I have always tended toward the obsessive characteristics (I will wait while you contain your shock, lol). But even as a kid, I had favorite fandoms and characters I embraced whole-heartedly. One of those early loves/obsessions were the Care Bears. I mean, how could I not…they are freaking adorbs.

The funny thing is that not only was I obsessed with the Care Bears, my favorite grandmother was, too. She adored Grumpy Bear. One year for Christmas, we bought her a Grumpy Bear, and it happily had a place of honor on her nightstand until she passed (I inherited him and now he watches over me).

So, I’ve been wanting to make my own take on the Care Bears, but I wasn’t quite ready to jump fully into the Care-A-Lot River and make a bear (that’s coming…I know it is), but I wanted to do something. My bestie and I went to a convention this weekend and we were exploring some of the booths there and saw a person selling hats with the My Little Pony cutie marks. They were cute, but they were just the cutie marks on a plain hat. Immediately my brain starts going into hyperdrive – I can work with that.

I had an awesome hat pattern that was fun to work up that I knew I would be able to use multiple shades…I knew I wanted at least two shades per hat. And while I thought about doing my own take on the My Little Pony cutie marks, I saw this as a chance to reflect my true love of the Care Bears: I could totally use their tummy symbols and their colorings to make my own cute hats.

I decided to use Tenderheart Bear as my prototype. Tenderheart always was the leader of the Care Bears, and while not my favorite, I thought the combination of the basic color patterns and the simple heart tummy design that he would be a good start.

When I first finished the hat, I was pleased. No, it wasn’t perfect – the heart was a little lopsided in places, but the hat was a solid construction and the color blocking worked beautifully. Overall, I was very happy. I had considered adding an extra touch or two, but I didn’t want to over complicate the hat.

I posted the above picture to Facebook and the Lil’ Luvvies Instagram account, and one of my friends told me, it’s cute, but it’s missing something…it needs ears. Hearing someone else say that, I felt better because I didn’t want to be over the top, but I wanted it to be clear this was a Care Bear inspired hat.

A little bit of trial and error and a little bit later – voila! We have ears. I have to say the ears really do make the hat. It was a cute hat before, but the ears gave it the little extra pizzazz.

Since this experiment worked, I feel good that I should be able to whip up some more of these (Cheer Bear, Funshine, Friend, Share Bear, and yes…Grumpy) to have with me at Con in August. Maybe I’ll end up with some stock to sell after all.

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha

I am a massive geek (and proud of it). I love comic books, and superhero movies, and video games; however, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take the leap and try to make one of my favorite manga/anime/video game characters into a Luvvie. However, I decided to go for it.

I wanted to meet Pikachu.

I was on a kick over the weekend about working in blocks of colors – so, I thought this would be perfect to work the yellow, black, white, and red of Pikachu into a comfy blankie.

The blankie pattern actually worked up fairly easily (using the basic Granny Square). The pain in my tushie was weaving in all the ends that were created from the color changes. I could have carried the color, which would have reduced the amount of weaving I had, but it would have made the changes more evident to the customer. I opted to go for the more time consuming, but neater process of weaving in the ends.

I wasn’t sure what to do with Pika-Pika’s head. The pattern had a generic smile for the expression, but that didn’t seem Pikachu-y to me. So after going through Google for about 30 minutes to find a consensus I decided to try to embroider my own approximation of a mouth – scary, I know, considering my embroidery skills.

All in all, the little head didn’t turn out too badly. I had fun using the Caron Simply Soft party yarn for the checks, because I wanted a little sparkle. Believe me, I am not usually a “girly girl,” but if I could have every single yarn in glitter or sparkles I would do it in a heart beat.

It’s gotten to the point with the luvvie blankies that I’m okay making each component – the head and arms and the blankie, but I have a near panic attack when I have to put them together. It can go so wrong at that point and ruin perfectly good work. Thankfully, I had a good amount of stuffing in Pikachu’s head, and I was able to get everything attached without too much drama: No, the needle falling into my couch cushion does not count as drama, thank you.

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And before I knew it, my blankie was done and ready to be put aside and for sale in the convention in August. I am super happy with how this turned out.

It’s funny, but when I work on things, my daughter is in and out of the living room (where I work), and she always wants to know what I’m making. She was so excited to see that Pikachu was finished. I actually thought she was going to run away with it.

So, for as nervous as I was about attempting an iconic character, I think it turned out okay.

Maybe I should try to figure out Squirtle next (my second favorite). Who’s your favorite Pokemon?

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha

I remember before I went to college one of my favorite teachers described the experience as a kid, a room, and a book (I am old enough that we still had hard copy books….none of this online business). If you would have asked me about a year ago to describe crocheting, I probably would have responded similarly saying it is a person, a hook, and some yarn; after all, when I first started crocheting in my single digits that was all I had. That’s only partially true.

The only requirements for crochet are a person, a hook, and some yarn; however, there are so many wonderful little additions one can add.

As we chat a bit about the little extras a crocheter and amigurumi-er (yes, I know it isn’t a word), I have included some pictures (because I like pictures), but there also are some links. These links will take you to various pages on Craftsy’s Web site. I am currently having a love affair with their platform. However, full disclaimer, this post contains affiliate links: You will be directed to where these reside on Craftsy and if you purchase from the link, I get a small fee from the site. The items I am showing are all ones that I have used and that I have absolutely loved. I will always be honest about my opinion – and if I don’t like something, I will be upfront about my opinion.

I had this thought last night as I was working on my first attempt at an amigurumi doll (I’m trying to make Belle from Beauty and the Beast). As I progressed in the project, I found myself frequently reaching into my “bits and bobs” bag. I purchased the bag originally to try to store my yarn (insert hysterical laughter here). Yeah…once I realized that wasn’t going to work, it became my catch-all bag.

Some of the contents of the bag are standard: I have some spare hooks in there – hooks I love to use for hats and scarves, but that don’t work quite as well for amigurumi. As well as an extra pair of scissors. However, there are some things I never thought about when I started that I wanted to share with you. Read More…

I have three blog posts I’ve started that I want to share with you, but I keep getting distracted by other things, which is really increasing my anxiety. May is a bad month for me: My mother passed away two years ago (May 7), which happened to be Mother’s Day that year – so, both dates are difficult for me. I try to put on a happy face for Mother’s Day to spend the day with my daughter, but it definitely puts me in a more scattered mind set. Add to that the fact that Steel City Con is in 82 days and I really only have two items completed that I can sell at the show, and I’m having so many fears that I won’t have anything – or worse I’ll have items and no one will buy anything because they don’t like my Luvvies. So yeah, my thoughts and projects are a lot more scattered right now than usual.

So, what am I working on? I’m doing a lot of pattern testing to see what I like to have at the con. I don’t really have anything completed, yet, but I do have some progress on multiple amigurumi that I happy with.

F-Bombs

I have been having too much fun making these little gems. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a sailor’s mouth, so these little bombs are so appropriate. I’ve been playing with different hook gauges and colors to have an assortment of these to sell at the con. It is so much fun to work on these because I can actually get these done in a short period.

I am experimenting with Poly-Fil beads to see if I can make these into bean bags – so far those experiments haven’t been successful because the beads come through the stitches – no matter how small my gauge has been.

Applejack

I have lost track of when I started working on this little pony. I think I started Applejack more than a month ago, and got so depressed with the way her eyes were turning out that I completely stopped production – even though she was 80 percent finished. After some false starts, I was able to get her finished and she is ready to go to her forever home.

Belle and Cap

With playing more on Instagram (don’t forget to follow me @lilluvvies), I do forget what I’ve shared with you and what I haven’t – but, these were two projects that I did in their entirety.

The Captain America lovey blankie I actually was quite happy with. There are a few tweaks I would make on him, but overall I am really pleased with how he turned out. I had to play with some new yarn I got from Craftsy anyhow so it was a perfect match.

Belle and I had a lot of issues…I even tried sending her to the work house (but she couldn’t figure out how to work the copier).

Ami-Along Giraffe –  WIP

While I’ve been trying to build stock for Steel City Con, I wanted to take part in Amigurumipatterns.net’s monthly Ami-Along because the giraffe pattern was just too sweet. I was making good progress with some Caron Simply Soft Yarn that I just received, but then I found another pattern that I wanted to try that used a slightly larger hook, which I thought would be a good break for my hands; so, my little girl giraffe isn’t much further along than this. Although she does have a wicked cool little skirt that I got done for her. There really isn’t much more that needs to be done for her, so I probably should get back on that.

Gingerbread Girl – WIP

As the convention is in August, and people might be thinking about Christmas gifts, I saw this pattern for a sweet little gingerbread girl (paid pattern from One & Two Company on Etsy), and decided to make her; however this became a more involved project that I expected – even though I am loving the larger hook size. I’m hoping to get her done within the next few days. I think she will be super cute when she is done. At least I hope.

Other Bits and Bobs

In addition to the projects listed above, I’ve also started working on a super-sized Hello Kitty amigurumi for another customer – she is super tall. Plus, I’m working on three of my signature Moose to get done for a different convention – I think I’m going to hate the word moose after I’m all done (lol).

I also have a baby Yoda that I’ve been working on and a baby zebra. So, like I said, there’s a lot that is going on with my hook, but not a lot that is actually getting done. I have the day off Friday from my primary job, so I’m hoping that during the time my husband is at work and my daughter is at school, I’ll be able to focus on crocheting and will be able to get a few items completed. I think once I get back to seeing some progress I’ll feel better and can re-center my thoughts. Either that or I’ll be even more of a basket case and nothing will get done. I guess we’ll see which way will win. Fingers crossed I will be able to report back that I have a whole tote full of goodies for sell.

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha

I am the first person to say that making friends is difficult for me. I am an introvert and extremely shy (unfortunately, my child has inherited both of these qualities from me). However, when I’m online I am a Chatty Cathy.

With that in mind, I have been thinking about ways to connect with people who might be interested in my site. I didn’t want to make a page on Facebook because I still am not sure what I have to offer – other than pictures of my lil’ ones and some of my observations along the way. I’m here more for entertainment than for instruction.

After a lot of thinking, I decided the best place for me to venture into is Instagram.

The format of Instagram is perfect for my Luvvies. I can share as many pictures as I want and can say as much or as little as I want.

So, I am so incredibly pleased to announce that Lil’ Luvvies now is on Instagram. Please come find us at @lilluvvies. There are tons of photos – more than you probably would care to see. But, I hope you find it the good fun and distraction from the real world that I want it to be.

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha