Some Valentine's Day Inspiration!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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.