Crocheted Mochi Golf Club Cover

My dad has been suggesting this thing forever and ever and I finally decided to tackle this project.

I'm not THAT much of a yarn hoarder, but I've been meaning to go through my rubbermaid bin of yarn and use up some stuff that I've had for years.  When my dad first requested making a golf club cover out of my dog's head (I just realized how morbid that sounds),  I knew I had the yarn for it (same yarn used for my turkey tissue cozy), but I didn't have any freaking clue on how I would start such a pattern.  Luckily I found a free pattern from Lion Brand for golf club covers, and just made one in a Mochi-colored shade.  Because the yarn was sport weight, I decided to double the yarn to make the project more sturdy.  I created a snout by crocheting a cylinder-like piece, adding some polyfill inside to make it fuller.  Black satin ribbon was used for the nose and mouth, and I cut out some black stiff felt for the eyes, using hot glue to stick it onto the face, and then stitching around the eyes with thread for added security and to make it look more finished.  For the ears, I kinda played the shape by ear (pun!).   I crocheted small triangles and then single-crocheted all around to make the triangles rounded in shape.  I felt like the overall face wasn't shaggy enough, so I added some yarn whiskers on the top of his nose.  For the final touch, I added a pom pom on the back because Mochi's tail is fluffy like that.  He's so cutie.

Twinsies

I can't stop laughing at this thing.

God, I hope my dad doesn't lose this on the golf course.  He loses everything.

Vasarely Blanket (ongoing project) update #8

Progress! To get a better overview of my blanket layout and to keep track of my pieces, I easily created a handy little printout of my blanket layout using Photoshop:

This way, I get to map out my blanket without having to unfold the blanket and spreading the thing all out onto the floor or bed.  I took some scrap yarn in a different color and tied a bow onto the top left corner to mark the front* side of the blanket so I can match it up with the printout.  This printout is so helpful.  I'm less likely to make any mistakes e.g. sewing a white diamond on one side when it should've been a black piece, or sewing on a piece upside down.

It is way easier to sew smaller groups of the blanket at a time, too.  So when I stitch together a section of a blanket, I outline that section on the printout.  Then when I stitch that particular section to the rest of the blanket, I shade that area in.

Sometimes the length of the sides do not match (because I didn't block my diamonds), but I found that using this hair clip to hold /match the sides together helps me distribute the stitches evenly without any worries of leaving any slack behind.  These hair clips make things so much easier, and are definitely staying in my crochet bag for future projects.  I wonder if there is even a product actual made for this purpose?  I bet you its way more expensive than these clips.

*There really isn't a front or back side of the blanket, just using this to match the printout/pattern layout.

Vasarely Blanket (ongoing project) update #7

Continuing to stitch this blanket together.  So far weaving in the ends is the most annoying part (like I predicted).  My plan is to try and stitch all the diamonds I've already created together, then crochet the remaining diamonds to finish off the blanket.  It's looking like the estimates I made aren't that accurate because I still have about 30-ish or more diamonds more to crochet and the blanket seems bigger than I estimated already.  Man, I'm very bad at gauging my projects!  I still think it looks great, considering I didn't do any blocking (bad at doing this, too).  There is some puckering at some parts where I stitched which bothers me, so I plan to redo these sections.

Planning to finish this by the end of the year  Hopefully!

Doggie Collar + Matching Bowtie

Fall is my favorite time to craft because this season is pretty much about being cozy and comfortable and there's nothing more comfy than being knee deep in a project at home.  Unfortunately this weather that we are experiencing has not passed its summer phase this year and its really annoying.  I am still waiting for the moment I can wear my boots and scarves without sweating my ass off by the time noon comes around.  Seriously, when??  I've been attempting to continue working on the Vasarely blanket that I started eons ago but it is way too warm to work with all that yarn. :-(

With that said, I made something a little less warm.  I had this idea that I should make my dog some collars in theme with the season/occasion/etc.  So I wanted to start with one for fall.  I really wanted to make one with turkeys on it (because I LOVE THANKSGIVING), but couldn't find fabric or ribbon with a small enough print to fit on a 3/4" wide nylon webbing.  I've seen cute printed collars being sold on etsy for $10-30 depending on the materials used, so the fact that I can make them myself kicks ass.  The materials that I purchased for this product didn't cost much,  so it is way cheaper than buying one from etsy. It helps that craft/fabric stores have some sort of coupon going around, too.  In the dog collar making future, I'm going to try and find the materials online since the selection at the fabric store is very limited.

I really like how it came out. I realize I can just make it custom fit to my dog, but I like the look and idea of the adjustable collar, plus I just really wanted to attempt it.  I modeled the construction from Mochi's usual collar but being this is my first attempt, I already made some notes to modify construction for next time.  The nylon webbing makes the collar super durable, but I'd love to try making the collar just out of fabric and interfacing as well.

My dog's birthday is at the end of this month so OBVIOUSLY he needs a matching bow tie.

 

Fucking handsome as hell.

 

New Animal Planters

I bought an animal planter shaped like a pig a while back from Daiso, and I love it.  So I had to buy these pair of bears while I was in Japantown.  Obviously, I also had to buy new succulents to use with these things, so I chose this leafy one and this other one that looks like an anemone.  Succulents are so weird, I love it.

We also have this giant laurel (bay leaf) in our backyard, and I decided to make a wreath out of it.  It's pretty convenient because they dry and you can put it in your kitchen and pluck leaves off of it whenever you are cooking.  They also smell great.  They sell this stuff at Williams Sonoma for $50, so I just had to make them for the free.

Wire Sculpting Name Plate Thingy

I made this for a dear friend of mine that recently graduated.  I knew I wanted to give her something personalized and luckily, as fate would have it,  A Beautiful Mess posted this on their blog.  Wire Sculpting!  I've done that before!  I had wire in my craft stash from a previous project (yarn wrapped name tags) but I never thought of making it as a name plate thingy (I really have no idea what to call this).  I didn't want to use sculpting clay as the base, so I found these wooden plaques at Michael's that I could drill holes in and paint.*  It's awesome, I promise, but I don't want to post it on here for anonymity purposes. So here's the second one I made for myself.  Different name, but same concept. It helps to write out the words on paper to determine the "path" of the wire to make your loops as clean as you can and to keep spacing in mind.  I made it two levels, and sculpted the wire so that the "A" can be used as a paperclip to hold notes and such.  Dual functionality!

 

*Always use a coupon.

Vasarely Blanket (ongoing project) update #6

Alright now things are happening!  So... I'm totally not done cranking out diamonds,  but I've started constructing this blanket. YES!  I'm pretty sure I started this project last August?  So this project is almost a year old!  So much for being inspired and crafting my brains out.  I've been lazy and unmotivated but I'm trying.  After finishing up the latest batch of diamonds, I kinda laid out most of them on my bed and I must say, it's making me excited about it.

LOOK! Do you see it?? Do you the Vasarely-ness happening right now?  At this point I realized I didn't have any yarn to start joining the diamonds together, so the very next day I made a trip to Michael's and created my very first cube. How exciting!

And then I got more excited and added another cube to that cube:

And then the excitement died down after attempting to weave all those damn ends.  I cursed a little, and stopped.  I'm pretty sure weaving in those ends will be the most annoying part of the procedure.  I regret not doing them earlier.  But at least the blanket is finally coming along. :-D