Pattern of the week: Great Big Wasp

I’ve started seeing wasps outside, so I figured it was a good time for my wasp pattern to get promoted 🙂 I really like wasps, even though they make me nervous because I was stung a couple of times as a kid. Both times was my own fault, though, so no hard feelings 🙂

Get the pattern cheaper from now and until next Sunday, on Etsy and Ravelry.

And, continuing the trend from the past few weeks, I’m going to leave the Aphid pattern from last week discounted for another week, since it didn’t get quite the exposure it could’ve gotten. Again, I’ve been busy and not very good at social media…

Links to Etsy and Ravelry.

Will be back some time next week with a more general update 🙂

Great big greenbottle fly

Another WiP finished for the Ravellenic Games 🙂

First, let me just say that this is not a new fly pattern, but rather an expansion of the original. I just really like flies and I wanted to make a greenbottle, because they’re so shiny and pretty 🙂 I’ve explained the changes I’ve made in the notes of the project page on Ravelry, so check them out if you want to, but note that you need to have the original pattern to make any sense of them.

Anyway. This had been in progress for a long time. Originally I started both this and a bluebottle together, but I only finished this one for the games. The bluebottle was barely started, and so I decided I wouldn’t have time to do them both. This is what I started with:

A stuffed body with one eye attached, the other eye, eyelids and wings. I’m pretty sure it had legs at some point, but I guess I must have taken them and used them on another bug… So I made new legs and a proboscis, and voila 🙂

Great Big News!

I’m in a book! An actual, physical book 🙂 I have two patterns in Crochet Critters and Bugs:

The Great Big Aphid and the Great Big Scorpion are both very pleased to be in a book 🙂

The book came out in January, but it’s been in the works for a long time. I was contacted in 2012 and asked to contribute with two patterns, and of course I said yes 🙂 Last spring I crocheted up the two bugs to get new progress photos and the bugs and the patterns were shipped off to the publisher (Stackpole Books) in May. After that I could only wait… And it was definitely worth the wait 🙂 I picked up the package with my two bugs and my copies of the book yesterday, and I’m super excited to finally have the book in my hands. It’s only two patterns of 22, but to me it’s still a huge deal. And I’m really honored to be chosen along with a bunch of other awesome designers 🙂

Even if you already have these two patterns, I still recommend very much to get the book, because there are so many other great designs. I’m definitely going to try some of the other critters soon 🙂

Well. I’m going to shut up now, but the book is available on Amazon, where you can get a look inside to see what else is in there 🙂

2013 craftiness

Finally. I promised I’d make this post, and I better get to it while it’s still the beginning of the year, right? 😛

For some reason it feels like I didn’t really get much done last year. There was a lot of fiddling about with new things and few projects and patterns were actually finished. School kept me pretty busy, and otherwise I guess I was just distracted and somewhat uninspired. Let’s hope 2014 brings more time and motivation to get things done 😀

On New Year’s Eve last year a friend showed me the basics of nalbinding, which I’d wanted to try for ages, and after watching some videos on YouTube I got the hang of it pretty quickly. My boyfriend gave me a needle for my birthday and I immediately started a pair of slippers. They aren’t done yet, because I sort of stranded at the heel. They are both missing heel and toe at the moment, but I hope I can finish them soon because our apartment is so cold… After I gave up on the slippers I moved on to some wrist warmers, but I had the brilliant idea to knit some fur edges on them with a mohair yarn or something, so naturally, they aren’t finished yet either. Sigh.

After that I dug out my sewing machine and made this cute little sleeve for my new tablet:

And I finished the bag for my boyfriend, the one I’d been working on since summer:

Next I finished and posted the pattern for a crocheted Man-o-War:

And I made a brown slug for Fresh Stitches’ slug-along:

Plus I had to make a case for my nalbinding needles:

In February I made two of PlanetJune’s awesome cephalopods, a nautilus and an octopus:

When the school semester started for real I didn’t do much of anything. A couple of stitches here and there on various stuff that was never finished. Oh, except for two bugs I made for a book! But more about that later 🙂

After my exams I was really exhausted and just wanted to do something silly and simple for myself, so I crocheted this fat little grub:

During the summer holiday I finished two new patterns, first a Great Big Honey Bee and then a Tardigrade:

In August I finished another Great Big Bug I’d been working on for a while, but sadly the pattern for it is still not ready. I have another one I want to make before I publish the two patterns together. But here, have a teaser:

I also did a new set of Dudes, the first in a series of Australian animals. No pattern yet, sorry. I really need to sit my butt down and finish it…

Before Halloween I made this set of alien critters, basically as a test to see how the safety eyes I’d just bought would look. Free pattern available on Ravelry:

And finally I made the third and last set of Halloween Dudes:

After that I started making Christmas presents, which is why I couldn’t blog much about what I was doing… First I made a Minion (from the movie Despicable Me) for a friend to give to her son. As far as I know he was really happy with his present 🙂

I finished a soccer fan doll for my aunt, one that I actually started a few years ago for her birthday but never finished. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, even though blue and orange is probably my least favorite color combo:

Also since October 12th the new Pokemon games were out, and they kept me busy for quite a while. So yeah, I found myself a new obsession 🙂 And of course I had to try and crochet one! This is my slightly odd version of Espurr, one of the new ones from these games (it’s kind of a cat):

I made a bunch of flowers and leaves to put on a bag for my grandmother (here’s the post):

I’d wanted to try plastic canvas for years, but none of the local stores here had even heard of it. Then finally it dawned on me to check eBay (duh!) and I made a lightning bolt bookmark for my boyfriend (the David Bowie/Aladdin Sane thing again):

And a small box for my mother to keep her new row counter in to keep it from counting while in her bag etc (also found on eBay lol):

And that’s about it, I think. Well. I thought I hadn’t done much, but it seem I’ve been busy enough 🙂 I just haven’t published a lot of new patterns… I’ll try to work on that this year 🙂

Honey Bee pattern is up :)

Apparently there can be such a thing as too nice weather… Didn’t get a chance to photograph the bee and finish the pattern until last night, because there was so much work to be done outside. Painting, mowing the lawn, weeding, etc…

I added the pattern to Etsy last night and to Ravelry this morning. Available as instant download from both stores 🙂