knittycat’s tips

We made it home in time for Christmas, Hurray! (In case you don't know, we were forced to move out for a month because the homeowner's assoc. was replacing roofs!), I've been frantically working on getting our delayed Christmas tasks completed

I haven't uploaded any amigurumi photos to flickr in quite a while, so haven't posted them, but I really have been making lots of things!  Honest!  Someday I'll get caught up.  ;o)

Here are the little peeps I made for the youngest members of our family for their little Christmas treats.

Peeps for Christmas...

We have Rudolph the Red Nosed Pocket Reindeer Peep, White Chocolate Pocket ChrisMoose, Chubby Rudolph, and Chocolate Pocket ChrisMoose, and their grassy snowbank pockets.  :o)

                

  

And this is my knit version of a totally adorable Lion Brand Rudolph crochet pattern

I made him like my Petunia Phlying Piglet, all in one piece, with the Loopy Legs technique.

I also made a Frosty Snowman Peep for our older niece - he was a failed experiment for a snowman that converted into a snowball (it worked, but not well) so I made him into a traditional snowman.  The yarn is Moda Dea Cheerio, which is sparkly, and makes him look like he's made of snow!  :o)  Great yarn!  Such a shame they discontinued it.  I used that for the grassy snowbank pockets that the pocket Rudolph and ChrisMeese are in, too.  :o)

And last but not least - yet another Christmas Elmo!  This time for a young disabled friend of our nephews.

 

I've changed the method that I use to make this guy, and he came out much neater.  I'll share a pattern when I can write up the changes.  (And don't hold your breath, because I'm glacially slow!)

We hope that you are all enjoying your holidays and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas, a (belated) Very Happy Channukah, and a very Merry Kwaanza!  Enjoy whatever you celebrate!  :o)

Now I have to go give away all my cute little ami's! 

More pics on flickr http://www.flickr.com/knittycat

Sackboy, the character from the PS3 videogame, LittleBigPlanet, has become so popular that I thought he'd make a nice gift for our nephew, Matt, who is a collector.

I finished my version of Sackboy for Matt recently (knit without a pattern, as usual), and presented him for his birthday.

Voila!  Sackboy Peep:

Sackboy Front View

I just barely finished in time!!   Boy was it a pain to put that working zipper in!  And I hate sewing things!  ;o)   I'm even MORE impressed with all of the amazing Sackboy's that folks have been creating after making one myself!

I used my loopy legs (flap) technique to make the mouth so I wouldn't have to sew it on.  And it worked great!  :o)

My Hub and I both liked him better before I added the decorative grey stitching, but for Matt, I wanted to be as accurate as I could, since he's a collector.  I did leave off the two vertical lines at the back of his head.  Just didn't like 'em.  But I told Matt that I'd put them in if he'd like them - and guess what... he told me last night that he WOULD!  Yep... a collector!  heh heh  So Sackboy Peep will be coming back for some cosmetic surgery!  ;o)

My Hub  is totally crazy about him, and REALLY wants me to make another one for him!  Well.... actually, he said to make another one for Matt and he'll just keep this one!!  ha ha ha!  He wouldn't do that, of course, but he just fell in love with him.

Sackboy Peep with photo reference:

He has a working zipper, and I made a felt inner body so he could be opened. (ugh!  That was a pain! And my Hub wants me to do this AGAIN!!!)  When you open his zipper, you can see his little golden heart (a stone bead that's gold with a brownish edging).  :o) 

Sackboy Peep with Golden Heart:

Sackboy Peep with heart of gold for Matt's Birthday

       

I've seen so many Sackboys that other folks have made (including the Alan Dart pattern) wearing a pom pom hat and scarf, that I figured that they must be something that Sackboy wears, so I made him a set.  We recently got the game (incredibly adorable and FUN!), but I haven't seen the hat and scarf yet.  So I dunno.  But here's

Sackboy Peep with hat and scarf:

And since Sackboy loves to play dress-up and take on different characters, and because Matt has been very into The Green Lantern lately (new movie coming out, too!), and because GL is one of my all time favorite comic book characters... I made...

Taaa DAAAA!!! 

 

Green Lantern Sackboy Peep!   

I like him best without the mask.  :o)

I finished his little vest (with very poorly made emblem) just in the nick of time, and my Hub and I are so pleased with it.   It's made like a little bib!  heh heh   I'm really happy I managed to squeeze in making it before Matt's birthday.

And here he is saying his official oath while charging his ring (hee hee) ....

The beautiful green yarn is Bamboo Soft Spell and Bamboo Charmed from www.yarncloud.com! It's a chainette yarn, and sooo nice to work with!  Nice sheen, gorgeous colors, and has all those nice bamboo properties!  :o)

Here's a better look at his power ring:  

 

Sackboy GL Peep ring close

I would have liked to have done a better job on the ring, but just didn't have enough TIME left!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Lantern Battery for Sackboy Peep for Matt's Birthday 3/4 view

 

Green Lantern Battery for Sackboy Peep for Matt's Birthday front

Close-ups of the Green Lantern's Power Battery...

 

 

 

 

 

which I'm absolutely nuts about!  If we were meanies, my Hub would keep the peep and I'd keep the Lantern Battery!!  ;o)  I put 4 golden dollar coins in the bottom to weight it (they were just the right size - and makes the battery even more valuable and powerful -  heh heh) and a chenille stem in the handle to give it strength and body.
        

It was fun taking a trip down comic book memory lane!  :o)

.

First there were Pocket Lambie Peeps, and now we have Pocket Pup Peeps!  :o) 

I'm knitting away, making lots of peeps, but I never get time to post them. So someday there will be a giant post from me with a hundred peeps in it!  (just kidding! I'm lucky to get a peep posted now and then).

More peeps at my flickr pages http://www.flickr.com/knittycat

A Lambie Thank You to Snuffykin...

For all the very hard work she did on the weloveamigurumi swap, and for being the sweetie that she is,
I sent snuffykin this wee limbless Pocket Lambie named Laddie  (see snuffykin's awesome creations here)

Here are the Valentine's pressies I made for my Darling Hub...  (yep, I'm mixing Easter and Valentine's Day again, but I'll be back to Easter next time... Lots more Easter Peeps and Baskets to post, soon) 

For Valentine's Day and for Easter, I made limbless wee ami's and baskets for them.  Here's Peter Pickle Peep, the limbless chick that I made for my Hub for Valentine's Day (yes, I'm very slow to post.... I still don't have the rest of the Easter ones uploaded yet!)   I apologize for the quality of the photos... I'll try to take some better ones of these guys at some point.  I forgot them when I took the Easter pics.  :o/  Oops!

 

Here's a preview of the peeps I made for Easter ...  I'll put up more shots of them soon.  I had such fun making these limbless peeps!  And I had some wonderful yarn to play with, sent to me by my friend, Romana, of YarnCloud Yarns (www.yarncloud.com)!  The textures and colors were exciting and fun!  I loved putting together the various color schemes for each of the basket/peep sets.

 

More about this soon... (well, we can hope, can't we?)

Happy St. Patty's Day, Everyone!

 

Yep, I missed Valentine's Day... I'll try to post a few Valentine's things in an Easter post... (crossing fingers that I feel up to that). 

Here's a Big something Green for St. Patrick's Day

 

Marvel Comics the Incredible Hulk! for Matt's Birthday, with his best bud, Lambie Pie... ;o)

 

Our nephew, Matt, had been wanting a Hulk, since I started making these peeps, but I could never bring myself to make one... But, when I ordered a variety of green yarns to get the right shade for something I was making, one of them arrived and I said... Omigosh... it's Hulk green!  And I already had some bluish purple that would work for pants... so there I was, making the Hulk!  :o)  I intended to make him a LOT smaller, but he just happened!  ... these things have a life of their own. 

I actually finished him just a day before Matt's birthday (Whew!), last September!  But I  could never decide which photos to post, so he's been languishing, waiting to be seen.  He's not really my cup of tea, with his angry face.  I like CUTSEY things!  With sweet smiles!  But he was a challenge, and I learned a lot of things while making him that are useful in other projects, as well.  Lambie Pie says that he's much sweeter and nicer than he looks.

One of my fellow amigurumi artists said "he's not angry, just having a bad face day, I guess".    heh heh  And that's how I'm looking at him from now on!  ;o)

He's not cross-eyed, just a trick of the camera, and the reflectiveness of the eyes, I guess.

He's the largest peep I've made at 15" tall and nearly as wide!  And he's knitted in one piece from toes to top of head, and then each of his arms knitted in one piece, from fingers to shoulders, and sewn onto the torso.  I did make notes while working on him, so hopefully I will be able to share the techniques that I discovered, and developed, in the future.

You probably can't tell from my photos, but the waist of his pants is ragged and ripped looking, with a scrap of white shirt left stuck in it, and the hems on the pant legs are ripped. I didn't do a good job of capturing that in the pics, unfortunately. Didn't have him for long after finishing him, and had to take the pics in a hurry.

I'm kind of fanatical about not wanting to attach pieces, as you might have noticed, and I was pretty tickled with the method I finagled for making his torn up waist, and hems on his pants, with my trusty knitting needles, all in one piece with his body, and never having to sew any bits on! YAY! Too bad it shows up so poorly on the pics.

 

Also, I found a new and very simple method of making hair while working on Miss Piggy, for my DH (she's still not finished, unfortunately, so obviously not posted), and I used it to make the Hulk's hair.  It's a really versatile technique, and very easy to do, too.  You can make short or long hair using this method.  I hope to write up a tutorial for it at some point.  Or I will at least post a simple description of the process.  As long as you use an eyelash or fuzzy yarn of some sort, appropriate to your project, it is super easy to do!  And I do like easy!  :o)

 

Happy St. Patty's Everyone!

 

After the last post, filled with what I haven't completed, I thought it would be nice to show you some of what I HAVE completed lately:

It's been a very PINK spring!  :o)

 

We have two very Pink Ballerinas:

Pippa Potomus for Mia's Birthday

and Katerina Kitty Ballerina for Kristina's Birthday

 

Katerina rehearsing for her debut! 

Pippa and Katerina are cousins and have a lot in common - they both love pink and they both love to dance!

 

and we also introduce:

Kermie 2 for Kristina's Birthday (okay, okay, he's not pink!)

 

Kermie 2 and Katerina are very close 

Chatting and

                    Strolling

Family Portrait

        and Advice from Big Brother

And a sparkly little Marisa Mousie for Jill

 

And before that...

the Peep that we've fallen in love with...  I ordered some cool new yarn to try - Moda Dea Fur Sure, and when I saw this lovely yellow fuzzy stuff, it just cried out to be a...

Peepsie Peep!

We're all crazy about her and so glad that she was an experiment with the new yarn, and not a gift for anyone, so we get to KEEP her!  YAYAYAY!!!

 

Peepsie says "Peeep!"

Which means, "Hi!"

Pudgie loves Peepsie Too!  :o)

And here's...

Mossalia the wee Mermaid - my first mermaid experiment.  I LOOOOOVE mermaids!  :o) 

You can see that I caught her (carefully) barehanded.  We did not keep her, of course, but had a nice chat, took some photos, said "goodbye", and watched her swim away beneath the waves.

 

And we can't forget the comic fans amongst our ranks...

(okay, I'm one of them, I admit it.)

Marvel Comics' the Human Torch.
FLAME ON!

- my impressionistic interpretation - for Matt.  :o)

He's quite small (prox 3 1/2" not counting flames, 4" with flames).  I think he kind of looks like a fire elemental. :o)

Knitted on size 2 needles with Senso size 3 crochet thread.  Flames crocheted in strips and sewn to body.

 

And if you have been saving up things to do "When Pigs Fly"....

The Time has Come!

We have a Pink Flying Piggy!

Petunia Phlying Piglet

 

Complete with an easy pattern to make her!  To make Petunia, I came up with a new (as far as I can determine) idea for making the legs of a 4-legged peep, all in one, along with the rest of the body.  She’s knit in the round, all in one piece (except for wings of course), including legs, ears and tail and just stitching the sides of the legs and ears together when the knitting is done. A nice easy project. I really enjoyed making her!  :o)

Pattern for Petunia Phlying Piglet can be found here!

 

More about Petunia and the Loopy Legs Technique in the next post!  (which won't be too long away, I hope, because it's nearly finished!)

Hope you are all having a lovely summer!  Lots of fun in the sun (with your sunscreen of course) and playing at the beach, and BBQ's, and happy times!  :o)  Stay Cool!  (I sooo want to put ",Dudes" here!  heh heh)

Please check out www.flickr.com/knittycat for larger photos and all of the peeps.

:o(   ERRATA:

Well it was bound to happen... An error in one of the patterns, and a big one!  Poor Nellie the Elephant has an error in the instructions for her feet.  :o/

The corrected pattern is in the pdf now, if you prefer to download Nellie again. (since 04/09/08 so if you downloaded it after that date, you have the corrected pattern) 

Or you can substitute the following instructions for the ones in the pattern:

Nellie's Feet:

* FEET PATTERN *
Feet
C/o 6 st onto two circs.
Rnd 1: Kfb each st around (12 st)
Rnd 2 and all even rnds: k around
Rnd 3: kinc, k1 around (18 st total)
(increase every other st, using
the increase of your choice - I use the kinc
throughout because it is less noticeable)
Rnd 5: kinc k2 around (24 st total)
(increase every 3rd st)
Rnd 7: k2tog k2 around (18 st total)
Rnd 9: k2tog k1 around (12 st total)
Rnd 11: k around
Stuff quite full and Bind off.
Sew feet to bottom of elephant evenly spaced.
Put front feet as far forward as looks good, so
she won't topple forward.

........

My apologies to anyone who was caused any grief by my error. 

And profound thanks to Susan of spinblessing.com for finding this and bringing it to my attention! 

On to happier news...

:o)  NEW PATTERNS!

Eggy/Bunnies

Download Eggy/Bunny Peeps Knitting Pattern

Wee Lambies

Download Wee Baby Lambies Peeps Knitting Pattern

Petit Fours

.

Download Petit Fours for Peeps Pattern

And, coming in the not too far distant future I hope:

Kermit Peep! (Yes, Really!)

and Hello Kitty Peep!

  (--- update --- these have been delayed again, though I have made progress on Kermie)

They're in the works (meaning that I'm working on them), but I'm veeerrry slooow, so not sure how long it will be.

I hadn't planned to make a Kermie pattern, but I found out that our niece, Kristina, likes him, so I'm making her Kermie 2 for her June birthday, and while I'm working on him, I'm recording what I'm doing.  I ran into a bit of a  problem though, I didn't remember how I'd made his feet and hands.  :o/  So that's been a bit challenging, but I'm recreating them.  it would actually be easier for me to re-invent them, to just start fresh, and go at it, but since so many of you have professed a desire to make this particular Kermie, I'm doing my best to make the new one as close to my original as possible.

Hello Kitty peep was going to be next, but the need to make a Kermie for Kristina has bumped him ahead, and Kitty is on the back burner for a while.  Also, it turns out that I find knitting with white yarn rather boring, so I'm not anxious to get back to her.  But I will, eventually.

I've been experimenting with speaking into a digital recorder while I'm knitting, recording the steps I'm taking.  This is working lots better than stopping to make notes as I'm knitting, because it doesn't interrupt my flow very much.  Whereas writing as I go is very disruptive.  I really recommend this method to pattern writers.

         ..........................................................................................................................

Kermie Update:

Time has passed and I haven't gotten this posted, or completed either the Kermie pattern (though I have completed Kermie 2), or the Hello Kitty pattern.  :o( 

Health issues have imposed themselves between me and what I want to be doing.  So please forgive my slowness.  I do hope to eventually get it all done, Hopefully in our lifetimes.  ;o)  Well it would be really difficult for me to get it done AFTER my lifetime! 

Future Tutorials:

I've also begun a couple of photo tutorials that I hope to finish in the not-too-far-distant future (but going by my track record, I wouldn't  hold my breath waiting if I were you.)

These are the ones that I have started:

 1. making yarn knot eyes (a la Jean Greenhowe)
 2. double knitting for peeps

I haven't found any available for these, so I'm attempting to fill that void.  At least put a crumb out there.

And there's another one that I'm currently working on:

3. knitting in the round on two circs - from a different perspective
(though there are plenty of great tutorials on this already available, while describing the process to a friend, I recently noticed a great similarity in knitting this way to knitting flat, and I'd like to illustrate it to take the mystery out of a really easy, and useful, technique.)

Next post will be about what I HAVE completed lately! 

We hope that you are all having a lovely summer so far, and aren't suffering too much from the heat!

You can see that Pudge doesn't!  ;o)

"For he loves the sun and the sun loves him."

                                        - Christopher Smart