Little Teddy Bear

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and I just had to give it a try. This cutie is the Little Teddy Bear from the book Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Amigurumi by Tomoko Takamori.

There were a couple of aspects with the book worth noting (I didn't buy it, I borrowed it from my library). The patterns are written using an interesting mix of words and symbols that I hadn't seen before but they were explained well in the book and I found this method easy to read and follow. The biggest problem was missing instructions. Both the arms and legs were incomplete -- an additional 8 rows had to be added for each. A search on the internet for the answer found that other patterns in the book had errors too and for many people it was a frustrating aspect of the book. The assembly instructions were VERY clear and precise and I appreciated that because it's not my favorite part of making stuffed animals.

Notes:

I used scraps of Red Heart Super Saver Yarn. Other people report successfully using Lion Brand Wool-Ease and Caron Simply Soft.

Because Super Saver is stiff, I threw all the parts into a laundry bag and washed them before assembly.

I used a H hook and it turned out fine but a G hook would work too (producing a slightly smaller bear)

The eyes are 9mm solid black eyes with a washer back from Darice.

He measure 8" (stretched out) from the tip of his ears to the bottom of his feet and 6" high when sitting.

I think he's just the cutest and he joins "the boys" who sit on the bookshelf overlooking my desk!

My Ravelry project page for Little Teddy Bear.

Grrlfriend Market Bag

I've been busy making things ... I promise! I have quite a few small projects to blog about and one HUGE one that I haven't figured out how to write about so I'll start with the little ones.

I love making bags and this one intrigued me by the way it was started using the Emily Ocker's Circular Cast On, which is another knitting technique from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book Knitting Workshop.

I learned about a technique when knitting a lacy pattern that would save a LOT of heartache and prevent a headache if you have to rip out rows: After the last row of a repeat (or whenever you want, just remember to write down the row number) using a yarn needle with a piece of waste yarn, thread it through the stitches on the needle. If you ever have to ripe back then these stitches will be held in place and can easily be put back on the needle.

The lace pattern of this bag is very simple and when I did have to rip back I didn't have too much of a problem, but if I was working a more complicated pattern I would want to use this technique!

I stash bushed my Bernat's Organic Cotton:
1) The bottom portion was knit using yarn which was dyed in my Fabric Structures class using just yellow onion skins!
2) The body of the bag is the color Hemp
3) The top band and strap uses the color Mineral Spring

I forget which size needles I used. The pattern lists ranges of needle sizes for the various parts of the bag and is not specific (that's the beauty of the pattern, wing it for any size and a one-of-a-kind bag!) I think I used 6's for the bottom, cuff and strap and 8's for the body. I wanted a small netting for the body so I did not go up to suggested size 10's for the body.

The pattern for Grrlfriend Market Bag is available for free over at Ravelry.

Double Sided Cable Scarf

Super cute scarf with a cable technique I had to try. The cable is done as k1,p1 ribbing which makes it reversible! The pattern is from the Sweater Surgery blog and available for free here:

To make this pattern work I swapped ROW 5 and ROW 10 – I don't think I was reading the pattern backwards or incorrectly but whichever way I was reading it, switching the instructions for those two rows made it work.

Notes:

Size 8 needles

1 skein of Naturally Caron Country Yarn-Peacock

My Ravelry project page for Double Sided Cable Scarf.

Slipper Boots

I loved the challenge of this pattern. There were lots of different crochet techniques and I have two pages of written notes that helped me get through the pattern!

The pattern is from an Annie's Attic publication titled Quick Stitch Simple Slippers and the pattern is called Slipper Boots. The pattern is clearly written (there was never a question about what to do) but I did have to diagram out what was happening (and where) and I also needed to make a list for the ending stitch count for each row. Markers are a MUST for this pattern!! My advice -- mark, mark, mark and mark again for good measure. You'll be glad you did.

There were two crochet techniques used in this pattern that look like knitting. One is rows of slip stitching in the back loops and the other is the split single crochet stitch. These stitches are very thick so it wouldn't be practical to crochet an entire garment using these stitches(just knit it, in that case!) but for an accent area they are extremely effective and interesting.



Notes:

2 skiens of Moda Dea Washable Wool in Raspberry

Scrap amounts of Red Heart Super Saver in Aran and Grey Heather

I achieved gauge with H and I hooks

I worked the 9-inch size

I made these slippers for Sarah and she has carpeting throughout her apartment but I would add some sort of gripping material for the bottoms if these were to be used on tile or wood floors.

My Ravelry project page for Slipper Boots.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Everyone who knits eventually gets around to an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern! Here's my first "pure" EZ project -- I say that because Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop borrowed extensively from Elizabeth Zimmerman (and is acknowledged as such) so Laura's Harry Potter Sweater is a pseudo first EZ project.

Blog entries, forum discussion boards and a Yahoo group dedicated specifically to this pattern had me so intimidated me that I broke down and bought the video. I probably didn't need to, a little time and dedication to figuring things out would have sufficed, but I did enjoy the video and picked up a few techniques as well.

I stash busted with this project and used Wool-Ease Oxford Grey (1 skein) and Buttercup (less than 1 skein.) It didn't occur to me until too late that I should have thrown in some Cranberry and I could have had a baby Harry Potter Sweater, maybe the next one!

There is one modification that I need to figure out. After the center 90 stitches have been worked for 10 ridges, there are 10 stitches that are picked up on each side and this is done in two rows (1/2 from the right side and 1/2 from the wrong side of the knitting.) The picked up stitches wind up on the front two sides of the sweater and there is a visible difference in their appearance that I don't like. I think a consistent look can be achieved with the simple solution of cutting the yarn and restarting the row from the beginning, so that all the the stitches get picked up on the same row, but I need to check that out.

I did applied icord for the final row and continued around the neck by picking up stitches and applying icord there as well.

The sleeves for this pattern are 3/4 and I like long sleeves (if I'm cold then the baby's cold, right??) so I added a k2,p2 cuff for 1 ½".

The finished measurements are 14" length, 21" chest, and 7" sleeves.

A cute pattern that will be fun to try in different weights of yarns. The design possibilities are endless!

My Ravelry project page for Baby Surprise Jacket.

It's In The Bag

In order to avoid acquiring new (and even more) bags while errand shopping, I had started to throw a few grocery bags into my purse for reuse. In an effort to keep the bags neat and tidy the idea to crochet a bag to store the bags popped into my head and here's the result:


I submitted the pattern to the Crochet Pattern-a-Day Calendar 2009 and they accepted it! "It's In The Bag" is the pattern of the day for April 24, 2009. This is my first design to be published in print and I'm hoping it's a catalyst for getting even more ideas out of my head!

There are actually two patterns designs, but I submitted only one. After the 2010 calendar has been released then I will offer both patterns for free on my site.

Mini Teddy Bear

I have a whole pile of "wannado's". It's a collection of patterns that have caught my eye as something I might like to make someday. Occasionally, I go into the collection and weed out the patterns that no longer say to me, "make me", "make me" and periodically I actually get around to making something!

When I wanted another project for the Ravelympics (an event held during the Beijing Olympics over at the knitting and crocheting social network of Ravelry) I dug into the "wannado's" pile and pulled out this Mini Thread Bear. The bear is know as Monique and was designed by Edith Molina. The free pattern can be found here.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mini teddy bear! She's as cute in real life as she was on the pattern page. I needed help from my daughter with placing the facial features (my usual face phobia) and there is one pattern correction I made, but other than that --- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

Pattern correction: The bottom of the legs were off until I made the following adjustment to the beginning of the leg -- Ch 6, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st, TURN AND CONTINUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAIN, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st. ..... continue with pattern ....... The items in red are my additions/corrections. Once I made this change I had no problem with how the foot came out and all other instructions worked perfect.

I used Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread (size 10) in Wood Violet and DMC Cébélia Cotton size 30 for the muzzle. I didn't have a size 11 hook for working the muzzle so I used an 10 with no problem.

I did not follow the directions for jointing the bear. Instead, I placed the legs, arms and head where I wanted and stitched them down. She's securely sewn together.

I'll be making more!

My Ravelry project page for Mini Teddy Bear.