Spirited Away

I've admired this aphid777's work for a long time since even before I began to crochet. In fact, her pattern that she created of Spirited Away's Haku is one of the biggest reasons that I wanted to begin learning how to crochet and how to make dolls through crocheting. Spirited Away is one of my all time favourite movies because of the amazing characters and artwork and overall story. Basically, I loved everything about that film. Well.. I finally felt my skills were good enough to attempt Haku! And it was hard.My first problem arose when inserting the wiring needed for Haku's body. After crocheting up to a certain point, I realized that the craft art wire that I bought was not strong enough to keep Haku's body in shape even when reinforced by 5 times. So ... thankfully after reading some other people's comments on Ravelry, I used the idea of using a wire clothes hanger.

See the difference between the thickness of the wires needed? 

Random WIP of Haku. At this point, it looks like a giant sperm or some sort of tampon.

The final result is amazing!! Attaching Haku's hair took the longest time (not including the body). Also, making his whiskers sort of flow behind him rather than droop down was a little difficult, but I made it work by sewing wrapping some more wire around the base and also sewing the yarn around the base to hold it up. His eyes are the same as how I made Charizard's eyes.. with some leftover white cloth. But instead of painting its eyes, I just used good ol' felt. I don't know why I didn't think of that the first time... it's much easier than painting the eyes on.

I love it. I love it. I love it. :)

Who's that Pokemon?! ... It's... CHARIZARD!

So, I think I made the coolest Pokemon to date so far. I used this pattern because I liked how detailed the Charizard looked. Like if it jumped out of the computer in crochet form, that is exactly how it would look like.

Looks sorta like an orange Lochness monster at this stage with the tail and head attached to the body.

Added the horns! Looks a bit like a bowling pin actually. 

I think the snout + nostrils + eyebrows is a big part of what makes Charizard look so good. I actually found it hard crocheting such small pieces haha. I guess I'm not that good at it yet. It didn't come out perfect.

I added the eyes now. The eyes, I had some scrap cloth, and I used some acrylic paint for the pupils. 

Here's the underbelly... That mess up when I sewed it onto the body is so obvious. I suck at putting pieces together :(

There's the flame! My first time making it. It didn't look so poofy because for some reason the red and especially the yellow yarn wouldn't comb out. I'm wondering if because they're really cheap yarn? I'm not sure .. The orange yarn did exactly what it was supposed to do so I'm pretty sure I did it right.

His legs! I had so much trouble with the toes, that's why they're so stubby. Working round with only 3 stitches is so hard. 

At this point, looks a bit like Charmeleon (since he has no wings yet), but with two horns. 

 

And here's the final product!! I think he looks pretty amazing. It was my first time working with wires which were in his wings, arms, neck and tail. Gave him a bit of a photoshoot.

Here's the back.

The underside :)