Lariath- Live a Little.

I wanted to make a Minion Snowflake but I couldn't find a design on the internet. After doing a few Star Wars ones I decided to give my own design a go.  Here's what I used: Pencil Rubber Paper Scissors Craft board Craft knife (optional) Compass (or anything circular to draw around)  The craft knife is optional for this design as it can be made just using scissors, this can be a bit tricky on the small cuts so a craft knife may be better. Saying that I managed with just scissors. The craft board is anything that's going to protect the surface you are working on from being damage by the craft knife. At the moment I'm just using a wooden chopping board. So first I drew a circle on the paper and cut it out. The size of the circle doesn't matter but the smaller the circle the trickier it's going to be to cut out the design: Then folded the paper in half:  Opened up the circle and folded the circle in half again to make quarte...

I haven't done much paper craft before, Christmas was a good a time as any to start. I decided to start somewhere simple with snowflakes that I probably made when I was in primary school. I couldn't make any old snowflake it had to be geeky. For the snowflakes I made all I needed was some plain paper, scissors a pencil (and rubber because I can't draw for toffee) and a craft knife. I didn't have a craft knife so I bought one especially, I'm sure I'll get more use out of it in the future. The sharper the craft knife the better. The patterns I used are by  Anthony Herrera  they can be downloaded for free or for a donation. The downloads can be printed out but I drew mine it's more unique that way I think. Not being used to using a craft knife I thought I'd struggle but they were easy enough. The craft knife didn't go through all the layers in one go so I did have to keep going over the same lines a few time but with a little bit of patience they ...

My auntie loves roses and has taken an interest in my crocheting as she loves to knit. So I'm making her some roses. I searched for a good amount of time trying to find a really nice pattern for a rose which incorporated a stem. These are the three I've made so far: The pattern I based these on can be found  here . Coincidentally this pattern was designed by PlanetJune  who also designed the pattern I used when making my Mothers Day  crochet daffodils . She sells many great patterns and has a few for free check her out!  The rose pattern is not to difficult to make and it's very well explained and really easy to follow. Each of the roses I made are different sizes. I used DK yarn and a size 3.5mm crochet hook for the first one, for this my stitches were quite tight as I'm so used to crocheting tightly. The second one I used the same DK yarn but with a 4.5mm crochet hook and looser stitches, so this rose was slightly bigger. Then for the larger rose I us...

So the crochet cubes turned into..... A Minecraft Creeper!  I finished it at last!  Definitely a challenging make; the hardest Amigurumi I've made, but I like a challenge.... Although I may not be making another of these any time soon.  I am quite happy at the result and my mate who loves Minecraft will hopefully appreciate the effort. I based the pattern on the free pattern here . I made a few of my own changes whilst following the 'smaller body pattern'. Great explanations and easy to follow it's just the sewing that's the hard part. I also had an issue getting the face right, it dind't turn out perfect but it will do. I spent ages trying to find a yarn which was a suitable Creeper colour and wasn't ridiculously expensive. In the end I used a yarn that was various colours of green and blue having to cut the blue out and joining the green part back on to carry on crocheting. This made making the Creeper a bit more difficult but determinatio...

Who decided crocheting cubes was a good idea?! The project I'm doing at the moment involves crocheting 1 cube and 5 cuboids. I've completed my first cube and it was a struggle. I'm not using anything to reinforce the sides because I want it to be soft not hard, it's trying so hard to become a circle!  Not only is this the first try I've had at making a crochet cube but I haven't actually crocheted in rows before, I've only used rounds for the Amigurumi I've made. This took me a while to sew together... My thumb hurt after...sewing is definitely not my strong point.  The first cuboid was slightly easier. Maybe this was because I'd already made a cube so I knew what to expect or because it was slightly bigger than the cube.  So I'm thinking that it's getting easier as I'm getting more practice. This next cuboid I made wasn't that  difficult even though it's the smallest one yet.  I need to repea...

I've had a proper geeky few weeks. Not only have I been crocheting another Dalek as requested but whilst doing this I've been watching original Dr Who (yes I prefer the original to the new Dr Who, I used to watch it as a kid). Additionally I went to see this Dalek made out of hey at Snugburys ice cream shop near Nantwich. The Dalek even moves and says exterminate. This was also a great excuse to get Snugburys awesome ice cream! Please note this picture was taken weeks ago....the UK is now cloudy, dull and rainy...as per usual.  The second crochet Dalek took me a very long time to make not helped by going away to Germany with work and having no time to finish it. But at last it is finished! I don't think this Dalek is much different to the  first Dalek I made  but compare for yourselves and find a link to the free pattern  Here . I wouldn't try this pattern if your new to crocheting it is quite tricky in parts.  Now that I've finally finish...

Just a quick post. If I can make something or make do instead of buying something I will... So for stitch markers I was using sandwich bag ties believe it or not ( the only thing I could find at the time) but these are pretty annoying to use as they catch on the yarn when your trying to put them through the stitch. So I had a think about what else I could use. Extra bits of yarn work but I crochet very tightly when making amigurumi figures so I had to find a needle, thread a needle, use the needle to get the thread in the stitch and then tie the yarn in place.....effort. Oh and then try to untie the yarn after it's managed to tighten itself up! I decided to try and make one out of craft wire. Be aware it's only a rough version. This is so simple to make and uses a tiny amount of wire. All I used was 20ga purple wire and a pair of pliers. I folded the very end of the wire over so that it wasn't sharp then wrap the wire around the pliers in a very rough spiral shape...