Showing posts with label mittens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mittens. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - 2/23/2011

The only one of last week's WIP that I actually managed to finish were the mittens - there are pictures here and the Ravelry page here.

Instead of tackling those other things, I got going on a two other projects that I need to do before I can send the patterns in for pattern testing, plus a third that is just for fun.

First, I've got my two amigurumi that are in development.

Manny Man-o-War, Third Draft of the Portuguese Man of War Amigurumi:
This is my closest to being done. For the amigurumi I'm designing for the Oceans (my undersea baseball team), I always do an "in uniform" and "out of uniform" version. This is the in uniform version, and it should be done tonight!

I tried to make his eyes look tough, but I think they turned out exactly the opposite. Ah well. Maybe I'll write that in to the story about him. :)

Sooper Sekrit Amigurumi WIP
It's really not much of a secret, since I've shared it a little on Ravelry and have a Ravelry project page up with the first draft, but it's secret on my blog so I thought I'd keep it that way.

Doesn't look like much of anything yet. :) Hope to have it done by the end of the week, and once I've got two version finished, it'll be ready to test the pattern and share it! For the second version, I decided just to pound it out in cheap materials, hence the boring black Red Heart...(I can't wait to finish using all the Red Heart in my stash - it's left over from a time when I cared less about what I used to make things, and was broke enough that Red Heart was all I could afford...)

Shawl
This is the WIP that I'm most excited about, but unfortunately cannot do any more work on until the supplies I ordered arrive. This is another one inspired by Nerd Wars over on Ravelry. This is supposed to be my entry in to the challenge called "A Bonding Experience," which is all about using different types of materials and discussing the challenges this involved. I had this idea to marry knowledge gleaned from my favorite craft (cross stitching) with this!

I don't want to spoil what it's going to show, but the idea was to give the white a shimmer by using Kreinik blending filament in silver and multi-colored. Blending filament is this awesome, thin, shiney thread used to make sections of cross stitch shimmer. It comes in all kinds of colors, but the projects I've done have mostly used gold, silver or multi-colored. It's working just how I hoped:

...unfortunately, I only have one spool of blending filament in the house (actually, I KNOW I have two, but I can't find the other, and anyway it goes with a specific cross stitch project - if I use it, I'll have to replace it), and I couldn't find any where local that carried the stuff (truly ridiculous) so I had to order it...and now I just have to twiddle my thumbs and wait for it to arrive. Very frustrating, because I really want to be working on this project! But there's nothing for it, I guess. :) This is another new direction for me, a shawl of my own design. I'm so glad I've joined Nerd Wars, because I'm meeting so many awesome geeks and also really stretching my boundaries and experimenting with new stuff in order to meet the challenges. :)

Want to see what other awesome stuff people are in the process of making this week? Check out Tami's Ami Blog and visit all of the other blogs participating in this week's WIP Wednesday!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - 2/16/2011

Yes, it's my second time joining WIP Wednesday! First, in the photography area, I'm still in the process of posting the 8 x 10s that ya'll picked from my photography survey; I've got 6 of them up on Etsy thus far. Also, since my camera broke on Monday, I got it packed and shipped off yesterday, and hopefully it'll be back and 100% by next week! In the meantime, I'm using my old camera (which has lens focusing and jamming issues), so shots aren't up to my normal standards.

How did last weeks WIP fare?
1. I finished the Ouchless d4, and it's now up as a free pattern in the linked blog post.
2. I completed the manager of the Oceans, who was revealed to be a Portuguese Man-of-War amigurumi!

This week, I've got four more in-progress (two of which I had actually started before last weeks post, shhh. ;) )

Snowman!
I had this idea for a crazy little snowman (it would be a free pattern) but I can't get it to work right - I haven't had the time to figure out how to make sure it can stand. :)

Part of the fun of this snowman is that I want to be able to dress him up, so the one on the right is in fact a snowman dressed up as a ninja. Obviously. :)

Froggy
One of my treasured childhood stuffed toys is a frog:


I want to do an ami loosely inspired by this doll. I've only done the head (and it's not stuffed yet):


Shortstop for the Oceans
Now that I've mostly finished the manager for the Oceans (my all-undersea-creature amigurumi baseball team) it's time to move on to the third player: the short stop! Stacey from Fresh Stitches correctly guessed in a comment from last week what the manager was, based on my WIP image. Well, here's the yarn for the Shortstop:

I plan to start him this week. Anyone have any guesses based on the color? :)

Mittens
Lastly, I'm participating in a Ravelry competition group called Nerd Wars. We are all sorted in to teams based on fandoms we like (I'm on Team Rangers, for my love of Babylon 5). I've already completed two competitions for this - I designed the Andromeda Cowl for the "Nebula" inspired competition, and for the Valentine's challenge I designed and made an amigurumi that I have yet to share on the blog (but hope to in the next day or two, once I've finished a second draft of it). The next competition I'm tackling is the "Giving Geeks: Cold Hands, Warm Hearts" challenge - the purpose of this challenge is to donate a pair of gloves or mittens to charity. Since the purpose is charitable, we're actually not required to make them ourselves, but I figured it was a good opportunity to tackle a challenge. I've never made mittens before, and I'm making up a pattern as I go, but I started this morning, and I'm pretty happy with how they are going so far:

The next round will separate the thumb from the hands. :) Anyway, once they are done, I just have to figure out what charity to send them to. Anyone have any suggestions?

Want to see what other awesome stuff people are in the process of making this week? Check out Tami's Ami Blog and visit all of the other blogs participating in this week's WIP Wednesday!