Playing catch-up – the rest of 2018

December 23, 2018June 18, 2020 | heyheygav

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!

Get ready to rock… it’s Larvitar

November 6, 2018 | heyheygav

407E9B25-5AF3-4A72-93DC-1EDA8EBEE386 Hey 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

A legendary encounter… it’s Suicune

July 25, 2018 | heyheygav

83402A1A-4884-40E3-8C2B-26B2EF14B39B Hey hey crochet lovers. Once in a while we all bite off a little more than we can chew. When I started crocheting Suicune, I had no idea how complicated it would turn out to be. Everything was going swimmingly until I got to Suicune’s flowing mane and then I hit a brick wall. The original pattern left me completely bamboozled and after a couple of false starts, I ended up putting the whole project on hold for a while.

I’m pretty stubborn and don’t like to give up midway through a challenge, so I decided to give this beast one more go. It still wasn’t coming together, so I did what I should have done weeks before – gave up on the pattern and improvised a new plan for the mane. I honestly couldn’t be happier with how it worked out in the end. The pattern gives a voluminous flowing feeling, and finishes off Suicune nicely.

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The final finishing touch was weaving some floristry wire through Suicune’s tail ribbons to give them a majestic wave to them.

Pattern: https://www.deviantart.com/robezpierre/art/Suicune-crochet-with-pattern-371819515

Yarn: mid blue, dark blue, white and purple DK cotton

Hook: 3.5mm

Splash, splash! It’s shiny Squirtle

June 17, 2018 | heyheygav

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

May 20, 2018 | heyheygav

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

May 15, 2018 | heyheygav

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

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

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.