Techforevil - Techforevil 🤖

Sadie the Sailor Dog from Ricorumi

Two main things from this one I'd like to improve on are:

colour changes - I managed to hide the worst of the jumper and life ring stripes at the back or inside but for the future, making them a bit tidier wouldn't hurt. 😬

making pom poms. It looks horrid and falls apart when looked at.

I liked this one much more than Toft patterns! Very little sewing but what I did do (ears) turned nicer than expected. I didn't have suitable safety eyes when I made this but actually it doesn't look too bad.

I took it to my Spanish class to show to someone who also crochets (mostly flat things) and everyone loved her. 😌

(Shit lighting but I could not be bothered to retake pics. : ))

Kangaroo (with a baby!)

A super quick one, simple to crochet but with A LOT of sewing (see here for WIP parts).

From a free pattern by StringyDingDing:

the pouch was ending up way too small and I had to improvise

I didn't do the face shaping bit (might do later, got a turtle to sew up first x__x)

Laundry cat.

Racoon Sanitation Worker

Made using a pattern by Bogusia.

The most complex thing I've attempted yet, given the number of accessories. I'm pretty happy with her overall, but issues are obvious:

NO CLUE what is happening with the face. I think I may have lost count when joining up the legs and never recovered (but the body is fine??) or maybe just lost the round end? I've restarted the face several times and it was just not having it so I just powered through it instead of abandoning the project but the wonkiness is obvious.

Colour changes themselves ended up looking pretty sus most of the time, and seemingly every 'improvement' ended up looking worse and worse. 🤷🏻

I'd like to try this pattern again (so she can hang out with the Rogue version) and I think I'd either try to reverse it (starting from the top) or do the head separately and then join the two parts.

On the plus side, I made this with a very small hook (1.8mm) so there's virtually no perceptible gaps. 🎉

This is also the first time I've been conscious about the 'right' and 'wrong' side.. yes it took me a while. But also, no one I showed my previous stuff to cared or knew the difference - you can't really count on amateurs to provide constructive feedback esp if they like you. From now on showing WIPs to my enemies *only*.

Not directly related to the pattern but I finally learned how to do a magic circle - goodbye 2 chain butthole looking centres. 🫠

According to the pattern the bin should be closed but I left mine open and the bin bag can be put into it.

The bin bag was surprisingly tricky, and the banana surprisingly straightforward.

The project uses a real mix of different yarns - fortunately everything is sort of in proportion but variation in textures does stand out a bit. I'm undecided if this makes it more interesting or looking a bit sloppy haha.

How cute are the little claws? And the gloves??? Oh my goodness!! >.<

This is my first thing that can stand by herself sort of confidently, thanks to the mahoosive tail. : )

It took me about 2 weeks to finish everything (mostly because of the face pattern but I think working with teensy hook was also a factor). I made simpler 4 things in the week since, but I really want to make the crow wizard and penguin pirate too \m/

This has now been finished and gifted so it’s rebloggable on main! 🎉

I am mystified about quite a few aspects of this, mostly the wonkiness given that I don’t _think_ I missed any stitches while turning and even blocked it. 🤨

Anyway, the recipient seemed very happy with it, and it’s only for a baby so the most important aspect is washability haha.

am i fast enough to bash out half a 🏳️‍🌈 blanket on a train to + from Manchester? not quite yet (purple missing + edges) but pretty good progress anyway

pattern: https://hobbii.co.uk/rainbow-baby-blanket

tl;dr i finished two sheep from TOFT (Seth the Wensleydale and Tobias the Hebridean) and this is what they look like

Things that went well:

I think they are very cute and I 💖 them, I guess that's the most important : )

I'm glad I changed the colour palette for Tobias, crocheting so much in a dark yarn would have been hell even with my new neck light

Safety eyes, look much cuter than the pattern. I wish the toft patterns had more instructions on where to place the eyes, I go through A LOT of trial and error. :|

I added a second coat of sligtly longer chains to Tobias' fleece and I think it was a good decision, he looked hella flat otherwise (and it wasn't actually that much more work).

Seth has very fun texture! Reading the pattern I could not imagine how a chain you work back down can become fleece but in the end it's even more extreme than the picture. Leading to:

Things that did not go so well:

Holy fuck did I use A LOT of yarn on Seth. Obviously I misinterpreted something in the instructions about curliness or density but if I only used the 50g provided I think he would have looked patchy AF? In the end I think I used 50g just on the head, and about 125g in total - needing not one but TWO deliveries (since I thought extra 50g would do... idiot). I could tell early on it looks different but obviously was too stubborn to undo what's already been done. I'd like to say I'm gonna learn something from this but I'm not gonna sit here and lie. 😑

Black yarn fortunately means no one can see stitches on Tobias' horns, not just me. 🙄 I felt like I followed all instructions and even made 3 of each just to test if I fucked up by accident but all of them ended up looking a bit off.

Future improvements

I want to learn different ways to do a decrease (sc2tog), or maybe figure out how I'm doing it wrong - it always stands out and looks like shit. The fleece helped hide it in this instance but I won't always be so lucky...

I need more patience when sewing things together, or I'll never make anything that looks straight ahead. 💀

Fortunately I found both a crochet class from end of March and a stitch circle in my local library that just started mid-Jan so I should be able to bother some people irl for advice when a pattern does not make sense to me and just as a second pair of eyes. :')

Screens. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

¿Dónde en Londres es el mejor lugar para estudiar español? Estoy interesado en el Instituto Cervantes pero es un poco caro y los horarios no son convenientes :(

My mum would not stop asking me to make her a Frenchie amigurumi and I wanted something where I could relax a bit about the pattern/quality after the raccoon, work with a bit bigger hook etc haha. 💀

TBF I wouldn't even post it but I think it's neat to see how far I've come in terms of sheer speed- I think making both took roughly the same amount of time. 🤯 So it's a 2.5 months progress post of sorts.

Patterns:

Eleanor the Labrador from TOFT:

toftuk.com

Beginner Crochet Labrador Dog Pattern | TOFT

Beginner Crochet Labrador Dog Pattern | TOFT

Frenchie from StringyDingDing:

StringyDingDing

French Bulldog & Boston Terrier Amigurumi PDF - StringyDingDing

Crochet a Boston Terrier and French Bulldog with this printable amigurumi PDF crochet pattern! Visit our site to get it now.

And as it’s Yasujirô Ozu’s Birthday (and Deathday) what better excuse to repost this old classic from days of yore - the many (but not all) teapots of Ozu!