My First Crocheted Cardigan!

Okay, so her clothes don't match it. :) I just had her slip it on for a picture! Its also two sizes too big (the pattern didn't come smaller)

THIS IS MY FIRST EVER PIECE OF CROCHETED CLOTHING!!! And, for once in my life, I followed the pattern exactly. It is called Behop Cardi and can be found for free on Ravelry and Lion's Yarn.

I had some confusion about the gauge (it accidentally gave two numbers!), and had made a good part of it with the wrong gauge. Rather than frog (tear out) that strip, I gave it to Addie as a lacy purple scarf.

The pattern called for stitch markers, I didn't know what they were but after reading the pattern a bit I realized that it means things stuck in the yarn to mark stitches. I just used safety pins. :)

Overall, this went fairly well! Being a beginner, self-taught-by-web-browsing crocheter, I had some problems getting the hang of it. Considering I had troubles crocheting a straight line just a few months ago, I am quite proud. :) It only took four or five hours! And that is while reading/watching TV.

No buttons yet! :)

Flag

Found this lying around; thought I'd share. Not sure what this craft is called, I strung beads onto two crisscrossing strings. Made it way back in second grade.

Fun and Useful Pens

What you will need:
A Bic pen, or similar pen with a removable ink/tip. Do not use a hard plastic one; it combusts
Sculpey clay
Clay tools (toothpick, hands, etc)
Oven

What you do:
Remove the ink/nib from the pen. You don't want that exploding in the oven!
Decorate your pen with sculpey clay
Make a "holder." Use the pen to shape it, but make the whole extra-big, twice the size as needed.
Bake according to clay instructions
Cool
Put some unbaked clay into the "holder's" hole. That will let the pen stay put much better.
Insert the ink again
Use until your ink runs out; pull out ink and put more in!

These pens are remarkably sturdy. I've made around ten of them; the three above are the ones I haven't given away. The pen on the far left was my first ever. I made it five years ago, and its still holding up. It has a slight crack because I put a chair leg ontop of it one time, but still works. The middle was about three years ago, and I just made the right one a few months ago. Its much prettier than the picture makes it look.

Hermione Granger's Wand

There is something about reading a detail-abounding book that makes you want to go and make all those neat gizmos and gadgets and whatnot. Also, watching the movies for the millionth time lets you notice the little prop details.

I've already posted instructions on a light-up wand. But for a more movie-accurate, lighter, and much easier wand, I suggest this method.

First, take a sheet of computer paper and lightly coat with Elmer's glue. Roll the paper diagonally as tightly as you can. Allow to dry.
Next, trim the ends with scissors. For wands like Hermione's, that have carved detail,  use a glue gun to glue on the design.
Then, paint with acryclic paints. If you glued a design, you may or may not want to paint the design in a lighter/darker shade.

Light-Up Wand

I'm sure you've seen the wands that nearly all Harry Potter merchandise sellers sell. The light-up plastic wands (so horribly overpriced).

Why not DIY? That's my preferred method. Above is my fully-functioning "Lumos" wand. Its obviously not finished. I won't be finishing it, though, because my brilliant 6 year old sister decided to 1) leave the already half-used bulb on for several hours, and 2) tried taking it apart to see if she could fix it before I realized. :D

Below are instructions!

French Braiding

I finally learned how to French Braid properly! My sister usually doesn't like me to experiment with hairdos on her because it "HURTS!!!" But I convinced her. :)
What you see in the picture is... rather confusing. But it holds hair back nicely, and is pretty. I did it for my friend before her basketball game, and it stayed in! Its two sets of french braids on either side of the head. The braids ended at the middle of her head, and I then pulled the rest of the hair into a single french braid with a ribbon in it.

My favorite french braid so far is the one that looks like a circle crown.

Penguin Amigurumi

What is Amigurumi? I'd wondered that myself. It is, apparently, the "Japenese art of crocheting small dolls or toys."

On the Fairy Tale Novels Fourm, I was on an adventure with Yaviel. We metamorphed into purple penguins and got kidnapped by The Boss... well, long story short, I made a penguin for Yaviel!

I'd seen some pictures of crocheted dolls on Ravelry, and thought I'd go for it. I pulled out yarn scraps and set to work! I did not follow any pattern (I didn't even know it was called Amigurumi, and had never done any pattern similar before).

I did alot of things in very ineffective ways (I have since learned how to crochet multiple colors properly. All I did was sew white ontop of the purple). But I got a very cute little three-inch penguin! :)

I think I will be trying Amigurumi again. Although I might actually spend the time to find a pattern and/or basic amigurumi instructions.