FO Friday: Ravellenics Edition

Well it's that day of the week again and I have not just one but TWO finished items :) And this week both of my items qualify for the Ravellenic Games on Ravelry - I've never participated before, so I'm very excited to have a few items finished for it. First up is my much blogged about Blue Angel Shawl:

I finished this up on February 15th at 10:30 pm and it is my entry for the WIP Dancing event. This was made with the Blue Angel Shawl Pattern by Stefanie Japel that I bought as a kit through Craftsy. I've mentioned my many woes with this shawl already in other wip posts, but I really do like the finished product. I had a lot of yarn left when I finished where the pattern indicated, so I added 2 additional repeats of the lace border and I am super happy with this decision. I think I like it better with the wider lace border :)

My finished shawl measures 43.5" wide and 21" tall. My only complaint now that it's all finished is the bind off. The pattern says to just bind off like normal and then add a picot edge (which it tells how to do). I took this to mean just a regular bind of (k2, pass 1st st over 2nd st). I even went up 3 needle sizes (when the pattern only said to go up 2 sizes) and I made sure to bind off loosely, but it still is WAY too tight. I couldn't even stretch the edge out wide enough to be straight when blocking. I honestly had to pull the edge so hard while blocking that it felt like the yarn might break, and it still isn't perfect at the corners. Also because it's so tight the little picots curve forward even while you wear it. So, I have to strategically wrap this to look nice. Oh well, lesson learned for my next shawl I guess - ALWAYS use a "super stretchy bind off".

I really do love the lace though :) It was a bear, but I am happy with it now. Also this was made using Cascade Heritage Sock yarn and I am definitely a fan - I can't wait to use this yarn again!

And my second Ravellenics item is for the Toy Tobogganing event: Meet Husky Dave the Dragon!

Dave here earned his name as a collaboration between my husband and me. We were thinking of D names to go with Dragon and settled on Dave. Then I mentioned how he ended up with a bigger-than-called-for bottom since I somehow increased way too much (I still don't understand how I did that). So my husband suggested Husky Dave and the name stuck, lol. I made Dave using the Dragon pattern from FreshStitches. I actually won this pattern in the November 2012 Photo Contest with my Shirley the Alpaca and I had never used it until now. A crime! I decided using this long stashed pattern would be a good goal for the Ravellenics and I'm so glad I did.

The coolest part of this pattern is that it's designed like a "choose your own adventure" book. The pattern includes all kinds of different features you can choose for your dragon - you just make up the ones you want and it tells you how to put them all together. Pretty cool huh? Essentially I could keep using this pattern 20 times and never end up with the same result. This time I chose to give him small horns, wings, beady eyes and an arrow tail. You can also give him scales, cheek flaps, buggy eyes or a wider tail.

I love the cute little nostrils, lol. I also love this fun color combo. The blue is Everyday Soft Worsted in Azure (a new fav), the pink is Red Heart With Love in Hot Pink, and the green is Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green. All of these yarns were in my stash - I love that about amigurumi. You can just choose colors from yarn you already have and they still always come out cute :)

So there are my Ravellenics projects :) I would like to think I could finish another item by Sunday when the Olympic ends (which is the deadline for Ravellenics projects), but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I did finally pull my Purple Boob Holder out and figure out my mistakes last night. Now I'm knitting the body and it's coming out well, though I doubt I can finish it in a few days. We'll see.

That's all around here this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see the beautiful things others have finished this week :)

WIP Wednesday: A Dragon In The Works

So I managed to finish my blue angel shawl over the weekend, which left a big gap in my creating. I didn't really feel like delving into one of my long time WIPS, so I did what anyone would do ... I started to make an animal :) This is the Dragon pattern by FreshStitches and it is a "choose your own adventure" type pattern. She gives you lots of options for the features and you decide what your dragon will have (scales, ear flaps, wings, small or large horns, arrow tail or thick tail, etc). Believe it or not, I won this pattern a year and a half ago and had yet to make it up - I know, right?! It's so cute! So as part of my personal goal for the Ravellenic Games, I decided to make up at least one or two animal patterns I've had for a long time. I wanted a bright and fun colored dragon and I am thrilled with the color combo :) I made all my pieces first so I can attach them as I make the body, so this should finish quickly.

I also finished Gone Girl (ugh - book review to come soon), so I just started listening to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This one has always intrigued me and it's been on my "to read" list for a long time. Then last night while browsing through the downloadable audiobooks from my local library, I came across this and checked it out :) It's definitely interesting so far! I love listening to books while crocheting or knitting, lol, making me more of an old lady.

So that's what I'm up to this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others have going as well!

Crochet Update: Meet Louise!

So, my planned "productive Labor Day weekend" went pretty much nothing like I planned. I got a lot done cleaning-wise around the house on Saturday, plus I got to thrift at a few of my favorite stores I never get to go to. I planned to paint my living room Sunday, but ended up having a wave of unexplained illness. What to do instead? Crochet an elephant of course! Meet Louise!

I was so excited to finally make this little lady up. I used the Petrie the Dragon pattern from Monster's Toy Box. Yes you read that right, it's a dragon pattern. The same pattern I used to make Henrietta. I had the body made of my dragon and showed it to my husband and said, "Guess what it is!" and he said, "An Elephant!" After my initial disappointment that he didn't see it as a dragon, I realized he was totally right! If you flipped the body over and added a face, it would really look like an elephant. And the idea has stuck with me ever since.

When I imagined this guy, I knew I wanted to use a light purple yarn. This is SMC Worsted Weight with Wool yarn in Lilac. I used the same yarn in Taupe for the toe nails. I put 12mm safety eyes at round 23 and embroidered a black mouth between rows 25 and 26.

I free handed this tail. I started with a chain and ended up chaining 6. I left the last chain pulled out loose and added a few scraps of the yarn, then pulled it tight. To secure the yarn pieces, I wrapped the yarn around them all and then pulled the tail through like a knot. Those babies are there to stay.

For the nose, I stopped using the pattern when I had decreased down to 9 stitches. Then I sc3tog 3 times and pulled the knot through the center to secure it. This made for a nice flat spot to look more like a trunk.

I'm seriously loving how this little lady came out. She's so cute and friendly looking. My nephew particularly likes the long nose because he can use it as a handle, lol. Incidentally I've already come up with yet another animal I can make using this pattern :) I can't wait to make it!

Crochet Update: Meet Henrietta the Dragon

I've been diligently working on my Giraffe's legs, but found myself yet again being a little bored. As a split second decision, I decided to make up this little lady:

I call her Henrietta and she's a super cute dragon :) I used the Petrie the Dragon pattern from Monster's Toy Box (the same that designed the Giddy-Up Horse pattern). I'm seriously in love with the head shape of these designs - they're just so cute!

Here's the side view. The orange yarn is a bit of a mistake actually. I ordered two different orange yarns online thinking that one of them would be a good foxy color for making my fox. The both turned out to be much more orange and much less red than my laptop screen made me believe. The other orange worked out fine for the fox project, but I ended up with this crazy bright, almost neon orange color. It isn't the right kind of color to make a normal animal out of. I figured the only thing it would work for would be a monster, but when I decided on this pattern I knew the orange would just fit the bill. The orange is Vanna's Choice in Radiant Orange (very appropriately named) and the yellow is Red Heart With Love in Daffodil.

One thing I will say is that this pattern has a dang lot of pieces. It took quite a while just in assembling. I wouldn't change a thing though because I love how she turned out. Incidentally, I now have a new plan to use this pattern to make a completely different animal with its pieces. I'm really excited about it - I can't wait to show Monster's Toy Box the surprise! I just have a certain yarn color in mind that I need to pick up.

During the final assembly, I went to grab my usual animal eyes from my stash only to find I was all out of 15 mm size. Lucky for me this pattern (as well as all other Monster's Toy Box patterns) included instructions to make these cute eyes using felt. These eyes are one of MTB's signature looks and I hadn't tried making them yet. To be honest, they take quite a bit of work to make - especially considering how I seem to have missed the French knot making gene. I got it eventually and I really do love the eyes. 

Another thing I love are the toe nails! Yet again, my embroidery skills were not quite up to scratch, but in the end they came out cute. One thing I did differently than the pattern states is that I embroidered the toe nails and the nostrils before stuffing the pieces so that I could hide the knots inside. Also, since my horse came out so top heavy I decided to put poly pellets in the feet of Henrietta since she has a similar body shape. It worked like a charm!

I'm really happy with how cute this little dragon turned out! It's such a cute pattern and you can really be imaginative with your color choices. I'm definitely happy I grabbed this pattern :)