Etho: Six Months in the Making

We're approaching the end of the month, and I'm officially done with turning in homework/missions for imaginary points.

That doesn't mean I don't like it.

But I'm going up to New York for spring break, and since the new month of missions and then quests (we'll get to that in a minute) will begin while I'm away...I've been holding off on some smaller commissions.

But that didn't stop me from turning in an old Etho for Detention at Hogwarts this month:

He's been loafing about in a plastic bag, waiting for a new order to come in for him (or for him to come around on the commission schedule) since a cancellation last year.

Though I'm not 100% sure of the yardage, it's estimated between 1200-1400 yards (someday I will actually have to do a proper measure).  That qualified me for this badge:

And next month, the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup will be on hiatus--but I'll be able to sign up for sorting if I so choose!

In the meantime, the new Doctor Who-themed challenge entitled Time Lord Travels begins in April.  I have been put on Team Dalek (Exterminate!) and hope to make some decent contributions to the team.  There are reportedly four quests each month, as well as the over-arching Time Vortex Challenge (like an Away Mission or an OWL).

So in April we're looking at:

- 6 Starfleet missions + Brig + Away Mission
- 4 Timelord quests + ???

I don't have a proposal in place for the Time Vortex Challenge.  I wanted to sign up the next plushie on my commission schedule, but the gal who ordered it isn't sure she can afford him anymore.  So for now I'm planning like she's canceled and I'll have the freedom to work ahead on the next commission, or focus solely on the small ones.

I've packed a few of those to take with me (ponies and monkeys and BTCs oh my!) to NY, and I probably won't be able to blog much while I'm there.

So to you, my faithful readers, I say: Craft and vacay on!

(I'll see you in April!)

Hooray for Etho!

The commission, that is.

So, that list from last week?  Boo-yah!  Cross the first one off, baby!

(It's going to be a long, working weekend here for me...)

But not to delay; it's time to put his listing up on Etsy for his patient (I hope!) buyer.  She's already purchased and received her own VintageBeef and PauseUnpause, so she's sorta committed at this point.  ^_^

Here's a quick photo I took of Etho playing the Wii:

There's rumors the game might be Just Dance...

...but he's not telling.

Onward we go!  I still have some time to get work in on those beanies and beards!

Cross another one off the list!

I am so excited--tonight I was able to photo, pack and list on Etsy the trio of Team Canada plushies I've been working on since April!

A huge, HUGE thank you to Zdenka K. from Manchester, U.K. who placed the order and has been supremely patient with me!

Here's one of the photos I snapped before bagging up the boys:

Yes, the sign says U.K. or Bust!

(Yes, I did have to look up the flag before scribbling it down.)

And now, for those of you keeping score at home, we have:

- Etho

- Beards & Beanies Kickstarter

- Nebris

- Enderman

- Custom Wig

...still on the crochet docket for the month.  (Yes, I know what day it is.  Don't make me cry thinking about it.)

In a few days, I'll share the photo of the gift I made for the dear Panda's birthday (very last minute, but also very low-budget, so I couldn't argue with that!).

Cheers!

May Commissions Finished! ...in July.

So I finally (FINALLY!) finished the hand-stitched headdresses for the two PauseUnpause plushies that were supposed to be finished by the end of June.  (I'm thinking I should charge an extra $15 for pieces that have additional headgear!)

I had 2 Ethos I was supposed to make in June...I got some quality work done on one of them, but I discovered that two of the colors I used are unobtainable in brick-and-mortar stores near me, and I don't want to have to order them over the Interwebz when I have no need to order them in bulk.  Plus, one of the colors has been discontinued, so...I'm going to have to find something else.

That being said...

I'll have to rework the Etho pattern color palette.

So I'll be selling the first Etho I made and his copycat that is currently in production as the June commissions.

(Haha, copycat!  Because Etho uses Kakashi's skin from Naruto, who's known as the copycat ninja...)

Never mind.

(It was funny to me.)

But anyway!  I already sold and shipped one of the Pauses over the holiday weekend (Yay 4th of July!), but not before messing around with the Panda's old N64:

@PauseUnpauses Hmm...I wonder what they're playing? What is a Pause's favorite N64 game? pic.twitter.com/p4BsLvcUDC
— Katie (@Velvet_Key) July 5, 2014

The little one in the middle is my personal PauseUnpause, without a hand-stitched headdress.  (He looks so tiny and wee!)

No reply, favorite, or retweet from the real PauseUnpause, but some day I am determined to break his silence!

(Not to mention I had a dream last night of meeting his fiancee, Andrea, and she had heard of me...it was pretty trippy.)

I think the time has come to put that picture up in my DeviantArt profile and then cross-post it to Reddit.  The world must know!  (Okay, well, a small corner of the internet, anyway.)

Later gater!

Happy Birthday Deevius! - Part Two

So Deevius and I attended the SC Comicon together, along with Midori, and I knew she was looking at LEGO minifigs as well as vintage toys.  But I also caught her checking prices on sonic screwdriver replicas.

Well, caught off-guard as I was by her birthday, I went to my fall-back plan: the Panda's Amazon Prime membership, which promises free 2-day shipping on select merchandise from participating sellers.

I began my research!  I knew that I wanted a replica that not only lit up, but made the sonic noise, too.  I think I went through two or three listings before I came across the only one that made noise:

Courtesy of Barnes & Noble.com

I remembered seeing a Doctor Who display in the local Barnes & Noble, however, so I did a price comparison.  With tax, I would only be spending a dollar or so more at a brick-and-mortar location, and not have to worry about shipping mishaps.

And then!

And then...

I remembered that I had an old, ancient giftcard from some friends.  (Like, 2011, 2012 era.)

(Of course, there was a warning on the back of the card saying that after 12 months of inactivity, the company would deduct $1.50/month.  I sent the Panda to the store with it anyway.)

Success!  The full amount was there!  Boo-yah!

But it wasn't enough!  I am famous for handmade craftsies; Deevius is one of my main cohorts in crime!  I couldn't let her down...

So on Friday (we celebrated on the following Monday) I went through Ravelry in search of free Doctor Who related patterns.  

(I am fabulous at last-minute panics.)

I took the pattern I chose and appropriate yarn colors with me to Shadowmoor (since my character has a RP Skill - Weaving: Crochet tag, I can crochet while in play and have a good reason for doing so).

Yes, I did have to give Deevius a not-yet-finished project.

But the final result is totally worth the effort!

Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar here.

And of course I couldn't leave well enough alone:

Dalek:  EXTERMINATE!!

Etho:  ...?  Kurt...someone here to see you...

I tweeted a similar picture to Kurt and Etho, as well as put it up on Deviant Art.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to get a picture of Deevius with the Dalek before she moves north.  ^_^

SC Comicon 2014 - Part 2

So now we come to the brief, post-picnic-lunch section, where Deevius was able to see again, and we tried to get pictures of any amazing costumes we had missed.

Spiderman

Gambit & Rogue

The Tallest Jawa Ever

Lucy Heartfilia (Fairytail)

Fun story: I went up to this gal as she was turning

to walk away, and I tapped her shoulder and said,

"Lucy!  Can I get a picture of you?"

This girls's smile was the most brilliant thing I've

ever seen, which is what encourages me to try doing

a complete cosplay at a con in the future.

(She even let me pick which key she held in the picture--I picked Loke.)

The other two remote-controlled R2-D2s.

(This one snuck up behind me when I was photographing the Jawa.)

Also, a huge shout-out to Midori, who toted plushie Etho around with her for most of the day (barring the fifteen minutes where I was holding him and not taking photos).  She was amazing; every person that inquired about him, she pulled out the small stack of business cards I'd given her, and managed to give away all but four.

(It's my dream, maybe in a couple years, to be able to have a booth of my very own at a con like that.  Cuz that would be awesome!)

And it was pretty legit; one little girl came right up to Midori and said, "I like your Etho."  (Major WIN right there!)

Most other people recognized Etho as 'Kakashi' from Naruto, even if they didn't understand the reference to Minecraft via the redstone torch he had pinned to his left hand.

Here he is with me, posing in front of the "official" SC Comicon badge:

The one other thing we had to do was get Deevius in the Batmobile.  There was no way she was leaving without photographic proof:

Everything inside was labeled "Bat_____".

So, my goodies from the con included:

Tile coasters featuring the TARDIS in other fandoms.

This is Narnia and Middle Earth.

(The artist was out of his Shire coasters.)

Deevius got Middle Earth and the bridge of the Enterprise, c. 1969.

Amazing wooden charms for all fandoms.

Clearly, I went with Legend of Zelda.

Deevius went with Captain America, and chose the necklace option.

The artist also had everything from Marvel to DC, Naruto, and many more.

But there were all kinds of toys, models, shirts--and of course, boxes and boxes of comics.  I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask about some of my retired/vintage/internationally-published collections that I'm trying to finish (namely 'ElfQuest' and 'Asterix and Obelix').

There's always next year! 

So my next con...hmm...I've been invited to MineCon 2014, to speak as a member of the Broken Buttons if they are able to host a custom map-making panel.

But, as the Panda would say:  "There are 3,249 things that have to happen in order.  We are on 8.  You're talking about number 2,796."

Still, he was kind enough to photograph my arms before I became a normal person instead of a crazy fangirl:

Silence will fall.

(But only because I tripped Deevius.)

Until next time, where we'll get back to Minecraft crochet discussions.  ^_~

Minecraft Crochet Segue

(Because I was mean last time and showed Etho with no context given.)

Who is Etho?  Etho is the third member of the Mindcrack server group known as Team Canada.

Etho's YouTube Channel

Although I do not subscribe to his videos, I have on occasion enjoyed his exploits with PauseUnpause and VintageBeef.  He has close to 1.5 million subscribers, and has one of the largest audiences on the Mindcrack server.

Here's the finished plushie:

This is the classic posed-against-the-doorframe photo I use for all new plushies.

I made Etho and then had no close third friend to give him to, so he remains steadfastly beside my PauseUnpause and has posed with him for quite a few photos, some of which have never been published to any of my social profiles.

Fun Fact:

I had originally planned to do

a webcomic using photos of

my plushies and their many

adventures.  I only got through

one strip before other things

grabbed my creative attention.

Here was the first and only panel of the comic:  

The premise was that the MineCon cape I had tied to the Pause Plushie would bring any of the plushies that wore it to life.  And they'd have adventures all over my house, up to and including holding my husband (the Panda) hostage so that I would crochet Etho and Pause a new Beef for them to play with.

Anyway, that never happened.  But here's the picture proof that plushie Pause went to MineCon:

Signatures include: BdoubleO, GenerikB, BlameTheController,

SethBling, VintageBeef, KurtJMac, DocM77, MCGamer, Pyro

Guude, WBaj92, Zisteau, and JustVan (Bonus!) 

But as it happened, I started working on other projects, some of which were my very first commissions, and first inventions.  I've only ever published one crochet pattern to date, and that was only here on this blog.  That will probably change in the future, as I choose to divulge the new techniques I've learned/invented/muddled through to the masses.

Other Minecraft creations:

Mini-VintageBeef

(Also known as 'why you can't make those big plushies smaller'.)

Patches done after the style of the Minecraft creeper, pig, and sheep.

A little cake keychain.

All three of the above are for sale in my Etsy store!

Well, that was a short post, but with more pictures!  Tomorrow I'll share about how I got started on taking commissions...

What?

Head of the lore writers?

Oh, right.  Hmm...maybe time for both?  We'll see!