Dr Oodberg!

Ever since I started crocheting the Goth Vampires, my boyfriend kept on bugging me to make him a crochet Zoidberg.  After putting it off for a while, I decided to make one for him for Valentine's Day.  It took a bit of scheming, as I had to make it in secret, and a fair bit of trial and error to get the tentacles right (I used a mix of patterns from Creepy Cute Crochet), but I was reasonably happy with how he turned out.  However, I only had black eyes, so he ended up looking a bit like an Ood from Doctor Who.  Not that that's a bad thing (I might actually make an Ood properly one day...).  So here's Dr Oodberg!

Textured Crochet Hat

Awhile ago I made some fingerless gloves from Crafty Beaver's pattern, and wanted to make a hat to match.  After spending hours trying to find a pattern that I liked, I decided to frankenstein one up from a few different patterns, plus a bit of random adaptation, and this was the result.  I made the same hat in black for a friend who wears it with crochet flower badges that match her outfits.

Textured Crochet Hat

Pattern uses:
4 mm crochet hook
~ 50 g 8 ply wool

r1         ch2, 91 foundation sc, join with a sl st
r2         ch1, turn.  *Skip first (next) sc, (sc, dc) in next*.  Repeat * * around (45 clusters)
r3-r25   ch1, turn.  (sc, dc) in each dc around.
r26       ch1, turn.  *(sc, dc) in next 4 dc.  Skip next sc, sc in dc, skip next sc, dc in dc*.  Repeat * * around (8 times).  (36 clusters)
r27       ch1, turn.  (sc, dc) in each dc around.
r28       ch1, turn.  *(sc, dc) in next 3 dc.  Skip next sc, sc in dc, skip next sc, dc in dc*.  Repeat * * around.  (27 clusters)
r29       Repeat r27
r30       ch1, turn.  *(sc, dc) in next 2 dc.  Skip next sc, sc in dc, skip next sc, dc in dc*.  Repeat * * around.  (18 clusters)
r31       Repeat r27
r32       ch1, turn.  *(sc, dc) in next dc.  Skip next sc, sc in dc, skip next sc, dc in dc*.  Repeat * * around.  (9 clusters)
r33       Repeat r27
r34       ch1, turn.  *Skip next sc, sc in dc, skip next sc, dc in dc*.  Repeat * * around.  (4.5 clusters)

Tie off, leaving a longish tail.  Use tail to sew closed the hole.


This hat is a snug fit on my large (59 cm) head.  The pattern can be adapted by using fewer stitches (Start with multiples of 2 + 1 stitch).  Try and keep to multiples of 5, or you'll need to change the decreasing rounds as well.  For shorter heads, use fewer rounds between r3 and r25.

Selling My Stuff

A few months ago, I bought Creepy Cute Crochet by Christen Haden, an awesome book full of zombies and ninjas and robots, oh my!  After making a number of the patterns from the book, I had a play with making individualised goth and emo vampires for my friends for xmas and birthday presents.

These went down so well, and I had so much fun making them, that I decided that I'd make a bunch more and sell them on Etsy.  

I've made a handful so far, these just being three, my favourites being the guy with the mohawk, and the one with the pigtails.  My Etsy user name is DontLickTheSpoon, and I've put a bunch of these little guys in my store already.  Hopefully in the future I'll also put up other things, I'll see how I go...

Colourful Chicken, Quinoa, Amaranth and Rice Risotto

After a visit to the organics store to stock up on flour, I bought a bunch of different coloured quinoa and some amaranth to have a play with.  While I've used quinoa before, I'd never had amaranth, but I figured it'd be similar enough that I could figure something out (I also discovered that you can pop amaranth like popcorn!).  My first experiment was to make up a mix of equal parts red, black and white quinoa and amaranth.  It's very pretty.

I used this mix to make a risotto that was half quinoa, half rice and very colourful.


Colourful Chicken, Quinoa, Amaranth and Rice Risotto

200 g Chicken thigh, cut into chunks
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup quinoa/amaranth mix
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
~ 1 Tsp dried rosemary
~ 1 tsp dried parsley
a sprinkle of chilli or pepper to taste
1 flat brown mushroom, diced
~1/4 of a yellow capsicum, sliced
1 tomato, diced
generous handful of fresh spinach leaves

• In a medium saucepan, cook chicken in oil until cooked
• Add rice and quinoa and cook until rice begins to stick
• Add half a cup of stock, herbs, chilli and mushroom and cook with stirring until all liquid is absorbed
• Add stock in 1/2 cup lots, allowing to absorb and stirring frequently
• Add capsicum and tomato with last lot of stock to allow to warm through
• Add spinach leaves at the end and stir through

This recipe is even more delicious if a cup of cheese is added with the spinach, or maybe some garlic added with the rice, or a few rashers of bacon with the chicken.  The possibilities for adaptation are only limited by what you have in the house, or what you are able to eat.

Stripey Yellow and Black Sleeves/Armwarmers (Crochet)

As I mentioned in my last post, for Halloween last year I made a hat and sleeve set for my Bee Girl costume.  The last post had the hat patten, now here's the pattern for the sleeves.

Sleeve Pattern

Pattern uses:
5.5 mm crochet hook
~100 g 8 ply yellow wool
~100 g 8 ply black wool

In yellow wool:
r1    ch4, 24 foundation dc, join with a sc in 3rd ch (24 dc)
r2    sc over the top of the joining sc, ch2, dc in the spaces between dc around, join with a sc in 2nd ch
r3    change colour by incorporating the black thread in the last loop of the joining sc (don't cut yellow), sc over top of join, ch2, dc in spaces, join with a sc
r4    repeat r2


Repeat rows 3 and 4 alternating yellow and black until have 12 stripes (6 yellow, 6 black).  In order to keep the seam straight, it'll be necessary to join the occasional rows with a sl st, sl st in the space between the ch2 and first dc, sc over the top of the sl st.  This puts the join on the opposite side of the ch2, which makes the join line reasonably straight. I did this about every 5th row.


r25  change to yellow. Sc over top of join, dc around, add an extra dc into same space as first sc, ch2. (25 sc)
r26  repeat r2
r27  repeat r3
r28  sc over top of join, dc around, add an extra dc into sc space (26 sc)


Repeat rows 27 and 28 four more times until there are 30 stitches.  Add 5 more stripes, ending on yellow.


You can easily adapt this pattern to suit different sized arms by using a different number of stitches and making the increases happen earlier or later.  Also, I have long arms because I'm 175 cm (5' 9"), and the sleeves fit comfortably from the base of my thumb to my elbow.  If you have shorter arms, you'll probably be wanting to take out some of the stripes.  It's all easy to do if you measure it as you go and just start to increase as your arm gets wider.   

Stripey Yellow and Black Hat (Crochet)

For Halloween last year I dressed up as the Bee Girl from the Blind Melon No Rain video clip:

As part of my costume, I crocheted a stripey yellow and black hat and some sleeves to match.  I'll put up the patterns for both, starting with the hat.

Hat Pattern

Pattern uses:
5.5 mm crochet hook
~30 g 8 ply yellow wool
~50 g 8 ply black wool

In black wool:
r1    ch4, 63 foundation dc, join with a sc in 3rd ch (64 dc)
r2    sc over the top of the joining sc, ch2, dc in the spaces between dc around, join with a sc in 2nd ch
r3    change colour by incorporating the yellow thread in the last loop of the joining sc (don't cut black), sc over top of join, ch2,  dc in spaces, join with a sc
r4    repeat r2

Repeat rows 3 and 4 alternating yellow and black until have 8 stripes.  On rows 7 and 11, join with a sl st, sl st in the space between the ch2 and first dc, sc over the top of the sl st.  This puts the join on the opposite side of the ch2, which makes the join line reasonably straight.

r17  repeat r3 (64 dc)
r18  sc over top of join, ch2, dec, 5dc, dec, *6dc, dec* x6, 6dc, join with sc (56 dc)
r19  change to yellow.  Sc over top of join, ch2, dc, dec, 4dc, dec, *5dc, dec* x6, 4dc, join with sc (48 dc)
r20  sc over top of join, ch2, 2dc, dec, 3dc, dec, *4dc, dec* x6, 2dc, join with sc (40 dc)
r21  change to black. sc over top of join, ch2, 3dc, dec, 2dc, dec, *3dc, dec* x5, 4dc, join with sc (32 dc)
r22  ch3, dec starting in the same gap (the two 'feet' of the dec should be on either side of the sc, ch2 from the previous row), *2dc, dec* x7, 2dc, join with sc (24 dc)
r23  change to yellow. sc over top of join, ch2, dec, *dc, dec* x7, join with sc (16 dc)
r24  sc over top of join, ch2,  dec x8, join with sc (9 dc)
r25  change to black.  sc over top of join, ch2, dec x4, join with sc.  Fasten off and stitch tail though tops of stitches to close hole.

I have a reasonably large head (59 cm), and I made the hat to be a bit loose so it would breathe, so bear that in mind when making this pattern.  It should be easy enough to lose a few stitches here and there, or to use a smaller hook - just remember that because of the looseness of the stitch, it's necessary to do two rounds to get an accurate idea of the size.

Cabled Crochet Fingerless Gloves

I made myself a cabled crochet hat following this pattern, and I wanted to make some fingerless gloves to match.  However, there weren't any patterns that I could find even remotely close to what I wanted, so I came up with one myself.  If you get lost in the cabling instructions, the hat pattern has some very good pictures detailing the steps.

Pattern uses:
fpdc, bpdc, fptc
4 mm crochet hook
~100 g 8 ply wool

In all rows, begin on a ch2.  This counts as the first bpdc in the repeated pattern

r1   32 foundation dc.  Join with sl st
r2   *bpdc, fpdc* repeat around x16.  Join
r3   *bpdc, fpdc* repeat around x16.  Join
r4   *bpdc, 2fpdc, bpdc, 4fpdc* repeat around x4.  Join
r5   *bpdc, 2fpdc, bpdc, 4fpdc* repeat around x4.  Join
r6   *bpdc, 2fpdc, bpdc, fptc in 3rd fpdc, fptc in 4th fpdc, fptc in 1st fpdt, fptc in 2nd fpdc* repeat around x4.  Join
In r7, it's important that you crochet into the fptc in the same order that you crocheted them.
r7   *bpdc, 2fpdc, bpdc, 4fpdc* repeat around x4.  Join

Repeat rows 5-7 until work reaches the desired length between knuckles and thumb.  Stop on any row.

sl st across top of 1st fpdc ch2, fpdc on next stitch and repeat cabling pattern until get to beginning ch2 from previous round.  Bpdc in that ch2, fpdc in same fpdc as sl st from start of round, dc in gap before ch2.  Fasten off. **Reattach yarn into top of first fpdc, ch2, fpdc in same stitch, repeat pattern around ending with a fpdc in the final dc, fasten off** Repeat between **  ** the appropriate amount of times until work reaches the base of your thumb just above your wrist.

Return to repeating rows 5-7.  On the first row after finishing the thumb hole, join the extra dc/ch2 between the first 2 fpdc together by doing a fpdc across the two of them.  Continue until desired length up the arm is reached.  Finish on row 5.

Repeat rows 2 and 3  six times for a ribbed cuff.  Fasten off, then tuck in ends.  You'll have a bunch of ends from the thumb holes.  I find it best to tuck them down the backs of the two fpdc lines on either side, that way the slight thickening is less noticeable.


Thumb:

Dc around the ch2/dc circle that makes the edge of the thumb hole, starting from the bottom (wrist end) and averaging 1 dc per stitch.  *Don't join, and work a dc dec in every stitch until about halfway up the thumb hole.  Dc until the top (finger end) of the hole, then work a single dec at the corner.  Continue dc until halfway down the hole, then dec every stitch back to the start of the round*.  Work * * to make a third row, sl st then fasten off and tuck in ends.

The pattern can be adjusted for smaller or larger hands by extending the 8 stitch motif to 10 stitches by adding additional bpdc to the two bpdc spaces and using more or less pattern repeats.