Two more cowls

Hello! It's still quite cold here, so I've been spending my evening snuggled under at least three rugs while crocheting more cowls. Huzzah! Seriously, cowls are awesome. They don't fall off when you wear them, and they are so easy to make. A zombie could make a cowl; they are that easy. Coincidentally, I'd love to see a crocheting zombie.

Anyway, I found this lovely yarn which just screamed "make me into something!!" I feel like this yarn was a brave choice for me since I still have trouble with wearing more than one or two colours at a time (case in point: my outfit today consisted of black shoes, black tights, a black and white skirt, a black top, and a black cardigan. I'm not even kidding.)

I was going to do a wave stitch, but I kept making mistakes, which is not a bad thing in itself, but frogging this yarn was nigh on impossible! Trying to undo anything lead to snapping and therefore swearing and general unhappiness so I decided to try a basic treble mesh instead. I'm all about the simplicity, folks.

 

I think it worked out for the best though as I love how the colour graduation looks with the treble mesh  ^_^

 

This yarn is 30% wool and 70% acrylic and it is called Bouvardia. I used a 4mm hook and it is long enough to comfortably wrap around my neck twice.

Next up: another cowl. Using the exact same pattern. Hey, why stop when you're onto a good thing, right? ~_^

This yarn is called Helsinki and is also a blend of acyrlic and wool but it is much chunkier; I used a 11.5 mm hook for this cowl.

I love the kind of tweedy look this yarn has, and it's so soft and lovely to wear ^_^

 

Because it is so thick, it worked up very quickly. I love fast projects! ^_^

 

As you can see, the Helsinki has less drape than the Bouvardia; but it is also a bit warmer. Now I might need to start making some matching hats! I am going to bleach my hair soon (eeek!) in preparation for a new colour. I am kind of dreading have blonde hair for a week or so (nothing against you blondes, I just don't think it will suit my colouring!) but hopefully it will be worth it in the end ^_^

Any tips for hiding in-between-colours hair? Maybe I should invest in a snood? ~_^

- Lisa x

Pon-Pon inspired eye ball hair bows and a free printable poster

Hello! How have you been? I have officially finished my first semester of university! Hurrah! The last couple of weeks were intense, with a *lot* of studying, which meant I was listening to a lot of music ^_^ I find songs where I have no idea what the lyrics are are perfect for studying to, so I was listening to SBS PopAsia pretty much constantly. I can even kinda sing along now ... although I'm pretty sure that I am mispronouncing everything and I still have no idea what most songs are about! ^_^

Which brings me to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and her awesome song "PONPONPON". It's so much fun! I love the set design, and the extreme weirdness of it all ^_^

Watching her videos just makes me want to craft, so I whipped up a couple of eye-ball hair bows ^_^

They were very, very easy to make too! Here's how:

1. Follow this tutorial to make a couple of hair bows

2. Cut out four large circles from white felt, two medium circles from coloured felt (these will be the irises so any colour is fine ^_^), and two small circles from black felt

3. Use embroidery thread to sew the black circle onto the coloured circle, and then the coloured circle onto the white circle

4. Cut two circles from cardboard just a tiny bit smaller than the white circles

5. Sandwich the cardboard in between the front of the eyeball and one of the extra white felt circles and stitch together using a blanket stitch - this will give it some extra support and ensure your eyeball doesn't become floppy

6. Sew the eyeballs onto the hair bows

7. Sew on a hair clip to the back of each bow

Then clip then in a make some funny faces ~_^

I also have a printable for you! Click on either of the pictures here to be taken to my Google Drive, where you can download this "Keep Calm and Pon Pon Pon" poster ^_^

The poster is A3 size, so you have the choice of printing it out full size or shrinking it to fit on A4 paper ^_^ I hope you like it! Please let me know if you have any trouble with downloading it from Google Drive!

Next I want to try crafting something inspired by Kyary's "Fashion Monster" song ... any suggestions? ^_^

- Lisa x

Circle skirt from a vintage tablecloth and a chunky crochet cowl

Hey! Since I have been trying to be a good student all semester (i.e. more study, less crafting and thrifting) I was having major cravings for a good op-shop trip, so the other weekend I dragged Bec with me to a suburb full of both thrifting opportunities and people with a high socioeconomic status. Good combo! There I found an awesome vintage, oval tablecloth with an acorn and oak leaf motif. There was really no question that it was coming home with me, especially since it was only $4, but I wasn't sure what I would do with it because all my tables are squares.

Isn't it pretty? ^_^

 

So, with the forced assistance of Rebecca, I cut a circle out of the middle of it. Gasp! ~_^ I think you can guess where this is going ... we used the cut out circle to make material for a waistband, and added an exposed vintage metal zip and now ...

Circle skirt! Yay! ^_^

 

I adore how it turned out, it's so lovely and soft and since it's homemade it fits perfectly ^_^

And, it's got a lot of spinning potential! When spring comes along, I think this skirt will be getting *a lot* of wear. But in the cold, rainy meantime, some stockings and some cute crochet accessories will make it suitable for winter.

Speaking of which, check out my new favourite cowl (also, my first and only cowl) ~_^

I made this using Moda Vera Bold, which is a very chunky acrylic yarn, and an 11.5mm crochet hook. Since both the yarn and the hook were fairly large, I made this in a couple of hours; and a fair bit of that time was spent frogging as I changed my mind to how wide I wanted it to be and which stitch to use ~_^

I ended up going for a basic treble repeat pattern and made an effort to crochet rather loosely so that the yarn could show off its squishiness and awesome colours ^_^

 

It has been *so cold* here lately, so I think more scarves and cowls are required! Watch this space! ~_^

What have you been making? Is it lovely and sunny where you are?

- Lisa x

OH MY GLOB: Lumpy Space Princess plushie with free pattern

I have wanted to make a Lumpy Space Princess plushie for ages - and now I finally have! Yay!!

I made her from some purple fleece that I had leftover from Scott's baneling plushie, and also some yellow and black felt.

 

She was very easy to make, and she has floppy little arms that you can pose! 

 

 

 And I made a pattern so you can make a LSP too! It's a really, really basic pattern, but it did turn out really well so I hope you like it anyway ^_^ The .pdf is hosted on Google docs and so if you click the image above, it should take you there! (Let me know in the comments if it doesn't work!)

I don't really like turning plushie pieces inside out because I find that I never get the crisp lines I'm after, so I made LSP in what I *think* is called gingerbread style? It is quite possible that I'm just making that up, but I seem to remember my mum making some dolls this way when I was a child. Basically it just means that you sew your plushie together with the wrong sides in, and then trim the seam allowance afterwards. If anyone knows the actual term for this, I'd love to hear it!

Anyway, here's how to make your own Lumpy Space Princess plushie:

1. Print out the pattern on to A4 paper - it should take up the entire page.

2. Cut out your fabric shapes, and remember to add a pretty wide seam allowance to the purple fleece. With her arms, I folded the fabric over and placed one of the arm edges along the fold.

3. Sew on LSP's facial features.

4. Pin the arms together, wrong sides in. Sew around the edges that aren't on the fold.

4. Trim off the excess seam allowance, and then sew them on to LSP's front. Remember not to stuff them! This makes them floppy enough so that she can cross them ^_^

5. Pin LSP's front and back together wrong sides in and sew her up - remembering to leave a small gap so that you can stuff her!

6. Stuff, stuff, stuff.

7. Sew up the gap, and trim the seam allowance all around the edge.

8. She's done! Now give her a hug, take a selfie, and prepare to become best buds ~_^

We're friends now. We're having soft tacos later.

Do you like her? I hope you do! 

- Lisa x

Ninja Time hoop, a flamingo WIP, and a birthday gift for Pip

Hey! Oh my gosh - how is it possible for a week to go by this fast?! I have my three final assignments due for uni next week! Eek!

But, let's procrastinate for a while and I'll show you what's been happening craftwise ... ~_^

Ninja Time embroidery hoop! Yay! This is another project for the Summer Nerd Games, inspired by Adventure Time. Bec made an awesome Pirate Time hoop, which you can also see on the thread ^_^

She's made almost entirely out of felt, but I did use metallic thread to make her shuriken since they are so tiny!

 

You may remember that a while ago I made a skirt out of the background fabric - I love it when I find a use for offcuts! And even though it's quite busy, I think it's perfect for some ninja-style hijinks! ~_^

 

I also changed the original Adventure Time sword into a katana ^_^

I wanted this project to be quick and easy, so while it's not my best work (I find making felt look polished and neat very tricky!) I am happy with how it turned out ^_^ And now I have another hoop for my wall!

I've also been working on this flamingo cross-stitch. It's slow going - I am *not* a skilled cross-stitcher, but I hope that I'll get it finished sometime this month.

I can't wait to show you the entire thing though; I think it's going to turn out rather sweet! ^_^

Now, this project is actually from the start of May (!) but I couldn't share it with you until it arrived safely at Pip's house for her birthday! And then I got lazy and just didn't do anything for an entire month ... ~_^

Bec and I conspired to make Pip a '50s style dress, using a fabric that she had mentioned liking; the fabric is of fancy French ladies and it's really lovely ^_^ I've got to confess - I was so pleased with how sneaky we were. Pip had no idea! Yay! Birthday surprises are the best! ^_^

Since Bec is the best at making dresses, I didn't do much apart from cut things out and follow her instructions ~_^ So I also made a little poodle brooch to go with the dress ^_^ I just used shrinky-dinks and a brooch baking, and it turned out really cute! I used some Eiffel tower washi tape to attach it to, and decorate, a little piece of card-stock.

Here's the whole gift, ready to be sent off! I also made the swing tag for the dress - which is possibly the biggest swing tag ever ~_^ The hair bow is also made with French-inspired fabric; I picked this up at a little market, but unfortunately forgot to note down the name of the lady who made it. Oops! >_<

And here's Pip in her dress! Yay! Doesn't she look wonderful?

  And that's it for me today! Back to the books ... I can't wait until study week; I'm going to craft my little heart out! ^_^

- Lisa xx