Twist and Cooper

Wow its been a busy week here at amigurumi barmy land. I've hardly stopped, I've been working hard on the next too bedtime omnipoms and they are fianlly finished.

 First up here is Twist.

Twist is ready for bed with her bunny slippers and blanket.

 I knitted her blanket out of a very fine sock yarn on 2mm needles. I wanted it to be to scale but I didn't realise at the time that this meant it was gonna take the same amount of time it takes to knit a big blanket. Knitting it was boring, fiddly and slow, I hated it. Half way through I wanted to chuck it in the bin and if it wasn't for the beautiful soft yarn with its pretty colours I think I might have. The weird thing is as soon as I'd finished it I loved it and wanted to make another straight away for a different doll. What can I say, we crafters are strange folk :)

Next is Cooper

Cooper has a bunny sleep suit on and his favourite story book ready for someone to read him a story.

I made Coopers story book using real book binding techniques and the mini book turned out great. I covered it with a silk ribbon which matched his eyes and found a motif of strawberries in my stash of pretty things I'll use one day. I like to think its a story about the omnipoms trying to make jam and getting in a very sticky mess :)

All together

So thats Twist, Ginger and Cooper the bedtime omnipoms.


Who's your favourite?

I'm linking in with handmade monday  :)

Ginger

Its been a while since I spent some time with the omnpoms. There is some exciting stuff coming up with this cheeky lot. Tony and the the twins above are hopefully behaving themselves as they've gone off to stay my artist friend Alex to model for a new project.

I really like these guys, everyone has its own personality and they are really fun, if a little time consuming to make. The pattern for them seems to change every time I make one but I think its nearly getting to the point where I'm happy to publish it.

The newest member of the family is Ginger.

Ginger was inspired by a sketch by Alex and she's the first of a set of 3 bedtime omnipoms.
Her name comes from the amount of ginger biscuits I consumed while making her. I've been hit by this banking problem with RBS and so I've had very little money over the weekend and I've been having to raid the cupboards to make food out of whatever I've got left. I made a batch of ginger biscuits but got the quantity's a bit wrong so ended up with far to many. My resulting sugar high probably explains why at 10pm last night I though it was a good idea to knit her little bunny bear on the smallest knitting needles I own :)

 Isn't she a cutie :)

I'm linking in with handmade monay as usual :)

Coin purse

 A while ago I was trying to come up with a simple way to make a coin purse with a zip and lining. I tried lots of ideas and made templates out of paper and thought I'd got it sussed.
 When it came to getting my sewing machine out and having a proper go. my brilliant plan just went from my head and I could not figure out what my paper template meant at all. In the end I ruined a piece of embroidery and had a major falling out with my sewing machine.
 Today I came across a tutorial on youtube called how do you make a zippered coin purse (if I figure out how to post the video I will post it here)
This was just what I was looking for. Its a great tutorial and it works really well.

I didn't want to ruin another embroidery so I used a scrap of fabric. To make it a bit more interesting I used a iron on motif. I picked this one up from work ages a go and it had been in my, that's pretty but I've no idea what I'm gonna do with it box.

Its not perfect, the stitching's a bit uneven and I need more practise with my measuring and seam allowances. As I was making it I kept thinking I was going wrong and it was gonna be rubbish, so when I turned it out and it looked like this I was really happy with it.

 Well practise makes perfect, a few more of these and I might feel up to tackling the embroidered ones. Wish me luck :)

Sheep in wolves clothing.

 Such lovely comments on my post rat attack thank you all. With so many of you saying how cute you though Mr rat was I was a bit worried about posting him fully dressed. 

 He was never meant to be cute. He a plague doctor rat. I made the rat to be a life like as is possible and now he's dressed in his felt cloak, tri corner hat and plague doctor mask.  Sorry the pictures aren't the best.

I remember learning about the plague in primary school and the pictures of the plague doctors with their strange masks scared me something silly then and i still find them creepy now.
 This rat is the first a new range of my amigurmi called sheep in wolves clothing. The idea came from the talented artist Alex Copley .  I'm really enjoying the creative process with these slightly sinister amigurumis.

EDF energy crochet pattern

 A morning of hard work has paid off and I'm really pleased with how the pattern for this little blob from the Edf energy adverts has worked out. The pattern is now off with my wonderful resident pattern tester and when shes finished with it it will be available from my etsy shop. All the money from these sold goes to the kidney paients association and I hope it does well for them.

 What a change to the weather we've had here in york after all that rain its finally warm and sunny today. I was able to take my camera into the garden to shoot the little blob and doesn't he look cute next to the marigolds :)

 I've also taken advantage of the sunshine to dry my latest embroidery.

 This is gonna be a kindle cover. Its a quote from a wise mans fear by Patrick Rothfoss. The king killer Chronicles are one of my favourite books and there are so many great quotes from them I think I'm gonna have to do a range of these. It's stitched on linen and as its dried its looks like parchment which I really like, I'm gonna back it and line it in a simple patterned fabric when the Mexican stand off with my sewing machine is resolved.

 The wet weather hasn't done too much damage in the garden. The veg patch isn't doing much but everything else it coming on a treat. This foxglove is 8ft tall. The hosta and heucheras are doing well under the shade of the hedge. Everything needs a good weed and tidy up but its looking good.

 This is a sweet pea Lathyrus sativus Azureus its the second year I've grown it as it really is so beautiful.

My favourite rose, crazy for you. Its mine and Andy's rose. Its looking a bit straggly this year but the flowers are so pretty and the scent is wonderful.
 Well I'm gonna go back out and play in the garden while the sun is still shining.

I'm linking in with handmade monday . go have a look at all the other handmade lovelies blogs .

Sunday

A week ago me and the above little **** had a bit of a falling out. I had spent a good while embroidering some linen to make into a coin purse for myself. When it got to put it together with lining and zip, I had a bit of a mental block and the above was being stubborn and the end result was my pretty little piece of embroidery got ruined. We both said and did things we didn't mean and we haven't spoken since. Shes been sitting were I left her, in my way and looking pathetic like a naughty cat.
 The problem is I now have a stack of embroidery to sew up so I've got to make amends. I'll start off small. Some more mobile covers need finishing off. These only need a quick sew round the edge so that shouldn't be too tricky for the old girl once I've got her loaded up with thread.

This though is a cover for a kindle and it needs lining. I'm a bit worried about making a mess this so I might leave it for a while and crack on with some crochet.

These little EDF energy blobs have been selling well in my esty shop and so far I've made £30 for charity. I've been asked to write a crochet pattern and a knitting pattern for them so I've that to work on next. Its gonna be a busy day.

More sewing.

 I'm cracking on with the embroidery and I'm really enjoying making these little mobile phone cases. They are so simple to make but look really pretty. I'm loving raiding my button stash to pick out pretty ones to show off.

I'm not sure if my sewing is getting any better but I am getting quicker. I was able to make 3 of these in an afternoon and get the felt cut out for a few more.


I'm planning on doing a craft fair in the near future so I'm just getting my stock together and working out what I'm gonna make and sell. As much as I love amigurumi the finished items don't sell that well so I want some other crafts to sell that compliment my crochet and I think things like these will go down well.

 After embroidering the blue one me and my sewing machine had a bit of a falling out so I decided to leave it alone for a bit and make something for me.

 I've used some of the jeans fabric again to make to make this. For all the non geeks this is gallifreyan the Doctor who language

Its not the best embroidery I've done, my lines are a bit wonky but I still like it and now I've got to figure where to hang it.

I'm linking in with handmade monday again its a great link party for some amazing crafters so go have a look.

Versatile blog award

A big thank you to Mythillogical at Myths and fabrications for nominating me for this blog award.

The rules:

1. Add the award to your blog.
2. Thank the blogger(s) who gave it to you.
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 random things

1. I have a very good memory and absorb trivia like a sponge. I have a mind full of useless knowledge thanks to programs like QI and my love for documentaries. This has let to one of the best compliments I ever got which was being called Wikipedia with legs :)
2. I hate shopping. Clothes and shoe shopping are the worst. I don't mind a browse round a market, craft shop or fair but the idea of spending a day going up and down a high street looking at the same thing in every shop leaves me cold.
3. I talk to plants. When I'm in the garden I'm constantly chattering away to my plants. Weeds get told off, new plants get encouragement, old shrubs get a pat and friendly word or two. I don't mind if people think I'm mad. When my wonderful man was still alive it made him giggle, so now I do it even more cause it helps to remember happy times.
4. I used to write a music fanzine called fluffy bunny v's the mutant camels.
5.I love maths
6. I don't know how old I am. Well I do sort of, but when I'm asked I have to work it out from my date of birth as its not a number that's kept to hand in my head.
7. I once had a fight with a daddy long legs. I had my cat and a samurai sword on my side and still lost.




Right blogs I'm gonna award this award to...

Crochet Shaz
Crochet in colour
Rachie Roo
The design suite
Snappy's garden blog
Coryographies
Miss ginger makes

I'll add some more blogs later..

sew and sew

One thing I've been wanting to improve for a while in my craft work is my embroidery skills. I know a few basic stitches and do cross stitch every now and then but I've never done any freehand embroidery. I got a lot of inspiration from pinterest and watched a few videos on you tube but never really got round to giving it a go.

Yesterday my mum bought me this lovely book called stitch with love by Mandy Shaw.

This book has very good instructions for some traditional embroidery stitches and some great projects to try. I was really inspired so I got a scrap of fabric and had a go at the different stitches. This seemed to go OK, I found some stitches easier than others but none of them were as scary as I thought they would be. When I felt more confident I wanted a project to have a bash at. The first project in this book is a blanket, I didn't think my skills were quite up to that so I needed a quick fix, something small and pretty to make, to make me feel proud of my new skills. I headed to pinterest and found a really sweet mobile phone cover it didn't look to hard to make so I gave it a bash.

Here the end result. There isn't much embroidery on it but it was taxing enough for my skill level. Here I've used running stitch, back stitch, stem stitch and french knots. I'm so chuffed I can do french knots now :) I'm pleased with how its come out and really enjoyed the embroidery I wanted to do more.

For my next project I wanted to do more actual embroidery and decided to do a little picture. I wanted to make it for my good friend Boo and so straight away I knew I had to do a bunny and a bear. I searched the Internet for pics I liked and then had a paddy with the printer before I could get the composition I wanted.
 I knew I wanted to do a night scene so I cut up some old dark jeans for the backing fabric then copying the print out drawing the design freehand onto water soluble stabiliser. Then it was time to start stitching.

After a few hours this is what I had, and then with the magic that is water soluble stabiliser after a quick dip it turned out like this.

I love it and I'm really pleased that Boo loves it too. I'm not gonna say it was easy, but it wasn't as hard as I though freehand embroidery was yesterday.

Rat attack

This is a bit of a work in progress blog post. I'm currently working on a little rat. Instead of using my basic body patterns I normally follow when making amigurumi, I worked using the principals I learnt while making my unicorn and crocheted free form to make the rats body arms and legs.

The above photo is of all the parts of the rat finished and ready to sew together. I really pleased with how the body of the rat has formed.

Before I could get to sewing him together this little girl decided she wanted a cuddle and its near imposable to sew with a kitten on your knee. This is the last of the kittens left, all the other have gone to their forever home. This little girl will go to her new home at the weekend but shes making it very hard for me to part with her as she loves a cuddle and shes so cute.

Here is ratty sewn together. I'm not happy with him, there is something wrong with his arms. The hands I made didn't work, they were too big and now I don't like the stumpy embroidery hands I've given him. I'm gonna have to think again and make him some new arms, but thats fine, everything can't go right first time.
 His tail is croched with embroider floss and a tiny crochet hook and took forever to make but it was the only way to get such a thin tail.
 I've got to work on his clothes next but thats a bit of a surprise so I won't say anymore on that yet :)

I'm linking in with handmade monday go have a look at all the amazing crafts over there why dont you.

Right, time for a cup of tea and think while I try and figure out what to do with those arms...

Update he dressed now :)