crafty things · crochet

Tales of Orasai: Christmas Amigurumi #3

Dragon made by Kara Hartz based on character created by Anna Hartz

My daughter wrote and illustrated a comic book for her digital art class last year. For her Christmas amigurumi this year I thought she would like one of her original characters made into plush form. This little dragon is one of the main characters and I think it turned out pretty well considering I really had no pattern at all to go on for this one. It is a character that doesn’t exist outside our home yet after all.

The kiddo gave me permission to share some of her art showing the character so you could judge for yourself how well I adapted the drawing to crochet, but I’m apparently not tech savy enough to take a single page from her PDF file and post it here as a picture. We are having other issues with the PDF file as well. She made the comic in Adobe Illustrator – she had access to a student subscription to do the work last year, but we no longer have that access. The file she exported at the end of class also somehow changed the order of a few pages so the story isn’t in order anymore. That’s been a problem for trying to have it printed to share with family. If anyone has advice or can direct me to where I can learn to alter PDF files to make these corrections I’d love the help. Google is not helping me so far.

Anyway, he’s cute and looks a lot like his drawing and you’ll just have to trust me on that.

Edit to add: Here are some photos of her comic: it’s so cute. I originally forgot the little poof on the tali tip, but I’ve added that on now.

Tales of Orasai cover by Anna Hartz
Tales of Orasai panel
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More Handmade Gifts (this time for me!)

My girls made Christmas gifts for me this past year as well. An adorable little wooden TARDIS – the door really open and everything. I’m trying to decide what to keep in there. And the cute black cat keychain. The cat has green eyes just like our Meeko kitty. I’m undecided where to keep that one too. The bag I use the most is also black and I’m afraid it won’t show up well. So I suppose it would be best on my small purple purse. The downside is that I don’t use it as much, but maybe that would make me worry less, because if I break it I would be super sad.
These kids have leveled up in a major way this year in their crafting skills. I’m just so – Wow! about these.

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Christmas AmiguruMe!

I found this adorable book at the library, and decided that THIS is what I was making the girls for their Christmas amigurumi this year. They were more challenging to make than anything I’d tried before, but a challenge is good, and the instructions were great for the most part. I loved the book so much I think I may have to pick myself up a copy to keep. I have 2 more nieces who I’d like to make as gifts. The author/creator also has a book for making pets that looks fun, and one of cute food. If you’re on Raverly her page is worth a look. So much cuteness! And I found a free pattern there for Sneeches (with and without belly stars!) I think I’m making that next.
Eldest daughter AmiguruMe by Kara Hartz

Youngest daughter AmiguruMe by Kara Hartz

Niece AmiguruMe by Kara Hartz
While I don’t think I’ve ever posted photos of my kids, or my niece – trust me, this is exactly what they look like. Those little sandals and flip flops were the toughest, but turned out so cute!

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2016 Christmas Amigurumi: Ashoka Tano and a Blue Minecraft Sheep

Ashoka Tand and Blue Minecraft Sheep Amigurumi crocheted and photographed  by Kara Hartz

Every year, I crochet a gift for my girls. Traditionally, it has been a pokemon. This year my oldest daughter had been obsessed with Star Wars (she makes her mother proud), and the younger is all about Minecraft (another amazing kid – how did I get so lucky!?). So I decided to try to make something to match their current passions. 

I made the sheep first, and am not super happy how it turned out. If you look at the pattern, it was supposed to use something called ‘iris’ yarn and a 0.9 mm crochet hook. That hook is so small it’s difficult to see, and I’d never heard of iris yarn before, but from the picture I’d say it could probably also be called ‘thread’. So I wimped out in tacking something so tiny, and I just made the sheep with plain ole Red Heart yarn and a G hook knowing it may not turn out right,. I knew that was a risk I was taking. The kiddo says she loves it, so I guess I’ll be happy with that even though it isn’t quite as blocky as I wanted it to be. I’m half tempted to try the thread version – but not yet. Must rest the hands from the marathon crochet session getting ready for Christmas.
The Ashoka Tano pattern is actually what gave me the idea to make something different this year. I don’t remember what I was looking for at the time, but when I stumbled upon the picture of a crocheted Ashoka, I knew I had to make it. She is one of my daughter’s very favorite characters, and she is now rewatching the Cone Wars series with me to bring me up to speed about Ashoka so I can read the recent book featuring her. One of the cool parts of this doll is the wire inside her limbs and lightsaber that make her pose-able. Plus, she looks fairly complicated, but I found that she made up fairly easily and quickly. The most important thing though – the kiddo loves her. I’ve seen her holding her off and on over the past few days since Christmas. That’s what a maker wants to see. Yea!

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Gifts for the Hard to Buy For

Getting back our Grand Opening Week, I wanted to start with one of our more popular items around the holidays. The Gift Album.
It’s a little like a gift card, but more personal. It’s a little catalog of products, and your lucky gift recipient gets to pick out what they want. Simple. They come in just about any value range you could want, or they also come by product type. There are teen albums, guy albums, jewelry, even a chocolate one!
My sister-in-law gets these for all the teenagers on her list because she never know what they want, but she doesn’t like giving cash as a gift.
They’re also great for long distance gifts because they’re cheep to ship.
A Gift Album also makes a nice year-end gift from an employer to their workers.

To see the whole selection of albums, click here:
https://greatlife.mychoices.biz/Retail/Products.aspx?PG=3
and type – gift album – in the search bar.