CraftyMutt's First Birthday

Thanks clipartandcrafts.com for the cake :D

A whole year has passed since CraftyMutt started out, and I'm so excited that I've made so many things for so many people and in so many countries! CraftyMutt is excited too, mostly because he got to eat a whole cake to himself, nap as much as he wanted and play whatever he wanted all day.

Of course, this birthday isn't all that much down to my work and crafting, this was all able to happen thanks to all the people who encouraged me to try it out and sell what I make, and those who bought things throughout the year. So many happy little crafty creatures and other little crafty things have been taken to new homes and taken care of thanks to you!

And with birthday parties there are party games! And as with party games, there will be prizes!
There will be more games announced until I post that I've put every game up, so keep looking over the next few days for more games. I promise some of them will have more manly prizes.

All games are entered via facebook, so check out the CraftyMutt facebook page for the lot!
Here are links for each individual game for your perusal:
Each one is a photo of the prize, and the description has the rules of the game!
You can enter for as many prizes as you like ^_^

Game 1: Pokefusions - CLOSED
Create the funniest pokemon fusion
Prize: A Pokemon necklace of your choice

Game 2: Lucky Bottles - CLOSED
Choose a playing card, see who's gets drawn first
Prize: A bottle necklace or charm of your choice

Game 3: Little Octopus Legs - CLOSED
Guess how long his longest leg is
Prize: Little palm-friendly octopus plushie

Game 4: Get Your Scales On - CLOSED
Guess how many scales there are on the items pictured
Prize: 25% discount to be used on any scaly item order

That's all for this year's celebrations, but I hope to do more things
like this soon. So if you missed entering, look out for more!

New Yarn, Finished Things

I've been trying to do all the things, and I've managed to do a few of them! So far I've finished two of my order/requests from NerdEast and I'm working on another, and I also managed to go shopping and buy two brand new yarns to make gloves and pouches with since some of the old colours were getting low but weren't available on the market again. And then I knitted a rainbow kitty and finished off some black gloves! And then I realised I needed more black yarn soon too, because after the gloves that's really low too.

Now Available: Natural greens and sky blues!

 Rainbow kitty, now with seven different colours!

Finally finished: The second of the pair that I started at NerdEast

If you asked about getting them then please get in touch soon, after the end of term I won't be able to get them to you for free and I'll probably end up putting them on general sale. If you weren't that guy who asked but you want them then I can re-make this pattern in any hand size and colour combination. I want to try a black with three mirror silver stripes version soon!

I'm also working on a whole bunch of dice pouches to take to next week's RPG sessions, hopefully I'll get plenty done that everyone who was interested finds one they really like :)

Oh, and I need to move all my belongings into my room, pack them, go home and start packing again for China for most of July! So... no big orders can be made during July. Sorry! I'll bring back some awesome stuff though and take lots of pictures, maybe I'll even be able to send a few updates from in the country just in case anybody gets bored while I'm away.

A Little Bit after NerdEast

I was so tired earlier when I got home, but after a nap (and some work on the scale mail page) I've finally got round to posting just a little about my NerdEast experience!

The view from my stall: full of all sorts of

things I mostly managed to resist buying

It was all really exciting, and there were lots of other crafty stalls either side of me with a whole range of exciting stuff! Mine was definitely the most eclectic, seeing as I can never pick just one thing to make.

I eventually got myself sorted into a scaly side...

and a non-scaly side

This was the state of my stall at the start of the day, I very quickly sold several octoplurals and all my Cthulhu! Next time I have a stall I know to make a lot more Cthulhu, clearly his tiny sanity-nomming cuteness is a favourite!
Other things you can see I had were scale gloves and pouches, pokemon necklaces, bottle charms, a handful of cute and geeky critters and a pile of cheap drawstring pouches from scrap packs of pretty patterned material! There are leftover items from most sections so if you couldn't come but really love something in one of the photos just ask if it's still around, prices in the photos accurate (click to zoom) plus postage if required.

I enjoyed spending most of the day on my stall, and I very much enjoyed finding two old pokémon books that I have been searching for since I saw them advertised in the back of a couple of the pokemon manga issues that I got when I was much smaller!
I also enjoyed watching the whole building being piloted around defending the galaxy throughout the day by a talented team of space-wise visitors and stall owners, although occasionally having to steal their top engineer to watch my stall when I spotted shiny things that wanted to be exchanged for money (thanks for the help ^^)

The crew of Artemis check out the long range scanners

Minefields, asteroids and enemy ships all just about visible in this photo.

FIRE THE NUKES! ALL POWER TO FRONT SHIELDS!

Anyways, so NerdEast was a lot of fun, it was awesome to see all the people I knew there and meet a lot of new people and talk about all sorts, from learning how to knit with scales to rainbow cats!

Oh, and for the people that thought the littlest octopus I had with me was tiny... here he is with his little brother!

Finger tip mounted mini octopus apologises for not making it to NerdEast

How to make a tiny crochet pikachu tail

Sometimes I get some interesting searches lead to my blog. Apparently recently somebody wound up here looking for a pattern for a tiny crochet pikachu tail, but despite my photos of a tiny crochet pikachu there is no pattern!

Tiny Pikachu's tail

I like to pay attention to what searches lead here so I can put more of what people are looking for when they find me, so dear whoever was looking for a tiny crochet pikachu tail pattern... you could try this!

(This pattern is 100% improvised, and 0% guaranteed to work, but it's a starting point and someday soon I'll test it and verify if it's a valid pattern or not!)

With brown yarn - chain 3 and turn
1. Miss first chain and SC in the next two chains, switch to yellow (just hook from some yellow yarn instead of the brown tail, you'll have two tails dangling around but you'll sort this later) chain 3 and turn
2. Miss first chain and SC in next two chains and in first SC of brown yarn (3sc total), turn
3. SC in each of three SC of previous row, chain 5
4. Miss first chain and SC in 4 chain stitches, SC in next two SC of previous row, turn
5. SC in 6 SC of previous row, cut tail and bind off.
Sew in the yellow tail you just made, and tie the brown and yellow tails at the bottom together (with a reef knot probably) and you can use either of these or the starting tail to stitch it onto pikachu however you like, then sew them all in and cut the last threads off!

NB: When I say SC (single crochet) I mean this, since there are variations in crochet on what single, double,  treble and everything can mean. I also recommend you insert the hook beneath both loops because it's small and needs to hold it's shape!

So....... enjoy?!