I went looking for trio costumes for Hugs, Stumpy, and Cirrus, and this one leapt out to all of us. Hugs insisted on being bacon and Cirrus said it only made sense for her to be the tomato, which left Stumpy as lettuce. It might not have been his choice, but as they say, it’s not easy being green.

Only the Hug Monster can make a frying pan look like a hot tub.

On second thought, a ride in the salad spinner was not so good of an idea.

I thought this one was a bit morbid, but Cirrus insisted it was the only thing that made sense to do. She’s the artist!

The intersection of times with good natural light and times I had available for photos this week was just about empty, but (with an assist from my nice bright lights) I think we did okay. Happy Halloween!

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Grain Monster Pattern

You’ll find grain monsters in many places….

The flour canister is an obvious place to look.

The mixing bowl likewise, but….

They can appear in places you wouldn’t expect, as well!

Mean or nice, however, they like to play, especially if they can build something.

For more portraits and details about the pattern, visit the pattern page.

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Mud Monster Pattern

He’s a sloppy little guy, inspired by frogs and mudskippers — not to mention mud season. The pattern page has more about what’s required to make your own; here I just thought I’d show you an adventure we had. Just to warn you, there are a lot of photos past the cut in this post.

We got a good bit of rain this weekend, so it was perfectly wet. Down by the river, Muddy made a sand castle amid the pawprints and then posed with it.

Afterward, it was time for a little swim.

After a while Muddy was ready to come home. Nothing feels better after some damp, chilly weather than a bubble bath!

Of course mud monsters track all kinds of water everywhere. After all these adventures it was high time to just cuddle up in a towel on the couch.

Make your own!

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Once there were three little pigs whose mother could not afford their keep, so she sent them out into the world.

In looking for materials to build a home, the first pig met a man selling bales of straw. The second met a man selling bundles of sticks, and the third pig met a man selling loads of bricks. Each built a home and lived happily, for a time.

Eventually a wolf came to town and approached the first little pig’s house of straw. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. The pig ran off to the house of wood, but the next day the wolf came calling there. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he did. Both pigs ran off to the house of brick, where the wolf came calling the day after. “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” he called. “Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!” the pig called back. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!”

And he huffed, and he puffed, but he could not blow the house in. He called out again, “Could I come in, little pigs? My allergies are killing me out here. I’ll order a pizza!”

That sounded good to the little pigs, so they let the wolf in. Indoors he soon stopped huffing and puffing, and they all ate pizza.

In brief, the credits from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice are to Stumpy and Cirrus Monster, D.L. Ashliman, CopyCatFilms, and Dieter Steffman.

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The sorcerer’s apprentice was left alone with instructions to have the floor clean before the sorcerer’s return.

The sorcerer’s apprentice felt rather put upon to constantly be mopping the floor, and although he’d been explicitly instructed not to try magic, he decided to use a spell he’d seen the sorcerer use, and bring the broom to life to mop for him.

It worked! The broom began industriously mopping the floor.

…too industriously. Water began to collect. “Stop! Stop!” cried the sorcerer’s apprentice. He racked his brain for the magic word to change the broom back to an inanimate object, but it would not come to him.

Finally he resorted to an axe. He chopped the broom in half and was relieved to see the pieces fall to the floor.

His relief lasted but a moment, however, as the broken pieces sprang to life as two full brooms and began again to mop.

The apprentice had decided to run away and hide forever when the sorcerer appeared at the door. With one word the brooms were stopped. The apprentice turned to the sorcerer. “About all that water….”

D.L. Ashliman is a professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh with an extensive index of folktales and mythology. It was very helpful in picking stories to retell, and I recommend the page for casual reading as well.

CopyCatFilms generously provided a blank intertitle card to the interwebs, which I’ve used to begin and end this story.

Dieter Steffman designed the font I used on the title cards, Chelsea, and many other wonderful fonts available without charge.

Edit: There’s more of this nonsense now.

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Before Christmas I had an Open Hours at the Sew-op about last minute gifts. No one showed, so I used one of the ideas provided by my Upper Valley Fiber Crafts co-blogger Jenn to make this guy:

He’s from Mix and Match Monsters from It’s Always Autumn. I left him at the Sew-op to be a sample for Jenn’s last minute gifts Open Hours a few days later, and in the hustle and bustle of Christmas forgot about him entirely until I was back at the Sew-op today (and didn’t realize how much he has in common with the monster of the same shape on the website until looking it up tonight).

Incidentally, that pink button was just lying around in the Sew-op, and I was amazed what it did for the character. Just see side by side:

Personality………………… ALL the personality.

He plays the rare 8-string bass. I asked my husband if he wanted him, and he said yes, “but I didn’t want to just ask if I could have him.”

One more shot with better light and camera. I only had my flip phone with me for the above.

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After that, though, I got back to the embroidery floss amigurumi with the mighty & ferocious dragon. I really liked this project and the way the variegated floss looked with it.

This dragon was given to a friend of a friend to be a cross-country road trip mascot. I may have to make another one.

At this point we have essentially caught up with ourselves. I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk down Memory Lane as much as I have. When next we meet it will be 2014 – happy New Year!

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I got on a kick of finger puppets, and made a tentacled alien, shown blurrily below, for a friend (also Buddha’s fashionable hat, which was the result when my friend challenged me to make a stadium). I tried to make a finger puppet from a pattern that used joined rounds, and ended up accidentally adding stitches until it was a Jabba the Hutt kind of shape, so I added a face and arms to get the second alien below.

To be continued…

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They were Ashur and Ishtar, important ancient Assyrian deities. Something I read said they were husband and wife, but I never found that piece of trivia again so I suspect it was suspect.

I got advice from my friend Eleanore (“Fringe. Lots of fringe.”) and a page on Assyrian costumes. Getting an appropriate geometric pattern with (relatively) accurate colors required dyeing fabric (before and after shown above, though unfortunately not in the same lighting – that’s the same fringed trim in each shot). I scaled the shawl measurements in the Fashion Era link by 1/9, cut them from muslin, and then adjusted the proportions, since after all monsters are not humans.

Fortunately, monsters are fairly patient and easy-going, because we had some long fitting sessions. The tunics I had to design from scratch and they are far from historically accurate, but I had to adjust for the fact that humans are proportionally smaller front to back and also have necks that are quite a bit smaller front to back than their chests. The tunics have a front and back panel (really two in the back), with insets along the shoulders and down the sides under the arms. I was glad I made a muslin first because it was a wee bit snug.

And let’s not forget their accessories! This is unlikely to be the last time you see them in wigs.

The picture up top was taken during a long outing by the river. When they got home and out of costume they needed a good brushing, both for fluffiness and for removal of bits of the great outdoors. More photos will shortly be posted on Stumpy’s Facebook page.

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In line to make a purchase the other day, I noticed a set of four monster stampers in the Halloween-themed impulse buy display. One of those monsters looked an awful lot like a Sluggo, only with a single eye, centered and enlarged. I thought I could probably produce a modification of the Sluggo pattern to produce a similar result.

The modification boils down to this: replace the bobbles for the eyes with sc, and the sc between them with an sc in BL only. In the next round, the bobble decreases (decreasing to eliminate the extra loop created by a bobble) will each be a single sc, and you’ll make a 4-tr bobble in the unused loop of the stitch two rows below. Then in the row after you’ll have to bobble decrease.

To wit:
4. Sc 13, sc in BL only, sc (15).
5. Sc 13, 4-tr bobble in unused FL of rnd 4, sc (14 sc, 1 bobble).
6. Sc 13, bobble dec, sc (15).

Instructions for a 4-tr bobble: This is four partial triple crochets looped together.
**YO twice and pull up lp in prev st. *YO, pull through 2 lps on hk* twice.**
Repeat **…** three more times for a total of 4 partial tr and 5 lps on hk.
YO, pull through all 5 lps on hk; ch 1.

Make sure to insert your hook the correct direction for the bobble! Front to back will be more like bottom to top, and will be pretty awkward. Let the bobble fold down toward you during the making and all will be well.

Get the Sluggo pattern in the shop.

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