Crochet Baby Yoda Embroidered Disney Hat

So, I got bullied by my daughter’s dog while I was trying to type up this blog post. Okay, maybe bullied is too strong a word. I’ll say encouraged. She likes it when I come out with her, even though she can come outside any time she wants.

It’s better with company.

I have to admit it’s much better typing this post outside.

It’s 80 degrees and and a slight breeze is blowing the smell of citrus blossoms my way from my neighbor’s yard.

It’s a very nice view. The sun was hitting the plants just right…

A humming bird has already visited me quite a few times. Unfortunately, a bee keeps messing with me too. But the sound of the birds singing is nice, so I will ignore the bee.

Anyway, back to Grogu and his hat. I pulled out an old Disney hat I had made for my other Baby Yoda that I gave to my sister. I’ve bounced around the hat on other dolls, but now that I have a new Baby Yoda, I unceremoniously took the hat back from the other dolls and embroidered the name Grogu on it. Originally, I was going to embroider ‘Baby’ on it, but he has a name now, so he gets Grogu.

I’m not the best at embroidery, but it got the job done.

Then, I spent a few hours trying to make him a little harness for the day Disneyland opens again, and I can take Grogu with me. I made and unmade a doll carrier over and over. I didn’t like any of the designs I came up with. I abandoned the project and decided to think on it some more. For now, Baby Grogu has a cute hat and no doll carrier.

Oh yeah, he has an outfit too. 😁

He likes it.

I haven’t forgotten about his vampire costume, I just put that on the back burner for now. I’ll probably wait until Halloween for that. I’m going to keep focusing on a carrier for now. Disneyland is closed, but we might get a chance to go to Downtown Disney to walk around, and I definitely want to have a hands free way to carry him. I can’t wait!

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Funko Pop Crochet

Now that the crochet Rosalina birthday gift is finished, it’s on to the next birthday gift. My husband wants a Funko Pop inspired doll of him. He created an image of what he wanted, and I’m in the process of making it.

Pretty good!

I decided on using Tunisian crochet for this one because I want to give it a knitted look. I don’t knit, so I like to pretend sometimes… I also thought the Tunisian simple stitch would work well here.

Merry Day After Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Eve, we traditionally have my brother and sisters and all their kids over for the day. This year, it looked a little different (as I’m sure it did for everyone), but it was still a lot of fun. I think it’s important to give thanks for our many blessings and not focus on the negatives (all the time anyway).

I want to start by giving thanks for my husband, daughter and son. I love them sooooo much!

Hubby

My daughter

My son

A Crocheted Dog Named Mouse

I’m currently participating in a photo book challenge on Instagram. I love reading and decided to incorporate my crochet into the book prompts. For the most part, I end up using crochet items I’ve already made and try to incorporate them into the theme of the book I’ve chosen. But for one of the prompts, I wanted to make something new.

The prompt called for a book with my favorite familiar or animal companion.

Meet Mouse the dog: A temple dog of Foo origin and Harry’s companion in the Desden Files.

Mouse is one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite book series. I knew I had to try and make him. I haven’t crocheted anything in months, so it was nice to have a goal and a challenge. He is described as being tall, has a broad build, his coat is dark grey, and he’s marked with black on the ear tips, tail, and lower legs. He has a lion-like mane around his face. Mouse seems to possess an extremely high intelligence, able to formulate complex plans, and understands instructions. He is a great fighter and a fast runner. In combat, he will occasionally emit a nimbus of pale blue light. He has supernatural endurance and healing abilities beyond mortal dogs. I love this dog!

Large Crochet Doll Wearing Crochet Baby Yoda Mask

My sister asked me to make her a crocheted Baby Yoda face mask. I responded that of course I would and then didn’t make it…for two months! She asked again because she wanted to enter it in a contest at her work. They were awarding prizes for the best homemade mask. She was convinced we would win.

Well, now there was a deadline so I actually had to do it – plus prizes! I started throwing out ideas like maybe she’d like a Wonder Woman mask or a mermaid mask. Nope, she wanted Baby Yoda. I didn’t realize it at first, but I was probably baby Yodaed out. The other masks were things I’d like and not things she’d like, so I stopped procrastinating and made it.

I looked around for ideas on how to make a general crochet mask. I had already crocheted a few, but I wanted a different style for this one. Once I saw a few varieties, I designed my own with the right colors.

Just for the fun of it, I made the mask it’s own mask.

My sister also wanted her Company’s logo somewhere, so I placed it on the mask for the mask. The logo didn’t look complicated but it was challenging to represent it in crochet while making it recognizable as such. I made a few attempts until we were both satisfied.

Then she thought it would look cute if we took a picture of the mask on my big crochet Baby Yoda but it was too much baby Yoda! I suggested she take my big crochet doll instead and try it on her. The doll has only traveled from the school (where she was born) and my house. I entrusted her to my sister’s care and sent her on her way.

My sis did a fantastic job taking pictures of the doll with the mask. And it was fun to see she used one of my mom’s blankets as a backdrop. There was lots of crochet going on but it looked super cool.

All I can say is if she doesn’t win with that, I’d like to see what does win!

Another Creepy Crochet Doll

I was inspired by my daughter’s creepy crochet doll to make one at work. I had some yarn I wanted to use up and I thought some of the kids would like it. I got the expected responses ranging from creepy to cute. My goal is always to get creepy AND cute. Based on the responses, I succeeded. As always, the kids helped me finish her by suggesting (insisting) what colors to use for the hair and outfit. As you can see, they wanted all kinds of hair color! They picked the eyes out as well, albeit with a little help from me.

Since we had to close down the program so abruptly, I didn’t get a chance to finish the doll at work, but I brought all my materials home and was able to finish it here. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to put her in the prize-box soon.

And here she is!

What do you think? Did I succeed at creepy AND cute?

Life-size Crochet Doll Pranks

After our school shut down due to the coronavirus and we had to close down our after-school program, I brought home the large doll I crocheted for the kids. I didn’t want to leave her there all alone. My hubby always complains that when she’s in the house, she scares him when he least expects it. This was no exception.

I had her on the couch–and predictably–she spooked him a few times. Success!

Poor thing looked pooped after playing with school kids for a few years!

I decided to be a good sport and move her…into his office…when he wasn’t looking. Obviously I was trying to spook him. But to my chagrin, he didn’t even notice her. She was propped up in his armchair right next to his computer! It’s the first thing you see when you walk into his office! Needless to say, after he didn’t notice her for awhile, I pointed her out while he was sitting at his desk–two feet from his head. 😂

We decided that that would be her new home…until I walked into my office–and didn’t notice her either. I basically walked right past her to get to my desk and didn’t see her. But when I turned around…Bam! She spooked me!

Bam!

Crochet Doll Book News

It’s been brought to my attention by a great horde of people (two to be exact), that although I titled my last post Finished My Book Amidst Pandemic, I actually didn’t talk much about my book…at all. It was suggested gently (not so gently) that I actually talk about, you know, the book!

The book: What’s my book about? It’s a tutorial on how to create your own simple dolls (that don’t look simple), as if explained to you by a friend. It’s picture heavy as it’s more about inspiration on how to create your own dolls than about patterns. However, I did include three patterns to illustrate what the end product could look like.

Here’s the cover:

I might still change the subtitle. 

To start off, I thought I was done with the book after a few tweeks. I had my friends and family read it to see if there was anything majorly wrong with it. A few edits and suggestions came in, and the more I went in, the more I changed.

First off, it’s taken me a few years to get this project done. Unfortunately, the more I waited to get back to it, the more things changed. Things like software and app changes, which forced me to relearn how to use them again. Or say I was happy with pictures years ago, now they looked dated or not as good as what I can do now. So what I’m basically saying is that I drastically started fiddling with the book and moved away from the finish line, AGAIN.

Finishing My Crochet Book Amidst Pandemic

I hadn’t planned on doing a post on the pandemic that’s hit the world, but I thought about how I’ve enjoyed (maybe enjoyed is not a good word) reading other bloggers posts about how they are doing, what’s happening where they are, or what they are doing to keep from going insane. So I thought I’d share a little bit of my Coronavirus story here in Southern California.

First and foremost, in case you were worried, I have plenty of toilet paper. Right before (and I mean RIGHT before) everything went down, I had purchased one of those big packages from Costco, along with a big package of paper towels. I got it home and  realized I already had a bunch of toilet paper I had already purchased, and felt dumb for buying more when I didn’t need it. But then everything started to go nuts, and I was very happy I had my supply!

Crochet Darth Maul themed Baby Yoda

You all knew I was lying, right? When I said my big crochet Baby Yoda was the last one, no one believed me… and everyone was right. 🙂 First off, my sisters really liked my big one, and naturally they need one now. How could I say no? They’re my sisters and sisters need to be kept happy.

THEN, my brother put an intriguing idea into my head that I couldn’t shake. He asked his wife (and my close friend) to crochet him another Baby Yoda. What he wanted now was a black Baby Yoda with red eyes. She elaborated that he mentioned some Darth looking thing that was still a Baby Yoda. I assumed he was talking about Darth Vader but you know what they say about assuming something. Being the good friend that I was, not to mention a great sister, I asked questions and offered her suggestions.

Well, this festered in my head because I couldn’t stop imagining how I would do this. Mind you, no one asked me to do this. It was my own obsession. When my siblings and I got together, I couldn’t resist asking my brother what the heck he was envisioning. He wanted something that was like Darth Maul (NOT Darth Vader) from Star Wars. Now armed with a better idea of what he was rambling about , I took it upon myself to attempt this crazy quest. I didn’t know from Adam if he wanted something from me at all. He could have specifically wanted something made from the loving hands of his wife, so I didn’t ask him. My sis-in-law, however, was busy making a few more dolls for her sister and was happy I was trying to figure this thing out.

It was time to research Darth Maul and try to adapt him to a Baby Yoda.

Do I look like a Baby Yoda to you?

My challenge (self imposed of course) was to make it cute and evil at the same time, while making sure it still looked like a Baby Yoda. Well now… Darth Maul is NOT all black with red eyes. He is mostly red with a lot of black, with yellow and red eyes. He also has horns, a bunch of horns!

I made an all-red head and knew immediately that it wouldn’t work. His head had way too much black to try to add it afterward, so I tired again and incorporated the black from the get-go. The eyes were also tricky, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the right buttons or the right combination of buttons and didn’t like any of them. I gave up on buttons and just crocheted something. The face was a big challenge (not sure I captured it) but it wasn’t too shabby. I wasn’t sure I had the right mix of cute and evil at first, but initial reactions were mixed with some thinking he was evil looking and others thinking he was cute. Success!

And the horns! Darth Maul has six on his head and two on the side. I stopped at four because I didn’t want to crowd his head but I may change my mind. My bro said he didn’t care so I’ll probably leave it.

My hubby  is a big Star Wars fan and he was fascinated by what I was trying to do and had many opinions. Naturally, I’m going to have to make him one and he most definitely was NOT NOT NOT trying to steal this one. Hubby said that for his, he wanted all six horns. 🙂 That didn’t stop him from borrowing (stealing) him when I wasn’t looking. I went to my crochet bag to continue work and the unfinished doll was gone. I found it though.

He was safe in hubby’s office hanging out with a friend.

I’m not done with his outfit and he might get more horns but I couldn’t wait to take him out for a photoshoot.