MERRY CHRISTMAS!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!

 

Much Joy!

Many Blessings!

Wishing all the joys of the season to all of you,
from theknittycat and Mr. theknittycat

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