These past two months have been such a whirlwind for me. I had the goal to get all the patterns for the book to the pattern testers by the middle of July and to get all the preliminary text files and photos for most of the patterns to my wonderful friend, the super talented Sylvie by the end of last week. It was a tall order, but somehow I did it! Continue reading
Tag Archives: diy
How to Make Your Amigurumi’s Head Turn: A Video!
I have a wonderful surprise for you today! I recently discovered an inexpensive and super fast way to give your squirrel amigurumi a head that turns. The problem with amigurumi is that they are so small. I haven’t been able to find commercially made doll joints in the right size. But what is a doll joint really? It’s just a post with a fixed head and a washer that pops on to the other end. If you look around the Internet, you’ll find doll makers who have come up with all sorts of solutions: buttons and thread, screws and washers, and my personal favorite — safety eyes!
Let’s use safety eyes to make our squirrel’s heads turn! The concept is pretty simple. Just work the head section of my squirrel pattern through the last round, leaving 6 stitches remaining and a little hole. Fasten off your stitch, leaving a long tail. Thread this tail through the remaining stitches. You do the same thing with the opening at the neck of the body. You’ll insert the head (eye) of a safety eye into the hole on the head of your squirrel and pull the tail tightly to close the hole around the post of the safety eye. Then snap on the washer and fit the hole on the body around the washer. Pull that tail tight to close it around the post and ta-da you have a movable head. If that didn’t make sense, you’re in luck… I made a funny little video to demonstrate. Enjoy! Continue reading
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The Big Acorn Race Update: Tall ‘n’ Fast Flowers
The past six weeks have been all about flowers – well, one flower in particular. The Tall ‘n’ Fast Flower is a very special one that is native to Squirrel Picnic. In “The Big Acorn Race” story, Podge has to grow a flower, fast. Luckily she has a packet of seeds that will do the trick. Sure enough, her Tall ‘n’ Fast Flower grows both tall and fast. You’ll have to excuse my cryptic description there – I just don’t want to spoil the story.
What I can tell you is that just like many of the items in the story, there will be patterns to make your own Tall ‘n’ Fast Flowers. This month I designed a Tall ‘n’ Fast Flower barrette, wall hanging, and 14” round pillow. I even designed a seed packet phone case! So far these are my favorite patterns from the book. I hope you enjoy these photos of them… Continue reading
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Let’s Doodle Stitch!
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial last Friday on how to use satin stitch embroidery to give your amigurumi some spectacular looking eyes. I had a lot of fun stitching it, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t stop with the face. In this post I’ll tell you more about how stitch-crazy I went with this bear, and I’d like to also address all of you who asked me about where you can go to get lessons in embroidery. Continue reading
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How to Add Faces to Your Amigurumi: Satin Stitch Embroidery
I love the look of satin stitch embroidery, but I don’t use it very often for my amigurumi because, I have to warn you, it does take longer to do than any of the methods I have shown you so far. It also takes a lot of focus, because you have to repeat the same stitch over and over again until an area is filled in. You will probably notice in this tutorial that by the time I got to the white part of the eyes, I had gotten a lot less picky about the straightness of my stitches. Looking back, I wish I would have taken a break halfway through or put the project aside for a day or so. Then I would have been able to come back to it fresh: fresh eyes, fresh mind. In the least, I hope you might learn from my mistake. If you find yourself growing frustrated or impatient, feel free to take a break. You certainly have my permission.
That aside, I think you will be pleased with the results you achieve by using satin stitch embroidery to add details to the faces on your amigurumi. I always think it looks very professional, as this is the technique most often used by large toy companies to manufacture stuffed animals for young kids. Satin stitch embroidery is a great choice for toys that will be used by children of all ages, because you don’t need to worry about any small parts that might present a choking hazard. While the big companies use machines to do all the work, I will show you how to do it by hand. After all, it’s the time and love that you put into it that makes a hand-embroidered stuffed animal so special.
Let’s begin! Continue reading
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Spring Meadow Rug Crochet Pattern
After a thorough cleaning of my bedroom/studio this spring, I decided to crochet a lively rug to cover my very blah carpet. When it came to picking the yarn for this project I knew I wanted a soft cotton, but I also wanted to try something new. I was really curious what a variegated yarn would look like in a chevron stitch pattern and I was ready to experiment.
I always love seeing the magic that happens with yarn of variegated colors. You never know quite what to expect. Sometimes, as with striping yarn, fun bands of color will appear. Other times you will get pools of color. It all depends on the yarn and the stitch pattern. So I was really pleased when this well-known and inexpensive cotton yarn created a mottled look when done up in a chevron stitch pattern.
Despite my breaking the rule against using variegated yarn with an intricate stitch pattern (I think that’s why most people use solid colors in this instance), I discovered with variegated yarn the chevron stitch pattern isn’t totally lost in the play of color. In the end, I think it creates a vibrant effect that you wouldn’t be able to achieve with solid color or stripes.
And now my floor is covered and the cotton feels divine under my bare feet, rather like a soft patch of spring grass.
Squirrel Picnic 
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