Link Pattern Now Available!

Alrighty everyone,

After a super long hiatus, I am back, and with a new pattern to boot! I've been in a little bit of a creative funk lately. I didn't want to make the same amigurumi's that I had been making; they took anywhere from 8-12 hours to make, and while I really like how detailed they are I wanted to make something simpler, yet still detailed. If that makes any sense.

So I made this Link! I felt that Link was one of the more difficult original amigurumis to make, mainly because of the insanely detailed sculpey work. So I wanted to make something that was crochet only--no sculpey, no sewing, no felt, just yarn--but still retain some of the really cool details.

Here you can see his sword and shield, which attach to his belt. I'm actually the most proud of his hat and hair, which I think turned out really well, although getting his legs to look right (if you remember, most of my characters don't have legs) was a challenge as well.

Anyway, the pattern is now available at my etsy shop, so pop over and have a look! Zelda is the next project I'm working on, so that Link will have a friend and after that...well, I have some vague plans after that, but I'm willing to hear suggestions! Let me know what you think about this new version of amigurumi in the comments.

Stay tuned!

And I am redeemed!

Alright everybody! I know I dishonored myself by posting that silly General Grievous yesterday, but I can make it up! Behold:
Check out this amazing Yoda! He is so detailed. His face is pretty amazing. And the little wispy hair on the back is just the icing on the cake.


And he's poseable! I love his little lightsaber.


And then Admiral Ackbar! He looks so cute and huggable, I just want to squish him! And the best part:

Well duh, Admiral.

These are all from the same amazing crochet artist featured in the post yesterday, Ravelry user guh-nome. I can't wait to see what other stuff she makes. I can tell you this--if she ever puts out patterns for any of these, I will be the first in line. Just amazing! Stay tuned!

This goes against my better judgment.

Alright, anyone who has been reading my blog for any amount of time probably knows that I hate the new Star Wars trilogy. (On a mostly unrelated side note, which will probably turn into a long and rambling story, I am a team leader at work. That being the case, I decided to do the mature, appropriate thing and force everybody to call me "Galactic Empress" and I then forced them to choose nicknames for themselves. It was going so well--I had a Jedi Knight, an Imperial Walker (I call her "atat" for short) and a Wookie Overlord. I even had people who were not on my team who wanted in, and so I even acquired an honorary Ewok and Rebel Fighter on my team. I swear, they picked the names themselves! Seriously! Then, my last team member decided that he wanted to be Jar Jar Binks. What. The. Hell. Who in the hell chooses to be Jar Jar? In the end I had to drop the whole thing. It was so embarrassing.) Anyway, I hate almost every single thing about the new trilogy. That being said, I hope you guys will appreciate me posting the following creation made by Ravelry user guh-nome:


Yeah, it's General Grievous. They might as well have called him General Bad Guy. Maybe General Evil. Okay, that's enough! This little guy is seriously awesome though. He's all poseable and looks really great. I am envious of the mad crochet skills going on here.

Anyway, I wanted to post this little guy because I think it is (another) awesome crochet project. I like crochet; it's pretty easy to make shapes and forms and I think I did pretty well creating a nice body shape for my little dudes. But some people can do way more amazing stuff! And the detail on this is incredible. Stay tuned!

Bioshock!

Check out this awesome Big Daddy! For being made entirely out of crochet, it is incredibly detailed. Full disclosure here: I've never played Bioshock. I tried to play it, but I couldn't get over the first person view (I hate first person games) and how scary it was. Call me girly, but I like games that are bright and pretty. Like Assassin's Creed. It was bright and I loved climbing all over the buildings and jumping on people and stabbing them in the neck. That's also why I couldn't get behind Fallout 3 either, it was too gray. Alright, enough rambling, back to the craft!

I love the little drill. It's amazing that you can get that kind of effect with different crochet techniques!


The best part about this is the creator put up the pattern for free! So go and create a crochet army! Stay tuned!

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Lesson 101: Star Wars

These minimalist posters are really cool. I would love to hang them all over the house! At the same time, they look like really old covers to really old boring textbooks. You know, if they made textbooks about Tatooine. Can't you just imagine some poor kid on the border planets being forced to take "Tatooine Early History--From 157-1597: The Rise of the Sand People." Alright, that sounds pretty cool. But you know, to some backwater kid who spends all of his days writing graffiti on moisture vaporators I'm sure it's pretty boring. "Moooooom, why do I have to study the history of the stupid Sand People? I want to go pick up some power converters!" You know how it is.


::Read in boring, monotone lecture voice:: The forest moon of Endor is home to many small creatures known as Ewoks. The topography of the moon, as well as the constant threat of predators, leads the natural inhabitants to create their cities high in the treetops. First we will discuss the Ewok Rebellion on 1295....
Let us take a look at the different kinds of ice crystals the sixth planet of the Hoth system has to offer....

Bespin is a giant gas planet. (pause while the audience snickers at a fart joke). One of the main mining materials comes from....

Okay, I think all I've proven here is that anything about Star Wars is interesting, even if it is talking about the Ewok Rebellions of 1295 (I just made that up, but it sounds awesome).

You can check out the rest of this guy's work over on his Flickr page. It sounds like he might be offering prints eventually, so if anyone is interested be sure to keep an eye out! Stay tuned!

Thundercats!

Sorry about the lack of posting lately, as some of you probably know Mass Effect 2 just came out and that has been eating all of my free time. Anyway, in between my brief respites from the game, I found this cute little kitty!

Oh I'm sorry, I mean manly kitty! Oh wait, that's kind of creepy. Anyway, I like the red fuzz that loveandsandwich used for the hair. And the little sword is attached by velcro!

This little guy is available on etsy for $200 (!). I don't know if there are any die hard Thundercats fans out there (I'm sure there are) but that seems a little steep. Anyway,I've made it through my first play through in Mass Effect 2, so a semi-regular schedule should be returning. Maybe. Stay tuned!

George Orwell Accessories

I know 'Orwell' and 'handbags' don't usually go together, but check out these awesome clutches! They are based on George Orwell's "Animal Farm", and I know it's been a while since I've read it but I'm pretty sure there were no penguins in that book. Because if there were it would be ten thousand times more awesome. I like the whole concept though, and the clutches are really adorable! Check them out.



I love the platypus! Did you know that platypuses are awesome? The males have venomous spurs on their back flippers, and the venom is powerful enough to kill dogs. And they hunt using echolocation--the only mammals known to do so. Anyway, I think they are cool.

This little piggy is the only animal that really screams "Animal Farm" to me, but he is really cute! All of these little guys are (or were, at least) available at TsuruBride's shop on etsy. They are a little pricey for me, especially for a clutch--which I consider to be impractical--but I still love them. Especially the penguin. So cute! Maybe I need to learn how to sew leather. Anyway, stay tuned!

It's wrong on so many levels.

Alright, we all know the new Star Wars trilogy sucked, for many many reasons (and if you would like to hear most of them listed, and have an hour and a half to waste, watch these). Anyway, one of these reasons is the ridiculous rocket jets Artoo has inexplicably attached to him. And now there is a reason they are silly beyond being just an incredibly stupid idea.

Duh, it's all so simple now! Anyway, if you'd like to read the whole scientific discussion about it, just click here. I understood almost none of it, but I'm sure there are other people out there who would appreciate it.

I usually hate little nitpicky stuff like this, and articles about how Star Wars or Star Trek isn't scientifically feasible, but this has to do with my little Artoo and it reinforces my opinion about the new trilogy and so I wanted to post it here. And you really should check out the
Phantom Menace review, it's really pretty hilarious. Stay tuned!

That's cool, my velcro was wearing thin anyway.

In the market for some new shoes? Would you like to spend ridiculous amounts of money on them? Do you want to be a lonely nerd forever? Then look no further, Adidas has the perfect shoe for you!
Some AT-AT shoes.
I love the little Stormtrooper face in the back of this shoe! Although I'm sure you can get roughly the same effect with some sharpies...
And slave Leia shoes. I'm not sure if these are intended for men or women (I hope for women, although the shape of the shoe is pretty hideous), but they're shiny!
Some of the shoes are subtle--I like the light picture of the Death Star on the side, although I have a feeling that from the front they look ridiculous.

But then some of the shoes are not so subtle. Take this shiny shoe with pictures glued on the sides.

If you want to check out the official site with pictures of all the different shoes, click here, but be warned--there is a crazy amount of flash on that site. It might be a couple of minutes before you can actually navigate anything.

Anyway I'm kind of torn about these. On the one hand, they are Star Wars merchandise, and I'm pretty sure I've been programmed to love any Star Wars stuff ever made. On the other hand they are shoes, and I hate shoes almost as much as I hate shoe shopping. Hmm. Conundrum! Would any of you actually wear these?

Stay tuned!