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This is the September Ravelry CAL and Amigurumi Army mission post, which would usually appear two weeks from now (second Thursday of the month after the mission). However, I’m done with them already, and I am going to stop taking part regularly. I have too many of my own projects that are higher priority. So here’s the last of the regular-participation posts.

The CAL theme was “back to school.” I tried to make Stumpy a backpack, but I didn’t measure very well (read: at all) and it was a little snug. However, it fit the Hug Monster:

I did this by chaining, making an oval by stitching around both sides of the chain (with three sc in each end) for two rounds, I think, and then stitching around with no increase until it was as tall as I wanted the front opening to be. Then I switched to stitching in rows, slip stitching at the end to make the first few rows each decrease in length, and then stitching straight (with a ch 1 at the start of each row) until the flap came down far enough. The straps were made just like the coffee mug handle, below, except that I didn’t join new yarn for them – for one of the rows of the bag I did the straps in FL only and then continued with the bag flap in the BL.

I have foreshadowed the next item: coffee! I could have personalized the mug but nothing jumped out at me.

That is, until the coffee did!

The theme for Amigurumi Army this month was “Amis with a Twist.” I got the coffee monster idea from Irka!, though hers is better executed (you may remember her from the fish to sushi pattern). For this one I have an actual pattern.

Coffee:
1. 7 sc in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
FO yarn. Join new yarn in BL at a different spot around the circle.
4. sc in BL around (21)
5-10. sc around (21; 6 rows)
11. *dec, sc* around (14)
12. dec around (7)
Stuff, FO, embroider face.

Mug:
1. 7 sc in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
4. *2sc, sc, sc* around (28)
FO yarn. Join new yarn in BL at a different spot around the circle.
5. sc in BL around (28)
6-12. sc around (28; 7 rows)
FO.
For handle: join new yarn to row 11. Ch 20, sl st to row 6.
Sl st again in row 6 one stitch away in direction back bumps of chain face.
Hdc in back bumps of chain back up to top of mug; the first one will be awkward.
Sl st one stitch away from initial yarn join; FO.

This was going to be about altering pants. I have pants, they need altering, I was going to do that this weekend and then post about it. However, altering pants? Not the most exciting thing in the world, and after all the embroidery I’ve been doing I was jonesing for some crochet. I started fooling around with yarn and here’s the result.

I have made finger puppets before, but the first one in this batch was Melissa Mall’s mushroom pattern. The pattern itself, I am not so sure about; it’s maybe a little over-complicated and it fails to tell you which way to put the top and bottom of the mushroom together. Actually the printed pattern itself doesn’t say it’s a finger puppet; I had to remember/reconstruct that based on the fact that the stem is not stuffed and the two pieces would not need to be made separately if it weren’t a finger puppet. Anyway, it came out okay. And sparkly.

For the face and spots I used embroidery instead of felt. In particular for the large spots I stitched straight spokes out from a center point and then wove yarn around that point under the spokes.

Then I just started freehanding. I started with the ideas in Where the Wild Fingers Are (note she uses UK/Australia terminology) and made the following two little guys.

You’ll note on one of them the stitch rows run top to bottom instead of around; I was experimenting with ways to make horns/ears at the top. Unfortunately I managed to sew him up cockeyed; the other was crocheted together.

Then I started thinking about other ways to do things, inspired by the big ridge on the back of the smaller brown puppet. I also thought it would be nice to have a puppet that wasn’t flat across the top. Here’s the result:

To make little guys like this, start with a magic ring. You won’t work in the round, but start with 6 sc in the magic ring, ch 1 and turn, and increase across for a total of 12 sc. Ch 1, turn, and sc across for a few rows (the head of the puppet), and then have a row of sc 5, dec, sc 5. This is mostly to make the puppet more fitted to your finger; you could also sc 4, dec, dec, sc 4 for children; keep in mind the final sc-ing together will decrease the size a bit as well. Continue with the sc across rows until the puppet is the desired length – mine both turned out to be 11 rows total. Do NOT finish off your yarn.

Tighten the magic ring at the top and finish off that yarn. This is a good time to embroider facial features. To complete the puppet, stitch the edges together from the bottom of the puppet to the top (the magic ring) and maybe even past that. You can just sc, or you can do something fancier. The green guy above has alternating sc and dc stopping at the magic ring, which didn’t turn out very exciting. The variegated guy alternated sc and dc but with ch 2 in between each stitch, extending one row past the magic ring. Experiment with other combinations! Turn around at the top and stitch back down again! Go crazy!

Or something of that nature. The August CAL theme on Ravelry was stripes, and the Amigurumi Army mission was monsters. I got really into my stripes project and finished it very early in the month, and didn’t finish the monster until the last weekend.

The stripes project was inspired by my tendency to take partially-cooked oatmeal to work some mornings. What does one do with it? I have some Pyrex bowls with lids, but I don’t want to tip them sideways to put into my regular bag, nor put the warm bowl in my cold lunchbag. Hence, I had an excuse to craft a made-to-order bag. I had been wanting to try out a spiral tutorial I dug out of the Internet Archive ages ago, so in three autumn colors, that became the bottom of the bag. Then I continued the spiral theme around the sides, and put the whole thing together and added handles with an accent color.

The spiral started out kind of awkward, at least the way I interpreted the directions. It smoothed out, though, and I like the way it looks a few rows out from the center. On the sides, I tried to do the same thing in terms of stitch height, with one round per color of sc, one of hdc, and one of dc, then back to hdc and sc. The finished product is slightly larger than necessary but fits the bowl reasonably well.

Now for the monster! He is gangly and gibbon-like.

I put magnets in his hands with the intention that he’d be a kind of emo monster and hug his own knees, but when he was finished he revealed that instead of being emo, he’s a monster with no sense of personal space.

Stumpy is not totally certain about this development.

The monster was freehanded, though I made some notes so the arms and legs would match. His body is basically a bowling pin, and the arms and legs have some bend to them via increases and decreases. I believe for the arms the first row was just sc across the chain, but after that I made 2 sc in each of the 2 centermost sc for two rows, then decreased twice (in the four centermost sc) for two rows, and maybe sc’d across once more before sc’ing the strip into a tube. For the legs I made 2 sc in the ends of each row and 3 sc in the centermost sc, in every row including the first one, for three rows, before doing the reverse for three rows (I used Lily Chin’s slip stitch-like decrease to decrease by three: pull up a loop in each of the next three stitches, and pull the last of those loops through the previous 2 and the one that was on the hook to begin with) and finally, again, sc’ing the strip into a tube. I stuffed him lightly, sewed the outer end of each limb closed (with the magnets in the ends of his arms), and sewed the other open end to his body. Though the yarn was already fluffy, I pulled up the nap to extra-fluffify him with a pet brush.

I have a small collection of wooden and plastic puzzles that gets added to periodically. The most recent additions came from my sister, and one of them was just sealed in plastic: ten wooden pieces and a paper that challenged you to make them into a circle. While cleaning house recently I decided they needed a container, and since that was far more interesting than cleaning I set about crocheting one.

I started with embroidery floss and a 2.75mm steel hook. I used up the ends of two skeins of floss and made progress on a third, but I don’t know how I thought this was going to be big enough:

So I switched to worsted weight cotton and an F (3.75mm) hook. This was excessive.

Finally I went to fine yarn (weight class 2) with a D (3.25mm) hook. It was just right!

I’d done a skill self-assessment just the day prior and put “estimation” into the “I’m not so great at this” category. Here’s a good example!

Here is the shelf as a whole. The other new addition is second from the left.

Oh, and as for solving the puzzle, here’s my best attempt so far.

Oh man, did these ever take forever for me to finish. According to my Ravelry records, I’ve only been working on them since mid-April, but it feels much longer.

But without further ado:

Fish to sushi, a clever pattern from Irene Kiss, AKA Irka. She also has a chicken-to-egg pattern and a rags-to-ballgown Cinderella pattern. The post is in Spanish but there is a link to an English pdf at the top.

I just had difficulty, unrelated to the complexity of the pattern. The first sushi rolls I made were too tight, so I remade them in a soft acrylic instead of cotton. Then I apparently miscounted drastically on one of the seaweed wraps, because when I went to sew the rice on it was way too short. I decided it was easier to start over on that one (and I’d only sewn the solid rice side onto it, the easier one to redo).

I did have trouble with the fin and tail patterns, and ended up designing my own instead.

Then, of course, there was all the sewing. So much sewing! Four fins and two eyes per fish, all the way around twice plus the seaweed seam per sushi roll, and finally sewing the roll to the fish. I don’t think you could achieve the same effect without all the sewing, but I have trouble forcing myself to sit down and just do it.

A note of advice to anyone who wants to make this pattern: crochet loosely. Go up a hook size from what you would usually use on the yarn at hand (actually, lately I use an E hook with worsted weight, and used an F with this – and I wish I’d used a G or H). Nothing has to be stuffed, and looser, more flexible fabric will make the transformation much easier. Mine are kind of hard to stuff back and forth, though I’m hoping they will ease up with use.

The July CAL on Ravelry was flower themed. I had, of course, just recently made flowers for an Amigurumi Army mission, so I worried about ideas. However, I had also just been in Colorado for a wedding and become enamored of wild lupine, so I thought I would make something purple. My thought was penstemon, or beard-tongue, but my efforts turned into more of a bellflower, so I embraced that. The pattern is simple (as always, abbreviations here): sc 6 in a magic ring. *sc 3, 2sc* four times so there are 10 sc in the round. *sc, ch 2, sc in back bump of second ch from hk, sc in next st of rnd* five times. Sl st, sl st, ch 1 [do not sk any sts], sl st, sl st, FO. (The ch 1 helps with the point of the first petal, which seems to need it.)

Since it turned into the kind of flower it did, I made a calyx for it. If you’re making a calyx you probably want to leave the loose ends of the flower yarn hanging out the back center of the flower. Each sepal is a chain with stitches down it, and this works best (stays flattest) if you stitch into only the top loop of the chain. Make a slip knot. *ch 7, and starting in second ch from hk, sl st, sl st, sc, hdc, hdc* five times (each time you’ll have a ch left over). Sl st to join and then sc around the inside opening, one sc per sepal (5 total). Put the loose ends of the flower yarn through the center of the calyx, stitch them through a loop and tie them together. Braid them with the initial end of the calyx and sc onto that braid with the working end of the calyx yarn. You’ll need to tighten it down on the braid and have the top of the stitches spiral around the braid to make it stable and straight.

[Alternatively, of course, you can make a stem however you like, or just finish off the yarn and have a brooch-style flower.]

The Amigurumi Army mission for July was nerdy crochet. I thought about something from a fandom, but couldn’t come up with anything I wanted to make. However, as we know, I am mathematically minded, so I looked in that world and found this:

A binary tree.

I made it from the top down, sewing as little as possible: when the second piece of each pair was made I just continued into the next segment down, stitching around the first piece without a gap. This required just a little thought about the order of operations. The only significant sewing was the leaves, though that was pretty significant. The smallest bits are 5sc in a magic ring, continued without increase. Then I just put pieces together and stitched around without counting, trying to keep things fairly compact, which is why nothing is exactly symmetric after that. The whole shebang is held up by eight pipe cleaners, one inside each of the smallest branches.

I finished it while visiting a friend with a jewelry tree, so I asked them to pose together.

I was struggling for today’s blog post, because I have a lot of works in progress but nothing super-near finishing. I was concerned about deciding the topic and then having to stay up until midnight finishing the project! However, I found my way. The other day I finally started Planet M File’s firefly, which was a quick project.

Using bright red instead of country red makes him look kind of like a vampire, to me, so I adjusted the facial embroidery accordingly.

He vants to suck your blood.

Thinking of ways to make this a longer blog post, I brainstormed other things that light up. I figured there was no way that starting on Tuesday evening I would finish another animal that lights up, but I could do a lightbulb. So I did. A compact fluorescent lightbulb, in fact.

And then I made an incandescent light bulb to be his friend. I don’t know why cartoon lightbulbs are traditionally yellow, but I have a huge amount of mildly nasty-feeling yellow yarn so I went ahead and used it.

The incandescent was freehanded to match the CFL in size (which did not quite happen), but I have a pattern for the CFL.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (modeled after a 60 Watt equivalent, but is larger):
You need: small amounts of white and gray worsted weight yarn, appropriate hook for a tight stitch (I used E/3.5mm), two white (or silver or beige) pipe cleaners, and a small amount of stuffing. I also used small rocks in the bottom of both bulbs to get them to stand up.

In white: sc a tube 20″ long and less than 1 1/2″ around. This will depend on your gauge; for me with soft worsted weight yarn and an E hook, 5 sc around gave 1 3/8″ circumference. It does not matter how you start the tube because the ends will be hidden; magic ring, ch 2 and sc in first one, ch and join with sl st. Dealer’s choice.

After about 12″, stop and insert the first pipe cleaner. Your tube should be barely big enough for it. I like to fold the end over so the cut end can’t snag the yarn, and I recommend cutting about 1 1/2″ off the pipe cleaner to put the join closer to the middle of the tube. You will find that you can only push the pipe cleaner in from the end for so long, and then you have to scrunch the tube onto it. Finish the 20″ and leave a long enough yarn tail to sew the tube ends to the base of the bulb. Insert the second pipe cleaner to meet or slightly overlap the first, scrunch the end of the tube down a bit, cut the loose end off (should be about 3″, or 1 1/2″ if you cut the first one) and unscrunch the tube.

There is only so much you can do to get the tube into shape before it’s sewn onto the base, but to have the ends in the right places and orientation for sewing you should twist it now and fix it up later. At about 3/4″ from each side of the center point, fold the tube in opposite directions. You are looking at the top when it makes an S shape. Now coil the long ends around; each will make 1 1/2 rotations, interleaved with each other, before folding down to meet the base.

I’m not completely thrilled with the base, but as long as you shape it by hand it’s okay.

In white:
1. sc 7 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
4. *2sc, sc 3* 5x, sc (26)
5-8. sc around (4 rows)
This is a good time to sew the bulb onto the base. Center the ends of the tube on row 2, across the center point from each other.
9. *dec, sc 3* 5x, sc (21)
10. *dec, sc 2* 5x, sc (16)
sl st and FO white.
In gray:
Put slipknot on hook and sl st to row 10.
11-15. sc around (16 sc; 5 rows)
Stuff! I used fiber until I got the the gray part and then switched to rocks.
16. *dec, sc 2* around (12)
17 *dec, sc* around (8)
FO. I had to stick some more rocks in before doing the final drawstring. Shape by hand; you could get a better form on the bulb if you stitched the coils together but I didn’t feel like it.

I think I should find a large crochet project to do – something where I can just crochet back and forth and back and forth without thinking too much. That is so relaxing, especially right now when I have the end-of-month QR code deadline staring me down. I just want to make swatches.

Fortunately, I can call swatches “dishcloths” and “dustrags” and pretend I’m being useful. I have this lovely acrylic dustrag with which I’m practicing my bobbles:

Tuesday evening I began and finished a dishcloth out of some Sugar & Cream yarn I just love. It is just sc with an N hook (10mm), 19 sts by 21 rows, plus a row of sc with ch in between on top and bottom, a ch at each corner, and sc down each side.

The yarn ball was all floppy afterward, so I rewound it. That also relaxes me.

Of course, I prefer it when there is still enough yarn to get a nice smooth ball out of it. Center pull, of course.

On a related note, I’ve begun materials preparation for the embroidery class I’m still theoretically teaching this fall. Half a skein of embroidery floss per bobbin, so there will be a good selection of colors but people can still take their bobbin home to finish their project. It’s slow, though, and the process of unwinding it and lining up the ends so as to cut it in half is kind of laborious. I should probably do a bunch of that at once and all the winding afterward.

In this space would usually appear my entries for the monthly crochet challenges I’m part of on Ravelry. However, I didn’t make it this month. Between travel and finishing my wedding gift potholders, I didn’t succeed in finishing either the Amigurumi Army’s June mission or the June CAL from Ravelry. Actually, I can’t entirely blame that; I also crocheted a dustrag and a third Swiffer sock. However, I wanted to finish the projects anyway, so I used the grace period between month’s end and this post to work on them. One was finished, on one I declared bankruptcy because I have higher-priority items. It will appear later.

The one I finished was for the CAL, with the theme of animals. I had been wanting to make Kristie’s Kids’ little mouse (the designer of the pig I indentured earlier) and these monthly challenges are providing me impetus to get through my TBC list (to be crocheted, analogous to my sister’s TBR(ead) pile). I worked, as usual, with my 2.75mm steel hook and six-strand embroidery floss.

While visiting friends, I made a couple of small things – or at least started them. The one I completed had the highest honor of making it into their middle daughter’s Cinderella purse. I don’t know what he is, but the bird wings were the suggestion of their oldest daughter, and I think he at least turned out cute.

With him, I had some inspiration for a better way to do small ears. Say you have 12 stitches around (as I did) and the ears are roughly halfway. To make the ears, sc 4, (sc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, sc) all in FL of next st, sl st in FL of next st, and repeat () in FL of next st. Sc 5 to get back to the beginning. For the next round, sc 3, sc in BL only of next 5 sts (this is the BL of the previous round’s st for the first and last, and the remaining loop of the ear stitches in between), and sc in both loops for the last 4 sts. I found the ears stood up more easily with the addition of the BL stitches on each end.

I then started on a teddy bear, using dc bobbles for the ears. My first attempt was a bit microcephalic, so I made a new head and produced the following. Both this and the winged thing were made with worsted weight yarn and an E hook (3.5 mm).

Finally, sitting in from of my parents’ television one day I made a bunny, from a pattern I believe I may have downloaded before I even knew how to crochet. Although it is very soft and squishy, the 22% wool of the yarn is too much for me, and it makes me itch even through my shirt. Someone else will have to love it. This one was made with bulky yarn (Sensations Angel Hair) and an I hook (5.5 mm). I made a 4dc bobble for the tail but you can’t see it in either picture.

A bunny tail is called a scut or a fud, according to my mother’s crossword dictionary.

The Amigurumi Army theme for June was mythical creatures, and I am halfway through a project, but I have some other projects with deadlines and travel upcoming this month, so it will appear in a later post.

While trying to think of crochet patterns I would like, I looked at my little ceramic lucky cat, bought in San Francisco’s Chinatown many moons ago. Locale of purchase notwithstanding, the maneki neko (beckoning cat) is a Japanese sculpture to bring luck, customers, and/or money to the owner – the raised paw is beckoning good fortune. The coin is labeled “ten million ryō”, which is something like ten billion US dollars.

I started the design process before really looking for existing patterns. I found a few, but only one at the level of detail I wanted, and it was not the shape I was looking for, so I persisted. Three heads, four raised arms, five legs, two lowered arms, and three bodies later, I present to you the pattern.

Good Luck Cat (beckoning cat, maneki neko)
Use worsted weight yarn and an E or F hook, in white except for the collar, which is red. You also need:
* some stuffing
* a small gold bell for the collar
* yellow, gold, or gold-painted felt for the coin
* a black paint pen for the coin and optionally for the facial features (otherwise, black embroidery floss for the features)
* small amounts of red, black, and orange or tan felt, or the same colors in fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft fabric paint in gold metallic (on white felt for the coin), red velvet, ebony matte, and golden tan matte, and a DecoFabric paint pen in black)

Head:
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. *3sc, sc, sc* 2x (10)
3. *2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc* 2x (14)
4. *sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, 2sc* 2x (20)
5. sc around (20)
Top center is between sts 9 and 10 of rnd 5. Embroider face here (if embroidering).
6. sc, dec, sc, *dec* 5x, *sc, dec* 2x (12)
7. dec around (6x); FO (6)

Alternative (simplified head):
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. *2sc, sc, 2sc* 2x (10)
3. *2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc* 2x (14)
4. *2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, 2sc, sc* 2x (20)
5. sc around (20)
embroider face, if applicable
6. *sc, dec, dec* 4x (12)
7. dec around, FO (6)

Ears (make 2):
ch 3; sc dec (the second and third ch from hk; not inv dec); ch 1; FO

Body:
1. sc 6 in magic ring
2. 2sc around (12)
3. *2sc, sc, sc* 4x (16)
4-6. sc around (16)
7. *dec, sc, sc* 4x (12)
8-9. sc around (12)
stuff
10. dec around; FO (6)

Raised foreleg:
1. sc 5 in magic ring (5)
2-4. sc around (3 rnds, 5 sc)
Now proceed flat, turning after each row.
5-9. sc 2, ch 1 (omit ch in row 9), FO
Fold flap over opening of tube and then fold under so last row meets free edge of tube. Stitch flap to itself and to tube.

Lowered foreleg:
Worked in rows. Ch 6.
1. 2sc in 2nd ch from hk, sc across (6)
2. ch 1, *sc, 2sc* across (9)
3. ch 1, sc across (9)
4. ch 1, dec, dec, sc, dec, dec, FO (5)
Sew row 1 and 4 together to make a tube; slipknot end is paw.

Rear legs (make 2):
These start with a magic ring but proceed in rows, not rounds.
1. sc 3 in magic ring (3)
2. ch 1, 2sc across (6)
3. ch 1, sc, dec, dec, sc (4)
4. ch 1, sc, dec, sc, ch 3 (3 + ch)
5. starting in 2nd ch from hk, sc across (5)
6. ch 1, sc across (5)
7. [no ch] sl st in 2nd st from hk, sc across (3 + sl st)
8. [no ch] sc 2, FO
Fold bottom of leg so row 8 matches row 3 (fold line between rows 5 and 6) and sew. Make sure to fold one leg in each direction. Tighten the initial magic ring and puff the row 1-3 portion of leg out toward the smooth row 1-5 side (the outside).

Collar:
ch 14; optionally, sl st across.
or, in embroidery floss with 1.3mm steel hook: ch 17, sc across.
or, cut a narrow strip of red felt, 1/4″ by 2 1/4″.

Assembly:
Following the picture, sew the forelegs and rear legs to the body. Paint the inside of the ears red, draw on the facial features, and paint the tan part of the calico spots. Once the tan part is dry, paint the black part of the spots. Alternatively, cut out small triangles of red felt, small ovals of orange/tan felt, and even smaller ovals of black felt and glue or stitch on. Paint some felt gold if necessary, and when that is dry draw on the “ten million ryō” characters. Sew the ears to the head, the head to the body, and the raised paw to the side of the head. Cut out the coin (if you are picky, paint the new edge and let dry) and sew or glue it to the lowered paw to hold it in place. Thread the collar between the raised leg and the neck and sew it around the neck, sewing the bell onto the overlapped edge and placing it center front.