January Reading Summary

I know this is a crafting blog, but I do want to categorize my reading summaries somewhere, and I feel like this is the best place to do it.

Besides, it's my blog. Sod off.

My New Years resolution this year has been to read 12 books in 12 months. My list is constantly evolving, and based on suggestions from fellow book worms and non-bookworm acquaintances alike.

I'm mixing a bit with read books and audiobooks, because I'm still in clinical rotations and I don't always have time to sit down and actually read every day (unless it's a textbook...)

Here's my progress so far, and my reviews for the month of January.

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 3/5
My husband really wanted me to read this series, and I happily obliged. However, it was not what I expected. I'm not sure how to explain without spoiling it, other than to say that the original story you start with isn't the story that's actually being told. About 30 pages in, you start getting background story for the main character, which apparently takes up the rest of the TRILOGY of books.
Don't tease me with a story and then take it away.

Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn (audiobook)
My rating: 5/5
Holy shit, I love this author. She's dark and twisted, but her stories are riveting. This one is probably my favorite of the 3, so far. READ THIS BOOK.

Unintended Consequences - Stuart Woods (audiobook)
My rating: 3/5
Meh. I listened to it on a 10 hour drive. It's not bad, but it's just...okay.

Cresent Dawn - Clive Cussler
Again, I listened to this on a log car ride - and I have no idea what it was about, really. Maybe a sunken ship and some stolen treasure? I think it took place in Turkey.

Let's hope I can stay on pace for February. :)

Reddit Secret Santa - 2014 - Jacksonville Jaguar

I decided to participate in the (in)famous reddit secret santa fest this year. My plan was to figure out the interests of my giftee and make him/her something unique.

After a bit of reddit stalking, I found out that my secret santa giftee was a Jacksonville Jaguar's fan. Living in Florida, I felt like making a jaguar in Jacksonville colors would be perfect.

...then I realized there was no such thing as a jaguar pattern.

So, I set out on an epic quest to make my own jaguar pattern. I played around with changing yarn colors every little bit to try to make spots, and that was taking WAY too long. So, then I decided I would just sew them on later, but the pattern base that I chose (a teddy bear body of some sorts) just wasn't working out.

I ended up making a 7 increase round head/body hybrid and just played with the limb proportions until it looked right. I took a couple of different "ear" patterns from various cat patterns and played with them until I got the ear look that I liked.

Then...the spots. The stupid spots.

I took the teal accent color of the Jacksonsville Jags and finally decided that instead of crocheting individual spots and sewing them on, it would be faster to just stitch on spots and make due. I ended up really liking the variability and the added texture.

For the eyes, I wanted them to look somewhat slanted and cat like, so I took the idea from a cat eye pattern I found on google, but didn't like - so I modified the design they had for just the pupils and laid them sideways and decided I liked that best of all.

Then a friend of mine suggested a football. And I had to make one to scale. So I played around with some different shapes and come up with the football you see here.

In short, this is a hodgepodge of patterns that I wasn't happy with, and ultimately some mutant frankenstein pattern of my own creation.

And I love it.

My husband wants me to make some little cats for the kids on his side of the family. As I work those up, I will write out my own pattern and post it here.

For now - let me know what you think of this little guy.

Journey through my first crochet-a-long

All of this, for an adorkable little penguin. :)

Introduction
Several weeks ago now, I stumbled upon the beginning of an amigurumi crochet-a-long on allfreecrochet.com. I have always wanted to do one, but never caught one at the right time, so I figured now that I have a little bit more time on my hands, I could try it.

Link to the original crochet-a-long

Week 1 

The first week I missed, but it was just buying yarn - so the second week I went out and bought all the yarn (bizarre color choices, in my opinion) and started working the initial pattern.

Week 2  - "main part of the pattern"

Body with eyes attached

Not bad. Obviously a head and body. The pattern called for safety eyes, but I hate safety eyes. I typically crochet my own eyes using thread and then attach them. Because I was lazy, these are attached with hot-glue. 

Week 3  - "accent piece"

Add caption

I initially thought that this was going to be a cape or a bib or some sort.

Accent piece

Accent piece and body

Again, nothing difficult with this part of the pattern. I was finding it a bit frustrating that I couldn't go on an assemble the parts together at this point.

Week 4 - "limbs"

This week messed me up. I kept misreading the pattern and I kept skipping rounds. It was extremely frustrating, but it was me, not the pattern itself.

The "limbs"

Everything so far

Still annoyed that I can't put it together yet. Also, the limbs look like penises.

Week 5 - "accessories"

This was the week where I was like "ok, I give up. I have no idea what I am making." Before this week I was thinking some sort of seal or something. 

Hat and scarf

My best guess for assembly. (Hint: I was wrong)

The scarf was quick and easy. The hat wasn't so bad, but I don't like the tassels. They don't stand up correctly so they just look...off.

Week 6 - "final pieces and assembly"

ASSEMBLY! FINALLY! I CAN STOP KEEPING ALL OF THIS CRAP IN A PLASTIC BAG. 

After assembling it, there was literally no reason I couldn't have started assembling and attaching weeks ago. I was so afraid I was going to lose parts and have to start over.

However, this reveal was kind of worth it. I actually like how it turned out. I just wish I had used maybe blue instead of pink and red. 

Penguin!!!

Thoughts/Review

I actually really like this little guy, except for the hat. I attached most of the parts with hot glue to tack in in place, mostly because I am horrific at sewing things on straight, and I ran out of time and patience. 

I think if I replaced the pink with a baby blue and the red with a darker blue, I would like him much better - but I'm not a big fan of pink anyway. However, I suppose he would look a little less "holiday" with that color scheme, which is what they were going for, I think.

So now I'm searching for my next mystery crochet-a-long. :)

Enterovirus D68

During my pediatrics rotation, Enterovirus D68 (the new, slightly terrifying pediatric respiratory/neurological virus) made landfall in Florida. I was able to see one patient with this virus in my tenure in the ER, and my preceptor was amazing enough to let me follow the case. This inspired me to make a crochet plushie of it for him as a "Thank You" gift for being an awesome preceptor.

Please use as you wish, but do please credit me for the pattern.

Pattern:

I used a size E (3.25mm) hook and just some scrap yarn that I had lying around. Color doesn't matter, as it's not like we actually know what the virus really looks like anyway. Blue is my preceptor's favorite color so I used blue. This pattern is worked in the round.

Stitches/Abbreviations

Magic Ring (use google for some awesome tutorials)

Single crochet (sc)

chain (ch)

increase (inc) - 2 sc in same stitch
decrease (dec) - Use this tutorial, if you are unsure
Slip Stitch (sl st)

Body

6 sc in magic ring

Round 1: 2 sc in each stitch around

Round 2: (1 sc, inc in next stitch) around

Round 3: (1 sc, 1 sc, inc in next stitch) around

Round 4: (sc, sc, sc, inc) around

Round 5: (sc, sc, sc, sc, inc) around

Round 6-9: sc around

Round 10: (sc, sc, sc, sc, dec.) around

Round 11: (sc, sc, sc, dec) around

Begin stuffing and continue to stuff and shape to your desire as you go

Round 12: (sc, sc, dec) around

Round 13: (sc, dec) around

Round 14: dec around

Finish off, leave a long tail, weave around and use to close this opening. 

Receptor Flags

I made 16 of these, but you could probably get by with as few as 12 or as many as you'd like.

Chain 5

sc in first ch from hook, chain 2, sc in 2nd chain from hook

go back to the main chain, and slip stitch through the remaining 3 chains. Tie off.

Attaching 

I honestly just tied the flags on sporadically, making sure they were evenly spaced. 

 

More pictures of the finished product!

 

Luigi - (Original Pattern by WolfDreamer)

Finally! My latest amigurumi project complete.

My goal is to make a Luigi and Daisy for my dear friends Alex and Kait who were recently married.  I wanted to make them as "kissing dolls" - you know, where they have magnets and they stick together?

I've made Luigi first because I found this lovely pattern for him. (Original Pattern Here) Let me say that I love this girl's patterns. She has some of the best designs out there, and best of all - they are FREE! I'm a huge fan. You should go browse her blog. Just...finish this first. ;)

I have been unsuccessful in finding a Daisy pattern, so I figured I would make Luigi first and them modify the pattern and attempt to make a Daisy. We'll see how that goes.

If you follow the link above to the original pattern, I'm going to post photos of the parts and the assembly, and my general experience with the pattern.

SETUP - yarn, hook, modifications
I used a G hook, and mostly Red Heart worsted weight yarn. My white was actually a baby yarn of worsted weight and my peach is Country Peach by Simply Soft (by far, the best skin tone  I have found.) I used a brighter green and a brighter blue than the original pattern used, but I like the overall product.

For the magnets, I'm using magnet dots that I picked up from the craft section at Wal*Mart. They seemed strong enough to penetrate felt at the store, so we will see how they do in the dolls.

HEAD
First component is, of course, the head (using my peach). Pretty straight forward. My only modification to this pattern was to use the invisible decrease stitch instead of the normal decrease. (Basically, it's a decrease single crochet using the outside loops only.)

As someone said - it sorta looks like an onion...oh well.

When stuffed firmly, I feel like this head is to round for Luigi, so I unstuffed it a bit. As I ended up doing with most of the parts. Firmly stuffed would have been great for Mario, but since Luigi is a bit gangly I found firmly stuffed parts made him a bit fat. Of course, that may be my definition of firmly stuffed, or a difference in stuffing.

NOSE AND EARS

Second and third and  the nose and ears. Again I used the invisible decrease and saw less "puckering" than with a standard decrease. The ears took a little bit of shaping, but I like the final product. You'll notice here and throughout that I use extremely long tails. I prefer to sew things together with yarn instead of thread, thus I keep the tails long to use to attach the pieces together in the end.

Nose. 

Ears.

MUSTACHE
Next is the mustache. Adorable!

Mustache - not cinched in the middle yet.

Mustache with nose. For the effect, ya know. ;)

BODY

Next, the body. Again, I overstuffed at first. It looks odd without the head or the arms, but I have faith in the pattern.

Body standing up

Body laying down.

ARMS/HANDS

Next are the hands and arms. I chose to try the thumbs. I like the way they turned out. I think if I had used normal acrylic yarn instead of baby yarn for the white, the thumbs would have more definition. But, I still prefer the version with thumbs than without. 

I decided here that I wanted to make the hands be able to be held between Daisy and Luigi. The "hands" of each arm have magnets in them.  It was here when I realized the magnets didn't work. =(

The arms side by side.

Another view of the arms.

SUSPENDERS
Next is the suspenders. Super cute and super easy.

Suspenders for the overalls.

LEGS/SHOES

Next come the legs and the shoes. These can get really round if you let them. I suggest lightly stuffing them. I used a lighter brown than the pattern used, but I like it overall.

Legs with shoes attached.

HAT

Next came the hat, which is by far my favorite part of this pattern. When I started it, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but it's perfect. I love it. 

I cocked the brim a little bit for the picture. I'm not really sure why. It's very  easily molded, and I like that for this pattern.

LOGO

Now here's the hat logo. I did this differently than the pattern suggested, because I cannot begin to describe to you how much I detest working with felt. For this, I crocheted the white part as instructed, then took my green yarn and double it up and "embroidered" the "L" onto the logo. This ensures the  green matches the uniform and it gets rid of my felt issue.

Logo - I love it!

SIDEBURNS AND HAIR

The pattern instructed to use brown for the sideburns. But this bothered me because the mustache is black. Since my brown was much lighter than the original pattern, I used black for both of these. If you use a dark brown, this probably wouldn't matter quite so much.

Sideburns. So little!

The hair automatically turns itself into a semi-circle. This will come in handy with assembly!

EYES

Here's where we get to my biggest modification. Because, again, I hate hate hate felt.

For this, I used a size 5 hook (itty bitty) and embroidery floss. Black, dark blue, and white. 

Row1: 8 sc in magic ring -  change colors to blue

Row2: 2 sc in each sc, change colors to white

Row3: 2 sc in each sc, join 

This gives a perfect circle, but you can elongate it out to an oval. I also put a fleck of white in the pupil.

This picture sorta sucks, but it's all I have at the moment. You'll see them again with the finished product.

ASSEMBLY 

First, I pinned everything together. This lets me get a general idea of placement. 

This is pinned together and shows everything but the eyes. I think its cute!

Another view from the side.

First, I attached the head to the body by sewing together using the tail from the head. Then I attached the hat. I had to double sew around the neck, then push some stuffing into the neck area. This makes the body a little thinner and helps support the neck and keep his head from lolling so much.

Next came the hat, then the hair.

Then the nose and mustache.

Then the eyes, ears, and sideburns.

Then I attached the arms, right at the neck to hide some of the unsightly stitches between the green and the peach.

Then the suspenders, which I sewed on in the front and back (the criss-cross in the back.)  To keep  them secured in place, I attached them with a little embroidery floss on the shoulders. I found small, yellow buttons and sewed them on the front with white embroidery floss as well.

Last but not least, I attached the legs.

And this is the final product!

He's not a fan of standing up straight unless he's propped up, thus the odd leg positioning.

Finished product with better lighting and better positioning.

Back of Luigi!

FINAL THOUGHTS

When I do my Daisy, I already know of some modifications I plan on making. Some of the attachments were more difficult than I thought they should be, and based on some other patterns I have worked, I think I can combine some techniques and make a smoother product. I think part of it is based on my own technique. I'm not great at sewing things together without leaving seams. I will also probably use a lightly smaller hook as the "g" leaves pretty good sized gaps for me. (See his butt...) 

Overall, this was a fantastic pattern and lots of fun to make! However, I would recommend it if you are a complete beginner.