State of the Crafting (part 1)

Goodness, it's been a while since I've been around these parts!  Since I've made some new friends who found this blog and declared an interest, I thought it was time I got around to posting.  I've finished a few things and started a few things since the last time I posted, so I thought it would simply be easiest to do an overview of the general state of my crafting.  Part 1, which you're reading right now, will cover all the things I've finished since the last time I posted.  So, without further ado, lets get started!

It's pattern time!

So, there's this anime that I am absolutely in love with.  It's called Natsume Yuujinchou  (夏目友人帳 or Natsume's Book of Friends, as the manga is published in the US), and it's about a boy named Takashi Natsume who can see mysterious creatures most others can't.  Along the way, he acquires a guardian who spent many years trapped in a lucky cat statue and thus usually takes the form of a very fat calico cat. He goes by the name Nyanko-sensei.  I've slowly been getting all of my friends who enjoy anime hooked on it.  The first to fall was my friend Rae, with whom I practically share a brain.  One day, she made an offhand comment that she wanted a Nyanko of her own to squish the way one of the other characters does.  Not long after, a challenge appeared in the House Cup to secretly make something for another Cupper that they would like, and send it to them.  Of course I knew what I had to do!

Some of our other friends were in on the plan, and wanted patterns, so I recorded everything I did and now I'm finally writing it up.  Check it out after the jump!

Tutorial time!

Hey everyone!  I don't know if I have any readers who I don't know personally yet, but if I do I'd like to apologize for the unannounced hiatus.  I was working a job that ate my soul over the holiday season and somehow two months slipped by without my posting anything.  Sorry!  I'll try not to let it happen again.

Now that I've got that over with, it's time for a tutorial!  Today I'm going to show you how to do a crochet technique called the "magic loop" or "magic ring" (not to be confused with the knitting magic loop, which is something completely unrelated).  There's lots of pics, so I'm gonna go ahead and put the rest behind a jump.