Bavarian Crochet Coat

Dense Bavarian Crochet Coat

I went off and started another crochet coat (sweater, cardigan, I never know how to label it). I’m almost done with it and realized I hadn’t done a single post about it. Well, if you count the post I made about the Bavarian square, then I guess I did post about it (at least the idea of making a sweater from it). And here I am , almost done with it.

The process for this one has been interesting. Here’s what I knew I wanted in a new sweater (coat, cardigan): It needed to be long. It needed to be dense (i.e. no holes to plug up). It needed to be easy. Lastly, it needed to fit! Oh, and feel good too, let’s not forget that.

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Progress on Life Size Doll

Progress on the creepy life-sized doll is slow going. The body is done but I haven’t really had a chance to work on anything else but I did get started on the hands and am hopeful I can get the arms done by the end of the month.

 

That’s a kindergartner hand. Pretty close.

Once the arms get done, I can give her a shirt and finally give her some hair. Once she gets hair, she won’t be quite so creepy. I threw a small work shirt on her so the kids could stop worrying about her state of nakedness. Although, I might let her keep the shirt. 🙂

The kids are super excited now. One of my second graders was in her last week with us before a move to another state and she used the ‘moving’ card on me.  I wasn’t letting any of them play with the doll. It was weird  to me she wanted to play with something that looked like a bowling pin  but how could I say no to my student when she looked at me all sad and telling me she won’t get to see it finished. I handed it to her and the kids all squealed with delight. Honestly, I didn’t understand how they could have so much excitement over a half finished doll that looked creepy to boot. Must be a kid thing.

Finished Star Stitch Sweater

I’m all done with my star stitch sweater. I finished it before my granny square sweater. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I’m very proud of it. Everyone loved it. I sort of loved it. I kept seeing my mistakes in it. One of my sisters loved it so much I let her have it. My other sister is still waiting on the granny square one but I’m thinking I’ll just start a new one for her. She might have more of a fighting chance of actually getting something within this lifetime. Besides, after spending so much time trying to plug up the holes on the granny sweater, I might not be able to let it go once I’m done (if it ever gets done, heh).

So back to the star stitch sweater.

Scary Life Size Doll Head

I mentioned in a previous post that I was crocheting a life size doll of myself at work. Alas, I had to place it on the back burner in lieu of other, more pressing projects. Well, it’s day has come! I will not pick up any other projects until that doll is done. So I in that spirit…

I resumed work on the head. My little minions (Kindergarteners) couldn’t help themselves from helping me work on the doll. I had completed the head and had embroidered the face, using their suggestions of course. It was ready for stuffing.

Before I stuffed, I had to get up for something and left my work on the table. I can see all of you shaking your heads thinking to yourselves that I was asking for it. I see no pity in your eyes. I did indeed ask for it. I came back to a student running around with his hand in the opening of the doll head, using it like a puppet. A long string of yarn was tailing him around the room as it unwound from the ball of yarn. I quickly had him bring it back. Luckily, I had my stitch marker in so it didn’t unravel.

Can someone help me run around the room? I’m bored.

Now that she was rescued, it was time for stuffing. They love helping me stuff so I let them

Crochet Doll for a friend

My co-worker and dear friend has gone off and left me to go back to college in another state.😔

I’m so sad she’s gone but supportive of her decision and extremely excited about her new adventure. Working with her made my job such a joy every single day. Her last day was also our last day before our holiday break. I wanted to give her a gift that was both a Christmas gift and a going away present. I hoped to make something special that would let her know how much I would miss her.

I thought about the different things I could make but in the end, it had to be a doll. Although I make and have made a variety of things, I’m a doll maker at heart and I couldn’t send her on her journey without her very own doll. But it had to be SPECIAL. Not

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

Freebie Friday – Stitch Fiddle

I am so excited! So excited, in fact, I needed to share my discovery. There is a free website where you can create crochet diagrams for your projects. It’s called Stitch Fiddle and I’m having a fun time trying to figure it out. I wanted the ability to make a diagram for the crochet tooth I made. I ended up using graph paper but I just knew there had to be something out there that would allow me to do it on my computer. My frugal self was even willing to pay for it. I kept finding things that only worked on other platforms I couldn’t use (I’m an Apple user) but this one works straight from the web (no need to download anything) which was perfect. The only problem I’m having is that I don’t see any tutorials. It’s supposed to be intuitive and easy but ‘easy’ is subjective. The Help section directs you to a forum but what I really want is a tutorial. Even YouTube let me down on this one. So for now, I’m going to play with it and try to figure it out on my own. It’s seems easy enough that I think with some trial and error, I’ll get better at it. 🙂 In the mean time, I hope you enjoy it too.

Here is a sample of what I’ve created so far with the program. It’s rows 1-9 of the small tooth. It’s not great but it’s helping me learn the program.

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.