Tiny Planes

Now that my friends have kids, I get to start going to their birthday parties. Which is a little odd when you arrive to a house full of toddlers and their parents without one of your own. Anyway.

Sarah the plane has two kids, who I have already made monkeys for, but since her little girl was turning one I decided to make her a little plane of her own.

I used this Amigurumi plane pattern by Marika Uustare.

The pattern is short and sweet and took me about 2 hours total to make. That in itself is amazingly cool. I loved how the face is integrated into the pattern and not just sewn on to the body after. That face part was the only bit that gave me a little trouble. I was not sure which direction to move once attaching the white yarn to the round before, so that there were more stitches on one side of the face than the other. In later rounds you make up for that by decreasing on one side and not the other. On this first plane I think I got it wrong and decreased on the already short side. However, in the end it didn't really show since I stuffed it firm.

Keira the Plane

I used a variegated yarn I had lying around and a matching shade of blue for the nose cone. I think it matched too closely though since you can't really tell that there is also a stripe of blue on the left wing.

Since I figured it might not be cool to see both your mom and sis with a cool crochet plane, I also made a second one for her older brother, who is 2, so everyone can play.

Tristan the Plane

That is the same light blue nose cone as his sisters, but the stripe shows up much better against the dark blue body. This time I was careful to make sure the decreasing was on the same side as the more stitches from the face round and I think it made the tail stand up in the right way better in the end.

Overall, great pattern. Fast, easy, good for scrap yarn consumption.
Total time for each was 2 hours.

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. 

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!

FrankenGirl Doodle

So my Plan A costume for this year needs more time. A lot more time. It's one of those that needs to be done right or not at all.

Plan B costume came together this past weekend after a quick trip to a few halloween stores and rummaging through my existing wardrobe. Inspired and excited I drew up a sketch. And then colored it. And then used it for my icons on Tumblr and Twitter.

The photo of the page in my sketchbook.

Cropped and filtered in Diptic. Lazy, I know.

Anyway, I haven't drawn in months and it shows. I haven't crocheted in months either. This is due mainly to the fact that I have started taking a class at a local community college to learn to play the piano. It sucks up my free time.  

ACNL Doodle

I am sure this joke has been made a thousand times, but since today I actually did get a pyramid out of a tree in my town I wanted to draw it. So sue me. (Please don't.)

Probably should have done the first one, scanned it and used it for the background for the second, but oh well. 

4F pencil, sharpie pen, colored pencils, 30 minutes.

Logo Opinions

Logos are important. They need to say a lot visually without saying much more than the name.
That is why a good logo is priceless and why people who design them can charge quite a tidy sum if they are any good.

I'm personally not all that good at them yet, but I can tell a good one from a boring one.
Yahoo's new logo is boring.

I do love this article page where they show all kinds of ideas and rehashing of the logo idea. But the new font, from the thin straight lines and the identical nature of the two o's read "bank" or something else equally obsessed with order. Now the fact that the o's are two different sizes seems conflicting with the formality of the font itself. Sure the little tiny scoops at the top of each stroke of the letters is interesting, but it is rapidly lost as the logo is made smaller, to the point where I did not even see them on first glance at the new logo on their search page.

Obviously a lot of thought has go into their logo blueprint. The angle at which the ! is tilted, the exact size difference between the o's, etc. However whereas before I read Yahoo with that same sing song kind of phrase that they used in commercials... YaaahhoooOO000ooo! to now reading it like ya-hoo. Or to use it in a sentence: "That kid in the hoodie over there looks like a real yahoo."

I guess it is not as bad as it could be. Some of them also struck me as for different products. For example Day 2 looks like Yahoo is a feminine product or a yogurt or brand of yoga pants. Day 6 could be a toy manufacturer or something. Day 11 reads "dairy" to me.

My favorites from their list are Day 25 with the hidden smile, Day 23 where it looks like a bit of a funnel like its coming to a point, which is the goal of a search engine... to find the one thing you want, and Day 5, which just feels friendly and relaxed to me without the capitol letters.

Of course everything is subjective and as long as you have pleased the client and gotten paid, at the end of the day, the graphic designer's job is done.

Which one was your favorite?

Vintage Animal Crossing

So, you might have noticed I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing. Well I guess it is at least good for inspiration. Still working on my Blather's crochet, but it coming along slowly since I keep ripping it apart and starting over trying to get the body shape right.

I have created characters for my husband and me (see the last post): Cerulean and Grump. Well I for some reason wanted to draw them together in a formal portrait... Not sure where that urge came from, but like a family thing. So then I started thinking about poses... Both standing? One sitting? So then I thought about famous art... naturally... and thought about the painting American Gothic. I might have to revisit that idea and do another painting, seems fitting for Animal Crossing. Anyway I then thought about old daguerreotypes, because my dad used to collect them. So I found this one in particular which I liked so I based the pose off it.

Decided to watercolor it since I could use the black and white to get the grays and it might be a challenge to work in black and white. It was. Started off with a light gray wash to get the camera lighting kind of idea then started with the blackest parts. Mistake there. It was ok for Cerulean's feather markings, but not for Grump's jacket since then I immediately lost the ability to put in any details since I could not go any darker. I tried to pull some of the black back up with a wet brush and it helped a little. Then I could put down white for the buttons on top and it looked ok. But I lost the pocket so I cheated at the end an used a bit of black ink to crisp up some of the details that I could not paint in.

Overall it took me about an hour to do this. I can't help but think there is a fun idea here. Animal Crossing takes place in real time, so their world could have existed in different time periods... I mean imagine Animal Crossing in the Renaissance! Anyway, it could be fun to do more portraits.