San Diego Comic Con 2016 Preview!

A few of the items that will be available at my booth, BB-22 in Artist Alley! Stop by and say hello!

New Items in my Shop!

Apparently this is the season for puppies! Custom orders recently have led me to add an adorable puppy hat, booties and diaper cover set, as well as adorable baby puppies.

Also new this week is this darling little romper!

Win a BB-8 Making Kit!

Win a BB-8 supply kit! Includes 120mm joint for the turning head, a sound box pre-recorded with BB-8 sounds, a 30mm safety eye and an 18mm safety eye! The free BB-8 pattern is here.

I will draw a winner on February 1st! Contest runs January 20-31st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Double-layered Braided Cowl

This free pattern has been shared on my wall a number of times this week, so I finally found the time to whip up my own!

Available in my Etsy shop now!

BB-8 Droid in Action

My daughter and I made a demo video of our BB-8 droid with sounds!

Enjoy! Free BB-8 pattern is available here.

Installing the BB-8 Soundbox

Someone asked if they could remove the sound box in order to change the batteries, so I engineered an opening so you can access your sound box.

First, here is what the unit I ordered looks like. Next time I think I will get the box with the button on a long wire, so you don't need to pull it all the way out. The Etsy shop I ordered it from is here.

I googled BB-8 sounds and found someone had uploaded the sound files for people to use as ringtones for phones. I downloaded their files dropped them onto the sound box using the software provided! It was surprisingly easy.

So, after row 32 in the BB-8 body, chain 12, skip 6, and proceed to round 33.

When you get back around to the chain, sc in the first 3 chains, then skip 6 chains, and sc in the last 3 chains. This will create a loop that will go around your button.

Make sure your sound unit fits through this hole you have made! The fabric is pretty stretchy, so I was able to get both the unit and a long sock through the hole.

I then maneuvered the box to about halfway up on one side of the BB-8 body, and marked its position from the outside. Test your button to make sure he makes his noises before closing him up! As I said, if I had gotten the other model, instead of putting it in a sock I could have just positioned the button in place, and kept the box right by the opening.

Invisible decrease until the bottom is closed up, and use the ending yarn to close the hole and then sew on the button.

And now you have a neat button on the bottom, that gives you access to your sound box, if you need to change the batteries or replace the sounds! The sound box also has an on/off switch, so you could also turn the unit on or off as needed.

Do It Yourself 5 inch Doll Joints

So, the most frequent question I have gotten since posting my BB-8 Pattern the other day, is "where do you get 5 inch doll joints?"  I had no idea they would prove to be so hard to find, since I bought mine about 7 years ago.

Anyway, fear not! You can make your own with things you probably already have in your house.

All you need are two disks of some sort, a thingy to keep your wire from pulling through the hole, and wire.

CDs are 4.75 inches, which is close enough to five inches for me! The orange thing in the photo is a giant button, but if you don't happen to have a giant button in your craft stash, I am sure you can find something that will work.

The wire I cut from an old wire hanger, using a pair of needle nose pliers. I could have gone to the hardware store and bought a cotter pin, but what is the fun in that? :P  If you have thick pipe cleaners they might also work, the ones I have bend too easily.

So anyway, the only thing left to do would be to install it in your BB-8 and bend the wires down.

I hope this helps you in constructing your very own BB-8!

Huge, Life-sized BB-8 - Free Crochet Pattern

This BB-8 has a head that turns, and if you like, you can even buy a recordable sound box, and program him to make BB-8 noises when you squeeze him! How fun is that? I bought my sound box from InviteByVoice, who sells them on both Amazon and Etsy. Finished item is just under 12 inches tall.

Please note that BB-8 is trademarked by Disney. You are free to make these for friends or family, but Disney may sue you if you try to sell them.

Now, enjoy the pattern!

Supplies needed:

Worsted weight yarn in white, orange and grey. I recommend Lion's Brand Pound of Love in white, Red Heart Soft in tangerine, and Knit Picks Brava in dove heather.

G hook (for head, head base, body, and orange rings)

E hook (for orange ring spikes and grey details)

Safety eyes, 30mm and 18mm

5 inch wooden doll joint (or 120mm doll/teddy bear joint, available on Etsy.) Or, Make Your Own!

Polyfil stuffing

Optional Supplies:
weights for the bottom. I used glass marbles tied into a sock. He may have been able to stand up without it.

Pipe Cleaner for antennas

Recordable Voice Box

Pattern is worked amigurumi style, in continuous rounds. Do not join. Use a stitch marker to mark rounds as necessary.

Head base:

With two strands of WW yarn and a G hook.

MR, 6 sc
Rd 2: inc around (12)
Rd 3: sc, inc around (18)
Rd 4: sc x 2, inc around (24)
Rd 5: sc x3, inc around (30)
Rd 6: sc x 4, inc around (36)
Rd 7: sc x 5, inc around (42)
Rd 8: sc x 6, inc around (48)

Circle should cover a five inch doll joint with about a row of overhang all around.

 Head base with half of doll joint.

 

Put aside and make body. 

Body:

With two strands of WW yarn and a G hook.

MR, 6 sc
Rd 2: inc around (12)
Rd 3: sc, inc around (18)
Rd 4: sc x 2, inc around (24)
Rd 5: sc x3, inc around (30)
Rd 6: sc x 4, inc around (36)
Rd 7: sc x 5, inc around (42)
Rd 8: sc x 6, inc around (48)
Rd 9: sc x 7, inc around (54)
Rd 10: sc x 8, inc around (60)
Rd 11: sc around (60)
Rd 12: sc x 9, inc around (66)
Rd 13: sc x 10, inc around (72)
Rd 14: sc around (72)
Rd 15: sc x 11, inc around (78)
Rd 16-21: sc around (78)

Insert doll joint into top, with pin sticking up into head, attach head base circle and second half of doll joint, bend wires down to fasten.

 

Rd 22: sc x 11, inv dec around (72)
Rd 23: sc x 10, inv dec around (66)
Rd 24-25: sc around (66)
Rd 26: sc x 9, inv dec around (60)
Rd 27: sc x 8, inv dec around (54)
Rd 28: sc x 7, inv dec around (48)
Rd 29: sc x 6, inv dec around (42)
Rd 31: sc x 5, inv dec around (36)
Rd 32: sc x 4, inv dec around (30)

If you are installing a sound box, see my directions here for creating an opening.

Stuff body firmly - Insert weights if desired. I filled a sock with glass marbles. Rice, or weighted pellets can also be used. This is to balance out the weight of the doll joint and head.

Rd 33: sc x 3, inv dec around (24)
Rd 34: inv dec around (12)
Finish stuffing
Rd 35: dec until hole closes, sew shut and hide tail in body.

Head:

With two strands of WW yarn and a G hook.

Starting with white

MR, 6 sc
Rd 2: inc around (12)
Rd 3: Switch to grey, inc, sc (18)
Rd 4: switch back to white, sc x 2, inc around (24)
Rd 5: sc x 3, inc around (30)
Rd 6: sc x 4, inc around (36)
Rd 7: sc x 5, inc around (42)
Rd 8: sc around (42)
Rd 9: sc x 6, inc around (48)
Rd 10-14: sc around (48)
Rd 15: switch to grey, sc around (48)

Finish off leaving long tails for sewing.

For grey ring behind small eye, dc 10 into a magic ring, join and finish off. Poke 18mm eye through the ring, and then attach to the head. Add the 30mm safety eye.

Sew head to head base, start stuffing when you are about half way around and finish stuffing before closing completely. Make sure you don't sew the head to the body! Your head will not turn if you stitch into the body.

Details:

With orange, chain 45, slip stitch to join into a ring, half double crochet in each chain around, join. Make 4.

With orange chain 31, hdc in second chain from hook and back down the chain. Make 1.

With orange, chain 21, hdc in second chain from hook and back down chain. Make 1

Pin circles and semi-circles to BB's body, with the partial circles being the half-hidden circles by the head.Backstitch circles in place.

Orange spikes: With E hook, chain 4, sc into second chain from hook, hdc in next chain and dc in last. Finish off and sew into circle. I needed 20 of these. 4 per complete circle, and 3 for the big partial circle and 1 for the little circle.

Stitch orange details on BB's head, using two strands of orange yarn. Leave a gap over the big eye.

Stitch the eye outlines with black yarn.

Stitch the grey section segments on the body with light grey yarn.

Grey patches: Using E hook: For rectangle shapes chain the length you desire, and sc back down the chain. For circles, make a MR and make 8 hdc into the ring. Make sure your segments fit into the spaces between the orange spikes. Sew on details as desired. I googled BB-8 and was able to find diagrams of each section, if you want them to be exactly right. You could also cut the shapes out of grey felt and sew or glue them on.

Cut a pipe cleaner into two, with one a little longer than the other. Bend down ends, and poke into BB-8's head. I ended up removing them later, as my kids all kept hugging him and I was afraid he would poke their eyes out.

With a three year old, for scale!

The Dread Lord Cthulhu!

I designed this little guy last summer, but finally got around to publishing the pattern this week!

Pattern is available on Ravelry or in my Etsy shop. Includes directions for the optional top hat and monocle.