Tag: crochet

Remember Me!?

Raynor5 Comments

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Gentle reader,

Hello, my name is Raynor and I’m the Shy Lion. I write a blog about crochet, knitting, and crafts with occasional interludes…

I thought I’d better introduce myself to y’all again since it’s been legit actual FOREVER since I’ve posted here (and if you’re a new reader anyway, well, the intro still stands. Welcome! Pull up a comfy seat, and engage in some crafty behavior and we’ll have a swell time).

I mean, I’m fairly sure it’s no news to anyone that life doesn’t always go according to plan. My plan had been to take  easy, casual, no-brainer temp contracts so I could devote most of my energy to writing super neat fun posts for Le Lion Du Shy (that’s French for The Shy Lion), make things for my Etsy store, and generally just be a total nana.

Well, I’m now working full time for a big online department store and it’s so full on (for me) that when I get home, my brain is all mushy and I just want to play video games and eat candy. Exciting, right?

So, my casual temp contracts turned into a legit six month contract with more responsibility and expectations than I would have thought any sane person would ever give me (don’t get too excited, I’m still a total peon. Let’s keep things in perspective here, I’m basically an eight year old in a thirty year old body, so y’know… grown-up stuff = drainer), and I’m working on an online store… just not mine. So, not entirely how I planned it, but, I have money in my pocket and I’ve met a whole bunch of really rad, neat, and all together ace people and I heart them.

I got a secure job with great people, so I’m very grateful. But, sometimes I feel like I’m tripping balls and I’m like “Wait… how did this all happen?” It’s so far from what I thought I’d be doing!

returnofthelion 1Here is me and my super fave, Yen, goofing off in the office after a late finish. She’s the wind beneath my wings.

That is why my wee poor blog has stood in solitude without much attention from me for the last while. I have a massive backlog of things that I’ve photographed to write posts about and my plan is to start rolling them out. So, I’m not dead! I haven’t forgotten y’all, my lovelies, my puddings, my pals. There are rumblings of future activity, promise.

Meanwhile, my Etsy store may look a bit empty at the moment, BUT, I’ll be teaching again soon! Hurray! I have some classes lined up at The Handmaker’s Factory. Check ’em out! Class details are listed on the “Classes” tab, so if you’re in Melbourne and you wanna learn, go have a sticky beak. 

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To tide you over in the meantime, here is my cat in a dress. You’re welcome.

 What have you been up to!? Tell! Tell!

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Wanna Learn the Magic Ring? I’ll Show You!!

Raynor6 Comments

Gentle reader (and now viewers, I guess!),

I finally finished my video tutorial for the Magic Ring technique. Have a bo-peep and tell me what you think!

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out in the end, but it was rocky road! I filmed and scrapped it about five times (I guess one-shot magic like a certain Kate Bush interpretive dance video you might remember is a rare and special thing. ^_~ ). Basically, it’s a pretty awkward technique to describe and show in a way that makes sense. Also, I apologize for the grainy intro section. I was trying a different camera which, needless to say, I won’t be using again unless I have full natural light. But, the point is not to look at my silly mug, and I just wanted to get the tutorial out already, so I let it slide. If it had been the demonstration footage – the important stuff – I’d have scrapped it. I try it make the actual process of doing these techniques really clear but I also try to add a bit of silliness to keep it fun. I hope you get a little chuckle here and there. ^_~

ALSO, I have some neat news!

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Invisible Decrease Tutorial!

Raynor3 Comments

Gentle reader,

How are you? Happy? Healthy? I hope so! Well, I’ve been messing about in a few different programs such as Photoshop – you may have noticed a bunch of cosmetic tweaks to the site – and iMovie. Oooh, iMovie. D’y’know why? Because I made a video tutorial for you! If you recently downloaded my Sittin’ Kitty pattern, you may have noticed that it called for an “invisible decrease”. Perhaps you’ve not come across that one before, perhaps you have, perhaps you didn’t download Sittin’ Kitty but you could use it for your own crochet shenanigans. Whichever’s the case, if you were scratching your head over it, I’ma show you how! Yay!

What did you think? I think the titles are a bit long, so I might try to make a shorter one. Did you find it helpful? What other tutorials would you like to see? Feedback and comments are super appreciated! ❤

What are you up to this weekend? I hope it’s stupendous whatever you do, lovely faces! ^_^

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The Shy Lion Returns!

Raynor15 Comments

Gentle, patient, beautiful readers!

It is with great excitement and relief that I sit here and write “The Shy Lion returns!”

Since I spoke to you last, I have packed up a house, moved to an apartment, unpacked, and endured a few weeks without internet! I’m so far behind on my podcasts and blogs that it makes my heart heavy, but the silver lining to that is the excitement to see what everyone has been up to since then. Hurray!

I do hope I haven’t lost too many of you, and those who’re reading this, old and new, thank you so much! I’m so excited to be able to share with you again. If you’re new to The Shy Lion, I do hope that you’ll join the Facebook group, and that you will share your projects, craft questions and general chitter-chatter both there and in the comments below. I do loves the commentses, I do, I do! Feel free to send me suggestions for posts and projects or crochet-y questions.

Can I just say, that moving is properly not fun. Especially if you’re like me and have some hoarding issues. Oy. So. Much. Stuff. I threw out so much stuff, sent so much stuff to charity, and yet I still have a buttload of stuff. I’m certainly not under the illusion that moving is fun or easy for anyone, but my life literally stops for months when I move. It’s so overwhelming. I’m still walking around boxes and piles of half-unpacked things. But, I could not stay away from y’all any longer!

Now that the dust is settling, I can get back into my crafty routines. I have been knitting and crocheting, but it’s been very scattered, and has not had the attention I usually dedicate to it. Which is lame, but things are back on track.

Probably my most exciting news is that I’ve written a pattern to share with y’all! I crocheted a pig last year and wrote the pattern as I made it. Alas, the pig was stolen! Can you believe it? It was commissioned for a publicity event, and afterwards, someone pinched it right out of the display! They even had to cut the fishing line that suspended it. So rude! But, that’s the good thing about patterns, you can always make more. I’m halfway through a new one, but my super fantastic friend, Kate (who blogs here), did a test-crochet of the pattern for me! Here’s the piggy she made.

There are a few things to iron out before I release that pattern. I expect that it will be available on Ravelry and perhaps my Etsy store. I’ll sort those details out as well. I’ll probably also do a bit of a giveaway. A-woo! Excitement plus!

Well, that’s all for today, but I have some properly neat stuff coming up, so watch this space! Missed your fantastic faces!

What have YOU been up to? Let’s have a catch-up in the comments, peeps!

Of Giraffes, Cats, Lovely Friends And Stashes

Raynor7 Comments

Gentle reader,

If you’re a friend of The Shy Lion on le Book du Face (that’s Frenchie for Facebook), you might have seen sneak peeks of some of the things I have to share with you today. But first I want to espouse the virtues of excellent friends and stash organization, both as separate entities and as a confluence of goodness.

My friend Kate (who blogs here) is properly awesome. She met me when I had just started knitting. I was so self-conscious of my knitting that at Stitch’n’Bitch, I would set up a barrier of books so no-one could watch me plod along and fumble about. Ever since then, she’s been a voice of encouragement and an all round lovely friend, and now, thanks in part to her, I consider myself somewhat of a “proper knitter”. Ooh la la!

In recent times – last weekend to be exact – she’s given me the gift of organization. You see, when I discovered Ravelry, my stash was already out of control, but how I longed to have my stash all photographed and cataloged in my Rav Notebook. I attempted a few times, but let me tell you, that mess was legit cray-to-the-azy! It was so overwhelming! I’d recently done some thinning out and I decided it was now or never.

Now, Kate is the kind of person who records how many kilometers of yarn she’s knitted up each year, and weighs her partial skeins on kitchen scales. Who better than her to whip my burgeoning, undocumented cache of yarn? So, she came over to my house this weekend passed and we did a stash blitz! Now, if you go to my Ravelry profile, you’ll see the picture of organized deliciousness! I still have my partial skeins to add, but that’s a synch compared to this massive start. Thanks, Kate! You’re properly awesome!

I made this little critter a while ago with the yarn left over from Robert’s bedsocks. I tried something different with the face and used mercerized thread for whiskers. I think it turned out pretty well! My new friend Kellie seemed to think so too, because she snapped it up before I even had a chance to list it on Etsy (which is why the pictures aren’t super great; I had to snap it quickly on my phone at the Crafternoon S’n’B).

This is Miranda the Giraffe! She’s a new experiment for me; I’ve never made something with four legs where I’ve made the legs and body seamlessly. She turned out pretty well, I think! The yarn was some Naturally Yoshie which was on sale at Clegs, so I picked up a few balls. It’s a wool/acrylic blend, and is really quite lovely for an inexpensive yarn. I like the mix of colors. Miranda is in the Etsy store now, so you can totally buy her and squish her and love her all for yourself!

How have some of your lovely friends helped you get over a massive crafty rut? 

The Ravelry Kindness Project

Raynor25 Comments

Gentle reader,

Do you ever feel like just doing something nice just because you can? I often feel that way and I was never sure what to do. I think for me it’s partially because I don’t drink or go out so it’s not like I can buy a round of drinks for my friends and things like that. But, sometimes I just want to make a nice little gesture to my friends and other people who I think are lovely just to say “Hey, you! I think you’re totes neat!”. And, here’s a tip for all my knitting and crocheting peeps out there: Ravelry makes it super easy to do just that!

I’m a lucky guy, peeps. I really am. In this yarny-bloggy-knitty community I’ve made some awesome friends and I’ve met some totes nice peeps both online and in real life, and a lot of them are on Ravelry. Sometimes, I like to look at my friends’ queues and see what patterns have caught their eyes and what they want to make. Some of them even make use of the “wish list” function so I can see what they’re really keen to do next.

Well, every now and then, for no reason other than I want to, I gift a pattern to a random person or two in my friends list. I just want to show them how swell I think they are and do something lovely just to add a bit of warmness to someone’s day. You know that fuzzy, giddy feeling you get when someone does something nice for you totally out of the blue? Do you love that feeling? What about the equally fuzzy, giddy feeling you get when you’re the one who makes someone feel all fuzzy and giddy! It’s the best!

So, I was trying to think of a thing that we can all do together, like a KAL or something. But, there are plenty of KALs out there, and I think I’d like to participate in a KAL or a swap before I get grand ideas about hosting one of my own. So, instead, why don’t you join me in spreading some kindness around the interwebs? Yeah? What do you think? I wanna call it The Ravelry Kindness Project, and I want us all to send out some love! I know everyone’s budgets are different, but you can gift as many or as a few as you like, as often or as occasionally as you like. And, you never know what might come back to you! I’m sure some of you are totes familiar with buying patterns on Ravelry and gifting, but in case you’re not, here’s how:

Go to your “Notebook” on Ravelry, and go to your friends list. Have a bo-peep through your list and find the peeps who you think especially deserve a virtual hug. Click on the friend you want to gift a pattern to.

On their profile page, to the right you will find their queue and their favorites. I usually start with their queue, but some of my friends tend to only queue free patterns so in that case I go to their favorites. You can look under their favorite patterns or their favorite designers.

Some people make it really easy because they make use of the “wish list” function, where they put patterns that they’d like to buy but haven’t gotten around to it.

Once you’ve found a pattern that you want to gift to them, click on the “send as gift” link. If you’re feeling super generous and you notice that the pattern is available as part of an ebook, you can click through to that and gift that instead. Now, the example here is towards the expensive end of patterns, but some are as cheap as a dollar or two!

Once you’ve clicked the “send as gift” linkie, it’ll take you to a screen where you can write a message if you want to, but also make sure to look closely, because this screen will also tell you if they actually already own the pattern, so you might need to choose again. From here, it’s all self explanatory; pay for it with Paypal etc and then it’ll give you a receipt. Hurray! You just brightened someone’s day!

Now, it’s not the sort of project where you really have to check in or compare notes like a KAL or a swap. But, I hope some of you join me in being a sneaky pattern-giver! It’s totes fun! I promise! ^_^

Do you have any ideas about how to make The Ravelry Kindness Project even more fun and awesome? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook!