yarn crochet Archives - Page 31 of 35

Sushi fish

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 very flower of nerdiness

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.

Bright ideas

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):

» A cleaned up version of this pattern is now available with two other lightbulbs (incandescent and LED) as a ~~name-your-price~~ pattern in the store.

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.

Edit, October 2014: I’ve cleaned up the pattern a bit to improve the shaping.

In white:
1. Form magic ring, ch 1, and sc 7.
2. 2sc around (14).
3. *Sc, 2sc* around (21).
4. *2sc, sc 2* around (28).
5. Sc 6, dec, sc 12, dec, sc 6 (26).
6-8. Sc around (26 sc; 3 rnds).
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* five times, sc (21).
10. *Dec, sc 2* five times, sc (16).
Needle join in 2nd st from end; FO white.

In gray:
Put slipknot on hook and sl st to row 10.
11. Beginning in the st after the sl st, *dec, sc 2* three times. Sc in same st as sl st (12).
12-15. Sc around (12 sc; 4 rnds).
Stuff! I used fiber until I got the the gray part and then switched to rocks.
16. *Dec* around (6).
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.