Fanime Stock 1

And so the great generation of stock begins.  Still haven't heard anything about either my account or when Artist Alley tables will be available (and staff is doing their very best to hush me), but I'm making stock regardless.  If I don't get a table, these goodies will be available on Etsy.

First batch of stock is 10 cthulhu plush of various shades.  For this batch, I tried to stick to typical colors for the great old one, but obviously that didn't go exactly as planned.  I think the green/orange/cream one is actually my favorite here, and not just because it's orange.  It's just a nice blend.  The brown one comes in a close second, because something went wrong in the increases and it both sits at a jaunty angle and cocks its head at you at a jaunty angle.

Eyebat Pillow

Yet another project a year or so in the making.  I found yarn at the small shop in my college town, purple and yellow from a brand called LOL (who could resist), which was made out of recycled plastic bottles, and a black rayon-silk blend.  I've been a fan of Yu Yu Hakusho for many, many years, and I've always wanted to make a pillow of the eyebat in the mid-episode break and seen in the show during the Gate of Betrayal.

I made the face in class a while back; you can tell by how it's stitched.  It's the way I did it before working on the Discworld.  It's way too loose (you can see the stuffing through it) and it looks unprofessional in general.  I even had to sew a section together (you can see what I call it's "c-section scar" at the bottom near the foot piece) so that it was actually round rather than elliptical.

The back looks much better, as it made it the same way I did the Discworld itself.  Rounds starting at 6 st and going all the way up to the 21st or 23rd round.  From there I made a corner and went around 5 or 6 times to make the sides and then stitched the top and bottom pieces together.

I made the legs like I did for the elephants, 4 sc in a magic circle, working up to 8 and going until it was about radius of the black pupil.  I made three of those, and then with 6 in a magic circle made the bit the legs attach to.  Those all got sewn together with a yarn needle and then stitched onto the body, stuffing before it was completely closed.

The part I'm most proud of is definitely the wings.  Those I made completely from my own pattern, provided below.  I made four.  Two had their edges built up except for across the starting ch, and then stitched those built-up edges to another of the wing pieces.  Stuffed and stitched those on with the yarn needle for a finished product.

The entire project was done with a size 8 hook.

Eyebat Wings by DirtyCapricorn

1. ch 10, turn
2. sc 9, ch 1, turn
3. sc 2 in 1, sc 7, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
4. sc 2 in 1, sc 9, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
5. sc 2 in 1, sc 11, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
6. sc 2 in 1, sc 13, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
7. sc 2 together, sc 14, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
8. sc 2 in 1, sc 14, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
9. sc 2 together, sc 14, sc 1, hdc in same st, ch 1, turn
10. hdc 2 together, sc 13, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
11. sc 2 together, sc 11, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
12. sc 2 together, sc 11, ch 1, turn
13. sc 10, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
14. sc 2 together, sc 9, ch 1, turn
15. sc 2 in 1, sc 7, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
16. sc 2 together, sc 7, sc 2 in 1, ch 1, turn
17. sc 2 in 1, sc 7, sc 2 together, ch 1, turn
18. sc 2 together, sc 7, sc 2 in 1, tie off

Please link back to this post and/or leave a comment if you use this pattern for one of your own projects!  I'd love to see how you utilize it and how it makes your project successful.

Melvin the Manatee

Of course I didn't forget the manatee.  The person who asked for it did, though, until the winter reunion of my summer coworkers and kids.  So I furiously started working on it to have it done for him by the end of the day, but of course, being a reunion, there were activities and community service and games and catching up to be done.  And the mouth bit didn't want to work, so I got caught on that.  And then the recipient left without saying anything.  Long story short, I finished it a couple days later and still have it because he's forgotten about it again.

I worked it almost exactly like I did the Walrus, except incorporating the skills I learned working on Discworld to make it a much more durable critter.  The flippers were worked similar to the turtle's; flat but two-ply shaped by adding or removing stitched in choice locations.  The tail was worked similar to the elephants' ears, an unclosed magic circle with another layer to make it larger and more circular.

I used larger eyes and ch'd 4 or 5 and stitched those on to give him eyelids/brows for a bit more personality. The mouth wasn't doing what I wanted it to, so I stitched that down in the center and it gave him a much better expression.

Creepers

For the holidays this year, I had no idea what to get most of my friends.  I started trying to make an owl for the one I did have an idea for, but placed the eyes too low and messed up adding the beak, so I had a little ball with eyes and really no idea what to do with it.  Until she saw it and thought it was thoroughly creepy.

So I left it alone to creep.

And made it a bunch of friends.

Each friend got a creeper with a vague idea of what it was.  The brown was still more or less an owl.  White was a marshmallow.  Green was a marimo moss ball.  And blue and grey and red.

Personally, I think the red was my favorite.  It was Red Heart in cherry red with 12mm eyes.  Most had 9mm, the grey one had 6mm eyes.  But there was just something about how the red and the black eyes worked together that made me really like it.  Unfortunately, it's the one I don't have a picture of.  Hopefully in the future!

They're easy to make, fit really easily in the palm and if stuffed enough, make great stress balls.  They bounce, they lurk, they watch, waiting for the best time to pop up and remind people they exist.  They're creepers, plain and simple.

Again, worked in rounds much like the cthulhu plush, starting at 6 st and going no more than 30 before tapering off again.

The World

And of course, the last piece of the birthday present was the world.  Discworld, that is.  Again, PlanetJune came to the rescue in helping me make that a reality.  I made the underworld first in all blue, reveled in the fact it was actually flat, photographed it, stuck it in Photoshop, laid a map of Discworld over it, marked stitches as different colors, printed it out and went to work on the top world.

I didn't realize until it was too late that I was pulling the yarn on the underside too tight, but it helped make the mountain 3D in the end.  I didn't cut the yarn between colors because that just seemed like too much work, just let go of the one I didn't need anymore and pulled up the one I did.

As to be expected, the pattern and what I was working on quickly departed from each other.  I don't know how, I don't know why, but I had to start changing colors on the fly and it worked out.  It's not 100 percent accurate, but who cares?  It turned out more perfect than I could have hoped, and it fit right on the backs of the elephants on the back of the great A'tuin.

There was so much back and forth making this, and for a while, I really worried that it wasn't going to turn out.  And then it all came together and it did.

Turtle!

The next part of that same birthday present was a turtle, pattern also purchased from PlanetJune.  This introduced me to the idea of shaping a 3D piece by adding or removing stitches.  Blew my mind.  Getting more and more crafty every day.

The turtle was a lot slower-going than the elephants for several reasons.  New techniques, of course.  Having to rip pieces out and start over a number of times, too.  General end-of-semester business, too.  Also a little bit of fear that it wouldn't turn out or it wouldn't be liked by its recipient.

It was worked on in the dorm, in the car, in the office, in class, at work - everyone saw it and everyone thought it was the best thing ever.  A number of people wanted one.

I managed to finish it by holding my hook different after the injury with the elephants, and got a lot of funny looks because it forced me to use my elbow for leverage rather than my wrist.  Digging and scooping and catching were all very different motions when I couldn't anchor the hook between those last two fingers.  It was a good learning experience.

As with the elephants, there were turtle parts.  There were shenanigans.  There was not a mailing issue that I heard of, which was great (unless you count the mailroom screwing up and giving me the wrong tracking number).

I really enjoyed working on the shell most.  It was so different from how I would have thought to approach the problem and really showed just how creative you can be with crochet as a form.  Building up the edges and figuring out how to make it more smooth than angular was particularly impressive.

I'll admit I'd love to have a turtle myself, but I don't know if I can devote myself to a month of work again so soon.  In the future, I will eventually have a turtle of my own to love.  This one was well-received.

Hephalumps!

For a friend's birthday, I decided to make a bit of an elaborate project that started with four elephants.  I bought the patterns from PlanetJune, because it was cheap, she's clear about her patterns and they were adorable.

When you're self-taught, you don't realize what you're doing wrong until someone else points it out and then you realize how much more sense it makes to do it this way as opposed to the other way.  For instance, when I first started, I didn't understand what people meant by sc and was doing a sl st to make things.

Anyway, doing the elephants, I suddenly realized how much more durable crafted objects were when you use both st of the last row instead of just the front one.  And so these elephants really mean a bit more to me than they already did.

Finger puppets happened.  Injuries happened (I've got a scar from my hook wearing off the skin between my ring and pinkie fingers).  Piles of elephant parts happened.  I used a yarn needle for the first time.  Three-legged elephants happened.  Mailing incidents happened.  Shenanigans continued.  And there were elephants.