Litten Amigurumi Finished

 I finished Litten. This was my first time hot gluing felt onto crochet. I use Red Heart yarn. Glue guns are messy so I accidentally got some hot glue on it's face. I used a black sharpie to darken the glue so you can't see it. But I don't know if I want to use hot glue next time. It seems the best way to get it to stick. Though I've seen other people say they used Fabri-tack glue. This Litten was made from a free pattern from Ravelry the link is in the blog below this one. The creator is Christjan Bee. 

I had to make my own muzzle part because I didn't like the one the pattern had. I used a safety nose from aliexpress. The head started being worked in chain one turns and ended up with a big seam in the back. Otherwise I'm happy with the result. 

I have chronic health and mental issues. So I'm really proud I can accomplish making an amigurumi. It's not the easiest thing for me to do. It takes a lot of focus and detail. But I think it helps me mentally. I think it stretches my thinking ability and keeps me mentally occupied. I guess kind of like doing a brain puzzle. 

Pokemon Litten Amigurumi

 So I am working on this Pokemon Amigurumi. It's Litten. I found this free pattern on Ravelry. Free Litten Pokemon Ami Pattern This person has made a lot of pokemon ami patterns. I was surprised how small it was turning out to be. I have all four legs, body and tail done and sewn together at this point. I hot glued the tail on and then reinforced it with some sewing. 

Now I have the head to do. I'm at the part of the head where you start slp stitching chain 1 and turning. I thought this was going to make a different shape but so far it seems to just be doing the same thing as if I had went straight up in a spiral. So I don't know why the pattern is doing all this ch 1 and turning. I hope it all works out and I'm not doing something wrong. 

There is only that one blurry picture of the Litten and no one else on Ravelry has done this pattern to see what others may look like. I thought about messaging the pattern designer but I'll wait a little while longer and see what happens first. 

I picked this pattern because I had the colors of yarn I needed. So far though it's really cute. The back legs are nicely shaped and adorable. 

Slouchy Hats

This was a free youtube tutorial by thepatternfamily. Slouchy Hat Pattern #348. Mine ended up smaller and a little scrunched up. I think because my tension is tighter than it should have been for the pattern. I changed the pattern at the brim because of that. I didn't do the decreases. 

I had this ball of baby dk weight yarn which is not what I normally buy. It was from years ago when I knew nothing about yarn weights. Now I stick to worsted weight yarn. So that's why I did this pattern because it used the smaller yarn. I still have way too much left. I'm really thinking about donating the rest to the thrift store. I just don't see myself using all of it. 

I actually made a teeny tiny bear amigurumi out of it too but thought crocheting that small was miserable. Right now I'm really into medium sized amigurumi. Not too small not to large. 

thepatternfamily youtube tutorials are a little hard for me to follow compared to some other tutorials I have watched. My favorite tutorials are definitely from BagODayCrochet. But the pattern families patterns are worth it to me to figure out. My favorite hat by the pattern family is the one that uses just the V stitch. I want to make a black one. So far I've only made scrap yarn hats from it. 

Amigurumi Spider

Last night I finished crocheting this cute little spider pattern I found on Ravelry. I made it for my husband. Here's the pattern. Free Spider Ami Pattern I used some small eyes I got off aliexpress. I really love how it turned out. The curly cue legs I thought were very unique. I think my ability to make amigurumi has really improved. I can't design them myself. But if I have a nicely written pattern I am pretty confident I can do it. 

I remember when I couldn't even read a pattern. I've been crocheting since around 2003. I know that's a long time. But I've had no teacher other than youtube lol. Also I have a lot of other hobbies. But it's been an interesting journey. And it has given me a lot of confidence. The boost of self esteem I get after finishing a project is really cool. 

But I have to give some credit to my clover hook .Without it amigurumi is much harder. That clover hook just glides though the yarn. I highly recommend a clover hook if you are struggling or straining pulling the yarn through. I read this really weird amigurumi book once where the author said making amigurumi isn't fun and is really hard. And they only like adding the embellishments at the end. That was the first amigurumi book I had read. And it hindered my progress a lot in the beginning. 

This person was having the same struggles making ami as I was. Only they wrote a book about making ami and published it from that perspective. Which made me think making ami was just difficult and not fun. I pushed through eventually though and found answers to why I was having so much trouble. Things like how to hold your hook and the invisible decrease and yarning under. Maybe I'll write more in depth about all those things later. I am just really happy with my ami skills now and I'm always learning more from youtube. 

 

Finished Buddy Bear 2.0

 

So I finished this little guy. He's a free pattern by craftably ever after. Patterns by craftably ever after. I learned how to connect the two legs and work up the body with this pattern. So I learned a new technique. Very exciting! 

The eyes are from aliexpress a store called masckaszem. I think they're gorgeous and the pic doesn't do them justice. He took me a few days but I crochet slowly. 🐌 All red heart yarn. And a 4mm clover hook. 

Broken Photos

 Just a quick post saying that the pictures on all the past blogs are broken from PhotoBucket's changes. So I took them all down and now have no way of replacing them. I don't know if I can upload straight from here and if so if there is a limit to how many. I miss when blogging and hosting pics was simple. I might try to make a return here. Who knows. 

Getting Our Craft On

I've knitted these bracelets for Samantha and I's craft stand were planning to do. I am actually very happy with them. I also finished the owl painting and went in and put darts in my 50's dress. I snagged a lot of vintage patterns from thrift stores and will be making some cuff bracelets next. Oh yea and I need to snap a shot of my newest book hauls. (It's pretty crazy how many books I have right now.) 

Also I wanted to review the Wet N Wild Mega Rocks nail polish.

I thought these looked amazing in the bottle. But it is very sparse when applied. I mean VERY sparse. I would definitely be waiting for the clear base to dry out before expecting any real coverage. My guess is five coats before you get any real glitter going on.

Vintage inspired dress

Here we have my WIP of a dress I made completely on my own. It is a wrap around dress fashioned after an Advance and an Anne Adams vintage pattern. I do not own the patterns I just saw the pictures of the cover art online.

I actually forgot to put my darts in the bodice! I even had them marked. Not really sure how I missed that step. Also my first time using a ruffle foot went a little awkwardly so the light grey ruffle needs taken out and redone. 

The bodice is lined but not the skirt as I plan on making a petti to go under it. 

It was quite the undertaking. But it cost me about 3$ in materials to make :)

Practicing flower nail art

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So here is my current nail art. I really don't like it very much but I am practicing flowers so it makes sense. I still need to get a set of nail art brushes and tackle the one stroke. I also want to compile a polish wish list because that sounds like fun. 

I know top on my list right now is Halo Hues Angels Kiss holographic polish. Maybe I should devote one post to a polish list and update it as I go? 

I think it's weird, there are so many textured polishes coming out yet I really don't see them getting much attention on polish blogs or videos. I personally love them and am kinda sad knowing it is a fad that will die out eventually. I just can't see them living on as glitters have. *tear*

Oh! Yes and in my next blog I will show you my vintage 1950's style dress I am working on that I designed myself. I have a few more things on it I need to go back and fix and add the buttons and button holes. Someday I hope to work my way up to tutorial making on youtube :)

[EDIT] Oh and how could I forget? My last book haul!

  Were coming upon that time where it gets a bit nippy outside and drifting into a book doesn't sound so bad! Two of these I have already read and took to the exchange. I am currently reading Runestone. I'll put my GoodReads at the top of the page after :)

Out with the old I guess.

(So my old blog I had since 2002 decided to go pay members only. It kind of irked me but really I wanted to start over anyway. Xanga used to be really nice but slowly became so focused on the most popular users. I was being bombarded by all this junk I didn't want to see while all the smaller users got overlooked. Search function only directed you to the big bloggers OR what was posted within the last ten minutes. You felt completely alone. So here I am starting over and maybe this will inspire me to blog more often now.)

These were my natural nails right before they broke. I am wearing a Revlon's GIRLY 206 polish that looks like a jelly sandwich. I wish Revlon would make more than this but they only came out with two colors in it. I like the Revlon version much better than the color show because color show seems to just put black and white flecks in different colors of jelly while Revlon threw many different colors of sparkles in theirs. 

(here you can see the only thing that changes is the jelly not the specks)

Why buy all these when you can buy just the specks alone and make the exact thing out of jellies you already have? 

Ok well I guess that's enough for my first blog. If you love nail art crafts and sewing sub to me :)