Crochet Pikachu

One of my students asked if I could sell her a Pikachu so she could give it to her brother for Christmas. I had never made a Pikachu before but I told her I would try. I didn’t have much time since our Christmas break was looming and I only had few days left before then. Add to the mix that I had about another hundred projects I needed to finish but I really wanted to get this done for her. She and her mom are two of the sweetest people I know. I just had to get it done.

I approached the project in my usual way. I spent two days thinking about it. I know! I had no time to waste but it was a necessary step. I looked at cartoon illustrations as well as

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Freebie Friday – Crochet Stocking

December is one of the busiest times of the year for many people and I’m no exception. I have a never ending to-do list that doesn’t seem to get any shorter. I have been trying to put up our Christmas tree since the day after Thanksgiving but I can finally say it’s up!

Getting the tree up is an adventure. I need to go into our closet under the stairs and pull out all the other boxes (Halloween stuff, empty boxes of electronics no one wants to throw away incase we sell it and need the box again, storage boxes of wrapping stuff, you get the idea) and dig my way to the fake Christmas tree and decorations. You can see why I keep putting it off! This takes time and effort and is easily pushed in favor of other pressing needs like finishing crochet items for the craft fair I decided to participate in at the last moment. So I finally liberated the tree, got it up and started decorating it.

This year was not my best work. I pulled out the lights, tested them to see if they worked, wrapped them around the tree, turned them on and…half of them didn’t work. What?! I

Freebie Friday- Peppermint Coasters

 

I know Christmas is over but I thought these peppermint coasters were so awesome that I wanted to share them. Here is the YouTube video.

I made some as gifts for Christmas but I don’t think they are restricted to the holiday. I’m envisioning them in different colors and used in all kinds of items. Wouldn’t they look great as a scarf? Maybe a round table cover? An airy hat perhaps? I don’t know what I’m going to make with them yet but I’m excited to find out. 🙂

 

 

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.

Freebie Friday Crochet Doll House

I was going to post a pattern for a Hello Kitty purse I made for my girl students at work but I found this crochet doll house on a blog I follow and thought it would be a better freebie. The blog itself is fabulous for making dolls. I discovered it a few years ago before I even knew what blogging was and was smitten with her creations. I am very inspired by her work. Hope you enjoy her doll house as much as I did. I think the kids at work would absolutely love it if I made them a crochet doll house!

You can either go to her blog and see her post or go to her Flickr page to get a picture tutorial.

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.

Christmas Doll

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the new doll I made but decided I wanted a Christmas theme going. I went through my yarn stash hoping to find something sparkly or shiny in red. I found something shiny and thick in purple instead. It seemed festive so I grabbed it.

Next, I couldn’t decide on how I wanted the hair to look and the more I stared at the unfitted doll, the more I wanted her to have a hat. I made the hat first (before adding hair) and made it poofie. I definitely wanted a pom-pom. That’s what made it festive for me. I wanted to add a white fringe to it that looked fluffy and tried many different yarns. I made and unmade the fringe over and over until I found a yarn I thought worked with the purple yarn, the hat, and the doll. By the time I finished the hat and placed it on the doll, I liked it and now I’m not sure if I want to add hair.

Freebie Friday – Christmas Angels

I know we haven’t even gotten to Thanksgiving yet and I’m already on to Christmas but in order to get everything done on time, the time to start is now! Here are some adorable tree ornaments that I would like to try this year. They look super easy and super cute.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/quick-and-easy-christmas-ornament

And just because I love Doctor Who.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christmas-tree-tardis

Both patterns can be found on Ravelry  Ravelry is AWESOME!

I found these at the Moogly site below. There are 10 Christmas patterns but these were my favorite.

http://www.mooglyblog.com/10-free-crochet-christmas-ornament-patterns/

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.

Photographs and Memories

Today I was going to pull out a box of crochet toys I made for my daughter when she was little and photograph them. I wanted to write a post about how I started my love affair with making whimsical things. I had it all planned out, and went digging all through the garage looking for said box of nostalgia. To my horror and dismay I couldn’t find it!

A bit of back story before today’s tale of woe is in order. My daughter held on to these toys up until she was a teenager. Then it gets fuzzy as to what happened to said items (and there is some debate about it between us). At some point, her Barbies and all the doll furniture and doll clothes I crocheted went into a box. She claims I took them from her in order to protect them. It could have gone down that way. Then she went to college and eventually moved out. I’m not sure when it happened but I’m pretty sure I asked her to take them or I was going to get rid of them. Here’s where it gets fuzzier.

I asked her about them a few years ago. Something along the lines of “Do you know what happened to your old crochet toys I made you? Did you take them?”

Christmas Gift

My very creative daughter gave me a really cute notebook for Christmas. It has graph paper on the inside and love on the outside 🙂 She likes taking ordinary covers and turning them into something wonderful. In this case, she matched my personality perfectly. I love the crochet theme of the cover.

How cute is that!

She also made me a cute little bookmark to go with it.

I love the colors she used. Purple is one of my favorite colors.

The notebook’s purpose is to house my crochet inspiration when it strikes. Sometimes I use graph paper to flesh out a project. If I’m going to create something new, I think about it for awhile. I wonder and think about what I need to do to get the results I want. Then the work starts to make the project a reality. I might draw a picture to help me flesh out what I want or I might use graph paper to give me scale and layout. I decided that my first use of the notebook was to help me remember what I did with the Minecraft doll I’m currently working on. I have most of the pieces done and will be ready to start sewing and stuffing soon. I found that the graph paper was perfect for recording what I did.

Each graph square represents a single crochet. Coloring the squares was extra fun but it also represented the different colors I used and the color changes. I had to split the design over two pages but it’s a nice record of what I did (am still doing since it’s not finished). Now I need to do the dimensions of the sides of the doll. My daughter gave me something so I could create and record my patterns but I bet she didn’t realize she also gave me a coloring book!