Since my last post I’ve been pretty productive, so I wanted to show you some things I’ve been working on! This is a photo-intense post, so get ready…
I made this doll of a birthday girl and her pet cat, including a little kitty hat her mom had made her! She had a little removable tie-front cardigan with tiny flowers on one lapel. Word is, she loved it!
I got an order for two pets for someone’s birthday. The first was a bulldog, who is ADORABLE, and the second I haven’t finished yet, a Boston Terrier. I got to deliver this one in person, a rare treat, and she loved him.
Next up, a doll I made for a well-known bartender that works at the hottest bar/live music venue here in Austin, the Mohawk. He’s got a famous beard and is into Jiu-Jitsu. I made one doll for the Mohawk, and two dolls in Jiu-Jitsu outfits for his twin daughters. I sewed his little Western shirt out of an old one I had. His t-shirt has a Mohawk logo iron-on. Nice beard, right??
Someone you might recognize, Questlove, or DJ Questo, of The Roots, also known as Jimmy Fallon’s house band. I loved making him. I made him a little hair pick out of glittery black Sculpey clay, drumsticks that I carved from a long wooden dowel, and little red hoodie. I was able to go to The Roots’ show at the Mohawk during SXSW and hand-deliver the doll to Questlove himself! He loved him and told me it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever given him! I was thrilled.
Last up is a project I actually did almost a year ago, but just got this picture! My husband wrote to the people at Rancho Obi-wan, Steve Sansweet’s mecca of Star Wars collectibles. He has the largest Star Wars collection in the world and has worked for Lucasfilm and written several books about Star Wars. He was kind enough to pose with my Salacious Crumb, which I sold in the Stitch Wars Strikes Back show last summer. Awesome, right?
I’ll post some more finished projects soon. I’m working on a really large order this week and then continuing work on my book. This summer I should be more able to take custom orders, my FAVORITE thing to do! Thanks for reading!
One of the greatest things about what I do has to be getting new yarn. If you crochet or knit, you know exactly what I mean. You pick it up, squeeze it, smell it (don’t lie, I know you do), and feel the strands, thinking HARD about what you can make so that you’ll have an excuse to buy at least two skeins. We’ve all been there.
When I got this new Inca Eco yarn from Galler Yarns, I couldn’t put it down. It’s 100% cotton, which usually means stiff yarn that rubs my hands raw when I’m crocheting. I don’t know how they did it, but this yarn is amazingly soft. I hand wound it into a ball and it was a pleasure. Seriously. I almost NEVER work with 100% cotton because of how it is to crochet, but I was in heaven working with this yarn.
I got Lavender, one of 15 colors, dyed with eco-friendly low environmental impact dyes. The other colors include Ecru, Butter, Sage, Blue Stone, Blossom, Rose, Aloe, Aqua, Denim, Espresso, Wine, Raspberry, Navy, Black. It comes in 100 gram/140 yd skeins and is a thick/thin textured yarn with beautiful stitch definition.
The pattern I chose for this yarn in this delicious color had to be for Spring. I had been wanting to make these cute little “Lady Mitts” from Becky Joiner for a while now, and I thought they’d be great for the “cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, cool in the evening” weather we get this time of year.
The only changes I made to the pattern were the number of rows and the edging. Since Inca Eco is thick and thin, it works up a little bulkier so I did a reverse single crochet edging all along the top edge instead of the picot edging Becky designed.
What do you think? Cute little Spring accessory, right? Thanks Galler Yarns for letting me try this beautiful yarn!
This post is part of a 15 day blog tour, so make sure you visit these blogs over the next several days!
Galler Yarns is also going to be posting free patterns for Inca Eco on their blog every Friday during the tour, so check back there tomorrow. Check here to see if there’s a store near you stocking Galler Yarns. Here’s a link to all the info you need on this lovely new yarn!
Have any of you used Galler Yarns before? What would you make with this yarn?
Little amigurumi Matthew McConaughey is back with some interesting news.
He already talked with Austin Eavesdropper about the Top 10 Things to do in Austin. Now he has the scoop on a contest that is running here in Austin for SXSW. It’s pretty serious too, since the grand prize is $5,000 and all you have to do is stroll around downtown scanning QR codes to get the cash!
Citysearch recently appointed me a local Austin scout, which means I’ll be writing reviews and suggestions on my favorite (and not favorite) things here in Austin over on the Citysearch site, starting with SXSW, of course. I’ll be on hand, along with lots of the other Citysearch scouts (a real who’s who of Austin bloggers and who I feel lucky to hang out with!), to help run this pretty sweet scavenger hunt this weekend. Matthew will be with us, just helping out and serenading us with the heavenly intonations of his bongo.
Stores around the downtown Austin area will have cute little signs like this in the window.
When you see little Sid E. Serch, just scan the QR code on the sign and follow the instructions. There will even be instant win prizes when you scan these codes, like $300 on the spot! You don’t have to aimlessly wonder, looking for codes. There will be a list of hints so you can expertly navigate your way around and win that money!
Want some more details? Follow this link for all the details from Citysearch and Sid E. Serch.
Remember! The codes won’t go live until Friday, March 9th at 7:00 pm central. You’ll have until Sunday to find all the codes you can to get the most points.
I’ll leave you all with a candid shot I took while Matthew was practicing his yoga this morning. He’s so uninhibited, isn’t he?
This hilarious interview is brought to you by Citysearch and Austin Eavesdropper, with the help of my hook, yarn, and lots and LOTS of research on Matthew McConaughey via Google image search. Tough work. 😉 Enjoy!
I hope you all know Austin’s favorite shirtless resident, Matthew McConaughey and his notorious bongo skills. Turns out he has a lot of questions about fun things to do in Austin for SXSW too. Check out that cute little crocheted bootie!
Say, man. You got another bongo? It’d be a lot cooler if you did.
We have shelves and shelves of kids’ books. I’m kind of a hoarder in that regard. I love going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army store and picking up armloads for 50 cents each. If you looked through our books about 75% would have a thrift store price tag on them. I try to get my kids to pick a different book every night, but you can only read a Spongebob beginning reader book so many times before you want to put it through a shredder. Dora the Explorer books and books based on kids’ movies, the same. When you read a really good children’s book, however, you don’t mind when your kid asks for it for the 5th time that week. Take the Sneetches, for example. Does my five year old understand that its a story about non-conformity and prejudice? Probably not. But he does think that Sylvester McMonkey McBean is pretty kooky. He likes to see them all pay “ten dollars eaches” and have those stars disappear and come back again in his amazing machine. But I have a feeling that when he’s reading the story about bellies with stars and others with “none upon thars”, he’ll grow up with a little more of an open mind. Its what Dr. Suess would have wanted.
Before you get started, some inspiration. If you haven’t watched this before, I encourage you to take a minute now, because it is just plain awesome. The catchy 70s music will eat you up!
This crocheted amigurumi sneetch is easy to make and fun to play with. His belly star is attached with velcro so he can take it off and put it back on again. He’ll be invited to all the marshmallow toasts and frankfurter roasts that way.
Sneetch:
You will need:
Materials: Yellow worsted weight yarn Gray worsted weight yarn White fuzzy yarn (baby or “cloud” yarn) White felt Green felt 6mm black safety eyes Black embroidery floss Small piece of velcro, just the “hook” side, sew-on type
Tools: Size E crochet hook Yarn needle Embroidery needle
Body: Rnd 1: Starting at the bottom of the body with yellow yarn, make an adjustable ring, ch 1, and sc 6 into the ring. Pull tail tightly to close hole. (6) Rnd 2: Work 2 sc into each st (12) Rnd 3: (2 sc into next st, sc into next st)* repeat around (18) Rnd 4: (2 sc into next st, sc into next 2 st)* rep around (24) Rnd 5: (2 sc into next st, sc into next 3 st)* rep around (30) Rnd 6-9: Sc into each st (30) Rnd 10: (Sc2tog, sc into next 8 st)* rep around (27) Rnd 11: Sc into each st (27) Rnd 12: (Sc2tog, sc into next 7 st)* rep around (24) Rnd 13: Sc into each st (24) Rnd 14: (Sc2tog, sc into next 6 st)* rep around (21) Rnd 15: (Sc2tog, sc into next 5 st)* rep around (18) Rnd 16: (Sc2tog, sc into next 4 st)* rep around (15) Rnd 17: (Sc2tog, sc into next 3 st)* rep around (12) Rnd 18: (Sc2tog, sc into next 4 st)* rep around (10) Rnd 19-21: Sc into each st (10) * Insert stuffing into the larger bottom part of the body before you proceed with the neck (or you’ll be sorry)! Rnd 22: Sc2tog, sc into next 8 (9) Rnd 23: Sc into each st (9) *Change to gray yarn at last st of Rnd 23. Rnd 24: Sc into each st (9) *Change to yellow yarn at last st of Rnd 24. Rnd 25-26: Sc into each st (9) *Change to gray yarn at last st of Rnd 26. Rnd 27: Sc into each st (9) *Change to yellow yarn at last st of Rnd 27. You can cut the gray yarn. Work the next few stitches over the end to secure. Rnd 28: Sc into each st (9) Fasten off and cut tail short. Stuff the neck and set aside.
Head: Rnd 1: Starting at the nose end of the head with yellow yarn, make an adjustable ring, ch 1, and sc 4 into the ring. Pull tail tightly to close hole. (4) Rnd 2: Sc into each st (4) Rnd 3: (2 Sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep to end (6) Rnd 4: Sc into each st (6) Rnd 5: (2 Sc into next st, sc into next 2 st)* rep to end (8) Rnd 6: Sc into each st (8) Rnd 7: (2 Sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep to end (12) Rnd 8: (2 Sc into next st, sc into next 2 st)* rep to end (15) Rnd 9-10: Sc into next 5 st, hdc into next 5 st, sc into next 5 st (15) Rnd 11: Sc into next 5 st, hdc into next st, dc into next 3 st, hdc into next st, sc into next 5 st (15) Rnd 12: (Sc2tog, sc into next 3 st)* rep to end (12) *Cut tiny ovals from white felt. Cut a slit in each oval and insert the eye, then insert the eye into the face as shown, and attach washer on the inside. Stuff the head. Rnd 13: Sc2tog around (6) Fasten off and leave a long tail. Weave tail through last row of stitches to close hole, then down through bottom of head. Sew onto body and weave in ends.
Arm (Make 2):
Rnd 1: Starting at the shoulder with yellow yarn, make an adjustable ring, ch 1, and sc 5 into the ring. Pull tail tightly to close hole. (5)
Rnd 2-8: Sc into each st (5)
Rnd 9: 2 Sc into next st, sc into each st (6)
Rnd 10: Sc into each st (6)
Row 11: Ch 1, and fold the arm flat. Working through both layers of the arm, sc across the end 3. This closes the arm. It does not need to be stuffed. Turn and work the next row across the top. (3)
Row 12: (Ch 3, sc into 2nd ch from hook and next ch, then sl st into next st)* rep across for three fingers.
Fasten off with a sl st and sew arms to body.
Leg (Make 2)
Rnd 1: Starting at the toe end of the foot with yellow yarn, make an adjustable ring, ch 1, and sc 3 into the ring. Pull tail tightly to close hole. (3)
Rnd 2: 2 Sc into next st, sc into each st (4)
Rnd 3: 2 Sc into next st, sc into each st (5)
Rnd 4: Sc into each st (5)
Rnd 5: 2 Sc into next st, sc into each st (6)
Rnd 6: Sc into each st (6)
Rnd 7-8: Dc into next 3 st, sl st into next 3 st (6)
*This forms the heel.
Rnd 9-13: Sc into each st (6)
Rnd 14: Sc into next 4 st, sc2tog (5)
Fasten off and sew to bottom of body as shown. No stuffing is necessary.
Finishing:
White mane:
Cut four inch long strands of white fuzzy yarn. Insert hook into a stitch around the neck just above where the arms are attached, and pull up a loop of the white yarn. Pull ends through loop to fasten to neck. Do this all the way around the neck twice. Try to keep strands close together. When you’re finished, trim the strands as shown.
Face:
Using black embroidery floss, embroider a straight vertical stitch for the smile on one cheek, then a line all the way across (using three even horizontal straight stitches), then another short vertical line on the other cheek. Do not cut floss. On last stitch, insert the needle back into the head, and come out at the very top of the head through the yarn (do not come up through a “hole” in the stitches or the floss will not be secured). Knot the embroidery floss close to the surface and cut it about 1/2″ long for the Sneetch’s hair.
Star:
Cut a star from two layers of green felt. On one of the pieces, sew a tiny patch of velcro with the rough hook side. Using the same green thread, sew the layers together with a whipstitch close to the edge. The rough velcro will stick to your Sneetch’s belly. You may need to periodically trim the fuzz that may come up from removing and applying the star.
Hope you have fun making your own little Sneetch. What a great baby shower or birthday gift it would be to give Dr. Suess’ amazing book with your own handmade little Sneetch! If you make one, I’d love to see a picture of him! Post him to the Ravelry page or on CraftyisCool on Facebook.
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