Krampus Challenge, Day 31, & Creature Comforts, Day 01 – Krampus Amigurumi Finished!

 

Krampus Amigurumi!

“Baaaaaa! Humbug!”

 
I just finished this. Yesterday, I had the head completely assembled and the body attached. Today I finished off the legs, beard and tail and stitched those on. Five seconds later, my nephew ran off with him, shouting, “Kwampus! KWAAAAAMPUS!!” Apparently, he’s very happy with his new stuffie.

Which is perfect, because while yesterday was the last day of the Krampus Challenge, today is the first day of the Creature Comforts Challenge, and I can think of no better Creature Comfort than a monstrous stuffie to cuddle with at night and help keep the Thing Beneath the Bed at bay until morning.

 I’m going to spend the rest of today relaxing with family and watching y nephew run around with Krampus. It’s a good way to start the New Year.

Krampus Challenge – Day 30, Crochet Krampus in progress

 

Crochet Krampus in progress!

It’s NOT a bunny!

 
I’m still cleaning up the cross-stitch pattern, but I decided to switch gears for today, so at the very end of the month I started an entirely new project – a crochet Krampus amigurumi.

I realize that right now he looks like the disembodied head of a zombie bunny, but I think once I add the horns, beard, and body, he’ll look more goat-like. Regardless of how he looks, my 2-year-old nephew has already made it clear he wants this little guy. It will be up to his mother if he gets it.

Krampus Challenge – Day 29, The Last of the Shrunken Elf Heads

Four Shrunken Elf Heads

I think this may be my Christmas card next year!

What do you think? The elf on the far right has ears. I think ears make it look more elfie, but I also think I might want to sew them on a bit differently. I don't know though.

Here's a closer look at Elf #4.

Elf #4

Look at dem ears!

I think I'm done making elves for the rest of this season. I've got one more project in mind, aside from the cross-stitch pattern, which may or may not be done in the next two days. I'll have to see how New Year's Eve goes.

 

Krampus Challenge – Day 28, Cross-Stitch Krampus?

Cross-Stitch Krampus in progress

Krampus is looking a little cross...

Yes, I decided to go one step farther with the drawing I posted yesterday. I bought StitchSketch for my iPad and imported the image of the drawing into StitchSketch. It was not a perfect translation from drawing to pattern. I am still learning a lot about the program, and have a lot of cleaning up to do on this pattern. However, I think it has promise. I'll keep working on it over the next few days.

The other thing I need to do over the next few days is figure out what theme I should do for January. I usually dread January and February. Those two months make up the worst part of Girl Scout cookie season, and they're usually so painfully cold and dreary. This year, I want to make January and February more fun, or at least more tolerable. So I'm trying to decide on some themes that I will enjoy the most.

The first option is “Unfinished Business.” I have several projects lying around the house that need to be finished up. Some of these require more effort than others. I was thinking of picking 3-4 unifinished project to start with and knock them out one at a time until they were done, and then finish up more projects until the month is done.

My second option is to spend the month sewing. Pixie has a new sewing maching and she loves it! We went out today about bought a bunch of fleece to make pillows and cozy things with. I have a book on kawaai sewing that I would LOVE to get to work on, as well as several patterns that I've got the fabric for, but never got started on.

Which leads me to my third option for January's theme – “Creature Comforts.” It would in many ways combine options one and two, as I have several unfinished projects that would be very cozy once finished, and I have a list of several new projects that would also be cozy too.

Actually, now that I think about it, the “Creature Comforts” theme would be the best theme. I don't know how cold January is going to be, but it would be nice if I finally finished that granny-square blanket I started last year, and then I could sew a nice kawaii pillow to go with it, and make myself some new clothes, and finish up some unfinished paintings so I have something nice to decorate the house….

Yeah, I think we've settled this matter. Next month, it's “Creature Comforts!” I think we'll all enjoy this one 🙂

 

Krampus Challenge – Day 26, Krampus Kawaii

 

Krampus Kawall!

I have big plans for this little guy.

 
I spent a little time playing in Assembly this evening. They have a few shape packs available for free download right now, if you’re interested in checking out the app. It comes preloaded with some nice packs, but more shape packs are available for sale. And yes, this does export as vector.

Krampus Challenge – Day 25, A special elf for me

 

Special shrunken elf head

“Can you ‘ear’ me know?”

 
It’s Christmas Day. I got VERY little sleep last night, staying up to finish off wrapping presents and setting up little surprises for the girls. And then Pixie wanted me to get her up early so she could make the family a special Christmas breakfast of strawberry cream cheese sandwiches and ice cream. That’s when I discovered the dishwasher was totally full but wasn’t working, and I managed to wash 5 sinkfuls of dishes before Hubster (who KNEW the dishwasher wasn’t working) decided to flip the circuit breaker and voila! The dishwasher was now fixed. And also empty because I’d already hand-washed everything.

On the bright side, it was a slow, liesurely day. The kids tore through a mountain of presents and were very happy with (and even thankful for) what they received. Hubster was happy with his gifts too (more kitchen wares and dishes for me to wash… grumble, grumble…). And I got some very nice gifts, including a whole bunch of Studio Ghibli movies and some classic horror books.

Princess chased the cats with her new BB-8 while Pixie assembled her new Hot Wheels RC car, and I kind of stumbled around trying to pick up all the torn wrapping paper, or get the kids to pick up the torn wrapping paper, and sometimes even the cats picked up the torn wrapping paper, so I suspect we may get some very nicely wrapped gifts showing up in the litter box later this week, if you know what I mean.

And in between all this, I found time to work on a special shrunken elf head for myself. This guy is made with Vanna’s Choice yarn and he’s going to have EARS in addition to stitched on eyes and mouths. I think the ears really help sell the whole “shrunken head” thing.

And that was our Christmas Day. Oh, one more thing. Our household Krampuses (Krampii?) decided to come out and play in the tree. Here are a couple shots of the little buggers. 

Pink Krampus

“I see England, I see France!”

 
 
Green Krampus

“I see STAAAAAARS!!!”

  

Yes, that is underwear they’re carrying up into the tree. Don’t ask me why. It’s just what they do. Merry Christmas ya’ll.

Krampus Challenge – Day 23, A Wicked Skirt

So I’ve switched gears from crochet to sewing and am back at work on my outfit for Christmas Eve Mass, better know around here as “Drag-Your-Buddhist-to-Church Day.” I’ve got a lovely long skirt in pieces at the sewing machine right now, and I decided I wanted to applique something to it. So I spent the evening cutting out this…

 

Pirate Girl panel

“Ahoy there, ye scurvey dogs!”

 
Gorgeous, isn’t she? And she has two sisters, just waiting to be cut out as well. I think I’m only going to get this one appliqued to the skirt, but it’s a perfect match for the colors of the skirt fabric! And it will go with the Krampus Cowl I made at the beginning of the month. So I should look wonderful for tomorrow evening 😀

Krampus Challenge – Day 22, Krampus Raven #2 is finished!

 

Two Krampus Ravens

These ain’t two turtle doves!

 
Yay! I finally got the second Krampus Raven finished this evening. You can see that the colors match pretty closely. I didn’t have a dark grey for the smaller bird, but the dark maroon and black match perfectly, and I even had a smaller pair of the same kind of safety eyes! The only other difference, aside from the light grey/silver yarn, is the shape of the belly. I think I accidentally added a couple rows to the belly of the smaller raven, because it didn’t sew up the same as the  larger one, but other than that, they’re a perfect match!

I’m going to put the small one on my Krampus Tree, and the larger one on the Christmas Tree! And then, I’m going to move on to the next project! Taa!