Warm Fuzzies

mmm...Pizza...and Cheese-kun

I have an unhealthy obsession with manga and anime.  I find the artwork fascinating, the stories thrilling, and the authors brilliant.  It’s always been a guilty pleasure of mine.  I recently finished watching Code Geass, and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the first season.  Imagine my pleasure when I found this pattern for Cheese-Kun (Pizza Hut’s mascot in Japan, who makes a couple appearances in the animation).  I wasted no time diving into the project.

When I was 80% finished with crocheting my very own Cheese-Kun, I ran out of yarn.  To quote Kurtz, "The horror, the horror."  I actually purchased the yarn on clearance from my LYS, which unfortunately, did not have any left when I returned with the hopes of purchasing another ball to finish my project. (darn!) I was, however, able to find the same color in a cashmere-blend, and decided that the dyes matched well enough to make the purchase.  So that's how Cheese-Kun gained a bit of upper-class flair.  After stitching on a face and stuffing him, I looked at Cheese-Kun, and he looked at me. He was missing something.

I stopped by a Pizza Hut after work and sweet talked the pizza boy into giving me an empty Personal Pan Pizza box. I placed my Cheese-Kun next to the box. Hmm, still missing something. The pizza box felt...empty. So I knit a pizza slice to fill it.

And with that, my Cheese-Kun was complete. You see how happy he is?

I’m having a bit of trouble finding a place to display him, though. Wherever I put him and his entourage, they look out of place. Oh well, the space by my woefully neglected sewing machine will have to do.

T.V. Jake

I've been working on some pretty time-consuming knitting projects lately, and needed a little change of pace.  So I picked up the crochet hook and whipped up a little something.

A remote-control holder!  Who said stuffies couldn't be practical?  T.V. Jake used to be a free pattern that was downloadable from here, but it looks like it's no longer available there.  But in case anyone's interested in the pattern, the bottom of my printout says that it was originally published in Crochet Home Magazine No. 58 in 1997.

I didn't have the plastic cat eyes called for in the pattern handy, so I just cut some goofy-looking eyes out of felt and used a glue-gun to secure them.

Now that we have Jake handy, our remote control now has a designated guardian, and Kyle and I will no longer have to waste time looking for the remote.  Well, theoretically.  We didn't have much of a chance to test things out.  It didn't take Oscar long to get jealous of the attention we were paying to Jake.  He took a sudden interest in the remote.  He wanted to guard the remote, too.  Or so we thought.  Enter Exhibit A:

Oscar attacked all of the buttons.  Okay, nearly all the buttons.  He was kind enough to leave the "Enter" button unscathed.  Who'd have thought that rubber was so tasty?  Needless to say, the remote is significantly harder to use now.  It's now permanently resting in Jake's grasp; we aren't going to bother with it anymore.  It gets pretty frustrating when you have to push the volume button more than a dozen times to get the volume to go down by one bar.  But you know what?  Getting up off the ole bottom to walk a couple of feet to change the channel isn't even that much of an inconvenience.  It's actually pretty refreshing to get up and stretch your legs once in a while. 

Perhaps Oscar really did know what he was doing all along...

Kabuto Mushi - Horned Beetle Amigurumi

I've just realized that I haven't posted a stuffie in a while...the truth is, I haven't been making as many of them as I used to, mostly because I'm running out of places to put them.  New York apartments aren't exactly roomy, and stuffed toys (both purchased and handmade) have long ago taken over the place.  So I've been trying to resist the urge to make toys left and right, and to try and focus on crafting items that have a bit more utility...like bags and clothing.

But sometimes, you see, I just can't resist.  Behold.

Simon's a kabuto mushi, or horned beetle.  Although the instructions are in Japanese, charts are included, so the pattern is very easy to follow.  He's a bug, and for once, I'm not completely grossed out.  Why, I'd even say that he's cute.  But don't tell him that, because he'll get a big head.

I mean, look at him!  Seeing him scuttling across the floor makes me squeal.  Not in fear, mind you, but in delight.

But Simon's a macho guy.  He'd like me to show you his big horns.  So even though he may look sweet, the guy can put up a good fight.  Or so he says.

Although he has incredibly good looks and a very manly phisique, overall, Simon's just a mellow, easy-going guy.  He likes long walks, hanging out on wooden surfaces, and just chillin'.  Any she-beetle's out there interested in a date?  ...  ... ... No?  Didn't think so, but Simon insisted that I ask.  After all, stuffed beetles can be extremely intimidating.  Especially if they have horns.

Spring Chickens!

It's been a while since I've finished a crochet project, hasn't it?  I'm not sure exactly why, but I find that I seem to crochet a lot more during spring and summer time, and switch to knitting during fall and winter.  Weird, huh?  At any rate, I'm finally convinced that it's really spring because in addition to it being gorgeous outside, I've completed my first crochet project of the year.  Behold my new kitchen decor:

Not just one, but two spring chickens! 

The big, round chicken is a potholder that, quite honestly, I probably won't use much because I'm terrified of the inevitable: the bit of food that would fall just so on my beautiful white chicken, staining her forever.  Oh, the horror!  She works pretty well as wall art anyway, right?

And then there's the little shelf doll.  I call her Florence.  Or just Flo.  Depends on my mood.  I just love her little apron!  She was lots of fun to make, and although you can't see in this picture, she has a pretty feathered tail, too.  She keeps me company when I do the dishes.

The pattern that I used to make both chickens was available for free on this site last year, but it appears that they've taken it down.  Phooey.   I'm not exactly sure which crochet magazine the original pattern appeared in, but in case anyone's interested, I did a quick internet search, and was able to find this eBay listing for the pattern, cut out from the magazine in which it was originally printed (although the price for shipping's a bit steep).

Bunnies from Knitted Squares

My household has no shortage of bunnies, but I couldn't help myself.  Oscar needed friends.

Meet Susie and Moe.  Can you believe that they're made from a knitted square/swatch?  It's true.  Here's how.  While watching a DVD, I knit two little stockinette stitch squares from a mohair-blend yarn that I had purchased quite a while ago for a project that I had dreamed up, but never took the time to actually start.  I enjoyed the mindless knitting; it was perfect for a lazy weekend.



As you can see, Susie and Moe have a penchant for books.  Oscar does, too, but not so much for reading them as chewing them up with his razor-sharp bunny teeth.  But he's only doing what's natural for rabbits, and he's just so darn cute that I can't get mad at him.  It was my fault, anyway, for having books on a shelf low enough for Oscar to reach.  Nice bunny.  Bad human.  Poor The Red Tent.  I liked you.  But I digress.  Back to introducing our new knitted bunny friends.



Susie and Moe have been neighbors since childhood.  Moe's had a crush on Susie since forever, but he was never brave enough to do anything about it.



So Susie did.  Moe realized there was no reason to be shy.  It didn't take long for him to propose.

Susie said yes.  And so many, many more little knitted bunnies are to come.  The end.

*The bunnies are knitted with Lily Chin Greenwich Village on #7 needles, and I used pompoms for their tails.

Kate, Almond and Raspberry Meringue Bars, and a Mysterious Photo

I love the work of Jessica Hutchison.  She's widely known for making some very unique knitted toys and robots.  Jess had published a booklet of her toy designs, but by the time I stumbled upon her work and discovered said booklet existed, it was already way too late to get my hands on one; she stopped printing and selling them long ago.  Yes, I know.  Poor, poor me.  But I was able to get my hands on one of her patterns, for free, no less.  Jess contributed a pattern to Knitty's Winter 2005 issue: Kate, the Cat with Britches.

I found no reason to resist temptation.

    

While amigurumi and other smaller toys usually require you to really pack in the stuffing to better shape the toy and achieve better construction overall, Kate was different.  Kate held her shape fine with a loose stuffing, so she's light, soft, and huggable.  She's bigger than my usual toys, so I can actually pick her up and cuddle her.  Yippee for truly soft toys.

Speaking of soft, squishy things, I have a recipe to share with you: Almond and Raspberry Meringue Bars.  Deconstructed French almond macarons, with raspberry filling and a touch of coconut is the best way to describe them.  The almond shortbread base is surprisingly soft, and the marshmallowy meringue is deliciously chewy (how are you liking those adverbs?  haha).  But really, I think I'm in love with these.      

Almond and Raspberry Meringue Bars (makes about 36 pieces) adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

7 ounces almond paste (usually next to the marzipan in stores)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam

3 large egg whites

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with aluminum foil.  Grease lightly.
2. To make the Base: In a large bowl, mix the butter, almond paste, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in one large egg and the almond extract. Mix in the flour until the dough just comes together.  Press into prepared pan, bake 20 to 25 minutes, until edges are golden.  Remove from oven and cool slightly.
3. Using a spatula, evenly spread the raspberry preserves over the base.
4. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip three egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup of granulated sugar until the peaks are stiff and glossy. Lightly spread the meringue over the jam.  Sprinkle with coconut.
5. Return the pan to the oven, and bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until meringue is firm and coconut is lightly toasted. Allow to cool in the pan.  Carefully lift the foil from the pan.  Using a sharp knife, cut into bars.

I'll end this post with a bit of fun.  Anyone care to guess what crafty goodness is front and center in this cropped photo?

Winston the Wonder-dog

Ashley really liked these amigurumi cats, so when I brought up the potential of doing a swap, she asked if it was possible for me to make a little black dog (6-8" tall) in a similar style for her.  And that's how Winston the Wonder-dog came about.

Here's the little guy, sleeping soundly as the sun rises.  Winston was born with heavy eyelids (an unfortunate inheritance from his mother, I'm sorry to say), so he has always had a little trouble keeping his eyes open.  He doesn't mind so much; he claims that he can see what's going on with his eyes closed - it's his superpower (hence his title/position as wonder-dog).  But don't mistake Winston for your average domesticated canine.  As soon as he's left alone, Winston lets loose his wild side.

 

Oh yes.  Winston has a serious skullie obsession.  As soon as his owners leave the apartment, Winston decks himself out in his "mad dog" gear.*   And then he takes the city by storm.   He'll chase squirrels.  He'll terrorize pigeons.  He'll scare tourists.  There's not much that he won't do.

* Winston's "armband" doubles as a ring, and his "cummerband" is actually a wrist warmer (link to pattern in this post).

But he's a sly little guy.  Winston always makes sure he's back by sunset, so that his owners always come home to a sweet, cuddly, snoozing puppy.  As for what he'd been doing earlier that day...that's Winston's little secret.

Felt Mascot/Little Stuffies Swap

So I'm back in NYC now after a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and birthday celebration (My grandfather turned 93 years old!) with my family in California.  No crafting yet, but boy, do I have some great mail to share with you over the next few days!

First things first.  Meet Acorn.  Isn't he delicious?  I just love his button eyes.  I got him in a felt mascot/little stuffies swap that I signed up for on craftster.  My swap partner, Peihan, makes the cutest little batik puppies. For our swap, she made me my very own green and purple-y batik puppy...but smaller (one of the conditions of the swap was for the stuffies to be between 6 and 8 inches tall).

I immediately took Acorn for a walk in Central Park, where he instantly started hunting for acorns...not an easy task in late fall, we found.  Those squirrels sure are efficient!  At the end, Acorn and I were still able to find a few little dusty acorns to add to his collection of seeds (he came with seeds for Forget-me-Nots and Baby's Breath).

Peihan also sent a cute card with a sweet illustration of a bee, inside of which she wrote a little bio for Acorn:

"This is Acorn, a puppy who loves playing in the woods.  He likes anything green, espeically flowery plants. =)  So he insisted on taking some seeds with him to his new home."

I'll take him to the woods someday, but for the time being, he'll have to make do with a humble little apartment and an occasional the trip to the park.

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Here's the package I sent Peihan.

       

This is Bubba (short for Bubhaleighnitzer).  I modeled him after Peihan's craftster avatar (pictured on the right), and gave him a little black messenger bag just for kicks.  I used chenille yarn, so he's nice and cuddly.  I had a lot of fun making him, and even more fun writing his bio.

In addition to the mint Hershey bar, I made some lime earrings for a little something extra.  Here's a close-up of Bubba showing them off (in bad lighting, poo!).

I followed this tutorial, and just added a couple of beads to finish.  The limes turned out a little bigger than what I would ideally want; if I were to make another pair of lime earrings, I'd probably use a smaller hook, like a 6 or an 8.  But I'm still quite satisfied with the finished earrings, so it's all good.

"Somebody needs a hug!"

As soon as I saw this pink version of TJ's free pattern for a knitted Gir (from Invader Zim), I knew I had to make one.  It took me a while to get started, but I finally got around to it, and here he is:

 

I attempted intarsia knitting for the first time ever while making Gir, and I've gotta say, there's really nothing to it.  I don't know why I harbored such a fear of it before.  Just goes to show you that sometimes, you need to suck it up, dive right in and take the plunge.  And now that I've gotten my feet wet with intarsia knitting, I've opened a door to a whole slew of new knitting projects that my pre-Gir self wouldn't even have thought of trying.

As long as I was making a pink Gir like bespectacled did, I couldn't resist making a cupcake to keep my Gir company.  The pairing was just too perfect to pass up.  But I had my fill of knitting for the time being, and so I decided to put down my needles and pick up a crochet hook to make Gir a little cupcake friend (so he can miss it after he eats it). 

Gir likes his cupcake.  Oh, but wait!  This isn't just an ordinary vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting...

See!  It doubles as a container.  The "cup" part of the cupcake is wrapped around a clean yogurt container.  Bloodredrose thought up the idea and wrote up a pattern for a crochet cupcake gift box (which is ingenious, by the way).  I followed her instructions for the cup portion, but since I did not have a lid for my yogurt container, I improvised to create a crochet top that could stand alone as a lid for the container (flatter top, longer sides).

I intended to make Gir as a gift...but...I just can't part with him now!  Am I the most awful person or what?  The good side of my conscience says, "You're a selfish pig.  How can you keep something that wasn't intended for you?!  You know that this toy would make the recipient very, very happy..."  But the evil side of my conscience says, "But he was your first intarsia project, he sings the doom song, *and* he can dance.  Plus, he can make bacon soap.  And he's pink.  Just look at him, he's so comfy on your bed already..."  And I snapped.  I just had to have him.  Shame on me.

Sammy the Hedgehog (and Shroom!)

When I saw the Shroom in Crochet me, I knew I wanted one for my room.  I mean, it's a crochet mushroom that can double as a container, how cool is that?  Although I was super-tempted to make a nice green mushroom, I'm glad I ended up using up some pink scrap yarn that I had sitting around for a while (so I managed to free up some precious apartment space...hey, every little bit matters!). 

But my finished mushroom was smaller than I thought it would be; the opening on top is less than two inches wide...my dreams of stashing candy in my mushroom quickly disappeared when I realized that I wouldn't be able to fit more than a couple pieces inside.  So I moved onto Plan B: make something fuzzy to stuff into my shroom.  And that's how Sammy the Hedgehog came about.

Sammy fits perfectly into the cap of his shroomy (sh-roomy, get it?  heh) home, although he's known to pop his head out of the door from time-to-time so that he can scare innocent passers-by.  He's a little too mischeivous for his own good at times.

Sammy is crocheted with a size 1 crochet hook and beige sport weight yarn, using the tried and true "wing-it" method.  And look!  He has two little ears, too.  For his spiky hair, I made two loose pompoms by wrapping some dark brown embroidery thread and beige yarn around two of my fingers.  I then sewed the pompoms to the body base and attached some beads for a nose and eyes.  And the result?  My own mini-hedgehog pocket pet, complete with a mushroom travel home.

When Sammy's not jet-setting around the city, he likes to sit on top of his house and enjoy the view (a couple of inches makes a huge difference for a little hedgehog).

Ahhhh, life is good!

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You can now make your own Sammy!  After putting in a few hours of work this past week, I managed to write up a pattern for him.  I would love to see your finished Sammies, so please don't be shy, and send your pictures/links right on over.  Have fun making him, and I hope you have even more fun taking him around town for pocket hedgie adventures!

Download Pattern for Sammy the Hedgehog