Okie Reads » Crochet

More Amigurumi, this time from Lion Brand

kitty pittman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:35:19 +0000

I just opened my Lion Brand newsletter and more amigurumi jumped out. Here’s the Lola cartoon.

Hopefully they won’t mind if I posted this, since I’m directing them to their website and the free Amigurumi patterns and their new book.

AMIGURUMI, Grim Reapers and Zombies

kitty pittman — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:54:08 +0000

I need some cute crafts in my life right now, so Amigurumi may just be the trick. Ok you ask what is Amigurumi? Straight from the wikipedia, it’s the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be either knitted or crocheted. In recent years crocheted amigurumi are more popular and more commonly seen.

Here’s a picture from the book Amigurumi World. (notice the word cute seems to follow these critters around).

I personally want to make some of the Creepy Cute Crocheted critters from the book of the same name. There are several people on my Christmas list that need to get the Death amigurumi (the Grim Reaper in crochet), in their stocking.

This is my therapy, whether I crochet something, knit something, sew something, it doesn’t matter if it is creepy, cute or just plain ugly.

I just found this ZOMBIE pattern for free from http://qdpatooties.blogspot.com/! I may have a theme going here.

Cold, outside and in, Best Afghan ever

kitty pittman — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:44:53 +0000

I haven’t been on lately, have a cold and suffering from cold medicine malaise. Since the wind is howling I began to think afghan, and my favorite book on the subject. Back in 1985, Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, put out the book, 7-Day Afghans. It is absolutely the best all around afghan book, (IMHO) that has ever been done. The afghans are reasonably doable (unlike many afghan books with instructions running 10 pages and yarn no one could afford or find).

As you can see by the cover the colors were 70′s and 80′s but the afghans work no matter what your color scheme. There’s knitted, crocheted and baby afghans. I’ve made Rippling Shells, in browns, blues, multi-colors, and out of the old dazzleaire, and every kind of worsted. I’m not a knit/crochet purist, I like to make afghans out of some regular worsted weight that can be thrown in the washer and dryer.

So then in 2004 Sterling re-published this classic, with updated colors and yarn suggestions. And I bought that one too. Even though most of the afghans are the same, this volume works because each afghan has it’s own color photo and in more contemporary colorways. The first volume put some color pictures in the middle and the individual pictures were black and white. This is much better.

Need to make an afghan, this is your book.