Tuesday Nanna Frenzy

Last week of my holidays this week and Scott is in New Zealand until Thursday. I had made up my mind to be super productive and get heaps of things done but still find myself mostly pottering around.

I have just finished a prototype of a new creation - the Nannageddon purse. I am quite pleased with the idea but it took way too long to make, plus I'm not quite happy with the top where the crochet meets the purse clasp. I will have to find a better method if I am going to make more for the market.

Tuesday Motorcycle Frenzy

You would think given I'm on leave from work I would be posting like crazy but I have been slack as usual. It is cold and very windy with smatterings of rain and the dogs and I are all snuggled up on the couch.

I went to Sydney last week on a training course, the best part of which was I got to go to Kinokuniya which a super brilliant bookshop. I came home with some fantastic new Japanese craft books so expect to see some new experiments here in due course.

I have been working on one of my other crafty passions lately and have finally finished this:

It took forever and I must admit there were times I almost gave up. I love the whole cutting and folding and sticking process of making things from paper, but this thing had some incredibly tiny tricky parts.

If you feel the urge you can get it from Yamaha here plus a whole lot of other amazing paper crafts besides. There is a crazy amount of design work in these things, how cool is it that they do all that and then give them away for free.

I have also finished Greg's cowl.

I am trying to use this time off to deal with some of my endless list of UFOs, I am running out of storage room already and I need to finish some things and use up some of my stash to make more room. I was making a list of unfinished things in my cupboard and it is a bit scary how many there are.

Anyway I need to get back to working on all this stuff, but just one last picture to warm the cockles on this freezing day.

My boys are so snuggly (all three of them).

Wings for Owls

I have been crocheting along with Karla at Itsy Bitsy Spider in the Great Owl Crochet-Along. If you pop over here and follow the instructions you could enter her totally cool giveaway.

Because I can never quite manage to follow a pattern to the letter I made wings for my owl and here is my attempt at providing the pattern for anyone who is interested.

I cannot take full credit for this design, although I made this pattern up I am sure the idea came from a picture in a Japanese Amigurumi book a bought a few years ago and now cannot find anywhere.

I am trying US notation for these instructions although it is not what I usually use so please let me know if I stuff it up.

All you really need is 4 basic circles.

The observant among you will notice that I absentmindedly broke off the red yarn on the dual coloured circles - do not do this, make sure you leave enough to sew it onto the body.

The circles are made in a spiral, I start with the magic loop for preference but you can just use 2ch if it suits you better. The brown circles have 5 rounds and the red and beige have 7 rounds, and the circles all follow the same basic sequence:

1. 6 sc

2. 2 sc in each st (12 total)

3. 2 sc in the first st, 1 sc in the next st repeat (18 total)

4. 2 sc in the first st, 1 sc in the next 2 st repeat (24 total)

5. 2 sc in the first st, 1 sc in the next 3 st repeat (30 total)

6. 2 sc in the first st, 1 sc in the next 4 st repeat (36 total)

7. 2 sc in the first st, 1 sc in the next 5 st repeat (42 total)

I prefer to make and stuff the body first before I add all the bits, but if you are following Karla's pattern exactly you can sew on the wings at the same time as the tummy patch.

Now take the stripey circle and fold it in half, make sure the bit where the stripes jog when you change colour are hidden towards the back. Attach the half circle to the body of your owl folded side upwards.

You stitch from halfway round the semicircle up to the fold and then down along the straight edge to the centre. Leave the back edge open, like below.

Next you add the top circle, place it over the top half of the folded circle and stitch it on.

You can vary the size of the circles to suit your own owl, looking at this one I think maybe I should have made the brown one one row smaller.

Once you have sewn on both wings then this what you should have.

The eyebrows were crocheted directly onto the already stuffed body I don't really know how to write instructions for them I just made it up on the spot.

If any of this does not make sense please ask questions, I have never written instructions before so I might miss things that seem obvious to me but not to you.

Sunday Cake Frenzy

I know it is Monday but it is a public holiday so it it almost the same as Sunday. Any of you not looking at this via RSS will see that I have been playing with the new template designer which has lots of new ways to make your blog pretty.

You will also see in the side bar the fabulous crafty octopus picture that my extremely talented buddy Tonia drew for me as a birthday card. She has also kindly allowed me to use it for my business cards and toy tags so it has become the official Lucy Bad Dog mascot. I plan to update my banner at some stage to include it too.

I made Scott an Italian ricotta cake which came out rather yummy even if it looks a bit wonky in the photo.

I also got a surprise from my Mum, I thought my birthday present was an Amazon gift voucher so I could buy more books for the Kindle. But earlier this week a parcel arrived with this beautiful artwork inside.

It is called Elemental and is by Rupda Wilson.

Weaving is on my list of things to learn how to do, along with a whole lot of other stuff. I admit I have a serious addiction to learning how to make things, there are just not enough hours in a day.

Sunday Owl Frenzy

Sorry I have been a bit quiet lately, one of our close friends passed away and another ended up in hospital shortly after so I have been a bit distracted. As a very slight consolation I have finished quite a few things as I have been trying to keep myself busy and distracted.

I have joined the Great Owl Crochet-Along over at The Itsy Bitsy Spider Crochet and finished a couple of owls last weekend.

Sorry the photo is so dark but is is rainy and miserable here and rather dark for photos. As usual I couldn't quite stick to the pattern we were given and I have embroidered the beak and added some wings (I also left off the tummy patch and feet).

I was going to send the smaller of the two owls for the swap but GIR the naughty neurotic dog sucked on it while we were out the other day. It was not damaged but I think had better send the big owl instead.

Scott bought me a Kindle for my birthday which is a wonderful gadget and I have been reading a lot more as a result. To keep it safe I have made a cover hand sewn from felt and cardboard and braid.

Finally Nonna's shawl is finished and I shall post it off to her next week.

Once again Scott has been suckered into modelling for me and I thank him very much.

You can't see it from here but his "Blue Steel" is amazing.

It came together quite nicely after I blocked and I am so relieved to finally have it done.

My current WIP is a cowl for Greg's birthday (well and truly late as usual). My first attempt at a Fair Isle style pattern, getting the hang of alternating stitch colours in the same row was tricky but ultimately kind of fun.

Last of all a special treat that Corto made all by himself:

- a 50cm string of drool, yummy!

Sunday Knitting Frenzy

Managed to get a bit behind and miss last week's post, I did not get it together to take all my photos in time. Although I love winter the major drawback is that it is dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home so I can really only take photos on the weekend.

Market last weekend was quiet for me but good for Karan, the marquee worked well and the weather was lovely. We have half the stall each, Karan with her pirate clothes and tatter hats and me with my monsters, stars and some purses that my buddy Andrea made.

My first monster for the week almost got thrown away several times, it was an attempt to refine the eye stalk design for the purple star monster from last week which did not work out how I had planned. On the bright side it gave me the idea for the fish body design that I used for the next sunekosuri and even though I think it is a bit wonky someone will come along who

has a place for it - it has happened before.

The result of the last wonky monster is my first fish monster, still needs some refining but I think it has some potential.

Plus I finished another triffid.

You may remember some time in March I was being optimistic about finishing the shawl I was knitting for my Nonna by her birthday on the 30th - turns out I was a bit cocky. I hit the lace portion and slowed right down, plus work went a bit mental and I was too tired to work on it at night - I kept making mistakes and undoing them was taking so long. Anyway after letting it slide for the last month or so I am back knitting again and determined to finish it as soon as I can.

Last but not least a message for my mum, I lost track of the time and left it too late to call but when you get it together to check this you will know that I was thinking of you.

I know if it was not for you I would probably have missed out on this wonderful crazy making things obsession of mine. I see my hands large and strong with thick fingers and yet capable of such delicate work, just like your hands and Nonna's hands before you. Hands that held me and comforted me and showed me how to sew and knit and crochet and embroider. When I see my hands working I feel such a strong connection to you, it keeps you in my heart always.

Sunday Electricity Frenzy

Electricity is my enemy this week - no lights in the studio. When the electrician finally came round to put in the halogens we we told that apparently all our wiring is stuffed and we need to redo the whole house - very expensive. So now I have no lights at all in the studio and no idea when we will be able to afford to fix them. We still need to get a second opinion, I am hoping they will say only that room needs to be done not the whole house - everything else still works just fine for now.

Only two new monsters this week, mostly because they were a little more involved than usual.

This is the first crochet monster that I have made for ages. The Ubel Ferkel is an evil piglet, he has bat wings, black beady eyes and an adorable fat tummy.

The Sunekosuri for this week is a triffidy kind of creature, the first sock monster I have done with wired pieces. It took a lot more work than usual but I am very pleased with the way it has come out, I plan to do a series in different colours.

I have been very focussed on production for the market stall for the last 6 months and have let the Etsy store slide completely. I think I am finally getting on top of things now and will hopefully have time to start making pieces for Etsy again.

I also bit the bullet and sent off a submission for the Plush You exhibition in Seattle, I find it a bit scary taking the plunge and trying to get my stuff out there and am very good at procrastinating this sort of thing. Fingers crossed.