Charm and Strange Crochet

For the past year and a half or so, my nephews have been pretty in to Pokemon. Cards, toys, binders for their cards, and my sister made an incredible Pokeball cake for one of their birthday parties! So I decided that they were all going to get handmade Pokemon plushies for their birthdays. Robert got Ditto... William got Polywag... ...and Andrew got Wooper! My friends all love Pokemon too, and when I showed them what I'd been making for my nephews, a few of them wanted some plushies of their own.  Matt asked for a Shiny Ditto (essentially a special, more powerful version - so he's a different color from the standard version that Robert got): And Dana asked for Magnemite. Unfortunately, the pattern that I most wanted to make has been discontinued due to pattern thieves stealing the free and wonderful work by Frog and Fasten , and then charging for it. Frog and Fasten's work - isn't it darling?? I ended up purchasing a pattern on Ravelry written by Andrea Schroeder . But ...

This is my inaugural Kaity's Corner post! If you're not sure what that means, check out my previous post  on the topic. A customer recently asked if he could commission a scarf to look like Grusha's scarf from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. A quick Google search told me that yes, I can absolutely make that! I was really excited for the opportunity both to get a completely custom order and to write a pattern. It's been a while since I flexed my writing muscles (except to tweak a few steps in already-written patterns), so to start the year on a more creative foot felt awesome! I have a PDF of this pattern available to purchase on Ravelry, which can be found here . It doesn't have the advantage of no ads since my blog doesn't have ads either, but the PDF is downloadable, printer-friendly, and a little more streamlined for reading. Consider this blog as a guided walkthrough, while the PDF is more of a set of instructions. Source:  https://scarletviolet.pokemon.com/en-u...

My Yiayia (Greek for grandmother) Kaity was the absolute definition of a Renaissance woman. She could knit and crochet. She could buy a thrifted sweater, unravel it, and knit a new sweater without a pattern. She sewed clothing, both new and alterations. She painted and drew. She could cook. She could sing and dance. And her garden was a paradise that you could get lost in, even in her small suburban backyard. She loved pressing flowers from her garden and decorating things like picture frames and candles with the pressed flowers. If the Internet had existed when she was young, people would have been begging her to run a blog and a YouTube channel for tutorials, recipes, and advice, and open an Etsy shop to sell her handmade goods. My favorite painting of Yiayia's - I did a tribute to this one on my nails for her funeral. See details on my old nail art blog  here ! I used to draw and paint with my Yiayia when I was young. Her rheumatoid arthritis had made most of her crafts impossib...