Crochet Pokemon Jigglypuff and Cardigan Update

I’m almost done with my crocheted Habitat Cardigan and am getting really excited about it. It’s looking so pretty. I love patterns that are easy but look great and this one fits the bill. I’ve made the sleeves. I just need to attach them.

Colors are a bit off but when I’m done, I’ll give it a proper photo shoot. 

At work, after finishing Charizard, I moved straight into making Jigglypuff. One of the kids had this huge sheet with all the Pokemon characters, so I looked it over hoping to find one that was easy to make. There were a few, but I settled on Jigglypuff because it looks like a pink ball with arms and legs.

 

Who couldn’t recreate that?

Here she (he?) is!

Big eyes make anything cute. 

I forgot to add the hair, but the kids haven’t noticed yet so I may leave it off (lazy!). 🙂

Here they both are in the cabinet, waiting for someone to make it to Ultimate Prize-box.

We’re ready to go!

Update On Giveaway Crochet Baby Sweater

I’m so excited to share news of what became of the baby sweater I made for the Craft Yarn Council course. I had to make a baby sweater as my final for the program.

Final sweater (Not my pattern)

Before making that final baby sweater, I made a tester-sweater to make sure I knew what I was doing. Here is the life-size crochet doll I made wearing the tester sweater. It was too small for her! But being a doll, she didn’t care. 😉

I usually only make clothes for my crochet dolls but I’ve been known to make a cami or two, and maybe even a sweater coat. 🙂 These items have only been worn by me or my family, never by anyone else. Sure, I’ve made hats, headbands and scarves that others have worn, but not actual clothes.

So imagine how elated and humbled I am that that baby sweater is being worn and loved by a beautiful toddler. A toddler that is not related to me and that I had never met. Squeeeeee! Her mom (over at sparkscrochet) entered my first (and only) giveaway.

She posted about an adorable C2C blanket she made and was kind enough to include a pic of her toddler wearing the sweater. I hope you check it out! I love her blog and think it deserves a shout-out AND I want to share my joy. Even if I someday end up making clothes that are worn by a gazillion people, it will never be the same as this two year old loving and wearing something I  made.

So thank you sparkscrochet for sharing that adorable pic of your baby girl wearing the sweater. 🙂

Crochet Pokemon Charizard

I finally got the Pokemon Charizard done. His legs took me forever.

 

I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to go but I finally settled on an idea after much trial and error.

When I attached his arms, the kids went nuts and wanted to play with him, but alas, I had a critic. A third grader told me he was too cute for Charizard. “Charizard is NOT cute,” he said. I didn’t aim for cute, I aimed for fierce, but I got ‘cute’. I can live with that.

Grrr, I’m not cute, I’m fierce!

It was the same for the wings. Thinking and frogging. This has NOT been one of my favorite projects. I honestly don’t know why my heart wasn’t in it. I’ve been trying to get him done since before Christmas of last year! I made him at work so I’m limited by time constraints. But still… It has more to do with motivation. I did a lot of ‘thinking’ on this one and it’s awful hard to think when managing 40 kids (excuses!). I started and stopped constantly. I frogged back quite a few times too.

I would get started, didn’t like how he looked, tried a different approach, stopped again and then picked him up days or weeks later. I even got easily diverted by a crocheted puppet. Normally when I have a project going, I tell the students they have to wait until I’m done before I even consider their project, but not this time.

But that’s all over. He’s done!

 

Freebie Friday – Habitat Cardigan

Habitat Cardigan

That yarn (Red Heart Unforgettable in Tealberry) for the first cami kept calling to me. It’s so pretty, and now that I purchased more to finish the cami, I had extra. I had one full skein and one slightly used skein. I racked my brains about what I could make with it that I would actually wear, when I found a pattern for a nice looking cardigan. It’s the Habitat Cardigan and it looks easy to make. The site has a video and links to the printed pattern. Bonus!

Not my photos. I got them from her site.

My yarn isn’t the one called for so I’m hoping it works, but so far, I like how it looks.

This stitch reminds me of scales and waves. I might use it for another mermaid costume.

I knew I didn’t have enough yarn to finish this project so I hunted down a coupon that was 50% off one item and it was only good for one day! I figured out I needed 8 more skeins. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have started the cardigan with just one full and one partial skein of yarn. I realize it’s a dangerous thing to do. What if Michael’s runs out or the yarn gets discontinued? To add insult to injury, hubby loved how the pattern for my cardigan was working out. At the stage it was in, he said it looked like the kind of scarf he wanted. He said the colors were perfect. Ok, so now I needed enough yarn to make him a

Update on New Crochet Cami

New Crochet Cami

After finishing my Yarnspirations cami (and giving it away), I made a new one for myself using a skein of yarn given to me by my sis-in-law many moons ago. Luckily, there was plenty of yarn to finish the cami.

Loving these colors!

I only had the one skein (again) and I was guessing it was enough, as usual. But there was no need to panic, there was lots left over. That’s good because there was NO WAY I could have found more of this yarn. But all’s well that ends well. 🙂

Crochet Emoji Hand Puppet

I’m a sucker, I know. Wasn’t I the one who said I wouldn’t take anymore special requests from the kids? I would make crochet prizes and the kids could either pick what was available or not, but no more special request. Yeah, well…we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. I had made a crochet LOL emoji hand puppet for the Ultimate Prize-box and a student wanted it, but he said it looked like a girl.

Who you calling a girl?

Ok, I’m a girl.

He hinted he sure wished he could have an emoji puppet but with a red shirt instead, so it could be a boy. I didn’t want to work on the Charizard project I had going on anyway, so I agreed to make it for him.

Naturally, and in that case, he wanted a money emoji puppet instead, with shorts. Ok, ok, that would be fine. Blue shorts, with shoes. Uh huh. And with hair. Wait, what? It’s an emoji. Do they have hair? Or better yet, a green mohawk! Now I’ve heard everything.  🙂

Freebie Friday – Crochet Cami

Many years ago, I made two crochet cami’s from a pattern I found on a yarn sleeve (I’m pretty sure it was Carons Simply Soft). I don’t make clothes often, but this looked easy and cute. I ended up giving both away, but I really liked the pattern.

This is not me 🙂 The image is from the Yarnspirations website.

The pattern says it is intermediate but it looked so easy, I didn’t believe the label. Then I got started…and it was easy, at first. The mesh part is super easy but the scallops at the bottom, not so easy. They aren’t hard, but you do have to pay attention to what’s going on. A  few instructions require you to reread them to clarify the intentions, but it’s worth making.

I received a very pretty skein of yarn for Mother’s Day (yes, last Mother’s Day), and I wanted to use it. It’s Red Heart’s Unforgettable in Teal.

I got flowers too! 🙂

I couldn’t think of anything to make with it, but then I remembered I really liked that cami, so I pulled out that old pattern. I went to Vegas with my hubby so I looked it up online and found a digital version that I loaded onto my ipad. It made it so much easier to read. My eyes could no longer read that teeny tiny print on the label!

While hubby was at his convention, I started the cami.

While I was there, I almost finished it, but when I got to the second panel, I ran out of yarn! (Hanging head in shame. This happens quite often. Heh!) I only had two more rows of scallops to go. I thought about ripping it back and making it a little smaller but decided to wait until I got home to buy more yarn. That didn’t turn out so easy. I had to go to several stores to hunt it down but I finally found it at Michael’s.

When I finally finished it, I loved it!

There it is with my Jade succulents.

I wore it on the weekend when my siblings and friends came over.

Don’t let the Summery appearance fool you. It was quite chilly outside.

Then my sis-in-law came in with a sweater she knitted for me and I ripped off the cami to try it on.

Can you believe this photo was taken only minutes after the photo above? Yes, it was barely warm enough to be outside in the cami but it was definitely cool enough to wear the sweater. I love California!

Naturally, she put the cami on while I tried on the sweater. So I gave it to her. I think I came out ahead, but that means I have to make another cami for me! And I’ve already started.

There’s that Jade again, but this time, surrounded by my newly planted cuttings. They’re still alive!

I don’t know what the yarn is. It was a gift from my same sis-in-law (the one that gave me the sweater). She gave it to me so long ago, I don’t even remember how long ago. It’s very light so I’m not sure it will work in the end, but it’s so pretty, it’s worth a shot. Hopefully it’s not some type of felting yarn. Though that would be interesting!

Crochet Charizard

I’ve  been pretty crochet lazy around the house. I haven’t crocheted much of anything at home, but I’ve made a few things at work for the kids. Before Christmas, a student wanted me to make a Charizard for him. He had made it to our Ultimate prize-box and I told him I would try but that there was no guaranteed time frame. He ended up picking something else and I thought the need to make the toy had passed.

However, his little brother, who is an adorable little transitional Kinder, kept asking (pestering) me to still make it. I told him I’d try. Eventually, he wore me down, so I pulled out some orange and yellow yarn. I had it in my work bag but I didn’t start right away, even though he asked me about it every time I turned around. I told him I was thinking about how to start and that I needed time. Yep, I was bargaining with a four-year-old about needing more think time.

Did I want to make an applique, a simple amigurumi, or something a little more complicated? How did I want to actually go about making it? I ditched the applique idea. I looked at many pictures and finally gave it a go… and hated the results. I had the head done and half the body when I decided to frog it back. My little kinder was on me again about where it went. I explained I was going to try again. He sure is tenacious for a four year old. I’m always surprised that he is so focused on my crochet. It probably didn’t help that he thought Charizard was for him, even though I kept telling him it was for the prize-box.

I took more time to rethink my strategy and started again. I finished the head and was happier with it.

GRRRR

I took a new direction with the body as well. My first attempt was working it in the round and this second time around, I worked it in panels. Then I put it down for a long time. I wasn’t sure I was happy with this new direction.

Languishing away!

I left it in this state for a loooong time. The kids, and especially the kinder who started it all, were super excited about it. I was worried it didn’t look like a Charizard but they seemed to recognize it. I was close to ripping it back again but left it alone instead. I worked on other things while I waited for inspiration.

Duly inspired,  I got this far.

Don’t frog me back! I look like Charizard!

Then I dumped him again. Another student made it to Ultimate prize-box and he wanted an emoji puppet. I should have made him wait but I didn’t need much of an excuse to put the Charizard down again. A parent that probably doesn’t know I crochet saw this guy sticking out of my bag and exclaimed, “Is that Charizard?!” I was super happy he was recognized without any introduction so I guess he’s coming out fine.

I’m still finishing up the puppet but once I’m done, there will be no more deviations. This guy is going to get finished!