Portrait – Evelina Crafts

Lara

Lara, who turned 13 last month, has been my oldest daughter’s friend since they were few months old, so her birthday present had to be special. Also she is half Japanese and since ‘Amigurumi’ dolls originate from there, I had a little pressure to make this Amigurumi be worthy of its name.

I planned her slightly differently, but at some point the doll took over and started to tell me what she wants… like a hat with a feather, or buckled shoes. I made her a belt, but she didn’t like it. My shoulder was aching by the end of the week from constant crocheting, I couldn’t stop. Crocheting is a true addiction!

I used 0.75mm and 1mm hooks and Anchor cotton no.8. On a wire base.

Here is a little overview of the process with little explanation in the photo captions

The picture wire was a perfect find for making fingers

Fingers are a bit fiddly job.

The legs came a little plumpier than I hoped.

Victorian bloomers

She even has toes, which are about to be forever hidden in the sewn on shoes

Somehow I chose the same colours as my previous big doll! I must be in my blue period, like Picasso.

The efforts paid off – Lara liked it.

Amigurumi doll Anna, 12.5 cm

This is getting a little repetitive, I know, but having 5 children means that birthday parties they are invited to occur almost every other weekend. By now quite few children in our circle know that I crochet dolls and that is what expected to be a present.

This one is of a 12 year old Anna, my oldest daughter’s friend. She is English, but she came out with a little bit of Ukrainian hint to her somehow. When I started crocheting she even started to look like a Spider-Man, so I had to hide those blue leggings under a long skirt.

Amigurumi presents for friends

Having five children means that there are quite a few birthday party invitations we get through the course of the year. Adjusting my late crocheting hobby into a practical one I started to make Birthday girls and boys into little amigurumi figures to give as gifts.

They are crocheted on a wire base and are about 7,5cm tall. I used 0.6 and 0.75mm hooks and Anchor no. 10 and no. 8 cotton threads

Here is Sofia’s friend Merry, who is a keen Liverpool supporter and a football player herself.

And this is Alexander’s friend Daniel, who likes tennis. He is Dutch, hence the orange colour in his clothes.

Mini home for Sofia

Lately, I have made quite a lot of stuff to share, but I find it a cumbersome job to create a presentable post with good photography and something to write. I will try to catch up before all ‘the stuff’ goes away as presents or gets children fingerprints all over them.

This is Sofia’s space, the first room in our mini ‘bungalow’, where all my chrocheted children live. I found the ready made wooden house in Hobbycraft the other day, which has 5 little spaces, exactly the amount of my children. (Hobbycraft should give me a commission for this!)

I used lolly pop sticks for the shelves, a toothpick to make pencils and wallpaper and cloth from discontinued sample books, which you can buy cheaply in our local sewing shop. The mirror on the wall slid down while the glue was wet and I wasn’t looking, but never mind!

Oh, yes, and the chair was made from a cork wire – they make perfect chairs, why did we throw them away before??

Kalina ballerina. Amigurumi

I am becoming an expert on ballerinas – this is now a third one in my CV.

It was an order for a birthday present and a portrait of the birthday girl. This time I bypassed the complications of creating fingers on her hands but experimented with her feet, which can do bending backwards and forwards, like the type of exercises ballerinas do.

I am so much into crocheting toys at the moment, – it’s truly is fun and the results are so nice to hold in your hands. I picked up this hobby only couple of months ago. Where was I all these years before?

Amigurumi ballerina, partner for Daniel

I don’t know why I’m doing this to such an extreme detail – this was only a request of my 5-year old boy to crochet him a ballerina partner for his ballet pretend games. Now my eyebrows go roof-shaped /\ every time I see him bending her legs to her head or twisting her in all sorts of yoga bends. I wonder how long the wire inside her will bear that for or if she will stay so purely white and pink for very long.

The main objective of today’s photo shoot was to capture the ballerina at the height of her career, before she starts getting all sorts of sporting injuries.

Both Daniel and his ballerina partner are about 13,5 – 14 cm tall and were crocheted using 0.6mm or 0.75mm hooks and mostly Anchor cotton threads.

Welcome to Covent Garden!

The idea..

The Execution..

The stars of the Royal Ballet

A scene from the ‘Sleeping Beauty’

Daniel just can’t take his eyes off her

They both are 13.5-14cm tall

Only one ‘prep’ photo this time

Trip to London

Our oldest daughter (Yr. 7) had an inset day at school today, so impromptu we decided to have a day out in London. It was quiet in the centre – not so many tourists, or traffic.. perhaps, following yesterday’s events, or maybe that’s normal for a Thursday afternoon during term time?

Our main destination was the National Gallery. I wanted her to see some of my favourite artists, and I limited them to 4: Van Gogh, Holbein, Velasquez and Vermeer. These artists chose to be represented only by 1 (Vermeer) to 3-4 pictures at the Gallery, so our visit was a concentrated and a fairly short one. But I enjoyed saying Hello to my ‘old friends’, Sofia seemed interested too. Her favourite was Holbein.

A browse in Japan Centre supermarket followed, and then we both got lost in Piccadilly Waterstones bookshop until it was time to head back.

On the train to London we both drew. Sofia did a good one of me. We used SpectrumAqua pens, each colour has dual ends – a very thin and a brushy one.

Amigurumi party bag dolls

Catherine had her early birthday party today. She invited three friends and we went to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at the local cinema. Ooh! Beautiful movie! ..though I’m not a very big fan of Emma Watson and there was a bit too much singing to my liking, the film left me filled with romance and a feeling that a true love is full of self-sacrifice. The graphics and the design side of the film were beautifully done too. I’m still in it.

But back to craft.. I made the girls into mini crochet dolls as their ‘party bags’ gifts. So here they are: Hannah, Lauren and Isabel.

Amigurumi Alexander

Alexander, my 8 year old son, asked to be a Knight. He even told me what colour doublet (a puffy coat under the armour) he should wear and chose his toy sword on the eBay . All of it was influenced by the BBC production ‘Merlin’.

I had to dig up the Internet to study the armour and its parts and history, and can now show off some old world terminology in a clever conversation (making sure I’m not talking to an expert).

So here he is, in his full glory.