Tag Archives: amigurumi

Everly The Elephant

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When I visited with my niece this summer, I asked her what her favorite animal was, and she said elephant. So I went and searched for a cute elephant pattern and found Everly the Elephant by Hannah Gerecke (HHDesigns4). Hannah also has a Facebook group that I follow and lost of really cute patterns in her Etsy store. I learned that if I don’t review something in Etsy, eventually the ability to review it goes away. Normally I like to make my crochet pattern before reviewing it, but I didn’t make it in time. Oops!

This was a simple, easy to follow pattern. The only thing that confused me was the optional mouth. I did make the mouth, but didn’t attach it. I realized later how it would be attached, but decided she didn’t need it. The only thing I would have liked is more pictures for the assembly including the tail, or at least a photo of the tail. But outside of those two wish list items, this pattern is awesome. I can’t wait to gift it to my niece.

I didn’t take too many photos while making; it just went so fast. I added her little flower headband to match the pattern picture for her. I sewed mine on, lightly tacked between the flowers. The yarn I used was Yarn Bee Yarn ID in Iron and Soft Shell.

Baby Gifts

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After finishing the Kichshaw Stroller Blanket pattern test, I continued to make additional baby gifts for my friend’s daughter, who is pregnant with her first child.

I had actually already completed a Spin Me Around blanket, before doing the stroller blanket. This pattern is free by Catherine Bligh. This is such a simple pattern that is very easy to pick up and just do mindlessly. For this blanket I used one ball of Lion Brand Mandala Baby in Diagon Alley colorway. I thought about extending it or putting a soft border on it, but I had to start the stroller blanket test and called it done.

Spin Me Around Blanket

After completing the stroller blanket I decided to make a teddy bear. I went back to my Edward’s Menagerie book by Kelly Lord and picked the Penelope the Bear pattern. I used up some stash yarn I had bought to make a teddy bear (Go Handmade Teddy and Go Handmade Couture), but it was a little difficult to crochet with so I added a base yarn (Lion Brand Comfy Cotton Blend) to make it easier to work with the fuzzy yarn. One other trick, I turned the crochet inside out for the bear, because it was fuzzier on the inside of the pieces. I just thought it made it look more like a teddy bear all soft and fuzzy.

This was the first time I used safety eyes and nose with one of the Edward’s Menagerie animals, but I wanted to make the face a little cuter, and I’m not great at make amigurumi faces. I also bought a pet collar bowtie, because I thought he needed a bowtie as well.

Penelope the Bear

Next I made a teddy bear hat and diaper cover, using the same yarn as the teddy bear. The Teddy Bear hat is a free pattern by Kristen McKay and the diaper cover was a free pattern by Jessica Cooper (although you could also pay for a pdf version of the pattern). I added a teddy bear tail to the diaper cover as well, using the same tail and Penelope the Bear. For the hat and diaper cover, I did not turn the crochet inside out, because I wanted the softest part against the babies skin, so you can see the base yarn more in these items.

At this point I really need to stop, because I could continue with these forever. I love making stuff for babies. I just hope the hat and diaper cover are big enough, especially the hat, it looks so small.

My Crochet Doll 2

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A few years ago I made the My Crochet Doll Little Red Riding Hood set. I wanted to make more and even bought a bunch of Bergere de France yarns to make some of the other sets but it’s been about 6 years now and I’ve finally gone back to make another doll. This latest set is called At the North Pole.

At the North Pole

I remember thinking that my Little Red Riding Hood was the best thing I’ve ever made. I was proud of that doll. She just came out perfect, in my opinion and I was pretty impressed with my accomplishment. Perhaps I’ve forgotten over the years, but my one complaint about the book, “My Crochet Doll” by Isabelle Kessedjian is that it is not always clear what you need to do or how to assemble the pieces. The book is filled with all sorts of photos of the adorable dolls and accessories, but I wish there were some on the construction of the items.

This is the first time I used doll wires to make the doll posable. I also bought mohair yarn for the hair this time. The little box can be used to store the doll and the lid can be used as the fish pond as well. The “snow” is a fuzzy cleaning cloth from the dollar store. For the boots I bought some leather and leather cord for the boot soles. They were hot glued on.

My gauge seemed to be all wrong. I wish there were some swatch instructions so I could check my gauge. My first shirt was too small; I remade it with a bigger hook. My first boots were too big; I remade them with a smaller hook. The parka was too small, I pulled it out and redid it and it still seems a bit tight.

Original boots on the right were too big so I remade the boots (on the left)

These will be shipped off for my niece’s birthday soon. There is one more doll I want to make from this book (Bear cub), but it will likely be the last one I make. I hope that one is easier to follow.

Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear

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Spring is coming and with spring, more babies.  Two of my coworker’s wives are having babies, so it’s time to make more baby items. Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear.

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This time I decided to try the “Call the Midwife” blanket.  I’ve seen this one posted on my crochet groups and I always thought it was cute.  I never knew where the name came from.  The linked blog post to Little Monkey’s Crochet tells the story of the blanket and how she recreated the pattern from images on a TV show.  Cool story.  I love when people can reproduce something from what they see.

Call the Midwife Blanket 2

This pattern is easy and well written.  I was able too finish it pretty quickly.  I found this cute multicolored yarn at Michael’s called Kai in Bubbles colorway.  It’s pretty, but acrylic.  It was a bit rougher than I prefer to use on a baby blanket.  To soften it up, I used some Cupcake yarn from my stash on the border.  I did the border with just a few rows of sc all the way around.

Call the Midwife Blanket

To go with the baby blanket, I made Piotr the Polar Bear from Edward’s Menagerie.  I also used the Cupcake yarn on Piotr.  I used it on the blanket border, so it would match with Piotr.  He’s the fourth stuffed animal I have made from this book.  I’ve also made Emma the Bunny Alexandre the Russian Blue Cat, and Bridget the Elephant.

Piotr the Polar Bear

I modified his eyes and nose a little, to look more polar beary using some discount black chenille yarn I had in my stash.

Call the Midwife Blanket and Piotr the Polar Bear 2

Croshame is a yarn artist

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I came across this crochet artist from her brilliant version of Krampus, which is no longer for sale at her Etsy shop. I’ve often thought about buying this Krampus for my husband, thankfully the temptation is now gone. But if you spend some time at her Etsy shop, she has lots of unique and interesting crochet that you probably won’t find anywhere else including a severed arm with a Slayer tattoo, an Exorcist playset, a beheaded Lambchop, and a Sid and Nancy set. Photo of Krampus from Croshame.com.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t sell her patterns, only her finished projects, which is fine because I’m not sure if anyone else could do her crochet any justice. I absolutely love it and I would love to have the imagination and talent that she does. I feel if we ever met we’d be fast friends, or I’d be scared to death of her. Hard to tell. But I do admire her talent.

She also has her own blog, which I just became aware of as well. It doesn’t look like she posts often, but I have some catching up to do on whatever she has posted so far.

If you are like me, and you enjoy things that are a bit unusual and out of the norm, you may end up loving Croshame as much as I do. If not, you may be disgusted and terrified. But I hope at least you can appreciate the uniqueness of Croshame.

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

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My husband and I were at Costco a few weeks ago and I found the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer crochet kit by Kati Gálusz.  Too cute!  It has the supplies to make Rudolph and Santa.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer5

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer crochet kit

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Kit comes with instructions to make Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Hermey, Sam the Snowman, and King Moonracer.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer7

Also includes instructions for Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster, Misfit Doll, Charlie-in-the-Box, Misfit Elephant, Yukon Cornelius, and Clarice.

Usually, I can finish one of these little characters in a couple of days, but I’ve been a little busy, so it took me a week.  These little guys could make cute Christmas tree ornaments.  Just tie a string loop to them and hang them from your tree.

The instructions were very clear.  I think my only complaint about these little kits are the eyes.  For some reason, the eyes in these little crochet kits are so difficult to get on.  But other than that, totally worth the money and fun to make.  This kit would make a cute Christmas gift for anyone that crochets, or could even be good for someone just learning.

I still need to make Santa, but I have a long project to-do list right now, so I’ll have to come back to him.  But now, I want to watch Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer4

Sammy always wants to cuddle while I’m crocheting.

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Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer2Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Hopscotch Bunny

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I came across some patterns by another designer, Irene Strange.  I tried the Hopscotch Bunny pattern.  This little bunny pattern is too cute!

At the time I was making these I was thinking about trying to build up an inventory and possibly start to sell at craft shows.  I ended up making several of these little bunnies, but in the end, they all ended up as gifts to people.  Unfortunately I can’t make the same thing over and over again.  I get too bored.

I loved this pattern though.  These bunnies were quick and easy to make.  I used the recommended yarn, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  This yarn was great to work with, soft and smooth.

Ms Pac-Man Halloween

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At my office, we have a Halloween pot luck every year.  I also have a coworker that I compete with for prizes.  She is very talented and creative, and I always use her as the bar that I have to reach.  Last Halloween I went with a Ms Pac-Man theme.

The idea came to me at work one day.  While walking around the cubicle pods and the hallways it made me think of a Pac-Man board.  So I started plotting out a Pac-Man board around the office in my mind.

I bought my Ms Pac-Man costume online, but I made many of the props.  I started with creating poster board Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man and Ghosts to hang up around the office.  For the cherries, I bought two extra large round balloons and green balloon sticks that I taped together.  I also made some Pac-Man and ghost chocolate pops.  For the Pac-Man board around the office I bought a roll of heavy black paper and rolled it around the office.  I also used yellow poster board and construction paper to make the dots and power pellets.

I found this free Ms Pacman pattern to make a small crochet Ms Pacman.  I also found this other free ghost pattern.  One modification I made was to hot glue googly eyes on the ghosts instead of making the eyes out of felt.  I also created my own crochet Pacman board.  For my board I didn’t really plan it out  I did a simple single crochet square.  Then I sewed on the Pac-Man board pattern.  For the dots and power pellets I bought some jewels and glued them on.

Board

Crochet Ms Pac-Man Board

In the end, I won 1st Place for best costume!  Afterwards I immediately started planning for this year’s Halloween pot luck.

Ghost Lamp and desk decorations
My Desk
Ms Pac-Man and Pac-Man Garland
Ms Pac-Man Board
Dots and Power Pellet
Pinky
The ghosts
Pretzel
Cherries
Blinky
Ms Pac-Man and the ghosts
Pac-Man and Ghost chocolate pops
Me as Ms Pac-Man
1st Place!

Edward’s Menagerie

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Once I started to get into amigurumi, I kept trying more patterns.  I found Edward’s Menagerie book on Amazon.  This book comes with over 40 patterns, with increasing difficult starting with easy patterns (Level 1 through Level 3).  The book also provides various sizes for the patterns, so you can make small to large stuffed animals, depending on the yarn weight you use.

Edward's Menagerie

I’ve tried three of the patterns so far, Emma the Bunny, Bridget the Elephant, and Alexandre the Russian Blue Cat.  I tend to like to try the recommended yarns provided in the pattern, so this time I purchased Toft yarn from Love Crochet online for two of the patterns.

One thing to note on both this book and the Star Wars Crochet kit, is that there is a difference with English crochet.  The stitches and crochet hooks are named different.  I’ve learned now to check to see if a new pattern is an American pattern or an English pattern.

Emma the Bunny
Alexandre the Russian Blue Cat
Bridget the Elephant

My Crochet Doll

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Soon after finishing the Star Wars Crochet, I was eager to continue with amigurumi.  I found this book of cute dolls on Amazon, called My Crochet Doll by Isabelle Kessdjian.  I figured it would be adorable for my niece’s one year birthday.

My Crochet Doll

She used Bergere de France yarn, which is not something that can be found at the local craft store.  So, I ended up just going to the local craft store and buying some yarn in similar colors.  I have since ordered yarn from them and they sent me a yarn catalog with little yarn samples.  Love it!

I think the one thing I learned on this doll, was that when adding doll hair, you need to do it sparse.  When I first did her hair I had way too much yarn for hair.  I had to go through and pull out half of it.  Even then, I think her hair is a bit thick, but over all I am really proud f this doll.  I think she’s the best thing I’ve ever made.  I have purchased yarn to make one of the other dolls since then.  But I haven’t gotten around to making yet.  The next doll I make from this book will be the little Eskimo girl.  These dolls are too cute!

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