Irish Hiking Scarf, the New Year and Beethoven and stuff.

Ok so... Happy 2012 and happy late Christmas. I apologise for the lack of updates. Having had my first (and very overwhelming!) semester of Grad School at UCONN, I hardly had time to get done what I needed too, much less do something for myself.

I haven't neglected needlework, but I find that time just slips away from me. I had to tear out my afghan that will be offered as a free pattern (aka my "undisclosed" knitting project), yet AGAIN. So, instead of working with acrylics, I decided to spend the extra money for Patons classic wool, which will make for a nice warm, snuggly afghan. :) So during the newly found free time in Grad school, I decided to make a scarf for my boyfriend's mom for Christmas.

Easier said than done. Finding the right pattern was difficult. I used a cabled scarf pattern by my most trusted Lion Brand, but I swear, there was a mistake, and the pattern was way off. I know I never have done cables before, but I re-knit it 3 times, and still no luck. My good friend Mitch told me about reversible cables. The pattern was easy, but ate yarn like no other. So, I finally decided on the Irish Hiking Scarf. I had a hell of a time finding the right yarn. I'm a picky knitter as it is (or maybe I am a (k)nitpicker?) -- I like to use the best quality yarn in combination with the best quality needles because it makes the project itself go more smoothly and you have a nicer finished product. Since this wasn't for me, I was extra picky. I ended up going to Michael's with my friend Stacey in the middle of an early snowstorm to get Alpaca blend yarn from Michael's. It was nice, but I just felt it wasn't good enough and having settled for cheap knitting needles from Wal-Mart, I hated how it was turning out.

Boye needles get the job done, but having only knit previously with Addi needles, it was like... going from being chauffeured in a super stretch limo to having having to drive yourself in a shoddy car rebuilt from parts from a junkyard (I'd like to see the Car Fax for that one...).... Okay, so maybe it's a bit of an overstatement, but I think you get my point. So Stacey and I took another excursion to Glastonbury to buy some yarn and go Christmas shopping for our boyfriends. So, I ended up getting this fabulous yarn called "Taboggan" but unfortunately, the lady at the shop was less than helpful and I ended up buying way too little yarn, but I did get my Addi needles!!

By the time I got home for break, my mom and I went to Knitter's Nest to try to find my Taboggan yarn. No luck. I ended up buying an acrylic/wool blend called "Play time" which, I didn't like once I started knitting. I didn't like the way it felt in my hands, and it was a bit too thin in my opinion, to get through a Norwegian winter. But, I did get the Addi Click interchangable needle set!!!

Being rather annoyed with yarn by this point, I remembered Nancy telling me about yarn.com. I read through all of the yarn descriptions before finally setting on a blended yarn by Cascade called "Dolce". This yarn was amazing, other than when it tangled like mad when I tried to wind it into a ball. I can deal with that. It was the right amount of thickness and the right amount of soft: A worsted weight, 55% Alpaca, 23% Merino and 22% Silk blend.

I had been working on this scarf daily from the time I got the yarn, so, from 23. December, through today. I planned to actually give the gift to Åse herself, but I couldn't go to Norway for New Year's. I guess though, I was able to buy myself more time before actually sending the scarf off to Norway never to be seen again.

And without further adeiu (and rambling...) I introduce... The Irish Hiking Scarf!!

Here's a close up of the cables! 

Jealous of his Model/Composer competitor, Mozart, Beethoven models the scarf. My doesn't he look rather fetching in red!

As said before, the pattern was fairly easy. It called for a worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles. I used size 7 and close to 200 g of yarn because Dolce got pretty good yardage. I made the scarf in red because Alex said it's his mom's favourite colour. The picture is a bit dark, but the red is actually a very vibrant one. :) Now I just hope that Åse likes it! She's been knitting way longer than I have, and it was my first attempt at cables, so I hope it is well received! I know I am proud of it (and even more so that I can start a new project!)

The Irish Hiking Scarf pattern can be found here.

** This pattern is copyright of Hello Yarn. All right's reserved. The photos are my own.**

Crochet Kangaroo and Corey Taylor too!

It's been a while and my apologies for taking so long to update. With the hectic first year of Grad School approaching and my full-time seasonal job at Walgreens, I haven't had much time for my projects, much less updating my blog. This is not to say that I have forgotten about my blog, or that I haven't made anything since I posted last. This is simply not the case. For the most part, my Slipknot cross-stitch has been consuming all of my free time and quite possibly is taking over my life. If it weren't for work and helping my mom with some errands, I probably would have become room-bound and stitch crazy this summer while only putting my project down so I can put on the other side of my Slipknot records. If that were so, I would have been finished this thing by now.

Because the special edition cover of Vol. 3 (the subliminal verses) is taking so long to finish and after messing up on my undisclosed knitting project and tearing it out yet AGAIN, I needed to create small diversions here and there to keep myself sane (or at least as sane as humanly possible for me). What better way to do that than to crochet!

I have since discovered Etsy and the many wonderful things the posters have for sale. Being an avid kangaroo lover and Australia fanatic - I found Crochetroo's store and bought some patterns from her. She had one for the "True Blue Kangaroo" and she stitched up rather quickly. And, thanks to the members of Ravelry, I have created a boomerang to fit in her pouch. A true Aussie!!


Kangaroo (finished 05. July 2011):

what a beautiful little Sheila!

 Many thanks to Crochetroo for this pattern! :) If you would like to see her other creations, go to her blog here and please visit her Etsy store here too!

And now for my weird little Slipknot fan moment... I went to Michael's yesterday and bought some T-shirts strictly for the stretchy fabric. I planned on making a pokemon or something. The more I thought about it, the harder it was. Sewing is not my strength, and with that being said, I hardly ever do it. But anyway, I looked at my fabric and then looked up at my wall and I noticed that the colours I had were IDENTICAL to the colours Corey Taylor (for those that don't know, the lead singer of Slipknot. If Slipknot is not your thing, you might like Stone Sour) was wearing. Being rather late at night, I decided to make a Corey Taylor doll. I know, I'm strange, but that's part of my charm, right?

I looked around on the internet to see what kind of things I needed and I came across a YouTube video explaining how to make a Corey doll. Thanks to YouTube user xshabootiex for the great tutorial! So I got to sewing and finally finished him today! He doesn't look as good as I had hoped, but maybe someone who can sew really well will make me one that looks more like Corey than mine does!

Corey Taylor doll (finished 17. August 2011):

 

and for comparison, here's what Corey is *supposed* to look like:

I kind of see a similarity, but I guess I need to make a second attempt at this. :P

** The "True Blue Kangaroo" is copyright of Crochetroo Designs. Corey Taylor doll adapted from a design by XShabootieX at Youtube. The photos are my own. **

Lovecraft, Anyone?

After much consideration of what my next crochet project should be, I decided to make a Cthulhu. I figured I probably wouldn't have much luck finding a pattern, so I would pretty much be stuck creating one from scratch. Since this was only supposed to be a slight diversion from my cross-stitch piece, I didn't feel like investing the time in creating a new pattern if I didn't have to. After a little searching, I came across a pattern for a crochet cthulhu and printed it out.

Jenn at work wanted to provide a little bit more motivation, so she brought in her little cthulhu she made entirely out of thread. I decided to go to Michael's on my day off to buy the materials and I started crocheting as soon as I got home. To my surprise, he was easier to make than I expected.

If you don't know what  a cthulhu is, you probably haven't read anything by H.P. Lovecraft. If you don't know who he was, he just so happens to be one of the greatest Horror writers of all time.

So here's my nice little Cthulhu who will now have the wonderful opportunity to keep my teddy bears company. I apologise for the poor quality. I took the picture with my iPod Touch to test it out. Next time I will be sure to use my digital camera.

Who knew that a cosmic demi-god could look this cute?!

If you would like to make your own Cthulhu, visit Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins here and look for the Cuddly Cthulhu pattern. I hope you enjoy it!

** The Cthulu pattern is copyright Amber at Cthulu Crochet and Cousins. The photo is my own. **

Slipknot update part 2 of however many it takes to finish this thing...

In honour of Joey Jordison's birthday (the drummer of Slipknot) I decided to do yet another update. Again, I apologize that I am a slow stitcher! I am trying to keep things interesting by making sure I made quite a bit of progress before posting.

After a slight mishap and frogging over 4 10x10 blocks , I think I got things straightened out. Apparently my organisation method failed me. My stickers fell off the bobbins *conveniently* for Navy Blue ultra very dark and black and I ended up stitching with the wrong colour! The next day when the sun was out, I noticed that the black part was actually stitched in navy.

In spite of Mr. Frog's unexpected and much unwanted guest appearance, I have been stitching like mad and I have *officially* 6 members completed and 2 very close to being finished. All that is left is the bottom right and Corey Taylor *the singer... whom I haven't even begun. A good bit of the confetti is behind me too. So hopefully I can provide the record label with another progress pic this week and that my stitching will be completed, washed and framed by the end of the summer.

I'm  done my rambling now... on to the picture!

** Vol. 3 Subliminal Verses Design is copyright of Brittany Grasser at Kveldulv Designs. Pictures are my own. **

A general update...

It's been a while and my apologies for taking so long to update. I had a lot going on with starting work and getting things squared away for Grad School, that I just lost so much motivation to work on some of my projects. My hands had been hurting too, so I had to try and take a break from the stitching for a little while. But, since I didn't want everyone to think I fell off the face of the Earth, here is a little work-in-progress update. I know, I broke my general policy of only posting finished pictures, but this one is taking way longer than anticipated.

Slowly but surely this masterpiece (or maybe I should call it a disasterpiece?) is coming along. I am rather proud of it. Take a look!

Now, whoever told you heavy metal and embroidery don't go together was lying to you!

If you don't know what it is supposed to be, I feel sorry for you because that means you have never had the wonderful opportunity  to listen to Slipknot! :) (Although I guess it depends on with whom you talk, because my mom would probably think you were lucky for having never heard Slipknot). Slipknot is one of my favourite bands and have been for quite a while now. I've been listening to them since I was 12 *so about 1999 or so...* and I felt there was no better way to combine my love for their music along with my talents in stitchery. With that being said, I worked my tail off sitting in front of the computer pixelating the CD cover, and looking up the colours that pattern maker suggested with a colour chart. After I played around with it a little ways, the Slipknot cross-stitch was born.

How and why I came up with the idea, I'm not sure. I just remember learning how to stitch with Nancy and asking her if it was possible to convert a picture into a pattern because I had the idea of turning this album cover into a cross-stitched tapestry. She said that it probably was possible, but she didn't know why I wanted to do it. For the life of me I don't know why I wanted to do it either, but it looks pretty awesome, even though it's much more work than I ever envisioned! Keep in mind, I have been working on this for over a year! ;)

** Vol. 3 Subliminal Verses Design is copyright of Brittany Grasser at Kveldulv Designs. Pictures are my own. **

He's cute, he's shiny... he's UMBREON!

Yup, that's correct. I finally got around to making Umbreon. He's not your average black and yellow Umbreon either... he's the shiny one! I had never really been a fan of Pokemon, but I did take a liking to Eevee and some of her "Eevee-lutions". When I saw Umbreon, he was instantly my favourite and I knew I must crochet him so I had an Umbreon of my own.

I went through my yarn stash and I had quite a bit of black and yellow and light blue in Red Heart yarn, but as I crocheted the black, it was very stiff and I didn't like the way it felt in my hands. When I went to Michael's with my mom, I was looking for a soft yarn that had either yellow (for normal Umbreon) or light blue (for his shiny form). Bernat has a really soft yarn called "Bernat Satin" that was very very soft. I got black, but I couldn't find blue or yellow at the time. Yesterday I went with my mom to Michael's again and they had the sport weight yarn in the right colour for his shiny form. I was so excited and when I got home, I immediately started crocheting (of course, I promised my best friend that I would make a minion for her sister, so I did that one first...).

I finished Umbreon today and I am pleased with the results. And, he's so soft and cuddly too! So, without further adieu, here he is:

So awesome in his shiny form...

why does he seem to look so angry?

In case you are wondering (which you probably are) about Umbreon and what a shiny form is, I'm going to give a short little summary. Umbreon is one of the dark Pokemon which evolves from Eevee at night or from moonlight. To get a shiny one, (black and blue) you either need a shiny Eevee or to battle a shiny Umbreon.

Again, this pattern was designed by Linda Potts and if you want to crochet one of your own, the pattern can be found on her blog here. As always, her blog is filled with nice free patterns of Pokemon and other stuff.

** "Umbreon" and "Pokemon" are copyright by Nintendo. Pattern copyright by Linda Potts. All rights reserved. 
Photos are my own. **

Despicable Minion no. 1

Last week my parents and I decided to have more time together as a family and my dad suggested that we watch "Despicable Me", since it just came out on DVD and he got it from NetFlix. That wasn't the movie that was highest on my list to see, but I heard it was cute, so I didn't mind watching it. It was a really cute movie and the minions were my favourite part. (I'm not even going to touch the minion language... because my friend Megan and I are baffled at how they came up with that language...)

My dad asked me if I would be able to crochet one for him and I knew I could because I had previously seen a pattern for one on the internet. Well, everyday since seeing "Despicable Me", my dad had reminded me about how much he would want a minion to sit on his desk at work. My mom found the pattern for me and since I needed some more yarn, a trip to Michael's craft store was definitely in order. I had a little bit of free time last night and today, so I figured I could make one very quickly. It took almost the whole day, but I got him finished. *Yes, I am aware that the minions arms seem to be uneven, but they really aren't. I measured them and I just positioned them differently so he wouldn't fall forward*

 Here he is:

"Ba-boy!"

Now I have been recruited to make a minion for my best friend's older sister and if I have left over yarn, I might make one for myself too! :)

Please excuse the lack of updates over the next few days. I might try to make more minions tonight (I am totally on a roll here) and I am waiting for a pattern to be translated from Spanish. Plus I think my knitting beckons to be worked upon. Besides, I think my wrists need a break from all the needlework anyway.

This pattern was made by Linda Potts. If you want to make a minion of your own, please visit Wolfdreamers OTH blog here.  She has many other amigurumi too!

** Despicable Minions are based off of the Disney / Pixar characters from "Despicable Me". Copyright Walt Disney Pictures. Pattern copyright Linda Potts. All rights reserved. Photos are my own. **

Thread Crochet

I didn't want to do much crochet, until I got more of my knitting and cross-stitch underway, but I had started this project in the beginning of August. It just beckoned to be worked upon. Looking back I guess I should have thought twice before I made fun of doilies. In a few of my previous posts on here, I made some jokes about making doilies. Well, here I am... posting about thread crochet after making my first doily. Kind of ironic, isn't it? Thread crochet isn't easy either. The hook that you normally use is really small and the thread is thin, which makes the stitches fairly hard to see. Much respect to those elderly ladies who do this often...

This is my first attempt at thread crochet and doily making. I now feel like a grandma (this was not meant to be offensive... it's just that I don't see any younger people making doilies very often...)  and even though it wasn't so bad, I don't think I'll be making anymore doilies any time soon!

Now for the pictures...

So pretty in all of its lacy glory!

You can download this pattern and other free doily patterns here. Enjoy!

** Pattern copyright unknown. Photos are my own. **

Amigurumi Yoshi

Ok so... I finished yet another nerdy amigurumi... This time, I made Yoshi. If you recall from my last post, I mentioned that Yoshi has been my favourite character in Super Smash Bros. I made a small Kirby for my sister and a Yoshi for myself. As for now, I am slightly sick of crochet and plan to get back to knitting very soon! :)

One thing I learned from making amigurumi is that the stuffed animal really has a mind of its own, and its best not to fight it. Haha. Even if you follow the instructions to a "T", my Yoshi will never look like the one in the pattern exactly. It's going to turn out a certain way no matter how hard you try to make it perfect. I swear, I had the worst time trying to line up Yoshi's legs, and I think they may even be uneven, but I'm human, and that happens.  I think that may even be part of his charm.

Here's some pictures of my dear Yoshi. (and yes... he is much more adorable in person... these pictures really don't do it justice).

Thanks to Robotrish for this pattern. If you would like to make a Yoshi of your own, visit Robotrish's blog and the pattern is available here.

** Yoshi, Kirby and Super Smash Bros. are copyrighted characters of Nintendo. Photos are my own. **

Introducing.... KIRBY!

Instead of working on my undisclosed knitting project which will eventually be offered as a free pattern, I decided to take a little break and work on a bit of crochet. I have been wanting to work on my crochet Umbreon for a while now, but I was really looking for a quick project that I would most likely be able to finish in a day. I looked through my pattern collections and found a crochet pattern of Gir from Invader Zim and Kirby from Super Smash Bros. I didn't have the right materials for Gir, and Kirby looked a little easier to make anyway. Much to my surprise, Kirby went together fairly quickly (in just a few hours) . Most importantly of course, is that he was a lot of fun to make! :)


So... Here he is! None other than KIRBY!

Kirby is one HAPPY camper!

Now I'm not quite sure if I want to keep Kirby for myself, or give him a new home with my sister (who always insisted on being Kirby in Smash Bros. ... I was ok with that... because I preferred Yoshi anyway ;) )

The original pattern was done in a much darker pink, but I remember Kirby being a much lighter pink... but I could of course be wrong. If you want to make a Kirby of your own, you can check out the Nerdigurumi Blog here.

** Kirby and Super Smash Bros. are copyrighted characters by Nintendo. All rights reserved. Photos are my own. **