So my first two students to reach Ultimate Prize Box asked for custom crochet items. They are brothers and love my crochet stuff. The projects they asked for didn’t seem too difficult and I agreed.
The first wanted a Bendy in some form. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, a hat? a plushie? a keychain? He decided on a puppet. Now I just had to figure out what a Bendy was!
Oh, that’s a Bendy
I’ve been crocheting a lot of things for our ultimate prize box at work and realized I haven’t shared them here. Let’s start with the yellow, heart-emoji puppet that looked like a frog. A student (5th grade boy) picked that one but then asked if I could remove the heart eyes and replace them with black circles. Here we go, I thought.
I asked him if he wanted to trade it for something else and he said no. I was flummoxed as to why he picked that puppet if he didn’t completely like it. I told him it is what it is and if he didn’t like it, there were tons of other items to pick from. He said no, he wanted to keep it. But could I change the eyes? Argh! I really, really didn’t want to change the eyes. I asked him if I didn’t change it, would he still want to keep it. He could still exchange it (this was the third time I made that offer). He was adamant he wanted to keep it. He went off and played with it. I still heard him saying (not to me) he wished the eyes were black but he still liked it.
A few days passed and he brought it back from home and was playing with it. You know what happened. I felt bad about it. He’s a really nice kid. I told him I would go ahead and replace the eyes. He was so happy. I haven’t done it yet but it’s in the queue.
But I like my eyes!
I made another emoji puppet after the frog (heart emoji wannabe) fiasco. This time, I was determined to make it look like an emoji and not a frog.
No frogs here!
Why do the kids keep saying I’m crying? I’m laughing!
I think I did a better job. Making the body a different color made a huge difference. I made the head a little rounder too. None of the kids have picked it yet but I don’t doubt one of them will. After all, we’ve only had four kids make it to Ultimate Prize Box. Two picked toys and two picked my crochet creations so I think I’m doing pretty well. 🙂
So this happened.
What happened?
It was supposed to be a heart emoji puppet. I made it a little differently than the other puppets. I’m trying out different mouth techniques until I find one I really like. I want it to feel comfortable in the hand and open nicely.
I messed up on the heart eyes. I wasn’t getting it right so I had the brilliant idea of tracing a heart directly on yarn as a guide. The plan was to embroider the eyes and cover up the marker. Yes, I used a marker. Foolish. It bled through the yarn! Anyway, I digress. That didn’t look right either so I went back to the drawing board and crocheted the hearts, but now there’s an outline of the marker! I pretended it wasn’t there and the kids haven’t mentioned it so I’m going to keep pretending I don’t see it. 🙂
Open wide!
He started looking less like an emoji and more like Pac Man and then morphed into a yellow frog with red heart eyes. Can’t win ’em all. The kids still like it though. I know this because they keep grabbing it, running away and squealing. So into the ultimate prize box it goes.
Yay! Ultimate prize box!
I went ahead and kept working on the mermaid puppet when I should have been finishing up my lessons from my certification course. I was rewarded with an ugly puppet. She was turning out so hideous! I didn’t like her. I made a few faux pas along the way that translated into a not so pretty crochet mermaid puppet. I set sail on the wrong course and kept going down the wrong channel.
Why you keep calling me ugly?!
Let me start by saying my intentions were good. I had good ideas. It was the Continue reading
I assume not everyone has a need for a crochet puppet, but since I was entrenched in puppets, I thought I’d share how I make them. I plan on making a video for a puppet or puppets soon, so if this post looks too wordy (I know it does to me), you can just wait for that. It will eventually happen, but if you want to get started right away, read on!
The body
I start with a tube that fits around a hand. Sometimes it comes out a little tighter and sometimes a little looser than I like, but it doesn’t really matter as long as it goes over your hand.
The tube can be made up of any color and any kind of yarn. This will be the shirt (or top part of a dress) and can be made out of any stitch or color combination. I’ve only made three puppets so far and they were made for my students so I kept the tube portion simple. I’m all about simple. I used single crochet in the round for two of them. For the third one (red and black puppet), I made a rectangle of single crochet rows and then sewed up the side to make a tube. You could even make two squares and sew up on two sides. I haven’t tried this yet.
I’m just a tube (in the round).
Nothing but a tube.
I handed over my finished puppet to her new 5th grade owner after a day of celebrating our 5th graders. I said a few words about how much I will miss them, because I will. Two of them have been with me since kindergarten. That’s six years with the same students. It’s always bitter sweet to see them go, knowing most of them will disappear without a trace as they move on to middle school. Sometimes, they come back to visit or I run in to them when I’m out and about, but for the most part, on the last day, they’re just gone. I give them a big hug on their way out the door and wish them well.
So I said a few words, said my farewells, handed them their crocheted graduation caps and we partied with cake, pizza and a movie.
I finished the puppet and handed her over to my student before she went off to summer glory.
She didn’t turn out exactly as I pictured her but she’s alright.
She’s kind of sassy!
My student seemed happy with her and I know the puppet is going to a good home. This particular 5th grader has become a great crocheter and wants to take crochet with her to her new after-school program next year. Some of our 5th graders from our school continue on in our program at our sister school. I had started crochet there years ago when I worked the summer program. Many of the students loved it but it died out quickly with no one left to run it. This 5th grader certainly has the chops to get something up and running over there. She has leadership qualities that I know she’ll put to good use to teach the students there how to crochet.
When we go back in the fall, I’m going to hook her up with the supplies she needs to get started. Hopefully that means I’ll still see her sometimes and she won’t disappear without a trace. 🙂
I’ve been trying to finish the girl crochet puppet for my clever 5th grader. I only have until tomorrow to finish it so I’m cutting it close! Most of it is done, but I still have to do the face and hair.
I can’t see anything!
I’m taking it back to work today where I will finish if off with the student’s input.
The head came out a little smaller than I would like but hopefully she’ll look better once she has a face and hair. My student wanted her to have a tongue so I made sure the inside of the mouth had some pink. I’m getting better at making the inside of the mouth. This third attempt is my favorite.
My second crochet puppet was a fail, and twice a success. It was a fail because my 2nd grader was disappointed with it. It was a success because the other kids loved it and wanted it. It was a success again because I changed it so the 2nd grader liked after all.
So I gave my 2nd grader the puppet. I finished it as much as I was going to finish it. I didn’t give him legs, even though my student wanted him to have legs. I have to admit that with the attitude he was displaying towards my efforts, I wasn’t as inspired to comply with his requests (demands). I did add arms, ears and a nose and I thought he came out pretty cute.
What’s wrong with my eyes?
When I handed him over, the look of disappointment was palpable. And now I was disappointed. So this was a fail. But it was also a success because there were about 10 other kids circling him like sharks hoping they could have it. They smelled the scent of his disappointment and moved in to snatch the puppet up.
Some were begging me to let them have it since he didn’t like it and some were appealing directly to him to give it to them. I saw right away that he just might give it away (no way buddy) so I put a stop to that real quick. I told them all that it would go in the Ultimate Prize Box if he didn’t end up keeping it (either by his choice or mine).
I asked my 2nd grader if he wanted to trade him for something else since it didn’t seem like he liked the puppet. He actually thought about it! Oh, help me survive the fickleness of kids! I told him that he probably should trade it since he obviously didn’t like it. He hesitatingly said he would keep it, although I think this had more to do with him not wanting anyone else to have it. He walked away but he kept griping about how the puppet didn’t have eyeballs! He was obsessed with eyeballs!
I finally had enough and was about to make an executive decision and take back the puppet, but instead, I asked him if the eyes were the only reason he didn’t like the puppet. He said yes, so I had him hand the puppet over and I sent the kids out to recess. When they came back, the puppet had new eyes.
Now he has eyeballs!
My 2nd grader had a big smile on his face and he happily scampered off. Now, at least, I had a better feeling that the puppet was going to be liked. Maybe love would come later. 🙂 Still, I think my 2nd grader’s mom was more grateful for the puppet than my student. She loved it.
Any art is an extension of ourselves and it can be hard to put ourselves out there. And when our work is rejected (even by a 2nd grader), it can be tough not to take the rejection personally.
My hubby is an artist. He makes a living from his art. He tells me he doesn’t take it personally when a client asks for changes or just doesn’t like something. He just makes the changes until the client is happy.
So that’s what I did. I made the change and the client (student) was happy.
And knowing that the other students loved the puppet as it was saved my ego. One of the reasons I get nervous when someone asks me to make them something is because I know that meeting an expectation can be hard. They have something in their mind that they want and it might not be the same as what I produce. I’d rather just make things and if it’s liked, that’s great, if it’s not, that’s no biggie.
But I don’t let that stop me with the kids. Most of the time, they’re extremely happy and appreciative of what I make for them. I’m grateful for that.
I basked in the glow of student adulation over the Jeffy puppet for about one whole day. Then it was back to business as usual. Back to reality and the typical way my students act when it comes to my crochet.
So, coming off my Jeffy high, came the low of being taken for granted. I finished off the emoji purse for my third grade girl and she happily accepted it and was on her way. No problem there. Seeing her happy with her purse was thanks enough (really😁).
Then, it was time for the top hat for my 2nd grade boy…but he changed his mind. He didn’t want the top hat anymore, he wanted a puppet. Well, of course he did. After hearing how much the 5th graders loved the Jeffy, he wanted his own puppet, one that looked like him, no less.
I explained that time was running out and there was no way I could finish a complicated puppet like Jeffy. It would have to be something much simpler. He said that was fine. And typical, it didn’t take him long to start asking if I was finished. I mean, he immediately started asking if I was done! By the end of the same day that he made the request, he asked if I was done. I know they think I have a magic crochet wand (hook) that I can just wave around and abracadabra, there’s a completed item. I chuckled and let him know that I hadn’t had time to even start it yet.
The next few days were like going on a trip with a child in the back seat who keeps asking if we’re there yet. I kept hearing, “Are you finished yet, are you finished yet, are you finished yet?” Continue reading
I think I just had the sweetest moment in my teaching career this last Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had many sweet moments with the kids at work, but never from such an unexpected source, in such an unexpected way. Those two 5th grade boys (the advocate and the recipient of Jeffy the Puppet) made me cry today. Not the kind of crying where I want to beat my head in frustration, but the kind brought on by a sweet surprise.
In our program, we have Friday movie day with popcorn and a treat. Since we have no homework on Friday, I allow the kids to share anything they like before the movie. This particular Friday was no different. Continue reading
yochet 