New Hook & Tunic

This post is a two part-er!
Up first, something new: A crochet hook review

I love to attend Scarborough Faire here in Texas. Most years I go to get henna, good food, and a bit of a sunburn. This year I saw something new. One of the wood shops sold hair sticks and clips, but also had a small selection of handmade crochet hooks! They were all from Morgan's Mane, and lucky for you readers, she has an Etsy store! My go to hook is a 5.00 mm/H/8, but as I didn't see any I bought one up a size at an 5.5/I/9. These hooks vary in lengths and styles, but the one I went with was a dark stained rosewood hook that is about 5 inches long. It is one of the more plain styles with a finial shape on the end, but I didn't think I would like feeling something more elaborate in my palm. Also, knowing the type of wood reminds me of the types of wands in Harry Potter and how they are identified by wood, core, and length... brings a smile to my face.

The hook itself feels lovely in my hand. The butt end nestles right into the outside edge of my hand at my pinky joint, is light, and feels strong. The neck is nicely tapered to a fairly tight return to the hook. Comparing the shapes to my go to hook, you cannot see any difference in quality or shape. I do wish that it was a slick on yarn as aluminum is. There is a slight pull, like a vibration, and it forces me to hook slower and a little looser. All that said, once I got used to it, it turned out to be a great little hook. I can't help but think that any of these custom beauties would be a great gift idea for anyone in your life who crochets.

On to part 2!
I bought the hook without having an plans to use it anytime soon, but as these things go, less than a week later I saw a pattern calling for an I hook! The pattern is free from Lion Brand yarn with an account. I have found so many good ones, though, that there is no reason not to make an account.

New Lace Tunic
Until now I have not been ambitious enough to tackle people clothing, especially since that dog sweater I attempted didn't fit right... but as this pattern is two large rectangles, I figured I could attempt it.

First thing I did was go find some yarn. I had on hand 5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in Dark Country Blue. I had intended to use it to relearn to knit and make a Coraline Star Sweater, but I have given up on that idea. I compared the amount of yarn needed and realized I had almost enough and ran out real quick to find another skein.

The pattern itself is actually not too hard to follow. Choose your size and go from there. Once you have the foundation done, it repeats 4 rows to length, with a trim row on the other end as well. What I did have trouble with, was they way they worded those rows. Once you know the pattern it is simple, but that wall of text made it hard to put down your work and find your place again and then remind you what row you were on. I made myself a cheat sheet of the 4 rows simplified so I could easily look at my working row and know where I left off.

The center of each row repeats along the length, and each row has different ends.

I made a 1x since I like my sweaters a bit roomy. I know my yarn is a bit thicker than the one it calls for, but it is on the thin side of a worsted weight yarn and feels lovely. So for me, a single set of those 4 repeating rows takes anywhere from 26-30 minutes to do. As each panel has roughly 50 sets to achieve the length called for, I am estimating that making the front and back pieces took about 25 hours each, total of 50 hours. I started work on this in late May... Competed it August 2nd.

The ease of the pattern stops at finishing. Once you have the two rectangles finished you have to sew them up just right to make it into something wearable. That took me another 2 hours or so. The pattern says "seam up the sides (leaving a space for the arm holes) and across the shoulders"... it fails to say HOW to seam... So for the outside edges I simply stacked them up right and did a single crochet along the edge. Then turned the garment inside out so the seam would be on the inside.

sc seam up the inside.

I then marked out the shoulder seam as directed and tried my best to do some sort of a diagonal seam. This was difficult since the pattern has so many openings and chain spaces. Since I was unsure, I left the shoulder seam open on the ends with long tails so I could rip it out if needed. When I tried it on. with the cowl folded down, I had these like 80's pointy shoulders. It was not a good look. I think this happened because not only is the sweater a bit large on me, but the 7 inch shoulder seam is too long for my shoulders. The fix I came up with was to unseam the cowl to leave it loose and hang over the shoulders naturally, like cap sleeves. I tacked the bottom corners of the cowl together and then tacked that to the bottom of the arm hole opening. Took an extra hour to unseam it and figure out the fix.

The cowl, unseamed and tacked.

Once it was on I can't help but feel like this is not even a sweater I would try on or even buy in a store... which is a shame. Also, the whole thing is really heavy, so I guess the thinner yarn was needed. I do really like the length and it is super warm, but I doubt that I will wear it in public. It's more like a body-blanket than sweater... with some leggings and a camisole it would be comfy winter lounging wear.

I guess I am happy that I managed to make people clothes that fit me, but sweaters are hard, and after 50 hours of making panels I really wanted it to turn out stellar.

Difficulty: Pattern says Intermediate... gonna agree with that, maybe add a "plus" to that.
Time to completion: ~55 hours

Hill Country Weavers

For a little change of pace I am going to review a yarn store today. Well maybe review is not the right word, perhaps praise would work better.

In DFW, if you want yarn you go to Joanne Fabrics, Michaels or Hobby Lobby. If you want good yarn I hear there is a small place in Fort Worth that is good, but I have no idea where it is or what it's called.

Doing a search of Austin for "yarn" on Google and you get the same sort of results, but put in Knitting and that is a different matter. This is the second time I have been to Austin, and I walked up and down South Congress Street for days and did not see this gem sitting there plain as day. Well perhaps because it looks like a house, or perhaps because I was on the opposite side of the street, I did not see it until the second day of my trip.

Hill Country Weavers
1701 South Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704

Entering the home, as clearly it once was, you are faced with the staggering good smells of yarn and wood. And your eyes immediately have to adjust to the COLORS.

The Entry.

They don't mess around in here. You had better know what you want: color, thickness, purpose, amount, fiber content, etc. I had two upcoming projects in mind so I got out of the store spending under $100, but with no plan or focus I could have bought everything.

Each room of the home is full, floor to ceiling with bins and boxes and cubbies of whatever you could want. Prices seem to range from the low end of about $8 a skein (though I bought some on sale for 6.25) to $50 a skein, or more.

Part of a room.

You can see not only is there yarn, but samples of nearly everything worked up for you to see and feel how it will look or hang, unlike the tiny squares in "craft stores". They also had an entire wall of threads, I assume for quilting or embroidery.

Each room had chairs and some of the women seemed to just be hanging out as much as shopping. One lady sat chatting and knitting near the register, it was both odd and perfect. The staff is very knowledgeable. Even though I knew what I wanted, I did not have a clue on how to find it, except to look at everything. Once I had, I asked to be sure I located all my options.

Another room.

They also had a wall of needles, hooks and all kinds of yarn crafts needs. Cute project bags and carrying cases, fancy stitch markers, etc. It's like a candy store. In the back room there is a corner with markdowns and sale items. They also had a building next door which said Outlet, so I can only assume there is even more, but I had to leave before I spent anything else...

Yet another room.

In one room I sat while my purchase was balled for me. The skeins on the shelf are not really friendly to working from, so they have a machine which will ball the yarn for you... that does mean that you cannot return it then, but why would I and that saves me a lot of work later on. While I waited I looked through their collection of books. I must say that this store does cater more towards knitting folks in that regard, but their range of crochet books was very good, just less large than knit. Also their signs on the porch say knitting, spinning and weaving... :(  As a "hooker" I felt only a little saddened to be left out.

So, what did I buy? And for what?

What I got.

Well I am still in the middle of a project at the moment, a tunic sweater, but these yarns are for the two projects after...

The dark blue, purple, gray, green yarn is Madeline Tosh, Tosh DK in "Stargazing", 100% superwash merino wool. A dk weight is similar to a worsted weight. It can be machine washed, but has to air dry. It is dyed in Texas and made in South Africa. I plan to use it to make Otachi. This yarn was the most expensive of the three I got, but the colors were too perfect for what I had in mind for his color scheme to not get.

The middle blue, single skein, is Nature Spun, worsted weight wool in "Fanciful Blue". It is made by the Brown Sheep Company in Nebraska. I plan to use this for the glow spots on Otachi, but I might use the lightest one I got if I have leftovers... I got this one because it was in the sale bin, close to the color I wanted and $3. And I can always make a little headband or something with it, if I don't use it for my kaiju.

The lightest blue is Berroco Weekend DK. The color for this yarn is 2982 or "Coast". It is 75% Acrylic 25% Peruvian Cotton, and can also be machine washed but air dryed. That was important to me because this yarn is for this Lion Brand Open Air Shrug pattern. Note: you might need a Lion Brand login to see/download this pattern. This yarn was very reasonable at the 6.50 a skein, and of much better quality and feel, in my opinion, than say a Red Heart or Vanna's Choice, and for something that I am going to wear and have on my skin, I want it to feel good. They had a sweater made up from it that really sold me on how it would look and wear.

So basically this place is heaven. Tips for a visit:
1. Have a Budget.
2. Have a Pattern/Plan/List.
3. Ask for help.
4. Be inspired.

Kitties in Wuv

New commission for a pair of star-crossed kitties. This is the kind of thing YOU could have made, if you drop me a line with an idea.

For this set I am going back to the same pattern I used for the Jumping Monkeys and the Mr. Skees Bears. The pattern is originally from Pica Pau, whom I follow on Facebook. I love her work and the simple style of everything she makes. The basic body shape of the Jaques the monkey pattern, bought back in November of 2011, is easily customizable. A lot of her other animals look similar and I am thinking about making my ACNL Mayor from this pattern... She has an Etsy shop but has nothing in it... I look forward to the day I can buy more patterns.

Anyway. We worked on the outfits, design and yarn color scheme of the pair together in my work shed. I had a lot of left over yarn skeins and this was a great left over project. I didn't have to purchase any new yarn!

Plans

I made the Girl Kitty a little shorter in the legs and arms than boy kitty, so he would be a little taller. I used a light pink to embroider the mouth and nose on both, and a large set of (18mm) black safety eyes.

Faces. Boy smile is a bit smaller.

For the girl, her skirt was attached at the color change between dress top and her bloomers. The skirt is sc in a gradual increase from the waist, to make the lace edges I did a sc, skipped a sc, chained 2, and sc in next stitch, around to make loops, next row is 5 double crochet in the chain space, chain 1, 1dc in next chain space, chain 1, 5 double crochet in next, repeating around. It made a kind of open-work lace to help show the cute bloomers underneath.

Left is body with color change for bloomers, Right has skirt attached.

For the ears, I made two small triangles, one in the pink for the inside of the ear, one gray/white and used a sc around the edges to join them together. When I sewed them on, I turned them so that the tip (row 6) of both ears faced the center of the head which made them look a bit taller.

Ear: (make 4, two in inside ear color, 2 in outside ear color)
1. chain 10, sc in 2nd from hook and across (9)
2. decrease, sc 5, decrease (7)
3. decrease, sc 3, decrease (5)
4. decrease, sc, decrease (3)
5. decrease, sc (2)
6. decrease 2 and leave tail to sc to other ear piece.

Ears from side and front.

The girls arms we wanted to have a cap sleeve with a little ruffle. The arm ruffles were made by doing a back loop only color change between the purple and the gray, to leave the front loops open to add the lace scallops on at the edge when done.

Short-Arm Short-Sleeve pattern:
1. in clothes color, chain 5 and slip stitch to first to form a loop
2. 2 sc in each stitch (10)
3-5. sc around (10)
6. switch to skin color, sc 10 around in back loops only.
7-12. sc around (do an additional 4 rounds here if making normal length arms and legs)
13. *sc in one, 2 sc in next*, * repeat around (15)
14. sc in each (15)
15. sc, popcorn stitch^, 13 sc
16. sc in each (15)
17. *sc in one, decrease*, *repeat (10)
18. decrease around (5), bind off
^ popcorn stitch: 4 double crochet in the same stitch, remove hook, insert into top of first dc, pick up dropped loop and pull through, extra chain to secure and for next rows sc)
Note: Stuffing the arm through the 5 chain opening is hard, when I did this again for the boy I just chained 10 and started there.

Finished arm for girl.

She also asked for a pansy flower like from Animal Crossing... I didn't have a pattern so I made one up, which came out really well. In the center light purple I did MC6 sc. Then switched to the dark purple for the inside petals, each petal made across 2 of the 6 stitches. One petal is made by chain 2, 2dc in first stitch, 2dc in second stitch, chain 2 and slip stitch to base. Repeat around 3 times for 3 petals. At the end of that row I switched to white, I chained 2 and did a sc in the top of each dc, and then did another chain 2 down the other side and secured it with a slip stitch in the same place as the purple. Did that for all the petals and left a few long tails to sew it in place.

Pansy flower.

The boy kitty had a lot less little details. Shirt and pants. Vest. At some point we will find a way to add some glasses, but for now they were left off. He was made full size to the pattern where as on the girl I left off about 4 rows on each part.

Boy Kitty.

For the boy's arms I did 16 rows of 10sc around, and then back looped and color changed into the hand shape. I also re-worked the vest pattern from the Skees-bears for boy kitty. Last time the back didn't fit quite right and bulged out the in the back center, hence skipping one stitch in the middle of the row of treble crochet. Still was a little large at the shoulders, since he doesn't have any, but fit better. Last time the button functioned since it was small but this time it was too large. So here it is decoration and on the back side there is a clear snap to keep the vest closed.

Vest:
Row 1. Chain 36, turn and sc in second chain from hook and back across 35 sc
2-4. Chain 1 for turning, sc 35 across
5. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 27, dec, dec
6. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 23, dec, dec
7. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 1, chain 4, skip two stitches, treble crochet next 6, skip one sc, treble crochet next 6, chain 4, skip two stitches, sc, dec, dec
8. Chain 1, slip stitch in top of two decreases and up the chain space, sc across the top of the 12 treble crochet, slip stitch down the other chain space and across two decreases.
Bind off, Hide ends.
Sew button to one side.

Herb & Petunia. 

Both kitties took about 30 hours total. It goes by fast with a simple pattern and color changes. I had a really good time making these and once again can't stop smiling at the result.
Just FYI, Herb is 15 inches tall from his feet to ears, Petunia is 13 inches.

PS... perhaps their owners will rename them, but I had to call them something...

Harold the Tiger

I received a new commission from a friend, for his father who loves a certain comic... Found this pattern for Harold the Tiger by Lottie's Creations on Etsy. If you do a search on Google you can of course find some free ones, but we liked the look of this one best and the price was right.

Yarn used: Red Heart Soft in Tangerrina, Black, and White.
Hook size H8/5.00mm

I used a thicker yarn and larger hook, than called for, to make a slightly larger toy than the one the pattern showed as reference since I wanted it to be huggable.

Head and Body

I only made a few small changes to the pattern: First, I made the ears one row longer so that I could stuff and sew them a little easier. Second, around the tummy piece I did a row of single crochet around the outside ,since I dislike the ragged ends formed by turing rows (see the picture below).

Left is the turning rows. Right is with the edging.

Overall this pattern was really simple and easy to follow. I really liked the link they included to Needle Noodles blog for a less noticeable color change. I used the first technique. Perhaps because I am left handed I needed to turn my work inside out when done to get the pretty side on the outside of the piece. I also kept the yarn going when working the stripes on the arms, legs, body and tail, which meant no constant trimming of ends, as it was all inside the pieces.

Muzzle, Arms, Legs and Tail.

I can't help but think maybe there is a better way to do the muzzle. I thought maybe the muzzle would form a kind of mustache shape for cheeks or something, but it didn't. It formed a kind of long oval tube, but perhaps just a flat oval might work better. I had a lot of trouble sewing it into place and stuffing behind it.

Nose and eyes are felt attached with Fabri-Tac glue. It was my first time to use that glue and it is awesome and dries super fast, so you better know where you want it to go, but so much better than Tacky Glue for felt to yarn. The mouth is a simply embroidery with yarn.

Ready for adventure!

Time to completion: 12 hours. Color changing is a little time consuming and sewing it all together once again was hard for me. I hope I can get better at that, but I had to replace the ears twice...
Difficulty: Advanced easy...
Verdict: Very very cute and huggable.
Size: Ears to Butt 11in, to Tail End 15in

Update: I made a second Harold for someone else from the same skeins from this project and still had yarn left over. So, if you have leftover colors on hand including a good amount of orange, you can probably finish him with no problems.

Update 2: You can see images of the second and third Harolds here!

Update 3: I made a fourth... This time from all Red Heart Super Saver in Black, White and Carrot and a 5.00mm hook. With those yarns, he was the largest by far, sitting from his butt to ears at 15 inches tall!

Left is the second one made, Right is the fourth.

Starlite: An ACNL Aviary

I have now played too way many hours of AC:NL. At the time of writing this the game informed me that 500 hours is over 21 days straight. Wow. I have no life. Checked again at the one year anniversary and I was up to 600 hrs.

I am also very near to my goal of a town full of different bird characters. I am 9 for 10, with the last being a really flamboyant boy unicorn, who I am growing fond of. Might let him stay and call it a win. - Update on that... let him move to a friends town and almost got a penguin till some $%*& pig moved in onto the middle of one of my paths.

So to celebrate my almost achievement, I thought I would do a town portrait. 

I sketched out the characters in groups, and then put us all together. There is actually quite a bit of interplay that happens between the residents without you even being involved. Frienships form, rumors start, they hang out at each others houses and take walks together. It's there to see, if you look.

So the groups are: Miranda, Friga and Freckles

Me, Gladys and Phoebe

Peck and Joey

And the loner types: Ken, Julian and Avery

Cleaned sketch in Illustrator.

Miranda and Friga are friends because they have fashion and gossip to bond over... They have adopted the rather plain and frumpy Freckles into their midst as a protégé to train... but she's so innocent it never goes anywhere and now they like having her around.

Gladys and Phoebe have been with me from the start. They are my go-to girls.

Peck is the jock in town and thinks himself all that. When Joey moved in he found a "little brother" to protect.

Ken is solid as a rock and kind of the older down to earth resident who wanders around in his own world. He lives off by himself near the campgrounds.

Julian is in his own world of gossip, glitter and glitz. He's probably where Miranda and Friga get their gossip, but spends most of his time in the town square and looking mysterious at Stonehenge where his house was.

Avery is the newest in town. I feel like he could round out the Peck and Joey friendship with his quiet and strong ways, but he also seems like a bit of a loner at the moment. He has problems talking to people so we connected right off the bat.

Maybe I will color this one day... for now... nah. 

Toothless

Seen HTTYD:2 yet? It is in all seriousness one of the prettiest movies I have seen in a while. And by far and away the best sequel I have seen in just as long. I will for sure be buying it just to pause and look at all the dragon designs they crammed into this movie. I loved spotting some of the dragons from the Book of Dragons that Hiccup read through in the first film. Anyway.

My sister in law had minor surgery last week and in her delirious state asked that I make her a Toothless... I had this pattern for Toothless by Sarah of Sarselgurumi on file since the first film but never got around to making any.

This pattern is really very good. Easy to follow and simple to make. I used Patons Metallic black yarn which I didn't know existed till I found it in Michael's. The yarn, I figured, might be a bit of a challenge for two reasons: It is very slick (but that turned out to be just fine) and instead of being round, it is a flat yarn. This means that some stitches come out large and open if it is turned on its side, or really tight if it is flat to the hook. It is also on the thin side of "medium" weight yarns. It certainly was not like a regular Red Heart worsted weight would be.

The thinness, coupled with the fairly small 3.75 hook, caused my Toothless came out on the small side compared to others I have seen made online. However, like I had hoped, the metallic sheen of the yarn coupled with the smaller sc stitches really gave Toothless the shiny scaled appearance I had hoped for. He catches the light quite handsomely. It also on the more expensive side of yarn pricing, but you only need one skein and the effect was worth it. He even feels scaly when you pet him...

So cute.

The toes were a little confusing until I realized they were popcorn stitches, and even thought the pattern did not say to, I knew that I could pull it closed and add a slip stitch on top to make the next row around easier. Also, if possible, I should have tried to find black polyfil to stuff this guy with. I had a few larger holes from the yarn and the white filling showed through easily. I tried to compensate by stuffing him less firmly than I would otherwise, again helping to make him smaller than he might have been.

The wing pattern was also really cool. I had no idea in my mind how to make these but I just followed it along and was shocked at how cute they turned out.

Wings

Instead of making him an uninjured baby, I gave him his tail prosthetic fin by making one in red yarn. I sewed it to the tail along side the regular fin. It was here that I got to see just how much smaller using the metallic yarn was making it. In the picture below the two closest to my thumb are the pattern as written in the metallic black and standard red worsted. The black is like 80% of the Red. So I made a second black fin to match in size to the red one by adding anther row of sc around the outside after the end of their fin pattern.

Tail-fin size comparison.

The hardest part for me was sewing on the ears and 6 small horns on to the head. I must have attached the head crooked since there was less room on one side of the face than the other. So my toothless looks like his head is cocked to the side listening to strange noise. It is a happy/cute mistake. Lucky.

No Face.

I used a light lime green felt for his eyes, black for the pupils and a little spot of white for a highlight. I glued it down since last time I sewed felt onto crochet it came out all bubbly. The pattern mentioned that Fabri-tac glue worked well, but I had Tacky-glue on hand any used that. Came out ok.

Done! All the pieces whipped up quickly and total time to completion of the crochet parts was about 5 hours. Plus the detail work for the eyes, plus assembly and sewing time, and I'd say he came in at around 8 hours total. Skill level... moderately easy, but not a beginner because it's a very detailed pattern for being so small.

Update: A much prettier photo was taken by Toothless' owner:

Update2: Measurements are: 6 inches tall with an 8 inch ear span. 7 inches from front legs to tail tip.

Chibi Iron Man

Once again my brother has seen, and sent me a picture of, something new that he wants made. The picture seemed to have roots in Comicpalooza, a convention in Texas. I heard that these were for sale there. So with that in mind, I will not share my pattern, but if you know how to crochet, I bet you can figure out something similar, like I did, with no issues.

Of the two shown, he wanted specifically the Iron Man. These looked simple enough.
I had on hand all the items needed to make a little Iron Man: red, yellow and silver yarn, yellow and black felt, and a sewing kit. And a little time to kill.

No Face Iron Man.

The head is a basic sphere. The body, is the same width as the head, but taller. I left it open at the neck and sewed it to the head in the right spot. The little arc reactor in silver is a simple magic circle with a few stitches in it. The shoulder details is a long chain that I wrapped around the back of the neck and down the other front.

The face was the hardest part for me since I am abysmal at sewing. I cut out the base yellow shape and two small black shapes for the eyes. I went with a more modern face for him for two reasons... a) slanty eyes are a little more menacing and b) I cant embroider the whole eye. So I tacked the black eyes down to the yellow back with white thread to give the eyes a pupil... or highlight... or whatever. The mouth is a strip of black felt carefully tacked at both ends and in the middle.

Then I sewed the entire face onto the head, going around twice since I didn't want it to fall off and the first time around I left large gaps around the edge that needed to be tacked down further.

Done. Time for crochet: 1.5 hrs. Time for sewing: 1 hr.
Finished size is about 3 inches wide by 6 inches tall. Came out pretty close I think.
Skill Level: Nerdy Child's first crochet project easy...