Castle Crashers!

This past month, I've had a couple of people ask for some custom items that I'd never done before for the game Castle Crashers.

First, I made a custom animal orb, Install Ball:

The finished product!

The image from CastleCrashers.com that I had to work with.

Then, a bit later, I had someone order 3 custom hats. The first was The Industrialist, the second the Ninja and the last was the Bear (Bipolar Bear, Bear Shaman... whatever you'd like to call him!). The Industrialist was probably the most difficult of the three for me and my least favorite of the hats (though Brian, my customer, was pleased with the results! :) ). I couldn't figure how to keep the pointed top of the hat from being a bit limp and teletubbie-like.


The Ninja was much easier and I quite enjoyed making the skull & crossbones for it. :)

And then there was my favorite, the Bear. I wanted to give him the furry texture the bear in the game so obviously had, but hadn't had much luck with any textured yarn I had tried (I had previously tried both Lion Brand Homespun and Joann Sensations Boucle and hated them both). So I researched a bit to see if I could find a way to pull it off. I was considering some of Red Heart's yarn and then wound up getting some I'd never even heard of before. My husband was the one who discovered it when we were at Michaels and I'm so glad he talked me into trying it out! I bought Red Heart Buttercup in white (tell me that color isn't being discontinued! I can't find it online anywhere... But I have bought about 8 skeins of it, just in case!).

At first, I was not enjoying the yarn any more than I had the others, even with my new 8.0mm bamboo crochet hook
(the recommended hook according to the label). But then I had an epiphany - the yarn was
textured and you couldn't really tell where the stitches was. Which was my problem, of course. But if I couldn't tell where the stitches were, how could an untrained eye? So I sort of fudged my way through, not always going through both front & back loops or even necessarily going through either properly. And, before I knew it, I was actually making the hat! Eventually, I did find my stitches more clearly and crocheted properly, but I do think that helped me get used to the tension to use and get over my frustrations.

Out of curiosity (and after running out and buying more skeins of this wonderfully soft and plush yarn!), I tried out some Homespun again, with the 8mm bamboo hook (despite having tried it and a 10mm hook previously). And I was able to make a bunny hat with it! I am so overjoyed at the fact that I can now use Homespun!! I've always loved the colors, the texture, and the softness (though not the squeakiness you get when you use aluminum or plastic hooks) and thought that was such a tease since the yarn was horrible to work with. And now I know how to use it properly!! I intend to use a bunch of it for hats in the near future and will no longer pass it up when I see the mill end bags for $6 at Big Lots.

And, just in case someone stumbles upon this because they are looking for any of the above, I may or may not have them listed in my etsy store, but that doesn't mean I won't make you one! Just convo me on etsy or e-mail me or leave a comment here!

Kami's Stegosaurus Hat

And the pink stegosaurus hat I made for my friend's daughter, Kami! :)

For this hat, I used Lion Brand Pound of Love in "Bubblegum" and Joann Sensations in a purple-pink gradient and a 5.0mm hook.

Hat:
1: 12 hdc into a magic circle
2: *1 hdc into st, 2 hdc into next, rep from * - 18 sts
3: *2 hdc into st, 2 hdc into next, rep from * - 24 sts
4: *3 hdc into st, 2 hdc into next, rep from * - 30 sts
5: *4 hdc into st, 2 hdc into next, rep from * - 36 sts
6-? Increase until diameter is the size you want. I increased to 48 sts at row 7 for a hat approx 3-6mos
?-12 (more if you're making the hat a bigger size, less if smaller size): hdc around all sts.

Plates:
1: 6sc into a magic circle
2: sc around - 6 sts
3: 2 sc, 2sc in next st, rep - 8 sts
4: 3 sc, 2sc in next st, rep - 10 sts
5: 4 sc, 2sc in next st, rep - 12 sts
(6: continue inc until desired size)

I'm now, officially, an aunt!

Caron Simply Soft Collection Autumn Maize and Eco Ocean

And so, now, I am making all sorts of things for my nephew (my sister-in-law's infant son), Orion Augustus.

I made him a ribbed hat that was striped with Caron's Simply Soft Collection Yarn: "Autumn Maize" and their Eco "Ocean" that was for a 3-6mos old rather than a newborn. I made some before for my friend's newborn and little Kami grew out of them within about 2 weeks, so I'm likely to err on the side of older from now on! I modified this pattern to be 30 FSC instead of a ch of 25 and then did 36 rows (17.5").

Orion's Stegosaurus Hat,
also available on my Etsy Page

The other two hats I made him were inspired-by that I just played around with until I got it how I wanted it. One was a newsboy cap made with cotton yarn and a wooden button from my collection. The other a stegosaurus earflap beanie, a bit of a test run for the hat I intend to make little Kami. It was my friend Sarah who showed me a photo of someone else's hat and gushed over it that inspired me there. :)

I've been busier on Etsy lately for some reason! Unfortunately, not necessarily a lot of crochet orders, but many, many origami lucky star & lucky star strip orders. I have, however, had a lot of interest in my Castle Crashers beanie and the animal orbs, which is great! Love spreading the Castle Crashers love!

One thing that has also kept me busy (besides my adorable shih tzu, Wicket, and my other crafting!) has been the starghan I made for another friend's baby shower. Everyone knows I love stars plus it's a more interesting and unique afghan than many I've seen, so I have decided that is going to be my standard baby shower gift, haha. I've already given 3 away so far! This one was fun because it actually went with the nursery theme - "Starry Night". I made it with pastel blue, yellow and white and put a "cloud"/shell border along the edge.