Yes, You Can Do Too Much Crochet

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015Leave a comment

Although I have been steadily crocheting for about two years straight now, I go through the usual peaks and valleys in volume of projects and number of hours I’m at the craft.

As we are in the official frenzy of pre-holiday Making of Things, I have not been immune to feeling the crunch of squeezing projects in wherever I can. I have taken to bringing a project to work with me each day to be productive on my lunch breaks, even.

I didn’t understand until this week when I went to continue some rows of a scarf just how much I had overworked my crocheting muscles in my hands and arms. I type quite a bit for my day job and when my non-dominant hand began complaining as soon as I began typing, I realized I had pushed myself wayyy too much the weekend before. I had busied myself with other things but apparently the balance was still way off.

“Pain.” (This girl has experienced Too Much Crafting.)

This week, I concluded that the couple of times I have committed to the gym per week are rather critical; not only in terms of relieving stress and improving heart rate and muscle tone, but loosening up those muscles that want to stay cramped in one position after a while.

One thing I have tried (although it seems rather ADHD of me) is spending smaller amounts of time on the multiple projects I have going at once. For example, last night I finished the rows of a fingerless mitt, put it down, and moved on to finishing a dinosaur leg. Just sewing amigurumi limbs uses different muscles and gives them a break, but I still get the benefits of something monotonous and relaxing. Lastly, before bed, I worked on a Tunisian scarf until I got sleepy (which didn’t take long). Divvying up my time on projects made me feel like I was accomplishing a lot in one sitting, but also helped me balance the various different muscles I use for each individual project. +1 for multi-tasking!

I think the lesson here is less is more. I’ll be celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary this weekend and I don’t plan to spend it crocheting. It’ll be some nice down time from my usual craft corner on my couch–a way to “unplug,” as it were–good for both brain and body.

I fully expect to bounce back come Sunday evening feeling all the more raring to get back to working on simultaneous projects. In this particular moment, I’ve got going:

Tunisian scarf
Dinosaur amigurumi
Starburst blanket
Fingerless mitt to round out the first one I made

In the queue behind those are:

Another Tunisian scarf
Another blanket for some friends’ children
Another dinosaur amigurumi
Another pair of fingerless mitts
Christmas stocking
Personal project I’m working on designing

Yeeeeeah……I think some time spent gallivanting around and celebrating my anniversary is just what the doctor ordered. Next week, I hope to showcase some finished projects . Until then!

Photo courtesy of University of Illinois Springfield

Irregulars (Misfit Toys)

October 8, 2015October 8, 20152 Comments

Sometimes I whip up an amigurumi just for fun with no other purpose than to just hang out in my home until I can give it away or sell it. (And sometimes I end up keeping them. I have a baby whale and a finished cupcake that adorn my home office that are too sweet to give up!)

Then sometimes there are those toys or items that are complete but are just a little….off. Sometimes the “offness” is only noticeable to me but sometimes it’s more noticeable.

(And other times, I make something and for whatever reason, maybe that crochet is an insanely competitive market? it doesn’t sell.)

Take, for example, this cutie patootie baby owl.

Designed by one of my favorite designers, Little Muggles, I had to try it. Even though there were nine separate parts to crochet, I liked how the soft pastel yarn looked with the baby yellow yarn. And those eyes!

Sadly, my inspired idea to give him blue eyes didn’t work out too well because the backs to the eyes took some extra oomph to fit. My husband had to use pliers and a lot of strength I do not possess to force the eye into the backing. Unfortunately, both eyes were scratched in the process. (Note to self: will not be purchasing from that supplier again.)

This little guy has sat in my little pile of growing “misfit toys” for a few months, waiting to be played with. He now bears the Irregular label and is sitting in my shop, waiting to see if someone wants to take him home.

Another example is this lop-eared baby bunny. It’s actually executed perfectly. Nothing is “wrong” with it except that the weight of the bunny is not evenly distributed, which happens, and so one of the hind legs comes up as the bunny rests on its front paws. It kind of looks like it’s in mid-jump. But since it doesn’t sit nicely, in it goes to the Misfit Toys bin.

IMG_7935 zvc

IMG_7936 zvc

The point is, because of these small irregularities, they shouldn’t render the toy ~~homeless~~ useless. But to help entice others to adopt these little misfit creatures, I went ahead and created an Irregular section of my shop so I can pass on the savings and keep my closet from filling up with perfectly lovely adoptable creatures!

I’m a little giddy about this new section of my shop–I hope others are, too!

Love is: Diamonds in the Rough Tunisian Scarf for Men

October 1, 2015October 2, 20152 Comments

I think me and everyone else in the crochet world are having a love affair with Tunisian crochet. Everywhere I look, it’s Tunisian this and Tunisian that. Tunisian crochet adds just enough of a twist to standard crochet to make it interesting on its own, but with different possibilities, and of course limitless creations!

I remain blown away by what people come up with for patterns using stitches, negative space (read: holes), and their imaginations. For example, has anyone seen the explosion of graphghans that people are making with Tunisian crochet? I cross-stitch and it overwhelms me to see what people are doing with this technique.

Since I am still relatively new to the art of Tunisian crochet, I wanted to try my hand at a smaller worn accessory, such as a scarf. My husband was in need of a new one for the coming chilly months, and when I saw this pattern online, I immediately knew I had to try it out.

The designer, Michael Snow, has created a lovely and simple design that looks a lot harder than it is. It uses Tunisian Simple Stitch and Tunisian Purl Stitch.

If you’re like me, you might have groaned when you realized that you have to use TPS in this pattern. But once you master it, and of course that comes only through lots of repetitive practice, it becomes second nature, and the scarf will work up so fast you’ll wonder how you blinked and missed it. The most helpful tutorials I’ve found are from Kim Guzman and Stitch Diva Studios–give them a look-up if you’re stumped on mastering the purl stitch.

The diamond pattern is subtle but stands out nicely against the Simple Stitches. A relative had sent me some gorgeous Capra DK yarn from KnitPicks in shades of dark brown, light brown, and cream in order to get me out of my usual vibrant or pastel-colored wheelhouse. I decided I would use it for the scarf, even though the original pattern calls for fingering weight yarn. In doing so, I got a deliciously warm, wide, and long scarf, perfect for a guy on the go who wants something professional looking, but also cozy.

For those not in the know, Capra DK is merino wool and cashmere. Can you say YUM?

I did not intend to make this scarf a listing in the shop (at least not right away) but when I showed it to someone while it was being made, excited at how it was going to turn out, she immediately asked if I could make one for her son-in-law. Then someone else heard about the scarf and asked me if I could make him one, too! It’s hard not to want one when you see the pattern and feel the luxe softness of the yarn. You just want to cocoon yourself in it all winter long. (It also reminds me why participating in craft shows is so fun–once people can see and touch the stuff, you want to take it home!)

While my original scarf for my husband–who loves it, by the way–was done in color blocks, the IMG_1161 zvc others I am making will be all one color, and I think it will show off the diamonds a bit better, because you don’t get distracted by the color changes. That said, it’s still a real showpiece. Hats off to Michael Snow for his ingenuity with two easy stitches!

My husband wanted a longer scarf, so this used five balls of the Capra, but if you want to go shorter, you certainly can. There’s no question he’ll stay warm in the frigid winter temps that Illinois brings. Furthermore, even though this is “men’s” fashion, it is a unisex pattern that would look great on men or women. I think it would be fabulous in a deep red, green, purple, or even pink; I guess I’m thinking jewel tones here. But no matter who you make it for, that person is sure to fall in love with it as soon as they lay eyes on it. I know I did!

Sunnyside Preschool Halloween Carnival and Auction

September 28, 2015September 27, 2015Leave a comment

It’s autumn. At last! Probably the most favorite season of all seasons. With it comes the cooler temps, the leaves bursting into color, sweater weather, the smell of wood smoke in the air from fires being lit, hot beverages (with marshmallows), Pumpkin Everything, crocheted accessories like scarves and fingerless mittens, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the pre-Christmas festivities and anticipation. Oh and don’t forget the millions of pins that will be pinned on Pinterest with all the autumn excitement.

There is a lot packed in to three months!

Autumn also brings fun festivities, like Halloween carnivals! A friend of mine who lives in California reached out to me to ask whether I could donate some items for a Halloween carnival and auction to raise money for her son’s preschool.

I was delighted to help out and checked my stores for some things I could give away. I happened to have some things that I thought would make someone very happy if they bid on them; I also added an amigurumi to round out the package.

So here is what will be up to win and/or bid on!

Starburst blanket
Stuffed whale
Striped baby hat

In addition to the items, I also included a card with a special discount code for any purchase in the shop.

If you have any questions or comments about the items I donated, please leave me a comment below.

Happy autumn and Halloween season!

Farewell to Summer and a Few Amigurumi

September 10, 2015September 10, 2015Leave a comment

Happy post Labor Day weekend! I hope it was relaxing and a bit cooler than ours was in the middle states. Summer is still going strong but thankfully, cooler weather is on the way, so it won’t feel quite so ridiculous to be focusing on hats and blankets and scarves and other cozy items.

The weekend saw me whipping out amigurumi orders, one after another–pictures below in a bit. On a whim, I listed this gorgeous blanket on Sunday and it ended up selling right away, which was a terrific feeling. It really is a beautiful blanket and I hope the new owner falls in love with it like I did when it was finished.

Just before Labor Day when All the Toy-Making was happening, we had friends in town and the only thing I had out was some Chroma Worsted yarn from Knit Picks and a Tunisian crochet hook. By the end of the weekend, I had whipped up this ribbed hat :

For what it’s worth, I do like the pattern, and the variance of knit and purl stitches keeps the hat from curling, which is really nice, since Tunisian loves to curl up on itself. My only gripe with it is that the top is a little bit holey when it’s all said and done. I think that’s why it’s pretty critical to put a pom on top–something I have yet to try. If you’ve made this hat and have comments, I’d love to hear!

Now on to the amigurumi. I’m currently coasting into the final toy of the final order I’ve received since late August, which is a cow. But over the weekend, I ended up producing:

One whale
One baby bunny (and a practice bunny)
One cornflower blue hippo
One chocolate brown elephant

It may not seem like a lot but trust me when I say making four (technically five) animals is quite a bit from Friday to Monday, not including eating, sleeping, going to Zumba, Netflix, etc. Here are a few photos, some of which are not the best, admittedly. I’ll have more when I’ve finished the cow and I can take some ultra cute pictures of the finished trio.

Hoping to be able to work on some more wearables and holiday items now that we’re in the last few months of 2015 (where has it gone?!). More to come!

Particulars of the Invisible Decrease

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015Leave a comment

For anyone who has visited my Etsy shop or my Facebook page, you’ll know I make a lot of amigurumi. And if you didn’t know that before, it is the bread and butter of my little side business.

It has probably taken me the past thirty or more creations to hone the skill of decreasing rounds so that there are few bumps and holes showing on the finished doll; not an easy task.

There are a handful of ways to decrease in the round, with a couple of them dubbed as an “invisible decrease.”

The regular decrease when working in single crochet, or sc2tog, is simply inserting your hook into the next stitch, yarning over and pulling up a loop, repeating on the next stitch, yarning over and pulling through all loops on the hook. Simple pimple, right?

It does work and it will quickly tighten the round. It’s really good for when you need to shape the doll using decreased stitches, a skill some designers have mastered. (See the Etsy shop “Stuff the Body” for examples–she does a lot of designs that don’t involve sewing because she shapes the animals with increases and decreases. It’s pretty brilliant.)

But when you make a lot of typical amigurumi with your basic round shapes, you want to find the right invisible decrease that is smooth and really effective. It took me a while to figure out what I liked and what worked best for me, but this is my recommendation for the best invisible decrease when doing single crochet in the round:

Insert hook into the front loop only of the next stitch; do NOT yarn over. Insert hook into the back loop only of the following stitch; yarn over and pull through two loops, yarn over and pull through remaining two loops.

The pink highlights the stitches where the yarn has been inserted (one front loop, one back loop).

It takes a little while to figure out maneuvering the hook since you don’t yarn over in between the two stitches, but it’s because of that absence of the “yo” that there is almost no visible bump and it’s quite difficult to tell where the decrease is. It’s very effective.

If you really prefer to yarn over between stitches, the next best invisible decrease (in my opinion) is to work the front loops only of both stitches and yarn over after each insertion of the hook. You’ll get a slight bump and it’s not ideal for shaping, but it works fine.

Here are some more photos of the invisible decrease in action. You can see on both the head and the body that the bumps and “squished” stitches are minimalized, and the final doll looks really polished.

Give it a try! I’d love to know what you think.

Recently Finished Amigurumi

August 4, 2015August 3, 20153 Comments

When I last left off, I was amidst a frenzy of untying a bunch of knots and completing amigurumi orders. I took a breather on Saturday when I finished the last item….before another sprinkle of orders came in on Sunday. August is turning out to be quite the month of amigurumi!

The first part of one order is this sweetie, called Sam, the Big-Bottomed Bunny from Crochet One-Skein Wonders.

He had such a sweet face and I loved the idea of making something that could sit on a big bottom. His floppy ears are also pretty dang cute. He’s very huggable and snuggable.

Sam 2

A biggie that I wrapped up earlier last week was this sweet dinosaur. Holy sewing, Batman! This took a lot of time to carefully sew together all the parts that make up this creature but in the end, it was worth it. He came out super adorable and is intended for a couple who is having a baby boy.

Lastly, I finished an order for an elephant for a baby girl, so her paws are pink. I couldn’t resist adorning her with a pink ribbon, as well. The trumpeting snout just kills me, it’s so cute.

I’d love to see what you have been creating. It helps keep me inspired. Share away in the comments below! Until next time, friends.

What Not to Do with a Hank of Yarn

July 31, 2015February 15, 20161 Comment

Being a hank n00b, I had no idea what to do with one when I finally received my first. It looks unassuming and not all that intimidating, being in a nice neat twist. As per uge, I had taken advantage of a sale from Knit Picks and grabbed up one of their beautiful hanks of wool and poly-amide blends called Hawthorne, prettily named Happy Valley.

I had very specific plans for this hank, as I intended to make the Fortune’s Shawlette from Moogly.

I was ready to get my yarn on.

Unfortunately, I didn’t Google what to do with a hank before I got started, so what began as a simple unraveling turned into this mess:

It’s pretty tragic.

I thrust one end of the yarn at my husband, who good-naturedly took it, I started with the other end, and we started winding the yarn through an infinite number of knots. While I’ve made progress, this is how it sits on my table until I can finish winding it. The ball on the upper left is connected to the suuuuuuuuuper extra knotty section of the hank.

Far too belatedly did I research how one is actually supposed to unwind a hank, so The More You Know on that one. Then of course, I also read that you should plan to make whatever it is you’re going to make with the wound yarn quickly so it doesn’t stretch it out, making me slightly more anxious than I already was about getting this yarn ready to use.

While it remains to be seen whether I make the shawlette with this particular hank of yarn, it is next on my list after I finish a round of amigurumi orders, which I’m still in the throes of making.

So for anyone else out there who hasn’t experienced a hank disaster, take not after me. Ask your local yarn shop expert or someone who has done it before to guide you through this process so you aren’t going through a harrowing ordeal that may result in throwing away a perfectly good amount of yarn. (Right now I am determined to get through this–I hope to win out.)

Wishing you happy yarn creating and a beautiful weekend!

Edit: I managed to salvage a lot of the yarn, and I do have an idea up my sleeve on what to do with it, but it is in my long-awaited crochet queue as of February 2016!

Calm Before the Amigurumi Storm

July 18, 2015Leave a comment

I’ve had several posts up my sleeve this week but none of them really panned out, i.e., I didn’t ~~have~~ make time to sit down and really flesh out what I wanted to say on those pesky drafts waiting to be written.

After finishing the Tunisian ripple scarf, I felt free and ready to tackle the next project. I have so much yarn ready and waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. For example, I have four bright and beautiful colors of Shine Sport from Knit Picks ready to be made into something. But what? A spa cloth? Something new and totally different? I had great results using it in Tunisian crochet previously, so maybe I should stick with that. But…but…but….my mind swirls in circles trying to come up with the “perfect” project, whatever that means.

I also have in my possession a skein of gorgeous alpaca and silk in a color called Envy – it is a lovely dark emerald color. Since it is so soft, I keep thinking about making something to go against my neck. Perhaps a small cowl in crocodile stitch? I’ve taken it out of its little bag and stared at it and handled it until I just sit in a daze, staring off into space, waiting for inspiration. Then I put it back.

I have a personal amigurumi project, for which the yarn has sat on my couch for a week, that I still haven’t picked up and started.

Then I began a personal project for someone that will be a thank-you and surprise wrapped up in one.

In the middle of that personal project, I decided to make an amigurumi I hadn’t tried yet of the bunny variety. I’ve gotten the head, arms, and body worked up, with the ears, tail, and sewing yet to complete.

(Are we seeing a pattern of Crochet ADHD here or what?)

And as soon as I began on that one amigurumi, I received several inquiries for more, two from people I know and one through the shop. I started to see the queue stretch out before me into mid to late August. I think there is something about summertime that gets people itchy to shop. Maybe it’s people planning ahead for Christmas. Maybe it’s that it’s so easy to shop online in the cool, air-conditioned indoors when it’s so disgustingly hot out. Don’t forget all the babies that will be born come the fall! (I have succumbed to the lure of shopping on Etsy for cute baby things, so I understand the pull.)

Whatever the case, I have a little amigurumi cloud raining down toy orders, thus I will be ~~in my workshop~~ on my couch crocheting away when I can. And if you follow me on Instagram, you know how I love to post the progress of all the cute creatures as I go.

With that in mind, please enjoy this bevy of amigurumi from Planet June, who is a fabulous designer and teacher. Catch you on the flippity flip!

Inspiration and Then, A Dishcloth

July 8, 2015July 17, 20152 Comments

Almost immediately after publishing my post about what to DO with some pretty yarn I had on hand and was aching to try out, inspiration struck when I came across a pattern for a Tunisian crochet ripple scarf. It was less of a “Eureka” than a “DUH” moment. Of course I should be making a Tunisian ripple scarf. To recap, the yarn in question is a beautiful angora and acrylic blend, so it has some stiffness mixed with softness to it, but also has some wisp. It is a fingering weight blend (weight class 2) but I thought it would work up nicely, and to my delight, it has! It took me about ten rows or so to memorize the pattern completely and get comfortable with it, especially since I was still mastering the Tunisian Purl Stitch, and there is one purl stitch right in the center of each row. (If you’d like a great close-up tutorial, Stitch Diva Studios does a fantastic job of it.) It got easier and easier as I went along, though, and now I feel like I could purl all day long. One tip I have for anybody who wants to try their hand at this pattern is to make sure to loosely do the return pass for the first half of the scarf, and then tighten up as you finish. It will even it out better, as it has a tendency to curl on one side and look lopsided. I feel confident that some light blocking will also help stretch it out and get it more symmetrical looking. The recipient of my scarf still remains a secret but I know this person will love it! In the middle of making the scarf, as I am wont to do, I became impatient and wanted to whip out a project that I could quickly complete and give me that crowning sense of achievement. I decided on a Tunisian dishcloth in Tunisian Knit Stitch and it felt like it worked up so fast. In reality, it probably took me a couple of hours, but here is a shot of of the finished project, including single crochet border: Dishcloth_tunisian_zvc My husband and I were streaming some terrible movie (of my choosing) on Netflix and so it made this dishcloth go by all the faster, since I was focusing on it much more than the movie. I finished it off with a single crochet border and it sits in my sink as I write this.

Tunisian crochet has really turned out to be the “vacation from crochet” when I still want to create but don’t want to do single crochet in the round for hours on end, as in making amigurumi, or doing double crochet patterns, such as granny squares. I’m always in awe of how much there is to learn and do with this craft! Until next time, friends. Just keep hooking….just keep hooking….