Amigurumi Beetroot

The reason I started this blog was that in 2008 I discovered amigurumi. There was so many wonderful free patterns all over the Internet and once I got the hang of it I wanted to give back by sharing my patterns in return. I haven’t done any amigurumi for a long time now, but for some reason I got into my head yesterday that I wanted to crochet a beetroot.

And I did. And it was awesome.

PATTERN (I had to browse through the blog to see how to write a pattern, it’s been such a long time!)

I used wool yarn and 1,75 hook.

1. sc 6 in magic ring (6)
2. sc around (6)
3. *sc, sc inc* around (9)
4. *sc in the next two, sc inc* around (12)
5. *sc, sc inc* around (18)
6. *sc in the next two, sc inc* around (24)
7. *sc in the next three, sc inc* around (30)
8. *sc in the next four, sc inc* around (36)
9. *sc in the next five, sc inc* around (42)
10. sc around (42)
11. sc around (42)
12. sc around (42)
13. sc around (42)
14. sc around (42)
15. *sc in the next five, sc dec* around (36)
16. *sc in the next four, sc dec* around (30)
17. *sc in the next three, sc dec* around (24)
18. *sc in the next two, sc dec* around (18) (you should start stuffing around here before the hole gets too small)
19. *sc, sc dec* around (12)
20. sc dec around (6)

Cut yarn and stuff the last bit. Sew shut.

Now the leaves. (wool yarn: it’s hairy)

I just sort of winged it. For the smaller one I chained 11 with the beetroot colour and then changed into green yarn. I slipstitched into second chain from the hook and the next few and then just randomly sc, hdc, dc, tr around in a way that looked good to me. For the larger leaf, I started by chaining 16. I finished the ends and used the beetroot coloured yarn to sew them onto the beet. Let me know if you’d like a more detailed leaf pattern, I could try to whip something up. You could make as many leaves as you wanted of course, I just made two.

Beet from the back.

Beet from the front.

The end.

It’s OK banner

I saw this banner via A Cup of Jo, and just instantly knew it was for me. However, I am poor, and did not have the money to buy one. But I could make one! I had the materials for it, too. Some (extremely wrinkly) old white flannel and and some black felt.

I didn’t really plan it much. I drew letters on paper until they looked about right, traced them on the felt and cut them out. I then sewed them onto the flannel. Here you can see the letters a bit better:

Only after that was done I cut the flannel and sewed the edges.

I’m extremely happy how it turned out. And the message is something I really needed right now.

I need to iron it out and find a place for it, but I pinned it to the bedroom wall for now. And it is very calming and reassuring.

Yarn Ampersand

I know ampersands are a bit in at the moment, but I wanted to do a yarn covered something. I couldn’t really figure out a letter I’d want to look at and an ampersand seemed nicely ambiguous.

The pictures don’t really show the true colour, which is a much deeper mint.

A mini-tutorial:

I first free-handed the shape onto paper and then traced it onto cardboard.

I covered the ends and the overlapping parts with yarn first and taped it in place. Then I just started to wrap the yarn over the other parts and took care to cover all the tape and endings.

From the front.

And here is the back. You could make it equally petty on both sides, but I didn’t think that necessary. I’ll either hang it up on the wall or put it in the bookcase. And hope no-one picks it up…

The wrapping isn’t perfect, but I don’t mind handmade things to look handmade.

It worked better than I thought and I’m very happy with it!

Painted Clay Flower Pots

I had these basic terracotta clay pots for flowers. I’m not really into orange so I decided to paint them.

I spray painted the insides bright neon pink and painted the outsides with the same grey paint I used in the kitchen.

I think it looks pretty nice. Muted with a pop of colour.

I’ve used them for a while now, hence the muddy plates.

A very fast and easy project.

Christmas Tree of the Crazy Amigurumi Lady

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Star Wreath

Do you want to see something that looks nice in reality and really depressing in pictures?

Might just be my pictures. The daylight is non-existent at the moment.
Everyone in our building has an elaborate Christmas wreath on their door (I think most people here are retired) and I felt left out and wanted something, too. Frilliness isn’t really my style and I just wasn’t warming up to most wreaths I’d seen, until I came across this one.

So pretty! Mine isn’t that pretty.
It was really easy to do, though. I just took some wire and pushed paper mache balls through it (they didn’t have holes, so I really did have to push) and then twisted it into a star shape. Then, I twisted the ends into loops to hang it from. Now that I’m looking at that picture, I'm starting to think it might need something on the top to hide those loops. A pink knitted bow maybe. I feel frilliness approaching.
It was night and when I went to hang it, I discovered the door didn’t have a nail for it. I could have sworn it did. Someone stole our nail!Craziness aside, I then tried to nail it there as quietly as possible as not wake all the old people up.
There.
And it does look prettier in person.

New Way to Use an Old Thing

I bought this from the thrift store ages ago, for maybe 4 euros. I thought it was really fun thing to store fruits and vegetables in the fridge, but my boyfriend thought it was butt ugly.

Well, a friend of ours bought a board game called Arkham Horror, and the other night he came over with it so we could try it out. This game has gazillion different pieces. And it didn’t come with anything to organize them with. You know where this is going.

I just gave the dish a quick wash and dried it thoroughly and it was perfect. Every piece nice and neat and we didn’t loose a single one.

The game is awesome by the way, I highly recommend it. It does take a lot of room, our dining room table was barely enough to contain it all. In the above picture we haven’t even laid out the character info sheets and pieces yet. There are also several expansions for it. We might need a bigger table!