Borderlands 2 has been seriously cutting into my crochet time since it’s release. I’ve got a Gunzerker and a Siren all the way through the story and have really enjoyed playing it with friends and exploring Pandora. My favorite character from the whole game is Claptrap, who I have planned to crochet ever since he called me minion.

He was a fair bit of a challenge, as are most things that are cube shaped or have angles, and was ripped out and redone several times. The body is reinforced with plastic canvas and the arms and wheel are attached with electrical copper wiring so he is poseable. I will be publishing the pattern once it’s all written out, formatted and checked for sanity, so you can all make your own… but I was too jazzed to wait so the teaser images are all you get for now.

Today is my birthday and I’ve been surprised by my awesome husband with an incredibly lucky find of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in the more elusive colours of their Fruit Line. He cleaned out their entire stock. As with all of their new or seasonal solids, they apparently can’t be bothered to show the new colours on their website or distribute them with any sort of consistency so this score was a lucky find and just in time. I think I now have all of their fruit colours (and plenty of them!) and will add them to my stash page shortly. So far I have Lemon (sunshine yellow), Mango (orangey yellow), Tangerine, Strawberry (bright fuscia but unfortunately scented so I will need to air these out), Blueberry (pretty vibrant periwinkle blue), Black Currant (grapey purple) and Kiwi (almost an apple green). I figured out these were the colours in the line because the pattern pamphlets Bernat published had the colours listed for a knitted fruit cozy patternsite, which is also not surprisingly, not posted to their web. Quite a glorious birthday haul if I do say so myself!

I got to that “close enough” nexus before the weekend so the new design is now live. I drew the graphics myself and am pretty happy with it. Still need to tweak a few things and update some things but changes will be minor. I’ll be publishing a pattern soon too since it’s been a while… not sure of what… any ideas? Looking for a quickie but a goodie that hasn’t been done seventy bjillion times already. Leave a comment with your suggestion!

Since I’ve started making more accessories and things outside of the amigurumi realm, I’ve branched out into different fibers. While I still feel that unmercerized cotton is the best option for amigurumi, I’ve developed a fondness for wool, especially chunky single plys in bright transitioning or splotchy colours. Of course the cost of most luxury yarns, handspun or hand painted is more than I am willing to pay, but a true DIY girl at heart, I couldn’t help but want to figure out how to do it myself on a budget.

I read up and found that protein fibers (animal hair like wool, alpaca, mohair etc) can be dyed effectively with food safe colouring using Koolaid powder, food colouring or icing colouring, if there is an acid present to bond the dye to the fiber. That option was way more attractive than chemical dyes because I have a tiny kitchen and wouldn’t be able to store a dye pot and utensils, nor would I want to have to buy a dye pot and separate yarn dyeing gear. Armed with the gobs of information found here I set out to dye two balls of Stitch Nation Full O’ Sheep yarn I got on clearance with a mixture of KoolAid and regular liquid food colouring with lemon juice to bind the dye. I used the hand painted method outlined here for the colour changes and heat set the dye by putting the yarn in a steam basket over a pot of simmering water for 30 minutes instead of using the microwave since my microwave is tiny. Once it was steamed, I rinsed it but the water ran completely clear, which meant all the colour was absorbed into the yarn. I hung the hank outside in the sun to dry for a few hours and then it was pretty much good to go. Clean up was a breeze and I didn’t stain or destroy anything, which means this is pretty klutz proof.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, bright and fluffy and not felted at all. I will definitely be messing around with other colours as soon as my order of Wilton’s Icing Colours and Little lamb yarn gets here. It really worked out to be a good deal even though I used KoolAid which is pricier than food colouring. The yellow was food colouring and the other colours were KoolAid and as you can see, straight food colouring did as good of a job so I’ll be sticking to that in the future. Price breakdown:

Yarn: $8 (2 balls of 155 yards each)
KoolAid: $5
Food Colouring: $2

$15 for 310 yards of rainbow yarn I had fun making is an awesome deal compared to $9.99 for 95 yards of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus yarn (what I was thinking of buying even though the colourway wasn’t really exactly what I wanted) which would have added up to $30 for the same amount of yarn. Plus it makes the thing I make with this yarn, a little more mine, which I love.

I was making basic double crochet granny squares for a baby blanket but eventually my interest petered out and it became one more projects on the stack of partially completed. I didn’t think I’d really ever get around to finishing it so I turned it into a strip of granny squares to wrap around a telephone poll on my street.

Nine squares with 2 rows of single crochet border was perfect and stretched so tightly around the rough, weather worn wood that I am certain that thing isn’t going anywhere without being cut down. I used my usual unmercerized cotton yarn in 4-ply worsted weight, a combination of Lion Cotton, Bernat Handicrafter Cotton and Lily Sugar & Creme, and a 4mm crochet hook. The pattern was a slight modification of the standard double crochet granny square. We’ll see how long it survives before the anti-graffiti yahoos that run around slapping beige paint over ever speck of street art they come across, cut it down.

A big thanks to everyone for all the support, nice comments and positive waves. 1000 has always seemed so epic. I’ll be posting a celebratory pattern this weekend