Here comes the Sun… it’s Sunkern

March 30, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey spring chickens! I hope the past month has been good to you. The beginning of spring has been a rollercoaster of sunshine and snow here but the flowers of the season are resilient and have poked their way out into the sun. Inspired by the budding spring, I chose Sunkern for my next Pokemon project and it’s quickly become one of my favourites.

I couldn’t find the wire I normally use for posability so to give Sunkern’s stem a bit more structure I used a reed from a reed diffuser, which certainly does the trick.

Pattern: http://www.wolfdreameroth.com/2009/07/sunkern-plushie.html

Yarn: Yellow RICO cotton DK, Green Wendy cotton DK, brown, white, black and pink Woolf roving for felting

Hook: 3.5mm

Oh honey, it’s Trixie Mattel

February 18, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey squirrel friends. If you’ve been following my crochet journey, you may have read a few weeks ago about my new venture – attempting to turn my crochet skills to creating miniature drag queens. After a good few weeks of tinkering and polishing, I’m so happy with my first drag doll.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been using the Toft Doll Emporium book as the starting point for my drag doll designs. The basic doll pattern and ball gown pattern formed the base of the design, paired up with a pretty pair of matching pink pumps. There’s a self-drafted breast plate too adding a bit more oomph up front.

They may not be killer heels but at least they match the dress

When it comes to drag queen hair, it’s go big or go home, so the remnants of yellow wool I was started with for the wig didn’t go too far. Rather than leave poor Trixie with a ratty ass weave, I had to mix in a second yarn – this time a lovely soft Rico Baby DK. It’s not a perfect colour match but the gentle variation added some nice depth.

For the sassy bow in Trixie’s hair, I turned to a simple sassy bow pattern from Simply Collectible Crochet, which is suitably over the top.

http://simplycollectiblecrochet.com/2014/07/sassy-bow-free-pattern/

Achieving a convincing drag makeup look with needlefelting is quite a challenge, especially with Trixie – she’s hardly subtle. My first attempt wasn’t quite dramatic enough, so what you see here is take two where I worked over my first effort to make everything bigger, bolder and more dramatic.

I hope you like Trixie. She’s given me the confidence to crack into more drag dolls, so expect more queens to sashay your way in the months ahead.

The first rule of Fight Club is… invite Mankey

February 16, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers. The starting point for my designs comes from a range of places – usually it’s just the character itself that I really want to create that drives the project. Sometimes though, it’s the yarn that comes first and that’s what happened here with Mankey.

I have crocheted with the King Cole Momements eyelash yarn before – the fluffy purple colourway for my Venonat – so when I saw it in this pale brown, I earmarked it straight away for a Mankey.

When working on Venonat I found the Moments yarn a little more challenging to work with but manageable for a simple spherical body. With Mankey though, I needed to create shaped limbs with the yarn too, which was definitely more frustrating. Thankfully the fluffy nature of the yarn means it’s quite forgiving – you can’t really see the points where the shaping didn’t work out properly.

A work-in-progress Mankey before his arms were added

This time, I didn’t follow a pattern at all and made up the detail as I went along.

Yarn: King Cole Moments DK in Squirrel, Sirdar Cotton DK in pink and brown

Hook: 3.5mm

Riding high, it’s Lotad

February 9, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers. I seem inexorably drawn to grass and water type Pokemon – maybe that comes from living in the damp and green North West of England, or maybe I just like anything blue. Lotad is one of my favourites at the moment, perhaps because it spans grass and water types but also because its lily pad sombrero is just so darned cute.

This was a pretty simple make and only took a few evenings to pull together from start to finish. The most complicated part is the lily pad, which is made from two separate layers crocheted together. It helps if you get the layers to be the same size – my openings at the back didn’t quite match up – but a creative bit of tucking and it worked out fine.

Lotad’s lily pad is two layers sandwiched together

The pattern suggests using a piece of card or plastic to give the pad some additional stability but in the cotton yarn I used this wasn’t really necessary, so mine is all yarn. Rather than crochet the dark green details on top, I turned to needle felting, which worked out great.

Pattern:

Yarn: Blue Sirdar cotton DK, green Wendy cotton DK, yellow Rico Essentials cotton DK

Hook:

Gentlemen, start your engines…

January 21, 2018January 27, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers. There’s more to life than Pokemon and I’m keen this year to bring you a touch more variety.

I’ve got big plans for a whole new range of geek-themed Amigurumi – a range of dolls based on the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race – and if this first one is anything to go by, they’re going to take a lot longer than most of the Pokemon I’ve crocheted so far.

I picked up the new Toft book, Edward’s Crochet Doll Emporium, for my birthday and its doll patterns are a great starting point for the drag queens I have in mind. The book has a mix-and-match range of dolls’ clothes and accessories to play with, so I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.

For this first doll, I used the standard doll pattern (with advanced arms) and coupled it up with the ball gown pattern. I added a little extra room to the bust of the dress, as it’s all about the silhouette, hunties. The doll was pretty easy to make but the dress was surprisingly fiddly, as most of it is worked with fiddly stitches. I don’t think it’s my neatest but of crocheting but the overall effect works.

There’s one extra element I needed that funnily enough, the Toft book didn’t cover – a little breast plate to give the doll a little more oomph up front.

Sadly, I haven’t been able to fully complete this doll yet, as I’m still waiting for some new needle-felting needles I ordered weeks ago. The task of emulating a queen’s makeup with needle-felting is a little daunting but I honestly can’t wait to get started. Wish me luck!

A new blanket and Bellossom

January 11, 2018January 11, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers. I hope your 2018 is getting off to a good start. I’m keeping up with my creative resolution so far and this has been a busy week of crafting – assembling a new display shelf counts, doesn’t it?

Part one of the Solar System blanket CAL is underway

Before Christmas I signed up to the new Solar System Blanket CAL by Two Hearts Crochet, and the first part of the pattern dropped this week. This is a bit different to most crochet-alongs, with its geeky theme and in-the-round construction – both of which suit me down to the ground. I’ve made a good start on the first part, and with a weekly release schedule on new sections, I don’t want to fall behind!

My ticked off, completed project of the week is an adorable Bellossom Pokemon I started on New Year’s Day. The pattern for this doll is from Sabrina Somers, who also designed the Hoppip and Pikachu patterns I have made previously. I think her patterns are excellent as they’ve got a great cuddly feel to them and represent the intended Pokemon very accurately – a key criteria for me.

There are quite a few elements to this one with all the leaves and petals, but none of those elements are very complex, so it’s an easy enough pattern for someone with a couple of Amigurumi under their belt.

Pattern: Free from https://www.sabrinasomers.com/amigurumi/crochet-pattern-bellossom/

Yarn: Pale green Wendy cotton DK, bold green and yellow RICO cotton DK, Sirdar red cotton DK

Hook: 3.5mm

Two new friends to start the year… Ampharos and Umbreon

January 7, 2018 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers, and a happy new year to you all. One of my 2017 resolutions was to create something every week, and I acquitted myself pretty well with 24 crocheted Pokemon, two Porgs, six Christmas gnomes, and three sewn garments. Not quite the 52 creations I hoped for but an excellent haul, as our cluttered spare room attests to.

Now that the calendar has flipped forward to 2018, I’m renewing my commitment to creating something every week and I’ll attempt to blog my progress weekly too.

For week 1 of 2018, I bring you my two latest creations – an Ampharos completed at the end of December and a coordinating Umbreon that ticks off my first project for January. Both followed patterns from Linda Potts – the fabulous WolfDreamer, who has published an superb range of Pokemon patterns.

Ampharos was a fiddly pattern but worth the effort

Pattern: Free from http://www.wolfdreameroth.com/2009/11/ampharos.html

Yarn: yellow, black, white and red cotton DK

Hook: 3.5mm

Height: 25cm

Umbreon reminded me how little I enjoy working with black yarn

Pattern: Free from http://www.wolfdreameroth.com/2010/08/umbreon-plushie.html

Yarn: Black and yellow cotton DK

Hook: 3.5mm

Height: 20cm

I already have my next project well under way, and would have finished it by now had I not run out of yarn. I’ve also made a start on a new challenge, which I can’t wait to share with you soon…

From a galaxy far, far away… it’s a Porg

December 29, 2017 | heyheygav

Hey hey young padawans. I resisted the urge to crochet any Christmas presents this year until the absolute last minute, when I finally surrendered to the power of the Force. The Porgs are a fluffy breed of birds that infest the planet of Ahch-To in The Last Jedi – the latest instalment in the Star Wars franchise. While completely redundant to the plot, they add a cuteness and levity that’s hard to resist.

I made this first Porg the day before Christmas as a gift for my brother and sister-in-law. It’s one of the quickest makes I’ve done, as it’s so tiny, which made it a perfect last-minute gift. I’ve since made another one for us too as they’re just too adorable.

Pattern: $1 from Heather Jarmusz https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/star-wars-porg

Yarn: White, honey, brown and yellow DK cotton from Patons and Sirdar

Hook: 3.5mm

Danger! Danger! High voltage! It’s Voltorb and Electrode

December 15, 2017 | heyheygav

Hey hey crochet lovers. With so many Pokemon to choose from, I’ll take inspiration where I can get it to guide me to my next project. The last makes off my hook were a family of Christmas gnomes, and the red and white cotton I used for those was really nice to work with. Electrode and Voltorb were the perfect pair to pick to keep using the white and red cotton, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re super quick to make either.

Electrode and Voltorb lent a hand with the Christmas decorating by powering the fairly lights

The Voltorb pattern is another from Linda Potts, AKA Wolfdreamer, who has designed a fabulous range of Pokemon. I find her patterns work up easily and look great, so I’d well recommend them. Not that you can go far wrong with a sphere though…

Voltorb is a quick make with just a little needle-felting required

For Electrode, I simply added a few extra increase rows to the Voltorb pattern to create a larger sphere. As my increases are still much neater than my decreases, I swapped the yarn colours round too, so I could keep the neat rows in white where they would be most visible.