La la la la Elmo's World

I couldn't help but get that song stuck in my head as I did this hat on barter with a friend.  I get a swank carrying pouch for my crochet hooks in trade for this hat. :D  I'm so SO excited!  She always makes the most fantastic things and I can hardly wait to see this one too!  BTW her link is, as always, on the right side of this page.  Leila owns Binding Threads Embroidery and does so much more than what's on her page.  If you have an idea, email her and she'll try to craft it up for you!  Leila knits, crochets, paints, sews and she's a fiber artist like no other.

Ok, now that I've given my girl a big head and mad props, on to her hat.  She's doing several projects right now and offered up a trade.  I am in need of something other than a small coffee can to put my things in for my "habit".  I've seen crocheted Elmo hats and they are adorable.  I wasn't sure if I could do one up myself.  In her email she mentioned her baby might like pompoms on it for the eyes or something.  Being that I suck with pom poms I offered to do a big pom pom for the nose instead of eyes.  I ran right down to the pom pom store in search of a giant orange one for the hat.  By pom pom store I mean AC Moore of course. :p  It took a good deal of looking though because, believe it or not, they're not a hot commodity these days.  I know.  Baffling.  hahaha  They really did have lots more than I expected and did have two large orange ones in a bag with others.  (Hint, I have an extra for another hat if you'd like one.) 

As it so happens I did not have my usual Red Heart yarn for this project.  I thought I did.  All I happened to have is Cherry Red Sport.  It's beautiful but but I wasn't expecting it to be so light so I got half way through the hat and realized it was just too darned big, unraveled the whole thing and started again.  I love what I do and I certainly want it to look as good as it looks in my head.  This one will look better after washing and air drying of course but heeeeeeeeeeeere's Elmo!

I had the eyes way too far apart and took them off and re-did them.  They really do look perfect when I don't squish the pom pom a bit upon moving the hat.  sigh.  I don't have anything like a wig holder or styrofoam head yet so I'm using whatever is handy.  Today it's a cd spindle. :p  If you would like one they are $20 and can be washed before they leave me unless you would like to wash them yourself (because some have allergies and use very specific detergents).

My Only Hope

"Han Solo: Well Princess, it looks like you managed to keep me here a while longer.
Princess Leia: I had nothing to do with it. General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for anyone to leave the system until they've activated the energy shield.
Han Solo: That's a good story. I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight.
Princess Leia: I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain."

Oh Leia, don't lie :p

What would be cuter than a Princess Leia wig? We all pretended to be Leia at one time or another. I saw a page a week or two ago with a felt hat that looked like Leia's hair, braided sides and all. After much thinking I realized I could whip one of those out in no time! I used the Coffee colored yarn again and on the sides I remembered a pattern for making an amigurumi snake, modified it and used that for the sides.




 I tried it on Lil Bit, which he hated because it's for girls, and the sides fit over the ears like ear muffs. Lil Bit loves to wear it around the house now. I did pull up the front a bit to make it look more like a hair line in the center. This little number is $25 and would be fantastic for Halloween or all winter long!

The spot on the top is flatter than it appears and once it's washed and air dried will settle just right. :)

One Eyed Wacky Monster

My kids come home with the strangest things sometimes.  For a couple of years we've had this little rubber/plastic finger puppet with an alien head.  It's very small but really funny.  The kids adore it.  They likely got it out of some dentist basket, "hey kids I'd love to give you candy so you'll be back quicker but the ADA asked me to stop doing that so here's a toy!"

I thought it was so funny I'd make a hat.  Two actually.  One is very large and fits an adult and another that fits Lil Bit and smaller.  Roughly ages 2-6 I would venture.  I was making this one for my nephew but since Lil Bit doesn't want to part with it, I may have to make another. :p


Two horns, one eye and a tooth.  The tooth is the funniest part I think, but one thing I noticed most about when the kids put on a hat ... they have it on sideways.  The tooth reminds them that it's the front.  And that they look goofy but really that's just a bonus.

Here's Lil Bit now.  The eye does seem a bit too puffy but I can either make it smaller with less padding or just make it flush with the hat.  That's up to you.  Please be sure to specify that when you order.  All hats are $20 unless otherwise specified.  I can change the colors on this one if requested.  Colors used are White, Spring Green and Coffee

Pumpkin King

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas came at an interesting time for me.  I was in high school and a friend of mine invited a LOT of folks over to his place to watch this movie when it came out on video.  What's so interesting about this?  Well it was a very cold evening and it was viewed by  a group of 20 or so teenagers...in the second floor of their barn.  It was actually really really cool.  AND I got to hang out with my very cool foreign exchange student and friend, Priscila Costa from Brazil.  (I've looked for her but do you have any idea how many Priscila Costas there are in Brazil?  Don't look, there's too many to name.)  So when I was looking through Etsy, as I SO often do, and came across another of so many great hats on Cutie Hats Etsy page.  Good ole Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King.  Not only as a beanie but as a beanie with ear flaps.  I had to try it!

Behold!

 I don't happen to have my young model here at the moment but this hat is for my nephew and is sized for a child between the ages of 2-6 or so.  (Lil Bit has a big head for his age and it's close fitting for him.)















I can make another in a jiffy for $25 with earflaps, $20 without.  (Halloween is coming and YOU could be Jack too!!!)

Oh, Spongebob

So I had all this Red Heart Bright Yellow.  Who do I think of?  Spongebob of course!  I had a general idea of what I wanted to do.  I'm still undecided on the buttons to clasp it but for now I'm using wooden beads and cotton yarn.

I had the flash on and it makes it too bright.

With no flash.  Note this is NOT the color of bright yellow.

I wasn't able to get a true picture of color.
 






I had a model for a photo or two but he decided to ditch me. :p  My 5 year old wears it comfortably, the straps are more for the smaller kids BUT an adult can wear it with only one strap at a time. *Yup tested, might make one to keep*

As I said I have loops and beads for eyes.  I will be putting a liner in and covering the thread stitches this week.  The nose is stuffed with polyfill.  Again the pic is a bit too bright but closer in color to what it actually looks like.

This is the back of the bag with it's backpack like straps and hoop for hanging.  Spongebob SquareBag is $30 and I can make larger versions upon request.

*Photo taken without flash, the bag is much brighter yellow.*

As with all my other stuff, it is fan art and should not be considered a licensed product,  know this when ordering.  Also, each bag will differ, as they are all handmade by me.

We are looking for Blue's Clues

I found two or three crochet's for blues clues hats but tried my hand at it.  It's not that I have anything against purchasing a pattern but once I start I fear I'll spend my days searching and charging patterns on my debit card and not finishing any of them.  It's good practice and a learning experience to come up with these on my own. :)

And Blue is born...

One eye needs more pupil and I hate that top dot.  The over all color needs to come down.  I used Red Heart Delft Blue but think I should go for one of the baby colors.


This is the mesh beanie but I'm considering changing to double crochet and trying that.

I'm sure I'll try this one several more times in different sizes and colors and I'll upload those as I do them as well.

Strawberry hats for the girls

For whatever reason I was thinking of my nieces the other day and decided that since it is close to the birthday for one, I would make them each a hat. I started with the oldest and pulled out that Lion Brand red yarn. I couldn't tell you what color red but it wasn't all that expensive, just difficult to see when trying to crochet with it.

 It does appear less red and more pink in this photo but it's more of a Cherry red.  The fringe is Red Heart multi color Candy Print (med 4).  I made a yellow flower and white and stitched them together.  Then made a strawberry from the Candy Print and stitched it on as well.  The back is covered with a flat crocheted piece so that if she likes she can glue a clip on it and use it in her hair or leave the ribbon on it and keep it tied to the hat.
The pic looks as if there are holes but after washing those are not there.

Underneath and top of the strawberry

So here is both hats.  Yes I had to use a ball and a glass of water because try as I might I couldn't get the boys to wear the girl hats and stand together all girlie.

This is the hat for my younger niece.  I used the Candy Print on the entire hat but used regular Red Heart Cherry Red on the strawberry and Lily Sugar'n Cream Dark Pine on both stems.

Once again, I do LOVE the Sugar'n Cream yarns because they're cotton and their thickness but sometimes they are too thick if I'm doing smaller projects.  It was hard and I worried it was too thick but it worked out nicely. :)

Puu from Yu Yu Hakusho

Oh my little Puu. Isn't he darling? What is he? Ya know I'm not really all that sure. He's kind of like a duck as far as his face and feet but his arms do nothing and he flies with his ears. He's the Spirit Beast of the Spirit Detective. Allow me a little back story. :) (I won't usually do this but I do love the show.)

A few years ago in Georgia we would watch Cartoon Network in the afternoons. They had Toonami on which was a series of Anime cartoons for the older kids. After the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho aired I was hooked.

I've always had a special place in my heart for Anime. My very first love was The Last Unicorn. Now I can hardly remember the name, let alone tell you what it was about but I enjoyed the animation of it all. In high school I watched all the anime I could find but with only two video stores and limited resources, that wasn't much. Most of the anime they've shown on tv for the past few years has been for the kiddies. Yu Gi Oh was aimed toward kids who could buy their cards, Dragon Ball Z...I don't even know who that was aimed for and Pokemon which was clearly for kids. Yu Yu Hakusho, or Spirit Detective, is about a hard headed young teenager, Yusuke, who felt the only way he could get anywhere was to be the tough guy and scare the crap out of anyone he crossed. Or beat them up. Either or, he was content to skip school altogether. He seemed to have a crush on a young girl, Keiko. His mother was a drunk who never really showed him any affection. He didn't seem to have any friends either.

At this point you're wondering why I bothered with the show. Yusuke, feeling down, walks home and happens upon this small boy bouncing a ball on the sidewalk. He tells him to keep the ball out of the road or he'll get hurt, makes the kid laugh and moves along. When Yusuke looks back the kid has bounced the ball into the road and as he's getting it has gone into the path of an oncoming car. Yusuke throws himself at the mercy of the car and saves the boy and dies in the process. The ghost of Yusuke is then told by the Reaper, aka Boton a cute little blue haired chick, that they weren't expecting him to do that and therefore there is no place for him yet so he'll be issued a test and if he passes he gets to return to his body. Yeah all this in the first episode. I couldn't stop watching! I missed quite a few episodes and they eventually all came out on DVD, which I now own and share with Legs. He loves the show too.

This brings us to this little guy. One of the things Yusuke has to do is hatch this egg. He does good deeds and it will be good, bad deeds and it will devour his soul. Sometime in Season 3 the egg hatches and out comes Puu. All the while they were frightened that even if he did good deeds the beast, who feeds off of the owner souls energy, would show that Yusuke was...deep down...more evil than anyone imagined. Out comes this lil guy who can only say "Puu, Puu" so there's his name.

I got the general pattern from a designer on DeviantArt. Some of the instructions confused me and I waited for her reply for a week or so before one night going to sleep thinking about how I could come up with answers on my own. I don't know what I dreamed about that night but woke up with ideas abound and before the day was done, there was Puu. He's small, only about 4-5 inches tall. If you've seen the show, you'll love him already. If you haven't, you can watch them on YouTube from various people (stick with it through the first full episode...about 2 or 3 parts on youtube). I also read the Graphic Novels, which are better but still, so far, close to the show. (Barnes and Nobles here carries them and Borders.) In the course of 4 Seasons: Yusuke has a bizarre way of making friends, his relationship with Keiko is certainly an interesting one but there is an undeniable attraction to the friendships he forges with the unlikeliest of people/demons, interesting battles won and lost and each of them (Yusuke, his friends, teacher, girlfriend, etc) are so sarcastically funny that you can't deny you love them all. Odd as they may be.

I can have your very own Puu plushy done in a couple of days. If you like, I can give him a bath and have him in a gift box and shipped where ever you like. (This, of course, will be a bit extra if shipping over seas.) Email me to work out the details!

My First Creation

With a title like that I feel like Dr Frankenstein (pronounced Frahnk-en-steeen).  Now to unveil my first creation BWA  HA  HA  Haa ... oh.  Yeah.  *steps out of the lab and closes the door*

This was more like my 4th creation.  I made a handbag with black and gray yarn and put wooden beads on it (I'll have to find a picture of that one).  The thought was nice but the beads were not really lined up well and the stitches weren't what I'd hoped.  LittleBit, my model here, loves using it for his toys.  I followed up with a yellow bag but before I could attempt to put a strap on there, the kids began using it for a hat.  With the bottom corners as ears they pranced around being cats.  Finally, LittleBit asked if I could make him a hat.  I made one that was more poofy and girly than I'd hoped.  I was watching videos on youtube and threadbanger plus mixing things up trying to be original as well.  Hm.  Not so much what I'd wanted.  So that went to the side and this one was born.

I used Red Heart 324 - Bright Yellow to make the hat.  I nabbed it at Walmart for around $3.26 or so.  At this point it was nothing more than a yellow hat.  The size was good as was the stitching.  My hubby came home and said to LittleBit, "Oh look at that, you have a Pikachu hat!".  Thus the Pikachu hat was born.  I found pictures via google and a wonderful design on deviant art to go by.  I wasn't really sure about the ears she'd done but thought, why not.  I'll give it a try.  One cheek is a tad lower than the other.  On those I used something similar to this but can't remember the name.  It was fuzzy and looked pretty in the store but due to it's bulk (and my inexperience at the time) I had a hard time using it.  Trying to go under your chain is difficult when you can't see where it is.  Black was a 4 weight by Sugar'n'Cream which I got at a local AC Moore.  It's beautiful but as I've learned with amigurumi, it doesn't give much.  What I mean is it's the same weight (4) as the average Red Heart classic yarns but it's a thick cotton rather than a thinner acrylic.  Eyes were a weight 4, Red Heart Sport 0001 White.

I don't think this hat was too shabby considering I was a noob.  The nose was a bit wide and while the photo looks as if the eyes were not even / round, they really are.  I've not made a pattern for this yet but intend to do so when I'm done with some current projects.  (By pattern I mean one that's a more perfected version than this.)