Freebie Friday – Red Pokeball

A sure fire way to get students interested in crochet is to make fun things in front of them. Since I tend to make fun and whimsical things anyway, my maniacal plan works perfectly. Just recently, I was making something for the prize box that many of the students wanted. A student who never expressed an interest in crochet suddenly wanted to learn the craft. Seeing me crochet helps them to envision themselves making all sorts of things they didn’t think were possible.

The students were all very excited when they saw me making these.

I’m not taking personal requests from the students anymore but I am taking suggestions (they are personal requests that I turn into suggestions) on what to make. So far, I have made an  emoji with sunglasses,  a YouTube pillow (I had to ask for clarification on that one), and a Pokeball (this was the project that inspired my student). They were all simple to make and worked up fairly quickly.

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Freebie Friday – Halloween Hat

This hat is super cute. It would make a fabulous addition to a Halloween outfit. Haven’t made one yet (mainly because I keep falling asleep when I get home from work) but I like looking at it and thinking about whether I would copy it as is or fiddle with it. Probably fiddle with it. I fiddle with everything.

Halloween Top Hat: Pattern from Red Heart

 

Small Crochet Couch

I’m back in the swing of things at work and the kids have started making crochet request. I decided that I will not be making personal items for individual students this year but I will take suggestions for things I can make for the prize box or for our toy box. One of my students suggested I make a small couch for our doll house. I had her choose the colors from our stash and I whipped this up.

I wasn’t 100% sure about it at first but the kids grabbed it as soon as I was done and were happily playing with it. I guess it looks enough like a couch for their purposes. 🙂

They want a table next so that’s next on the agenda. Oh, and they all want a TV. I forgot the bed, they want a bed too. This isn’t sounding easier than last year at all! LOL

 

Freebie Friday – Crochet Pumpkin

A student (several students actually) announced we needed more yarn for our yarn drawer at work. What, already? I guess it makes sense considering I haven’t purchased any this year and probably not for a few months before the end of the last school year. This was a good opportunity to check out the remaining yarn to see the dregs of what we had.

Green and Orange: what not to get next time!

I can certainly see the colors that weren’t popular! There was lots of orange and green left over with a little brown. I wanted to use some of it up and what better way to use up orange as Halloween is approaching than pumpkins! I was going to just make it up but figured I’d check out how others make pumpkins and came across this cute looking pumpkin (below).

I read the pattern and started with the same stitch count but then veered slightly my own way. I followed the pattern to the third round and got the gist of it and then just did my own thing.

I still ended up with decent results.

My version is not too shabby 🙂

The idea is to do 12 double crochets in a ring and then do some increase rounds followed by some regular rounds and then finishing with decrease rounds. What I really wanted to learn was how to create those indentations. I originally thought that was done through crocheting but it’s done after with a long string. The pattern has a video tutorial as well that is very good at demonstrating how to do this.

The kids thought a pumpkin was great but a jack-o-lantern would be even better so I just had to do it. I made three triangles and sewed them on to the pumpkin. The mouth was a combination of slip stitches between single crochets with picots.

Not so sure about that mouth but the kids seem to like it. 🙂

I think I have enough orange yarn to make another pumpkin this same size or maybe a few smaller ones but I will definitely do it with single crochet. I don’t like the resulting big holes from the double crochet.

Now I have to figure out what to make with all that green. Maybe some green monsters. 🙂

 

Eli the Firefly

I love crochet challenges. Crochet challenges have been lobbed at me from family, friends, the kids at work and me. A recent challenge came from my hubby. He is a graphic designer and has many samples of products he’s worked on laying around. One of his current projects included a cute toy called Eli the Firefly. His client is a dentist who created a book and a plush lighted toy that inspires kids to brush their teeth properly. Hubby asked if I thought I could recreate the toy in crochet. As if there was any doubt, of course I could! What kind of question was that? And if so, would I? He thought it would make a nice gift for his client. It was a fabulous idea and I accepted the challenge.

This is a sample of Eli that shows what he looks like.

Freebie Friday – Crochet Emergency!

I asked my 16 year old son how his day had been.

He said, “Well, I have some bad news.”

He didn’t seem alarmed or agitated so I didn’t panic. In a split second, scenarios of what it could be ran through my head. Bad grade on an assignment, a minor problem with his car, something that happened to one of his friends…

“Is it BIG bad news?” says I.

Son said, “No.”

“Is it small bad news?” I asked.

Son said, “Well, it isn’t small. I lost my crochet iPhone case.”

Phew! Very minor bad news.

Crochet Sweater Alteration

I don’t have any pending projects in the works and the weather is starting to cool (just a fraction but we are finally dipping below the 90’s on occasion), and I thought it was an excellent time to plug the holes on my granny square sweater. Hubby was wondering why I wanted to do this since there are about a gazillion holes that would need to be plugged up but the sweater is too ‘holey’ for winter and too thick for the rest of the year so I need to convert into something that might actually keep me warm (or my sis if she steals it from me).

The sweater is grey and black and I can’t decide if I want to go with a different shade of grey or if I want to go with a completely different color. I pulled out this deep purple yarn I have and it looks pretty with the grey and black.

I played around with the best plug that wouldn’t detract from the beauty of the square design. I think I came up with something that worked. I’m going to try out the purple color on one square to see if I like it. I don’t want to commit until I know for sure it will work because it’s going to be a lot of work. I plan on doing a few squares a night and hopefully that means it will get finished sometime before winter is over. LOL We’ll see.

Freebie Friday – Superhero Afghan

Can you smell Halloween in the air? My students are already telling me how excited they are about Halloween. Me, not so much. Didn’t Halloween just happen? It feels like yesterday. If it’s almost Halloween, it’s almost Thanksgiving, almost Christmas. That just means another year is about to end. But didn’t the year just start?! Oh well, I do love Halloween. So, getting into the spirit of it all, I came across this really cute superhero dream catcher afghan. So for all those Spiderman fans out there, this one’s for you!

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.