Parasite plushies #1

Few days ago I got an uncommon request. To be honest, it was the most bizzare request ever.
"Can you crochet a medicinal leech for me?"
I felt flattered! It feels good to be the person to turn to when you need a weird plushie! :)

I got down to designing said leech. I was wondering how to create a nice little sucker... and an old design popped into my head. Let's spend a nice Throwback Thursday, shall we? With a Tapeworm Bookmark!

I never shared it on the blog before. It was a gift for one of my classmates (and friends). He asked for a bookmark. And since we shared a table during our parasitology classes, and worked together on unforgettable drawings depicting countless  tapeworms, pinworms and fleas ... choice was obvious!

Here it is:

Tapeworm Bookmark

Bored? Make yourself a useful toy! Show your kids why should they wash their hands before each meal, and never eat raw meat of unknown origin!

Gauge: is not important.
Abbreviations (in US crochet terms):
sc - single crochet
dc - double crochet
sl st - slip stitch
ch - chain
FLO - front loops only
BLO - back loops only
Numbers in brackets () indicate the number of stitches you should have after finishing each round. If you wish, you can join rounds but it's not necessary (I didn't do it:))

Head (scolex): 
Rnd1: 6sc into Magic Loop
Rnd2: 6 sc in FLO
Rnd3: 2sc in each sc across (12)
Rnd4: sc even in BLO (12)
Rnd5: *sc in next sc, sc2tog* repeat 4 times (8)
Rnd6: sc even (8)
Rnd7: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc* 4 times (12) in FLO!
Rnd8: *sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc* 6 times (18)
Rnds 9-10: sc even (18)
Rnd11: *sc in next sc, sc2tog* 6 times (12)
Rnd12: sc2tog across (6) Stuff head, make sure you do it lightly so the sucker stays concave in the middle!
Rnd13: Fold and sc 3 across remaining st (3)

Suckers (make 4)*: sc 6 into magic loop, sl st into 1st sc. fasten off, sew on sides of head,

*version for ultra-lazy people: sew on 4 buttons:)

Now you will continue work flat. From this point length, shape, anything is entirely up to you. You decide how many segments do you want to make. Here are some general instructions:

Neck:
ch1(counts as sc)  sc 2, turn
ch1,  sc 2, turn
ch1, 2 sc in next sc, sc, turn (4)
ch1, sc, 2 sc in next sc, sc, turn (5)
sc even 3-4 rows

Small segment (I made about 4 of those in the beginning and 3 near end)
ch3 (counts as dc) dc in each sc, turn (5)
ch1, sc in each dc (5)

Big segment:
ch3,  *2dc in next sc, dc* twice (7) turn
ch3, *dc2tog, dc* twice (5)
ch1 sc in each dc

Green - big segment
Red - small segment

"Tail"
Just to be clear: a tapeworm shouldn't narrow towards the end!
But to make it look nicer... just reverse the neck instructions:) and sc2tog in the end to get a nice pointy ending.

Finished!

Feel free to experiment with colours, I would love to see this multicoloured!

© Copyright remains with the designer. All rights reserved. Intended for personal use only. Not for commercial use.  © Copyright M. Machowska - Escherichia, January 2013

PDF available on Ravelry (also in Polish!): here

Crocheting your own tapeworm shouldn't take you more than one afternoon, unless of course you are going for a life-sized Taenia solium... 2 - 3 meters can be more challenging.

Hope you liked it!
Next time I will be sharing with you my cuddly leeches. I'm in the middle of the third draft version.

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Rollable armadillo!

Just two weeks of holidays left... and to be honest I'm getting slightly bored (probably will regret saying that in less than a month).

This year's hot summer turned out to be great for our garden crops! It's mainly thanks to intensive watering and lots of sunshine. We are up to are necks with tomatoes, pumpkins and other yummy goods!

Yesterday I was scrolling through my long list of favourites on Ravelry, and came across this sweety:

Roll-up Armadillo by Kati Galusz.

Two or three hours of work and one lost forever darning needle later.. here he is! 

Phteven the Armadillo. 

He rolls up so nicely!

Now that I think about it... maybe I need another one. Just to keep the first one company! :)

Have a nice evening!

Gosia.

We are the Harbinger of cuteness!

I told my husband there are no fun and free patterns related with Mass Effect. And just to prove it I typed "Mass Effect" into Ravelry's search box.

That was clearly a mistake!

Next minute I got a request for a plushy Reaper...
Pattern's name is Mass Effect Reaper Amigurumi   by DIY geekess. It can also be found on this blog.

Meet Harby the Reaper!

(for all none-gamers - Reapers are ancient synthetic life forms from game called Mass Effect.)

Harby is (of course) short for Harbinger. I'm not sure Harby is fond of his name, though - he tried to devour my husband:

Korek did not want to make new cosmic friends... I don't really blame him. After all he is a cocker spaniel - not a shepherd.

I was shocked how quickly I managed to complete it! All pieces are easy to make, but the number of them (20? or so) can make your head spin. But hey! If I managed to sew it together nicely - anyone can do it. I skipped making a stripe on Reaper's belly and used plastic straws instead of pipe cleaners.

We had so much fun taking those pictures together! Believe it or not - at one point we tossed it into the air and took this picture:

Ahhhh, maybe I should play Mass Effect again?
Aaaanyway...

I should go,

Gosia out.

Autumn Holiday

Forgive my week long absence!

Weekend outside of town got my creativity level low. I'm still working on my Creamy Cardi. I'm done with backside and halfway through right front. I am considering starting left front with my spare set of needles, and working armhole shaping simultaneously.

Today I'll just share with you a few pictures from our trip:

Place where we stayed had almost no artificial light around it, so we finally got to see the Milky Way! Unfortunately taking pictures of the night sky surpasses my camera's capabilities.

Saturday was bright and sunny so we decided to go hiking. 

Boy, where we surprised how a 890 meters high mountain can kick our butts... 

The view from top was worth it!

We spend Sunday recovering from exhaustion and taking care of our poor leg muscles.
Meanwhile weather got worse, so we gladly stayed indoors for most of the day.
It seems autumn is here to stay.

Now I have hundreds of pictures taken in my garden to sort, and share with you next time, so that's all for today.

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

All-Terrain Awesome-Tank!

Star Wars project is ready!

It took me 20 days (from second cast on) to finish.

I don't like the see-through effect around AT-AT's. I think it's because I used needles bigger than recommended. On the other hand - doesn't it look exactly like falling snow? :)

I am 104 days ahead of my schedule! So I started knitting a cardi for myself. It's in rather thick, creamy acrylic.
We're leaving this afternoon for our weekend to the land where the crow flies backwards. Please, don't tell my hubby half of my backpack is packed with yarn!  

Until next week! 

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.

Fun with Kumihimo.

Summer is slowly coming to an end. Days got shorter and heat is not much of an issue now. Sunflowers in our garden are in bloom now!

Tomorrow kids are going back to school (or preschool) so I decided to spend some productive time with my nieces. As some of you know I've discovered Kumihimo bracelets lately.
I wanted to share all the fun I get from braiding so I sacrificed my shoe-box lid and cut out two more disks.

Then I invited my 10 and 5-year-old nieces over and we did a short braiding course.
Hasiok got out from his liar (in one of my project bags) and joined us as a model:

We used pieces of cotton and acrylic-cotton yarns (both from Alize yarns).
Not long before our bracelets became visible:

Girls were really happy to see effects of their work. So was I! 

It wasn't the only nice thing last week though! Next day a letter arrived and inside I found...

My own non-cardboard Kumihimo disk!
I did not use it that much, because I had this other project to finish.
But now I can braid my day away in peace!

Have a nice afternoon!
Gosia.

Star Wars Project almost done? Bracelets time!

Frogging first version of All-Terrain Awesome-Tank was the one of my best knitting-related decisions. Completing new front design took me less than a week. And, I have to admit,  it fills my heart with pride:

Although backside is plain, work progresses slower. I guess lack of challenge makes the work a bit boring. However, I'm pretty sure I'll finish the work before the Episode 7 is out. 

Last week I made a little side project. Well.. at least I wanted it to be just a side project. 

It was Mom's birthday so I waned to finally crochet a beaded bracelet I promised her a while ago. 

So I took out my Toho (11/0) beads, 1mm crochet hook, a magnetic clasp and some cotton thread...

Spent long time playing with DB-Bead pattern generator...

And voilà!

This could be the end of this story, but I did something stupid. I posted a photo on Sockalong Society knit n natter group... There were of course lots of nice comments, including one mentioning a different bracelet making technique. And just like that I got introduced to Kumihimo.

I carved my first disk out of a piece of cardboard. It bends and is far from professional, but it works!

To this point (since yesterday) I made three bracelets, and ordered a real Kumihimo disk. I'm afraid it got me!

That's all for today! It's time to get a cup of coffee and pore over a book a little.

Have a nice afternoon!

PS.: It finally RAINS!!!