Pikachu – Free Crochet Pattern

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I’m really flying through the pencils for Small Shen… I’m already near the end of Chapter 8. After that, it’s only Chapter 9 and the prologue, which is about 20 pages. After inking and toning, that’ll be the end of July, which is just in time for a Xmas release. WOW!

Then, what’s up next is… this.

 
 
pokemon
 

Anyway, this week, I get to do a pokemon crochet… of which many people have asked for. Previously, I thought Pikachu may have been too complicated to do, but it seems not. This wasn’t that much harder than some of the other crochets I’ve done. Either way, here’s Pikachu!!

 
 
Pikachu
 

Pikachu Pattern

Here’s a list of what I used to make this crochet. It’s not a definite list, so feel free to use whatever you have, as long as it’s appropriate. It’s crocheted in the round, like most amigurumi, so only basic crochet skills are required.

NB. This pattern is created by me, so please give a link back to me if you want to use it or if you want to sell your crochet. Please give credit where it’s due. I should also that I don’t own the copyright to these characters – obviously Studio Ghibli does.

  • Yellow, black, red and brown 8 ply yarn
  • 4mm crochet hook
  • Two pairs of 8mm black safety eyes – 6060 from Etsy is a good place to buy these
  • Large sewing needle, to sew the bits and pieces together

 

Crochet Abbreviations

Here are a list of the abbreviations I use, and what they mean. These are pretty standard, so if you know how to crochet, this won’t be hard to decipher:

  • ch – chain
  • sc – single chain
  • dec – decrease
  • * – beginning/end of a repeating part of the pattern

 
 
pikachu2
 

Pikachu Body (Make 1, yellow)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch*, repeat 6 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 5 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 3*, repeat 3 times (30 stitches)
Rnd 6 – 8 – sc (30 stitches)
Rnd 9 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 4*, repeat 3 times (36 stitches)
Rnd 10 – sc (36 stitches)
Rnd 11 – *dec 1 in back loops ONLY*, repeat 18 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 12 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 13 – sc (24 stiches)
Rnd 14 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 3*, repeat 3 times (30 stitches)
Rnd 15-22 – sc (30 stitches)

Stuff the body now, and add 8mm safety eyes
Rnd 23 – *dec 1 in back loops ONLY*, repeat 15 times (15 stitches)
Rnd 24 – *dec 1*, repeat 8 times (8 stitches)

Bind off, and then sew the facial features onto Pikachu with black and red wool.

 
 
pikachu3
 

Pikachu Feet (Make 2, yellow)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch*, repeat 6 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)

Fold each foot in half, and sew them together to make a semi-circle. Sew onto the bottom of the body to make the feet.

 
 
pikachu4
 

Pikachu Ears (Make 2, yellow, black)

Using black
Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 2 times (6 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 2 times (8 stitches)

Change to yellow
Rnd 4 – 10 – sc (8 stitches)

Bind off, stuff lightly, then sew onto the top of Pikachu’s head to make the ears.

 
 
pikachu5
 

Pikachu Hands (Make 2, yellow)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 3 times (9 stitches)
Rnd 3-7 – sc (9 stitches)

Bind off, stuff lightly, then sew onto the sides of Pikachu to make the arms.

 
 
pikachu6
 

Brown Strip on Back (Make 1, brown)

Rnd 1 – Ch 8 (8 stitches)
Rnd 2 – sc (8 stitches)

Bind off, then sew onto the back of Pikachu.

 
 
pikachu7
 

Pikachu Tail (Make 1, yellow, brown)

Rnd 1 – Ch 9 (8 stitches)
Rnd 2-4 – sc 8, then sc an additional 4 chains off the end of Rnd 4 (8 stitches)
Rnd 5 – sc 8 stitches (8 stitches)
Rnd 6-8 8 sc, then switch to brown. Then sc an additional 4 chains off the end of the last row (8 stitches)
Rnd 9 – sc 8 stitches (8 stitches)
Rnd 10-12 – sc

Bind off, then sew onto the bottom back of Pikachu to make the tail.

 
And Viola! You have a Pikachu to fit into the palm of your hand!
 

Doodles for Odd Thomas books

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This week, I am blazing through the pencils for the last 3rd of Small Shen. I also went to Free Graphic Novel Day at Kinokuniya, which was a lot of fun. I signed some books and did some sketches for them, and here I show you a bunch of sketches I did for a series of signed (by me and Dean Kootz) books that I get to send back to someone who’s been doing this since the very first Odd Thomas graphic novel. This book is the last Odd Thomas book I’ll be doing, so I look back with some fondness.

 
sketch-odd

sketch-stormy

sketch-ozzie

sketch-nedra

sketch-vern

sketch-cassandra

sketch-kirk

sketch-youngodd

sketch-mum

sketch-cover
 

And here’s a picture of Dean’s autograph! With mine below…

 
autograph

Felt Cookies

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This week I finished toning chapter 4 of Small Shen, so the book is officially two-thirds done! I’m taking a few days off, before I get to work on the last third of the book. In other news, a few weeks ago, I did an interview with IGotSuperpowers.com at Adelaide Comic-Con, and it’s now up online, thanks to Nathan.

This week I get to show you… felted cookie magnets. It’s from a kit I bought from a Japanese shopping site, and there’s 4 separate kits in the series. I bought them all, but can’t say there’s a lot of variation between the different cookies. They’re magnets though, so if you’re looking for stuff to stick to your fridge…

 

cookies1

Step 1: The boxes. Aren't they cute? Great packaging!


 
cookies2

Step 2: Open everything up, and check that it's there. Usually it is.


 
cookies3

Step 3: None of these are particularly complicated to sew, but here they all are, all at once!


 

Here’s the final 12 cookie-magnets:

 
cookies

Extreme Photoshopping – Yunyu’s “Dorothy” picture

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This week I was interviewed by Eastyn from PanelBound.com – thanks to Eastyn, an the interview is here. I’m also toning Small Shen at the speed of light, and it looks to be that chapters 3-4 will be done by the end of April *pumps first*. Meanwhile, I get to show you some Xtreme Photoshopping I did a while ago, for my musician friend Yunyu, who released a single called Dorothy which I did some art for. Chief among the art was a picture of her I photoshopped. Here, I get to show you how I did it, and what the original looked like.

 

Yunyu-milkyway1

The original: This was a studio-taken picture Yunyu, which is fantastically done and needs no retouching. The backgorund was a picture of the nightsky a friend took, slapped together in a composite picture.


 
Yunyu-milkyway2

Step 2: One of the problems with the original pic is that the picture isn't composed well. Yunyu is too small, and while the background is meant to emphasise the milky way, Yunyu is standing directly infront of it. So I cropped the picture properly, to show the foreground and background elements properly


 
Yunyu-milkyway3

Step 3: The milkyway looks kinda plain, so I flipped the picture around, and added a bunch of glow effects of it to make it pop out more. I also changed the hue to a bluish glow, to even out the diffferences in colour. A nightsky should be bluish...


 
Yunyu-milkyway4

Step 4: With the milky way now so bright, obviously I need to get the lighting references right. It doesn't make sense to be standing to the left of the lightsource when you can clearly see that Yunyu's lit from the left, so I swapped the picture element around so the light-source makes sense.


 

 

Final Step: Since the blue and the red contrast is so strong, I changed the hue of Yunyu's skin and hair to match the bluish glow. I left the red jacket mostly untouched, so that the red will pop out, whereas her skin tone will match the blue glow. And Viola! Click on the picture to see a larger version.