We did our ghosts at work and the kids had a blast. I was worried it would be a little hard for some of the kids (and it was!) but as my associates and I worked individually with some of them and they learned the technique, the kids were so proud of themselves. Here are the fruits of their labor.
We hung them around the room and they very proudly show them off to incoming parents. Very fun!
In the spirit of Halloween and one of my all time favorite holiday movies (is it Christmas or Halloween?), I found this free pattern that can be found on Ravelry. It looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it out. Enjoy!
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/patch-doll-amigurumi-pattern
I am not affiliated with any websites nor do I make any money from these sites. They are simply patterns I like or would like to try myself.
A few summers ago when we still had a summer program in conjunction with our after school program, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to teach crochet as one of our activities. I had some students that never left the chain stage. They made short chains and long chains and multi-strand chains. There was always at least one student who attempted the worlds longest chain. I wanted the kids to feel a sense of accomplishment when they conquered making a chain, so I would let them decide what the chain could become and then, made a little accessory like a flower or star to embellish it. Many turned into necklaces and bracelets.
Some kids progressed so well, I had them making granny squares, purses and cases. At one point I ended up with a huge jar of chains and a few rectangles, squares, and granny squares. I didn’t want to just toss them so I got it into my head that I would find a project that would incorporate all of those chains and granny squares the kids had worked so hard for. At first, I thought I would tie the strands together and create a ball of yarn with them and then come up with a project, but I rejected that idea because I wanted the work to stand out. I opted to make a crochet bag that could hold our balls of yarn that always ended up all over the place. It was going to be my gift to the program.
It turned into a huge task but it was so much fun. I made the sides out of double crochet netting. The bottom of the bag was made up of the squares some of the kids made. I had to make a few more to make it complete and added stitches and rows to the students’ squares that weren’t even. I made borders on them and then joined them. I took the chains and and wove them through the netting. I used more chains and did end up making a ball of chain yarn and made a flower as a decoration. I took the thicker chains and wove those together to make the handles. I used up all the chains and squares we made that summer! Some of the kids had a ball finding their individual chains within the work. We were all proud of all the work we did.
Here it is in all it’s glory.
Whenever I look at the bag, it gives me such a sense of accomplishment for me and for the students (although I don’t think I’ll tackle such a big job again hehehe). It’s not only great for storing all sorts of things, it stores some wonderful memories.
I came across this cutie while searching for Halloween themed crafts to make with the kids at work. I’m always on the look out for fun and easy projects and when it involves yarn, I get extra excited. Looks easy enough for my Kinders and 1st graders to accomplish but still challenging enough for my older kids. Can’t wait to try it out. I think I’ll challenge them to experiment with different faces.
This looks self-explanatory but this is where I got it from here.
I am not affiliated with any websites nor do I make any money from these sites. They are simply patterns I like or would like to try myself.
So, I wanted to finally make the second doll dress my sister wanted for her baby doll. When she asked for it, I told her sure, sure, no problem. What I didn’t tell her was that I had permanently crocheted the other doll dress onto the doll. I do that sometimes when I know that someone isn’t going to take the dress off of the doll. In retrospect, I should not have done this with this doll. So instead of telling her that in order to make her doll a new outfit, I might have to destroy the old outfit to get it off, I just agreed to make a new one and in secret, hoped I could figure out a way to get the old outfit off without ripping it to shreds. I realized this was a bad plan from the get-go but there was a chance, a possibility, that I could gently undo something that would allow me to take the old dress off and then redo it so it could be removable. If that were the case then I didn’t have to tell her anything :-).
So one day, when I went to pick up my son who had spent the night at her place, I arrived early while she was at work. I snuck into her room (the door was open so it wasn’t like I was breaking in) and grabbed the doll and inspected her carefully. I was in luck! The top opening of the dress had been large so I had crocheted a slip stitch all around it to tighten it up and then wove in the ends. It was in a contrasting color so it was very easy to pull out the slip stitching.
I was able to easily remove the slip stitch row around the neckline.
I was then able to pull off the dress with ease. By the time my sister got home, she found me happily working on her doll’s new dress and I didn’t have to admit to anything :-). I just told her I had to undo the slip stitch and that I would fix it later.
I got pretty far on the outfit by the time I had to leave but I was coming to realize very quickly that I was going to run out of the green yarn I was using. She wanted most of the dress in green with a little yellow. I didn’t bother telling her that I couldn’t find that same color yarn anywhere. So….she gets this!
Yes, there is a little more than just ‘a little’ yellow. I’ll probably be working on a third dress soon 😉
I finished my first rag doll at work and it was a huge success. The kids were very curious about what I was making. When I told them, they were all very excited. I told them I was working on something I thought they could all make once they learned the single crochet. I just grabbed some random colors we had in our yarn drawer. Another student was using the tan color so I grabbed yellow because it was lighter than the other colors we had. Another student recommended the blues for the body. What I didn’t realize was that the students would see Spongebob Square Pants and Steve from Minecraft. One kinder kept telling me I should make princess Jasmine from Aladdin because of the light blue I was using. Meanwhile, I was just making something random but it definitely got me thinking about future rag dolls and what characters it easily lends itself too. The doll didn’t take me long to make so the whole project was a winner. I can make them quickly for the prize box, I can teach the kids a project they can finish and it lends itself so easily to characters the kids already love.
Here’s my first attempt. I used very little stuffing which made it soft and cuddly (and also easy to make). A fifth grade student kept telling me he really wanted it. I told him when he made it to the prize box, I would give it to him. I was going to add hair but my student wanted it just like this so no hair :-).
The second one was inspired by my Minecraft loving students 🙂 My daughter, ever the faithful critic, thought the body was too long for the first doll so I shortened it by a few rows for this second doll. Haven’t decided which one I like better. I intended to make Steve’s feet with black or dark grey yarn for his shoes but I forgot so I will probably attach a pair of black shoes after.
yochet 