Are You Looking for This?

I'm guessing there's more than one person that has found themselves at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins looking for this pattern. Craftzine recently showed a picture of this adorable guy along with a link to my blog, but this is not a pattern of mine. Giulia is the designer of this pattern. She created it by modifying my Tiny Cthulhu patttern to give it legs and you can find her free Baby Cthulhu on her blog Amigurumi-Love.

Giulia has made a wonderful design here and she deserves credit for her work. I'll definitely be making one of these someday to add to my cthulhu family. And to everyone who arrived at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins by mistake, I hope you stay awhile and take a look around. Check out the My Free Patterns list in the left sidebar and maybe you'll spot something else you like too.

Pretty in Pink Round Ripple Afghan

I'm going to keep this post short since long time readers are probably tired of seeing round ripple blankets at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. What can I say? They're quick to make and they always turn out beautifully.

This one is intended as a baby blanket. Not for anyone specific yet, just something I wanted to have on hand for a more traditional parent-to-be that likes the traditional pink for girls and blue for boys. I've made a couple of blue and green baby blankets in the past, but have never done a really pink one before. This was also my first time working with a super bulky yarn and I have mixed feelings about that. On the downside the yarn frayed a lot and was a bit pesky to work with. On the plus side, it only took me about a week to stitch up this approximately 4 ft. diameter blanket. Although I'm not much of a pink person, I do really like this colour and the softness of this acrylic.

This was made using a K size (6.5 mm hook) and Red Heart's Zoomy in Candy Pink. The round ripple is one of my favourite patterns and you can get it as a free download here, as well as from several other locations.

Lime Lace Afghan in Amethyst

One big project down, several more to go! I guess it's becoming a bit of an annual tradition to spend some birthday money on yarn to make an afghan for myself. This blanket is the Lime Lace pattern from Heirloom Afghans and it's this year's special treat for myself. Now maybe it's just me, but it seems like it may be a bad idea to name a blanket after the colour of yarn you used. After all, how many people are actually going to want to make it in that same colour?

While I wasn't a fan of the lime colour used in the book, I really liked the look of the pattern. I tend to make mostly solid blankets, so making something a bit more lacey and airy was a nice change of pace. I decided to start with the corner picture first, as it gives you a better idea of what the pattern looks like than the photos that show the whole blanket.

Unfortunately there wasn't really a good photo of the pattern's 5 round border in the book so I really had no idea how it would turn out until I was finished. Thankfully, I liked it's frilly look. Although if someone wanted to save time or yarn, I think the afghan would look good without it as well.

The yarn used was James C. Brett's Marble Amethyst in DK weight. This is the only acrylic that my local yarn shop is willing to carry and it is quite beautiful. It's very soft and is rumored to become even softer the more you wash it. Time will tell if that turns out to be true. I found it does try to split a bit when you're crocheting with it, but I've worked with far, far worse. Considering it's rather reasonable price of approx $6 per skein, I can live with a little splitting. I've still got most of one skein (out of 10) left so you can probably expect an amethyst cthulhu or some other amigurumi to pop up here soon.

I've forgotten exactly when I started this one, but I'm going to guess it took me about 2 months of on and off crocheting. I do know the border alone took me 2 weeks, which was making me a little crazy (crazier?), particularly when I was uncertain how it was going to look in the end. Below you can see the finished blanket in its entirety. It measures about 4 X 6 feet, which is a substantial size. Doubled over it makes a pretty cozy lapghan. The whole piece is worked in rows back and forth, and then the border is worked in rounds along the outer edge.

Has anyone else made any patterns from Heirloom Afghans? I've had the book for a while now, but this is the first thing I've made from it. If you see this book in a local craft store take a moment to browse through it. There are a lot of patterns and many of them are very nice. Admittedly there are also a couple of truly ugly patterns in there too. What convinced me to buy it was the variety available in its patterns. Rather than just being filled with lacy patterns, or motif based afghans, the book has seven sections each devoted to different styles of blankets from bulky to airy. It gives you a nice selection all in one book.

Mmm...Monsters!

If a yarn company has a weekly newsletter I probably subscribe to it, but it's rare that I find a project in those newsletters that's worth posting about. Most of them don't suit my tastes, feel outdated, or are simply an excuse for the distributing company to sell a large quantity of yarn. (If I ever decide I want a snuggie I'm not going to knit it myself...thanks.)

That being said, I'm taking a shine to these monsters that are part of a new 17 crochet project booklet from Sugar 'N Cream. The experienced crocheter could probably make these without a pattern using a little guess and test, but they're still worth looking at for the inspiration. The book is retailing for $3.95 here in Canada and there are also two other monster patterns in the book that you can see in the link above.

Does anyone else think Monsters Inc. when they see this picture?

Each year I try to contribute a couple of amigurumis to the Softies For Mirabel Campaign. One thing organizer Pip has told me in the past is that there's often a shortage of toys that really grab the boys' attention. So that's the second reason I thought these were worth sharing. Made in the right colours, I'm fairly certain these would appeal to many young boys. The more eyes and tentacles the better, right?

Cthulhu Cousins Caught on Film - Part 2

The cthulhus over at Being Ruth are not only breeding like rabbits, they're surrounding the rabbits! I figured that Ruth deserved to have two pictures shown since she and her boss have made a seriously large horde of cthulhus for their friends and co-workers. Click the craft time category link in the right sidebar of Ruth's blog to see even more of their cthulhus.

I also like the completely baby safe cthulhus you can see in the picture below.

The eyes have been stitched onto the baby cthulhus and it gives them a bit of an anime character look. Plus, I'm terrible at stitching features onto my amigurumis so I'm always in awe of other people's skill when it comes to doing this.

I think it's always interesting how changing the eyes used makes such a difference in how the cthulhu looks. Consider this cthulhu created by Penguin_Poet (above), which is pretty similar in shape to this one (below) created by Morgan, yet the two different eye types give the amigurumis a completely different character.

Below Traci combined the head from the Cuddly Cthulhu pattern with the body from the Tiny Cthulhu pattern to make this cranberry cthulhu as a desktop buddy for one of her friends. I really like how the eyes match the body here. You'd think that making them a similar colour would cause them to blend in too much, but it actually makes for a rather striking cthulhu.

And there you have the most recent additions to the Cthulhu Cousin family. If you missed it, be sure to check out the pictures from Cthulhu Cousins Caught on Film - Part 1. Thank you once again to everyone who chose to share pictures of how they've been using my patterns. Each cthulhu seems to come out with his or her own character and it often gives me inspiration for creating new patterns.

If you've used one of my patterns for something and want to share the results, post a link in the comments section somewhere on the blog, or send me a .jpg at the email address in the left sidebar. I usually try to make a post about the recent additions to the cthulhu family every 3 or 4 months. Whenever I find myself with a good stockpile of pictures to show.