other round or so, so that I got a more-or-less straight line between his gray part and his white part.

Oh, and I also added a mouth, because a hammerhead shark has to have the little frowny mouth.

Horatio is my first crochet project using all new-to-me, fancier tools: an addi Swing hook, Uptown Worsted acrylic yarn, and Fiberloft polyester stuffing. It's been 6+ years since I started crocheting and I know I'm invested in this craft, so it felt like time for an upgrade. SO worth it - the new hook feels great and fits my crochet style perfectly, the Uptown Worsted acrylic is super-soft and feels almost like wool, and the Fiberloft stuffing is much fluffier and less clumpy than the kind I was using before.

Horatio spent several weeks hanging out at the yarn store and making friends, and he even got to model one of the mystery sharks shawls that a coworker made:

Mystery shark

A long-delayed post about a long-delayed project

Hello! It seems fitting to end this unplanned blogging hiatus by writing about a project that I finished in November, but had to keep secret until a few weeks ago.

The LYS where I work has a holiday gift exchange tradition: we each put some stash yarn in a bag, then we randomly draw someone else's bag and make them a secret, awesome present with their yarn. So that we don't have to rush to get one more project done before Christmas, the gift exchange is usually scheduled for January. Except for this year, when a combination of travel and health issues pushed it back to March.

So, in October I drew Amy's bag, which contained sock yarn from Creatively Dyed Yarn. After poking through Amy's Ravelry favorites and her blog, I chose to make her a Cassis shawlette, which I finished in November. And then I finally got to give it to her a few weeks ago!

By that point, I felt like I needed to add something extra, since it had been months since I'd even thought about the gift exchange. So I crocheted a couple of Tiny Mousies that Amy can give to her kids - or keep for herself.

I made a number of minor modifications to the shawlette pattern that don't change its overall appearance, but made the knitting look and feel a little cleaner to me. The modifications are detailed on my Ravelry project page, if you're interested. And the mousies are made pretty much following the pattern, except I made their heads longer by one round.

Oh, and if you're interested in what I received in the exchange - I put in two skeins of The Fibre Company's Canopy Fingering, and got back two beautiful cowls made by Anna. Take a look!

Epiphany shawlette

Epiphany mousies

Little bellydancer

This project holds the record for longest span of time from the date I started it to the date I finally finished it: started in March 2009, and finished on November 11 of this year, four and a half years later!

This is the Amazon amigurumi pattern from Creepy Cute Crochet by Cristen Haden, aka NeedleNoodles. You may recall that I started a couple other amigurumi at the same time, and very gradually got around to finishing first the ninja, and then the monkey in 2011. This poor girl, though, continued to languish. I think the main issue was that while she was hibernating, I decided I didn't really want an Amazon any more, but I wasn't sure what else to do. Then, finally, inspiration! And a while later, motivation! And now she is living happily on my amigurumi shelf as a tiny bellydancer!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, from Tiny Ghost and Tiny Bat!

I crocheted them using the Distinctly Batty pattern by Karissa Cole (she of the Skittles amigurumi pattern), and added some modifications of my own. The pattern calls for felt wings and ears for the bat, but my attempts at cutting and attaching symmetrical pieces of felt usually end in sorrow, so I improvised them in crochet. The ghost uses the same head and body as the bat, but I gave him to have a slightly flared base (because he is wearing his ghostly robe, of course), and used the bat's feet pattern to give the ghost his little hands. If you're interested, I explained my modifications in slightly more detail on my Ravelry project page.

I say this frequently, but they are quite possibly the cutest things I've ever made.

Tiny cat! Tiny cat!

One Sunday at work (in between my other responsibilities, of course!) I got out Anna Hrachovec's Tiny Cat kit and, ta-da, then there was a tiny orange cat! He stayed at the yarn store for a few days to meet my coworkers, and then he came home with me.

Where he met Juniper. And realized what a very, very tiny cat he is.

Because why not

Mmm, I made sushi!

Wait what

It's a fish!!

This is the Fish to Sushi crochet pattern by Irene Kiss, with a few modifications by me. Mainly I altered the construction of the fins so that I could crochet them directly onto the body, rather than making them in separate pieces and sewing them on. If you're interested in the details, they're on my Ravelry project page.

Crochet stash-busting

Recently I've been in that mood where I dump out my stash boxes and touch all the skeins and stare and plot and then tuck everything away and worry about having too much yarn. When I'm in that mood, crochet is wonderfully soothing and satisfying, because it eats up so much yarn and goes so quickly.

I can't get enough of that super-cute T-rex pattern that I posted about earlier, so when my grandmother requested a new critter (I've showered her with amigurumi in the past), she got a dino, of course. It was a good opportunity to pull something interesting out of my acrylic stash, and I am very pleased to report that one of my Red Heart skeins from my early crocheting days is now 100% used up.

I actually ran a little short on yarn, so I modified the dino pattern slightly by skipping several rounds at the bottom of its body that were not used to increase or decrease stitches. Its tummy is a little less rotund, but it's still nice and chubby. Although this yarn was a bit brutal on my fingers, I do really like the colors, and I'm glad its final incarnation was this cute little dino. (It also became a dragon and a little crab and a little fish.)

Earlier this year I bought a skein of Michaels' house brand yarn, Loops & Threads, in a leaf-green color, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. This is actually a very decent acrylic, but I had no idea what I could do with it, especially since I probably have more worsted acrylic in green than any other color. So then I decided to make something for my cat. Of course.

Yes, I underestimated my yarn usage again. But I'm learning to embrace asymmetry sometimes.

I had an idea to crochet a popcorn-stitch rug to put under Juniper's litter box, to help collect the litter that she tracks around. Tamara Kelly's Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket is a free pattern, and while I felt a little weird modifying a baby blanket pattern to make a bathroom accessory, it worked really well. I burned through the entire ball of Loops & Threads, plus a few other odds and ends that looked nice together. And the rug serves its purpose (when Juniper decides to exit her litter box from the front, which she does not always do, because she is a cat). I guess it's strange to get excited by the sight of lots of cat litter trapped in something I crocheted, but hey, it's doing its job.

Rainbow Joris

It seems it's time for my monthly blogging spree again. First up, a finished object from August: Joris! The pattern is by Annita Wilschut and is available to purchase through Ravelry.

He took me two months from start to finish, although that's not indicative of my interest in the pattern. I've wanted to make Joris for a long time, but he became the project that I kept pushing aside to work on other things. The pattern is a little complicated, though not difficult, so I could only really work on him when I had time to sit down and concentrate... and you know how that goes.

But! Now he's done, and I'm very pleased with him. He may or may not be called Lorenzo - that was the name given to him by my manager, but I still just think of him as my rainbow friend. He sits on the dresser in my bedroom, and makes my inner child very happy when I look at him as I'm falling asleep.

He did exhaust me a little, though. Knitting has its uses but when it comes to toys, I think I prefer crochet.

Cutest dinos EVER

I think that this may be the cutest amigurumi pattern I've crocheted, in almost seven years of crocheting amigurumi. At the very least, it's the cutest crocheted dinosaur ever.

This pattern is Timothy the T-Rex by Bluephone Studios. She also makes and sells her own dinos, and I'm very grateful that she made the pattern available for purchase because I had so much fun making these guys. The construction tips are especially great - a lot of amigurumi patterns just say "and then sew on the arms," but this one gives tips on using straight pins for placement and specifies where exactly to put all the bits.

These two dinos are presents for two toddlers I know who turned two and three this month. I wanted to make the dinos nice and big, so I used Berroco Vintage (a worsted weight yarn) held double, which made them about ten inches tall. They are so squishy and huggable that I was a little sad to box them up and send them to their recipients, but I hope they will be well loved. And in the meantime, I'll make another dino for me to keep.

And yes, they passed Cat Inspection.

Tiny sheep

There are many reasons I'm fortunate to work at my local yarn shop, not least of which is the awesome people I get to work with. And I feel especially lucky that as a retail employee, I can say "Why yes, I have a wonderful manager!" (My previous experience has led me to believe that this is pretty rare.)

As a little way to thank her for all the work she does, and all the tasty snacks she brings in, I made my manager a tiny sheep. The shop hosted a yarn tasting of Mountain Meadow yarn a few weeks ago, so I used some of my samples from that to make the sheep's body. I alternated using Laramie for the plain rows and Aladdin for the bobble rows, and some of my leftover Cascade 220 to make the sheep's head, feet, and tail. I had to make the body a little smaller than the pattern called for so that I wouldn't run out of yarn, but I think he turned out pretty cute.

The pattern is Katie Christy's Little Sheepy Who, which I've used once before - I made a sheepy traveling companion for a coworker who was moving away, back in January 2012. The designer has lots of other cute patterns that I want to try, including this little crabby and this baby chameleon.

Blue friend for my friend

A friend of mine recently came to stay with us for the weekend, and I was so happy to see her again after more than a year that I had to make her a little guy to commemorate her visit. So, I crocheted up another amigurumi from Karissa Cole's free Skittles pattern that I enjoy so much. Earlier this year, I made myself a yellow friend and a red friend. Blue friend hung out briefly with his cousins before going off to his new home in DC.

<3

Fricklebobb the Frolicking Nugget

A colony of bunny nuggets lives at my LYS. You can get to know some of them in last year's blog post, but since then, a few new ones have joined the crew. If that purple and teal guy in the middle looks familiar, it's because he's a cousin to my socks knit in Frolicking Feet.

Since I'm on the staff now, I wanted to get in on the nugget fun. The bunny nuggets are a free pattern from Rebecca Danger and they knit up in no time using scrap yarn.

This guy's name is Fricklebobb, and he has a sweet tooth: he quickly claimed dominion over the candy dish. Sadly, none of my pictures show off his wonderful pompom tail, but trust me, it's fantastic.

WIP Wednesday

Well hey, what is this? A blog post?! And a WIP Wednesday post, no less, for the first time since early April! As usual, I have no good excuse for my absence, so let's just skip that part.

I have four things on the needles, all of which are taking turns with each other, and therefore taking their time. Usually I only have one or two projects going, but a few weeks ago I had 6+ WIPs, which was strange and exhilarating! Now I'm back down to the more tedious projects - not to say I'm not enjoying them.

For the past month, I've been working on a pair of socks for my boyfriend - my first socks for someone other than me. Calling it "a pair" is optimistic at this point, because I'm only about halfway done with the first one. They are an experiment in many ways, plus they are for giant man feet, so they're going quite slowly. I'm using leftover GnomeAcres yarn in the Naruto colorway for the cuffs, heels, and toes, and black Cascade Heritage sock yarn for the rest. Three by three rib, nothing exciting until the heel, where I finally ventured beyond heel flaps and learned to make a short-row heel. I wasn't happy with how it was looking until I discovered the shadow wrap method, and now I'm past the heel and well into the foot. The rest should be easy!

I have also been working bit by bit on this little guy. The pattern is Joris by Annita Wilschut, and I have been wanting a Joris of my own since before I could knit. I'm so happy with how he's turning out in this yarn, which is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Child's Play. The pattern is not that difficult, but a little too complicated for tv-knitting, so I work on him when I'm in the mood to listen to a podcast or something.

There is also this shawl, Zilver by Lisa Mutch. It's currently my tv-knitting for whenever I'm tired of the Naruto socks. The pattern doesn't require too much attention, so it's a nice project for relaxing and just zoning out. The yarn I'm using is Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn, in the Swan Princess colorway, which I picked up at Loopy Yarns during my visit to Chicago a few months ago. This color... I don't know how I feel about it. I loved it in the skein and in the cake, but every time I see it now, it looks different to me. I'll think it's gorgeous, then two minutes later it looks kind of moldy to me. Probably the color variations will even out in the full-sized piece, and if I'm still ambivalent about it, it can be my only-wear-in-low-light shawl.

And finally, my Tempest Shawlette by Tabetha Hedrick, which I'm knitting in Malabrigo Sock, in the Azules colorway. It's grown a lot since this picture - I'm now on the 18th repeat of the tempest stitch pattern - but it's slow going. The pattern is a little too complicated to memorize, but not too hard, so by this point it's starting to get a bit boring. I'm also only working on this project a few days a week, because it's my at-work project, because - surprise! I work at my local yarn store now. I don't think I've mentioned that yet, but yes, I now have a part-time job sitting amongst huge quantities of wonderful yarn with other addicted knitters and crocheters and trying to keep myself from spending my entire paycheck before I even earn it.

WIP Wednesday: cables and charts

Glorious Cabled Mitts by Karen Adams caught my eye on Ravelry before I even knew how to knit, and it's been in my queue for a while, waiting for me to feel ready to tackle cables. Learning new techniques is one of my knitting goals now that I feel pretty comfortable with the basics, and now that I've tried cabling on my secret rough-draft project, it was time to cast on the mitts.

I'm using The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering in Plum, using a US 1 needle. This combination is mostly due to my stubbornness. The pattern calls for a light fingering, which the Canopy Fingering is not, and for a US 0 needle, which I translate to "at least US 1". Since the yarn is a little heavy for this pattern, I feel like I should have used a US 0, but I don't have one and didn't want to go buy one. Or, since I wanted to use the needles I had, I could have bought a more appropriate yarn, but I really wanted to use the Canopy Fingering. Conclusion: I'm knitting stupidly tight, again, because I'm worried about the mitts turning out too big.

Now that I've gotten as far as the thumb gusset increases, I think the fit is fine for me. All those cables are driving me nuts, though, and I would like to do them without a cable needle, but it's too tricky. Not only are my stitches too tight and tiny, but the yarn is a little fuzzy and splitty, so it's hard to get it all back on the needle.

Whining aside, I really like this pattern. I'll probably make it again, using different yarn - these mitts might make nice gifts.

In the spirit of trying different things, I also picked out a pattern from this amigurumi book that I bought in Japan last November. Japanese patterns are given as charts, which is nice if you can't read Japanese, but I'm not a huge fan of charts. It's going pretty well, though, and I can definitely see the advantage of charts. They make me a little dizzy, but it's easier to visualize what you're doing and where to put your increases and decreases, than it is when you're trying to mentally transfer written instructions into a three-dimensional object.

I'm making the tanuki, which is the little guy in the third row down, second column from the right on the book's cover. As you can see, I've got about half of his bits and pieces done. I'm not super thrilled with how he's turning out, but again, this is because I'm using yarn that doesn't feel quite right for the project. I don't really have the appropriate colors, and this brown is a little too "blah" for him. I actually really want to make the maneki neko (the waving cats), and I do have yarn that works for them, but I thought I should do a warm-up project first. Not a great idea, since this guy will probably go into hibernation soon. Still, it's nice to get this book out and actually use it, not just let it sit around as a souvenir.

Check out more work-in-progress posts at Tami's Amis!

Yellow friend

It's been a long time since I've crocheted any amigurumi, and even longer since I made one for myself. I've been stuck in this limbo where I want to make my own designs, but that's still a bit intimidating, and I've also mostly filled up my designated "amigurumi shelf." In other words, I've still been queueing and saving patterns but I haven't felt that enthusiastic about starting any of them.

Until now!

This is my little yellow friend. He is crocheted using Karissa Cole's free Skittles pattern, in some Caron Simply Soft. He's only two inches tall - so adorable and tiny! I like this pattern because it uses a couple of unusual techniques to get that cute effect. The arms and antennae are just strands of yarn with strategic knots, and the body is not stuffed with stuffing, just yarn ends from his appendages. This keeps the body from being too roly-poly and allows the little guy to sit nicely.

I liked my yellow friend so much that I immediately had to make another. From start to finish, my red friend took only an hour or less, during knitting night at my LYS (sadly, that's not my stash in the picture). It's a great quick and portable project, because it's so small and doesn't use much stuffing.

Expect to see more little friends soon in all the colors of yarn that I have!

FO Flashback: amigurumi

Time to revisit my FOs from March in years past! I have several amigurumi, but only one that hasn't shown up on my blog before:

This is Ebirt. For a few brief years, Colonel Ebirt was my college's mascot, but these years coincided almost exactly with my time in school, so Ebirt is forever our one and only mascot in my mind. A couple years after I graduated, I decided to crochet my own little Ebirt. This was the first time I crocheted something without a pattern - I did use the Amigurumi Dude pattern to get his head started, but I improvised the rest. I was, and still am, very happy with how he came out. He's been to campus for a few visits, but these days he hangs out on my amigurumi shelf with the rest of his buddies.

Ebirt visits Lord Botetourt

Ebirt visits Thomas Jefferson

In March of 2011, I finished my baby bunny and my ninja, both of which I blogged about previously. Not much has happened in the baby bunny's life. At some point I gave him a pink ribbon to wear around his neck, and he spends his time sitting next to my other bunny that I made from the same pattern. The ninja technically belongs to my boyfriend, but it turns out he's also just sitting on my amigurumi shelf these days. Don't ask me how he got there (he's a ninja).

Last March, I finished my kitty, which I blogged about last May after giving him to my mom as a Mother's Day present. As I mentioned there, I designed him to look like my mom's old cat. He lives in my parents' house with the other things I've made over the years. I had, and maybe still have, grand plans to make more cats with that pattern to look like our other kitties. One is currently a WIP that I always intend to pick up again and never manage to, so if I ever do get that done, I might reevaluate my plans to make another two more (we are a cat family).

And, I also finished Nessie last March! Nessie is currently living in Scotland with my friend, and even got to go visit Loch Ness last year. I'm hoping to share some of those photos here, so I'll save that for another post.

Dragon eyes

Whenever I make amigurumi, the moment I put on its eyes is the moment it gains life. Before that, it's just some balls of crochet, but with eyes, it suddenly has personality.

Sadly for these dragons, they spent years without any eyes at all. I always planned to embroider eyes on them, but my embroidery abilities leave something to be desired, so I was reluctant to just go through with it. I imagined that someday, in some magical craft store somewhere, I'd find the perfect beads or plastic gems or something to make their eyes. But, that day never came, and I finally decided that my dragons would be better off with not-so-beautiful embroidered eyes than spending the rest of their lives sightless.

Because I always intended to make eyes, the two bigger dragons were listed as WIPs on my Ravelry page, at 95% completion. It felt so, so good to change them to finished projects, and update them with photos that showed their new eyes!

The two big dragons were made using the original version of Lucy Ravenscar's Fierce Little Dragon pattern. The smaller dragon is the Mighty & Ferocious Dragon pattern. Both of them are great patterns that I've used multiple times, and they're free. If you make your own, just be kind enough to give them their eyes right away and not make them wait for years.