Little buggies

Last summer my aunt who works in a kindergarten asked me to make her two little bugs, a bumblebee and a beetle. She liked my Great Big Bugs, but she wanted something smaller to illustrate a song or something, so I started these two. I didn't have time to finish them completely before the summer was over, so I brought them back to my apartment to give them eyes and legs and then mail them back up to my aunt. 

Well, that didn't happen... The bugs managed to get lost on the bottom of one of my yarn stash boxes, and I forgot all about them. I found them again when I was packing up my yarn to go home this summer, so I brought them along to finish so I could finally give them to my aunt.

I did it, but only just! I sewed the legs on the last one late at night the day before I was leaving again... But they were finished, and my aunt is very pleased. Haven't heard anything about what the kids think about them yet.

I wrote down the instructions as I went, but I've discovered that I didn't take very good pictures, so I'll need to make them again if I'm going to publish the patterns. For the new ones I want to use safety eyes, but I don't have the right colors (in the right size), so I'm waiting for a shipment of eyes before I start remaking them. Hopefully they're here by the end of this week :) I'm thinking about making these little bugs in sets of three, and so far I have ideas for four sets. Either that, or I'll publish a gazillion of single bugs, with a discount if you buy more of them. What do you think, would you be interested in the patterns?

Great Big Bumblebee pattern & more

I managed to finish the patterns sooner than I thought (I e-mailed the documents to my aunt who converted them to PDF and sent them back to me), so I actually listed the Bumblebee pattern yesterday. And I've made a sale already, can you believe that? I almost don't :D You find my Etsy shop HERE.

Oh, I forgot to mention in the post yesterday that the body of the bumblebee is brushed to make it furry and fuzzy and cute like a real bumblebee :) The pattern is actually based on the Buff-tailed Bumblebee, which is the most common species in Europe.

I edited my old Kitty Princess pattern and relisted it.

Also, both patterns are now found in my new Ravelry store :) I decided to try it because selling patterns on Ravelry is a little cheaper than Etsy, since there's no listing fee...

One final thing... I really could use some help with this, both me and my boyfriend are stuck trying to come up with a name for this pattern set:

The pattern is as good as ready, I just need a name for the little creatures. Now, I feel like I can't call them critters, because that would make them too similar to CraftyAlien's very cute knitted & felted ones. Calling them Something-something Friends also seems a little used... They are fairly small, with a flat bottom that allows them to sit up straight, and fit perfectly in you hand:

I plan to make a lot more of these sets, and not only forest animals, so I need a general name for all of them, and then the individual sets will have more specific names added to that. *sigh* Hate it when I'm stuck like this...

Ooh, I just had an idea... If I get any suggestions (as comments to this post), the winning suggestion will win a free copy of this pattern! I have a few thoughts myself, but I'm still undecided, so you have a fair chance of your name suggestion being picked :D (If I come up with a name myself you can still get the pattern from one of my stores..)

A very big Bumblebee

I have finally managed to make another pattern for my Etsy shop! Yay :)

I've been working on this bumblebee for a good while now, and yesterday it was finally finished. It's huge, almost as big as Bollan!

The pattern is almost done, I just need to finish it up and convert the document to PDF (which I have to do at the university library because the online converters only screw things up). I've only had one other pattern in my shop since I opened in September last year, and the listing expires one of these days anyway, so I think I'll re-write it a little to make it more similar to my new one (I've changed my pattern writing style since I began posting free patterns on my blog, plus I found a typo that really bugs me). Fortunately nobody has bought it yet.. :p

This bumblebee is the first in a series of Great Big Bugs. I have an almost finished dragonfly and a ladybug well under way. The bumblebee pattern will be listed on Etsy tomorrow :)

Spring & other good things :)

Today I saw one of my favorite signs of spring: the bumblebee! Actually I saw two "bumbles" (yep, that's what I call them), different kinds and everything :) I didn't have my camera with me to photograph the little furry beasts, but here is a bumble that was sitting outside our window for hours last summer:

The poor thing was probably tired after nest-building and stuff, so we fed it a few drops of maple syrup. A few minutes later both the syrup and the bumble was gone :)

My mother called me earlier today and told me I've got a job for the summer, working in a  small shop at home. Yay :) And I hadn't even applied for it! I'll start in the beginning of June and will probably be working for a couple of months, so I won't be completely broke when school starts again in August. I am a little nervous, though, I haven't had a job like this before, I really don't like working with people. I hope there won't be too many customers... The good thing is that the store sells some yarn (the cheap kind I use for amigurumi), so I'll probably spend some on my pay on that :p

Finally, I got two new books in the mail today (and I'm waiting for a third) :)

Tasty Crochet by Rose Langlitz and Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson. I can't wait to try out some of the patterns in these books :) The flower book probably looks a lot like 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet, but it's really not. While all the flowers in 100 Flowers are supposed to be realistic, most of the flowers in Crochet Bouquet are elaborate fantasy flowers in lots of different colors and yarns, and embellished with buttons, beads and other cool things :) Tasty Crochet is full of cool amigurumi patterns for different kinds of food, arranged like a cookbook with breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Yum!

Guess what!

I have taken up bead weaving :D Heh... As if I really need another hobby! Actually I do, I have to try something new every now and then, when I get tired of whatever I'm doing. All my crafting interests come and go in cycles, and some things I try once and give up very quickly. Knitting, crocheting and beading are hobbies I think will stay interesting as long as I can make cute critters :)

Anyway, the other day I went out to pick up the package from my mother at the post office, and unfortunately for my wallet the craft store is in the same building.. So I went in an bought a loom, beading needles and some nylon string, and went home and got to work :) The loom is a pretty cheap wooden construction, but it works well enough, it's just a little small.

Sadly the craft store only had black and white string, but I've been experimenting with embroidery floss as warp threads, and that works, too. I stretches a little, so I have to tighten it a few times, but it doesn't break, and I have more colors to choose from :) For the weaving I use ordinary sewing thread. I worry that it will break with use, so I weave it through the work a few extra times to be sure.

First I tried a pattern from my new book, Lovable Beaded Creatures, for a keychain with a lizard motif. The choice of background color wasn't the best, so the lizard is pretty hard to see. Next I made another thing from this pattern, but I'm not sure what to do with it. It's a little big for a key chain. The patterns for the bracelets are my own, and I'll be adding them to my pattern blog when I've finished them and drawn up the charts :)

Together with my beads there was another thing in the package, a surprise from my mother. It's a door sign! Of course Bollan's name is put first, she rules us all :) The sign is hand painted by my mother, and the flowers are glued on. It's very pretty, Bollan is very pleased that it's going on our door so "everyone" can see where she lives :)