Hungry Caterpillar Baby Blanket

It's been a while that I haven't updated this blog. In order to fix this long absence, I wanted to share a baby blanket that I made for a dear friend.

When they told me they were expecting a baby, I suggested a handmade gift. After looking for pictures and sharing ideas of what they'd like, we ended up on a very hungry caterpillar chevron blanket. They had spotted one on google images and I tried my best to do it justice.

It was made alternating colors every 5 rows of double crochet, and peaks / valleys were made with 3 dc in 1 / 3 dc together.

The caterpillar and apples were made with various circles, and were attached on both sides to make the blanket reversible.

Nom nom nom!

Bendy Warhol

Bendy Warhol, or a Reddit Arbitrary Day Exchange Story.

This is a post about my reddit exchange story, I haven't included the pattern but if you're interested in it, let me know! Edit: Pattern is now at the bottom.


For those of you who frequent reddit, you might know that these exchanges are made throughout the year, whereby users subscribe to an exchange, and get matched to another user randomly to get them a gift, and receive a gift from another user. (I just made this explanation more complicated than it is... haven't I?)

I've been participating in these exchanges for a few years now, mostly for the Secret Santa ones, the Teacher Appreciation ones, and now these mid-year exchange called Arbitrary Day. Other exchanges can be very specific: Harry Potter, Socks, Dinosaurs, Dr. Who, Snacks, Pets... you name it, reddit has it!

This past May, I signed up for the 2016 Arbitrary Day. The person I was matched with had good info on her form that I was able to use. She likes Archer, Rick and Morty, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Futurama... and was ok with an handmade gift.

Handmade gift? Of course I'm in!

I knew I wanted to make a pillow in tunisian crochet, since the last project I made used this technique and I loved working on it. (I'll write a blog post about this pillow too, just haven't had the chance to work on it yet).

There was a lot of different designs I could have gone for. I thought about taking a character from each of her favorite show and include them all. But nothing I was sketching up really stroke me as good, so I decided to focus on one show. At first I thought about Game of Thrones, since I also love this show. However, with all the different houses I wasn't sure which ones she was rooting for. Also, there are so many GoT handmade items that I decided to opt for a different show.

FUTURAMA! I CHOOSE YOU!
I've never watched this show, shame on me! But knowing it's a fun and somewhat little offensive show, it was a perfect choice. I wanted to put a twist on it, and since my giftee mentioned a fabric she liked with Ziggy Stardust Bulldog, I went for a take on colorful art + bender.

It took me about an hour for each square, but the longest was securing and weaving in the tails, and doing the black outline. The quote side worked up fairly fast tho!


Here are a few pictures of the process:

Showing off the weaving ends process...

Before the black outline.

With the black outline, checking which one looked the best.

This was more than 5600 stitches, and it took me about 20 hours. I liked how it looked when I finished and I sure hope my giftee will like it too :)

Now onto more experimentation!

Pattern

I've never written a pattern for the Tunisian crochet technique, please let me know if this is not easily readable and I'll try to make it better.

This assumes that you know about the Tunisian crochet basic stitch, as well as being comfortable with color changing in Tunisian crochet.
In this project, I didn't always carry over the yarn. If there was more than 5 or 6 stitches apart, I would use a different skein.

Use any color of yarn you like.

The patterns go from bottom to top of the work. Each row is the pass forward and back, which means it's worked from right to left.

Bender

Here I'll use the shortcuts B (for background color), H (for head color), and A (for antenna color). Eyes and mouth are always white, so I'll use W, and the pupils are black which will be BL.

• Chain 25
• Row 1: 7B, 11H, 7B
• Rows 2-4: 7B, 9W, 2H, 7B
• Rows 5-6: 7B, 11H, 7B
• Row 7: 6B, 8W, 4H, 7B
• Row 8: 6B, 3W, 1B, 3W, 1B, 4H, 7B
• Row 9: 6B, 8W, 4H, 7B
• Rows 10-12: 7B, 11H, 7B
• Row 13: 8B, 9H, 8B
• Row 14: 9B, 7H, 9B
• Row 15: 11B, 3A, 11B
• Rows 16-17: 12B, 1H, 12B
• Row 18: 12B, 1A, 12B

Quote

For the quote side, I'll use B for background and W for words. I made it looking at my Excel graph, this is the transcription of it, it's a lot of back&forth color change.

• Chain 75
• Rows 1-4: 75B
• Row 5: 12B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 5B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 12B
• Rows 6-8: 12B, 1W, 5B, 1W, 5B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 7B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 12B
• Row 9: 12B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 9B, 1W, 1B, 5W, 3B, 1W, 4B, 4W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 12B
• Row 10: 16B, 1W, 5B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 7B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 12B
• Row 11: 16B, 1W, 5B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 7B, 1W, 1B, 2W, 1B, 2W, 12B
• Row 12: 12B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 9B, 1W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 12B
• Rows 13-14: 75B
• Row 15: 27B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 5W, 25B
• Rows 16-17: 27B, 1W, 3B, 2W, 2B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 29B
• Row 18: 27B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 29B
• Row 19: 25B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 25B
• Rows 20-21: 25B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 2B, 2W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 5B, 1W, 25B
• Row 22: 25B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 5W, 25B
• Rows 23-24: 75B
• Row 25: 22B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 5B, 5W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 2B, 4W, 22B
• Rows 26-28: 22B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 22B
• Row 29: 20B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 6B, 4W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 2B, 4W, 20B
• Row 30: 20B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 20B
• Row 31: 20B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 2W, 1B, 2W, 9B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 20B
• Row 32: 20B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 1B, 1W, 3B, 1W, 5B, 5W, 1B, 5W, 1B, 1W, 2B, 4W, 20B
• Rows 33-36: 75B

Assembly

I sewed all the squares together, then attach both side with a crab stitch.

My Bender squares were 6"x6", I gauge first how many stitches I needed to get to this dimension, which gave me 25 stitches wide for 18 stitches high.
The reason is that I had purchased a 12"x18" pillow to use inside. However, if your dimensions are a little off, simply use stuffing inside.

Mr Saturn

Back in December I lost a bet with a friend. Losing the bet meant having to crochet him anything he wanted. One of his favorite games of all time being Earthbound, he chose Mr Saturn.

My reaction? Researching first who this was! I had never played this game thus had no idea what this Mr. Saturn looked like. Found images of him and thought: a big ball for the head, a smaller ball for the nose, 2 little feet... EASY!!!

Little did I know that the mustache and the one hair would delay its finishing by 6 months.
Yes, you read that right SIX months.

I couldn't find a way I liked for making them work and look nice.

Broom thread? No
Pipe cleaner? No
Piece of yarn? No

Oh wait, actually if I take a piece of yarn and make lots of knots, it might hold!
Took me long enough to think about it and decide to try!

Anyways, here is Mr Saturn.
Funny looking guy, with a red bow in his one hair, I like him :)

Here are the instructions should you want to give him a try:

Requirements:

• Crochet Hook G or H depending on your tension (4.25mm/5.00mm)
• Tapestry Needle
• Beige yarn and a little bit of Black and Red
• Stuffing

Abbreviations / Terminology used:

• st: stitch
• ch: chain
• ss: slip stitch
• sc: single crochet
• fsc: foundation single crochet
• 2 sc in 1 (increase)
• sctog: 2 single crochet together (decrease)
• (...), [...], *...*: what is between the parenthesis, brackets or asterisks will have to be repeated x amount of times.

Crochet everything in beige (except when noted otherwise)

Nose

Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)
Round 3: *1 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (18)
Round 4: *2 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (24)
Rounds 5-7: sc around (24)
Round 8: *2 sc, sctog* repeat around (18)
Leave long tail for sewing.

Body

For the body, I started the top as a ball, then decreased a little faster than the increase to give a flatter surface on the bottom.

Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)
Round 3: *1 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (18)
Round 4: *2 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (24)
Round 5: *3 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (30)
Round 6: *4 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (36)
Round 7: *5 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (42)
Rounds 8-17: sc around (42)
Round 18: *4 sc, sctog* repeat around (35)
Round 19: *3 sc, sctog* repeat around (28)
Round 20: *2 sc, sctog* repeat around (21)
Round 21: *sc, sctog* repeat around (14)
Round 22: sctog around (7)
Close off.

Feet (x2)

Round 1: 5 fsc, 4 sc in turn, 3 sc in the opposite side, 3 sc in first st (16)
Round 2: [2 sc in 1, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 1sc) x 2]  x 2 (22)
join with ss on the first stitch of the round, ch1 (doesn't count as stitch, starts next row with the stitch from the ss)
Round 3: sc in blo around (22)
Round 4: 3 sc, 7 sctog, 5 sc (15)
Round 5: 2sc, 4 sctog, 5 sc (11)
Leave long tail for sewing.

Eyebrows (x2) in black yarn

3 fsc, leave tail for sewing.

Attach all the things together! Embroider some eyes, add the eyebrows.

The hair is done by taking a 30 cm / 12 inches or so of black yarn, passing it through one stitch at the top of the head, folding it in half then knotting the 2 ends together.

Same for the mustache but with 4 shorter pieces of yarn.

Let me know if you have any question!

Crafty Secret Santa 2015

A couple of weeks ago, a coworker asked on our "Crafts" mailing list if people were interested in a Crafty Secret Santa exchange. I love participating in the different reddit exchanges throughout the year (Secret Santa, Plushies, Bookmarks, Teachers...) that I couldn't pass the opportunity. I knew it would be tough to fit in the projects within its deadline though... My husband thinks I'm crazy, and now that I'm finally done with this project, I think he was/is right :(

When I received the info for my match, I have to admit it took me some time to figure out what to make out of it.

The colors she liked:

• red
• pink
• gold

The things she liked:

• cats
• shining things
• weightlifting
• ocean
• backgammon
• roses/orchids
• USC football
• karaoke
• old timey clocks

I couldn't find one thing that really inspired me. As my craft is crochet and I mostly make amigurumi, "cats" was a good starting point. Making a cat amigurumi would have been a really straightforward project, so I decided to incorporate ALL THE THINGS!

I drew a couple of ideas, which at some point was: a cat, standing on a backgammon board, which itself was on top of a football and a dumbbell, in a raft kind of way (to represent the ocean... right?), with a mic in one end for karaoke, and a bouquet of roses in the other ones, and a clock in its pocket.
As you can guess, it seemed a little bit too much, so I decided to make 2 cats, and split the different elements on each. Such as the 2 cats would represent 2 aspects of my match.

One ended up with what I would call a romantic side: roses for earrings, old timey clock for belly with music notes on the back, scarf with backgammon hints. Its name is Romeow.

The other one ended up with a more sportive side: a football-belly with notes for stitches, lifting weights, with a baseball cap (turtle logo for the ocean, because why not?). Its name is Cathlete.

While the cats are white, I used a sparkly yarn, and I crocheted most of the other elements with pink/red/gold yarn.

I was so late with the project due to both my daughters being pretty sick for 3 weeks, that I had to finish Romeow and Cathlete during my lunch breaks at work, hence the bad quality of the pictures, and the few amount of them :(

The result is a silly duo of cats, that I think the recipient enjoyed :)
Let me introduce you to Romeow and Cathlete!

Oh and also, the awesome made-up box to give them away:

Baby Chuy

A few months ago, I made a first version of Chuy with a really simple ball for its body.
This time, I made the body longer, in a more oval shape.
Hopefully, it looks more like the one in the movie this way.

Note: I usually start adding most of the different elements such as the eyes, the ears... BEFORE finishing off the body so that I can secure them from the inside, and it stays hidden. then I put the stuffing in and finish off. However, sometimes it's easier for placing these elements to have the body closed off first.
Try both and see which way you prefer :)

Requirements:

• Crochet Hook G or H depending on your tension (4.25mm/5.00mm)
• Tapestry Needle
• Pink, Black, Brown and White yarn
• Stuffing

Abbreviations / Terminology used:

• st: stitch
• ch: chain
• ss: slip stitch
• sc: single crochet
• dc: double crochet
• fsc: foundation single crochet
• 2 sc in 1 (increase)
• 2 sctog: 2 single crochet together (decrease)
• (...), [...], *...*: what is between the parenthesis, brackets or asterisks will have to be repeated x amount of times.

Legs (x4):

Round 1: (Black) 6 sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)
Rounds 3-4: (Pink) sc around (12)
Round 5: (5 sc, 2 sc in 1) x2 (14)
Round 6: sc around (14)
Finish off leaving tail for sewing. Add stuffing.

Eyes (x2 Black yarn):

Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)
Finish off leaving tail for sewing. With white yarn and sewing needle, add the reflect.

Ears (x2 Brown yarn):

4 fsc, ch1, turn, 4 sc, ch1, turn, (2 sctog) x2, ch1, turn, 2 sc
Leave tail for sewing.

Tail (Pink yarn):

12 fsc, ss in all st back
Leave tail for sewing.

Muzzle (Pink yarn):

3 fsc, 2 sc + 1 dc in turn, ss, 1 dc + 1 sc in first st, join
Leave tail for sewing. With the black yarn and a sewing needle, add the nostrils.

Head/Body (pink yarn):

Round 1: 5 fsc, 2 sc in turn, 3 sc in the opposite side, 2 sc in first st (12)
Round 2: [2 sc in 1, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1) x 2]  x 2 (18)
Round 3: [2 sc in 1, 1 sc, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 1 sc) x 2]  x 2 (24)
Round 4: [2 sc in 1, 2 sc, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 2 sc) x 2]  x 2 (30)
Round 5: [2 sc in 1, 3 sc, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 3 sc) x 2]  x 2 (36)
Round 6: [2 sc in 1, 4 sc, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 4 sc) x 2]  x 2 (42)
Round 7: [2 sc in 1, 5 sc, 3 sc, (2 sc in 1, 5 sc) x 2]  x 2 (48)
Rounds 8-19: sc around (48)
Round 20: [(2 sc, 2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 5 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (42)
Round 21: [(4 sc, 2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 4 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (36)
Round 22: [(3 sc, 2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 3 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (30)
Round 23: [(2 sc, 2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 2 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (24)
Round 24: [(1 sc, 2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 1 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (18)
Round 25: [(2 sctog) x 2, 3 sc, 2 sctog]  x 2 (12)
Round 26: sctog around (6)

Finish off.

Alternative head/body (if you want to do the simple ball one):

Round 1: 6 sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12)
Round 3: *1 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (18)
Round 4: *2 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (24)
Round 5: *3 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (30)
Round 6: *4 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (36)
Round 7: *5 sc, 2 sc in 1* repeat around (42)
Rounds 8-16: sc around (42)
Round 17: *5 sc, 2 sctog* repeat around (36)
Round 18: *4 sc, 2 sctog* repeat around (30)
Round 19: *3 sc, 2 sctog* repeat around (24)
Round 20: *2 sc, 2 sctog* repeat around (18)
Round 21: *sc, 2 sctog* repeat around (12)
Round 22: 2 sctog around (6)

Finish off.

Explanation of why it's 2 sc and not 5 at the beginning of round 20: crochet stitches don't go on top of each other perfectly, so the first stitch of a round is never perfectly aligned with the first stitch of the previous or next round. It starts leaning to the right, so I had to take this into consideration to start of the decrease part.

More banelings!

Or should I say, one more baneling, and one of its evolution: a gorgeling (a hunter to use the proper SC2 name)!

When I made my army of banelings, 2 of them were for my friend Pasha. A couple of weeks ago, one of his friends saw them and asked if I could make one for him. At first, he had seen a picture that gave the impression the baneling was white, and asked for a white baneling. I thought an albino baneling could be a fun idea, however we decided to stay in the SC2 universe and I chose the colors from one of the baneling's evolution: the gorgeling!

I had to finish them last minute due to lots of things going on - the same things preventing me to finish my ongoing projects - so I didn't get the chance to take pictures. Misha sent me a couple so that I could show how cute the baneling looks in purple. Thank you Misha!

They see me rollin'

They hatin'

The Book Of Life - Chuy (the baby pig) - Prototype

After several months, almost years, without having seen a movie in a theater together, my dear husband and I decided to have a movie date. We left the girls with the nanny and went to see The Book Of Life. The movie was great: fun story with characters you end up attached to, good dose of humor, action and tenderness, nice music and AWESOME art!

I knew I wanted to crochet something from this movie as soon as I got out of the movie theater. La Muerte was my first idea but I really needed a quicker project: something easy which could give me almost instant gratification. The perfect character for these reasons was the baby pig: Chuy.

Here is the what my first attempt looks like. He's not perfect but I think he's still extremely adorable :)

Little tail!

And here is what my notes look like when I work on a project. It does make sense, right? ;)

The next version will have a body not round but more oval to give it more length, and with more rows to make it taller, so that the face is not so close to the legs. Stay tuned!