Amigurumi Unicorn

 

Hello again all! Today's blog is about this adorable little critter; the Amigurumi Unicorn. No prizes for guessing who I made this for :-) My little man loves the Despicable Me movies, and we saw a toy of Agnes's fluffy unicorn in the toy shop but it was giant and pink, which I thought might be a bit weird for a two year old boy. So I had a search online and found a pattern on Ravelry - incidentally, if you're into yarn related crafts and haven't already checked out Ravelry.com, you really should because there are tonnes of free patterns and some of the pattern creators have YouTube channels and have put up tutorials so you can knit/crochet along.

Now the pattern I used suggests 'Light Weight' yarn, (double knit weight is used in the video tutorial) and a 3.5mm hook. I wanted the toy to be a little bit bigger so I used chunky yarn and a 4.5mm hook. It also suggests 12mm safety eyes, but I only 9mm and it was around midnight when I realised I needed a different size so I just had to make do with the 9mm eyes. (Unfortunately my local 24 hour Tesco doesn't stock knitting supplies, which is just as well because I'd probably never leave otherwise) I think the 9mm eyes look fine though. 

Aside from the yarn weight, hook size and eye size, I did deviate from the pattern slightly in some other ways, also. On the pattern it doesn't say to stuff the hooves, or feet, or whatever you want to call them. However, since mine were larger I felt they needed a bit of bulk so I put a very small amount of stuffing in just before I worked the tube of the leg. I didn't stuff them firmly or anything, like you would for the head and body, I just put enough in so that they wouldn't collapse in on themselves. If you are making this and decide that you want to stuff the feet, I'd recommend putting in your stuffing before you crochet the narrow leg tube because it can be a bit awkward trying to push the stuffing down through the legs.

                        

For the mane and tail the pattern suggests using the contrast colour (the yarn you used for the hooves and mouth) and making the mane using chain stitches. I thought I'd make the unicorn a bit more colourful though, and I cut segments of rainbow coloured yarn and chained it with the blue to make the mane. Then for the tail I mixed the strands of yarn and plaited it, as the pattern suggested.

                             

I did use double knit weight yarn for the horn (and a 3.5mm hook) because when I first made it with the chunky yarn it came out huge and I didn't like how it looked, so I went with the lighter weight yarn. I didn't follow the pattern exactly when it came to crocheting the horn, I left out a couple of rounds so it's a bit 'stubbier' than the pattern would have it and rather than working a small bit of stuffing inside it before I attached it to the head, I just left the long tail from the starting magic loop, and tucked the excess yarn inside instead.

This was a nice simple toy to make, the pattern is good and very easy to follow. There is also a YouTube video where the designer makes the toy from start to finish, so if you get stuck you can watch it to see what to do. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish. The fiddliest bit was the mane, but once I got the first few bits in I got the hang of it. Other than that everything was pretty straightforward, and I'm very happy with how it turned out (most importantly, so is my son!)

Pattern: Amigurumi Unicorn by Eden Dintsikos

Main Yarn: Hayfield Baby Chunky from Winnie's Wool Wagon

Coloured Yarn: from Aimee Rose Store

Stuffing & Safety Eyes: from Springwools

Angry Birds!!

Twas the week before Christmas, and I was seriously stuck for something to get my son. Ok, Santa was all sorted with his gifts (he started with Amazon pre-orders back in June, the super organised fella that he is!) but I wanted something for under the tree for baba from my hubby and I. As any reader has probably already guessed, I love making stuff for him, so with that in mind and the fact that he was going to be getting tonnes of other toys between the jolly old St Nick and our extended families, I decided his present was going to be home made. Now, as I said, twas the week before Christmas, so I wasn't going to have time to make garments, but I figured I'd be able to knock out a decent toy for him in under a day and chose to make an Angry Bird.

I picked Red Bird because his basic shape would be the easiest to figure out - he's essentially a ball. The beak and stuff were going to be slightly more complicated because I didn't have a pattern. Now there are hundreds of Angry Bird crochet and knit patterns out there in internet land but honestly, none of the ones I looked at really jumped out at me. Some had elements I liked but then other bits that I hated so I figured I'd wing it (no pun intended) and see how things went. 

For the main body I just made one big sphere, now for this I did use a pattern - it's one I found on the internet a while ago on how to make a perfect amigurumi sphere, and it's amazing, the results are perfect every time. It's from Ms Premise Conclusion and she's actually got it as a free download on her site, which is really cool because she must have put an INSANE amount of effort in to figuring all of these out. I used the largest size pattern which was a 30 row sphere.

I wanted the body to be fairly substantial in size, about the size of a small football as opposed to maybe a baseball or tennis ball, so I used a 4.5mm hook and also two strands of yarn at the same time. This made the fabric nice and thick and also ensured that I could stuff it nice and firmly without having to worry that the stuffing would be visible between the stitches. When making the sphere, I find it easiest to crochet until you've got about 2 or 3 rows left, then stuff and continue crocheting. If it's starting to feel a bit loose as you're about to close the sphere you can work in a tiny bit more stuffing as you do the last round. NB: if you're using 'safety eyes' you'll need to attach these BEFORE you stuff and close your sphere.

The whites of the eyes were fairly straightforward, they're just plain circles. I used white DK weight yarn and a 3.5mm hook, then I made two circles with 36 stitches around. To attach them I firstly positioned them on the body before it was stuffed and then applied the safety eyes going through both the 'eye' and the 'body' fabric. Then, after I'd stuffed and closed up the body, I took some black yarn and the same 3.5mm hook and worked a row of single crochet around each eye and then took a tapestry needle and used the black yarn to secure the edges of the eyes to the body. The eyebrows were just two pieces of 14 double crochets, and then I did another row of single crochet halfway along each of them to give the 'frowny' expression. They were also made using the 3.5mm hook.

To make the 'tummy' of the bird, I got some beige coloured yarn and just made a flat circle. To figure out how big to make the circle, I checked how many stitches the body had at the widest part and used that as a rough guide. My bird had 59 stitches around it's middle, and I wanted his 'belly' to be a bit smaller than that so I worked until my circle had a 54 stitch circumference. I attached the tummy after the body had been stuffed because it made it easier to hide the stitches holding it on.

The beak was a bit of a challenge, I couldn't figure out whether to do it two dimensional or three dimensional. I checked a load of patterns online and there seemed to be a fairly even split between both, so I actually made one of each and held it up on the bird to see which one I preferred. In this case I used the 3D one (as you can see) but I actually held on to the 2D one also because I'm planning to make an Angry Bird hat for my son and the 2D beak would be perfect for that. The 3D beak is basically just a cone shape, which I stuffed and then attached on with the yellow yarn. I got some black yarn and sewed up along each side to give it the illusion of being more pyramid shaped. I also did a bit of sewing at the top of the beak to improve the shape between the eyes.

For his weird little doo-dads on the top of his head I again used the 3.5mm hook and crocheted two 'tubes' that tapered off towards the end, one slightly shorter than the other. Then I put a teeny bit of stuffing inside them before I sewed them on.

The tail was the finishing touch, and it was news to me that Angry Birds even had tails but that's another story. Don't laugh, but the tail is actually a shamrock, I just used black yarn and sort of smushed it about until I liked how it looked.

And that's it! One Angry Bird! My son loves it and has a great time throwing it around the living room while yelling 'angeee birds!'. Thank god it's not made out of anything harder than yarn!!!

Sphere Pattern from: Ms Premise Conclusion

Stuffing from: Springwools

Safety Eyes from: Springwools

Yarns and hooks from my own stash.

Piggy Knapsack

 

  

I was browsing around in Hickeys yesterday when I came across a load of little felt craft kits. Most of them were for purses and stuff like that, but then I noticed a selection of adorable little kiddie backpacks. There were four different designs - pig, cat, panda and a thing that looked a bit like a cross between a fox and a raccoon. As you can see, I chose the pig.

 

 

The pack cost EUR15 and is supposed to contain everything you need to make the backpack. It even has a little plastic needle so it would be something that young kids could make with some adult help (not the under threes though, due to small parts). The one thing I noticed was that the back part of one of the ears was missing, but by the time I noticed I'd already started putting it together. Luckily, I was able to improvise by tracing the shape of the ear onto a thin piece of cardboard and I used that instead. 

The other thing that was annoying was that there wasn't enough thread either. I ended up having to get more of both the brown and the white thread. However, despite that, I really enjoyed making it. It took me around an hour or two and the instructions were nice and straightforward. In spite of the cardboard backing on one ear, I'm happy with how it turned out and my little boy loves it, he's hilarious toddling around the sitting room with it and it's nearly as big as he is!

For that special someone....... Cute Knitted Hearts!

What with the day that's in it, I thought I'd do a Valentine's post. I used some bamboo cotton that I had left over from a Christmas project to knit this little heart, but you could use pretty much any wool you want. I didn't have a pattern to work from, so I made one up myself. Here's how I made it:

What you'll need:

• Wool of your choice (I used bamboo cotton, similar to this, it's Double Knitting weight)
• 3 x double pointed needles (I used 2.5mm metal needles)
• Scissors
• Point Protectors (optional)

Stitches used:

• k = knit stitch
• k1f&b = knit one stitch in the front and back
• k2tog = knit two stitches together

Let's get started!

Cast on three stitches.

First row:   k1, k1f&b, k1

Second row:    k1, k1f&b, k2

Third tow:    k1, k1f&b, k3

Continue on until you have the desired width for the heart (I did 24 stitches on this one) there needs to be an even number of stitches. Divide the stitches in the middle so that half are on one needle and the other half are on the second needle. You are now only going to be working on half of the heart at a time. Leave 12 of the stitches on one needle and work on the other 12 with the third double pointed needle.

Next row: k1, k2tog, k to end of row

Next row: k1, k2tog, k to end of row

Continue until you have 3 stitches left

Cast off

Repeat on other side.

These cute little hearts are really easy and quick to make, and you could use them for lots of different things - patches for hats or scarves, you could make a giant one with big needles and very chunky wool and use it as a table mat, you could attach lots together to make crochet type clothes etc.

I decided to use this one to make a Valentine's card for my husband. I didn't do anything really fancy with it, I just used a hot glue gun to stick it to a plain ivory card - simple and sweet!

Dogs need jumpers too......right?

Ok, so anyone who knows me will know that I'm certainly not opposed to dressing my dogs in fabulous jumpers. Some people (namely my husband and my father) may argue that said jumpers are ridiculous, however I vehemently disagree. Some dogs are very style conscious, and just love to look their best, well, either that or they're too passive to bother trying to chew their outfits off. 

My Cocker Spaniel, Bella, already has a variety of jumpers, a coat, and a bathrobe (laugh all you want, that thing is damn handy when she's just had a bath and is soaked). Last August, we acquired a new canine friend in the form of Lola, a half labrador - half bulldog, and she's grown up to be quite large, so there's just no way she and Bella will be able to share outfits. To that end, I went on Amazon and purchased the book above, so I can knit her a funky sweater. I ordered it today, so I can't wait for it to arrive! It'll be a nice side project to my log cabin blanket, and doubtless my husband will have hours of fun slagging me about knitting for dogs, so really it'll benefit the whole family!