Lupo the Lamb!

Just finished up this little fella!

So glad to have him finished, and in good time for the contest on dA as well.

He was quite the challenge for me and he took what seemed like forever to make. Doing the bobble stitch with such a small and crappy hook was not a good idea...
The pom-poms also gave me a bit of trouble... Seeing how small they actually were, my pom-pom makers didn't quite cut it. After several tries with a fork, I had to go to a different yarn to make them pretty and poofy, and they're also the only thing acrylic on this little fella.
You can get the pattern over at Lalylala!

The last couple of days

Sorry for no update people, but my internet has been gone for the last day and a half without any warning, so my planned blogging was suddently put on hold.
I got to admit that I'm addicted to internet, most of my inspiration and entertainment can be found online, so when I'm suddenly left without it for a longer period of time, it's almost claustrophobic. I haven't been the best crafter without my daily intake of Youtube, instead I've been replacing it with VHS Disney movies and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
When that's said, I can live without internet access just fine, I'd just prefer a bit of a warning/preperation time in advance. One of my favorite places on earth is my mother's mountain cabin where there's no water, no plumbing, no electricity, no phone signal or internet.

BUT! I digress... Let's do a crafting recap from the last blogentry I did!

Big Lupo got her body in one piece, I am however running out of yarn, so the hood will most likely end up being all pink and not multicoloured like the body. The body also turned out a bit loopsided, the decreasing got screwed up somehow... She's so soft and huggable though!

In the meanwhile, little Lupo has grown ears! Yeah! I ran out of grey yarn so I had to actually go and buy more. And after the hood, I ran out of white too! I do however got a few scraps of white that I'm trying to match up. The arms I did last night, but of course, I managed to do something wrong on the second one, so I had to frog it down, which then again made me lose interest in working on it.

So, I started the next sweater commission. During The Lion King and a few episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, this is what I've got to show for before I fell asleep in my chair, not bad in my opinion. Bring on 20 more Disney movies and I'm done!

I'm doing this sweater in a yarn I've never worked with before; Smart from Sandnesgarn. Now,  I tend to choose the cheaper brands because I'm a greedy bastard and my economy is pretty dang low, but really, I can't feel too much difference in this yarn from brands I usually work with, even though it costs up to 3 times as much per skein. I've seen people swear to Sandnesgarn, which is all good, I'm not the one to judge that stuff, expecially since I've never really worked much with the brands they carry. So it'll be fun to see how I feel about this yarn when I'm done with this sweater. I'm planning on doing a Marius for myself later in a brand that's pretty much the same as this (same specs, feel and everything), so we'll see how they do against each other when worked up. I am hoping that there'll be some scraps left over so I can try and stress test it against my prefered "cheap" brands.

WIP: Lupo and...Lupo?

I've been working on Lupo ONLY for the last couple of days, and really, it takes forever! Crocheting is generally extra slow with me, but with such a small hook that's all kinds of crap, it really slows everything down further... But I've got his body done now! Finished up his head in the early mornings today. I'm not 100% happy with the result, but it looks good, I guess. I still feel that his head is way too big, but then again, Fibi's head turned out way too small. I've done a little comparison in the pattern between the two of them, and there's 24 stitches more in the round of Lupo's head!

  

I am however in love with the bobble stitch! I hated it's guts to begin with and it took forever and it killed my arm during the first few rounds, but I just love the texture and the feel of it... Call it Stockholm syndrome! All he's missing right now is the arms, hood, ears and the pompoms. All of that shouldn't be a problem at all! I am a bit scared that I might run out of the grey yarn though... Haven't confirmed with my stash if I got more leftovers (cause that it actually what this is, leftovers and scraps, call it a scrap project). 

Right now, I'm taking a little break from Lupo anyway, the head was just a bit too tedious for me, and I know the arms are boring and tedious too.

So I started a new project! Lupo! Wait wuuuut?

Yes! I decided to start another Lupo! As I've said before, Lupo is the reason why I fell in love with Lalylala. It was the first amigurumi I saw and if you remember a blog entry from january, I showed off a picture of Lopu, saying how much I adored the Lalylala dolls. Shortly after, my good friend Pickle threw me the pattern for Fibi and offered to help me through it. And it didn't take long before I bought the pattern for Lupo. I love Lupo so much! I can't express it enough! And after working up little Lupo, I got the great idea of making a giant Lupo! A snuggle buddy! This idea has been in my head for several days now, and I've been so close to ordering yarn for it, but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I'm trying to save the little money I have, so when I'm buying yarn, I'd like to get bigger lots so the shipping won't be so hurtfull. In most cases, shipping is free when you reach a certain spending amount, and I am trying my best to hit that if I can...so buying yarn (even though it's on sale right now) doesn't feel right when I'll be spending the same amount on shipping...
Little did I know that the answer was right behind me...litterally! In the shelf behind me, there was two skeins of green bamboo yarn that Sarah sent me some time ago. It's thicker than what I usually work with and it's soft to the touch without feeling like icky acryllic. Patons Silk Bamboo, 70% bamboo and 30% Silk! Genious! I rushed to my yarn storage and pulled out two other skeins of bamboo... Sirdar Juicy DK, 80% bamboo, 20% cotton. They were of the same lenght and same thickness, just about the same silky texture as well.

Wow... Pepsi is photobombing me! But yeah! These skeins shall become a giant Lupo! OMG I'm so excited! The skin will be green while the wool will be striped light mint green/beige. A bit crazy, but who cares? He'll be super soft and so cuddly!

But as I pondered this giant Lupo plushie... I got the feeling that I'd most likely run out of yarn... I dug through my stash once more and pulled out one and a half skein of a weird cotton mix. These are Cotton Light from Drops,  60% cotton, 40% acryllic, the remainder of four full skeins I recieved in a giveaway two years ago. Cotton Light doesn't excist anymore from what I've come to understand, so I really don't know what to do with these skeins. Why not include them in the giant Lupo? It's body will be striped anyway, so I can plot some of this inbetween the other two colours.

GENIOUS! But I shouldn't get too caught up in all of this... I need to start another sweater commission soon! And by the look of things, another commission might pop up after that!

Lupo WIP!

I've finally gotten around to start my Lupo, the sheep amigurumi doll from Lalylala. When Knitting-and-Crochet over at dA announced their september contest, I knew that I had to make Lupo for it.

Ever since I bought the pattern for Lupo, I've been dying to try it out, but haven't found time for it until now. Being right between two commissions that's not in a hurry leaves a little time slot for me to do my own little thing, and with that contest I just couldn't say no.

With great support and help from my LAC crafter friends, expecially Pickle, I started it yesterday. I feel like I managed to get a great start on it, so even though it looks like nothing, there's a lot of work behind it.

First off, I had to relearn the magic circle...and later on, half double... Crochet stithces and methods don't stick in my brain, they was away as soon as I put my hook down...

 

Lupo was extra scary for me cause I had to crochet anti-clockwise...which I've never done before. Also the bobble stitch takes forever and a half to make, and with my tiny hook, it takes its toll on my arm. But it's fun! Can't wait to finish up this fella. Lupo is the reason why I first fell in love with Lalylala's designs. They're so adorable, yet simple! And little sheepie here is the cutest one of them all!