Guns Are'nt Fun

Did a little cross stitch for our wall from our favorite show, Rick and Morty.

Here's the pattern if you want to play along:

The Fleeb

Everyone has a plumbus in their home, but how do they make the plumbus?  Well I'll tell you: fleeb has a very instrumental role.  It's important that the fleeb is rubbed because the fleeb has all the fleeb juice.  But how do they make the fleeb in the first place?

Today on How They Do It: Fleeb

Body:
For the body of the Fleeb, cotton worsted weight yarn is used.  Make sure your 4mm hook shows up to rub the yarn.  The body consists of single crochets and bobble stitches.  (For these bobble stitches, work 4 double crochets together in the same stitch.  Make 1 body.

1. Sc 8 into a magic ring.  Slip to first stitch. (8)
2. Sc in first stitch, sc and bobble stitch in the next.  Repeat around. (12)
3. Sc 2, inc around (16)
4. Sc, sc + bobble around (24)
5. Sc 2, inc around (32)
6. Sc, bobble around (32)
7. Sc around (32)
8. Sc, bobble around (32)
9. Sc around (32)
10. Sc, bobble around (32)
11. Sc around (32)
12. Sc, bobble around (32)
13. Sc 2, dec around (24)
14. Dec, bobble around (16) [Stuff some polyfill in now]
15. Sc 2, dec around (12) [Stuff to satisfaction]
16. Dec, bobble around (8)
    Cut yarn and use tail to sew the remaining 8 stitches shut.  Weave in both ends.

Arms:

Using size 3 cotton crochet thread, we'll make the arms out of chains and slip stitches.

Chain 15 (the length of the arm) + 6 (the length of the first finger).  Slip stitch into the second chain on the hook and the next 4 stitches (5 slip stitches).  I work these into the back bump of the chain.  Now chain 6 more and slip back into the second chain from the hook and then next 4 stitches.  Repeat this one more time (ch 6, slip 5).  Now slip into the 15th chain from the beginning which is where the fingers meet the arm.  Slip into all of the rest of the chains.  Make 2 arms.

Eyes:

Using size 3 white cotton crochet thread, we'll make eyes and sew on a red bead for the pupil.

1. Sc 6 in a magic ring.  Slip to first stitch.
2. Chain 1, sc 2, sc 2, hdc 2, sc 2, sc 2, hdc 2, slip to first stitch.

Using red sewing thread a 2 seed beads, sew the beads onto the center of the eyes.  Make 2 eyes.

Construction:

The top of the fleeb will be row 1 and the decreases will be on the bottom where the fleeb juice comes out.  Sew on the arms using the two tails. (Thread one of the arms through the body, tie the two tails together and pull the tails through the work and cut.)  I have sewn my arms between rows 13 and 14, about 6 bobbles apart.

To attach the eyes, choose two bobbles in row 13 and push them inwards so they invert.  Place the eyes over the inverted bobbles and pin in place.  Use white sewing thread to attach.

The fleeb is now ready to aid in the construction of the plumbus.

Paper Piecing Rick Sanchez

Although I've never done any quilting before, I'm fascinated by paper piecing.  Regular quilting seems a little too intimidating, but the paper thing I think I could do.  Rather than starting simple, I decided to try to figure out how to do it on a very complex design - what could go wrong?  This is probably another thing that I'll make and then never think about again, but it was fun.  I had a few false starts.  Designing paper piecing is harder than it looks.  I think I've finally got something that could be used to actually make something though.

The green lines are separate sections and the red are different pieces within sections.

Photo reference behind all the lines.

Lines and photo overlayed with section guide.

Just the section guide so you can kind of see how you would put it together.

I don't quilt so that could end up being worth nothing, but it was good experience I think.  I did quite a bit of looking at other people's block designs to figure out how to section off a big, complicated piece.  It makes sense to start by slicing through the whole picture so I broke it up into 4 larger vertical pieces and then went from there.  I feel like I was losing my eye for figuring it out after a while.  I have some issues with the P and Q sections... can you make a smaller section and then use it as one of your number in another, larger section?... I think it could work, you'd end up cutting out your pattern multiple times though so maybe that's why people don't do it.  

I do want to try some of this soon but my own design would probably be an awful place to start.  It would be fun to do a lot of different characters and make a quilt of them.

Crochet Humanoid Figure

Latest project - a little crochet thread figure base for a character.

For every project I make notes and diagrams in my graph paper notebook.

Finished size is about 5 inches tall.  Worked in crochet thread and embroidery thread on steel hooks.  For construction I started with head down into shoulders, then feet up into body and connect to shoulder piece.  Then separate arms attached to shoulders and hands added last.  The hands had to be very small so I had to find a matching embroidery thread color.  I could have done a little mitten.  Might change it up if I make another.  Wrote about three pages of notes to get everything right.  I intend to sew some little cloth clothes for him.

Pattern:

Hooks: 2.75mm and 1.3mm

Thread: Off white crochet thread & matching embroidery thread

Head:

Worked in rows and joined each row

R1: 5 sc in ring

R2: 10

R3: 12

R4: 12

R5: 12

R6: 12

R7: 10

Here I tied off, wove the tail through the 10 stitches and pulled tight.

Shoulders: 

Worked 6 slip stitches into the base of the finished off head - alternately you could decrease from 10 to 6 stitches.. not sure why I did it this way.  Worked 6 sc into the slip stitches, then work the shoulders/chest:

R1: Sc, sc, inc, sc, sc, inc

R2: Sc, sc, inc, inc, sc, sc, inc, inc

R3: Sc, sc, 3 sc in the next stitch - repeat 3 more times

R4: Sc, sc, sc, 3 sc in the next stitch, (sc, sc, sc, sc, 3 sc in the next stitch) repeat 2 more times, end with sc & tie off

Feet, legs, body:

R1: 6 sc in ring and slip to the first stitch (6), then ch and work 2 sc into the first 2 stitches (2), turn ch and work sc into the two you just made (2)

R2: ch 1, turn and in the back loops only, decrease the 2 stitches into 1, work another decrease into the side of the two rows of 2 sc, then work 5 sc around the circular part, work a decrease in the other side of the 2 short rows and slip stitch to the first stitch (8)

R3: Decrease, 4 sc, decrease (6)

R4: Decrease, 4 sc (5)

Then work rows of 5 sc (12 rows including round 4) and there should be 14 rows total in the foot and leg combined.

Tie off the first leg and work a second.

To connect the legs and start the body, you'll position the legs together so the feet are at an angle you like and work some sc in the current leg you just made until you get to the middle of the body (looking at the photos, I worked the left leg first and the right second) to make the gap between the legs, foundation sc a few stitches (mine was 2) and then attach to the second leg by sc around.  Then sc into the back side of the foundation stitches, and back around the first leg until you get to the first stitch you made so the pattern would be like:

In current leg, sc 3, foundation sc 2 stitches and then connect to the first leg and sc around (5), 2 sc in the back of the foundation sc, and 2 into the first leg, sl st to the first sc.  Work the next row, continuing around the current leg, into the foundation chain, around the other leg and back (14 stitches)

Then work around and around in rows of 14 stitches, should be 9-10 total rows in the body.

To connect the body to the shoulders, mark the 4 points where the shoulders will fold to meet the round body (2 opposite sides will attach to the body and 2 will become the arm holes).  For this, the shoulder piece will have 4 sides of 7 stitches each (not exactly on the corners) and those corners will meet on the two sides of the round body piece.  I added a little stuffing and sewed together with sewing thread & needle.

Arms:

R1: Sc 5 into a ring, slip to first stitch

R2: Work 5 sc in the back loops only (this end is the wrist so depending on what kind of hand you will make, you may want to work in both loops and keep the end open

Work about 8 rows of 5 sc and in the last full row, increase to 6 stitches, put the increase anywhere.

Last row: to make an angled shoulder work a short row of 2 sc and 1 slip stitch

Push a little more stuffing into the arm holes and sew on arms

Fingers and Thumbs:

For this I switched to embroidery thread and smaller hook and worked very small I cords.  These are very fidgety and leave a lot of ends to sew in.

For the fingers:

R1: Ch 3 and pull up a loop through chains 1 and 2 (3 loops on the hook)

R2: Pop off the first two loops and chain 1 through the remaining loop.  Put loop 2 back on the hook and chain 1, put loop 1 back on the hook and chain 1.

R3: Repeat row 2

R4: Pop off first two loops and chain 1 through the remaining loop.  Put the 2nd loop back on the hook and pull through the first, pull loop 1 through as well, tie off

For the thumb, work the same pattern but skip round 3 to make it shorter.

To attach the fingers and thumb, I used a different method on each hand.  First method is just sewing on individual fingers onto the end of the arm and the second is to crochet around all 4 fingers and then attach that to the arm.

All can be returned. All can be... taken away.

Rick and Morty is off to a great start of the second season.  I love how bizarre it is.