Crochet Tarantula

Oh how the kids hound me sometimes. This time, it was one of my second grade girls. She’s been insisting I make a crochet tarantula for weeks. I had no other pressing projects, so I relented. We looked up pictures for inspiration, and I had her look in our yarn drawer to see what colors we had.

We only had yellow, orange, and a little bit of pink. I asked her what colors she wanted for certain parts, and I got to work.

I wasn’t sure I could pull it off.

Once it was finished, the kids kept trying to play with it. In fact, I found it very interesting that of all the pretty cool things I’ve made for them in the past, this one really impressed them. One girl who never shows any interest in my crochet said, “Wow, you made that?” I was like, really? I made the large doll that’s in the classroom! You’re surprised I could make a little spider? 😂

Another boy, who does love my crochet, said, “Wow, this shows you’re an art person. You could teach this. Like, you could have a class.” What do you think I’ve been doing all these years with all of you? 😂 This is what it took to impress these kids. Maybe it’s the novelty of it, but hey, I’m glad they liked it. 😄

The kids wanted me to do a photo shoot, and they had a lot of ideas of where to take it’s picture.

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Green and Pink Crochet Doll

Sometimes I forget that I love making dolls. I had some more stash-busting time at work and made a doll. I had all these little pink scraps because the kids love using pink. I end up with all these little odds and ends. I also had these huge lime-green balls that weren’t being used much. I combined the two and made my doll.

And finally she was done!

Oops! How did that scrap of lavender get in there?! I swear it was pink when I grabbed it. The kids will never know!

I love making dolls!

 

Golden Rainbow Crochet Doll

I haven’t made a crochet doll in ages but I’ve recently given myself a swift kick in the pants. I know that sounds kinda mean but I absolutely needed it. I had projects that needed seeing to and no one was seeing to them. With the end of the year bearing down upon me, I just had to kick it into high gear.

Finally! A doll is born.

First up was my sweater/coat/cardigan. I gave me the stink eye and threatened that there would be consequences if I didn’t get that sucker done and lo and behold, I finished it and was finally able to give it to my sister.

Next up was the Christmas tree. We have an artificial tree, and it was buried way, way, way, deep in the closet under Halloween boxes, Easter boxes, computer boxes and all kinds of other miscellany. I just didn’t want to go through that clutter-jungle. To add insult to injury, I would need to figure out exactly where I was supposed to put the tree. My kiddo moved back in and I consequently had to find new places for many of my things, so the tree spot was no longer available. Upon announcing to my hubs that the tree would remain in the closet of doom, he revolted. The tree had to go up he said. I said, you know the way too and pointed to the closet.

Finished Crochet Doll

The doll is finally finished.

It had a few bumpy starts but sometimes you just have to make a choice and stick with it! The kids at work always have soooo much advice on how a project should go, most of the time, completely opposite from each other. So, it’s up to me to pick and choose which ideas to listen to.

For the hair, I wanted to use leftover strands of yarn I rescued from one of my  mom’s old projects, This piece had a tassel fringe of thread-yarn. I took all the tassels out and now I have this little bag of cut up blue strands I thought would look cute as hair. I finally pulled it out and tried it on the doll.

First off, I decided to make a boy doll. Then I had to figure out how to use those strands of yarn. I tried different things and pulled them out just as many times. I even abandoned the thread yarn for regular blue yarn but didn’t like that either. The kids said it looked like Coraline so I switched gears and tried to make it a Coraline doll. I didn’t like it so I went back to my mom’s strands.

I played around with it until I got something I liked.

The kids kept insisting I make an orange shirt so I gave it a try.

Noooo! I no likey! Looked like a life jacket so I ripped it back. Started on the shorts instead.

Much better

I didn’t like any of the yarn I had at work because it was too thick so I had the bright idea to split the yarn (from the yarn ball I made of the rescued project). I didn’t know how hard that would be. The yarn kept getting tangled! I’m stubborn so I kept at it until I had just enough yarn to  make the shirt. Although I’ll probably never split yarn again, I finally got a shirt I liked.

Finally I can relax. 🙂

I felt like he needed something more, so I made him a little backpack and the kids helped me fill it with crayons.

And now he’s hanging out in the ultimate prize-box. And apparently all the kids have laid claim to him when they finally make it.

And now I really am working on a Coraline doll. 🙂

 

Life-Size Crochet Doll is done!

It’s done! It’s done! I had to take her home to finish her legs because I just didn’t have enough time at work. During our Spring Break, I worked furiously. When the legs were done and attached, with a jolt, I realized I wouldn’t be working on her anymore. There’s a lot of energy expended when creating, and suddenly, there’s nowhere for that energy to go. But that feeling didn’t last long (there’s always another project waiting to monopolize my time).

Once I got her dressed, I left her on my bed until I was ready to take her to my car. What a surprise to walk back into the bedroom to find my hubby pumping her legs up and down like she was running and then playing patty cake with her. He looked at me with a huge grin and I burst out laughing. What a scene! I had a good belly laugh. He kept right on playing with her. Wasn’t this the same man who knocked her over and threw a jacket on her so she would stop scaring him every time he walked into the house? Well, he did say he loved her even though she scared him. 😁