The Great Totoro Wave

After the last totoro fair isle hat, I still had more yarn, and my mom had said she wanted one too. She didn't have any specification on what she wanted on it, so I decided to try out the Totoro wave pattern I had mocked up.

I made this pattern a tiny bit taller than the last one, since I feel like maybe I should have more design and less edge on these hats. As with most things the more you make, the better they get.

With these large images of the Mount Fuji and this one with the wave, I wonder if the scene gets lost since it wraps around and you cannot see the whole design at once. Like maybe someone behind you will wonder why there is a big blue triangle on that person's hat... I guess that is why repeating motifs are more common in fair isle, since the design is the same from any angle.

While working on this one I went a lot faster than last time, mainly because I was itching to move on from hats into my next plushie idea. Day one, I spent about 4 hours working and got halfway through the design.

I finished the rest of the design in another two three hours or so. At that point I needed to start decreasing around. In the last few I have carried the white along to make stars in the sky, but for this one I needed to keep it to finish off the crest of the wave. If I had tried to include it in the flat part of the design it would have been way too deep of a hat.

I just eyeballed where I felt I should have the white crest start and stop to get that curved look over the next three rows of my decrease rounds. After that I stopped with the white altogether and just did the rest of the closing off in gray.

After hiding the ends, I asked if she would like a pom on the top. I don't have an opinion on them one way or the other, but she thought she would like one. I decided to go with the white and blue colors to maybe make it look like a splash of water, not sure the effect is really there, but it looks cute.

Difficulty, as with all of these hats, is Intermediate in my opinion.
Time to complete: 10 hours

Previous in the set:
Three Totoros & Mt. Fuji
Nighttime Hooting Totoros
Winter Forest Totoros

Three Totoros & Mt. Fuji

This is the third Totoro fair isle hat I have made.

A friend's mom collects images of Mt. Fuji and saw my last Totoro hats and asked for one of her own. I think this hat will be super cute to add to her collection of Fujisan images. She asked for it to fit a head size of 23 inches, so made it a little looser than the last one, which was already larger than the first. It is pretty much necessary to get it to fit nicely, since as I mentioned before there is NO stretch to the yarn or the fabric it creates.

I'm working again with a 6mm hook, but trying to be mindful of working loose on the hook. I started with a foundation single crochet 72 around. Then increased up to 78 (11sc, inc around) in the second round. For Row 3, I started working around in the waistcoat stitch. Overall, I added another row to this design since the last ones I felt were a little short and I ended up putting a few brim rows on so that they would cover your ears.

you can see the carried along yarn inside

I needed to get a little extra yarn for this hat since I was already working on leftover yarn from the first two. As it is, I have a fourth Totoro fair isle idea in the works that will use up what was left from the new skeins of this third hat.

almost done with the design rows

This time instead of bundling the two other stands into the back of every stitch, I used more of a knitting technique of picking up the other color strands every three or four stitches. It made the fabric a little lighter overall I think, and certainly less stiff. I do worry about the exposed yarns snagging on bobby pins or hair clips, but hopefully it will be ok since she has short hair.

starting to decrease

This hat was a little slow going like the others and it is kind of a pain to keep the colors from tangling since you work with three at once. I feel like I should come up with some sort of toilet paper holder rack to put the three skeins on so they can spin in place. In any case, I finished it in good time I think.

Totoro side

Mt. Fuji side.

As before I added a few more white pips of stars in the decreasing rounds. I didn't think a pom on the top would look right for this hat, so we left it off. Overall I am pretty happy with how this third effort turned out. Think I've got it to a good size to fit many heads and a good space to work out designs.

Difficulty: Intermediate
Time to complete: 15 hours

2014 Business Cards

I was out and about the other night when an old teacher of mine asked me what I was up to and mentioned that they would love to see some recent art.

Recent Art? I really do not think of myself as an artist anymore. Designer, sure. Creative crocheter? Yeah. Artist, nah.

Sure I've doodled a bit recently. And I am working on some fan art for AC:NL. But nothing frame-able. I feel lately like calling myself that would take away something from the other artists out there who continually work to improve themselves and their art.

That aside, once again I realized that I should have some personal business cards. Or at the very least carry around this custom stamp I had made with my logo and website on it... So I looked up the old art for the business cards I made up in 2010. I never had them printed and it's time for an update anyway.

The old old business card was boring and disjointed I felt. The playing card idea I still like a bit more since it at least looks cohesive on both sides. Sure, I'm not a card dealer, but I do consider the crafty things I do to be play. I am an ace (ha!) at what I do. I also like the limited color scheme of playing cards.

I updated the contact info and my name... since I've gotten married since I made these last. I tried to make it look a little like the box for cards with the patterns and dots and large symbol. I then took a few hours and reworked the playing card art to be a little more relevant and thoughtful.

I shortened my hair, colored it blue, updated my glasses shape. I also changed the outfit a bit. Before I was referencing the strange cloak-like clothes the card characters wear; now it is a layered kimono. I collect them, and love asian culture. The kimono itself has leaves (for the gardening I do) and chibi-totoros, for the obvious reason that I love them and flowers, just cause they are often on kimonos. I changed the waist sash into an obi (not too much of a stretch there). I left the lotus in my hair. I also left the bluebonnets since they are the flower of Texas. I added a wedding ring to my left hand and added a crochet hook to my array of implements in that hand. In case you can't tell those items are: a crochet hook, an art pen/marker, a pencil and a brush.

Making these cards allows me to show off my range of skills. I get to draw the design on paper, and then bring it into Illustrator to get vector lines, then into Photoshop for coloring. I also get to show off my design skills since everything is brought together in inDesign and text and embellishments are added.

So yeah, I'm thinking I will get these printed on glossy cardstock. And if it isn't too much extra, maybe I will have them die cut with rounded corners like real cards instead of the drop shadow effect. :)

UPDATE: Picture of the finished cards. I did get them die cut.

Mr Ramen

So my brother sent me a video called Ramen Party. There is an Indiegogo for using these characters to teach children about different types of food and cultures. It is pretty darn cute. After watching it and working on the Putti Cat for so long, I wanted to make something fun and less of a challenge.

Ramen Party!

Mr. Ramen is just the kind of strange and cute thing that should be made into a plushy. So I started thinking about how I would go about making one. First thing I needed would be a good yarn. I thought about using a solid yellow, however I thought he might look like a certain other yellow square character. So I found a Lily Sugar n' Cream yarn in a color called Daisy Ombre. The yellow fading to white color combo was perfect.

Next I needed to find a good stitch to use. Since he is a rectangle shape, I would not be using amigurumi for this one. I wanted something textured and that would replicate the woven up and down sort of pattern on his ramen noodle body. My first thought was a wavy crochet stitch, but that came out flat, and since the color is all the same white and yellow, it was hard to see the wavy lines.
I also tried a crunch stitch, thinking the random look might get me what I was looking for. I didn't really like that either, and it had a lot more holes than the image showed.

Looking through my mother in laws books I found what was called a Rocky Road stitch. It had the random look I wanted, but I wasn't sure it was the one. Glad I tested a swatch because it ended up being what I went with.

The Rocky Road Stitch
Chain a multiple of 4 plus 3 (for turning). I chose 24 chain, plus 3 for turning (27).
--> That legnth was about how wide I wanted the body to be. And that gave me 6 sort of wavy humps per row.

Foundation Row: 1 sc in second chain from hook, *[1 sc, ch 2, 2 dc] in next chain, skip next 2 chain, sc in next chain, repeat from * across within  last chain 1 sc.
--> This puts 2 sc on the end of every row. Be sure to chain 1 for turning.

Row 1: Chain 1 (for turning), 1 sc in first sc, *[1 sc, ch 2, 2 dc] in next sc. Skip the 2 dc and chain 2 from last row and do one sc into the sc that starts that cluster. Repeat from * across the row.
--> This was confusing to me at the beginning. I watched this video which helped. Basically your cluster is going behind or in front of the cluster hump shape of the previous row. This gives it a kind of layered point look. The wavy up and down look was perfect for me, plus the variegated yarn kind of came out random looking which was important to me, since the other stitch swatches I had made had the white of the yarn line up into rows.

To I ended up doing about 18 rows of this. To end, I just bound off at the end of the last row. I did not try to make it be a straight bottom since I liked the pointy wavy look and I thought it was more true to the character. I made two square pieces like this. Be sure to realize that there is a front and a back to this stitch, meaning it is not reversible. When working the rows I was sure to keep the points all on the same side which would be the outside of Mr. Ramen. (Kind of like if you were doing a popcorn stitch.)

Next I had to figure out how to make his body edges. Since the animation is flat, but we know what ramen looks like, I figured I wanted an inch or so thickness. For the edges then I would make one long piece that I would use to attach the front and back of the body to.

Body Sides
Chain 4 plus 1 to turn.
Rows 1-3 : 1sc in second chain from hook, 1 sc in each across, turn. (4 sc)
*Row 4: 1 sc in each of the 4 stitches in the BACK LOOPS ONLY.
Rows 5-6: 1 sc in each of the 4 stitches, chain 1 turn. *
* Repeat until you have 6 V shapes to go along the bottom. (about 36 rows)
Once you do, you can ignore the back loop only instruction for the le
--> Doing the third row of stitches in the back loops makes what would other wide a long flat rectangle into a long wavy rectangle. These back loop rows make V's that should be about the same size as the V's made from the last row of the Rocky Road body stitch. That means that sewing the bottom of the body up should be easier to do. Since the left, right and top sides of the body are straight the wavyness isn't needed. Hence why after the 36 rows or so for the bottom of the body you can stop the back loop variation, for the sides and top.

What a cutie.

Face Embellishments
Once you have the three pieces done for the body, front square, back square and long side piece, you can take the time to create. Mr. Ramens chibi features. Pick one of the squares to be front. Be sure you know the front from the back and put the features on the right side! I used 15mm black safety eyes. I folded the square to make sure they were about the same apart and at the same height. Just go with what looks right to you. Once the eyes were in place I used black yarn to embroider some simple eyebrows. The mouth goes between and below. I also took two 4 inch strands of yarn and folded them in half. These were threaded horizontally through at stitch below the top edge and pulled through a loop like a tassle to secure them. I then took the yarn that stuck out and untwisted them all and then twisted it back together as one piece. I curled it a little with my fingers to give him his little but of hair. I used a dry paintbrush and a little bit of light pink fabric paint to give him the little cheek blushes. At this point he should be smiling up at you.

Face done :)

Arms
For the noodly sort of arms he has, I used a weird idea to get those done quick. Make 2.
Since the body came out larger than I had realized it would I made these arms and legs using a kind of hybrid amigurumi. I worked in a circle, but also branched out for the arm and fingers. Use a place marker at the beginning of your rounds. To get a left and a right one, just make sure you turn them the right way when you sew them on.

Magic Circle 7 sc (one space for each finger, one for a space between thumb and fingers and one for the arm)
sc in first, chain 16, turn, sc 15 back, sl st in same first st (to make arm)
sc in next stitch, chain 3, turn, sl st in next two sts, sl st into next stitch (to make thumb)
in four remaining stitches, chain 4, turn and sl st in next 3 stitches, securing with sl st in next stitch
bind off. (to make 4 fingers)
To attach to body, I then needed to attach some more yarn to the end of the arm.

Completed hand and arm.

Legs
The legs are the same sort of noodly appendage, but much shorter. He also has white shoes. The shoes created a bit of a dilemma since I wanted to do the white and black, so these are in a more traditional amigurumi style of working in rounds.

Magic Circle 6 sc
2 sc in each, 12
2 rows of one sc in each, 12
Bind off.
Use tail from start or end to sew up 6 of the stitches to close most of the circle off at the top. Stuff with a little bit of polyfil. Then attach white to any of the 6 remaining open stitches and use those 6 as a new circle. Do 2 rows of 6 sc to get the shoe to come up to his "ankle".
Switch to black yarn, and attach.
One sc in each back loop only around. (makes the color change have a hard edge)
Do 12 more rows of black, one sc in each around.
Bind off and leave a tail for sewing to body.

Foot part on the left, Complete shoe on the right.

Assembly
Now that the face is done and the arms and legs are ready to go you can put him together. I recommend using a single crochet to attache the face to the side of the body along the long edge first. Then attach the backside to the other long edge of the side piece. Be sure to stop before you come to the end so that you can stuff his body. Or use a small piece of craft foam if you really want him to stay rectangular, be sure if you do that, to add the foam once you have three sides done to make it easy on yourself. The arms and the legs should just get sewn on to the sides in their appropriate locations. Use the long tails, insert it into the body, pull it out again, thread it through the last stitch closest to the body on the appendage and tie it down. Hide the tail once it is secure inside the body.

Mr. Ramen!

Done! This little guy took me about 8 hours since I did a lot of trial an error stitch swatches. I also spent a lot of time making the face look right.

Just as an fyi: I always feel it is important to ask before you post, especially if what you are creating is inspired by something that someone else created. I did just that before this post went up and got a very positive response:
"WOW this is amazing!  For sure feel free to share it and thank you for letting us know in advance -- please please do post it on our FB page!  We are so honored that you've created a Mr. Ramen of your own :)"  - Lillian and the Ramen Party team

Personally I would have loved to have learned about the many different tasty dishes that come from other cultures. I am Italian and was raised on pasta, but I never had different kinds of noodles till I got to college! I would have loved to learn about foods like Ramen, Pho', Pad See Ew, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Bahn Mi before my 20s...

Sugar Rush

Wreck-it Ralph was really good. Kinda wish it had been more video game references, characters and locations, and less CandyLand/Candy Kingdom, but still really good. The reason I don't mark it down for having so much candy stuff is because it is too gosh darn fun and lovable.

From the trailers I really thought I was going to hate Vanellope Von Schweetz as a character but I ended up liking her more and more. Also, I really want to own a copy of Sugar Rush now.

So since a lot of the people I have in my google reader were making their own racers, I thought I would give it a whirl.

Tried to think about my favorite candies... Not sure why I forgot about my favorite, Mallomars, but I was stuck thinking about what is in my house right now... Mounds. Dark Chocolate, coconut and coconut flakes. Thought about the textures and the way the chocolate kind of ripples on the top. Also thought about what I wear in the winter, since all the racers have a winter wardrobe.

I gave her coconut flake cake ball earmuffs, kept my blue hair, pale skin and my freckles. She is dressed in a coconut husk-esque scarf, a coconut cream tunic long sleeve sweater, a short pleated skirt seemed manditory for the girl racers so I gave her one peeking out under the sweater. I made it blue to tie into my hair, but also because almond joy has a blue wrapper, and maybe she can like almonds even though I don't. She has dark chocolate colored leggings inside her chocolate ripple patterned boots. I also gave her fingerless gloves because I like them, in orange, cause I like it too.

Got to figure a name... kind of leaning toward: Almonella Cocowhipple.

Update: Made a mallomar version since it was a good idea and Almonella's first outfis isnt screaming CANDY. Dark Chocolate Beanie, Racing goggles, a marshmallow whip coat, chocolate skirt, graham cracker leggings and chocolate boots.

Update 2: Created three more racers at the request of a certain person, Phil, on facebook.
First up is my hubby. He is based on root beer floats. Has a root beer float hat, a vest and bow tie, pants and shoes. I added the bow tie to make him feel more "Malt Shop".

Next is Phil since he asked for them. I thought Atomic Fire Ball! So he got a firey shirt with an atomic bomb shirt underneath, jeans and an atomic fire ball beanie. Thought his shoes should be converse sneakers or something. And can throw puffs of spicy cinnamon air... I guess.

And I thought to round out the couples with his girlfriend. Not sure what candy she likes, but she is sweet and fresh and I thought candy canes for some reason. So she has a candy cane hair clip and pendant. A lacy candy shrug, a red drop-waist dress with a licorice belt. Candy cane striped leggings and red sneakers.

Cucumber Quest, Oz & Avatars

So ever since watching Summer Wars, I've wished that Oz was real and that I could really make a custom avatar like was displayed in the movie with all those options. Started sketching around right after I saw it the third time or so... That was months ago now. You can see the direction I was going. The squiddy one is one for my husband.

Already here I was going toward Animal Crossing, Cats and Kimonos

I've left off it and been working on other things. Been thinking I need to get back to webcomic doodles. So the next one on my list is Cucumber Quest by Gigi DG. This comic is so awesome that I backed their Kickstarter because I want a print book of it so freaking bad.

Follows and unlikely hero, Cucumber, in his quest to defeat the Nightmare Knight, along with a whole host of characters. I am totally in love with the art for this comic... It like it has parts of oil painting and watercolors and pastels, parts of children's cutout books, pop up books, samurai jack sponge-painted backgrounds, fanatastic lighting and color. It's got the best parts of Animal Crossing and video games and RPGs and magic. It has cuteness and humor out the wazoo.

Anyway I wanted to draw something, so I just started doodling what I might look like as an inhabitant of Dreamside.

Everone is bunny in Dreamside, so far, I think.

Today I realized that there is a connection between these two different thoughts... I think. Then I was thinking about the previous avatars I have created and Animal Crossing. Anyway I have also been thinking that I need a new Twitter avatar so I did some more doodles today.

I tried to get a full 360 of it in my head. Nailed down her kimono design a bit more. It is a totoro design kimono. Animal Crossing ish shape. Cat like head and calico ish color spots. Cat/Rabbit ish ears. Tail which curls like my dog's. Eyes outline = glasses.  

Bottom left is an idea for a ParaNorman/Scooby Doo Fanart.

Started then thinking more about that twitter design... Might have to fix this since I have her holding the stuff in the wrong hand. I am lefthanded. Might just take it out all together.
I will probably color this.

Chinese Dragon Hat

So I teased you earlier last week, and again this week with images of my latest project: the Chinese Dragon Hat. I am happy to report that it is finished. I call it that because I was looking at these images for inspiration...

As I mentioned before I had the idea while making the 5 fish hats. I had originally thought that I would like to try a fish hat that looked like a koinobori flag or a red koi fish, but as that would require changing colors in the middle of rows and all manner of confusion, I decided to leave off that idea for now. Instead I thought, why not make the hat go on for a long while and be a scarf at the same time.

So I picked out 7 colors that I liked and had about one skein of: a pumpkin orange, a jake the dog  light orange, brown, khaki, hunter green, pale yellow and a dusty blue. Figured I would be upset with myself if I didn't have a blue in there since I wear so much of it.

It is as tall as I am, so about 5 1/2 feet in lenth.

I followed the fish hat patter for making the mouth. Once I got to the end I just continued the single stitch rows out for longer until I felt the head was long enough. Then to make the head blend with the body and make it just a little bit more of a long dragon head, I added a few shell rows of the same color. Then I started rotating through my colors until I reached a thickness that I felt was right for a scarf. (Following the pattern terms, I stopped decreasing at 10 shells.) I feel that it might be good to say that I had thought of making the colors random, but then decided against it because it would bother my slightly OCD brain. So I had first arranged them in a general ROYGBIV sort of order, but didn't want it to be a rainbow dragon, so instead opted for a sort of compatible light dark light dark arrangement.

You can see ears, horns, eyes and whiskers here.

I added red lips around the face and white teeth in a similar shell pattern. Once I reached a length that would wrap around my neck once, I started decreasing the shells again down to two and then fanned out a tail. I also used a half circle pattern for eyes, the shell pattern for eyebrows, a leaf pattern for ears, a modified version of the fins pattern that came with the fish pattern for horns, and a made up kind of chain for the nose whiskers. The entire project took about a week to make and sew together.

Tail Fan

I expect I will have orders once I start wearing him out in the winter...

UPDATE: Added some nostrils and a neck fin... images in this update post.

Husband won't go with you to A-kon? Make Good Art.

Today's title is a reference to Neil Gaiman's recent speech to a group of students graduating from a school of the arts... Haven't heard it? STOP RIGHT NOW AND CLICK THIS LINK! Seriously, if you are an artist in any way, you should hear this.



Now that that is taken care of, A-kon was this weekend. With blue hair, naturally I wanted to dress in a way that might just be recognized by other nerds at the con. First thought was to get streaks added to my blue hair and go as Vinyl Scratch aka DJ P0n-3 (saw 3). But I couldn't seem to find a white shirt that wasn't see-through to paint her cutie mark on. Next thought was Ami Mizuno aka Sailor Mercury (saw 1) But I'm not sure I could manage to pull her off without just getting a sailor scout uniform.

Next thought was summertime Coraline. The idea was to use this fairly recognizable outfit but "summertime" it. I made myself a dragonfly hairclip like she wears.

Got a blue tank top and tried to add white stars like her sweater with fabric paint. Thought I might string the button eyes I have on a string around my neck to add a bit more emphasis on the movie, though I think her looking stone would work equally well. A blue jean skirt and some blue sandals would complete the look. It would be less cosplay and more fashion-inspired-by. At least I feel like I could wear it everyday and no one would be the wiser. HOWEVER, the white stars never came out white and my bleach pen attempts there-after turned out pink. So that was scratched as well.

In the end it was just blue hair, a comfy shirt and skirt, my vibrams, my con bag, and my backup costume: the pipe fox from xxxHolic. Maybe next time I can find some Chobit ears and just pretend to be a persocom.

The Con Bag Before

Items on con bag: Mouse from Spirited Away, Rainbow Dash, BPRD patch, Angel Beats patch, Kodama from Princess Mononoke, Pins: handmade round metal pin that looked kind of like a kodama head, Ravenclaw, Pisces, Kissyface, Innsmouth is for Lovers, Mrs. Auditore, Grand Caymans, Dr. Cat, Japanese Temple, Monorail Cat, True Dungeon 2010, Pirates of the Caribbean medallion. (To be added: Fifth Element patch)

The Con Bag After

New Items Added: Ouran Host Club Patch, Pins: Totoro, Flameo Hotman, We Do the Weird Stuff, fat Rainbow Dash, Sailor Mercury and Symbol, Pabu the Fire ferret, Mr. Toast, Its the Quenchiest, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Appa, Haruhi from Ouran Host Club, Mokona, and Be the Leaf with Tenzin's son Meelo from Legend of Korra

Happle Tea Fan Art

So, moving on. I've decided that I need something else to draw, something fun and something that might last a while. While reading through my RSS feeder this morning I realized that there was plenty here to draw. So for a while I will be doodling my favorite characters from the various web comics I read. Maybe it will help expose you all to new ones you might not know of.

So going in the order in which they are displayed in my reader the first up is Happle Tea by Scott Maynard. Do you like mythology? Of course you do, who doesn't... Then this comic might just make you laugh. Mostly revolves around Lil K and his dad, Sasquatch. Lil K meets all kinds of folks from all kinds of myths and legends. One of my favorite returning characters is Cat God.

So I started out drawing Lil K eating ice cream because it is summer and I wanted him to have a nice time with Cat God for once, who generally says some unpleasant things. Then, since I am obsessed with Kenku, which are loosely based off karasu tengu from Japanese mythology, I thought hey, lets add a kid one in. Who else better might hang with a kid Kenku then Lil K, plus they have similar fashion sense in they are always shown wearing hooded clothes. :) Not sure what type of ice cream truck would have frozen treats to appeal to all three, but I bet it would exist in this comic.

Avatar Time!

So if you don't know... I love Adventure Time. I also love the Avatar: The Last Airbender tv show. As I was heading out to get the new Adventure Time comic, volume 1, I was also struck with the desire to find the new short comic for Avatar, called The Promise. Like these things do, a thought came to me in the car while I was driving... MASHUP!

I feel like Aang could get along with Finn tremendously and since Jake has stretchy powers, they could all easily travel Ooo together. This was super fun to do. Not sure why I didn't think of it sooner.

Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Adventure Time nor Avatar, this is strictly fan fun!

Asian Girl and Dragon

Asian Girl and Dragon
September 2004
Graphite and Ink on Paper