Crochet to Go

A custom gift for a Datsun fanatic (and his new baby). Close enough?

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Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

This is a much delayed post - it was a gift for my boyfriend, and I suspect he checks this blog once in a while. "Pass the Piggies" is one of his favorite games. It's essentially a dice game - you toss the piggies and score based on the way they fall.

Pattern courtesy of Bridget Reed of Roman Sock. I found the writing a little confusing, but once you understand the style the pigs work up quite quickly.

The theme: pop culture and fairy tales. Here's a sampling of the latest and greatest. From Geek Central Station, Princess Leia. From Simple Arts Planet, Rapunzel (check out her wedding dolls, too - they're really great). A smurf house in Delicious Crochet's photo stream. Finally, Maddie and Princess Fiona (the cat), on Karabout's flicker page.

Here's another baby boy gift. These were perfect for airplane crochet (no big balls of yarn needed), and did a great job of using up my bag of yarn scraps. From a pattern in Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies.

I absolutely love this - I can't wait to make it. A free pattern is available here.

Cupcake pincushion
Originally uploaded by sukigirl74.

There's nothing better than finding examples of your patterns! Here's a cute flickr find. The crocheter found the pattern on canadianliving.com (you can also find my duck pattern there, too).

In honor of San Francisco's favorite holiday, here's a sampling of the best, the scariest, and the craftiest crocheted Halloween treats.

From upper left: Curbly features the ultimate way to candy-coat your cat; Frankenstein and Pirate Panda on Amy Gaines' flicker page; decorative pumpkins; Harry Potter & friends; and man-eating sea creatures (and much more) on this clever Japanese site.

And finally, What Not to Crochet features this beautifully executed (pun intended) saw scarf, my absolute favorite of the bunch.

Craft:Blog featured these crocheted candies recently (pattern available on Etsy); inspiring a search for more sweets.

Rare Bird Finds has this playful candy heart scarf. I think I might even like the concept more as individual pins.

Finally, who could resist these donuts? Check out the artist's Flickr group - there's some really nice work.

I saw a post on crochetville recently for a crocheted cat toy. That in and of itself isn't all that interesting (except, really? Why not buy a toy for a dollar, or better yet, throw a ball of string at your cat), but the post also mentioned it was for a crocheted cat toy exchange group. It blows my mind that such things exist. I love seeing all these yarn swaps, but this is just going too far.

I am not a member of any such clubs yet (and am actively avoiding anything that will pigeonhole me in the "crazy cat lady" genre), but I do bookmark themes avidly. Food seems to be a big one lately. "Melbangel" has a spectacular food set on Flickr (as well as people and animal sets) that includes these avocado and scoops of ice cream.

"Benicetomice" personifies her food, like this TV dinner I'd be afraid to eat. She's got a wonderful hot dog design too.

I'm drowning in printouts of adorable amigurumi projects these days. Here are a few of the best:

Happy eggs.

Toy airplanes, with pattern for sale.

Birds and a platypus in crochetroo's etsy shop (and lots more).

Raindrops in mochimochiland.

I whipped these up earlier this week to provide a few different color options for Crochet to Go's photographer. The original cupcakes for the book were solid brown (chocolate) and brown and white (chocolate with white frosting). The fact that everything I made is actually getting professionally photographed somehow makes the book feel more real, and more likely to actually appear on a shelf someday. Hey, the publisher's paying good money for this, right? Surely they want a chance to recoup their investment. I've seen the call list, shot notes, and locations. I'm taking the day off of work for the first day of the shoot (this Monday). They plan to shoot for three days, doing the adult stuff, then baby, then still lifes. I'll try to sneak of few pictures of the team in action.

On another note, I finally broke down and bought Debbie Stoller's The Happy Hooker. Stoller really rubs me the wrong way--I often feel that her books are forced and trying too hard to be "cool." The patterns aren't awful in this one, though (she didn't write the patterns; just solicited and chose which ones to include). Her writing is also occasionally very funny and I find myself agreeing with a lot of her points. For example, she acknowledges that there's nothing wrong with acrylic yarn. (This is a huge pet peeve for me--why spend a bundle on yarn that you'll never be able to wash? Especially when the item is for a baby, who's sure to barf on it within the first ten minutes?)

I love what she writes about thread crochet (which is what the apron in the previous post is):
"it is understood by crocheters of every stripe to be a practice reserved for those with advanced skills, prison inmates with loads of time on their hands, or folks with a masochistic streak." I fear I fall into the latter category.

My finished elephant didn't turn out quite as fat as the one pictured in the article, but I still think this Lady's Home Journal pattern is quite cute.