Wrap-Up 2012

This year was a busy one and I started and finish a lot of projects. I started this blog almost a year ago to help me keep track of projects that I've worked on and so I thought why not do a wrap up showing all of the projects I finished this year. Well at least all of those that I photographed (which was most of them). I didn't realize how many of them are actually amigurumi until now! I started making amigurumi in May and haven't stopped. Be prepared for a really long post! Lets get started this year I made
82 Amigurumi,

18 Dishcloths, 

4 Baby Bibs, 7 pairs of Baby Shoes, 

3 Baby Sweaters, 2 Baby Hats

6 Tatted Projects,

a Shawl, & a Neck Warmer!

UFO's

I also wanted to shared some projects I started this year that didn't get finished but hopefully will get finished next year. That's one of my main goals to complete all the UFO's that I have including those that I started years ago. I have

7 Needle Punch projects, a Cross Stitch project, 

try my own Amigurumi Designs, 

2 Tatted Bookmarks, 3 Tatted Doilies, 
2 Crochet Doilies, a Hairpin Lace project

2 Crochet Baby Dresses, a Crochet Needle Case, 
2 Amigurumi, 2 Crochet Baby Blankets, 
3 pairs of Crochet Baby Shoes, a Crochet Cowl,

3 Knit Baby Blankets, 4 Knit Baby Bibs, 
2 Knit Baby Shoes, a pair of Knit Socks, 
& a Knit Shawl. 

Total Projects started in 2012: 162

Finished Projects: 124

UFO's: 38

Not too bad I have to say. :)

Goals for 2013
Finish ALL UFO's I have including those that I've had for years

Finish all the projects I start in 2013

Use up Acrylic yarn stash

Work on adding more items to my shop 

Learn how to do shuttle tatting

Improve on my sewing skills 

Try out Broomstick lace 

Learn how to do needle felting 

Try colorwork knitting 

Learn ribbon embroidery 

Try out Quilling

Work more on Cross Stitch projects

Improve my baking skills

Try out yarn from fibers I haven't tried before

& Make all of the Freshstitches patterns I have that I haven't made yet

This is my last post in 2012 and all I have left to say is 

See you next year! :D

FO Friday: Last one of the 2012!

This is the last FO Friday of the year! I'm very happy with everything I accomplished this past year and I'm excited to see what the new year brings! One thing I am very proud of is the opening of my Etsy shop. To be completely honest it wasn't really one of my goals for this year but it was definitely one of the highlights of the year. I will be having a New Year's Sale in celebration of my shop opening this year and also in making my first two sales. The sale will start today Friday, December 28th and go on for 13 days which means it will end Wednesday, January 9th. Use the Coupon Code: NEWYEAR13 to get 13% off your total purchase! This will probably be the biggest sale of the year so make sure and take advantage of the savings now! In addition to there being a sale I will also be adding 1 new item each day for the 13 days. All will be stuffed animals and 5 of those 13 you will see in the pictures below!

But first I want to share the handmade gifts I made for Christmas. I made my brother this tiny penguin. Its a Freshstitches pattern and can be found here. It was super fast to make and he is such a cutie in person. I made the nose smaller because the one I made following the instructions seemed to big. 

Isn't this fawn so cute? It was the surprise amigurumi I was making for my mother. She loves it! She loves deer and this was definitely the cutest deer pattern I found. This is a Pepika pattern and can be found here. This is the first amigurumi pattern I make that isn't a Freshstitches pattern and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was easy to make and I think I will be purchasing more in the future. She has several really cute patterns. I did crochet mine through the back loops similar to the Freshstitches pattern and really liked how it turned out. 

This last one if the Crocodile Stitch Shawl by Bonita patterns that took me about a month to complete. Its huge! It measures 41 inches wide and 30 inches long. My mom was so surprised and happy when she saw this. It was her favorite present. I tried to take a picture of as much as I could but had to leave out the ends so that the picture looks better. I highly recommend this pattern its beautiful even though the stitch is very time consuming. 

I don't remember if I mentioned this before but there is a Freshstitches kit club. The first subscriptions were in November and we received our first package this month. Basically you sign up to receive a Freshstiches kit every other month for a total of 6 months.  For the US the price was $58.50 which included shipping. Making each kit $19.50 which the shipping included which is very reasonable. Each kit comes with a pattern that already exists for purchase from Freshstitches which means there is a possibility of you already having the pattern but she adds instructions for something different about the pattern. The kit also comes with all the supplies you will need to complete the project not including the hook or stuffing. This time we got Tipper the Tiny Crab and instructions on how to add the beads. So here is mine!

I realize this post is way to long but this last part is going to be manly pictures and less words. These are five amigurumi I just finished. All will be added to the shop sometime in the next 13 days. First up is this purple and pink dragon. Some of you may find her familiar because I started her a long time ago and she has been waiting patiently to be finished and the wait is finally over. :)

Next up is this cute blue owl. The fifth owl I make and he has also been waiting to get finished for a couple of weeks. I thought since I had made a pink one already it was only right to make a blue one. Both this and the pink one will be added soon. 

These last three amigurumi definitely waited the longest. I started them before Halloween! These are three of the ten monster patterns by Freshstitches that are available for free at Knittingfever.com. 

I really like how this one turned out! FYI this will be available today for sale! Look for him later on today. 

This last one I made a couple of changes from the original but I like it and its bigger than all the other amigurumi I've made before. 

I almost accomplished my last goal of the year which is to finish all the amigurumi I have started before next year. I only have 3 left and will try to finish them up today so I can share them next Friday for the first FO Friday of 2013!

On Monday there will be a special blog post! Since most of my blog post have been all about amigurumi which I started making in May I thought why not have a special post the last day of the year featuring ALL of the amigurumi I made this year? So if you are interested in seeing all the amis I made this year in one post check it out on Monday!

I want to thank all of you all who leave comments and read my blog. Thank you so much! I read all of them and appreciate that you take the time to do it. I hope all of you had a great 2012 and that next year is even better! Enjoy your last weekend of 2012 and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For more FO's check out Tami's Blog!

WIP Wednesday: Last one of 2012!

This is the last WIP Wednesday of 2012! I can't believe the year has gone by so fast! I hope everyone had a good holiday. I enjoyed myself with my family and got a lot of nice things. Nothing yarn related so I won't share but I do have to say that my mom was super happy with her Crocodile Stitch Shawl! I'll be sharing a picture of it finished for FO Friday. She also really liked the other two items I gave her. This Friday will be the last FO Friday of the year and its going to be a big one. As of right now I have 4 items to share but there is a possibility of it growing to 7 or more. We will have to see how productive I am today and tomorrow. 

So being that it was the holiday I didn't get a chance to really work on anything the last couple of days but I'm on a mission. These above are all of the started amigurumi I have from October until now that need to be finished this week. I am determined to complete them before this year is over. That gives me 6 days to finish 6 amigurumi. Here is what I have left to do for each of the 6:

1. Owl (bottom middle): Top half all I need is to add the eyes. I still have to make those but they are so fast to make. The bottom half I need to crochet the wings and tail and attach them. Then I can stuff the body and head and attach it and its done. I will only need about and hour to complete it.

2. Blue Robot/Monster (bottom right): I need to attach legs, arms, antennas, and eyes. Stuff him and close him up. I'm calculating about and hour as well for this one maybe less. 

3. Octopus Monster (top left): I'm only missing the eyes so I'll need to make those, attach the legs, stuff and finish off. This one will also take less than an hour. 

So if my calculations are correct I could finish all three of those today. Meaning I still have 5 days to finish the other three that require more work. 

4. Deer (bottom left): This one is missing the eyes, tail, nose, antlers, ears, arms and legs all of which I still have to crochet. Then I need to attach them so I still need a couple of hours for this one. I will probably start working on this one when I finish the other three.

5. Big Monster (top right): This one needs the faces on all three, the two arms, legs for the middle and one side part and I think that's it. I'm not sure if this one will get finished because I don't have too much red left so if I run out of yarn and my lys doesn't have the color in stock I will have to wait to finish it until next year. 

6. Dragon (top middle): Yes I'm making another dragon! I started him I think last week and I haven't gotten around to working on him since I was busy with Christmas gifts but I want to finish him up and add him to my shop ASAP. I have all the parts of the head finished so right now the next step would be to attach all the head pieces. After that crocheting the body is the quickest I think but I still need to crochet the arms, and feet. I'm debating on whether I should make wings or not. By the way one of the projects I will be showing is the finished purple dragon I started forever ago. I just finished it. I'm hoping to add it to my shop later on today or possibly tomorrow. 

I do have one more thing to share. I finally started working on the Freshstitches cowl swap squares. I worked on it a bit on Saturday. It is only going to have 5 squares instead of 6. What happened was that I was supposed to crochet a square for myself but I never did. I did make a total of 6 squares but sent them all since one of them was going to be for a cowl that we were making for the Freshstiches designer Stacey. Anyway I never got around to making a 7th one for myself. I knew I wanted to make a border and decided to use the color I had used to make my squares. If I made my square then It would look weird to have one square the same color of the border plus I probably wouldn't have enough yarn. I attached all the pieces together and I'm working on the border. It shouldn't take long to finish so I might try to do that this weekend. 

For more WIP's check out Tami's Blog!

FO Friday: Neckwarmer

This FO Friday will be a short one. All I have to share is this neckwarmer I made for my mother. It turned out better than what I thought. I'm sure she will love it. I am even thinking about possibly making one for myself. This is a free pattern you can find here. I used Bernat Softee Baby which is 100% acrylic but is really warm.

Next Friday I will be sharing the other two presents I made for my mother both are finished but I didn't get a chance to take pictures. I also have two other amigurumi to share.

Starting next week I will bee adding a couple of new items to my shop. I'm thinking about adding more dragons! I will stick to adding stuffed animals for the remainder of the month. For the month of January I'm planning to start adding baby wear. 

Since my next blog post won't be until next Wednesday I just want to say Merry Christmas to those who will be celebrating. Enjoy yourselves and be safe. To the rest Happy Holidays!

For more FO's check out Tami's Blog!

WIP Wednesday!

This week I am still focusing on finishing up my mom's presents. I've been working on the shawl but its still not finished. I'm thinking I will need about another day or two. Instead of working on it this weekend I tried to finish up the other two. The Cowl is actually already finished. Just finished it up but I thought I would show a sneak peek. The completed one will be shown on Friday.

The second item I am working on is the mystery animal. I am close to finishing this one but will not show the picture of it finished until next Friday after Christmas. Any guesses on what animal it could be?

I have some exciting news! Well exciting for me at least. I made my very first sale on Etsy on Friday! It was a guy who bought it as a Christmas present for his girlfriend. It was a surprise to me because I thought my first customer would be a parent buying it for kids. I guess you never know. As a special thanks to him for being my first customer he is getting a little gift. 

My first sale on Etsy!

This is the free gift for being the first customer!

For more WIP's check out Tami's Blog!

FO Friday: Mystery Animal Revealed!

This past week I have been doing nothing but working on finishing up three Christmas gifts for my mom so I only have one thing to share. 

I finally got around to attaching on the pieces of the Mystery animal for the Freshstitches CAL and its a dog! She is adorable even though mine looks a little odd since no dog is really purple with blue but I still think she's cute. The attaching of the front legs and back legs to the body is a little confusing but I think I did okay. 

I can't believe its almost Christmas! Only a little over a week left! So just a little update: The crocodile stitch triangle shawl is almost finish. I started adding the fringe on so that I can see how long it will be with the fringe included. I still have a couple more rounds to go but if everything goes as planned it will be finished this weekend and I will finally be able to share it with y'all next FO Friday.

 I have made some progress on the cowl but since I have been working almost exclusively on the shawl I haven't gotten done as much as I would have liked. I'm estimating that it will take me about 2-3 days to finish it so my plan is to finish the shawl by Sunday. Then have Monday- Wednesday to finish up the cowl. 

The last project is the amigurumi and I know for a fact that I only need one more day to finish the last three legs and sew the pieces together. I already attached on all the head pieces so I would only need to attach the legs onto the body and that onto the head. Which I could do this weekend if I finish the shawl early or on Thursday after finishing the cowl. If everything goes as planned I will have those three to share next FO Friday!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Check out more FO's on Tami's Blog!

WIP Wednesday: Mom's Christmas Gifts

This weekend I have been working on three Christmas gifts for my mother. We have less than two weeks until Christmas so I'm rushing to get them finished.

The one I was most worried about not finishing was the Crocodile Stitch Triangle Shawl but I have made a lot of progress this past weekend and I'm thinking it will be done soon. I started to add the fringe yesterday to better see the length and I think I will probably at the most have to crochet another 5 scales to finish! Yay! I'm so excited because I seriously thought it wasn't going to be done on time. Of course I have been working on that only so I kind of took and unintentional break from my etsy shop to focused on this. But more items will be coming up soon! As soon as I finish my gifts I am focusing 100% on adding more items.

This next project I just started an hour ago. I know I'm crazy but I am also going to be making her this Ambitus neck warmer. Its a very simple pattern but I like it so I thought why not. I actually had started a cowl last week but I decided to frog it because I felt like I didn't really want something loose instead I wanted something to be right up against the neck so this was perfect. I'm thinking it won't take me more than a couple days to finish this so its a quick project to include on my list. 

The third gift is an amigurumi. Its one I mentioned in another blog that I was keeping a secret. I'm not going to say what animal it is but your welcome to make a guess. This is the body of the animal. Even though I love Freshstitches amigurumi patterns I decided to try this pattern thats' from a different designer. I can already see the differences in styles but I'm liking it so far. 

The last thing on my to-so list this week is to finish up the mystery animal for the Freshstitches CAL. The mystery has been revealed and its an adorable animal but I haven't had time to sew up the pieces. I am going to try to find some time to do that on Thursday for two reasons. One because otherwise I will have nothing to share for FO Friday and two because the deadline for entering your picture is on the 16th which is Sunday so I need to get it done before its too late! 

Check out more WIP's on Tami's Blog!

FO Friday!

I have two animals to share today! A brown bear and a pink owl! I've been busy working on my Christmas gifts and haven't had a lot of time to work on anything else. I'm planning on making a couple of dragons next week but we'll see. I also have to finish up the Mystery Cal. The last clue was released today with instructions on assembling the animal so I hope to get that done this weekend. 

These two will be listed in my shop soon. I still have a lot of photo editing to do. 

 

Have a great weekend!

Check out more FO's on Tami's Blog!