going to bear-lin

I'm heading to Berlin for this weekend.


I made nutella-oatmeal-cookies for this weekend. They smelled better before baking but still taste pretty good. And let's hope we get ice cream, cause these are cookies that yell for ice cream!
(mine looke prettty much like the on Nicole's site, except I baked them only about 8 minutes or until they started flattening - they burn very quickly.


p.s. thanks alot for your comments on the tutorials I plan, and thanks for your ideas and questions, I will include them in my tutorials.

bald heads

more tutorials to come

I didn't crochet much in the last days, I don't have enough time to and also needed to pause on the heads I've been talking of last time. I'm making two look-alike amigurumis, or humanigurumis and needed to know the eye color before I could continue. Now I know the color and will post some pictures tomorrow.

But the main thing is I plan on writing a few more tutorials. I already have plans for one on yarn, hook and tension. Another topic will be on the different ways to add a new yarn color and also on how to close the final holes of your dolls, like the holes at arms or heads or feet. Now the question I would like to know is if there are any big questions you always wanted an answer to? Concerning amigurumi of course, not life or the universe =^__^=

Mermaid pattern

Meet Gabrielle the mermaid. She is a little girly mermaid.

USD 6.50
add to cart --- show cart

as always the pattern comes in printer friendly black and white with detailed drawing like pictures.
Crochet pattern in pdf format, designed for a E / 3.5mm hook and worsted weight yarn, written out in plain English.
This pattern provides a stitch-by-stitch guide.

This pattern is for the intermediate crocheter or an advanced beginner with knowledge of crocheting in the round, increasing, decreasing and some time. Special stitches are explained particularly.
Using a E / 3.5mm hook and the apropriated yarn you should receive a doll about 20 inches long from head to fin if you stretch her curvy tail. With unstretched tail she measures about 9 inches high.
But keep in mind that the size of a finished doll strongly hinges on your yarn and hook.

Unlimited email support is included to help you create your dolls.
Thank You!

and a very special thank you to Stacey from MysticDelights who did a great job in testing this pattern. Have a look at her mermaid. I love the yarn she used on the tail of her Gabrielle.

Don't call it Schnitzel

was the third sentence the techician said when repairing my computer (I was watching tv while he pulled every single screw out of my laptop and disassembled the whole thing into pieces and obviously he was listening the commercials while I was watching with horror how my baby turned into hundred parts)
Well, now I write this post on my laptop and everything seems to be fine again

**insert happy face here**

I crocheted a few heads and started on a smaller version of my Wagner, his royal frogness this morning:




EDIT: it's kinda hard to believe that the picture above was taken almost two years ago, man time flies by!

more Betties

I can't really do much about pattern preparations at the moment (my laptop decided to "die", tomorrow a technician will visit me and hopefully do enough emergency repair so everything will be fine again). Anyway I crocheted a few more Betty Bats.


They cheer me up and remind me of spring and easter. Easter Bats? Why not. They're colorful and have happy faces. And therefore they make my face a happy face =^__^=

new interweave

The new Interweave Knits was in my mailbox this morning!


This years Spring 2009 doesn't have too many projects in it that make me "want them to knit immediately" but there are stockings in there . . . yummie stockings, sexy stockings and stockings I will have to buy yarn for. I want them in a darker color, maybe a dark brown like pictured, and I don't have any dark sock yarn in my stash.

Bettie’s Lace Stockings by Hana Jason

Thanks for the advice on febreze, need to buy some, so long the new yarn will air out in my bath room a little longer, I'm just too afraid to toss it into the washer, but if airing out and febreze don't work out, it sound like a good solution.

fearless!?!

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

to find out my word is fearless was a bit suprising, I would never describe myself as fearless. But it's pretty fitting at the moment, since I'm about to rearrange a few things in my life.

and maybe it's a good moment to share my latest project, a mini project: the non-scary bat named Betty


you might remember Victor from my flickr accout, he's stil an unfinished gurumi.


Alot of you think he's ready but I still don't like his wings, but now I might have found a good solution, although Betty is not even half as tall as Victor.

all blue and a little pink

today I was brunching with a few friends and one of them brought my two bags full of yarn. And good yarn! I like the colors. It's mainly wool/acrylic blends but it's enough to make a sweater from or a few amigurumis. There were also two sets of needles in there, one dpn maybe 4 mm and one circular maybe 2 mm, I haven't checked yet.
The only thing that bothers me, it's all yarn from a smokers home, so it's a bit smelly, any ideas how to get rid of the smell? At the moment it's all lying in my bath tub, to check if there are little beings in there, don't wanna have moths!

FO - two mermaids

Gabrielle and Gabrielle the second =^__^= are finished and the pattern is checked, I write it down at the moment and edit last details. So it will be available very soon.



Anyway both are pretty tall for amigurumi. They measure 9 inches from head to bended tail end and (if I stretch the tail) 20 inches from head to fin. Their arms want to hug you and they have some lovely little sea stars attached to their tails. Sweethearts!

Pop Heart Pattern!

Finally!
for all you lovers, just in time for valentines day. The Pop Heart Pattern I've been talking of for so long.

Hope you like it, it's free as well!

crochet your darling a popping heart! or use the pic as your desktop wallpaper to celebrate this special day!

___________

click me to download
(this is a ravelry link, but it should work for non-ravelers as well, if not plase leave me a note)

left or right

I can't decide which star to choose.
left and paler blue, or right and darker blue?

Cool!

wow, received an award. How cool. Thanks alot Goldi, I truely appreciate it (btw. did you get the not about my mermaid pattern? what di you think?)



Now let me pass this award forward:

Griselda from machwerk, for her inspiring sewing projects

Barbara and Katrin from marsupialia, it's great to see a buisseness grow

deb from smitten kitchen, the best lemon pie ever

a print a day, for colorful and dreamy pictures

Sarah from Sarah' Sketches, thanks for the best comic drawing I've seen in a while


Congratulations! Copy and save the award to the photo file on your computer and then post it to your blog to show it off! Each winner needs to select five blogs of their choice to win this award too! It's not at all easy especially since there are so many great blogs out there. Enjoy your award!

Blimey!

Note to self:
don't you ever pick a new ball of yarn when you don't have sunlight to control the shade!


So this is what happens when I choose a new yarn to continue and only have electric light. Wrong shade of creme.

I'm preparing the mermaid pattern at the moment and took some pictures to include in the pattern and while doing so I made arms for the green Gabrielle, obviously I didn't payed enough attention.

being at home

I have alot of time to spend on my computer and online. Being at home I also tend to order new stuff all the time. So it happens when I read Wendy's blog entry I quickly went to order the book on making bread she mentions. I need to admit I'm a little bit sceptical on "american" bread, since all I know about it is the typical stereo type of the only bread being made in the US is white bread. I know very dumb.
I've been making bread myself for several years now and prefer the darker ones the ones with full corn in them and this book looks like a good one (but what tempted me was Wendy mentioning the pumpernickel.

What else will I be doing today? sleeping and sending email to work and maybe some crochet and watering the flowers, they look thirsty, now that I take a look at them.

back again

my trip ended on saturday late afternoon and I spend the rest of the day, namely about nine hours on the train to get back home. On the train I didn't crochet much, instead I have been reading. I also didn't crochet or latch hooked anything while being in Aachen.

But yesterday I spend the day continuing on the mermaid that broke my nice green crochet hook. I made little alterations to the upper body and I am about to publish the pattern for her soon. Who would have known this one would be out before my little critters?
I also finished this lovely cute snail.


It's a design of Beth Doherty, if you know amigurumi, you know her stuff, It's awesome! She also has a few other patterns out and as she writes on her website there are more to come. I always loved her snails and was a bit disapointed to not find it in her book so I was even happier when I found her note on flickr about a pattern to come.
Ain't it cute? and so small

Anyway today I spend the whole morning at the doctors office, I feel terribly sick. :o(