More cephalopod goodness.

Hello!

After seeing the squid I made for my friend's baby, one of my mother's co-workers asked me to make a cuttlefish for her son. I was happy to, because cuttlefish are my favourite cephalopod. I saw some dwarf cuttlefish at the Seattle Aquarium when I was there, and have loved them ever since. One of them was swimming and accidentally bumped into one who wasn't paying attention. Both of them were spooked and it was the cutest thing in the universe.

This one's mine.

When B asked me to take photos of it for the blog, this was the first thing that came to mind. I'm not sure why. I ate some particularly horrifying curry seafood udon in Vancouver  BC once. It had, like, quartered baby octopuses and tiny whole clams and stuff in it; I was thoroughly put off of non-fish seafood for life. I know people like that sort of thing, but I kept thinking about the tiny, cute, smart baby octopuses. I guess it's different when they're just strips of meat. Boy, that got dark quick.

On the plus side, the cuttlefish got to have a cup of coffee with Columbus. THEIR MUGS MATCH THEM. I was more pleased about that then I should probably admit. Weird striped cat mug and sea creature mug. Hah! Also, my table looks tremendously orange in this, for some reason. I didn't even manipulate the photo that much. So strange.

<3K.

Free Pattern Friday: Twinkie Chan and "Plinky’s Favorite Cotton Candy Christmas Tree Ornament!"

Hey guys!

This was meant for yesterday, but I totally forgot in my whirlwind of procrastination and studying.

(It's exam week, but my next exam isn't until Monday, which means I'm still in "It's not that close" mode.)

So. A new addition to our blogs features! Free pattern Friday! For this feature, on Fridays K or I will be featuring on cute free crochet patterns we've found randomly (maybe not every Friday. But with today as an exception, only Fridays!)

I actually did one of these a couple of weeks ago, but immediately after I made the blog post, the person whose pattern I posted a link to deleted there blog! Ah! I was super disappointed, because I really liked her. And, while she kept some of her other online media, her blog was the one with all the super cute crochet patterns!

Alas, I guess this happens and we just have to mourn the loss and carry on.

So this week, I wanted to feature a pattern from someone I am *fairly sure* won't be leaving ANY TIME SOON!

TWINKIE CHAN!

In case you don't know who she is (Who doesn't, amirite?), she is a cutie designer from the land of San Francisco. She makes a lot of food themed stuff, which I can definitely get behind! She is amazing at crocheting, and totally inspired me to actually try selling my crocheted thangs. And while I'm no where near as popular as her (nor have I sold very much yet) I still have hope…. Thanks to her!

She recently posted a free pattern for tiny cotton candy Christmas ornaments (here).

They are so darn cute and fluffy!

I am so excited to make some of these when I am done with exams! They can go on my tiny tree with my popcorn garland that I ALSO MADE FROM A PATTERN OF HERS! I bought it from here Etsy store (here

), but I don't see it there right now. (I also made K the carrot scarf from her book for Christmas last year).

I might have to shrink them a little to get them to fit, but it will happen! Oh yes!

We will post photos of our tree soon. I want to make more ornaments for it first!

Have fun crocheting!

B

K's Mundane Monday Post

I'm hopping on board with this Mundane Monday post, with the other feature things still upcoming.

I guess the idea is to write about my day. Today I mostly relaxed, since this past week has been so crazy. There was a craft show at the University I used to attend, so, through some friends, I got a position to work as a staff member there. Monday and Tuesday were spent cleaning the areas where the show was happening and preparing for the artisans to arrive.  They arrived on Wednesday, and we spent much of the day moving all of their stuff in. The show ran from Thursday until Sunday, when we had to undo three days of work (Monday to Wednesday) in one.

Overall, it was really fun. Definitely lots of work, especially moving the artisans in and out. During the show the staff just sort of walk around and make sure everything's going fine, and watch the artisans' booths when they need to take a pee/coffee break or whatever. The artisans were mostly all nice, with a few people I liked less, but that's life. I made a few artisan friends, and got some free stuff from them as a reward for working hard and being great.

Free stuff acquired:
- handmade shave soap
- gourmet cucumber vinegar
- beeswax lip balm
- creamed honey
- a piece of turned wood

Something that happened today: mum sent me this photo of the squid I crocheted a while back. Apparently the kid I made it for likes it a bunch, and her mum likes it as well. That's a great thing to see. I like when my work is appreciated.

Uh, I guess that's it for now.

<3K.

Mundane Monday

Hi bloggy world,

This is a new feature we wanted to try out. Mundane Mondays! It probably won't happen every Monday, or even most Mondays, but it's there whenever we feel like talking about our silly little lives.

I haven't really had much time to crochet anything lately. I'm super busy with uni, and slacked off more than I should have at the beginning of the year (and am now feeling it!). I've actually been posting only summer things recently.

It's a bit overwhelming being this busy!

And I'm currently very frustrated. I'm trying to print out notes to study for a midterm tomorrow, and my printer has decided to be totally confusing and disorderly! Bad printer! I'm so frustrated I want to cry, but alas. I shall just read my notes on my laptop and be sad! 

That's all I really want to say about me. 

I don't really have anything to say for Kevin. He's living his happy little uncommitted life right now, between finishing his undergrad and doing his masters.

Here's a picture of Luna's fuzzy tummy. It's a bit blurry, but it just makes her look fuzzier..... Right?

Maybe if I look at this long enough, I'll suddenly be happier.

Or maybe I should just sleep it off. It's near bedtime anyways!

Look forward to more new blog features, like Free Pattern Fridays, and... something else on Wednesdays that I can't remember the quirky name we came up with for it.

<3B

The Halloween Post

Greetings, fellow humans!

Halloween has come and gone, tragically. I absolutely love Halloween, and have gone out door-to-door for every single year that I've been able. Sure, there were a few years in there where I was "too old," but now I have an excuse! A damn good excuse. Trick Or Eat is a program where people who sign up go door to door on Halloween to collect food for the food bank. The team I was a part of this year had about twenty people, despite the cold and rain pitched usward by that rascally hurricane, Sandy. I wore this kappa kigurumi, and B wore this angry tiger kigurumi, which we ordered from Fab.com sometime last summer. They were very warm and comfortable, which was nice because it was rather cold.

We also carved jack-o-lanterns, made Halloween garland, and baked Halloween sugar cookies!

Below are my Finn and Jake pumpkins. The Jake one rolled off the table and broke when I was carving it, so I held it together with toothpicks. He kind of looks like Pinhead. I was pleased with them overall, though a bit disappointed that I let the Jake one break.

The cute toothy pumpkins were B's idea (B here; I definitely stole this idea from Pinterest). She got small pumpkins from a friend, bought those crappy plastic vampire fangs, and put them in the pumpkin. I think they look awesome. They've got a lot of personality, and  were surprisingly easy to do. They turned out a lot better than my Finn and Jake pumpkins, sadly.

The winky one is one of my favourites.

This is my other favourite. It's saying hello.

I made this crying one. I even carved out little tears under the eyes. Originally the eyes were really uneven in their height, so I just made them bigger. Problem solved.

The bat garland was made from bats cut from craft foam, with black string threaded through it. This project was definitely B's baby, but I think it's really nice. Very minimalistic, festive, and easy to do. Overall, everything I look for in holiday decorations.

Here are the cookies I made! They're my mum's recipe. The white and pink icing turned out a bit runny, but the purple and green icing worked out really well. It gets hard when it sits for a bit, so it's good for this sort of thing. You can see the edge of the cookie and it's all very arty.

Today is also my birthday! B's very busy with school today, so we're going to celebrate when she has more time. I think we're going to make French onion soup. It's going to be delicious. I'm really excited. She gave me my gifts today, though, and they are perfect.

A small elephant-shaped cutting board, a cute bear face bowl, and seeds!

Not just any seeds, friends. Seeds of the Assam bhut jolokia and Congo Black habanero. The bhut jolokia is one of the hottest peppers on the planet, native to the Assam region of Indian. The seeds I have are the wildtype seeds, I believe. I'm looking forward to growing them in the spring! Chili peppers have the reputation of being hard to grow. I guess we'll see.

<3K.

Finished Snail!

Hi everyone!

This snail's been finished for a while, but I haven't put it up yet.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I know that snails' eyes are on their eye stalks, but I thought that would look kind of horrifying if I tried to do that here. I went with a less-accurate but cuter eyes-on-face approach that I think worked well.

EXCITING NEWS! B and I have decided to start posting things other than updates on the things we're making. I have an especially hard time thinking of things to post, and have, in the past, relied on my crafting as the primary reason for my posts. However, I don't think that's super interesting to many people. So, as an effort to mix it up a little and maybe reach an audience, we're going to start doing other things.

Look for not-exclusively-related-to-our-crochet-adventures posts in the future.

<3 K.

Mr. Bear

Oh, why hello there, little bear. I like your coveralls!

I made little Mr. Bear a while ago, but never got around to posting about him… (made him around the same time as Ocha the rabbit and Mr. Pepp, actually)

He's embarrassed about his little legs, so he hides them under his coveralls! Poor Mr. Bear!

Mr. Bear loves his little red buttons. (Just don't tell him they aren't real buttons!)

Oh no! He's naked!

I also gave my green tea bunny a name. Ocha! (It's a bit obvious, huh?)

Ocha is a sweet little bunny. Her favourite drink is green tea, and she loves drinking it with sweets on the side. She isn't interested in much more than sitting back and relaxing.

Mr. Bear and Ocha will be hitting our shop soon.

Until next time,

<3 B

Hello, bloggy!

It seems I have abandoned our non-existent followers again!

I have been so busy this summer. I thought I would have more time with only work keeping me busy, and not school + studying. I guess I was wrong?

Kevin and I also ran off to Seattle for the last two weeks of summer, before I started University again. We got back literally the day before I started classes!

I forgot to make a post before leaving (AKA I was laaazy), and didn't really have time to when I got back, what with uni starting and all. I'm also the secretary of a club on campus this year, so I'm EXTRA busy! I especially was during the first full week of school. Things are calming down, now, so I finally have time to take photos and make posts!

Here is a Green Tea Bunny I started embarrassingly long ago. I plan to put it up in the shop at some point, even though it's so cute, I really want to keep it!

The bow was seriously the hardest part. Making a bow so small, and then sewing it into a tight area with barely any thread because I failed at leaving a long enough tail.... It's no wonder I procrastinated finishing it for so long.... (´Ａ｀。)

I hope you think she's cute!

That's all for now. There are a couple other items I have finished, but I want to spread out my post material since I have so little of it right now....



<3B

Work In Progress - SNAIL

Hello!

I'm working on a snail. B showed me how to make spirals from this pattern of Twinkie-chan's. I didn't do it quite like how Twinkie-chan does it, however that's where I got the spiral idea. It's very much a work in progress, but I'm very overdue for an update. So!

This is the shell of my snail.  I am really pleased with it, but the whole two colours, each with their own loop thing to crochet with took a bit to get the hang of.

This slightly blurry photo shows the spiral better. The light colour is Waverly's "Antique," it's a sort of dusty rose colour that I really love but have never had the occasion to use. The dark brown is, I believe, another Bernat yarn. The sleeve came off of it ages ago, however, so I have no idea. Bernat makes yarn that I really enjoy working with, but it can be a bit expensive.

This is the colour that I'll be doing the body in. It's Vanna's Choice in Beige. I really like working with Vanna's Choice, even though it makes me feel a bit strange using a yarn endorsed by Vanna White. It's nice and thick, and the colours are really nice.

Here are my three colours together. Aren't they pretty?

I'll be sure to post photos as soon as the snail's done. Hold tight, my adoring public.

-K.

CHUBBY ANIMAL PARTY

Greetings, fellow humans!

Emboldened by my pattern-free squid creation, I have made two (but similar) chubby animals without a pattern! They are based, in part, on animals that B's made in the past, so I can't take all the credit. Also, she helped me with the faces, since I am still not-good at those.

HOWEVER!

LOOK AT THIS ADORABLE THING. I am occasionally very happy with how things turn out. Now is one of those times. His mouth was originally a little (very) crooked, so now he has a permanent frown. Also, I liked the way the squid tentacles turned out unstuffed, so his arms and legs are unstuffed. B made fun of it, saying his arms were like fettuccine, but I still like it. He is doing the wave in this picture.

"HELLO I AM ON SOME WOOD."

Anyway, I also made a bunny that I am also pleased with. Their bodies are both fairly pear-shaped, which I really like, but it makes their necks a bit floppy. Maybe I'll make the neck a bit bigger next time.

I'm not really sure what to say here. Here is a bunny near an acorn squash plant. I stuffed her arms and legs at B's suggestion/mockery, and they are slightly shorter than the bear's. Other than that, the patterns are (fairly) identical. I am pleased with this bunny as well.

BEST MUSHROOM FRIENDS.

-K.

 

It's about time for another post. (Featuring Hine)

I've been meaning to do two blog posts recently; One of all the random things I've been making for myself, and one for my current secret project.

For the random things, however, I have to actually take photos of them.... I've been super busy lately, so that just hasn't been happening.

For the secret project, I wanted to work on it a bit more before blogging about it. But again! I've been so busy doing other things, I haven't had time to work on that project.

I will get around to both of those posts eventually. But for now, I just want to talk about some random things.

Last weekend was K's mum's birthday, so we were gone all weekend. I crocheted her a violet flower brooch for part of her present from a DROPS pattern. I suffered from K-syndrome, however, and forgot to take any photos of it, so I will have to post photos of it later. I made it purple, and put a yellow felt backing on it for the pin to attach to. I also sewed one small pearl in the middle, where all the petals meet. I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out, and might have to make one for myself! (Though, I don't really want to sell them. I like presents for people being one-of-a-kinds)

Lately, I've been enamoured with Hine's photostream on Flickr. Her needle felting is just.. amazing! And she is amazingly creative.. The things she makes are just SO CUTE.  I've never needle felted, myself, but I've always wanted to. It's a bit intimidating because of the skill you need. But Hine gets all of her felt so smooth and beautiful looking! She's definitely very inspiring. My favourite felt creation of hers so far is her ectoplasm.

She is also a little bit obsessed with squids. I can get behind that! They are so cute! Maybe K's squid can be friends with her little felt ones?

She also sews things, like camera and cell phone cases. The best part is, she makes them look like different cameras and phones. If I had the money, I would definitely buy one! (They're a bit expensive, but definitely worth is for something so cute and meticulously hand sewn).

That's all for now. More random things to come!

-B

The Etsy is brimming!

We finally updated our Etsy! No more emptiness and tumbleweeds.

We have also added Etsy-mini to our sidebar so you can get to the shop easier! AdBlock blocks it, so if it's not showing up for you, that may be why. Still, you can get to our shop through the Cutieshack profile.

We've added lots to the shop, more than ever before! Zoidberg, baby cthulu, and much much more, including this little guy inspired by Takochu and Berrysprite!

Berrysprite has a very cute free pattern and tutorial for making little takochu. While my pattern is definitely very inspired by hers, I tried to come up with my own, with my own unique "tentacles" that allow me to fit all 8 in while keeping it cute and small! I can't seem to get their mouths as cute as her takochu mouths are, but maybe it's better that there are differences?

Everyone should check out Berrysprite's blog! It's very cute, and she is a super talented and inspiring person!

And while you're clicking links, why not hop over to the shop for a little look? :D

-B.

B's Grypcon wrap-up.... 4 months late

So.... Gryphcon was quite a while ago...
But I would still like to make a wrap up post, because it was fun and I have photos!
It was just a two-day thing. Things I made didn't really sell much, but K's things sold a whole lot. I think he was pretty happy; it was a big turn around from Con-G 2011, our first time selling anything anywhere.
The things I did manage to sell were a takochu keychain, a brain slug (whose pattern I made up right there, on the spot, at Gryphcon! I forgot to take a photo of mine, but you can see a photo of one that K made from my pattern in his wrap-up), and a commissioned black bunny (that I also forgot to take photos of!).

I forgot to take a photo of my first takochu, so the photo I have is from after I sold him.
I made another takochu afterwards, and he will be up for sale tomorrow in the shop, along with other things I made for gryphcon, like.... a baby cthulu!...
a chubby Zoidberg and a tiger!... and K's mushrooms! We will put old stuff in the shop as well. Maybe with some shiny new photos? Look forward to it! Here's a photo of our last-minute sort-of-ghetto table setup before I go: Bye for now! Check the shop tomorrow for cute things you can exchange currency for! Or check out our Flickr for more photos from Gryphcon!

-B


P.S. Here's a peek at a side-project of mine... Can you guess what it is?

Long time no see!

Hello! This update has been a long time coming, but alas, I have been super busy. I've actually been working on the redesign of the blog since around March, but I just kept being too busy to finish it; final exams, starting my summer job, moving into a new house... But! It's finished now! And I am so happy with the frustration-fuelled results! I haven't updated in ages because of the redesign. I wanted it done before I put anything up in the shop or updated the blog. But because that took me forever, it's been a looong time since I last updated, and the Etsy shop is very, very empty. While I'm keeping this update short, I have many things in my pocket to blog about. For now, my next update will be my account of Gryphcon, since K already gave his. After that, I will tell you guys about my current secret project.... I hope you're looking forward to it all :D For now, here's a sneak peek at my gryphcon photos:

I've uploaded the rest of them onto Flickr if you feel like looking at them before I update again. That's all for now! -B (I wanted to match K :D )

SQUID! - My first pattern-free creation.

Hi folks!

I know it's been a while. I don't really have an excuse. I have, however, spent the last little while working on a gift for a friend of mine. She's having a baby, so I wanted to crochet it something cute. Her baby shower was last Saturday, so I gave her the squid I made.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I may have attached the tentacles a bit irregularly, but I think it looks good. I also think that I under-stuffed the body. I guess the stuffing won't show through the yarn now. My friend really enjoyed it, as did the strangers at the baby shower. Someone approached me about making a cuttlefish. I'll be starting that after I finish my current one, a green bear. Expect photos.

<3K.

Late Gryphcon Wrap-Up

Hi folks!

We've been a bit busy recently with trying to find a house for the new year, and distracted by life in general, so this update comes a bit late.

Last weekend was Gryphcon, a local traditional gaming convention. There were board games and tabletop games (Pathfinder, D&D, etc.), as well as a place for the two of us to sell things along side other folks. There was only one other person selling handmade things; another represented a gaming shop, and someone else was there trying to promote their card game or something. All of them were nice. Gryphcon isn't really a place where people go with the intent to buy things (unless it's another game or book or something), but it was a good time. There were a lot of people happy that we were there. I spend the week or two leading up to it making a few things to sell there. Photo time!

This is a rainbow of Mario Bros. mushrooms that I made. The first is the normal one, followed by the Giant Mushroom, 1Up Mushroom, Mini Mushroom, and Poison Mushroom. My favourite is the angry eyebrows on the poison one.

These Creeper head charms were made at the same time that my larger Creeper was made. I have cell phone straps and keyrings that I attached so that people could put them on their phone/keys/etc. They turned out a but chubbier than I would have liked, but I still like them.

This brain slug and its smaller sibling (now sold) were made while we were sitting at the convention. They are loosely modelled after the ones from Futurama, which I love. I had purchased green yarn to make the 1Up mushrooms, and couldn't think of anything else to make with them. This was my idea, but Nekoyumi's pattern.

This frog was made with that same green yarn on the final day of the convention. I liked the charms that Nekoyumi had made, and wanted to make something small and cute too. I like its eyes a lot.

So that's the post-con wrap-up. Nekoyumi should be posting some pictures from it soon, since I didn't bring my camera. D: