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...

Cookie Cat

He's a frozen treat with an all new taste, cause he came to this planet from outer space.
A refuge of an inter-steller war, but now he's at your local grocery store.
Cookie Cat, he's a pet for your tummy! Cookie Cat, he's super duper yummy!
Cookie Cat, he left his family behind. Coooookie Cat!  - Cookie Cat Song

So yeah. There's that.

Do you watch Steven Universe? You should. Cartoon Network, Wednesdays (today!) at 6pm (CST). It is now on the my list of amazing new cartoons for kids and yet kind-of not-at-all for kids. (With Regular Show, Adventure Time, and Bravest Warriors, etc.)

Cookie Cat.

Cookie Cat was introduced in the very first episode, called Gem Glow. I was in love at first song. Also, an ice cream sandwich, shaped like a cat head, with half-vanilla half-strawberry filling, is something that I never knew I wanted. We are stuck boring rectangles with plain or off-brand neapolitan... So I feel for Steven when they are discontinued.

Fish shaped spaceship... awesome.

And what's with that backstory for the poor Cookie Cat? No home, no ice cream... tragedy knows no bounds. With no crochet projects on the docket, I set about to make a plushie.

Cookie Cat Pattern:

Colors needed:  (I used a 5.5 mm H hook)

Dusty pink for body and one eye. 

Black for body, ears, arms, legs, pupils and tail. 

White for the other eye. 

Gray for space suit belt. 

Orange/Copper for space buckle.

Head: crown to neck, in black 

R1. Mc (6) 

R2. Sc 2 in each sc around (12) 

R3. (Inc, sc 1)* (18) 

R4. (Inc, sc 2 )* (24) 

R5. (Inc, sc 3)* (30) 

R6. (Inc, sc 4)* (36) 

R7. (Inc, sc 5)* (42) 

R8. (Inc, sc 6)* (48) 

R9. (Inc, sc 7)* (54) 

R10-12. Sc around (54) 

R13. (dec, sc 7)* (48) 

R14. (dec, sc 6)* (42) 

R15. (dec, sc 5)* (36) 

R16. (dec, sc 4)* (30) 

R17. (dec, sc 3)* (24) 

R18. (dec, sc 2)* (18) 

Bind off leaving tail to sew to body. Stuff. 

Ears: make 2 in black 

R1: MC, work 4 sc. (4) 

R2: Sc 2 into each around (8) 

R3: (inc, sc 1)* (12) 

R4-6: 12 double crochet around. (12)

Bind off leaving tail for sewing to head. 

Body: butt to neck, in pink 

R1. Mc (6) 

R2. Sc 2 in each sc around (12) 

R3. (Inc, sc 1)* (18) 

R4. (Inc, sc 2 )* (24) 

R5. (Inc, sc 3)* (30)
R6. sc around R7. (Inc, sc 4)* (36) 

R7. sc around
R8. (Inc, sc 5)* (42)
R9-11. Sc around
R12. (dec, sc 5) (36)
R13. sc around

R14. (dec, sc 4)* (30)

R15. sc around 

R16. (dec, sc 3)* (24) 

R17. (dec, sc 2)* (18)

Bind off. No need for a tail here since head has the tail to sew together at the neck. 

Arms and Legs: in black, make 2 of each (duh). 

R1. MC5 

R2. increase around (10) 

R3-8. sc around, stop here for Legs and bind off leaving tail. Arms keep going.
R9-12. sc around for arms, bind off leaving tail.
I took two pipe cleaners and intertwined them. Then pulled them through the body at where I wanted the arms to attach at the shoulder. I then rolled the ends up and inserted them into the stuffed arms. That way they work together and have less chance of disappearing into the body. 

Bendy arm exposed with other covered.

Tail: in black

I also put in pipe cleaner in the tail along with stuffing. I did the first few rows and used the start tail to tie to a pipe cleaner I had folded in half and twisted. That way the end of the pipe cleaner would stay at the end of the tail. Then I added stuffing around it as I went along. 

R1. MC5 

R2. increase around 10 

R3-20.
Bind off leaving tail to sew to body. 

Belt: in gray 

R1. Chain 45, join to first to form a ring. 

R2-4. chain 1, 45 sc around, join to first. 

This next part makes the vertical strap. 

R4. chain 7, turn and sc 6 down, join with slip stitch at belt, turn and go up and down once more securing with a slip stitch into next stitch on belt. 

Bind off. Leave tail to sew down to body. 

Belt buckle: in orange/copper 

R1.MC4, 

R2. increase around to 8 stitches

Bind off leaving tail to sew to belt. 

Once attached sew complete belt onto body. 

Pupils: in black, make 2

Ch 4, turn and sc2 down one side, sc 2 at bottom to turn, sc 2 up the other side of starting chain. Slip stitch to first, leave tail to sew down to eyes.

Eyes: one in white, one in pink 

R1. MC6 

R2. increase around to 12 

R3. (inc, sc 1)* (18) 

R4. sc 3, 3 half double crochet, sc 6, 3 hdc, sc 3 (18)
The last row there gives it the kind of oval shape. Bind off. Leave tail to sew to head. Sew pupils to eyes, eyes to head. 

Only thing this pattern doesn't have is his bowl helmet, but maybe you can find a round globe votive candle holder to put over his head to complete the look. 

Done! Total time to completion: Roughly 5-6 hours. Nice and easy.

Now go enjoy some ice cream and think about what you are missing out on by not having a Cookie Cat ice cream sandwich to eat the ears off of.

Sushi Fish

A cousin-in-law (relationship terms are confusing...?) is graduating this month. She is going off to study at the Texas A&M Galveston where they do marine biology stuff. So, I wanted to get her a present and thought I would make her a little something silly and appropriately themed.

I've had this pattern for a Fish that turns into a sushi roll for a while now... I have no idea how I found it. Today when I went to look up the pattern, so I could get a link, I saw that the blog site it belongs to is entirely in spanish. The site is Irka! The pattern seems to be the only one on the site that is in English, but if you speak/read spanish there are a ton of adorable flower dolls on there in the Free Patterns tag.

There a few small issues I had with the pattern, maybe because of how it was translated. Also to note... I remember that "y" is "and", but had to look up "cad" which is spanish crochet abbreviation for "chain". On the body of the fish, in round 7, I think it needs to be an increase and then 4sc. And somehow at row 12 I still had 22 stitches instead of 24. Anyway I ended up doing two rounds of 22 and then immediately doing the increase row to 24 and skipping the two 24 around rows since I think I did two extra 22 rows... since it isn't super size important I figured I could fudge a little.

I used a bunch of colors that I had lying around. This is a great yarn consumption project. I had a kind of smallish ball of the orange and I was worried I would not have enough of for the fish body. Turns out that was more than enough. There were no suggestions for hook size, but since I was using all worsted weight yarns, I used my go to H/8/5.00mm hook.

So here is my finished fish. I gave it dead eyes since I stink at embroidering round eyes, and safety eyes might be too bulky to allow the transformation part. (Colors: Orange, Light Yellow, Green, Black)

dead fish :(

Once again in the sushi part, I had trouble making the bottom of the sushi roll part, but just kind of fudged to get it to be the same size square shape. Also, when I counted, both squares had 28 sts on the outside not 36... somehow I messed that all up.

Instead of making the rectangle nori wrapper, I decided to just start on the edge of the top piece and crochet it right onto it. So I did 28 stitches in back loops only to get a crisp white to green edge. Then did 6 rows of 28 around for depth. At this point I was really worried that my fish would not fit inside the sushi piece I was making...so I added another thickness row to make it 7 rows high.

unstuffed roll

Then I made sure I turned that roll part inside out and stuffed it into the fish mouth, lining up the hole and the mouth. I used the orange tail from the fish to sew the sushi opening inside the mouth. I like to when the roll is stuffed in, that the orange stitches inside the white look like teeth inside the fish maw. Plus then it just looks like a crocheted fish toy... In case you have vegan friends I guess.

*boop* boop* insert fish noises here

When the sewing is done the roll then can be pulled out and comes out right side out. Like so:

what is that fish kissing??

When the roll is stuffed with the fish you have two options: a) all in where the tail and butt look like fish, avocado and cucumber, or b) tail out for a more tempura fish roll look. Ha!

I know what I'm having for lunch today.

Time to completion: 2-3 hours. Skill level: super easy.
Final thoughts: Would make again for sure. Might do a little rewriting of the pattern for my own use, but really good pattern and so fun.

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.

Master Yoda

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is." ―Yoda, to Luke Skywalker^[src]

This project came as a request/commission from a friend for her husband's birthday this year. He is a big Star Wars fan... heck, they had Darth Vader at their wedding. Yeah. 

We started off, like I do, cruising Etsy for a crochet pattern for a Star Wars character and quickly decided that Yoda was the most recognizable and the cutest in crochet. I decided to go with the pattern from Inner Child Crochet for My Friend Yoda. I chose that one because most were creating a pretty small Yoda (like 5 inches tall) and I wanted mine to be a bit larger like something you could actually play with. When he was all done, he is about 8.5 inches tall, and perfect for hugs.

The pattern was fast and simple and came with came with the full body, belt, hooded coat and a light-saber. I already had every color I needed, including a very excellent green for his skin that I found in the bottom of my bin. I had only part skeins of each color but that turned out to be more than enough. (I might make a second one for me :P)

The only changes I made were minimal. Instead of the simple black eyes they used, I used a pair of 12mm black safety eyes and affixed them before stuffing the head. Once stuffed, I first used a bit of the same green yarn to embroider a large bump with two smaller bumps to the side for a nose. Then, I used a darker green to embroidered his wrinkled brow, outline the nose and give him a grin. 

Aside from that I decided to leave off the light-saber and instead give him his cane. I did this for two reasons: The cane is his original prop from the films and I felt like it was from his time as a wise teacher, and this Yoda is a gift to a teacher... more meaningful I feel.

Since the cane was not part of the pattern, I will share what I did to make it.

Cane:

In dark brown like belt. 

Magic Circle with 5 sc.

Sc around until reach the height you like (about 15 rounds)

Then do 2 sc in each, 10 sc.

One more row of sc around. 10 sc. 

Bind off and leave a long tail. At this point I inserted a folded pipe-cleaner into the center so that if you like it can be a crooked cane, but also to keep it from curling or being floppy. Once you have your core in, fold the top in half and sew it up to make the handle. I then put it up to his actual hand and took the tail over, secured it and went back over again to make a little strap so that it can actually stay on his hand or be removed. It can also be tucked under the sleeve to give the illusion he is holding it. :)

Really, really freaking cute. I kept laughing while making it and that is always an excellent sign.
Total time to completion: 12 hours.