Cuttlefish Pattern

So, sad story time.  You might remember how I used to make little cuttlefish plushies for some of my online crafting escapades.  (It's also great for stash-busting, which means using up little bits of leftover yarn.)

This beauty is made from yarn I dyed with 

Easter Egg dye and food coloring.

The pattern was written by a great, generous crafter over at a website called Wyld Scallyns.  Unfortunately, that site is no longer working, and I Love My Cuttlefish.

Using my faulty memory, a Spanish bunny pattern, and a lot of luck, I have tried my best to reproduce the original look of Mr. Wyckoff's crocheted cuttlefish.

Please note:  This pattern is not meant to be exact.  I hope that my imitation is seen as the sincerest form of thanks and flattery to Mr. Wyckoff and his designing talent.

Cuttlefish

Supplies

• 50 yards worsted weight yarn (approximately) in desired color
• G-hook (4.0mm)
• Fiberfill/polyfill
• 10mm safety eyes
• Yarn needle
• Bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea (optional)

Instructions

This pattern is amigurumi style (meaning continuous rounds, not joined rounds) and worked in two parts: the body and the head.

Stitches and terms used:

Inc = increase

Dec = decrease (sc2tog)  I recommend the invisible decrease from Planet June.

Bauble = 2dctog in one stitch

F (Feeler) = Sl st in FLO of base stitch, ch 11, turn and sl st 4, sc 3, hdc 3 back.

T (Tentacle) = Sl st in FLO of base stitch, ch 11, turn and sl st 10 back.

2inc = one increase in each of the next two stitches (for a total of 4 stitches)

Body

Start with either a magic circle of 4  OR  ch 2, sc 4 in first ch.

Round 1:  Inc x 4 (8)

Round 2:  (Sc 2, 2inc) x 2  (12)

Round 3:  Sc around  (12)

Round 4:  (Sc 4, 2inc) x 2  (16)

Rounds 5-6:  Sc around  (16)

Round 7:  (Sc 6, 2inc) x 2  (20)

Rounds 8-10:  Sc around  (20)

Round 11:  Sc 9, 2inc, Sc 8, 2inc  (24)   Adjusting stitch shift.

Rounds 12-14:  Sc around  (24)

Round 15:  (Sc 10, dec) x 2  (22)

Round 16:  Sc around (22)

Round 17:  Sc 10, dec, Sc 9, dec  (20)  Adjusting stitch shift.

Round 18:  Dec x 5  (10)

Slip stitch to next, but do not cut your yarn.

Tada!  The basic body shape has now become clear!  Now, it may or may not be obvious, but when you were increasing along the way, they were bunched on either side, to help make a flattened shape.  
You should have finished with your hook on one side of the flattened body.

Edge Ruffle:

Turn the flattened body and slip stitch down the sides of the body, as if outlining it.

Tip:  Keep your stitches loose, as you'll be cramming 3 stitches into them on the next row.

When you get to the tail, you can ch 1 to help you get over the starting round/magic ring.

Continue slip stitching up the opposite side of the flattened body until you reach the other 'shoulder'.

Ch 1 and turn.

(Dc 3 in first st, sc in next) and repeat until you've gone all the way around.

Tip:  If desired, Dc 5 in same stitch at tip of tail for a 'fan' look.

Sl st to finish off and cut yarn.  You will use the tail from the head to sew the pieces together, so secure this end as desired (I usually stuff it inside the body).


Head

Start with either a magic circle of 5  OR  ch 2, Sc 5 in first ch.

Round 1:  Inc x 5  (10)

Round 2:  (Sc, inc) x 5  (15)

Round 3:  Sc 4, F, (T x 6), F, Sc 3  (15, 7 sc, 2 feelers, 6 tentacles)

Tip:  Use a stitch marker with the first stitch of this row, to ensure accuracy.

Round 4:  Sc around, using the 8 free back loops behind the tentacles.  (15)

Tip:  Count after this row; for some reason I always end up adding a stitch somewhere behind the tentacles.

Round 5:  Sc 5, (bauble x 2), Sc 3, (bauble x 2), Sc 3  (15, 11 sc, 4 bauble)

Round 6:  (Sc, dec) x 5  (10)

Sl st and cut yarn leaving a long enough tail to sew pieces together.

Place safety eyes as desired.  I like mine on the outside of both bauble stitches, but some like them between the bauble stitches.

Stuff both head and body as desired, then sew together.

You're done!  Congratulations!

The original pattern by Steven Wyckoff on Wyld Scallyns was free, as is this pattern.  Please do not try to sell this pattern as your own, as it does a disservice to the original creator.  Thank you!

Commissions Complete: My Little Ponies

A bit of a throwback, but still worthy of being shared...

I had a girlfriend of mine with three daughters ask me way early in 2015 if I knew how to do My Little Pony plushies.

Well, the answer (at first) was no.

Then I broke down and bought a pattern pack for the Mane 6 (the six main characters) from the Nerdy Knitter.

First I tried (as was previously posted) Rainbow Dash.  That quickly led to starting the first Twilight Sparkle, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out her mane at first.

So, I took a step back.  (Sort of.)

And then I informed said girlfriend that "Yes!  I have done the pony thing!"

(Word to the wise: don't ever volunteer when you haven't actually figured the whole pattern out first.)

Her little girls' favorite ponies are Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Shining Armor.

Right.  Noooooo problem.  Me and my big mouth.

I started with Rarity.

The one issue: not placing her neck higher so her head isn't down.

For the first try, I did eyes painted on wax paper and then glued to sewn-on felt bases.  I then painted on her eyelashes.  The cutie marks are felt, hand-embroidered.  Her mane and tail also have pipe cleaners attached inside, to help them curl.

 

For my next trick, I went on to try Twilight Sparkle again, this time with slightly more accurate colors.  (And of course, I didn't know it at the time, but Twilight has two forms: unicorn or alicorn.)

I had a lot of trouble with this pattern.  My main issue: her tail and mane.

This time, I got a little more crazy and instead of using waxed paper (which allowed me to trace Rarity's eyes directly from a print-out), I painted Twilight's eyes right onto the felt base with puffy paint.  I then vowed never to put that kind of pressure on myself again.

I cut the pink part of her cutie mark out of felt and sewed it on.  I then painted the white bits with puffy paint.

The great problem with Twilight's mane and tail as they're written in the Nerdy Knitter pattern is that there are no pictures to help you assemble them.

It's really very terrible, and for the price of the pattern, I expected better.  It ended up taking me three Twilight Sparkles to master the exact assembly of her mane and tail parts, and what I did does not follow the pattern, enough so that I'm tempted to release my own tutorial to help newbies out!

(Yes, this is a rant.  It's just about over.)

The last pony was Shining Armor, who has his own separate pattern for sale:

Main issue:  his tail.

Thanks to a helpful tip over in the Harry Potter challenge, I switched to printing out Shining Armor's eyes and cutie marks on white, iron-on twill patches (available at any Wal-Mart).  There followed a sizing and comparing process:

 

Which was well-worth the effort.  I still paint 'eye-liner' and the eyelashes on the girl ponies with puffy paint, but the exact science of accurate cutie marks is irreplaceable.  

The one thing Shining Armor taught me, however, is what happens to yarn when you scorch it.  

(Hint: It's not good.)

I didn't notice that my iron had shut itself off after an extended pause, and begun to cool.  Then when his eye wouldn't stick, I thought I just had to hold the iron down longer.  This resulted in a hard, brown crispy patch of yarn around his left eye.  I was nearly devastated.  

I say 'nearly' because I had the bright idea to paint over the patch with white paint so it would be less noticeable.  Well, I for sure notice.  But it was an experiment, as well as a gift that would not be too highly-scrutinized.

Finally, pictures of the three together:

So I went on my merry way, shared a few photos around on the social medias, and in general went back to Minecraft stuff.

Then I got a follow-up order for another Twilight Sparkle and my very first Fluttershy.

Apparently I wasn't done with perfecting Twilight's mane and tail assembly.

Fluttershy was relatively simple; all the base pony bodies are the same, barring a unicorn horn or pegasus wings.  (Once you get past the terrible neck directions - that's another rant.)

The issue:  mane and tail, again.

I actually went to the forum help group for the patterns on Ravelry and asked about her mane; I couldn't get it to form the curly shape of Fluttershy's mane as seen in the show.  I was told to add pipe cleaners (which is nowhere in the directions).  I still feel only marginally successful.  

In addition, her tail was too tall and it raises her back legs off of the ground.  I vowed in my next go-around with this pattern to remove some rows (in the repeated rows, not any of the shaping rows) to see if that would help.

Her eyes and cutie mark are 100% ironed on; the eyelashes in this case were colored at the edges with Sharpie before ironing them on so that the white of the patches wouldn't show on the edges.  You have to be very careful, however; the twill fabric likes to drink marker, and the color bleeds.

 

On to the second (technically third, but second ever completed) Twilight Sparkle.

I can safely say I am 98% satisfied with this one.

The 2% of dissatisfaction is my fault; I didn't change my printer settings back to "Best" when printing her cutie mark, so the pink is not dark enough.  My bad.

But her bangs stay down, her mane is all aligned, and wonder of wonders!  Her tail has great curvature.

 

The guy who ordered them was very happy, and I considered it a win!

This of course is not the last of my pony adventures; oh no!  But that's all I have time to share today.

Craft on!

Groots Galore

I promise I haven't been idle, beyond my obvious propensity to play LotRO over the weekend!  I recently shipped two orders out from my Etsy store, and the one for Canada had a little extra surprise in it.

You might remember the post I did before Christmas about the Baby Groot.

He proved to be quite the popular little fellow when I put him up on my Facebook page, and I had requests to make more and sell them in my Etsy store.

Unfortunately, licensing issues occur and all that legal fiddle-faddle, so that's never going to happen.

I did, however, make a second one for a friend of the Panda's up in Ohio:

A surprise for his wife, so I haven't posted it on Facebook.

And although I'm not ready to release all the details, I made a third Groot who is now somewhere in Canada:

I added a few extra rounds this time, as an experiment.

I can totally give Baby Groot out as a gift, and nobody's the wiser.  Plus, if I include them as bonuses in shipments I do, I can simply say, "They're unsellable due to copyright issues.  It's a gift; enjoy!"

I've cleaned up a few other projects in my Ravelry list, and had the pleasure of going back to working on Guude last week.  I hope to do more of that tonight before LotRO with DSCA and Deevius!

The to-do list:

1)  Guude plushie

2)  VintageBeef plushie

3)  Enderman

4)  Purple & black scarf

5)  Minecraft Cake Pillow (v2.0!)

...and then all of the new Facebook Art Trades for 2015!  I'm really looking forward to them!

Plushie Pusheen!

Aside from the Facebook Art Trade, I needed an awesome gift to give Midori for Christmas this year!  I tossed around the idea of a cat scoodie, but my final choice was influenced by one of her pins, located conveniently on her "Wants" Pinterest board:

20" Pusheen Plushie, $23.99

I am nothing if not offended by the idea of not attempting to make something like this myself, especially when I found the perfect free pattern through Ravelry.  (The link goes to a blog this time!)

I sat down with some light gray yarn, and went to work.

With the exception of the first stripe turning out wonky, I was pleased with the results:

Excuse me, sir...do you have any Grey Poupon?

To get the second stripe perfect, I tried to center the beginning row with the original beginning row of the first stripe.  From there, I kept the stripe centered on that initial row, ignoring all of the counting that took place.

I also did the invisible decrease technique I picked up from the blood cell plushie project.

The only thing I would change about this (other than getting the first stripe even) is to try PlanetJune's invisible color change technique on the tail.  I didn't take the time to learn it; I was in a rush to make sure I had enough time to assemble the piece and get the fabric paint smile done and dry before having to wrap it.

All that to say...Midori loved it!   (I think she was surprised I looked at her Pinterest board in the first place.)

Win!

Later this week, I'll share the most awesome of the Christmas gifts from my husband.  I need decent lighting to do the photos justice!

Later!

Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #4

I ended up getting confused at one point--I thought one friend had signed up for the Art Trade and was worried about which Doctor Who or Avengers project to do...

...and then discovered I was wrong!  My good friend from college (granted, she worked for me) graduated as a nurse and is working up in Ohio.  I believe her husband teaches for a Christian/private school, and they're probably getting lots of snow this year for Christmas.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do; I needed something that would be simple, preferably in colors I already had on hand, and perfect for a nurse (making other nursing coworkers jealous is just a plus).

There's things like stethoscope cozies, and little crocheted caps (do people actually wear those?) but in the end I found myself looking up search words like 'bacteria' and 'virus'.

See, ThinkGeek.com carries plushie microbes you can get for your friends.

And, well, if it can be a plushie...it can definitely be crocheted.

I found this charming $1.00 pattern from Jana Whitley (Ravelry link; purchase necessary) for a red blood cell amigurumi and fell in love.  (She also has a white blood cell pattern, too!)

It took me two separate nights, but only because I didn't realize I needed a tube sock for the stuffing (how else do you think it has that doughnut-like shape?) and asked my fabulous husband to raid his dresser for any lonely socks.

Some eyes, a little fabric paint, and some finishing touches while watching The Expendables 3, and voila:

Microbial adorableness!

He's even concave in the middle!  Now to have the "shipping department" of my crochet emporium dispatch this cute little guy to Ohio!

And now the modified project list:

- Plushie D20

- Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #5

- Guude Plushie

- VintageBeef Plushie

- Baby Groot II

- Purple & Black Scarf

Also, stay tuned for Broken Buttons news this Saturday (with some sneak peeks at our new map, Alucard)!

Baby Groot!

Full disclaimer:  I have not seen Guardians of the Galaxy.  I do not intend to see it anytime soon.  After Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2, I am all Marvel'd out.

However, this did not stop any of my friends from posting patterns on my Facebook wall.  The most prevalent being:

Baby Groot

The pattern was provided by Nathaniel Wise, whom I met through my husband's work at the university we attended.  I think he was angling for me to make him one.  Another mutual friend pointed out that now that Wise was married, his adorable and crafty wife could do it for him, and we left it at that.

However...

I have another friend that LARPs in the same campaign, named Kat.  She is in possession of something I am not: a working sewing machine.  Remember when I made that post about Tatoke?  Well, when the local fabric store had it's summer clearance on fleece, I trotted my little self down there and managed to grab myself some anti-pill fleece in blue-gray for at least 60% off per yard (or more; can't remember at the moment).

Kat offered to help me make my own tunic for free, and she even purchased the trim sewn to the bottom hem and side slits.  (If I ever get around to it, I'll do pictures sometime.)

As trade, all she wanted was a Baby Groot for her husband, Doc.  She wanted it in time for Christmas, so over Thanksgiving I set out to try out Twinkie Chan's free pattern.

The results were quite adorable:

I didn't happen to have a usable flower pot handy.

To date, this is one of the most liked crochet projects on my Facebook wall.  And according to the Facebook Page manager, it's done better than 95% of my other posts made on my official Velvet Key Creations page.  (Go figure.)

And although the crochet subreddit isn't all that populous, most people seemed to enjoy him.  Unfortunately, since Groot is licensed by Marvel, he can't be sold in an Etsy store.  So, the cuteness is limited to personal gifts or trades.  Still, not too bad.

Today's updated crochet project list:

1)  House Slipper Collection (5 pairs)

2)  D20 of Plushiness

3)  Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #4

4)  Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #5

5)  Guude Plushie

6)  VintageBeef VII Plushie

7)  Baby Groot II

8)  Black & Purple Scarf

So, I did finish those goggles...future post!

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #1

So I've been promising this post for awhile; it just took me a long time to get pictures!

On January 8th of this year, I copied and pasted the following status to my Facebook:

"I'm trying something different this year!

Welcome to Pay It Forward art-making project for 2014:

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.


You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

* The rules are simple: it has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.

* It can be anything art-based: a drawing or a conceptual work of art and anything in between. See? SIMPLE.

Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists."

I had to check and make sure that crochet items counted as "art"...since I think of it more as a "craft".

Anyway, I had five sign-ups!

...let's not even examine the fact that it is now December of 2014 and I've only finished three of the five projects.

Moving on...

I had signed up for one of my former professors' art trades; when I was in grad school, I was prepping to teach English in China, so I took Cultural Anthropology, as well as History of Asia in the same semester.  I didn't know that the same doctor taught both classes, so it ended up that I saw her every day of the week for an entire semester.

She's an amazing lady; also a little bit of a geek.  She loves Doctor Who and frequently referenced it in the class my husband took from her, a special class about the concept of time throughout history.

So...I had already successfully completed the red Dalek for Deevius for her birthday during the summer.  What could be simpler than doing another?

Thus, I set out on the quest to create...The Purple Dalek.

Cuddly extermination may commence.

Throw in some Lego figures for scale.

Pretty good!

We met up at a Starbucks near my workplace and must have spent an hour just catching up and talking.  She had her art trade for me:

Fabulous handmade cards, and white shell jewelry!

I'm a huge fan of the abalone shell beads.  There's a particular store in Charleston, SC that I have to stop in whenever I'm in town that sells long strings of them.  I loved everything about this gift!

Thank you, Dr. S!

More on other art trades in a future post...

The Harvest Baby Collection

You may remember Weston, from the beards and beanies commission I did a few months back?

He and his lovely (and miraculous) wife Amy celebrated the birth of their daughter last month!

Paisley Jo was born into a blessed family--her mommy nearly didn't make it.  It was only through the lifesaving medical staff and God's blessing that she is still alive.

To celebrate Paisley's arrival, I put together a little care package:

I call it the Havest Baby collection.

It features a stuffed mouse, a pair of boots, and a hat with ears.

The Panda wasn't sure what to write in the card, so I messaged him the following:

To the New and Proud Owners of the Paisley (+10 to Cute) Magical Creature:

(You knew there would be a nerd reference or two, right?)

Congratulations! We at the Bobbitt Magical Yarn and Clothier Company have put together a Winter Survival Kit to help your darling infant look adorable in the coming winter months!

We call the collection "Harvest Baby" in honor of the autumn month, and are quite sure you will enjoy all the benefits included.

First we have the Mouse Companion. It provides adorableness and a +5 to dispel crying attacks. 

Then there's the Fluffy Tasseled Hat, guaranteed to protect against cold effects. 

Finally, we present the Boots Made For Walking--they ignore all dangerous terrain and just look so fabulous.

On a more serious note, we love you all and join in the many who praise the Lord for His amazing work in your lives.

Love, hugs, and yarn,

Dan & Katie


Well, on Facebook over the weekend I received this picture:

Weston:  Haha!  She loves it!

Let's just say I'm glad that the package got there before Paisley grew out of the boots!  The hat looks like it'll fit for awhile.  ^_^

Cactuar Amigurumi!

Not a super-long post today, but I did finish this month's first crochet project!

It was an emergency request for a friend, who had an acquaintance that fell and broke his clavicle.  The poor guy had to have emergency surgery, and my friend wanted me to make up a squishy plushie as a get-well present.

Eric, the acquaintance, is now home and doing better.

Per the request, I did not put any features on the cactuar (and I am not familiar enough with Final Fantasy to know any better).

Pardon the picture; it was a camera phone!

Pattern here.

(Must be a member; it's a free sign-up!)

I've got to get some serious work in this weekend; maybe we'll get to see the next plushie commission soon!

...you know, from Minecraft?

Oh, I didn't finish that story!

^_~  

Next time?