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...

Putti Cat

The last month has been really busy between going on a school spring break ecology trip to Big Bend National Park, the Easter Break and prepping for the end of the school year, weddings to attend, prom to chaperone, etc...With events every few days, art takes a back seat.

A good friend of mine from college at UD, Carol, (who's blog is linked on my side bar) asked if I would try to make her cat, Putti, for her. Trying to match someone's beloved pet is daunting, since they know them like you never will, but I was willing to give it a go.

Putti.

As you can see, Putti is a fluffy cat. This makes the medium of crochet a bit ill suited, as I feel needle felting might be more realistic, but as I can't needle felt and custom pet portraits are expensive, I tried to find a happy medium. Regular amigurumi uses worsted weight yarn, but to emulate the fuzzyness of Putti, I wanted to use a furry yarn to match. Anyone who crochets or knits knows that the yarn called "fun fur" is anything but fun or easy to work with. I also generally feel like it produces something that looks a mess rather than like it has fur.

Hunting through Etsy, I came across a pattern by a lady named Barbara for a Baby Kitten. It had the right amount of softness I felt, to get the soft fuzzy look without resorting to fun fur. Plus it was close in the placement of color to Putti herself.

Notes about the yarn:
To complete the pattern I bought one white and two black skeins of Joann Fabrics brand Sensations Beautiful yarn. The Sensations Beautiful yarn is really soft and fluffy which makes it almost impossible to see your stitches. The magic circle starting is impossible because of nearly instantaneous felting of the fur. I was going to give it up and go back to regular yarn, but I found a few tips to try. These tips allowed me to get more than several rounds done successfully. First, I used a chain start instead of the magic circle start. I also stitched a little looser than I normally would.

Yarn and thread.

Carrying the fluffy yarn and the thread allowed for a little bit of the stitch to be seen. (Near my thumb.)

What helped the most, was for me to use a second strand of white or black crochet thread and to carry it along with the fur. This made the stitches a lot more visible since the black and white thread was shiny and created a little more definition. I was also sure to also have a lamp over my work so I could really see what I was doing. I had to go slow, with no music or distractions, and counted out each round as I went. I also used the back loops only throughout the pattern so that I could actually get into a stitch and it also allowed me to get a read on how many rounds I had completed.

I also ordered a pair of 12mm gold cat safety eyes off of amazon since I could not find any in my local stores. Which once I got the head done, I felt were too small, and had to go find the 18mm ones I had from a project I never used them in.

Upon reading over the pattern I knew I would have to make some changes to get Putti as opposed to the kitten she made. My changes to the pattern are as follows: (Black and White, not cream and tan)
1. I made the head in all black, embroider a small patch of white on the inside of one cheek.
2. Don't worry about black outlines for nose or eyes.
3. Body color switching suggests decreasing amount of underbelly white, I didn't worry about that since Putti has a solid white underbelly.
4. Use black worsted yarn for nose, not brown. Same thing for the ears rather than pink, use black.
5. Whiskers in white thread, Add set of two whiskers over eyes.
6. For the tail, no switching colors.

Since I wanted the white chest to continue into the body I had to change a bit of the way that section was written: My Round 5 involved not attaching black like I said to.
Round 6 was now my last increase row, and was still in white yarn.
Rounds 7- 24, I starting doing the color switching Round 14, also ignoring the white decreasing.
I had to rewrite Round 14 to read as follows: Continue *in white for next 10 sc, switch to black yarn, continue sc in black for the rest of the row, 26.  when get back to the beginning of next row, pick up white and continue from beginning *

The switching between black and white made the inside a little strange to stuff since the threads went back and forth across the inside, I also had to be sure not to pull the excess inside too tight, so that it didn't make the finished body form look strange. I guess you could bind off and reattach every row, but that seemed more of a pain.

The inside of the body.

The pattern also called for making the feet and legs as separate pieces and then sewing them together when finished. This also seemed like a lot more work than was needed and I was hesitant to have to sew with this fluffy yarn. So I rewrote the leg patterns. I also made a separate pattern for the front and back legs since the coloring is different.

Body with white belly. Front and back feet complete.

Front feet: (Just toes white)
chain 2, 6 sc in first chain, in white
2 in each sc, (12)
2 in first, sc in next, repeat around, (18)
sc in one, popcorn stitch (4 sc in each stitch, pull together, chain 1) in next four stitches, sc around
attach black, sc2tog, sc in next, around, (12)
sc in each around for next 8 rows
leave long tail for sewing to body and bind off

Back feet: (most of leg and toes are white)
chain 2, 6 sc in first chain, in white
2 in each sc, 12
2 in first, sc in next, repeat around, 18
sc in one, popcorn stitch (4 sc in each stitch) in next four stitches, sc around
sc2tog, sc in next, around, 12
sc in each around for next 5 rows
attach black, sc around
sc around in next 3 rows
leave long tail for sewing to body and bind off

White belly with legs on. There are toes on those paws...

The head was the most difficult part, so I left it for last. This was good and bad. Good because I had time to get used to the yarn/thread combo. Bad because I was worried that I had made the body too long and that it would look out of proportion. Also, I am pretty sure that I did not create the nose ridge right. Which made the nose itself too low, and the mouth even lower. Also, I do not think I got enough definition between the fuzzy black for the body and the smooth black for the nose. Perhaps I should have used gray or something.

Overall the pattern took about 20 hours to make and assemble. Maybe with regular yarn for a smooth hair cat, the pattern might be easier. The one thing that bothered me most I think is the head to body join... There is not really a neck which I think adds to the strangeness of the finished piece.

Finished "cat".

I am not really happy with how this turned out, not sure it looks anything like Putti, let alone a real cat. I suppose, yes, there is something to be said for it being handmade. But when I feel like you could buy a better representation of an item, than I can make, well it leaves me with the feeling of why did I try. So maybe I will stick to cartoon-y looking stuff in the future rather than attempt realism.

Old Characters

I've created a lot of characters over the years for various role playing games with my friends. I've got images in my head for each of them since I usually did some rough drawings during sessions.

Some the the stuff I have posted here early on were sketches of some of these characters: Lin Kohaku and Nori Nori were ideas for a Once Piece based game. Adia was a bard with dueling scimitars from a DnD game from college. Also, Agent Sonar, is another one of my more recent characters for a Cthulhu game. The most recent character I have created is this image of the Tech-priest for a Dark Heresy game.

Other older characters I am kind of annoyed to say that I must have lost the drawings for.  For example, I made this cool x-men character for a game whose name was Lilly, aka Willow Wisp. She had lead shoes because her atoms were turning into helium slowly so she would float all the time and could control a small area of wind around her. Once I made a cleric named Yzma who had a giant hammer and smashed stuff. I also have a record of a 20th level Gestalt, Human Druid Fighter dnd character who had a lion mount. No drawings though. :(

But, I have found a few of these missing sketches today because I was thinking about one of the characters I spent the most time on, Lady Adone. She was for a Whitewolf campaign, it didn't get too far into the game, but I wrote her a 5 page backstory, chronicled each session in a diary format, and even wrote short stories about her house, her companion a raven who could talk, and a special item she had which was a Very Helpful Book. She could speak to inanimate objects. Was dark and lonely, had gold eyes, and was very pretty. So today, I dug out the sketch I did of her.

Lady Adone Ravenwood

While I was digging through sketchbooks, I found a few more drawings of other characters. So I figured I would share. Please keep in mind these are all at least 7 years old...

This one is Chei Mazo, her name means tossed by the tempest. Was going to be a pilot character for a Serenity campaign.

Chei Mazo

This one is another version of something I was thinking of for that One Piece campaign that Lin and NoriNori are from. You can see she has a giant fishhook which she used as weapon. The various versions were all supposed to be a fish girl. The weapon changed from giant fishhook to anchor and back and forth, but was going to be used to hit people with on a long rope. Pretty sure that all of these characters that I had been working on ended up fusing into Lin Kohaku cause she was the most unique looking.

One Piece is a weird anime.

This was an elf hunter from an early dnd campaign. She had a Stag companion. Might have been a druid... not sure. Thinking I might have just seen Princess Mononoke for the first time around then.

This one is an early sketch of the same bard I mentioned before, Adia. At this point in the campaign she only had one scimitar and was mostly a bard. By the end she had a few ranks in just about every class you might think: Bard, Barbarian, Fighter and Dervish... it was nuts. And totally freaking awesome. She eventually had a kid and saved the world and I think she had an airship too.

This was for a Naruto based game. Her name was Black Lotus and was a ninja who could use dances to manipulate the air. Funny thing, her real name was also Chei Mazo, and I liked the name so much I reused it when I needed a name for the Serenity campaign.

Black Lotus, 2006

God this one must be even older, I'm thinking 2004. Still reading a lot of Ah, My Goddess! at this time clearly. Another elf, this one is probably a hunter since druids can't wear mail if I remember right. Wolf companion this time. That is one strange looking dog, and that torso... goodness.

And finally, Khyarete. She was from an Arcana Unearthed game. This character was probably one of the first I ever made. She is the namesake of my Gmail account and twitter handle. She was really cool, had this super special halberd. This game was special since the world had a lot of water and islands and boats were common settings rather than the usual generic landmass and dungeons. Khyarete is the reason that I gave Skyrim a go, since that game had a race of cat people.

Khyarete

Wonder what will be next? Bottom line is, if people ask you to play in a role playing game, you might say yes. I know some people will call you a giant nerd, but they were all really fun and good outlets for creativity.

Summertime Sandies

So I used to have this crochet project a day calendar... it was way back in the days when I did not really crochet all that well, or know what I was doing. But I did save a few of the day projects because I liked them and knew one day I might want to revisit them.

This project is one of them:

I feel it is kind of wrong that people are selling this pattern on e-bay.

Today I was sitting around and decided to start on this pattern. Especially since it is already in the 70's and I'm feeling like summer is just around the corner. I didn't have any beads so I decided to skip em since it is kind of a lace pattern anyway. I also did not have gold thread, but I did have black, so I used that.

Four rows in to the pattern and I'm already finding typos and odd stitch choices, but I muddled through trusting in the pattern. Until I got to the part for the right strap. Now, I have a feeling that here stuff is just plain missing. The first row of the strap has a single stitch in it and the next row is asking you to do sc into a chain space that does not therefore exist. Hrm hrm hrm??

Ok, time to rewrite this sucker. My pattern is as follows:
Hook size: 2.25mm

Toe to ankle: Chain 14, join with sl st to form ring
chain 2, work 24 sc in ring, join with sl st in second chain
foundation row: chain 1, 1 sc in each next 8 sc, turn
row 1: chain 3, skip 2 sc, sc in next sc, chain 2, skip 2 sc, sc in next sc, chain 2, sc in end sc (makes 3 chain spaces)
row 2: chain 1, 2 sc in first chain space, sc in next sc, 2 sc in middle chain space, 1 sc in next sc, 2 sc in last chain space, sc in last stitch, turn (counts 8 stitches)
(repeat row 1 and 2) 4 times (equals 8 more rows)

Right strap: chain 1, sc in next three, turn,
chain 3, sl st in last sc, turn
chain 1, three sc in chain space, turn
repeat from beginning, 13 times, for 39 rows,
single crochet three together, bind off
(note: I did 39 rows because I have giant feet. Try it on after about 10 rows to see how many more you need to meet at the heel. Also, if you count by the chain space, that is equal to one set of the three rows, so 10 chain spaces on the strap is 10 times and 30 rows. Much easier than counting each row.)

Left strap: return to row where right strap joins,  attach yarn to end sc and follow same pattern as right strap.

Finished the pattern, closed back, NOT FINISHED.

Closing: If you want the sides to close with a button, add one last row to either the left or right strap.
Chain 3 and join with sl st in last sc, to form a loop. bind off. Then sew a small button to end of the other strap. The button should fit inside the chain 3 loop on the end of the other strap, so that it will close where comfortable. Or you could leave off the chain 3 on one end and sew on clear snaps. Or, you can be lazy like I am and just be sure that the sides line up and then do a row of single crochet to join the ends together and make a seam at the back.

Finishing: Start at end of right strap, sc along top to foot top part and back along top of left strap to make a clean edging around the ankle. It did not say to, nor did I in this second image, but I might go back and add the same single crochet around the outside edge of the toe to ankle part, and along the bottom edge of the straps and back down again. I do not think I would add this around the toe hole since it is already kind of bulky between the toes.

With the finished edging around the top and ankle. Much prettier and cleaner looking. Hence maybe doing it around the outside edge too.

I guess if you wanted to add silver beads to the toe to ankle section, you could. The original pattern mentioned to thread all the beads on first and keep moving them away from the hook until you needed one and then to use it in the middle of a single crochet. I would just pick a spot on one of the rows and then do them every other row or something.

Or maybe use another color thread and crochet a flower or small embellishment to add to the top. Maybe a silver paisley or something. Might be a cool addition later. :)

Total time to finish one foot sandie: 2 hours, total 4 for the pair.
Super easy. Only thing a little difficult is getting used to the thread as opposed to yarn. A little tough to see those tiny crochet stitches.

BananaShark

So my brother, he is a cute one. He loves the weird and silly parts of the internet, like the Alot. So when he found this picture of a shark banana toy, and asked if I could make it, I said of course!

Since there is no pattern for a shark banana I just made it. I did spend some time thinking about and writing out the pattern before I started and I think that helped. So, let's dive in!

Colors/Items needed:
Brown (tiny bit)
Yellow
Light Yellow
Blue or gray for shark
White for under body
red for mouth (tiny bit)
small black safety eyes
5 mm hook
embroidery/yarn needle

Start at end of the banana closed.

Banana:
Using brown, create a magic circle and do 6 sc into it
do two rows of 6 stitches,
switch to yellow,
two in each sc, 12
one row 12
two sc in one, sc in next, repeat, 18
one row 18
two sc in one, sc in next 2, repeat, 24
one row 24
two sc in one, sc in next 3, repeat, 30
maintain row of 30 for 10 more rows,
Now you can start making the open peeled bits. Since we have 30 stitches, and after studying the picture, see that the three fins stick out the joins, we know to make 3 peels that are 10 stitches wide. Use front loops only to leave inside loops to attach the blue later for the shark body.

Outside Peels:
sc into 10 sc front loops only, chain 1, turn,
sc in each for 15 rows, then do rows of decreasing
sc2tog across (5)
sc across and turn (5),
sc in 2, sc2tog, sc, ch 1 and turn (4),
sc across (4)
sc, sc2tog, sc (3)
sc across (3)
dc3tog to end peel, bind off

Don't Slip! HAHAHA

For the next two peels simply join your yarn back into the same row and use the front loops only like before to make the next two peels.

Note to self: If ever do this again, make the open peels the long way rather than short way, meaning chain out 50 then make two at top to get the rounded top and sc down the chain, turn and come back up and do another increase at top of row. Make it as wide as the 10 stitches and anchor each turn in a stitch. Will look more banana like then. I think.

Make three inside peels, in the light yellow yarn:
chain 10, plus one to turn, sc in each for 15 rows
sc2tog across (5)
sc across and turn (5),
sc in 2, sc2tog, sc, ch 1 and turn (4),
sc across (4)
sc, sc2tog, sc (3)
sc across (3)
dc3tog to end peel, bind off
Use a single crochet around the outside edges of both pieces to sew the inside to the outside. Do this before attaching blue for shark body. Once done, I also added an extra row of single crochet in the row right above the joining row to give the three petals some support and to help mask the join of "banana" to "shark."

Thumb is on the extra row above the line that is the back loops only row.

Once peels are done with their insides and outsides, next make the fins!! Make three fins for the shark. These three fins are positioned on the body at the spaces the three peeled bits meet on the banana. *NOTE: I stopped at that last row of 18 stitches on the body of the shark part, to attach the fins to the completed body. This helped in sewing them on and making sure that the eyes are in the right place when you place them on the body.

Dorsal fin:
magic circle, four sc
2sc in each, 8
2sc in next, sc in next, 12
sc around for three rows, 12
flatten the finished piece and sew the bottom closed
bind off leaving long tail for sewing to body

Flippers:
magic circle, 4 sc
sc in each, 4
2sc in each, 8
sc in each, 8
2sc in one, sc in next, 12
sc around for three rows, 12
flatten the finished piece and sew the bottom closed
bind off, leaving long tail for sewing to body

Now that the fins are done, you can attach the blue for shark body in open back loops of the peels row.

Shark Body:
use open back loops from peels, sc one in each of the 30 stitches
2sc in next, sc in next 4, 36
do 8 rows of blue 36
stuff banana so far and shark body.
sc in next 4, sc2tog, repeat, 30
one row 30
sc in next 3, sc2tog, repeat, 24
four rows 24
sc in next 2, sc2tog, repeat, 18
two rows 18 *here is where I stopped to sew the fins on the body
sc in next , sc2tog, repeat, 12
add safety eyes!!
sc2tog, 6
close off

Now for details:
White underbelly of body piece is like the inside petal pieces but shorter:
chain 8 plus one to turn,
one sc in each for 10 rows (8)
sc in next three, sc2tog in one, sc next three (decreased to 7)
sc in two, sc3tog, sc in two (decreased to 6)
Bind off

For the Mouth:
Make two red half circles: chain 2, 3sc in first chain, chain 1 and turn, 2sc in each of 3 sc, bind off
and one white half circle which is a little larger: same as above, but add one more chain and turn, third row is 2sc in one, sc in next, repeated, then bind off.

Sew white half circle to the decreased end of the white underbelly. Then sc from wider bottom of white belly piece, up the side to the mouth half circle. Once at the mouth start picot stitch one in each of the sc from the half circle, to form teeth.

Picot teeth: slip stitch into sc, chain three, do one single crochet in the second chain from hook, slip stitch back into same stitch started in. Should make a little pointy shapes. Do that around the mouth, slip stitching to move to next stitch. once at other end where mouth ends and underbelly starts go back to single crochets down the other side. Bind off.

Teeth!

Sew two red half circles together at long seam. Then sew one of the half circles into the space of the white mouth with teeth on it. I recommend sewing it down with white thread so it isn't seen on the outside. For the other half of the red mouth, attach white yarn in one corner and make the same picot teeth around the 6 mouth single crochets.

Once you have the mouth and underbelly done you can sew that piece to the body. Tip: Hide all the tails of yarn on one side of the belly piece and sew that side to the body so that the tails are hidden between the two pieces. Sew the top mouth to the body, but leave the bottom jaw free to BITE! I did put a few stitches along the jaw line across the body to keep it snug.

Done! This project actually only took me 5 hours or so. Really fast. But if you are new this might be a lot longer. I think it came out pretty cute and close to the picture for just making it up. Just goes to show how easy amigurumi is.

Banana Butt.

Sun Hat Makeover

I have had this pretty good straw hat for a while now. It is my go to hat for activities in the sun. I got it for free, it has a good shape, a nice interior comfort band and fits well. The only down side to it is that since it was free, the band on the outside was printed with the name of the company it came from.

Personally I didn't feel like advertising for them every time I go on a walk, so I took a sharpie to the black band and tried to scribble over the white company name. That worked, but only so far. You could clearly still read the name since that area was now a bit shiny and lighter still. So looking to my current crochet project for inspiration, I took a few hours and made a new band to sit over the existing black band for the hat.

My current project, which has been and will be ongoing for a while (read many many months), is to use this giant spool of coarse twine to make granny squares, to eventually assemble into a rug for my outdoor patio. Since this twine is so sturdy I figured it might do well outside and therefore might work well on the outside of my sun hat.

I made 16 mini granny squares... I guess technically they might not be granny squares, since really they are just the first row of a classic one.

Square: 
Chain 4, slip stitch in first chain to create a loop.
Chain 3, counts as first double crochet, 2 more double crochet in the loop.
Chain 3 to create a corner space, 3 double crochet in loop. Repeat this 3 times.
The final chain 3 should then be attached to the third chain of the starting chain with a slip stitch.
Bind off.
You end up with this:

Shown with my thumb for size. I wanted it to about the same width as the existing band.

Once I had 16 of them, I attached my twine to the corner space of one of the squares with a slip stitch. I then did one single crochet in the loop where I attached it, one single crochet in each of the top of the three double crochets, then one more single crochet in the the next chain 3 corner space. To join it to the next square, I held both in my hand and did a joining single crochet in the two corner spaces next to each other:

To Join: Insert the hook into the first corner space, pull up a loop, then insert the hook into the corner of the new square to be joined and pull up a loop, yarn over the hook and pull through all three loops.

Basically doing a single crochet decrease between both corners. I then continued my pattern of one more single crochet in the corner space, one single crochet in each of the 3 double crochet, one single crochet in the next chain space corner, then the joining single crochet. On and on until I had them all attached by one side. I then attached the end of my long side to the starting corner with my same joining single crochet. I bound that side off and then proceeded to the same thing along the bottom side of my long circle hat band. Once that was done, I cut off all the tails from each square to clean it up a bit. Attaching them along the top and bottom saved me from having to sew them all together.

Squares got a little bigger with the rows of single crochet along the top and bottom.

I wanted to add on ties for under my chin. Since the hat has a large brim, sometimes it gets blown off and this way if I don't need it, I can just let it rest on my back or attach it to my pack on hikes.
Folding the band in half, I had two sides of 8, meaning that in the center of each side was easy to see in the center of 4.

For the ties, I chained 80, slip stitched to the joining single crochet between the middle of the two center squares and then slip stitched back down the chain of 80. I did this for both sides. One side I added a loop at the bottom and the other got a large knot and tassel, so I can simply join them together like a button. I pulled these through the hat which required making a small hole in the straw.

Better!

Done! Now, I have a cute hat band, that shows off my skills, should last and not look bad if the sun fades it or anything. Total project time was about 2 hours.

Sarah the Plane

So I have made a lot of toys for children, but even moms need a little fun too. The mother of the two children who I made the monkey's for, requested an airplane for her very own. She is pilot herself so it only made sense.

Happy to have another crochet project, I set about looking for a new pattern to use. I found this one on Etsy for Red the Airplane by Melissa's Patterns. I had wanted a pattern for a plane that looked a little like it could have come from the movie Cars, so it worked well.

I used a different color scheme than showed since I wanted it to be a girl airplane. I used a blue color from Bucilla yarn that I had inherited in a large bag of yarns. It looked like a full skein and I liked the color (which the label said was called "7") so I used it for the entire body and top parts of the wings. I used a light gray that I had leftover for the under side of the wings and the outside of the turbines. For a little detailing on the eyes, the rudder and the turbines, I used Lion Bran, Cotton Ease in Charcoal. A little white yarn for the eyes and a pair of black safety eyes (these a bit larger than the ones I normally use) finished out the list of items used.

Shapes finished. Some assembly required.

For the most part I followed this pattern verbatim because it was so easy to follow. The few changes I made were cosmetic. On the rudder, I used three colors rather than two. And when changing colors, I used a back loop single crochet rather to make the color lines cleaner. I made the tops and bottoms of the wings separate colors.

Under carriage.

I also used only two turbines because it seemed ok with just the two. I also decided to ditch the eye shape from the pattern to make one more like in the movie. The main body pattern is such a good shape. It has a visible slant to the area for the eyes and decreases in a really logical way.

Finished.

My eye shape pattern:
chain 14, turn and skip first chain from hook, sc in next 13, chain 1, turn
sc in each, chain 1, turn (13)
sc in each, chain 1, turn (13)
sc, hdc, dc, 3dc in one, dc, hdc, sc, hdc, 2dc in one, 3 tc in one, 2 tc in one, dc, hdc
then I kept going with slip stitches around the outside edge of my work from the end of the eye row all the way to the other end. Fasten off.
I then attached the charcoal yarn to where I fastened off and did a few slip stitches and a few single crochets over where the eyes were placed to give it a kind of eyelash/brow look like from the movies. Kind of wish I had only done sc, but it's too late now.

Another note, instead of stuffing the wings and rudder, I cut up a tissue box and inserted wing shaped cardboard pieces in between the two crochet pieces that formed each part. If this was for one of her kids, I would not have done this, but she said it is mostly to sit on her desk at work and be cute, so I am not worried about her having to wash this toy.

Time for departure.

Overall, this pattern came out super cute and was fun to make!
Total project time: 10 hours
Pattern level: Easy