Happy Octopus

I've been making Hansi Singh's octopus pattern for quite some time now.  I love it, the octopi are cute and the bendable legs are so creative, but I wanted to make something a bit more cuddly.  So I made a less anatomical correct squishy octopus.  Super simple design, basically just a ball and some tubes, but the result is pretty cute.

Cabled Creature

 Been kicking around the ideas for a guy like this for a while.  You always see cables on scarves, sweaters, and mittens, but rarely on stuffed toys.  Though it was a nice twist. :)

Jake the Dog

Jake the Dog

Materials:

Size 3 (3.25 mm) straight knitting needles

Size 4 (3.5 mm) double pointed needles

Yarn:  Two skeins of Vanna’s Choice yarn in Mustard

A small amount of black yarn

Tapestry Needle

Sewing needle

Black thread

Two circles of black felt 2” in diameter

Two circles of white felt 1.5” in diameter

Small oval of black felt (approx 1” across and .5” high)

Stuffing

Notes:

Inc: Knit/Purl front and back

Dec: Knit/Purl two together

When sewing together pieces, use the invisible horizontal/vertical seam methods.

I find that the cable cast on method works best for this project.

Body (Make 2):

CO 30 st

R1) Knit

R2) P1, inc, purl until last two st, inc, P1 (32 st)

R3) Knit

R4) P1, inc, purl until last two st, inc, P1 (34 st)

R5) Knit

R6) P1, inc, purl until last two st, inc, P1 (36 st)

R7) Knit

R8) P1, inc, purl until last two st, inc, P1 (38 st)

R9-R69) Knit odd rows, purl even rows

R70) P1, dec, purl until last three st, dec, P1 (36 st)

R71) Knit

R72) P1, dec, purl until last three st, dec, P1 (34 st)

R73) Knit

R74) P1, dec, purl until last three st, dec, P1  (32 st)

R75) Knit

R76) P1, dec, purl until last three st, dec, P1  (30 st)

R77) Knit.

Cast off.

Jowls:

Forming the lower jowls:

CO 5 st

R1) inc, purl until last stitch, inc (7 st)

R2) Knit

R3) inc, purl until last stitch, inc  (9 st)

R4-R13) Knit even rows, purl odd rows

R14) Purl all stitches, then CO 5 stitches (14 st)

Cut yarn and place all stitches on a stitch holder.  Repeat rows 1-14 again.  Cut yarn and then pick up the stitches from the stitch holder such that the five cast on stitches from each piece “meet” in the middle.  Also, arrange your stitches such that you will pick up working on the right side. (28 st)

R15) Knit

R16) Purl

R17) Knit

R18) Purl

R19) K1, dec, knit until last three st, dec, K1 (26 st)

R20) Purl

R21) K1, dec, knit until last three st, dec, K1  (24 st)

Cast off.

Putting the body together:

Start by stitching together the two sides of Jake’s body.  Begin at the bottom using an invisible stitch and work your way up the sides.  Once you have almost reached the top, take a break.  We are going to add the facial features. 

Now, since I improvise my designs, the jowls ended up being a bit difficult to work with.  There is definitely more jowl than needed.  I started sewing the jowls to the body from the top of the jowls and working my way down until I had deemed I had reached optimal Jake jowl length.  I tucked a decent amount of the jowls up into themselves since they were a little long.  But this works out fine since his jowls need to be stuffed anyways. 

Before you finish sewing the jowls up, make sure to put a little bit of stuffing in them to lift them off the face.

Next, take some of your black yarn and give your Jake a smile!

After that we want to sew on the eyes.  Cut out your circles of white and black felt.  Sew (using needle and thread) the white circles onto the black so that the tops of the circles are lined up.  Next sew the eyes onto your body.  When figuring out where to put the eyes, I like to stuff Jake to get a better idea of what he will look like filled out.  I then pin the eyes in place and take the stuffing out before sewing them on.  Try and get them as close to the jowls as you can.

Next sew on your oval of black felt for this nose.  Sew this right onto the jowls.

Go back to stitching the two sides of the Jake together, stuffing as you go. (We are going to add the legs/arms/tail/and ears onto the body after he is stuffed and sewn together).  Make sure you have stuffed him sufficiently, and then finish stitching him up, hiding the loose ends within the body.

Ears (Make one on each side of head):

With DPN, pick up 15 stitches in an oval where you want to place the ears. (I placed them directly on the side, slightly under the top of his head)

**You can choose to just knit the legs/arms/ears/tail off the body, and then sew them on afterward. I find that picking up stitches leads to a cleaner look.

R1-R6) Knit

R7) *K4, inc* three times (18 st)

R8-R12) Knit

R13) *K1, dec* six times (12 st)

R14) Knit

R15) *dec* six times  (6 st)

Thread yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight. Tie off.

Arms and Legs:

With DPN, pick up 18 stitches in an oval where you would like the legs/arms.  (I usually make it a pretty thin oval, as this allows for easy bending)

Continue in stockinet stitch until you reach the desired length.  My arms and legs are somewhere between 5 and 6 inches long.  Seeing as Jake is a magical dog, the length is up to you!

Keep track of how many rows you make on your first arm/leg so that the other will be even!

When the arms/legs are the length you want them, stuff them firmly and finish using these three rows:

R1) *K1, dec* six times (12 st)

R2)  Knit

R3) *dec* six times (6 st)

Thread yarn through stitches and pull tight.  Tie off.

Tail:

With DPN, pick up 15 stitches in an oval where you would like the tail.

R1-R5) Knit

R6) *K3, dec* three times (12 st)

R7) Knit

R8) Knit

R9) *K2, dec* three times (9 st)

R10) Knit

R11) Knit

Add a small amount of stuffing.

R12) *K1, dec* three times (6 st)

R13) *dec* three times (3 st)

Thread yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight. Tie off.

You should now have your very own Jake the Dog!

As always, writing out patterns is not one of my strengths in this process.  Please let me know if you need clarification on anything! Good luck!

Calcifer

Hello again!

I don't know about you but I am a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan.  It is my goal to eventually own all of the movies he has made.  So far my collection is small, but includes my favorite (My Neighbor Totoro) and a few others.  Among these is Howl's Moving Castle.  By far my favorite character in this movie is the fire demon Calcifer.  He's just got a loveable spunk!  So I decided to knit up a Calcifer of my own.

Calcifer is made of fire and I wanted to get the colors right, so I decided to hand dye some yarn for this project.  I initially dyed the yarn yellow and then made a gradient with some red.  The result is quite flame like.  Next, I just knit him up, added some facial features, and BAM!  Cute little fire demon!

 

 

In other news, I was recently interviewed about my Finn the Human pattern! Check out the interview here!

Anime Fusion

Exciting news!  This weekend I will be at my very first con selling my goods!  The convention is called Anime Fusion and is in the Twin Cities.  Come check me out if you are in the area!

Also, current Jake progress:

Mathematical!

Update Explosion!!

It's been a while!  I had a bit of a knitting slump in August, and then I have just been a bit lazy about knitting and posting things.  So here is a mega update!

First off, I finished a beautiful shawl.  The pattern is called Cladonia, and I decided to take this project on after seeing one of my knitting friends make it as well.  This is the first project that I have successfully blocked and I absolutely love it!  It's a great weight for fall.

 

(I apologize for the bad quality of this picture)

I also whipped up two hats from the book "Weekend Hats".  And because it's my favorite color, they are both green!  The beret is made with hand dyed yarn.

I didn't use quite the right type of yarn for this project, so the hat ended up a little floppy.

I made some hand warmers which have been wonderful for the cooler days.  They don't match but I think that gives them spunk. 

 

Last but not least, my mother requested this as a gift for a friend of hers.  It's very free hand and I didn't bother writing down the pattern as I went.  Anyways! I give you Gunter:

 

And along the lines of Adventure Time projects, no, I have not yet finished Jake the Dog.  I have been really lazy about that project...I will hopefully get to is soon. :)

Blue

I finished my hat for my friend!  It was a Navi hat!  I really like the way that the yarn I dyed worked out.  The hat ended up looking kind of pixel-y which worked really well since Navi is from a video game and all.  Anyways, here he is with his brother as Link at Comic-Con:

 

Here are some more images where you can see the hat a bit better.  I used some thin wire to hold the wings up, which worked quite well.

I recently got an itty bitty crochet hook and some embroidery yarn and tried my hand at making an little octopus!  It is super cute!  It made my hands hurt a lot to use the little hook, but it was worth it!  And then I turned it into a key chain!  Woo!

Also, I finally started to make Jake the Dog for my sister!  Hopefully I will finish it within the next two weeks.

Look out! It's a Kraken!!!

Though, I have to say, this is probably the least threatening kraken I have ever seen. I mean,come on, look at how adorable it is!

Dawwwwww!

^__________^

So cute!

 My narwhal project (which is also very cute of course) is almost complete!  I just have to add it's horn and then I will post pictures!

Finished Octopus Hat

I figured it was about time to post pictures of the finished octopus hat since I actually finished it about two weeks ago.  I apparent had a brain fart when decreasing the top of the hat because it ended up way pointer than I wanted it to.  Fortunately, I was able to turn this around by folding the top down and securing it with a button (one of the many new buttons I recently obtained).  The button I picked fits the hat perfectly and I am kind of glad I goofed up, because I quite like the look of it.

 

I am currently working on two projects.  One is a stuffed Kraken (progress shown below).  The other is another Finn the Human, which I will be slowly making during my 15 minute breaks at work.  Speaking of work, my first two weeks have been good and I have found that I still have a decent amount of time for knitting in the evenings, which is very nice!

New Job and New Projects

I'm starting my new "real world" job this next Monday.  This has positives and negatives to it:
Positive: More money = more yarn.
Negative:  Less time to actually knit
So, there may be a decrease in the number of projects finished per month now. :(

Speaking of projects, I am currently super into octopi!  I keep making little stuffed octopi...

 

Woo!

And am finishing up my intarsia octopus hat (I am not looking forward to sewing in all the loose ends O.o).  After that I have plans to make a stuffed Narwhal, and then perhaps a Kraken from the same book I got the stuffed octopus pattern from.  Stay tuned!

Finn the Human

Finn the Human

Materials:

Size 3 (3.25 mm) straight knitting needles

Size 5 (3.75 mm) double pointed needles

Yarn:  One skein each of Vanna’s Choice yarn in White, Rose, Aqua, Colonial Blue, Beige, Fern, Black, and Olive.  About a yard of purple yarn in worsted weight.

Tapestry Needle

2 medium sized eyes

One button

Stuffing

Notes:

Inc: Knit/Purl front and back

Dec: Knit/Purl two together

When sewing together pieces, use the invisiblehorizontal/vertical seam methods.

I find that the cable cast on method works best for this project.

Legs:

Using Black and straight needles, cast on 18 stitches

R1) Knit

R2) P1, inc, P17 (19 st)

R3) Knit

R4) P1, inc, P18 (20 st)

R5) Knit

R6) Purl

R7) Knit

R8) P1, dec, P18 (19 st)

R9) Knit

R10) P1, dec, P17 (18 st)

R11) Knit

R12) Cast off 8, P10 (10 st)

Continue in stockinet stitch for 8 more rows with Black.

Switch to Beige

Continue in stockinet stitch 30 rows

Switch to Colonial Blue

Continue in stockinet stitch 11 rows

Cut yarn and move all stitches to a stitch holder.

Make another leg, but this time read all rows backwards like so:
R1) Knit

R2) P17, inc, P1

R3) Knit

R4) P18, inc, P1

Etc...

Keep the second leg on the straight needles and do not cut the yarn.

Body:
(Continue working on the second leg)
R1) K10, Cast on 15 st, place first leg from stitch holder onto needles, K10 from first leg (thus connecting the two legs into one piece) (35 st)

Continue 14 more rows in stockinet stitch with Colonial Blue

Switch to Aqua

Continue in stockinet stitch for 35 rows

Switch to White

Continue in stockinet stitch for 5 rows

Knit (stockinet stitch) the next 19 rows using the Face template and Beige yarn.

Face Template

Continue in stockinet stitch for 6 rows with White

Ears:

(Continue working on the Body)
R1) K8, Cast off 19 st, K8

R2) P8, put the other 8 stitches onto a stitch holder

Continue in stockinet stitch for 5 more rows, then cast off.

Pick up the 8 stitches form the stitch holder.

Continue in stockinet stitch for 6 more rows, then cast off.

Repeat the Legs, Body, and Ears section once more.  Only this time, instead of working the Face Template, just work 19 rows in White.

Assembling Finn:

Begin sewing the two sides of Finn together starting at the feet.  Sew together the boot sections of his feet but don’t go much further.  If you continue to sew together the rest of his legs it will make it more difficult to sew on his socks.

Socks (Make 2):

Using the double pointed needles and White yarn, make a 5 stitch I-cord 30 rows long. 

Before casting off your I-cord, first check to make sure it fits around Finn’s leg.  I stuffed Finn’s boots to make sure it was long enough before I cast off.

Once making sure the I-cord is long enough, cast off.  Sew the two ends of the I-cord together and then sew the cord onto Finn’s leg where the top of his boots meet his legs. 

Next, sew together the two sides of Finn until you reach slightly above the bottom of his shorts.  At this point you want to embroider the bottom of his shorts with a chain stitch using the Colonial Blue yarn. 
Continue to sew the two halves together, embroidering at the bottom of the shirt with Aqua, and at the bottom of the hat with White.  Chain stitch with White yarn along the outside of the face. 
Do not start to sew together the ears or the top of the head yet.

Arms (Make 2):

With straight needles and Aqua, cast on 19 stitches

 Work in stockinet stitch for 15 rows in Aqua

Switch to Beige

Continue in stockinet stitch for 35 rows

Cast off.

Sew together the two long edges of the hand, making sure to stop and chain stitch the bottom of the sleeve in Aqua along the way.  Sew the bottom of the arm together such that the seam from the long edges is in the middle bottom part of the hand (see figure on left below).  Once the bottom of the hand is sewn up, stuff the bottom of the arm.  Next sew two 1 inch sections at the bottom of the arm, such that the appearance of fingers is achieved (see figure on right below).

Stuff the rest of the arm and then sew it onto the body just slightly under the bottom of the white hat.  To do this, I first sewed the top of the arm in place using invisible horizontal seam method and then sewed the bottom on about two rows under that.  This joint should not be heavily stuffed in order to allow for more movement.

Once both arms have been sewn onto the body, add facial features.  Place the eyes where they look good to you, and then add a mouth using a basic back stitch.

Stuff the body and then continue sewing the two halves of Finn together.  Continue stuffing as you sew together the ears and top of head.  Tie off the ends and hide them inside the body.

Backpack:

Back:

Using Dark Olive yarn and straight needles, cast on 25 stitches

R1) Knit

R2) P1, inc, Purl to last two stitches, inc, P1 (27 st)

R3) Knit

R4) Repeat row 2  (29 st)

R5) Knit

R6) Repeat row 2 (31 st)

R7) Knit

R8) Repeat row 2 (33 st)

R9) Knit

R10) Repeat row 2 (35 st)
R11-R18) Continue in Stockinet Stitch

Switch to Fern

R19-R26) Continue in Stockinet Stitch

R27) K1, dec, Knit to last three stitches, dec, K1 (33 st)

R28) Purl

R29) Repeat row 28 (31 st)

R30) Purl

R31) Repeat row 28 (29 st)

R32) Purl

R33) Repeat row 28 (27 st)

R34) Purl

R35) Repeat row 28 (25 st)

R36) Purl

Cast off.

Bottom Front:

Using Olive and straight needles, cast on 25 stitches

R1) Knit

R2) P1, inc, Purl to last two stitches, inc, P1 (27 st)

R3) Knit

R4) Repeat row 2  (29 st)

R5) Knit

R6) Repeat row 2 (31 st)

R7) Knit

R8) Repeat row 2 (33 st)

R9) Knit

R10) Repeat row 2 (35 st)
R11-R18) Continue in Stockinet Stitch

R19-R23) Work in K2, P2 ribbing

Cast off.

Upper front:

Using Fern and straight needles, cast on 25 stitches

R1) Knit

R2) P1, inc, Purl to last two stitches, inc, P1 (27 st)

R3) Knit

R4) Repeat row 2  (29 st)

R5) Knit

R6) Repeat row 2 (31 st)

R7) Knit

R8) Repeat row 2 (33 st)

R9) Knit

R10) Repeat row 2 (35 st)
R11-R13) Continue in Stockinet Stitch

R14-R18) Work in K2, P2 ribbing

Cast off.

Backpack Straps (Make 2):

Olive and straight needles, cast on 12 stitches

Work in stockinet stitch for 24 rows

Switch to Fern

Work in stockinet stitch for 24 rows

Cast off.

Sew Backpack back, upper front, and lower front together.  Make sure that the upper front is sewed on over the bottom front.  Sew on arm straps close to the edge of the Backpack.  I ended up sewing the ends of each strap very close to each other as well.  Sew on button and then sew on a crocheted or braided cord for a button loop.

Like-Like Sweater:

Using Rose and the double pointed needles, cast on 72 stitches and distribute them onto the three needles

Work 4 rows in K2, P2 ribbing

Work 27 rows in stockinet stitch

Forming arm holes:

Cast off 10 stitches, K26, cast off 10 stitches, K26

Cast on 10 stitches, K26, cast on 10 stitches, K26

Continue in stockinet stitch for 4 more rows

Work 4 rows in K2, P2 ribbing

Cast off.

Sweater Sleeves:

Pick up 24 stitches from the arm hole with the DPNs and distribute them onto the three needles

Work 3 rows in stockinet stitch

*K3, inc, repeat from * until end of row (30 st)

Work in stockinet stitch for 33 rows

*K3, dec, repeat from * until end of row (24 st)
Work 4 rows in K2, P2 ribbing

Cast off.

Sew in loose ends.  Stitch a heart with purple yarn in the top right corner of the front of the sweater.

Now you have your very own Finn the go on adventures with! Enjoy!

Oh my glob, he is so cute!

Finished Finn the Human!  Super pleased with how everything turned out! 

 The Finn!

 The backpack!

 But what's inside?

 Awwww, his sweater from Princess Bubblegum!

Mathematical!

Dat Octopus

Finished up my octopus (pattern from the book Amigurimi Knits)! His legs are bendy and twisty and he is very friendly. :)




Also completed my Finn the Human from Adventure Time! I am still planning on making his backpack and pink heart sweater that he got from Princess Bubblegum.

Earth Creature

I have decided to delve more into the world of improvisation. I sketched out a picture of a cute little creature and decided to try and knit it as best I could. I'm not going to post the picture of the sketch, so you will just have to believe me when I say that I did a pretty good job.



My only wish is that I had used smaller needles. When I was filling this guy with fluff, I noticed that you could see some of the stuffing between the stitches. But now I know to use smaller needles when making stuffed creature.

I plan to sell this on Etsy. I will probably actually get my store up sometime in the next few months. I have been amassing items so that when my store actually does go up, I'm selling more than just a hat.

In other news, I am currently working on two projects. One is an amigurumi octopus. He is almost done but is in need of some pipe cleaners to make his legs more twisty and fun. I have just been lazy about getting these, but hopefully I will finish him up in the next week.

My other project is Finn the Human from Adventure Time! This is another improvised design. I am currently making him for my sister, as she hinted that a stuffed Finn would be a pretty cool gift. I had to agree with her. Once I am done I will post the pattern here so everyone can have a Finn!