WoollyRhinoCrafts

 Behold, the theme song of this post: This is kind of a serious post. Kind of.  I want to chat a bit about my Phoenix Wright hats and answer some questions/address some concerns I've gotten. I started making these hats back in the early days of my Etsy shop (2012-ish). The first version was double-knit and took me about 20 hours to make - this was terrible, obviously. I sold them for a laughable price that I won't even mention because I'm so embarrassed. Closing sales was more important to me than actually making a profit. I have been tweaking this design since then. I soon realized I needed to make a more efficient version, so I reworked the pattern and started making a double-thick version with *duplicate stitch. *Duplicate stitch is a type of embroidery that mimics the V-shape of knit stitches, which is worked over the knit stitches. It is very tedious, but the end results are very nice. It maintains the stretchiness of the piece and is particularly good for when the des...

Wow! I've done it. I've restocked not one but TWO versions of the PaPa hat from Ace Attorney. It has been a very long time since I actually STOCKED this hat. 2016. For real. I checked. The hat on the left is the standard version which I've made for the last several years but only as custom orders. The the one on the right is a new lightweight version. It's still two layers and double-thick so it will be warm for Halloween or if you want to wear it around during winter, but it's a lighter weight yarn and a looser knit. I was trying to make it breathable to be more comfortable for all-day wear at a summertime con.  I haven't been including the pins for custom orders, but I have pins again! Now all hats will come complete with the O-face pins! The pins are from Snow Bunny Studios , who is back in the making business again! Standard hat: HERE . Lightweight version: HERE . Now listen up, today is December 7th, and if you stumble here to this page and you want one of ...

Every once in a while I still get questions about this cosplay from years ago. I blogged about it pretty regularly (because back in the day, I was good at blog updates) and I always meant to gather all of the posts together to make it easier to read about it in chronological order for the folks interested in the process. But then I kept forgetting. Of course. I'm someone who likes to read about other peoples' processes and it motivates me to do stuff and gets my creative juicy juice flowing... Well, here it is. I've finally done it! Crochet Sailor Saturn! Every post (I hope), in order! If I find I missed any then I'll add them. They're filled with WIP pictures and are pretty detailed. I fondly referred to this build as "Sweater Saturn." It was hundreds of hours and it was the hottest, heaviest, least breathable, most miserable costume I have ever made and I have zero regrets. I entered the costume contest at the aquarium and did not even place and then I w...

UPDATE 2/12/23: I don't want to go into great detail about the decision to scrap Sylvanas. It was a recent one and it was not done lightly. To save you from a lot of angst, I'm just going to say that the more I looked at the word I'd done, the more I wished I'd used royal blue instead of navy.  The Recap: I started this idiotic/genius project over three years ago, but I worked on it very sporadically until about 9 months ago because I had no money because making things for people doesn't quite pay all the bills and also allow one to afford the shitloads of yarn and other things I needed for this personal project. I got a real job, so I had money, but then I had no time - the Great Adult Paradox, I suppose! I wanted to pull this off for DragonCon this year, but if you follow me on any social medias, you know that I worked on it nonstop and then even worked on it at the con and crashed and burned. I didn't have time for all of the detailing and I'm a huge ...

UPDATE 2/8/23: I'd like to do a version of this where the ears aren't seamed and are, like, weird socks. Or, you know, made like socks. Like...toe-up socks? Do you all know what I mean? I can't words today. I've put it on my list of to-do stuff in my big 2023 update extravaganza.   I just blasted through every episode of Bob's Burgers very quickly. I'm not going to tell you how many days it took because it's sort of embarrassing. Several people told me to watch this show. Repeatedly. Over the years. "You'll really like it, Michelle!" they said. "It's right up your alley, Michelle!" they said. "You love fart jokes!" they said. Everything said was true, but I'm a filthy hipster and I refused to watch it simply because so many people insisted that I would like it. I ran out of things to watch, so I put it on and prepared myself to like it. Because I knew I would. Everyone said I would. Everyone is alw...

UPDATE 2/8/23: I no longer stock these hats in my shop . You can absolutely request a custom one, but I NO LONGER include the patches on the brim of the sporty bobbles, pins on the regular bobbles, NOR any sort of tentacles. These extras are just not cost effective. I have yet to find a single person willing to compensate me adequately for the time it takes to do these things. My pin supplies also no longer supplies me pins, so pins are out for that reason. Sorry for being salty! For real though. You can also now just make your own! Get the pattern here ! This post is long overdue! I apologize for my absence, but I got a huge influx of custom orders and now I've been trying valiantly to restock. [ Shop here! ] Splatoon Sporty Bobble Hats Over the holidays I had several inquiries about Sporty Bobbles. I simply didn't have time to flesh out the pattern between assorted custom requests, but I finally managed to squeeze one in a few weeks ago during a very brief lull. I...

UPDATE 2/6/23: I'm no longer stocking these hats, but I will make them as custom orders. I will NOT add tentacles anymore. It's too much. I also hate sewing lol You can see my commission status on Etsy and you can also make your own bobble hat with this pattern here .  Get yours here now! Very limited quantities. And I mean very. But don't fret! I'm going to make another batch soon. I just need to restock my materials and then I'll get started on more. Patience, pals! My post last week was about the knit hats themselves...mostly (I think). The Fabric Gods finally smiled on me and all of my fabric arrived. I ended up settling on polyester felt. It's durable and it's easy to work with. Plus it comes in (almost) every color ever. And it's affordable, which is good for me and also good for anyone that wants to buy one of these hats without plunging into massive debt. For the underside of the tentacles I actually used fleece. Glorious fleece! I...

UPDATE 2/6/23: Splatoon hats were a wild ride. I don't stock them anymore, nor the Noiz hats, but of course, you can still get one as a custom order. To check my commission status just look at the announcement at the top of my Etsy shop ! You can also get the pattern for both regular bobble and sporty bobble hats here !  I've been horribly neglectful of my blog the last several weeks. I haven't had time for any Free Pattern Friday goodies and I'm only really working on one new project - Splatoon Bobble Hats! [Sidebar: I keep mispelling "bobble" as "booble" so, uh, oops? I usually catch it, but I'm unpredictable!] Hopefully, I'll have a few completed Bobble Hats in the shop next week and I'm going to add an expedited shipping upgrade option in case anyone needs one for Halloween. Completed hats will have tentacles and all of the brim accessories. I might also have tentacle-less hats as an option too because I haven't totally settl...