Amigurumi Dog

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 17, 2015 | Craft

Morning! Another week, another busy day. I’m dreading the rest of February and March at the moment because it’s going to be so busy 🙁 I have an Easter mini break to look forward to though so that’s something!

Almost all of the crafts I’ve been doing lately have been yarn related. I’m falling further and further into the world of yarn and every time I try one thing I want to try another harder step.

So amigurumi!

Kim gave me this little kit from Japan after she decided to take a crochet break. I say break because I’m convinced one day I’ll get her back into it… XD

I have done general amigurumi before but I thought this would be a good easy project to learn how to read Japanese charts and patterns.

When I started looking at the charts I realised that while it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, it did require a quick internet search to make sure I was translating the terms correctly.

Bergamot decided not to bother waiting for me and just power through.

Thankfully there were also photos! Because you know, Bergamot can’t read Japanese. >_>

I loved the end result of the kit and the instructions taught me a lot of techniques which will be super useful for other projects but the combination of using a 3mm metal hook which hadn’t been finished well and rubbed against my skin with it’s pointy metal side every stitch and the SCRATCHIEST YARN KNOWN TO MAN made me extremely glad it was over quickly.

The hook made me think about how I could fix it though and I got a bit creative trying to make it more ergonomic. I’ll show you what I did next post!

Of course this style of amigurumi means lots of ends to weave in :/

I only needed half the yarn so I will keep the left overs for details on other projects. I’m thinking it would be nice for noses on bears.

Plus side, it looks so cute when it’s all finished!

I want to order a heap of these eyes and noses so I can make my own things!

I think I had more fun taking photos of the dog than I did making it.

And Bergamot approved of her new friend!

So all in all? Would definitely recommend this kit if you’re trying to learn to make amigurumi. The photos are quite easy to follow and if you have basic crochet skills and do some Googling you don’t really need to read Japanese to understand what’s going on.

Now to order those eyes so I can make more!

Current Obsession: Knitting Cardigans

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 5, 2015 | Craft

For my birthday last year Miss Chrissy challenged me to knit another cardigan and gifted me the Marion pattern by Andi Satterlund. I don’t think she knew how much of an obsession this would turn into for me hahaha!

This was actually the first time I had made anything from a proper commercial pattern so when I looked it over the first time I wanted to quit just a little bit because it looked very complicated.

Turns out that it wasn’t… at all!

Chrissy and I decided to make matching cardigans that we could wear when she came to visit and then neither of us actually finished in time hahaha! You can see how hers turned out on her blog here!

My first step was buying yarn. I really just had single balls and odds and ends in my stash because huge projects like this scared me. I wanted beautiful yarn which would last a long time, be fun to knit with and was kind of luxurious.

Treating myself to high quality yarn was an important part of the motivation for this project because I knew I had to make it work for fear of wasting the money ;D

I went to Morris & Sons and purchased a 10 pack of Fribra Natura Sensational yarn. I was lucky because they were having a super sale and it was heavily discounted.

The yarn I picked was a really bouncy merino super wash which means I don’t need to stress about my hard work being destroyed in the wash. I really loved knitting with this yarn because it’s so squishy and bouncy.

The resulting cardigan is soft and warm enough for winter. It’s been through the wash 5 or so times already and there’s no pilling or particular wear so I would definitely buy more of this yarn.

So the actual sweater knitting part drove me a little bit insane. It’s all knit in one piece from the top down but my inability to read meant that I ended up frogging the front cabled sections once each >_> I am still pretty sure it’s actually not *completely correct* but it looks fine so let’s not talk about that haha!

Over all, the pattern was actually easy to follow for someone who didn’t have experience with that kind of pattern. There were a couple of places during the repeats especially on the arms where I rewrote things out so I could count them more easily but I liked the pattern enough to make another cardigan from it right away after this.

I did find it irritating to have to flip back and forth from the page with the cable instructions to the page with the rest of the instructions so I imported them into a drawing app on my ipad and placed the pages side by side to read at once. This helped me keep track of where I was up to as well because I could mark off on the pattern and just erase that layer on the next repeat.

I made the smallest size and I LOVE the fit of the cardigan. It’s fitted but not too small and the sleeves are fitted too which is one of my pet hates with cardigans.

Make sure you check out Chrissy’s version as even though we went from the same pattern they turned out very differently. You can also see the cabling on hers much more clearly than mine and it’s lovely!

I think what really threw me about the cable sections was that it travels so the cable scallops. I was never really able to memorise the repeats well enough to be able to wing it.

Having such a large amount of stockinette was really great for my first one of these because it meant a nice brain break in between the cabling.

I love the fit and finish of this pattern so much that I’m working on another one right now from it but in a lace stitch. Having looked through Andi Satterlund’s other designs, they are all on my wish list now *_*

And from now on I know to look for top down designs which are knit in one piece because the cardigan I knit after this one was the opposite of that and it drove me NUTS. More on my lace related mental breakdown next time.

So thank you to Chrissy for giving me such an awesome birthday gift and challenging me to try something new! I’ve finished my third cardigan and I’m about to start my 4th soon 😀

This face says “Hmmm which one should I knit next…?”

Bonus photo: yarn rainbow!

Sailor Moon Lens Case Crochet Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 29, 2015 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

I’m sensing a theme to this week…

So I needed to make a new, more robust pouch for my camera’s macro attachment. I’ve already managed to scratch it a tiny bit through it’s previous flimsy bag >_>

Why not Sailor Moon themed? Why not indeed. I have been rewatching the old cartoon from the 90’s but obviously I am completely impervious to marketing and influence…

My inspiration was the little red hair clips she has:

For this you need:

Red yarn
White yarn
Yellow yarn
3mm crochet hook
Scissors
Yarn needle

To begin, I measured out the lens I was making a case for. Hilariously I had to take half of these shots using the macro attachment I was trying to make a case for so I had to keep pulling it on and off to measure.

I used some red yarn I had left over from my first cardigan project. While it was the same ply as my other yarns, it was much thicker so I used this regularly and doubled the other yarns to match it. I’m using a nice small hook with puffy yarn so I can get a really tight stitch amigurumi style.

Begin by creating a magic loop/ring with 6 stitches.

Pull it extra tight so the hole doesn’t show at all.

For the next round increase by doing 2 sc into every second stitch. So 1 sc, 2 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc etc until you reach the end of the round.

Continue spiralling outwards to form a flat circle.

To keep the spiral growing, do 2 sc into every third stitch. So 1 sc, 1 sc, 2 sc and repeat until you have a circle which is the size of your lens. Finish the circle by slip stitching in the next stitch and then tying off.

Next do another sc round of white and tie off. My yarn was thin so I doubled it for a really sturdy case.

Now to start the yellow part aka the hair.

You want to do another sc round in your light yellow colour but for this round only work your stitches into the back part of the white loop. This will leave a ridge of white so it looks like the edge of Sailor Moon’s hair ornament.

See how it creates a really sturdy border below?

Slip stitch into the next stitch to end the circle and then chain 2. We are now going to make the sides so you will probably want to flip the piece you’ve made so far over so you can work into the other side.

This row is also worked into just the back of the stitches to create a ridge.

Turn the work and sc in the opposite direction that you were doing the circle. Stop when you have gone around the edge of the circle 70%. At this point, make sure you can fit your lens comfortable through the gap between the sides.

Now chain 2 and go right back around the other way. You may need to continue going back and forth like this for a few more rows depending on how tall your lens is.

Once it’s high enough, put it aside and make the back piece.

The back piece is worked separately in yellow yarn as a big circle again. It’s basically the same thing as the front piece but in one colour. So create a magic loop and then spiral out increasing until it is the same size as your completed front piece.

You can either crochet it directly onto the front piece or just sew it on using a yarn needle. I found sewing gave a cleaner finish in this project so I went with that.

What you should have now is a nice big circle with a hole in the front that you can slip your lens into.

It wasn’t immediately obvious what it was so I decided to add a long hair wrist strap to mine. To do this, I chained as long as the strap needed to be (around 50 stitches) and then single crocheted into the chain. If you chain fairly loose and keep your tension tight when you do the sc it should spiral up nicely.

I then just stitched it onto the case at the opening.

Last double check to make sure the lens can get in and out easily!

To give it a little more depth I stitched on some white highlights to the red section so it would look a bit shiny.

I’m really happy with how this turned out, its been living in my bag happily for months now and my lens has been much more protected. I’ve even dropped it a few times accidentally but the cushion of the thick yarn has protected it! The wrist strap is very handy for when I don’t want to take a bag with me or have other stuff to carry.

Also: super cute 😀

Sailor Moon Gumboots

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 27, 2015 | Craft, Shoe-Tutorials, Tutorial

As you guys saw last week, I did a really quick customisation of a pair of gumboots for our trip to the Peony Farm. If you’re going to wear gumboots, might as well go all out right?

I wanted to just buy some cute floral ones I had seen at Rivers ages ago but I left it too late and the only cute version I could find were hot pink from the kid’s section at Big W. Easily fixed though!

For this I used:

Gumboots from Big W
Glue gun
Pink and gold ribbon
White elastic
Scissors
Needle and thread

The design is a really half-arsed version of Rini/Chibi Usa’s boots from Sailor Moon. I can’t see hot pink boots and not think of that!

I chose to use elastic as the white section at the top because then I didn’t have to deal with cutting stuff on curves. Lazy for the win!

So to get the shape of the front, I placed the ends of the elastic at right angles to each other and then folded the edge over and glued it in place.

At the beginning I was pretty much using glue as a placeholder on this project so it would hold together until the sewing… but sewing through thick rubber is not particularly fun so I ended up leaving it as just glue. Probably not the most long lasting but I can’t see myself being on a farm too often >_>

I glued it on the front to hold in place so I could work out the curve part. To make the fake curve more obvious I glued it as close to the edge as possible.

Once the front was dry it was just a matter of pulling the elastic tightly towards the back so it curved naturally. Fake curve hurrah!

I then snipped off the extra elastic and folded the edge over. To make it a little more sturdy and a little less… ugly, I added some ribbon around the edge on the inside to cover it all up.

Then it just needed some finishing touches: a gold crescent moon! I didn’t have anything gold big enough so I glued two pieces of ribbon together and cut a moon shape out.

Easy!

Glued them on the front and it was done. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.

They might not be the most lady-like shoes ever but they were awesome for avoiding ~~Pegasus~~ horse poop!

How To Make A Light Up Party Headband!

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 29, 2014 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

Today’s tutorial is a little out there which is why I love it! Today we’re making a light up party headband!

Oh yes, it’s party time on my head and everyone’s invited!

You need:

Mini LED fairy lights
Thin wire
Tulle
A headband

Start by cutting small strips of tulle around 3cm by 15cm.

Tie a piece of the tulle around each LED.

Loop the lights around your headband to get them spaced out correctly.

Continue wrapping and looping until you run out. It’s probably good to point out that you should use fairy lights which are battery powered rather than ones which plug in to the wall unless you want to be stuck next to the wall the whole party >_> Just tape the battery pack under your shirt or tuck it into your bra. It would also be good to mention to make sure you use LED’s instead of little bulbs, since LED’s don’t produce heat.

Secure the whole thing using thin jewellery wire.

I wrapped it around the ends especially so it wouldn’t just slide off.

Taadaa!

It’s party time!

I don’t know what this is… a really lame party for one where all anyone does is film videos XD

Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you’re lighting up your NYE party with one of these ahaha!

Want to download this tutorial in one handy file?

Click here to learn about the VLB.

DIY Glitter Jeans Shorts Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 22, 2014 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial

Just a really quick way to jazz up some old shorts today. I don’t wear shorts very often but I’ve been liking them more lately for around the house. I had some boring ones which were laying around so I decided to make them a little more fun so they didn’t feel as much like pyjamas and I could feed my lazy inspiration addiction a bit.

For this tutorial you will need:

Old shorts
Glitter
Fabric glue
Chain (optional)

Lay your shorts out and make sure to put some paper down first so it’s easier to clean up later.

You need fabric glue for this, something which is washable. I’m using one from Helmar and it works really well. I’ve put these through the wash several times now and nothing has gone astray.

Paint a thick line of glue onto your fabric and make sure it gets into the fibres as much as you can.

Sprinkle glitter over the top. If you want to make sure it’s going to stick, you can mush it into the glue with your finger but that can get a bit messy!

Continue all over the jeans. I decided to only do one front panel and a back panel. I also added some gold chain around the edges to give it even more bling.

Once it’s completely dry (leave it over night if possible) set it through the washing machine with nothing else in there to get rid of any stray glitter.