Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did Some Work!

I think I mentioned on Thursday that last week's Crochet Blog didn't happen due to A Lot Of Reasons, one of which being that I had a gift to make someone!

So here is the gift!

"Sir Batwington" aka "Chonky"

Yes, that is a chubby lil battyboo. Yes, I made him for one of the niblings, who named him Chonky. Because he is Chonky. Heccin Chonky.

Chonky here is made from Red Heart Super Saver yarns, safety eyes, and polyfill. I got the pattern from Sweet Softies and he came together like a dream. If you've got a bat-lover in your life, this pattern's a fantastic option! I'll probably check out other amigurumi on that site in the future.

I have other requests for critters, so I'll get to work on those soon enough, but for now, I'm still working on that Blue Shawl. I only worked on it for 52 minutes this week, but that still brings our total time on this one shawl up to over nine hours!

Future projects may include: a few more Goblin Bags (scrap yarn bags that'll hold random goodies plucked from random places), a couple of water bottle holders from the cotton yarns I've accumulated, possibly another cardigan, possible a shoulder dragon. We'll see.

If I do make the shoulder dragon, I'm going to use it for, of all things, making a cloth pattern so I can sew up an alternate version of it. The cloth dragon will be filled with sand. This is for a character I'd like to work on for either the RennFaire I'm attending in September or possibly future Halloween usage.

Any suggestions for cool looking free dragon crochet patterns would be deeply appreciated. I cannot wait to start working on him.

Anyway, that'll be all from me for now. I know it's late. The day got away from me lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: With Love

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I haven't posted in quite a while, but I'll try to explain more tomorrow :)

For today, please enjoy this heart I crocheted from Mari-Liis Lille aka Lilleliis!

It's not huge, but it's squishy and cute!

Today was a busy and romantic day for me, and I hope the rest of you also got to enjoy yourselves with your loved ones! I am exhausted and very proud that I managed to make that in only a couple of hours. If I'd thought about it more while I was making it, I could've given it some eyes and a cute lil smile, but I'm satisfied to just have a cute little heart pillow. It felt so nice to be back at making things!

Feel free to go make something from Mari-Liis Lille's patterns (she has in-depth PDFs of her patterns for sale, too!) because this one was super easy to read & understand, and I think I'd like to scroll through some other patterns of hers too!

For now, though, I think I'll crawl back into my pajamas, add another blanket to the fort (the Real-Feel out there is about -5℉/-20,6℃ I think) and call it an early night, filled with love and pastrami and joy.

Happy Valentine's everyone!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday!!!

Hey! This Part of the Blog Still Exists!

I have been a busy, busy little bee! I picked up the hooks again, and I've been going a bit bananas with crochet. I started a new project from an antique source - the Silk Sport Vest No. 516 from Corticelli on the Antique Pattern Library. I'm, of course, not using silk yarn, I'm using a worsted acrylic and checking by the length measurements. I'm about halfway done with the back, though I didn't get any photos. I also started two mysterious projects!!!

One is based on an actual pattern, the other is not.

what have we here?

So far, this is a slightly cupped disc crocheted from an ecru/natural cotton thread on a 1.75 steel hook. I single crocheted 6 stitches into a double magic ring, closed the loop, and began my increase rounds - I went from 6 sc to 60 sc (10 rounds, increasing 6sc evenly around each continuous round) then I did one round of sc all around. Then I increased evenly around to bring it to 66, 72, 78, 84, and finally 90sc (five more rounds), and then did two more rounds of straight sc around.

But I'm not telling you what it it, yet. You'll have to wait and see.

As for Mystery Project #2, that's less mysterious.

Kind of obvious, really...

Spooky season is upon us, and that yarn glows in the dark. I can't really recommend it (a friend of mine gave it to me after buying it online) because the yarn itself has some very unpleasant shreds of plastic in it, but it really does glow after strong exposure to light. My lighting tends to be soft, though, so it doesn't really get much exposure.

My only issue besides the spikiness of the yarn is the eyes. I bought these eyes a while back, and while the eyes themselves are good...

Quite nice, to tell the truth!

The washers that go on the backs leave a lot to be desired.

I'd even go so far as to call them crappy.

They're not flat washers, but instead, they're cupped. If you put the hollowed side facing the back of the eye, it won't go far enough down to slip over the ridges. If you face the hollowed side towards the inside of your project, it'll go down over the ridges alright. It'll also come right back off. The holes are too wide for the pegs on the eyes.

I'll be using some hot glue or superglue or something on those suckers to get them to stay in the poor thing's face. No one wants a glowy critter whose eyes fall out...

If everything goes smoothly (hahahahahahahaha) I'll be done with Project #2 before Sunday, but if I can't find my hot glue gun or the superglue, it could take longer. There's not many rounds left, I don't think...

Project #1, on the other hand, might take clear through next month! I hope not, though. I am excited for this idea.

So how are you guys doing, creativity-wise? I'm very glad to be getting back in the ol saddle with my crochet, so I hope you guys are doing well.

That'll do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Heat Induced Mania

In Which I Am Bananas

Let's face it. I'm not built for heat and humidity.

And yet, that's just the way things have been this past month. Today it's 89℉ (~32℃), though apparently only 39% humidity? I... have my doubts.

I also have a sunburn because I went to the beach yesterday and waded around in shorts and a tanktop. I didn't have enough sunscreen, so despite the cloud cover, I came home radiating heat and cherry-toned lol. Mostly, it just itches, thankfully, so that's good.

The bruise on my thigh continues to clear very slowly, but that's to be expected. It feels smoother after its soak in the ocean yesterday, too.

But you're not here to listen to me blather about skin problems, you're here about crochet!

And I did manage to do some work this week - more than I worried I'd be able to!

Just... not what I'm supposed to be working on.

Any guesses?

Once upon a time, before the days of Quarantine and COVID-19, I would go to my local bookstore and look at their selection of fiction, knick-knacks, silly punny socks and totes, and yes, occasionally, I'd look for crochet books.

See, crochet books? They're expensive. If you want to get them, it's best to get them from a secondhand store. Now, during one of these pre-plague visits (in fact, years ago!), I found this book:

Which I highly recommend

In this book, there's a bunch of very weird amigurumi designs, and I'm working from the one on the top-right ;)

That's right, Cthulhu rises from the YarnCave.

Anyway, I'm pretty beat right now - it's been two fairly sleepless nights due to the spider in my room continually escaping and lying in wait - so I'm probably gonna go upstairs and fry in the heat, maybe take a nap, I dunno lol :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 322: Progress Continues

In Which I Am Still Making Progress, But I Cannot Spell

No joke, I could not get my fingers to type out "progress" in the title. I wrote "porogess", "porgress", and "progorss", but it took about six tries to get it right. And yes, I slept last night. I slept really well. I think my nightlight may be dying though... I should look into getting a new one.

But enough about my pointless nyctophobia!

I'm slowly making progress!

I added another half inch of length to the ol' Lady Sibyl this week. Just... maybe 4" to go? Regardless, it's coming along.

But my startitis is pretty bad this year, so of course I have a side project. I've decided to make a sasquatch.

A very loud one

I'm using this pattern, but I'm making mine look more like the yeti. The seafoam green (yeah, that's green, color balance is hard) will be the face, hands, and feet. The rest will be a rich magenta. So far, so good!

How about you guys - how are your projects coming along? Have you completed a ton in the time it's taking me to make one rectangle folded in half and seamed at the sleeves? Lol...

Go Enjoy Something, guys
FC

Fiber Monday 249: Dinosaur Finito!

In Which I Have Worked Very Hard!

What a day. It's going to be a real nor-easter apparently (hasn't started yet), and I've been running around all day prepping for it. I took back bottles, I helped my mother move lawn furniture indoors and went shopping with her to get some essentials, like bread (we were out!!!), and I've been so busy that I only just now got to take my shower. Thankfully, all that's over with, but there's one thing I've not had a chance to do.

I haven't crocheted today.

But FC! You may exclaim. Doesn't the title of today's blog indicate that you finished making your dinosaur???

I did!

I actually finished it on Tuesday :P

The head and part of the body!

Most of the body!

Look at his cute lil face!

So close to being done!

And here is his body finished. He looks a bit like a tadpole, no?
Also, that's a normal sized colored pencil for scale. The baby is biiiiiig!

Here he has his first spike. I'm so proud of him!
And there's some stuffing back there, too...

My baby is 100% spiked at this point!

Time for his sweet lil feetsies!

Are you ready for possibly the best reveal shot I have ever had for a project? Are you?!

I needed to find a good spot to take the photo and my bed was a hideous mess, everyone on earth was downstairs and in the way, and my dad's room was off limits. So I looked outside at that beautiful Tuesday sky and put my lil dino on the windowsill!

Looooooook at him! He's so stinkin cute!

I am in love with this dinosaur design, so thank you, Stringydingding, for having this pattern available for free on your website, and I hope to one day buy a bunch of your pdfs so that I can support a fellow hooker. Uh... crochet person. We don't really have a cool sounding nickname like "knitter" or "tailor" or "seamstress"... Hm.

Now, I didn't simply work on a dinosaur, no.

I have made 6 snowflakes already. All in one day, in fact!

I'm also working on this Christmas tree for my mother. It has taken me over 4 hours at this point, but I'm nearly done with it!

And I've been continuing work on a very large project that I'm not sure I'll finish this year...

So, I apologize for the very late blog, and I hope to have tomorrow's up at an appropriate hour lol.

Here's hoping that if you're in this Nor'Easter's path that it doesn't cause you or your property harm, that you have ample heat available, that you have all that you need, and that life in general is not cruel to you.

Be safe, be warm.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 248: DINOSAURS!

In Which I Make a Deceptively Large Amigurumi

So while trundling around les internets on my phone, I found this pattern for an amigurumi dinosaur and thought "that's heckin' cute! I should make one!" And here we are...

Here is a pile of yarn

The first thing I had to do was decide what color to use. I had the most teal, so that's what I chose for the body. It's a very old skein of Caron Simply Soft, I'm pretty sure, so if you've got some to destash, this might be the project for it! After selecting my yarn, I made my magic ring and crocheted the first five rounds of the project.

Due to camera shakage, we're gonna have some blur. Sorry!

I'm only going to take photos every 5 rounds because not only does this person want to sell copies of the pdf (which if I had money, I'd buy it, because this is a stinkin cute design and the name of their website made me smile - stringydingding!!!) they also have photos on their website, so I don't want to usurp their material. This is going to be purely a progress blog for this project :)

Round 10 with small black buttons for eyes!

I'm out of safety eyes now, sadly, so I cannot give this dino proper eyeballs, but these black buttons are pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Also, hello Star Wars pants in the lower left corner...

Round 15, side view

This head is already pretty huge. That's a 4.00mm hook for reference, and this recliner has arms almost as wide as one of my thighs, so... it big.

It real big.

This is gonna be a honkin huge dino!

I'm so excited to get more of this adorable plush finished!

That's gonna be all from me!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC