Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins

Last Look at 2011 Cthulhus - Part 3

2012-01-31T23:45:00.000-08:00

And let's close out the month of January with our final look at the cthulhus of 2011.

In the top row we have two wonderful Cuddly Cthulhus. The one on the top left was stitched by Dorothy. That's a beautiful shade of green she's chosen!

Meanwhile on the top right Angela's cthulhu is showing off its Browncoat spirit with a classic Jayne hat.

Now I know it's not a cthulhu, but the picture on the bottom left is also a sample of one of the free patterns you can find here at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. Jes used purple and cream yarn to crochet the Spiral Baby Blanket for the baby girl she is expecting in just a few weeks. Congratulations Jes!!

And looking all cute and innocent in the bottom right corner is an adorable Tiny Cthulhu stitched by Carina. The hand-stitched eyes really make this one look sweet, and perhaps a little bit curious?

Once again thanks to everyone who has sent in pictures or posted a comment to let me know they're using my patterns. It's always wonderful to see the unique touches that everyone adds to their creations!

Happy stitching in 2012 everyone!

Last Look at 2011 Cthulhus - Part 2

2012-01-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I certainly wouldn't challenge that guy for the remote control. This top picture comes courtesy of Veronica. Those angry eyebrows tell me this little monster takes his channel surfing seriously, but what is it that cthulhus watch on TV?

I love the shades of pink and purple you see on Cat's cthulhu in the centre left picture. Meanwhile on the centre right we have a somewhat more sinister cthulhu crocheted by minimysz.

Check out those innocent blue eyes on Lia's cthulhu on the bottom left. In her comment she writes, "It came out cute!" I think she's right. Very cute!

In the bottom right is a cthulhu made by Michele, who also added a pair of legs to make him more mobile. If you zoom in on the picture you can see that the eyes are actually a larger white button with a smaller black on sewn on top. A very clever way to create a pair of eyes!

Once again thanks to everyone who took the time to post a link or email a picture of to show me what they've made with my patterns. My cthulhu patterns, and many others, are available under the My Free Patterns tab on the right side of the blog. Keep sending those pictures!

Last Look at 2011 Cthulhus - Part 1

2012-01-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

A few more of the amazing tiny cthulhus that were made by readers of Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins in 2011.

And if you've made something using one of my patterns I'd love to see it! Post a comment with a link to pictures in the comments sections of the pattern you used or send the pictures to me directly at the email address you see in the top left corner of the blog.

Poor Pinky must have nearly destroyed some fingers making this micro-cthulhu that you see in the top left. That keychain size cthulhu is adorable!

Now, is it just me, or does that cthulhu stitched by Karma Kitten on the top right look a little bit like an alien? I think it's the eyes! And whose to say, maybe cthulhus actually are space aliens, or at least their distant relatives?

In the middle is Taco Magic's cthulhu, which appears to be taking its frustrations out on a lemming. It's been a long while since I've played Lemmings, but I don't remember cthulhu attack being one of the things you have to try to avoid. For cthulhu's sake, I hope that lemming isn't one of the bomber ones.

Need your own lemming for cthulhus (or cats) to attack? You can find it here at PlanetJune.

On the bottom left Theresa crocheted a tiny cthulhu who has sprouted legs. I like how she extended the tentacles so they brush the ground when he's standing. Tara went with the traditional legless tiny cthulhu on the bottom right. The blue buttons she selected for its eyes are a great touch. They really make the eyes stand out!

Thanks once again to everyone who has been posting comments and sending in pictures to show what they're making with my patterns. It's always great to see they're getting used.

Next post, more 2011 cthulhus!

Christmas Cross Stitch Ornaments for 2011

2012-01-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

I cross stitched a few ornaments for friends and family as part of their Christmas gifts this year. Luckily we had a bit of a staggered Christmas, celebrating with different people at different times throughout December (and even into January!). So it gave me lots of time to get the stitching done.

I've had the Dimensions leaflet for these blue ornaments on my cross stitch bookshelf for quite some time and I'm happy I finally got a chance to use it. The pattern is Martha Edward Glass's Holiday Elegance. I'm pretty sure it's out of print now, but a watchful eye may be able to find it on ebay.

I made a set of four of these for a friend and then made another two to keep for our own tree decorations.

They were stitched on 14 count aida cloth in Ice Blue. I then mounted them on a foam-backed cardboard and used a glue gun to add the hanging ribbon, and decorative shiny blue cording around the edges. The square ones turned out quite good, but I feel like I need a bit more practice mounting circle and oval shaped ornaments. If anyone has any advice on how to work with these rounder shapes, please feel free to share in the comments section.

My other holiday stitching project was a couple sets of Christmas mice, which come from The Best of Margaret Sherry Collection. I made two sets of these, one for a friend and another for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I also stitched an extra mouse holding a stocking to keep for our own collection.

These mice were stitched over 2 threads on a 32 count Belfast linen in Cream. The frames are tree hanging picture frame ornaments that I found at Michael's. I thought they were cute, and they kind of look like jam jar lids, don't they? Plus, they were easy to mount the cross stitch fabric in - a welcome relief after struggling with my circular foam-backed cardboard ornaments!

Next up, some crochet and some cthulhus!

Sue Coleman's Dogwood & Hummingbird cross stitch - Complete!

2012-01-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

I've been looking forward to posting this one for a long time now. This is the big project I was working on for the better part of last spring and into the early summer. The boyfriend, who is wise and witty, payed for the framing and this was our gift to his mom for Christmas this year.

I was nervous for the month beforehand, worried she might not like it, but she absolutely loved it! Yay, I'm glad I made the right choice.

The picture is Sue Coleman's Dogwood & Hummingbird. Coleman is an artist from British Columbia, Canada and she makes lots of pictures similar to this one, where she incorporates the natural images of animals along with their native symbol. We also live in British Columbia and the provincial flower here is the Dogwood, so it seemed a fitting choice.

Please excuse the dark mark on the right side, that's just the shadow of the camera.

The picture was stitched over 2 threads on a 32 count linen in Antique White. The background took a long time to do, but it's an interesting technique. It's created by making 1/2 stitches with a variegated DMC thread (4010), rather than doing multiple colour changes to create the shifting colours of the sky. I tried to work bits of the background as I went because I knew that if I left it all to stitch at the very end, I would quickly become bored with all that repetitive work. I think I made the right choice. I only had a very small amount of the background to complete after all my cross stitching was done and it didn't seem like an overwhelming task.

A couple more photos to show the cross stitching up close. Excuse the reflections in the glass. Cross stitch looks great once it's stretched and framed, but it isn't as easy to photograph!

Waiting For Santa - Free Cross Stitch Chart

2011-12-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited by the news that Margaret Sherry will be launching a new series of patterns next year. For now, I'll have to satisfy myself with this cute cat waiting for Santa, which she's posted as a free chart on her new site.

Both cats were stitched over two strands on a 32 count Belfast Linen in cream. The stitched area measures about 2.5 by 3.5 inches. The one to the left I've made into a tree ornament and I'm going to be keeping it for myself. The bottom one, placed in a sparkly red stand-up frame (found on sale at Michael's), will be a stocking stuffer for my mom, who is also a major cat person.

Sorry the second one is looking a little blurry. To get the pictures I set these on my scanner and since the second kitty is recessed a bit in the frame, it comes out a little blurry. I assure you in real life he's quite clear, and adorable!

Oh Christmas Tree - Crafts in Action!

2011-12-13T11:15:00.001-08:00

Most years we don't put up a Christmas tree because we go to other family members' homes to celebrate the season. This year we decided we wanted a tree of our own and decided to decorate it with our geeky, non-traditional tastes.

With all the sparkly lights, taking a clear picture of the tree is no easy feat, but the boyfriend did his best. Nestled among the branches you may be able to see a few of the cross stitch ornaments I've posted on Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins before, some beaded ornaments I've made over the years, our Browncoat ornaments and a few other handcrafted items.

Though not hand-made, but just as awesome, our tree is also decked out with a few plastic dinosaurs, a Despicable Me minion, a Farscape Ka D'Argo action figure and of course, our Cookie Monster tree topper.

I've been busy working on homemade gifts for this holiday season which I hope to post on the blog come January, after everyone has received their Christmas presents.

'Til then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Thanks for dropping by!

Leaving on a Jet Plane - Softies for Mirabel 2011

2011-11-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

These little cuties took flight last week and are on their way to Australia where they'll be helping out with this year's Softies for Mirabel campaign. Each year people around the world contribute handmade softies which are then given out as Christmas gifts to children supported by the Mirabel Foundation. The foundation assists children whose families have been affected by substance abuse.

Pip. of Meet Me At Mike's, is one of the main organizers for the Softies for Mirabel campaign and you can learn more about the effort and where you could contribute your own softies by clicking the link in the top paragraph.

Softies for Mirabel is a great excuse to make some toys. It helps children in need, allows you to try out some new patterns and gives you an opportunity to use up some of that extra yarn or fabric that's been building up in your stash.

Need some inspiration? Check out the patterns I have available under the My Free Patterns tab in the left sidebar. Of course, don't feel your creativity is constricted to just crocheting. Mirabel gladly accepts any child-safe toys that are handmade. Feel free to pull out those knitting needles or warm up that sewing machine.

My First Knit Toy - Elefante

2011-11-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

I've made a lot of crocheted toys over the years, but here at last is my first attempt at a knitted toy.

This knitted Elefante is a free pattern courtesy of Susan B. Anderson. Everyone who has seen him keeps telling me that he should have a longer trunk, but I think he's pretty cute as is. Besides, he needs that short trunk to act as a fifth leg and hold up his enormous head!

The instructions were easy to follow and I love how soft and squishy knitted toys come out compared to their crocheted counterparts. For this Elefante, I used some leftover Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in May Flower Ombre. Anyone who has used this yarn knows it's not the softest choice, yet by knitting with it instead of crocheting, I did end up with a rather cuddly elephant.

I find making crocheted items relaxing, but mastering the balancing act of keeping my stitches on four different needles at once was a tad too stressful for my down time. I think I'll stick with making crochet toys in the future. Plus, I'm sure this would eventually come with more practice, but I find I always end up with a bit of a gaping hole between the first and last needle no matter how hard I try to avoid it.

One final picture, showing the cool spiral effect you see when looking at my little elephant from above.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Cthulhu!

2011-10-31T13:18:00.001-07:00

Just received an email from Hilde that included this adorable Halloween cthulhu that she stitched up for her son. Anyone else out there decorating their house with cthulhus tonight? I love his little shirt!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Thanks for the great picture Hilde!

Cthulhu Cousins - Looking Good in Green!

2011-09-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until after I had put together this collection of cthulhu cousins that I realized they were all in different shades of green. Despite being similar in colour, it's easy to see that they each have their own unique look!

In the top left corner is Psychogere's tiny cthulhu. Those red eyes are making it look pretty scary!

Rob created that cthulhu in top right that's posing with its favourite book. Rob wrote that he is new to amigurmi and that this cthulhu had some "teething troubles", but I think it turned out great.

On the bottom left is a lovely tiny cthulhu that was stitched by Chelsea. She also writes that this was her first crochet project and I think she did a terrific job.

Just below Chelsea's cthulhu on the lower bottom left is Tuome's tiny cthulhu. I love those big eyes on her cthulhu and the way it's blending in with the foliage. I may just have to use this photo as a desktop wallpaper someday.

I really like the jade coloured eyes that you see on the cthulhu in the bottom right. This one was stitched by Amanda.

Move over Johnny Depp, there's a new pirate in town! There in the middle is the Dread Pirate Cthulhu that was stitched by Emilie. I'm actually going to share a larger photo of this one, just so you can see all the detail that Emilie put into this project. Very cute! I love his little peg leg!

And because it was such a great photo, I'm also going to share this larger picture of Tuome's cthulhu. Isn't that a sweet photo?

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to share pictures of their completed projects. It's always great to see my patterns in use. If you want to make a cthulhu of your own, the patterns are available in the left sidebar under the My Free Patterns heading.

Have you made a cthulhu or one of my other patterns? Got a picture to share? If so, feel free to email me a copy at the address you see in top left of the blog, or post a link in the comments section for the pattern you used!

Happy stitching everyone!

Here Be Dragons

2011-09-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've had my eye on Lucy Ravenscar's Fierce Little Dragon pattern for a long time. And at last I had some time and some yarn that I suspected would be perfect for giving it a try. The pattern is available as a free download, and while there are lots of parts to these dragons, the instructions were quite straightforward and there are plenty of pictures you can use as references when it's time to stitch everything together.

My first dragon was made using some James C. Brett marble chunky Jeweltone that I had left over from the V-Stitch afghan. This is a chunkier yarn than what is recommended for the pattern so I upped the crochet hook size and ended up with a rather sizeable (more than 2 foot long) pet dragon.

My crafty friend Lisa has made a few of these dragons, and I can see why, the pattern is highly addictive. After putting together the first dragon, I couldn't resist making him a companion. I wanted this second one to be a bit smaller, so it's made with Patons Astra sport weight yarn in Purple.

It turned out about a foot and a half long and is much stiffer than the first dragon, making the wings sit more rigidly. It is also quite lightweight. One of these dragons made in sport weight could easily rest on a persons shoulders with the assistance of a couple safety pins. Now wouldn't that be great for a Renaissance fair or costume party?

Now, don't ask me to choose a favourite because I'm very happy with how both of these turned out, and I'm resisting the impulse to fill the entire house with dragons. Ultimately, I think I'm going to be keeping the larger dragon, and the little purple one is going to be going to charity (more on that in a future post). But for now, they can frolic together and guard our living room.

Want the Pattern?

Lucy Ravenscar's Fierce Little Dragon pattern is available as a free .pdf via Ravelry.

New to the Blog List

2011-09-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

I've made a couple of new additions to the list of Blogs I'm Reading, which you'll find in the left sidebar.

The first new addition is the Margaret Sherry Lovers fan blog. I've also joined this site as a contributor, and made my first post there a few days ago. Margaret Sherry's patterns are always adorable and I found the community at Margaret Sherry Lovers very welcoming. Anyone who makes patterns with her designs is welcome to contact the blog administrator and become a contributor to the site, creating their own posts displaying their Margaret Sherry stitchings and other related news.

I'm also very excited by Pinwheel Ponders, which I accidentally discovered while searching for something else. Author Pinwheel makes ornaments (mostly cross stitch) for her friends and family every Christmas, and her blog is a treasure trove of gift ideas and crafty tutorials. There are lots of great ideas here for creating various types of cross stitch decorations and how to reuse greeting cards. I was very impressed with the level of detail, clear instructions and numerous pictures in the tutorials. I'll definitely be going back to read more!

So that's two blogs I think are worth checking out. Let me know what you think of them. And if you've got any recommendations for other blogs I should add to the reading list let me know with a comment (and links).

Things I look for when I consider adding a blog to Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins reading list:

it covers a topic I'm interested in such as amigurumi, crochet, cross stitch or geeky crafts
it's still active and gets updated fairly regularly (there's been at least 1 post in the last 2 months) or it has an extensive archive of interesting posts/patterns.
it offers some free patterns, tutorials or other crafting advice/insight
it isn't just a vehicle for the blogger to display the latest item they're selling
it's focus is primarily crafting, as opposed to being the person's day-to-day life story with occasional mentions of what they're crafting.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Victoria, BC

2011-09-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you're a crafty geek then Victoria, British Columbia is a wonderful place to visit for your summer vacation. Back in July the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, and I were able to get away for a few days to this great city.

We stayed at a hotel in the downtown core where we had not one, but three different comic book stores and right across the street. There are also numerous bookstores, for both new and used books, and at least 3 different yarn stores all in or around the downtown core.

We parked the car at the hotel the first day and then walked everywhere for the rest of the vacation, which was a treat in and of itself. We also ate lots of wonderful food and spent a day at the Royal B.C. Museum, where they had a pretty interesting feature exhibit on the life of Emily Carr.

I'd love to say I took lots of fabulous pictures of the sites and scenery, but the truth is I only took the picture of the parliament buildings that you see above and a couple other pictures. So instead, I'll tell show you my vacation through the awesome fibres I was able to pick up during the trip.

Considering the one local yarn shop in my town packed up and moved to a new city, I was pretty impressed to find three independent local yarn shops in Victoria, each with their own unique style and line of products.

The first one we visited was Knotty By Nature where I picked up this Kidazzle hand dyed 70% Merino/20% Kid/10% Nylon yarn which is made by Fleece Artists, in Mineville, Nova Scotia. This stuff feels incredibly soft and has a beautiful assortment of colours in it. Sometime this fall/winter I'm hoping to knit some of it up into a pair of fingerless gloves.

Knotty By Nature focusses heavily on natural ec0-friendly products. It has a large selection of hand-made products, many of which come from spinners throughout Canada.

I was also really excited that the store had a mechanical skein winder (first time I'd ever seen one of these!) and in only a couple minutes they were able to transform the skein I was purchasing into a workable ball of yarn for no extra charge! Those who read Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins regularly know of the headaches I've had trying to wind skeins into balls.

Next on our yarn tour was The Beehive where I picked up this unusual, and extremely soft skein of Bonsai Colors, which is a mix of 97% Bamboo and 3% Nylon. I only bought one skein of this and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it was so unusual I couldn't resist getting some.

The Beehive is a fairly large 2 room store that carries a good selection of yarns. There were a lot of hand dyed/spun products, as well as products from well known manufacturers like Patons. I think it's a yarn shop that could fit any budget and any skill level of knitter/crocheter. They also had a mechanical skein winder, and when we came in one clerk was in the process of winding several skeins for a woman who was buying enough wool for a sweater.

While at The Beehive I also purchased three balls of Sirdar Escape chunky which is 51% wool/49% acrylic. I'm not sure what I'll make with this, but I really liked the mix of colours in these balls so eventually I'll come up with something.

The last stop on our yarn store tour was the Button & Needlework Boutique, though truth be told, I think I went in here 2-3 times during our trip, trying to decide what I should buy.

This store carries a variety of crafting materials including yarn, cross stitch supplies and a large selection of buttons (hence the name). I was impressed that not only do they carry a lot of cross stitch patterns, they also have a framed, stitched copy of every pattern they sell. Anyone who has ever stitched a large cross stitch picture knows how long it takes to complete, so having one finished for every pattern the store carries is a pretty big achievement.

I finally settled on getting three balls of Glint yarn in blue from the Button & Needlework Boutique. It's a blend of 80% cotton, 12 % Nylon and 8% metallic. What can I say? I liked the way it sparkled in the light. Again, I'm not sure what I'll make, but something will come up.

I also picked up a copy of the cross stitch pattern for Vancouver Island artist Sue Coleman's Cougar Kitten. I'm looking forward to finding some time to stitch it!

And that is how I spent my summer vacation! We had a lot of fun, and I came home with a suitcase full of books, comic books and lots of crafting supplies to keep me busy!

More Cthulhu Cousins!

2011-09-06T12:58:00.001-07:00

Apologies to Rachel, whose wintery little cthulhu somehow got left out of my final round up of 2010 cthulhus. Rachel shared a great story about this little guy too, so I'm really sorry he got left out.

The hat this cthulhu is wearing comes from the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit campaign, which Rachel takes part in. Being in Canada, I hadn't heard of this UK charity before, but as Rachel explains, "[it] involves knitting tiny hats to go on the top of Innocent Smoothie bottles. The hatted bottles are then distributed to our local supermarkets, and a small amount of the sale goes to Age UK, a charity to help the elderly."

What a great idea! We don't have Innocent Smoothies in the stores around here, but I know if I saw a drink with a little knitted hat on it at the grocery store, I'd buy one, especially if it was helping out a charity.

And now a few other great cthulhus that I've received in the past couple months...

Remember when I was asking readers what they thought of glow-in-the-dark yarns? Well, Rosemarsh Art decided to test some out on a tiny cthulhu. In the top left photo you see how her cthulhu looks in the daylight, and in the top right photo you can see his glow. Very cool, and kinda creepy looking!

In the middle photo we have a beautifully striped cuddly cthulhu from Terra-Storm. That angry cthulhu you see in the bottom left was stitched up by Ginny, and Knotical Knits created the jolly Santa-Cthulhu on the bottom right as a gift for her sister-in-law last Christmas.

Once again thanks to everyone for sharing their creations. As always, if you've made something with my patterns feel free to share a link in the comments section on the pattern you used or send me an email at the address you see in the top left corner of the blog.

Simple V-Stitch Afghan

2011-09-03T13:48:00.001-07:00

I had to put this one aside for a while because it was just too warm to be crocheting a wintery afghan. It's based on the Cottage Decor afghan in the July 2011 issue of Crochet! magazine, only I opted to use a variegated yarn rather than creating solid stripes with multiple balls of yarn.

The yarn is James C. Brett marble chunky in Jeweltone, which I was lucky enough to pick up at a buy 3, get the 4th ball free sale while visiting the awesome Crafts N' More store in Steveston, BC.

The blanket is a dream to work up, especially if you want something a little mindless that you can work on while focussing on something else. It's stitched with a size J (6 mm) hook and is essentially row after row of V-stitches. Then it's finished off with a fairly simple shell border on two opposing sides.

It's simple to stitch, but comes out looking quite fancy. I had fun making this and really love the shades of blue and purple in this Jeweltone yarn, although I don't think I really got a photo that shows them accurately. Hopefully you get the idea!

Cthulhu Cousin Collage!

2011-08-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sort of killing two birds with one stone here. Or maybe the new adage should be killing two pigs with one bird...Anyways, I thought I'd post a few more of the great cthulhus that readers have been making with my patterns and try out my new HP Photosmart Create software at the same time.

Okay, I'll be honest, I don't know if this is new software. I was checking what was in some of the folders on my harddrive and I came across this. It may have been part of a recent software update from HP, or it may be that it's been on my harddrive for years. Still, it's a neat little program that allows you to drop .jpegs into predesigned layouts, without the hassle of having to crop or rotate the photos yourself. Quite fun!

But enough about software, let's talk about cthulhus! In the top left corner is a great little cthulhu, who looks like he's wearing a Hawaiian shirt, created by Nita. Top right is a cuddly cthulhu stitch up by Helen. In the bottom left Augusta crafter stitched up a tiny cthulhu in what I think is a wonderful shade of blue. Nekochan is hoping that her cthuhu, in the bottom right, has an evil spark in his eyes. I think he does! I also like how he appears to have a backpack clip or some other type of hook coming out of his head, perfect for travel.

Finally, I'm going to give honorable mention to the blue cuddly cthulhu in the middle that was created by Raven Corinn Carluk. It's hard to tell from the picture, but he's actually a mini-cthulhu. Raven wrote, "He's DMC size 5 color works thread, done with a #3 (2.25mm) hook. The eyes are glass buttons I found at Joann's. He took about six or seven hours total to make, because I'm still new to crochet."

For a beginner project I think he looks terrific and I love the eerie quality that the glass eyes give this little monster. Plus, I don't think I'd have the patience to stitch a cthulhu with a 2.25mm hook, but the results are wonderful.

Thanks to everyone for sending in their pictures showing me how you've been using my patterns. As always, if you'd like to share your project feel free to post a link to a picture in the comments section for the appropriate pattern or send me a .jpg at the email address you see in the top left corner of the blog.

Magaret Sherry Cats

2011-08-29T12:06:00.003-07:00

Someday I'll have a craft room and these cats will decorate it. For now, I'll have to settle for them decorating our computer room (where I blog about my crafts).

I just finished the last of these two over the weekend. They are Margaret Sherry's Knit One (to the left) and Roly Purrly (below) which were initially published by Heritage Stitchcraft.

Most of Margaret Sherry's older patterns are out of print, but I was lucky enough to find Loving Stitch still had copies of these ones available for a reasonable price.

I stitched both on a 32 count cream linen. The smaller one, with the pink ball of yarn, is in a 4 inch flexi-hoop, while the larger is in a 6 inch flexi hoop.

I guess I could consider the whole project an endangered species, as much like Margaret Sherry patterns, I'm finding the flexi-hoops are becoming harder and harder to come by in my area.

There is also a third cross stitched cat in the series entitled Purr One, but despite much searching of the internet I wasn't able to find a copy available anywhere. If anyone has a copy they'd like to trade, share, or sell feel free to drop me an email message at the address you see in the top left corner of the blog. I'd love to hear from you.

Hoping to Prevent a few Skein Headaches...

2011-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

I spent the better part of a week trying to unknot this 800 yard skein of yarn and convert it into a useable ball, with the assistance of the boyfriend. (Who was not only wise and witty, but also very patient!)

I tend to have bad luck with skeins and in this case the second I cut the two ends free and gave one a tug it seemed I had a gigantic clump of knots. I think the only thing that prevented me from tearing my hair out was the fact that the yarn in question was partially rayon and quite slippery. Rather then ending up with tight knots, the yarn was slippery and easy to untangle, but incredibly time consuming.

Not wanting to go through the same headaches with other skeins I have waiting to be unravelled, I thought I'd turn to the internet for some advice. After all, I'm sure I'm not the only one that is skein challenged out there.

Out of my searching comes this video, courtesy of Twenty Pound Tabby, that demonstrates how to untwist a skein of yarn:

Followed by a Part 2, which shows how to wind a skein into a ball:

I think there's some great advice in these videos, plus I'm totally digging the instructor's Animal t-shirt!

My purpose for sharing this is twofold. First, I'm hoping it will help some other knitters and crocheters who are plagued by tangled skeins. Second, I was hoping we could get a discussion going in the comments section for further tips, advice or questions about unravelling skeins. Have you seen any other great advice related to this elsewhere on the web? If so, feel free to share a link or tell us about your own skein unravelling experiences.

I don't buy skeins too often so I don't want to invest a lot of money in gadgets like the ball winder or an umbrella swift. We don't even have any four post legged chairs, like the one in the video, in our house. I'm looking at the knobs on our bi-fold closet though and wondering if I could use them in place of the chair legs? Any other ideas for common household items that could make the skein unravelling/ball winding process easier? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Catching Up on Cthulhus!

2011-08-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

I know things have been a little quiet at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins lately. I was away on vacation for a while, (more on that in an upcoming post). I've been working on a large crafty project that I won't be able to show in the blog until after the Christmas holidays, and our vacation was followed by several weeks of internet connection problems. Now the large project is finished and the internet connection seems to be connected once more, so hopefully I can get back to more frequent posting.

First off, I thought I'd show a few more of the terrific critters that fellow stitchers have been making with my Tiny Cthulhu and Cuddly Cthulhu patterns. (Check out the left sidebar for the free patterns).

In the top left of this post you see the awesome and fiery maroon cthulhu created by Miss Crafty. I really like the button eyes on this one. I think they really suit the colours of yarn that were chosen.

And speaking of great eye choices, these stitched eyes that Amber J. used on her cthulhu are giving him a look of wide-eyed innocence that I'm sure will easily lure victims into his clutches.

Someday I should do a post that just shows all the pictures readers have sent me of their cthulhus posing with cats because there are a lot of them. What is it about cats and cthulhus that draws them together? You know, I have yet to be sent a picture of one of our cthulhu cousins posing with a dog. Why is that? Perhaps cats just have more of an affinity with evil that draws them to the dreaded cthulhu? This latest instalment of Cats & Cthulhus comes from crocheter Sam B. and looks quite cheerful.

SuziQ put together this Cuddly Cthulhu. Aww, isn't she pretty in pink? I don't know, maybe that bow is making her angry.

Now here's a more traditional Cuddly Cthulhu courtesy of Elizabeth. In her message she mentions that this was her first time making something beyond blankets and scarves, and I think it turned out great! Elizabeth was inspired to make the Cuddly Cthulhu for a friend who's hard to shop for, but happens to be an H.P. Lovecraft fan.

I guess it's only natural that over time the Tiny Cthulhu would evolve legs and learn to walk on the land. This latest link in the evolutionary chain was created and captured on film by Belruel.

Not to worry though, I still find the legless Tiny Cthulhu absolutely adorable as well, especially this fine little cthulhu crocheted by Sam. (That's a different Sam than the one who made the cthulhu posing with kitty above.)

Wait a minute, this isn't a cthulhu! I was incredibly happy to receive an email from Michelle B. who completed this Smiley Bone as a Christmas present for her sister-in-law. While I get lots of pictures of cthulhus (thank you everyone!), I don't often see pictures from people who have crocheted the Bone cousins using my patterns. Thanks Michelle, he looks wonderful!

Once again thanks to everyone who sent in pictures of the things they've been making. If you have a picture you want to share you can post a link to it at the bottom of the pattern you used, or send me an email at the address you see in the top left of the blog.

There are plenty more great cthulhus pictures that readers have sent me which I'll try to post over the coming weeks/months. I'm also hoping to get up some pictures of projects that I've been working on lately. That's right, crafting is happening, I just haven't had a chance to blog about it...Stay tuned everyone, and thanks for visiting Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins!

Silent Auction Results

2011-07-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I showed readers the items I had stitched and the awesome bag that my crafty friend Lisa stitched for this year's Can't Stop the Serenity screening in Vancouver.

The screening took place last Saturday and was a wonderful success. There were these delicious cupcakes...I'm sorry I don't have any left to share with you, but you can check out C&C Cakery's description of them and even pick up the recipe for the Kaylee cupcake. Though I have to confess I only tried the Vera, but it was so good I went back for seconds!

Cupcake talk aside, I'm also happy to report that our crafty donations did quite well in the auction. They didn't raise as much money individually this year as last year, but overall the silent auction raised more than it did last year, so that's pretty exciting news. Of our crafty donations Lisa's Big Damn Heroes tote bag was the top seller, bringing in a donation of $65 for Equality Now and the BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre Foundation.

Next up was my Wash and Zoe piece which brought in $50, the Big Damn Heroes full cast stitching at $40, the mini-stitching of Kaylee in her Shindig dress at $35, and the Jayne mini-stitching brought in $30. (Can't picture the pieces I'm talking about? Maybe this will jog your memory.) I also contributed a mini-stitching of Mal and a cross stitched Jayne bookmark that were combined into larger gift packs, that also did quite well in the auction.

That means a grand total of just over $220 was raised for our chosen charities through our crafty endeavours. Shiny!

Considering most of these pieces took only a couple of hours or a couple of weeks to stitch, I think it was well worth the effort. I like to share the totals here so that I can stress, it really is the handmade items that help bring in the donations at a silent auction. I'm sure that's true not just with Browncoats, but with any charity-minded geek (and non-geek) group. So if you're a crafty type, why not put something together for a Can't Stop the Serenity Screening in your area next year or some other cause that's important to you?

Pretty Cunning Cross Stitch, Don't Ya Think?

2011-06-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

With Can't Stop the Serenity screenings happening world-wide this weekend I can't think of a better excuse to feature another wonderful Firefly inspired stitching. This one comes from Craftster user silentblair. Check out the tiny pompoms on top of those hats, pretty cunning!

And in case you haven't heard, tonight is the Joss Whedon Birthday Firefly Watch Party:

“What can we do to convince Netflix that the ‘verse is worth their while? What can we do to prove that Neilsen ratings arent the be-all and end-all?” Well, how about this- let’s just have the largest on-demand watch party ever! Let’s get the most people ever streaming the same show at the same time from Netflix- 4 episodes of Firefly – and show them its worth a few hundred million to invest in it! Not that they are required to respond, hell, they’re Netflix! But perhaps if we show them that the overwhelming horde of Browncoats worldwide would pay more to see firefly… well, maybe they’ll think twice.

Pencil in June 23rd, 2011, 8pm EST – Midnight EST(5pm-9pm PST) to celebrate Joss Whedon’s birthday by sending the signal further than it’s ever gone before. How many Browncoats can we get on Netflix for four wonderful hours of awesome? -- Courtesy of Firefly Watch.

So if you don't have anything else going on tonight fire up the Netflix, make some popcorn and spend some time in the 'verse!

Bavarian Crochet in Baby Coordinates

2011-06-23T11:50:00.001-07:00

While I was working on my first Bavarian crochet blanket I couldn't help thinking that it would look nice in Bernat's Baby Coordinates. The white blending filament that runs through all the colours can be a pain to work with, but it does create a nice continuity as you change colours. For this one I used Baby Coordinates in soft mauve, soft blue, soft turquoise, lemon custard and sherbert.

Every time I begin a new baby blanket it's always my intention that I'm just making it to use up the scraps I have left over from the last baby project. And of course, every time I run out of a colour or two midway through and end up buying more. So having finished this blanket, I now have nearly full skeins of three of the colours and will someday have to find a new pattern to "use them up." Oh well, it was fun to work on and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I crocheted with an I hook (5.5 mm), which seemed large enough to keep the white filament from snagging on the hook and gave the stitches a nice loose feel. Once thing I like about the Bavarian stitching is it's very easy to change the shape of your piece simply by changing the number of stitches in your first round. The other blanket was made as a square, while this one is a rectangle. The pattern book also includes instructions for converting it to a triangle, which would be better suited for a shawl than a blanket.

Cross Stitch Firefly Tote Bag!

2011-06-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Now this is an awesome way to repurpose a project! My crafty friend Lisa took what was intended to be a monogramed tote bag, courtesy of Martha Stewart, and converted it into this adorable Big Damn Heroes bag. She's donating this to our local Can't Stop the Serenity Screening's silent auction. Personally I think it's going to be a great seller!

Cross stitching on the canvas bag was doable, but it isn't as straight and easy to work with as an aida cloth or linen, so Lisa had to make a few alterations to the patterns. More specifically, all the 1/4 and 3/4 stitches had to be taken out because it was impossible to make them on the bag. It also took longer to stitch on than your average piece of aida cloth and I'm pretty sure Lisa is going to be having nightmare's about River's hair for many nights to come.

Despite the challenges I think this turned out wonderfully. I think that items that are not just geeky, but also useable are the most appealing when it comes to the silent auction.

Below is the Martha Stewart Tote - Monogram - Embroidery Kit used as it was originally intended. The straight stitches of the monogram would be easier to stitch, but I like Lisa's repurposing of the bag much better.

You can pick up these bags via the link I've given. However, we actually found them on the clearance shelf at our local Michael's store for just $12.99. If you're interested in stitching one yourself, you may want to shop around a bit and see if you can find a bargain. The Firefly character patterns are available for free here on Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins under the My Free Patterns heading in the left sidebar.

Did you see the items I'm donating to this year's Can't Stop the Serenity? Check out my Firefly inspired stitching here.

Dressing Up Ctlhulhu!

2011-06-09T11:56:00.001-07:00

Craftster user Mutant_cat has been making some great little cthulhus that I couldn't resist sharing. I'm considering these the grandchildren of my Tiny Cthulhu pattern because they were made using the Baby Cthulhu pattern created by Giulia, which was a variation of my Tiny Cthulhu pattern that added legs. So I'm proud to consider these little guys members of the Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins family, especially since they are such snappy dressers.

Mutant_cat made her little cthulhus using a very thin crochet yarn so that they would come out smaller than the pattern intended, standing only a couple of inches high. Tiny Thor looks adorable, and I love the details including the little wings on his helmet.

You can check out more pictures of Mutant_cat's cthulhus in her original Craftster posts here and here. I just love how there's a hole in the back of the vest so that cthulhu's wings can poke through!

Check it out, Villain Cthulhu even has a little monocle on his right eye, so you know he's evil! And are those bunny slippers I see on the Sleepy Cthulhu? I really do admire the thought and detail Mutant_cat put into these tiny creations.

Recent Adventures in Crafting

2011-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

I've got a few things I've made recently that either I've made before or feature patterns I've talked about before, so I figured I'd round them all up into one post, rather than devoting separate posts to each of them.

First up on the left is this terrific little stegosaurus who spends most of his time being attacked and chewed up by a toddler. He was a gift for a friend's daughter for her first birthday. I love all the dinosaur patterns at PlanetJune, but I chose the stegosaurus specifically because he has so many pieces that a small child can grab with their hands (or teeth!). I think it's often hard to find projects that look good in variegated yarn. Usually it looks better wrapped up in the skein, but I really like using it for these dinosaurs.

WolfDreamer came up with this fantastic pattern for the minions from Despicable Me. It's very easy to follow and easy to alter to make your favourite of the many minions featured in the film. I created this one-eyed minion as a part of a friend's Christmas gift. Rather than crocheting the eye, I just chose the largest googly eye that I could find in my collection, then crocheted a grey circle around it. My minion was made in Bernat Satin Sunrise, which turned out to be the perfect corn cob yellow for a minion. Every time I look at this I'm struck by how cute the minions are. I really do have to find the time to make a couple of these for myself. I'm thinking of trying the little guy that gets shrunk in the film. After all, he'd be even quicker to stitch up.

And now a quick break from crochet. This is the second bookmark I've stitched from Teresa Wentzler's Knotwork Bookmarks collection. These are really beautiful designs and they don't take too much time to stitch. At least not compared to Wentzler's larger designs. If I have time to stitch, I can usually complete one of these in 2-3 weeks. I also really like that all the patterns use four shades of a contrast colour and then the gold knotwork. Right now I have my eye on a pink bookmark, but I want to replace the pink with the shades of green that are used in one of the other patterns. I'm hoping it will be easy to substitute out one of the contrast colours for another.

When we first subscribed to Netflix the boyfriend and I watched a lot of episodes of Invader Zim. We both agreed that Zim's dumb, yet faithful, robot companion Gir was the best part of the show. Here is Gir, dressed in the neon green dog suit he made so that he could "blend in" on earth. There are a lot of patterns out there for crocheting Gir, both in his robot and dog form. I eventually settled on this one designed by Craftster user lanikins. My only alteration was that instead of crocheting the zipper, I picked up a small zipper at a sewing store. Then I cut the zipper even smaller so that it would fit on Gir's stomach and used my glue gun to secure it in place. It no longer zips up and down, which is disappointing, but aside from that, I like the effect. I highly recommend lanikins's pattern, which is easy to follow and I think, most accurately captures the slightly square shape of Gir's head.

I don't normally take commissions, but when a friend asked for a few Futurama brain slugs so that she could go to a Halloween party with a group of friends dressed as recent visitors to the brain slug planet I couldn't resist. I used the wonderful brain slug pattern created by Hook & Needles and bought cheap hair bands at a dollar store that can be threaded through the bottom of the brain slug to keep it on one's head. This was a great way to use up some leftover green yarn and I think that making the slugs in various shades adds character. That same friend recently told me that she likes to put her brain slug on when she's feeling under the weather because that cloudy headed feeling you get when you have a cold is probably a lot like falling victim to a brain slug. Now is it safe to have this many brain slugs in one location? I guess it's okay, as long as you have enough garlic shampoo on hand!

The Loom will be With You Always - Star Wars Travel Embroidery Case

2011-06-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

I completely adore this amazing project that Geeky Sweetheart has designed. It's a travelling case for your cross stitch and embroidery looms! You see a lot of travel cases and bags for crochet and knitting supplies, but I haven't see too many for embroidery. (Maybe I just haven't been looking?) I have to admit I am usually reluctant to take my cross stitch projects on the road because I'm worried that the pale fabrics I'm stitching on will get dirty, or it's just too many skeins of floss to be carrying around. However this is pretty cool, and would be great for smaller projects, like my Firefly characters.

In case you can't read the text at this size, Leia is proclaiming, "I love embroidery." Han, accepting the numerous trips to the galaxy's finest needlework stores he'll have to make in the Falcon, reluctantly replies, "I know."

Above you can see what the case looks like open. On the right it's holding a loom with a pretty awesome death star stitching, and on the left side I believe there's a pocket to hold floss skeins and needles. Geeky Sweetheart initially made this for a Star Wars swap, but liked it so much that she created a second one for herself, and was kind enough to post a full tutorial, including video, so that you too can create your own Star Wars embroidery case.

Have fun!

The Evolution of Amigurumi - Thank Goodness!

2011-05-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

Normally I'd leave the crochet snark to the experts over at What Not to Crochet (some of the content is 'not safe for work' so Google it if you want to take a look.), but this was an opportunity I couldn't resist. My mom was recently spring cleaning and gave me a couple of old magazines she came across that had crochet patterns in them, "I may want to try." This little gem comes from the Sept. - Oct. 1981 issue of Woman's Day magazine (retail price $1.89!). It's special edition dedicated to the wonders of the Granny Square.

Oh granny squares, is there anything you can't do? Well, based on this picture, it looks like you can't make children happy! I mean really, look at that little girl's face. I'm not sure if she's more sad about her granny square sweater, the fact that all her furniture appears to be made of granny squares or the heartbreaking news that her new toys are a creepy granny square based worm and a dog? Horse? Vote now in the comments section. What is that thing?

I'd like to know if the headline writer was being earnest or sarcastic with the claim, "Building blocks for happy tots!" I hope it was sarcasm that went over the heads of the editor and anyone else who had to proof this page before it went to print.

But enough about creepy children's toys. (Though I think it's worthwhile to look back on them so we can truly appreciate the wonderful amigurumi and crocheted toys that are being made by present day designers.) Right now I'm eagerly waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy of Ana Paula Rimoli's most recent pattern collection, Amigurumi Toy Box: Cute Crocheted Friends.

Now those are toys that could actually make a tot smile! This is Rimoli's third collection of toy patterns, all of which she tests on her own daughters before using. Her creations are always clever and the patterns are quite easy to follow. I did a full review of her first book Amigurumi World here. Although I didn't find the time to review the second one Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too when it came out, I did purchase it and it is an equally great collection.

Look at that, no granny squares in sight!

Doing the Impossible - Six Years Running

2011-05-25T13:05:00.001-07:00

It's been nine years since the TV series Firefly came out and was abruptly cancelled. And it's been six years since Firefly fans began showing their appreciation for the series and creator Joss Whedon by hosting Can't Stop the Serenity screenings worldwide. Not only do the screenings allow fans to see the Firefly-inspired movie Serenity on the big screen, they also raise money for Joss Whedon's favourite charity, Equality Now.

To date the Can't Stop the Serenity screenings have raised $557,867.47 for the charity, which works to protect and promote the human rights of women around the world. At our local screening in Vancouver we raised approximately $3,550 for Equality Now and an additional $900 for the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre Foundation last year. I was happy to help contribute to that total with my Firefly character cross stitches which were sold during the screening's silent auction.

I'm excited to be helping out again this year and have been working on my contributions for the past couple of weeks. I'm still using the same characters I designed last year, but I wanted to make sure that the pieces looked different. I felt that if I used the same layouts as last time then it would take away from the uniqueness of those prizes and I didn't want to do that.

The piece that you see in the top left-hand corner is the only one I made with all the characters, and it measures 8 X 8 inches. It was stitched on an a 16 count aida cloth, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The characters take about 1-2 hours each to stitch so this was the most time-consuming piece. I ended up rewatching all of of Angel season 4 while making these cross stitches. Last year I think I was on a Buffy kick while stitching.

It took me a long time to decide what I would make for my second piece. I eventually decided to do another design with the "Leaf on the Wind" quote because it was the best selling of the smaller cross stitches I made last year. Wash seems to be the fan favorite, at least at our local screening, and I'm hoping that adding Zoe to the picture will make it extra appealing. This piece was stitched on the same aida cloth, but it's smaller, measuring 5 X 5 inches.

Finally, I wanted to find a way to use up some of the leftover scraps of cross stitch fabric that I had from other projects, so I came up with these Firefly minis. The hoops measure 2.5 inches in diameter and are made of rubber, although they look like wood from a distance. I made the pattern for Kaylee in her Shindig dress last year, but I had never stitched it. I was excited to give it a try and I'm really happy with how she turned out. You can't see it in the picture, but I used pearl Krenik blending filament on the pink and peach parts of the dress to make it sparkle.

Can't Stop the Serenity will take place Sat. June 25 in Vancouver this year. The two framed cross stitches I made will be available during the silent auction. The smaller pieces I'm going to be giving to our organizer to use however she sees fit, possibly as door prizes or in grab bags. You can keep tabs on news about the Vancouver screening here, or check out the official Can't Stop the Serenity site to find a screening near you.

Handmade Whedon and Firefly themed items are always popular sellers at the screenings, so if you have some time and you're feeling crafty, you may want to contact your local organizer about donating some pieces to help with the fundraising. And if you have the cross stitching bug, all of my Firefly characters are available under the My Free Patterns tab on the left side of the blog.

Bavarian Crochet Baby Blanket

2011-05-18T11:51:00.001-07:00

I discovered Jenny King's Learn to Do Bavarian Crochet while I was browsing through crochet books on Amazon and couldn't resist giving it a try. The book is relatively inexpensive, which is a good thing, because all you're really getting here is one pattern. Then you get explanations of how to shape that pattern as a square, triangle, or rectangle and numerous pictures showing what it would look like made up into various items. The book does contain full patterns for shawls and blankets, but after the initial starting shape is made the further instructions really aren't necessary since they are exactly the same for all projects.

The pattern itself is easy to follow and I really like the textured look that you get in the finished piece. The lighting in our living room has kind of skewed the colours a bit, but I made this Bavarian crochet baby blanket using Bernat's Softee Baby in mint, white and soft lilac. You do a lot of 'crocheting around the post' in this piece and it helps to create a thicker baby blanket than you would normally get with the light weight Softee.

For my first experiment I was actually planning on an adult sized afghan using Vanna's Choice, but I was working with a size J hook and I found it was just bunching up too much because it was so thick. It didn't look good. I've now picked up an N hook so I may give that experiment another try sometime.

Looking around online I've also seen the Bavarian crochet described as the "yarn eater" pattern and I would say that's a fairly accurate description. My baby blanket is approximately a 5 X 5 foot square and I believe it took about 3 balls of each colour to complete. On the plus side, it's a wonderful pattern if you want to use up a lot of leftover yarn. It's also wonderfully repetitive. You work in rounds from the centre, similar to a granny square, and just repeat the same two rounds over and over again. After the first couple of colours the process becomes pretty intuitive, making it a great project to work on while I was watching TV or focussed on other things. From the beginning I also worked in the loose yarn ends as I went so that I wouldn't have the tedious job of hiding them all at the end, one of my least favourite parts of multi-colour projects.

Below you can see what the back of the Bavarian Crochet looks like. I thought it was interesting that it comes out very similar to the some of the daisy chain patterns I've seen in other crochet stitch books.

The Last Cthulhus of 2010!

2011-05-11T12:11:00.002-07:00

And we're back! Apologies for the extremely long delay in new posts here at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins! A new job, a broken home computer and numerous other things have been keeping me away from the blog for far longer than I intended. During that time I've still been crafting so I'm hoping to get back on a regular posting schedule and show readers some of the things I've been working on.

Before I start posting my own creations though I want to show off some fantastic cthulhus that others have been making with my patterns. I know it's quite belated, but these are the last few cthulhu pics that I received from readers in 2010.

First up, in the top lefthand corner we have three wonderful cthulhus from Sophie. If you click the link you can see some larger pictures of each cthulhu and check out the wonderful details she's added to give them character.

Ruth is a frequent stitcher of my Tiny Cthulhu pattern, whose works I've shown on the blog before. She's now taken to creating what she calls a Cthulhu expansion pack, which includes cthulhu dressed as a Battlestar Galactica Cylon and this adorable little chef. He may be cute, but I'd hate to think what he'd serve me for dinner!

Above are two button eyed cthulhus created by Takanno, who stitched up a bunch of Tiny Cthulhus for to give to friends as Christmas presents.

I'm torn about this little blue guy, created by Eva and Mat. On the one hand, I think the eyes make him seem very sinister. On the other hand, I think the little legs make him seem too cute to ever contemplate anything sinister. He was created as a secret santa gift and I hope the recipient liked their surprise.

I'm always struck by what a difference the eyes can make on the appearance of an amigurumi pattern. Above Valentina has added eyelids around her safety eyes, while in the picture below Ohmie has stitched a cthulhu in nearly the same colour, without the eyelids. It really seems to change the tone of the cthulhus face and would be a great way to add character if you are making a whole family of these guys.

We now move on to look at a few cthulhus made using the Cuddly Cthulhu pattern. First up is this cuddly pudgy cthulhu that makm stitched as a Father's Day present.

Below are a terrific pair of cthulhus that Jennifer says were her kid's "favorite [Christmas] present this year!" Wow, cthulhus for kids, fathers, friends and secret santa gifts. Who knew cthulhu could be the present that's good for everyone and every occasion?

And we close out 2010's cthulhus with this cuddly blue cthulhu created by Carol. She mentioned that she's a long-time reader of Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins and finally found the time to make a cthulhu for herself. It looks like he'll be a great companion while she works on other crafty projects.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has posted a link to show how they've used my patterns, emailed me a jpg of their creations, or left a comment on the blog saying they enjoyed using my patterns. Even when I haven't had the time to post anything I've still been reading all the comments, checking the email account linked to the blog and trying to answer as many questions about the patterns as I can. It's really rewarding to see that people are still using and enjoying the free patterns that I've posted here.

So, as always, if you've made something using one of my free patterns, feel free to share the news by posting a picture link in the comments section for the pattern you used or sending me pictures at the email address you see in the top left corner of the blog.

Happy stitching everyone!

Celtic Knotwork Bookmark

2011-01-04T14:25:00.001-08:00

If you find Teresa Wentzler's larger pieces a bit intimidating or think they might be too time consuming, I highly recommend these Celtic Knotwork Bookmarks. They require lots of 3/4 stitches and plenty of thread blending, which will give you a feel for what it's like to tackle one of Wentzler's larger designs.

I saw a set of these stitched and displayed at an art show during V-Con, Vancouver's science fiction and fantasy convention, many years ago and have been interested in making them ever since. I'm going to put together a couple more soon, but I started with this design because it has always been my favourite. The other celtic knotwork bookmarks I make will likely turn into gifts for friends and family. This one I'm keeping for myself.

This was stitched on some 32 count cream belfast linen that I had left over from the Octavio Ocampo pictures I stitched. I'm not sure exactly how long I worked on the bookmark, but I'd say it was about 2 weeks of stitching fairly regularly for a couple hours a day.

The Celtic Knotwork pattern is out of print now, but you can get it as a download from PatternsOnline. I'm still disappointed that PatternsOnline's downloads are only available to PC users. Hopefully if you're an avid Mac users you at least know someone with a PC who can download and print patterns for you, even if they don't understand your obsession with cross stitching.
As always the lighting in our house makes it hard to take pictures that capture the true colours of the piece. I would say these last three close up shots most accurately depict the colours, although they are a touch yellower than the actual piece.

Crochet Ammonite Scarf

2011-01-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

In my head I've just been thinking of this one as the circle scarf. It's actually called the Ammonite Scarf and it was designed by Ellen Gormley. I found the pattern in the October 2010 issue of Inside Crochet.

I stitched this one for the boyfriend's mom for Christmas, so it was one of those projects that I couldn't put up on the blog until after the holidays.

Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced the tags from the yarn, or I would be able to tell you exactly what it's made from. I know it was a Super 10 Cotton and I am fairly certain the shade is Periwinkle, but I could be wrong about that.

The design of the pattern is composed of horizontal circle motifs that are stitched together as you go. I'm not normally a fan of projects that involve motifs, but the fact that you work these ones in as you go, rather than having to stitch them all together at the end, made it much more enjoyable. Of course that doesn't mean there weren't dozens of lose yarn tails to sew in at the end, there were! Still, I was really drawn to the unique design, which makes for a lacy scarf, but doesn't look too traditional.

Oriental Butterfly Cross Stitch Complete!

2010-12-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

Look, this one even has a frame! I made this as a housewarming/birthday gift for a good friend who has spent the better part of the last couple years building her first home. I did the stitching and my boyfriend and another friend shared the cost of the framing for the piece. Last weekend we were finally able to give it to our friend, so now I can post pictures without ruining the surprise.

The lighting was terrible when we took the photos so you'll have to trust me that the piece looks absolutely gorgeous in the frame. The matte board is a suede matte in a lighter shade of brown than it appears here and it really helps to make the picture pop.

Below is a somewhat more wrinkled picture of the cross stitch that I took before the framing was done. The lighting was better here and you can get a truer sense of the colours. The pattern I was using is called Oriental Butterfly and it was published by Dimensions. I searched every inch of the leaflet, but I was unable to find a designer's name anywhere. It's a shame because I do like to give credit where credit is due.

I used the original counted cross stitch version of this pattern, but Dimensions has released several other variations on the design. I've seen it sold in kits and as a stamped cross stitch set, where you only have to stitch the central part of the design and the Chinese characters and shading are pre-printed. The version I have doesn't seem to be in print from Dimensions currently, but they do sell this very similar Oriental Butterfly design. I'm not sure what prompted the changes.

On my piece, everything was stitched. It was quite an interesting pattern because it uses a lot of different types of stitching. The number of strands you use also varies between 1-5 to help achieve the textures and shading of the final design. Hopefully in this picture you can see that the background is composed of slant (or 1/2 cross) stitches while the foreground elements like the butterfly, coin and chopsticks are made using regular cross stitches.

I didn't use anything too fancy for the fabric here. Since it's mostly covered up by stitching, I made the piece on an 18 count cream aida cloth.

Two close up shots of the butterfly and it's beautiful colouring. The top picture was taken before the piece was framed and the bottom one was taken after. In real life the butterfly still looks just a bright now that it is framed. Here, it's just problems with the camera and light reflecting off the glass changing the colours. Still, I liked the second picture because I thought it showed the stitching a bit more clearly.

Overall, I love this design and I'm really happy with how the finished, framed piece turned out. It was time consuming, but the variety of stitches kept the work interesting. I'm so happy I purchased the leaflet for this one because someday I may go back and make another one of these for myself.

Mouth of the Flower - Complete!

2010-12-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

You'll have to excuse the wrinkles in this one. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to have it stretched and framed, but since it was newly finished I was eager to show it off. This is Octavio Ocampo's Mouth of the Flower, the companion piece to the Family of Birds cross stitch that I completed in October. I was right about this one being a lot quicker to stitch. I attribute that to the wonderful flower stems, which are only 3-5 stitches wide and take far less time than an entire tree trunk to stitch up.

I mentioned before how the women in the pictures reminded me of Francine and Katchoo from Terry Moore's wonderful Strangers in Paradise. This lady is the one that's reminding me of Katchoo, while the other one struck me as sharing similarities with Francine.

I wasn't the only one who thought so either, after finishing the Family of Birds piece I contacted Terry Moore via his blog and was lucky enough to have this brief email exchange with him:

Hi Terry,

Not sure if you are familiar with Ocatavio Ocampo's artwork or not, but I made this cross stitch because the picture reminded me of Francine from SIP. Thought you might like to have a look:

Family of Birds

Wishing you all the best,
Amber

***

Thanks Amber. I see her too.
T

I said it was brief, right? That's okay. I know Terry is a busy man and I'm very excited and appreciative that he took the time to respond.

And now just a few close-up shots so you can see some of the stitching in this picture. Of the two designs, this one is my favourite. I really like how vibrant the colours are and it was a lot of fun to stitch because the individual elements are relatively small. In most cases I could get a particular part of the picture, such as the butterfly or a flower, done in a single day and really feel like I was accomplishing something.

This butterfly, which also acts as the woman's nose, is the only part of the picture that has any backstitching. I really think it's amazing that this piece can look so detailed, without being backstitched everywhere.

And now I'm not sure what I'm going to make next. I have been working on a few crochet items for Christmas, but since the gift recipients read Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins I won't be able to post them until after the holiday season. I'll also have to browse through my cross stitch library and see if I'm feeling ambitious enough to start another piece.

If anyone is interested in making these patterns for themselves the patterns and fabric are available through Loving Stitch's online store, and I imagine a few other online cross stitch retailers. The only difference is that I opted to stitch my pieces on a 32 count cream belfast linen, rather than the lavender recommended in the pattern.

Browncoat Christmas Ornaments - With Free Patterns!

2010-11-01T13:56:00.001-07:00

This holiday season you can show off your Christmas spirit and your Browncoat pride at the same time. I wanted to design a quick and versatile Christmas craft project that would be a good homemade gift for my Firefly loving friends and also a nice piece of subtle geekery to add to my own holiday decorating. After rejecting a couple of other ideas I think these cute little guys sporting their Jayne hats have hit the mark.

Made on 7 mesh plastic canvas these ornaments are about 4 inches tall by 2.5 - 3 inches wide and each one would probably take about 2-4 hours to stitch up, depending on your stitching experience.

They're perfect for hanging on the Christmas tree or attaching to presents as a gift tag. I'm going to post the directions here for how to make the ornaments on plastic canvas, but feel free to take the gridded patterns and let your imaginations run wild. The patterns could also be used to make these little guys in cross stitch, fuse beads, knitting, crochet or anything else you can think of. And if you do come up with a clever way to use the patterns, feel free to send me a picture or a link to somewhere that you've posted your creation online.

(Clicking on the patterns should cause them to open a new window where they will appear somewhat larger on most browsers. Then you can print them or save them to your own hard drive.)

Materials

(Note: While I haven't taken an exact measurement, I would estimate that you will need approximatley 10 metres or less of the dominant colour in each design, and 3-6 metres of the other colours. These take very little yarn and are ideal for leftover bits from previous projects.)

small amounts of worsted weight yarn in the colours shown in the pattern grid.
Black embroidery floss (DMC 310)
White embroidery floss (for Gingerbread man only)
7 mesh plastic canvas
No. 16 or No. 18 tapestry needle (blunt is preferred)
scissors

Directions

Cut the plastic canvas into a smaller rectangle that is 2 squares wider and 2 squares longer than the ornament you're planning to make. (For example, the penguin is 17 squares wide by 28 squares high, so to make him you would cut a piece of plastic canvas that is 19 X 30 squares).
For all squares indicated on the graph, cut two pieces of yarn in the appropriate colour and stitch in continental stitch.
Begin stitching with the four yellow squares in the centre of the Jayne hat in the centre of the top row on your plastic canvas. Work downward from this central starting point. Weave ends in on back of the piece when changing colours.
Once all of the continental stitching is complete, switch to embroidery floss. Cut floss and do not separate into individual strands. Use the 6-strand piece to backstitch the thin black lines on the grid. (Use white floss to backstitch where indicated by thin white lines on the Gingerbread man grid.)
Use scissors to trim the ornaments leaving a line of plastic canvas around the outer edge of all your stitches. Refer to top picture to see how ornaments are cut.
Cut an 8 inch piece of embroidery floss, separate into individual strands. Thread one strand through top centre of ornament and knot to create loop for hanging.

As always, feel free to post a comment or contact me through the blog's email address if you have any questions about the patterns. I'll do my best to help you out.

Enjoy!

Australia Bound

2010-10-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Each year I try to send a couple of handmade toys to help out the Softies for Mirabel campaign in Australia. Toys donated to the cause are given out at Christmas time to children whose families have been affected by substance abuse. In the past the organizers have told me that it is often more difficult to find suitable toys for the boys.

Hopefully these Cuddly Cthulhus will appeal to a couple of the boys. After all, who doesn't like a good set of tentacles? The elephant in the middle comes from Tammie Snow's Tiny Yarn Animals. I made it a while back when I was testing out some of the patterns so I could review the book.

Click the link to learn more about the Softies for Mirabel 2010 campaign. Scroll down that page and you'll also see the mailing address where you can send your own donations if you're interested. Having donated for three years running, I'm always surprised to find it actually costs less for me to mail a package of these amigurumis to Australia than it does for me to mail the same size package to another part of Canada. So far the shipping has always cost me less than $10 Cdn., which I think is pretty reasonable.

Corrections to Cuddly Cthulhu Pattern

2010-10-22T17:56:00.001-07:00

I wanted to let everyone know that I've corrected some problems with the head portion of the Cuddly Cthulhu pattern.

I was remaking the Cuddly Cthulhu a few days ago and realized that the head instructions were less than accurate. Some lines were missing causing the head to come out much stubbier than I had intended. Following the directions in the pattern will now result in a cthulhu head that looks much more like the one in the sample picture I've posted here.

The head directions have now been changed from Rnd 8 onwards to the end of the head.

Sorry for any inconvenience this edit causes. If you prefer the cthulhu with a stubbier head, work the head directions, omitting rounds 8,9,10,11, and 18. And as always, feel free to post a comment or send me an email if you have any question.

Family of Birds Cross Stitch Completed!

2010-10-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

And this is why I haven't been blogging much about my own projects lately. For the past three months I've been finishing this cross stitch. It is Octavio Ocampo's Family of Birds, and as you can see from its wrinkled state, it is very recently finished. I've just started working on its companion piece, Mouth of the Flower, so I'm going to hold off on stretching and framing until I have both pieces done. Hopefully the next one will go a bit quicker. The tree in this piece took forever, and I think I'll be quite happy if I don't have to cross stitch anything brown for a very, very long time!

I saw both of Ocampo's pieces stitched up in a local cross stitch store a few years back, and every since I first saw them they've reminded me of Francine and Katchoo from Terry Moore's wonderful Strangers in Paradise series. That's the first comic book I ever got really into and started collecting, and it's still one of my favourites to sit down and reread from beginning to end. I actually thought there was an issue where Moore had drawn the women in an optical illusion way similar to Ocampo's picture, but I haven't been able to find it. I think my brain is just misremembering this line drawing of Katchoo from the I Dream of You graphic novel cover and mixing it with Ocampo's work. Nevertheless The Family of Birds looks like Francine to me and the Mouth of the Flower reminds me of Katchoo.

Aside from the lengthy time I spent on the nuances of brown in the tree trunk this was a really fun picture to stitch. There are 29 colours in this one and lots of blending. Though, interestingly no blends in the Mouth of the Flower companion piece. It's also all full cross stitches, so no messing round with 3/4 and 1/4 stitches. And there's a very minimal amount of backstitching, which always makes me happy! I stitched the piece on a 32 count cream belfast linen rather than the lavender colour recommended in the pattern because I thought it helped with the illusion of the picture either being a tree and birds or a face. Where as, with the lavender, I felt like you more dominantly saw the face.

A word of caution to anyone who does want to try this picture. Have the fabric cut about 5-6 inches wider and longer than the pattern is recommending. I followed the patterns recommendation and I just don't feel like it left me with much room around the edges for framing. I usually like to have a blank edge on all sides of about 3-4 inches, and after the piece was done I was left with edges that only had about 1.5 - 2 inches of space. Hopefully my framing store will be able to work their usual magic anyway, but I would have liked to have left them with more to work with.

Sadly my local cross stitch store went out of business last spring and took their business online. The link I've provided in the top paragraph will take you to Ocampo's cross stitch patterns in their online store. The patterns are also available from a number of other cross stitch stores in the real world and online, if you wish shop closer to your hometown.

Quick Stitch Halloween Costumes with Free Patterns!

2010-10-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

Remember those horrible plastic Halloween masks of the 80's that attached around the back of your head with an elastic band? Remember they had little holes cut out for your eyes and always looked creepy no matter how cute the character they were based on happened to be? I still have nightmares about the plastic Care Bear mask I wore one year... Thanks goodness we've moved beyond those things. Or at least have the ability to do so. Last month I suggested crocheting up a Futurama brain slug as a quick costume idea. That got me thinking about what other crochet and knitting projects you could whip up for a quick costume.

First up, you can show your love of all things Katamari while keeping your ears warm with Nikol Lohr's Katamari Prince Earmuffs. Just click the link to view the free pattern, courtesy of Shojo Beat magazine.

And of course this wouldn't be Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins without a mask of our favorite Lovecraft monster. This cthulhu mask was crocheted by flickr user djonesgirlz. No formal pattern, but djonesgirlz does give a link to the original ski mask pattern that was modified to make this awesome monstrosity and an explanation of how the tentacles were created.

Craftster user mamaedgar's son really wanted to be Yoda this Halloween so she whipped up this Yoda hat for him in just two days. I'm impressed! That's a lot of stitching in just two days. Click the link to see more photos and the free pattern that mamedgar was gracious enough to share. I really admire the detail on this one, including the bits of fluffy hair around Yoda's ears. Nevermind, Halloween, this hat would be great to wear anytime. Of course, the original pattern was designed to fit a four year old, so some alterations may be in order if you want it in an adult size.

Running short on time, or just a beginner? Here's something a little simpler that could still be part of a pretty awesome costume. Just add a sword to this traditional masquerade mask, created by Priscilla Hewitt and you could be Zorro, or deck it out with some sequins or beads for something a bit more flashy.

Sadly, these last two masks aren't available as free patterns, but I liked them so much I decided to include them anyways. I'm guessing that more experienced stitchers will be savvy enough to figure out how to make these, or at least something pretty similar. First up, start practicing that gravely Christian Bale impersonation so that you proclaim yourself Batman while wearing a crocheted cowl, like this one stitched by Etsy user nmelone13.

And last, but not least, Dr. Zoidberg courtesy of another Etsy user, blackfezstudios. I absolutely love the eyes and the colour of yarn that was chosen for this one. It makes for a very realistic Dr. Zoidberg!

Futurama Coasters and More!

2010-09-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

I promise I won't be renaming the blog Futurama Crochet and Cousins anytime soon. It's purely coincidence that we've got two Futurama posts in a row. I think the joy of having new Futurama episodes on TV for the first time in years has been pretty inspiring for a lot of geeky crafters.

First up are these awesome coasters created by Craftster user zombiecakeses. Whether you call them Hama beads, Perler beads or Fuse beads, they work in the same manner. Create a pattern on a peg board with the beads, iron the beads so they melt slightly and stick together, then remove the peg board and you have your wonderful pixelated creation. Search online or look in local craft stores or the crafting aisle of major toy stores for the beads. In stores they usually come in a mixed bag of colours, where as online you can usually order bags of a single colour. You can also check out my Perler Bead Tutorial if you want more information on how to create patterns.

I love these coasters, not only because they are Futurama, but also because they aren't 16-bit video game characters. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mario Bros. and Pac-Man, but for a while it just seemed like that was all anyone was making with fuse beads. It's nice to see someone branching out to make more modern-day pop culture icons. Now I wonder if I have enough gray to make that Bender head...

I also wanted to share this work-in-progress because the brilliance of the idea blew me away. Craftster user heatheres76 is converting an old Clue game into a Futurama Clue game. Here you have the little game board pieces which she has sculpted herself. The brain slug is one of the weapons, not one of the playable characters. I can't wait to see what the other weapons turn out to be. I'm casting my vote for Torgo's Executive Powder. What would you suggest?

Time To Switch to a Garlic Shampoo

2010-09-02T11:57:00.001-07:00

New episodes of Futurama and the appeal of having a really cheap Halloween costume have caused a brain slug epidemic around our house. My boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, appears to be the first victim, but what's really scary is the number of people I have lining up and asking how they can get a brain slug of their own.

If you're the crafty sort you can crochet your own using this terrific free pattern from Hook & Needles. To attach the brain slug to the head I poked a small wire hairband (Dollar store purchase!) through the base of the piece. I thought I'd have to glue it in place so it wouldn't slip around when someone's wearing it, but surprisingly it actually stays put. What can I say. those brain slugs are clingy little devils! The eye was made using a piece of white crafting foam that's adhesive on the back side. Rather than attempting to cut out a very tiny black circle, I just cut open a googley eye and used the black pupil from that.

We were joking that it would be fun to carry around a prop bottle of garlic shampoo when one is wearing a brain slug. Simple enough to make, just put a new label on any old bottle of shampoo. Then I did a little Googling and discovered that garlic shampoo is a real thing. It turns out that aside from combatting the tenaciously clingy brain slugs, garlic shampoo also aids in preventing hair loss. Huh, who knew?

Everybody Needs Minions!

2010-08-31T11:56:00.001-07:00

If you haven't seen Despicable Me yet this summer, you really should. It truly is a lot of fun. One of those great movies that's good for all ages. Keeps you laughing, but has a bit of heart too. Of course, I'm still torn as to whether or not the minions were the best part or if it was the adorable little girls that our evil main character is forced to take in.

While watching the movie I couldn't help thinking that those minions would be pretty easy to recreate in crochet. WolfDreamer beat me to the punch though in actually converting that thought into a pattern. Click the link to check out the free pattern, which even includes a few tips at the end on how to make a nice variety of different minions. Because if you're going to rule the world, you're going to need more than one minion.

Slicker Brush Revisited

2010-08-17T13:27:00.001-07:00

I've been having fun with my new slicker brush and I thought readers might enjoy seeing the results. Here are three patterns that I've made before, now re-crocheted and brushed out with the slicker brush. All three fluffy amigurumis were made using various shades of Vanna's Choice worsted weight yarn. As you can tell from the pictures I've got a lot of grey yarn to use up.

Above you see the Owl pattern from Ana Paula Rimoli's Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet crocheted regularly on the left and then crocheted and brushed out on the right. Below is the Bunny Ami pattern from the same book.

The koala comes from Tamie Snow's Tiny Yarn Animals.

I managed to brush out all of these without ripping any holes in the crochet so my technique is getting better. However, I did learn the hard way that you should always put in the safety eyes after brushing the stitching. I forgot and put in the koala's eyes before brushing and it was quite the challenge to brush around them. You can't see it in the pictures, but his little black eyes have been scratched up pretty badly by the brush.

And what will I be doing with all these fluffy critters? I gave the white owl to my grandma who is a collector of owls and was the recipient of the owl on the left a couple of years ago. She could hardly believe it was the same pattern, as the brushing gave it a totally new look. As for the other two, they may be donated to charity or given away as gifts. I haven't decided yet.

Did you see my first slicker brush project? If not, check out Penny the Penguin.

Spring Cat Cross Stitch Completed!

2010-07-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

When I wasn't working on Firefly cross stitches this is the major project that has been keeping me busy for the past few months. It is called Spring Cat and was designed by Sherrie Stepp-Aweau. I started working on this in February and managed to get it finished by June. Not a bad stretch of time I would say.

It's a birthday/Christmas gift for my Mom which we were able to give to her on the weekend. I did all the stitching and the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, helped cover the costs of getting it professionally stretched and framed. Needless to say my Mom was very happy with it. Her cat, who happens to look like the kitty in the picture, was also intrigued. He stared into it's eyes for a good solid minute, started to quiver and even frizzed his tail at it. Once it's hung on the wall I'm sure my Mom's either going to encounter him meowing at it and trying to make friends or hissing and spitting at it.

I stitched this on a black 18 count aida cloth, and thankfully most of the black space in the picture is just the fabric showing through, which cuts down the number of stitches I had to make. The border with its many open spaces was truly a lot of fun as it seemed to go by very quickly...Look I'm done one side...Look I'm done another. There's also a minimum amount of backstitching which makes me very happy. The finishing off backstitching always makes a picture pop and look wonderful, but it's my least favourite part of any design.

I have the pattern in a leaflet from Cross My Heart that also includes the Summer Cat. Unfortunately I'm fairly certain the pattern is out of print now, even though you can find a couple of the designer's other cat patterns at PatternsOnline. I managed to snag the last copy from my local cross stitch store and all the supplies I needed to make this, only a few months before it went out of business.

Not a Dinosaur!

2010-07-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, is obsessed with dinosaurs, and while I'm not the expert he is, I think they're pretty great too. So we were both really excited to hear that June of PlanetJune had reached 1o0 sales with her first set of dinosaur patterns and was releasing a new set of three in celebration.

The boyfriend, who appreciates accuracy when it comes to all things dinosaur, was also impressed that June had done her research and knew, "neither Plesiosaurs nor Pterosaurs are actually dinosaurs! The term ‘dinosaur’ correctly covers only a certain type of terrestrial reptile with an upright stance, so Plesiosaurs and Pterosaurs are simply related reptiles that lived in the same time periods as the true dinosaurs."

That sold us and here before you is Pterry who was made using June's wonderfully easy to follow Pteranodon pattern. For this one I used Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in Little Boy Blue. Later I'll have to make a smaller one in a variegated Kroy Sock yarn so that our stegosaurus can have a matching friend.

Want the Pattern?

The Pteranodon pattern is available as a pdf download from the PlanetJune Store for $5.00 U.S. or you can save money by ordering the new set of 3 dinosaur patterns for $12.50 U.S.

It's so Fluffy!!! My First Slicker Brush Project...

2010-07-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

I know penguins are a little out of season for July. Maybe if you're sitting somewhere hot right now then just seeing this sweet little guy will help cool you down. This is my first crochet endeavor made using Roman Sock's Brushed Crochet technique and I am so happy with the results. Would you believe this yarn is just Vanna's Choice brushed out with a pet slicker brush? At first I wasn't sure if it would work, but as you can see it turned out pretty fluffy!

I accidently got a little carried away and brushed the body so vigorously that it tore a couple holes in the crochet. Ironic since the body was the last piece I brushed. You'd think I'd have been more likely to damage the first piece. Overconfidence, I guess. The wings are set a bit further back on the body than I would have liked so they cover up the holes and so I could use the attaching yarn to sew the holes shut. I wouldn't want poor Penny leaking stuffing everywhere.

The pattern comes from Brigitte Read's (aka Roman Sock's) amigurumi book Super-Super Cute Crochet . I borrowed this one from a friend for a while, but it's definitely on my "to buy" list. There are a lot of designs in here and the photography is wonderful, showing most of the animals from several different angles. That's always an asset when you're trying to figure out the placement of wings, limbs or tails. Many of the patterns are the ones that Roman Sock sells individually online, but there is some new stuff here as well.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that not all the patterns in the book are brushed crochet. There are some terrific regular crochet amigurumis in here like this dragon. In hindsight I wish I'd crocheted his legs (yep, those are legs sticking out at the front) in the same colour as the body rather than using the iridescent cord I used for his spikes. Ah well, next time. He's pretty cute this way too, just a little stranger looking.

In the book the dragon is red and green and described as a being similar to a Chinese Fire dragon. I'm thinking of mine more as a water dragon. The body was crocheted using some of the James C. Brett's Marble in Amethyst I had leftover from this afghan.

Firefly Patterns in Action

2010-07-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be a nice follow-up to yesterday's post. Here for your viewing pleasure are two crafty projects that were made using the Firefly character cross stitches that I designed.

To the left is a Firefly bag that Paula made for a Firefly-themed swap on Ravelry. I have to say, she has a very lucky swap partner! I'm definitely putting a bag like this on my wish list.

Pictured below is a Firefly afghan stitched up by Happyhooker. This was made using the Tunisian style of crochet and I have to say I'm in awe of anyone who finishes a large project in tunisian. It took me over two weeks to finish a single square for a large project I'm planning and I haven't gone back to it since...

You can see the patterns lose a bit of their detail when converted to crochet, but the characters are still recognizable. It looks cozy and who wouldn't want to curl up with this band of bad guys!

A bonus project! I discovered this one when I was checking out happyhooker's blog. Want to make your own crocheted Serenity? Of course you do! The patterns available free here. Thanks happyhooker for creating this one and posting it to share with everyone.

Firefly Fundraising Success!

2010-07-05T11:46:00.001-07:00

Readers may recall that I was donating some of my Firefly cross stitch pieces to various Can't Stop the Serenity screenings throughout Canada.

After successful screenings in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto, I can now happily announce that my cross stitches raised a grand total of $438 for Equality Now and the other sponsored charities in each city.

To say I'm overwhelmed by this total would be an understatement. I'm in awe of how generous my fellow Browncoats were in their bidding and really pleased that my cross stitch pieces were able to bring in this much money for our charities.

The Big Damn Heroes cross stitch above was the highest seller. It was in the auction at our Vancouver screening and went for $110.

Also at the Vancouver screening, this Wash piece sold for $85 and the River one went for $63.

Here in Vancouver Jayne was paired with a Jayne Hat tea cozy and sold for a total of $60. The Jayne cross stitch that I sent to Toronto was included in their Jayne package which also contained a Jayne Hat pin and Blue Sun T-shirt. That package sold for $80.

Edmonton had a smaller screening than the other two cities, with just under 100 people in attendance. They were pleased to raise $40 through the sale of this 3 character Big Damn Heroes cross stitch.

I wanted to share how well each piece did in case there are any other crafty Browncoats out there who were thinking of making something for a screening in their area later this year or even next year.

In general supplies for each piece cost me under $15 each and all the pieces I made earned far more than what I put out on supplies and shipping. As to the time I spent stitching and framing, I consider that my donation to the cause.

So if anyone is on the fence about making something like this for their own charity screening, I highly recommend it. All three organizers told me that the unique homemade items are always a high seller at their auctions.

In closing, another big thank you to everyone who bid on these pieces and to everyone who provided me with feedback about the designs through the blog, on Craftster or in person at the Vancouver screening. To anyone interested, the patterns for cross stitching the Firefly cast members are all available free on the blog under the My Free Patterns heading.

Enjoy and stay shiny!

Are You Looking for This?

2010-06-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-01T12:53:00.001-07:00

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.

Cthulhu Cousins Caught on Film - Part 1

2010-05-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of about 3 long term projects right now, which is why you haven't seen too many posts around here with an I Made This tag on them. In the meantime, I thought I'd take some time to catch up on displaying some of the things you've made. Thanks once again to everyone who has sent in pictures of projects they've completed using my patterns. The cthulhu family is certainly growing. So much so, that I'm going to split this post over two days so that we don't suffer from cthulhu overload.

Kit was the first person to send me a picture of a completed Cuddly Cthulhu. It appears that this one has penchant for raiding the fridge. His favourite treats; raspberry jam and root beer.

This second Cuddly Cthulhu, in the traditional green, was sent in by Mandi. A special thank you to both of you for these photos. It's great to see this pattern in action and I appreciate all the positive feedback I've received from readers about it.

Now with something a bit less traditional, JulianaK gives us the Creamsicthulhu made using my Tiny Cthulhu Pattern. I'm not normally a fan of orange, but this is a really beautiful yarn. And the cthulhu looks so delicious you could eat him up on a hot summer day!

There's something about the eyes on the side of the head that make Fuchsoid's cthulhu seem just a little bit scarier than the other cthulhus. That's scary in a good way though!

Hmm, I think this cthulhu has been raiding the fridge even more than the one that Kit made. I wonder what he's been snacking on? Tiffany made this cthulhu by blending the wing design from my Tiny Cthulhu with the cthulhu pattern that's available in Christen Haden's Creepy Cute Crochet. She also added some tiny legs to give him his relaxed, lazy stance.

Moving from extra appendages to none at all, David sent me this picture of his bright green cthulhu. I think it's the large eyes that make this one seem way more cute than manacing.

Amazing work everyone! I always love to see the variety of cthulhus that can be created from a single pattern. If anyone else out there wants to share picture of something they've made using one of my patterns post a comment on the blog along with a link to your photo or send me the photo at the email address in the left sidebar.

Tune in the next time I post to see the second installment of Cthulhu Cousins Caught on Film.

Glowing Kodama Tree Spirits, with Free Pattern

2010-05-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

The kodamas are my favourite part of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. The way they bob their heads and make that tranquil rattling sound is adorable. Ami Amour created the pattern and crocheted these terrific kodamas. The one on the right was made using Nightlights glow in the dark yarn, which I think is a great use for this yarn since the kodamas are kind of glowy in the movie.

Want the pattern?

The kodama pattern is available free on the Ami Amour blog. I'm also so enchanted with the amazing free patterns available there that I'm adding Ami Amour to my blog list. Check my left sidebar to see when there are updates there.

Granny Square Elephants

2010-05-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

This seems like the perfect follow-up to my last post. This baby elephant design was created by Irina and was inspired by a granny square quilt. There may be others out there, but this is the first time I've seen granny squares incorporated with amigurumi and it's a very clever effect.

The pattern, entitled Noodle the Elephant, is available for $4.00 US through Reeneegurumi's pattern shop. There are also some adorable giraffes in there that may be hard to resist. Click on over and have a look.

Marble Granny Afghan

2010-05-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Would you believe this is my first granny square? I guess this is what they call jumping in with both feet. Thankfully the granny square is one of the easiest and most forgiving patterns around. I almost always crochet while watching TV and numerous times I forgot to make the chain 1 between the sets of double crochet. Aside from a little bit of puffiness in the middle, which won't show when someone is actually using the afghan, my mistakes are mostly hidden.

I'm absolutely adore this yarn, which is James C Brett - Marble Chunky in Autumn. I used three balls worth and a J hook to put this together. It's an acrylic yarn, but incredibly soft. I've been reassured that it becomes even softer each time you wash it.

I actually worked two balls of this into a shawl before finally admitting to myself that I would never wear said shawl. (I'm just not a shawl person.) With much help from the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, I frogged that project and decided to make this instead. Simple, soft and cozy.

The James C Brett - Marble comes in lots of beautiful shades and is also available in a sport weight. I just picked up some in that size for a new afghan project. I've never spotted this stuff in a big chain craft store, but the Kertzer website's store locator has a pretty extensive list of local yarn stores where it can be found in Canada and the United States.

A non-flash, natural light close-up of the afghan so that you can see my stitching. I think the flash pictures are more true to the actual colouring of the blanket though.

Book Talk

2010-05-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to draw readers attention toward a couple of interesting fibre craft books that I've come across lately.

Encyclopedia of Tunisian Crochet by Angela "Arnie" Grabowski. I received this as a birthday gift from one of my crafty friends. Author Angela Grabowski has clearly spent countless hours researching and tracking down information about the art of Tunisian crochet. As she puts it:

"Tunisian crochet is one of the most misunderstood [or perhaps forgotten is a better word] forms of crochet in the United States and possibly the world. It was a popular form of crochet during the Victorian Era yet it seems to have been lost during the early 20th century" p. 7.

Grabowski's book provides readers with background information on the craft and clarifies confusion over the various stitch names that have been used in Tunisian crochet over time and throughout the world. If that weren't enough, it also provides stitchers with tutorials for over 400 stitches and numerous patterns that can be created using the Tunisian techniques.

I personally haven't had a chance to make anything from the book yet, but have spent a great deal of time browsing through it and reading bits here and there. Grabowski's instructions are clearly written and there are plenty of pictures and diagrams at every step. This is definitely a great asset for anyone, like myself, who is interested in learning more about Tunisian crochet.

The Mummies of Urumchi by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. The boyfriend, who is far more of a history buff than me, ran across this one at the local library. A researcher of prehistoric textiles, author Elizabeth Wayland Barber discusses 4,000 year old mummies found in what is today known as Chinese Turkistan. What makes these mummies particularly interesting is "their clothes - woolens that rarely survive more than a few centuries - have been preserved as brightly hued as the day they were woven."

What we have here is possibly the ancestors of modern day cross stitch and embroidery. The book contains beautiful colour photos and even some diagrams of how the garments were woven and decorated with coloured stitches. This book is fascinating for anyone who is up for a bit of paleocrafting or consideration of the history behind the fibre crafts we make today.

Cuddly Cthulhu with Free Pattern!

2010-05-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome one and all to the 200th post at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. Thank you everyone for being here, especially those of you who are long time readers of the blog, and especially those of you who have taken the time to post comments or share pictures of things you've made with my patterns.

I've always told myself that I'd keep the blog going as long as it was still fun (and didn't start to feel like work) Now, here we are at 200 posts, 330,486 visitors (the current count while I'm typing this) and it's still fun!

I wanted to go back to the beginning and do something special for this landmark post, so I decided it was time to revisit cthulhu patterns. Don't get me wrong, I love my previous incarnations of cthulhu, but I've always wanted to try for one with a more pear shaped head. Something a bit more accurate to illustrations I've seen such as this one. I also wanted the new design to be a bit bigger so that you could pick cthulhu up and give him a hug, hence the name Cuddly Cthulhu! I'm really happy with the way this one turned out and I hope that you all will enjoy him too.

As always, feel free to post a comment or send us an email if you have any questions about the pattern, or if you want to share pictures of your own Cuddly Cthulhu. Thanks again to everyone for stopping by.

Cuddly Cthulhu Pattern

Materials

Size F (3.75mm) crochet hook
1 skein worsted weight yarn.You may wish to use a contrasting colour or darker shade for the wings. (Sample was made using Vanna’s Choice Kelly Green for the body and Vanna’s Choice Olive for the wings.)
Quilt batting (or your preferred stuffing material)
Two 15mm safety eyes

(2010/10/22 - Note: I was remaking the Cuddly Cthulhu a few days ago and realized that the head instructions were less than accurate. Some lines were missing causing the head to come out much stubbier than I had intended. Following the directions in the pattern will now result in a cthulhu head that looks much more like the one in the sample pictures I've posted here.

The head directions have now been changed from Rnd 8 onwards to the end of the head. Sorry for any inconvenience this edit causes. If you prefer the cthulhu with a stubbier head, work the head directions below omitting rounds 8,9,10,11, and 18.)

Head
6 sc in magic ring
RND 1: work 2 sc in each st around. (12 stitches)
RND 2: *sc in first st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (18 stitches)
RND 3: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (24 stitches)
RND 4: *sc in first 3 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (30 stitches)
RND 5: *sc in first 4 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (36 stitches)
RND 6: *sc in first 5 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (42 stitches)

RND 7: *sc in first 6 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (48 stitches)

RND 8-11: sc in each st around. (48 stitches)

RND 12: *sc in first 2 st, dec over next 2*, repeat around (36 stitches)

RND 13: sc in each st around (36 stitches)

RND 14: *sc in first st, dec over next 2*, repeat around (24 stitches)

RND 15-18): sc in each st around. (24 stitches)

RND 19: 1 sc in first 6 stitches, *1 sc in front loop only of next st, ch 16, skip first st on ch, 15 sc in chain* repeat 11 more times, (making 12 tentacles in total), 1 sc in each of next 6 st (24 stitches)

RND 20: *sc in first 2 st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (18 stitches)

Place safety eyes, using photos as a guide. Stuff body firmly.

RND 21: *sc in first st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (12 stitches)

RND 22: *dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (6 stitches)

Add more stuffing if needed. Sl st in first st, finish off.

Body
6 sc in magic ring
RND 1: work 2 sc in each st around. (12 stitches)
RND 2: *sc in first st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (18 stitches)
RND 3: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (24 stitches)
RND 4: *sc in first 3 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (30 stitches)
RND 5-16: sc in each st around (30 stitches)
RND 17: *sc in first 3 st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (24 stitches)
RND 18: sc in each st around (24 stitches)
RND 19: *sc in first 2 st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (18 stitches)
RND 20: sc in each st around (18 stitches)
RND 21: 1 hdc in each of first 9 stitches, sl st into next stitch. Leave rest of row unstitched. Finish off, leaving a long tail for sewing. Do not pull closed. Stuff body firmly.

Arms (make 2)
6 sc in magic ring
RND 1: work 2 sc in each st around. (12 stitches)
RND 2: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (16 stitches)
RND 3-4: sc in each st around (16 stitches)
RND 5: *sc in first 2 st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (12 stitches)
RND 6-9: sc in each st around (12 stitches)
Stuff firmly.
RND 10: *sc in first st, dec over next 2 st)*, repeat around (8 stitches)
RND 11-13: sc in each st around (8 stitches)
Add more stuffing if needed. Sl st into first st, finish off, leaving long tail for sewing.

Legs (make 2)
6 sc in magic ring
RND 1: work 2 sc in each st around. (12 stitches)
RND 2: *sc in first st, 2 sc in next st*, repeat around (18 stitches)
RND 3-5: sc in each st around (18 stitches)
RND 6: 1 hdc in each of first 9 stitches, 1 sc in each of next 9 stitches (18 stitches)
RND 7: *sc in first st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (12 stitches)
RND 8: *sc in first 4 st, dec over next 2 st*, repeat around (10 stitches)
Stuff firmly.
RND 9-14: sc in each st around (10 stitches)
RND 15: 1 hdc in each of first 6 st, 1 sc in each of next 4 st (10 stitches)
Add more stuffing if needed. Sl St into first st, finish off, leaving long tail for sewing.

Wings (make 2)

Note: These are made the same way as the wings on my Tiny Cthulhu, only they come out bigger. If you get a little stuck, you may want to refer to this tutorial for the wings from the Tiny Cthulhu.

Ch 7. Turn and do 1 sc in each of next 6 ch sps. Ch 1, turn. 6 sc, ch 6. turn. skip first ch, 3 sc on chain, hdc to end of row. Ch1, turn. 6 sc, ch 7, skip first ch, 4 sc in chain, hdc to end of row. Ch1, turn. 7 sc, ch 7, skip first ch, 4 sc in chain, hdc to end of row. Ch1, turn. 8 sc, ch 7, skip first ch, 4 sc in chain, hdc to end of row.Ch1, turn. 9 sc, ch 7, skip first ch, 2 sc in chain, hdc to end of row. Ch 3 *Work appox. 8 dc along the top edge of the wing (opposite the pointy bits). Sl St into first Ch, or near first Ch. Fasten off, leave long tail for sewing.

Assembly
Using photos as a guide, sew body to head. Add more stuffing as you’re sewing together, if necessary. Sew legs, arms and wings to body.

In case you're curious, the little heart on his butt says 'love'. Let's all say "aww" now!

Enjoy! Don't forget to check out my other patterns, available under the My Free Patterns tab in the left sidebar.

Faunasphere Moment

2010-05-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Apologies to my regular readers for the off-topic nature of this post. Tomorrow I'll be back with my 200th post and a new free crochet pattern to share with everyone, so please stop by for that.

If there's anyone else out there who plays Faunasphere, they'll recognize the significance of these pictures.

I was taking these on my computer while my friend moon_dance's fauna leveled up to twenty and received her gold collar. That's currently the final level you can reach in the game and a major milestone that takes many hours of dedication. I wanted to post the pictures somewhere where moon_dance could see them. Since my computer refuses to talk to flickr, for reasons I've never figured out, this is the best place where I can share the pics.

Anyone else out there playing Faunasphere? Someday I need to try making amigurumis that look like my in-game characters. I haven't had a chance to work on that yet. Much like Critter Crunch, I really love the artwork of this game. It's a beautiful world to roam around in.

Moon-dance, you should be able to click on the pictures, then they'll open larger in another window and you can save them to your hardrive.

Just as we were doing the final round of zapping for the gold collar (at 2:00 a.m.!) this ridiculous rude flapper showed up and refused to step aside so that moon_dance could make the final zap solo. I've edited out the flapper's name, mostly just so that I could mention how ridiculous and rude it was.

Once you become a level 20, you have a gold collar around your neck and the lazer that zaps out of that collar is randomly changed to a new colour. Moon_dance got the blue zap, which I think looks quite nice. The characters we're playing are called nibblers. Not at all like the nibblers from Futurama. Oddly enough there's another critter in the game called a thumper, that does remind me of the nibblers from Futurama.

Thanks moon_dance, it was fun. Well worth staying up an hour longer to play photographer.

Last, but not least, a shot of my level 20 tusker Ivory, zapping some pollution in her gold collar with her pink/purple laser. And of course, you've all now seen my Faunasphere screen name. If you're a member feel free to send me an in-game friend request. Unless of course you're the kind of player who just asks for eggs and bux all the time. Then you won't find yourself on my friend list for very long.

To the rest of my readers, thanks for indulging the digression. I hope you at least enjoyed the artwork. Don't forget, 200th post and a free pattern tomorrow!

Can't Stop the Serenity Donations, and a free pattern!

2010-04-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

If you're attending this year's Can't Stop the Serenity events in Edmonton or Toronto you'll have a chance to win one my Firefly cross stitches. I stitched up this first piece with three of our favourite heroes as a donation for the Serenity Charity Screening in Edmonton. Click the link to learn more about that event, which is taking place Sunday, June 27. The second piece with Jayne attired in his cunning hat I've made as a donation for the Toronto screening, taking place Saturday June 26.

Of course this is in addition to the 4 pieces that will be available in the silent auction or as prizes at our own Can't Stop the Serenity event in Vancouver on June 26. These include individual cross stitches of Jayne, Wash and River as well as the big group shot of the entire cast in stitchy goodness.

After the events are over I'll do another post letting everyone know how much was money was raised for Equality Now with these pieces. I'm excited to find out myself.

And now folks, my fingers are tired. Of course, if anyone else would like a Firefly cross stitch or two for their Can't Stop the Serenity event I remind you that all the character patterns are available in the left sidebar under the My Free Patterns heading. Please feel free to make use of them. I'm confident that most Browncoat groups have a cross stitcher or two in their midst.

I'll even get you started with this free pattern for a bookmark that would likely only take a couple hours to stitch up. Note: Mal should be cross stitched, I just did the outline here so you could see where he's positioned. Refer to his pattern for full cross stitch details.

Enjoy, and as always, post a comment if you have any questions about the pattern.

Spiral Baby Blanket - With Free Pattern!

2010-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

This baby blanket is wonderful if you're in the mood for some mindless crochet while watching TV or focussing on some other activity. One of my least favourite parts of crochet is adding new yarn to change colours and having to weave in the ends from the previous colour. With this pattern you don't have to finish off the old colour, you just leave it hanging there until you're ready to use it again. I've used solid colours here, but I also think this would look good if you used black with a variegated yarn.

I've been vague about the size of the blanket in the pattern so stitchers can just keep stitching until the piece is the length they want. And if you have some leftover yarn in the end, you could make two smaller versions of this and sew them together for a matching pillow.

I've tried my best to write the directions out clearly, but if anyone has any questions feel free to contact me either in the comments section or via the blog's email address. cthulhucrochet(@)gmail.com. As always, I love to see what people make with my patterns so if you take on this pattern feel free to leave a comment with a link to a jpeg so I can see your work.

Spiral Baby Blanket

Materials

Worsted weight yarn in two contrasting colours – amount will vary depending on the size of your blanket. My sample was made using 3 skeins of Vanna's Choice Baby in Little Boy Blue (Colour A) and 2 skeins of Vanna's Choice White (Colour B).
1 crochet stitch marker or safety pin
size I (5.50mm) crochet hook

Note: Throughout the blanket you will alternate between the two colours, stitching with Colour B into the previous row of Colour A until you run out of spaces to stitch in, the switching back to Colour A and stitching in the Colour B stitches you just made.

Using Colour A,

Chain 4, sl st in first chain to join. Working in spiral rounds

Rnd 1: 1 sc in same space as sl stitch, 1 sc in next stitch, 2 hdc in next stitch, 4 dc in next stitch, put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of this last stitch to hold it, and slip out the crochet hook.

Rnd 2: Using Colour B, (wrap a loop of Colour B around hook) sc in first sc of previous round, sc in next st, 2 hdc in next 2 stitches, 2 dc in each of next 3 stitches. Put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of this last stitch to hold it, put hook back in the loop you were holding from rnd 1.

Rnd 3: Using Colour A, 1dc in Colur B stitch from previous round, *ch 1 dc in next stitch* repeat until you have 12 ch 1 spaces. Put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of last stitch to hold it, put hook back in the loop you were holding from previous round.

Rnd 4: Using Colur B, *2 dc in next stitch, ch 1 (right above ch 1 of previous rnd)* repeat until you run out of spaces to stitch in. Put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of last stitch to hold it, put hook back in the loop you were holding from previous round.

Rnd 5: Using Colour A, 1 dc in next stitch, 2 dc in dc before the chain space, ch 1* repeat until you run out of spaces to stitch in. Put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of last stitch to hold it, put hook back in the loop you were holding from previous round.

Rnd 6: Using Colur A, *dc in each space, 2 dc in the space before the chain, then ch 1* repeat until you run out of spaces to stitch in. Put the stitch marker or safety pin in the loop of last stitch to hold it, put hook back in the loop you were holding from previous round.

Continue stitching in rounds, repeating *1 dc in each space, 2 dc in the space before the chain, then ch 1*, and switching between colour A and B as necessary. Continue with this pattern until blanket reaches desired size, then follow the Finishing instructions.

Finishing

While in Colour A continue to work pattern until you are 3 stitches away from the last ch1-space in your round. In these last 3 stitches work 1 hdc, 1 hdc, 1 sc, then sl st into the chain space and finish off Colour A. Pick up Colour B and work pattern as usual until you reach the last 3 stitches of the previous round. In these spaces work, 1 hdc, 1 hdc, 1sc and finish up with a sl st into the first stitch of Colour B from the round you just finished.

Border

Using Colour A sl st into any dc stitch on blanket, ch 1, sc crochet in each stitch around, then sl st back into first stitch to join.

Skip first 2 stitches *5 dc in next stitch, skip 1 stitch, sl st in next stitch, skip 1* repeat around edge, sl st into first stitch and finish off. Weave in ends.

Enjoy!

Free Amigurumi Generator

2010-03-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

I found this neat Amigurumi Pattern generator online that I'm inviting readers to check out. Let me know what you think if you play around with it. Basically it's a free application that allows you to generate a variety of amigurumi patterns by adjusting the size of a critter's head, neck, ears, arms, body and legs. Just click the link above to see it for yourself.

I think if I'd stumbled across this when I was first starting to make amigurumi I would have really enjoyed it. At this point I don't really feel I need a pattern generator to help me create my designs. Still I really appreciate how easy it is to use the interface. I'm thinking it would be particularly good for young crafters who know how to read a pattern and make the basic stitches of amigurumi, but may have trouble doing the math to create their own patterns. For them this would be a great intermediate step between following other people's patterns and making their own.

Looking for other free design tools? There's also the Knitpro 2.0 application, which allows you to design your own charts for knitting, tunisian crochet, and cross stitching.

Know of any other free crafting applications available online? Share your finds in the comments section.

Leaf on the Wind Cross Stitch

2010-03-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is the Firefly cross stitch that I made for the boyfriend. The quote is from the amazing Leaf on the Wind song by the Bedlam Bards. If you're a Browncoat and you're not familiar with them I highly recommend checking out their On the Drift album, which is all music about and inspired by Firefly. And if you don't feel like doing that, at least click the link and hear their song about Wash because I love it and it makes me sad and happy every time I hear it.

So that's where the quote comes from. The leaf design came from Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs although I switched the colours from shades of green to shades of orange. I also used some silver Kreinik to make stars around Zoe. They look better in person than in the photo. In hindsight I wish I'd placed Zoe a bit further away from the lettering, but the boyfriend was really happy with how this turned out, so I'm not complaining too much.

Want the Pattern?

Check under the My Free Patterns heading in the left sidebar to see all my Firefly character cross stitch patterns.

It's Spring, the Lion!

2010-03-23T11:32:00.001-07:00

Back in January when I posted Winter, I asked for suggestions as to what other animals I could make with my unnecessarily large stash of fun fur. Rayleen's suggestions that I make a lion really grabbed my attention, so now joining Winter we have his new friend Spring.

Spring was made using Bernat Satin in Banana and more nameless fun fur from Dollarama. I tested out my new Clover Soft Touch 3.5mm hook to make him. I picked up two of the hooks last weekend. I want to use them a couple more times then I'll let you all know what I think of them.

Quick Lion Tutorial

Like with Winter I decided to just wing the pattern. If you've ever made an amigurumi ball before you know there's always that point you come to in the middle where you stitch the same amount of stitches for X number of rows. When I got to that part I did the first of these repeating rows in Bernat Satin yarn and then switched to the fun fur for 5 rows, then went back to the Bernat Satin yarn for one row before beginning the decreasing part of the ball. It's a pretty simple technique for making the mane. The fun fur part is a little tighter, but you can't tell because it's so fluffy.

Each of Spring's ears was made by chaining 2 then making a 6 hdc shell stitch in the first chain space. His body is just another ball (six stitches smaller in width than the head). I stitched in back loop only for the first row of the repeated same number of stitches section to give him a flat bottom. (I was worried the mane would make him top heavy and figured this would help balance him). Finally, for the tail I started with the fun fur and crocheted 8 sc in a round until I was satisfied that the fluffy part was big enough. Then I switched back to the Bernat Satin and decreased down to four, and stitched these 4 sc in a round until I was happy with the tail length.

Winter, posing with his new friend Spring.

So, I think that working with fun fur once per season is enough, don't you? If you have any ideas for a summer animal that I could make that would incorporate a little bit of fun fur please share your idea in the comments section.

The Many Faces of Fillion

2010-03-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Carrie gets the honour of being the first person to send me a picture of what she's made using my Firefly cross stitch patterns. She used my Captain Mal design and then created her own Dr. Horrible and Rick Castle. What, no Caleb? I can understand leaving him out, even though Fillion was amazing in that role, too.

Rick Castle is wearing his bullet proof vest that says "writer" and Captain Hammer's gloves and belt are made with shiny thread to depict their patten leather look. Great details. I think I may need to make myself a Captain Hammer bookmark someday. This also reminds me that I should be watching more Castle. It's a fun show, but I tend to stumble onto it by accident rather than actually making a point of watching it. I've seen the Halloween ep. where Castle dresses up as Captain Mal about three times though. Maybe that makes up for not seeing some of the other episodes?

Thanks again to Carrie for sharing this. If you're interested in making your own Firefly cross stitch the patterns are available in the left sidebar. I also wanted to thank everyone who has chimed in on my Clover Hooks question thus far. The reviews have been so favourable, I think I'm definitely going to have to pick up one or two.

Also of note, I've created an e-mail address for the blog (look in the left sidebar). I still prefer that people post comments directly on the blog so that everyone can see them, but I figured that in some cases an email address may be more handy. If you don't use a photo sharing service and want to send me a jpeg of something you've made, for example. Or if you have a question and aren't really sure where it should be posted on the blog. Feel free to make use of that email address.

Clover Hooks - Your thoughts?

2010-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to receive a $50 gift certificate for Michael's as a birthday present a couple of weeks ago and in deciding how to spend it I've been debating picking up a couple of these Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks. They're currently priced at about $9.99 at Michael's. Normally I use a set of Boye metal hooks or some older plastic Susan Bates hooks that used to be my mom's. I've heard/read that the Clover ones are easier on your hands and I do tend to get wrist pain, particularly when I'm crocheting small projects with 2.5 - 3.75 mm hooks.

Examining these hooks in the store it seemed to me that the heads were smaller on them than the other brands. Have those of you who've used them found this? That is, a project made with a 6 mm Clover hook may come out smaller than one made with a 6 mm Boye hook? I know that there is always some size variation between brands, but in this case it worried me that I could so easily see it.

If you've used the Clover hooks I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please chime in on the comments thread. Are the Clovers worth the money? Are they easier on the hands when you're working with a small hook? What about when your working with larger hooks? If you didn't like them, is there another brand that you would recommend? All thoughts are welcome...

March of the Cthulhus!

2010-03-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

The Cthulhu empire is growing, as my inbox is once again full of messages from people who have been using my Tiny Cthulhu Pattern. Thanks again to everyone whose taken the time to send me a picture of their creations. I'm loving the eyes on this purple cthulhu that was made by Traci. I'm not sure if these glow in the dark, but they sure look like they might. Scary!

I get a lot of messages from people who tell me the Tiny Cthulhu is the first thing they've ever crocheted. It's very flattering to know that I made something that inspired someone to take up a new hobby, and I'm glad the pattern is easy enough for a beginner to tackle. This next cthulhu is Koeniou's first completed crochet project and I think it turned out great! Those big outstretched arms are just waiting to give someone a hug, or worse!

I hope this next one doesn't unravel if you pull on that piece of yarn. A mummy cthulhu, hmm...This was made by Oriane, as a gift for her brother.

There are some projects where variegated yarn really works and some where it doesn't. Thankfully, Tiny Cthulhus look great in variegated yarn. I like how Ukhsud's pink cthulhu appears to be looking up at the subtitle above its head. Very cute!

Aww, it looks like this next little guy, created by Adrianna, is angry about something. Don't tell him he's adorable when he's angry. He probably wouldn't like that. Adrianna also has a tip for anyone whose tentacles turn out too coiled up. She says she steamed hers over a tea kettle after she was done and that loosened them up.

And speaking of tightly coiled tentacles, we have this proud little green cthulhu courtesy of Jessica.

Next, a green cthulhu stitched by Eva. I like the use of the darker shade of green for the tentacles. Eva says she's working on turning the Tiny Cthulhu pattern into a giant Cthulhu and I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

And that concludes this roundup of recent cousins in our Cthulhu family. Thanks to everyone for sharing their creations. If you've made a Tiny Cthulhu or used any of my other free patterns feel free to post a comment and include a link where I can see a picture of your creation.

More Firefly Cross Stitch!

2010-02-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

That's right, more Firefly stuff! Along with the group picture I originally stitched, I'm going to donate these three character pieces to the silent auction for the Vancouver Can't Stop the Serenity Screening. Each picture was stitched on a piece of 18 count cream Aida cloth and is in a 4 X 6 inch frame. I picked up the frames at a local dollar store and got a large piece of the Aida cloth (there's still about half left) for just $13.00. Overall, a nicely inexpensive project.

The borders on the pieces either came directly from, or are modifications of the ones found in, Better Homes and Gardens 2001 Cross Stitch Designs. The lettering on the Wash and River pieces also came from this book. The lettering on the Jayne picture comes from an old Stoney Creek cross stitch book, now out of print, called Pig Tales. I love that book! I think I've only stitched one or two of the piggy designs, but it's my go-to lettering whenever I need something small that looks kinda fancy.

So I think this concludes my charity stitching for now. I'm going to stitch up another group picture and keep it for myself. I've also designed a Zoe and Wash piece for the boyfriend, which I'm hoping to start stitching soon. If anyone else makes anything with my Firefly cross stitch patterns please post a comment and share a link to a picture. I'm curious to see how others use these designs, and always looking for new ideas myself!

Kaylee in her Shindig Dress - Free Cross Stitch Pattern!

2010-02-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

I hope you don't mind the recent phase of cross stitch patterns here at Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins. I'm also working on some crochet projects right now and I'm sure we'll be back to your regularly scheduled dose of crochet soon.

Lately I've been playing around with the free trial version of MacStitch 2010 courtesy of Softpedia. I thought I'd share this pattern I designed featuring Firefly's Kaylee in her famous dress from the episode Shindig.

Now, I haven't actually stitched this piece. What you're seeing is the program set to display the pattern as stitches. It also allows you to change the fabric colour and number of thread strands you're using in your stitches, which are pretty nifty features.

I also really like the "replace thread" feature which allows you to select any colour you've used and replace it with any other colour in the DMC palette (or Anchor, or whatever brand of floss you prefer). It's perfect for those moments when you're wondering how someone's hair will look if it was a little darker, or if their shirt would look better in a different colour. My least favourite feature, the eraser. It erases, but it's finicky. If you want to erase backstitches, you have to select the backstitch tool first. Then if you have some cross stitches to erase, it won't erase them unless you select the cross stitch tool first. I'd prefer if it just erased one square of stitching at a time, regardless of what kind of stitches you have in the square. Making corrections would go much faster that way!

That being said, the MacStitch trial is still pretty versatile and a lot of fun to play around with. To my knowledge you can't do blended stitches, which again is fine for small designs like this, but would become frustrating if you were trying to create something more elaborate. To be fair, there may be a way to do blends, I haven't dug too far into the program's help menu yet to see.

And now, without further ado, the pattern card for Kaylee in her Shindig dress. Enjoy, and don't forget my other Firefly cross stitch patterns are available in the My Free Patterns menu on the left.

And just for reference, a picture of the real Kaylee in her dress:

Sock Yarn Stegosaurus

2010-02-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

The boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, is obsessed with dinosaurs. I put together this little stegosaurus for him last week as part of his Valentine's Day gift and it was met with much love and appreciation.

Of course I'm not certain exactly what dinosaur skin looked like, but I'm convinced that it was not one colour, but a variety of many colours, much like a skein of Kroy Sock yarn. At least, that's what I'm going to believe until science proves me wrong.

This stegosaurus was made using some sock yarn in Cascade that I had leftover after making my pair of fingerless gloves. The pattern was my first purchase from PlanetJune. I've been a long time fan of her work, but never had the opportunity to purchase one of her patterns before. I'd give it the thumbs up for quality. The instructions were clearly written and came with lots of pictures to help me figure out the placement of the spines and legs. I definitely felt like I got my money's worth.

The Women of Firefly - Free Cross Stitch Patterns!

2010-02-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

The text that follows these patterns is the same as that on the Men of Firefly post, just in case someone ends up at this post first.

As mentioned above, I recommend using three strands of floss for Inara's hair instead of the usual two. This will make it seem fuller and ensure that fabric doesn't show through gaps in the stitching. I also think it makes a nice contrast to Zoe's hair, which is also black, but should give the impression of being curlier.

To see what the characters look like stitched up you can refer to my Firefly Character Cross Stitch.

A Note on Stitching: I generally stitch the characters on 18 count Aida cloth, and use two strands of floss for each cross stitch. Back stitching is done with just one strand. If you're going to use a larger Aida cloth, such as 14 count, I would recommend using three strands for each cross stitch. Otherwise you may see pretty big gaps between stitches.

I know most experienced cross stitchers will know what types of stitches to make to complete these patterns. If you're new to cross stitch check out this Getting Started With Cross Stitch Tutorial, which includes diagrams.

There are a lot of places where you'll see sections coloured like this, either placed horizontally or vertically. Whenever you see this make a 3/4 stitch in the dominant colour and a 1/4 stitch in the other colour to fill the square. For example, in the sample to the left Square #1 would be filled with a brown 3/4 stitch in the top left quadrant and a yellow 1/4 stitch in the bottom right quadrant. Square #2 would have a 1/4 stitch in brown in the top left quadrant and a 3/4 stitch in yellow in the bottom right quadrant. It may look a little funny at first, but once you've outlined the character in black back stitching these parts will look much smoother.

When the pattern shows two colour numbers separated by a slash, such as 729/727 this means to use one strand of each colour.

A Note on Colours: There are no hard and fast rules about what colours should be used for various characters. What I've done here is listed the colours that I used. These were mostly chosen based on what was already in my stash and what I thought would be suitable. Feel free to make changes. Have a shade of brown, but it isn't the one I used? Use your own judgement. If you think it will be work for someone's hair, pants, etc. save some money and use it rather than tracking down the exact shade I used.

A Note on Patterns: To my knowledge these patterns are correct and the colour shades used have been listed with no typos. Of course, I could be wrong. If you come across any errors or have any questions feel free to post a comment and let me know.

Most of the stitched Firefly creations I've made have writing on them. I won't be posting the alphabets as the ones I've used are copyrighted by other designers. I generally try to say where I got them from in the completed design post, but if you can't find them, there are numerous free alphabets available online and in published cross stitch books.

Enjoy, and don't forget to check out my Men of Firefly cross stitch patterns!

The Men of Firefly - Free Cross Stitch Patterns!

2010-02-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is a corrected version of Mal. It includes the line I missed when I stitched my own Firefly cast. He's now just as tall as the rest of his crew!

Unfortunately, I don't own any fancy cross stitch pattern designing software, so we'll have to make do with hand drawn patterns. To see what the characters look like stitched up you can refer to my Firefly Character Cross Stitch.

When the pattern shows two colour numbers separated by a slash, such as 729/727 this means to use one strand of each colour.

Enjoy and don't forget to check out my Women of Firefly patterns!

More Dragon Gauntlet Gloves

2010-02-10T12:30:00.001-08:00

I hope you all don't mind a bit of a rerun. I enjoyed making the first pair of Dragon Gauntlet Gloves so much that I splurged on some specialty wool during a recent trip to our local yarn store, Knitopia. This new pair of gloves is made with MeriSock Hand Painted Colour #62. They're much softer than the pair I put together using Kroy and the variegated colours look absolutely beautiful when they catch the light.

Some Valentine's Day Inspiration!

2010-02-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, but there's still enough time to whip up a small homemade gift for that special someone in your life. Here for your amusement and inspiration are a few of the cutest Valentine's related crochet I've seen lately. First up, this adorable Amigurumi Valentine Mouse is being sold by SophieCat. I realize that if he was ordered now he might not arrive in time for Valentine's Day so I post him more as inspiration, as I'm sure any experienced amigurumi maker could make up their own pattern that's just as cute.

This next one came to my inbox courtesy of the Lily Sugar 'n Cream newsletter. These Love Bugs are a free pdf pattern that is available here.

Diana Prince designed this Pop Heart Pattern that's available as a free download via her blog, MyGurumi. Dress it up and personify it with some safety eyes, or just leave it as it. Either way, it's equally adorable.

Finally, for those with a sweet tooth. These cupcakes are super quick to stitch up and can be decorated and personalized in all sorts of ways. Check out the free pattern courtesy of Bitter Sweet.

And for that sweetheart with a more twisted sense of humour, how about the Mouldy Cupcake, a free download created by Gleeful Things.

Firefly Character Cross Stitch!

2010-02-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

I promise I will write out my patterns for these characters and post them soon. For now, I'm just so pleased with how this turned out that I had to share some pictures. Inspired by Needle Noodles Creepy Cute Cross Stitch, Lego Star Wars (could you imagine if there was a Lego Firefly, wouldn't that be amazing?) and this Jayne's Hat cross stitch I decided to try my hand at creating some Firefly related cross stitches. I spent last week creating the character designs and then much of the last seven days stitching it all together. The lettering was borrowed from 2001 Cross Stitch Designs, with some modifications (I really don't know why that book doesn't believe in half stitches.).

This piece is going to be donated to the B.C. Browncoats for the silent auction they'll be holding during this year's Can't Stop the Serenity screening, where proceeds go to Joss Whedon's favourite charity, Equality Now.

And now on to more pictures. Please feel free to offer some feedback, I'm still thinking of tweaking the designs a bit before I make final copies. I realize Mal is missing a row, making him a bit shorter than everyone else. Must fix that. Anyways, I'd love to hear what others think...

**Update: My cross stitch patterns for the men and women of Firefly have now been posted. Enjoy!

Favourite Fingerless Gloves

2010-02-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

I made a pair of these a couple years ago, but they got so dirty I was too embarrassed to post pictures of them. Here now is a picture of my more recent creation, which I only wore once before remembering I should snap a picture. I assure you I made a set, but since I can't think of a way to take a picture of both my hands at once, you'll just have to trust me on that one.

I really like this pattern because you get to work backwards from the fingers down to the wrist. I find it's much easier than trying to divide up the stitches when you get to the top. It also gives more leeway for sizing the glove. Make one finger and if it doesn't fit just pull it apart and add or take away some stitches. Learning to balance the four double pointed knitting needles you need to use can be a bit of a challenge! Someday I want to try adapting the pattern for crochet. I'm thinking it would be easy enough and I'd have less worries about dropped stitches or unravelling fingers.

Like my Dragon Gauntlet gloves these were made with Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn, this time in Cascade. Obviously the amount of yarn you need varies depending on the size of the glove you're making, but I've always been able to get away with making a pair with less then one skein of wool and plenty left over.

Want the Pattern?

This one is a free pattern courtesy of Knitty.com , who also provide wonderful extra instructions and links to helpful tutorials along with the pattern. Every time I make these I also find this video tutorial on how to make a slip, slip knit stitch (ssk) invaluable. In my experience it's hard to find a good visual description of how that stitch is made.

Dragon Gauntlet Gloves

2010-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

You'll just have to trust me that these look better in person than they do in the pictures.

The pattern was created by Aoibhe Ni Shuilleabhain and was featured in issue 5 (Dec./Jan.) of the UK magazine Inside Crochet. I'm not normally a fan of crochet magazines. Most of the time I find they only have one pattern per issue that appeals to me so I try to resist the temptation. After picking up the magazine to look at these Dragaon Gauntlets during three different Christmas shopping trips to Chapters, I knew this was one temptation I couldn't resist. While the gloves are by far my favorite thing in the magazine, I also really liked this issue's featured article on Tunisian crochet and accompanying patterns. The scarf on the cover is also starting to appeal to me, even though I'm not a scarf wearer by nature.

I made my Dragon Gauntlets with Patons Kroy Socks FX in Clover. It's not the luxurious yarn recommended in the pattern materials, but I was considering these a practice pair since this was my first attempt at following UK crochet directions and the pattern was listed as "Intermediate." Thankfully the patten turned out to be quite simple to follow. If you've ever crocheted a shell stitch, you can make these. They are also fun and quick to work up. I finished this pair in a single weekend and now that they're done I'm considering them a belated Christmas gift to myself.

Below is the picture from Inside Crochet that first attracted me to this pattern. I like the Swamp green colours of the sample pair, but I've always had an attraction to any variegated yarn that uses autumn colours.

Mint Bubbles Baby Blanket

2010-01-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

It started out with trying to use up some Bernat Softee and learn some new stitches that involved crocheting 'around the post'. Once I had practiced the stitches for a while and got the hang of the pattern I couldn't bear to leave it as a practice swatch. I kept stitching and kept buying more yarn to finish it off. Now, four additional balls of Mint Softee later I have a completed baby blanket and some left over Mint Softee, which is approximately the same amount that I had before I started this endeavor.

This must be one of the signs of yarn addiction, right? You start out with the best of intentions, to use up some of the yarn you've squirreled away, only to end up buying more yarn. Still, the blanket looks nice. Plus, I have enough yarn left to make a matching hat, and I promise I won't end up buying more yarn just to complete the hat (hopefully!).

This is the Dimensional Shells pattern from 7-Day Afghans by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss. It's actually supposed to be made with a chunky weight yarn and a Size N (10.0 mm) hook, but I thought it would also look nice made with a baby weight yarn and Size G (4.25 mm) hook. Of course, that explains why this "7-Day" blanket took me about two months to complete. I know I've recommended it before, but I have to once again highly recommend this book. It has a wonderful selection of patterns, the instructions are fairly easy to follow and most of the afghans can be completed quite quickly (especially if you use the recommended materials).

Other projects I've made using 7-Day Afghans:

Shell Stitch Afghan

Pinwheel Baby Blanket

Cthulhu Catch Up!

2010-01-12T15:20:00.001-08:00

My Tiny Cthulhu pattern has hit the big time now. This cthulhu hanging out with writer Neil Gaiman and musician Amanda Palmer was sent to them by Mrs. Micah and stitched using my pattern. I have to confess that I wasn't familiar with Palmer's music before being sent this photo, but I'm a long-time fan of Gaiman's novels, so it's pretty cool to see him mesmerized by the adorable gaze of the Tiny Cthulhu. Thanks for sending the photo, Mrs. Micah!

I have to admit I've fallen a bit behind in posting pictures of the cthulhu cousins that readers have been sending me. Apologies to everyone who has been patiently waiting to see their creations on the blog. And as always, if you've made something using one of my patterns I'd love to see it. Feel free to post a photo link in the comments section.

Swedish blogger Kicki sent me this picture of a Cthulhu duo way back in September. She said her husband wanted the house filled with a whole army of Tiny Cthulhus!

I really like the colour of yarn chosen by TheThirtySecondHour for this cthulhu. The way he's looking up like that makes him look so sweet and innocent.

Schtididdle says it best in describing how her Tiny Cthulhu came to be:

"SO yeah... Started crocheting for the hell of it and found your pattern. After three granny squares I went at it. I've made three so far. Wings on the first one were... just... awful. Second one can't fly, see or operate machinery. SO here we have the mind shattering horror that is... PINKTHULHU!!!"

And hopefully your eyes aren't hurting too much from that last pink Cthulhu because we've got another one crafted by Amy Lynn.

Now a traditional green Cthulhu courtesy of Vivian, (but he's sporting a pair of brown wings, just to be stylish).

Looks like those brown wings are becoming a fad, as this cthulhu made by Keilana also has brown wings. Keilana commented that she wishes the "tentacles hadn't turned out quite so tightly coiled, but other than that I'm pretty pleased with the end result." I've never tried making the tentacles less coiled, but I bet it could be done if you alternated putting 3 sc in a chain space followed by only crocheting 1-2 sc in the next chain space.

Once again thank you to everyone who has sent me photos of their creations. It's great to see the patterns are being used and that the Tiny Cthulhu is being enjoyed by so many people around the world.

Fun with Fun Fur

2010-01-05T14:19:00.001-08:00

I went a little crazy last year and bought a whole bunch of fun fur at the Dollarama next to my workplace. Of course, the challenge is trying to find ways to use this stuff. It looks real nice when it's all rolled up in a skein, but it's a pain to actually crochet or knit with. I've been looking for some ways to incorporate little bits of it into different projects because making an entire amigurumi out of it just isn't that enjoyable.

Hence my latest creation, a squirrel whom we've named Winter. He's also sporting the new 9mm black safety eyes which were a Christmas gift from one of my crafty friends. Winter stands about 3 inches tall and was heavily inspired by Moonscreations's Periwinkle Squirrelie. I winged the pattern and he stands about 3 1/2 inches tall. I'm thinking of making a small bunny with a fun fur tail to be Winter's companion, or possibly squirrels in three other colours. We'd have one for every season then. If anyone has any suggestions for other critters that could incorporate a small amount of fun fur please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Season's Greetings!

2009-12-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a moment to say Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone who has stopped by Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins this year. An especially warm thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post comments or send me a picture of something they've made with my patterns. After the holidays I'll display a new batch of Tiny Cthulhu pictures from the crocheters who have sent me photos over the past few months.

Until then, if you're not too tired of crochet Christmas ornaments, check out the wonderful snowflakes available from MYpicot. The ones displayed here and numerous others are available as a free download.

Wishing everyone all the best in 2010, have a wonderful holiday season!

Who Can Resist Knitting Narwals?

2009-12-11T15:03:00.000-08:00

I just received my copy of Sally Harless's Animals with Pastimes 2010 Calendar in the mail today. I originally spotted this on Craftster and was really enchanted with her clever illustrations. I'm not going to put up any pictures here that Harless hasn't already posted online, but trust me, the illustrations you haven't seen yet are just as clever as the ones you have. This will definitely bring a smile to my face each month as I turn the page to discover more of what the animals are doing when we're not looking.

The calendar is about 8.5 by 7 inches and printed on yellow printer paper. The images are nice and clear and the squares on the calendar have large enough spaces to write in important events. (What more could you want from a calendar?) Of course, I may just leave this one ink free so that at the end of the year I can take out the illustrations and frame some of them.

You can check out more of Harless's artwork or pick up your own 2010 Animals with Pastimes calendar by visiting SadlyHarmless.

An Alternative to Glass Christmas Tree Ornaments

2009-12-07T23:15:00.001-08:00

While we were all snuggled in our beds on Christmas Eve, when I was about five years old, our cat ate all the glass balls off the Christmas tree. We only discovered this the next day when tiny fragments of coloured glass were floating in his water dish. Thankfully he not only survived the experience, but went on to live another eleven years. Seriously, knocking them off the tree and rolling them off the floor I could understand. Eating them? Surely, the cat food we were serving wasn't that bad.

Since then we've always avoided putting anything breakable on the tree. I just spotted this clever stash-busting project courtesy of Etsy seller ZooCrafts, who sells these crocheted Christmas ball ornaments in sets of 4 for $15 U.S. A clever alternative to breakable ornaments for anyone who needs to baby-proof or cat-proof their Christmas tree this holiday season.

A Simple Scarf

2009-12-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've used the old knitting needles. I picked up this yarn at a moving sale of one of my favourite local yarn stores a few months ago. Sadly, the store will now be a 30 minute drive away from my house, instead of less than 5 minutes. That's probably better for my bank account in the long run, and far better than the store going out of business completely.

I've been lured in by this Ornaghi filati before, mostly because I really like the shimmery thread that runs through it. Providing you use a large enough hook or pair of knitting needles this stuff is quite easy to work with and the shimmery part doesn't split or snag.

I only managed to get about 150 grams of this so there certainly wasn't enough for a major project. Instead, I just went with an old standby a simple scarf knitted in a knit 2, pearl 2 pattern. I must confess, I had to pull out the trusty Stitch 'N Bitch to remind myself how to cast on and how to make the pearl stitches. When I was about halfway through the scarf and my needle slipped out of about ten stitches I once again remembered why I prefer crocheting to knitting! Still, I'm happy with the end result and, even though I don't wear scarves that often, I think I'll be keeping this one for myself.

A final picture where you can see the yarn and the knitting up close.