Amigurumi

Hold onto your baps, the kids from Bob’s Burgers are here

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Meet Tina, Gene and Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers
Meet Tina, Gene and Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers

Hey hey Belchers, or as Linda might exclaim, “Alright!”

Lockdown was the perfect opportunity to take on a new challenge, so off I trotted to the patterns that have been sitting in my Ravelry queue for an age. If, like me, your lockdown has been fueled by binge-watching boxed sets, then maybe you’ve also been sucked in by Bob’s Burgers on Amazon Prime. Well sitting there in my Ravelry list was an amazing pattern for the Belcher kids from Bob’s Burgers by Heather Jarmusz.

Crocheted Tina Belcher from the Fox TV show Bob's Burgers
“I’m a smart strong sensual woman.”

First up was strong, opinionated woman, Tina Belcher. The eldest of the three, Tina is a boy-obsessed writer of erotic friend fiction with a penchant for zombies, butts and horses – not necessarily in that order. The pattern was good to work with – you can’t quite see from the photos but she has small boobs plumping up her chest. The only thing that didn’t work out quite right was Tin’a hair which ended up looking a little like a riding helmet. Oh well, I’ll just pretend she’s off to ride her imaginary horse, Jericho.

Crocheted Louise Belcher from the Fox show Bob's Burgers
“I smell fear on you”

The second of the siblings to hit the hook was Louise – headstrong, smart and sneaky, Louise loves to bring people down a peg or two and isn’t remotely interested in boys… “Oh my god, Boo Boo!!!”. Louise was a simpler job to crochet and her signature bunny ears hat covers up any issues with her hair.

Crocheted Gene Belcher from the Fox TV show Bob's Burgers
“My life is more difficult than anyone else’s on the planet, and yes I’m including starving children, so don’t ask!”

Last of the three to spring forth from yarn was Gene Belcher – musician, composer of Die Hard: The Musical, fart afficianado and all-round fabulous addition to the family. Gene was a treat to crochet, and the fact that Heather’s pattern includes Gene’s signature burger outfit is just the icing on the cake.

As you may have seen above, crocheting Tina, Gene and Louise was also a perfect excuse for me to whip out my brush markers and practice a little modern calligraphy. What’s your favourite Bob’s Burgers quote? I’ve come to really enjoy lettering, as it’s such a good mindful craft to get in some stress-reduction in just a few minutes.

I’m so delighted with how these three came out and heartily recommend both Bob’s Burgers and Heather’s pattern.

Pattern – $13 on Ravelry

Yarn – all yarn used to create the Belcher kids was Stylecraft Special DK

Pens – Tombow ABT dual-tip brush markers


 

Crochet from a galaxy far, far away

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“How you doin’, ya old pirate?”

Hey hey nerf herders! It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, but if you don’t have time to make a few blog posts in a pandemic lockdown, when will you?

So the last few months have been strange and unsettling for just about everyone. For me it has mean grabbing as much as I could muster and decamping to my other half’s. I’ve been able to do a little more crochet then normal – at least until we both came down with Covid-19. It was a bit more challenging after then!

With only a small selection of yarn and tools at my disposal, I took the opportunity to crack out one of my Christmas presents – the Lucy Collins’s Star Wars: Even More Crochet kit. The kit includes a small book of 12 patterns plus enough yarn, stuffing and safety eyes to create a Jawa and BB-8.

“Wutini!”

I kicked things off with the Jawa pattern, as who doesn’t love these pesky scavengers – especially after their starring role in The Mandalorian? Lucy’s pattern was easy to follow and these tiny critters don’t take long to crochet at all. The special safety eyes included in the kit are a nice touch, and I’m a happy droid with how this turned out.

“Beep. Whistle.”

Lucy’s BB8 pattern is a little more challenging with the colour changes but it’s also deeply satisfying to see a round droid come together from what are essentially little granny squares. This little fella took a touch longer than the Jawa to create but both were easily managed within the space of a few episodes of Tiger King!

There’s a host of additional patterns in the book accompanying the kit but with only a small selection of yarn with me to play with, Lando Calrissian was the only other pattern I could manage. Lando was hooked up using some scraps of Stylecraft Special DK and with no more safety eyes to hand, the rogue-made-good had to make do with some roughly stitched features.

You can pick up the Star Wars: Even More Crochet kit from Lucy Collins at Amazon

Playing catch-up – the rest of 2018

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Hey hey festive funsters. Like so many bloggers, I started the year with the best of intentions to document my every creative endeavour – partly to spur myself to create but also as a reminder of just how much I have done. As is so often the way, the gap between intention and reality is a verdant and wide valley. So in the post I’ll be picking out a few of the other creations I’ve made this year that haven’t been posted up yet.

 

In addition to all the crochet I’ve done in 2019, my sewing machine hasn’t been lying idle. In the summer I sewed up a second Kwik Sew shirt, which I’m super happy with. For this one I slimmed down the sleeves, so the fit is that bit closer to my ideal. I might have it sorted for shirt three.

I also did a spot of refashioning for Eurovision this year, hacking two Primark shirts into my Austrian flag shirt. It’s been so successful it’s become a staple of my party wardrobe. I also added Swedish flag stripes to a T-shirt, which has shown me that sewing with jersey is a skill I have yet to master.

 

I switched geekdoms in November to create this cute little Enterprise for my new boyfriend. I tried so hard to get the details as accurate as possible then gooped up the  registration. Doh! Rest assured, it’s been corrected now but not after the embarrassment of having my error pointed out to me.

 

I’ve been doing a good job of keeping up crocheting a shiny trophy for each Pokemon Go Community Day – I skipped Beldum though as I couldn’t find a decent pattern. This Eevee is possibly my favourite though. It’s such a good pattern and super cute.

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For the Chikorita Community Day, I couldn’t find the perfect yarn colours in the Scheepjes Twinkle yarn I generally turn to for my shiny makes. Instead, I found some sequin yarn instead that did the trick. Note to self though, pulling sequins through a magic ring is far from straightforward.

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I’ve had the kit for this Cookie the Cat pattern for a good few years, since it came with Crochet Made Simple magazine. I finally made it up as a present for a friend’s birthday. I’m not a big fan of toy eyes but they look cute here.

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My final dash of crafting before Christmas was helping a Ken doll achieve his festive transformation. This fantastic plastic chap has been living his best life on the top of a Christmas tree for many a year but with only a sequinned dress and a feather boa to bring the party. With a spot of needle felting and a liberal smothering of Pritt Stick, he now has a Patsy Stone wig, worthy of his fabulousness. Hey hey queen!

Falling for Cyndaquil

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Hey hey crochet lovers. The onset of Autumn brings with it a desire to nest and huddle down and enjoy the warmth inside. Few Pokemon embody the cosy desire to hibernate, and the colours of the Fall, like a shiny Cyndaquil.

A work-in-progress Cyndaquil, before the felting stage

This crocheted critter was another one created as a trophy for our friendly Pokemon Go Community Day challenges, so she’s now off living with the winning trainer. I never seem to win these challenges but I don’t mind, as I like to make the trophies then send them out into the world. Plus, I’ve probably got more than enough crochet in the house already!

The basic construction of Cyndaquil was pretty easy – you can’t really go wrong with a Sabrina Somers pattern – and it’s  features are about as simple as Pokemon faces get. The fun part on this one was bringing its flames to life with ample needlefelting.

Pattern: €4.80 from Sabrina Somers – https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cyndaquil-pokemon

Yarn: Scheepjes Twinkle

Hook: 3.5mm

Get ready to rock… it’s Larvitar

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407E9B25-5AF3-4A72-93DC-1EDA8EBEE386Hey hey crochet lovers. I’ve started a tradition amongst our Pokemon Go circle of friends. For each Community Day, we have a friendly competition to see who can catch the most shiny Pokemon. Whoever wins takes home a shiny Pokemon trophy that I’ve crocheted just for the occasion.

For the recent Larvitar Community Day, I hunted far and wide for a decent pattern I could use as a starting point. Let’s just say there are far fewer patterns for the rock skin Pokemon than there are for the Kanto starters, so there wasn’t much in the way of choice.

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The pattern I picked required a few tweaks and I wouldn’t say I was completely happy with the final result. The legs at least were an improvement on the original – I took those from the Cubone pattern I made some time ago. As is often the case, the needle-felting makes all the difference in bringing Larvitar to life, especially his devilishly emo eyes. I’ve stuck with tradition in using the Scheepjes Twinkle yarn for my shiny trophies, as I love the solid sparkle it brings.

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As with all the Community Days since I started the tradition, I’ve failed to bring home the prize, so little shiny Larvitar is off now to level up with his new trainer.

Pattern: £2 from https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pokemon-larvitar

Yarn: green Scheepjes Twinkle yarn

Hook: 3.5mm

Splash, splash! It’s shiny Squirtle

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Hey hey crochet lovers! After making a couple of shiny Charmanders for the May Pokemon Go Community Day, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to tackle a shiny version of another of the Kanto starters.

The shell is the trickiest part of this make

I’ve followed a lot of Pokemon crochet patterns now and this has to be one of my favourites in terms of faithfulness to the original creature. It’s a perfect blend of cute, accurate and sturdy to boot, and I couldn’t be happier with this little fella. While it is not a free pattern, like many, the step-by-step instructions and photos are superb and I’d certainly consider more patterns from Aradiya Toys.

Pattern: $4.99 from https://www.facebook.com/AradiyaToys

Yarn: Scheepjes Twinkle DK

Hook: 3.5mm

Flame on – it’s shiny Charmander and Charizard

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Hey hey crochet lovers. Every month on Pokemon Go, the developers run a special Community Day where one type of Pokemon is available in huge numbers and there’s a chance to catch rare Shiny versions. This month was the turn of fan-favourite Charmander.

I’ve fallen in love with Charmander’s pretty blue eyes

To celebrate the May Community Day, I decided to make some special Pokemon to be given as prizes for whoever caught the most and the strongest Shiny Charmanders.

For these special Pokemon I wanted some metallic yarn that would give an extra-special look to the finished creatures. I opted for Scheepjes’s Twinkle yarn, as there’s a great range of colours and strong sparkle running throughout.

Knot Bad’s chibi Charizard pattern is a departure in style for me but worked really well

The yarn is a cotton, polyester blend and has a slightly crunchy feel when you’re working with it. I’m so happy with the end result, as it crochets evenly and is much easier to work with than an eyelash yarn. The finished plushies are far from cuddly though, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you want something soft and huggable for a child’s toy.

A fun time was had on Community Day and the prize Pokemon are now happily living with their new trainers. I’ve already stocked up on some more Twinkle for more Shiny treasures in the future.

 

Charmander pattern: http://www.wolfdreameroth.com/2010/08/charmander-plushie.html

Yarn: Scheepjes Twinkle DK in gold and cream

Hook: 3.5mm

 

Charizard pattern: https://www.knotbadami.com/charizard-amigurumi/

Yarn: Scheepjes Twinkle DK in grey, red and white

Hook: 3.5mm

Sing a new song, Chikorita

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Hey hey all you lazy bones crocheters out there. The reasons why I choose each project to crochet are quite varied but this one was selected out of sheer laziness. We were sitting down at home to watch a film and the urge to crochet came upon me. I looked at the pile of yarn that was still next to me from my last project (Sunkern) and did a quick search through my Ravelry queue to see what I could make with the same colours that meant I didn’t have to get up. Chikorita fit the bill perfectly, so off I went.

Chikorita is one of my tiniest Pokemon – even smaller than my Sunkern and Porg

Soon into the pattern it became abundantly clear that this was a very small pattern – tinier than I usually prefer to make for my Pokemon. On the plus side, it meant that Chikorita came into being very quickly, and the bulk was done by the end of the movie.

Pattern: http://jenniferwangbears.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pattern-003-Chikorita-Jennifer-Wang-Bears.pdf

Hook: 3.5mm

Yarn: light and mid green cotton DK

Here comes the Sun… it’s Sunkern

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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.

Little Sunkern is a total sun seeker

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