Flying Spaghetti Monster

My sister and I have (what I hope is) a very cool collaborative project to post about.....the mysterious project is now at her house to be painted....I'm really excited to see how they turn out!!!

In the meantime, I have a couple of things that I've been working on, off and on.  One of them is a FSM semi-commission (I say semi, since a friend suggested it, and my hubs has claimed it as his own, even before it was done!)

What is an FSM, you ask?  A Flying Spaghetti Monster!  What is a Flying Spaghetti Monster?  Well, kind of exactly what it sounds like....

He's a little wall-eyed in this picture, but I suppose that is not altogether unexpected for a
being comprised solely of noodles & meatballs.....

And now for the details of the project:

Supplies:  

~Almost an entire skein of "Buff" Red Heart yarn (never again.  I'm spending the extra dough to get yarn that won't make my eye twitch!)

~A few yards of "White" Red Heart yarn (see above)

~A few yards each of solid marooney-red Red Heart & reddish ombre Red Heart

~2 safety eyes (which my friend kindly donated!)

~A few handfulls of batting

~Package of pipe cleaners (I don't remember exactly how many I ended up using...each of the noodly appendages have a core of pipe cleaners so they are fully posable)

~3 wooden skewers (for the support legs.  If I were to do this again, I'd probably make them out of heavy wire, so they're not so straight and un-cooked-noodle-looking)

~Hot glue gun

~Embellish Knit cord making machine, without which, this project would have never happened!

Directions:  (As much as they can be, since I can't write a crochet pattern to save my life....)

I made it up as I went along, and had I not ripped out and changed my mind a hundred times, this project probably wouldn't have taken nearly as long as it did.  That being said:  Never underestimate the amount of time it takes to make enough noodly appendages!  Also, I kind of wrecked my Embellish Knit about a year ago, trying to find a useful application for the gadget I had cluttering up my workspace - if the machine had been working properly, the noodles would have gone a lot more quickly!  (Note:  Embellish Knit will not work with wire.  Ask me how I know.)  

I crocheted an ovally shape for the middle, using single crochet.  I batted around the idea of doing a loser double crochet, but decided that with all the stuff it would have to support, single would be the better option.  (I think I was right!)  Stuff firmly with batting.

Then, I made to kinda cup-shaped pieces for the meatballs, crocheting two strands of yarn as one (made it nice and firm!)  I tacked the meatballs onto the ovally body piece.  The eyeballs are just a slightly flattish ball in single crochet with white yarn - don't forget to insert the eyes and batting before closing up the ball!  At this point, I should mention that I used pipe cleaners for the eye stalks.  At this point, I hadn't had the idea of the skewers, and I should have replaced the stalks with skewers, and the skewer 'legs' with wire.  Ah well, live and learn!!

It's surprisingly difficult to find a picture on the internet of the back of the elusive
Flying Spaghetti Monster.  This is what I ended up with....

There are three basic kinds of noodles - flaccid, hollow body pieces, pipe cleaner pose able noodly appendages, and the tripod.  They all start off the same, but as I created the beginning of the knitted cord, after about an inch, I carefully inserted the pipe cleaner/skewer.  (It's important to have some started before trying to insert the pipe cleaners, or they'll just keep falling out.  Conversely, if there is too much noodle, and you try to shove the pipe cleaner in, it'll stretch out.  So....kind of a trial and error thing to get everything right.  Oh, and a detail about the pipe cleaners/skewers/wire - towards the end, when I was working on the skewer portion, I realized that the ends were going to poke out pretty easily.  So I did a little blob of hot glue on the end, and it worked great.  Were I to do this again, I'd do a blob of glue on the ends of the pipe cleaners as well!)

I sewed all the posable noodles on the body, and glued the skewers on (the skewer goes all the way through the body, and is glued on both ends....the knit cover only goes up to the body.  Does that make sense?)

Then, I spent the next week and a half messing around with how to do the noodly body.  The first time I messed around with it, I got pretty good results, but wasn't perfectly satisfied, and I ripped everything off.  Repeat X infinity.  I finally settled on instead of carefully trying to weave each individual piece together, that each piece can be knotted and woven into a flattish piece of 'noodle', which I then hotglued to the body.  And I think it turned out quite swell!  I think that unless you look really, really closely, you can tell that there are 4+ separate sections in the pic below!

And a close-up of His Noodliness...

Now, you may not know this about me, but hot glue has been crafting heresy for me.  Before this project, I have probably hot glued 4 things in my life.  And never crafting projects.  Yes.  Hi, my name is Noelle, and I'm a hot glue snob.  If it can't be sewn, nailed, or screwed, it's not happening.  But I had a breakthrough with this project.  I love hot glue.  L-O-V-E it.

This is what my husband has to say about the FSM addition to the household:  "Every time I go upstairs, I lock eyes with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  We sit there, fixed in time, for a few moments, then go about our respective days."  That'll do.  :)

Guess what?

Hippo butt!  (Yeah, I'm channeling my inner 4 year old)

My favorite lulz right now is tiny hippo....and I decided I needed a vengeful, tiny hippo of my own!

 The menagerie grows......

Rug-A-Mania!

When I say I've been crocheting a ton, I am SO not joking!  Thankfully, Melia lends her time and scissors to the ripping-and-rolling, so for the most part, I only have to crochet!  (We make fab team!)  There are a few rugs that haven't been photographed before they were re-homed, but here is a selection of what we've been up to:

Green and Rust Rag Rug

Funnily enough, the color scheme, while not really my 'cup of tea', is the one that gets all the attention.  If someone mentions the rugs, it's almost guaranteed they're fondling this specific rug!  The 'sister rug' for this one, which I never got a pic of, (it was sold before I thought to snap a pic!), was square & had orange-y rust accents where the green is.

Rustic Forest Green Rag Rug

Another small rug/placemat rug.  This one is made from leftovers of a pioneer dress I made a while back.

Sweet Mint Rag Rug

This is one of my favorites!  All rolled up, it doesn't look like much, but it's a pretty big rug!

Sweet Lavender Rag Rug or Table Runner

This was a tester to see if I liked braiding rugs better than crocheting them.  It takes a little less time, and I love the way it looks, but it's just not as fun as a crochet rug.  (And probably not as sturdy, either, to be honest)

Sweet Lavender Rag Rug

This one really, honestly is my favorite rug.  I need to get a better pic of this one, because these pics certianly don't do it justice!  I am sorely tempted to keep this rug for myself and turn my bathroom purple.  :)

Shabby Pink Rag Rug

I am kind of in love with the ultra shabby chic-iness of this rug!  And yes, it's another one of my favorites.  I think part of the fun is coming up with pretty color combos!

Baby Blues Rag Rug

This one I finished last night - I tried a new shape, and it turned out pretty okay.  (I have some ideas for future half-circles....yet to be tested!)  Again, I am sorely tempted to keep this one, and use it for my kitchen!

Teeneh Tineh Ami!

I've been doing more crochet in the last few weeks than I have ever done in my whole life!  And before the (very) recent crochet craze, the most I'd ever done is potholders and bags and whatnot.  Super easy, small projects.

So now, I'm kind of in a "Crochet ALL the things" mode.  (More stuff to come, if Melia can spare our shared blog for my dorky crocheting pursuits!)

I still haven't learned how to read a crochet pattern, but I'm pretty okay at making shapes, rather than stitches, which lends itself well to teenyeh, tineh plushies.

I made this rabbit for a friend who loves my white bun (Enron, a real-life bunneh) - I thought she would enjoy having a pocket size bunneh of her own!

And then, because I'm a total nerd, I wanted to make a Cthulu plush.  Half-way through, I decided it was actually a 'she', and needed a bow.  Before I even finished Cthuietta (named by Melia!), I decided she needed a boyfriend.  (I mean, what kind of destruction could be caused by a lonely, adolescent Elder God?!  Can't have that!)  

I decided he is a very dapper Elder God, and needed a bowler hat.  (The original plan was a bowtie, because they're cool, but realized the tentacles of DOOM would prohibit such stylish neckwear.)  I think everything turned out better than expected.  :)

Awww!  The Chaos is so adorbs!

No Elder God, no matter how adorbs, is complete without a little set of wing-a-lings.

They're tineh, and in love.  d'awww!

I can't write a pattern to save my life, but I used regular 'ole embroidery floss and a #7 crochet hook.  

The body and head is a simple ball/teardrop setup for both the Cthulu & bunny.  I stuffed all of them with yarn scraps (since I seem to have a LOT of those around lately!)  

The arms and legs (and bunny ears) are all cup-shaped pieces.  

The tentacles are a spiral that was super popular when I was a kid to put in little girls' hair.  (Chain....a bunch.....and put multiple single or double crochets per chain.  The more stitches per chain, the tighter the curl)

The wings are a basic back-and-forth, and chaining at the end of the wing instead of attaching to previous row.

I hope that helps at all if you're interested in making one of your own.  If not, drop me a line and I'll try to explain better!

Crochet ballet flat slippers

Helloooooo!

Melia, who thus far has been the copy editor for the blog, is crazy-busy this week with work and her upcoming anniversary.  (Congrats you crazy kids, on 8 awesome years!)

So.....here's a pic of one of my favorite crochet slippers:

I've made a whole bunch of pairs in different colors for girls in the family, but the slipper bug is still strong - I've even sold quite a few pairs at the Farmers Market!  (I actually need to beef up the slipper inventory, it's looking kinda weaksauce!)