Small Crochet Christmas Elf

I made this little guy right before Christmas at the craft fair I attended. There’s a lot of down-time and I like folks to see that I’m the actual person who crochets all the items on the table. It being Christmas time, I worked on this little elf. Two girls stopped by and just hung around. It took me a moment to realize they just wanted to see me crochet. They were fascinated seeing a toy develop right before their eyes. It wasn’t the best toy ever but it was cute enough.

Cute enough!

Once finished, I put him on the table. He didn’t sell, so I put him in our Ultimate Prize-Box. Today, one of my 5th grade boys picked him as his prize. Certain students gravitate towards my creations and he’s one of them. He’s the one who requested the green Pea Shooter. I don’t even remember how many of my items he has in his possession but it sure is nice to be appreciated in that way. 🙂

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Crochet Turtle, Cupcake and Pokeball

The end of the school year is coming, and the kids are amping up their crochet requests. Many are making it to the prize-box and I’m feeling generous. I’m granting their requests if I think I can finish them in time. One 5th grade boy has gone around the prize chart three times and he didn’t want anything from the regular prize box. He earned two prize-box items and asked if he could trade them for something I could make. He just wanted a Pokeball. That was doable.

Done!

After the small turtles, a bunch of the Kinders asked me to make a bigger turtle, so I did some stash-busting and finished a rainbow turtle.

Done!

It’s already reserved for a little Kinder. She begged me not to let anyone else have it since she was only one star away. I agreed and discovered she was four stars away. She’s a little Transitional Kinder and they often make that mistake so I agreed to keep it for her, but she has to work hard to get those stars before the end of the year. She only has ten more days!

Before I even finished the turtle, another Kinder made it to Ultimate Prize-Box and she wanted a crochet cupcake. I’d never made one before but I thought I could whip one up.

Done!

She told me exactly what colors she wanted and it had to have yellow sprinkles. She was over my shoulder asking me again and again if it was done yet. Clearly it wasn’t done! But then it was, and she wasted no time playing with it. It’s always the best when they see me finishing something up. I think it makes it more special for them.

Happy camper. 🙂

Someone else asked for a turtle but I can’t remember who. I’m pretty sure it was a boy. He better make it to prize box soon so I can get it done. 🙂

Crochet Doll for the Giveaway

I’ll be joining my fellow bloggers in being a sponsor at the Giveaway over at kellysdiy. Sounds really fun and I can’t wait until the giveaway gets started on July 17th. Head on over there and check it out. You might even want to participate. 🙂

I didn’t know about her blog until I started seeing it pop up in blogs I follow and saw that others were joining in. I checked out her blog to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn’t necessarily going participate but I ended up really liking her blog. She is super creative and has some fantastic ideas. I have to come up with a lot of projects for the kids at work and many of her projects are kid friendly. They will come in very handy when I go back to work for the new school year.

Here is my contribution.

Freebie Friday – Crochet Puppets

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 Process

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.

Last Crochet Puppet For Students

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.

 

Surviving Disappointment -Crochet Puppet

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.

Crochet can make you cry…

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.

Freebie Saturday – Crochet Emoji Video

Lately, I’ve been making quick projects that I know I can finish in a work day. Now that the life-sized doll is done, I want to take a break from the big projects. I like showing the kids the different items they can crochet, from the big elaborate ones, to the quick and easy ones. Here are some quick and easy ones I made this past week.

We have a star-chart as a reward system in our after-school program and the very last section has morphed and changed over the year. At first, I tried gift cards as the last gift, but it being a new incentive, I hadn’t worked out all the kinks. Later, I only gave certain, nearby choices or instead of that, the option to get two items from the prize-box. Then, it morphed again when I saw that many of the students were still asking me to make things for them (even though they knew I wasn’t doing that anymore). Instead, I started crocheting the items they were requesting and putting them in what I started calling The Ultimate Prize Box. The emojis are always popular and the kids started picking those pieces right away even though I don’t have many items yet. But I hope to have a spike in inventory now that the projects are quicker and easier.