Harvey the alien monster

I made Harvey for my friend Brianne, I’m not as happy as I thought I would be cause I didn’t have any safety eyes so I had to make pupils with black yarn and I’m not sure about them. Also my sewing and embroidery skills are awful 🙂
Anyway, I thought I’d write the pattern out cause he was fun to make and would be a nice softie pressie.

Skills you need to know are: magic ring or similar, working in the round, increases and decreases.
It’s all worked in a continuous spiral so you will need to know how to do that.
I worked all in the back loop cause I’ve been experimenting with that technique as it does give a much softer fabric than working under both loops. (I’ve become a big fan of Stacy’s work at freshstitches.com)

Abbreviations: sc (single crochet), st (stitch) decr (decrease).

Materials: locking stitch marker, 3.5 mm and 4.5 mm hooks, tapestry needle, safety eyes or black yarn for mouth and pupils, white felt for teeth (obviously that’s optional), some fabric glue or just sewing thread to attach the teeth, stuffing.

For the main body and the eyes I used roughly 60/70 grams of aran weight yarn worked with a 4.5 mm hook, and for the legs I used different colour DK yarn with a 3.5 mm hook.

I haven’t specified the colours for the legs cause anyone can use any colourful DK yarn they want.

Legs
Large legs, make 2:
1 – magic ring with 6 sc (6 sc)
2 – 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
3 – 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, till end of round (18 sc)
4 – 1 sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st (24 sc)
5 – 1 sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st (30 sc)
6 – 1 sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st (36 sc)
rnds 7 to 10 – 1 sc in each st (36 sc)
11 – 1 sc in next 4 st, decr in next st (30 sc)
12 – 1 sc in next 3 st, decr in next st (24 sc)
13 – 1 sc in next 2 st, decr in next st (18 sc) – begin stuffing.
14 – 1 sc in next st, decr in next st (12 sc)
rnds 15 to 25 – 1 sc in each st. (12 sc) –
finish off, stuff the stem lightly, set aside.

Medium legs, make 2:
Follow until round 5 of large legs (30 sc)
rnds 6 to 9 – 1 sc in each st (30 sc)
10 – 1 sc in next 3 st, decr in next st (24 sc)
11 – 1 sc in next 2 st, decr in next st (18 sc) – begin stuffing.
12 – 1 sc in next st, decr in next st (12 sc)
rnds 13 to 23 – 1 sc in each st. (12 sc)
finish off, set aside.

Small legs, make 2:
Follow until round 4 of large legs. (24 sc)
rnds 5 to 8 – 1 sc in each st (24 sc)
9 – 1 sc in next 2 st, decr in next st (18 sc) – begin stuffing.
10 – 1 sc in next st, decr in next st (12 sc)
rnds 11 to 21 – 1 sc in each st. (12 sc)
finish off, set aside.

Eyes
Small eye, make 1:
1 – magic ring with 6 sc (6 sc)
2 – 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
3 – 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, till end of round (18 sc)
rnds 4 to 6 – 1 sc in each st (18 sc)
finish off, set aside.

Big eye, make 1:
1 – magic ring with 6 sc (6 sc)
2 – 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
3 – 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, till end of round (18 sc)
4 – 1 sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st (24 sc)
rnds 5 to 7 – 1 sc in each st (24 st)
finish off, set aside.

If you don’t have safety eyes, take some black yarn, do a magic ring with 4 sc and use it as pupil for small eye. Do another magic ring with 4 sc, then 2 sc in each st (8 sc) and use it as pupil for the big eye.

Body
1 – magic ring with 6 sc (6 sc)
2 – 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
3 – 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, till end of round (18 sc)
4 – 1 sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st (24 sc)
5 – 1 sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st (30 sc)
6 – 1 sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st (36 sc)
7 – 1 sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st (42 sc)
8 – 1 sc in next 6 st, 2 sc in next st (48 sc)
9 – 1 sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st (60 sc)
rnds 10 to 19 – 1 sc in each st (60 sc)
20 – 1 sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st (72 sc)
21 – 1 sc in next 4 st, 2 sc in next st (84 sc)
23 – 1 sc in next 10 st, 2 sc in next st (90 sc)
rnds 24 to 30 – 1 sc in each st (90 sc)

31 – 1 sc in next 13 st, decr. in next st (84 sc)
32 – 1 sc in next 12 st, decr. in next st (78 sc)
33 – 1 sc in next 11 st, decr. in next st (72 sc)
34 – 1 sc in next 10 st, decr. in next st (66 sc)
35 – 1 sc in next 9 st, decr. in next st (60 sc)
36 – 1 sc in next 8 st, decr. in next st (54 sc) –
37 – 1 sc in next 7 st, decr. in next st (48 sc)
38 – 1 sc in next 6 st, decr. in next st (42 sc)
39 – 1 sc in each st (42 sc). Sew on the eyes, embroider the mouth, attach legs to previous row.
40 – 1 sc in next 5 st, decr. in next st (36 sc) – begin stuffing the body
41 – 1 sc in next 4 st, decr. in next st (30 sc)
42 – 1 sc in next 3 st, decr. in next st (24 sc) – add more stuffing as required
43 – 1 sc in next 2 st, decr. in next st (18 sc)
44 – 1 sc in next st, decr. in next st (12 sc)
45 – decrease all around – finish off.

That’s him done! 🙂 Please feel free to comment and let me know if you spot any mistake 😛

Cotton squares..

Oh laaawd I’m so in love with the cotton squares I’m making. They’re really summery and light and beautiful.
I’ve also made the Ups and downs slouchy beanie from Moogly, it’s a fantastic pattern. I got to practice so much new stuff like FPDC and BPDC, also hdc in the third loop which is brilliant cause it leaves a lovely texture on the fabric, like a knit stitch.
Only thing is it takes me about an hour/45 mins per square!!!!

In other news I saw a crazy ginger cat in the back field who was strolling there while George and amy were outside, thankfully they didn’t spot him so no drama was had…

There’s me and my new hat, which seems to turn me into Justin Bieber.

More African Flower Square…

I’m crazy about this pattern, I just picked up the cheap DK from the stash, and look how amazing this pattern looks.
Now my skills ain’t great at all, but it just looks so harmonic.
Also I had a friend over for NYE who got me CHUNKY YARN so I’m trying a blanket to keep me warm, cause the wind is howling like mad. I do love me a good windy night with the house squeaking and squawking!

2015 mood blanket

I’m going for an African flower square, tutorial and pattern by Made in K-town. I ordered some Red Heart Miami cotton on loveknitting.com, here’s to hoping it’ll arrive today!
I did a little trial square this morning in bed with the cheap acrylic I have in my stash! I just love this pattern.

H. pylori everyone!

Good news everyone! Stomach ulcer never looked so cute, I tell ya!
As you can tell, I’m on a bit of a roll here with bacteria 😀 and rightly so, they’re my favourite living organisms, beside dogs of course 😛

I’m trying to design a bacteriophage T4 because it has an awesome shape, it looks like an alien. Also HIV is pretty weird-looking, so that’s a good candidate and don’t get me started on Candida albicans (candidate, candida… ah ah 😀 )

I’m working on designing a cow for my neighbour’s child who loves cows, so much fun! The only thing is trying to work on white yarn while trying to keep the stove running (with coal and timber) and not get dirt all over my yarn…. #crochetproblems 😀

Anyway, enough procrastination, better get to work!!

And well, yes, you can find H. pylori and E. coli on sale on my Etsy shop!

Also

E. coli anyone?

So I went and crocheted me some E. coli!! I must obviously thank Giant Microbes for the inspiration, the pattern is my own.

Life is OK, my mum has gone back to Italy today, so we’ve got lots of room on the couch for broken limbs and comatose dogs….  But we miss her very much because she spoils *us* (me and the dogs) a lot!

Adipose!!

I was a bit meh yesterday so I wanted something easy to crochet… And after watching Dr. Who episode Partners in Crime, I got some white DK and picked up the pattern from Ravelry .
Hands and feet are a bit tricky but great practice!

Barn Owl Amigurumi

Merry Christmas!!!

I’ve just given this as a present to a lovely girl I know… I really hope she likes it! It’s an owl crochet bag and I got the pattern on Etsy, it’s a-maaaazing and Zoom Yummy is a really talented designer, I just drool looking at her stuff.

Also, I knew spending all those hours on Pininterest would prove itself a good idea, because I just found the coolest amigurumi owl EVER!! I can’t wait to finish my Christmas presents (the shame!) and start it.

Also, if you’re a more experienced crocheter, you might want to go for this amazing owl pattern, it’s saved in my favourites already! I’m sort of aware that owl are over-used in most crafts cause they’re relatively easy to make and they’re damn cute!! So I guess I’m a real basic bitch in that 😀

Hope everyone had a lovely day filled with family, friends and food 🙂

Francesca