Fancy Fish Patterns Set 1 and Set 2 Now Available!!

Each pattern comes with a Fish Body and Three Unique styles of Fish Fins. You can make your very own custom Fancy Fish!! I can’t wait to see what you make!!

You can find the pattern Set 1 here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fancy-fish-set-1

You can find pattern Set 2 here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fancy-fish-set-2

You can find pattern Set 1 here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/783644233/fancy-fish-set-1-crochet-amigurumi?ref=shop_home_active_1

You can find pattern Set 2 here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/783645595/fancy-fish-set-2-crochet-amigurumi?ref=shop_home_active_1

© 2020 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Koi Fish Pattern Now Available!!

I’m pleased to announce that the Koi Fish pattern is now available on Ravelry and Etsy! For one week only (Until February 25th 2020) it will be available for $5, and then the price goes up to $6. You can use this pattern to make an almost 2 foot long koi fish with any one of four different color patterns on its body (All actually genetically inheritable in real live koi fish!) Make a realistic one or use your imagination to make your very own rainbow fish!!

You can find the pattern here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/koi-fish-4

Or here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/766022382/koi-fish-crochet-amigurumi-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_1

Happy Hooking!

© 2020 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Hippogriff Add-On Pattern!!

I'm happy to announce my new ADD-ON Griffin: Hippogriff Expansion pattern is now available!!!

You can use this NEW pattern in conjunction with the Griffin pattern to make your very own Hippogriff!! The pattern comes with Hind Horse Legs, a Horse Tail, and a whole new wing pattern design! The wings are also compatible with the Griffin (Or even a Dragon, maybe???)

**NOTE: This pattern is meant to be used WITH the original Griffin pattern, it does not contain instructions for the whole Griffin Body necessary to complete a Hippogriff.

For ONE more week you can get the original Griffin Pattern for $5, and after that the price is going up to $6.

You can find the ORIGINAL Griffin pattern here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/griffin-3

Or here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/694045116/griffin-crochet-amigurumi-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_22&crt=1

You can find the NEW ADD-ON Hippogriff Pattern here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/add-on-griffin-hippogriff-expansion

Or here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/777854475/add-on-griffin-hippogriff-expansion?ref=shop_home_active_1

© 2020 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Ten Little Mermaids....

Little Mermaid Crochet Patterns are NOW AVAILABLE!!

These patterns are a set of two patterns that can be purchased individually- The Ten Little Mermaids series by Crafty Intentions. The first pattern set features instructions on how to make a Shark Mermaid, a Goldfish Mermaid, a Seahorse Mermaid, a Manta Ray Mermaid and a Traditional Mermaid. The second pattern set features instructions on how to make an Octopus Mermaid, a Koi Fish Mermaid, a Squid Mermaid, and a Jellyfish Mermaid.

Both patterns come with two body types for different levels of complexity, five mermaid tails, more than 10 hair styles, and three bralette options.

**If you purchase both patterns ON RAVELRY ONLY, you get $2 off!!**

On Ravelry:
Set One: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/five-little-mermaids-set-one
Set Two: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/five-little-mermaids-set-two

On Etsy:
Set One: https://www.etsy.com/listing/761133142/5-little-mermaids-goldfish-shark-manta
Set Two: https://www.etsy.com/listing/775011177/5-little-mermaids-squid-koi-fish-eel

Special Thanks and Credit to Tammy Simmons of Tamigurumi & More for making and photographing the finished mermaids. You can find more about her work here: https://www.facebook.com/tamigurumiandmore/

© 2020 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Wyrms, Wyverns and Dragons, Oh My!!

This new pattern features three ways to make a flying Dragon creature! You can make one with no limbs (Wyrm), with only rear legs (Wyvern), or with front legs and rear legs (Dragon)! It is made as all one piece, the only separately crocheted bit that is attached by sewing are the wings! The wings do have (Optional) wire in them so that you can pose them to be open and look like they are mid-flight!

The new Pattern is available here on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/miniature-wyrm-wyvern-dragon

Or Here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/757289984/miniature-wyrm-wyvern-dragon-crochet

© 2020 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Dinosaur Pattern Feature!!

My Dinosaur pattern was selected to be featured in a “Best Dinosaur Crochet Patterns” list on crochet-news.com!! I’m tickled dinosaur-color!!!

https://crochet-news.com/18-dinosaur-crochet-patterns/

Come make your own! Rawr!!

© 2017 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Moar hand care tips!!!

One of the best things I’ve done for my hands was making sure that at night they take a proper break. Granted, I only really give them a break while I sleep, but it turns out that churning out all kinds of amigurumi while awake was contributing to tightness and clenching while I was sleeping - so they weren’t REALLY resting while I was sleeping. I would wake up and my hands would be MORE sore than they were when I finished crocheting all day.

I solved this by buying a set of wrist and hand braces for night time use. I bought THIS kind and it has served me very well. The important parts are that it stabilizes my wrist, while still being comfortable and NOT TOO TIGHT for night time use. And additionally, it has padding on the palm of the brace that does not allow me to clench my hand into a fist while I sleep. This forces my hand to stay in a relaxed position.

On top of that, I often use an athletic cream for sore muscles or a CBD cream on my hands, then I put my hands in those braces over night and by morning I always feel an improvement.

The bad news is that I, personally, have a hard time sleeping with those wrist braces on. But they’re good for me, so I grumble through it. I hope this helps!

STILL PROUD.

<3
I support you. I’m here for you. Rawr.

© 2017 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Other Butterfly Combinations!

People have been putting together some really interesting and unique combinations of creatures using one of my patterns plus the butterfly wings pattern! There has been a butterfly octopus!

https://www.facebook.com/handmadebylaurenlewis/
https://www.ravelry.com/projects/MadeByLaurenLewis/butterfly-with-four-wing-styles

A Butterfly Monster!

And a very sweet Butterfly Pony!

https://www.facebook.com/handmadebylaurenlewis/

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/MadeByLaurenLewis/pony-pegasus-unicorn-alicorn-7

What other combination could you put together?

© 2019 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Fairy Dragons!

My Butterfly pattern is perfectly compatible with the dragon pattern (Both the adult dragon pattern and the Juvenile Dragon pattern!). The most awesome part is picking out the color schemes and easily using a special gradient yarn on the wings to stand out as the star of finished work!

© 2018 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Hand care!

I thought I would touch on hand care again because it is such an important issue for avid hookers. If you are crocheting regularly, please take breaks and stretch and rest your hand so that you don’t develop repetitive motion injuries.

And if you’re like me, and completely lose track of time when you’re crocheting and thus spend 3 hours hooking without a break and then pay for it later that night with pain, soreness and tenderness….

Here’s something you can do to help.

Treat yourself to an ergonomic crochet hook. It’s all the rage now. You can find different types of ergonomic hooks in all the big box craft stores for fairly cheap, but there are more varieties of hooks available out there now more than ever. My personal favorite that I think I’ll never ever stop using are Clover Soft Touch hooks. Their handle is actually quite small, but it fits my hand and something about it means I have far more endurance and far less pain when crocheting for long periods. The most expensive ergonomic hooks come from a company called Furls. I’ve personally found that their Odyssey line hooks (all I own from them) don’t fit well in my hand, but maybe it would be the perfect thing for yours! And the good news is their customer service is excellent, so if your hook breaks, you can contact them and they will replace it at no charge to you!

Supplies: Glass Gems

I use glass gems for weight and stability in some of my patterns. Glass won’t rust or corrode over time, so it is safe to put inside your yarn, but I would not recommend it inside of anything meant for a child under the age of three.

I often recommend adding glass gems to the feet of dragons, etc. This will give them a little bit of weight, and glass gems have a flat side, so if you point the flat side down it also gives the animal stability.

You can find glass gems at any big box craft store or online. I didn’t even know what they were called when I first started searching for them, but I’d seen them and played with them before. They can regularly be found in the bottom of wedding center pieces and you’ll often find them in the floral section of your craft store. You can use other types of weights (people have told me they’ve used metal nuts, pennies, etc to do the same thing), but I prefer the glass gems.

Yarn Review!: Lionbrand Landscapes

This is my other go-to yarn for a beautiful quality amigurumi, and I’m happy to share WHY.

Pro: GORGEOUS colors. Just LOOK AT MY DRAGON. LOOK AT IT. Now go look up “Boardwalk” colorway and buy some.

Con: It lies about its weight. It says it is Medium weight, it’s more on the bulky side. While I don’t think you have to size up your hook, you COULD and this yarn will definitely create a larger creature than your average worsted weight yarn would create.

Pro: One skein of Lionbrand Landscape is PERFECT for ONE octopus from my pattern.

Con: I can’t think of one.

Pro: It is single ply! Fantastic! Amazing! Silky! Beautiful!

Con: It is single ply. It might pull apart as you sew. Twist as you sew, and that won’t be an issue, but it can be an annoyance.

Pro: It’s awesome.

Seriously. It’s awesome.

Supplies: Ruler

One of the key supplies that I use constantly in the creation of my amigurumi and soft sculptures is a ruler. It can’t just be some generic ruler. THIS ISN’T PLAY TIME THIS IS SERIOUS.

I’ve tried just about every measurement stick you can find. I have cloth measuring tapes by themselves, measuring tapes in cutesy winder things, I have yard sticks and generic rulers, I even had an etsy seller make me a custom Leather bracelet that was stamped with ruler markings! If Only I could find that!

But my favorite by far is an antique wooden ruler that I found at a flea market. It is 6 inches long, but unfolds to be a full 2 feet long. On one side it has inches and the other it has centimeters. It is a Carpenter’s ruler and it looks like the photo below. It is THE BEST. And you should find one too — or whatever floats your boat.

Photo found here.

New Pattern! Butterfly (Four styles of Wings AND Butterfly Body)!

This Butterfly pattern comes with instructions for a realistic butterfly body, and FOUR individual styles of butterfly wings! These butterflies are ready to flutter into your home and sit patiently wherever you put them. This pattern features stunning wing styles ranging from extremely simple to textured and complex and clear step by step instruction with a lot of row-by-row photos. I have designated this pattern as advanced beginner, and I am so proud that it s extremely versatile and compatible with so many other patterns of mine! I’ve seen people make a butterfly octopus! A butterfly monster! And a butterfly dragon! Stunning!

© 2018 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Yarn Review!: Red Heart Unforgettable

Red Heart Unforgettable yarn holds a special place in my heart as it is the yarn I used to make one of my first Dragons. This particular dragon went viral and is the reason I figured out what I want to be when I grow up.

Red Heart Unforgettable has some great qualities and some draw backs. Here’s the skinny.

Pro: It comes in absolutely stunning colors. I can’t recommend it enough for this reason. Colors are often most important to me as they capture what I want to convey - poor colors, means it’ll have a poor reception. Red Heart unforgettable always satisfies this way (I can’t recommend “Stained Glass” or “Gossamer” enough).

Con: It lies about its weight. It says it is a medium weight yarn, but it is not. It is a light weight yarn. Size down on your hook or double the yarn up. It is not terrible about yarn weight consistency, but it is not perfect this way. I have had more issues with other yarns, but this can be an issue for this one too sometimes, depending on the skein you’re using.

Pro: It is single ply! I love single ply! Something about that smooth single twist of yarn is sexy and silky and awesome. It’s my favorite and it’s what drew me to Red Heart Unforgettable in the first place.

Con: It is single ply! This means it can pull apart as you sew with it leaving you to cry hot tears of fury as you try to figure out how to thread your needle with 3 inches of yarn tail left to sew an entire dragon limb to your precious dragon and CURSE THE GODS FOR THEIR CRUELTY. Always remember to twist your yarn as you sew with it and you should be fine, but this is definitely an annoyance.

Pro: It’s cheap and easily available!

Con: It’s IMPOSSIBLE to frog. It felts itself as you crochet with it, so if you make a mistake and need to go back, it’s going to give you a real hard time. How to fix that? Don’t make a mistake.

All in all, I would still recommend it! I really like using it and I’m so glad to have it in nearly every color it’s available in.

New pattern! Cloud Weather Sun Star pattern now available!

This pattern comes with instructions for a cloud, snow flakes, rain drops, lightning bolt, rainbow spirals, rainbow ribbons, a small star, a large star and a sun!

This pattern features at least 10 different possible combinations for adorable smaller (quickly made) items and clear step by step instruction with a lot of row-by-row photos.

I’ve designated this pattern as an advanced beginner level pattern. And so long as you keep any ribbon-pieces shorter than 7 inches and skip using safety eyes, this is the PERFECT addition to a baby gift!

© 2018 Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™. All rights reserved. This pattern is FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. The pattern (or parts of it) may not be reproduced, distributed or resold, translated, published, altered, shared or posted (for sale or free) over the internet or offline. You can sell items made from this pattern, provided they are handmade by yourself in a limited number and you give credit to the designer. Please add the following lines to your item description and any item you are selling: “This item is handmade by (your name) from a design and pattern by Megan Lapp, Crafty Intentions™”.

Supplies: Wire

I frequently use wire in my patterns to help with stability, strength and poseability. It is important to me to be able to explain exactly how to assemble the soft sculptures in my patterns, so within my patterns there are often step by step written and photographic instructions for how to assemble your soft sculpture using wire. Figuring out the perfect wire to use has been an interesting journey that I am STILL ON.

As a fluke, I found that packages of paper-wrapped 18 gauge 18 inch faux floral wire works really well for what I want it to do. The crumpled paper wrapped around the wire offers a nice friction resistance against the yarn crochet work, so pieces that you crochet won’t shift as much once the wire is inside, because the wire isn’t just smooth. This particular wire that I recommend also happens to be fairly stiff for 18 gauge wire, and the paper-wrapped quality adds girth to the wire, so although 18 gauge is fairly small, the paper makes it much thicker.

The 18 gauge, 18 inch CLOTH wrapped wire is NOT created equally to the paper wrapped stuff. I’ve found that the cloth wrapped wire is far to malleable and won’t hold up the weight of a crocheted wing (for example) the same way that the paper wrapped wire does. Unfortunately, I also found out that there is no firmness descriptor on packages of wire meant for faux foliage. So it can definitely be a bit of a process to locate a perfect wire to use in your work. Keep in mind, you also DO NOT want the wire to rust.

I explain this because although I found the wire easy to locate in stores here in America (big box craft stores), for my overseas customers it was not so easy. Overseas customers have found wire more readily available at their local home improvement stores — Wire used for fencing or hangers works well, but you should always have a pliers on hand for trimming and shaping. You don’t want a wire that’s TOO stiff, because then you run the risk of not being able to shape it as exactly as you need.

So basically, go out there and find the goldilocks of wire. Good luck!

The Etsies!

I did something scary and exciting! I entered my Dragon pattern in the Etsies! The Etsy Design Awards!! This is the first competition that Etsy is hosting! I can’t wait to see what everyone puts out there for this! I can’t figure out whether I’m foolish for having a very real hope of being chosen as a finalist for this! Eee! Exciting!

#TheEtsies