Off To Australia

Every time I turn my back they're fighting!

A few weeks ago I posted about the Softies for Mirabel campaign that's being organized by the staff of the Austrialian craft store Meet Me at Mikes. Now, here for your viewing pleasure are our contributions to the campaign...Tiny Cthulhu and Oni. It's going to be hard to give these guys up, but time permitting, they're shipping out to Australia on Friday.



Tiny Cthulhu is very similar to my original Cthulhu pattern, just slightly smaller and with crochet spirals for tentacles instead of picot stitches. I'm really pleased with how that turned out and will definately be using it on future Cthulhus. I was using up scrap yarn in a colour that I'd bought over ten years ago for this one so there was no way to buy more if I ran out. Hence, the black shirt. The shortage of yarn also meant that I had to choose between more tentacles at the base or wings on the back. In the end the wings won because I just love the way they look.





My boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, designed the Oni. He was inspired by the Japanse folklore creatures of the same name. He sketched a basic design on paper and I turned it into a crocheted critter using the same body shape as I had for the Cthulhu. The Oni was made with a chunky weight wool so it came out a little bigger than my worsted weight Cthulhu. I made the horn with a hook that was about three sizes smaller than the one used for the body. I wanted it to be very tightly crocheted so that it would stand up properly.

(My boyfriend also gets credit for stuffing both creatures since that's the one part of Amigurumi making that I don't particularly enjoy.)



At last, they finally behave long enough to get a nice picture taken together!

For those that are interested I will be posting the patterns here on Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins for both these little monsters sometime soon. I just haven't had a chance to get them written up in proper pattern style yet.

And if anyone else is making crochet creatures for Softies for Mirabel, I'd love to see what you've come up with. Leave me a comment with links to a picture of your creation.

Ninjas Caught On Film!

Even if it wasn't crochet related, I still think this would be a great picture. It was originally posted on Craftster by Tanzie and after looking at it several times I felt inspired to poke around and see if any other cute crochet Ninjas had been caught on film. Okay, they probably don't want to be called cute, but I'm sure their creators would agree, they are pretty darn sweet! I haven't made myself a ninja yet although I think I may be putting it on the list of future projects after seeing all these great designs. Perhaps a ninja cell phone cozy...

First up we have the Little Ninja man created by Daniethanas. You can see plenty of ninjas in this style hanging out in various places on the internet. It's made with a free pattern that's available from rheatheylia.com.



Angeltreats made this Navy Ninja by mistake when she accidently picked some navy wool out of her stash instead of black, but I think it works. This little guy is just the black...er, navy sheep in the ninja family!



Next up is Christen Haden's, aka NeedleNoodles, crochet ninja pattern. She sells these ninjas fully made for $15 or as part of a pattern set for $5 through her Etsy store. The pattern is also one of the over 25 that are part of her new book, Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More.



Last but not least, we have a mutant ninja! BeadGal used to make and sell this Ninja Squid through her Etsy shop. Sadly, he doesn't seem to be available anymore. I thought I'd share his picture anyway, as I'm sure a savy crocheter could probably figure out how to make a similar one for themselves if they wanted to.

The Birthday Afghan

Finished! If you frequent the crochet forum on Craftster you may have already seen this over there. I posted it there last week, but Blogger was being difficult and I wasn't able to get the photos uploaded here at the same time.

I'm calling this one the Birthday Afghan because I made it for myself as a birthday present, using money that I'd received from family for my birthday to buy the wool.

I had seen these four colours in a ball of variegated wool from Patons and loved how they looked together. Unfortunately in my experience whenever I try to make something with variegated wool it always ends up looking better wrapped up as a skein than as a project. Fortunately, unlike many other companies, Patons actually sells the colours in their variegated mixes as separate skeins.


To make this I used the Float Away Scarf pattern and added a couple extra repeats of the pattern to make it wider. The four colours are Paton Decor in Pale Sage Green, Pale Aubergine, Aran, and Taupe. I changed colours every three rows and worked in the ends as I went.

We ended up taking about 40 pictures before getting the digital camera to turn out these photos which I think most accurately show off the colours.


I started working on this blanket around the middle of February and ambitiously believed I could get the whole thing done before my birthday on March 1. Ha! I actually ended up finishing it Apr. 23, but as the blog will attest I've been working on lots of other side projects between then and now. (And I am pleased that it didn't take me a full year to complete.)

Next afghan project: something with alpaca wool. I'm not sure what yet. I haven't picked a pattern or any colours yet, but I love how soft that stuff feels. I need to turn it into a blanket of some sort.

Cross Stitch Gallery: Part Three

This is the third and final installment of my Cross Stitch Gallery, at least for now. I have a few more pictures that are finished, but not framed. At some point I may haul them out of their packaging and photograph them, but I think that if I don't allow myself to show them off until they're framed I'll have more incentive to actually get them framed. (It's a theory anyways!)

Here we have the Fall (top) and Spring horses from Teresa Wentzler's Carousel Horses for All Seasons collection which was originally published in a single volume by Leisure Arts. Since I forgot to do it in the first Stitch Gallery post I have to put in a plug for Wentzler's website TW Designworks. Please stop by there and have a look at her current and discontinued cross stitch patterns. The site also has larger, more detailed photos of each of the completed patterns that are far better than the ones I can take with my digital camera.



This was my most ambitious cross stitch project to date in that I actually completed all four of the Carousel horses. Spring and Fall were framed for me by my boyfriend and his mom over the last two Christmasses. The gift was a wonderful surprise and much appreciated. Someday I'll get Summer and Winter framed, but I'm limited not only be the high cost of professional framing, but also the fact that I'm running out of wall space.



Just like the Dragon Ride pattern these pictures rely on a lot of blending to make various shades in the pictures. To create some harmony between the differing horses the pole on each is stitched in the same colours on each picture. The pole and parts of the stitched frames also use gold Krenik (a metallic thread) to give the design a bit of sparkle. There are also several types of Krenik used in the saddle on the Fall horse.



Sadly, these Carousel horse patterns have now been discontinued, except for the Winter horse. It's possible that you may be able to find copies on e-bay, at local cross stitch stores, or through online sites that specialize in discontinued patterns.

I haven't really poked my head into the world of cross stitch for three or four years now and I have to say that looking around Wentzler's website it was sad to see how many of her wonderful designs are now out of print. Sure many of them are more than ten years old, but most of them stand the test of time and I'm sure that avid cross stitchers would still be interested in them. The same thing is happening with several other cross stitch designers whom I really like.

Considering how easy it would be for the publishers to set up a place on their website where users could pay to download copies of the discontinued patterns, I don't see why they don't do it. The costs would be minimal and even if they only sold a few copies of the pattern each year it would still be something. If the people who hold the rights to these things don't make them easily available you know that someone else will. I think it's unfortunate that this means the original designer, who put a lot of hard work into creating the patterns, often doesn't receive any acknowledgement or profit for their work.

Okay, thus ends my rant. I hope you've enjoyed this week's detour into cross stitch. Next week, the completed afghan and some new amigurumi!

Purple Bone

So over at Une So Tisse was so captured by the cuteness of Fone Bone that she not only made her own purple version but also spent the last week tracking down a French translation of Jeff Smith's comic. I'm so happy that my little creation has inspired someone to take an interest in the comic. More fans are always welcome.

With my permission So is also providing a French version of the pattern free on her blog. You can view it and a larger picture of her purple Bone here. She has a lot of interesting creations on her site and thank goodness there are web page translators to help me read some of the words I couldn't remember from my days of high school French.

So was worried about the fact that her Bone character wasn't white, but who knows, maybe female Bones are purple. Or maybe Bone creatures come in a variety of different colours and just turn white as they get older. I think there's room for speculation!

Cross Stitch Gallery: Part Two

This is the first and only cross stich picture that I made for my boyfriend, he who is both wise and witty. Unless your guy is into hunting, fishing, or lighthouses there just aren't that many patterns out there that are going to appeal to him. At least not in the world of mainstream published cross stitch patterns.

Now a few minutes spent Google image searching can turn up loads of wonderful subversive and pop culture related cross stitch projects. For example, Sprite Stitch features and makes a lot of great free patterns that are based on classic Nintendo video games. I also really like B. I. S. Creations which is compiling an assortment of dinosaur patterns that they sell as pdf files. I haven't ordered one yet, but maybe someday if I get back into this cross stitching thing.

Of course, five or six years back when I was planning to make a picture for the boyfriend it hadn't occurred to me to check for user created patterns on the internet. I just went through the published patterns available in the local craft stores until I found something that appealed to me. This pattern is called Puppy Love and it was created by Paula Fitzpatrick and published in 1991 by a company called Color Charts.

This is the only cross stitch you're going to see this week that I actually framed myself. For the most part I leave that to the experts at the local framing stores, especially for the larger pictures that have taken a long time to stitch.

It's a fairly simple pattern with no blends and just 12 colours. I really like the shape of the puppies, but I've always had a suspicion that there's a typo in the pattern. See that light yellow colour on the front puppy's face? It just seems a little too light. I have a feeling the chart may have listed the wrong colour there. Despite this, the puppies are still pretty cute and the boyfriend likes them. We have yet to live in a place that allows pets, so until then, these guys will have to do. Luckily they don't eat much and they're pretty quiet!

Cross Stitch Gallery: Part One

I am five rows away from finishing an afghan that I've been working on for the past 3 months so I think this week I'm going to be devoting more time to actually crocheting rather than writing about crochet. In place of that, I thought I'd use Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins to show off a few of my cross stitch projects this week. Specifically the ones that I've managed to get framed. There are lots of finished ones, but most of them still have yet to be framed.

Teresa Wentzler is by far my favourite cross stitch designer. Her patterns are so intricate and beautiful. This one is entitled Dragon Ride and it originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of Stitcher's World. Nearly all the colours in this piece are a blend that you make by holding two different coloured strands of embroidery floss together. There are glass beads in the stitched frame of the picture which I attached with very thin, clear fishing line. The rider is stitched in petit point which means all stitches in his body are 1/4 the size of the normal stitches in the piece. This is done so that you can see him in more detail even though he's a smaller element of the overall picture.

HK Bee! Cute Thing of the Week

Armina over at This and That has put together a wonderful collection of Hello Kitty inspired amigurumis and it wasn't easy picking just one of them to be the Cute Thing of the Week. In the end it's this HK Bee that I can't stop looking at. She seems so happy and spring-like. I could use a little spring right now, even if it does mean real bees with their nasty stingers.

Luckily this one won't sting. She stands approximately 4 inches tall and is made with Lion Brand Pound of Love. Armina hasn't written out the HK Bee pattern, but she does maintain a separate blog called Armina's Ami-Nals where she lists all her free patterns. Here you can find Armina's pattern for a basic HK Ami, and I'm sure anyone with a little crochet experience can figure out how to alter it to make the bee or any other costumed Hello Kitty.

Send Your Amigurumi to Australia

Even if we'll never all meet in person our amigurumis and other crocheted toys can meet at Mikes and even get a group photo taken.

Meet Me At Mikes, an Australian craft store that sells items made by local crafters and vintage pieces, has put the call out for its 2008 Softies For Mirabel campaign. Softies can be crocheted, knit or sewn and all softies that they receive before June 1st will be shown off together in a Meet Me At Mikes window display.

The Mikes staff will sort the softies and beginning July 27th some of them will be auctioned off via e-bay. Proceeds from the auctions will go to The Mirabel Foundation, an organization that helps children in Australia whose lives have been affected by substance abuse. Softies that don't make it into the auction and those that arrive after the auction deadline will be saved until Christmas and given to the children that Mirabel supports.

Meet Me at Mikes store owners Pip and Cam are also hoping to create a feeling of community among those donating to the cause. They've set up a public flickr group where people can post pictures of their donated creations, comment on the various critters and share ideas. Click here, to read the guidelines for the Softies for Mirabel campaign and view the mailing address.

When I first heard about this charity event I did some digging around on the internet to find out what Meet Me At Mikes was and I have to say this sounds like a great store to visit. Part of this article from the Herald Sun has been cut off, but I think it gives readers a nice glimpse of what the store is like and the philosophies the owners' apply to their business.

You've got to appreciate that they're willing to provide mentoring for new crafters. As well, I like their idea of changing the complimentary gift wrapping each month so that one month a package may be wrapped in brown paper and tied with string and the next it may come in a vintage illustrated box.

So if you have some time and a bit of spare yarn or material why not whip up a cute little toy and send it off to Australia? When it gets there it can visit with one of my Cthulhus.

I'll post a picture as soon as I get my donation done.

Bartleby, the Baby Rat Creature (with free pattern)

Here's Bartleby, the third in my series of creations based on Jeff Smith's wonderful Bone series. He doesn't say much, but Bartleby is probably one of the cutest creatures in the series. I actually thought he was going to be the easiest to make, but he ended up being the most difficult. (So far! I still haven't tackled Smiley)

I was obsessed with making Bartleby look as much like the version in the comics as I could. As my boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, pointed out "You're trying to copy a two dimensional object in a three dimensional form, it's not going to be perfect." But then I pointed to my version of Nibbler and he agreed there was probably some room for improvement.

So in the end, Bartleby's head was taken apart and redone twice. I made three versions of his ears before settling on these ones. His hind legs were also made 3 or 4 times, and finally I had to remake the front legs because they were too long to go with the final version of his hind legs. Then there were the eyes...

The eyes are made from those flat marbles you find in the floral section of craft stores. I'd posted on Crafter looking for suggestions on how I could make the rat creatures eyes and I thought this suggestion made by Rio_Supreme was the best one. The red marbles I'd bought seemed too bright so I tried gluing some black felt to the backs of them to make them darker. This worked, but when I stuck them on Bartleby's body the felt made them stick out too far from his head. Then I tried painting the backs black with acrylic paint, but then they were too dark. Finally I just decided to accept the eyes as they were and glue them on as is.

Now that I've had a few day to look at the finished product I'm pretty happy with it. I would prefer slightly darker eyes, but there just aren't that many colours of flat marbles to choose from.

Bartleby's head and body shape are borrowed heavily from the Gumball Kitten pattern that can be found on the Quaking Aspen Blog. However, Bartleby's body is slighly narrower and longer. As always, if you see any problems with the pattern or have any questions feel free to use the 'comments' feature to contact me.



Bartleby Pattern

Materials
size G (4.25mm) Crochet Hook
two flat red marbles for eyes
Pattons Decor Worsted Weight Wool in “Pale Aubergine” (one skein)
fiber fill or other stuffing material

Head
6 sc into a magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc in each st around (12 stitches)
RND 2: *1 sc in first st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (18 st)
RND 3: *1 sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (24 st)
RND 4: *1 sc in first 7 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (27 st)
RND 5: *1 sc in first 8 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (30 st)
For next 2 RNDs sc in each st around (30 st)
RND 8: 12 dec stitches then 6 sc around (18 st)
RND 9: *1 sc in first 4 st, dec over next two stitches* repeat around (15 st)
sl st into next stich, finish off. Leave long tail for sewing.

Body
6 sc into a magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc in each st around (12 stitches)
RND 2: *1 sc in first st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (18 st)
RND 3: *1 sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (24 st)
RND 4: *1 sc in first 7 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (27 st)
RND 5: *1 sc in first 8 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (30 st)
RND 6: *1 sc in first 9 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (33 st)
RND 7: *1 sc in first 10 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (36 st)
For next 4 RNDs sc in each st around (36 st)
RND 12: *1 sc in first 4 st, dec over next 2 st* repeat around (30 st)
RND 13: *1 sc in first 3 st, dec over next 2 st* repeat around (24 st)
RND 14: *1 sc in first 2 st, dec over next 2 st* repeat around (18 st)
RND 15: *1 sc in first 4 st, dec over next 2 st* repeat around (15 st)
sl st into next stitch, finish off.

Tail
6 sc into a magic ring.
For 3 RNDs sc in each st around (6 sts)
sl st into next st, finish off. Leave long tail for sewing.

Ears (make 2)
Note: hdc = half double crochet
Chain 3
RND 1: 2 sc in third ch from hook (forming a ring) then 2 hdc in next two st (6 sts)
RND 2: 2 sc over next 2 sts, *2 hdc in next st* 4 times (10 st)
*sl st into next st* 2 times, finish off. Leave tail for sewing.

Front Legs (make 2)
4 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc in each st around (8 sts)
For next 6 RNS sc into each st around (8 st)
sl st into next st, finish off. Leave long tail for sewing.

Back Legs (make 2)
4 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc into each st around (8 sts)
For next 3 RNDs sc in each st around (8 sts)
RND 5: 1 sc in first 3 st, 2 sc in each of next 4 st, one sc in next st (12 sts)
RND 6: sc in first 6 st, 2 sc in each of next 2 st, then sc in next 4 st (14 sts)
For next 3 RNDs sc in each st around (14 sts)
RND 10: sc in first 3 sts, *dec over next 2 sts* 5 times), 1 sc in next st (9 sts)
sl st into next st, finish off.

Assembly
Note: use photos as a guide when stitching together pieces.

Stuff head and body to desired level. Do not pull shut, just whip stitch the two openings together to connect body to head. Whip stitch ears and tail to body.

Stuff back legs firmly in the narrow section and very lightly in the hip section. Attach to body.

Stuff front legs firmly and attach to body.

Use hot glue gun or other crafting glue to attach flat marble eyes to head.

Enjoy!

Raggs! Cute Thing of the Week

I'm always blown away by the fluffy and realistic creatures that Wibit over at Roman Sock puts together. Raggs, her latest creation is no exception. Just look at that face!

And yes, in case you're wondering, this one is crocheted. It's hard to believe from the picture (don't you just want to hold him!). I know the first time I saw one of Wibit's creations I was sure that it was a stuffed animal sewn together from pieces of pre-made fur. Not being a very good seamstress myself, I was very excited to learn that this look could be achieved through crochet. The technique involves using a fluffy wool such as mohair or a mohair mix to crochet the pieces of your amigurumi and then brushing it out with a slicker brush.



Raggs was made as a gift for someone and right now he's not available for sale or as a pattern. However, if you're as impressed with Raggs as I am I urge you to visit Roman Sock or the link on Craftster to pay your compliments and see more pictures. Wibit also has several free patterns available on Roman Sock that use the brushed wool technique if you want to give it a try.

Amigurumi World. My thoughts...

I had the chance to play around with Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet this past weekend and I’m happy to report the book lives up to its name. Check out my Ami Bunny to the left here, is it not seriously cute?

At first glance I thought the fact that Rimoli was including many of the patterns in several sizes, a mom or dad and baby of each creature, was a bit of a copout, but on further inspection I take that back. It would be a copout if the book only contained 10-12 patterns, but counting the parent and child pairs as a single pattern this book still contains over 20 different designs from animals to fruit, to dessert items and even a couple of cactuses (or should I say desert items?). There are also added touches such as instructions for how to add various pieces of clothing to the different animals.

As well, I really appreciate that the animals are kept in scale with each other. Adult animals are anywhere from 5 inches to 10 inches tall while babies are generally 3 or 4 inches tall and they’re kept true to scale with their animal kingdom counterparts. Owls are smaller than penguins, penguins are smaller than lions, etc. This may not matter if you’re only making one animal, but let’s say you decide to make all the animals for a child’s play set, then this logical sizing is going to be something you can really appreciate.

This Ami bunny that I’ve made comes from a section near the back of the book entitled Tiny Amis. In this section Rimoli uses the same basic head and body shape to create seven different animals that all stand 3 inches tall. These animals can be made in about one to two hours and I think they’d be a great stepping stone for anyone who wants to start designing their own patterns. Start with one of these bodies and try to come up with a different animal yourself. As well, these tiny amis have a lot of versatility. For example, I’m thinking they’d make great Christmas tree ornaments if I just crocheted them some red and green hats and scarves.

I think if I have one quibble with the book at all, it’s Rimoli’s use of the chain 2 then put X number of stitches in second chain from hook method of starting her pieces. It’s just a personal preference thing. I don’t care for this method. I always find that first chain that doesn’t have any stitches in it always sticks out kind of strangely and I have to spend time tacking it down. Instead I much prefer to take however many stitches she’s putting in that second chain and make a magic ring with this number as my starting point.

That minor complaint aside, if you’re looking for a book of quick cute Amigurumi creatures I highly recommend Amigurumi World. It’s great if you’re just starting out in the world of crochet because it illustrates all your basic stitches and amigurumi techniques in the first few pages with nice clear instructions and pictures.

There are a few typos in the books, as tends to happen, but I was pleasantly surprised when I ventured over to Rimoli's blog and discovered that she’d already set up a post where users could comment on problems they’ve found in the text. Personally I think this speaks volumes about her character and makes her someone I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from.

Note: Any differences between my bunny and the one pictured on the cover of the book are due to choices I made and not a flaw in the pattern. I used a different size of eyes and also a safety nose rather than an embroidered nose. I also used a different kind of wool and much stiffer felt than the book calls which made my bunny's ears less floppy. The changes were more about supplies I had on hand at the time than a desire to change the look of the bunny.

Rainbow Cthulhu!

Look, my Cthulhus have a new cousin! Helen contacted me to tell me about this Cthulhu that she made for her brother using the Cthulhu pattern that I created. This is the first time I've actually seen a finished product that someone has made using one of my patterns. It's a pretty cool feeling to actually see a pattern in use. I'm also loving the way the Cthulhu looks in this rainbow wool. You can check out more pictures of it here. As a side note, Helen's in Stockholm, Sweden and I'm in British Columbia, Canada. Thank you internet!

If anyone else has crocheted stuff using my patterns feel free to post a comment and incude links if you've got pictures. I love to see what people are doing with the patterns.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Baby Sweater! Cute Thing of the Week

Do you ever do that thing where you want to make something, but it's going to be time consuming? So just on a whim you check to see if someone else has already done it and bless Google someone has and they've posted it. And there's a free pattern. Yeah, that almost never actually happens. But today it did. This baby is wearing a Mystery Science Theater 3000 sweater!



Okay and obviously you can see that from the picture, but I'm pretty excited. I've been thinking for the last couple of days about the possibility of charting the MST3K silhouette. It's not for the purpose of a baby sweater. I'm thinking more along the lines of a scarf or an afghan. Charting is tricky though. I can either try to draw it freehand on graph paper or use some online software like KnitPro. Experience with KnitPro has taught me that I need a pretty good jpeg to start with and I don't have that yet.



Hence my excitement in coming across this adorable MST3K baby sweater that was created by Sara over at goingcrafty. Not only is the sweater awesome, Sara is sharing a free pdf of the chart she used and has provided a tutorial explaining how to make the baby sweater. The sweater is knit, but the chart could be used for anything your crafty brain can think of whether it be knitting, crochet, cross stitch or even my new friend the Perler Beads.

I also have to give a plug for the other free pattern Sara is offering on her site, The Jive Turkey Baby Hat. Come on, what kid wouldn't want to look back on their baby pictures thirty years from now and see themselves wearing that?

What Not to Crochet

I can't say I'm ever going to be inspired to make anything I see on this site, but a visit to What Not To Crochet is definately becoming a part of my weekly internet surfing. Taking their inspiration from sites that poke fun at various knitted creations and celebrity fashion choices, the authors serve up a great dose of sarcasm with every crochet-related post.

What I really like about this site is the writers actually have something to say. They aren't just slapping down a jpeg and saying "look at this." The commentary is witty and fun, to the point where I find myself laughing out loud at least once per visit. Items featured on the site come from "pattern/yarn distributors, pattern creators (as long as it’s for sale) or crochet magazines" which I think are fair targets for the criticism. Especially the yarn distributors who often manage to make some beautiful yarns, but seem pretty out of touch when it comes to what the modern crocheter is doing with those yarns.

Phoney Bone of Boneville (with Free Pattern)

Here is my second amigurumi based on Jeff Smith's Bone comic series. Phoncible P. Bone, Phoney, or "The One Who Bears the Star" is probably the most complex of the three Bone cousins. He's the reason the cousins were run out of Boneville and the catalyst for their nine book adventure. A times he's selfish, greedy and manipulative, but he's also very protective of his cousins and can often overcome his extreme self-absorption to save the ones he loves. Aside from cute little Bartleby I think Phoney is probably my favourite character because he adds so much to any scene he's in.

The pattern for Phoney is very similar to the one I created for Fone Bone since both characters are similar in size. I don't have any experience crocheting clothes so I just worked Phoney's shirt in as I made his body. Key changes to the pattern are in the Body section and Arms.

If you see any problems with the pattern or if anything is unclear, please feel free to contact me.

Phoney Bone Pattern

Materials

white worsted weight yarn (one skein or less)
black worsted weight yarn (one skein or less)
yellow felt (I like the kind that's sticky on the backside)
black felt
black embroidery thread
fiber fill or stuffing material of your choice
size G (4.25mm) Hook

Note: The head and nose pieces start separately and then are joined together later. I recommend starting with the nose, then stitching the head and body. The body and head are all one piece. I find this helps prevent the head from flopping around too much.

Nose
with white
5 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc into each st around. (10 sts)
RND 2: *sc in first st, 2 sc into next st* repeat around (15 sts)
RND 3: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (20 sts)
RND 4-6: sc in each st around. (20)
Finish off, leave long tail for sewing.

Head
with white
5 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc into each st around (10 sts)
RND 2: *sc in first st, 2 sc into next st* repeat around (15 sts)
RND 3: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (20 sts)
RND 4: *sc in first 3 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (25 sts)
RND 5: *sc in first 4 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (30 sts)
RND 6-10: sc in each st around (30 sts)
Now we attach the nose and head pieces together.
RND 11: instead of crocheting into head piece, sc into the first 15 stitches of the nose piece, then skip 5 stitches on the head, sc into 6th st on the head and continue sc around the head. (40 sts) Use the long tail from the nose piece to whipstitch the 5 sts you didn’t stitch on the nose to the five stitches you skipped on the head piece. Also use this thread to tighten up any holes near the joined pieces that are too large.
RND 12-14: sc into each stitch around (40 sts)
RND 15: *sc into first 6 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (35 sts)
RND 16: *sc into first 5 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (30 sts)
RND 17: *sc into first 4 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (25 sts)
RND 18: *sc into first 3 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (20 sts)
Place eyes and embroider mouth and eyebrows now.
RND 19: *sc into first 2 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (15 sts)
RND 20: sc into each st around (15 sts)
Now we start the body shape
RND 21: when you reach the middle of Phoney’s backside in this round switch to black *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (20 sts)
RND 22: *sc in first 3 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (25 sts)
RND 23-25: sc into each st around (25 sts)
RND 26: *sc in first 4 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (30 sts)
RND 27: *sc into first 2 st , 2 sc in next st* repeat around (40 sts)
RND 28: sc into each st around (40 sts)
RND 29: in front loop only *sc into first 19 st, 2 sc in next st* repeat around (42 sts)
RND 30: sc into each st around (42) If you’re not near the back of Phoney, continue sc around until you’re in the middle of his backside, sl st into next st and finish off black.

Turn Phoney upside down. Can you see the back loops that were left behind during RND 29 when we worked in the Front Loop only? With white put a slip knot on your crochet hook, now single crochet into the first of these ‘black back loops’ and continue sc around. You should end up with 40 white stitches.

Now working in white
RND 1: sc into each st around (40)
stuff head and nose section to your desired firmness level.
RND 2: *sc into first 6 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (35 sts)
RND 3: *sc into first 5 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (30 sts)
RND 4: *sc into first 4 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (25 sts)
RND 5: *sc into first 3 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (20 sts)
RND 6: *sc into first 2 sts, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (15 sts)
stuff body
RND 7: *sc into first st, dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (10 sts)
RND 8: *dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (5 sts)
Finish off and sew shut.

Arms(make 2)
with white
5 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 2 sc into each st around (10 sts)
RND 2: sc into each st around (10 sts)
Switch to black wool
RND 3: *sc in first 4 st, 2 sc into next st* repeat around (12 sts)
RND 3: sc into each st around (12 sts)
RND 4: *dec over next 2 sts* repeat around (6 sts)
RND 5-7: sc into each st around (6sts)
Finish off, leave long tail for sewing. Stuff only the widest part of arms.

Legs (make 2)
with white
6 sc into magic ring
RND 1-7: sc into each st around (6)
Finish off, leave tail for sewing. Legs are not stuffed.

Feet (make 2)
withi white
4 sc into magic ring
RND 1: 3 sc into first st, 2 sc into each st around (9 sts)
RND 2: 2 sc into each st around (18 sts)
RND 3-5: sc into each st around (18 sts)
RND 6: *sc into first 7 sts, dec over next two sts* repeat around (16 sts)
RND 7: *sc into first 2 sts, dec over next two sts* repeat around (12 sts)
RND 8: *sc into first st, dec over next two sts* repeat around (8 sts)
stuff foot
RND 9: *dec over next two sts* repeat around (4 sts)
Finish off. sew shut.

Assembly
Sew arms to body. Sew feet to legs and attach legs to body. Secure and hide all thread tails. Cut out a yellow felt star and attach it in the centre of Phoney’s shirt. Use photos as a guide for placement.

Enjoy!