Admiral Ackbar amigurumi

Well, here's the latest of my mini Star Wars amigurumis, Admiral Ackbar. He's a Mon Calamari who leads the Rebel Alliance fleet in Return of the Jedi, and is famous for shouting, 'It's a trap!' when he realises they've been lured in by the Emperor. The Mon Calamari come from a watery planet and I just love their design, with their big, bulbous heads, fish-like eyes and finny hands.

As my Ackbar is pretty small, only 4" tall, I simplified him quite a bit to match with all the other mini Star Wars amis I've made. Even so, I'm pleased with some of the detail I managed to get into his clothes, and I think I might try working on some of my earlier designs to see if I can add a bit more detail to them. Luke, in particular, would benefit from some alternatives outfits, I think.

The pattern to make Admiral Ackbar is now available from my Etsy shop, and you can also buy  all 14 Star Wars patterns I've made to date, or pick and choose selections of two, three or six patterns.

Utini! It's a new Jawa pattern!

I've just finished my latest Star Wars pattern: Jawas, those cheeky little scavengers. They're only 3.5" tall but they're already causing trouble - they've stolen R2-D2 and now they're attempting to sell him back to me!

They're quite a simple design, though it wasn't easy come up with the right kind of eyes. They should be a glowing orange or yellow colour, but my skills don't extend to electronics so I stuck to orange safety eyes. I did think about using sequins, or some other shiny material, but I wanted them to match my other Star Wars amigurumis. To make the slightly transparent eyes show up a bit better I painted the backs with a pale colour enamel paint (I think acrylic might be safer with children, but I used what I had, and my children are too big to chew things now!). In real life they are a bright orange, but it's hard to capture that in a photo.

The pattern to make the Jawas is now available in my shop

Happy Star Wars Day!

I hope all you Star Wars fans out there are enjoying Star Wars Day - if you don't know it's called that because of the terrible pun: May the 4th be with you (May the Force be with you). Anyway, my amigurumis are enjoying themselves (maybe I need to crochet a Cantina for them to party in!)

You may spot a new amigurumi, a Jawa. I've been working on the pattern for him, and it'll be in my Etsy shop very soon. Just keep checking here to see when it's ready.

Have fun!

Boba Fett - Mini Amigurumi

I was delayed a bit by Christmas, but I've finally finished my pattern for a miniature Boba Fett. This bounty hunter with the fearsome reputation is only 3.5" tall, and the pattern to make him is available in my Etsy shop.

It was difficult to get his helmet right, but in the end I was very happy with it. It was also hard to find the right colour for his armour - every photo I looked at for reference looked slightly different, and for my first prototype I used an olive green. Then I found this colour, I would describe it as a sage green, which I think works well. I decided against making his rocket backpack, because I felt it would overwhelm him, given his size, but he had to have his little ragged cloak.

I'm hoping to come up with a few more Star Wars characters - I'm working on Obi Wan Kenobi at the moment, then I think I'll have a go at Admiral Ackbar and a Jawa.

Adorable Monsters

After I made an Adorable Snow Monster way back in January (http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.com/2010/01/adorable-snow-monster.html) I decided to write up the pattern. I made another Snow Monster to test it, and then I was given some lovely extra fluffy mohair so I made a variation which I decided was a Wildly Adorable Snow Monster.

Then I thought I'd better try making one without using a mohair yarn, because they're not always easily available. I wasn't sure what it would look like - using the same pattern apart from the ruff around its face, it ended up quite different looking. Without the fluff the big hands and feet were more noticeable, but I thought it was just as cute. I wasn't quite sure what kind of monster he was, but since he is green and brown he's ended up being an Adorable Tree Monster.

Having bought some self-striping yarn, I though I'd give that a go, and made an Adorable Rainbow Monster.  I thought I was finished then but my son begged me to make him a fire monster. I used three different tones of red (I'm not sure they all show up in the photos, but I used the darkest colour at the bottom) and I brushed the fur on his head upwards to give him a more fiery effect. And so was born the Flaming Adorable Fire Monster.

I really like the way the same pattern can make quite different looking creatures - it would be quite easy to add details like spines, horns, wings or spots to make them even more varied.

The pattern is now up for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Star Wars Mini Amigurumi

Well, I've finally done it! I've designed all my Star Wars amigurumi to my satisfaction, written up the patterns, photographed them, put the patterns together and put them all on Etsy!

I've been working on these little Star Wars guys on and off for a couple of years. Partly inspired by my and my children's love of Star Wars, and the way Star Wars Lego looks so cute, I realised that I wanted to crochet mini versions of all my favourite characters. It's taken so long because of wanting to keep them stylistically similar even though the characters are very varied. I also wanted them to be different sizes, so that Leia is taller than R2-D2, and Vader is taller than Han, for example, but not perfectly proportionally, or Chewie ends up being too tall. As it is, Yoda is 2.5" tall and Chewbacca is 4.5" tall, with the rest fitting in between them.

I made Yoda first, he's pretty simple and easily identifiable, then Leia (my favourite character, the one I identify with) whose iconic hairstyle is perfectly suited to be reproduced in crochet. Neither of these two had legs, Yoda with his robe and Leia her dress, so when it came to most of the other characters I wasn't sure how to make them. I knew I wanted them to have big feet, and to stand up easily, and so I made them without separate legs, but simply defined them with yarn afterwards, a solution which I'm really happy with.

Some of them took longer than others to perfect. I wasn't sure if C-3PO would work, but I was happy with him straight away. Vader, on the other hand, I just couldn't get right. His head, his face mask, how much detail to give him. Since his costume is almost entirely black it's very hard to define any details. I made him several times with a flat triangular mask and it wasn't until I made it more three-dimensional that I was satisfied.

The Ewok was tough, too. I made him in a completely different way with his hood as part of his head, which I thought I liked, but when I came to write the pattern up it just seemed too unnecessarily complicated. since I'd just been making my crocheted cork knights I realised I could use a similar technique to make a simple separate hood, which I much preferred.

Apart from fine-tuning his height, I liked my Chewbacca, which I made with an alpaca mix yarn then brushed, but I realised that finding that particular type of yarn might be difficult. So I also made him using a normal smooth acrylic yarn that had various different browns in it and which brushed up just as nicely with a wire pet brush.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the finished patterns. If they prove to be popular I'll have to work on some more characters - I think I'll do Boba Fett and Obi Wan next. If you want to see more photos, check out my Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/96575205@N00/), and if you'd like to buy any of the patterns just go to my Etsy shop (http://www.lucyravenscar.etsy.com/).