FO: Lady Bug Bags

It has been SO LONG since I last made an amigurumi-type item to share. So here are two to make up for lost time :)

My twin girls turned 2 in April and I wanted to make them something for their birthday. Since they came on the scene 2 years ago, I've basically had almost no crafting time due to obligations with them, work, crazy life events like divorce, being exhausted, etc. So I've really never made much for them no matter how much I wanted to. Now that they are 2, I have things much more under control with my time and schedule, so I've been able to start making things again. A few months ago, I realized that my girls are the perfect age for me to use a pattern book I've had for years but never really made much from: Amigurumi On The Go! by Ana Paula Rimoli. I was obsessed with her designs when I first started making amigurumi, so I bought all of her books. I made the Turtle Tote from this book for my nephew, but then never made anything else. Fast forward to now - I have 2 adorable little girls that are loving purses at the moment, and I knew I needed to look through this book again. 

This pattern is the Cupcake and Lady Bug Snack Bag, and as the name implies it give directions for making this simple draw string bag shape as either a lady bug or a cup cake. I went with lady bugs, obviously. I have a ton of Vanna's Choice yarn in Scarlet, Black and White that was given to me by a church member years ago when his mother died. Think blanket quantities of this yarn. So anything with red, black, and white is a big yes from me just to try and use this yarn up. 

Cute little back view :) The spots and center line are applied onto the solid color blocked bag after the fact. I'm a big believer in this yarn for any projects for kids. It's kind on your hands as you work (unlike Red Heart Super Saver), it's inexpensive, it washes great, and it's durable to hold up to toddler abuse.

The pattern has you make a holed tip edge and then a simple crocheted draw string...

So you can cinch it closed like this :) I will say - my girls accidentally pull the string out all the time and I have to re-thread it around the top, so I think I may sew it to the center back just to keep that from happening and them losing the string. Those ling thin cords were my least favorite part of this project so I'd like to not have to make them again.

Since my girls love purses, I wanted to make a strap for these bags so they could carry them around. This was a super easy addition - I just made another draw string as per the pattern and sewed it to the side top of the bag. Easy peasy. It's the perfect length for a toddler shoulder.

All in all, I totally love these little bags and my girls do too :) I made these in a few hours over the course of a few nights and gave them to them for their birthday. I would like to make them each something for their birthday each year, and this was a fun start to that tradition. I hear them say, "My purse!" and point to the bags quite frequently, then they stuff some random toy inside and carry it around for a while. I love that these are cute AND functional, and even as they get older we can use these for snacks as the book suggests. So it doesn't feel like these will be a short lived thing. Yay for fun but useful projects!

FO Friday: Zombies and Turtles and Mysteries Revealed

This past week was filled with far too much knitting than is good for anyone, lol. I've had to promise my husband that I will cut back a bit just so the house doesn't get covered in funk. At least I got everything finished by the time I needed to :) I warn you - this post is very picture heavy. I look at it as the amount of pictures is in direct relation to the amount of time the items took to make. So without further ado ... I present the most complicated item I have ever knitted: Briggs' Birthday Zombie.

I used the Classic Zombie pattern from Knit Your Own Zombie by Fiona Goble. I just love that shot above, lol, I had a lot of fun with my little photo shoot.

The cool thing about the book is that the zombie pieces and parts are designed in a pick and choose fashion, so you can mix and match patterns at will. I stuck to the Classic Zombie pattern except that I added a brain and a brain pocket.

lol As you can tell - my photo shoot was a lot of fun especially when I realized that he would stand up on his own. The eye sinew will soon have an actual eye ball on it. I checked everywhere for an evil eye bead like the book uses, but in the end I had to order some online and they hadn't arrived by Sunday. I'll update with a new pic when it's on :)

And here are all the pieces I made. The brain is removable, as are the stomach and intestines. I made the hole in the torso a deep purple color (to keep with decaying body realism, lol). The pattern calls for velcro that matches the yarn color for the head and torso, but in a design decision to keep it gruesome I hunted down some red velcro instead. I love the effect of it! Much more gory. The arms have metal snaps to join them together so they come off as well. The arm and one leg have nasty wounds on them. These are made by actually knitting a red limb, then the green outer limb, sliding the red inside the green, then embroidering with a burgundy yarn around the edges of the wound to attach them. This guy also has toe nails and finger nails that are long black bugle beads. The rib cage is (again) embroidered. The pants were knitted like normal, then I embroidered around a spot I wanted to make a hole and then (gasp!) cut the knitting! It was a scary moment and it didn't really work out as easily as the pattern made it seem and I had to whip stitch around the edge to keep the knitting from unraveling, but the effect is awesome.

lol I love this picture with the nubby arm and the guts sticking out. So gross. The entire face is embroidered on - no easy feat, let me tell you. It took a lot of time, but I really do love how it came out. The teeth are more bugle beads. I decided to use the black instead of white like the pattern calls for because, duh, dead and decaying body!

And here are all the parts laid out. The body parts are all sewn as separate pieces and seamed - holy crap did that take forever. Then I had to embroider everything, sew on beads, sew on velcro, sew on snaps, and make clothes. I had knitted all the body pieces over the course of about a week and then used my day off to put it all together. I'm not kidding when I say that this is almost all I did all day! And I still had to make the clothes!

I had to include this shot ... because it's awesome.

My brother definitely loved his gift, which made it worth all the work :) We kept teasing him that he got a doll for his 15th birthday, lol, but it was all in fun because everyone had to agree that it was gross and awesome.

I am super proud of how this project turned out, I can't lie. It was a crazy amount of work and the pattern certainly doesn't help in that. I'm used to American patterns that include a certain amount of (sometimes unnecessary) hand holding. This British pattern did nothing of the kind, and I've now discovered that this is common with British patterns. For example it would just say, "Seam pieces together. Embroider rib cage.," and the like. No walking you through how to do it, just referring you to a one picture diagram at the beginning of the book. In spite of that and in spite of how sick I was of making this thing when it was done, I would not be opposed to making another. The response from everyone who sees it is really great :) And even though it's gross, it's just so cool that it 's interactive. Even my 1.5 year old nephew loved to take the brain out (in fact we had to force him to give it back, lol). So, I would say there will be other zombies in my knitting future :)

But my making didn't stop there! I was also participating in the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery Knit-Along and the final clue was released last Friday. Now that the mystery is over, I am left with a super cute ... kangaroo!

This was my first ever Fuzzy Mitten project and it did not disappoint. How cute are they?! When I finished them, my husband said that she should be named Charlene (only to be read with a heavy Aussie accent), so this is Charlene and Jake :)

This project was made over the course of a month for me (it was actually 6 weeks with 1 clue each week, but I came in late). I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Toffee and Beige for the body - both were in my stash and they seriously turned out to be the perfect colors.

The cardigan comes off and all the limbs are jointed, so I can make her sit or stand or put her hands up - so cool! I will say, she didn't really like to stand up without her tail on, but that's a non-issue now since she has a tail. The joey was part of the final clue and you want to know what is the coolest thing about him? ...

He's a finger puppet! This is pretty vital to the design because it makes it possible to shove this little guy into the mom's pocket. And the body is made all in one piece! No sewing on teeny little arms and legs - so cool! I'm now obsessed with the idea of making lots of finger puppets, lol. The joey has 6 mm safety eyes and the mom has 10 mm ones.

The obligatory back view :) I love that it's really a little play set. I imagine that I kid would love to play with these. And most of the Fuzzy Mitten animals have similar sized bodies, so you can mix and match their clothes. I would have been all about that when I was little.

The cardigan is made from Red Heart Pompadour in blue and Aunt Lydia's Iced Bamboo in Icicle for the white stripe (it has just a tiny bit of sparkle in it). The cardigan was the first item to make, but it sat unfinished because I was waiting on buttons. I had to order these from Joann's and they are 7mm size. At least now I have a bunch more for the next project. I love that the cardigan only has those two buttons at the top so it can be worn and still see the joey :)

I had loads of fun making this set! I really love the fun of a mystery knit or crochet along, and the Ravelry groups always make it 10 times more fun. I'm so glad I was able to participate, and I have already almost finished my next Fuzzy Mitten friend. I know that I will be making plenty more of Barbara Prime's designs!

And there's one more item! This wasn't really anything I had to make, but it was just too cute and I have a feeling it will be useful and fun at the same time. I've had Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi On The Go since my birthday last year and hadn't made anything from it yet! I had to remedy that :) So my nephew now gets a super cute turtle tote!

Isn't he fun?! This is made just like any other crocheted amigurumi - you just add a long bag part to the top :) The whole bag is just hdc and then you add the stripes. Originally I didn't know if I wanted to add the stripes since it looked cute without them, but I am so glad I did!

I think the stripes really take this bag to the next step and make it less homemade looking (not that 'homemade' is a bad thing!) I made my stripes in dark red, yellow, orange and gray - all yarns out of my stash. The green and blue are both Red Heart Super Saver. 

The top cinches in with the pull cord. The bag is much bigger than I thought it would be! He is 9.5" tall and  5.5" wide, but it fits a surprising amount of stuff. I hope that my nephew enjoys putting things in, and then taking them out, and then putting them back in again :) He likes to do this with other bags, so now he will have one of his very own that no one will mind when he unloads it, lol.

Phew! That's all my projects from the past week. Crazy! If you have endured this entire post, thank you! I know it was really long but hopefully the pictures were cute enough to stay interesting :) If you're still interested (lol), head over to Tami's Amis' Blog and see what others managed to finish this week!

WIP Wednesday

 Well, this week has held quite a bit of knitting :) Clue #5 for the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery Knit-Along came out on Friday and it looks like this:

This is my kangaroo's body. I got it knitted, but I have yet to sew it together. Just for a visual, here it is with the other pieces:

Pretty cute, huh? I'm excited about the pocket :) I've also finally found and ordered mini buttons for the cardigan. They are called micro mini beads and I got them from Joann's (they had $1 shipping yesterday!) - Joann's was literally half the price of even Amazon, I was quite surprised. I got a few different color packs so I can decide once they arrive.

I started a last minute birthday gift for my brother last week too. I borrowed Knit Your Own Zombie  from the library just to give it a look through. When I showed my mom, she started talking about how much my brother would love something like this, and I knew she was right. His birthday is April 6th and he will be 16 - what 16 year old doesn't need an interactive zombie doll?! lol So, I raided my stash for the perfect colors and got to work knitting.

I have all the body parts and pieces knitted - now I just have to start sewing and embroidering - yikes! This just goes to show that I love my little bro - look at all those seams! The pieces are all assembled like if you were folding a box out of paper - there are tabs that wrap over the edges and miter at the corners to for a box. The limbs then have red sleeves that will poke through holes in the "skin" layer to look bloody. I went with green for the skin to be more decomposed looking, lol.

I seriously love all the holes. It made for a ton more work, but the fact that you can see bloody wounds makes it all worthwhile.

I also combined the Classic Zombie pattern with part of the Zombie Rockstar pattern to include a removable brain. This is the head pieces and the "brain pocket" along with my partially finished brain. How cool is that? You can have the brain pop out! Or you can have a rat crawling out of its head!

And here is the stomach set up - the purple is the "stomach pocket" - I made it purple to add to the rotten effect. I made the stomach and intestines out of burgundy yarn to differentiate between the "blood" and the "organs". I'm going for authenticity here, lol.

Another awesome aspect of this project is that the head and torso are attached with velcro - so you can remove the head or rip the body in half! To add to the gross-factor, I hunted down some red velcro, lol. The pattern also has you use bugle beads for the toe and finger nails, so I got black ones, lol. One of my favorite parts of the pattern is its eye ball - the original uses a glass eye bead and it's attached with red embroidery floss - so it looks like the eye has popped out and is barely hanging on! I searched all over locally to find the eye beads, but even Joann's didn't have anything close. So, I turned to Amazon. I have some beads on order, but I don't think they will arrive before Briggs' birthday - so I'll just have to improvise a severed sinew in the meantime. Anyway, as you can see I have great plans for this project. To be honest, it's much more involved then I anticipated when I began. Also the directions are really not that great. Mostly I just have to look at the picture and break down the best order to attach everything myself. I'd better get cracking though since his birthday is on Sunday! Lots of work...

I finally had the crochet urge again this week - the zombie proved to be more thinking than I wanted to do, so I started a nice brainless crochet project. This will be the Turtle Lunch Tote from Amigurumi On The Go by Ana Paula Rimoli. I've had this book almost a year an still hadn't made anything from it! A sin, I know. They are all so cute! My nephew has reached the age where he really likes putting things in bags and then unloading everything, so I figure this would be a useful gift for him.

Just to warn anyone else who is making any projects from this book - you have to stitch through both loops. I've gotten used to stitching through the back loop only like I do all my animals, so I made the whole base that way ... only to get to the part where it changes from the base to the sides and read "crochet through the back loop only". This is why we read patterns through before beginning, folks. The switching from regular stitching to back loop only gives the turn definition and without this the base was just a big dome. I had to pull out the entire thing and start again. Live and learn.

I also just started reading Anna Karenina today and I'm already impressed with the writing style. I've read lots of other "classic" novels before, but they always have a tone that is typical of their time. Not so with Anna Karenina. It's written just like any modern book I've read. I really like it thus far :)

So that's what's going on with me this week :) I'd better get to stitching! Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others are working on.

Crochet Update: The Mushroom Rattle

After I made up all the new pieces for the Mystery Crochet Along on Wednesday night, I wanted another animal to keep my hands busy for the evening. I had just finished my other animal projects so I needed a new one and I had a sudden epiphany on what I should make. Thus, this mushroom came to be :)

This is the Mushroom Softies pattern from Amigurumi Two by Ana Paula Rimoli, one of the books Justin bought me for my birthday. When I showed my sister the book, this was the pattern she commented about most - she loves Mario style mushrooms. She even made big mushroom top hats for herself and her husband one year for Halloween. Add my nephew's love of the color red to the family's mushroom obsession and this baby was meant to be.

I used Everyday Soft Worsted yarn in Really Red and Snow White along with white and black felt and embroidery floss. Luckily I had all the items I needed on hand. Since I knew this was going to my nephew (who loves to chew my crocheted toys), I cut out teeny tiny circles of felt for the eyes and sewed them on. Confession: I originally tried to embroider satin stitch eyes - they looked awful. It's very difficult to embroider an even shape on a bumpy surface. So I just put the felt over the bad looking embroidered eyes - victory!

The only thing that bugs me about using the 4 white felt pieces on the mushroom top is that the red yarn left red fuzz on the embroidery floss as I pulled it through, so it's a little red at the stitches. Hopefully that eventually wears off with excessive chewing.

I think this pattern is cute, but it's very difficult to keep it the shape shown in the book once you stuff it. I like that you can choose which size mushroom you want (there are directions for small, medium and large), the final "put everything together" stage could be described a little better. I think I stuffed my top too much because it just won't curl over the base like the example photo does. Oh well, I still think it's super cute. Also, I have an ace in the hole for this to be an extremely successful toy for my nephew.

It has a rattle! I put it in the lower part of the top just before I sewed it up, so it's very cushioned and he can't get to it. I think I get just as much enjoyment out of the rattle pieces as the kids they go to :)

Crochet Update: Meet Cuddles the Cuttlefish!

This guy was such a quick make! I went to the nursing home with my family yesterday to visit my Grandfather and I literally didn't start him until we left. I had all the pieces made after the visit and watching The Walking Dead. I just had to put him together afterward last night :)

Isn't he the cutest! This was made with the Cuttlefish pattern from Amigurumi Toy Box by Ana Paula Rimoli. This is the second pattern I've made from the book and it was really simple to make up. Just like Tree Love (also from the same book) - there was A LOT of sewing pieces on. But it wasn't really terrible since he's so cute :)

 Here he is from the back.

And here's from the bottom. Because the legs are sewn on, they can stand up or fan out which is cool. I also really love the little embroidered mouth :) It's kind of a pain to do since I"m not used to it, but it's so worth it since it really adds personality to the finished product.

The true test was when I handed Cuddles to Luke and he immediately hugged him :) He's all about hugging everything now and putting it right in his mouth. So, I call that baby approved :)

I'm so happy with the two pieces I've made so far that I'm really excited to make another pattern from this book :)

Crochet Update: Meet Tree Love!

I finished this guy on Monday, but I've been waiting to get pictures of him. Sadly when I finally had some daylight, I forgot my good camera :( So please forgive the iphone photos. I think this guy is cute enough to make up for it :) **I've replaced the bad photos so now you can really see him!**

This is the Tree Love pattern from Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi Toy Box :) I'll confess - this pattern was the main clincher for me buying the book. And I haven't regretted it once - he's so cute!

This is the back view. I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Chocolate and Kelly Green with Red Heart Super Soft in Lettuce. The pattern called for only 8 branches, but I thought he looked a little bare so I made 9. There are 36 leaves on him! That was A LOT of sewing on. It took me 3 times longer to make the branches and leaves than to make the whole body. Also, there is a little sewn pouch in the bottom filled with rice to give him some stability so he can stand up (otherwise it would be crazy top heavy).

This is the view from the top and I really like how staggered the branches are. .I may even make more leaves later on. We'll see :)

I love the cute little embroidered mouth. Ana Paula Rimoli has you embroider mouths on all her patterns and it really adds to their personality :)

I've already tested this guy out on my nephew and he seemed to enjoy sticking him in his mouth, so I'll count that as a winner. I'm really happy with my new addition :)