Cat Doll

Made a doll.  Made it some clothes.  Filled a page in my April Mini Journal.

posted by: cat

Test Knits and Thread Mixes

 A test knit top for m's amigurumi dolls.  Experimenting with different mixes of yarn and thread, and this top uses a ply each of rust orange and cream.

This is a test swatch of mixed threads.  Thinking of using it for a cardigan or dress.

posted by: cat

guess who?  GoT dolls in progress...

Amigurumi is invading the land of Westros!  Finally the GoT dolls slowly starting to take shape.  This will be the first time I make bendy character dolls.  Currently a work in progress but I just couldn't resist giving a sneak peek.

Daenerys and Cercei

Bendy Bear

My kids recieved a pack of pipecleaners in their stockings last Christmas.  They had some fun with it for a while but they ended up lying around on the floor.  I wanted to make dolls out of them but I didn't really like pipecleaner dolls even when I was a kid.  So then, of course, the next logical thing to think was what if I put them in the ami dolls?
 

So after a lot of procrastination and a nudge from Cat, who had the same idea, I finally made Bendy Bear.

So much fun to make and so much fun to play with.  I might make a Bendy girl and boy soon.  But for now...Bendy Buddies!

posted by m

More Adventures in Adventure Time

 Mini Adventure Time dolls!  They're smaller than the first ones I made.  These are about 4 inches or so.  And I finally got around to making the other characters. 

 

Princess Bubblegum

Princess Bubblegum's hair is knitted because that was the only way I knew how to make it look like bubblegum.  I've also been so tempted to make her in her various other dresses.  Maybe later.

Marceline The Vampire Queen

Marceline has ordinary string hair because she rocks that way.  I have had a lot of people ask me where her ax bass was.  It looks hard to do.  Maybe later.

Gunter and The Ice King

Ice King Close Up

I just finished Ice King this morning.  After a gazillion do-overs he's finally finished.  His body was always too small and I kept repeating the beard because I kept losing count.

Gunter takes the crown!

 In contrast, Gunter was done in one day.  Good evil penguin! :)

posted by: m


disclaimer:  Adventure Time and its characters are the property of Cartoon Network and all other respective owners and creators.  I just own the ami skillz

Adventures with Adventure Time

 

What time is it?  Adventure Time!  Ever since the kids started watching the show on Cartoon Network I've been liking the drawing style of the cartoon more and more.  And now its come to the point where I NEED to ami it up.  So...

TADAAAH!  My ami version of Finn and Jake.  They were fairly easy to make considering their simple shapes.  Princess Bubblegum is in the works as we speak.  She's a bit more complicated though.  Stay tuned for more Adventure Time fueled obsessions.



disclaimer:  Adventure Time and its characters are the property of Cartoon Network and all other respective owners and creators.  I just own the ami skillz.

Craft-a-Week Revival

It's back!  After mustering enough courage and will power we have decided we can revive the craft-a-week and we will post on or before our deadline!

The first Craft-a-Week for this summer.  The challenge was pretty simple: finish a damn project! 

Here are the results:

cat's Brown Fabric Box

Project started out as extra material from kids' jeans.  Got turned into a fabric container with lining and some chain-stitch detail.

m's Mini Dress-up Doll Keychain

Now you can bring your doll around with you and dress her up to match your bag too!  The extra dress didn't make the deadline though.  Boo.

posted by: cat & m

Busy Busy Busy

Miniature knitted hair, which m requested for her dolls.  The left one is done in 1x1 rib, and the right one is 2x2.  Hmm, I should make a large one for myself, for bad hair days.

Trying out the Shifting Sands pattern from grumperina.com.  Erm, I will blame the bad lighting for the bad knitting.  Might just end up doing the whole thing over.  A most likely probability with most of my knitting adventures.

This was a baby step into the world of cables.  Which: I made my own cable needle for this, yo!  Because, once m pushed me off that "necessity is the mother of innovation" cliff -with the cutting in half of store bought needles- I fell and haven't reached the bottom yet.  *eyes heavy gauge wire with intent*

Then,  to place all those knitting projects in, I made a bucket from the leg of an old pair of jeans.  It has built-in counters at the sides.  (There's another set of numbers on the other side.)  I got the idea when I found the hairclip which I'm using to mark off the numbers.  (That would be the blue thing around the number 4, see?)

posted by: cat

More Potheads to Celebrate Deathly Hallows 2

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Yes, Deathly Hallows Part 2 has come and gone, and the saga of Harry Potter has finally come to an end.  Some of us have nothing to look forward to.  But me, I'm gonna keep on crocheting.  I might not be as crazy as to crochet up a Hogwarts for these dolls but I just might end up completing the cast!  (yeah, right)

Dumbledore took the longest to make, and also the most fun.  I don't know how many times I redid his beard and robes but they turned out better than I expected.  And I just adore hi fez.

detail of cap and glasses and cute lil fez

Bellatrix is my favorite in the movie.  Helena is so right for the part.  I do like how this turned out except for the hair which I wish was more frizzy.  I would have wanted to unravel the strands but the black cotton crochet I use is rather fragile and breaks easily when unraveled so I just didn't risk it.

Bellatrix Lestrange

 I do love my Snape too (of course).  I did the straight greasy hair look because I'm still not used to the just-washed and wavy I'm-the-new-headmaster-of-Hogwarts-look. 

Severus Snape

Here hs is sans the flowing robes. I do like the tunic thingy.  I copied it from this picture of him.

Snape without his robes

 And last but not the least, and the one I had to completely do over a  couple of times, is Voldemort.  I can never get him to frown just right. 

Lord Voldemort

 And to those who are expecting potheads, look!  I wrapped them up for you so they won't get filthy and lose their wands in the mail. :)

plastic-ed potheads

posted by m

Annie

Meet Annie, the latest dress-up dollie.  She's going to a 1 year old out there somewhere.  I hope they will be happy with each other. 

  

Annie has crochet curls which are less likely to come off with baby's handling.  They're also very tactile.  Babies love that stuff.  I also replaced the snap buttons (on the dresses) with ties at the back so there's no choking on buttons.  The shoes, though, will have to be sewn on if I want to make it totally baby-friendly.

 

I had originally wanted the dress to have flowers all over the skirt but I ended up not liking it because I couldn't make small enough flowers. I still wanted it to be a flower dress so I added the belt and came up with the hem (same stitches used for the petals).  This is the first dress I've done with this kind of hem (and, yes, I don't even know what it's called!).  It was a spur of the moment thing which turned out rather well.  

And here's Annie with her red dress.  Yes, her hair did remind me of little orphan Annie hence the name and the red dress.

posted by m

Goodbye, Potter

The last installment of the Harry Potter movies will be out this July and this is my tribute to one of my favorite series, ami style:

Hermione, Harry, and Ron

Potter dolls, with removable cloaks.  The cloaks have no hoods because they have big heads and I didn't really feel like making hoods seeing as I was having a hard enough time making their cloaks right.  (I actually made three before I made one that fit just right.)  Their wands are made of toothpicks, the same one I made the jedi swords out of, and, yes, I think they need to be darker.  

the dashing Ron Weasley

Hermione Granger in school clothes

And  everybody's favorite Harry Potter 

of course he has a scar too!

These dolls are going out to a dear friend of mine who have infected her kids with Potter fever.  :)  (I hope the post office doesn't lose them.  You're ever so far away!).  For the rest of the fanatics out there  pm me.  But I'm not gonna promise a July deadline! :P

...and just for legality's sake, all potter characters are owned by j.k.rowling, not me.  i only own the skillz.

posted by m

It's Jess!

A friend wanted me to make an antethesis of Gaiman's Death that I made last week  and this is what I came up with.  Yesterday while I was finishing up her hair, caerpillar boy comes up to me and asks, "Who's that, mommy?"  I say it's just a doll, and he goes, "No, it's Sam's wife!"  For a moment I was like "Sam who?", then I saw the ami!Sam  and realized he meant "girlfriend" and that he was right.  It was Jess!

Although she wasn't meant to be Jess I just coudn't resist taking pics of her with ami!Sam  and ami!Dean, for Supernatural's sake.  These pics are going into the SPN photo file. :)

posted by m

My Take on Death

...from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, that is. An old friend asked if i could do it, and all I have to say is that I hope I did Death justice. I was going to add a studded belt and put some buckles on her boots but I kinda like her simpler like that. That is a v-neck tank top, by the way. Can you tell?

Her ankh is made from jewelry bead wire. I wish I had a thinner chain though. Or maybe I should have used silver thread?

And here's a shot of her eye-thingy. (Yes, Sandman fans, I don't know what it's called or why it's there. Have been meaning to read the books but have not gotten around to it yet. Bear with me). Also, if you notice, I gave her eye a double dose of black yarn for the "heavy black eyeliner" look. I really hope I did her justice. Now, if anyone can link this to Neil Gaiman (you signed my copy of Coraline!) I'd greatly appreciate it! :) posted by m

Supernatural Plush

After the longest time they're finally done! Our Supernatural boys are here at last. I must confess Dean and Cas's hair suck because I still can't get the hang of Owlishly's tute. I really need to practice.

I used a bead for Dean's pendant thing. I tried to embroider it on but it made him look like a priest somehow. Sam's shirt is purple because it's supposed to be the greyhound shirt. The greyhound ran away, hee. And there's Cas in his dark blue suit.

When i finally perfect the hair thing I just might make another set of boys. You can never have too many.

posted by m

WIP No More

....because they're finally done! Yes, I mean the ami dolls! And heeere they are!

Both dolls have changeable clothes, and shoes too. And I threw in some bags to boot, because I just couldn't resist. These dolls are custom-made, or at least as custom as my powers would allow. I hope they are dearly appreciated (I expect comments, Chris. hehe)

This is my first attempt at glasses, and I hope this one survives the postal trip. It's made from stainless steel wire wrapped in cotton crochet yarn. Not really that bendy, unless until someone sits on it.

And what use are removable clothes if you don't have an extra set of clothes? With matching shoes, of course.

All in all a rather stressful project because this was my first attempt at clothes that aren't in a form of a dress (and even so, the first dress I made was for the ami witch but I didn't have time to write that pattern down!). But it was a lot of fun to do. The little princess has already placed an order. Maybe I'll make a tiara for her doll.

eep.

posted by m