New Customised Amazon Store

Hi y'all! Don't know if you've noticed, but I have a new banner at the top of the page here...I hope that it hasn't ruined your enjoyment of my little corner of t'Internet, but I couldn't manage to find a widget that looked right in the sidebar and blah-de-blah, I'll stop boring you with the geeky stuff. Anyway, Amazon offers a service where I can create my own little mini-store with all the books I recommend, so I've done that. I've included some books on amigurumi, some crochet technique books, and some other books with different kinds of patterns, mostly garments. I've completed at least one pattern in most of them, or had them highly recommended to me. So have a quick browse if you like, and I hope it helps you sort the wheat from the chaff, as it were, since there are so many crochet books out there to choose from!

noisypitta.etsy.com

My Top 5

I was inspired today by a curious shopper (you know who you are!) to list some of my favourite crochet books, and how to find them. To that end, please see the new box to the right, sandwiched between "Inspiration" and "Resources", entitled, "My Top 5 Crochet Books". They are all currently available from Amazon.co.uk (and probably other Amazons as well!), and I own all of them, and have worked through more than one pattern in each. If you're an experienced crafter, or a complete newbie, I'd recommend them all, regardless!

Also, although it didn't fit on the sidebar, I cannot heartily enough recommend Saucylouise's Etsy Shop (and her main shop), as a resource for fantastic Japanese crochet books. I have a slipper pattern book from her, and it's one of my favourites, and I even went through a *serious* slipper-making phase because of it! Japanese patterns are my favourite because they're cute, dainty, and contemporary (I don't know what the trouble is with us Westerners, but it seems like so much out there is just an elaborate tea-cosy!). If you have some experience crocheting, you won't find it difficult to follow these books, because they are filled with brilliant, easy-to-read diagrams. However, like I said, you will need some experience beforehand to understand the context of the stitches, and how to do basic things like finishing, increasing, decreasing, the like!

Finally, I would just like to warn the wary internet shopper...There are several peeps out there on Etsy (and other places) who are in the business of copying Japanese patterns and reselling them, translated into English. I don't care who you are, that's stealing, and I'm not having any of it.

If it doesn't say it's an original pattern, don't buy it!

If you want to buy a Japanese pattern but you're afraid you won't be able to understand it, you can most likely ask the seller. Also, there are great forums at Craftster.org, where you can get loads of free help.

Okay, that's enough of me ranting for now...Happy hooking!

UPDATED 18th January 2009: I've re-jigged the layout of the site, so my favourite books are now in a carousel right at the top. I hope you'll be able to use this a little better than just the links!

noisypitta.etsy.com

FINALLYOMIGODFINALLY

Well, kids, I finally did it. I finally posted my VERY FIRST pattern on Etsy. Wooooooo...That means that TLOPTIWMODWIGATI(IS) -- The List Of Patterns That I Will Make One Day When I Get Around To It (I Swear) -- is one item shorter!

Anyway, have a look at it: PATTERN Amigurumi Kitten Finger Puppet

It's a cute little kitten pattern, quite simple and quick, but fun. I hope you like :)

noisypitta.etsy.com

Works in progress, or, why I've not made anything FUN lately

I've figured out WITHOUT A DOUBT why I don't make garments: they take too frickin' long!!! The problem is, I realise this, then spend ages not making garments, forget why I don't make garments, and then give it a go again. Stupid garments! This is what I'm currently doing, and why I haven't made any progress making all the cute little dudes I doodle in my notebook:
I have been working on this project for the better part of, oh, four weeks? Okay, granted, I made a custom order of two aliens in the meantime, but COME ON! I have the attention span of a flea, so this is torturing me. But I bought 10 balls of yarn for this project and I will not have them just sitting around! I've finally made the decision to put some welly into it and actually work on finishing it so I can get on with other things that I've been brainstorming, such as:

• A little screaming devil dude, complete with pointy tail and horns. Red, of course.
• A stripey French monster with a beret, using my two-colour stripes with no joins technique.
• A lop-eared bunny out of lilac-coloured organic wool, which I started at the crochet booth in Crystal Palace with Katie from Good Hooking (I'll have to post about this shortly).

Ah, well, excuses, excuses, right?!

noisypitta.etsy.com

I'm back!

Hi everyone! I'm back from a week in Seattle for my Grandpa's memorial, and then a week of struggling to survive through Horti peak season and 8-hour jet lag.

Oooooh, I spent WAY too much money on yarn and crochet accoutrements while I was there! (And yes, I know that's not strictly a correct use of the word "accoutrements", but I don't care...It sounds niiiiiice.) I think I spent about £30 in Seattle, on yarn and books, and another £25 when I got back, on more yarn to use on a pattern in one of the aforementioned books...Yikes. I justify it by saying that I'll probably end up making the money back in sales! I don't know if that will end up being true, but again, it sounds niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

While out in Seattle, I did quite a lot of crocheting...I was surprised that I managed to get so much done, but I guess it's different when you haven't got to do any housework or run around after a two-year-old! I made a kitten for my aunt Lynita, and a strange little bunny-type creature for my cousin Marina, which I will post here once I figure out how to get it off my phone...

Now that I'm back, I have made some little sachets for my neighbour, which will eventually be filled with lavender and hung in her closet, and I've started on a little devil 'gurumi...But my big project at the moment is the babydoll dress pattern from Crochet Me. It's a gorgeous little pattern, and I hope I don't mess it up! I purposely don't do garments because they're hard! I'm far too impatient to be diligent with gauge, etc. So we'll see.

Anyway, to wrap up this post, I feel as though I need to publicise the great places I saw when out in Seattle...

• Village Yarn and Tea: My aunt Lynita took me to Village Yarn and Tea to meet her friend Anna, on the first day I was there. We browsed the shop for AGES, and then sat down to, omigod, the NICEST cuppa I have ever had. I was boring and went for a Scottish breakfast variety, but I also got a coconut tea scone (made with chopped up tea leaves that looked a little like poppy seeds) and clotted cream. Plus, the tea was served in gorgeous little tea sets, each one different...Mine was a sort of sea green colour with gold trim and a scalloped shape. Loooovvvveeeeellllly. Anyway, they have a fantastic selection of yarns and haberdashery, and the whole place smelled faintly of fudge brownies. Absolute heaven!
• Jo-Ann Fabrics: It's a big chain, and everyone knows it, but I still wish I had one next door. It kicks Hobbycraft's butt up and down the block!!!
• And one that I went to last time, but didn't get a chance to go on this trip: Main Street Yarn. It's got a great selection of lovely yarns to fondle. (Tee-hee!)

Happy hooking :)

noisypitta.etsy.com

Cute Cherries

I discovered yesterday that inspiration can come from anywhere, at any time.

Picture the setting: you're sitting on your bum after a hard day's work, waiting for the chicken to boil down into stock, and you're watching a bit of "The Bionic Woman" from a couple weeks ago. Your hands start to itch, then twitch, and then you realise: you are a crocheter, you MUST crochet. Well, it's about 10:30 at night, and you know that if you stay up past 11, you won't get enough sleep, plus there's every chance that your gorgeous two-year-old son will want you to get up and play with him at 6 am. So what do you do? Start crocheting, knowing that it will keep you up late, or do you ignore the urges and try to take your mind off it with a Coke float and more "Bionic Woman"?

Well, I can tell you what I did...

Both! I poured myself a lovely Coke float, grabbed the new skein of red Pure Gold DK that I've had lying around, and I decided to make some little cherries with smiley faces because they're just so DARNED cute. And here's how they turned out:
And they only took me 1/2 hour. Pretty simple pattern, too:

Materials/Supplies
A small amount of red yarn
A small amount of green yarn
A small amount of black yarn
Crochet hook, the smallest size you can use that won't split your yarn when you work with it
Tapestry needle

Abbreviations used
sc: single crochet
st: stitch
inc: increase
invdec: invisible decrease

If there is anything you don't understand in this pattern, please comment below and I'll respond to you personally.

Gauge
Gauge is not used in this pattern; it will vary depending on the yarn and hook you use.

Cherries
The cherries are worked in spiral rounds. You should use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each round, so you don't lose your place.

With red yarn, make a ring, work 6 sc into ring. (6 st)

Rnd 1: 2 sc in each st around. (12)
Rnds 2-3: inc 3, evenly spaced. (18 st at the end of rnd 3)
Rnd 4: work even. (18)
Rnd 5: invdec 6, evenly spaced. (12)

Now embroider a face onto the cherry using black yarn, using the photo as a guide. I used French knots for the eyes and back-stitching for the mouth.

Leaves
Make two leaves per cherry.

With green yarn, ch 5. Now work into the back loops of the ch: sc into 2nd ch from hook, then hdc in the next st, dc in the next st. 5 sc in the last stitch and turn to work in the front "v" loops of the foundation chain: dc in the next st, hdc in the next st, sc in the final st. Sl st into the last ch of the foundation chain (the one immediately before you made your first sc). Finish off and weave in ends.

Stems
For each stem, cut a length of green yarn about 4 times the length you want your stems to end up. To be safe, I used lengths about 2 feet long and cut them down as necessary once I was finished assembling!

To make the stem, thread the yarn onto a tapestry needle and through the "fat" end of one leaf, then through the top of the cherry (outside to inside). Then thread the yarn back out the top of the cherry and through the fat end of the other leaf. Tie a square knot in the yarn; this will make the leaves be securely attached. Finally, use the two halves of your length of yarn to make a twisted cord, and tie off.

Final assembly
To finish your cherries, stuff each one firmly, and close the holes by finishing off your red yarn, then threading the end onto a tapestry needle. Thread the yarn through the front loop only of each stitch around the hole, and pull tight; the hole will close naturally. Weave in the ends.

Oh, yeah, and don't forget to grin stupidly when examining your final product :)

noisypitta.etsy.com

Kid-safe kitten

Okay, I'm being the proud 'gurumi-ist again. I have come up with the ultimate way of making toys kid-safe (kid-proof?) by crocheting arms and legs into the fabric as you go, and it's much more secure than simply whipstitching. Here's the latest kitten I've done:
First off, I must explain the crazy nature of her colouring: it's a kind of "recycled yarn" look, like that Muji elephant I have. I did it because I had half a ball of five different yarns lying around; not enough to do a whole ANYTHING, but enough between them to accomplish something nice. It was a painstaking process to use this method, because it involved cutting each of the five balls into lengths of about 2ft, and then "randomly" tying them together as I wound a new ball out of them. I think the whole thing was worth it, though; I like the colour effect, and it got rid of A LOT of scrap yarn.

Anyway, the point of showing you the picture was so that you could see what the kitten looks like with "integrated" arms and legs. I'm sorry I haven't got a great closeup of it, but the joins look exactly the same as whipstitching, only because they're crocheted into the fabric, they're much stronger.

The idea is, you make the arms as normal; these ones are tubes with a circumference of 12 st. Then on the last round, only sc for half the stitches (in this case, 6 st), then ch 1 and pinch the fabric together. For the last 6 st, stitch through two layers of fabric. This gives you a nice, clean edge to your arm. (Please note, this is the same technique as Elisabeth Doherty uses in her book, "Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute", which can be found at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)

Once you've finished off your arms and legs, continue onto the head and body, working from the top down, and when you get to the place where you want your arms to be, you stitch through BOTH the last row of stitches of your arm, and the stitches on the body. Et voila! When I finally finish the kitten pattern (I KNOW, I've been promising this for ages), I will do two versions, one for the joined arms and one for the kid-safe arms.

noisypitta.etsy.com

Yay!

I don't know if it's a special thing or not, but I just looked at the patterns page on CrochetMe.com, (where I posted the amigurumi baby bird/chick pattern), and I've got a "featured pattern"!

I'm over the moon!

noisypitta.etsy.com

Pattern: Amigurumi Chick/Bird, Just In Time For Easter

Just in time for Easter, you can make sweet little chicks and baby birds like the one in my last post.
Materials/supplies needed:

• A small amount of yellow (chick) or blue (baby bird) yarn, double-knitting weight
• A very small amount of black yarn, same weight as above
• A small amount of polyester stuffing
  
• 2.50 mm crochet hook
• Tapestry needle
• 1 pipe cleaner, orange (chick) or yellow (baby bird)

It doesn't really matter what type of yarn you use or what size hook you use; it will just change the size of the finished bird. I would suggest you use whatever yarn you can find, and use the smallest hook that you have that won't split the yarn when you work with it. The bird in the picture was made with 100% acrylic DK yarn and a 2.50 mm crochet hook, and stands about 1-1/2 inches tall.

Abbreviations used:

mr: make a ring
sc: single crochet
st: stitch
inc: increase
invdec: invisible decrease

If there is anything you don't understand in this pattern, please comment below and I'll respond to you personally.

Making the body:
Make a ring, and work 6 sc into the ring. (6 st)

Rnd 1: 2 sc in each st around. (12)
Rnd 2: (2 sc in next st, 1 sc in next st) 6 times. (18)
Rnds 3-6: inc 3 times evenly. (30 st at the end of rnd 6)
Rnds 7-8: work even. (30)
Rnds 9-12: invdec 3 times evenly. (18 st at the end of rnd 12)
Rnd 13: (invdec over next 2 st, sc in next st) 6 times. (12)

At this point, cut the yarn about 20 cm from your work, and pull the loop on your crochet hook bigger and bigger until the tail of the yarn comes through and you're left with a single strand coming out of your work.

Cut a 2" length of pipe cleaner and fold it in half; this will be your beak. Insert the two ends between rounds 7 and 8, two posts apart. Push the beak in until it's of the desired size, then twist the ends together inside so they're secure. Cut off any excess pipe cleaner.

With the tapestry needle and the black yarn, embroider a French knot for each eye, using the photo as a guide to placement. Don't forget to use a dab of craft glue on each French knot to hold it together, or it is likely to unravel.

Making and inserting the feet:
This part of the pattern is the most difficult to describe, so I've drawn a diagram:
The long and short of it is: use the remaining pipe cleaner to fashion two three-toed birds' feet, with the leg sticking upright.

The legs should be placed between rounds 11 and 12, 9 posts apart. To fix them in place, push the leg through the fabric, then twist it into a loop, which then lies flat against the fabric on the inside. I like to think of this configuration kind of like how you would imagine a snake coiled up in the bottom of a basket. Anyway, this whole exercise is to ensure that the leg can't simply be pulled out, so any way you can accomplish that is sufficient.

Finishing the body:
Now that you've finished the eyes, beak and feet, you can stuff your bird with a bit of polyester stuffing, and close the hole. I like to under-stuff these birds because they make quite good stress toys and they're fun to squeeze!

Close the hole by threading the end of your yarn onto a tapestry needle and inserting it through the front loop only of each st around. Pull the yarn tight, and the hole will close naturally. Then weave in the ends.

Making the wings (optional):
It's up to you whether you choose to put wings on your bird; some people insist they're just as cute without. If you would like to add wings, as in the picture, here's how you do it:

Make a ring, and work 6 sc into the ring. (6 st)

Rnd 1: 2 sc in each st around. (12)
Rnd 2: work even. (12)
Rnd 3: sc in the first 6 st, ch 1. Now, pinch the fabric together and for the next 6 st, stitch through both layers of the fabric. You will have stitched the wing closed, into a half-circle shape.

Fasten off, leaving a 20 cm tail. Repeat for the second wing.

To finish the bird, whipstitch the wings to its sides, using the photo as a guide.

And finally:
This bird is intended to be enjoyed by adults and older children only. Because there may be sharp ends on the pipe cleaners, I would avoid giving it to a child under three. (Also, if your kids are anything like mine is, they'll be quite good at pulling its little eyes out.)

noisypitta.etsy.com

Kitten pattern coming, and Twitter

I am currently in the process of testing a pattern for a kitten not unlike Poppet...I have a few modifications, tweaks if you will, that I want to make, and I need to take some pictures, but once it's finished, I will be offering it for free to a few testers. Of course, I'll require a bit of feedback! It'll be the first pattern I've published, but I think it's fairly straightforward, and a good, solid pattern. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled, and of course, if you'd like to give it a try, please let me know!

Also, I have joined Twitter, so if you like, you can follow me, although at the moment, my username is not exclusively amigurumi! I have only found one other 'gurumi-ist, SAPlanet (Etsy shop here), and I would love to see some more of you on it. Wouldn't it be great, a little community of 'gurumi-ists all creating stuff together. 1-2-3...Awwwwwww.

noisypitta.etsy.com

Amigurumi Stripes With No Joins

One of the "experimental techniques" I tried recently was to get a lovely two-tone stripe, amigurumi-style, that didn't have joins or that icky jagged bit where you switch colours at the end of a round.

In response to a question on Flickr, I recently posted the following:
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Ooooh, I just did this (can you tell I'm quite proud of myself?)...I have some pictures here: www.flickr.com/photos/noisypitta/

The way I did it was:
1. Complete one round in one colour, put a stitch marker in the loop left on your hook.
2. Remove the crochet hook, join second colour in the first stitch of the last round, then begin a round in the next stitch, counting the join as the first stitch of the round (e.g. if you're doing all sc, join colour 2 into first stitch with a sl st, then sc in the next stitch).
3. When you get to the last stitch of colour 1, put a stitch marker in the loop of colour 2 that's left on your hook.
4. Remove the crochet hook and insert it back into the loop of colour 1 and carry on with the round.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for as long as you need. When you get to where you want to finish one of the stripe colours (in my pictures, I "finished" the white and carried on with the blue), in step 3, you just make the last stitch a sl st instead of a normal sc. Then when you come to that stitch on the next round, it's a smooth transition back to the beginning of the round.

I think all that is very confusing (it's kinda hard to describe). Best is just to try it.

(In response to: When I crochet alternating strips for an amigurumi, the stripes never look right. There is always a hiccup stitch when I start the next color in the new round. Is this typical for everyone or just typical of my bad crocheting technique? -- posted by smoochas)
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I'm thinking about cabling and braiding next, and the holy grail (of course) is how to make colour joins with a round of slip stitches and not have that "step" where the sl st joins back up with the main part of the round (you know what I'm talking about, right?)...Hmmm...

noisypitta.etsy.com