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Tips & Techniques for Knitting theknittycat's Peeps and Other Toys

Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Amazing Micro Mini Amigurumi (knitted and crocheted toys)



Ever thought you'd like to hold a herd of elephants on your fingertip?!


I recently came across the etsy shop of this amazing designer, Su Ami, and thought you would all enjoy seeing her incredible micro mini amigurumi.  Wow!  
The detail and personality she manages to create in these teensy ami's is just incredible!! One has to wonder if she has a flock of fairies assisting her.  ;o)


More astonishing minis ..





Browsing through her store is like a walk in Wonderland!  :o)

If you enjoy micro mini's, one of my favorite amigurumi designers of all time is MUFFA. 
She also creates amazing works of amigurumi in  fingernail size.  Again, Wow!


Yoda





How these incredible artists achieve these masterpieces is a mystery to me!  But I love looking and marveling at their creations.

Have any of you dabbled in microminiature?  My smallest creation was about 1/2" tall and 1" long, and was extremely simple!



Penny Surfing

Some of my smallest creations (giants compared to Su Ami's and MUFFA's) are here:



I hope you all enjoy seeing these adorable works, by these two amazing artists, as much as I do!



theknittingkitty for theknittycat

Friday, July 29, 2011

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

theknittingkitty for theknittycat

Friday, September 10, 2010

Cute Sackboy for Sale! & Oscar the Grouch ...


Or ... what to make when you're feeling grouchy ... Oscar of course!


Sackboy Peep for Matt's Birthday
Sackboy Peep on flickr
I get quite a few emails from folks asking to purchase a knitted Sackboy like the one I made for Matt, but considering the fact that my poor Hub is still (a year later!) waiting for me to make one for him, I don't think that's feasible - even if I would ever consider selling any of my peeps (wouldn't that be slavery??). As most of you know, I only make them as gifts of love, for friends and family.

But... I have found a solution for those seeking to purchase (rather than make), a Sackboy ...




Click here to go to the page where you can buy a Sackboy

Cute, huh?!  :o)

I had planned to make a Sackboy for my Hub's birthday last month, but life intervened and things have been kinda crazy for a while - so no Sackboy Peep yet. :o/   So when Matt mentioned seeing this little guy at thinkgeek.com I had to check it out. As is usually the case with thinkgeek, they were sold out by the time I got there, but I found them at amazon.com!  Yay!

And, YES!  My hub now has his very own Sackboy!  - just to tide him over till I can make one for him - he still wants my peep version.  ;o)   Don't feel too sad for him, I've made him dozens of peeps!  Just haven't gotten to Sackboy yet. Someday I'll get caught up on my peep posting and you can see some of his collection. Okay...  That may never happen, but I can TRY!

This little Sackboy from amazon.com is made out of knitted fabric but (sadly) is stuffed with something rather firm, and isn't soft and cuddly, but he's very cute for display!  We love him!


So what peep did my Hub actually get for his birthday this year?

Oscar!

Oscar the Grouch Peep

Oscar the Grouch
(The Muppet from Sesame Street for anyone who doesn't know him)
Or "Garbo" as I tend to call him when I can't remember his name.   ;o)


Oscar the Grouch Peep

I had to restrain his enthusiasm as he was so excited to have his photos taken.  ;o)  You'd think he'd be used to it, but he says that Elmo and Kermit and Cookie usually grab all the attention. 

He goes along with my Hub's other Muppet Peeps, Elmo and Cookie and Kermie, whom you've already seen all over the place, and Grover, whom I made for his last birthday, but haven't posted yet.

Oscar has a little friend, Bitty Kitty, whom he loves very much, and he's not grouchy with her at all.  :o)

Oscar the Grouch Peep

Bitty feels very comfortable and secure when she's with Oscar.


Oscar the Grouch Peep

Oscar Loves wee Bitty Kitty and watches over her carefully

Oscar the Grouch Peep


Bitty Kitty is very very tiny


Bitty Kitty, Oscar the Grouch's dear friend

My Hub says I should show you the large photo as well, so you can get a good look at her.  :o)


Bitty Kitty, Oscar the Grouch's dear friend



Yep, Oscar's trashcan is a bit (!) small...  Duhh... I was knitting away without looking at his can (no pun intended!  Hee hee) and got a bit carried away with his size. He's knitted all in one piece, so the trashcan was bobbing about, below my needles, and still I never noticed!  Heh heh

Oscar the Grouch Peep
         "UGH!  Tight fit!"

Happily my Hub loves him, just as he is!  Yay!  And so do I.  :o)

Hope you've all had a lovely summer!   ;o)


You can find posts about the other Muppet Peeps here, and pics of lots of the peeps here: www.flickr.com/knittycat




theknittingkitty for theknittycat

Friday, September 3, 2010

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
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!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Pocket Pup Peeps! :o)


First there were Pocket Lambie Peeps, and now we have Pocket Pup Peeps!  :o) 

this is Frankie Pocket Pup Peep


I made little Frankie for our niece after watching her adorable wee poodle mix romping about, recently.  He's sooo cute!  Had to make an ami of him!  And having been making Pocket Lambie Peeps lately, I realized that the lambie yarn would be perfect for him.  With just a bit of changing, the lambie could become a Pup!!   Tried out one of those cute little glass animal noses (from www.glasseyesonline.com ), and it's just perfect for a dog, with their shiny wet noses!  :o)   My Hub and I are just LOVING him!  AND he looks even so much cuter in person!  So another one that will be very hard to part with.  *sigh* 


and this is Daisy Pocket Pup Peep
 

We were so crazy about little Frankie peep that I had to make Daisy Peep for us, or our niece was never going to get Frankie!  ;o)  I was soooo sad at the thought of sending him away, till Daisy came to stay.  Daisy is in homage to the memory of my sweet little Bichon Frise.

More about Frankie ... he has this adorable bit of apricot on his back!  Isn't that CUTE?!


Here's Frankie in his little bed/pocket, which is now Daisy's because I made a slightly bigger one for Frankie...



And more of wee Daisy


here's Wee Daisy with Wee Frankie (they're in loooove... *sings... Frankiee and Daisy were looveeerrrsss....*  hee hee)


See him whispering sweet nothings to her before kissing her?  ;o)

Frankie is a poodle mix - and you know what those Frenchmen are like!  ;o)  heh heh  Yes, I know that Poodles didn't originate in France, but... we're pretending.  ;o)

Unfortunately, theirs will have to be a long distance relationship, because Frankie is moving to Northern California to be with his new mommy, and Daisy is staying here with US!  (YAY!)


And one more of Daisy, giggling because she's in Frankie's new bed/pocket


I just couldn't stop taking pics of these two pups!!  heh heh  I've got dozens of them!!  Yeesh!  Am I obsessed?

I'm knitting away, making lots of peeps, but I never get time to post them. So someday there will be a giant post from me with a hundred peeps in it!  (just kidding! I'm lucky to get a peep posted now and then).

More peeps at my flickr pages http://www.flickr.com/knittycat

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patty's Day - Something Green - the Hulk!

Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone!  

Yep, I missed Valentine's Day... I'll try to post a few Valentine's things in an Easter post...
(crossing fingers that I feel up to that).

Here's a Big something Green for St. Patrick's Day

Marvel Comic's The Incredible Hulk for Matt's Birthday with Lambie Pie







Marvel Comics the Incredible Hulk! for Matt's Birthday, with his best bud, Lambie Pie... ;o)

Our nephew, Matt, had been wanting a Hulk, since I started making these peeps, but I could never bring myself to make one... But, when I ordered a variety of green yarns to get the right shade for something I was making, one of them arrived and I said... Omigosh... it's Hulk green! And I already had some bluish purple that would work for pants... so there I was, making the Hulk! :o) I intended to make him a LOT smaller, but he just happened! ... these things have a life of their own.







I actually finished him just a day before Matt's birthday (Whew!), last September! But I could never decide which photos to post, so he's been languishing, waiting to be seen. He's not really my cup of tea, with his angry face. I like CUTSEY things! With sweet smiles! But he was a challenge, and I learned a lot of things while making him that are useful in other projects, as well. Lambie Pie says that he's much sweeter and nicer than he looks.



One of my fellow amigurumi artists said "he's not angry, just having a bad face day, I guess". heh heh
And that's how I'm looking at him from now on! ;o)

He's not cross-eyed, by the way, just a trick of the camera, and the reflectiveness of the eyes, I guess.

He's the largest peep I've made at 15" tall and nearly as wide! And he's knitted in one piece from toes to top of head, and then each of his arms knitted in one piece, from fingers to shoulders, and sewn onto the torso. I did make notes while working on him, so hopefully I will be able to share the techniques that I discovered, and developed, in the future.



You probably can't tell from my photos, but the waist of his pants is ragged and ripped looking, with a scrap of white shirt left stuck in it, and the hems on the pant legs are ripped. I didn't do a good job of capturing that in the pics, unfortunately. Didn't have him for long after finishing him, and had to take the pics in a hurry.



I'm kind of fanatical about not wanting to attach pieces, as you might have noticed, and I was pretty tickled with the method I finagled for making his torn up waist, and hems on his pants, with my trusty knitting needles, all in one piece with his body, and never having to sew any bits on! YAY! Too bad it shows up so poorly on the pics.

Also, I found a new and very simple method of making hair while working on Miss Piggy, for my DH (she's still not finished, unfortunately, so obviously not posted), and I used it to make the Hulk's hair. It's a really versatile technique, and very easy to do, too. You can make short or long hair using this method. I hope to write up a tutorial for it at some point. Or I will at least post a simple description of the process. As long as you use an eyelash or fuzzy yarn of some sort, appropriate to your project, it is super easy to do! And I do like easy! :o)




Happy St. Patty's Day!





Lots more Peeps photos to be found at http://www.flickr.com/knittycat
and Pudge photos at http://www.flickr.com/anthor

Sunday, December 23, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Our gifts to you - PATTERNS!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
 

We wish you all the very best Holiday Season! 
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to All!

Our gifts to you:
Muppet Patterns!


Christmas Cookie Monster for KristinaElmo Peep:






Cookie Monster Peep:








the Thing Pattern? 





Well, the pattern's written and the photos are in it, but it's not fully proof read. 

But here it is anyway!  :o)
 




Nellie the Elephant is ready too!


Much Joy and Many Blessings to Everyone!

Please check out www.flickr.com/knittycat for larger photos and all of the peeps.



Saturday, November 24, 2007

Nearly a pattern for the Thing, and other Peep patterns!


Please check out www.flickr.com/knittycat for larger photos and all of the peeps.

A pattern for the Thing?!  Is it possible that she's FINALLY finished it??


Well, It is possible... 


Yes!  I've finally finished writing the pattern!  Whew!  No wonder it took me so long to MAKE him!  I had no idea how much work he was till I wrote it all down.  Being quite a lazy knitter, I would never have tackled such an ambitious project if I'd known in advance how much work it would be.  ;o)  And writing his pattern was even HARDER than MAKING him!!  Sheesh!  All of you pattern designers out there, I take my hat off to you.... or I would if I were wearing one.

But don't let me put you off of making a Thing of your very own.  Although the pattern is pretty long (at least for MY standards ...  I like things I can make in a day or three!), each part of it is fairly simple to do.  I do recommend that you are an experienced knitter, or at least a very adventuresome beginner!  I knit him in the round on two circular needles, but you could use dpns if you are more comfortable with them (they always make me feel that I need two extra hands), and there are no seams to sew, but the head and arms, and brow ridge, are knit separately and sewn on.  Other than knitting and purling, I use k2tog for decreases, and two types of increase stitches, the kfb and the kinc.  Video help for the kinc here
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/increases 
scroll about halfway down the page for increasing in the right side of the stitch, where she calls it a KRL (“Knit Right Loop”, and  KLL for the left side of the stitch).  Then it's just knit purl knit purl.... and so on and so on.... till you have a big orange Thing!  :o)


I will be posting the pattern in pdf format very soon (I just need to add photos to it first).  It's my Christmas gift to Marvel fans and the knitters who love them!  :o)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  A slightly belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Patterns Coming?
 

In other peep news - I've nearly completed a pattern for Nellie the Musical Elephant (because our niece wanted one like her - so I took notes while I made hers - Hurray!).
Also, I'll be posting a pattern for the Unbroken Heart soon as well.







Christmas is nearly upon us and I have LOTS of tasks (as I'm sure you all do), so I don't know how much I'll be able to get to, peep-wise, for the next month, but since I've been so bad at adding posts here, you probably won't notice.  ;o) 
The good news (for some folks) is that I'm planning on making an Elmo and a Cookie Monster for Christmas gifts and I'll be making notes on their
construction as I make them, so apres Christmas, there may be patterns for them soon. 







We wish all of you  
Very Happy Holidays!  
And we hope that you have lots of fun preparing for them.  :o)