Kansas City Crafty

Designing Your Own Amigurumi: The Math of Shapes

By Nicky on April 18, 2013 in Amigurumi, Knitting

I actually learned to crochet just so I could make all these adorably weird little creatures I’d been seeing every where. I had all kinds of weird critters bouncing around in my head. They needed an outlet. I loved seeing what everyone was making, but I needed to release my own oddities into the world.

So I started collecting patterns, taking the basic shapes and turning them into what I saw in my own head. But I wanted a bit more freedom. Starting with a basic shape and exploring from there is really the best way to figure out what you’re doing and how stitches work together.

The amazing Anna Hrachovec of MochiMochiLand has a breakdown of the basic shapes in her first book Knitting MochiMochi. (Side note: If you don’t have this book, you should.) She talks about knitting the shapes, but the math also works for crochet. Because it’s math.

Tube

No increases. Just keep crocheting in a circle. It won’t go anywhere.

Flat Circle

8 evenly-spaced increases

Round Shape

6 evenly-spaced increases. For a sphere, increase until your little heart says stop, then keep decreasing by 6.

When knitting it helps to have an even round between each increase round to smooth everything out, but I don’t feel like it’s super necessary with crochet. It does help to make the piece a little bigger though. Play around with it.

These are just three super basic shapes, but just like drawing they combine into the complex stuff. Add some eyes, stretch out the sphere by putting more even rounds in the middle, use flat circles for ears… Build on the basics.

I’m learning to embrace the math. It really does make the creative stuff easier (who freaking knew??).

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Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

By Nicky on February 25, 2013 in Recipes

I like vegetables. No, really. But I don’t want them deep fried or completely crusted in salt and cheese (at least not all the time) and steamed vegetables get old really fast. I love junk food, but if I’m trying to eat healthy, I try not to kid myself and make something good into something terrible.

So I’ve been looking for different ways to serve them. Ways that dress the veggies up a bit without stripping them of all their veggie dignity.

This simple recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts is perfect: super easy and tastes delicious.

You’ll only need three ingredients for this recipe:

Brussels sprouts (about 6 to 7 cups)
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
Seasoning (I used Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper, but use whatever you’d like. Even just salt and pepper taste good.)

Rinse the sprouts well with water.

Now for each sprout, cut off the stem portion.

Cut each one in half. Because these sprouts were so large I cut many into fourths.

Put all of the cut up sprouts into a large bowl.

Drizzle the olive oil on top, and add your spices. There’s no exact measurement, because everyone has different tastes. You probably don’t want to completely cover the veggies, but I like a generous amount of flavor.

Now get your hands in there and mix it all up. You want the oil and seasoning to be evenly mixed throughout the Brussels sprouts. You could use a spoon, but you’re more likely to end up with greased up vegetables all over your floor. Use your hands. Much easier.

Spread them out on a foil lined baking sheet in a single layer and bake them for about 30 minutes at 400°, stirring about every 10 to 15 minutes.

Let them cool for a couple of minutes then enjoy!

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Easy Valentine’s Day Nails

By Nicky on February 7, 2013 in Nails

Have you seen the “art nails” pictures that have been going around? The crazy manicures where women are painting amazingly detailed pictures on their nails?

I found them by accident, but I’m addicted. I searched for more manicures, poured over the pictures, and decided I had to learn. What’s one more hobby, right? Besides, I could use some help in pretty-ing up my hands. Between bartending, boxing classes and trapeze, they are not the prettiest. As you can see in the pictures, my hands are often scratched, bruised and calloused. I don’t have a fancy manicure (it would never last), but nail polish is the easiest way to make them look better.

There are plenty of easy-to-start designs to try, and since it’s just before Valentine’s Day, I started with hearts.

I bought a set of nail art brushes and I used the bended brush for this, but I’ll show you how to use a toothpick to paint the hearts.

For the hearts design, you’ll need a base/top coat (I used Sally Hansen’s Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat), a neutral color (I used Revlon’s Timeless) and a red or pink (I used Nicole by OPI’s Berry Sweet).

**After I bought the polish, I learned that the Sally Hansen company tests on animals. When this bottle is finished, I’ll be finding a cruelty free alternative.**

Paint your base coat first and let it dry. Don’t skip the base coat! It will keep your nails from discoloring. I started using it after my bare toenails were stained pale green from a polish. Eww.

When this is dry, which should be fairly quickly, you’ll need two coats of your neutral color.

Don’t worry if it’s messy. You can clean it up later.

Make sure you wait until the first coat is dry to paint the second coat! This is the absolute hardest part for me. I’d recommend thirty minutes to an hour to be safe. I seem to be a master at smudging polish though, so maybe you’ll have better luck. Either way, make sure each layer is dry before moving on to the next.

This color is gorgeous all on it’s own. I’m a big fan of gray, and this polish is neutral enough to wear everyday and has great coverage. But if you’re feeling adventurous, go for the hearts.

Pour a little bit of your heart color on a paper plate. Pour slowly, or you’ll end up with the entire bottle in a puddle.

Take your brush or toothpick and pickup a small blob of paint. Paint one dot where you’d like the heart to be.

Paint a second dot right next to the first.

Now connect the dots into a third point below and between them to form a heart.

That’s it! Use the toothpick to smooth it out a bit, but don’t fuss over it too much. Up close your hearts may look messy:

Super messy up close (I did these with my bad hand)

But I promise they’ll look fine.

See? No need to go crazy-perfectionist here.

When the hearts are dry, add a topcoat to smooth everything out. I like to do one one each nail and three on the middle finger, but even just painting hearts on one accent nail would look cute. Play around and see where you like them.

If you’re like me, you’ll have polish that didn’t quite make it onto the nail. Just use a Q-Tip and some polish remover and clean it up.

Now go enjoy your festive hands!

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Craft Room in Your Pocket: Smartphone Apps for Crafters

By Nicky on January 10, 2013 in Tech, Tools

I have a smartphone. I love it. I just recently also got an iPad. I’m loving that too.

Hello, new friends

Games are fun ( I wasted a decent amount of time on Temple Run the first week I had my phone), but these are amazing pieces of technology, capable of putting the world right at our fingertips. I want to get the most out of them. So I went on a search for great apps. After all, these gadgets are only useful if well-equipped, right? In addition to the many, many fart noise generators I found (the first one clearly didn’t fill the void in the market), there are some phenomenal apps to help turn your gadget into a serious craft tool.

Craftsy

I’m still pretty new to Craftsy, but I love the concept. Online classes and support to increase your skill set. Most of the classes aren’t free (though some good ones are!), but the app is, and once you download it you have access to all of the classes you’ve bought. Only seems to be available on iPad and iPhone right now.

Color Grab

I love this one! See a color you like on a flower, a billboard, where ever, just open the app, point at the color and it will tell you the color name, hue, HGB and HSV values.

Color-grabbing my yoga mat

It’s not just blue, it’s Riptide.

Awesome app if you’re picking paint colors (you have the exact color saved on your phone to get the right paint) or if you’re doing any kind of graphic design. This one is just for Android phones. If you’ve got an Android, get it. It’s fun to just play with, even if knowing your dog’s actual color is “bourbon” has no immediate use.

Pinterest

Pinterest App Screenshot

I was embarrassingly late to Pinterest. I’ve only been there for about a month. I was nervous it would distract me even further from things I’d like to get done. I was correct. And now I can access it anywhere. Pin. Pin everything.

Floss Checklist

Another one just for Android devices, but it’s a great one for embroiderers. It enables you to inventory your thread stash so you always know what you have and what you need. It even includes a canvas calculator so you can figure out what size you’ll need. It supports several major floss brands (although you know you’ve got my heart, DMC).

Fabric Stash

A stash app for your fabric, available on iPhone/iPad. You can take photos of your fabrics, add notes, and organize them by color, manufacturer or line, or style. When you’re shopping and spot yet another perfect fabric, you can easily check your stash to see if it coordinates or if you really need another monkey print (you probably do).

Ravelry Photo Uploader

This app lets you upload photos from your Android device to your Ravelry account. You can use it with the Ravulous app, which I haven’t tried yet, so I just use it with the mobile Ravelry site.

Arts and Crafts Coupons

Arts and Crafts Coupons Screenshot

I just downloaded this Android app, and I can’t wait to use it. It has coupon codes for tons of major craft supply stores and websites.

The codes are user contributed, so they may not always work, but from the high praise it’s gotten it looks like it’s working quite well, and no more carrying those paper coupons to each store. This app is coming with me on my next trip.

This is just a small sampling. Really, there are tons of craft-friendly apps to choose from. There’s a whole world beyond Angry Birds. Take that amazing little piece of machinery in your pocket and make it work for you.

I’m always on the lookout for great useful apps. Have a favorite? Let me know!

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We’ve Moved!

By Nicky on January 4, 2013 in Uncategorized

The past two weeks have been hectic, but great. The week before Christmas, my boyfriend surprised me with keys to the house. He’d closed early and made everyone keep it a secret from me. One night he told me there was a problem at the house and we needed to go talk to the sellers, but when we got to the house there was nothing but a lit Christmas tree and he told me that we could move in.

How sweet is he?

So in addition to Christmas and New Year’s, we’ve been frantically getting everything moved in. But I am now officially out of my apartment (how on Earth did I ever get so much stuff?!) and we are no longer sleeping on a mattress in the living room. There’s still a lot to do, but at least this house is now a functional living space.
Did I mention that I love it? Because I do. I love it. I love the house, I love living with my boyfriend, I love our dogs (though they still aren’t wild about each other), I love the location. We’re back in the suburb that I grew up in just outside of the city. We’re closer to both of our parents here too (that’s good; we like them).

So now I’m turning my attention to my craft room. And it needs attention.

That’s the craft room right now. Chaos. Lots of boxes. Boxes full of I’m not entirely sure what. While moving things in, what will become my creative sanctuary quickly turned into a catch-all for my stuff. And it’s a lot of stuff.
So this is my project for the next week. Get this room working. I’ll get fancy with decorating it later. Right now, I want a space to create (without leaving clay and yarn and fabric scraps all over the house).

Alright, time to tackle these boxes.

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Book Review: Sewing for the First Time

By Nicky on November 15, 2012 in Uncategorized

After playing with my sewing machine a little for our Halloween costumes, I’ve really wanted to do more with it. I’d been thinking about starting some easy projects to relearn some sewing basics for awhile. Years ago, when I was first learning to sew, my mom gave me the book Sewing for the First Time by Mary Jo Hiney.

The book is set up so that each project steps you through advancing skills. I chose technique 4, “How do I make a basic pillowcase?” to start with.

I did end up with a pillowcase that I’m happy with. But the instructions can be very confusing and a little awkward to follow (several times within each project you’re instructed to refer back to another section of the book for the step required).

For this project, the book offers several options for hemming the contrasting band around the pillowcase, which is what I was trying to learn. I love that there are so many options and techniques shown. But again, they can be extremely confusing. It took me several times reading through several of the options to figure out what they were talking about, and I’m not brand new to sewing.

The beginning section on tools is also pretty overwhelming. So many things are listed without any indication of what’s essential and what really is just extra. For example, under “What measuring tools do I need?”, a tape measure is fourth on a list of five, after two separate hem gauges, one of which sticks to your sewing machine. Although I’m sure it can be very helpful, there’s just no reason to include that in a beginner’s “What tools do I need?” section.

Unfortunately, I think this book falls into the trap of a very experienced teacher assuming the reader already knows more about the subject being taught. Ms. Hiney is clearly an accomplished seamstress, and while things like grain line and nap are mentioned as important, they are skirted over in footnotes, assuming that the reader will already understand.

I’ll definitely keep this book around as a reference. There are some great skills throughout the book, though they are often put in overly complicated projects. I believe that with the little bit of experience sewing that I have and the help of a more accomplished seamstress like my mother, I can get a lot out of this book.

But if you’re brand new to sewing, this one is a bit too confusing.

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Halloween!

By Nicky on November 2, 2012 in Uncategorized

I had so much fun this year for Halloween! Jeff’s friends throw a big Halloween party every year, and we went as Ariel and Prince Eric. (Kind of cheesy, I know, but so much fun.)

I was determined not to buy a costume this year, and my mom helped us get our outfits ready.

She added blue felt and gold fringe to Jeff’s Navy uniform to turn him into a prince.

Ignore my actual hair peeking out from the wig.

My mom also helped me with my skirt/tail. I started very late, or I’d have gone fancier, but it was still fun.

After the party, and all the dancing

Thank God for the internet and tips on making a cheap wig wearable! A little conditioner and a couple of pots of water through the coffee maker did wonders for this Party City wig.

We both had fun.

The party was last Friday. I had to work on Halloween. I work in a bar, and we threw a massive Halloween party. I wanted something cool, but because there’s not a lot of room behind the bar and I knew we’d be super busy, I didn’t want to wear a fancy costume. I decided to do some fancy makeup and not worry about the outfit.

That’s definitely glue in my eyebrows.

Happy to say that it was effective. Several customers and a couple of coworkers told me they weren’t sure how to look me in the eyes, and a few people even thought that was my own hair (despite the fact that my hair is super curly and not bright red).

I had so much fun playing with the makeup that even though Halloween is now over, I have several crazy looks I still want to try. It’s definitely an art I haven’t given enough time.

Hope your holiday was also safe and fun!

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How Important is Gauge in Amigurumis?

By Nicky on October 10, 2012 in Amigurumi

Is gauge important for amigurumi? Well, yes and no.

No, gauge is not as important for amigurumi as it is for, say, a sweater. A sweater needs to fit a person. The sleeves need to go all the way down the arms and the body needs to be wide enough to fit over the chest.

Amigurumi is a little more “free form” in that we’re usually not dealing with an exact size.

It is important though that the stuffing stays on the inside of whatever you are making, meaning that gauge is still important to consider.

The yarn I used for the blue monster, Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn!, suggests a size I-9/5.5 mm hook. Here’s a swatch in single crochet using the suggested hook:

In contrast, here’s a swatch using the same number of stitches and rows that I made with the hook I use, a size F/5 3.75mm:

Big difference!

I admit that it is definitely easier to crochet with the larger hook, but using a couple of sizes smaller than the yarn recommends gives us a much denser fabric with little to no space between stitches, which is exactly what we need.

I use acrylic yarn when crocheting amigurui because it is cheap and very strong. These yarns can handle some abuse! I’ve even snapped a couple of hooks in the process (but I’ve since gone up a size).

The extra dent in my finger after crocheting

Use whatever hook gets you the results you want.

If you’re new to making amigurumi, jst remember to use a hook about two sizes smaller than suggested on the yarn. Crochet a small piece, stuff it full, and adjust hooks if you need to.

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The Blue Monster Lives!

By Nicky on October 7, 2012 in Amigurumi

She’s finished! At last!

I finished and attached the legs yesterday, gave her a bow and called her finished. I’m so excited. When I started this project months ago I expected it to take about two weeks. Whoops. But that’s alright. At least I’ve finished.

I’d love to get a little picture booth set up to get good pictures of what I make. As soon as I get brave enough to organize my craft room (eep!) I’ll find a spot to get something set up. But until then, where ever the sun is shining into my apartment will have to do.

She’s been another learning experience in construction. Although I really love her, now I know how I can make the next one even better. I’ve already got several ideas spinning in my head!

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Charts to the Rescue

By Nicky on October 3, 2012 in Amigurumi

So I’ve picked The Blue Monster back up. I am determined to finish her.

I’ve been stuck on her legs. Of course I have been. They’re the last thing I have to make for her. In fact, as soon as I get one finished, the other will be no trouble at all. It’s just a duplicate of the first. I think somtimes I just like to throw up unnecessary roadblocks.

Anyway, I’ve been making an effort to put a lot more thought into the shaping, the actual crocheting of my creatures, and to document the process so I can recreate them and even (hopefully soon) write up my own patterns.

After crocheting and frogging one round a few times, I decided to try charting. Why I hadn’t thought of that before is a mystery to me; I am a very visual learner. I drew my round in symbols (some symbols I made up just to get a visual going).

How could this not be clear?

I still wasn’t getting the numbers right. I went from 20 stitches to 13 stitches when I’d only meant to subtract 4. Now my math skills are seriously lacking in several areas, but even I know that’s not right.

So I simplified it.