Fanime Stock 4

Hearts and bows, oh my!

The hearts were very easy and paired together as laid out in the picture, will make very lovely hairclips.  I need to steam and press them before attaching them to the clips so that they lay flat, but that'll take all of a half hour.  Mostly waiting for my huge, unabridged dictionary to flatten them.

The bows are super cute.  The one pictured was a test, ch 50, sc back and forth to the desired height (occasionally using only the backloop to give a good scrunch point), then add the contrast along the top and bottom edges before sewing the ends together and wrapping with the contrasting yarn to make the "knot" and hide the seam.  Those will go either on barrettes for hair wear or pins for bowties.

Fanime Stock 3

Roses.  Roses as far as the eye can see.

I might have gone a little overboard on roses.

For all the bobby pins, snap clips, barrettes and pin backs, my plan was to have a selection of roses, bows and hearts.  Except I didn't stop to figure out how many and what color of each before starting, just figuring I'd use a bunch of older yarns to get rid of them.  And I ended up with a lot of roses.  I'll probably have to clump them to use them all.  They'll probably look better that way anyhow.

The larger ones I'll make calyxes for and attach to hot dog sticks for long-stemmed roses.  I'm sure those'll be popular, but I probably need to make more red and white ones.

There's a handful of bows at this point, just an easy ch 25, turn and sc back across for 24 st until 3-5 rows high, folding in both ends and stitching together before pinching and wrapping yarn around to make the 'knot.'  I'd like to make more and slightly larger ones for the pin backs to make bowties.

I've just started on hearts, which are thinner and more curly than I expected.  I think I'm going to have to double them up and maybe even poke a little stuffing in them to make them do what I want them to.  They'll work out in the end, though, and look lovely on snap clips.

Fanime Stock 2

I told myself I'd wait to try nalbinding until after Fanime so I'd have plenty of time to make all the stock I'll need.  Which of course meant I started obsessing over it.  Bought a couple needles (one of which was a custom order, the other coming all the way from Estonia) and some wool.

So, I told myself I could make a coffee cozy bracelet after I'd made 10 cthulhu.  Which I was good, I waited until I'd finished.  Except I had two different needles and two different colors of yarn.  And I had to try all of them.  So I ended up with four cozies, which wasn't too bad, and discovered how to move the yarn relatively quickly.

I taught myself with the magic of YouTube (how I seem to learn everything these days), specifically the Oslo Stitch tutorial found here.  It was easy enough, though I'm still trying to figure out how to taper the starting and ending edges so they're not so blaringly obvious.

The grey yarn didn't work as well as I thought it would, just because the white strand has to loop perfectly to not look like a random explosion of yarn with this stitch.  But it's a learning experience!

More adventures into nalbinding to come around June.

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.