Late Gryphcon Wrap-Up

Hi folks!

We've been a bit busy recently with trying to find a house for the new year, and distracted by life in general, so this update comes a bit late.

Last weekend was Gryphcon, a local traditional gaming convention. There were board games and tabletop games (Pathfinder, D&D, etc.), as well as a place for the two of us to sell things along side other folks. There was only one other person selling handmade things; another represented a gaming shop, and someone else was there trying to promote their card game or something. All of them were nice. Gryphcon isn't really a place where people go with the intent to buy things (unless it's another game or book or something), but it was a good time. There were a lot of people happy that we were there. I spend the week or two leading up to it making a few things to sell there. Photo time!

This is a rainbow of Mario Bros. mushrooms that I made. The first is the normal one, followed by the Giant Mushroom, 1Up Mushroom, Mini Mushroom, and Poison Mushroom. My favourite is the angry eyebrows on the poison one.

These Creeper head charms were made at the same time that my larger Creeper was made. I have cell phone straps and keyrings that I attached so that people could put them on their phone/keys/etc. They turned out a but chubbier than I would have liked, but I still like them.

This brain slug and its smaller sibling (now sold) were made while we were sitting at the convention. They are loosely modelled after the ones from Futurama, which I love. I had purchased green yarn to make the 1Up mushrooms, and couldn't think of anything else to make with them. This was my idea, but Nekoyumi's pattern.

This frog was made with that same green yarn on the final day of the convention. I liked the charms that Nekoyumi had made, and wanted to make something small and cute too. I like its eyes a lot.

So that's the post-con wrap-up. Nekoyumi should be posting some pictures from it soon, since I didn't bring my camera. D:

Creeper!

Hi folks!

I know I've missed the last few updates. Sorry about that. Hopefully this makes up for it? For the past while I've been working on a Creeper. The pattern comes from Nerdigurumi, you can find it here. It took me a while to get the hang of, since the square parts are actually crocheted in the round. The corners are done by single, double, then single crocheting again all in the same stitch.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. If I did it again, I might find a way to make the body a bit less chubby and more rectangular. Maybe just doing a seam up the sides in the corner would do the trick. I might try that next time.

I tend to have a problem putting heads on straight for some reason. I think Nekoyumi is under the impression that is has something to do with the little "corner" that gets left over when your row is done. Lately, I've ended my rows with a slip stitch to prevent that, but I don't think it's working. Maybe I just need to be more careful.

I plan on starting a squid soon. I've got a vague pattern laid out, I suppose. I know the shapes I need to make, but I need to trial-and-error it until it works. I'm a bit excited-nervous, since this will be the first thing I do completely without a pattern to go by. Other times I usually base things off of a pattern. We'll see how it goes..

Twinkie Chan's giveaway!

Twinkie Chan is having a giveaway of some of her ultra cute stuff! It may be a little late, but if you're still interested, here is the post about it!

I hope I win <3

Coasters and a little whale

Not much has been happening in the land of me crocheting. I am working on a case for my hooks (have been for a bit now), and I am also working on adding "caps" to my dad's fingerless mittens, so I have been trying to keep myself from crocheting other things before I finish those priorities. But instead, I just procrastinate ALL THE THINGS.

I have crocheted a set of coasters, however, to be put into the shop as a made-to-order item.

Here are photos of them. They are made to look like biscuits, and inspired by something I saw in a magazine!



I still need to back them with felt. When I do, to the etsy they go!

I also designed a little takoyaki whale I want to crochet some day... I really like how he turned out!
... Even though the drivers for my tablet laptop aren't working and the pressure sensitivity wasn't on...

Sorry for the watermarking... I really don't want anyone to steal this.

I guess that's all for now. Will upload these photos onto facebook soon and finish the coasters so I can put them up in the shop. Hopefully also soon.

Bye for now.

Resolutions, Works in Progress

Hi folks,

It's the first post of 2012 for me. So far so good, I suppose. I'm back at work as of this upcoming Monday, and Nekoyumi's back in school. Hopefully things won't slow down too much. I hope everyone is doing well. I've made some resolutions: to make more time for creative stuff and to try to be less.. retaliatory? I think that is the word. I guess we'll see if that works.

As for works in progress, I'm making a Creeper right now out of some variegated green-brown yarn. I'm pleased with the results, and I will certainly post it when it's finished. It's not much to look at, as is.

-K.

First update of the New Year!

So I have one more Christmas gift to show you all, and then I swear that's it. I couldn't finish this in time to send to my brother with his birthday gifts, and the next chance I have to send it out (read: I live in Ontario and post here is super slow, so when I have to send things to my brother in the U.S., I make my dad send it when he goes to Buffalo for stuff) isn't until the 4th.

So, here is the finished product! A penguin hat! But not just any penguin hat... A hat that makes it look like there is a baby penguin draped over your head! Like a floppy baby penguin! A baby penguin pancake! AH, THE CUTENESS!!

I wore it out today so I could see if it's actually warm (it is) and to take some pictures out in what was left of the sun. So that is me cowering behind my hands in the photos...

I gave him little feet hanging off the back to add to the look of a penguin just flopped over your head.


I feel like I've gotten a good handle on crocheting hats. I just hope my brother likes it!

I said something in an earlier post about something chicken-themed and pudding-inspired, but then forgot to ever actually post about it.... haha! So here it is, pudding-shaped chicken amigurumi! Obviously!


Check out more photos of this little experiment dude in our flickr photostream!

That is all for now. I hope you all are having a great start to the new year!

New Year's Crochet Post!

It's New Year's Eve, so this might be a little shorty post. Our working plan here is to update twice a week, with each of us updating once a week each. I've graduated from my undergraduate program and working full-time in the new year, so hopefully that will leave my evenings free to do that.

It's been busy times, so we haven't updated much recently. That will be changing, hopefully. Anyway, as you see in the previous post, I made Nekoyumi a cat for Christmas. She made me a bunch of sweet stuff, as you will soon see, but I just thought I should say that the pattern is from Nekoyama's book "Hello My Name Is Amineko" and it is excellent. I like that book a bunch.

This is an owl mug cozy that Nekoyumi made for me for Christmas. It keeps the stuff inside warm, though, admittedly, most of the heat is lost out the top, not the sides. It is still cute, and it keeps me from burning myself on the hot mug. My favourite part is the beak, and the little +-shaped feet.

Nekoyumi made me a carrot-shaped scarf as well. It's nice and long, and very warm. I like it a lot, especially the leaves. They're pretty great to play with. I'm not sure how she did them, but they're like a thick rope/cord, I guess. I've been wearing it out and about over the last couple of days, and it keeps the wind off nicely. The other handmade scarves I have are all triple crochet, so the holes in them let the wind in more than I would like.

The DSi case that Nekoyumi made me is purple, my favourite colour, with green inside. There are also felt pockets for me to put my games in. It's very squishy, and has snap closures. My previous DSi case was just a canvas Hetalia (Finland) pencil case thing that, while neat, offered very little as far as protection goes. I spilled hot chocolate on it or something, and it's all stained now. I am very glad to have this case for many reasons.

I didn't take pictures of the gifts I made my family, sadly. I will have to do that when I visit in a few weeks. I made my mum a cactus using the first pattern on this page, and I am pleased with how it turned out. I sewed tiny black beads on the ridges as needles, and I think it looks great. I also made her a red-with-white-spots mushroom that I based off of this pattern, but altered it slightly. For my sisters, I made bag-things that they can put change or makeup or something in. The lining was a pain to sew. I'll have to post it later, I guess.

OTHER NON-CHRISTMAS THINGS!

Above are a blue mushroom that I made a while ago using the pattern I liked above. The eggplant-penguin was an idea that Nekoyumi had that I kind of took and ran with. I'm pleased with the stem, but she thinks that the leaves should be attached to the head better. Maybe next time?

... this didn't turn out to be a shorty post at all. Happy New Year, everyone!

-K.