KARABOUTS

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...  

Winter Viking

Last week I finished a new Viking doll made out of Lion Brand yarns.  After I got him done, we headed to Central Park to do a quick photo shoot.  It was FREEZING but we had fun.  Here's Mike getting ready to take a shot.  I like the size difference between Mike and the viking.

Here are a few of our best shots of the day:

STREAM & ROCKS SHOT

OLD NETTING SHOT

TREE SHOT

Despite the cold, it was a very successful photo shoot.  Way to go Mike!

She likes it - too!

A while ago we got a photo of lovely little Addison with her Sophie doll, and more recently we got this photo of beautiful little Laura Lee with her Sophie doll.  Could these little girls be any cuter???  I'm so glad they like the dolls!!! 

She Likes It!

The two commissioned Sophie dolls I sent off earlier this week are the first dolls I've ever made for kids who aren't related to me.  After we sent off the dolls, Mike and I wondered if their new owners would like them.  We've received a lot of positive comments on our dolls but those comments are all from ADULTS.  We really weren't sure how children would feel about the dolls.  Do kids even like dolls that aren't based on television or movie characters?  We are happy to report that the answer is YES.  I know this because yesterday we received an adorable photo from the mother of one of the recipients of a Sophie doll.

This little cutie pie is Addison.  Addison's mom reports that Addison takes Sophie everywhere and is especially fascinated with her hair.

What a relief.

Back to School / Back to Work

This week Mike and I went back to work in New Jersey and Sophie and the triplets headed back to school in rural Ohio. My sister-in-law Beth sent me this cute picture of Sophie, Maddie, Will and Jessie getting on the school bus on their first day back.

Sophie is starting 4th grade.  The triplets are starting 1st grade.  When I was a kid I went to the same school they now attend.  Last year Sophie bought a book at the school library sale and it had my name in the back of it because I had checked it out when I was in 3rd grade!

While Mike and I had a break from work I managed to finish up and mail off the commissioned Sophie dolls.  

I hope Addison and Laura Lee like their new friends!

Summer On Location

Mike and I are currently working on a job that requires us to stay in a hotel across the river in New Jersey. We've been here for 46 days and we could easily end up being here for 46 more.
Hotel life has its ups and downs.
On the up side:
- Someone makes our bed everyday.
- We can have anything we want to eat at any time of the day or night and it's all paid for.
- I have time to crochet and work on my Karabouts patterns during down time.

Right now I'm working on two Sophie Dolls for two lovely women in Kansas City.

While making the dolls, I'm writing and checking the pattern so the Sophie patten will soon be ready for distribution.

On the down side:
- We desperately miss our kitties (this is Iris).

- We also miss our reef tank, our apartment, our friends, my Stitch n Bitch group, and our lives in the city.

Also on the down side, our hotel is in the middle of a bunch of freeways with nothing to do within walking distance.

Luckily, there is a bit of animal life nearby. These are some of the many geese that frequent a low spot in the hotel parking lot that floods every time it rains.

For the foreseeable future I will be spending my days working, crocheting, writing patterns, and feeding the geese that wander over to our hotel-parking-lot-pond. I hope you all have a great summer wherever you are!

Hopping Ghosts and Chinese Knots

For the past few years I have been tying Chinese knots. I got started in 2005 because I wanted to tie "double happiness" knots to put on my wedding invitations.

The double happiness knot is a beautiful knot that is made up of 2 sets of 15 cloverleaf knots. I first saw the knot in the book Chinese Knots for Beaded Jewelery by Suzen Millodot. In order to learn to tie the knot I bought the book Chinese Knotting by Lydia Chen.

My first knot took me FOUR DAYS to complete and contained many mistakes. Here's a photo of that first practice knot in progress (I've already made a mistake connecting my cloverleaf knots!).
I kept at it and eventually I was able to learn to tie the knot and complete the 100 knots I needed for the wedding invitations (although even at my fastest, the knots took about four hours each to tie!).

When I designed my Hopping Ghost doll I was able to develop variations of traditional Chinese knots and incorporate them into his outfit.

I put a variation of a double happiness knot on his chest, a variation of a brocade ball knot on his hat, and compound knots made of two-loop cloverleaf knots for fasteners on his robes and boots.

The knotting detail of Hopping Ghost makes him one of my favorite dolls yet!

Feel the love

I got the Karabouts website done last week. I posted pictures of the latest dolls on Flickr and on Ravelry and the feedback has been tremendous - especially from Ravelry members. The cool thing about Ravelry is that the people who comment on my dolls all seem to do wonderful work themselves, so I am able to connect to a creative, talented, interesting group of people just by linking up with the folks who have taken notice of my work. It really does bring like-minded people together.

Many people have expressed interest in buying my patterns so I will get to work writing them up. I'd actually prefer to do a book instead of selling patterns individually but I'm not quite sure how that works. I may do a little research and see if I can figure out what's involved in putting together an amigurumi pattern book.

To begin...

This is my first post on a blog that will be dedicated to Karabouts Amigurumi Crochet. I'm hoping to share photos, progress, techniques, etc. That is, if I can figure out how this blogging thing works. Wish me luck!