Leslie Hall is a Midwest Diva

Please send a representative. I've just made the world's smallest gem sweater in the world. Seriously, it is small. And it has gems on it. And I made it. That's why it says "Crafty is Cool"!

Leslie Hall in her Crafty is Cool gem sweater. It needs a name.

More photos after the jump!

Sue, Spies, Star Wars, and a Superhero

Back in November, I announced that I would have a contest on my facebook page to end all contests.  When I got 500 fans, I said, I would let everyone "nominate" their choice of a new CraftyisCool design.  When all the submissions came through, I would choose ten that were best suited for amigurumi and that I thought fit in with my other designs.  Each would be sketched out, listed on my fan page, and voted on by CraftyisCool fans.  The winning design would be turned into a CraftyisCool pattern, and the finished toy would be gifted to the person who came up with the idea.

The results are in!  After counting up all the votes (OK really I had just had to look and see which had the most "likes".  There was no counting involved!), the clear cut winner was Sue Sylvester from Glee!  That means that Jennifer Williams will be receiving her own Sue!  Congratulations, Jennifer! 

When the pattern is finished, I will be making it free for a limited time with a $10 or more purchase from either my Etsy shop or my Ravelry shop. 

In other news, before Christmas, a friend of Parker Jacobs, an absolutely AMAZING artist and the art director for a little show you may have heard of, Yo Gabba Gabba (!), decided he needed a mini-me for an extra-special Christmas gift!  Who doesn't?!  So she ordered him a little Parker, complete with props, sunglasses, and a hat.  He's in a 60s spy-themed band called GOGO13 and plays the ukulele, so naturally his little yarn-self plays one too.  Did you know Parker's cool trick is baking special birthday cakes?  He was thoughtful enough to send me this awesome photo! They look alike, right?!

In my family, there's lots and lots of boys and they all share a common interest: Star Wars.  So I thought I'd heard of all the characters, knew all the story lines, but when my nephew turned 16 and I asked him what he wanted, he named someone I had to look up: Grand Admiral Thrawn.  Apparently he's a somewhat obscure character that first appears in a series of books by Timothy Zahn.  After lots of Google image searches I came up with a little Thrawn that my nephew thought was pretty great.

So you're all watching Conan right?  You've seen "The Flaming C", his superhero alter-ego?  I have been making lots of Conan dolls but I definitely needed to make a Flaming C.  Here he is! 

One last thing: Are you all subscribed to the really fun Lion Brand newsletter, Yarnplay?  Every month this newsletter comes with more fun patterns than the last!  You should really subscribe. Really. So..Click here and SUBSCRIBE!

Because I am so CLASSY....

Haha.  Get it, classy?  I'm going to be teaching CLASSES!  Yeah, yeah.  Har har. 

So I get my Moo cards, and I think, I need to give these things out!  They're adorable!  They have my information on one side, and pictures of some of my creations on the other.  I love them.  Anyway, I get the little box and decide to head over the yarn store down the street (literally), The Knitting Nest.  They are having a class with Franklin Habit, a popular blogger, knitter, writer, comic-drawer (word?), and its Worldwide Knit in Public Day.  The owner was around and I asked her if she'd like my patterns to sell, she said she had seen my Conan and she'd love it.  Long story short, I dropped off a binder-full of patterns to display (just order them on etsy like everyone else! ;)) and a Pee-Wee, a DJ Lance Rock, Michael Jackson (I'll get to that in a minute), and a Conan!  I also brought along a rainbow of baby monsters, 10 to be exact, that I'm going to show you, blog reader, how to make! (IF you take my Basic Amigurumi class July 8th from 10:30-12:30 OR July 17th 2-4 at The Knitting Nest, in Austin.)

I'm also going to teach a class on a more "advanced" project, which my little boy, 4 (that's his age, not his name), dubbed "Lovey".  They're doing a Monster-making contest for July, hence the monstrous projects.

If these projects don't look challenging enough and you want to go a step further, there's the "Make Your Own Monster" (or whatever else you want to make) Workshop, July 25th from 2-5.  When I make all my amigurumi, I start with a sketch, draw all over that sketch with nonsensical (to others) numbers and drawings and chickenscratch, and come up with a pattern.  Then I start crocheting, making adustments as I go.  I'm going to teach you how to do this too, starting with a simple sketch.

The Knitting Nest has every flavor of Cascade 220 wool yarn imaginable.  It's a little breathtaking when you walk in and see the spectrum of color on the wall.  I'm about ready to toss all the acrylic that is crowding my bins and trade it all in for nicer yarn, but I have to take baby steps.  It really feels different to work with better yarn.   

So if you're in Austin, I'd love to have you in one of my classes!  If you're not in Austin, it is a nice place to visit and I'll see you there anyway!  I'm excited to start and hope you can learn a lot. 

What I was also going to show you was my "yet-to-have-a-written-pattern-for" Michael Jackson!  I wanted to make a Michael for a while and had so many different looks to choose from.  I had to go with this Beat It look, just for that jacket.  And yes, sticklers-for-accuracy, he didn't actually wear that bedazzled glove in that video, but how could I make Michael and not crochet a tiny sparkly glove?  I shall write that pattern, even if it kills me, which the jacket may nearly do, because there's so many little details.  But besides the jacket, how about that jeri curl yarn?  Amazing, huh?  Wait for the pattern, dear crocheters.  All in good time. 

So now you're done reading this extra-long blog post and now you are going to call the Knitting Nest, drop by to see all my work, or email Stacy to sign up, right?

Break it Down!

This pattern has been on my list of things to do for a long time, and I think when I have a long list of things to do I get a little restless.  I'm really really really good at procrastinating, so much so that I picked the thing on the bottom of my list (DJ Lance Rock) and made him instead of you know, another load of laundry.  I have about a million Conan O'Brien dolls to complete, and don't get me wrong, I'm way ahead of schedule on those but it gets a little tedious.  So this weekend I took a little break and made a super cool dancing DJ---DJ Lance Rock!  I think you'll like making him too, and if you want to start out slow, here's his boombox! 

BOOMBOX:

Front and back (make 2):
Using gray yarn and an E hook, ch 16.
R1: sc into second stitch from hook and next 14 st, ch 1, turn (15)
R2-9: sc into each st, ch 1, turn.
Do not ch 1, turn on the last row. Fasten off and leave a long tail.

Edge (make 1):
Using gray yarn and an E hook, ch 5.
R1: sc into second stitch from hook and next 3 st, ch1, turn (4)
R2-9: sc into each st, ch 1, turn (4)
R10: sc into BLO, ch 1, turn (4)
R11-25: sc into each st, ch 1, turn (4)
R26: sc into BLO, ch 1, turn (4)
R27-34: sc into each st, ch 1, turn (4)
R35: sc into FLO, ch 1, turn (4)
R36-49: sc into each st, ch 1, turn (4)
Do not ch 1, turn on the last row. Fasten off and leave a long tail.

Sew edge piece around the front of the boombox. Stitch the back onto the edging, leaving it open to stuff. Stuff with polyester fiber fill, a foam block cut to size, or a stack of polyester batting. Stitch completely closed and hide yarn tail within boombox.

Speakers (make 2):
Using dark pink yarn and an E hook, make an adjustable ring, ch 1, and sc 6 into ring. Pull closed.
R1: 2sc into each st (12)
Fasten off and sew speakers to front of boombox.

Finishing:
Cut a square of black felt to fit the front of the boombox a shown. Stitch a row each of pink, green, yellow, and blue as shown. Stitch across the middle with white yarn. Sew or glue the panel to the front of the boombox.

Create a handle for the boombox! Fold a pipecleaner in half and bend into the handle shape. The handle should be almost the length of the boombox. With a very long piece of yarn, wrap the handle all the way around with gray yarn. Stick the handle straight down into the top of the boombox. Sew the pipe cleaner into the boombox by wrapping the base tightly and knotting the yarn, then repeating.
 

DJ Lance is available in my Ravelry shop!  If you use this pattern and like it, let me know!  I'd love to see your finished boomboxes and DJs!  Make sure you link back to me if you share this pattern----thanks :)