KARABOUTS

Sponge or Dishcloth?

Humanity can be divided into two groups of people. Those who use sponges to wash their dishes and those who use dishcloths. My mother-in-law uses a sponge. My mother uses a dishcloth. The sponge vs. dishcloth debate has gone on for generations. There are arguments for and against both, but being my mother's daughter I come down on the side of the dishcloth. I enjoy making my own so I was happy to hear that Susan Lowman has released a new pattern booklet entitled Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths.  

The booklet is published by Annie's and available here. It includes photos, instructions and charts for 6 beautiful wiggly crochet dishcloth projects. The patterns are well-written and easy-to-follow. I would expect nothing less from Susan, a talented designer, superb crochet technical editor, my mentor and my friend.  

I decided to start with Susan's Four Square pattern. Like all of the dishcloths in the booklet, you begin this dishcloth by making a crochet grid (sort of like filet crochet). Once you finish your grid you fill in some of the squares with crochet stitches that stand up and look, well, wiggly!  

The effect is amazing but it's really not hard to do. Once you get the hang of the technique you can design patterns of your own. For my second dishcloth I made a basic chevron pattern.

For these dishcloths I used Omega Sinfonia yarn, a light worsted weight cotton recommended by the pattern. It was easy to work with and the colors are lovely.

 

If you'd like a chance at winning a signed copy of Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths, just leave a comment on Susan's blog. Even if you don't think you're lucky enough to win the booklet, I recommend you check out Susan's blog anyway. It's filled with interesting posts and has a lot more information about this fun, pretty technique of wiggly crochet.  

I challenge you sponge people to try making just one wiggly crochet dishcloth. I think it might convince you come over to our side.

 

Rothko Rug

What do abstract artist Mark Rothko and former letter turner Vanna White have in common?  Probably not much but I've managed to unite them in my latest crochet project - a rug based on a painting by Mark Rothko made out of Vanna White's acrylic yarn.  Rothko's painting sold for $72.84 million at Sotheby's.  Vanna's yarn sells for $3.99 at Michael's Crafts.

Here's the painting:

And here's the rug:

To make this rug I used a technique called wiggly crochet that I learned from Susan Lowman.  If you're interested in learning how to make a wiggly crochet rug of your own I suggest you order this excellent booklet written by Susan.

This rug is so pretty I may just hang it on the wall (and someday sell it for either $72.84 million or $3.99). 

 

Let it snow

We're having a snow storm today in New York City...

so I thought it would be a good day to blog about my first attempt at making crocheted snowflakes. 

I was inspired to make snowflakes by my friend Johanna who sent us a crocheted snowflake with her lovely handmade holiday card.

I'm not sure which pattern Johanna used, but I used this free pattern I found on the blog Attic 24.  I made half a dozen snowflakes out of some natural wool I had in my yarn stash. Since I learned about starching from my crocheted lampshade project, I decided to starch my flakes.  

Below is a comparison of a blocked and unblocked snowflake.  You can see from the photo how starching and pinning really brings out the beauty of the crochet stitches.

My snowflakes look great on the tree...

but once the tree comes down I think I'll hang them on my windows so that I can enjoy them all winter long.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Crocheted Lampshade

Mike and I found a floor lamp at Bed Bath and Beyond that was around 15 bucks because it had no shade.  We brought it home and I decided to crochet a shade for it.

I started by crocheting a big circular sort of thing with a hole in the middle.  I used Lion Cotton yarn.  I alternated rounds of single and double crochet.  On the single crochet rounds I increased the same way you would if you were going to make a crochet ball.  When I was done it looked like this.

Next, I cooked up a stiffener.  I used regular old cornstarch and water.  I mixed about 8 tablespoons of starch into 2 cups of water and cooked it until it got thick, shiny, and translucent.  

I poured the starch into a bowl and let it COOL DOWN (very important!!).

Then I threw my crocheted circle into the bowl of starch and worked the starch evenly into the cotton yarn with my hands.

Next, I rolled the crochet circle in a clean towel to get rid of the excess starch.  When I was done it looked like this (it grew quite a bit).

Then I stretched the crocheted circle over a big bowl (covered with saran wrap) and let it dry.

Once the shade was dry, I attached it to the top of our lamp with the existing hardware and flipped the switch!

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.
 
 

  

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.