Sweet Angel Amigurumi Ornament and Doll

My husband and I put up our tree last week, and like the trees of many newly-married couples, ours was lacking ornaments. Especially lacking was an angel ornament. So I sat down to figure out an amigurumi pattern for an angel ornament that could also double as a doll.



Here she is with the other two ornaments I designed. Now Manly says he wants a whole village of amigurumi ornaments and keeps asking for a Santa one.

As always, this new pattern is available in my etsy shop. Enjoy!

Sweet Winter Bear

Here's my latest amigurumi attempt. I was trying to make a Christmas bear, but that didn't go so well. Nonetheless, this little bear was born on a very cold Chicago winter day.



I think every amigurumi designer should have at least one bear in their pattern batch. I wanted something cute and sweet but with some personality. So much depends upon how the face comes out. I think I spend more time on the face than on crocheting the whole doll.



The removable scarf was an afterthought, but I think it makes the bear look extra cozy.

As always, the pattern is available in my etsy shop.

Baby Rudolph and Abominable Snowman Amigurumi

Here's a new pattern that I worked on this week: Baby Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Ornament and Toy. Needless to say, you can make it an ornament, a toy, or both. It's easy and works up quickly.



Here is little Baby Rudolph with Baby Abominable Snowman, who is also an ornament and toy.

You can purchase one of both together (discounted if bought together) in my etsy shop in time to get them crocheted and hung on your tree.

As a child, I absolutely loved watching the Rudolph special on television. That was way back in the day before we could own it on video or DVD. If I missed it one year, that was tragic.

I want to make more ornament patterns before Christmastime, but the semester is demanding that I grade and make amends with my dissertation revisions. We'll see.

New Amigurumi Pattern

I finished another amigurumi pattern over the week. I'm calling this one The Incredibly Hungry and Sleepy Puppy. It's a play set complete with puppy bed, puppy chow, and a little ball for it to play with.



The pattern features a reversible face so the puppy can be either sleeping or awake. Isn't it so cute? I think it's SO CUTE!



You know you want to make one. So visit my etsy shop and purchase the pattern before I get all sad that no one is buying my patterns.

Update: this pattern won a spot in the CrochetMe 2012 Calendar and will not be available in my etsy shop. Keep an eye out for the calendar for the pattern.

In knitterly news, I just finished a baby blanket and am now making another. I need to make some booties, too. All this for a very special January delivery.

My first amigurumi pattern

I spent a few nights last week coming up with a doll that was partially inspired by a Tokidoki character. It's a mishmash of that and my own whimsy. What I love about this pattern is the doll's reversible face. You can make it look scary or you can make her sweet.



She also has a cute little skirt and candy stripe legs.



The pattern is up in my etsy shop. Enjoy!

I'm currently working on a little puppy amigurumi. Almost done! I hope to post the pattern this weekend.

More amigurumi

My amigurumi obsession continues. Below is a little frog amigurumi (using the same pattern as the bunny one in the previous post) that I made for my little sister's birthday. My mom saw it and now wants one, so I'll need to get working on a doll for her, too.



This little guy was made for my nephew who adores Elmo. After seeing how easy it is to design your own dolls after you learn a few basic amigurumi shapes, it was easy to come up with this design. He loved it! I put some jingle bells inside, but I think the stuffing muffled the sound too much. Next time I'll place them in the little arms.



I'm currently working on my own doll patterns and hope to have a few posted to my etsy shop soon!

Hello again and amigurumi addiction

Hi, all. I'm back. At least for now. I've been working steadily on my dissertation, and I hit that mental wall that says I need a break. So I thought I would update this blog and take a dissertation break at the same time. Is anyone still there?

I've been so into amigurumi lately. All I want to do is browse patterns and make them. Here's my latest creation:



This was made using a pattern from K and J Dolls, an ever-so-talented amigurumi designer on etsy.

This was my second attempt at amigurumi, made using a pattern from Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli.



I need and want more little crocheted dolls.

finally some new socks and handspun

When I moved this summer, I packed a pair of socks to work on. It took the movers 12 days to get our things to us. You know I'm depressed if I can't bring myself to work on socks. Knitting on an air mattress isn't very fun. Don't ever use the moving company I used. Of course I won't give their name here, but if you're thinking of moving, contact me, and I'll tell you who not to use. 12 days late.

These socks were made with my very own Woolly Boully yeah oh yeah sock in the la mer colorway. They were done on size 1 dpns over 64 stitches.

I also made my first 3-ply yarn with this roving.



The roving is from Freckle Face Fibers and is 100% merino in the Patriot colorway. Her rovings are so fluffy and devine.

My singles took forever to spin. 3-ply handspun sock yarn is really a labor of love.



This skein measures 394 yards. I'm a tad bit disappointed: I was hoping that I would get more yardage, but for my first 3-ply handspun sock yarn, I think I did an okay job. There are some strange spots here and there, but overall, I'm pleased with my spinning progress.

After doing 3-ply, I needed a quick spinning project, so I grabbed some roving that I dyed up a few months ago. It's 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon, perfect for socks, and in my Country Apple colorway.



This skein is a sport to worsted weight and comes in at 168 yards.



I'm thinking mittens?

skein-a-day project

I miss dyeing yarn. I do. I really do. I just get overwhelmed by setting up and working on numerous skeins at a time and then all the clean up and rinsing and reskeining after a big dye-job.

My new Chicago kitchen also isn’t set up to production dye. You should have seen the work that Manly and I put into the kitchen for the Winter Sock Club skeins. It took the use of a broken bookshelf, some cardboard boxes, an old painting pole and lots of duct tape. I would do that all over again, but I have no idea where the duct tape is. We had to use A LOT of it. The whole contraption, however, made me feel completely insane, honestly.

I discovered that if I dye just one skein at a time, I’m happy, much happier, and I feel as if I have more room to play around in the dyepot. Plus, my kitchen stays sanely clean and organized, just how I like it. I love a clean kitchen. I have to make sure all the dishes are washed and put away before bed.

So, from here on out, I’m dyeing a skein a day. Some yarn will be kettle-dyed and some will be spaced dyed. I will have new and old colorways, but there will only be one skein a day. Well, okay, on days when I can do more, I will. On days when it’s impossible to dye, I won’t. Yesterday, it was impossible to dye, so I didn't. Today, I'll try to dye up two skeins between dissertation work and everything else.

I posted some skeins on my etsy site two days ago, and I'll have three more to post today. The seagrass that you're seeing in the photo above has sold.

Keep checking my etsy site if you’d like to get your hands on one of the skein-a-day creations.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up a pair of socks that I started in August (!) and spinning my first 3-ply sock yarn. Wish me luck.

A New Scarf for Manly

Manly doesn't always leave the house with a scarf; I think it's crazy. He had a really nice one once, but we haven't seen that one around. We haven't seen that one for about two years now. (I know--it's awful of me to let him go that long without a nice scarf.)

The cold in Chicago is insane; it's not your normal cold. So I refuse to let him leave without a scarf. He's been wearing the first one I made him ever: it's so ugly (to me) that I feel so badly for him when he wears it. It's my knitterly self looking at my first tries of garter-stitch (which I didn't do correctly, mind you) and feeling all embarrassed. He must love me enough to wear it.

He wanted orange. So orange it is.

This scarf was knit on size 10 needles over 32 stitches using Lamb's Pride bulky in the orange you glad colorway. I found the pattern in the first Stitch 'n Bitch book (page 58), and it calls for two skeins in the book. Don't believe it. You'll need three. Normally, I could get a scarf from two skeins of the bulky, but this stitch is so compact. Use fewer stitches and size 17 needles if you want to have more drape and use less yarn. I would prefer my scarf that way, but Manly likes a very dense knit.