What is it with little things?

Amigurumi – is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features, as is typical in Japanese culture.^[1]

What is it with twee little things? Why are we drawn to them? I can see absolutely no purpose to having these things unless you are a compulsive cleaner looking for something else to dust on a regular basis.

And yet.

Wookit da widdle bunny wabbit.

I made this. Using this pattern from Mochimochi Land. A land of very small and terribly cute crafting. What possessed me to make this is a mystery to me. It has the added bonus of being knit amigurumi – which for me is a step further into insanity.

It is possible that I have mentioned here that I knit tightly. Like so tightly that my dearest friend makes fun of me. And this was in fingering weight on size 1 needles. The cast on I managed, but the joining into a round was a significant problem.

There were only 6 stitches being joined, which for even those as math challenged as I comes out to 2 stitches per needle on DPNs. If I am going to do this more I am going to need muchshorter DPNs. What I ended up doing, after 5 failed attempts at joining & working the 1st round, was casting on to a miniscule 9 inch #2 circular needle. From there I proceeded to transfer to DPNs, while knitting the 1st round after joining.

For anyone keeping count, I was using 6 needles to knit 6 stitches.

An hour and a half, and substantial amounts of cussing, later – I had the little guy you see above. Knitting very small things is apparently not happy-making for me. For me, I find it a fiddily enterprise in making a craft do something that another craft is infinitely more suited to produce.

I Pinch, I Pinch

So to sooth my frayed crafting nerves I crocheted a wee crab. At least that was the theory. It is possible that deciding to use fingering weight yarn with a B hook for a pattern that calls for worsted was  … ill advised.

I should have been a pair of ragged claws, Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

There was not quite so much cussing, but soothing is not the word I would use to describe the experience. But he is hella cute and for some reason I am happier having him in my life. Even without it being as Zen an experience as I had hoped, I still stand by my belief that crochet is superior in this particular application.

It is so much easier to just stick your hook in and start attaching limbs and stuff wherever you want them to go. You don’t have to go through all of the irritating sewing together parts that you procrastinate for so long  your husband asks you why you have a basket of knitted animal body parts sitting next to your knitting chair.

HEY! Hey, hey, hey, hey …

Or maybe that’s just me? Regardless, I love having these wee guys so I guess I will have to deal with the fiddily-ness of the whole process. And I do have to admit that knitted animals have a certain lookto them that might be willing to go through the PITA factor to achieve.

Do you do any essentially pointless crafting? What is your favorite thing to make?

[1]

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

Anybody remember this post? Well guess what?

hee, hee, hee, hee

I made him! For a bit there I was afraid that I had totally forgotten how to crochet (frogged 3 times) but he got done. He was a birthday gift, but I am suspicious that it won’t be the last of these little guys that I make.

But it did make me realize that I need to work crocheting projects in among my knitting projects. There is so much awesome stuff going on in crochet right now and I don’t want to fall completely behind. And truly, while there are many awesome designers out there making great knitted toys – amigurumi is so much easier in crochet. At least for me. Which craft do you like better for making wee critters?

Faved Friday – Flappy Flounder

I bought this pattern the day it came out. The instant I saw it, I knew that it had  to be mine.

This photo is from cheezombie's pattern page

Who can possibly look a this and not laugh. Or at least giggle – a wee chortle is inevitable. To make things even worse (better) the designer’s name is cheezombie. You are killing me. She has tons of other fantastic toys to knit and crochet, you can find the patterns on Ravelry or at her Etsy store. Coincidentally, like last weeks designer Lily Go, Ms. Zombie also designs in both knit and crochet. Which means if you are unlucky enough to not know how to crochet – you can knit yourself a flounder:

Also Ms. Zombie's photo, this is the knitted one

hee hee hee – it’s the eyes I think …

Both of these are representatives of a category of knit/crochet called amigurumi, which I believe is Japanese for “ridiculously cute, small, crocheted/knitted critters and objects that serve no other purpose than to be fun.” But my translation skills are a bit rusty. I have done a small amount of amiguruwhatsis – and it is always fun. I made one of these:

A cranky Scrubbie!

for my BFF. If I ever made more than one of anything I would make another – I wish I had one. In keeping with a rough sea/water theme, I have also made one of these:

Transformer Sushi Amigooroomee

It was supposed to be a fish - go figure.

Being an example of another category of the craft – toys that transform from one thing into another. For double the cuteness impact. If I could spend all day knitting and crocheting completely non-functional items, my house (and all of the homes of my friends) would be inundated with these things.

As it is, I am just going to try and bust out a Flappy Flounder some time in the near future. The new nephew (who is due today) has a fish/sea themed decorative theme for his nursery (whenever he decides to take residence). I think he will need a flounder.

Faved Friday

I thought I would start something new today, and hopefully I will be able to keep it going for awhile. For a post on Fridays I think it would be fun to feature something that I love that was designed by someone else. An item that has been on my to make list for eons, or one that has just appeared and jumped to the top of the pile.

I know that many designers say that they don’t look at others’ work – but that is not me. Looking at what others (usually much more experienced others) have done both educates and inspires me. Never would I knowingly “rip someone off” but I learn best by doing. What better way to learn a new technique than to make something that uses that technique and then have an awesome FO to show for your efforts?

To start off with, something that you don’t see much of around here – crochet. I have been crocheting since I was around 8 years old, but somehow my skill level hasn’t advanced much beyond top down hats and granny squares. Not that there is anything wrong with top down hats and granny squares. But I would like to improve in this area.

I own the yarn for this shawl.

I own the pattern for this shawl.

I just haven’t gotten around to making this shawl.

Lily Go's beautiful Cassandra (her photograph)

Lily Go is a truly inspirational designer for me (her website is here). She knits & crochets with apparently equal ease and designs the same. When this shawl was introduced I immediately fell in love with it and bought a copy. But crochet is not my forte and the first yarn I tried to use did not play well with the swatch.

The agony of swatching

I didn’t like anything I managed – so I scrapped the idea. It needed a yarn with much more loft than I was using. Sometimes it is better to bide one’s time and wait for the perfect yarn to come along. As I said, I own some yarn earmarked for this – but am open to suggestions. It would be a hardship to have to buy yarn, but I would totally take one for the team. For science.

Anyone have any ideas?

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

I have yet to develop an etsy problem in the form that many people have acquired, simply too much of a cheapskate. Looking at etsy (which is a bit of a problem for me) I can appreciate the time, talent and effort that goes into crafting the items on offer. But I also hesitate just before purchasing because, you know, I could make that myself.

IT’S A TRAP!

How many of us fall into that “I could make that” trap? Of course, one could make the item in question, if one had the time. And all of the tools. And all of the materials. Oh, and the time… So one doesn’t make it and one doesn’t own it because one is too cheap to buy it because one could make it, but one doesn’t have the time so one doesn’t … well, you get the picture. Vicious circle time.

But this past week I broke the circle. I found the time. I made something that I had bookmarked in the never-ending list of things I could make if I got off my duff.

Random is not truly random, kinda more "shuffle"

I am wavering about posting instructions on how I made this. Because it was someone else’s idea. I don’t see anything wrong with me figuring it out for myself and making it, for myself. But putting the instructions out there for others, I have … concerns … with integrity and stuff.

Yeah integrity, quit laughing.

I made all of the little motifs and then agonized over how to arrange them. Too anal to actually do true randomness (OMG what if the same color came up side by side?) I instead tried guided rand-omocity. Chucked them all in a bag and pulled pieces out. If the same color came out twice, or too frequently – back into the bag it went and I tried again. Much like the shuffle on your fancy pants MP3 player. If it was truly random you could be listening to Come Sail Away for 3 hours straight.

And no-one wants that.

Gauge Matters

With the encouragement of a group of knitters I hang with on Ravelry I have decided to start doing a wee bit of charity knitting. Actually, charity crocheting right now. After wading through all of the worthy opportunities that abound on the web I came across this site: Careware that encourages individuals to contact local hospitals on their own and see what their needs are.

And I realized what a great idea that was.

My son is now 4 years old and a perfect sample of what it means to be a 4 year old boy – but it wasn’t always this way. At 32 weeks I acquired pre-eclampsia and went into the hospital and onto the high-risk pregnancy ward. I was there for 4 weeks, doing everything I could to reach full term of 37 weeks. With the help of the wonderful hospital I made it to 36 weeks and 4 days before my kidneys, liver and blood pressure made it clear that any longer would be fatal.

My little man was pretty small when he was born, but not crazy small compared to other preemies. Even with this, we had nothing that fit him to take him home. Even the preemie clothes that were purchased in a rush swallowed his wee frame. So I decided to contact the hospital where I spent so much … quality time … 4 years ago about knitting and crocheting for the preemie/newborn ward.

They emailed me back and said they would be thrilled to have anything I would like to make and that if I wanted to make blankets the best size for the preemie creshes was 12 x 12. I don’t know if I will get any blankets made, but I have already made 2 hats!

One of these things is not like the other

I decided to use a great pattern for making Candy Corn Hats because they have such a cute shape – only I just used a variegated yarn. Now, it has been a while since I did any crocheting other than amigurumi. I learned to crochet at a young age from my Grandmother, but the last 9 months or so have been very, very focused on knitting. Because it is NEW and SHINY!

Going back to crochet was a little strange at first and I found myself with multiple stitches sliding down the crochet needle – oopsie! And apparently I made a minor error in my needle choice.

Really, it wasn’t a choice – I couldn’t find my H and just went with a G. Bad call.

The hat on the right was made with the G. A couple of nights after I finished this hat the Eman came running up to me saying “Mommy, mommy I found a knittling weedle under the COUCH!” while waving a crochet hook. My wayward H, woo hoo. So the hat on the left was knit with the appropriately sized hook.

Lesson learned.

Anyone else have some gauge horror stories? I am guessing if you say no you are just too embarrassed.

Stalking the Wild Acryl

Over the summer I was lucky enough to acquire a vintage  skein of Red Heart Acrylic from my Husband’s Grandmother’s stash.

Lucky you ask?

Yes, lucky. Old Red Heart makes the very best scrubbies and dishcloths due to it’s nature. Modern Red Heart does fine, but it is much softer and gentler than the old stuff. And soft and gentle isn’t what you need when attacking a cast iron pan.

A Crochet Scrubbie

This difference in the product made me curious about the why’s of the old vs new Red Heart, so I did a little research. I found it very interesting and thought I would share my findings with y’all.

Apparently, many decades ago, the wild acryl could be found in vast herds roaming across the flat-lands of many a country. There are those that say that the acryl migration was stupendous to behold – a single herd sometimes taking days to pass by a certain point, like a giant multicolored rainbow on the ground. Their melodious evening cries filling the dusky air. So numerous were they that those that harvested them for their fiber did not shave them as we do sheep, but simply killed them, skinned them and harvested the coat entire.

For many decades this was the status quo, but no one could foresee the perfect storm of events that occurred in the late 1980’s. A confluence of events, heavily influenced by the fashion trends begun by Bill Cosby and large boxy sweaters designed to be worn over some abomination called leggings had both men and women clamoring for cheap, brightly colored sweaters. And the acryl herds were decimated.

Luckily the problem was identified before the acryl went the way of the passenger pigeon and the great International Acryl Conservation Treaty was brought into being in the early ‘90’s. Wholesale slaughter of the acryl was outlawed and responsible husbandry was mandated.

This lead to the acryl farms that are found today in the world, with the animals being cared for as the valuable creatures they are. No longer are they skinned, but they are carefully groomed to remove only the finer undercoat for spinning into modern yarn. It is this new technique, along with breeding programs to introduce more variety into their colors that yields the acrylic yarn we know today.

So  this skein I found at my Mother in Law’s, well it is something special.  While the Treaty bans sale of any acrylic yarn manufactured with inhumane practices, the yarn already in existence can be used. And this is pre-Treaty yarn that I now have in my possession.

Dating from sometime in the 1960’s it has both the under and guard hairs of a rare albino acryl. Due to the guard hairs it has a special texture that is not to be found in yarns today. These exceptional attributes of toughness and texture demand to be used in only applications that highlight their nature.

So there it is, now you know the whole story.