hello pineapples

Stitchin' Jellyfish

I can tell that summer is just about here. Not because we're having some really nice weather, but because I can hear bagpipes off in the distance, probably at a nearby hotel. This city loves its bagpipes. And I guess our tourists do too.

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Still no camera cord, but I do have a camera phone with bluetooth, so here are some pics (as promised) of my jellyfish made of plastic bags:



while that looks like a mess, it really isn't. For the finished jellyfish, I used mainly bread bags. The clear bags make it look transparent-ish, a quality I think is important in a jellyfish.



I've also made some "yarn" out of a reusable Sobeys bag (that was broken) and some Superstore plastic bags. The superstore bags haven't really worked out so far, but that could be because they were some of my first attempts at plastic yarn and my original method makes them look a little messy. The Sobeys bag crochets up real nice, but I haven't managed to work it into a pattern that I like.



(the photo is fuzzy because it was hard to take a picture and hold the ruler steady).

I had originally attempted to make some "coral" with the green bag, but no luck - there wasn't enough for it to look good. the jelly fish is a little iffy. I think I'll try making the tentacles with clear bags and some pretty woolly yarn for good measure.

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Since I'm on the subject of sea creatures, here's today's Natalie Dee comic:


nataliedee.com

I frakking love Natalie Dee. Sometimes, when she draws things that coincidentally relate to my life (like pineapples, or cake, or octopi), I feel like she might be my doppleganger and if we were ever to meet, one of us would have to die. She probably isn't my doppleganger. Instead she's probably someone who has a sense of humour that is somewhat similar to my own. But that isn't as fun as saying that I have a doppleganger.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, June 03, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: amigurumi, crochet, stitchin' fish

Free Pattern Friday: Random Cute Crochet

I put down my socks yesterday in order to work on a different project (yep, I'm still alive). I really want to add something to the EAC Stitchin' Fish Sea Floor at the Loop and I'm almost out of time. So, last night I took out the plastic bags, put on some Degrassi and started to cut. Why the plastic bags? For plastic sea creatures of course! My original method of cutting was something like the "continuous strand method", which I had seen as a technique for cutting fabric for rug hooking (which is on my list of crafts I want to learn). A friend had mentioned cutting the bags would be tedious and I was inclined to agree, that is, until I realised there was a much easier way to do it. Despite the claim on Gooseflesh that it is time consuming, I thought it was a breeze after my previous method.

Since I was crocheting today, I thought I'd share with you some crochet patterns. I usually like to have a theme, but not so much today. Unless I say I'm going with the theme of crochet. Or darn cute.

First up, since I'm working on a jellyfish, is this adorable fellow by Ana Paula Rimoli:



If you like this pattern, you can buy her other adorable patterns on etsy (my favourites are the mushrooms) and you can read about her work in an interview on Plush You.

From sea to land with a crazy cute set of acorns from PlanetJune:



Personally, I think I'll make one small change to the way the acorns are put together - I've always seen acorns as having hats, so I'd need to turn those acorns upside down.

And finally, another thing that grows on trees (you see, I'm stretching to make these things fit together): A frakking adorable pear by Amigurumi Girl.



I can hardly handle the cute.

So that's it for tonight. I'm going to get back to my jellyfish and watch those handsome Winchester brothers kick demon butt. I'll share photos of my jellyfish once I reunite my camera with my camera cord.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, May 30, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: amigurumi, crochet, free pattern friday, yarn

experiments in crochet and amigurumi.

I try to challenge myself with new crafts, but I'll always be a knitter at heart. This meant that I really didn't have much time for crochet. Why crochet when you can knit? At least, this was my thinking before I discovered amigurumi. Craft that exists solely to be damn cute? Sign me up!

Really, it all began when I found otamas and I became determined to learn crochet. I broke a plastic Susan Bates crochet hook trying to make my first otama (some crazy tight tension). My first otama were okay, but nothing to write home about:


Thanks to Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker, I have finally learned crochet. Now I'm trying to master the amigurumi. Here are some recent attempts:

bird/duckie/baby chicken:



My plan is to write that guy up into a pattern. We'll see how it goes.

Next up, the Panda Ball, as inspired by a drawing by Blandy Snorhal (which you can buy at her etsy shop):





Since panda ball is an experiment based on someone else's idea/drawing, it is being made as a gift for a friend's baby (i hear babies like the black/white contrast thing) and not as something to sell or a pattern to share. I'll make the gift and then won't make any more. Somewhat ethically challenged, but when I saw the drawing, I knew had to see it as a 3D plush. I was going to make it just for myself...but I really don't need another one of my plush sitting around on my shelves. And homemade gifts = affordable gifts (especially with so many people i know having babies these days).

I'm not super happy with the final product. I think I unravelled it about a dozen times. It also needs a bit more stuffing - the shape isn't round enough. I also need to figure out how to change colours better when working in a spiral. Since the colour change always looked off, I tried making the little dude in "rows" and I think that affected the outcome. Anyway, it's a start. I've got a crazy long flight coming up this weekend, so maybe I'll attempt to work on it while on the plane.

Regardless of the outcome, both Panda Ball and duckie were great yarn stash busters. No idea where I got that yellow yarn or what I used it for (possibly a Dr. Who scarf), but I'm now out of it and that works for me (the "pattern" was created altered in order to accomodate how much yellow I had. there were a few tight moments while making the wings).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, April 01, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: amigurumi, crochet, yarn stash

Six legged octopus? What the....?

In the fall, I made an amigurumi octopus from a free pattern on the knit.1 blog. At the time, I thought that six legged cephalopod was silly. Everyone knows that octopuses/octopi have eight legs! Or so I thought. Turns out that I was totally wrong:



Meet Henry, the six legged Octopus. He lives in an aquarium in the UK. Some say his name is Henry because of Henry VIII and his six wives, but really, it's because Henry alliterates well with 'hexapus'. Since I like alliteration and made up words, I can totally get behind that (they made up hexapus as he's the first and only hexapus, aside from the creature in It Came From Beneath the Sea).

All those nuggets of information are from the CNN news story I linked to above. And holla to the Ravelry user who told me about this.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, March 08, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: amigurumi, ravelry, wtf