Pondering with a Slurpee

I usually go to the gym on Mondays, but this time on the way home I decided to stop by 7-Eleven for a Slurpee. It's probably not a good idea to fill your body with syrupy goodness after burning off calories and trying to get in shape. I don't care though. I'm not going to make it a habit!

So as I am sipping my Slurpee I started thinking about plarn. I love recycled and upcycled goods, but I have never made anything out of plarn. I am not interested in making bags or purses, so I am wondering what else would be made out of plarn? I want to make something useful...

If anyone has ideas I'd love to hear them!

Or if you want to make your own plarn here is how:

http://www.plasticbagcrafts.com/make-plarn/

Hearts

I've been making more hearts!

I really like how they have been turning out with a thicker yarn.

I'm going to be putting some crocheted jewelery in my Etsy shop soon. I want to clear out some inventory before I go adding more stuff. Now that I think about it, crocheted jewelery might not sell as well in the summer since it's pretty hot out and yarn can be a little warm around your neck. I guess it depends on the design.

Here is a sneak peak of an item I will be listing soon. It is made with shiny silver yarn, and a shiny pink yarn that has a sort of sparkle to it.

Heart Applique Pattern

Heart Applique

This pattern is free for personal use only, and is licenced by Creative Commons.

Materials:
You can really use any yarn and a small hook. I used Caron Simply Soft 4 medium worsted yarn, and a 33 1/4 mm hook (size D or 3).

Abbreviations:
ch ---- chain
st(s) -- stitch(es)
sc ---- single crochet
sl st -- slip stitch
hdc -- half double crochet
dc --- double crochet
tr --- treble

Important notes:
For R1 crochet into the ring. You will have to slide the stitches close together to be able to fit all of them in as you go along (see image below).

Directions:
ch 4, join with a slst into the first st. (this forms a ring)

R1: sc, hdc, dc, 2tr, dc, hdc, 2sc, hdc, 2tr, hdc, 2sc, hdc, dc, 2tr, dc, hdc, sc (Do NOT turn, sl st, or chain)

R2: sc in next two sts, 2 hdc in next 2 sts, sc in next 14 sts, 2 hdc in next 2 sts, sc in next st, slst in last st

Finish off and draw the loose end through to the back of the heart. I like to pull it tight and draw it through just beneath the slst to bring the cleavage of the heart down more.

A little more than halfway through R1. You can see how the stitches are tight next to each other so I can finish making the last hump of the heart shape.


Heart Applique by Juliette Peterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

My First Treasury

I made my first treasury yesterday!

You can view it here http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=65943

Things have been kind of slow lately, so I am waiting for more sales before I go making and listing more items. I have about 50 items for sale right now.

In the meantime, I am thinking about entering Etsy's Handmade Moment contest. I have to come up with a good idea first. I want to do some sort of animation with live action. It sounds ambitious, but I know what I'm getting into!

Mutant hybrid animals!

I am usually so busy promoting my Etsy shop that I hardly have time to browse and see what else is out there. Today I found a pretty awesome shop...

http://lucyroberts.etsy.com

When the kids move out and leave you with their old kid stuff(like beanie babies, I have a ton in my closet) rip it all apart and sew on different heads! Amazing! The possibilities are endless!

Making Mario

I have a bunch of new items for sale in my Etsy shop! You can check out a few of them in the side bar -->

Lets take a look at my crocheted Mario...

This is the second Mario I've made. The first time I didn't write down the pattern. That wasn't too smart because only a few hours after posting it someone had bought it! I started on this Mario soon after and this time I wrote down the pattern.

Making your own pattern isn't that easy. I based the head and body off of another pattern, but the other body parts and hat had to be invented. I draw out what I want the finished product to look like so I can get a feel for the proportions. I believe that is the most important part in creating a toy.

If the proportions are correct you will have a cute product. Even though terms like "cute" are subjective there are several ways to make your product appealing. I choose to go the Hello Kitty route. If you look at Hello Kitty she has a huge head in comparison with her body and limbs. Also, her head may be large but her eyes and nose are tiny. In Mario's case he has a very large nose. It is one of his defining characteristics, along with his fluffy mustache. You have to pick which features to accentuate. Mario's hat also adds to the size of his head. Giant ears seem to be cute for some animals. It really all depends on the subject, and that is why I sketch out what I want it to look like first!

I also mark down what colors go where. I suppose since I did do this in photoshop that I could have colored it, but that might distract me from the overall design. And I like to print it out so I can work on it while away from the computer. Ok I lied! I usually sketch it out on real paper. ;D

New Layout!

This blog just got a makeover!

It only took me all day to do it. D:

I thought I was getting into some CSS and HTML, which would have been no problem. Google's blogger has it's own language and XML. So after fighting with it I finally came to a compromise with a pretty cool design.

First post!

So this is my first uneventful post. I hope you like it so far. I will try to keep the typos down to a minimum, although I am known to have random boughts of lolspeak.

This layout is awful, and I will be creating something more appealing soon to appease the masses.

Ha. What masses?