I just blue Tobias Fünke

Tobias Fünke.  Everyone's favourite blue never nude.  

This was a pretty esoteric project and only those of you who watch Arrested Development will understand why this man is blue and wearing cutoffs!

It was my boy's birthday a few weeks ago and I was struggling to find him a present.  The man has everything he wants and doesn't need anything.  So I thought of everything that he liked and Arrested Development - specifically a blue Tobias Fünke - sprang to mind.  *Internal monologue* "How awesome would it be to make him a little Tobias?!"  And so my next project was decided.

I didn't have to look too far for some blue yarn.  I had some left over from a vest that I'd made for my Mum a couple of months ago, it's handy being a yarn hoarder!

I wanted to make a moveable Tobias, so he could do awesome poses for the camera (as the one above).  So as I was making the doll I had to keep in mind that I'd be putting in a wire skeleton inside.  I decided to start with the legs, join them together, continue and continue into body and up to the shoulders.  Along the way I inserted the wire and put stuffing in.  I went onto the neck, made the head and arms separately then sewed them all together.  Next came the fun bit...making the cut offs!!

I needed an old pair of jeans for the cut offs so visited a few charity shops for a cheap pair.  I wasn't too successful, but then I saw a Cancer Research shop and OMG THEY WERE HAVING A FIRE....sale.  Well, kinda, they had a section where everything was £1 which was pretty cool as they had a pair of jeans in the exact shade I wanted and the hem was already frayed!

I fashioned a pattern for the cutoffs using ordinary paper and sewed it all together, it was such a perfect fit that they stayed up by themselves!  Then I made him some glasses out of wire and embroidered hair, eyebrows and a moustache.  I tried doing some eyes and a mouth but it just made him look a demented so I decided to omit those in the end.  

Seeing as I had a less than a week to make Tobias, I think I did a pretty good job.  It could have been better if I had more time to think it through, but I'm still pleased with him :)

Crocheted Shrimp

Just before I left to see my boy again, I crocheted a shrimp for one of my really good friends. I know it's a bit random, but so is he! I regularly call him shrimp-related names like 'Shrimp King' and 'Shrimp face' not because he looks like a shrimp.  Actually I can't remember why I even started calling him those names :/

I followed a pattern from 'Super Super Cute Crochet Animals'. However the first 12 rows were incorrect and the head bit ended up being a little deformed (see picture below). So I corrected this bit of pattern and he looked fine :). I did email the publishing company a few weeks ago regarding the errata but I haven't heard anything back. So I've listed the corrections here for anyone who is stuck on the same pattern, or you can find it under my 'Pages' section listed on the right hand side.

Picture shows what comes of the shrimpy face if following the pattern from the book (above) and the correction (below)

My friend loved the little Shrimpy-man and he said it made him smile, but also made him think that I'm a little mad.  Huge compliment in my opinion :)

Mr Giraffe & Mr Lion!

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Some weeks ago, a good friend of mine commissioned me to make a giraffe and a lion for her friend who was expecting a baby.  Last year, I had made her the same things for her gorgeous little girl and so she thought it would be a nice gift for another yummy mummy.

Mr Lion was created from a pattern bought from Etsy, and so I can't display the pattern.  But, Mr Giraffe was entirely my creation, so his crocheting DNA I can post! You'll find the pattern for him under my 'Pages' section or you can just click here for the pattern!

So, I present to you Lion and Giraffe, who are of course (after a bit of an altercation), the best of friends.

Mr Lion getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Mr Giraffe.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Mr Giraffe is having none of it.
©The Yarning Darling 2012

Yay! Now they're bestest buddies :)
©The Yarning Darling 2012

People actually like my things!

Having just crocheted and knitted for my personal fun, I've been formally asked to make something by someone to give as a gift!  As this person is a very close friend, I offered to make it for free.  They weren't having any of it, and so we agreed on cost price.  It's a pretty weird feeling, I only ever set out to learn how to knit and crochet so I could annoy people with handmade gifts!

Ages ago, I had made my friend's daughter a lion (from a pattern) and a giraffe (completely made up as I went along). She's asked me to make the same for her friend who is due to have a baby in the next few weeks and a little cardigan for her own daughter.  The animals will be fine, the cardigan will be a bit more difficult as I can't knit on circular needles yet!  More learning for me :)

I'll keep you all updated on my progress and put up the refined pattern for the giraffe once he's done :)

Domo-nation!

After I made a Domo for my brother, I received a few requests from friends and the boy!  My boy specifically asked for the mouth to be inset and so the challenge began.

I made one of the Domo's normally as according to Nerdigurumi's pattern (Domo on the left). For the second one (right) I sat and thought very hard about how I'd go about making the mouth inset. A little hard to explain, so I'll let the pattern do the explaining.  Seeing as my pattern is just a mangled version of Nerdigurumi's, I'm going to ask her permission first before publishing it on here.

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to get a mouth that looked inset! I made a third one and now they're all one happy family! (Well, only for another 30 minutes when I leave for the airport and take one with me to give to Jim).

Signing out for now, it's the Travelling Yarning Darling once again.

PS When I named this post, I started singing "we're all part of a domo-nation" on the style of Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation'.  And it's now stuck in my head as I'm typing this.

The World Famous Crochet Museum

I'm not lying, there's a museum dedicated to the world of crocheting, and it is really called  The World Famous Crochet Museum!!  It looks tiny, but pretty cool :)

I came across this whilst catching up on my twitter feed.  It's in a little place just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, California - around 130 miles west of Los Angeles.  So even when I do go and see the boy, I think a trip here would be pretty unlikely :(

If anyone does go and check it out, let me know!

DOMO

Having fun in the garden

Who is Domo? He is a little creature that hatched from an egg. He adores meat and potato stew but hates apples ( Source: Wikipedia ). The only word he can say is his own name. "DOMO!"

I made this for my awesome brother who has recently become slightly obsessed with Domo!

I got the pattern from Nerdigurumi, and lovely crocheting lady who lists her amigurumi patterns of geek paraphernalia for free.

Domo scaring Percival the Penguin.

The body was so easy to make, as were the arms and legs. But putting him together was a different story! His legs are weighted so he can stand and the arms poseable so Domo can scare things in pictures! Nerdigurumi has a tutorial on how to wire the arms so it wasn't all bad!  I had to improvise the weighted feet.  I cut out a piece of cardboard so he could stand.  The only flat metal things I could find in the house were washers.  I glued two of these onto each piece of cardboard and et voila, weighted feet!

Anyway, my brother LOVES his Domo. And so does their little kitty apparently! Definitely one of the most fun projects I've done so far!

Hero sniffing out Domo.  

I like my Hello Kitty with a cherry on top.

Yay, kitty! If there's anything I love apart from yarn and cat videos it's Hello Kitty! I adopted this little obsession from my sister-in-law, but everyone who knows her seems to as Hello Kitty is so cute! My first crochet kitty was for her and was strawberry themed.

One day, casually talking to one of the receptionists at work, I discovered she adores kitty too and asked if I could make her one. Tomorrow is her 21st birthday so I thought it appropriate to fulfil her wish. It didn't take that long as I followed a pattern but I still think she looks kawaii!

Deconstructed kitty.

Kitty's Christmas Mouse

My brother and his wife have a gorgeous (but slightly bitey) Siamese kitty called Hero.  She likes little mouse toys. So, I had to do the obvious and make her one!

I browsed Crochet Pattern Central for a quick and easy pattern and found one here by KristieMN.  I managed to make it in about an hour and half so it was pretty easy. I had to make a few amendments, like I sewed the eyes on instead of using toy eyes.  I also decided to stuff the mouse with strips of felt rather than the usual poly-fill because she has a tendency to completely destroy a soft toy so didn't want her eating any of the thin fibres.

Needless to say, she enjoyed the little mouse. But poor mousey (rest in peace) succumbed to its injuries 3.5 days later.  Oh well, kitty enjoyed it!

Sock Monkey

The sock monkey was my first ever crochet project, and must have made him 2-3 weeks after first picking up a hook. I made it for friend's little boy, Ethan.

I got the pattern from Red Heart and it was pretty easy to follow and very beginner friendly! I did omit the hat, only because Ethan was at that point of shoving everything into his mouth and the hat had a little Pom Pom bit on it and I didn't want him accidentally swallowing tiny bits of yarn. Still looked cute though! I made my boyfriend one too, complete with hat which made up for it!

Mr Dragon

The creation of Mr Dragon has a quite a interesting background story to it, so let me start with that.

My boyfriend had read about random requests by people when ordering online, mainly from pizza places.  Now these would vary from "please draw a picture of a unicorn fighting a bear" to "please cut the pizza into tetris-shaped pieces".  And needless to say he was determined to find someone who would comply with a strange request.

One day, he ordered something from the Etsy seller A Whiter Shade of Pale and kindly asked if she could draw a picture of "a dragon fighting medieval knights with its fire breath."  I begged him not to do it, but alas, my efforts were in vain and guess what, she did it and it was amazing.

A few weeks later, he was on Etsy again and saw something else from the same seller.  He decided to see if she would continue the saga and asked for a picture of "the medieval knights and townsfolk celebrating to courageous defeat of the mighty dragon."  Did she do it?  Of course she did!

Now we come to Mr Dragon.  As a thank you for the hard work, my boyfriend commissioned me to crochet a dragon for the lovely seller.  I decided to use the picture from the first box as inspiration, and as it was a side profile it was much easier to create.  I needed to do a little research on how to create spikes, but the rest I managed to make up myself, and I was incredibly pleased with how well he turned out.  Because I did make him from scratch, you might say I bonded with him and the thought of sending him away was heartbreaking.  Luckily, I wrote down my pattern and just made a second one!

And that is the story of Mr Dragon :)

Pictures courtesy of my boyfriend.

Welcome!

So, this is my first attempt at a blog so bear with me!

My name is Mehreen and as you might have guessed I like making things with yarn.  I’ve always dabbled with knitting, only managing the odd knit and purl so I could only make scarves. 

About a year ago, I found out three of my friends were pregnant, and so instead of just settling buying them baby-grows and a plastic toy, I thought I’d teach myself how to crochet to make cute little soft toys!  With the help of Debbie Stoller's "Happy Hooker" book I did just this and I’m pretty pleased with how far I’ve come with crocheting.


This year I’d thought I’d expand my crafting knowledge and learn how to knit properly with the aim of making myself a cute jumper with a penguin on the front - cue another Debbie Stoller publication "Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook".  I’ll keep you updated with my trials and tantrums and post stuff of things I’ve made already.

Well, that’s about it for now.  Bye! 

Mehreen xxx