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!
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. 🙂
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!
Sometimes (always) I can become a little (a lot) focused (obsessed) about certain projects. We all remember the sweaters/coats I made. I just wanted to make one and ended up making three because I kept thinking the next one would be better. As it turns out, the first one is my favorite.
Then there was my Minecraft phase where it was all about Minecraft. That rolled into my Pokemon phase where I was making all kinds of Pokeballs. Oh, and the puppet phase. There are plenty of other phases I’ve gone through and right now I’m in the middle of my ‘Disney Mickey Mouse Ears’ stage. I have mouse ears coming out of my ears!
Let’s start at the beginning of the first ‘Ears’ phase. Awhile back, I crocheted my own hats to wear at Disneyland because we had passes. I wanted something unique and I made two for me and one for my hubby.
The first hat I made. This one was for me of course. 🙂
This one came second. The bow helped the ears stand upright.
This one was for hubby. He got many compliments whenever he wore it.
It’s time to announce the winners for my first Giveaway! Thank you so much to those who participated (and to those that would have entered but couldn’t because of geography). I sooooo appreciate that you took the time. And to those who couldn’t really use a baby sweater or toy but who still stopped by and had a looksy or left a kind word, I appreciate you all! 🙂
And now for the winners!
Tami of Tanglewood Knots, you are the winner! Please email me your address and I will send him out right away.
Sparkscrochet at Crochet and Crafty Cuteness. You are the winner! Please email me your address and I will send it out right away.
This was so much fun and I hope I can do more giveaways in the future.
In honor of my three year blogaversay, I want to share my five favorite posts of all time. It was fun going down memory lane, getting reacquainted with posts I had completely forgotten about and was happy to rediscover.
Speaking of my blogaversay, there’s still time to enter my first ever Giveaway! Last day to enter is January 19, 2018.
This post was all about my sis-in-law reading the book I wrote on doll making (that has yet to get laid out or self published!) and making this great doll following my instructions. I was so happy and tickled with her doll. Continue reading
I didn’t do the craft fair at our school. I let it come and go. Instead, I’ve been focusing on making little gifts for the kids at work. We had a gift day before we go on our Christmas break and it’s always nice to supplement the regular gifts with crochet items. They enjoy the crocheted items so I wanted to make as many as I could this year. The poop emoji’s tend be the most popular so I made some of those. They can’t get enough of poop! LOL
But I made a few others. I tried my hand at making circles by turning the work after each round instead of doing it in a continuous spiral. The spiral method doesn’t give me a perfect circle but I usually just work around that. This time, I wanted to give it a try and I think it worked out well. I made a winky face emoji with a Santa hat that the kids loved.
Nice and round
One of my students kept asking me to make a money emoji. I have to admit I kept brushing him off but he asked again while I was in my Christmas frenzy for gift day so I gave in. I think I nailed it! Continue reading
I was inspired by a fellow blogger to start thinking about the yearly craft fair that happens at the school where I work. I’ve done the craft fair on and off since it’s inception way back when my son went to school there (he is now a big senior in high school). I’ve had various successes and failures and every year, I’m not sure if I’m going to do it or not. When I do decide to do it, it’s always at the last second and then I start crocheting furiously trying to make sure I have enough things to show. It’s a hodge podge and there’s no consistency. I have a little bit of everything. I guess that’s not true. The consistency is that it’s all fun things kids would enjoy. Toys, dolls, purses and cases. I have had hats and beanies but they are always kid friendly.
This year, I’ve started my old tricks. I had decided I wouldn’t do the fair this year and then changed my mind a dozen times. But have I started any projects for the fair? Noooo, I have not. So then I read Brenna’s post about a craft fair she’s doing at her daughter’s school. It inspired me to think about the impending craft fair at our school more seriously. I should start making things NOW, even if I don’t do the fair. It’s better to be ready and not need it than to need and not be ready. So in that spirit, it’s time to seriously think about the things I should make. Continue reading
I haven’t done a Freebie Friday in a while, mainly because I haven’t had as much time to dig around the internet for cool patterns (or write up my own). But since I was tasked (forced) to make something for CYC course, it seemed like a no brainer to share it. Ok, no one tasked (forced) me. Making your own pattern was optional, but since I went ahead and wrote up my own pattern, here it is. 🙂
Tunisian crochet mobile-phone case
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!
yochet 