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!