Cute Amigurumi!

Since Brian turned out so well, I went on to the next white cartoon dog I could think of, which was K.K. Slider!!  As a religious Animal Crossing DS player, how could I resist not making him?

I was unsure at first how K.K. would turn out.  I modeled him after the phone charm from one of those candy machines.  Here’s a picture of him, in case you don’t know what he looks like.

He sits with legs crossed, and holds a guitar – 2 challenges I was totally not looking forward to crocheting.  I had never crocheted legs that bend or have joints before, so I had no idea how I was going to do it and how it would turn out.  I also had no idea how to make a guitar, since it has sharp edges and a funny hourglass shape.  Yet, like with all my other projects, I just winged it and “forced” things to look good.  So, after much thinking and pondering, this is what I came up with.

Note how he has no tail…I got too lazy!!  and his tail is barely visible anyways.

Look!!  the legs really bend the way they’re supposed to!!  I was so pleased with them.  The guitar was alright…not as sharp as I would have wanted it to be, but I couldn’t think of any better ways to make it other than making a round gourd shape and then smashing it to look flat.  Oh!  and the cute little stool he’s sitting on, I made my dad make for me by gluing pieces of wood he cut out.

All together, K.K. is just tooooo cute~~!  The face I had my little sis help me with, cus she’s truly talented at capturing the essences of characters and being laser precise with her felt cutting.  The painting in the background of this photo shoot was also painted by her – isn’t she so talented?!

So, with 2 cute white cartoon dogs down, I will be moving on to my next one.  My dream of capturing cute cartoon white dogs in 1 picture will soon become true!  Can you guess what dog I’m going for next??  Stay tuned!

So my sister LOVES watching Family Guy on Cartoon Network everyday, and originally, I did not care for that show at all.  When it first came out, I thought the characters were utterly obnoxious and crude.  I didn’t like the simple animation style either.  Yet, slowly but surely, after many many nights of seeing my sis watch the same show and being forced to watch it with her, my opinion changed quite a bit.  Now, I am a full blown fan of that show, and just LOVE Brian and Stewie to bits!  They’re so hilarious, and I appreciate their sarcastic humor so much more, for some odd reason.  Eventually, I just HAD to make an ami of Brian, so I can look at him and think of all the funny things on that show that I so enjoy now. 

So, here it is:

Look!  He even has a cute little tail!  Sorry, I really like the tail hehe…

And the most amazing thing about him is, he STANDS!  Like, on his own!  It only took the work of 4 washers in each foot, but, whatever works right?!  Although he is a little bottom-heavy, he definitely is my most stable ami thus far, which really makes him “stand” out…to me at least.

Oh yeah, and that’s a champagne glass he’s holding.  I really had no idea how to make a thin cylindrical shape, so all I could come up with was to wrap yarn around some yarn a bajillion number of times.  Quite primitive, I agree, but I really had no other way…unless someone would be so kind to share a better method?  It would be much appreciated!

Of course, Brian just wouldn’t be Brian without Stewie!!  I was really excited after finishing Brian to have a Stewie to go along with him.  Unfortunately, Stewie is a totally different species.  It really didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked it.  So, despite my hard work trying to embroider his strange face and do all the other little bits, Stewie was a complete and utter failure!!  He ended up being just as tall as Brian, which is totally not what he should be.  It’s so embarrassing, I refuse to take a picture of them together!  So here is Stewie, all by his lonesome self:

Who knew Stewie would be so difficult.  Oh well, you really can’t win all the battles.  Sorry, Stewie, you’re exiled to my “pile of failures.” 

Moving along, my next project was to make another white cartoon dog.  Can you guess which one??  I’ll fill you in on this one next time!  Here’s a small pic to keep you interested!

Since I had to make up a pattern for Artoo and I didn’t write it down the first time, I had to clone him.

Twin Artoos!

And no, you are not seeing wrong.  Indeed, one Artoo is bigger than the other.  Let’s just say one is more "fit" for survival than the other in the womb.

Then, my dad asked me to make one for his co-worker’s son, so I cloned him again.  Now, for the time being, I have 3 Artoos! And for some funny reason, Artoo 003 got even BIGGER!  It’s ok, the bigger the better.

I must admit, it is kinda scary seeing so many Artoos.  It’s like having an army of Artoos, except they’re made of yarn and their main weapon is their cuteness.  Don’t worry, worse comes to worse, just throw ‘em at your enemies!  That’ll catch them off guard for sure!

Tea party with Artoo anyone?

Here’s a dramatic shot!

What have I learned after making THREE Artoos?  Just because you’ve made it “n” amount of times doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the same exact thing each time.  I would say I like the later 2 Artoos better, because my techniques got better.  Although my brother said he likes the original the best still.  To each their own, I suppose!

This series of amigurumis began with the birth of Bolt the friendly raindrop.  It was mighty hot this April and there were barely any showers in SoCal.  Where did all the showers go?!  How will the May flowers grow?  Thus, Bolt came to the rescue!

And since it is now May, I thought it would only be appropriate if Bolt had some friends.  Let me introduce Sunny the Sunflower and her counterpart water bucket, Polly.  Together, these three make any garden warm and friendly!

The PDF pattern for Bolt can be found at my etsy: janama.etsy.com.  Patterns for Sunny and Polly are pending!

Here are some more pics if you’re interested.

Finally, the R2D2 amigurumi pattern is OUT!!  You can find it at my etsy shop: janama.etsy.com

The story behind R2D2:

My brother’s birthday was coming up, and I needed to give him something.  Buying presents for him was always a challenge, especially since I am still a poor grad student and he’s already working.  It just so happened I started crocheting as a hobby, and decided making him something meaningful would be nicer than buying him something lame and cheap.

I knew he liked star wars a lot, so I started thinking of all the star wars characters I could make out of yarn.  I surfed the web for star wars patterns, came across a lot of yodas and ewoks and other characters, and was blown away by their cuteness.  I thought Artoo would definitely be cute since he’s a robot and no one would expect a robot to be made of yarn!  Started searching for the pattern, and unfortunately, didn’t find any.  So I was determined to make my own!

Of course, I needed some help.  I had only started crocheting 2 months ago and still didn’t know how to sew limbs onto amigurumis very well.  So I consulted my little sister, who is much better at sewing and cutting and being extra neat, to help me out.  After much trial and error in getting the right proportions, and painstakingly cutting out laser-precise felt pieces, Artoo was finished.

But, before we actually gave it to my brother, we were adding some finishing touches, and he happened to catch a glimpse of it before I could smoothly hide it away!  He immediately identified it as Artoo, and our surprise was spoiled, but he was still happy to have him finally on his birthday.  He blogged about Artoo on coderetard.com, others blogged about it, and eventually Artoo made his way to the Official Star Wars Blog.  It was truly an honor.

So, what started out simply as a birthday present for my star wars fan brother has become something I never would have imagined could happen.  To have so many people see Artoo and enjoy him is very meaningful to me. Many thanks for everyone’s feedback and comments!