Done with the back panel! I'm so fricking excited!

After the 9th skein: and done!

didn't use the full skein to get the length.

total length: 56 1/2"

leaving it hanging up overnight to get some stretching out of the way. and I haven't bound it off yet in case I need to adjust length.

4 1/2" from this skein to hit the final length.  you can see there's a bit of the skein left.

After the 8th skein:
51 and 7/8" long total
6" even out of this skein











aand, those are my cute little toes in the first picture.  :)  I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be done with this piece.  seriously.  soooooo tedious.  I've started the second front panel now.  it only takes three skeins so it shouldn't take too long.  I gotta tell you, though, I'm really worried about having enough yarn for the trim. I'm hoping the armwarmers will only take one skein each, then I'll have one left, which I desperately hope is enough for trim. I don't want to have to order more.  I guess if I do I can order extra for the shrug for the fanart thing I mentioned.

incidentally, this is the fanart I was talking about:
(source:  http://jessami.deviantart.com/art/Excuse-Me-164912666 )

already have a denim skirt and black belt, would need to make the tank and figure out what to do about the black stockings.  and knit the shrug.  I really want to make it from the same yarn that I'm using now so the armwarmers I'm already going to make would match it. I can't have two different yarns, it would make me crazy.

I figure I can buy a black tank and add zippers, and make a stencil for the white design and paint it on.  I'll probably make the tank cover my tummy though, pregnancy and a tiny bit of weight gain have made me very unwilling to show my stomach.  I already have a pattern picked out for the shrug too.  maybe I should just order more yarn now.... sigh.

My Neighbor Totoro

This guy was my first major crochet project after I taught myself how to do it.  I really need to make one for myself...

11/25/11 Marissa loves Totoro- well, all Miyazaki
movies. and Marissa is one of those sweet undemanding people who don’t ever want anything, but when they do they buy it themselves. so, at a loss for Christmas, I was really excited when I found this. I’ve bought the yarn and I’m ready to go. She’ll love it.


11/28/11 went up a hook size to a 4.0mm. the yarn did NOT like being yanked around on that 3.5 hook, and as this is only the first of my Christmas projects I decided to take it easy on my hands.

12/1/11 Body done! not stuffed yet, but Im doing this at work, so I didn’t have my stuffing with me. I’ll probably have to undo and redo the last few rows to stuff him, but I wanted to get it cut off so I could start on the limbs. Put his eyes in too, I’m pretty happy with them.



12/3/11 Yeesh, I’m gonna have a hard time giving this guy away. body is all assembled, eyes, nose, belly, Vs on the belly. He’s so frickin’ cute! I also have his ears and one arm made. I’m using RowanLore’s mods to the pattern for the ears and arms with a few tweaks of my own- on the ears, in the two places it says to crochet straight around I added an extra row of crocheting straight around in each spot- just for a little extra length and shape. On the arms I actually quit two rows early on the crocheting straight around part. I held them up to him, and it just seemed long enough. At the rate I’m going though, I think he’s only gonna take 2 skiens of yarn, and I bought 4. I may need my own. it also occurred to me that I could take a big hook and my favorite super bulky yarn and make myself a giant totoro as well. I may need a full set of the three for myself. After Christmas, of course.

12/5/11 just need to sew him together….


12/5/11 all done! Isn’t he sweet? and I was right, I was excessively paranoid and it took almost exactly 2 skeins of yarn when I bought 4. which means I have enough left to make a whole Totoro for myself! Later, of course…..

Finished my Ariel

She's all done!  took two separate two hour sessions of crocheting, and then about one hour to assemble.  She's so cute!  I love her so much! I could do these in one sitting easy. for these princess dolls I did get mostly the recommended yarn in the pattern, but for time and money and availability interests, I subbed a bit.  for instance, Ariel's tail- the light green is Simply Soft, but a different shade, the dark green is a Red Heart Super Saver.  and the hair is a different shade also.  not really a big deal.  I tried to work with my stash where I could, but I still had to buy a crapload of yarn for this, as my stash was very small.  only changed a few things in the pattern itself.

 first of all, in many places the pattern says to ch-1 at the beginning of the round and then work in the same space.  I had a bit of trouble understanding this. maybe I was missing something but this seemed to add an extra stitch.  I was probably just misunderstanding it.  so I ignored it and just crocheted into the next stitch.  didn't seem to create any visible differences.  her arms are so small I didn't even try to stuff them.  and I made her torso a bit longer, cuz with the bra and everything it just seemed too short.  I was using different yarn than the pattern calls for for the bra, it's Caron Simply Soft, and that may be heavier than what the pattern uses, I'm not sure, I'd have to look. it may have created a bigger bra taking up more of the body.  regardless, I just added about three rounds to the torso and it's fine.  also, my mermaid's bra is not detachable.  this is going to be a gift for my 6 year old.  a detachable bra would just get lost. so I just sewed it down.

also, in pictures the fins appear to be folded over a bit and sewn on that way.  I'm not quite sure how she got that, but I decided to leave mine flat.  I liked the bigger fins.

So, while I was working on this one night, my husband seemed very concered about the fact that I wasn't working on my Rinoa jacket.  He seems to actually care that I finish that. which is interesting.  I thought he was rather indifferent.  It was gratifying to know that he cares.  However, I'd worked an eight hour shift that day at my job, rather than my normal four hours, and I spent the entire time knitting.  I assured him I got plenty done that day, I just needed to do something different.

Ariel, The Little Mermaid

 I found these patterns:

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/Sahrit

 and absolutely fell in love. So I bought them ALL and I’ve decided to make every one for my daughter for Christmas. (I've also harrassed the creator of them trying to convince her to do MORE Disney dolls, because these are STUPIDLY ADORABLE.)







  and I’ve started now, even though it’s a bit early. I don’t want to be rushed. I had to order eyes online to get ones small enough, and there’s not here yet, so I won’t be able to finish her just yet. But I got the tail and torso and arms done in about two hours or less last night. They’re not very big, so I don’t think this will take long.

info about any changes I made are in the next mermaid post.

Souleater, the Unicorn Prince of Darkness

Another little dude I made.  every time I look at him I'm reminded of how I really need to make more, because he's just so perfect.

11/25/11 This is for my 2 year old niece for Christmas. she loves ponies and this guy is adorable.

12/5/11 Got this one started now. I’m using a 3.5 hook for the bottom of the feet cuz the yarn that I’m using is some random scraps from an old project, and it’s heavier than the other yarn I’m using. this may cause oddness in the legs, or may add extra chibi cuteness with his excessively large feet. we’ll see how this works. using the 4.0 hook for the rest of him.

12/7/11 legs done. his feet are HUGE. it’s almost comical. I’m wondering if I should lengthen the legs to accomodate the feet. this guy’s gonna be all feet. hopefully it’ll be cute. Too late to change now, way too lazy! as a result of the giant feet the ruffle around his ankles sticks straight up his leg instead of down, but I think it’s okay. on to the head now.

12/8/11 Finished the head last night, and today I’ve gotten the body done and legs attached. I could finish him up now if I’d brought my stuffing to work…. I guess he’ll have to wait until I get home. Incidentally, I don’t know why I think he’s a boy. he’s clearly all done up in pink and purple, which should suggest feminine to me, but for some reason when I look at him, I still think “he”. shrug

12/8/11 He’s all done! I love him! His name is Souleater, the Unicorn Prince of Darkness, and he will punish you if you mock him. My husband and my brother were teasing me last night when working on his face, saying he was scary looking, like he was going to eat their souls, so when I finished him this morning, I made a sign for him saying, “My name is Souleater, and I will punish you for mocking me.” and put him on my husband’s alarm clock so he’d be staring at him when he woke up. it was funny. anyways, like I said, his feet are comically huge, and I regret doing purple for the rings around his eyes, I think that’s part of the creepy look he’s got. I wish I’d done yellow to match his horn and freckles, but I’m too scared of ruining it to mess with it. I like him anyways. He had kind of a fat neck thing going on, so I ran a line of stitches under his chin a pulled it in to define his chin and narrow his neck. it looked much better.

I assume my two year old niece will probably rename him, but he’ll always be Souleater to me….

soon.

After 7th skein:
45 7/8" long total
5 3/4" from this skein










After 6th skein:
40 1/8" long total
6" out of this skein

based on current math, I should only need like 8 1/2 skeins to finish this.  SO excited to be done with this piece.

Moogles!

 Another project of mine, amigurumi Moogles.  I loved this guy to death.  Seriously.  How cute is he?
The pattern I used is here: http://craftyboy.blogspot.com/2008/03/guest-postpattern.html

and here's my notes of what I did- I made a few changes.

12/15/11 I was gonna do the other moogle pattern, but I was inspecting it and realized it was gonna be really tiny, so I switched to this pattern. I wanted a larger doll. I’ll be officially hooking this tonight.

12/16/11 all done! he went together so fast! I could definitely do this in less than a day. probably a couple of hours if I was uninterrupted. I followed the pattern exactly except for the wings. I was afraid the wings with the pattern were too plain so I used the pattern from this moogle: http://magicpixieknitter.blogspot.com/2007/09/quite-bit-later.html the moogle is knit but the wings are crochet and I like them a lot. I also used a bit of my boucle brushed yarn in ivory to do the fuzzy collar bit on his chest. for his bobble, I actually took three pipe cleaners and twisted them together. then I twisted the top part into a circle, used another pipe cleaner to reinforce the circle and then to support the circle to the main stem. as I was sewing the bobble together, I then sewed the ring to the top of the bobble, stuffed and closed. I did a similar thing making a ring at the bottom of the pipe cleaners after poking it through the top of his head and then sewed it to the top of his head. it made a very stable base. if that doesn’t make sense, and you want a better explanation, message me and I’ll try to be clearer, with pictures and whatnot. the bottom line is, his bobble stands and that was what I was going for. I then wrapped the stem in black yarn to neaten it up. I really love this guy. I have decided however to not give him to my daughter, I am not confident that the bobble would stand up to a five year old playing with him. So I’m going to make her something else. Probably a Shaun the Sheep. or a duck. she keeps asking for a stuffed duck….

Incidentally, I was correct, the bobble is not kid proof.  I made a bunch of these to sell and a friend of mine bought one for his two year old, which I just KNEW was a bad idea.  she had the bobble off in a couple of months.  I figured as much.  When he asked if I could fix it, I replaced the wire stem with a more kid-friendly braid.  Sure, it didn't stand up any more, but the two year old didn't care. 

getting there...

progress:  after the 5th skein of yarn:
34 1/8" long total
5 7/8" out of this skein.















after the 4th skein of yarn:
28 1/4" long total
about 6" out of this skein.  like, just barely shy of 6"











getting there....