Beansprout Creations

Veggies

Beansprout — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:05:57 +0000

My sister has a friend who owns a children’s boutique, and she has asked me to make up some food to sell in her store! I am so excited =) So I have spent the last couple of days working on a few veggies to sell. As you can see, I have made a carrot, corn, radish and peas in a pod. I am very proud of the radish, I think it turned out great! The corn however, I am going to redo the husk. I made it that way for simplicity, but I don’t think it looks as authentic as it would if I were to split the top into a few sections. The carrot top was kind of tricky to figure out how to do in a way that would be simple as well as durable, and I am pretty happy with it (although I didn’t stuff it well enough). The peas are fun too of course =) Naturally, I am writing down how I am making all of these in order to turn them into patterns, so those should be coming soon!

Socks are not for me

Beansprout — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:29:52 +0000

I am destined to never knit a pair of socks. The first pair (toe-up) I attempted were fine until I got to my apparently large ankles…they were frogged. The second pair got even further, I made it all the way past the heel and ankle and then I lost a needle. That pair was being worked with size 2 needles and a sport weight yarn and it it still sitting around waiting to be finished. Then I tried yet again. This time I noticed that one of my size 1 DPN’s was splitting at the tip. Not fun. So I head on down to my favorite yarn store and buy some more (along with a fair amount of yarn and other goodies). The other night I was knitting right along and one of the needles snapped in half! I know that can happen, but I didn’t expect it within a week of purchase! So I head back to the yarn store to see what can be done (this time I made it out with only one skein of yarn!), and sadly they are all out of size 1. Maybe I should take it as a sign…no more knitted socks for me. Of course that could change when my new needles arrive lol. In the meantime, I have decided to attempt to crochet a pair. I have started on this pattern which has been really easy so far. Crocheted socks…who knew?

An a totally different subject, I managed to rip off a nice chunk of my thumbnail recently. So, as you can imagine, that makes crocheting a bit difficult. Sadly that means the pattern I am currently working on will be delayed a bit. Until then, feel free to join the Beansprout Creations flickr group and post some pictures of your finished products!

Pattern Formats

Beansprout — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:24:50 +0000

I am not sure which is better, offering my free patterns in PDF format, or just putting them in a post. So, I am seeking your advice! Which is your preferance?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I’m such a nerd…

Beansprout — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:17:06 +0000

Yep I am lol. When I decided to make a blog featuring patterns of mine, I told my husband that my goal was to be featured on the Craft Magazine Blog. Lame goal, I know. If you’ve never seen their blog, you should really check it out. They have several people who’s job is to scour the internet and find cool crafty things to feature. And of course there are some crochet designers (Like this one) who are featured every time a new pattern is posted. And for good reason, her stuff is great! Anyway…yesterday I was skimming through my blog feeds, and saw a post headline from the Craft blog that said something about crochet fries. So of course, my first though was, “Bummer, someone else has a pattern too!”. Then I discovered that it was mine! As you can imagine, I was very excited. Now, it wasn’t a post about my pattern exactly, it was a post showing a picture I had added to the Craft Flickr Pool…but, hey, that’s good enough for me! Here is the post if you’re interested =) As I said, I am a nerd.

Crochet Breakfast

Beansprout — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:15:05 +0000

Now available as a free download

As promised, I am posting my pattern for breakfast food. This time, instead of using acrylic yarn as I usually do, I used some of my huge stash of cotton yarn (I have an uncontrollable urge to constantly buy cotton yarn). I definitely like the way it worked for this project, but I had to squelch the urge to turn the toast into a washcloth …hmm, if only I could figure out a way to make bacon soap to go with it =) Anyway, the pattern:

Items needed:

2 shades of worsted weight brown yarn (1 light and 1 dark)
Yellow Yarn (worsted weight)
White yarn (worsted weight)
Size “E” crochet hook
Tapestry needle
Stitch marker (to mark end of rounds)

Abbreviations:

Ch: Chain
Dec: Decrease
Inc: Increase
Sc: Single crochet

Toast
ch 21
Row 1-18: Sc across, ch 1 and turn
Row 19: Sc 5 into first, sc 18, sc 5 into last, ch 1 and turn
Row 20: Sc across
Switch to dark brown yarn and sc a border around all, making sure to put 3 sc into both corners

Butter (Worked in a continuous round, use yellow yarn)

Round 1: Ch 2, sc 8 into second from hook
Round 2: [Sc 1, sc 3 into next] 4 times
Round 3: Sc 2, sc 3 into next, [sc 3, sc 3 into next] 3 times, sc 1, slip stitch into next, bind off leaving a long tail for sewing.

Assembly
Stitch the butter into place using the tail yarn.

Egg (worked in a continuous round)
White
Round 1: Ch 2, 6 into second from chain
Round 2: Inc in each (12)
Round 3: Sc 3, inc 6, sc 3 (18)
Round 4: [Sc 2, inc] 6 times (24)
Round 5: Sc 9, inc 6, sc 9 (30)
Round 6: [Sc 4, inc] 6 times (36)
Round 7: Sc 15, inc 6, sc 15 (42)
Round 8: [Sc 6, inc] 6 times (48)
Round 9: [Sc 7, inc] 6 times (54)
Round 10: Sc across, slip stitch into next, bind off and weave in ends

Yolk (yellow yarn)
Round 1: Ch 2, 6 sc into second from chain
Round 2: Inc in each
Round 3: [Sc 1, inc] 6 times
Round 4: Sc across
slip stitch into next and bind off leave a long tail for sewing

Assembly

Stitch the yolk into place using the tail yarn

Bacon
Row: 1: ch 6, sc across
Rows: 2 - 3: Sc across ch 1 and turn
Rows: 4, 6, 7,9, 10, 12, 13, 15: Dec, sc 2, inc, ch 1 and turn
Rows: 5, 8, 11, 14: Inc, sc 2, dec, ch 1 and turn
Rows: 16 – 18: Sc across ch 1 and turn
Sc a border around the bacon, slip into next, bind off and weave in ends.

To add the “white” of the bacon, you are going to make a crochet chain on the bacon. To do this, insert your hook into the bacon, pull a strand of yarn through. From there, leaving the yarn looped over your hook, repeat. Now you should have two loops on your hook, pull the second loop (the one closest to the hook) through the first. Continue this in a squiggly pattern until you reach the other end. Repeat on the other edge.

Ravelympics 2008

Beansprout — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:58:55 +0000

I have signed up to be in the “Amigurumi Toss” for the 2008 Ravelympics =) What are the Ravelympics? Well, for those of you who have not jumped on the Ravely bandwagon yet, this is an event taking place at www.ravelry.com, so go register! The purpose of the Ravelympics (as far as I can tell) is to have fun and join in some friendly competition. You pick your event (events such as “Laceweight Javelin”, “Cowl Jump ” and “Sock Put ” to name a few”) and pick your project/s (something challenging, but obtainable). The only rules are that you cast on during the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics (Aug. 8 ) and finish before the Olympic flame goes out (Aug. 24).

My plan is to make something with hair. Kinda lame, I know, but I have always stayed away from anything with hair because it intimidates me =) So now it’s off to “train” by finding some tutorials…

Breakfast

Beansprout — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:45:25 +0000

As I mentioned in this post, my sister asked me to make some food for her to use as a birthday gift. I just recently finished this:

Fried egg, bacon and toast with butter. I plan on making a pattern for this available, however I am going to try and tweak the bread a bit first =)

Crochet Fries & Shake

Beansprout — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:33:10 +0000

After seeing my Crochet Hamburger sitting there so lonely, I decided it needed something else…and what better to go with a hamburger than fries? Then of course a shake to rinse it all down =)

This pattern is available for $3.25 and can be purchased and directly downloaded on my Patterns page or through my Ravelry Store.

Soon…

Beansprout — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:49:28 +0000

At the beginning of the week, my husband surprised me my telling me that instead of taking the two days off we had planned, he was taking the whole week off. So, naturally we’ve been having a lot of family time this week which kinda put my crochet food making on the back burner =) I am working on a few things that should be finished within the next week or so and made available!

Look What I Just Found!

Beansprout — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:46:53 +0000

I just made a great discovery for anyone new to crocheting or to amigurumi style crochet (working in continuous rounds). Hooks and Needles has some great tutorials on things like deciphering crochet code commonly used in patterns, video tutorials on increasing, decreasing and crocheting continuous rounds. It’s a great resource! So, if you’ve found yourself staring longingly at some of those really cute patterns but figured you could never do it in a million years…here’s your chance! The great thing about amigurumi style crochet is that once you master a few basic tricks, you can do just about any of it =)