Easter/ Spring Crochet Along!

Planet June has a new Easter/ Spring Crochet-Along and Contest.  Click on the button to the left for details.  Yay!  I've already started on the eggs!  I think I'll work on the Easter Pocket-Ami next!  (And I'm so glad that this picture loaded on to the blog.  I'm using my "new" hand-me-down laptop.)

My ami-eggs!

Great Big Bag of Fiberfill!

Got this at JoAnn's.  10 lb. box of fiberfill!  When I opened the box, it started to "grow" and expand outside the box.  I think it's going to take over the whole house!  Arrrgh!

Experimenting with a light box

I haven't been satisfied with the pictures of my amis for my etsy shop so I asked June Gilbank of PlanetJune.com for advice. She sent me a link to her craft blog on the topic of taking better pictures. There were several links to different sources of light boxes. I decided to go with making my own. The instructions are here. I used a small cardboard box, water color paper, and a cut up white shirt. I bought the work lamp and daylight bulb at the hardware store. I like the results. I just need to build a bigger box! 8"X8" is way to small! And I need to get another lamp and bulb, and some big sheets of bristol paper.

The way I have been taking pictures- on a towel near a window.





Hamster in the light box!  No shadows!  He is a bit cramped in there. You can see the inside edges of the box.




Love birds (without their beaks yet!) in the light box!




Piggy is so cramped!  No room! But I like the lighting.



Hamster next to the light box.

Credits:  I used Hamster and Farmyard Pig patterns by June Gilbank.  The Lovebirds pattern is by Lisa Vanvikaas and is free! http://makelittlethings.blogspot.com/2011/02/nesting-love-birds.html

Photography Class?



Ooo!  Is that a shadow he sees?



Happy Groundhog Day!

I'm thinking of signing up for a photography class or getting some kind of help.  I need to take better pictures of my amigurumi!  Maybe it is just because I have a cheap camera, bad lighting, or both.  I'm spending way too much time on picnic (piknic?) on flickr trying to make my pictures look good!  Well, happy (almost) Groundhog Day!

Judy's Ami Shop on Etsy!

I have opened an Etsy shop!  I plan to sell finished items and patterns.  For now, I am making items for sale from patterns that the designers have given permission to sell the finished items online.  June Gilbank is one of those designers that allows people to sell their finished objects.  And of course, I will always give credit to the designer and the source where people can find the original pattern. :-)  Eventually, I'll also be selling my original patterns and finished objects from those patterns. The first item I have posted is a cute Girl Doll made using June's pattern "Girl Doll" from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amigurumi.

My user name on etsy is  jukatca1

Come and see my shop.  I'll be adding more amis soon!

My Great Big Scorpion :-) and some major Ugh.

Which one would you rather find in your sleeping bag? :/ This is the color scheme I based my scorpion on.

Deathstalker scorpion-real



Deathstalker scorpion- plush

Next project- tweak my pattern for the Naked Mole Rat and get it written up.  I really want to work on making an amigurumi blue jay too.  They are loud, obnoxious, and beautiful.  I love those qualities- in a bird!

I Won! And some Christmas Presents

I haven't posted yet that I won Planet June's Christmas Crochet-Along and Contest!  There were six patterns to choose from to do for the CAL: Christmas Baubles, Poinsettia, Christmas Pudding, Candy Canes, Christmas Pocket-Ami, and Christmas Trees.  I did the first five out of all six of the patterns-  "stuffing the ballot box" was okay with this contest- as long as each project was from a different pattern. For more info see christmas-cal-roundup-part-1.

So I won a  $10 gift certificate to Planet June's shop and everyone who participated got a discount code for 11% off!  I went nuts shopping at her store and stocked up on patterns.  I definitely went over and beyond the gift certificate and discount.  I have 11 new patterns from Planet June to do- not to mention all of the other patterns I still have from other designers.  Wondering when I will crochet something other than amigurumi?  :-)

For Christmas, my boyfriend got me Star Wars mini amigurumi by Lucy Ravenscar and Yummi'Gurumi by Christen Haden (aka NeedleNoodles) and Mariarosa Sala.  Lots of ami-fun!  I've already done a storm trooper and C-3PO!