100 Bunnies

Hello. I've been away for a while.

The original intent of this blog was for me to document my "create something every day" program.

After a couple months it was obvious to me that I didn't need to blog to create every day. I was creating so much that I didn't have time to write in the blog!

Anyway, I've been crocheting a bunch of stuff.

I finished this really great crochet bunny that I made up myself. I gave it to Jackie Burley here at work because she'd given me a lot of help around understanding Agile.

Anyway she said that I should crochet a bunch of bunnies with all kinds of different yarns and variations and give them to CHOC.

This was the idea I'd been waiting for. I jumped on this and created a "mission statement."

And so it begins.

I have one complete bunny and two in process.

I'm going to do a bunny with every different kind of Chroma yarn I have (and I have a TON!).

Aren't they cute??? Just wait until you see more and more and more and more.

Day ??????? I don't know any more! - 5/5/15

I've been very sick for the last week.  I've been crocheting like mad to keep my mind occupied.  The first day I was so sick I couldn't even crochet.

I finished a brain slug:

The ruffle around the bottom was really tricky and my Susan Bates hooks were ripping the yarn up like crazy.

I've switched to clover super speed hooks.  They're amazing and they don't mess up the yarn at all.

I have a lot of stuff I'm working on which I'll get to but I just wanted to do a quick post.  I'm alive!

Day 28 - 4/23/15 - Almost done with the body

I completed the rounds for Jake's body.  I need to stuff and do the decrease stitches.  I'll post photos after I stuff the body.  It's still pretty much looking like it did a couple days ago.

Day 27 - 4/22/15 - Not a whole lot to give

Boy work beat me the heck down today.  I had nothing to give but I managed to bang out about 10 stitches - which is all I need to do for today.

Day 26 - 4/21/15 - more Jake

Just did a few rows on Jake today.

See you tomorrow.

Day 25 - 4/20/15 - Beginning Jake the Dog

I abandoned Totoro because the gray that I chose was too dark.  I'm going to have to buy some lighter gray so in the meantime I've decided to start my amigurumi Jake the Dog by Lucy Collin.

Birth Photo

Amigurumi Jake is going to be fun and I get to learn a new stitch - I got halfway through the body.

More tomorrow.

Day 24 - 4/19/15 - Baymax is Done! Gray Totoro is Begun!

Boy there's nothing like the feeling of completing a piece.  Especially when you are going to give it to someone.

I got to complete Baymax today.

Sewing on the fingers was surprisingly easy.  They ended up looking a lot better than I was expecting.  They're a simple 7 foundation chain, 6 single crochet, and fold in half.  I used the "front" tail to sew up the finger.

I decided to flatten the end of the arm and sew it together prior to attaching it to the body.  In looking at how the arm naturally laid on the body, I sort of tucked one end of the arm end under the other and sewed them so that the join to the body would be as flat as possible.  Baymax in the movie had a very smooth arm to neck join.

The legs were more uncooperative than the arms.  I first attached a leg, I thought carefully, but the darned thing was almost sticking out at 90 degrees from the body.  The legs are supposed to sit fairly straight from the bottom of the body, hence the flap.  I then carefully undid the join and redid the leg.

The second time I really just forced the thing to where I wanted it.  I didn't care if it cooperated or not.  I did the sewing around where I was forcing the leg to sit.  This ended up working very well as I got the legs to sit about as straight as they can with the stitches the way they are.

And there you go - Baymax done.

I wanted to pose Baymax with Trini.

And here is the Craft Card that I devised.  This will go on every piece I make, with a born on date and a signature.

And just because I guess I must be ADD or something, I started the Gray Totoro that I'm making for ME!

About Hook Sizes

I thought that Stacey had said to use a 5.0 mm hook to make her ball monster.  I went ahead and made that monster and thought that it had worked well.  Then I realized that I didn't stuff the ball monster firmly at all, so the holes weren't showing through.

I translated this experience to baymax and used the 5.0 mm hook.  Well, as you can see it left some big-ol holes!  It's a white monster with white stuffing, so I'm ok with the surface, and Amy loves it of course, so I'm not beating myself or anything.

So when Lucy Collin said to use an E (3.5 mm) hook for Totoro I kind of flipped - it's so small!  I decided to favor the center and go with a 4.0 mm hook, which looks much tighter (see photo) but isn't unwieldy.

I sure hope that when this is stuffed it looks nice and tight.  I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the 4.0 mm hook.