Luke Skywalker times three

Luke Skywalker must take after his mother with the number of costume changes he has in his three films! While his pal Han rocks the classic trousers, shirt and waistcoat through most of the films, Luke is always wearing something different. I've always thought it would be nice to improve my Luke amigurumi pattern by adding a variety of outfits and now I've done it. As well as giving a bit more detail to his Tatooine 'farm boy' look from the original Star Wars film I've come up with versions of Luke in his X-Wing pilot uniform, including the helmet, and in his black Jedi clothes from Return of the Jedi, along with a tiny lightsaber.

This new version of the pattern is now available in my Etsy shop, and I'm happy to send it for free to anyone who bought the original Luke Skywalker pattern in the past. Just contact me on Etsy with all the details of that order (order number, full name and date of order).

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.

Dalek Amigurumi Pattern - Free!

I'm a long time fan of Doctor Who - I started watching Jon Pertwee in the 1970s when I was very little, and I've loved it ever since, old series and new. The Daleks are a brilliant creation, scary and iconic, and I just had to crochet them. I made three a few years back, two for swaps and one for a present, but I never made any for myself. With the new season of Doctor Who just starting (and with the first episode featuring a selection of different types of Daleks) I knew I had to make them again.

I tweaked my original pattern a bit and came up with a design I'm really happy with. It's quite fiddly to make, but it has most of the essential details. I've made a classic grey and black Dalek from the 1970s and a bronze and gold one from the new series. However fearsome the real Daleks are, when they're reduced to 7 inches tall and made of yarn, they're suddenly much more cute and cuddly, and fun to play with. One of mine found a wig I'd made for something else and decided he'd look good in it. I can't decide if he looks like Boris Johnson or if it's one of Captain Kirk's!

The pattern is free - make as many Daleks as you like for yourself, friends or family, but please don't sell them. You can download the PDF from Craftster or Ravelry

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

Geek Crafts

I must say, I'm a total geek, and making geeky things is generally my main reason for crafting. When you love a tv show, or film, or even a book, it's natural to want to make something to express your love. Here's my attempt at the geeky craft classic, Jayne's hat from Firefly. I made it for a friend years ago, and crocheted it because I can't knit.

So I love this site: http://geekcrafts.com/do-or-do-not-there-is-no-try/

Geek Crafts had the good taste to post about my Star Wars amigurumi patterns, but they've got posts about so many adorable geeky crafts I could spend ages on there!

Finn and Jake patterns ready!

My Finn and Jake amigurumi patterns are now available to buy in my Etsy shop.

You can buy both patterns together for $8.00, or buy them separately for $4.50 each.

Now I just need to get on with my Jawa pattern!

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!

Adventure Time with Finn and Jake

I recently started watching Adventure Time on Cartoon Network UK with my boys (I only just found out we could get it on our subscription). It's a great show, suitable for kids (maybe not very young ones) and adults - the humour's fun and weird but not mean. It's set in a colourful, fantastical post-apocalyptic world with Finn, a 12/13 year old boy (the only human we know of) and Jake the dog, who is capable of stretching or shrinking to almost any size or shape. They have all sorts of adventures - Finn is pretty handy with a sword - and sing cute little songs.

I joined in with an Adventure Time swap on Craftster and made Finn and Jake for my partner (I think I'll have to remake them for my boys!).

Part of the reason I like the show is the design of the characters, and they have great shapes to crochet. Here are the originals to compare:

Finn is about 13" tall and has a backpack that opens and closes with a small button.

Jake is about 8" tall, roughly in proportion to Finn in his normal shape and size, where he still has quite long arms.

Since they both have such thin legs, it's hard to make them stand up, so I took them outside to pose them a bit. Finn's off on an adventure and Jake's hanging around in a tree.

I hope you like them, and if you haven't watched Adventure Time, give it a go!

All the Totoros!

I love the Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro, and the Totoros themselves, adorable monsters with features reminiscent of rabbits and cats, that come in three different sizes and colours. A giant grey one about twice the height of a person, a blue one about the size of a cat and a small white one about half that size. If you haven't seen the film, I urge you to give it a try, it's totally delightful.

A few years back I made a blue and a white Totoro, and wrote up the patterns on my livejournal (White Totoro , Blue Totoro ). Since then I've been wanting to make a grey one, and to perfect the original two patterns. In the end I did that, and also adapted the pattern for the white Totoro to make a small blue one to go with the grey one, and a tiny white one to complete the set.

This might be easier to explain in photos!

Here's the large grey Totoro, which is about 9" tall, with the small blue Totoro (4.25" tall) and the tiny white one (1.75"). To be honest, the two smaller ones aren't quite to scale with the grey one, but it would have been too difficult to make a white one small enough without changing the type of yarn, which I didn't want to do.

These are the updated blue and white Totoros. The blue one is about 8" tall and the white one is 4.25" tall. When I started remaking them I changed them quite a bit - I obviously crochet a lot tighter now that I did when I made them originally. The grey Totoro and this blue one have a similar pattern, the grey one is a bit taller but the ears are shorter.
The white Totoro and the small blue one are the same pattern, just with extra elements (tummy, arms) for the blue one.

Here you can see the two different sizes of blue and white Totoros, I'm happy that I got the scale pretty much right for both sets.

I also made a little leaf for the grey Totoro, to help keep off the rain.

You can download the patterns free from Ravelry:

 Grey Totoro

Blue Totoro

White and Small Blue Totoro

Tiny White Totoro (the leaf pattern can be found with the Grey Totoro)

You can also download the patterns from Craftster 

Flappy Owls, and lots of other stuff I've been making

I don't seem to have posted here for a while, but I've definitely been busy.

I have just finished testing my Flappy Owl pattern, that appeared in Inside Crochet magazine last year. I can now sell it myself, so I made two more owls to test it, and because I wanted to see what Hedwig would look like in a pullover! It's a fun pattern to make, and I would love to try out all sorts of different colour combinations. You can buy the pattern in my Etsy shop.

 

Over the winter I've been working on all sorts of amigurumi, for friends, presents, and even for myself. I'm a fan of the old tv show, Blake's 7, and so I made a friend a little Blake and Avon. They were finished late just before conventions so I didn't get good photos, but here's one he took:

I also made myself one of the creatures that appears in one of the episode, a hairy, horned critter called Og, to take to the convention.

I then decided to make a present for one of my nephews. As he likes Romans I thought I'd make him an amigurumi one, and because I'm a Doctor Who fan I based it on Rory. I had a lot of fun making the helmet.

Then, as a present to myself, I used the same basic pattern I'd been using for Rory, Blake and Avon and made a little Frodo, with a removable cloak. I'll probably develop this pattern so it could be used to make all sorts of other characters.

I've also been busy making various fun little toys for our school's Christmas bazaar, so I'll start writing up the patterns for those and posting them here. And I've been working on my Totoro patterns, improving them and coming up with a version of the grey totoro as well as smaller versions of the blue and white ones. I'll be posting the completed patterns for those very soon.