Craft: Crochet Ice Cream Cones

I haven't had a lot of time for crafts and blogging lately as uni has been taking up some of my time in the evenings. My shawl (that I wrote about last week) hasn't grown very much and I needed a small crochet project to get me motivated to keep working on it. That's how these crochet ice creams came to be!  

Craft: Work-in-Progress Hilo Shawl

I have a wedding to go to in mid July and it's presented a bit of challenge in terms of what to wear. The ceremony will be outside if all goes according to plan and it's likely to be cold (I'm in Australia so it will be the middle of winter). I've found it really difficult to find a nice dress with long enough sleeves to keep me warm. In the end I gave up and bought this cute dress from ModCloth. It has no sleeves at all, I'm going to be freezing!

Craft: Crochet Bunny and Invisible Decreases

I've been crocheting amigurumi for several years now and it's taken me this long to learn that there is such a thing as an invisible single crochet decrease! 

Made with invisible decreases!

Craft: Mother's Day Granny Stitch Scarf

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! 

My Mum has admired the granny stitch scarf I have been working on several times now and I thought a similar scarf would make a perfect Mother's Day present. I couldn't give Mum the one I was working on of course, which only left me with ten days to make another one. I have been crocheting it at every spare moment to get it done in time. Luckily granny stitch is relaxing and easy to do while reading or watching TV and I managed to get the scarf finished with one day to spare! 

Craft: Work-in-Progress - Granny Stripe Scarf

It seems like I've been waiting all summer for the weather to cool down so that I can start wearing scarves again. Now that it finally has I've begun crocheting my first scarf!

I was inspired to make the scarf after finding the yarn. I don't normally like novelty yarn, but this one was hard to resist with its tiny sequins and rich colour. In certain lights the yarn looks deep red and in others its almost a bright pink.

Craft: Experimenting with Craft Photography

For a while now I've been wanting to improve the pictures of my craft projects. I really admire some of the craft photography on blogs like Monsters Toy Box and Fresh Stitches. I came across this post from Caught on a Whim which details Erica's process for taking pictures for her blog. She makes it look so simple and uses very basic equipment - a low table, two pieces of foam board and a camera (she also recommends a furry assistant!). I found some foam board in a craft shop last weekend and set up a trial photo shoot. Unfortunately it was too late for natural light but I gave it a go anyway.

For subjects I used these cute tiny chickens that I have been knitting up for the Mochi Mochi photo competition. The pattern is from the Teeny Tiny Mochi Mochi book which I have previously raved about.

I decided to try experimenting with some bigger toys....

And then this happened... the background somehow disappeared...

I almost managed to take a picture with no visible background, replicating the pictures I like from other craft blogs. I have no idea what caused this to happen, but it was easier to get the effect if I took the picture from an angle where the vertical board couldn't be seen at all. These photos may be far from perfect but they have definitely inspired me to keep trying :-)

Craft: Fresh Stitches Scrap Along

Do you have lots of balls of yarn that are too small to make anything with, but are too large to justify throwing away? If you do, the FreshStitches website has the answer! 

This month FreshStitches is hosting a scrap-along; a crochet-along using all your leftover bits of yarn. The idea is to create a "magic ball" using yarn scraps to create a colourful skein. FreshStitches has a post explaining how to join the different scraps together to create the magic ball. Here's the one I made. 

(The paper clip is my stitch marker!) 

It was fun crocheting with the "magic ball" and seeing all the different yarns come together in the finished piece. It was also nice crocheting with different types of yarn again. Lately I've been buying fairly cheap wool for making amigurumi, but some of my scrap yarn was from my days of knitting clothes for myself using fancy wool/cotton blends. 

I chose to make this cute monster for my scrap-along project. The pattern is called Lark. It's a FreshStitches pattern that is published on the KnittingFever website (this might disqualify it from the FreshStitches competition...oops!).  It was really fast to crochet and the pattern was nice and easy to follow. I like the funny oversized eyes! 

If you're not familiar with FreshStitches patterns you'll notice the texture of her patterns are different to most amigurumi. This really confused me the first time I saw it - I actually wondered if I had been crocheting wrong all this time! Now that I've made one of FreshStitches patterns I realise it's because the whole piece has been crocheted in the back loops. It does give a nice texture.

Here are some more pics of my scrappy monster.

Craft: Crochet Cats

In my post last week I mentioned that I wanted to make my Mum a crocheted cat for her birthday. I only started it a week beforehand, but I'm happy to say that I finished it in time! It wasn't easy however. Last week was a busy one for me as I've been preparing for a housemate to move in. This didn't leave a lot of time for crocheting cats! In addition to that I decided that the first pattern I made wasn't really right for Mum....

I made the Amineko cat pattern first. There's nothing wrong with the pattern. In fact it's a great pattern - I smile every time I see the kitty snoozing amongst the pillows on my sofa.

Or on top of the sofa.

Or on the bookshelf.

Even up a tree!

I thought he might be a bit too cartoonish for Mum. He's more cheeky than cute. Perhaps I just didn't want to let him go :-P

I decided to quickly crochet an alternative cat for Mum. I made this kitty.

The pattern is my own modification of the Spring Bunnies pattern from All About Ami. I'll post the modifications to the pattern soon. I'm glad I decided to make the second crochet kitty for Mum because not only do I get to keep the Amineko kitty for myself, the white kitty looks likes like my Mum's ragdoll William who has recently been shaved for the summer!

Craft: a Sneak Peek of My Current Project...

Hmm, what could this be??

Craft: Ami Ami Dogs

Have you heard of Ami Ami Dogs? It's some of the cutest crochet I've ever seen! I have both of Mitsuki Hoshi's Ami Ami Dogs books and it makes me happy every time I flip through the pages and admire her adorable creations.

Unfortunately Ami Ami Dogs are not so easy to replicate. The first obstacle is the way the patterns are written; in charts. If like me you've never tried crocheting from a chart it might take some getting used to. I find it easy to miss an increase on decrease in the charts and would much prefer a written pattern. I will endure the charts for the cute Ami Ami dogs however.

The second obstacle is in the making up. It's easy enough to make the component pieces of an Ami Ami dog - it's very basic crochet. Putting the pieces together is another story however... I wanted to make the Shih Tzu pattern from Ami Ami Dogs 2 for a friend. Here's how it looks in the book:

See, completely adorable!

And here's my attempt....

A lot less adorable :-P He's still cute, but there's something not quite right about the way he's put together. I think Mitsuki Hoshi must put a lot of care and attention into putting her puppies together. I have made mine in a much larger size than what's recommended in the book and maybe that has something to do with it.

He does have a certain charm! And he was well liked by his new owner. 

The yellow dog is my first attempt at an Ami Ami Dog. I will be trying at least one more pattern from the book (the jack russell next time). It's worth having a look at the Ami Ami Dogs books - even if you don't crochet! - they are so full of cuteness and charm it's almost ridiculous!

Craft: Crochet Bunny

Sometimes I find it hard to give away the toys I've made. One of the most difficult toys to give away was this bunny from All About Ami. I made him for no-one in particular and then decided to give him away for a secret santa present last year. There has been a bunny shaped hole in my life ever since! Happily it has now been filled (almost...) by bunny number two.

I highly recommend the pattern; it's quick, easy, and the finished bunny has so much personality.

This guy is a lot happier looking than his brother before him. It's very easy to make the bunny look depressed by placing his eyes too low on his head, which I did the first time. When I asked my boyfriend (who was also fond of bunny number one) if he liked bunny number two, he said "this one's cuter, but I liked the other one better". The sad bunny look can be endearing!

Here's bunny with his friend Snuggles the Penguin that I posted about last year.

Snuggles is happy that he has a friend to share his bookshelf with.

Crochet Penguin

Yesterday I finished making this super cute penguin pattern from All About Ami. I started this ages ago when Sophie started hers (published in her last post), but I've been seriously distracted by the launch of Guild Wars 2 and have sadly abandoned my crafty pursuits for the last few months. Hopefully finishing the penguin will keep me motivated for a while.

I'm really happy with my penguin. He looks super snugly with his over-sized scarf. I had to change the size of the body as I started to run out of blue yarn. I kept the sizes of the arms and scarf that same (because I had forgotten that I changed the body size!). I think it works though.

This is a great pattern and I recommend having a look at All About Ami; the blog has some really cute patterns. She's even got a pattern for Link which I really have to try some time!  

A Penguin for Penelope

We welcomed my new niece, Penelope Joy, into the world a month ago. She's super cute and she actually sleeps - who knew that some babies actually sleep? I would never have guessed it.

I wanted to make something special for her. I've been crocheting baby rugs for a few years now, but I decided it was time to go all out: it was time to learn how to crochet a toy.

Happily, I had Emily to teach me the stitches I needed, and to explain how to follow patterns. I don't know how I would have done it without her! She even found me an easy pattern to try: gorgeous Snuggles the Penguin from All About Ami. There are a few toy patterns on this blog that are definitely on the to-do list now :-)

My penguin isn't perfect, but I think he's pretty great for a first timer!

I changed the pattern a little bit by using a 4mm hook and 8ply yarn, instead of a 2mm hook and 4ply yarn. The penguin feels like a good size and weight to me - after all, there'll be a baby chewing on him and throwing him around the nursery soon enough, so he needs to have a little bit of heft to him.

My favourite childhood toys were all crocheted by my Grandma, and it makes me so happy that I can now crochet toys for my nieces and nephews.

My Current Project: Baby Blanket

I've finished the baby blanket for my colleague, Aleesha, just in time (it's her last day tomorrow!).

This is a terrible photo, but I hope you can see how soft and muted the colours are. I'm very pleased with how the colour scheme worked out.

My Current Craft Project: Baby Blanket

At the moment I'm working on a blanket for a lovely colleague of mine who's fast approaching the birth of her first baby.

I'm using Paton's Big Baby yarn, in 4ply, with a 4mm crochet hook. This creates a very light blanket - which is perfect because it's a bit too warm for heavy blankets here even in winter.

This blanket will effectively be one giant granny square. This is much faster than crocheting individual squares and joining them later - that method of making a blanket is a pain in my opinion.

My colleague knows that her baby is a little girl (eeeee!) but because I suspect she'll be inundated with pink presents, this blanket will be a repeating pattern of pink, white, yellow, white, blue, white, pink, etc.

Now, it's back to crocheting or I'll have no chance of getting this project finished in time.