Gingerbread Tree

It's finished! I really really hope that it is a hit at the charity auction. Is it weird that I would make something to give away and make money for someone else and yet not sell things to make money for myself? For some twisted reason it just feels right to give my creations away to people I care about. So Megan L, this one's for you!

Hopefully now everyone will understand why I called it the "Gingerbread Tree." 

Oh, and I didn't really mean to correlate cardinals with the world series, but life is funny like that. Honestly cardinals in a snow dusted tree just makes me feel a bit of Christmas magic. 

My intention was to avoid making the tree TOO Christmas-y since Thanksgiving will be the big holiday everyone is thinking about. Did I do OK? The green base was actually chosen because it echoed back to when my mom would receive trees with their root ball all tied up in a canvas material. I had some tan yarn, but the green just worked better. It also added more color interest. 

The base is filled with dried black beans. I knew I would be stretching the stitches, so I went with black to disguise the inevitable gaps. The tree is supported mainly by a coat hanger split among the main two branches. The smaller branches have pipe cleaners pulled through to help keep their shape.

Maybe next year I'll actually make things appropriate to the season. For the 4th of July I did a pumpkin... for October I've done an abominable snowman and a winter tree. Maybe my internal clock needs to be reset.

In any case have a wonderful Halloween weekend!

WIP Gingerbread Tree

I call it the Gingerbread Tree, though you can't see why in the pictures. My concept art for it makes much more sense.... but I kind of soaked that paper when my tea mysteriously spilled itself...

Anyway this project has absolutely absorbed all of my free time.

 OK, so you have this tree... then a couple of cardinals...a "root ball" and ribbon...

Behold! the tree stands! Sort of.

This is the general idea, though not laying down on a table. The tree will be nestled into a weighted bottom and with birds hanging out. Add in some details and hopefully it will equal something grand. Honestly I hate posting WIP, I mean if someone showed me THIS and said "isn't it great!" I would be liable to hit them. You gotta trust me though, it will look better when it's done.

Help!

Good Morning! Wait, it's past noon, well, whatever.

Yesterday I agreed to help a friend out by making a amigurumi to auction off at her work's charity event. Normally I wouldn't be so accommodating, but this "friend" is really more like my second sister. For some reason my parents keep "adopting" my sister's friends into the family. None of my friends have made the list.

Political family squabbling aside I really love my sisters, both related and not, so I want to make something wonderful that will really help her non-profit raise money for...um...well I forgot to ask, but I'm sure it's something worthy. She used to work at United Way in Seattle, but was recently hired at a different non-profit... guess I should show some interest in her work... but then again I don't really even know what my husband does. I'm a terrible person.

So help me be a better person by figuring out what I should make to donate to my non-sister sister!

I have a pretty good yarn stash going (thanks to my thrift store and my mom who picks it up at garage sales for me) but I do lack a few key colors...like black and grey....and the shades/quality of yarn range all over the place. She said I could make whatever I wanted, nerdy Futurama items would be great for the younger workers, but nature based items would probably be the best bet.

So my thoughts have ranged from Hedonism Bot to a three foot amigurumi autumn tree (though I don't have enough brown). I have just over two weeks to whip up something grand.

What do you think I should make?

Jawa!

I would love to have some witty story to tell this time, then again I would love to win the lotto and publish my books. However I am going to announce that I'm going to be focusing more on quality, which means more patterns and more interesting projects. I think my days of selecting a two hour project on the fly are over. I've had some requests for a few more complex amigurumi and I'm interested in challenging myself. Or showing off, which ever way you want to look at it. The only draw back is that I'll be posting less often, but with better stuff. That balances out right?

So I bring you Blizz from Star Wars The Old Republic requested by my husband. Please remember that my patterns are untested!

(The above picture is the best representation of the true colors. Sorry, I work mostly at night so taking in progress pictures really isn't ideal)

Body
Ch 45
sc 5 = rows
dec every 8th stitch for 2 rows
4 = rows
dec every 10th stitch for 1 row
2 = rows
dec every 5th stitch for 1 row
make approximately 1 inch of = rows (I lost the exact count, sorry hahah)
Tie off

Arms
ch 9
sc 5 = rows
inc every 4th stitch for 3 rows
2 = rows
tie off
attach to body
repeat, attach to other side of body.

Hood
ch 20 and attach to body (see pictures) leave several stitches between the attachment points.
sc all the way around the hood, body, shoulders, etc.
3 = rows EXCEPT dec twice at the shoulder and hood connection for the 3 rows
dec every 6th stitch until approximately a quarter size hole is left
dec every 3rd stitch until the point comes together.
Tie off
Sc almost a full row around his hood in grey for the frosted detail.

Details
Face: Cut out a rounded piece of black felt and just sort of stuff it in his hood (I didn't bother to even sew it in!) Glue or sew on little yellow eyes.
Patches: grey felt sewn on with embroidery floss to make the stitches stand out.
Sash: one long strip of brown felt with embroidered details on the edges.
Hands: felt folded in half with rounded edges (there's a little foil gun inserted into his grip).
Shoulder pads: cut out pointed bits of felt and line with the same grey as the hood. Sew around so the yarn is incorporated around the felt.

Hope you like him!

As with any of my patterns if you have a problem or a question feel free to email me at MostlyNerdyCrochet@gmail.com Thanks!

Self Promotion

I'm sure you've seen when people spell stuff with the periodic table. Even though I'm not a super science nerd I still think it's great! So to promote the first chapter I've posted on Mostly Nerdy Narrative I embroidered my own version of some periodic fun! 

I hope to do another one for Mostly Nerdy Crochet and have that be the new logo, but we'll start with this.

On my new blog you can check out the first chapter to an ongoing urban fantasy story written by none other than me! I'm sure some of you will hate it, but if even a couple of you out there enjoy it then I will be a very happy camper. I aim to post new chapters every other week, with a minimum of once a month. The "book" is not yet completed so I hope you will join me in the process!

P.S. If I screwed up something with the periodic stuff oh well, I'm not all that science savvy anyway.