CogKnition » Toys

Which Came First?

CogKnition — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:24:57 +0000

Pattern: Which Came First?, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted #0215, Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

I’ve often threatened to keep toys I’ve made instead of giving them to the intended recipient. This time I’m doing it. Sorry, Mystery Would-Be Receiver of this existential conundrum, this one really is too cute to give away. I’ll make you something else, I promise.

You’ve all heard me rave about Anna Hrachovec’s patterns before. This little guy is the fifth Mochimochi Land pattern I’ve knit* so far and I don’t plan to stop any time soon! The pattern is wonderful, as usual. The only recommendation I would make is to stuff the toy somewhat firmly. You can pack quite a bit in there and still be able to flip from egg to chick easily.

*Fun fact! This means Anna ties Eunny Jang for the designer I knit the most.

Other entries about Which Came First?:

Knittin’, and Sewin’, and Thinkin’: Crochetin’?

Pocket Protectors

CogKnition — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:08:57 +0000

Pattern: Pocket Protectors, from Knitting Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 6 (4.0mm)

Behold! Mystery Project #2 is revealed. Anna gave us the go-head to share our project photos.

I cast on for this guy a year ago (which is why the photo is kind of fuzzy—it was taken with my ancient Powershot) and am thrilled to have had a tiny role in the production of Anna’s book.

I’ve made a lot of Mochimochi patterns and I expect to make many more. I am constantly in awe of how clever all her patterns are, and how fun they are to knit. I pre-ordered Knitting Mochimochi as soon as it was listed on Amazon. You can see the Pocket Protector on the back cover.

The bow on Mama Protector is my own invention, and I also turned the baby into a pencil. Alas, I lost the baby shortly after I knit it. He is surely knocking around our apartment somewhere, probably in some strange nook. I expect to find him when we move. In the meantime, Mama Protector is hanging out in my craft closet next to Weeeds.

Other entries about Pocket Protectors:

These Things I’ve Been Knitting

An Olympic Triumph

CogKnition — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:54:52 +0000

I did not cast anything on during the opening ceremony.

I did not knit a stitch on any project for the entire first week of the Olympics.

During the second week, I attempted to reinforce the button bands for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. The US men’s curling team had more success than I did.

Finally, I cast on a small project.

It’s not a gold-medal contender, but I think it’ll be a crowd-pleaser in our host nation.

Maybe I should have knit a hockey puck instead.

Congrats, Canadians! It was an awesome Olympics.

All Together for Christmas

CogKnition — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:37:53 +0000

Pattern: Chinese Zodiac Amigurumi , also available from edafedd
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, assorted colors, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease, #122 Sienna
Hook: E 3.5mm

This is the first year that I am not spending Christmas in Wisconsin. My in-laws are coming in from Japan tomorrow, so we decided it made sense for us to stay put in Houston and, y’know, clean the house.

This is the second year in a row that Christmas is…different. Last year my parents spent Christmas by themselves in Atlanta, where they were seeking treatment for my dad’s cancer, while my brothers, my husband, and I had Christmas in Wisconsin. Not only was the family not together for Christmas, but we all kind of knew that it would probably be my dad’s last.

And of course, this year is the first one without my dad. And while this Christmas doesn’t have the same dark mood as last, and I am very much looking forward to seeing my in-laws, I still wanted to do something that would let us all be together, if only symbolically.

So I made Chinese Zodiac amigurumi.

The front two are me (monkey) and my husband (rabbit). The back row, from left to right: my dad (horse), my mom (snake), and my two brothers (rat and tiger).

Of course I decided to do this on December 20. Plan ahead for holiday crafting? What’s that? After one solid day of doing almost nothing but crochet, I just had the tiger left to do. And I discovered that the best color I had was…Cheetos Orange. No medium browns, not even a red in the right yarn weight. Just Cheetos Orange.

I tried to make a tiger in Cheetos Orange. It made my eyes hurt. And there are no yarn shops open at midnight on Sunday. So I made a quick trip to Big Box Craft Store for some Wool-Ease after work Monday night (tried the LYS first but it was closed), finished the tiger, dropped everybody into a box and posted it Priority Mail on Tuesday morning.

Miracle of miracles, they arrived in Wisconsin in time for Christmas. I got a call from my mom this morning and it sounds like they’re having a very merry Christmas over there. Though she does not believe me that my husband was born in the Year of the Rabbit. And we’re having a merry Christmas here too. So all is well.

Stackable Cats

CogKnition — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:36:09 +0000

Pattern: Stackable Cats from Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #1203, #599, #194, #515, #217, #180; Pittsburgh, #9143
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 (4.0mm)

Three stackable cat brothers went frolicking through my in-laws’ house. They ran into cousin Maneki Neko…

…and a proselytizing flying pig.

They spent some time practicing for their Cirque du Soleil audition…

…before retiring to their permanent homes. Calico went to my mother-in-law, Siamese to my aunt-in-law, and Striped Tabby went to my sister-in-law.

This is the third time I’ve knit one of Anna’s patterns and it is once again very clear and produces adorable results. I did make a few modifications when knitting the striped tabby. If you do a straight 2-row alternating stripe as suggested in the pattern, you’ll wind up with one very fat 4-row stripe after picking up stitches to make the rest of the body. So I made the first stripe only one row thick and then resumed alternating 2-row stripes. You still wind up with a 3-row stripe (which you can see at the top of the cat’s head), but I thought that was less noticeable.

In addition, the join will wind up at the front of the cat, so I knit an extra half-round to push it to the back, where the jog would be less prominent. I also finished up the last part of the body—the flap that becomes the bottom of the cat—all in white instead of in stripes.

The cats were declared to be very kawaii by my in-laws. I think so too. And well…

Cthulhu

CogKnition — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:10:01 +0000

Pattern: Mini Cthulhu , by Cherene Reyes, only available on Ravelry
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, #451, 1 skein
Hook: E 3.5mm

He gets very angry when someone says he’s cute and trust me, you won’t like him when he’s angry.

The finished toy is just shy of 6 inches tall (which means you should be extra careful around him, because he has a MASSIVE inferiority complex) and uses 8mm plastic safety eyes. It was a quick crochet, taking an afternoon-ish. Other than a brief bit of confusion when working the legs, the pattern was easy to follow. Contrary to the pattern, I chose to stuff the arms and not the wings.

I take no responsibility if you make one and then die a messy death. I gave mine away as a precaution.

Weeeds

CogKnition — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:13:17 +0000

Pattern: Weeeds, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #451 and #1202; Pittsburgh, #9143
Needles: US 6 (4.0mm) Addi Turbos

A-ha! The first reveal.

I was one of the test knitters for Weeeds. I love how Anna’s brain works—her style, the awesome techniques she invents (or un-vents) to make her toys, the clever names (wee + weeds = weeeds!)—and it was a treat to get a sneak preview of one of her patterns. This one’s free, so head over to her blog and check it out.

As you can see, I didn’t have a true yellow in my stash, so I had to use an off-white/cream instead.

It’ll probably be a long time before I can reveal another one of the mystery projects, unfortunately. And the Tangled Yoke Cardigan is stuck in a stockinette phase. Perhaps this is a sign I should cast on something new. I kind of have a hankering for some socks. Or maybe some lace. Hmm…

Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

CogKnition — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:07:07 +0000

Pattern: Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mouse, by Mochimochi Land
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #450, #451, #515, #1202, and #599
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) Addi Turbos

A tragedy in four acts.

Act I—Mice Gather ‘Round

Act II—Friend? Or Intruder?

Act III—INTRUDER! RUN AWAAYYYYYYY!

Act IV—Goodbye, Cruel World

The end.

Other entries about Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

Omusubi Obake

CogKnition — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:07:08 +0000

Pattern: Omusubi Obake, from Amigurumi de Yuyuri (Leisurely Amigurumi)
Hook: D 3.0mm
Yarn: Pittsburgh, #9143; Plymouth Encore, #1232 and #217; scraps

An omusubi is a rice ball wrapped with a piece of nori, or dried seaweed; an obake is a kind of ghost or spirit. This little rice ball ghostie appeared last night and started haunting our kitchen.

He seemed pretty at home in our box of curry mixes.

And of course stopped to pay respects to the package of nori.

But eventually he decided to haunt the box of Taiwanese pineapple cakes. I think I will too; I’m hungry!

Frogs on a Holiday

CogKnition — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:17:02 +0000

Pattern: Frogs on a Holiday, from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Amigurumi
Hook(!): D 3.0mm
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #1232, 1 skein, and scraps of #1203

Ladies and gentlemen, my first completed crochet project! It’s a far cry from this. And this.

*takes a bow*

Since this pattern is titled “Frogs on a Holiday,” I thought it only appropriate that I take him out on the town for a little photo shoot.

This book has a very tiny techniques section, so if you’re a beginning crocheter like me, you should have another crochet reference handy. But other than that, the pattern was very easy to follow.

More pictures and commentary after the jump.

Continue reading Frogs on a Holiday (295 words) »

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Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit

CogKnition — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:39:47 +0000

Pattern: Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit, by Debbie Bliss, Debbie Bliss: The Baby Knits Book
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #217 and #1203; Pittsburgh, #9143, oddballs
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 6 (4mm)

I knit this bear for a friend’s new baby. It is so cute that it nearly turned my normally-sensible mother into a woman who would steal teddy bears from small children. Be forewarned.

I love the finished product; the pattern, not so much. There was a thread on Knitter’s Review a while ago asking why toys are so hard to make. I don’t think toys are really hard to make; most of the ones I’ve made are basically lots of tubes with about as much shaping as your average hat. I think a lot of toy patterns are hard to read. And this pattern is a perfect example of the designer making your life unnecessarily difficult.

Take the arms, for example:

From the picture above, you can see that the arms are sort of shaped like lopsided footballs (the American kind). I think most experienced knitters, to make such a shape, would cast on a small number of stitches, join in the round, increase until desired width, work straight for a while, decrease, and then bind off. Or if you want to work flat, omit joining in the round, but do basically the same thing and then seam the sides together.

This is what Debbie Bliss tells you to do:

She has you cast on a small number of stitches, knit a few increase rows, break off the yarn, and make a second piece like that. Then you join the two pieces, knit straight for a while, then you work on half the stitches to shape the point. Then you rejoin more yarn to make the other half of the point. Sew a bunch of seams.

Why on earth would you want to do that? I don’t think it’s particularly beginner-friendly and it creates a bunch of extra ends to darn in.

The way she has you build the foot is even less logical.

Needless to say, once I figured out what the shapes of the finished parts were actually supposed to be, I modified the pattern extensively to save myself some extra work.

Continue reading Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit (220 words) »

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Panda Toy

CogKnition — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:48:32 +0000

Ding ding ding ding ding! It is indeed a toy. Here’s the rest of the picture:

Well. That’s not very polite. Hey, panda! Turn around, will ya?

That’s better. Did you think you were looking at a butt closeup this whole time?

Pattern: Panda, from World of Knitted Toys
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #217, and Pittsburgh, #9143, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

This is my first finished object since April. And I haven’t even been afflicted with startitis or anything. Bad knitter. Bad, bad knitter.

I had a love/hate/love affair with this project. I mean, it’s a panda! What’s not to love about a panda? But oh, the pattern gave me grief. Part of it was that I didn’t have faith in the directions. I set it aside for a couple months in hopes that it would metamorphose into the panda I was envisioning rather than the panda I was knitting.

I came very, very close to ripping out the whole thing and panda-fying a Bobbi Bear pattern instead. But I’d already put the eyes and ears on by that point and I swear it made a sad “please don’t rip me!” face at me. So I relented, and just knit the rest of it as fast as I could. But when it was done, it turned out to be cute!

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Wins the Race

CogKnition — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:57:44 +0000

He’s finished! He comes in at exactly 10″ long. Teeny! The patterning on the shell made him a little more box turtle-y and less sea turtle-y, but I can live with that.

Pattern: Turtle, p. 70, World of Knitted Toys, modified

Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK (#0377), Plymouth Dreambaby DK (#201), Baby Pure DK (#502), less than 1 skein of each

Needles: 2 sets 16″ Addi Turbos, US 1 (2.5mm)

His name is Fred and I may just have to keep him, he’s so cute.

Eyes were made out of the dreaded Microspun.

Continue reading Wins the Race (100 words) »

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CogKnition » Toys

Which Came First?

Similar Posts:

Pocket Protectors

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An Olympic Triumph

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All Together for Christmas

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Cthulhu

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Sleepy Snake & Mischievous Mice

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Omusubi Obake

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Frogs on a Holiday

Bear in Lamb Sleep Suit

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Wins the Race