Project Update 12/13

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. I hope you had a fantastic week. I apologize for the late post, yesterday was my husband's birthday so I was a bit distracted and my Saturdays tend to be very busy, hence why this is going up so late. But I have been working on finishing up some projects for tomorrows event, a Browncoats (Firefly fans) meetup which should be a lot of fun as both my business partner and I are pretty big Firefly fans ourselves. Of course I decided to work on a new project last minute so I have been frantically crocheting. Here's what I have been working on.

Making some ponies as usual. I had to finish off my set of big ponies. I decided to do the shaped hair for Rarity this time, while it does take a bit longer I just love how the curled hair looks so it's worth it. I also forgot to mention last time, I am so happy I finally got a new order of eyes so my ponies have consistent size and color. With as many of them as I make it's just easier and makes them more id friendly to use safety eyes rather than felt them on. Though I still think the cutie marks look best felted.

So my big last minute project was with this event in mind. Knowing I'm more likely to run into pony fans I decided to make some of the other ponies for the weekend. I started with the fan favorite Derpy Hooves (Or Ditzy Doo if you prefer) which was easy enough as she follows the basic pattern. Then I decided to play around with the pattern a bit and make some princess ponies (If you have not seen the show I'm sure this all sounds crazy, sorry about that).  I elongated the legs, torso, wings and horns as well as giving them necks. I have to say I am pretty happy with how they came out. I might do the wings a bit wider in the future and maybe go a touch thinner on the bodies but that's about it. The manes and tails are a pain as they all have very shaped hair that is just not possible in this size (take a look back at my big Luna plushie to see what I mean) So I did my best and I think they look alright. Working on a Twilight as well but she will probably be done last minute.

I  showed you two pokemon plushies last time, an Espeon and a Glaceon, well they're both finished now. I looked at the Espeon (purple one) for 2 weeks trying to figure out what was wrong, I had the whole thing backwards so I had to take the legs and head off and re-sew them. I also finally finished the tail. I took a long time deciding how I wanted to do it. I ended up just doing two pieces chained down and HDC back with a hook one size larger, slipped a pipe-cleaner between them so it will be pose-able and whip stitched them together. 

I also finished up the Glaceon. Way too much colorwork! I ended up making a few changes from the base pattern and will change more in the future. While I love the body and legs and her tail pattern is definitely better than mine, I ended up doing the head pieces I made up for my own Glaceons. I also think in the future I will use the head you see above, it fits on the same size body and it just looks a bit nicer. I'll be sure to show you when I have that done.

Then I worked on some of my old quick projects, tiny top hats that I glue on little hair clips, and more goblins. I have more of each but cannot seem to find where they went, probably already packed. I tend to get a bit frantic right before an event. I love making these little guys, they are both simple projects that use up spare yarn and I am trying to pair down my stash to only the most used yarns. I had a habit in the past of just picking up yarn from thrift stores, which was fine while learning, but a bit useless now.













That's about it for now. I am off on another adventure tomorrow that I will tell you about next week. I hope you all have a great weekend and hope you have those Christmas presents all about done. If not I'm with you, on Monday I start working hard on presents. See you next time!

Project Update 12/5

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers...there was a post here on Monday, it's gone now. That is really annoying. There may be a double post next week if I can find it again. Anyway welcome back to another exciting episode of "what have I been making this week!" Except it's more like 3 weeks so expect lots of stuff. Let us see where we left off.



Let's start with ponies. I've been trying to finish up that set of big ponies I started for the last show and really have not gotten enough done on them. I finished one Pinkie Pie, I'm doing some things different with her. I found a darker pink that works better for her main and tail and I'm using double strands and a K hook instead of just doing a ton of long curls with  a single strand. I think it looks better. Then I'm working on a Rarity and Fluttershy to finish off the set. They still need heads. Still very slowly working on the giant Luna but not enough to share new pictures of her yet.



I've been working on a few more Pokemon plushies, I think I'm a bit obsessed. I even picked up a forth pattern for them. One of my favorite designers, Nerdy Knitter, has started making patterns of the eeveelutions. Of course I had to start with the Glaceon. Then I also finished up an Espeon I ended up doing the pieces under the ears in just brushed out yarn, I think it looks better than anything I could have done with making up a crocheted piece. My biggest problem with these is always finding the right color, they seem to vary so much. I went with the pinkish purple for the Espeon because I just thought it looked the best. I'm working on another eeveelution but that will get it's own post it's an interesting project.

I ave also been really trying to increase my inventory of octopi, they are my namesakes after all. I have been using them as a way to get through some yarn I picked up at goodwill over the years and is just not consistent enough for character plushie work. I had my husband pick me out a color at random and he picked out this orange almost skin toned color which I decided would be a bit weird for the whole plushie, but I had a lot of fun pairing it with other colors.

I also had to replace a giant dapper octi I sold an decided to make use of some multi-colored chunky yarn I had. I'm not generally a fan of that kind of multi-colored yarn where the strands are just twisted together, I prefer stripes, but I think he looks pretty cute. And finally I am finishing up another pokeball octopus. I'm glad I finally got some more yellow eyes for them, I just think it sets off the red/white/black nicely.



I am not really a fan of amigurumi dolls, as you know I am terrible at and hate colorwork but these patterns are just so cute! I have another pair or Batman (the other one is already packed up so he didn't make it into the picture). I've been watching old Justice League episodes so haing a lto of fun making these. Then I was playing around with the pattern, reworking colors and elongating some pieces and made a Finn from Adventure Time. I think it's a good start but definitely needs less neck next time.




And I have finally finished up the shawl for my husband's grandmother. I am sure it will look a lot better once I have washed and blocked it. I love making shawls but I can't seem to sell them so at least I can still make them as presents. Unfortunately this is the only Christmas present I have finished so far, so once I finish up my last event of the year next weekend I will be going a bit present crazy. I think I will have to show those off after Christmas because while I know my Grandmother in law doesn't read my blog, some of the others I am making presents for might.

Well that's about it for this time folks. I feel like I did not get much done for two weeks, I've been spending a lot of time with friends, and Thanksgiving got in the way. Things always get busy this time of year. I hope all your Christmas presents are going well and you are more prepared than I. You may have noticed the change in location for my pictures. I hated how messy they were in the background before, having my office in our bedroom makes it very hard to keep tidy. So I cleaned out some room on my yarn shelf. For those who are curious this is what that looks like. (art in the background is from the webcomics namesake, discord, and  Johnny Wander not all of which are safe for work so read responsibly) I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you next time!

Chunky Yarn

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers! No WIP post today, that will be Monday. You may have seen this post before, for some reason I scheduled it for 2 weeks ahead but it went up anyway so sorry if you got that little preview. anyway, here's the post.
I'm not usually one to jump on the latest trends, but Chunky yarns are huge right now and I am loving them. If you've been around for a while, you know I have a thing for making a plushie then making a giant and miniature version. Chunky yarn makes great giant plushies! I love the look of the big stitches rather than just doubling up your stitch count (which doesn't really work right, you have to adjust your increases/decreases etc.) and it's a much quicker process. So I wanted to take a little time to talk about some of my favorites and what I am doing with them. I don't plan to do any chunky yarn reviews too soon, I want to get through a lot more of the worsted weights first as they are more practical, so this is what you get in the meantime.

First off, Bernat Softee Chunky. This is your inexpensive option. This was my first foray into chunky yarns and I like it a lot. It has very vibrant colors and comes in some of the bigger skeins I've found. I wish it were a bit less fuzzy though, but it makes for good plushies. Due to the price, I may use it more in the future. It's easy to work with and this would definitely be the yarn I would suggest if you are just starting with chunky yarns or finances are limited. I would use it more, but my primary use for chunky yarn is giant My Little Pony plushies and this yarn doesn't really have an orange which is very frustrating. I made these guys with this yarn in the past and I love how vibrant the red is!

Next up is one I have not worked with as much:

I have only worked with Loops & Threads: Zoomba once, but it was very much like the Softee Chunky (dman these yarns have weird names!) it's soft and fluffy but a bit more for a similar sized skein. Also you can only find it at Michaels which is a pain for me as it's across town. It only comes in seven colors so is not great for my use but I used it because they had the only chunky purple I could find at the time. Not a bad yarn at all if they have the colors you want. I made the large pony here using it.

 And finally my favorite:

I'm not generally a big lion brand fan, but their Hometown USA chunky weight yarn is fantastic. It runs a bit more expensive considering it is a smaller skein but I think it is worth it. It's a very soft and sleek yarn that is just wonderful to work with, it unwinds into super soft roving if you just untwist. It gives the plushies a great clean feel and they don't collect bits of fluff like most other yarns do. I have gotten very lucky with this yarn lately as my local Craft Warehouse has been selling bags that have three to five skeins of this yarn for only $5, considering one skein usually runs around $4 that is pretty incredible. Unfortunately the colors are limited so I have a ton of light yellow but I have a big project planned with it, but I'll tell you more about that once I have a bit more of it completed. I would definitely suggest giving this yarn a try it is an absolute dream to work with and the color variety is better than either of the other two. I've mostly just made my ponies with this yarn (minus the purple one of course.)


If you are going to give these yarns a try, I suggest using a size J hook for double or HD stitches and you can go up to an M or N for SC. You could go even bigger if you aren't working on something that worries about fiber fill poking through. I generally don't like using the huge hooks as I feel like I'm doing less fine craft and more kids craft, but it is a lot of fun to see how quickly these projects come together.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you find this useful if you are planning to try using some chunky yarn or just looking for some good brands. I know there are other good yarns out there, and these are only some of these acrylic yarns so let me know what else you like, what I should be trying. I will be doing a follow up in the near future where I talk about some other projects I am working on in chunky yarns. But until then, have a great week!

Event Talk: Kaleidescope Bazaar

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Today I want to talk a bit more about crafting for a living and selling at craft fairs and the like. I promise we will be back to talking about yarns on Monday (I already have the post written so I have no excuse this time!) but I just want to share some of the things I've been learning about the business that I wish I had known when I started. It all has a lot to do with the last couple of events I have been selling at.

At this point I have worked six events, two pirate/LARP events, three craft shows and one comic convention and I've only really done well at the convention (ignoring the wonderful fluke of selling some of my stock to a reseller who also sell at conventions). This weekend was definitely no exception and probably the worst I have ever done only selling a pair of gloves and one octopus. It was a small local craft show in it's first year but enough of the other vendors did well enough for me to guess that this is just not my niche. I hoped that there would be parents and grandparents looking for christmas presents who would at least buy my toys, but sadly no. The show was well run and advertized so I think craft shows are just not it for my work.

I would consider just working on getting my work out there and selling online, but I love working events. I love getting to meet people and talk to them about my craft. I love getting to meet other vendors. And it is much easier to gauge your prices when you can see customers responses to them in person. This means I have to focus on finding and getting into conventions. They are less common than craft shows and I am competing with other very talented artists in the area of which there are many) for limited table spaces, and for the larger shows tables can be very expensive. San Diego Comic Con runs in the thousands for tables, but you definitely get what you pay for in the number of potential customers. I'm not aiming that high any time soon, but there are enough cons in my area to hopefully make things work.

So that would definitely be some of my advice for someone trying to get into selling your wares, find your niche, and stick to it. If you want to sell My Little Pony, Pokemon, and Super Hero plushies, maybe you should stick to cons or online. Here's to hoping the next ones go better so we can afford to get into some of the bigger conventions. I hope this is helpful to someone and not just me ranting. It is always a learning process in this business and as long as I take away something new, I guess I can't consider any event too much of a flop.

Project Update 11/21

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. If you missed it, there was a post on Monday but it was a quick one. I hope you had a good week, I've had a very busy one. I've been working my fingers off all week, I sold most of my ponies last week so I needed to refill my stock for the show we are working this Saturday. I've had some health issues this week so I didn't get as many done as I would have liked, but here's what I did get done. I do apologize for the lateness of the post, I was tryingto get one last pony finished before posting.

These three ponies were some of the first I ever made and they never sold so they looked a lot worse than my newer ones so I decided to do some updates on them. The Fluttershy with the white eyes needed the most work. I had originally had blue felt behind the eyes because I didn't have blue eyes at the time, they looked terrible. Unfortunately I couldn't get the eyes off and didn't have the time to remake the whole head, so I at least took the felt off. The legs and head weren't secured properly so I had to redo that. Then the yarn I had for the hair was terrible and way too thick so I replaced it. The old wing pattern is ok (so I left it on the other one) but I had put them on backwards on this one so I just made a new pair of wings for her. And then all three ponies just had cut out and glued on felt cutie marks so I ripped those off and felted on new ones. Now I am much less embarrassed to put these on my table. It was interesting getting to look back six months and see how much I have progressed since then.



Then I finished off a set of medium ponies. Nothing that I haven't shared before here. New yarn for Pinkie Pie, looks mostly the same but she comes out slightly larger and less soft. Before I was using a knit picks: brava (hence why it was so small) now I'm just using a red heart: super saver. But I think the size difference makes up for less softness. Also I altered the patterns for the horns on the unicorns. The pattern calls for a more dynamic change as you expand (basically adding three stitches, doing a row in the new count, then expanding again) I switched it to a gradual increase, starting and ending with the same number of stitches, but it looks smoother now I think.

Having finished the smaller ponies, I have been rushing to get a many of the giant ones done as possible. Thankfully I had yarn on hand to do a few of them (yay for finally starting to stash smart) so I went ahead and made a couple. I am still working on Rainbow Dash obviously but I wanted to get the post up. Thankfully I was able to find the bright purple for Twilight Sparkle in the same yarn I use for the other ponies, as well as an orange for Applejack instead of the gold I used last time. One of the biggest challenges of making character plushies is getting the colors close enough that fans will want them while keeping the yarns consistent. I still have three more to make to have the full set but I simply did not have the time and I wanted to prioritize getting you lovely people a post today.

I didn't have much time to work on most of the projects I showed you last week, I thnk I got maybe 4 rows on all of them combined, except for the pokemon. I managed to finish up this little guy and I think he is just the cutest. I am just in love with how these look when then are finished, especially with the felted eyes which I have been working very hard on perfecting. I have already started on the next once (no pics as he's packed away to be worked on tomorrow) but I should have finished pics next week. However, this finished one is an Umbreon I'll need to put up a pic later of the whole set as they look very cute together.

So that's about it for this week. I didn't get much more work done on Luna so I won't bother showing her off. I'm off to a craft show tomorrow which I will tell you all about on Monday. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you next time.

Event Talk: Yule Bazar

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was interesting. As I said I went to a local Yule Fair this weekend to sell my plushies with a friend of mine who also does crafts. We got into the show last minute after the one we had scheduled to work last weekend cancelled last minute so we were glad to be able to find anything. I have only been vending since this spring and I am still learning a lot, we spent a lot of time optimizing our table set up and figuring out what things we need (tape, we always forget tape) and which things just don't work.

Plushies and such are mine, jewelry and dragons are not.

Thankfully we had two tables this weekend so I had one (mostly) to myself. I've been trying to get my plushies up off the table and this is what we are trying at this point. I like being able to put different things at different eye levels and it helps being able to put the more expensive plushies out of reach of toddlers. At a show this summer I had a little boy come running up to my table and shoved one of my octopi in his mouth. Thankfully the parents were responsible and bought it, but I was glad it was a 10 dollar plushie with no felting and not one of my bigger ones. Hopefully we will just be adding to and adjusting this setup in the future (like actually getting my sign up, or a  full sized tablecloth) but I generally like it.

I'm talking more about the setup because the event itself was really a dud. I made only one sale and my friend made a couple of small ones. We are still new to vending and trying to figure out what shows are worth it. At least I got to spend two day hanging out with a good friend and crochetting while meeting some awesome local vendors. One such vendor works a lot of the shows we would like to work but just won't have the money or stock to do for a while and she ended up buying most of my ponies to sell at those events which is huge for me. I got to make a big sale when my family could really use the money, that puts my name out there at events that I won't be able to work, and hopefully if they do well for her I can do more in the future.

The only problem is that I have an event this coming Sunday so I will be working my fingers off to get more ponies done by then. As far as problems go, this is a great one to have. I just want to get them finished so I can go back to working on my big pokemon, I may be a bit obsessed.

So bad event, good weekend, here's to hoping the next ones goes better! I will be working another (hopeuflly much bigger) local show this weekend, again with Kristel but also my husband's Sister (who makes jewelry) and another good friend who does art. Hopefully this one does better for everyone involved.

I would end the post off here but I want to talk about he recent changes in the blog. so I tried out a new layout, it was terrible, I changed it back for now, because this one is less terrible. I definitely want to play around with it more in the future but I don't really know what I'm doing so please bear with me if things look weird sometimes. Thank you for taking a read and have a great week!

Project Update 11/13

Hello and welcome back my lovely and patient readers. Sorry about the delay in posts lately, I have been working my hands off for the three fairs I am working in the next month, starting this weekend. I have made many ponies, too many too count (ok so I made 26 but it feels like a whole lot more) 15 octopi, two goblins, another large eevee, finished off hats and put in way too much time on my giant Luna plushie. And of course I got an order this week so I have been very busy.

I want to at least show off a bit of what I have been working on this week with you, though most of it is already packed away for this weekend (there will be pics next time) but I am still finishing up a couple of big projects I'm a bit proud of.

I've been working on a big Umbreon (another of the pokemon) and he just needs more felting and to be sewn up at this point. I used a bit of a stiffer yarn for this guy (no idea what it is, I have a lot of blacks without labels) and it seems to be doing better with not showing fluff and not picking up bits of dust or what have you which can make black projects look dirty. The pattern I am working from is for the main Eevee so the pattern for the ears and tail and all the colorwork is my own. I'm getting a bit better with shaping pieces, but still only as long as they are symmetrical. It will be a while yet before I could design something like this body.

Still working on the shawl for my Grandmother-in-law. I have a month and a half to finish it but I'm just enjoying working on it so much. I let myself do a little bit of work on it between other projects throughout the day as a reward. I just love how soft and lacy it looks, most of what I do is bright colors and solid pieces so it's just nice working on something delicate and traditional for once.


Speaking of solid, brightly colored pieces, I have been teaching myself Tunisian Crochet. Not sure why, but it sounded fun. So I'm working on some more wash clothes and just doing the very basic stitch for now. It doesn't look great (especially from the back, I'm not showing you the back) but it's my first piece so definitely a learning experience. I have a great little book on Tunisian stitches so I want to go through it just doing a washcloth each in different stitches. Hopefully then I will have enough washcloths!


Like I said, I have been working on a lot of other stuff, but there is one other project I don't have finished and binned up, yep I'm still working on Luna. I took the time to at least sew most the finished parts together and that tail is ridiculous! Working on the mane right now and it is a ton of work but will be worth it. Then just wings and accessories to go. I really love working on big projects like this but this mane is really driving me crazy. I am definitely looking forward to having this plushie done, I think I'll work on one with a bit simpler hair next time.


So that's all I have for today, now to finish up the last couple plushies and get ready for the event. I am lucky to get to work events with my good friend Kristel of Kristel Creations (She has a crafting blog too, check it out!)  and I will tell you more about it next week.

I'm working on a buffer so there will be less missed posts in the future. Have a great weekend and stay awesome!

Projects Update 10/31

Welcome and Happy Halloween my lovely readers! I hope you are having a fun and spooky filled day an got your costume finished before the last minute. I got mine finished at 10 last night, does that count? No probably not. But I had a lot of other things I was working on this week that I want o show you so let's take a look.

So I've been showing you my progress with my costume pieces, hat and tail, that I have been working
on and here they are completed. After working on so many adorable pokemon plushies I just had to make a hat and tail for myself which works nicely as a costume and cosplay for the future. The designs are my own modified from the pieces for the plushies and I have to say I am a little proud. Might have to make more Eevee hats and tails in the future, really this only took so long because I was working out the pattern.


It suddenly hit me this week that I have a craft show next weekend so I really need to get things finished up. I sold out of my poke-ball octopi this summer so I am trying to at least have a few made up. This little guy still needs a button on the front. I just love how cute these little guys come out. Hopefully I will get a couple more finished this week.





But my big focus this week was on ponies of course. I am trying to have one set of large ponies, two of medium sized, and a set or little ponies for events so I am rushing to get them finished. This week I was finishing up Twilight Sparkle. I'm still working on my pattern for the little ponies, but as usual, love how the giant one tuned out. I just think he big ones are so cute and it's nice that they are big enough for a kid to actually snuggle with. This is the one cutie mark I'm not felting it's a lot easier to just sew it on for now, might find a better way to do it in the future.

Then I finally took the time to finish up my pony. I plan to put her up at events to show that I do custom ponies, plus it's nice doing something for myself once in a while. That is something I'm bad at so she has taken me around three months to finish. No cutie mark right now because a ball of yarn is surprisingly hard to do with yarn which I find pretty funny.

 Working on the last two ponies, Apple Jack and Rarity, that I need to finish. Not much done but I hope to be able to finish three of each by next Friday.  Wish me luck! Thankfully I already have one each of the medium sized ones so I only need to make three instead of a whole set of four.

  I haven't had a lot of time to work on Luna this week but I got a bit done, the main piece of the tail and one of the border pieces. If you are working on this pattern, my border piece came out way too short. I just measured against the main piece as I went along but it was at least another 20 stitches. I don't know if that was an error on my part or the pattern writers, I'll let you know when I finish the other piece.

card box there to keep down the curling end, sorry about that

Finally I started another wash cloth. Just working on my Tunisian Crochet (as you can tell, I'm not very good yet) which I think works really well for a cleaning cloth. I also really like how this cotton is striping up. I'm using Knit Picks: Dishie in Heat Wave Multi. It just seemed appropriate for the season.








That's it for this time, thanks for taking a look. I will see you on Monday for a new post but will probably not have one out on Friday as I will be super busy. Have a fun and safe Halloween and a great weekend!

Yarn Review: Deborah Nroville: Everyday Worsted

Hello and Welcome back lovely readers. It's time for another yarn review! This week I want to look at one of my long time favorite yarns; Deborah Norville's Everyday Worsted collection. I first came across this yarn years ago when I was still knitting, it was in a goodwill bag of yarn I picked up. It was the softest yarn I had ever worked with and I loved how the stripes were large and regular instead of the variegated yarns I was used to. There was no label so I thought I would never find it again. I was overjoyed when I found it the next time I was at Joanns and I love both the plain and striped version. So today I want to take a critical look at this yarn.

Despite my early issues finding this yarn, it is a very common one to find. Beyond the solid and striped worsted there are a few other varieties, neon and school colors and you can find a lot of the striped patterns in a sock weight yarn. But today I just want to talk about the worsted in solid and striped as that is what I have worked with an am most interested in. So let's get started.

Texture:
This yarn has a great texture, it is a nice balance between being super soft and fluffy and being too tight and slick. This is a good yarn for making gloves, hats, clothing type projects. It holds it's shape well and neither pills up nor gets scratchy. The solids are consistent when it comes to texture, but a couple of the striped yarns are a bit softer. Over time it maintained this texture even after being washed.

Overall texture is great.

Yarn Weight:
This yarn is a worsted weight, obviously, and sits pretty squarely between the last two we looked at. It is about what I would consider average for a worsted. Again the weight is consistent through the solids but a few of the striped are a bit thinner which is why they are softer. In my experience this has been the lighter colors, Pattycake and Nursery while all the others I have worked with have been consistent. I can definitely recommend this yarn for projects where consistent sizing is important or if you are doing the same design in different colors and want them the same size.

Overall weight is great.

Color Consistency:
While the Everyday collection does have dye lots, there is no noticeable chance between them. I started a tablecloth in the Cotton Candy striped yarn and had to buy new skeins a couple of times and they have all matched perfectly. As with any yarn, if you are trying to match a much older skein there is likely to be some change either from fade or small changes in dyes over time, but is about as good as can be expected. I will once again warn, if you want to be 100% sure of matching colors, always make sure all of your yarns for a project are bought from the same lot.

Overall color consistency is as good as can be expected.

Color Variety:
Between the solids and striped there is a lot of variety here.

Sorry about the small images, there are a lot of colors here. There is not as much variety with the solids as the last yarn we looked at, but still a good variety. And it is made up for with the good collection of striped yarns. There is a more across the board variety of colors here as well, with both pastels and bright colors which both of the other yarns we have looked at was missing.

 The stripes have a nice variety between light, dark, and bright mixes as well. The stripes make up in nice big chunks with a little variegated stripe of the other colors between each color which gives a nice look. I would not suggest these striped yarns for patterns too complex or varied in shape too much as the consistency of the stripes is the biggest strength here. They look best when worked in thinner projects like scarves and gloves but work well on hats and blankets as well. Look at the end for what I have worked up in these yarns.

Overall color variety is good, nothing missing.

Felting:

If you haven't read the last couple of reviews, I use acrylic yarns for felting as well as knitting and crochet. I brush out the yarn and felt directly onto the project. Here is a bit more about what I do with Felting. So far it seems like the rougher yarns felt up better, let us see if Deborah Norville's Everyday yarn follows that trend. I will be working with Baby Yellow, Grenadine. and Very Red.

These all came out very soft but the denser yarn meant the fibers stayed together better so there is some potential here.

I figured I would practice my eye shapes and it was not as bad as some of the others have been. I was right about the density, it helped the fibers stay together better without me having to do a ton of layers. But it is still too soft for felting. I have to go over edges over and over to make them solid and the lighter colors will still call for a lot of roving to not show through. I have not decided on which yarn to do next but I think I will pick something less soft so I stop saying the same things over and over in the felting section.

Overall felts better than some softer yarns but still not ideal.

Price:

That all said, this is a pretty good yarn, and one I would love to use for more projects. But is it worth it to use primarily for plushies.
The mean average price for this yarn $4.08 without discounts, most commonly found at around $3.99 (do not buy at Walmart! It's about half again as much in price)
Skeins are 113 Grams and 203 yards
which comes out to:
$.02 per yard or $.036 per gram
 Here is a comparison with the other yarns we have looked at

This is a great yarn and that I can absolutely advise to everyone, just know you will have to pay a little more for it. With coupons and sales you can absolutely make up the difference on it. I will keep using it for those projects that are really worth it, but I think I will still supplement with some less expensive yarns for now.

You can find it most places that sell yarn on and offline. Like I said, it is wa overpriced at Walmart, if you can find it. But places like Joanns have it for around $3.99 ($2.99 right now if you want to give it a try!) Michaels does not have it.

That is about it for this time. I had a lot of fun getting to take an extra close look at one of my first favorite yarns and share it with you. Please join us on Friday for more projects in process and thank you so much for taking a look. Let me send you out with some pictures of what I have done with this awesome yarn!

Scarf and Gloves are in Parrot lovely model is my best friend Kalinda

Gloves made in Lava

Gloves made in Carnivalle

Skull Shawl made in Cold Mountain

The black on this hat is made in Everday Black

Hats made in Pattycake, Smoothie (I think) and Lilac Ridge

Projects Update 10/25

Hello and welcome my lovely readers. Its Friday once more so here is a look at what I have been working on. It has been an unusual week, between being gone all Saturday for a wedding, missing my games night where I usually do my sewing to to go my nephews concert (both completely worth it of course) and having a large commission, I was not able to get my usual schedule done, but here's what I did accomplish.

Of course, first and foremost, I finished my commission. Three Leafeon plushies in three sizes. This was a ton of fun and I learned a lot. It was great figuring out ways to do the different parts in different sizes and I ended up free-handing a lot of it. The tails all ended up being my own design and it was a lot of fun figuring out how to make them look like lightly tattered leaves and I talked about the ears on Monday. I think I like how the medium sized out came out best overall. Between the tail and the felted eyes I could not be happier. Which is not to say I don't love the other two as well. I will definitely have to make more of these in the future. My only change would be maybe finding a bit sutler and maybe a touch darker green but that is nit picking. The collar on the big one is a little charm of the original are of Leafeon that my friend makes. I always like adding a little something to orders like this to thank my customers.






Then I finished up my Fluttershy plushies. Ok so the bigger ones were made a while ago, I only finished the tiny one this week. I just love how cute they look all four together. They look like a little family. This also means I am done with half of the ponies which makes me very happy. I really want to get all six sets done before my crafts fair in like two weeks. It probably won't happen but good to have dreams. Next week I start on Twilight Sparkle. I have a couple of Twilight Sparkle feet done but

taking a picture of just three little feet made for a sad and lonely image, so that will wait for next week.

Working more on my Halloween costume...which is just a hat and tail, it works as a half assed cosplay for later too! Just need one more ear then sewing. The ear is my own design and I'm still not sure about it, I think if I were to make another one in the future I would thin them out a little bit. I just did not want to go longer, I think they will already be a bit annoyingly tall and not want to stand up too well. To get them to stand up a bit better, I have all three layers made with picked up stitches from the hat itself rather than made separately and I glued them together before sewing to stiffen them up. I seems to be working, we will see once it is all put together.



Then I finally started on Christmas presents (yes finally, time moves funny in the crafting world). I know I won't have a ton of time to just work on personal projects with events coming up and hopefully some more orders from that so I wanted to start with the most important one. This is a shawl for my husbands grandmother who is an amazing lady who crocheted and knitted her entire life and built a business out of it years before the internet and tools like etsy were around to make it easier. She has been a great encouragement for me with my business and really welcomed me to the family so I wanted to make something really nice for her. Hoping this comes out well. Once I finish the body of it my sister-in-law is going to put a border on it so it should be a neat collaborative effort for someone we both love.

My husband was complaining that we don't have many washcloths (he's right, we have like one). So I decided to take the chance to use up some cotton and practice some techniques. I  have enough other stuff to work on that I'll probably not get them done very quickly but I have this one for now. I really love anything to do will the shell stitch so this guy was a lot of fun. It's also huge so something for me to think about in the future. Probably shouldn't have done the shell stitch, but I jut love it too much.

And finally more work on Princess Luna. So far the main pony is complete and just needs to be sewn together. Starting work on main and tail so getting close to halfway done, not counting sewing and felting. This one is definitely going quicker than the last. I am endeavoring to work one piece per day which is a lot of work on top of everything else I am doing, but if I always take three months to get these guys done I will never finish them all. I really need to get the legs and body sewn together so that I feel like I am actually getting somewhere with it.

So that's all for this week. Now back to many ponies and finishing up my halloween costume. I'm hoping to have the new yarn review up on Monday so keep an eye out for that. Thank you for reading and have a fantastic weekend!
















and if you missed it, I put this guy up as the new header on my Facebook Page. Just a nice look at some of the plushies and accessories I've gotten done this year.