Doing the Impossible - Six Years Running

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

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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.