Dressed

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4

Well after a few set back my princess doll is nearing completion.

  I decided I had to move her eyes as I really wasn't happy with them but this meant I had to take off most of her hair, undo the embroidery underneath and open up her head. It was messy I was pretty sure at one point I was just gonna have to remake the head but she survived. I still have work to do to repair the back of her head but as you can't see it I thought I'd post on her progress for handmade Monday.

I knitted her dress without using a pattern and its turned out well. I use knitting rather than crochet for things like dresses on my dolls as I prefer the texture of the knitting it looks more like real fabric and I like the contrast between the crochet and the knitting. I guess I could have just made her dress out of actual fabric but that seemed like cheating some how.

 I really like her puffs in the sleeves, this was simply a bit of satin ribbon gathered onto the arm before I put the sleeve on.

Next up is all the finishing details, she needs a bow and arrows (if anyone can think of a good way to make arrows please let me know) and I've gotta fix her head and hair then I'm gonna raffle her off as part of next weeks blog birthday. Yep my little blog is one year old next Monday. I'm planning a week of promos giveaways, discounts in my etsy shop, free patterns, oh and cake :)

Bunny omnipom

This is my lastest bunny omnipom. I hadn't made a bunny omnipom for ages and tony was getting lonely so I though I'd make him a friend.

I love using different shapes around these guys eyes. I had great fun cutting out loads of different shapes that I'll be using on more omnipoms in the future.

Shes such a good model but while taking her photo one of my mini crochet bugs got loose and she got a bit scared

Hes a harmless little bug and he only wanted to play so they had a cuddle and made friends.

I couldn't think of a name for her so I asked my facebook and twitter followers and was overwhelmed by the response. I'm still a bit stuck for her name as I now have too many good ones :)

Here are some of the best suggestions

Greensleeves
 Flutterfire
 Fifi
 Rumples
 Papillon
 pompelmous, the destroyer or souls  (love this but as shes scared of bugs I don't think she'd be a good soul destroyer)
Esmeralda
 smiggles

Whats your favourite? Or if you want to suggest your own idea head on over to my facebook page or leave a comment here

Nearly naked

Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

 You can see how this doll is coming along now. Her basic body is finished. She's got her little blue frilly pants on and her hair is looking good. However ....
 I'm not as far along with her as I would have liked. I hit a problem with her shoes. I was gonna make them out of felt but it just wasn't working out, so as I couldn't get them to look better so I just decided to keep them simple. I've also realised that her eyes are in the wrong place. I'm gonna try and fix this but they are safety eyes so I'm gonna have to go back a few steps to attempt to take them out and reposition them. The worrying thing about doing this is that I could ruin her face all together.

While I think shes starting to look cute in this photo those eyes are really bugging me and I think shes looking too much like a frog.
 I'm really looking forward to making her clothes so if I can solve this little problem with out having to re-do 18 hours worth of work I'll feel a bit happier than I do now.

The ugly phase

 Part 1

Part 2
There is no getting away from the face that at this stage humanoid amis are just plain ugly. Its like I'm forming some sort of weird alien.

 Shes coming along OK to say I've only been working on her for a couple of evenings so far. I've got most of her curls finished. I know she's been scalped again in this photo but that's just to protect her hair. I have to work the rest of the body in one piece and if she had her wig on it would get ruined. I tend to put the whole head in a sock to protect the felt and embroidery eyes as I work too.

I think I've made up my mind to turn her into the princess from Brave. I was swayed but the challenge to knit her clothing and the chance to give her blue cotton pants with white frills on. plus mermaids don't wear shoes and I love crafting shoes :)

Next up she needs legs and hopefully she'll look a bit prettier in the next update :)

More amigurumi bugs

I've just finished off another 3 patterns to go with my dragonfly, worm and bee in the amigurumi bugs set

Tess is a pretty little ladybug. Her spot are sequins so she has a bit of sparkle.
 This is such a simple, quick and fun pattern to make. Any crocheter will have a house overrun with ladybugs after trying this pattern as believe me you can't stop after you've made one.
 Worked in Dk weight yarn but will work in any weight as long as you use the corresponding hook. 

Jane the snail.
 This has been a pet project of mine for a while. I've made about a dozen different snails trying to get this pattern right, but now it is I'm so happy with it.
 This pattern is for the slightly more advanced amigurumi maker. You need to be comfortable doing half double crochet and back loop only stitches as well as the usual single crochet and slip stitch.
 I've worked this using cotton DK yarn as I like the texture it gives you but it will work just as well in whatever DK yarn you have lurking in your stash. If you want to use a different weight yarn use remember to use the corresponding hook.

Parker the spider
 Love them (and I do) or hate them this little spider is too cute to scare anyone. This is another simple pattern that is very quick, easy and enjoyable to make. As with all my patterns all decreases and increases are invisible and can be made with any yarn. You could make a rainbow of creepy cute spiders :)

All patterns can be found in my etsy shop.

My patterns are £2.50 each and are sent in PDF format to the email you provide me.

The full set of amigurumi bugs will be available for £9.99 a saving of £5

Weird heads

My lovely Coraline has found a new home.
 I'm part of a group on etsy that are happy to trade with other etsy members. I think this is a really good idea as getting lovely handmade stuff is nicer than getting cash for your creations. Coraline is going to live with Fifi and flo where I'm sure she will be much loved and very happy and in return I get a surprise package of goodies. I can't wait :)

Corline leaving home gave me the urge to make another large doll. I don't make large dolls very often as I like to put a lot of time and effort into them. This means I have to have clear my worktable of everything else while I work on them and as I'm sure my readers have come to realise I always have lots of projects on the go at once so this isn't easy to do.

I couldn't decide between a mermaid and a zombie. I love zombies but I've always wanted to make a mermaid as I've never seen an amigurumi one that made me go wow. I made a pintrest board on mermaids as inspiration and I knew then I had to make one.

I'm gonna blog as I go along with this doll so here's the first step.

The head
humanoid heads are a bit tough in amigrumi they can be cute, simple, flat and sometimes scary but none of the inspiration I looked at was right.
 I decided to use the methord I tried with Coralines head and some of the felt work I use on my omnipoms and this is what I came up with.

There is more decoration to go on but this gives you an idea of my starting point. In the past I found embroidering lips hard but I used a tip I picked up when making Gingers baby bunny. If you place a small amount of felt on the inside of the head where your going to embroider it makes it easier and your stitches don't fall down the bumps in your crochet :)

 In this photo you can see the starting point of her hair I've embroidered it all over with short stitches and a red yarn, this will create the base of her hairstyle.

Now for her luscious curls. Only one half done and yes I've crochet every one of those spirals. I've a lot more to do but I'm loving the way its working out so its all good. I'm using three different red yarns and combining them with different glittery threads. 

So far so good only I keep thinking she's turning into the princess from pixars new film Brave :/

What do you guys recon should I continue with the mermaid or turn her into the princess?

Birthdays prezzies

Today is my sisters birthday. She's very difficult to buy presents for and this year my funds are limited so I decided to make her something instead.

This is her dog Rusty. I know she loves her dog to pieces and so I wanted to make something with him on. My first idea was to do a little embroidery of him and make it into a purse but I failed at this as none of the pictures I tried looked like Rusty and I didn't think she's get where I was going if it was just a pic of a generic dog on a purse.
 I had another think and decided to use Fimo to make her a keyring. I've never attempted to make a dog in fimo before so I was doubtful how my efforts would turn out but I was pleasantly surprised.

It actually looks like a dog and like Rusty :) My fave bit is the choke chain which I added as an afterthought but really like it. I also gave her one of my felt flower mobile phone cases but I forgot to photo that.

 So Happy Birthday Jen hope you have a good one and you like your presents :)

On the crochet front I'm still addicted to mini amigurumi. My skull bracelets are proving very popular and I'm still enjoying making them. I've also been trying out a few different patterns in mini with mixed success but this little guy I am really happy with.

I'm linking in with handmade Monday again there are some amazing craft blogs so go and have a look at them all :)

Sleep and skulls

My cat Cassi is not taking to kindly to being shut in after her run away attempt and is making her protest known by being bad and yelling at the top of her voice all the time. Bengals are loud and if they can get attention from doing something they will keep doing. Cassi is being so loud and so annoying its hard to ignore it. She has a new habit of walking over my boobs while I'm trying to read (which blooming hurts I can tell you) or she'll pounce on my stomach just as I'm falling asleep. I wish shutting her out of the bedroom was the answer but then she won't settle at all and tries to batter the door down all night.
 I love having Cassi back home and her waking me up at all hours has really given me a lot more time to catch up on my reading, I don't go back to sleep easily and the new Stephen king is really really good but oh my giddy aunt I'm so, so, so, so tired.

 In my sleep deprived fug I've tried to keep my crafting simple and I've been making more mini skull amigurumi bracelets for my new  wow thank you shop and an up coming online craft fair.

I use a 1.5mm crochet hook to make these. Unlike my other crochet hooks its a bit short and was digging in my hand and giving me blisters. Thankfully I still have some part of my brain functioning cause I came up with the idea of encasing the handle in fimo to make it longer and a bit easier to handle.

It worked a treat and now its one of my favourite hooks to use and makes the tiny crochet really easy too :)

Being bad

Well after making this bracelet this morn I couldn't help but be bad and not do the important things on my to do list. Instead I just had to have ago making more mini amigurumi jewellery.

So here's the next one - zombie, half eaten brains, flowers and pearls :)

The good lights gone so these aren't the best pics but they give you an idea till I take better ones.

This was fiddly and painful to make. I have a blister on my hand due to the small crochet hook being shorter than a normal one and digging in my hand. I have lost fingernails and I stood on my pincushion. I had to completely change the pattern for the zombie 3 times as it didn't scale down well and I dropped my box of jewellery findings. I don't care though cause I love it.
 I was planning to put this in my etsy shop and flog it,  but no way, not this time. I'm keeping it, this little baby is mine, all mine mwhahaha :D

I am gonna have to make more of these though and if anyone wants one I'll do custom orders for them.

Maybe I'll make a ghostly one next :)

Skull bracelet

While writing my to do list for the crochet I'm gonna work on today, I stumbled on the idea to make some crochet skull earrings.
I thought is I'd used a pattern I've already written (the skull pattern in the bobble bunch) but use embroidery floss and a tiny crochet hook to change the gauge and make them smaller.

 It was surprisingly easy to crochet with the smaller hook and fine thread and if anything theonly problem I had was the skull I made was too big for earrings.

 Not to worry I decided to turn it into a bracelet.

I crocheted a small flower flower to go with it (one of the two free flower patterns coming up soon) and found some nice red, black and clear hearts and gems beads from my bead box. Then after a bit of fiddling around this is what I got.

I have made it asymmetric as I though three crochet charms would be too busy and I'm really happy with the way its turned out. Its not too heavy and looks really cute on.

I have a whole list of patterns to work on today but I'm so temped to kinda forget about them till Monday and made a zombie and brain bracelet next :)

What do you guys think? would you wear amigurumi jewellery?

I'm linking in with handmade monday :) 

Cassi

I am a great big blob of love and happiness right now
Cassi my cat who has been missing for nearly 2 weeks is home. safe and sound.

I was out posting leaflets about her in the streets around my home to see if anyone had seen her when a couple who were out washing their caravan and stopped to chat. They had heard Cassi was missing from their son who'd seen it on twitter and would you believe it but that very moment Cassi appeared walking across the road behind us. I then had to try and thank the lovely couple and send them to send my thanks to their son with a wriggling cat in my arms who wasn't to pleased about having her adventure cut short.
 I now have Cassi home, she wolfed down a tin of food and is now asleep on her favourite cushion.
Happy sigh :)

Thanks again to everyone who tweeted or shared my post on facebook xxx

amigurumi bugs

 My new range of patterns for amigurumi bugs just about finished. I've a snail to finish off and I think I might add a ladybird and butterfly but for now here are my new amigurumi bug patterns.

Bea the bee is a very simple pattern suitable for beginners in amigurumi it uses only single crochet and a bit of double and treble stitches in the wings. As with most of my patterns its written so that no increases and decreases are visible and uses DK yarn.

I'm gonna make a few of these and make them into a mobile I think they would look cool in my nephews nursery.

 Molly the worm.
 This is another simple amigurumi. This one takes a bit more time to make than some of my other patterns and her hat is a little bit fiddly but totally worth it. She really is the nicest worm you are ever likely to meet. This is one of those patterns you'll make as a gift and then have to make it again as you couldn't bring yourself to give your first one again.

Dot the dragonfly.
 This pattern is a little more complex than the others but only really in the making up. I've added a tread to the yarn on the wings to give the effects of dragonfly wings and also to help stiffen them so they don't flop about if shes flying.

Well my personal challenge of getting 5 patterns written, made and posted this weekend is nearly done. I'm gonna treat myself to a glass of wine tonight :)

Lost cat

My lovely cat Cassi has gone missing. I'm hoping with the power of the Internet behind us we might be able to find her.

I'm gonna put all the info here and if you would all be so kind as to share this post on your facebook, twitterand other such sites. Even if your not from york some you know may be and they might pass it on to the person that finds her.

Her name is cassi. She is quite skittish and probably wont come to a stranger if called. She was last seen in the greenshaw area of haxby in York uk. She is wearing a black and red staywell collar that has lost its id tag.

If you have any information at all please contact me via my personal email lizduttons@live.com or leave a comment here or on my facebook page.

Thank you to everyone who helps share this and I really hope we find her she is a very special cat

Fritz the owl

Meet Fritz

 Fritz is the first from my busy week writing patterns and making samples. I'm gonna have a bash at getting some patterns into crochet magazines :)
With owls being really popular at the mo I thought I'd try making a bigger one. This guy was inspired by one of the laser wooden buttons we have at work. They are from a company called button it  and they make such wonderful fun designs they'd all make cool toys.
 He quite a bit bigger than other amigurumis I've made but it makes him just the right size for a cuddle.

I really like using multicoloured yarn when making owls as it means everyone you make is different and has its own personality. This one can be made with any DK weight yarn and it doesn't take a lot so he'll be great to use up yarn  left over from other projects.

The pattern will be coming soon to my etsy shop so watch this space.

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

Buttonhole scarf

I'm working on easy patterns for the begginers crochet classes

This is a great pattern for beginners in crochet. It uses all the basic stitches you would learn in your first classes and as you keep repeating and changing between the stitches it makes it easier to remember them.  It is only a short scarf or neck warmer if you like so it quite quick to crochet and doesn’t use much yarn.

You will need

100g ball of Dk weight yarn

5mm crochet hook

Wool needle

Abbreviations

St Stitches (this is shown at the end of every row so you know how many stitches you should have at the end of the round)

CH chain

SS slip stitch

SC single crochet

DC double crochet

TC treble crochet

Pattern

This pattern is worked in rows back and forth at the beginning of a new row you turn the work and chain up a bit to start your next row.

Ch 21

Row 1 – SC in second Ch from hook and then in each Ch across                       20St

Row 2 – Ch 2 and turn. Work 1 DC in each SC across                                      20St

Row 3 – Ch 3 and turn. Work 1 TC in each DC across                                      20St

*Row 4 – Ch 1 and turn. Work 1 SC in each TC across                                     20 st

Row 5 – Ch 2 and turn. Work 1 DC in each SC across                                      20St

Row 6 – Ch 3 and turn. Work 1 TC in each DC across  **                                20St

Repeat from * to **   17 times or until work measures 70cm/ 27” (you should end on a treble row)

Create buttonhole

Ch 1 and turn. Work 1 SC in the next 5 TCs, Ch 20, skip the next 20 TCs, and work 1 SC in the next 5 TCs.

Ch 2 and turn. Work 1 DC in the next 5 SCs, work 20 DCs in the Ch space, and work 1 DC in the next 5 SCs.         

Ch 3 and turn. Work 1 TC in each DC across                                                     20St

Continue from * to ** repeat 3 more times ending on a treble row. Cut yarn and draw through loop to secure.

Sew in loose ends using wool needle.

 

 To wear loop round you neck and post the beginning end of your scarf through the buttonhole.

For an alternative version you could attach a large interesting button  of make a flower corsage to decorate you scarf.

I'll be writting up the pattern for this flower corsage to go with this scarf next.

 Happy crochetng :)