... and we're back!

And better than ever!
After a long but fruitful haitus, wherein the author gets married and moves among other things, Carousel has returned with much to talk about!
You can count on updates every Monday, with posts on crafts and projects, crafty obsessions, patterns, pictures and more! Plus, I'll be revamping and filling a Carousel Etsy store with the products from everything! Old patterns are in the works of being written and updated, with many new patterns to come.

Nothing huge today, except to open to the topic of freezer paper stenciling. Even though I learned a lot of crafty things as a kid, I hadn't even heard of this until recently! For those who don't know, freezer paper stenciling is a technique where you take an image and reproduce it on cloth (tshirts, bags, etc) by ironing freezer paper with the design on, and paining in cut-out portions of it like a normal stencil. You can then rip the paper right off to reveal a clean-cut design!
Needless to say, I went nuts over this.

-My second shirt-
Not only have I been making all kinds of shirts, but I streamlined the process even more, because I have this weird need to do that sort of thing.


-more designs I made up to play with-

-Fanart shirts! The possibilities are ENDLESS, and you can get some really cool results-

So Monday I'll be dishing on that as well as posting some of my favourite resources!

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to our local Anchorage convention, Senshicon! It's a fantastic time, and I'm going to be having a booth there with loads of tshirts, raver kandi, manga, and art and tshirt commissions! It's a two day event, and always fun, so I can't wait :D

Kickin'

I'm still alive and still crocheting! I haven't blogged for these months mostly because I've been focusing on other things, like work and school. However I'm swinging back around to more crochet, to include writing up the pattern for my Murky!

Yes, I am finally at the point where this is being worked on :D Updates to follow shortly.
In addition, We have a new addition to our little family! My fiancee and I got a puppy, a 2 month old rotty/doberman mix we named Taika, and she's just ridiculously adorable! A little dumb, but cute<3
I have other things I'll be posting as well. Since I kind of obsessivly craft all different kinds of things, it would follow suite that I post more than crochet, so I want to.
Now, gettin' myself to work!

Onigiri!

An umeboshi (pickled plum) clasp, crocheted out of DMC thread!

Tasty and delicious, now in purse form!
Recently, right before the local anime and manga convention (aka, when I'm going psycho either trying to finish art or costumes), my friend and I were chatting about a bento we were going to work on. I never ended up getting to make mine, but I figure this counts.
I told her, a fellow crocheter, she should make an onigiri bag. She refused!
So I picked up yarn and whipped this up for her instead XD

The strap turned out longer than I would've liked, but oh well. It's got a little metal ring (the keychain sort) on either side to separate the strap from the onigiri bag itself. The bag was crocheted in one solid piece, with the nori (black seaweed) separate and sewn on, along with the umeboshi (red pickled plum). I personally love the umeboshi; it's cute AND functional, since it serves as a sort of nob for the loop to hold the bag closed. The purse is small already so it didn't seem like that big of a deal, but it helps. I made it have sort of a ledge thing but if I made it again, I would make it more defined to it retains the tension on the loop better. Ah, listen to me rant.

The inside, lined with fleece. Not really SUPER necessary, it's already a small bag, but it made it look more finished and put together. Also provides security XD

My dad insisited on "modeling" it haha. It's really not that big, but just big enough to be cute XD

On the home front, I'm still busy with school and work among other things, but I try to crochet when I can. Here's to more yarnage!
(I have no idea wtf that means.)

Completed Jacket!

It's done it's done it's dooooone*hearts* For the past... two months, ish, (less?) I've been working on the Curried Cable Jacket from the fall issue of last years' Interweave Crochet magazine.
Pretty na? Now my didn't turn out exactly the same, but that's just fine I suppose haha. I used a darker wool, and made it a larger size than strictly necessary to allow for shrinkage since we live in snow. It's bound to happen. Let's see... this is maybe the second or third pattern for crochet I've ever followed. :/ Am I a rebel? Guess I just don't like to follow patterns very much if I can figure it out on my own.

Pros: learned cabeling, a new form of ribbing, made my largest project and first nonhat nonmitten wearable crochet item :3
Cons: zipperrrrrr. It wouldn't behave despite ripping that thing out two or three times. The crochet fabric kept stretching out despite my best efforts and resulting in sort of a ... bubbled look. The zipper cover helps a bit though.


All in all, this project was super fun, and my sister really liked it which of course was my primary focus. :D





On the project list is the crochet blocks crochet-along, an ami that's been sitting here for three months ALMOST complete (poor guy! er gal. er guy. not sure yet.) and a few other things that I just...plan to do. Also my Free Spirit doll.

I made some mittens for a friend of mine but failed to take pictures before I gave them to her, so I'll ask her to do that X3

WIPs, Christmas, and a Crochet-along!

Last year with some Christmas money, I bought myself a wonderful crochet book called "200 Crochet Blocks" by Jan Eaton. I must tell you, I LOVE this book! I don't buy books on any sort of craft very often (I rely on the Internet, the Library, and my own trial and error usually), however this book is simply one of the best I've read.

Her designs are really great, and she provides a ton of a helpful suggestions with colour, arrangement, matching blocks, and other things like specific stitches and such.

This brings me to the Crochet-along Let's Make 7, wherein you crochet 7 specified blocks before the end of January! Should I start another project with all the things (including PRESENTS) that I have going on? Probably not.
Am I going to anyways? You betcher hook.
Here's where the info is at. If you can get this book and want to just crochet some fun blocks to use for a cushion or later on, a blanket, go for it!
The Flickr group is here:


Speaking of Christmas presents, boy do I get myself into things (see above). I really enjoy it though, so I guess that's okay.
I'm only crocheting a few presents total; one isn't even if or Christmas! It's for my sister's birthday which falls four days after (she usually gets hers combined :< ). At the risk of my hard work going to naught for her finding out, I won't say it just yet, but rather say it's in the fall issue of Interweave Crochet magazine.

And WIPs! Many of them! Let's see, so far I'm working on a Free Spirit doll, from the pattern by the most excellent Beth of By Hook, By Hand. That's been in the works for... months, actually. *ashamed*
There's Kamden's Elephant, who is 85% completed. I'm still working on the ears, they're giving me trouble. I don't like anything I've come up with thus far. However after that, he should be done quickly! The initial purpose of the design was to make a stuffed elephant for a friend's new nephew.
During this summer (yes! The SUMMER) I made a fox design that I was really rather attached to, and even went so far as to start making a duplicate to test the pattern but... well you know the story. It's on my list!

Here I dig myself all these crafty holes, yet somehow, I enjoy it :/ <3

Happy Thanksgiving!

A bit late, but my sentiment's there!

Having mentioned that, I thought I would also mention something else non-crochet related.
(Except in the case of my previous project, the crocheted Murloc Murky.)
The Murlocs, they are dying. If you've ever played World of Warcraft, if you've ever quested around Azeroth, seen them murdered... well, then you know these noble creatures are in danger.

Won't you please help?
http://savethemurlocs.org/

... This inspires me to work on my Murky some more, and refine that pattern. Ah, to add to the list!

I'm still sick x_x I think, oddly enough, this is related to dentist work I had done less than a week before all this started...
I KNEW they were no good!
More later, as I'm working on a new friend<3

Oh, and there's a long needed update on my Awesome-peeps list!