Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Getting ready for 2016

Christmas is only 2 days away and I am nearly finished with the second Pokemon pillow. I'm really hoping to have that done tonight so that I can finish up the HP blanket my New Years when I visit my SIL.
Since starting this Harry Potter CAL, I have been inspired to come up with my own squares in this fashion. I started off with the Pokemon squares & those turned out pretty well. I have now created squares for all 12 doctors from Doctor Who! Interested in what they look like? Well, join the Block a Month (BAM) CAL I will be hosting in 2016. Head on over to Facebook and join Doctor Who Faces Block a Month CAL 2016. This will start in January with the first doctor. Each month I will release the graph for the next doctor. I will also post video tutorials for how to do both the bobble and c2c stitches so that you can find your perfect method to make this afghan. I can't wait to start and hope you will join me.

Friday, December 11, 2015

So much more Pokemon!

I finally finished working on the Pokeball! This will be the backside of the Pikachu pillow. Just need to single crochet them together & get the pillow form put in. I was super excited to see that Joann Fabric had them on sale for 40% off this week. That's one gift down.



Over in the Crafty Ridge world, the pattern for Snape was released for the HP CAL. As soon as the last 2 squares are completed, I plan on making a celebration post with the whole afghan completed. I absolutely love how this is coming out.

In other news, I went yarn shopping today for the CAL I'm going to be starting in January hosted by the amazing Totallee! Y'all just have to check out her work on Ravelry. I still have a few more colors to decide on, but I should have that all sorted out in the next day or so. Progress pics once it starts, but keeping the pattern a secret for now.

Now that Pikachu is finished, I have come up with 2 more Pokemon characters for my niece's present. I couldn't decide between Squirtle and Charmander, so I made up graphs for both of them. Maybe the pillow will just have both characters and not the pokeball like my nephews pillow.



Charmander pdf




Squirtle pdf

Monday, December 7, 2015

I'm back....again. And doing crazy things with bobble stitch and graphs.

Ok, so I got out of the blogging world for way too long. I moved from Illinois to South Carolina at the end of 2014, and I couldn't be happier with that decision. I live less than 30 minutes away from the beach and it stays warm most of the year. No snow, no shoveling, no scraping ice off the windshield....

So, what have I been up to? Well, crocheting and knitting mostly. When I'm not at work, at least. And sometimes there as well if it isn't too busy. Right now I am working on my sister-in-law's Christmas gift. I found this Potter Pillow over on Ravelry and at first was just going to make the pillow, but then found out that the designer was doing a whole HP CAL over on her website & Facebook page. Crafty Ridge Designs has the most amazing HP squares, so of course I had to change the gift to the afghan.

As I finished the first 6 squares, I realized that this could open up a whole world of graph / 8-bit nerdy designs for me! So here is my first attempt at my own square.

Pikachu!



My nephew & niece have recently gotten into Pokemon, so I have decided to make them some pillows for Christmas. Each will have the Pokeball on the back. So, go ahead & grab this pdf and make up your own. I should have the Pokeball done soon & will upload pics as soon as it is done, but here is the graph I'm working with, so grab the pdf for this one as well.

Pikachu pdf

Pokeball pdf



Materials:
-Worsted Weight Yarn in white, black, yellow & red. (I'm partial to Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn, but any worsted weight yarn will do)
-Hook appropriate to your yarn selection. This was done with an H/5.00 hook.
-Yarn needle
-Scissors
-16" pillow form if making a pillow

Need to know how to go about making this bobble stitch square? Check out some tips from Repeat Crafter Me! She has made an epic Seattle Seahawks blanket with this stitch.

I'm going to work on a couple more Pokemon characters, but feel free to make suggestions!