My wonderful friend, who has supplied me with many of the succulents in my garden, wanted a couple of crochet Pikachu’s for her grandchildren. I have received an abundance of cuttings from her garden that have bloomed into such lovely plants in my own garden that it was a pleasure making the toys for her.
She said her grandchildren loved them (hopefully she’s not just being nice).
I know, I’ve gone Pokemon crazy. I do tend to get on themes until they fizzle out, only to be abandoned forever (for the moment). Remember my emoji craze (this one lasted a while)? How about the puppets? Sweater coats anyone? This current one is probably my last in this craze. A little Kinder wanted a Voltorb for Ultimate Prize box. It’s just a ball with eyes so it was an easy enough request to grant.
Hey, I can do a ball with eyes, no problem. Child’s play.
I’m looking at you!
My little Kinder didn’t lack a plethora of suggestions (he never does) and we worked the eyes until we were both satisfied. Everyone is happy. 🙂 He was literally standing next to me as I was closing up the bottom asking me if I was going to let the stuffing fall out. What am I, an amatuer? Didn’t he trust my crochet skills by now after all the things he’s seen me make, much of which were for him? Of course I didn’t let the stuffing fall out!
When I closed it up completely, he started jumping up and downing, narrating how I was weaving in the ends. Can you tell he was excited? As soon as I finished cutting the last tail, I handed it to him and he scampered off with it. It was all very cute. 🙂
I’m still looking at you!
Wish I could show you his face because he is adorable. He was even wearing a Pokemon shirt and yes, he was smiling that much. 🙂
Now I can move on to other things, like a crochet turtle for my co-worker, a backpack out of my samples from the Craft Yarn Council course I completed, and finishing up the plugs on my first sweater. Yessss, I’m still working on that! LOL
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.Â
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.Â
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!
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!
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!
yochet 