Pokemon!

I finished up the Oddish for my friend today, much to the grief of my left hand.



The **pattern** is compliments of the amazing WolfDreamer, who has many awesome Pokemon and Nintendo related patterns available on her site.

Also, as promised, I have a slightly better photograph of the Totoro amigurumi I finished a few days ago.



I currently have plans for another project, which will be kept secret for now. The only hints I can give are "anime", "pirates", and "avatar". You think I would get back to working up some pandas, but the design is still undergoing modifications!

Etsy Dreams...or Artfire Dreams...or...?

I completed the panda bear amigurumi commissions!



My husband selected the colors for the orange and blue panda amigurumi. I was unsure how a little girl would react to such a pairing, but he is insistent that it looks good. ^_^;

Now that I have this out of the way and have enough copies of my resume circulating in the world, I figure I can get to work on crafting some Saffron Pandas for my Etsy shop! Or Artfire shop...or whatever I start up here in a few weeks...

Safety eyes revisited

Just when I had nearly convinced myself that eyeless pandas aren't THAT terrifying, I produce this:



This is Onigiri! Named after the ever popular Japanese rice balls, Onigiri sports snowy white "fur" representing rice and "dried seaweed green" markings. The color change on the body isn't perfect, but I have found a pretty decent tutorial to troubleshoot that (why didn't I refer to a tutorial before completing Onigiri, you ask? Well...I don't know...).

I am left to ponder if I like eyes so much better than no eyes:



Yeah, it is kinda cute. I am not hardcore enough for eyeless amigurumi -_-

Questionable manga and lessons learned with safety eyes

So, I finally got my hands on a few pairs of safety eyes a few days ago and went to work on giving my pandas the gift of sight. Having never used safety eyes before, I quickly learned that it would be wise in the future to attach the eyes before assembling the whole head. I ended up with this monstrosity:



I had to tug and pull at the poor thing, which stretched out and exposed some of the whip stitches. And after all of that, the eyes still ended up off center! It doesn't look terrible, but it is definitely not want I intended. At least I can file the experience away in the "To Don't" folder -_-

Now that it is a confirmed bad idea to add eyes to an already-assembled panda face, I am left with this:


(the black spots you see are thread on the inside I still have to trim)

I don't want to disfigure this bear like the last one so I am trying to think of other things I can do with it. Maybe I could just string it on a chain and hang it off of my backpack or turn it into a satchel and fill it with dried flowers.

I also suppose I could give it a body still, although being eyeless AND limbless would be pretty messed up...or freaking cool. I can't decide which.

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Ever hear of Strawberry Marshmallow? It sounds incredibly suspect, doesn't it? It is a manga I read a few pages of while visiting my local comic book shop some months ago. Last week I found one of the volumes on the clearance rack and decided to make a grand splurge of two bucks to bring it home. Aesthetically speaking, it looks cutesy. Sickeningly so. It is all lace and ruffles and little girls sharing shortcake with each other. But when you actually read it, it becomes something else entirely. The oldest girl is a compulsive smoker at the age of 16. Some of them swear and engage in physical violence against each other. There is enough of a stylistic difference that it doesn't qualify as an Azumanga Daioh knock-off and I have tken enough of an interest to start reading it from the beginning.

The author is a man, so that may be what keeps it from being syrupy sweet. However, wikipedia seems to suggest that the series may have had origins in a publication of...questionable repute. I am not entirely sure what to make of this, since I have not experienced any creepy feelings reading the series so far. I know reading manga and watching anime in general desensitizes you to a lot of things that would otherwise freak someone else out (repeated panty shots, robots bursting out of foreheads etc), but I am fairly confident an alarm would go off if I am ever presented with something morally reprehensible (or, I hope so).

Does anyone else ever reflect on their entertainment choices in such a way, or am I just a worrisome geek for concerning myself with the moral implications of what I do in my free time? ^^;

Saffron Pandas in the Making

Finally having settled on a design I am pleased with, I have gone about crafting a line of amigurumi I am pleased to call the "Saffron Panda" line! Inspired by the little green buds popping up everywhere I decided to try out some spring green yarn. In the absence of brown yarn, I substituted but came up with a color combo I really like.



His name is Vasanta (वसन्त) and will hopefully have eyes to see with soon. Doesn't he evoke images of a forest? The bright green of spouting leaves, the cool gray of stream bed stones...or is it just me? ^_^;

Stay tuned for Vasanta's back story and more Saffron Pandas!

The Shame of Bleach Amigurumi

I wonder, should I be ashamed that my first post features an amigurumi of a Bleach character?



Not if it is Kenpachi Zaraki!

At least, I hope so...

I made this little guy over the course of two days as a surprise for my husband who dislikes the series but still watches for certain characters, including Kenpachi.

Ken-chan is my first amigurumi made completely on my own with the assistance of no pattern (yay, I feel accomplished!). But looking back maybe I should have written down the steps taken to construct him. That way I could have made my first official pattern as well ^_^;


(I hope to learn how to take better pictures in the future!)

He isn't complete as of yet. I still need to make the white robe covering he wears, add some more hair, attach bells to his spikes, and make a little Yachiru to perch on his shoulder. I just had to show off the progress I have made so far despite (or "in spite of" might be more appropriate) work and school.

I am tempted to try other manga character amigurumi after Kenpachi, but I already have many other projects lined up including a baby blanket. Ugh! >.< Why did no one ever warn me about the tedium of attempting to crochet a baby blanket?!

Still, it's for a good cause. If you have more patience than me and are looking to exercise some craftivism, please check out www.projectlinus.org if you haven't already. We all deserve a good blanket, right?