December 6, 2013

Gunter the Penguin Crochet

It has come to my attention that some of my traffic here is from students. Welcome!
Apparently there is also the notion that I have a store... I do not. Sorry :(
However, I am always open to the idea of commissions as I generally have a plethora of yarn and time. As always, these patterns are written for fun not profit so be kind and give credit if you use or link to me. And please do not sell your creations from these patterns, gifts are cool though.

I was approached at a football game and asked if I knew of Adventure Time (HECK YES I LOVE TO WATCH A.T.) and if I would make a Gunter. Seemed easy enough, I recalled seeing a pattern somewhere so I said sure.

The most evil of Penguins.
After looking around I realized the penguin pattern I remembered seeing was for the Madagascar penguins and was totally different. So I made this one up. Here goes.

Gunter the Penguin from Adventure Time
Supplies needed: Black, White and Yellow yarn, Stuffing, Embroidery Needle, hook size H8 5.0

Main Body, in black1. MC, sc 6
2. (sc 2 in one) 6 times (12)
3. (sc 1, sc 2 in one) 6 times (18)
4. (sc 2, sc 2 in one) 6 times (24)
5. (sc 3, sc 2 in one) 6 times (30)
6. (sc 4, sc 2 in one) 6 times (36)
7. (sc 5, sc 2 in one) 6 times (42)
8-27. (20 rows), sc all around
Bind off


White face/ belly1. chain 15, plus 1 to turn
2-21. (20 rows) sc 15 across, chain 1 and turn
21. Sc, hdc, dc, dc, 2dc, tc, 2tc, tc, 2tc, tc, 2dc, dc, dc, hdc, sc (makes an arched top)
At the end of row 21 chain one and do a sc down around the outside and back up to arched row to give it a finished look to the edges. Bind off. 
(Note, I didnt think this was rounded enough so when I eventually sewed it to the body I tucked the corners under and sewed it down. Cheating, but I was too tired to rip it all out again and make a perfect pattern.)

Eyes 
You could use black and white felt, and sew it down to front of white face body piece, but I have trouble with real needles and thread. So I did the following:
Make 2 large eyes in black.  MC 6, then 2sc in each (12), Bind off, leaving tails to sew down with.
Then make 2 smaller eyes in white. MC 5sc, bind off and sew onto the black eyes where desired.Then sew the eyes to the white belly near the top arch leaving room for the beak between.


Beak, in yellow1. Chain 6, slip stitch into first to form a ring, make sure you have a tail for sewing on later.
2-3. sc 6 around
4. sc 2 together to decrease, sc in 4 (5)
5. sc 2 together, sc in 3 (4)
6. sc 2 together, sc in 2 (3)
7. sc 3 together, bind off and hide end from tip of beak inside.
Sew to white face/belly between eyes.


Wings, in black, make 2
Chain 11
1. turn and sc in second from hook and next 9, chain 1 and turn, 
2. skip first sc, sc, sc, hdc, hdc, 2 dc in one, hdc, hdc, sc, slip stitch in last, chain 1 and turn 
3. sc back down original chain 10, bind off leaving tail to sew to body. 

Feet, in yellow, make 2
1. MC, sc 6
2. sc 3, (sc, dc, dc, sc in one) (slip stich into next stitch, chain 1, dc, dc, sc) (slip stitch into next, chain 1, dc, dc, sc) sc in next to to get to back of foot.
Bind off, leaving tail for sewing to body.

Note: Make all parts first! Once all parts made sew eyes and beak the the white belly, then sew the belly to the main body shell. Then sew wings to body at edges of white just below and to the sides of the eyes. For sitting Gunter, sew feet to front bottom of white body, for standing wait till after stuffing and sew them to the bottom. Stuff Gunter's body with poly fill. You can add a small sachet of bead weighting to the bottom if you want, before closing it off.

To Close Main Body
1. fpsc around on last row of single crochet. should have 42 stitches
2. (sc5, sc2tog) 6 times (36)
3. (sc4, sc2tog) 6 times (30)
4. (sc3, sc2tog) 6 times (24), be sure to add more stuffing at this point to make sure its nice and full.
5. (sc2tog) 6 times (12)
6. (sc2tog) 6 times (6)
Bind off
Sew feet on bottom with toes sticking out if wanted Gunter standing.
Wenk.
Done. 

I kind of feel like he should have been taller but I was working inside the parameters of wanting to do this project with leftover yarn scraps of these colors. And I had just enough black to get it this size. He is about 7 inches tall. Took about 10 hours. 

December 4, 2013

2013-2014 Show Choir Logo

So as you might remember, last year I worked up a quick logo for the Nolan Catholic HS Show Choir. Well once again I was asked to do this years. I was given a sketch to go from and the information that they would like to have all 20 kids names included.

With my old file at hand and the sketch done by one of the students in hand I set out to try to replicated it in a way that would look nice.

The front was simple enough. The shirts would have an updated Show Choir logo as well as the dates, in a normal placement on the breast. Clean and simple.


The back however was a different matter. Since it would have the names of the students it needed to be larger and incorporate the sketch that I was given.
Sketch by Student Mandi O'Neal
Step one was to take the sketch and try to recreate it in Illustrator so it could be clean and I could easily change up the colors to see what looked best. It also needed to be scaled to the larger size that the back design needed to be legible. I sent in this to make sure that even though I changed it up a bit they still liked it and felt it was close to the original intent. At this point the shirt color had not been decided as it was up to a vote.

The original thought for the student's names was to have them in the cloud of sound coming out of the phonograph, but with the text of the Show Choir logo overtop the text of the names it might have been a bit too busy. I presented a different option of using a record sleeve. At this point they had voted on a navy colored shirt and we threw out the idea of using white and gold printing.


I tried to make the design tight and self contained so that it would look nice centered on the back of a shirt. I also played with the colors of the lines and the fills. I also soon realized that black on navy is almost illegible. Those black outlines were not really cutting it. You can also see that in one, I removed the ornamental flowers since they seemed to get lost and distract the eye. I also added in a record sleeve as my idea for how to incorporate the names of the students. There was a few rounds of going back and forth on just printing in gold and white and no black, but none were really as sharp as it needed to be.

I then got the suggestion to make the navy shirt be the outlines and text, and just have the areas around filled with the gold and white printing. It took a little work, but once I started working it was clear that it was much better. I also realized that with the record sleeve in perspective that I would have to make some names smaller than others, and I did not want that to be the case, so I changed it as well.

I sent it in and we all agreed that it was done.
Final Back Design
Cant wait to see what it looks like in real life!