A Challenge: The FreshStitches Kit Club

This January, I joined the FreshStitches Kit Club. The idea is you pay a two-monthly fee and get a complete kit to make an amigurumi every other month. I figured I could try it out, since I bought a few FreshStitches patterns in the past. They’re fun to do and the bonus with the Kit Club is that you get to make yours with a little twist, apart from just the pattern.

So when I got my first package last week, I got pretty excited! Here’s what it looked like:

The package

Unwrapping

All materials are ready to go!

It’s a chick that turns into an egg! Or maybe it’s the other way around… I started on the pattern right away and managed to finish working on it today:

All parts are done

The egg

From the bottom

Something is coming out!

It’s Russ the chick!

Of course, I got too excited. I checked out the special Kit Club Web page today and found that I’d been too quick. In order for the special twist to work, you needed to make some minor changes to the pattern and keep all parts separate. So I ended up frogging everything T_T Now I have to start all over again.

For now, I will keep the special twist a secret. That is, until I’ve managed to create the intended product 😛
Which, I will have to admit, might take a while. It’s been busy lately to say the least. Work is demanding a lot of my time and free days aren’t a certainty any more. Also, Boyfriend and I have been looking in to buying a house, for which I am also very excited, but we still need to do a lot of research, view possible houses and get everything together. Plus, one of our cats has been a bit sick the past few days, so we need to keep an extra close eye on him. All in all, I’m certainly not bored, but I’m afraid this also means that I will be less able to blog the coming month or so. Please bear with me, I have some patterns lined up still (one’s already done, but I just don’t have the time to type it up right now…)

What have you guys been up to lately?
And remember, I try to keep the Crochetnanigans FaceBook page updated a bit more than I am able to do here, so if you want to keep an eye on my current projects, be sure to check it out!

Cheers, Lydia

Frustration…

Sometimes, nothing turns out the way you want it to. I wanted to give Boyfriend a scarf for Christmas, since he can’t seem to think of any presents. But I’ve run out of yarn and the lady I bought it from wasn’t at the market this week. To make matters worse it’s impossible to find online. Next time I’m able to go to the market is… 2014 -_- so yeah, no scarf for Boyfriend.

I’m also working on a Christmas gift for a friend. He didn’t ask for it, but when I saw the pattern, I just knew I had to make it for him. But now I’m stuck, because I ran out of the main colour, again. Now I have to wait for it to be delivered, but the last time I ordered, it took quite a while to get here. So fingers crossed that it will get to me in time. On the other hand, I probably won’t see this friend before New Years, so I’ve got a bit of time.

In order to vent my frustration a bit, I decided to make a scarf or cowl for myself. After starting several different patterns and frogging it all, I ended up with a nice cowl after all.

Now it just needs a nice big button to finish it up ^_^

The pattern for this cowl comes from All About Ami. It’s called the buttoned shell stitch cowl. I made it with the same yarn as the ribbed pom pom beanie I made a while ago, so it makes a set 🙂

Do you get frustrated easily? And how do you handle it?

Cheers, Lydia

Keeping warm

After seeing my warm winter hat, Boyfriend asked me if I wanted to make one for him as well. So I got the yarn for it and planned to make it in secret to give to him for Christmas.

Saturday we had our annual celebration of ‘Sinterklaas’ (basically a dutch Santa). Each year, we buy generic gifts and play a game together with Boyfriend’s family where you can get gifts, but also need to trade or give them away. You start with all the gifts still wrapped and end up unwrapping them during the game. Long story short: Boyfriend ended up with a hat…

So a change of plans was made and now I’m making a scarf. I hope to have it done by winter 2015, it’s so very big! It measures about 2.5 meters in length and it needs to be broad enough to keep his neck warm. This is how far I’ve gotten:

In the meantime, I’m also working on a slightly secret project to give to a friend and I finished working on a commission for another friend, but can’t post about it yet, since he needs it for a gift as well ^_^”

Working on the scarf is a bit boring, so I think I will work on some small projects in between. I plan to make some Christmas ornaments for work, those should be quick enough to make whenever I get really sick of going back and forth.

How do you handle slightly boring projects? Do you just stick to it to get it done faster, or do you switch every now and again to keep things interesting?

Cheers, Lydia

As a bonus, here's a picture of Japie next to our Christmas tree ^_^

I have made a huge mistake…

All the skeins I (believe I) will need for the African Flower Owl

Remember this giant stash of yarn I bought at the crafts fair a few weeks back? I really thought I would need that much yarn to make Maggie the African flower owl. As it turns out, I only need to make about 6 more flowers and I’m still on my first skeins. I’m using three colours: white, grey, and blue and it looks like I will need just one skein of each.

It also looks like it will become a bit smaller than it should be. But I won’t know for sure until I’ve put all the pieces together.

This will become the front, the white parts are the eyes

Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the yarn. Maybe I will make a matching afghan (the one I’ve been meaning to make since summer). On the other hand, if it really turns out smaller than expected, I might make another one with a bigger hook and a double thread.

What do you do when it turns out you have bought way too much yarn for a single project?

In other news: this blog has gotten over 10.000 views! I was hoping it would reach this number before my anniversary (the 4th of December) but I never thought it would go this quick! So now, I’m trying to think of a way to celebrate, but can’t quite decide what to do. A friend of mine suggested a give-away or something like a crochet-along, but I’m still not sure. So any suggestions are very welcome!

Cheers, Lydia

Crochet Dates, Crochet-Alongs and Hook-ins. The tale of a busy week

Well, to be honest, I kind of combined them all together ^_^”

Last wednesday, I visited my friend Jaqueline from EenMooiMomentje/Threading Along for a crochet date. We had planned the perfect date, since on wednesdays EchtStudio holds their weekly Hook-ins. It’s a pretty long drive for me, but because I could spend the afternoon at my friends house, it was definitely worth it.

We drank loads of tea, chatted and all the while worked on our most current projects. She’s knitting a hat, which I believe is pretty amazing, since I can’t knit. I started working on a smaller project than I thought it would be: a unicorn for the latest Ana Paula Rimoli Crochet-Along. I’m really starting to love CALs, especially when they’re based around one or two patterns. It’s so much fun to see what everyone comes up with to really make a pattern their own.

After dinner, we went over to EchtStudio for the Hook-in. Which was way more fun than last time! I have to admit, being back in my comfort zone with making amigurumi helped a lot. Last time, I was so annoyed by my own confusion about wanting to make a blanket, I just couldn’t seem to enjoy myself. Also, last time it was really, really busy, while this week, only two tables were taken (must have had something to do with that giant crafts fair that’s going on…)

I spent the evening working on the unicorn and just wandering around the shop. But like I said, my unicorn is turning out a bit smaller than expected, so it’s almost done already. Inevitably, I came to the point where I didn’t bring the yarn to make the manes and horn, so I had to stop working. Right on time as well, as the evening was drawing to a close. This is as far as I’ve come that day:

Tiny little unicorn

One last walk around the shop and I stumbled on something I’d been looking for for a while now: the first Zoomigurumi book, in English! It’s been impossible to get and even though I do still plan on joining the Design Contest where you can win both the books, I couldn’t resist inquiring what the price was. And since it was their last one, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse ^_^ Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable day for me.

I also came across two projects I really want to do in the future, if I ever find the pattern for them:

African Flower Hippo

African Flower Owl

I have to say, I think I love everything about them: their enormous size, their vibrant colours (you can’t really see on these pictures), their squishiness ^_____^

Tomorrow, I will visit the giant crafts fair I mentioned earlier: Kreadoe. It’s my first time there, so I’m pretty excited and have no idea what to expect! But I’m sure it will be loads of fun and a great way to get tons of inspiration for upcoming projects.

What are your plans for the weekend? And don’t forget, today is the first friday of the month, which means: BYATWF!

Cheers, Lydia

Friendship is Magic

Around the beginning of this blog, I’d worked on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from the series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Back then, I’d already mentioned that I might make the rest of the set, The Mane Four (which is not a typo) when I’d run out of projects. And this time has come. Well, I didn’t exactly run out, but I didn’t know what to work on next.

I’ve already got Rarity finished:

And Pinky Pie is well on her way:

I should be able to finish her up this weekend and then it’s just Applejack and Twilight Sparkle to work on. I’m going through them a bit quicker than the last time I worked on the ponies, but then again, being familiar with the pattern goes a long way. Also, I don’t have to make wings for them, so there are a few less parts to work on.

The basic pony pattern is from HookedOnAnime as before, but the manes I’m working out myself. I’ll post a quick how-to when I’ve finished all four, in case anyone is interested.

In other news

One of my friends -the lovely Jaqueline over at EenMooiMomentje– has been going through a pretty rough time. There are plenty of things that can cheer me up and at the top of that list is crafting with friends, drinking tea and eating sushi. So that is exactly what I invited her over for a few days ago. We had a great day, me working on my latest project and her knitting away at a warm hat for the coming winter. Our cat Wisky was especially interested in her knitting needles (something she’d never seen before in her life), while our other cat Japie thought of them more as something he desperately needed to murder as soon as possible. Despite all the distractions, Jaqueline still got a bit of work done.
The sushi was awesome as always. (I still believe I don’t get to eat it nearly enough)
After dinner she had to go home again, but we will definitely be meeting up more often (as long as both our work schedules allow it ^_^” )

Check out her blog sometime, it’s a great read about anything from knitting and crocheting to beauty products! (It is all in Dutch though, keep that in mind *cough*googletranslate*cough*)
Have a great weekend!

Cheers, Lydia

With a little help from my friends

Wisky is trying hard to help me work on the new pattern :3
I’m having a good time figuring this one out. It’s pretty simple, but I think it’s so adorable. Let’s hope I can make this amigurumi just as cute!

Hint time!

These are the colours I’m using.

Any guesses yet? (Remember, it will be a gen6 Pokémon)

Cheers, Lydia

Purple minion prototype

The past few days I have been working on a purple, evil minion from the movie Despicable Me 2. I fell in love with the ‘normal’ minions once I’d seen the first movie and I once again fell head over heels when I saw the second.

At first the pattern came along quite well, but the biggest problem I came across was the hair. I didn’t feel like making it strand by strand, so I tried using fuzzy yarn. Sadly, it didn’t give the effect I was going for.

I also think I made the eyes too small and the mouth is a little weird.

All in all, I’m really not happy with how he came out, but I also ran out of purple and dark grey yarn and frankly, I just don’t have the funds right now to stock up. So you will have to wait for me to be able to redo the pattern before I will feel comfortable to put it up.

For now, you will have to do with one picture (I’m a little bit ashamed 😦 )

Then again, working out a pattern is a process of trial and error. So all I can do is try again 🙂

Cheers, Lydia

Guess what..

Can you guys guess what I’ll be spending my work-free day on tomorrow? ^_~

Cheers, Lydia

Sneak peek ^_^

Because I don’t want to end this day on a negative note, I worked real hard to finish up on the penguin. So here’s a little sneak peek:

Tomorrow is “Bring Your Amigurumi To Work Friday” a great concept by DenDennis (man, I’ve been talking about him a lot, haven’t I?) So I think I will bring this little buddy with me and take some fun pictures 🙂 check back tomorrow to see more ^_~

Cheers, Lydia