Katie's DirtyCapricorn Portfolio

I've been crocheting for about five years now. My mother tried to teach me while I was in Girl Scouts in elementary school, but she didn't know how to do it, so every square we tried to make turned out a triangle and we gave up. I taught myself during my time as an undergraduate at Pacific University Oregon, with the help of the Internet and Crochet Today! magazine.

Crochet makes a lot more sense to me than does knitting, simply because it's not linear and it's incredibly forgiving. Add stitches where you want, when you want. Don't like it? Pull it back out. Dropped a stitch or your hook came out of the active stitch? No worries, just pick it back up again.

The very first thing I made was a dice bag for myself, which I haven't even done a post for on my blog and still use today. It was a simple rectangle (not a triangle) out of thin, silky white synthetic yarn. I made smaller rectangles to form the sides, eyeballed it, and combination single crochet and whip-stitched them together before making a couple lengths of chain stitch for the drawstrings.

While with knitting, I made lots and lots of boring scarves to give people. With crochet, I am able to give them something they not only like, but use (or at least keep around). Highlights include the following:

One holiday season, I made tiny stuffed cthulhu for all my close friends. They continue to be one of my most-request items and are simple to convert into other plushies, such as Despicable Me minions or the titular character from The Lorax.

Coffee cozies are unbelievably easy to make and even moreso to customize with colors and felt to evoke character. Best sellers include designs from Star Trek, Harry Potter, Sailor Moon, Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender. These are my top sellers on Etsy.com (shop currently closed).

I made a rose for a White Day gift (part of Japan's Valentine's celebration) and made the happy mistake of letting friends see it. Soon I was making rose after rose and flowerpot after flowerpot for Mother's Day, and the long-stem version was my top seller at Fanime's Artist Alley in 2013.

Accessories from hair clips to keychains have also been something of a success for me, especially batches of two-tone heart hair clips.











Other projects have varied from scarves to baby sweaters and boleros to shawls, dice bags to cell phone cases to teapot cozies. I have even stitched an amigurumi DiscWorld and a Bender (from Futurama) beanie.

Bamboo Hooded Scarf

I started working on this a few days after Fanime because I'd found this wonderful Bernat Bamboo yarn that
was so soft and luxurious. I've always wanted to make a hooded scarf for myself but never found materials that I would really appreciate.

After much research and ogling different projects floating around the Internet, I started. And pulled it out after a few rows. And started again, only to pull it out after even more rows. And started again to pull it out again. Finally I figured out to start with a chain tall enough to reach from the back of my neck to the top of my head, sc back down it and then put three in the last to round the corner and sc back up the other side. This formed the backside of the hood.

I sc'd five rows and dc'd one until the hood was large enough, then switched to the scarf. I opted for one just long enough to tuck or tie, with the idea that I would attach a snap or button to keep it closed, offering warm protection for the mouth.

The tassel is probably my favorite part, made from nine chain strands, braided to make three and then braided again for a thicker rope. I also plan to stuff the very tip so it sits correctly on the head.

Somewhere in making the hood was when my palm started tingling and I flat-out stopped crocheting for several months. This was the only project I took cross country with me to Boston (woo, grad school), and didn't touch again until September or so, when I tried slowly strengthening with no more than six rows per week.

Then I started working typing 40 hours a week. I didn't touch it again until January 2014.

I ran out of yarn part way into the scarf and had to postpone even further. While home for winter break, I picked up the last skein I needed and finally managed to power through on Valentine's Day. It's been a long time coming, of course long enough that the cold has passed and I have to wait until next year to try it out.

Eeveelution Cozy Set

My biggest order on Etsy was for a full set of the Eeveelution coffee cozies. It was exciting!

I had a few leftover from Fanime: Leafeon, Glaceon, Sylveon, so those were easy to put together for the package. Some I had the cozies completely done and only had to glue on the felt for the faces: Umbreon, Espeon, Flareon. And some only had the base of the cozy done, so I had to crochet on the border color and either cut out and or just glue on the faces.

They turned out really well and I was really glad that someone liked them well enough (via an incomplete picture set online, no less) to trust me for a full set.

I'm lucky to have so much inventory left over to allow my wrist ample time to sort itself out.

Tiny Totoro

A coworker jokingly asked if I would make him a Totoro when he discovered that I crocheted well enough
to work shows and sell what I stitched. I surprised him by slowly working my way through this tiny Totoro by the end of the summer.

It was simple enough. Starting with leftover grey yarn from the Bender Hat and my trusty cthulhu hook, I made a magic circle of six, increased to twelve, and maintained that for eight or so rounds. I cut felt to appear as the whites of the eyes, punched a hole in it, put a safety eye through it and then clipped it into the body. The ears were chain and single crochet except for a half double at the turn around to flare it out. They were stitched on using my yarn needle and the tail. I cut short pieces of grey and pulled apart the strands, pulling them through the cheeks and tying for the whiskers. Then I stuffed it and decreased to the end like with the cthulhu (using the back stitches) so he would sit without falling over. Finally, I hot glued on the white felt stomach and puff-painted on the accents.

My kids were taken with him, the coworker was surprised but appreciative and I was proud, as it's the first thing I've managed after babying my wrist.

Carpal Tunnel

Temporary placeholder while I put together my portfolio.

Lace Choker

My Vampire: The Masquerade LARP character found herself with something of paramour who gifted each of her personalities their own choker. Because our game doesn't often get actual visuals for things like appearance, weapons or costuming, I opted to go ahead and try to make one of the pieces as described by the other player.

Using the same hook as for the Nerenya sweater and some baby weight synthetic white yarn, I whipped up this 1.5 to 2-inch height rectangle. With a slightly larger hook, I made a chain with lavender yarn to serve as a tie closure threaded through the cut out design along the bottom. By cutting strips of leftover black felt from Fanime and stitching them together for length, I made the middle accent. Finally, I pulled a necklace with a lavender chain and mirror pendant from the collection I inherited from my grandmother and wove that through the cut out design along the top.

It's simple and effective and evokes the feel of the piece perfectly.

This is my first and possibly last full project after Fanime for a while, as I've come to realize that the pain in my wrist is more than fatigue brought on by crocheting for a month straight.

Pictures to come.

Fanime Stock 5

Cozies.  Oh glob, so many cozies!  I really hope they hit it off as bracelets/armbands as well.  Not everyone drinks hot beverages from coffee/tea shops.

I've drawn out all my roughs so I know what each character cozy is going to look like.  I've got something like 80 designs and have estimated I'm going to have about 370 cozies by time I'm done generating stock.  I've started by making the base color cozies, ch 36-38 and sc 9 times around (sl st + ch 1 at the seam to make it even), and will add the edge contrast after the bases are made.  That way I'm not constantly switching yarn and figuring out what color needs to go where.

I've done pink, grey, some green and a lot of orange so far and will be taking my tub with me while roadtripping these upcoming weeks.  I will have a right mess of cozies in the coming days.  I probably need to buy another skein of orange, yellow, white and a few others.  White's an incredibly popular color based on the designs I've done.

After the contrast color is added, then I get to have fun with felt to make the characters come to life.  Totally looking forward to that part.  Super glue, thread and patterns everywhere!