A Brace of Bulborbs

A Bulborb is a creature from the video game Pikmin. Kate recently got a stuffed Pikmin figure (ebay!) and wanted a Bulborb to go with it, but we couldn't find one online, so I said I would make her a crocheted one for my Conference weekend project. Before it was finished we were having fun using it as a puppet, so I asked Kate if she wanted me to stuff it or leave it as a puppet.  Her solution was that I should make two--stuffed Bulborb and puppet Bulborb. I decided puppet Bulborb should be a little smaller, to fit Kate's hand.  She is thrilled with the new additions to her menagerie and has named them Big Gulp and Little Gulp. 



Kate lost a front tooth the day before, so she's looking particularly gappy. Grin!



I've never made anything with a mouth that opens like this before. I made the mouth inside part first (a long oval that folds in half) and then built the rest around it. Doug thought the eyes were cool.




Little Gulp checks out a mushroom.




nom nom nom



Mmmmmwah!

Pineapple Crochet Shawl Sweater

I finished another sweater! I first saw this one on Catheryn's crochet blog (which doesn't seem to be there anymore, alas!). That's what got me interested in these Japanese crochet patterns in the first place.  I'd tried it once before in #10 thread, and it came out too small, so this time I used the same rayon thread that Catheryn used, from Elmore Pisgah.  Unfortunately the company is out of business now!  (I know... I'm still upset about that.) 



The back panel is interesting and fun to do.  The rest of the pattern is pretty tedious  (lots of five-chain loops over and over).



I like the hang of the rayon.  It might be just a bit big.  I was keeping a pretty loose tension on this one. 



It's got wings!  I've described the design as "like a shawl with sleeves," which is confusing but pretty accurate.



This one is from the Japanese series Let's Knit vol. 9. It's a very clever design but the pattern is kind of confusing.  Even though I'd done it before, it had been long enough that it still took me a while to figure out what went where. 

I had the sweater in progress but hadn't done anything with it for a while (because I was on the boring part), but then I realized that the deadline for Puyallup Fair entries was coming up.  I spent a few days in a mad flurry of crocheting, and then still had a week for blocking. (Rayon dries more quickly, I think.)  I was all set to take it down to the fairgrounds, but then realized that I had missed the deadline for online registration.  (I knew they were starting online registration this year, but didn't know the registration deadline was earlier than entry day.)  So I didn't get to enter this year.  I was briefly bummed about this, but figured I'll just save it for next year.  These tend to be pretty long-term projects.  I can wait. 

Thanks to Doug for being my very patient photographer!

Cream Pineapple Crochet Sweater

I got my sweater all blocked and dry in time to enter it in the fair!  I took it down to Puyallup today, along with Kate's little yellow sweater.  It's kind of fun to drive onto the fairgrounds while they're getting things set up.  And the ladies at the Home Arts section are always so nice. I took Andy along with me and he got to flirt with everybody.




The pattern is from Let's Knit #16 (one of the Japanese books that I got).  It works up quickly but I would definitely call it an advanced pattern.  It only shows half of each piece, so you have to extrapolate the turns on the other side.

I used DMC Senso (cotton/wool blend)  and a G hook with pretty loose tension.  I think it's just a teeny bit too big. But it'll work.

Update: I got a blue ribbon!  Woo hoo!

I get a lot of hits on this post from people looking for crochet sweaters... if you have any questions feel free to email me!  helenajole at netscape dot net

UFO (unfinished object)

I started this sweater a couple of years ago.  (At least I think it was a couple... the details are hazy.)  I got it almost finished, and then I hit a snag and left it to languish in the yarn bin next to my computer desk.  (Fortunately this has a lid on it, or it would have gotten very dusty in that amount of time.)  Poor neglected sweater.

One of my friends recently commented that the finishing-up details always seem to be the parts that are the least fun.  In this case I had one sleeve that turned out bigger than the other, so I needed to re-do one of them.  And there was one other problem--I'd stopped right in the middle of that picot edging, and when I picked it back up later, I couldn't remember exactly how I'd done it.  ("Let's see... like this?  No, that doesn't look the same.  Oh bother.  I'll figure it out later."  Much later.)

The Puyallup Fair is fast approaching.  I do have one little thing that I can enter, but I started thinking about this sweater and wondering if I could finish it up in time to submit.  Grandma Mary left on Monday, and that afternoon while Andy was napping I pulled out the sweater and took a good look at it.  I spent a while contemplating the mismatched sleeves and decided that, yes, I really did need to do one over.  So I got to work.

This pattern uses a medium-gauge yarn and works up pretty quickly.  We took the kids over to the Tot Lot (which has a fence around it!) and I sat in the shade and crocheted while Doug kept Andy from plummeting off the equipment.  I got the sleeve almost done, and then decided that my tension was too tight and ripped out almost the whole thing.

The next day was Movie Day.  While I sat on the couch and crocheted, we watched Monsters, Inc, then watched it again with the commentary, then Tangled, then The Incredibles with commentary.  (I'm still ticked that our Ratatouille didn't come with commentary... apparently there's one on the Blu-Ray.)  I got the sweater almost finished, but the kids didn't get out of the house all day and were pretty cranky by dinner time.  (I did manage to take Andy out for a while--Kate was too cranky.)  Nothing like suffering for Mom's art.

I finished up the last bit of edging the next morning, got all the loose ends worked in (that's one of those "least fun" bits) and then started blocking.  I spread the sweater out on a towel laid over my big masonite board, got everything smoothed and flattened and aligned just so, and then sprayed it all with water.  Now I just have to hope that it dries in time for fair entries next weekend.    My red sweater took more than a week to dry.  (Ha!  Yes--at the end of that post I said "I have another sweater that's about 80% finished."  See, it was two years ago.)  I tried to go a little lighter on the water this time, so maybe it won't take quite as long. 

My sister Barb just had some big wins at their county fair.  Go, Barb!

Incidentally, I hear there's a Monsters, Inc. 2  in the works.  I was saying it should be about Boo after she's grown up and gone through years of therapy, but apparently it's going to be a prequel. 

new project

Crochet Overdress on Kate

I finally got some pics of the crochet overdress on Kate.  (I suppose calling it a vest would be shorter and not inaccurate.)  She wore it to church on Sunday.  I took the camera along and got some quick pictures after the meetings.  (It was raining all day, so I couldn't get any outside.)



When I planned this, I got two dresses from Lands End, a 5T in red and a 6 in teal.  Kate has grown out of the red dress already, but the teal one fits great.  (She was amused by the turtleneck and kept pulling it up over her face and saying "Turtle!")




(Not thrilled about posing, can you tell?)



That thing she's holding is a little plastic cow toy that Becki gave her right before this. She didn't want to put it down.

I wore my red sweater, too, so we were both crocheted!

Crochet Overdress

We didn't make it to the fair this year. We were going to go on opening day, when you can get in free before noon, but Andy was feverish so we stayed home. But I did enter something again this year!



I crocheted this piece to go over this dress that I got for Kate. I cobbled together the pattern using two different Japanese patterns, and a row of the Irish roses that I learned back in high school.



(Here's the back.)




Since we didn't go to the fair I didn't know how I'd done, but my friend Becki let me know that I'd won a blue ribbon, and sent me a picture that she took with her phone.

I didn't include the red dress with the submission, since I didn't make that part, but they came up with something similar for the display!



Click here to see it on Kate!

booties

I made these for baby Ada, who was born at home three weeks ago (delivered by Sarah when the midwife didn't make it in time.)



The pattern is "White Shells" from Bootie Collection by Kay Meadors. (Written patterns. I like charted much better, but the booties are worth a little pattern reading!)

Autumn Dress

Over the summer I ran across the Dharma Trading Co. site. They have lots of white clothes and accessories for dyeing/painting/decorating (some very cool stuff there), including a couple of little girl's dresses with crocheted tops and fabric skirts (like this one). When I saw these, I thought, "Huh, I could do that!" And it would solve my problem of not being able to sew button holes.

Actually, my inability to do button holes is not the only thing standing in the way of my turning out beautiful dresses for Kate. The fact that my sewing machine (an old one that Scott had lying around) needs to be cleaned and adjusted is also a major drawback. But the principle is sound, and I was eager to give it a try. I made the top and asked Jill Tracy if she could put the skirt together for me. She did a beautiful job. Kate wore the dress to church this last Sunday, and we got some pictures afterward.



She spent most of the time huddling because she was cold, but I did get her to stand up for me and do an action rhyme about falling leaves that she got from her Highlights High Five magazine.




The fabric is from a dress that I made for me years ago. It was rather potato-sacky and I figured I wasn't likely to wear it again, but I really liked the fabric so I was glad to be able to use it for this.

It took me a while to find a thread color that I liked. I ended up ordering from Elmore Pisgah (color "fudge"), and then I ran out and had to order some more. (It says it's a size 10 thread, but I think it's a bit thinner than other size 10 threads I've used. It does work up nicely, and Kate apparently had no issues with the texture.) Then, when I took the top over to Jill and she attatched the skirt, we realized that it was just too short, so she took it apart and I added a few more inches onto the bodice. Seasonal projects can be risky, even if you start well in advance. At least I finished it while it's still fall!





I think this would work better for baby dresses, with a short yoke and poofy skirt. It took me quite a while to do all those rows and rows of single crochet. (I watched a lot of hulu.) I do love how it turned out!

(I might put some kind of edging around the neckline. Haven't decided yet.)

Pumpkin Hats (take two)

I said that my goal was to get caught up so I wasn't posting Halloween pictures in December. I'm still not caught up, but I'm just going to post them now!

I discovered that Kate's pumpkin hat from last year was too small, so I put it on Andy and made a larger one for Kate. (I think it turned out a little too big and floppy, but it's okay, I guess.)










Right after this Kate lay down on some damp leaves and got wet splotches all over her shirt, so that was the end of the photos.

I had visions of taking my cute little pumpkins to a pumpkin patch in their hats, but that didn't happen. Maybe next year!

Blue ribbons!

We won! I got a red ribbon for Kate's green sweater...




...and a blue ribbon for my red sweater! Wheee!




(They buttoned it crooked.) Doug just pointed out that there's a yellow ribbon on the sweater, too. Neither of us noticed it while we were there. I have no idea what it says! (Edit:) Zoomed in on the original photo--it says "Best in Category." Surprise!





Doug also won a blue ribbon, for his leather pouch.




Doug originally made this hoping to sell it. He has some detailed photos and comments here.



Andy checks me out while Doug checks out the other leather pieces.

I have more pictures from the fair, but just wanted to get these up tonight!