Scrappy New Year!

Woop! I have totally given up on blogging every day over here, I just don't have the motivation anymore, so please excuse the long breaks inbetween each blogpost.

Anyway! It is 2015 suddenly, not only that but it is my birthday as well! Nothing exciteing happening today though, I'm just gonna stay in, craft and enjoy my pizza.

I haven't really done much important crafting at all this year...or at all since I came back from visiting my parents over the holiday. I just couldn't get myself to focus on anything cause I was stressing too much with crafts before christmas, I couldn't find time to stop and breathe and do something for myself. So this past week I've done nothing but scraps.

I've spent DAYS working on my Granny Bacon eternity scrap blanket. Just look at all of the scraps I still need to work into it!

It's so much! I haven't touched the blanket since summer, and the scraps have just been builing up, so much that I've had to get a bigger container for it...henche the glass jar. So far, I've managed to work about 9 rounds into my blanket since I started just before new years eve.

The reason why it has taken so long, is because I'm russian joining them all together. That limits me to use scraps that's from 30cm (11,8") and up, when I've used scraps from 10cm (3,9") and up before. So I need to measure them all up and toss out the ones I can't use. All of the shorter ones, I've collected in a bag and I might use them for a scrap yarn bowl.

Trying to use every single bit of scraps. I hate tossing yarn away, no matter the lenght or quality. So I'm also using the longer scrap bits in a certain wool weight for a different scrap blanket. A normal granny square blanket.

I've got tons that I need to work up on this end to, it all just keeps piling up and makes my whole crafting nook like a mess. There's also very few bright colours on these...so far. Might be a very gloomy granny square blanket. There's loads of scraps to get from these for my Granny Bacon blanket as well, so they kinda flow into eachother.

AND EVEN AFTER ALL OF THIS!!! There's the bag of leftover yarn from the mystery advent scarf... I need to do a couple of sock pairs and so on from those though...but I need to sort them all out so I can use the smallest ones for these two blankets.

*sigh* I think I need to make 2015 the year of scrap and storage busting...

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!

I'm on vacation!

...kinda... My mother is dragging myself and my aunt to Oslo, the capitol of Norway for a few days, so I won't be able to get much updated in the upcomming week. We're only staying there until thursday, but I'm not bringing my laptop, only my phone and tablet, which aren't the best mediums to blog on. So instead of me going quiet again, you'll now have a little warning. Ain't that neat?

But to keep things yarn related, I'll give you guys a little update on the Granny Bacon scrap blanket. It's slowly growing. It's pretty much the only thing I'm working on right now, it's easy to work on and easy to put down if I need to do something. It's pretty much mindless, even though I need my eyes, so I've started listening to podcasts again!

 

I can't use my smallest scraps, that's for certain, so it'll be heartbreaking having to throw them all out when I finally get to them. I've also managed to save four more huge scraps. For the record, I'm only saving scraps of a certain weight and fiber. There's several scraps in the picture above here that's way too long for my tasting, but they're odds and ends of different fibers and thickness (I work the thinner ones double if you were wondering) so I don't have much use for them.

On a different note. While I was roaming through the bedroom, looking for my bag and also my summer dress, I found the missing watermelon colored skein for my mindless shawl! I thought this was lost forever or atleast still at Oppdal somewhere, but all along, it was hiding behind my gigantic trunk.

 While I was winding this up, my yarn winder broke while winding it up though...which sucked! Took me forever to get to the problem. You see, there's a bolt keeping the cogs in place inside the machine. But there's so many things in the way so it's pretty much impossible to get to where it's supposed to be. Took me forever to get it taken appart, but putting it back together was a quick fix. It even stopped wobbling!

GREAT SUCCESS!!!

Eternity scrap blanket: starting over again?

*sigh* I'm trying to not freak out and give up on everything at the moment.

The eternity scrap blanket feels like a total waste of time and yarn right now. After now have worked up three whole yarn cakes of the gigantic ball of scraps, I'm already noticing signs of the blanket curling inwards. I was just now placing the blanket on the floor to get some WIP pictures taken when I noticed that the ends had the same curving as it had before I started frogging it this last weekend.

At this point, I'm tempted to just frog it all again and just work it in granny square...which I said I woul not do because of the small scraps and ends would stick out everywhere (as I've mentioned at some earlier point, my smallest scraps measures 7-10cm (3-4 inches) and that makes them really too small but in my head too big to just being tossed out).

I've been thinking about working it as a solid granny square instead, which would hopefully make covering up ends more easily. So right now, I'm doing some Youtube research on how to do solid rectanular granny squares. Hopefully this will work and I'll come back with either good or bad news when/if I've worked this out.

Again, if you've got some tips for me on this stuff, please let me know. Right now, I'm starting to become really desperate.

Frogging the eternity scrap blanket!

I've talked about my eternity scrap blanket several times already, so lets talk about it some more, shall we?

For some time now, I've noticed that the scrap blanked started to curve in on itself a little bit. I first didn't pay much attention to this as I was (and still am) a big crochet n00b and figured it would work itself out. Turns out, it just gets worse! Either my tention has changed somewhere, or I've messed up some stitches somewhere about a year ago.

One thing is sure though...it takes FOREVER to frog down! Expecially since the yarn has gotten tangeled here and there and the hook might have gone a bit wrong... I feel like I'm ripping every inch, tearing it appart rather than gently unravel the whole thing...

And the skein is MASSIVE! This is only about half way through! The ball measures a little over 50cm around now (19,5"). Can't wait to see it all done, but I'm starting to feel the weight and sice in my elbows.

The plan is to wind it up into smaller yarn cakes when I'm done and work from there. I've wanted a lazy kind of mindless project while I wait for some new inspiration to strike, and here it is! Just need to work out how I'm about to do it this time. I'm kinda over single crochet and want to try something new, but since I'm using small scraps (down to 10cm/4") there's not much I can do. It would look horrible if the stitch was kinda lacy or made a lot of holes. Currently, people have been suggesting half double crochet and slip stitch...the latter I've never thought about working as a stitch like this.

If you as my reader know of a good and compact stitch for a scrap blanket, let me know in the comments!

Sips and Sjin!

They are finally finished! Sips and Sjin! My little cuties! Only two more and my Yogscast will be done!

Sjin's hair and spacesuit has lighter colors IRL, but of course my camera had to ruin that beyond the point of my editing skillz.

I just got to show off some pictures I took while I was making their hair. I had too much fun playing hairdresser.

Too much fun, but it took forever! Next up will be Lewis, no idea when I'll start him though. Currently taking some time off from crocheting. But I can't wait to have them all done so I can complete this picture:

A little technical information.
They're both made with different yarn brands, Senjagarn, Silja, Trysilgarn. 80% wool, 20% nylon fiber mix. Crochet hook 2,5mm and the squares on their chests was a long crochet chain that I needle felted on.

Finished projects!

My lazyness continues when it comes to blogging, but not on projects! Yesterday, I finished up two projects I tell you, and I started a new one!

Simon from Yogscast was finished early in the morning hours yesterday. I've been working on him for about 10 days, and maybe you remember me ranting about getting the right skincolor for him.
I do love how he turned out! I maybe should have left his beard a bit longer, but it'll just have to do. Next  up is Sjin, he'll hopefully be easy with his white/orange space suit. I might just work up Sips at the same time so that I'll get their suits right.

The second project that I finished up yesterday, I started back in february. It's another pair of baby rompers, but this pair's for my 'Murican crafting friend Carolyn whom are expecting a baby boy in august. I'm planning on working up a matching cardigan as well, and maybe some socks and a few hats. Made in merino wool on 2,5mm needles. Pattern can be found here.

I just love colorful projects! So much fun! And speaking of colorful projects, I did start the cuddly pullover sweater last night. It's impossible to catch the colors on camera. The Alpaca, the darker thread has a green hue to it, while it appears bright blue in every picture I take.

The last pullover I made, the bamboo one are still lying around, waiting to get the ends weaved in.

And there she goes again...

This time, I'll admit that the blog hiatus has just been my lazyness and upside down day rythm that has kept me from blogging every day.

Ofcourse, there is some progress on my projects. The pullover is done! Or...done knitting... Still need to weave in all the blasted ends and sew up the holes under the arms. That'll take forever so I'll get to that at some point or another in my life... But it looks good though. I wish the body was a bit longer, and after I finished it up, the sleeves got longer too, so it's not perfect. Welcome to my dirty bathroom BTW...

Watcha think? Does it look good? Or does it look crap?

Vaporeon got his legs and arms sewn on, same with the head and even the back spikes. I did screw up a bit when I sewed on the head though. It looks like he's flaceplanting on the ground ranter than flopping around on the ground.

Kinda bummed me out so I've put it aside for now. Not sure if I'm to continue with it or make a new one.

SO! To keep my thought off that one, I started my next crochet project! Cause now that I've gotten all of these stitches in my fingers, I need to make sure I use them before they're forgotten again. I promise I'm not a crochet junkie! But with my current obsession with the Yogscast (which has been building over the last couple of months and sky rocketed the last weeks) I've started my Lalylala based, Yogscast inspired amigurumi dolls! I've been wanting to do Simon for way too long now, so I just started with him the other day. I MIGHT go through all of them, atleast the dream team (Simon, Lewis and Duncan) as well as Sjin. I NEED to do Lewis and Sjin atleast, since they're my favorites in the whole of Yogscast, but Lewis' character is very complicated and detailed so I'm not sure if I dare jump to him first.
BUT SIMON! I did start him as I've allready said! I got the head (minus the beard and hair), the helmet and I've started the body.

Woop woop! I'm so excited about starting these dolls! So much fun!

Pullover and Vaporeon!

Might be a bit early for an update on things, but whatever! I haven't really updated on my pullover for a few days so I can do with an early update today now that I've got pictures to show for it.
SO! I've been working with the raglan for the pullover for quite a few days now. It takes forever and it doesn't feel like the amount of stitches are increasing really. I am also running out of yarn so I do hope I'll manage to finish up within the next two skeins...then I would have used 17 skeins in this thing...which isn't so bad for you 'Muricans out there. Each skein weighs only 50gr, that's about 1,7oz. But bamboo and cotton yarn are pretty heavy compared to wool and other materials, so you don't get that many meters and it feels heavier automaticly.

But it's starting to look like something now! Wish is was longer in the body, but then I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish it up.

It's a bit awkward to put on right now since I still have the stitches on the needles...but it does fit kinda, and it will be a tiny bit longer in the body when it's done.

Since I've now finished Fibi the fox, I've started my next crochet project. I'm gonna try and have one running all the time along with my normal knitting. And this one's gonna be a baby Vaporeon! Aphid777 on deviantART makes fantastic crochet amigurumis and several of these she writes up the pattern for and posts along with pictures of her creations. Recently, she's been making the Eevelutions and I died when Vaporeon was submitted. Ofcourse I had to try my hand on that one, expecially now that I've managed to actually follow a crochet pattern succesfully. So far I've managed to make the head without too much problems. I've stuck the green marker there to mark the nose tip.

So far I think it looks pretty neat! I'm using Silja from Gjestal for it, 80% wool and 20% nylon and 2,5mm hook if you were wondering.