The Lady (Free Pattern)

BONUS COMPETITION! If anyone can think of an awesome name for this pattern, I will change it and give credit and link back if you have a blog or store of your own. And internet cookies*.

*Disclaimer: Not real cookies. Unless you buy some and pretend they were from me.

EDIT: Competition closed, The Lady’s official name is:

Layla Antoinette

The name is an amalgamation of two submissions from Katy the Night Owl and Katnisscrochet. Enjoy your internet cookies ladies!

So last week I asked for people’s opinions and my Lady pattern won the vote, so here she is!

She’s posable and everything! The Lady was made as a gift for my brother’s girlfriend, who had requested ‘something for her desk at work’ ages ago. She’s big on history and textiles, especially dress and corset making, so I intended on making a beautiful Victorian style doll with a crinoline skirt. She actually looks more like she’s wearing some kind of space crinoline, but she was well received either way! Free pattern after the jump.

Mini Soldier (Free Pattern)

Less waffle this week, since it pretty much carries on from last week!

I mentioned on my Remembrance Day Soldier that I’d initially made a Mini Soldier, who looks like this:

 

A few people have asked for the pattern for him, so here is it, after the jump.

Splattered Zombie Pin Cushion (Free Pattern)

Two weeks without an update? Oops. Sorry. Last weekend I gave myself time off from working to go have a life, and that meant I didn’t get to update. But Halloween is coming up rapidly, and I missed joining in last year for one reason or another so here’s this years super quick sacrifice. Erm, offering. Crochet pattern. That’s the one – this year’s crochet pattern. Extra to the Shrunken Heads of course.

Meet the Splattered Zombie Pin Cushion.

She’s sort of similar to my Cute Lil’ VooDoo Doll, but a bit more, well, dead. Splattered as it says. Handy for keeping the pins at hand of course. So don’t feel too sad – she does have gainful employment. Big Unhappy Slug is still job hunting by the way. Update soon.

Free pattern after the jump.

Minion Goggles (Free Pattern)

Quick question for you all – how many Minion amigurumi or hats have you seen in the last week? Roughly a million?

Yes, the Minions are still super popular, and it doesn’t look set to abate any time soon. Which is awesome because I love the Minions, but it’s getting harder to find an original way to celebrate the love.

So it’s lucky that someone on my Facebook mused at the idea of being a Minion for Halloween this year, because otherwise I would never have been inspired to make these:

 

Look ma – I’m a Minion too!

The little one eyed minions are my favourite, and I did consider making a huge one eyed version of this, but I haven’t been able to find anything I could use for the lens. So two eyed it is! I’ve only found one other Minion Goggles pattern, but that one looked more like a sleep mask whereas I was going for real(ish)ism.

Check out the free pattern (including how to size it to your own head or that of your child/lover/pet) after the jump.

Readers Gallery 2

Hi everyone.

I was going to post what I’d made for my sister’s birthday tomorrow, but then I realised she might then see it before I give it her, so delay that one a week.

Instead, I’ve been collecting images of people’s versions of my patterns again. I love seeing photos of things you guys have made from my designs, so please if you have any you haven’t sent me or which haven’t been put on Ravelry do email me at amiguruthi@hotmail.co.uk. Especially if you’ve made something based on my Basic Amigurumi Human Base – I’m saving them for the next Readers Gallery.

First up is one of my favourite things I’ve been sent – a Giant Rubber Duck!

pamvdz was incredibly helpful in testing this pattern and sent me quite a few corrections I had missed which I really appreciated. And look! Purple duck! I’m impressed.

I’ve been sent a few other cool things too – my Flail is pretty popular. I’ve been sent it in it’s classic form:

o0dove0o

In bright pink girl form:

CharminglyWicked

And in super upsized incredibly spiky form!:

jld2247. I don’t think I can take credit for this one, except in the form of inspiration. I love it though. EDIT: She’s just Ravelry messaged me and added: ‘The handle is 19.5 inches long. The ball is roughly 32 inches in circumference. And the spikes are 6.5 inches long.’
WOAH!

Also popular is my Batman Keyring. I’ve been sent them from S-Max Jewels:

And janiewaah, who made Robin and The Joker as well.

(They’re posed in egg cups – I thought they were giant teeth).

A pattern still getting a lot of hits is Puppy Love. And manatina has used it for a lovely tribute to her friend’s dog MacArther, who is pictured in the background.  

A few months back now, the Treblemaking Hookers on Facebook had a Yarn Bombing day. I didn’t get my butt in gear in time to join in, but Denise Niemann chose my Unhappy Lil’ Slug to bomb her local Post Office with – hopefully he’s nicely happy with some mystery recipient!

A little hint to the future now – I released my Cute Lil’ VooDoo Doll pattern last year when I was still learning to crochet. He’s been popular, but I’ve reworked him for a future post as a re-release, and he actually looks more like Jamie Lasher’s version here:

You’ll also see my Fat Gnome re-jigged if you download my Guide to Crochet, but here’s Cmaizy’s version using the original pattern. I love the bird in the background!

Another pattern I’ll be talking about in the near future is my Jellyfish. Here’s Laweinberger‘s version to remind you what it looks like – I like the stretched out tentacles on hers.

And lets end on the second biggest invaders of the crochet community behind the owl – Minions! I posted my pattern this time last year, and Tiverknitter sent me a few that she’d made.

That’s all for now – again, I LOVE seeing your stuff, so please do add them to my Ravelry, post them on my Facebook or drop me a photo by email as above. If I’ve included your project today and not credited you it’s because I don’t have a link to your internet presence, so just let me know and I’ll add it in 🙂

Shrunken Head (Free Pattern)

Howdy. A day later than usual I know, but forgive me – I was re-jigging a totally awesome pattern for you.

Earlier in the week, I was watching the ever fantastic QI, a British TV panel comedy show based around general knowledge and random facts, presented by the wonderful Stephen Fry. The episode featured shrunken heads, and Mr Fry gave out some genuine fake shrunken heads from Ecuador (I think – I may be wrong with the location!). They were made from goats skin, not humans, but straight away I wanted to crochet one.

Here’s the result:

 

Close up:

 

I played around with hook sizes a bit, so the one on the left is bigger since it’s made on a 3.5mm E hook and is more true to life, fills the palm of your hand size, whereas the one on the right uses a 2mm hook and is slightly smaller, so would be less distracting to say, hang from your car’s rear view mirror. Add a lavender sachet and it becomes a creepy air freshener.

I spent ages frogging and shaping them, only to remember near the end that Wooly Toons has an excellent pattern on her site too. But her’s are based on the Beetlejuice characters, whereas mine are more aimed towards the real ones. One can never have too many option when it comes to tiny noggings though, it must be said 😉

Free pattern for your own totem after the jump.

Midweek Squee: Phone case (free pattern)

I didn’t update the blog this weekend because I was in an absolutely foul mood and had also spent the week battling with a rather sick kitty (tip for cat owners – mixing the antibiotics with cream cheese is a God send!). I’ve got a pattern I’m really pleased with coming this weekend though, as long as some decorative bits I need to finish turn up in the post.

Tonight though (it’s 10:25pm here) I’ve whipped up a quick little pattern, not an amigurumi but a way of saying thank you for putting up with the erratic updates of late!

The stripy phone case:

I know, I’m not breaking any moulds here. That’s why this is a Midweek Squee shorty rather than my big weekend posts.

The case shown is for a Samsung Galaxy Ace (the WORST phone in the world, but I’m stuck with it until 2015. Stupid contracts). Don’t worry though, I’ll tell you how to work it out for your own phone.

Free pattern after the jump.

Panda (Free Pattern)

Following my post last week, and the mention of there being thousands of owl patterns in the crochet world, Kim from KreepyKim’s Freak Boutique and I started discussing other animals we wanted to see rendered in yarn. I decided I wanted to see a realistic baby panda. There are some adorably cute cartoony panda patterns out there (special shout out to Pandapple by AmiguruMEI). There are a couple of realistic panda patterns I found too, but nothing that looked quite right to me. All a little old. I wanted these aged pandas:

How cute is silly panda?!

I’m not quite sure I managed to really babyficate my panda, but here’s the result (Yarndango 46):

I was going for sorta slumped forward (because baby panda are apparently made from the same kind of fluid as cats). He’s not quite as slumpy as I’d intended, but he hit the cuteness factor I was looking for. Maybe he’s a teenager panda rather than a toddler panda?

Anyway, click through the jump for the free pattern.

Panda! Away!

Five things that annoy me about crochet

This week hasn’t been a great one for me. I’ve not had anything particularly wrong, just been really tired and unmotivated, so I’ve not really picked up the hooks (although I did attempt Croshame’s Spock Ears, but my wool wasn’t thick enough so they turned out too small and I couldn’t be bothered frogging them to add in an extra row of increases. Excellent pattern though, go check it out, great for Star Trek or any elf based cosplay).

So instead, I thought I’d rant at you.

This post is inspired by a conversation on Facebook. I recently took part in Mad Crochet Lab’s Minion Experiment as you’ll have seen a couple of weeks ago and the ladies are still all in touch. I’m in a different time zone from probably all of them being UK based, so I don’t manage to get in on quite as much of the chatter as I’d like, but I did find myself in a long conversation which started with Miss Mad herself asking about point one on my list. A couple of the other things also stemmed from there, and some are purely from my own rant filled brain. And of course, this list doesn’t include stealing designs or the whole selling issue.

Disclaimer: This is a ‘no offense’ post. You may be offended, but be assured it isn’t my intention. Nothing is aimed at any particular people, it’s just general observation. I love the cro-mmunity, so feel free to hit me upside the head and tell me to get over myself if the need arises in you. I possibly need it this week lol. 

1. Owls

An odd start, considering that only this week I have posted my own knitted Oscar the Owl. This annoyance isn’t as specific as just owls in general, more the fact that there are bloody hundreds of patterns for them out there. Some, probably most, are excellent and gorgeous and I think everyone should make one (a particular favourite is A Morning Cup of Jo Creation’s Baby Owl Ornament, which is cute as heck). But if you search ‘owl’ on Ravelry, in JUST crochet, not including knitting, there are 936 results (if you do add in knitting you get a further 873 results – that’s 1809 owl patterns!). You can’t tell me that all those owls are unique and different. I’ll accept that some are, and even the ones that aren’t are well designed, but by gosh I’m sick of owl patterns – just use one that’s already out there because I can guarantee there’s already something pretty much exactly the same. Especially if it’s in hat form. This annoyance is starting to spread to minions too, and I love minions. But there’s only 83 crochet results on Ravelry for them, so they don’t win the title just yet.

This conversation also lead onto what animals we’d like to see. I want a realistic rhino and a realistic panda, and llamas, otters and a variety of birds were suggested too. Most of which are out there so I’m going to have a dig at some point. The blobfish was also suggested. What do you think?

Maybe not…

2. Frogging

One everyone can relate to. I hate frogging. I will go out my way to not frog something, to the point where I’ll finish an ami, look at it and go ‘crud, should’ve take out those three rows in the middle and continued increasing for a bit instead’. Or similar. Sometimes when I share the pattern, I’ll actually tell you this, or if it’s a change only I would notice from the photo then I’ll use what I would’ve done instead of what I did anyway (this is usually only the case when it’s adding in an extra row, or taking something out that won’t make much difference but makes the work smoother either physically or to actually follow the pattern). In extreme cases I will of course frog and restart (the amount of Giant Rubber Duck based frogging was heart breaking!).

Frogging is something that will never go away, but I think we can all admit that it’s annoying!

3. Baby photos

Another from the conversation on Facebook. My point is that if you’re selling me a hat or booties pattern, or one of those strange photo prop things that I don’t really understand because I’m not a mother, then why does the photo you select for Ravelry have to be one of your child, in the nude, with the product obviously secondary to it being a good photo of your baby (or whoever’s baby you have borrowed)? Yes, I know you want to show it in action, and yes it’s a very cute photo, but surely that’s more relevant to heading the blog post or gracing the front of the pattern download, and for the actual preview pic you want to show a nicely centred, cropped down image of what it is you’ve actually made. I can’t SEE the booties tucked away in the corner of the photo, but I sure can see you son’s butt and I’ll bet that when he’s old enough to access the internet, he won’t be please about it either…

The secondary response to this was about why all the babies look the same – curled up, asleep, in that ‘still in the womb’ sort of pose. The lady asking suggested they all look like those creepily realistic dolls. I’ll let you argue that one amongst yourselves!

4. Afghan charts

I’d love to have the patience to make an Afghan. As it is, making granny squares genuinely confuses me, because I’ve never really devoted the time to sitting down and making one (I know – a crime! I started with crocheting ami’s in the round and haven’t branched out much from there, because flat work takes forever and has to really appeal to me before I’ll try it). Some Afghans I’ve seen are awe-inspiringly gorgeous, and I actually like seeing the photos of them. Which is why sellers who only show a chart get to me. Ok, lovely design work, and I can bet it took ages filling in all those squares on MS Paint or wherever, but what does it actually look like when it’s finished? Show me a photo as well as the chart and I’ll be mightily impressed. Just show me the chart and I’ll assume it’s never been tested and I’ll go looking for something else that has.

5. UK vs US

I just don’t understand why there’re two versions! I’m normally one of those annoying English people who resist the whole Americanisation of my language (it’s trousers! Pants are underwear and if you compliment me on them I’ll wonder if you were spying on me when I got dressed!) but I must say, the US terms for crochet make so much more sense. Sc doesn’t exist in the UK terminology, because UK terminology counts the number of loops on the hook whereas US terminology counts the number of stitches made. It’s just more logical to me.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant at you. Feel free to comment on any of my annoyances, either to agree or shout me down, or even add your own annoyances to the list.

I’m sorry if you’ve just designed an owl…

Smaug the Dragon (Free Pattern Link)

It’s been Comic Con this last week. Being in the UK and incredibly poor I couldn’t go, although I have caught up on the news and lived vicariously through friends who were there. But it’s just not the same. *Sigh* Maybe next year.

Because of Comic Con, I decided to go geeky this week on the blog. Ladies and gentlemen – Amiguruthi is the Mother of Dragons!

Ok, so actually the pattern is for Smaug the Dragon, who is the evil dragon in The Hobbit. Also Daenerys’ dragons are green, white and black not blue, but meh. This isn’t my pattern, it’s by ChrysN on Instructables – click the link above to go to the free pattern download. I found it months and months ago, and started it straight away, then got distracted by something and he’s been sat in my project tin, missing a wing for longer than I care to think about. ChrysN’s Smaug looks like this:

Credit: ChrysN, Instructables, link in body of blog

Pretty fearsome right? And look at the glowing eyes! She (I assume she, someone correct me if they know differently!) does detail how to do the electronics in the pattern, which I was all set to do then I sourced all the stuff and it was going to cost too much. So my version just has safety eyes.
Close up time!

From tail to nose, he’s roughly 30cm. I made mine with a 2mm crochet hook, so he’s probably slightly smaller than the original which was made with a 2.5mm hook. I didn’t add the spikes down his back because I’m not convinced I like them. I wanted my dragon to look a bit cuddlier, and they didn’t really fit. I am debating about doing felt spikes though – opinions welcome in the comments!

The pattern was quite a nice one to follow. I made a few changes during the making because some of the instructions were either incorrect or I was having a blonde day when I read them and couldn’t work them out (the latter is entirely probable!). I also decided I like the look of the back feet more so did all four feet the same, whereas the original pattern has bendy front legs.

The body of the dragon is made in three separate parts, mainly so the electronics can be put in easily. If I had decided earlier on in the process that I wasn’t doing the electronics then I would probably have just crocheted it all in one piece and stuffed as I went because it would be possible, so there’s a tip for you. Doing it in three separate pieces is nice and easy, and essential if you’re adding the LED eyes, but I’ve ended up with a weird join between tail and body that I could’ve avoided.

I absolutely LOVE the shaping of the face. It’s no so clear in the photos, but there’s a little eyebrow ridge that is just perfect and the ears are just so dang cute. The wings are really nice as well, although I got very confused when making them about which end was which (luckily there’s an assembly photo later on which cleared that up).

He’s got a colour change belly too, which was a pain to do but so worth all the tying off of threads:

So there’s my dragon. I quite fancy making my own realistic dragon pattern now for a much bigger, more posed dragon. Might be a future plan (there’s lots of WIPs in my house at the moment!).

The only thing left to do is name him. Suggestions encouraged!