My Swap Creations :: Geek Book Swap

 

Hallo everyone!

So I mentioned a while ago that I was participating in a swap. Basically, a craft swap is mostly what it sounds like. People who have similar interests will get into a group and do a themed gift package exchange. For example, this swap was a book swap. Each person answered a survey about their favorite books, and what they like and why, etc., and then received an answered survey from someone else assigned by the person in charge. They then make some things and buy some things that go along with the theme as well as their assigned person's preferences, and when it is all done stick it in the mail and send it off. Note that people do not necessarily get a present from the person they make their present for. It is also like secret Santa insofar as people don't know who is making their package until after they get it and it is revealed. Finally, some terminology: a spoiler is the person who makes and gives a package, and the spoilee is the recipient of that package.

The group I did this swap for was the Geek Swap group on ravelry. The prompt was:

Packages must cost around $20 (not including handmades or shipping costs) and include at least:

• 1 skein of nice yarn
• (at least) 1 handmade item – please make sure this is either themed around the swap in general or your partner’s favourite piece of prose/poetry in general!
• The rest is up to you, but please find out what your swap partner likes (eg – are they a quantity or quality type of person etc.) Find out more about their favourite book(s) and include something of them in your package. Make sure you stalk your spoilie well and get to know their tastes!

Here is the package I made for my spoilee! She likes urban fantasy novels, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and kawaii noir. Her favorite character from the Discworld series was Death, and so I chose that as my general theme.

I used this grab bag pattern to sew a reversible project bag. In the world of Death, everything is black and white, and so is the bag. It has stripes on the outside, and polka dots on the inside. 

I also made this little reaper amigurumi key chain, and might post a pattern for it if I can find my notes...

This cool damask metal heart box actually matches the stationary I used to write my spoilee a letter from death, IN ALL CAPS, OF COURSE . Inside of the box I put a USB flash drive full of lots and lots of ebooks. The yarn was a cotton blend in one of my spoilee's favorite colors, hot pink.

Finally, the piece de resistance was the "flesh and bone" shawl made off of the free Juliana Wrap pattern. I had never made a shawl before, so I was really proud of how this turned out! The yarn is Caron spa, which is a silk blend. It was really soft, and so easy to work with.

Yay! I think it went pretty well for my first swap ever, and my spoilee said that she liked all the stuff a lot, so I was really happy. (There may or may not have been some dorky dancing when she got it and liked it all.)

Hope everyone is doing well,

-Grace

Beautiful Blue Yarn

So today has been sort of One of Those Days. It is cold. I am forgetful and clumsy and frantic, and I had a midterm. The subject of my Japanese class was horribly depressing. I bungled the last few, vitally important moments of my Economics midterm. And I have another midterm tomorrow.

 

But I also have some gorgeous yarn waiting for me. 

And I am going to bask in that fact right now. Even though I can't go and hook it up in the gorgeous rows of shells I know it yearns to be, it is waiting for me.

And for now that is good enough to get me through.

Boot Lust

Hello everyone!!


I know, two posts in a week may seem a bit excessive but I really am trying to just follow my little bits of inspiration all the way through to the publish post button. Last week was pouring rain, and this week is cold and windy, so naturally I am thinking of boots. I actually don't own a pair of leather boots. I have ill fitting target rain boots, and that is about it.

So I went searching for some boots. And fell in love.

 

These lovelies are based on jump boots worn by WWII paratroopers, made from real leather, and handcrafted in the USA. They are also about $300. Yikes! But I still love them. I shall just abstain from actually owning them. *Sigh*. Fortunately, I have an open heart if not an open wallet, and managed to fall yet again...

 ... for these beauties. And they just so happen to be on sale! But how much is it really going to rain? And will they fit me if I order them online? Hmmm... I am still debating. 

 

The problem with internet shopping is that there are just too many options.

In craftier news, I have been very much occupied with a fantastical super awesome ravelry geek swap which is all about your favorite books! I am so excited to be finishing up my hand-made item(s?) and sending it off to my dear spoilee, but of course I cannot post pictures as it would utterly spoil the surprise. I have, in the meantime, done a couple of other little things...

... like this cute little pig pattern! I whipped one up for my friend's birthday, from this pattern. Even more excitingly, although I failed to take pictures of le petit porcine pre-presentification, the recipient is a talented photographer and may use her awesome skills upon my humble yarny creation.

More exciting projects that I am just itching to get my hooks into (hehe) include some simple coffee cup cozies and a ::gorgeous:: tea pot cozy, yarn funded by the commissioner!

So hurrah for awesome projects, past, present and future! I can't wait to post pictures of the scrumptious navy yarn that was picked out for this cozy, as well as all of my swap labors and mini projects. 

Hope everyone is well. Happy crafting!

Note: None of the photos in this post were taken by me, and clicking on the photo leads to the respective source links of each.

My Darling Rabbit

Hey everybody!

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but school sort of took me by surprise. I hope that this pattern will help make up for it!

My Darling Rabbit

Supplies:

Brown cotton yarn

White cotton yarn

4 mm crochet hook

yarn needle

stitch marker

some kind of stuffing

Pattern notes: This rabbit is worked from the legs upwards. Each leg is made individually, and then they are joined together and worked up from there. At various points throughout the pattern, it will become convenient to sew on parts of the amigurumi as you make the larger body, such as the tail, white stomach, and arms. These points will be indicated in the pattern for the main part of the rabbit, and the order in which the patterns for the various pieces are listed are the order in which I found it best to make them.

Stomach:

1. In white, ch 6
2. Row 1: Sc in 2^nd st from hook and across. When the end of the row is reached, sc down the other side in the backs of the stitches you just worked. (10 sts)
3. Row 2: Sc 2 in each st around. (20 sts)
4. Row 3:*Sc 1, then sc 2 in next* around (30 sts)
5. Finish off

Tail:

1. In white, make a small pom pom.

Arms (make 2) :

1. In brown, ch 4
2. Row 1: Sc in 2^nd st from hook and across. When the end of the row is reached, sc down the other side in the backs of the stitches you just worked. (6 sts)
3. Rows 2-3: sc in each st around. (6 sts)
4. Row 4: *Sc 1, sc2tog* around. (4 sts)
5. Row 5-9: Sc in each st around.
6. Finish off.

Body:

1. Ch 5

2. Row 1: Sc through the back loop of the 2^nd st from the hook. Sc through back loops only for the rest of the row. When you reach the end of the row, sc back through the remaining front loops. From now on you will be working in the round. (8 sts)

3. Rows 2-10: Sc around.

4. Finish off. You have completed one leg. Now, repeat steps 1-3, but when you reach the end of row 10 do not finish off.

5. Now you will join the two legs together by crocheting around the tops of both of them. Ch 2. join the first leg to any part of the top of the 2^nd with a slip stitch. Then crochet around the second leg until you reach the beginning. You might want to leave 1 or 2 sc between the first join and the point where you join the 2^nd leg back to the first. Now, ch 2 again and join to the first leg using a sl st. You should now have a single circle of stitches that can be worked up to form a cylindricalish shape that will be the torso. (If you notice that 2ch is leaving an awkwardly large gap you can just do 1ch instead).

You will notice that because of the 2ch there is a bit of a gap visible through which stuffing might escape. I recommend sewing this up now because later it will be an absolute pain to do. Also, at some point soon you should consider sewing on your pompom tail.

6. Now that you have formed the base of the torso, work 12 rounds even (sc 1 in each st). Consider stuffing the legs. Sew on the stomach.

7. The next few rows will be the head-ish section. *Sc2tog, crochet half way around, sc2tog*. Work the next row even. Then repeat from *to* for the next row. Now is a good time to start stuffing the torso.

8. Ears! Sc a quarter of the way around, about where is shown below. Then, slst to the other side of the oval. This is one of the ears. Work even for about 6 rows. Then, sc2tog all around. Repeat until there is one st left on the hook. Finish off and weave in ends. Finish stuffing the body. (I didn’t stuff the ears).

9. Join yarn as close as you can to the base of the first ear. Sc around to the other side, then sl st across the oval. Work even for about six rows, then sc2tog all around. Repeat until there is one st left on the hook. Finish off and weave in ends.

10. You’re done! Congratulations 

Sunset Feet and Rainbow Hands

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a very merry christmas and a happy new year. My holiday has been very full of hooky productivity, I am pleased to say. Here was my last minute Christmas gift for my mom: the secret socks!

I used Serenity sock yarn's paprika, and I am so proud of how these turned out. They fit her perfectly and everything! I only had one sock done on christmas morning, but thankfully mothers are patient and understanding enough to be thrilled anyway. Speaking of christmas morning, the reason that all of these pictures are so much more crisp and clear is... I GOT A NEW CAMERA!!! I am so excited, and I really love the ease of use and image quality and everything about it in general. Another holiday project that I finished just in the nick of time are these fingerless gloves for my aunt.

These gloves were pretty fun to make, although I didn't follow the full pattern, I stopped before making more of a thumb because I liked them just the way they were. Fingerless gloves are one of my very favorite things, coz even though I am always cold my fingers and hands are also generally busy, so these gloves offer the perfect balance of coziness and the ability to use my hands. 

I know you all are probably waiting with baited breath (what does that even mean, incidentally?) for this darling little rabbit, but I am not quite quite quite ready to put this one out into the world. I actually did a pattern test, working off of my own pattern and seeing the results, and I found a few minor improvements that I would like to make, so pleeeease be patient with me :) . 

Hope you all are having a great break (for those of you still on it) or a productive busy not break (to those of you who are not still on it)!

Finally Christmas!

Isn't this dog's knitted get up cute? He looks just like ravelry's mascot Bob too!

Once again, it has been far too long since my last post. But I am DONE with finals, and so ready to take a break. I have been working like mad to finish all sorts of crocheted goodies for my friends before we all left to our respective homes, and sadly enough I didn't manage to take pictures of them in my haste to get everything out on time. Hopefully I can coax my friends to let my take some pictures of the goods later, but for now I will just approximate.

For a video game player who I know, a pair of fingerless gloves to keep his hands warm at night when they are frantically hotkeying at a cold keyboard... (These are actually a pair I made my boyfriend, but the ones I just made are pretty much the same. But in black.)

For a science fiction aficionado, a Jayne Cobb lookalike hat from the short though sweet show Firefly...

Picture from www.worstedwitch.com

For my stylish headband wearing friend, a version of crochetme's winter headband pattern (ravelry link) in a Lily Sugar and Cream self striping blue, purple, yellow, white yarn.

Photo from crochetme

And for a lover of primates and cute animals in general, a sock monkey hat. Which... due to my slow sewing abilities does not yet possess eyes. But it will! I promise!

Image from coffeecupthoughts

So, hurrah for lots and lots of things that I made! It really is so fun to make things for people, it is the absolute best thing ever. Especially when they accept something that didn't turn out quite perfect just the way you wanted and they love it anyway. I love you guys <3

On the theme of making lots of things... I got a bunch of yarn for my birthday! It was so heavenly to walk around Jo-ann fabrics and just pick out whatever I wanted... and now I have such a wealth of yarn that I can hardly contain my excitement. I have started another project since I came home that I have been dying to try for a while...

SOCKS! I tried making socks with regular worsted weight yarn and they came out so awkwardly that I ended up caving and buying a bunch of sock yarn on my aforementioned birthday yarn splurge. I also tried knitting again, with the misbegotten idea that it would be super easy and there was no reason that I stopped knitting in the first place. Which, unfortunately, is quite false indeed. I just can't deal with how difficult it is to go back and fix mistakes on knitting. As soon as the stitches slip off of the needle, I am done for, as my carefully knitted and occasionally and incorrectly purled slip of knit dissolves into tangles of yarn. Thankfully crocheting is superfantasticallyawesome because it is so so so easy to count stitches and go back and figure out what the heck you are doing. I still dream of knitting socks some day as I stare at vegancraftastic's many gorgeous and apparently fun and easy knitted socks, but for now I will stick to the hooks I know so well. 

Also... I have some *very exciting news*! Perhaps I should have put this at the top but, my adorable owl pattern is being sort of featured in a UK Let's Knit magazine online article! When I say featured what I really mean is that this picture that I took of it (squee!!) is in the article representing an example of a free pattern available through freeamigurumipatterns.blogspot.com . I really believe in free patterns and sharing ideas and inspiration with everybody who wants to pick up yarn and try something out, so I am super happy! The article won't be out until February but I will hunt it down and link to it when it comes out! I also have a new pattern in the works that I am really excited about, of this little guy.

Isn't he just darling? I will try and get it together sooon but given my posting speed it won't be til after Christmas. In a brief aside, I have lost a couple followers over the last few days and it makes me sad. I know that I don't update very often and my pictures are rarely the colorful explosion that other crafty blogs offer, but I really try to make every post up to certain standards of my own, which is why I don't post more. Plus, I am a college student rather than a stay at home mom like most craft blog authors. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to those of you who stick around and read my novel length twice a month blog posts, because you guys rock.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Sketches and Ink

 

In high school I used to keep a notebook that I would just draw in all the time during class. That sort of stopped when I came to college, but in the last couple of months it has been picking up again. I draw a lot of things... and I thought that even though this has been a crochet focused blog so far, that I could share a few doodles here.

I specialize in dorky self portraits, actually.

Though this one is probably much more realistic.

And random, more serious ones. 

And then, they just get random...

These next two were actually the inspiration for a crochet pattern that I have just finished...

Which will be posted soon! 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!