Geeky crochet

My husband is a gamer. If I had more time then I would probably be more of a gamer myself. Sadly free time isn't one something I have much of at the moment - but in the few short slots of quiet time I am managing to steal for myself I've been able to get a couple of little crochet projects done.

One of the good things about having a geeky husband is that there are always plenty of amigurumi projects that I can make for him - my Ravelry queue is always bursting with tons of possible projects. Amigurumi is fantastically suited to making cartoony toys and so perfect for so many of the creatures and items to be found in video games. My favourite of these would have to be the 'Mr Bubbles' that I made him last year - which though the hardest amigurumi project I've ever done it is also the one I am most proud of.

Recently I completed a 'weighted companion cube' for him (which is from another of the brilliant designs by nerdigurumi).  If you've not heard of the game Portal then it may seem a little strange to take the time to crochet a cube - but believe me it is a fantastic game and this little inanimate cube has a big fan following and so has quite a few free crochet patterns as well as some pretty amazing reproductions - just type 'weighted companion cube' into a google image search and prepare to be impressed.

Most recently I have just finished up a much quicker pattern for one of the birds from the 'angry birds' game which my husband plays on his iPhone. This game involves catapulting some kamikaze birds into some fortified pigs with hard hats - strange but oddly addictive. If I had more time then I would give making one of the green pigs a go so that Rich could have something to target his new angry bird at - perhaps I'll get round to it later in the year - along with all the other cool but geeky patterns that I want to try...

Slime from the Dragon quest games
Lemmings
Mario mushrooms

Quick ornaments

Even though I'd given myself a year off from Christmas crafting I couldn't resist making a few little ornaments as presents. These little trees are one of the projects in "Fa la la felt" a simply gorgeous book containing 45 different Christmas decorations you can make with felt.

These trees looked to be the simplest in the book - just a simple shape with some freehand back stitching for decoration and after whip stitching both pieces together you're done. So very quick and satisfying, I would have made more but I ran out of felt!

Now I should really go and wrap some presents... happy Christmas crafting everyone!

Christmas cross stitching

Our little girl is now 2 months old and things are finally starting to get into more of a routine here at Tea Towers. For the past two months I have spent every evening trying to settle Emily by holding her in my arms which makes doing any craft particularly difficult. As we are starting to get better at settling her down in her basket I'm starting to have my hands free for half an hour every evening which has finally given me the time to finish off these pretty cross stitch decorations.

I tend not to do much cross stitch now I have kids as there is never enough time in the day to do long projects and if I tried to do a large piece it would take me years to complete. However, I was given a copy of a cross stitch magazine while in hospital before having Emily and it included a lovely kit to make these cute little Christmas houses. Surprisingly I found it didn't take me long at all to do the cross stitch element of these houses, what took the time was having to sew them all up, iron and stuff with fiberfill. I'm really pleased with how they came out though and will have to try and choose one to keep for us as the other two already have intended new homes.