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.

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

It started as a joke…

The idea has been thrown around before, never with much expectation that it will truly happen. I mean, it’s preposterous. It would be a huge undertaking that might never see the light of day. Alas, the idea came up again as a joke but this time, that little worm made it’s way to the part of my brain that accepts ridiculous crochet projects.

I am now in the process of creating a life size crochet doll modeled after me that will stand sentry at work (where I run an after school program). We have giggled that it will take my place at work and no one will be the wiser. Most likely it will scare unsuspecting night custodians who clean up our room when we are all gone. My fellow teachers who are in the

Sun emoji or sunflower

There’s never a dull moment when working with elementary school kids. I’m always learning something from them. Take, for example, the ‘laughing so hard it’s crying’ emoji I made.

The laughing so hard it’s crying emoji

Yes, that’s what I kept calling it when the kids asked what I was making. Lucky form me, the kids know best. They referred to it as the ‘laugh out loud’ emoji. Admittedly, that made more sense. I started calling it that when it changed again. The student who claimed it out of the prize box was calling it the ‘L-O-L’ emoji. That was even better! My title for the emoji suddenly sounded so foolish. And to their credit, no one pointed out my silly name. They just called it what they thought was a better name. I don’t always get away unscathed. 😂

Another opportunity to be schooled by my students happened with my very next emoji. I had planned to make the sun emoji. The LOL emoji was born because one of my Kindergarteners wanted me to make it. The sun emoji was all me and the kids weren’t too enthusiastic about it. I was minding my own business and selected an orange yarn instead of yellow for this one. I had my two orange circles and the face done and was ready to start the edging to join the circles when another Kindergartner asked me if I was going to use the yellow yarn for the sunny edging. I asked her if I should and she said that absolutely I should. So I did. And I had to agree it looked good.

The edging was made using single crochets and picots.

Student Corner

I can’t describe the pleasure of seeing how many of my students have caught the crochet bug. I have a new 5th grade girl who picked it up very quickly and got very excited about making things as gifts. I didn’t get a chance to photograph her first finished piece before she gave it away but I have it on good authority (her mom) that it came out very nice and the recipient really loved it.

Today’s post will be about the current work the students are doing to highlight how proud of them I am. One of my 4th grade students finished this cute pillow over the summer.

Nice job!

She also made this cute purse (below).

A 5th grade girl finished a rag doll she started last school year and finished it up this year. Way to go!

So Cute!

And here are my students hard at work on new projects!

Looking fantastic girls!

Granny Square Mania Turned Purse

A child’s imagination is truly great and I get to experience it on a daily basis.

At home, I have been furiously and single-mindedly making granny squares (springtime flower granny square) for my future sweater/cardigan. I’ve tried as many color combinations as could with just grey and black and I’m almost half done with the 74 squares I need for the finished piece. I wanted to try the same square at work but with the brighter colors we have.

I used two strands of yarn and started playing with colors. The kids became instantly curious and peppered me with the usual questions. What is it? What are you making? Is it going in the prize box? Can I have it? This is always followed by suggestions. Use this color. Make it this or that. You should really give it to me. That kind of thing. 🙂

The squares work up quickly so I was able to make a few in a short time. Once done, the kids needed to know what my intentions were because they were pretty sure they wanted whatever it was I was making. I told them the squares hadn’t spoken to me yet on what they wanted to become (they didn’t even look at me strangely after I said that! lol). I had three different squares completed and they were voting on which ones they liked best.

New Crochet Doll

Now that the school year is coming to a close, I’ve stopped taking requests for making rag doll characters from my students (I don’t want that kind of pressure!). I still find myself itching to make something, as well as continuing to crochet to encourage them to continue crocheting. When they see me crochet, they almost always ask if they can crochet too.

I decided to make crochet doll that would represent our after school program (World Academy). I wasn’t sure if the doll was going to be a toy the kids could play with or a decoration for our room but the kids, mainly the girls, kept asking me if I was going to let them play with her.

I got to work figuring out what she would look like. I wanted her to represent all of us in the program and she was loosely based on me. The staff wears a World Academy t-shirt as part of our uniform. I have several colors but the one I was wearing that day is a bright pink and we had pink in our cupboard so pink was the choice for the shirt. I was going to give her blue pants (I’m always wearing jeans) but the kids wanted a skirt so she got a skirt. I gave the doll brown curls made out of spirals. The kids pointed out I had black and white hair, not brown! They didn’t even comment that my hair is definitely not curly.