Archive | December 2015

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

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The holidays have been so busy I’ve had little time for blogging. I’m not big on making a bunch of resolutions every year. Instead, I try to live the best life I can as I go along but I do find myself wanting to make a resolution.  I want to resolve to make this blog better in 2016! One of my resolutions on the start of this new year is to write a little everyday and post more often. I can hardly believe I’ve been at this for a year now. Some things I wanted to accomplish with this blog haven’t happened yet, like more of my own patterns on my patterns page. I resolve to write down more of my patterns from my creations and to recreate the patterns for some of the things I’ve already made.

So have a wonderful year and keep crafting!

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A toast to a fantastic new year!

Freebie Friday – Amigurumi Doll

 

Many years ago, before I ever made any of my own dolls, I stumbled across this doll pattern. I fell in love with it immediately and copied it right away. Although I had been crocheting for years, I had just recently taught myself how to read patterns and I definitely wanted to make her. I never did attempt the full pattern but instead, it served as a constant source of inspiration. I believe I embarked on my journey of doll making because of that one picture that captured my imagination. I referenced it often.  I would often go back to the pattern to figure out how to do things on my own dolls. My first dolls were made with those rounded arms and legs. I could never get the hair quite right like in the picture and it goaded me into seeking out tutorial on how to make the hair look nicer on my creations.

So for today’s Freebie Friday, I thought I would pay homage to what started my love affair with crocheted dolls. I’m surprised it’s still available after so many years but I’m so glad it is. 🙂

As a bonus, here is the first site that truly helped me figure out how to get the hair looking like I wanted it to look. When I found it, it was like opening a present on Christmas day. Up until that point, I couldn’t figure out how to get the right look for my dolls. They would always end up needing so much yarn that they become super top-heavy. And they STILL looked like they needed more yarn to cover up the bald spots. I have since tried out different techniques for hair but this one saved me much frustration at a time I needed help!

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.

Minecraft Everywhere!

I have been furiously working on the dolls my students have requested. Although my goal was to only crochet those projects at work since they’re for the students, I promised two students I would finish their projects over our Thanksgiving holiday (we get a week off from school for Thanksgiving. Yay!).

One of the reasons I don’t usually take personal requests from students is because as fast as I am at crochet, I can’t possibly keep up with the demand, even if I worked on their projects at home. But, working at my own pace, I can take suggestions and slowly fill the treasure box with them.

However, I found myself letting those suggestions turn into requests because I thought I would have enough time to finish projects when they reached the treasure box. Well…the best laid plans an all that. I now have about seven pending requests and they are all reaching their goals on our star chart so I find myself telling them they have to wait for their particular item. I thought I had a lot of time on one of the requests since he was far from his prize on our chart so I kept putting that one off but my student reached his goal on our star chart and he’d been asking me about it repeatedly. I felt bad that he was one of the firsts to ask me for something and I still hadn’t even started it. So I finished it over the break.

Then, I promptly started the second one I needed to work on. He didn’t get finished until the end of our first week back to school. It was a busy week at work so I didn’t get much time to crochet. My student asked me every single day if I was finished with his Villager (Minecraft character) and I was finally able to tell him yes.

Here are some of the finished projects.

Top left: Villager

Top right: Dan TDM

Bottom left and right: Popular MMO’s. I believe his name is Pete.

The bottom two look the same but I tried different faces and color work versus cross stitch. The one on the right looks a little worn because I photographed it after I gave it to the student so it’s a little loved around the edges. 🙂

I don’t know these characters so I do my research before I can start one. I go to the actual game on our classroom iPad as well as on the web to get the essence of what they look like. I rip back a lot when I’m making a new character as it never comes out exactly right the first time. I feel I’ve learned a lot as I make each subsequent one. The Villager and the Dan look better than the grey ones. Another student wants one of the grey ones so I think it will come out really well now.

On to the rest of the list! Hello Kitty here I come!

Freebie Friday – Pink Shells Bow Scarf

I was browsing on Pinterest the other day and spent way too much time exploring my interests. I just went on there to look for a flower pattern and got caught up in the recommendations they had for me. Going on Pinterest is much like going to Costco. My intentions are always good. Go in, get what I need quickly, and get out! But nooooo. I end up staying in there far longer than I intend. It’s the same with Pinterest. Go in, find what I’m looking for and get out. It never seems to happen that way. I get so distracted by all the neat things I find, when I look up and look at the time, I’m almost late for work!

On this foray into dangerous territory, I found this scarf and pattern that kept catching my eye. I don’t wear scarves very often so I’m not usually interested in scarf patterns but I thought this one was so cute I decided to share it. I think I’m going to make it but I’m already thinking up ways to change it! I can’t leave well enough alone 🙂

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I found it here!

Hope you enjoy it too.

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.