Amigurumi for Christmas

This Christmas, a lot of my amigurumi made their way under the Christmas tree.  I've already posted about a bunch of them, but I realized that I have even more to share!

I crocheted this Dorothy & Toto from the AmiguruME book, which is an incredibly amazing collection of patterns to mix & match to make whatever kind of human amigurumi you want.  The author, Allison Hoffman, even includes a few little animals (like the dog I used for Toto).  Her patterns are written perfectly and it is so easy to navigate your way through the book and combine the various patterns.  Dorothy & Toto were a gift for my beloved niece, Charlotte, and I think she really liked them!

I'm still not 100% happy with how the smile turned out.  Niki, if you think it doesn't look charming enough, rip that smile out and embroider a new one with some red floss!  I used red crayon to give Dorothy her little blush.  Sonia was absolutely tickled by the fact that I colored with crayon on this amigurumi! You can't tell in these pictures very well, but I used Red Heart Shimmer for the ruby slippers, so they sparkle just a bit.

Isn't Toto handsome? I love his little nose.

This USS Enterprise (from Star Trek) was made for my friend's husband, and when I set out to find a pattern, I asked my friend which Star Trek series her husband preferred.  He, like me, prefers Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I couldn't find any patterns for that version of the Starship Enterprise (the NCC1701-D).  I didn't have time to design my own pattern, so I went ahead and crocheted an NCC1701 from a really great free pattern and just used slightly different colors to style it more like the NCC1701-D.  I think it turned out really cute!

(just ignore the fact that you can see my trash and recycle bins in this picture)

My nephew, Nicholas, received this Mario for Christmas.  I was really happy with the pattern (Wolfdreamer is my pattern-writing hero!!), but my yarn choices caused Mario's head to be too small in comparison with the hat.  Weirdly, worsted weight Red Heart Super Saver yarn differs in thickness from one color to the next, and the Cherry Red is significantly thicker than the Buff (which I used for the skin color).  So, if I do this pattern again, I will increase the size of the head to compensate.

Sonia is not a fan of the eyes....  She actually used the word "freaky" when she first saw the finished Mario.  I used felt for the eyes, as was called for in the pattern, and I am just not good at crafting eyes out of felt.  Oh well.

The hat is so perfectly designed!!!  I had to see if Bobo Cat would look good in it.  He, as usual, was not impressed.

And finally, the pièce de résistance, Jordan's motorcycle and cat!

I used Ana Yogui's absolutely perfect pattern to create a motorcycle similar to the one that Jordan himself rides, The Displacement.  Because I left off the sidecar part of the pattern, I had to use toothpicks to help this motorcycle stand up for its glamour shots.

Jordan says he has plans to suspend this motorcycle from the ceiling (kind of like a mobile) in the future.

The cat's goggles turned out a bit odd-looking due to my color choice (it probably would have looked better with a darker color of blue, or perhaps gray).  But other than that, I'm happy!

Potholders & Coasters

Not sure what first inspired me, but I have made a bunch of potholders lately!  I have a bunch of worsted weight cotton yarn on hand right now, so this is great for stash busting.  The first one is the Flower Potholder by Jennifer Martin.  I hooked this cool design for my sister-in-law's birthday, and I think it turned out really lovely!

The double layer really does make a good heat shield, and it turned out to be the perfect size (using a G hook).

The surface crocheting was kind of a grind (and hard on the hands), but it looks awesome.  It even looks nice from the back!

I crocheted this next one for my mother, who has really embraced her new home state....  This pattern, like her armadillo, is by Wolfdreamer, and it was so much fun to crochet.  Something about my crochet tension made it turn out more rectangular than square, but that's ok.

This next potholder was SO much fun to crochet!  The Interlocking Rings Hotpad by Caitlin Pensak is constructed by crocheting 7 separate rings and weaving them together.  Then, you crochet a solid backing, and join both pieces together with a round of sc stitches.  Our brother, Jordan, was the recipient of this awesome potholder, so I used Denver Broncos colors in honor of his favorite NFL team.

He asked for a hanger to be added to the potholder so he could hang it up above his stove, ready for action.

Jealous of everyone else's cool potholders, I decided to make one for myself.  I used Prescilla Hewitt's Scalloped Potholder pattern, and it worked up very quickly and easily.

My only regret is that I used this pretty Lily Sugar & Cream ombre yarn that does not properly show off the nice design (which is created with front post stitches).

You can see it in the navy on the back, though.

I also crocheted myself some coasters to help combat the insane amount of condensation that forms on the outsides of drinks in Texas.  I know the humidity in Dallas is nothing compared to other places in the world (or even Texas), but it's more than I'm used to.  Anyway, I first gave Asami Togashi's Star Stitch Coaster pattern a try.... The pattern was more complicated than I was hoping it would be (making it too hard to crochet while chatting or watching TV), so I don't think I'm going to make a whole set of them.  This one that I finished is pretty, though!  It uses sock weight yarn, interestingly enough.

I also gave Moogly's Nautical Crochet Coasters a try....

....but I still wasn't all that happy with the results.  I had a hard time working with the thin cork (boy, is it easy to rip!!) and had to experiment a lot to be able to crochet the borders without ripping through the holes.  I had to use a smaller hook to get it through the holes punched in the cork, so then I wasn't able to use Moogly's exact patterns.  When I made up my own, I had less-than-stellar results. This red one doesn't lie flat (whoops).

This one turned out a bit better.

This is probably the best one.  I doubled up on the coasters after I punched the holes and that made the coaster feel a bit more substantial.

I still have plenty more cotton yarn left, so I'll keep experimenting with coaster patterns.  Coasters are fun, fast projects that are easy to tuck in a purse and do during my daughter's various activities, so I have a feeling I'm going to be working on them all summer long.

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo: A-dog's Afghan

Alternate Title: The Gigolo Strikes Back

I just completed another afghan for a lifelong buddy. This one was for the one and only A-dog. He was my roommate at UC Santa Barbara in the freshman dorms. We didn't really get along much that year as he was always studying physics and I was always partying. Our friendship really blossomed during the sophomore year when we didn't live together- we apparently make great friends but horrible roomies. Here he is enjoying a cuppa on a sunny Seattle morning:

And here he is after a successful farmer's market extravaganza- never mind the Drano.

He was the best man at my wedding, and the decision was a very easy one. A-dizzle fo' shizzle. I cannot adequately describe how cool this dude is, but I can point you in the direction of the A-fro he is wont to sport. I recently spent a month on my motorcycle touring the southwest with a full five days visiting the Dizzle's house cooking gourmet food and thinking deep thoughts while hackey-sacking. I don't have many pics of the two of us together- we simply aren't the sort to take a bunch of duck-faced selfies- but here is one from Santa Barbara:

For this afghan, I converted a granny square into a granny rectangle and just kept adding row upon row. I used four Caron Pounders of white and three different blues of increasing shade. I started off with a single row of each, then double rows, triple rows, and finally quadruple rows in order to create a pond ripple effect. As you can see from the zoomed-out shot, my corners began to outstretch the sides and the afghan is a little distorted. I think this is due to using a ch-3 for the corners instead of a ch-2. Or possibly because any pattern will reveal its weaknesses in a real world application when you take it to undue proportions:

When I was nearing the end of the triple-row iteration I began to be concerned about how much yarn was left. I weighed the remainder of each skein but needed a way to describe how much yarn was used per unit crochet. This led me to spend an intense caffeine-fueled morning deriving an algebraic expression to predict my yarn usage. I ended up with:

y = 64(nx) + 4[(X1-1) + (X2-1) + ... + (Xn-1)]

where x describes the row numbers of that particular color and y is the number of "stitches" where 1 stitch equals 3 double crochets. This counts the initial white row as row zero and requires a factor of +32 for the white yarn calculations.

Using this equation it was possible to determine the values of grams of yarn per stitch. I then calculated the number of stitches required to complete the afghan: the crunched numbers revealed that I had sufficient quantities of each color to complete the pattern, but just barely when it came to the dark blue, which makes sense because it uses more yarn for each pattern repetition than the other three.

Once I was done with all this BS I realized that MS Excel could aid me in these calculations with about 10% the effort. I used it to double-check my results and the equation held true.

I'm really digging this afghan. Part of me wishes I didn't tell the Dizzle that I was crocheting him an afghan, because then I could simply keep it for myself. I enjoyed many hours of winter warmth with this sucker draped upon my lap as I added row upon row. Here is the concise list of full albums listened to during the crochet process:

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs (I really should point out that A-dog sent me this album as well as Reflector right before I commenced the project. I don't mean he drop-boxed me some mp3s, I mean he really sent the physical albums purchased from a real store. Home-Dizzle rocks the house again)
The Avett Brothers- The Second Gleam
Beck- Mellow Gold
King Crimson- Starless and Bible Black
Live- Throwing Copper
Jim Croce- Greatest Hits Volume II
My Morning Jacket- It Sill Works
Radiohead- The Bends
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Russian Circles- Station
Yes- Close to the Edge
The String Cheese Incident- Born on the Wrong Planet
Phish- Rift
Ween- The Mollusk
The White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan
King Crimson- Larke's Tongues in Aspic
The Mars Volta- Deloused in the Comatorium
The Builders and the Butchers- Self Titled
The Builders and the Butchers- Salvation is a Deep Dark Well
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Blind Melon- Self Titled
Gomez- Bring It On
Ween- White Pepper
Yes- Drama
Pink Floyd- Animals

A-dog and I discovered the band Yes together, and spent many priceless college-age nights tripping out on The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, Fragile, Going For The One, and Drama. He wrote a college paper on the Drama album and its meanings. Deep stuff. I remember a Hunter S. Thompsonesque road trip to Sedona, AZ that was spent listening to Yes albums in my beat up Civic hatchback. Good times.

If any single ladies in Orange County (Costa Mesa, specifically) are reading this, you really need to track this dude down and attempt to date him. You'll never meet a more cool, competent, and capable cat. He's the CSO of a profitable optics company that makes laser prisms for all sorts of top-secret contracts, and is a gourmet cook to boot. By gourmet I mean that he uses an all-copper bowl to beat egg whites. Try it and see. A-dog meditates, performs Tai-Chi, and loves a succulent dry-aged steak as much as the next king. Oh, and he keeps his bachelor abode spic-and-span. I can't wait until he flies out to TX this summer to visit me for some good homie chillin' times.

Oh, right, this is a blog about craft projects. Sorry for all the A-reminiscensces. Here's another pic of the afghan to distract you from my best homie ever, the hellarighteousdudeskillet known to most as the A-dog.

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A note from Erin -- I am totally flying to Texas and stealing this afghan before Jordan has a chance to give it to A-dog. The colors are fantastic, and this is THE coolest use of a granny square-ish pattern!  I'm not experienced enough with granny squares to know why the corners are a bit pulled out.  I don't think blocking is the answer because that wouldn't really hold up with an afghan.  Who cares, though?  This afghan is still ridiculously awesome.  The math Jordan used to calculate the amount of yarn he'd need absolutely kills me.  He is a closet genius.  I can't wait to see his next project!

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo, Part II

After a long month of furious single crochets, I have finally finished the afghan I made for my awesome buddy Tim. It was inspired by our latest motorcycle trip together, one we took in the summer of 2013 from Seattle to Santa Barbara. I chose the colors to match our bikes- navy blue for my Yamaha, burnt orange for his Triumph, and tan for the dirt that tends to glom on to everything one owns during a road trip.

The bikes:

The afghan:

I tried to create a pattern analogous to the way the trip manifested. The afghan (starting on the left) began much like our trip did, focused on the two bikes. We started the journey by zooming south, gradually staying longer and longer at the various destinations. I represented this by increasing the length of each color as the afghan took shape. Down at the end in Santa Barbara we parted ways and Tim headed back up north to Seattle, so I finished it up with alternating orange and tan. The rest of my own trip is another story, another afghan.

With each color change I crocheted into the back loop in an attempt to create texture and overlapping waves. It sorta worked, but the vast fields of single crochet madness somewhat diminishes the effect:

This bad-mamma-jamma of an afghan was a zig-zag pattern with a base chain of 220 knots, worsted weight Red Heart Super Saver, done with a J-hook. I calculate that there are 32,120 knots all tied up in there. You had better believe it took me a long time to complete. I am not the fastest hooker ever, at least compared to the greased lightning I once witnessed when Erin completed a one-skein scarf in like 5 minutes.

The edges are a little curvy and the afghan, as a whole, tends to wave a bit with the pattern. I figure Tim will beat this out of it via marathon Xbox sessions and cuddle time with his latest main squeeze. Seattle gets cold in the winter, hence the single crochet battlefield. No holes or gaps that might let precious heat escape!

Knowing this would be a loooooong project, I was tempted to keep track of the man-hours spent behind the hook but instead I logged all of the full-length albums I listened to. I also crochet during football games, getting in a few knots between each play as well as during commercials and halftimes. This is the complete list of all albums/games enjoyed during the afghan process, in chronological order:

Kansas- Point of Know Return
Keller Williams- Dream
The Band- Music From Big Pink
Sunny Day Real Estate- Diary
Viva Voce- Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Show Your Bones
Cake- Comfort Eagle
The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
Devotchka- Una Volta
Ween- Quebec
Outkast- Aquemini
Rush- A Farewell to Kings
Rush- Moving Pictures
My Morning Jacket- "Z"
Man Man- Life Fantastic
Built to Spill- Keep it Like a Secret
Broncos vs Raiders- Broncos win 34-14 and set all sorts of records.
Panthers vs Falcons- Panthers win 21-20.
Belle & Sebastian- If You're Feeling Sinister
Phish- Billy Breathes
The Decemberists- The Crane Wife
Ween- Quebec
49ers vs Green Bay- Niners win 23-20.
Jack Johnson- Brushfire Fairytales
Saints vs Seahawks- Hawks win 23-15! Go Seattle!
Steely Dan- The Royal Scam
Steely Dan- Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan- Countdown to Ecstasy
Broncos vs Chargers, Broncos win 24-17. Go Broncos!
King Crimson- Discipline
Spoon- Gimme Fiction
System of a Down- Hypnotize
Steve Howe- Homebrew II
Tool- Undertow
Built to Spill- You in Reverse
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Gomez- How We Operate
Pink Floyd- Animals
Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
Broncos vs Patriots, Broncos win 26-16, Super Bowl bound!
Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
Arcade Fire- Reflektor

Such good music! Such good football! Such tedious crocheting! This was a once-in-a-lifetime pattern, because once was enough. Yes, I realize I listed Ween's Quebec twice, because I just so happened to listen to it twice- it's that good. I also went on a bit of an Arcade Fire tear there near the end.

Tim, hope you enjoy the afghan!

We met on a disc golf course, and said goodbye on a disc golf course. Next time we meet, it might be at a disc golf course! Well, it will realistically be in the terminal of an airport, but rest assured we will head straight for the nearest set of frisbee links. Here's us parting ways at the course at Lake Casitas, just south of Santa Barbara- Tim's the one on the left:

Best bros. I hope this afghan will always remind him of not just the road trip but all of the kick-ass times we shared when we hung out on a regular basis. Blood, sweat, and cabernet sauvignon were all spilled during this project but you'd never notice the stains 'cause I'm bunny-quick with a washcloth.

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Note from Erin -- Yes, I am a quick crocheter, but perhaps it only seems that way because I choose small amigurumi projects most of the time!! I had to swear off afghans because I would get so bored making them that they would sit, languishing, as works-in-progress for months, if not years. I wonder if maybe I wouldn't have given up crocheting for several years around the time of Sonia's birth if I had realized my love of amigurumi earlier. Anyway, Jordan is a crocheting genius (he is so much more of a natural at this-- I mostly need patterns, and he comes up with his own as a rule). I frickin' love this afghan and wish I had it. Oh, and I totally approve of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Cake!! And a lot of the rest of the music list, too. Also, the thinking behind the pattern of this afghan makes me a little teary-eyed: friendship and a road trip captured in a crochet project.

Guest post from our little brother, Jordan -- Memoirs of a Gigolo

Well of course- what would YOU call a male hooker?

Anyway, I set out to make a rag rug for Grandpa Chuck as a Christmas gift.  I figure the last thing he needs is another gadget or gewgaw he can't even see, but I can at least give him something comfy to stand on while he blindly brews coffee.  Happy Holidays from Dr. Scholl, or something like that.

I ripped the edging hems off of two sheets, one red and one pale green, measured 3" intervals all down one side, then ripped each measure down the length of the sheet to within an inch of the opposite side.

The result looked like one of those heavy, sloppy brushes you see in drive-through car washes.  Once this was complete, I tore each of these 3" strips in half starting from the 'spine' and ending within an inch of the free end.  This created one long serpentine of 'yarn' from the entire sheet.  Trying to keep it all together, I could imagine what it must be like trying to wrestle a jellyfish and its unholy mass of tentacles and slaw.

I say- tearing a sheet apart isn't exactly as impressive as ripping the Denver Metro phone book in half, but by the end of it my arms were tired!  Assuming standard sizes for sheets (green was a king, red a queen), an inch hem removed from both dimensions, and the inch reserved for continuity, I calculate that I ripped 15,226 inches of fabric.  That's 1,269 feet or nearly a quarter mile!  Hulk Hogan thinks he's a badass because he rips one T-shirt down its 2 foot length.  Try ruining 600 shirts in a row, Mr. Tough-Guy, then see if you can still full-nelson the Macho Man.  Betcha can't, homeskillet.

What a huge pile of sheet.

Once the sheets were rendered to a mountain of spaghetti, I rolled each into a yarn ball for easy wrangling during the crochet process.  Let it be said that for a dude to crochet it requires big balls.  Here they are next to a full size claw hammer for reference.

I set out to make a simple round rug for Gpa, starting with a chain of six and adding six each row, but before I knew it I had a base of seven knots and was mysteriously adding one extra knot each round.  I guess I forgot how to end a row and begin a new one when crocheting discrete circular rounds.  Halfway through I remembered how it's supposed to go, but I just let it ride and kept adding seven knots per row.

As the rug grew in size the ball-in-use kept yapping around my feet like a Yorkshire terrier.  I had fun kicking it across the room occasionally, but it would simply return and start nipping at my ankles again.  It reminded me of the time in high school when we tied a few shirts into a ball, dunked it in diesel, and played fireball soccer.  So much fun!  The town of Foresthill, CA dodged a burn-to-the-ground bullet that night.

Kittens run in fear of these oversized yarn balls.

Halfway through the rug I realized I might have enough stock for two rugs, so I did some quick calculations.  My scale said I had 875 grams left of the green ball, 634g of the red and 346g of rug already made for 1855 total grams of stock.  I had a circular rug 8" in radius, so pi-r-squared said I had 254 square inches of rug at 1.362g/square inch.  927g of stock (half of the total) would then allow for a 14" radius rug, which is a good size.  Using all the stock for one rug would make a 20" radius rug, which is huge- Gpa's condo isn't exactly the largest domicile in existence.  Two rugs it is!

For the second rug I decided to employ the hexagonal method, which is the same as crocheting in a circle except you add the stitches in the same place every time.  Eventually this creates corners.  I presume that if you added enough rows in this manner (like hundreds) it would eventually take on a snowflake shape with the corners stretching out further than the sides.  As it was, I barely had enough rows to form a definite hexagon, but give me a break-I was running out of stock quickly.

Near the end I finished the last red row with only about 2 feet of extra length.  This was almost as satisfying as arbitrarily grabbing the exact number of hangers required for the load of shirts coming out of the dryer.

So there they are, two freshies to add to the memory vault.  The lighting, when combined with an iPad camera and an apathetic attitude towards photography in general, makes the green look a little sickly.  In person it is a fine color combination anyone would take home to mother.  Which is, incidentally, exactly what I'm going to do.  The hexagon is for Ma.

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Note from Niki -- GOOD LORD, I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THE FIREBALL SOCCER GAME!  And I find it all kinds of hilarious that a claw hammer was used for scale while documenting a crochet project.  My brother is a complete goofball -- you would never know from reading this that he was a varsity wrestler in high school.  And how many chemists crochet rag rugs in their spare time?  Not many, I'd bet.  

Christmas of Craft

Back in 2006, before either of us Roonie Ranchers had procreated, the Evans side of the family gathered at my (Erin & Andrew's) house to celebrate Christmas.  Because we pretty much can't sit still, the Roonie Ranchers and our little brother, Jordan, spent a lot of the time crocheting and sewing (and baking cookies and playing Trivial Pursuit and ice skating and cooking and....).

Jordan first: Our little brother arrived with crocheted goods in hand.  Carrot ornaments for all, and a bacon & eggs scarf for Dad.  (Sorry the picture is zoomed and cropped a little funny, but that was to get my unshowered mother out of the picture.  She would disown me if I made such a picture public.)

He also brought his "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" (from the South Park TV show) amigurumi to show off.

Several of the afghans hanging on the blanket rack on the right-hand side of this picture are early crochet projects of mine! In the picture you can see a several Christmas decorations that my incredibly talented Aunt Janet has sewed for me over the years.

Oddly enough, my sister received a toilet seat (as part of her "Pimp My Bathroom" Christmas gift from her husband), and my Dad received a game ("Fact or Crap?) of whose name Mr. Hankey would most heartily approve.

Note the crocheted afghans in their laps.... I made the one on the left and my Great-Aunt Lois made the one on the right.  We are a really crafty family who helps keep yarn manufacturers in business.

Jordan was also working on an afghan during the holiday:

Not sure if he ever finished that!  Compared to amigurumis and doilies, afghans take FOOOOORRRREEEEVVVVVEEEERRRR!

Niki arrived with materials to hand sew the most adorable little Christmas stockings for cats.  Yes, in years past, my sister DID actually hand-sew things.  That was before her sewing machine addiction got out of control.

Niki also made the necklace that she is wearing in this next picture.  Good grief, I think we need craft addiction counseling.

This is the only picture I have of me crocheting, and I was making a doily, though I have no memory of where it ended up. Back then, I gave away a lot of doilies as gifts!  This is back before I discovered the fun of amigurumi and had a child and a whole slew of her friends for which I could create handmade stuffed animals.  Yes, I am unshowered in this picture, but so was Niki in the picture with the toilet seat, so I figured fair is fair.  Also, I am wrapped up in the afghan I crocheted for Andrew while we were engaged.

The work in progress (obviously unblocked!!):

This looks vaguely familiar.  It might be in a guest bedroom, but I'm too lazy to go upstairs and look.

So, yeah-- my siblings and I have a crafting addiction.  Definitely something in the genes!

(I also have no ability to open my eyes properly while smiling for pictures.  Crocheting is far more fun than modeling if you ask me.)