Scraptastic - WIP

I recently discovered that once again, my yarn stash was getting out of control. I don't have a lot of room to store my yarn, so I decided that rather than go out and buy even more for a project I was designing, that I would come up with a large stashbuster instead to free up some space using some of the insane amount of acrylic yarn I possess. I came up with this shell stitch pattern and then decided to use white to tie things together. I started with a stripe of white, then 8 stripes of colors randomly selected from my stash, then white again, lather, rinse, repeat. This afghan is 52" wide, and is currently 24" long, so I've still got a lot of work left to do on it. I have to say that I'm extremely proud of myself for actually working the ends in as I go for once, which I never do, instead of leaving them all to do at the end.

Cotton Market Bag

More market bags, this time in cotton. I used a cone of variegated brown cotton yarn with some hints of red for this project. I love the way it ended up with these wavy stripes. Funny thing is, I'm making a second bag from the same yarn, and the stripes are nowhere to be found. Funny how that works out sometimes.

Octavio Octopus

Here it is, my latest amigurumi creation, Octavio Octopus. I decided to use some variegated blue, green, and yellow acrylic yarn I had lying around, and then also crocheted the eyes in black acrylic yarn. I'm really having fun with making the amigurumis, but have decided to finish up a few afghans that have been hanging around incomplete for quite some time. I hope to have finished pics of them to post soon.

Bleachout Shirts

My husband and I have been making T-shirts using a bleaching process. Various techniques can be used for different designs and such. These pics are an example of a shirt made for personal use recently. The praying mantis was the hubby's idea, which I found funny since the female praying mantis decapitates and eats the male after mating. Anyway, I particularly like the drips on this one. More to come.

The Cactaur Blanket is finished!

I finally finished the cactaur blanket about 2 weeks ago, and am finally getting around to posting the pic. Once again school is kicking my butt and sucking all the time away.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I got really frustrated with it about half way through due to the amount of detail being a big pita, but I'm glad I put forth the effort and wouldn't change a thing.

It is crocheted in acrylic yarn, and is the same size as the moogle blankie I posted previously. It's approximately 49"x75" and would work for a twin, twin xl, or double bed. It is shown pictured on a queen size bed, so as you can see, it was quite labor intensive.

Next I plan to make a baby chocobo blanket, and already have the graph made for it.

The "Plarn" Experience

After several hours of work, here it is: my "plarn" ball! For those of you that don't know what plarn is, it is yarn made of strips cut from plastic bags. The bottom seam and handles are removed from the bag, and the remaining plastic is cut into strips and looped together. If doing this, I highly recommend recycling the unused handles and seams of the bags if possible.

This ball of plarn contains plastic from somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 plastic shopping bags. It should be enough to make a bag. By making plarn and crocheting with it, the end result is a much more durable reusable bag than the the original flimsy plastic. I was originally planning to make a tote bag out of it, but now I'm leaning towards making a messenger bag instead. Either way, it's probably going to be a while until I have the time to tackle the project due to the insane number of papers and projects I've been having to do lately for school. At least there's only a few more weeks left in the semester. :)

Amigurumi Moogle and Earflap Hat

These were made as a birthday gift for a super cute 1 year old. The hat was crocheted in wool yarn, and the moogle was done mostly in acrylic, with a bit of bamboo yarn.

Cactaur Blanket - WIP

Ok, here it is, the Cactaur Blanket. At this point I have about 60 rows left to crochet, a border to add, and the ends to sew in. I must say, that although this may seem like a simple design with few colors, this project has been a royal pita due to the frequent color changes. Thankfully I'm past the worst part, when I was working with 25 balls of yarn, and it's smooth sailing from here. :) I'll hopefully have the finished product pics up sometime next week.

What I'm working on now...

Haven't updated in a bit, so thought I'd fill some space with what I'm currently working on, and my plans for upcoming projects. It seems like there's never enough time in the day to work on everything I want to make. I recently made a scarf, and then decided to make a matching hat as well. Pictures will be posted soon.

Currently working on:
Cactaur blanket - on the same scale as the moogle, but this time a cactaur! It's a bit more time consuming than I first expected due to all the color changes. I'm working with around 17 balls of yarn on average for each row. I'll be posting pics soon showing this WIP.
Hemp jewelry with seashell beads and focal components

Planned projects:
Chocobo blanket - again on the scale of the moogle, but this time a baby chocobo! It's going to be absolutely adorable!
Beach themed Christmas ornaments using seashells
Painted Christmas ornaments
Seashell embellished items including mirrors and picture frames
My first ever quilt
Several different hats
Scarves
Amigurumi animals and such
More market bags, tote bags, and purses
... and of course, more baby blankets.

So, as you can see... I'm going to be a very busy girl :)

Market Tote

This bag is meant to be an eco-friendly reusable shopping bag in an effort to be more environmentally conscious. I made a few adaptations to the pattern I used, and think next time I'll use cotton yarn instead of acrylic to make it even more environmentally friendly. The bag is approximately 17" wide and 15" tall when empty, and expands to carry a lot of stuff. It's also machine washable, so it could be used for groceries, or a trip to the beach and then just thrown in the wash.

Cotton Moogle Blankie

The moogle blankie makes an appearance once again. This one was a custom request through Etsy for someone who wanted it in cotton yarn rather than acrylic due to allergies. The colors are slightly different, but I think it turned out rather nicely. It also reminded me how much I love cotton yarn. It's super soft and cuddly.

6 to 24 Point Star Afghan

One of the things I've been up to lately is completing my collection of unfinished projects. I've had this one mostly finished for quite a while, but I tend to procrastinate when coming to the end of something because I hate to sew in all the ends of the yarn at the end. Each time I start something new, I convince myself that I'll do it as I go along instead of waiting until the end, but after the first few yarn ends, I always end up changing my mind, especially on a project like this with lots of color changes.

This is an older pattern from Annie's Attic. If you're interested in the pattern, email me - I'm willing to share or trade it. I took inspiration from my love of anything coffee and crocheted this in shades of cream and brown. I think it turned out absolutely gorgeous and almost don't want to part with it, but it's up in my Etsy shop as well.

Christmas Star Baby Blanket

So, yes, I know I've been a slacker when it comes to posting here. I've been a bit busy with the new semester starting at school, but decided to take a break from work on a custom blanket to post a little of what I've been up to here.

I've seen several round ripple baby blankets recently, and decided to try my hand at one. I went to my handy yarn stash to see what I had on hand. With Christmas on the way, I thought, what better than to make one in Christmas colors, so I chose to use red, green, and white as the colors for the blanket. It measures 34" in diameter, so almost 3 ft. across. The colors are brighter than they show in the picture, not sure what happened there.

This blanket is also available in my Etsy shop.

The Moogle Blankie Is Finished!

I finished the Moogle Blankie a few days ago, and am finally getting around to posting pics. It ended up being rather large: 49"x 75" which makes it large enough to cover a twin, twin x-long, or double bed. I've got this finished blanket listed for sale in my Etsy shop, and I am also accepting custom orders if you would like this done in different colors for the background, moogle, wings, etc.




Just to give an idea of the size, here it is pictured on a queen size bed:


Sweet dreams kupo!

Crochet + Video Games = Moogle Blankie

I have been crocheting for about as long as I can remember. I've made countless blankets, afghans, bags, hats, scarves, etc. Most of my creations have been given as gifts, but others were sold through craft shows, flea markets, and Ebay. I've recently been toying with the idea of opening a shop on Etsy, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm also beginning to try to write my first original crochet patterns as well, in hopes of possibly getting some of them published. Also, thanks to my husband, I'm addicted to playing FFXI, the online Final Fantasy RPG. I decided to incorporate my love for this game into a crochet project. Thus, the Moogle Blankie was born.

Last fall I took an interest in crochet blankets I was seeing that had characters on them using tunisian crochet, or the afghan stitch. Over the years I had tried making these "image" blankets with single crochet color changes, and also with cross-stitch over single crochet, but was never very happy with the results. I had never used tunisian crochet before, but decided I was going to have to break down and give it a try. I got to work and created a graph for my Moogle Blankie.

I started this project on July 22, and I'm surprised by how quickly it's working up. It was a bit slow at first (mostly because I was being extremely cautious in my attempt not to screw it up) but once i got a few rows in, it seems to be flying by. I'm really wondering why I didn't try this earlier. Here is the blanket on July 23 after 23 rows were worked:



Here's another pic on 07/25/08 with 47 of the 165 rows completed. Looks like I'm going to have to take a little break at this point due to a very hectic schedule, but I hope to complete it soon.



Well I finally have an update. This picture was taken today, 08/05/08 with 75 of 165 rows of the blanket completed. The moogle now has arms and wings, and this has been by far the most difficult part of this project. At one point I was juggling 20+ balls of yarn and trying not to get trapped in my tangled mess. Looks like it's going to be easy going from this point on. :)



This next picture was taken on 08/08/08 with 105 rows completed. As you can see, the moogle now has facial features. He's very happy about this because he can now indulge in that yummy cupcake he's been hiding in the mog house. nom nom nom Moogles love frosting and sprinkles. :)



I've decided at this point not to update with pics until this blankie is completed (which should be in the next few days.) I've only got about 25 rows to go, and a border to add. I'm still debating what color to make the border... I'll probably just make it white like the background, but still not sure. I'm also in the process of getting my Etsy shop set up, and I'm busy taking pictures and such to get everything listed.