Craftzine's Very First Crochet-Along!

Hi Everyone... I know I've been horribly irresponsible with this site lately. I hope you didn't abandon me thinking that I abandoned you! Certainly not, I've just been gravitating towards more mundane things of late. Boring, but that's life sometimes. So let me try to make it up some by telling you about Craftzine's first crochet along ever! "Gosh, Ami-G, get on the bandwagon, that's old news...geez!" Ok well I'll just remind you then. (^_^).

Yesterday I received a very excited sounding email from Laura at Craftzine about a cute little fuzzy panda ami they'll be sharing with the online community next week. The pattern is contributed by Tamie Snow from Roxycraft who is also the author of Tiny Yarn Animals. Look, it's sooooo cuuuuuute:From what I understand it's a lesson based crochet along partnered with Lion Brand Yarns. The first lesson is next week, Sept 7. Follow this link to Craftzine for more information! Of course, there will be a Flickr group for sharing and discussion. Gosh, how fun! Be sure to help spread the word. I can't wait to see all the finished panda cuties!

(^_^)v

Ami-G

Have a Munny Day!

I’ve been doing a variety of things around here. Mostly mudane and not worth posting about. My daughter’s school semester is one half day away from the end and I have good intentions for summer vacation. I hope I can keep the motivation up! Here’s some things I’ve done recently that maybe you’d like to see. Or maybe not, but I’m posting it anyway. =p

I love Munny dolls. And Dunny dolls. And all those weird vinyl toys etc. I’d start a collection if I didn’t feel so guilty about wasting money and space. Here’s my first Munny sketch. Done in pencil then in ink. I think I should get some 4 inch dolls to do with my daughter this summer.

Here he is colored in photoshop and made into a dorky wallpaper for my desktop. heeIn Amigurumi news... here’s a little guy I started yesterday. No plans. No direction. I just wanted to feel the calming rhythm of hook and yarn being stitched into something. ANYTHING. This so far. It has green cat eyes I bought online eons ago, but I’m not sure I really intend for it to become a cat. We’ll see.Oh yea, we were also watching Cardcaptor Sakura again. Kero-chan CHECK! I also made this crocheted flower with beads for a hair tie. Woot. The yarn is cotton. I've not done much with cotton before but I'm thinking I want to do lots more.I hope you’re all doing well out there. Live long and prosper. (Yes I saw the new Star Trek and I loved it! Casting was great. I'm excited for the future of the series.)

What else have I been wasting my time with instead of making amigurumi and writing patterns? Watching too much Heroes. Watched all of Season 3 in a few days. Whew. Addicting.

Stay cool! (^_^)v

A Doodle a Day Keeps the Doldrums Away

I'm trying to dig out my creative self again. My TRUE creative self that once was when I was much younger. I was a fount of creativity back then and now this dried up well only trickles the occassional original idea. sigh. What happened? How does one fight the daily doldrums? How do we stay positive and optimistic in a world that sometimes seems to do nothing but spiral into a dark abyss of.... wow ok that's definitely NOT how to stay happy. hahah Let's get away from that line of thought.

So I've been doing some doodling. I figured that should help at least a little bit. These came out of my pens throughout last week. Here are some happy dreaming little flowers. A girl and a... dog? Looks more like a weird baby kangaroo or something at her feet. Some owls, love birds... and fish that could be hot air balloons maybe if you looked at it with squinty eyes.

(^_^)v

Happy Day

Today is a good day. I think it's a good day. At least, it's a better day than some of the recent days I've had in a long while. The weather is mild with the smell of fresh rain in the air. The flowers on our balcony are all happily blooming. The pets are at peace. The house is in order (mostly - acceptably so anyway).

And there are a lot of cheery posts on other blogs. Read about making butter at Angry Chicken; especially the post that inspired her over at Portland Food and Drink.com. I don't know why reading about that made me feel good. Then go and read Alice's insanity at Finslippy. That was hilarious. Well, I thought it was. Probably because it sounds like she's my husband's long lost twin. Though he's not THAT bad. (~_^)

I know making this blanket has been making me happier too.

When I pick it up and work on it the colors scream "happy happy"! I'm behind in this soft-waves ripple blanket making craze I know but it still had to be done. This one is being made with misc. left over skeins so the colors and weights are varying. This other one (next photo) took me over a year to do (becuase I procrastinated THAT much) and was requested in those particular colors.

It was requested extra long too so that could be another reason why it took so long to do.

Anyway, Happy Day to you all!!
(^_^)v

ps~ Thanks for all the posts

- from comments on projects to just plain good wishes -

its been very nice. Thank you.

ZOE LILY BELLE PATTERN CORRECTION!

Oh my goodness, please forgive me. I thought that pattern was complete but one of you lovely readers (Celene!) have called to my attention that I have left poor Zoe armless! I did warn I am a horrible pattern writer. *sweat*. Still there's no excuse. Here is the pattern correction (or rather addition!) for her arms. I confess I'm not sure if it's exactly right (I have seemed to misplace the pattern notes for that project) so please PLEASE don't hesistate to let me know if it's wrong. Again I apologize and I hope this didn't cause too much frustration for anyone out there!

Zoe Lily Belle - ARMS

Arm (MAKE 2)

Start with magic ring of 5 ch or however you like to start your spiral/circular shape using 5 ch

Row 2: 2sc in each ch (10)
Row 3: 2sc in first ch, 1 sc in next* five times (15)
Row 4-6: sc in each (in the first sc on row 5 make a cluster – this is the “thumb”. I used a 5sc cluster I think. experiment to your liking)
Row 7: 1 sc in next 3, sc2tog in next* repeat three times (12)
Row 8: sc in each
Row 9: sc in next 5, sc2tog in next sc* repeat (10)
Row 10-11: sc in each
Row 12: switch to shirt color and sc in each.

Bind off leaving long tail for attaching to body.

Note:You can attach the arms whenever you’re ready. I did mine at the end of the project. Whip stitch them to the first row of the shirt, placing them as you see fit. ;) When attaching them, just make sure the thumbs are facing the “right” way; facing forward if you wish for her to seem relaxed with palms toward her sides.

Ok, I hope that makes sense. I will also correct the original posting of the pattern. Thanks again, Celene, for pointing out my error! Everyone cheers for Celene!! (^_^)v

Love...

Thank you all for the kind words regarding my father's death. All in all I think I'm doing all right. Some days are better than others of course but what is there to do but live on? I know my dad would not want me moping about.

So in honor of no moping I designed this valentine for my daughter's class party; cards for her to hand out, you know, that type of thing. She said her favorite animal (now) is a wolf, hence the design. Now if I can only get my printer to work. sigh.By the way, as soon as my finger heals completely from being nearly chopped off with a chef's knife I should be getting back to some yarn crafting.

XOXO
(^_^)

Will be MIA again :(

Sad news in AmiG world...

my dad passed away quite suddenly last Thursday.

Age 67. No warning. Just gone. :(

Sorry I'll be MIA again for awhile...

till next time (-_-)

Something different

I wanted to try something different. Is that ok? Here are some charms I made from Sculpey. I used ivory Sculpey, baked it, put in the hooks, then painted them with acrylic paints and glazed them with the Sculpey Glaze (gloss). They turned out pretty cute. I just don’t know what to do with them now. HahaI also knitted a scarf from Paton’s Lacette in Beautiful Blue. Nothing fancy. I just wanted a blue scarf. The yarn was on sale and I love blue. It’s a little itchy but maybe it’ll be better after I steam it. There are no pictures of the itchy scarf. (^_^)' But here's another picture of the charms! (*_*) I just realized I don't have any reference photos... for size. These little gals are about the size of an American quarter.

(^_^)v

ps~ Are any of you video gamers and knitters? Sony's PlayStation3 LittleBigPlanet SackBoy pattern is now available to download for free (and legally) at The Sun's website. Click on the red typeface in the article and wait patiently for a nice PDF file that you can save to your computer or print out. It's the pattern that was published in the January issue of UK's Simply Knitting - which we never could find on the stands/in the stores. Maybe a lot of traditional knitters got mad about that too; their favourite monthly magazine suddenly no where to be found because of insane videogaming knitting geeks. haha Happy knitting! (I dont think I'm talented enough to do this one... ugh)