Heh. I forgot this is 'posed to be a knitting blog.

Yes, there is knitting and crocheting and sewing in the midst.

Ribbed Baby Jacket as featured in Prima Magazine July 2005 for one of two team mates who are expecting litte girls this October. Using my Rowan All Seasons Cotton in Pansy.


Going to finish the February Sweater from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann and give it to one of my expecting co-worker's too.

This Brooklyn Tweed's beautiful rendition.

Still hooking away on Benny the Monkey from Amigurumi Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Doherty

I'll forever make white cotton washclothes.

and I've decided its time to start working on a new cubicle cardigan because as I type I'm convulsing from the arctic A/C.

The new cubicle cardigan shall be the Lotus Cardigan by Norah Gaughan for Berroco Design.
I got a whole mess of Jasper in Black Galaxy from the WEBS table when Gwenie Gwen and I went to Stitches Midwest last summer.

Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute

by Elisabeth A. Doherty

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

It is pure genius for anyone interested in learning to crochet Amigurumi.
My first foreray into the world of Amigurumi came when I bumbled across Elisabeth Doherty's, now defunct, Etsy shop. Never fear, you can still visit her "Gourmet Amigurumi" website and read her "Gourmet Amigurumi" blog.

I am amazed at the high level of detail and elegant nature of her techniques. I am most enamored of her human and humanoid dolls. Notice the texture of the hair, the tiny embroidering and felted bits used for the face expression. Her dolls have thumbs and toes, knee dimples, some even have polished toe nails, shoes, beads, etc.

As soon as I laid eyes on them, I wanted so desperately to learn her method of doing Amigurumi. Finally, after a couple years, Elisabeth bestowed upon us her crochet wisdom in her first book titled "Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute".

The first section of the book details very clearly the necessary supplies and techniques used to create her kind of Amigurumi. Having crocheted since I was in the 4th grade, I have to agree with all her recommendations, most especially using high quality crochet hooks like the Clover Soft Touch Hooks and using soft acrylic like Caron Simply Soft. She even includes a hand stretching section in the back of the book.

The book is entirely in color with clear, concise illustrations and very clever tips and tricks nestled throughout. In this book, she gives us patterns on how to make everything from scrumptious crocheted food, cute barnyard and woodland creatures and her signature human and humanoid dolls.

This, to me, is the bible of all things Amigurumi.

Making Me. Amigurumi, Baby!

After seeing Beezie's action figure doll, I was motivated to make my own Divalicious baby, too.

To that end, I've found this cute FREE Amigurumi Girl Doll pattern on CraftZine.com.

I've long been fascinated with Amigurumi and am again obsessed by it. I want one!

My all time favorite Amigurumi artist extraordinaire is
Beth Doherty, creator of Gourmet Amigurumi.


Beth's Flickr Photo Gallery

Her dolls are so intricate and expressive. I just love all of them. *gush* She's so cool.
*secretly covets her*

Joann Sensations Felted Knit & Crochet Purse Kit

Those who REALLY know me, know that I have a COMPULSION to buy crafts. I mean they know me by name at Joanns Etc., Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

So today, I got the SUDDEN URGE to get dressed and roll over (been eating WAY too much lately) to Joanns and see what they had on sale.

You see I'm about to unveil some new knitting accessory items in my GirleyPurls store and needed some more materials. *wringing hands* The only person that has some of my new wares is my friend Gwenie Gwen. *cheesing* I'm still working out some of the kinks, but once I finalize a production method and such. You'll see my new items displayed for all to see. YEAH!

Anywho, I'm bumbling around the yarn dept. and I spy with my left eye, this felted purse kit for $9.00 with 4 skeins of this variegated pink wool yarn that looks kinda like Paton SWS, but it's not soy silk like SWS, but for NINE DOLLARS what the heck! *shrug* So, I got 2 kits. YES!

Going to make some more fuzzy feets with it. As I was standing there perusing the lot of kits a nice lady walks up behind me and starts talking about how she felted a purse once and how expensive it was. *nod* I agreed and hipped her to the fuzzy feet. Told her to go google 'em. She was appreciative and said that she was glad she'd talked to me. YEAH! *pat on the back* I like being helpful at the store. I know where everything is, too. Sad, but true. The customers frequently ask me where stuff is and I walk them over to it. I really should get a job there, but nah.

Amigurumi Obsession

While I was browsing around Etsy today, I stumbled onto something called "Amigurumi". Basically, these are little crocheted animals. They are SO CUTE!

I found the best Amigurumi artist: ElisabethD at http://www.gourmetamigurumi.etsy.com/

Here are some of my favorites animals that Elisabeth has made:

KrabbyKat Bikini Kitten Pinky Capribunny CuppyCake Seafoam Dumbunny PinkyBear