Caught crafting again

And of course, after my previous musings on the animals that aren't yet included in my donations, I had to finally settle on...

...a hedgehog.

Design credit goes to Amy Gaines, from her book More Cute Little Animals to Crochet (Leisure Arts, 2010).  I have a lot of designs by Amy Gaines and they're all amazingly cute.  I never feel I can quite do them justice.  Sorry for the dark picture again.  Very, very, very early morning.  The little one was up several times in the night because of his allergies.  I got a second and third wind in there somewhere, and then just kept going.  It's fine with me though, when I have bad episodes it takes me forever to finish one thing, so I have to do what I can when I can.  One of his birthday presents was a trip to the circus, which is happening today... I'll get my chance to nap for a few hours while he's out, unless I get into another crafting frenzy. 

I'm all out of Keeping Up Appearances.  Got through the entire series already... guess I've learned all I can from Hyacinth for now.  I feel confident that I could hold an authentic candlelight supper, given the opportunity, even if I don't have any Royal Doulton with hand-painted periwinkles.  Such characters... I do love British television.

My craft box looks a little sad with no projects in it.  There's usually at least one thing partly complete in there... perhaps I'll just start another one... yes...

Sundry's Debut!

I'm pleased to announce that I've completed the very first Sundry the Second Chance Monster!

I've been too spastic to deal with patterns or to be able to make even stitches, which meant it was a perfect day to follow the yarn where it took me, and this is the result!  I'll have to get some better pictures when I have something other than my cell phone to take them with :) The flash bleached out the blue button eyes a bit, but she really is quite colorful! 

I may be able to post an actual pattern for her at some point, but it's tricky because the yarn varies in size, so I basically had to stitch differently in each row to make them even (ish). Here's the basic concept: if you can get a bowling pin sort of shape about 24 stitches around at the wide part of the head, decrease to 15 or so stitches for the neck, and then back up to around 30-35 around for the body.  Keep going until it looks like the "right size" (some of the rows will vary in width, so don't worry about the number.) 

I did the bottom few rows in the back loops only so they would taper, and began to decrease around, also in the back loops only.  *This is important, since it effectively fixes the gaps that are sometimes left between stitch decreases.  Stuff rather gently, since the silk yarn has no give -- it molds very nicely as long as it isn't over-stuffed.  Finish off when the hole at the bottom is quite small by putting a slip stitch across the gap.  Tie off and pull the end of the yarn through the body, pull tightly so that the bottom will sit flat (this won't happen if there's a giant knot).

Hair: Wrap silk yarn several times around the widest part of your palm.  Gather in the center, and sew to the top of the head.  This is tricky since the silk yarn is so dense, I used a yarn needle and 4 strands of embroidery floss.  Wrap around and knot at the bottom first, rather gently, and then make as many stitches as you can up the center part.  Cut the loops so you get single strands of hair.

Arms: Cut three rather long lengths.  Hold one end of them in your teeth, braid.  Tie a knot near ONE end, leave tails for fingers.  Use a large crochet hook to pull the braid through the body, pull to desired length.  Make another knot for the other hand, cut off the braid, leaving tails for fingers. 

Don't worry if it looks lopsided, this design is very mush-friendly and will hold its shape nicely!

:)

Enjoy & feel free to e-mail me/leave comments with any questions!!  These will be on sale at some point to help fund the materials for my donations.