KARABOUTS

The Birthday Suit

You thought our dolls were all about the outfits?  We'll here's a fellow with no outfit at all!

I tied chinese button knots to make his nipples.  I improvised the fig leaf. I like how the leaf turned out.  Hopefully I can remember how I made it!

Karabouts means business

Our business cards are in!

Next week I'm going to the 2010 Knit and Crochet Show in Manchester, New Hampshire.  I wanted to have business cards to give to people I meet at the show so Mike and I got busy and designed these.

We ordered 100 of each design from NextDayFlyers.com. NextDayFlyers did a great job.  They are also cheap.  They will print 100 cards for just $10.95.  What a bargain.  

I'm excited about the show.  If anyone out there is going, let me know.  We can meet up and I can give you a business card!  

 

Little Blue Lobster

FREE PATTERN!!!!!

 

Just click the link to download the free PDF pattern. Download Little Blue Lobster

This pattern is easy and I've included step-by-step photo instruction.  I hope to see lots of little blue (and green and pink and orange and yellow...) lobsters popping up soon.

Norwegian Black Metal

Our latest amigurumi is a Norwegian black metal guy.  Norwegian black metal is a music movement.  Its artists wear corpse paint.  They have bullet belts, spiked gauntlets, combat boots, and inverted pentagrams to show their anti-religious stance.  I've included all of those things on this guy.  I also gave him a little flying v guitar so that he can play you a song before he burns down your church.

 
His bullet belt is made out of silver beads strung together with yarn.  His arm spikes are #12 cut tacks I spray painted silver.  His pentagram was sold to me as a pentacle earring by a nice Wiccan named Stacey.

Some of the photos I used as inspiration for this amigurumi were taken by the wonderfully talented photographer Peter Beste.  You can see some Peter's stunning photos of the black metal scene here and you can buy his beautiful book "True Norwegian Black Metal" here.

One of the hardest parts of this project was making the flying v guitar.  I've never played a guitar (Mike's the musician) so I had no idea how big guitars are.  My first ones were way too small.  Mike had to print out a bunch of photos from the internet of people playing a flying v so that I could get an idea of the relative scale of man vs guitar.

 
 After several attempts I got one that I liked.

The body and neck are crocheted but the pickguard is made from gray wool felt.  The volume knobs are silver studs meant to be used for "bedazzling."   The tuners are silver beads, and the frets are made with embroidery floss. 

We photographed our black metal guy today at Green-wood cemetery in Brooklyn.  It's a beautiful place.  You should go.

As always, Mike took care of the photography.  Here are a few of his fabulous, fabulous shots.

 

 

 

UPDATE:  Chuck and Shove over at Doomed to Live just posted some great homemade videos of black metal silliness.  These crack me up.  Shove also made an adorable little black metal amigurumi of her own!

Lobsterman

Our latest amigurumi is a New England lobsterman.  Our lobsterman is wearing a blue turtleneck sweater and yellow rain pants, rain hat, and rain coat. 

This was an interesting design challenge because I had to figure out how to make a jacket with lapels.  I also came up with a blue lobster pattern for this project. My first lobster was orange but as you'll see from my collection, I like to use a very limited color palette for each doll.  Throwing in another color for the lobsters just didn't work.  Luckily, there really are BLUE lobsters so I was able to choose a yarn for the lobsters that matched the color of the yarn I used for the fisherman's sweater.  Problem solved!

Yesterday Mike and I walked down to the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, hopped the fence at low tide, and took these waterfront photos.  Here's Mike getting geared up for the photo shoot.

The East River is not exactly the ocean but it's the closest thing we've got!  It was a beautiful day, we had a good time, and nobody seemed to mind at all that we jumped the fence.

P.S.  I want to thank Jenn for featuring our lobsterman on her lovely Yarn 365 blog. 

 

 

Assemblage

What do you get when you put these 7 little pieces of crochet together?

Any guesses??????

They aren't usually blue, but sometimes they are.

Ta Da!

I figured out the pattern for this guy a few days ago because I needed blue lobsters to go with my latest doll - a New England fisherman.

If you want to make your own little blue lobster you can download my free pattern here. Download Little Blue Lobster

 
 

Tomato and Strawberry Pincushion

FREE PATTERN!!!

Last week I set out to make a crochet pincushion for my friend Johanna who has recently started to sew.  I decided to make an amigurumi pincushion modeled after the old classic tomato and strawberry pincushion my mom used to have on her sewing table.  If you'd like to make this crocheted tomato and strawberry pincushion you can download the free pattern here:
 Download TomatoStawberry

For this pattern you can either stuff your pincushions with fiberfill or use the pattern to "cover" an existing tomato and strawberry pincushion made by Dritz.  The advantage of covering a Dritz pincushion is that the Dritz version has sawdust in the tomato (giving the pincushion a nice weight) and emery in the strawberry (to sharpen your pins!!).  The Dritz pincushion costs around $1.50 and can be purchased online or at your local fabric store. 

I LOVE the way this pincushion turned out.  In fact, I made another one for myself last night.  

I hope you enjoy the pattern!

NOTE:  A couple of people have written to  me asking how to do the "magic ring" to start the project.  Here is a link to one of Planet June's blog entries that has directions and step by step photos to teach you how to make a magic ring.  Of course, if you prefer, you can always start the project the traditional way of chaining 2, then making 6 sc (or however many sc you need) in the second chain from the hook.
 
 

  

I've Been Sick

About a month ago I went to the ER with what I thought was appendicitis.  Turned out not to be my appendix but a nasty abdominal infection.  Antibiotics cleared up the infection, but while I was in the hospital I got pneumonia.  The pneumonia cleared up but not without leaving behind a "loculated empyema" in my right Iung that has to be removed surgically.  What can I say - it's been a tough couple of weeks.

There were quite a few people who brightened up my life during this dismal period.  First is my wonderful client Bernie who flew from Kansas City to NY to surprise me in the hospital.  What a guy!!!  He brought me some great Andy Warhol-themed gifts including Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup refrigerator magnets (so clever).  Thanks Bernie!

Next, my family went out of their way to make me feel better.  My parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister called or e-mailed every few days.  My nieces got busy and drew me some beautiful get well pictures.

And my wonderful mom knitted me this AMAZING wrap to keep me warm while I recover.  (For those of you who knit, the pattern Mom used is the Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood.)  

 

 

And then there is my FANTASTIC husband Mike, who shuttled me back and forth to far too many doctor's appointments, kept my spirits up, and took care of all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning and everything else that had to be done in life.  He also arranged for a beautiful bouquet of 50 lilies to show up one day when I was feeling particularly down.  I couldn't ask for a better husband!!!!!  

And I don't want to forget my many wonderful friends who kept in touch and kept me smiling in spite of my illness.  You're the best.

Thanks everyone.  Hopefully after this surgery next month I'll have a full recovery and get back to working on this guy.  He's going to be a New England fisherman - but still needs buttons for his rain coat, a beard, pipe, lobster, and assorted details.

 
 
 

Can I have an "F"?

Earlier this year Vanna White, Lion Brand and Michael's hosted a knitting and crochet contest.  Entries had to be made out of Vanna's Choice yarn.  The winner was to receive a trip for two to meet Vanna White and be part of the Wheel Of Fortune audience.

I made my Winter Viking amigurumi out of Vanna's Choice yarn and entered him in the contest.  Then I sat back and waited for my tickets to L.A. to arrive in the mail.  They never came.  In fact, I didn't even make the first cut.  I felt like a loser, but instead of sulking in defeat I got busy and crocheted this vengeful, nasty piece: (in order to solve the puzzle you'll need an F, and to buy two vowels - an O and an A). 

By the time I finished this project I wasn't sad or angry anymore.  In fact it was ridiculously fun to crochet a little "Vanna" with her Wheel Of Fortune board.  Vanna is basically a typical Karabouts girl doll but with some added curves, a big smile, and a sparkly dress.  

 

The Wheel Of Fortune board was crocheted using a technique called "tapestry crochet."  With tapestry crochet, you carry one or more colors of yarn, switching out the color depending on which color is needed. You also work every other row in the back of the stitches so that you have only the front of the stitches on the front side of your work.  It's a really neat technique that produces a woven look. If you'd like to learn this technique, here's a great site with lots of tips. 

By the way, I have nothing against Vanna White.  She's done a ton to promote crochet and I use her Vanna's Choice yarn all of the time in my work.  She was just an easy target for my vengeful crochet.  Sorry Vanna!

And in case you're wondering who did win the Vanna's Choice contest, you can find the winning entries here.  

 

New Amigurumi

Finally I have a new amigurumi to post!!  I started this guy a long long time ago expecting to finish him quickly because he was only going to have a few colors and his only accessory was to be his hat.  Then work got in the way and left me with no time to crochet.  Then the gas and hot water went out in our loft (long story) and we had to quickly find a new apartment if we ever wanted to cook or take hot showers again. Once we found a new apartment we had to move everything we owned (including an 125 gallon salt water fish tank) to the new place.  Then we got more work, etc. etc.  But now that we've moved to the new place and work has at least temporarily subsided, I've started to crochet again. My first task was to finish this French mime. I hope you like him. 

We took these photos in the back courtyard of our new apartment building.  It's a kind of drab looking courtyard, but it has some interesting backgrounds for doll photos.

 Most people hate mimes but I think this guy turned out to be pretty cute.  Mike and I are both happy with him.  

Now on to the next doll...