Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hat/mask combo

I used the idea from a Craftster post that I can't find right now. Argh! (Just search for teenage mutant ninja turtle mask on the crochet board.) I didn't use the woman's pattern. I just did dc in a round until I got to the eye holes, then sl st through to make the eye holes. I went long in the back so that I could tie the ends in a knot like a regular mask would actually do. I had to test-fit it as I went, and then when it was done, I realized it fit a 3 year old and a 35 year old pretty much the same. Gotta love dc.

Bride and Groom

I made my friend Denisse jealous when I made my friend Tom the crocheted Jabba the Hutt and Sculpey Boushh/Princess Leia set. My friend Melanie gave me "Creepy & Cute Crochet" and I'd been looking forward to making something out of it. Aha!

Denisse's upcoming wedding didn't really call for creepy, though. Just cute. So I skipped the creepy skeleton ribcage embroidery and just stuck with cute toulle.

Doll dress

My sister very compassionately suggested a $5 limit on gifts for nieces and nephews this Christmas. It's really hard to find something that doesn't suck for $5.

Aha! My niece is two, and she has a doll she loves! Sweeeet! This stashbuster cost me nothing.


I didn't have a pattern -- or the doll. (It's in New York and I'm in Minneapolis.) My mom in South Dakota, though, has the same kind of doll at her house, so she sent me the measurements and I made a cardboard dressform. I sent the dress down for my mom to try on her doll, and it fit! Now if only my nephews played with dolls ...

Coffee Cup Cozy

I made this for my organic chemistry professor. After I finished two semesters of o-chem, she met with me during the summer to help me prepare for the Dental Admissions Test. She refused any kind of payment, but I know she has a weakness for fancy schmancy coffee drinks, so I sent this to her.I made the buttons out of Sculpey (red for oxygen, blue for nitrogen, which is how most molecule model kits represent them). The professor knew the molecule immediately (it's caffeine!).

For the inside of the cozy, I crocheted a simple rectangle that would cover up (and protect) all the embroidery guts, and I sewed that inside. I hope that will make it last a long time.

Adama and Roslin

The Lords of Kobol dig crochet. So say we all.

This was a gift for my son's preschool teacher. She and I talk about the BSG episode every week when I drop the kids off, and all the other parents look at us and no doubt think, "You're chatting about a show about genocidal robots? At a preschool? Really?" The show is taking a break until January, so I made Teacher Ruth these dolls to get her through the withdrawal.I'm not crazy about how the Admiral's hair turned out (a little black helmet, for crying out loud), but I was pretty happy with the method I used for Laura Roslin's hair (a method I first encountered in "Creepy Cute Crochet"). I went sort of a minimalist route with details. I mean, Roslin wears a black mini and a jacket, and pumps -- no problem. But Adama's uniform? I could totally have gotten carried away with trim and the belt buckle and the boots ... but then I never would have finished!

Tiny Jabba with special guests

Just another day at Jabba's palace:




Then Boushh the bounty hunter arrives.


But Jabba sees right through her little ruse!

I made this as a going-away gift for a friend of mine. I got a small metal box from a craft store, and I sewed in some magnets on the bottom side of Jabba. That way he won't roll off. Leia and Boushh each have a magnet on their base, too. I made the figures from Sculpey. I cut a few layers of this random foam I had to make the box lining so they wouldn't bang around in there.

Pocket Jabba

I made this for my friend Karen, and then forgot to take any photos. Fortunately, she posted it on her own blog (adventuresofcancergirl.blogspot.com).

Twisted
friends

WCK and I hosted our playgroup last week, and everyone once again got a
good laugh at our Mr. Potato Head in the Darth Vader costume. (His official name
is Darth Tater, by the way). I explained that this was a gift from my sister
before WCK was born, and somebody pointed out that I must have some really
twisted friends and family: Every time the playgroup comes over, they find
something bizarre around here that was a gift from someone else.

This is true. I do have twisted friends. Today I opened the mailbox to find
that my friend DeAnna in Minneapolis had hand-crocheted me a little tiny Jabba
the Hutt. I must add that this was a gift for ME, not for WCK. I'm not a Star
Wars fanatic the way Jay is, but I do enjoy Jabba. I wish I could spend my life
lying around, laughing at people, and eating frogs. You don't find a tiny Jabba
in your mailbox every day, so it was a very special afternoon. DeAnna's note
pointed out that his nostrils somewhat resemble Clark Gable's moustache. You'll
have to judge for yourself:

He's so tiny that it was hard to get a decent photo of him, so I posed him
in a variety of locales. Here he is shopping for groceries:

Lounging at the Emerald City:

Hangin' with his good friend Thomas:

"Aloha," says Jabba. "I'm off to Hawaii!"

Finally, attacked by a T-Rex. Fight back, Jabba! Fight back!




You know how I'm always complaining that I never have the time to, say, clean out
our closets or read as many books as I want to, or prepare a fancy meal, or
write the Great American Novel? This is why.

Jabba the Hutt

This took a while to finish! But not because it's all that big -- I just couldn't settle on how to make it. First I thought the way to go was with two strands of yarn and a larger hook, but all that did was consume vast quantities of yarn. Then I started over using a G and Sugar 'n Cream sage worsted weight. Then I tried to make him as all one continuous piece, starting at the end of the tail, so that I didn't have seams, but his head area never looked right. So then finally I realized a seam wouldn't look bad if I sort of hid it under his lumpy torso. (Heck, that's why you can't see seams on MY body, either. They are hidden under my girth.) It ended up looking a little "gathered" as I stitched it all together, but I can live with that.The other end -- the end opposite his tail -- wouldn't snug up very well, so sometimes there's that bump. Argh. Makes it look like Jabba has contracted some sort of abdominal goiter.

For scale:

Darth Vader amigurumi

The latest addition to my Star Wars Crochet family.

A bit closer on his chestplate and belt:

I'm holding him for size perspective, but putting him next to a ruler probably would have been more effective.

Overall, I'm pleased with how he turned out. The chestplate and belt details were a lot harder to embroider than I expected, and eventually I just gave up and settled for this. But the helmet turned out well, and I'm happy enough with the face. I kept notes this time, so I could do another one a little bit better if I want to. For example, the head ought to be another round or two taller, because the helmet needs to sit a bit higher off the shoulders. And I'm pleased with the cape, too.

Rocky Balboa

I made this for a friend who is a big Rocky fan. It was very early in my crocheting career. I didn't have a pattern, just made it up as I went along. Which is why he has, well, child-bearing hips. Everyone sort of chuckled at that, and I never saw what was so funny, but now as I'm uploading this photo, I see that his whole body is hilarious.

I was most excited about doing his head. The hair? Meh, that was hard. But the bloody eye! I love it!

I guess Rocky boxes with oven mitts. Remember, I didn't have a pattern! Or a photo, because I was working on this in the car, and I'd left my photos at home. D'oh!

Jimmy Neutron

Tom (my older son, 3 1/2 at the time) went through a Jimmy Neutron phase. I was trying to introduce him into the world of science fiction, and this seemed like an easy entry. Hard to find JN toys, so I made him this.

I worked on his hair a lot and eventually stopped trying to get it just right. You get the idea, if you've ever seen the movie or show.

Jimmy gets around in a rocketship. (At least he does in the movie.)

I wanted the rocket to have some structure and not sag, so I gave it a sort of skeleton made of plastic canvas. That made the inside look terrible, so I made a sort of upholstery cover for the inside.

Ready for blast-off.

And what did Tom think? He seemed to like it, but the first thing he said was, "Where's the robot dog?"

Bob the Builder

Remember when you could edit the time and date of your post? If I could do that, there wouldn't be this weird little flurry of posts now as I enter a couple things I've been doing over the past few months.

Anyhoo. In January learned to crochet. I saw this unbelievably cute thing (okay, fine-- it was an Ewok) on a website (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=130572.0). The woman had made it by crocheting, and I thought, "How hard can it be?"

Um. Well.

As it turns out, it's not "hard," just "occasionally maddening." In any case, I signed up for this class in January. (It was supposed to be three classes, but I found the teacher so irritating that I didn't return. Long story -- let me just tell you that if you're trying to teach someone to crochet, and if they have a question, it's not very helpful to come over and literally TAKE the yarn and hook OUT of the student's hands, without asking or anything. I'm guessing I wasn't the only one who bailed after the first night.) But that one class was enough to learn the one stitch (the single crochet) I needed to get started. I made about four inches of a dishrag, then I made Karyn a scarf, and then I made this Bob the Builder doll, which took about three weeks of all my TV time. Asher had really gotten into Bob the Builder since an excursion to the Children's Museum, which was hosting a BtheB exhibit.

Asher really likes stuffed animals and is adorably cuddly with dolls, but it's impossible to find a nice Bob doll. I did find one online, but half of it was hard plastic, and it had a built-in nightlight. Not what I was looking for. I didn't have a pattern for this doll, but I found some helpful examples online of how to increase and decrease (which creates curves) and how to change colors (which -- and I counted -- I did incorrectly 15 of 20 times). It was all trial and error, and if I didn't like how something turned out, I just ripped it out and started again. (Which is heartbreaking -- it takes 30 seconds to undo an hour of crocheting.) So I ended up making 1 1/2 heads, 2 torsos, 3 arms, 3 legs, and 5 shoes. I also eventually figured out that a straight line on a curve IS a curve -- which is why the straps on the overalls turned out so wonky. Oh well. I started at the head and worked down, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. I realized this morning that it would have been smart to make like a crime scene chalk outline of what I hoped it would look like, and then I could just lay the emerging doll down on the outline. That would have been brilliant. As it was, I just kept reminding myself of what Woody says to Buzz in Toy Story: "YOU are a CHILD'S PLAYTHING!" I figured it didn't have to be _good_ ; it was just good _practice_.

I used a yarn needle to embroider on the eyes, hair, mouth, and belt buckle, which are all just yarn. The tools in the belt are buttons that I found at Michaels. I know, I shouldn't put buttons on something for a child under three, but I've taken Infant CPR and have great confidence in my Heimlich technique.