Monthly Archives: January 2015

Cluing for Looks

Finally, Sherlock Mouse is finished!

Knitted Sherlock Mouse

He took a lot longer to complete than I had anticipated, mainly because I really was uncertain what I was going to do with his hair. Adding in the crocheted deerstalker hat worked perfectly, even if the hat is slightly too big for his head!

The basic mouse pattern uses Alan Dart’s May Day mouse pattern, with suitable colour changes for the trousers & shirt. The scarf and coat were freestyled to make sure they looked just right 🙂 And the hat? That came from an ornament pattern by Kristen Howard on Ravelry.

Seeing as I’d finished Sherlock Mouse, I couldn’t resist trying another Sherlock pattern – Crocheted Consulting Detective by Vilma Ilona. I’ve never tried a crochet pattern quite like this one before, so some of the shaping was a challenge, and I will admit the hair instructions left me completely confused, so I made that up as I went along. The hat is loosely based on the same pattern as SherlockMouse’s, but it was freestyled a bit to make sure it fitted his head properly and covered the mess of hair as well!

His head is slightly loose (blame my lack of stuffing skills for such a small space), but the scarf and coat collar help to make sure it doesn’t flop around too much.Sherlock Crocheted Amigurumi Sherlock Amigurumi

 

Some of the crochet increases have left gaps in the stitches where the stuffing is showing through, but I can work on those and just sew a few lines across to cover those up (the yarn was a little thinner than normal). That’s also why the trousers & shoes look like they have white sparkles….

But overall, I’m pleased with how Sherlock came out, and now he’s ready to go cluing for looks!

2015

How did 2014 fly past so quickly that it’s 2015 already?! It doesn’t seem a year ago that I decided I wanted to start learning to sew, and was borrowing Mum’s sewing machine to get to grips with the basics!

Anyhow, with the new year in mind, I’ve decided to take part in Crazy Little Project’s Crazy New You challenge! Looking at the really cluttered way I store my fabric & yarn, I figured that I needed to sort that out, and that’s my challenge for this month 🙂

So far, I’ve bagged all my fabric in freezer bags (surprisingly useful to make sure it’s kept reasonably tidy), and put it all neatly into a cardboard storage box. Of course then I managed to find some really fantastic fabric in the sale, so I still have a couple of things that won’t quite fit into the box…. Maybe that’s a good excuse to start sewing another project?!

This year I’ve a few projects in mind, and hopefully I’ll be able to finish most of them:

  • Knit Sherlock Mouse‘s hat (at last) and add in some hair as well
  • Sew another Notebook Folder
  • Make myself a cover for my notebooks, as that’s got to be better than piles of post-it notes, right?
  • Sew another messenger bag (I’ve got the perfect outer fabric for that, just need to work out what the lining will be made from)
  • Learn how to add a zip into a bag, so I can make the messenger bag close up properly
  • Make a laundry bag (a request from my Mum)
  • Finish at least one of my knitting UFOs
  • Make a mini Sherlock-themed scrapbook – that may or may not happen 😛
  • ….and possibly attempt a curtain, but that is very unlikely!

So just a short list! I’m hopeful I can at least get Sherlock Mouse finished this month, then once I’ve figured out what fabric would work well together, I can work on a notebook folder / cover 😀

 

 

 

There are no affiliate links in this post. I just happened to find WH Smith storage boxes the perfect size!