Sweet Cuddly Bunny

Ohhhhhh isn't this cuddly bunny so sweet?! She was a special order from a brand new Grandpa. I think she will look beautiful in her new home and be a loving companion to his granddaughter.

Meet Amigurumi Willy - The Retro Inspired, Flat Faced, Boy Doll

Willy's Amiguru"Me"

My last post introduced you to the fabulous craft of Amigurumi and I showed you Molly Doll who was made for my daughter Molly.  After making Molly Doll I just had to make a doll for my son Willy too, and of coarse he wanted a doll made in his likeness just like Molly's.  So I set out to make Willy's Amiguru"Me" (hehe, isn't that cute!).  I wanted to try something a little different and I was inspired to try making a sort of abstract, retro inspired doll with a flat head like the old Raggedy Ann dolls.  It was really fun figuring this guy out and really simple to make!  As you can see I haven't been able to bring myself to make a face for him yet in fear that I will mess him up.  Willy thinks he is sad without a face.  What kind of expression do you think Willy Doll should have?

I will post the pattern soon but couldn't wait to get a couple pictures of him up after reading AmigurumiBB's Blog post about her flat-headed boy doll.  I just LOVE the curly hair that she gave him.  Check back here soon for Willy's free pattern and learn how I gave him his permanent curly locks and created the flat head and movable hands, feet, legs, and arms. :)

"Amigurumi What?" Learn a New Craft & Meet Molly Dolly!!

Here's a fun little lesson on my very favorite hobby....Crochet!

Amigurumi: knitted or crocheted stuffed toys.  This word is made up of a combination of two Japanese words, ami (meaning to knit or crochet) and nuigurumi (meaning stuffed doll).  Honestly I don't know how the word stuck here in America.  I couldn't pronounce it for years and finally just picked a pronunciation that made me stutter the least...(ah-mee-goo-roo-mi).  Go ahead and give it a try...out loud...no one is listening...it's kinda fun to say actually.  Good, now when you talk to someone about amigurumi you will sound like a pro (cause I'm sure crochet comes up in most of your daily conversations, right?).  Well, it is the word most commonly used for these cute cuddly crochet creatures with big heads and wide set eyes.  I first learned to crochet amigurumi by taking Stacey Trock's "Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster" class on Craftsy.  She teaches you the basics of making amigurumi so you can branch off and create pretty much anything you want with crochet.  It's a great class & I highly recommend it if you are interested in trying out this really fun craft.  Now I'm going to show you my first amigurumi doll (I think you are going to love her!)!!

Meet Molly Dolly, my first amigurumi doll. :)  

I made Molly Dolly for my daughter, Molly (hmmm, go figure) and she Loved her!  My goal for Molly Dolly was to add a bunch of details that will make her look and feel more "real".  She still has the proportions of an amigurumi doll (really just the big head and wide set eyes) but she also has eyelashes, puffy cheeks, a waist, her arms move, she has hands with fingers, and she has little defined knees.  I tried giving her ankles and little feet but as you can see I didn't make her legs long enough so she ended up with cankles (sorry about that Molly Dolly!).

I learned how to attach Molly Dolly's arms and make her hands with fingers from Sharon Ojala on You Tube.  I really like the arms attached this way because they move around a lot and I think the shoulders look so cute.  They definitely need to be tightened and knotted more than you think because they tend to loosen up each time they are played with.  I don't know if I will make hands with fingers again...it was a lot of work and I don't think the payoff was that great.  Don't they look kinda stubby and big to you?

Molly's hair was made by making a wig cap and attaching strands of hair to the cap.  I'm on the lookout for a better method of making amigurumi doll hair.  I really like the the "BB Doll's" hair ideas on "AmigurumiBB's blog".  I might try one of these styles for my next doll.  The cap took so long to make (essentially you are making half the head again) and then the attached hair was too thick.  As I tried to thin the hair out it just looked like she grew bald spots on her head.  Grrrr, frustrating!

Molly Dolly's dress is removable too!  I did this in hopes of creating different outfits that Molly could dress her up in.  I love the way the dress turned out and it was SO easy to make!

I didn't write a pattern for Molly Dolly since she was my first one (I was just trying to muddle through the design process).  But I love how she turned out so I am going to try again and fix the little parts that didn't work out exactly as I planned.  I'll get that pattern down to share with you guys for sure.  If you are interested in the pattern please follow my blog so that you get the update when I do post the pattern. :)

I'd love to hear what you think about her and any ideas on what I can improve on for round 2!

The Boob Heart

A few weeks ago I invited my friend, Jessica from Bible study over for a lesson in crochet. The "lesson" part (me teaching) didn't last long at all. Turns out she is a natural and just needed me to show her the basics. We had a blast talking and crocheting for hours. It was so much fun in fact that we scheduled session #2 for the following week. In one week she had learned all she needed to know to start a real project. We picked this cute 3D amigurumi heart pattern by MyGurumi that was available for free on Ravelry.com. We had no idea what we were getting into. Innocently we began our "crochet-a-long" (as I like to call it). As we crocheted "Cup A" and "Cup B" together, we soon realized that our sweet, innocent heart looked more like a set of lopsided boobs!

Steph's Stitches

In February of 2010 I signed on to Ravelry.com, a "knit and crochet community".  I love looking up patterns and viewing knit and crochet projects but it wasn't until recently that I actually updated my own profile and posted some of my crochet projects.  I thought I would share them here for those of you who are not a part of Ravelry.com.  I don't have pictures for everything that I have completed yet but I'm on my way.

The Eyeball.  This little guy was crocheted after I made a darling little elephant hacky-sack at Thanksgiving a few years ago.  The elephant didn't do so well as a hacky-sack (probably due to the ears and trunk!) but he was sure cute.  I filled him with plain popcorn kernels.  Anyway, my father-in-law thought the elephant was really cool and asked if I could make a Von Dutch eyeball with wings.  How he went from little blue elephant hacky-sack to eyeball with wings I'm not sure but never-the-less, I went to work!  I think this eyeball was the first crochet project that I've just eyeballed...uh, I mean, the first project I've made without a pattern.  He turned out so cute even though I never finished the wings.  I never stuffed him and gave him to my father-in-law either but the kids and I have had such fun just swinging him around by his ligaments that I left hanging out the back.  I even tied him to my glasses and scared my husband into thinking I was going to wear him (eyeball) as a Halloween costume in public.  He's given us some good times.  Thanks, little eyeball.

Next on the list of crochet projects is the diamond shawl.  This lovely lady was crocheted for my cousin, Dani (modeling it beautifully for me here).  I used a pattern by Kristin Omdahl in her book "Crochet So Fine".  I only made it half as long as the pattern called for but bought yarn to make the whole thing so I have another one that is about 25% complete in my project bag for myself.  The yarn is 100% alpaca lace weight (super fine).  With all the open lace you might not think it would be warm but it's so surprising how much heat this little beauty will generate! 

I especially love the shawl draped around Dani's neck like a scarf. It's so "grandma meets eclectic beauty".

The photo here is advertising our dog Pup's Christmas sweater.  My friend Tracy's dog, Blue is modeling it.  Pup is a lot more hyper so I never got a great picture of him in it.  I made one for my mom's dog Baloo as well.  I winged the pattern on these so they turned out a little different.  It's amazing how fast something whips up when you use big yarn and a fat hook though...I made these in an evening!

Valentine Hat.  I found this awesome stitch on Ravelry that looks like sideways knitting.  Tracy brought a hat that she had crocheted when she came to visit (above) and told me how fun it was to make.  I had never made a hat before so I had to try it.  It was more challenging than I had thought: I pulled the darn thing out at least 4 times getting the increases right.  Come to find out, the person that I learned the stitch from had a pattern for a hat on the same site!!  Arg.  I added the heart design by adding red yarn in some of the stitches and I added a little star stitch boarder.  Molly looks darling in it.

Last but not least is this little baby sweater that I very recently crocheted for our relatives in Spain on my husbands side.  I found this vintage pattern on Ravelry.com and knew I had to try it.  I had some yarn passed down to me from my mom from the 80's (I think).  Its labeled as baby yarn and it looks so soft and cuddly...LIARS!  Let me just say that el nuevo bebe better be wearing a turtle-neck onesie before donning this darling cardie!  It turned out super cute though and I bet it will be very warm.