Cutie Pup & Hello Kitty!

Happy Easter!! I hope everyone is enjoying the approaching springtime! I love spring and Easter, it's always a time filled with hope for a bright year! My husband and I don't have a family of our own yet so no egg hunts for us! We always have a nice lunch with family and enjoy watching the little cousins search for the eggs. I live in Michigan and it might snow, I really hope not, it makes the hunt no fun!

~

I love adding to my Cutie Collection! Each new addition is so cute I find it hard to let them go! The Cutie Pup is no exception:

As with the Kitty and Bears, the Pup is from the same base pattern. The only differences are the obvious ears, nose and tail. He was designed to wear a hat or hood but it I thought it was distracting attention away from his adorable ears! I love the possibilities that this pattern presents. I'd love to try different dog breeds, like a pug nose or a the long, skinny nose and pointy ears of a chihuahua. I think spots would be cute too :] 

One thing I adore about the base pattern is the limitless design potentials! For example: This pink Hello Kitty a friend requested.

Last night I finished making this Hello Kitty using the base pattern but added a few changes like the dress and thick ears. I think she turned out great, I'm very happy with the results! (Sorry for the bad picture, it was late at night and I had some really bad lighting!) I don't think she would have been as cute without the base to work off of. I have another one almost done as well, not in pink but with the blue trousers and yellow shirt. 

I'm still not sure how to market and sell such a diverse collection of animals and characters when they all have the same base.  I'm not sure people will be willing to buy the same pattern over and over when the only differences are ears, noses, tails, and cosmetic details. By theme, maybe? Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd appreciate your feedback! 

What do you do for Easter? Do you have a favorite tradition or meal with family? 

Happy Easter Everyone!

~Denae

Cutie Kitty News and Amigurumi Joined Rounds!

I have great news! 

The Cutie Kitty has been chosen to be part of a pattern project!!!

I'm super excited! I'm not going to reveal what project it is until May, sorry. hehe :D

To give you a hint, I will be joining designers like Josephine of AMorningCupofJo, Amy of LittleMuggles, Sarsel, Emi of EnnaDesign's, and Shannen of Sweetn'CuteCreations! If you've figured it out, shhh! don't tell!

I feel really honored to be a part of this project! I've contacted a few of the designers and have gotten to know them better. Josephine is a super sweet person! She has gone above and beyond when helping me (a newbie) figure out how to format my pattern correctly. Check out her site, her patterns are amazing! Each one is clear, very detailed with pictures, and professional. You can tell she's put a lot of time and effort into her pattern designs. 

The Cutie Kitty pattern will be for sale before the big reveal, so keep an eye out for its availability, plus I'll keep everyone updated on its progress! 

I feel this opportunity has been the proverbial nudge-out-the-nest.

As some of you know, I've been struggling with sore and painful wrists, shoulders, and neck when crocheting too much. The demand for narwhals is high in my shop, so I can't seem to keep enough of them stocked! 

 I believe selling that pattern will help alleviate the demand. With selling any of my patterns, my hope is less duplicate crocheting and more designing!

Writing the Kitty pattern has been a stretching experience for me but a good one. It's opened my eyes to the idea that I can do this, and they will sell.

Over the weekend, Josephine promoted my FB Fan Page that led 130+ people to follow my page! I was in awe! I had several people ask for the patterns for the Cutie's, narwhals, and pony! (Thank you Josephine!)

One area of question that I ran into was the spiral vs. joined rounds argument.  I use the joined rounds in all my designs but most people do not.

I chose the picture above from a Japanese amigurumi book, so you can clearly see the seam created by the slip stitch used to join the round. This along with   the difficulty to learn are what seem to be the major causes of disdain among crocheters. I like the seam joined rounds create, some people don't. Most all stuffed animals have sewed seams so it seems logical that amigurumi would have them too. In a way, all crocheted plush has one seam somewhere, like where the arms or legs or ears attached and for round-ball shapes, the closed end could be considered a seam as well. A positive of joined rounds, which you can see in the picture, would be perfect stripes.  The stripes on the dogs' sweaters don't jog or slant and the color changes are perfect.

As for the difficulty of joined rounds, I can understand. It took time, effort and  lots of frustration before I finally figured it out. It's hard going back to working in spirals now that I have this technique perfected. I love its simplicity. Once I finish a round, which is a slip stitch and one chain, I'm done with that round. No stitch marker, no counting to make sure all the stitches are there. It's kinda like laying brick: start your row up with a chain stitch, go around, then when you come back to your first stitch, connect to it with a slip stitch, pull tight and that row is done! Easy peasy :]

I do hope to go into further detail in an upcoming post, but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! I'd be more than happy to help you!

Anywho, my plan is to create patterns that both spiral and joined round crocheters can use with ease along with plenty of pics to help demonstrate certain aspects of the pattern, especially confusing or difficult parts.  Along with selling my patterns, I will have free patterns available as well! This, I'm pretty excited about! I already have one in my patterns page, it's a fall pumpkin, check it out and let me know what you think! I'd love to see your finished pumpkin! 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

~Denae

Thank you!

Sweet Millie of millieonherworld nominated me for the "Inspiring Blogger Award"!  Wow! Thank you Millie! 

This is the first blogger award I've received and I'm surprised and honored to have been picked!

 I feel like my blog is still very new and still has a lot of growing to do but this award is definitely much appreciated!

So the rules for this award are:

1. Add your award image to your blog

2. List 7 Facts about yourself

3. Share the love and nominate others!

#1 - done - I placed it in my new Awards page

#2 - a. I'm an introvert 

b. When I was a teenager, I LOVED classical music, I know- odd. 

c.  I love living out in the country

d. Someday I'd like to have a pet squirrel

e. My favorite color is Blue in just about every shade

f. I hate leaving a project unfinished and stay up all night if I could to complete it. 

g. Last random fact - I'd rather eat something salty than sweet - every time! Unless it's chocolate...

#3 - Blogs that inspire me to improve my work, try something new or different, and stretch my imagination are:

 Lou Loves This ...

All About Ami

amiguruMEI

Hapy Friends Shoppe

joojoo

NoiaLand

{ p a p e r ♥ f o r e s t }

Possums Love Art

Enjoy!!

~Denae

My First Swap! And a Cutie Kitty

Today I mailed my first swap package! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my box, as I was in too much of a hurry mailing it out... boo...

But! I'm so excited!! Louise from loulovesthis is my partner and I couldn't have picked a better person to participate with. She's a very talented soft doll maker and she designs and fashions the entire item by hand! Every stitch is hand sewn in a very neat, beautiful fashion. Each one is a work of art! You've got to check out her work! I feel very lucky to soon hold my very own "Lou Loves This" doll! 

Ok, I'm not going to say anymore about it, I want it to be a surprise! 

I'm definitely going to take pics of everything!

~

In my post about the Cutie Bear, I mentioned this Cutie Kitty. 

She was made using the same base pattern as the bear. I changed the ears, the nose is different and of course, a tail! Her ears came out a little crooked but like all handmade items, I think it adds some charm :] I really loved how she turned out!  Unlike the Cutie Bears, the Kitty doesn't have a hat or hood; at least not yet. I positioned the ears so a hat will fit but it was so cute without the hat that I decided to not make it one. If I were to make another one, I'd like to make it a light yellow kitty with a strawberry hood and a tiny strawberry basket! Wouldn't that be adorable!?

I didn't mention in the Cutie Bear post where I got my inspiration. Has anyone heard of WELOVESTITCHES?

Christy is the girl who makes these adorable plushies and I saw this bear on her Etsy, WELOVESTITCHES, and I wanted to try my hand at making an amigurumi version.

The crochet version is a bit different but the concept is close to the same. I love how cute they are, both the plushies and amigurumi versions!

What I liked most was the hoods and how the legs and body were one piece.    I thought making each a basket or backpack would add a playful, imaginative side, so it's not a plush just for a shelf, but it's something you or a child can play with.  I imagine him starting off on a sunny day to enjoy a picnic, carrying lunch in his basket :] 

~

In other crafty news: I bought 3 patterns from Noialand! Eeek! Her dolls are super adorable!! I printed out the pattern pieces for the French Bakery Girl last night and I hope to make some progress on her soon. I'm very, VERY excited to make one of her dolls! I'll keep you posted with the latest on each one I finish. 

I hope everyone has a great week and weekend! 

~Denae

New Narwhals

I have more narwhals!! Both in new colors and a new size are now available! 

I've been making and selling mom and baby narwhal/whale sets for a little while now; and I thought customers would want to make their own color combos.  Not all the ones in the photo are babies, I did list a few full sized narwhals in new colors. All the original colors are sold out so I need to make some more, my plan it to finish a couple tonight.  

Last month I mentioned the pain problems I was having when I crochet too much. I'm happy to say that my hands and arms are feeling much better! We'll see how they do tonight, it's been a good week since I've completed any ami projects. I really miss it :[  There's so much satisfaction in finishing a project! 

Ever had a project that just sat there staring at you? There were two bears sitting on my chair almost finished for weeks begging to be finished! 

Typically I sew a tiny felt nose and glue it between their eyes but trying to get it right the first time is pretty much impossible! 

That's the felt nose that I used to make, see how tiny it is? It would take about three tries to get it right and that's just to cut it out! Sewing it was another story! To say the least, they were frustrating to make.

So, I decided to try something a lot different. I crocheted a flat circle and sewed on the shape using yarn. Then I sewed on the nose with the circle's tail.

I love it! It's easier and cuter than the original felt nose! At least, I think so :] 

I like the dimension this nose adds to their little faces. It sticks out all round and plump with no extra effort on my part! :]  Adorable ❤

What do you think? 

Cute or dorky? 

~Denae

Oh, all the animals shown today are currently listed. Check 'um out!

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