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 :)

Who's that Pokemon?!

So, after I made the Bulbasaur, my sister told me that she's been asking me to make a Pikachu for years. Well, I figured now is the best time to make a Pikachu on the heels of my last doll since Pokemon fever is still at an all time high.

I found the head and ears from this pattern. I was so tempted to make it true to the pattern and make it Pikachu in disguise in a freakin' Totoro costume because how cute is that?! Buuuut... since this is for someone else who isn't as big of a Studio Ghibli fan as me, I decided to just make it a normal pikachu. The eyes are just made from scrap pieces of felt.

 

Honestly, after I made the head, I was again tempted to just leave it like that because it's such a cute little head, and I was afraid of ruining the rest of the Pikachu with the body since I was going to use another pattern to make the body (this one). 

 

The body turned out okay though. Looked a bit like a bowling pin. 

 

I think the pattern just used brown felt for those stripes on Pikachu's back, but I didn't have brown felt, and too frugal to go out and buy some (for just two little stripes!), so I literally randomly chained two rows of brown with one longer than the other and attached it to the back. Looks not bad if I do say so myself.

Annnnd... here's the finished product with arms and legs and tail. I gave it a bit of a photoshoot outside to make it look more like a 'wild Pokemon' eheh. Hope you guys like it!

Following that Pokemon trend!

So, watching all the renewed Pokemon mania unfold, I decided to join the fray. Pokemon Go is a lot of fun, but you know what'd be even more fun? A 3D tangible Pokemon! I'm planning on making all the starters, but for now, here's Bulbasaur :)

I'm aware his colour isn't exactly the correct colour because Bulbasaur isn't exactly so green, but overall, I think he ended up looking quite cute :) I suck at assembling pieces though because the head is crooked :(( I didn't have any felt, so I just crocheted random pieces and stuck them onto bulbasaur's head for the spots. I found random pieces of cloth of and cut them out to make the eyes! 

Here's a WIP picture in case anybody cares!

I'm pretty excited with the results, and am really looking forward to crocheting the rest! Now that I have the hang of crocheting, I just can't seem to stop making more amigurumi!

A cute little trash panda!

My cousin is absolutely in love with pandas! After seeing my cute little crocheted octopi, she asked me if I could crochet a raccoon for her! Even though I think my crochet skills are still shaky, I couldn't say no to my favourite cousin. To be honest, I couldn't find a pattern of raccoons online that I was satisfied with, so I challenged myself with some in improvisation for the face and using the head, muzzle, and tail from this pattern...

and he body, arms, legs, and ears from this pattern. 

I'm pretty happy with the results! I hope my cousin will enjoy it too :)

Octopi incoming!

So, after finishing the blanket, I understandably wanted to work on something really quick! Actually, I didn't even feel like knitting. Instead, I decided to brush up my crochet skills which I've always wanted to do! I decided to make some amigurumi dolls! My second attempt at making dolls since I created Lumpy the bear ages ago. But my first time crocheting dolls. So, it was pretty exciting. I really wanted something that was simple so I could brush up my techniques, while also challenging myself. In the end, I settled on the crocheted octopus.

 

So super adorable right?! Added little button eyes, and some pink cloth for the cheeks/blush, and embroidered a cute little smile on. But I thought something was missing, so I added a....

 

... Cute miniature top hat! I think it really completed the look. But even then, it wasn't enough. Partly because I had a lot of black and white yarn left. And also, I thought, wouldn't it be cuter if I made a matching set of octopi?! So... I made Sir Octopi a girlfriend!

  

She's the exact same build as the gentleman octopus but with inverted colours, and I attached a cute little rose instead of a top hat. 

Aren't they just the sweetest looking creations ever?! I'm so in love with them! And I thought they'd make cute little gifts to couples or wedding/ engagement decorations. :)) I definitely want to make more crocheted dolls in the future!

Meet Lumpy!

Wow, I'm so proud of my latest project! It has lots of flaws, for example, its kind of lumpy looking... so like the creative person I am, I named it Lumpy! It's the most challenging project I've worked on to date and took me so long to finish, but I did it!

Its legs are also crooked, but you can't really tell when its sitting. Anyway, I think its really cute. I could go on about its flaws, but honestly, for my first time, I think I did great. I followed this teddy bear pattern. It was the first time I had to make pieces and stuff it, and then assemble everything together.

Anyway, I definitely have to improve on learning to seam and sew because you can totally see it. Youtube videos couldn't save me! Honestly while making the individual pieces, I was starting to doubt if I was doing it right, because I couldn't really see it coming together. There were some terms like 'foll' that I had to really search up what it means, but at the point where I started stuffing it, I knew I was definitely doing it right.

I thought the head was the hardest part to attach to the body though because you don't close the cast-on seams, so its just open while you try to sew it onto the body, which also doesn't have a very obvious placement of where the head is supposed to go.

I wanted to use felt for the eyes - you know, just cut out circles for the eyes, but my sister insisted on using buttons to give it a more classic look. Personally, I think buttons made it look a little creepy (did anyone watch Coraline?), but she was right about it being classic. Anyway I already have a new idea for my next project! I'm hoping to

knit Lumpy some clothes! I figured maybe he'd appreciate something better than a bow. Also, I figured it'd be easier to knit him a sweater or something rather than jumping to humans right away. Although.. I do really want to knit a sweater for people because I have those 2 giant balls of yarn I for Valentine's day... Hmm... well regardless, I will be happy knitting!