Goodbye Ally mini-mi

Unfortunately Ally has decided to leave us. As a goodbye gift I crafted a mini-me in her "tenue du travail" wearing some important bling brand assets such as the shield and a golden mean necklace.

Amalie's mini-me

made this crochet copy of Amalie on her big day of communion. This gift item is turning out to be one of the favorites for young girls in my family.

Getting the dress and shoes right was a real challenge

To the left, Amalie on the day, to the right the amigurumi mini-me. By the Knitbitch

In the making

hedwig the snowowl

i made this snowowl for a girl who's doing communion. On FB she calls herself professor at Hoogwarts, so I thought this would be suiting. Took some trying and testing to arrive at this. Dropped my usual Kawaai head (slightly squeshed) for a round one, and embroidered on all the stitches to give the black rim to the feathers. The wings was a challenge in itself, but really happy with how they turned out. And the feet, my favorite part, a project on its own, including the embroidery. But really happy with how they turned out. Real cute.

Hedwig the Snow owl. by the Knitbitch

This is the sketch that I made for the gift-card for the actual day

Jacob's bear

Bianca calls Jacob "beertje", Helle was so kind to help me with this clue. cause I was a bit clueless about what to crochet for Bianca's baby. So it became a bear in perfect Bianca colours; brownish with accent of mostard yellow and beige. I'm particularly proud and happy about the felt-embroidery detailing of this bear.

julies mini-me

proudly presenting the mini-mi amigurumi doll that I crocheted for my favorite niece Julie for the celebration of her "confirmation" (first communion) specially on request of her. Worked out quite nicely if I should say it myself.

and yes! all star sneakers

The dress was a bit of work, I first knitted one, then realized it would never look anywhere near the real dress, then resorted to stitching one by hand from scraps that I had.  

Julie's amigurumi mini-mi backside

the hair really wasn't easy. It ended up quite tussled, which I thought was kinda ok, as Julie's hair on the day was also quite casually, naturally tussled

Oeps, for the actual party it was still only half finished

half finished in the box

Da-Mi's mini-me

When it became clear that Da-Mi was going to leave us, there was only one thing for me to do to say proper good-bye; crochet a Mini Da-Mi to give her as good-bye present!

 

Da-Mi was always so enthusiastic about the crochet. First one to want a Queensday ring etc. And she had made several attempts to try out the crocheting herself, on saturdays we had gotten together and I had been teaching her the crochet, she had made a start at making a doll herself. But it turned out to be slightly more difficult than anticipated. and there was a bit of bad luck, the hair we had decided to put on her doll, really, was looking like afro. What a throw-back. after that never much came of it ever again. That's why I thought if anybody deserves a doll, it's Da-Mi.

Here are some more pictures

New amigurumi round-up

Because of that exhibition that I had end of last year at the craft council of Sonderborgs yearly show, I prepared a poster showing all the amigurumi I have ever made. This poster is an update of the previous overview with the additions since Findus.

you can read the full story of the dolls by clicking on the links here below
Delfts Blue (Madam Blå), Pyke's bunny, Hedgehog Findus, Jo the Biker, Sandy's miniature
Stines miniature, Uma, Lieves emo birdie, Strisser the rabbit girl, James the sheep
Hannah the fearie, Ronja, Leo the catwoman, Gothic Lolita for Julie, a bee for Lieve
Duck-face lips for Guus, Mermaid for Carin, Helene & Oliver merried, Helene, punk for Tijmen
Mia doll, Green dragon for Stef, longneck man for Samuel, 3-eyed monster for Nils crobot for Kick

hysterical manga rabbit amigurumi

This sweet yet with hysterically screaming contrast colours amigurumi was originally inspired by the pink mohair that I used as hair. That is, the pink mohair I tried to make look like hair. Not really that rabbits have hair... but... in the end it ended looking more like a hat i would say. This amigurumi I prepared for the workshop and exhibition in Sønderborg, Denmark earlier this year, in order to test the pattern and have some models to show.

The crochet heart on the front of the t-shirt is made following these instructions from Skip-to-my-lou

The rest of the yarn for this "rumi" came from some recent donations from my mom; the very fresh green and light pink on the head. The pink from the skirt came from some knitted towels I had. afraid it must have been an aunt or perhaps even my granny that once knitted that for me. But I don't like pink in my home, so I decided to sacrifice it. Finished off those feet/paws with some supersoft white mohair.

colour and yarn selection for the hysterical manga rabbit "rumi"

Delfts Blue Amigurumi (madam Blå)

Another "rumi" based on the pattern for the basic amigurumi pattern link. I prepared for this amigurumi a long time ago when I bought the blue colour-run/tie-dye blue cotton yarn. I also had another swatch of thin sewing yarn that also had a blue colour-run, bought even longer ago, perhaps almost 20 years ago. Anyways always thought they were the perfect match but what to make? So suddenly as I was preparing for the exhibition and workshop I thought, hey I will make a rabbit. and I was somewhat inspired because I had seen this Dutch porcelain clog with Delfts Blue pattern on it.

Delfts Blue Amigurumi Rabbit, the Delfts Blue flower pattern turned into a flower shawl, still wondering if I should embroider them onto the shirt...

the initial yarn selection and colour-card I made for the rabbit. again; I don't recommend to use those eyes, it didn't work well in the end.

As I was doing the works and also in parallel preparing for the exhibition; meaning cleaning up my image archive to create some posters, I suddenly came across the picture with which this had all started. it's a rather old baby-picture, an image a colleague send, and I remember I thought back then ah, I will crochet a Delfts Blue Singaporean Merlion ( this colleague lives is a Dutch living in Singapore) but as things went I never got to make the Merlion, and had also completely forgotten about the idea, until I encountered the image again.

Mik, 2007

Pyke glitch

what happend? Truth is I don't really know, but last night I was working a bit on Pyke's amigurumi, putting him into a Judith green background. The kind of green that his mum uses on all her pictures. and as I was photoshopping, I wasrecoloring the background using an old trick of simply deleting all surrounding colour. and I was a bit irritated that it took soooooooo looooooong. and then vupti, there was a very strange, but also very nice Pyke on a patchwork background of himself. Love it.

Pyke's amigurumi rabbit

Christmas holiday has begun, which means I have some time to finally update the blog with a little story about Pyke's rabbit. I made it over the summer following the basic amigurumi pattern.

Pyke is the son of our friends, in this case what inspired me was the particular taste of colour of his mum and the embroidered name-card that his parents send to us when he was born.

by choosing the colours of the yarn, I choose and set the general mood of Pyke

Pykes head - work-in-progress - I really regretted putting on the plastic eyes, and later I crochetted new ones as usual. Those plastic ones don't look that good and are dangerous for babies, they may choke on them.

the name-card send when Pyke was born.

here's Pyke with Pyke (and his dad) he really likes to chew on the ears.

crochet a basic Amigurumi rabbit, hækle en basis Amigurumi kanin

(Dansk oversættelse nedenunder)
Finally it's here the basic Amigurumi crochet pattern. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get the pattern written-up and put online, but my day-job has been very demanding ever since the workshop and exhibition. And besides from that also had a bad back and a cold to fight. But now I'm feeling good again and have the energy and time to get this shared.
Both during the workshop and in the aftermath, mistakes were found in the first pattern, I have corrected those in this version. The worst mistake was that the arm was missing. I'm terribly sorry about that. Besides from that mistakes were small, such as not giving the right row for the placement of eyes and mouth.
As you have probably already noticed the pattern is drawn in the Japanese way. In principle it's super-logic, if you read the legend first and then follow the signs it speaks for itself. You start with the head, the top of the head, and basically crochet in circles, increasing and decreasing to make the shape. The head, body and legs are all made out of one piece. The eyes, ears and nose are made as loose decorative pieces that you stitch on. The underside of the foots are like lids that you stitch on to close off, and the arms are crochetted seperately and stitched on. Amigutumi is crochetted tightly and you need to stuff the amigurumi as you go, particularly the head needs to be well stuffed.
wrt further colouring, patterning and styling, the only limit is your imagination. You can make stripes, dots, little characters exactly as you please. I usually use left-over yarns, as I find it interesting how the limited choice of materials can lead to new creative ideas.

I have a little advise, amigurumi needs to be crochetted tight, but don't let that lead to tight and tense shoulders. You should take regular breaks and move shoulders, arms and hands to get the blood circulated. F.x. you can stand up and gently swing your arms back and forwards that's a very good exercise.

I wish you all good luck with crocheting, if you have questions, have remarks or find more mistakes you are most welcome to shoot an email to hannepanne@theknitbitch.com. I cannot primise that I will always answer straight away, as my day-job is quite demanding and will keep me very occupied until end of this year.

I'm pondering on a christmas-doll (nisse in Danish) but unfortunately not sure if I will manage this year. But keep watching this space.

Så er den der endelig, Amigurumi hækle kaninen. I må meget undeskylde at det har taget så længe inden jeg har fået lavet opskriften færdig og sat den online. Men som god undskyldning må jeg sige at mit day-job lige har været lidt krævende siden udstillingen, og så har jeg lige været nede og ligge med ondt i ryggen og forkølse. Men nu er jeg ovenpå igen, og her er så opskriften.
Både i løbet af workshoppen og også bagefter har der været en del fejlmeldninger, så dem har jeg alle sammen rettet. En af de mere dramatiske fejl var at jeg havde glemt at give opskriften til armen. Det må I altså meget undskylde allesammen. Ellers var fejlene små, det drejede sig fx om i hvilken række man skulle placere øjnene.
Som du nok allerede har set er mønstret tegnet på rigtig Japansk vis. I princippet er det super-logisk eller som at bruge Margit's ord "logik for perlehøns". Du begynder i toppen af hovedet, og hækler så simpelthen cirkler og tager ud og ind, sådan opstår formen. Hovedet, kroppen og benene er hæklet ud i et stykke. Al dekoration; snude, øjne og ører, er hæklet som løse dele og broderes på. Ligeså med armene. Og bunden af fødderne er ligesom nogen låg, man bruger til at lukke med. Amigurumi skal hækles stramt og fyldes mens man hækler, så altså fyld hovedet når du er kommet til halsen osv.
mht videre modellering, farvebrug og typologi, er det kun din fantasi der er begrænsningen :-) du kan gøre ligesom du vil, bruge de farver du gerne vil, lave striber, prikker ligesom det passer dig. Jeg bruger altid garn-rester, så tvinger begrænsningen af materiale en til at være kreativ og lave noget skørt.

Jeg har også lige et godt råd; amigurumi skal hækles meget stramt, men husk at tænke på ikke at spænde skuldrene for meget, og tag godt med pauser hvor du bevæger både arme, skuldre og hænderne for at faa godt gang i blod-cirkulationen. fx kan man stå op og let svinge med armene det har en god effekt.

Jeg ønsker jer allesammen held og lykke med hæklningen, hvis I har spørgsmaal, bemærkninger eller finder flere fejl, er I mere end velkomne til at maile til hannepanne@theknitbitch.com. Jeg kan ikke love at jeg altid svarer sådan lige vupti, for som sagt er mit day-job krævende, indtil årets slutning har jeg meget travlt.

jeg pønser lidt på en jule-nisse, men tror desværre ikke jeg når det i år. Men keep watching this space.

Amigurumi udstilling og hækleworkshop på Sønderborg Slot

(English below)

Der var gang i den i weekenden på Sønderborg Slot, hvor den årlige Husflids udstilling fandt sted. The Knitbitch havde en lille Amigurumi udstilling i Drabantsalen sammen med Irene Birk fra PaaPinden. Vi var ligesom en lille udbryder gruppe, henvist til et lidt afliggende rum, med til gengæld masser af plads. Vi viste et nyt perspektiv på husflid, demonstrerede at selvom håndværk anses som traditionsbundet kan det moderniseres hvis man bare har fantasi. Og det kan være en mindst ligeså tilfredstillende hobby for "unge". Ja, nu er det jo ikke fordi vi er rigtig unge, nok nærmere midalderende men sammen foryngede vi helt sikkert showet. Både Jydske Vestkysten og DR nyhederne (17m30s) kom forbi og lavede indslag, så der var også fin medie-dækning. Edith Hansen, forkvinden for Sønderborg husflid spottede en trend at der i de sidste år har været flere unge mennesker der deltager. Mens Irene Birk ganske rigtig fortalte om hvordan håndværk / husflid kan kompensere noget af alt det computer arbejde som jo næsten er uundgåeligt hvis man vil deltage i arbejdsmarkedet. Jeg har også et ret krævende job med masser af computer arbejde, og for mig er der ingen bedre måde at falde til ro på om aftenen. Jeg anser strikning of hækling som meditation, og der er jo allerede en del research der har vist at det passer.

There was a lot to do this weekend in Sønderborg Slot, where the yearly exhibition by the local arts and crafts council took place. The Knitbitch had a small Amigurumi exhibition in the Drabant Room sharing the space with Irene Birk from PaaPinden. It was as if we were a small break-out group, banished to a remote room, but fortunately with a lot of space. We showed a new perspective on craft, we demonstrated that even though craft is heavily grounded in traditions it can be modernized if you have imagination. And it can be a just as satisfying hobby for young as it is for elderly. well it isn't exactly that we are young, probably more something like middle aged, but together the two of us for sure brought down the average age of the show. We had both Jydske Vestkysten and DR nyhederne (17m30s) passing by to report, so couldn't complain about the media coverage. Edith Hansen, chairwoman of  Sønderborg arts and craft council spotted a trend, in the last years she has seen more young people participate. Whilst Irene Birk rightly observed that craft can compensate for some of the long hours that knowledge workers spend behind computers. I, myself have quite a demanding job that involves lots of computing and meetings, so for me there is no better way to unwind. I consider knitting and crocheting as meditation, and already quite a lot of research has been published to show that it's true.

Amigurumi line-up med Findus det forkølede vejarbejder pindsvin i forgrunden

mig og mine babies

Megapouf

Queensday ring

Ved siden af udstillingen holdt jeg også mini-workshop hvor man kunne lære at hækle amigurumi, det var rigtig hyggeligt, med nogle utroligt begrejstrede, koncentrerede og hårdtarbejdende deltagere. Her er der lige et par billeder

Lørdags skrappe expert-team og test-hold: Edith (forkvinden) Margit og Irene

Søndagsholdet: Irene (den hårdtarbejdende, der bare skal nå det hele, Anette (den absolut mest begrejstrede), Charlotte (den mest enthusiastiske) og en ældre dame som var meget ihærdigt og hæklede meget smukt. Og tjek lige ridderne i baggrunden som vågede over os.

Og lige et stemningsbillede her taget af Irene fra Paapinden

Opskriften på amigurumi er jeg stadig skyldig, den følger når jeg har lidt mere tid, fx i weekenden. Vi fandt jo alligevel et par fejl og de skal lige rettes før jeg putter den på nettet