yes, another afghan. (I know!)

ok, I'm trying to stop with the afghans.  but I'm really not into the idea of crocheted clothing, and my amigurumi phase has passed.  so afghans it is.  this one started with the yarn, a cheap, wacky variegated acrylic in shades of orange, grey, and brown.  I think it was the name that got me:  "Pop Art Ombre".  (that and how cheap it was.)  but I paired it with a solid grey to try to tone down the insanity.

I used the "Park Slope" afghan pattern from the Lion Brand site, and the squares (or rather, squares and octagons) went really fast.  the part that sucked was sewing them all together.  there just didn't seem to be an efficient way to do it.  luckily it's not a very big throw, just about 38" x 60".

it's fun but it's very retro, more than I'd like.  and retro in a "back of the couch in a That 70's Show episode" kinda way, which isn't really good.  But Stoli likes it (that's his little ears peeking over the chair arm).

and it actually photographs better than it feels, being cheap acrylic yarn from Michaels (never again!)

that cat makes everything look better.

great grey granny

in my fit of finishing old projects, I went waay back into the craft closet and pulled out the giant pile o' granny squares that I made at least 2, maybe 3 years ago and then abandoned when the idea of sewing them all together was just too daunting.  these squares were my very first crochet project!  and somehow I made almost 200 of them.

the palette is very restrained, just one "color" per square, surrounded by 2 neutrals and a charcoal border.  I think I was consciously trying to make something I wouldn't regret in 20 years, considering how long it took to make all the squares.

anyway, joining all the squares didn't take as long as I'd feared, and it was so nice to work with 100% wool yarn again that I rather enjoyed it.  I can say now, after being tempted in the past by the brief allure of cheap acrylic yarn, that it just aint worth it.  spend the money, get the materials you love, and it will be easier to work with and the finished product will be something you will want to keep forever.

The finished throw:

and on my rumply bed -

sooo many squares!

very happy with the outcome.  although now that it's 90 degrees in LA, I'll be packing it away for about 6 months.  I should really stop making afghans...

ABC: Always. Be. Crafting.

here's what I'm working on when I'm not working on something else:

I only need to make like 108 more of these.

back to your crafts already in progress...

posting again...finally!

anyway... now that I'm back to having the time for these things, I thought I should first try to tackle some unfinished projects that had been languishing in the craft cupboard.  First up was a project that I didn't even know I was working on!  I had at some point bought several skeins of super-bulky white yarn (must have been on sale) and I had started crocheting it but with no real sense of purpose and shoved it in a bag and forgot about it.  Then the other day I remembered seeing these knitted poufs by Christien Meindertsma all over every design blog:

So I grabbed the biggest crochet hook I could find (I believe it's a size Q)... and doubled the yarn to get the desired bulkiness:

crocheted through an episode of Bones, and I had the first half of the cushion.  Took a break, and Stoli promptly claimed it as his new napping spot.

another episode of Bones and the crochet part was done, and then a Law & Order to whip up a pillow (filled with shredded foam) to go inside it, and voila:

not as fancy-pants as the original, but still pretty cool.  If I'd had more yarn, I would have made it taller, but this used up every inch I had to work with.  I'd also like to try knitting one, and using some really thick cotton rope instead of yarn to make it more durable.  But there's one fan who completely approves of this version...

a statement on the importance of "before photos"

I thought it would be fun to make Stoli a cat toy.  So I crocheted one and filled him with catnip.

I really wish I had waited to give it to him until after I had taken at least one photo...

a very stylish pachyderm

Here's Cedric the Hipster Elephant.  He's not a fan of the hot LA weather so he's moving to Portland with the rest of the hipsters where he plans to open an organic coffee house/comic book shop.

(I made Cedric from a pattern in the book Amigurumi World, and added the accessories myself)

crochet-mation!

this is making me think about really trying to animate the little amigurumi dudes I've been making!  Awesome spot and super cool crocheted dudes.

BC Dairy Foundation, "Back Alley Puppet Fight" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

he wants to suck your blood. and then cuddle!

Here's the newest creepy cutie...

The roommate wants to keep this guy around, so I won't be giving him away.  I'm kinda tired of creepy now though, so I'm working on a couple new ones that are just plain cute. 

Scrap-ghan in progress

As I mentioned last week, I've been really into crochet lately and have several afghans in various states of completion.  This one was started as a way to use up all the random half-finished balls of yarn from other projects.  I just started doing rows, without any pattern to the colors used, until I ran out of a particular yarn.  But my design sensibilities wouldn't let it be quite that random, so then I started buying more yarn (thus defeating the whole "stash-busting" aspect of it).  Sigh...

Anyway this is what it looked like a couple months ago...it's since gotten big enough to cover my full-sized bed.  I could keep going on it, but it got way too warm to work on something this big and wooly.

Plus Stoli loves it so much, that whenever I work on it he insists on crawling under it and onto my lap, making it an even warmer situation.  I'll pull it back out when the weather turns cooler.  Which here in LA means it will be December before I can even stand to look at it!

amigurumi!

I've been crocheting for a year or so now, and I'd seen these super cute little toys but they never interested me. I was mostly into afghans (of which I've made several now, and will post about when I get around to taking pics). But afghans are a pain to work on when it's hot. So when I saw the book "Creepy Cute Crochet", I decided to give these little guys a try.

I think they turned out pretty great!  I posted them on facebook and offered them to any engaged or married friends, and they found a home within just a few minutes.  I think I'm even going to give him a bow tie before I send them to their new home.

I'd never crocheted this small before, and never with cotton yarn, so it took some practice getting them right.  Of course I'm now obsessed with making all of the patterns in the book.  I'm currently working on Nosferatu, who is adorable.