The Assembly

Crocheted Koala Bear Keychain

Personally, I find the amigurumi assembly process one of the most humorous of crochet processes. I think I just about have to. If I didn't do it with humor, I would have to dwell on the fact that I hate sewing. I wish the pieces would all just crochet together. What is with this sewing stuff? I mean, I learned how to crochet so I wouldn't have to sew. Yet, here I am, attaching arms, legs, ears, and little bunny cotton tails with good old needle and thread. Maybe someday, when I am an old experienced crocheter, I will invent some way to make this easier. Until then, I must look on the task with humor as each little critter comes to life to justify the sore fingers and maintain my sanity.

First off, the heads are hilarious. Unless this was going to be a little grey alien man, this amigurumi looks nothing like the koala bear it is supposed to. It's amazing what a pair of ears will do for a crocheted animal. I remember the first time I made this guy I had serious doubts about the final product. It seriously looks nothing like a koala gear until it's got those ears. So, if I take a moment to gaze in amusement at the baldness of my little grey alien man koala bear wannabe, pulling out my tapestry needle becomes a little easier to deal with.

Second, why do animals have so many extremities??? Good grief. I get done making one arm and think, "Really? I have to make 3 more of these?" And that's not counting the ears, noses, and possible tails that must accompany the creatures. Whew! Lemme tell ya, crocheting into a round of a whopping 4 single crochets isn't my favorite thing to do. Nor is it a favorite of my left-hand middle finger, who gets frequently stabbed with the crochet needle during this process... However, after he finally gets all 384 pieces sewn on, (notable sarcasm), his adorableness makes it worth it. I take what I consider to be a short cut, however. I sew on the arms and legs BEFORE I sew the body to the head. Most directions I have seen for amigurumi say to sew on the arms and legs after the head is attached to the body. This drives me crazy! It's SO much harder to hide knots when you are working in the outside. So, I just do what seems natural and sew on all the little bits and pieces at the get-go and voila, seamless on the outside with a mess of secure and obnoxious knots hidden on the inside. (I typically sew the ears on before stuffing and closing the head. In this case, I got to the last few rounds of the head, attached the mouth, eyes, and nose, and realized I couldn't make the ears because I was still using the grey yarn to finish the head. Good plan. I know. Ideally, one would save some stress and knots by sewing on the ears ahead of time.)

I also find that when I sew the little parts to the bases ahead of time my fingers don't hurt as much from the tapestry needle. I don't have to do as much pushing and pulling when things are sewn on ahead of time. I also stab myself less, which I otherwise tend to do often... This is a real plus considering finger, hand, and wrist comfort are major issues when spending such a bulk of one's time crocheting - not that I'm addicted or anything...

So, when I have all of these things in place, a good laugh at the strange foreign no-ears character, the help of sewing on extremities before final assembly, and less painful fingers, making these adorable amigurumi projects is just a little bit easier :).

Crocheted Koala Bear Keychain

 Thanks for reading,

-Paige

Crocheted Earring Obsession

 Another Creative Journey

Crocheted Earrings No. 5 - Purple Pillar Glitz

AS I've described on my Etsy page, I have this stitch pattern book. Yeah, it's one of those giant encyclopedia looking things that contains every stitch one could ever possibly desire to make. I love looking at these giant books. I get ideas and become inspired. That's when I start to regret that my crochet hobby is such a time consuming effort. I wish I could just make a list of everything I want to try and have it done in a weekend. However, it doesn't work like that. Instead, after spending hours and hours drooling over this book of stitches I finally decide on ONE pattern and there goes 2 weeks of my life. This is also due to the fact that I cannot stick with any one type of project. Not only do I need to make a scarf with this new stitch pattern I've picked out, but I also want to make ornament covers with crochet thread, hats, and gloves. So, I end up putting too many irons in the fire (I truly enjoy that phrase which I learned from a co-worker of mine) and I've only managed to work my way through ONE stitch pattern in this GIANT book. I can't help thinking about all of those stitches that have yet to be brought to life. So, I get all excited about making another scarf, but that's still only ONE more pattern I'll have completed and another 2 weeks go by. I needed to do something about this. I couldn't let all of those beautiful stitches go by the wayside. So, I developed my own personal take on crocheted earrings.

MY first design idea was really simple. It is essentially just a swatch of the pattern. I thought they would be fun and unique. However, I realized that if I only made these "swatch" earrings, things could get sort of boring. So, with ModPodge and crochet thread at the ready, I dug down deep in my creative chambers and came up with some alternative designs.

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Periwinkle Chip Glitz

MY next idea was to create a spiral. My stitch book starts out with a few really simple patterns using single crochet. I didn't want to create a whole Swatch Earring out of single crochet, but I also felt sort of like I was cheating if I skipped over a pattern. I'm determined to utilize EVERY SINGLE ONE. So, I decided I couldn't call myself a crafter if I didn't take advantage of this challenge. In order to make something interesting and exciting out of good 'ol single crochet, I used some metallic crochet thread, starched it in a spiral, and BAM! I would totally wear these on an evening out! This is the next problem with having an Etsy shop. I never make anything for myself anymore, :D. SO, hopefully these earrings will go to someone who is just as excited about wearing them as I am!

Crocheted Earrings No. 2 - Silver Spiral

IN creating the spiral style, I had the idea for a tubular design. I was thinking sort of like paper maché wondering what I could use as a mold that I could "pop" when the starch solution was dry. I tried some things out and finally found something that works. These tube designs are fun and possibly my favorite.

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Vanilla Pillar

Crocheted Earrings No. 5 - Purple Pillar Glitz

Crocheted Earrings No. 3 - Periwinkle Pillar

THE above is the FINISHED product, but there was definitely quite the journey to getting there. I have a few reject earrings that were first attempts and didn't quite make the cut. The whole process is probably rather amusing to someone who actually knows what they are doing. For your entertainment, we will start on that journey...

FIRST, I had to do some research on starching. I didn't know the first thing about it and was worried I was going to need to purchase a lot of special supplies for it. I'm the kind of person who has the ideas to make these sort of things at 10 p.m. and no ability to wait for a supplies run to complete the idea. SO, I was determined to do some research and make do with whatever I happened to have around. Luckily, I found a website that provided a comprehensive list of all possible starch solution recipes with reviews. I found one I could use right then, at 10 p.m. I used the Crochet Memories website to find all of these recipes. I got my crocheted earring and started dipping!

MY next issue was that I didn't have any rust free pins to use to stretch and shape the earring to be dried. Because of my inability to wait and procure the correct materials... I used safety pins. LOTS of safety pins. I found it interesting that I managed to have an entire bag of safety pins on hand, but no sewing pins. My crafting stash is apparently a very eclectic assortment of things.

NOW came the hard part. What was I going to get to be my mold for the tube earrings? This is what I chose and it was a HORRIBLE mistake! All of these starching solutions for crochet are basically glue. You get a watered-down version of some glue, slather it all over your project, wait for it to dry, and pry it off of whatever it is now stuck to, because it is undoubtedly stuck to something. I mean, it's glue, right? WELL, I had the bright idea to use my crochet hooks. It seemed like a perfect fit. The hooks were just the right size for my earrings. What I didn't think about was that when the glue dried the earrings would then be successfully and mostly likely permanently adhered to the crochet hooks. So, ignorant to my mistake and rather pleased with myself for getting this far in my project, I laid them out to dry, had a little giggle at the amusing picture of all of these safety pins jetting out of the Styrofoam, and went to bed.

AFTER a quick removal of safety pins I found that the swatch earrings came out pretty much as expected. I was happy with the degree of stiffness and with a little practice and actual sewing pins figured my next attempt will end up more uniform. 

HOWEVER, I get to the tube earrings and I become aware very quickly that I've created a glued crocheted mess on the end of my crochet hooks. Awesome. I end up having to grab some pliers and wrestle the things off of the hooks. It took some doing, but they finally came free. Needless to say, I did some rethinking in the execution of this design...

FINALLY, it was off to the jewelry station to attach all of the findings and figure out if these things were actually going to work. I learned some things about where to crochet the chains to hang the findings from. What I pictured in my head didn't really end up working out. I needed more jump rings than expected for this first batch because once I hung the fish hook, the earring was facing the wrong way! However, that is all part of the testing process.

NOW, I have a clearer idea of what to expect, fixed some bugs, and am making strides towards successfully completing a project using each of the stitches in my stitch book. Though right now I only have three designs dubbed my "Chip Earrings," "Pillar Earrings," and "Spiral Earrings," I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I'm up at 2 a.m. again trying to work with the wrong materials to glue something else together and ultimately come up with a new pattern!

I'M not typically the type of person to come up with artsy original ideas and am, therefore, really proud of this one. Most of the time I'm putting a spin on something that already exists or running with a concept I've seen and tweaking it a little. I feel like I can legitimately call myself creative knowing that these designs truly were not influenced by anything I've ever seen before. Now, that isn't to say these don't exist anywhere else. They very well could. I am just excited to have gotten there on my own, whether or not it was a technique already in practice, :). 

I'D love to hear about your original designs and your creative process!

Thanks for reading,

~Paige

Crochet Epiphany No. 1

Stitches Too Tight...

OK, over the years in my time crocheting, I've discovered some, "tricks," for making crocheted life easier. Recently, in my amigurumi adventures, I discovered a way to make that first round in the magic/adjustable ring easier. I have a really, REALLY, tight crochet stitch which makes that first round super difficult. I could spend 10 minutes just trying to get my crochet hook through this TINY little stitch that I'm not even sure how I created. I've tried loosening up. I think to myself, when I make that notoriously obnoxious stitch, "Don't make it tight! You know you are going to end up throwing it out the window if you get to that stitch and it's tight!" However, it doesn't matter how loose I'm feeling or what nice relaxed thoughts I'm thinking, because I get to that first round and in that stitch I'm stuck.

SO, I cheat. My crochet hook is too big for the hole, so I get another hook. This took me a while to figure out because when I started crocheting I thought all you ever needed was 1 hook. I had a size G, teal crochet hook that my grandma had given me to use. I guess I saw that she had other hooks, but I obviously didn't think that much about it. This was MY crochet hook, and the only one I could ever need, right? (Interestingly, I had the same opinion about flutes before I got to college. There, I learned that like crochet hooks for crafters, musicians typically have more than one instrument. This was a major eye opening moment. Anyway...) Well, I was also living in the dark, dreary land of half-double crochet at the time, so with my ONE stitch and my ONE hook I just dealt with stuff. When the needle crafting world began to open up to me and my mom started crocheting these bracelets with thread, I realized I had been living in a crochet sock drawer all my life. So, I took a serious look at the craft isles in my favorite stores and realized those hooks weren't just aesthetic... they actually do different stuff! Now I have this whole wonderfully colorful assortment of crochet hooks to choose from, and those hooks allow me to cheat...

I'LL be the first to admit that the magic/adjustable ring is a beautiful thing. However, right after admitting that, I will incessantly complain about the initial stitch into said magic ring. It is completely and utterly obnoxious. I'm quite sure all of this is due to the fact that I have an inability to make stitches that actually allow anything of substance to pass through. So, this technique is for all of the crocheters that suffer from Stitches Too Tight - herein referred to as, STT...

My process begins with a magic ring, of course... I used 5 single crochet stitches for demonstration using a size F hook and Caron Simply Soft yarn. For more detailed magic ring instructions, check out this page: Magic Ring Link

NOW, the hard part. THE FIRST STITCH!!! Don't panic, grab a teeny tiny size 5 or 1.90 mm crochet hook and you'll be fine. Because that first stubborn stitch is just too darn tight for me,

I make sure that the tension on the F hook is tight, and grab my size 5 hook. Leave the F hook attached to your work, maintaining that tension, and insert the size 5 hook into the stitch in question.

Draw up a loop with the size 5 hook.

Make sure to open up a WIDE loop so you can fit your F hook into it.

Insert your F hook, tighten, and complete your single crochet.

THERE! You've done it! If you are like me you are overcome with emotion knowing that you didn't waste 20 minutes of crochet project time trying to jam your giant hook into a tiny stitch!

I use these little hooks for EVERYTHING. Whenever I need to pull multiple stitches through a tight spot or need to maneuver around something too tightly woven together, these small hooks save me TONS of time!

AT first, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I mean, you had to push your original hook out of the way, find the microscopic hook, (because it was never where I thought I left it and most likely somewhere underneath the cushions of the couch...) then hold all 400 things at once to make this little loop so I can get on with my crochet life. WHEW! However, after I did it a few times, I got a rhythm going. I figured out how to hold things and where to keep things handy, (not in the couch cushions), so that the cheat became worth it.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this, but I hope I can give someone somewhere some STT relief! :)

Thanks for reading,

~Paige