Brain Slugs Pattern

It's been quiet a while so I thought I would give you something to apologize. This is not a guarentee I'm back to posting regularly but it's a start. With no further ado...let's make some brain slugs!


Baby Brain Slug

These little guys are fun and make up in about 20 minutes or less.
You will need:
A small ball of Worsted weight yarn (this is a great scraps eater) in the color of your choice, but you'll probably want green
A G hook 4.0/4.5 depending on your tension. Make sure your fluff doesn't show
1 25 mm white safety or googly eye or felt to make an eye
A small handfull of fiberfill or yarns scraps
a yarn needle

1. Make a macgic circle 6 sc
2. inc around (12)
3. (sc, inc) around (18)
4-10. sc around
11. sc flo (sl, 2hdc, sl, sc, 2dc, sc) around (24) (you should have 6 little waves of alternating sizes)
add eye if safety eye and stuff
11b. Blo (sc, dec) around (12)
12. Dec around (6)
bind off leaving a tail to close off your 6 remaining stitches

Antenna
1. Pick up on stitch on one side of the head in the 3rd row out, ch. 6
2. 2 sc in 2nd stitch from end, sl down the rest of the stitches. sc in the stitch you picked up to chain into. Bind off and hind all ends

Repeat on the other side.

Using hot glue you can attach you slug to a hair clip, headband or unwitting family members. Enjoy!

Please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern or have any questions.

Project Update 1-23

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. I hope you had a wonderful week. I do apologize for the lack of other updates I promise I am working on some less egotistical posts. In the meantime, here's some stuff I worked on this week! I appreciate you wanting to take a look.

I finished up this little cutie that I started last week. I will be honest with you, I think this is the cutest thing I have ever made!  There was a ton of felting work to it with the eyes and headpiece (still not sure I got the eyes right) and I will definitely want to make the ears longer if I make another one.  I think it is very important in our art to not be afraid to change a pattern as we go and truly make it our own, a pattern should always be seen like a recipe; as a good start that you can perfect to your own liking.


On the topic of pokemon, after finishing up the Sylveon above, I started on a new one. The ancestor of all pokemon: Mew! This guy came together faster than I expected which is nice. The head was a pain in the ass to get on straight, I had undo and resew it four times which is a record for me. I think I should have angled it down a bit more but I'm generally happy. Not happy was the fact that I broke another felting needle while working on the eyes an now can't finsh them until our car is out of the shop and I can get to the store. But in the meantime, just eyes and tail to go and still little guy wil be done. Next I am back to the Eevees with the fire type, Flareon.

Then more ponies, always more ponies. Still working on Princess Luna, I finally finished her mane (much MUCH rejoicing) I'm not proud of it but I don't think it looks terrible. Not to get the rest of the head pieces sewn on, finish the shoes, and get on the wings. I really enjoy making these wings so it's like my reward for finishing the plushie. I will just be glad to finally have her finished. Then just working on another little pony, trying to up my stock a bit honestly I figure y'all are bored with seeing the same half finished ponies over and over so I will spare you, it's just a hairless white pony.

Speaking of trying to up my stock, I've been working on more Cthulhus. I was just randomly playing around with some of my Deborah Norville's Everyday striped yarn the other day and I absolutey love how they stripe up with this pattern. I have a lot of this yarn to use up so I am thrilled to have found a project it goes perfectly with. I look forward to being able to put out a whole rainbow of these little guys at my next show.

if you're curious, It's sitting on the game map for Sentinels of the Multiverse

Trying to find some more little quick projects like my octopi and cthulhus I came across this little kitten pattern. It is a bit more sewing required than I want for the kind of thing but It's so dang cute I might keep making them anyway. Not much to say, just a cute tiny kitten amigurumi.



Finally I finished up the hat I was working on last week. If you missed it, this is based off a character from a webcomic called Homestuck. The character is the troll Sollux Captor known for wearing red/blue glasses so it just made sense for me to do the braids one in red/black and one in blue/black.  haven't done braided tassel hats before and I'm pretty happy with how it came out, way less work than the I-cord I've made in the past. I plan to start posting the patterns for these guys in the future but I want to perfect the horn patterns a little more first but please let me know if you are interested and I will speed up that process.

And that's it for this week. As you can see I'm really trying to work on more little projects as well as finishing up some old larger ones. It's definitely a nice feeling completing so many things, though my house is quickly being taken over by them! Join me again next week, I'll try and have a Monday/Tuesday post up (Its mostly written) but don't want to make promises. Have a great weekend and goo luck with your projects!

Project Update 1-16

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers. I hope you have had a wonderful week. I know mine went too quickly, never enough time to get everything done. But I did manage to get some things finished and I hope you wan to see them.

I finished up my Celestia from last week, still unsure about some parts of the pattern but I will work on them more in the future. Really don't like how the cutie mark on this one came out. It's so detailed it's very hard to make it appropriately small. I will play around more and try and find better ways of doing the sun. I only got the one pony done this week because I got back to work on my giant Luna plushie after putting her aside for a few months. I am still working on the mane, I got back to work on it on Monday. I fear she will never be finished.

Then I finished up the Horsea I was working on last week. As unhappy as I was with the felting on Celestia, I am thrilled with how the felting on these eyes came out. The colors being so contrasting on each other really makes them pop. This guy was a lot of fun to make and I was very impressed with the pattern. I'm kind of sad to be finished with him.








Onto the next Pokemon plushie. I'm still trying to get all of the Eevee forms finished and I get to work on one of my favorites right now, Sylveon, the fairy type. I am a big fan of the bright pinks no surprise) and more girly colors so this is one I've wanted to make for a while. She has some difficult details that I'm not looking forward to, but the end result will definitely be worth it. 


As a geek/gamer girl, this little guy was really a requirement for me to make eventually, it's Yoshi from the Mario games! I've always loved the little green dinosaur so this guy was a lot of fun. He was definitely a challenge though, with 16 separate pieces, he's a lot more work that it looks like. This is always worrying when I'm making pieces to sell as a simple looking plushie that is complex is hard to justify the price on. But the work was worth it as I think he is just adorable.



The last project I have been working on this week definitely shows you how much of a geek I am. You might have heard of a little comic called Homestuck? Probably not but it's pretty popular with the younger geeks and I've recently been really enjoying it. Anyway several of the mane chaarcters are trolls (it's complicated) and, therefor, have horns so I have started making hats based off of the different trolls and their horns. I'm starting with Sollux and hope to make 1 for each of the 12 trolls (because I'm kind of crazy like that). I didn't find any patterns I like so I'm making them up as I go along, I might put them up on the blog eventually for you all to enjoy.

So that's about it for this week. As usually I have a few other little things in the works but they are mostly too incomplete to be worth showing (If I've shown you one amigurumi that's only the first 6 or so rows you know what they'll all look like) but you will get to see them next week. Have a great weekend and I will see you back next time!

Project Update 1-9

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers! I hope you have all had a wonderful rest of your week and aren't being hit too hard by the post Christmas blues. As I said last time I am finally back into my normal routine of Crocheting and feeling very happy to be back to it. I've been picking up a few new patterns I have been excited to try and trying to refill my inventory for the events for this year. My business partner and I are trying to hit a lot more shows so I am trying to find the balance of adding new things and making sure I have enough of my big sellers.

Speaking of big, after I made the big goblin for my friend I just had to make another, this time with an actual crown. I just couldn't resist using the adorable speckled pink I picked up a while ago in a grab bag for the pants. I don't generally like multicolored or variegated yarns so goblin pants is a good place to use them up. I think the crown pattern still needs work (I doubled up a gold yarn and did 2 rows of straight stitches then a ripple of sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) but it's definitely a good start.





I started work on another Princess Celestia plushie after the last one sold and I'm playing around with giving them shoes. Not sure how much I like it, maybe less rows in the yellow? Definitely another pattern I will have to play around with in the future. I am also thinking of giving them a bit longer of necks (currently 2 rows , thinking of going to 3 or 4) if you are so inclined, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.  If you missed me talking about it before, these guy have actual necks, longer legs, longer torsos, and longer horns and wings than the usual ponies, so far I have had a great response from them, definitely worth the work.

Then I'm still working on Pokemon but trying to branch out a bit and make something other than Eevees (though I still have more of them to make too.) I found 2 wonderful resources for pokemon patterns, Wolf Dreamer has a bunch of wonderful free patterns in her blog, and this list which shows all the pokemon and if there is a pattern or not. It does not seem to still be updating, but there is still an amazing amount of resources there.

Last week I had just come home from the store and had picked up a skein on yarn. My husband and I sat down to watch TV so I only had the yarn I had with me to play with  (because I am rather lazy) so I decided to pull up Wolf Dreamers page and just start on the first pokemon I found that needed that bright blue. I'm not a huge fan of this guy, Horsea but I think he's coming out pretty cute. I always enjoy giving myself a challenge and working on something new, you always learn something new.

And finally this is the only project I was working on at all last week while I was taking some time off, Spyro the Dragon for the video game series of the same name. I really enjoy the games so I had a lot of fun making this guy. I was really impressed with the pattern, I think it is the more accurate to the character pattern I have worked with so far. I hated having to work with wire for the wings but I think it was definitely worth it.

I have a couple other projects in the works but they are just started so nothing really interesting to show yet, come back for those next week. For now I'll be finishing these guys up over the weekend and on to more fun things. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you back next week!

And We're Back

Hello and welcome back my lovely readers! It has been a while, hasn't it? I hope you all have a wonderful Holidays and New Years. I ended up ting some unplanned time off between finishing up Christmas presents and then just spending time with fiends, reorganizing some things in the house, and working on some less fun business stuff after the holidays. But are back now and I do hope to be updating for you more regularly this year. Today I just want to talk about some things I'm working on and get back in the swing of blogging.

I mentioned I was working on a bunch of christmas presents, sadly I don't have pictures of everything but I will show what I have.
My Grandmother-in-law absolutely loved the shawl I was working on for her. Seeing her face when she unwrapped it was absolutely the most magical moment of the holiday.

Most of the family got hats, a helmet style,super warm hat in his favorite football teams colors for my father in law, a monkey hat for my nephew and a bright green and black fox hat for my husbands uncle. His work requires him to wear neon colors so I had to make him a neon hat. I sadly did not manage to get a picture of all the boys in their hats yet. The I made a Green Lantern plushie for my husband (Who has hidden it so no pics of that either) I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of his favorite version of the character (Kyle) and making sure the uniform was just right, and it definitely payed of. Finally I made a Gir plushie (from Invader Zim) for my Sister-In-law, he was so cute I almost didn't let her have him.

the bottle is a necklace made by my business partner Kristel's Kreations

 Then there were a few presents for friends, a fox plushie for one friend who is a huge fox friend, a Sam Hain plushie for his wife (which came out way more adorable than a horror icon has the right to!) and a pair of goblin for my buisness partner. I've given her a couple of my regular sized goblins before so I had to add to her army with a tiny goblin (not tiny enough, next time will use fingering weight) and the goblin king made from bulky weight.

It was a lot of fun working on presents and getting to make some things that I wouldn't normally be able to either due to obscurity or them just not selling well (like shawls, I love making them but they take forever) but it's good to be back to my normal fare. Back to pokemon and ponies and video game characters.

Sorry this post was a bit short, I will be back later this week with a more normal update. I hope you all have a great week and good luck starting those new years resolutions!

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!