100 Follower Giveaway & Pattern Launch!

I'm selling my first pattern on Ravelry, starting today!  And to celebrate 100 Tumblr followers, you could win a free copy of the pattern! 

Anyone following me on Tumblr is also eligible to win one of the dolls I made to test the pattern.  The rest of the dolls will be sold on my Etsy site once the givaway ends.

Check out the giveaway!

Click here to purchase the pattern on Ravelry for $3.  If you follow me either here or on Tumblr, you can send me a message and I'll send you a coupon code for $.50 off!

I'm really excited about this, I hope it will help me keep my project on track.

Look at these little faces!

Looking and Learning

Right now there are a few things going on.

Looking for a local shop that would like to sell my crocheted items. I can do amigurumi (and am stocking up on miniatures to sell at some point), or commissions, whatever the shop is missing, I can make! I've already got permission from some of my very favorite amigurumi designers to use their designs to make things to sell! So excited! If anybody knows of a shop that would be willing to take my items, let me know. Everything comes with a tag that lists materials, gives credit to the designer, and has links to my sites so every customer will know their purchase benefits a good cause.

Also currently learning to knit. Off to a rough start (especially my fingertips!) First amigurumi is in progress though, and the first piece actually came out looking ... pretty normal. Think I need better needles though and I definitely need some double pointed ones. Knitting needs fancier tools than crochet, it seems. And sturdy hands, which... I do not yet have. Determination will not fail me though!

Thinking about signing up to teach a crochet class locally, it would give me a small amount of money to get knitting tools with. These little knitted animals must be added to my donation list, they're so soft and cute!

Hope you are all well, please don't forget to post about your crafts on the Crafts for a Cause page. Everyone seems to be shy so far ^_^ I would love to get to know everyone better!

I'll post again soon. Have a great rest of the week!

What's happening ~

This is one of my ongoing projects : making the written pattern for Sophie the mouse.  I plan to have it up for sale in my Etsy shop sometime in the near future, since it has become necessary to raise funds to continue my donations project.  I'll be selling the dolls I make to test my pattern if you don't want to bother making one yourself.  I've also designed a tiny bunny amigurumi that I'll be selling a few of, each one will come with a little home (I'll post photos when I've finished the design for those).

Donations project is coming along, I've finished 12 now and have the thirteenth ready to start when my migraines stop cycling. I'm so excited!! :) I've sorted out materials for 14 & 15 and made tags for them, so hopefully I'll be able to deliver this whole lot soon!  So many amazing patterns out there and I am determined to make an entire zoo's worth and then some!

Don't forget to check my Tumblr for more frequent updates - I prefer to keep this blog "cleaner" and more specifically donations-related, Tumblr has a lot more general crafting, questions answered, personal posts, etc, and I post pictures of my finished projects (donations, gifts, all of them) when they're finished. I know some of you get e-mail updates when I post here, and I don't want to spam you too much ^_^

Thanks to all of you for continuing to read this - I've gotten more support on this project than I would ever have hoped for, and I'm so grateful!

You might also be interested in Crafts for a Cause if you're on Google+ - it's a small group for now but I hope it will keep growing! Don't be afraid to share what inspires you, it's often contagious and that's the sort of bug we all hope to catch. <3

Now Pinterest!

So many neat places to find crafting stuff - finally made a profile on Pinterest!

This is me :)

Nothing much on there yet, I think tumblr will still get most of my attention, but maybe when I get the hang of it?  Anyway I've added it to my profiles on the "around the web" tab over there ----->

just in case you need it later :)

Tutorial: Braided tails that won't come loose

This is probably going to be my simplest tutorial yet - crafters rejoice, because it could be for knit OR crochet projects! Woohoo!

Here we have a fine example of a polyester-puffed pachyderm.  

Let's rewind a bit.

Here are the pre-assembled pieces.  The legs are the important part.  Before assembling your critter, make sure each leg has a long tail attached.

If you prefer to sew your animal together with separate threads, use a separate piece of yarn to sew each leg on.  Trust me, this is important.  These four yarn ends will eventually become the magically anchored tail!

When your animal has its limbs attached, use your hook or yarn needle to pull the tail ends of yarn through the "back end" as seen in this photo.  Make sure they all come through the same place.  In this tutorial, I needed extra yarn to sew one of the legs, so I had to make do with only three.

Ideally, you use the shortest length to tightly wrap at the base of the tail, so the other three pieces of yarn are pulled snugly through.  This will stop the braid from being pulled back into the body.  Once you've wrapped the yarn, simply tie a knot at the base of the tail (try to keep it underneath so it doesn't show) and tuck the yarn end back inside the body.  (If you end up with three pieces, skip this step).

Braid the three remaining pieces of yarn.  At the base of the braid, use the longest remaining thread to wind tightly at the bottom, this will keep the braid from coming unraveled.  Tie a tight knot on top of the wrapping.  Using a yarn needle or your hook, carefully weave the end of this thread back up through the braid, and pull it into the body so the end is hidden.  This keeps the braid extra secure.  Fray if desired.

If the third yarn end is too short to weave back through, that's okay - a knot really should hold pretty well.  It sometimes makes one of the three strands stick out a bit, as you can see in the photo on the left, but it's not obvious unless you're looking for it. :)

Notice that if you leave a long tail at the end of each leg for this purpose, you don't have to go back and weave in any ends later - just make your tail and you're done! This is also much easier than making a chain stitch tail, which can look awkward and be tricky to sew in place securely.  Bonus, it holds the legs on tightly and you don't have to worry about them getting loose or falling off.

To make a thicker tail or to make one without using yarn ends, cut six (or nine, or any multiple of three) lengths of yarn in the desired color and at the desired length.  Use your hook to pull them through two stitches that are centered on the back of the body.  Separate into sets of three, braid, and tie off as described above.

Please let me know if you have any questions or anything is unclear with this tutorial, I'd be happy to help!  My Google+ comments for my blog seem to be broken, but I do receive e-mails if you comment, and I'll respond by e-mail and fix anything that needs to be edited.  Thanks!!

Tumblr Time

Tumblr has finally realized that I am not a bot, so I'm actually able to tag things over there.  I'll be posting on that blog more often, so if you want more personal updates & partial projects & random nonsense, feel free to follow me over there.  I'll continue to keep this blog more specific & focused for those who don't want to be spammed constantly :) going to try to finish my tutorial tonight, but my phone camera seems a little picky about the lighting in here.  We will see how this goes.

My Tumblr, if you're interested. Also available under the "around the web" link over here ->

How to Make My Dad (or yours!)

Once I got my craft supplies back from the storage unit, I decided to make my dad for father's day!  Now you can too!  Here's how:

Ingredients:

-3.75mm hook & 3.25mm hook

-9mm safety eyes, color of your choice

-small amount of cream colored medium weight yarn for head/hands

-colors of your choice for pants & shirt, scraps can be used!

-lace weight yarn or craft thread for hair & mouth

-felt & fabric glue for the tie

Directions: 

*Head

Round 1: With cream color: make your original foundation row with six stitches (chain 2, 6sc in first ch, or use the magic ring method).

Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch around (12 stitches)

Round 3: 2 sc in next stitch, sc in next stitch around (18 stitches)

Round 4: 2sc in next stitch, sc in next 2 stitches around (24 stitches)

Round 5: 2sc in next stitch, sc in next 3 stitches around (30 stitches)

Round 6: 2sc in nect stitch, sc in next 4 stitches around (36 stitches)

Round 7-9 sc around (36 stitches) *depending on your stitch size and how you want the finished product to look, add or subtract a row as necessary

Round 10: sc2tog, sc in next 4 stitches (around)

Attach safety eyes and sew on the hair, make the stitches slightly loose so they won't pull when you stuff the piece.  I used a satin stitch to make my dad's hairdo.

Round 11: sc2tog, sc in next 3 stitches (around)

Round 12: sc2tog, sc in next 2 stitches (around)

Start stuffing firmly.

Round 13: sc2tog, sc in next stitch (around)

Round 14: sc2tog until piece is closed up enough to tie off.  Hide the end of the tail of yarn inside the head. Sew on mouth with pink embroidery floss or craft thread.

*Body

Note: before you make the body, check my photo.  If you want your dad's body to be thinner or taller than mine, adjust your design accordingly by adding/subtracting rows & stitches. For a taller dad, increase both the pants and shirt rows by one or two.  I'd increase them equally so your dad looks proportionate - but you know best how your dad looks!

Round 1: With dark blue (or "pants" color), make your foundation row or six stitches.

Round 2-4 are worked just like the body.

Rounds 4-6 sc around

At round 7, change to light blue (or shirt color).  I used a lighter weight yarn, so I had to increase the number of stitches - I increased every other stitch to expand the body a little bit so he would have a rounder body - I just wanted the base to be sturdy so it would stand. If your dad is thin and you want to make his doll thin, you may want simply use medium weight yarn and keep the stitch count the same.

Round 8: sc around with shirt color

Round 9: at this point you want to start very slowly decreasing.  With the DK weight yarn, I decreased every sixth stitch around. Do whatever looks right so you have a nice, even taper (this can also be fixed with stuffing later.) 

Round 10: Continue decreasing, I decreased every 4th stitch.

Round 11: If your piece needs to taper more, decrease every few stitches around.  I just crocheted around for rows 11 & 12. 

Leave the top of the body open with a tail end of yarn still attached for sewing to the head later.  Leave unstuffed so you can sew the arms on easily.

*Arms

Round 1: With cream yarn, make your initial row with 5 stitches.

Round 2: sc around (5 stitches)

Round 3: change to light blue (shirt color) and start using smaller hook, sc around (5 stitches)

Round 4-6 sc around. Leave a tail end and use it to sew the arms to the top row of the body.

Stuff the body firmly.  I put some plastic pellets in the bottom so it would be more stable when standing.  If you gave your dad extra thick or longer hair, you may need to put a coin or two or a marble into the bottom so it will stand up.  Sew body to head.

*Tie - make with felt and glue right at the top of the body.

And you're done! :) Please let me know how this pattern worked for you.  Happy crafting and happy fathers day to all the dads out there!