amigurumi Archives - Page 14 of 19

Little pumpkins

I was really hoping to show you a monster today, but there were technical difficulties. So here are some emergency pumpkins.

And here’s the pattern! (conventions and abbreviations here)

1. Form magic ring, ch 1, and sc 5 in ring. Tighten.
2. Sc, *2sc, sc* twice (7 sc). Finish off beginning yarn end.
3. 2sc around (14 sc).
4. *2sc, sc* around (21 sc).
5-8. Sc around (4 rnds).
9. *Dec, sc* around (14 sc).
10. Dec around (7 sc). Stuff!
11. Sc, *dec, sc* twice (5 sc).
Use the perfect finish and thread the yarn through the middle of the pumpkin and out through the magic ring before you tighten; stitch back and forth between rounds 1 and 11 to pull the middle of the pumpkin top and bottom together. FO.

Add a stem or a face as desired. I threaded two pieces of brown yarn into the top of the pumpkin, crosswise, and interleaved square knots (right over left for each pair followed by left over right for each, etc) and then made an overhand knot to finish off.

Happy Halloween!

Schooled by coffee

This is the September Ravelry CAL and Amigurumi Army mission post, which would usually appear two weeks from now (second Thursday of the month after the mission). However, I’m done with them already, and I am going to stop taking part regularly. I have too many of my own projects that are higher priority. So here’s the last of the regular-participation posts.

The CAL theme was “back to school.” I tried to make Stumpy a backpack, but I didn’t measure very well (read: at all) and it was a little snug. However, it fit the Hug Monster:

I did this by chaining, making an oval by stitching around both sides of the chain (with three sc in each end) for two rounds, I think, and then stitching around with no increase until it was as tall as I wanted the front opening to be. Then I switched to stitching in rows, slip stitching at the end to make the first few rows each decrease in length, and then stitching straight (with a ch 1 at the start of each row) until the flap came down far enough. The straps were made just like the coffee mug handle, below, except that I didn’t join new yarn for them – for one of the rows of the bag I did the straps in FL only and then continued with the bag flap in the BL.

I have foreshadowed the next item: coffee! I could have personalized the mug but nothing jumped out at me.

That is, until the coffee did!

The theme for Amigurumi Army this month was “Amis with a Twist.” I got the coffee monster idea from Irka!, though hers is better executed (you may remember her from the fish to sushi pattern). For this one I have an actual pattern.

Coffee:
1. 7 sc in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
FO yarn. Join new yarn in BL at a different spot around the circle.
4. sc in BL around (21)
5-10. sc around (21; 6 rows)
11. *dec, sc* around (14)
12. dec around (7)
Stuff, FO, embroider face.

Mug:
1. 7 sc in magic ring
2. 2sc around (14)
3. *2sc, sc* around (21)
4. *2sc, sc, sc* around (28)
FO yarn. Join new yarn in BL at a different spot around the circle.
5. sc in BL around (28)
6-12. sc around (28; 7 rows)
FO.
For handle: join new yarn to row 11. Ch 20, sl st to row 6.
Sl st again in row 6 one stitch away in direction back bumps of chain face.
Hdc in back bumps of chain back up to top of mug; the first one will be awkward.
Sl st one stitch away from initial yarn join; FO.

Spiky fingers

This was going to be about altering pants. I have pants, they need altering, I was going to do that this weekend and then post about it. However, altering pants? Not the most exciting thing in the world, and after all the embroidery I’ve been doing I was jonesing for some crochet. I started fooling around with yarn and here’s the result.

I have made finger puppets before, but the first one in this batch was Melissa Mall’s mushroom pattern. The pattern itself, I am not so sure about; it’s maybe a little over-complicated and it fails to tell you which way to put the top and bottom of the mushroom together. Actually the printed pattern itself doesn’t say it’s a finger puppet; I had to remember/reconstruct that based on the fact that the stem is not stuffed and the two pieces would not need to be made separately if it weren’t a finger puppet. Anyway, it came out okay. And sparkly.

For the face and spots I used embroidery instead of felt. In particular for the large spots I stitched straight spokes out from a center point and then wove yarn around that point under the spokes.

Then I just started freehanding. I started with the ideas in Where the Wild Fingers Are (note she uses UK/Australia terminology) and made the following two little guys.

You’ll note on one of them the stitch rows run top to bottom instead of around; I was experimenting with ways to make horns/ears at the top. Unfortunately I managed to sew him up cockeyed; the other was crocheted together.

Then I started thinking about other ways to do things, inspired by the big ridge on the back of the smaller brown puppet. I also thought it would be nice to have a puppet that wasn’t flat across the top. Here’s the result:

To make little guys like this, start with a magic ring. You won’t work in the round, but start with 6 sc in the magic ring, ch 1 and turn, and increase across for a total of 12 sc. Ch 1, turn, and sc across for a few rows (the head of the puppet), and then have a row of sc 5, dec, sc 5. This is mostly to make the puppet more fitted to your finger; you could also sc 4, dec, dec, sc 4 for children; keep in mind the final sc-ing together will decrease the size a bit as well. Continue with the sc across rows until the puppet is the desired length – mine both turned out to be 11 rows total. Do NOT finish off your yarn.

Tighten the magic ring at the top and finish off that yarn. This is a good time to embroider facial features. To complete the puppet, stitch the edges together from the bottom of the puppet to the top (the magic ring) and maybe even past that. You can just sc, or you can do something fancier. The green guy above has alternating sc and dc stopping at the magic ring, which didn’t turn out very exciting. The variegated guy alternated sc and dc but with ch 2 in between each stitch, extending one row past the magic ring. Experiment with other combinations! Turn around at the top and stitch back down again! Go crazy!