hello pineapples

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

Free Pattern Fridays: Get your stitch on

After weeks without free patterns, I'm offering up a few sites with some nifty embroidery transfers and tutorials:

The transfers

Floresita has a blog devoted to her vintage transfers. I'm of two minds when it comes to vintage transfers - some are the kind of kitsch I love, but many take that step beyond kitsch and into the land of hokey. But to each their own. What I do like about these transfers is that Floresita occasionally photoshops them up to make them awesome, like the Saucepan Sabotage transfer:



Awesome, non? (you can get the full size transfer here)

Some of the finer embroidery bloggers have pooled together their vintage transfers in the flickr pool, Hoop Love. With 645 pictures in the pool, I'm sure one of them will fit your embroidery needs.

Needlecrafter.com also has a great selection of transfers, many of them vintage and a lot of those seem to be from old Vogart collections. I haven't looked closely enough to know for sure, but you may find some overlap in Vogart transfers within the various vintage transfer sites. Needlecrafter also offers an insane glossary of stitches, as well as articles, links, and more. Even if the vintage stuff isn't your style, there is probably something useful at Needlecrafter.


the tutorials

Found this tutorial for Japanese Sashiko embroidery via a post on Feeling Stitchy. The Purl Bee claims that Sashiko only looks difficult. I'll have to wait and see about that - it does seem to require some special materials.

the not so free

These patterns by Peapies aren't free, but they're so darn cute that I have to share them:



There's a good chance I'll be purchasing at least one of those designs in the near future.

the inspiration

In need of some embroidered inspiration? Then check out Feeling Stitchy's flickr pool. There is some amazing work to behold in that pool.

and finally...
the just plain old awesome

Have I mentioned Feeling Stitchy before now? It's a recent find for me and I might be in blog love. They have a number of fantastic tutorials, including one on needles - something I could use since I (a) haven't a clue about which needle to use when; and (b) I broke a needle while working on my quilt the other evening (snapped in half!). And if that weren't awesome enough, they also have the Crafty Blog School tutorials. That's one I'm intrigued by since I'm still new to the world of blogging (unless you count my time on LiveJournal a few years ago...but that didn't have much of a focus).

Purl Bee, the blog of Purl Soho, is another great stitchy crafty resource. I was excited to see that the most recent post is on thimbles. It's a bit of serendipity for me, seeing as it was only yesterday that I was complaining to le husband about needing either a callous or a thimble for my thumb (a thimble would be preferable). That pain in the thumb is from holding onto the needle and trying to pull it through the fabric; I also need one for pushing the needle through or for general poke protection.

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So that's it for today. Happy Weekend and happy crafting! I picked up my tofutsies yarn from The Loop (one of my LYS) today. Why the tofutsies? For Sock Wars III! My dossier arrived via e-mail at noon and I've got to get my knit on tout de suite. The only trouble is: I detest working with eensy needles. Even 4mm needles are small by my standards and this stuff (like a lot of sock yarn) calls for 2.75mm needles. Teeny needles and dainty yarn will be my undoing in this war. Regardless, I will be giving it the old college try.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, May 10, 2008 0 comments  

filed under: embroidery, free pattern friday, patterns, sock wars iii, yarn

Found Crafts: The Yarn Cart

As we were about to leave the grocery store yesterday, I looked up and saw this on the other side of the window:



A grocery cart covered in yarn! So of course, I quickly went outside to get more photos:



and a close up, so the work that went into it can be admired:



I don't know who did it or why they did it, but I love that they did do it. The time and work involved in such a project is almost mind boggling. Renegade Crafter, I salute you!

Finds like this make me really happy that camera phones exist. I have a pretty decent kodak digital camera, but it's a bit too bulky to carry around in my purse. So despite the lower megapixel count (this one weighs in at 2 megapixels - almost as much as my first digital camera!) and picture quality, I'm happy that I always have a little camera with me.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Saturday, May 03, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: arts and crafts, found crafts, renegade crafts, yarn