Grover / Super Grover for D's Birthday 2009(?)

Wheeee! Super Grover flies again!! 

Smarter than a Speeding Bullet!

"onward and upward to do brave deeds.... up up and awaaaay...."

Look someone needs help!

This is a job for

Super Grover!

Up up and away!

But first I have to hold Mother's hand to cross the street

...................

I'm still craftless, with hands wrapped like mummies now, but my poor Hub needed a Peep for his birthday. What could I do?

I had made Grover / Super Grover for him two years ago, but Grover was packed up (along with the other peeps) when we made a temporary forced move, because our place was being re-roofed.  Soooo ... I unpacked him and he flew in to sing Happy Birthday to my Hub!  ;o)

 "Happy birthday to youuu

happy birthday to youuuuuu......."

Grover was made much like Elmo and Cookie, but with facial features added. I hadn't intended to make an open mouth, but after knitting him up like the others, I just felt he NEEDED that big jaw. So unlike the all-in-one-piece method I used to make the open-mouthed Stitch and Sackboy, since this was an afterthought,  I made the jaw separately, sort of a watermelon wedge shape, and sewed it on.  His red mouth is an i-cord, sewn to the jaw.  I also added a kind of flattened sausage shape for his upper lip, and two little sausages for eyebrows.

This was definitely more work than using the flap /loopy legs technique for the mouth while knitting the head.

 Grover mugging in mug shots.  ;o)

Isn't that a cute little belly?!

His mouth is flexible and can be posed.



Super Grover's emblem is one of my few felt efforts (because I'm not good at that), and is attached to the cord of his cape, so that it's gone when he is in his secret identity of Grover.  :o)

Making his helmet was interesting as I remember, but it was two years ago so I don't remember much.  :o/   I knitted the helmet, but crocheted the visor so it would have more body.  I do remember that I crocheted the visor sideways.

You might observe that the visor is a bit flattened in some photos.  That happened while he was packed away and I didn't notice till after I took most of the pics. Easily fixed though.  :o)

close-ups of helmet

My hub and I were really happy to see Grover Peep again!  Yay!  And now he gives us smiles every day.  :o)


You may be seeing more of the peeps who were packed away in future posts.

Fuzzy Brushed Amigurumi and how they got that way

A Short History of Fuzzy Brushed Amigurumi (crocheted and knitted toys)

In response to a question asked regarding my post of Fuzzy Hello Kitty, I mentioned the history of the Brushed Amigurumi Technique.  There was a little confusion (lack of clarity on my part) and the commenter thought it was my technique, but no, I'm not so clever as that.  ;o)


(I've noted here my recollections which I have verified as best as I can with net research.)


Who's on first?

As I remember, my first encounter with this idea was in 2007, the first year I was making amigurumi.  Wibit, aka Roman Sock had made a fabulous Pomeranian, and described her method of getting that marvellous furry effect by brushing mohair, or mohair blend yarn with a wire pet slicker brush.
http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/2007/09/my-pomerianians.html
http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/2007/09/free-to-a-lovin.html

Roman Sock's adorable Crocheted and Brushed Pomeranian

You can get the free pattern here:
http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/files/pomeranian.pdf

Roman Sock posted a tutorial on how to brush crocheted fabric, including the results with several types of yarns, here:
http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/brushed-crochet.html


The Next Mentions of Using a Pet Slicker Brush

The next mention of this amazing brushed yarn technique, that I  remember seeing, was from Roxycraft, who has a terrific photo tutorial on how to achieve a fuzzy look with ordinary yarn and a slicker brush.

 ---link to Roxycraft's photo tute ---

http://tamiesnow.typepad.com/roxycraft/2009/06/tutorial-making-brushed-amigurumi.html

And later she did a crochet-along for a very cute fuzzy panda, with video tutorials.

(sorry, that pic won't post - click on the first link to see the panda)

--- links to Roxycraft's crochet along and video tute ----
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/09/crochet-along_fuzzy_panda_amig.html
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/09/crochet-along_lesson_one_-_the.html
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/09/crochet-along_lesson_two_-_ass.html


And there was also chezmichelle's fuzzy critters and information.   Possibly around mid 2008? Around the same time that I saw Roxycaft's, or maybe a couple of months before.  The wee fellow directly below was crocheted with bamboo yarn, which chezmichelle said gave an excellent result.

Link to chezmichelle and her cute free patterns here:
http://www.suncatchereyes.net/Fuzzball.html

Unfortunately, like many of us who had blogs on vox.com, chezmichelle lost hers when vox disappeared and much of her info seems to be unavailable.
(except for a few bits and pieces, without photos, through the wayback machine's web archive http://www.archive.org )

P.S. to the vox.com issue - I did transfer my blog to blogspot.com - I have never had the time/energy to fix the look of the early posts, whose formatting got rather messed up in the process of the transfer.  But at least the content is all there.


What kind of yarn fibers work well?

It seems as though you can use this brushing technique with most yarns, but best to test your yarn by brushing a swatch before starting a project.   Some will work better than others.  I've seen wonderful results from wool, bamboo and acrylic yarns, and I'm sure other fibers will work well also.  Cotton yarn may not yield the results we want, but I haven't tried it so can't say for sure.  I've used Caron's Simply Soft, Vanna's Choice and Bernat Softee Baby, acrylic yarns, and all worked well.  I'll post a wee limbless kitty soon (hopefully) that I made with Simply Soft.  The outcome was very soft and silky.  Vanna's Choice came out wonderfully fluffy and fuzzy (see my Fuzzy Hello Kitty).


It's very simple to do, and really magical!  :o)  A very nice crocheted or knit amigurumi suddenly becomes a fuzzy, furry, cuddly softie!  Okay, maybe not suddenly, it's a bit of work to get it to a really fuzzy state, but it's still like magic to me!  :o)


xposted to weloveamigurumi.livejournal.com and theknittycat.blogspot.com

Ewok to Baby Wookie for John's birthday, April 2011

"I have always held a secret belief

that Ewoks are actually ….. 

 ......  Baby Wookies"

Before all of my fellow Star Wars fans get mad ....


Just Kidding!!  heh heh

......

...................

.........

While making this little guy, I thought that his pre ears/helmet look was so cute that I didn't want to sew the helmet/ears on, so I made them removable.  And he DOES remind me of a wookie!  ;o)

This was my freehand version of the crocheted ewoks that I've seen on the net including chiwaluv’s cutie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiwaluvchis/4512124020/
 - there's a popular pattern available here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62785763/pattern-for-ewok-star-wars-mini 

I crocheted him with with TLC Amore, a fuzzy boucle yarn, which is what decided me to use plain yarn and BRUSH Fuzzy Hello Kitty! Yeesh! I thought it was challenging to KNIT with fuzzy yarn!! But when you’re crocheting, you can’t see the STITCHES!!


Since I can't craft at the moment because my hands are healing (hopefully), I thought I'd post a few of the peeps I've been making, and have made in the past, who have been so woefully neglected because I never have a chance to stop knitting/crocheting, long enough to do any posting!  ;o)  I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as my Hub and I do. 

knittycat.vox.com has MOVED! Vox.com is closing

 

Vox.com is closing!

Wow!  What a shock!  Bloggers at vox.com just found out that the site is closing in less than a month (September 30th, 2010,  and we have to move everything or lose it all!

I've just imported www.knittycat.vox.com to
www.theknittycat.blogspot.com,
www.theknittycat.wordpress.com, and
www.theknittycat.typepad.com
(not to livejournal because lj does not allow importing from another blog for some sad reason).

I'll try each of them out and see what works best.  Maybe moving to another site will turn out to be a good thing.  We’ll see…

I'm just really happy that I was able to import my posts to other sites!!  Whew!  All those peeps ... nearly lost in oblivion... what a scary thought!

But now they have lots of room to play!  Alll over the internet!  ;o)

Obviously, this is a work in progress... getting the formatting fixed may take a while.  But at least the posts will survive... I HOPE!  :o)

Sadly, I'll be losing my vox.com site counter.  :o(

Today's count was:

vox site counter September 3, 2010

I will cross post to all three sites for a while, to test them out, and let you know my findings.

A sincere thanks to all of you who have  followed my silliness on vox, and who have been so patient, waiting for me to come up with a pattern occasionally.  I hope to see you in my new home.  And to hear from more of you, since the commenting at each of these new places is open to anyone, not just members!

Pudgie in Pajamas for Dorothy's Birthday

It's been ages since I've had a chance to post any amigurumi, though I've been knitting like mad, as always.  Last night I was thinking about one that I made for my mum-in-law's birthday last year, and just really had the urge to put him up, soooo....

Introducing Pudgie in Pajamas Peep
and his dear friend, Pookie Bear Peep

 Pudgie in PJ's always giggles when you tickle his tummy... but the original has a different reaction!  heh heh 
 
Pudge is our adored giant cat.  We're all a bit obsessed with him, and my Mum in law treats him like a grandchild ('cause he IS, of course!  heh heh), so I figured she'd enjoy getting her very own Pudge to cuddle with.  :o)

......pic of pudge....




 
 
Pudgie and Pookie are very best friends and love to be together.

 
 
 
 
They love to cuddle and giggle and nap, and they love a nice cozy lap to sit in.
 
 
 
  They are so happy, living with their GrandMaw, and they thought that the trip to Scotland was very exciting!   (we didn't send them till Christmas, though because of the mail strike in the UK - we didn't want to take any chances!!)

They enjoy having a nice dish of tuna and box of choco, and a nice bowl of honey, and having lovely bedtime stories read to them.




Pookie gets annoyed when you tweak his ear.  Oops!

 


I made Pudgie freehand (as usual) and didn't make any notes, so I have no pattern plans for him.  I am hoping though, that at some point I can get up the energy to share the simple slip stitch technique I used to make his head all in one piece (including ears).  I do hate sewing on all those bits and pieces!
 
 

The inspiration for Pudgie in Pajamas was this totally adorable Tabitha kitty design by Debi Birkin. 

 

Isn't she adorable?  If you want one of your very own, Debi has a pattern for Tabitha here:
www.debibirkin.com


More pics (if these weren't enough!) on my flickr pages here
www.flickr.com/knittycat

I'm hoping to post her other birthday peep, Kathleen Bunny, soon!  I fell in love with Pudgie in PJs and Kathleen Bunny, who are larger than my usual wee peeps (they were made for cuddling), and it was hard to send them so far away, but their grandmaw loves them, so it's all good!  :o)


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HAPPY EASTER!! A Plethora of Peeps! :o)

HAPPY EASTER!!

A Plethora of Peeps... 

Finally the peeps I've been working on for Easter are DONE!!  and ready for giving!  :o)

Little Eggy Peeps sitting atop their wee pouch nests
if you missed my previous preview post about this wonderful self-patterning yarn
and a simple pattern it's here.

  

Lots of  Eggy Peeps and Easter Eggs and  Eggs with Leggs  :o)

Eggs with Leggs sitting on their little nests.  :o)
 

My favorite egg.
 

an egg ring pin cushion for my sis. I tried it and it works GREAT!  I have to make one for myself!  :o)

a basket of eggs showing the very cool patterning this great yarn makes!

okay I love this photo!  heh heh  Eggys with Leggys!  hee hee

Easter Eggy Peeps tucked inside their little pouch nests
 

We wish you all a very Happy Easter!! 

and a joyous Spring!!

Don't you just LOVE SPRING?!!!  Yay!  Flowers and baby animals and sunshine!!  What could be happier?!  :o)

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