Oh the Cuteness!

When I started to crochet as an adult (I learned when I was 10 and quickly forgot until college), I learned how to make amigurumi first. The little cupcake on the bottom left was the 2nd creation I ever crocheted, and I still have him and love him to this day. The pattern was one of the first posts I ever made on this blog , nearly a decade ago, but it has since disappeared from the net.  Looking back, I realize now that I didn't do some of the techniques right, but it still came out so nice that I made more and sold them on my etsy shop in the early years, and even figured out how to make a giant one for fun. I hope some of you will try this pattern if you've never tried amigurumi before, because it got me hooked (Ba-dum-bum-tsch!), and I hope it will work the same for you!  You can leave it plain in earth tones for a muffin, or a red bottom looks like red velvet cake. My favorite thing to do was add seed beads for sprinkle "freckles" and little expressive ey...

It's finally here! I made the PDF version of my owl plushie pattern available for download in my Etsy shop ! I decided I'm probably not going to make these plushies anymore as the pincushions always sold much better, so if you want one you better go grab one here before they're gone! But I couldn't let my time spent drafting the pattern go to waste so it's now available to buy, and it's a Creative Commons license so you can do whatever you like with the finished product, including selling them at craft fairs. All of my free and for sale patterns are licensed this way, so feel free! I'm incredibly excited about this because it's the first sewing pattern I've ever sold and I hope to write many more in the future! Hope you like it!

I have to say I am in hog heaven with this  new craft room  of mine! There's been a big pile up of personal and business-related ufo's for some time now, so I've been going down the list finishing one business and one personal at a time. Today I finished a special secret project for my etsy shop that's been in my head forever, and to celebrate I took a little me-time and made a gigantic owl! I call him Gordie since he's so pudgy! He's made from some leftover felt and hand-me-down canvas material. Probably he will end up being a mascot at my craft booth. But! I made him for a very specific reason, namely this: I know I've mentioned before that I try to run a no-waste sewing studio. This means that every scrap of fabric, felt, and thread ends up in this bin and will eventually end up as stuffing for plushies. Right around when I moved house I noticed that I was not keeping up with using my scraps and the bin was completely full. So I decided wh...

I don't enter a lot of contests online, but when I saw that Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane was giving away some of her new large plushies from Kid Robot, I had to try. And I won! She sent the different kinds out at random and I'm so happy she sent me the yellow jelly doughnut! It's so cuddly and adorable, and it's living on my sofa now. She's one of the crafters and bloggers who has always been a huge inspiration to me, and I'm so happy to have one of her pieces in the house finally. My favorite detail of this little guy is the little place where there's "jelly" seeping out from where the makers of plush pastries piped it in: Yay!

I made this little guy as a belated birthday gift for a friend, and I thought I should post the pattern! It's a great beginning amigurumi pattern because if it comes out a little wonky it's fine, because it's a mushroom, and they're all a little wonky in real life, right? I think it would be super cute with white pins in the top too so it can me useful. I was also playing with the idea of doing a "How I Make Amigurumi" photo or video tutorial using this pattern, might be fun... Anywho, if anyone catches any errors in the pattern please let me know! Mini Mushroom Amigurumi Pattern This pattern is worked in a continuous spiral, so be sure when you need to skip stitches for decreasing that you skip the very last stitch, which will simultaneously put down the first stitch of the next round, so you'll get the correct number of stitches. It measures about 3 1/2 inches tall when done. There's no guage, just crochet as tightly as possible. Siz...

Just in time for Christmas, I've put a bunch of owl pincushions, new large owl plushies, moustache straws, and mini notebooks in the shop ! I can guarantee that stuff will arrive for Christmas (within the continental US) if it is purchased before or on Friday, December 16th, but I will continue shipping orders until December 20th. I have a bunch of owls that need photographing too, so if you are looking for a specific color I don't have listed feel free to convo me on etsy and I can see if I have one hiding in the studio!

This little guy is named Phinneas. And yes, I know it's kind of funny to have a little pink and purple polka dot elephant be a boy but, well, he's only a baby. I've been working on him for a while after Aubrey the orange elephant sold, but after the move I lost him in the pile of unfinished projects. Which, by the way, I've been finishing slowly all this week. I think the anti-crafting funk is over, yay! Anywho, back to Phinneas. Angela's good friend was having a baby shower for her soon-arriving little girl and she wanted a special present for them. I told her about Phinneas and she asked me to finish him for her friend. So, sorry, but he's not going to be seen in the etsy shop because Angela's already snatched him up! He's made from a recycled fleece blanket and some scraps of sage green ultrasuade were used for the inside of his ears and his cute little belly. Look at that little tail! I don't normally put tails on the elephants I make, but Ang...