Meet the Roly Poly King and the Arctic Fox! (Finished Object Friday, 4/22/2011)

It's not actually clear to me how I got a lot done this week, but somehow, I did!

First, I finally got around to releasing two of my patterns (both previously seen on past FO Friday's):
Rockin' Rocket Ship

Available from Etsy and Ravelry. (You can read more about him in my blog here.)

Manny Man-o-War, Portuguese Man of War Amigurumi, Manager of the Oceans

Available from Etsy and Ravelry. (Or you can read more about him here)

Then, there are this weeks FO!

Romney Handspun
Thought I'd start with the least interesting. :) I finished that spinning I've been working on for ages, wrapped around the hanger that I pretend is a knitty noddy, and boiled it last night. Now I just have to wait for it to dry.

I'm very happy with it. It turned out MUCH more even than my first two attempts (though that doesn't show much in the above, because of course the outer layer is what I spun FIRST before I got in to the rhythm of things). Now I can finally start playing with the lb. of fiber I bought online, and in two weeks it's Maryland Sheep and Wool...so I can get something that's, ya know, dyed. :)

The Roly Poly King
Last week for WIP Wednesday, I posted a strange purple ami at a bizarre angle and said I couldn't explain in case any Nerd Wars folks were reading my blog. Well, we on Team Ranger had a plan: On Wednesday, we staged a pitched battle between Green Drazi and Purple Drazi. It was epic, and I feel certain that the Purple would have won, had not our Fearless Leader stepped in and shown us all the error of our ways. Of course, the main feature of this battle was the finished objects we had each created in our appropriate colors. All of these had to align with a challenge whose theme was the number pi. Hence, I ended up with this:

This is the Roly Poly King. He's inspired by a character in Babylon 5, but the whole thing isn't worth getting in to. He's also almost entirely composed of spheres, circles and semi-circles. But I think in the end that I'm most proud of the crown.

I've had these Mill Hill beads sitting around for a decade, and I finally used some of them! Yes, I hand beaded that silly thing! :)

It was also fun to make his grumpy face. :)

Arctic Fox Amigurumi
On Wednesday, I challenged ya'll to guess what my strangely-shaped amigurumi was. I got some awesome guesses - pill bug, female bits, other internal organs, seal, manatee... - and I was surprised not to get what I considered to be the two most obvious guesses (bunny rabbit, kangaroo) - but it wouldn't have mattered, since it was none of these things! Right after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I joined an auction on LJ as a provider - in exchange for a donation to a charity of the buyer's choice, I would design them whatever amigurumi they wanted, with size and complexity based on how much they donated. (A restriction I ended up throwing out the window because it's ultimately more useful to me to design a "normal" sized one of my dolls than to do a small one just because). My buyer ended up donating $15, and she requested an arctic fox! She wasn't too picky; her only real restriction is that she didn't want it to be generic with big floppy limbs. The example she showed me all had something unusual about them, so I set my mind to the question: how would I pose a fox? And here's the result:


My inspiration was this picture:

(except in adult fox colors)

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:

...though I'll own, in the second draft I'll be slightly redesigning the tail(s) and making the head about three rounds smaller. :)



So! That's me for this week. A lot, I know. :)

Hey everyone, now that you've read my post, why not check out the other going's on at FO Friday on Tamis Amis and Crochet Blog and Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins in Wonder!

Finished Object Friday, 4/15/2011

Well, I didn't finish either of the projects I'd mentioned on Wednesday that I hoped to have finished by today (shocking! ;) ) but I've still got two projects to show for the last few weeks of missing FO Friday/Fiber Arts Friday. :)

Wheel Chair Cushion Cover
A week and a half ago, I spent the weekend with my family down in College Station, Texas, to celebrate my grandfather's 93rd birthday. (No, we're not from TX - we're from New York, but my uncle is an A&M professor, and my grandfather now lives with him). For that occasion, I made my grand father a cover for the cushion on his wheel chair.





He's a really tough guy to shop for, but the cushion on his chair was really, really ugly with this gross semi-plastic stuff on it, so I thought a cover would be appreciated.



He liked it so much, it got transferred to the cushion on the chair he sits on all the time!

All in all, it was a nice party! There's a Mexican woman who we originally hired to help take care of him, but as events have unfolded over the past couple years, her entire family has become part of our family (or maybe we've become part of their family, I'm not sure). She and her family helped to organize a party for him. There was even a pinata!



We took a family shot:

From left to right, my uncle, my mom, me, my older brother, and my grandfather. And Sponge Bob. (it took the kids like an hour to break that pinata open...)

Jose Estrella, Star Starfish Shortstop for the Oceans!

I finally got around to doing the back stitching on Jose. After several trials, I decided to not give him a face - just his OCN #5 (for obvious reasons). The pattern is now ready for testing, if I can only find the time to get it started. :(

Join in on the Friday fun! FO Friday on Tami's Amis and Crochet Blog, and Fiber Arts Friday on Wisdom Begins in Wonder!

Work in Progress Wednesday - 3/16/2011

I was thinking I had nothing to share this Wednesday until I actually looked at what I had in front of me, and realized I kind of have a lot. Which is good, cause I'm not even sure I'll be able to post next Wednesday, as I'll be in California for a business trip (conference!) - but the crocheting is never done, and I'll definitely have projects with me (I mean, all that time on the plane, what else am I going to do? :) ).

Soon to Be Not Super Secret Project:
This weeks super secret project is already finished, and I'll be sharing it along with more information on Friday. It pertains to helping Japan. I'm very, very upset about what has happened there. I feel like it hits me again every day, and I know that while that feeling fades it never goes away completely, because I know how I feel every time I crest Route 80 and get my first glimpse of the skyline of NYC and realize once again that the Towers are gone. Next to my home city (which is NYC) there's no place in the world I love so well as Tokyo - I lived there for four months in 2007. So I've developed a project to help out (in addition to my out of pocket donation and a charity auction that I joined on LJ) and I'll talk all about it on Friday when the pattern is out of testing. But for now, if you want to read more about my time in Japan, and see pics, it's in my previous post.

Anyway! Enough sad. On to the works in progress!

Flower Pot Cozy
I'm not done with the flower pot cozy that I talked about last week but I have at least made progress.


I've gotten to the point that I can do one round in about 10 - 12 minutes, which seems sluggish but is faster than I was was working. Unfortunately, I've reached the point on the flower pot that I have to start increasing the size of the rounds.


As you can see, I'm about half way up, and I'm pretty much at the point where it fits the pot snugly. That said, now that I've seen it on the pot, I'm MUCH happier with it than I was before, so that's a step in the right direction. :)

Yet Another Version of Jose Estrella
I'll be making at least one more version after this, but this is the most important version of Jose Estrella, the Starfish - the version in his baseball uniform! As I've said, Jose Estrella is the Short stop for my amigurumi undersea baseball team, the Oceans!



The Sugar 'n Cream in white and yellow didn't quite do what I'd hoped, but I'm just going with it. Anyway, he's completely done except for the embroidery on his uniform, which I've forgotten to do for the last two days. He'll be done by Friday. :)

Spinning!
Jenny (my spinning friend) gave me a bit more fiber - a bunch of merino, and a bunch of romney. I spun the merino first, and there are pics below, and now I'm working on the romney. The merino was definitely the easiest of the three types of fibers I've tried to draw. However, even though I'm not finding it easy to draw the romney while the spindle is going, I am finding it relatively easy to get the thickness I want and keep it consistent. No idea if that's the fiber or me. :)



I also spent 20 bucks (after shipping) to get a pound of roving in mixed shades of black and gray and white. I don't know what type of fiber it exactly is (except sheep) but I bought it from here on the recommendation of a friend on Nerd Wars who had used it before - not the kind of thing I'd chance without that - and I'll definitely report on how it goes!

I also did some work with my previous spinning. Namely, I removed it from the spindle, wrapped it around a wooden hanger (cause I don't have a knitty knoddy or whatever they're called), dunked it almost boiling water, let it dry for 24 hours, wound some of it, let it dry for another 24 hours, and now it's ready to go!



The top is the first fiber I did, and the bottom is the merino. I think it pretty clearly shows my improvement. :) Anyway, I don't yet know what to make with it, but I'm thinking a shawl with a nice loose gauge to make the unevenness a feature instead of mistake (I have a K crochet hook in the house, or maybe I'll use the size 13 knitting needles - yes, I might actually knit something! ;) ). For the shawl, I'd use the merino. Not sure yet what to do with the other. :)

Poppop's Birthday Present
My grandfather turns 93 on April 4th, and me, my brother and my mom will be going down to Texas to visit. Before I even knew that, though, I had concocted a plan to make him a present. One of the Nerd Wars challenges this month is "WIP Help," and the idea is that you help someone who can no longer finish projects on their own to complete something that they had started. While ostensibly, this was aimed at helping little old arthritic ladies finish their blankets, they've made allowances because so many of us don't know any old arthritic ladies. One of those exceptions is that we can use stash yarn that belonged to people who have died - provided that we make something that that person might have made with the yarn. That's the option I'm going with - so I'll be making my grandfather's birthday gift out of stash yarn that belong to my grandmother, who died in 1976 (six years before I was born). I wouldn't be sharing this yet, except that I anticipate being done or mostly done by next Wednesday. :)



This yarn is SO COOL. I've done some research on it. It's labeled as having been made by "Patons & Baldwins Ltd" - a corporation that merged with J.P. Coats in 1961, and became what we now know as Patons. It is in fact Scotch Fingering, 100% wool, imported, and it's been Patonised, which just sounds cool. I couldn't find much info on this yarn specifically, but based on images of the same yarn that I could date, I'd place this particular label as dating to the late 1940s or early 1950s. The skeins are 1 oz each, and I've got 10 skeins of the tweed and 6 of the blue, and also a decent size chunk of knitting that dates to a time in the unknown past when my mother thought to make something out of it and then got frustrated at how long it was taking. I'll definitely photograph that before I (with her blessing) frog it. For what I have in mind, I'm going to three ply the yarn - two lengths of tweed and one length of blue - and the goal is to make him two wheel chair cushion covers. Cause his wheel chair cushion is comfy and squishy but dead ugly. :)

Go see what everyone else is up to over on Tami's Ami Blog on this rainy WIP Wednesday!

Throwing Down the Gauntlet (Two Pairs of Them, Actually!)

Well, it's another week of Finished Object (or, if you prefer, Fiber Arts) Friday! If it weren't for yesterday, I'd have felt like I had pretty much nothing to show for this week, but I spent about 12 hours crocheting yesterday so I've pulled something off. ;) Haven't finished either of my WIP from Wednesday, but I did publish my Andromeda Cowl Pattern (available on Etsy and Ravelry. I also went out and bought a huge pile of new yarn on Wednesday, most of which I have plans for, to make up for my much-depleted stash. I'll write more about this in the next day or two, or possibly next WIP Wednesday. ;)

More Starfish!
Last week, I presented Jose Estrella, the Starfish, and mentioned that I had variations of him in the works. The pattern is very easy to modify, and when I publish it I intend to include all the different options that I can think of, but that means first I have to make them. This week, I made two (which actually cover five of the available options - I'm trying to reduce my work load ;) )

Variation 1 and 2: The Red Serpent Starfish
This is a red serpent starfish:


...and here's an amigurumi Red Serpent Starfish!

This reflects two of the potential variations on my pattern:
1. modifying the limbs to be long and thin!
2. Working from the corners of the center body instead of from the sides (hard to explain but if you were looking at the pattern it'd make excellent sense. ;) )

Variation 3, 4 and 5: The Tree-Topper Star

Another alternate use of this pattern is to make a star that I think is perfect for a Christmas tree. This reflects another three potential variations on my pattern:
1. Remove the body texture (sc around instead of sc/dc around)
2. Make the whole starfish smaller
3. Lengthen the limbs as compared to the body size

Here are all three starfish, hanging out together...

The red serpent starfish has no respect for the personal space of others. :)

The Gauntlets
One of the March challenges in Nerd Wars is "Warrior's Friend." The idea is to make a shield, either literally or figuratively (an item to protect yourself or something you care about from harm). My main idea for this had originally been to modify my male doll pattern and make a version in full armor, but as I felt this would require me to learn to felt to really do it justice, and I just haven't the time, I changed my mind. Wednesday night and especially yesterday morning, inspiration struck as I was trying to figure out what project to bring to my totally dull, have-to-be-there-all-day meeting where nothing was actually expected of me. An excellent crocheting opportunity! (I frequently bring projects to such things and no one has given me a hard time yet...)

The result was two pairs of gauntlets. The first is the Shielding Gauntlet:

My main goal designing these was that they should fit me nice and snugly, and that they should have no mesh at all. At such, it's just sc except for the borders. I'm VERY happy with how they turned out - I used one of my favorite colorways (which unfortunately is Red Heart, but life goes on...). They fit just about perfectly, if I made them any more snug around the wrist they wouldn't fit over my hand. ;)

The second is the Roundel Gauntlet:

Sorry the picture is so shadowed. :( These were a much more daunting project, and designing them took a lot of trial and error. I had two goals when I designed them: first, that they should be largely lattice so that you could see through them, and two, that the main motif be inspired by a shield.

I'm not as thrilled as I could be, but I am satisfied. The main decoration runs down the center of the back, and is composed of two spirals flanking a roundel, hence the name. They're not quite lined up right just now, though, so I'm going to move the thumb catch tonight - it'll only take a couple minutes but will make me much happier with my FO. ;)

However! The real goal of all of this was to make two gauntlets that can be worn TOGETHER.

Why? Because once it gets even a little warm I like to wear short sleeves, but sometimes my hands get cold. Now that I have two different pairs of very snug gauntlets, I can keep my hands warm. ;)


The real priority to the solid base and the lattice second pair was so that you could see both, of course!


All in all, they don't look quite as good together as I'd hoped, but I'm satisfied enough with both individually that I have no complaints. I mean, I made two pairs of gauntlets and ended up with three different looks! And suitable for three different types of weather.

Now I just have to figure out if I can see how to make them easily resizeable, and thus suitable for publication as patterns... :)

Join Wonder Why Gal for Fiber Arts Friday and Tami's Ami Blog for Finished Object Friday! See all the awesome stuff everyone else has been working on!! :)

Meet the Rockin' Rocket Ship and Jose Estrella the Starfish Amigurumis!

Good morning everyone! It's that time again - Finished Object Friday! I've got three FO to share this week, including two brand new, never-before-seen-on-my-blog (and one not seen anywhere!) amigurumi! I'm pretty excited. Also, apologies in advance, this is a pretty long post... :)

Granny Pentagon Lapghan
Let's get the less interesting out of the way. Last Wednesday, inspiration struck for another of the Nerd Wars challenges for February. The inspiration: make a granny "square" blanket, but instead of squares, do pentagons, have the centers look like stars, and have the White Star, a ship from Babylon 5, be my inspiration.

I vaguely had in mind that I'd make a lapghan - baseball season is coming up, and I remember only too well how cold night games get in April, I only had one blanket last year, this year I'll be better prepared, I've made a scarf in Mets colors, a hat embroidered to look like a baseball, and now I've got a second blanket. :) But I didn't really appreciate just how long even a lapghan would take to make. For the challenge, I had to be finished by midnight on 2/28, and I worked in pretty much every moment I had available, and finished at 11 pm that night. :)

The blanket has 61 pentagons and 15 triangles. Because of the non-symmetrical shape of the pentagons, the triangles proved necessary to make it all fit together.


49 of the pentagons are in gray, purple and black; 10 are in blue, white and black; and the last 2 are in gray, blue and black, because I ran out of purple when I was sooooo close to the end! The challenge I met, by the way, was the "Prime Numbers" Challenge, hence the pentagons - I used five colors, five sided figures, etc.


At the moment, it's living on my couch, where I think it looks quite nice. And thanks to it, I got rid of two entire large skeins of black red heart, left in my stash from a time when I was considerably poorer and had much lower standards (it's not inadequate, I just don't like how rough it is...).

Alright! With that out of the way, the two amigurumi that no one has been able to guess!!

The Rockin' Rocket Ship Amigurumi
Mid-last month, for another of the Nerd Wars challenges, I had the idea to make a 50s-style rocket ship. In B5, one of my favorite characters, Michael Garibaldi, is very fond of "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century," and so to meet a Nerd Wars "Valentine's Day" Challenge I made him the rocket ship as a "gift." I ended up carrying it to work with me on a day when I was observing an activity at the New York Hall of Science, and randomly enough, the topic that day was rockets (I didn't know ahead of time!) so everyone got a kick out of the first draft (which is posted to Ravelry here). However, if I do say so myself, the second version is much, much more awesome. :)


This is a blast to make. (pun intended. ;) ) I really, really want to make a bunch more of them in different patterns, but I've got so many ideas that it's going to have to wait, for now.


The biggest design challenge was figuring out how to make it stand upright. When I made the first draft I was so worried that it wouldn't work, but it does - the rocket is free standing, and is not leaning against anything in these shots, as you can see! :) More pics on Ravelry.

And lastly, but not leastly, we have...

Jose Estrella, Shortstop for the Oceans - a Starfish Amigurumi
I finished the first draft of Jose Estrella! Like most of the Oceans players, he's inspired by a player on the Mets (Jose Reyes) - but this is the "not in uniform" version. I'll be making the "in uniform" version, hopefully tomorrow. I also have ideas for about 5 other variations on this pattern, so I'll be working on this for the next week or two while I make each type so that I can be sure they all work and I can write the instructions.

To own truth, this is one of those rare times when I get an idea of how to make something and the FO turns out even better than I thought it would. The biggest surprise was that the texture I made for the top meant that the it bulged more than the bottom, which was absolutely perfect for a starfish!


See? I'll be starting a second Jose Estrella tonight, and can't wait. (oh, and for anyone who doesn't know, "estrella" is Spanish for star...). The only real problem with Jose is that he's a little big as compared to the other Oceans players I've made - but since one of the variations I want to develop is easy instructions for how to resize the pattern, I'm not worried at all. :) More pics on Ravelry.

Join in on the fun this FO Friday, and see all the awesome stuff that everyone else has made, over on Tami's Ami Blog! Or, join in in Fiber Arts Friday over at Wonder Begins in Wisdom!

Work in Progress Wednesday - 3/1/2011

Ugh, it's too early. But I planned ahead - a day out all day, starting at 5:30 am, means a WIP Wednesday post written Tuesday night (but revised Wednesday morning! ;)
).

I spent most of the past week working on an unexpected project that I had to finish by Monday. It took me five days of four or more hours basically each night, and a sore wrist and elbow, but I finished, and now have a lap blanket that I'll share on FO Friday. :) However, this meant not much in the way of other WIP. That said, I'm almost finished with one of last week's, and I started another that I mentioned two weeks ago, and expect to have both done in the next couple of days. I also put the Man-of-War in for pattern testing, finished the Cowl testing, and published my John Bear amigurumi pattern.

Sooper Sekrit Project
Closer to being done now - had hoped to finish on Tuesday night but I just got too tired.

Kinda looks like a fish, don't it? But it's not...hopefully, have it finished on Thursday.

Shortstop for the Oceans
On Monday, I started work on the short stop for the Oceans. I think, given how it looks so far, it's certainly futile to try to keep it a surprise...but now that I've looked at the photos, maybe it's not quite so obvious after all, so I'll leave it as a surprise of sorts for now...





Should have this one done by Friday too, cause it's a perfect commute piece (one ball, one color, one hook, some fiberfill, and no sewing needed), and I have about 4 - 5 hours of commute today.

...and that's all for this week. But then there is the planning. Oh, the planning. :) This includes my intention of yarnbombing...something...using scrap from the past couple months, a plan to make a birthday gift for my grandfather's 93rd birthday (coming up in early April) and maybe something for my dad's 70th (in mid April), a new set of clothing for the male body that I've designed as a doll base (but the clothes I'm thinking of could require that I learn to felt), continued planning for the Ocean's third baseman, still waiting for the materials for the shawl I started last week, considering interesting ways to crochet a pair of wrist cuffs in green...or possible a flower pot cozy, and contemplating what a cute alien equivalent of a cat would look like (keeping in mind the specific adaptations that would have been necessary on the planet where it came from). It seems weird that in a week where I spent this many hours crocheting would have this little to show... :)

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!