Posts tagged ‘crochet’

It’s official. I love amigurumi. The projects move along and make visible progress quickly. The yarn requirements are pretty small so I can splurge on fun colors just because. And best of all…

My kids love them! I had to wrestle this little pig away from Olivia, who was coloring Wilbur pictures and listening to Charlotte’s Web on Audible.com in order to get the picture of my finished pig.

I am looking for a good amigurumi pattern for shoes for babies. Anyone have any leads? I tried looking on google and mostly found granny-crochet patterns for booties. That’s not really what I have in mind.

I am having so much fun making these! I went from being nervous and crocheting things that kind of resembled cotton nipple sheilds (not an attractive thing, let me tell you, let alone a fun toy), to making a mouse in just under an hour.

I’m feeling brave! I’m going to go back to the craft store to get some cheepie cotton yarn to try an Intermediate project. Olivia wants the deer (Advanced!) and Elise wants a pig. I wonder if I can finish them up before the book is due back at the library?

I checked out this book by  Elisabeth Doherty from the library this week and started making some little yellow mice for the new baby.  I brought my work along with me to the Akron Stitch ‘n Bitch group that Colleen and I visited together on Wednesday night. I planned to try my hand at one of the smallest projects and hopefully have something to show for it before I left.

I’m very easily frustrated by yarn crafts. I am not good at following patterns, and I often get bored before I am finished with a project. I was hoping that a group setting would help me deal with those two barriers and help me finish up a project for once. And it really did help. The woman sitting next to me was very knowledgeable, and when I would get confused she advised me to “just keep going.” If nothing else it would make it clear that I was making a mistake.

This guy is what I finished up, although not until after group ended, and he  was actually fun to make. I had to tear him back to the nose once, but I figured out my mistake quickly because I had worked on him incorrectly long enough to see where I was confused. It was very confidence-building. I might even try to make one of the larger (but still Easy) projects after I finish up one or two more mice.

Devona and I went to the Akron Stitch ‘n Bitch group last night.  It was a fabulous time!  We met at someone’s house and worked on the back deck which was so relaxing.  We had nice conversation and some yummy food.  Overall the group has a great vibe and I can’t wait to go back.  I just need to coordinate babysitting.

I did get a little laughed at because of my current knitting project!

I had been looking for a gift for my friend’s baby shower.  I considered making a words book but decided it would be better for a 1 year old.  After some brainstorming & crafty research, I settled on making crocheted flower clips.  

I typed “crochet flower pattern” into Google images and found lots of wonderful items!  But sometimes the pattern was really confusing and poorly written, and other times the pattern was written in UK crochet terms (and I’m not that tallented of a crocheter to dive into that!)  The flower & leaf pattern that worked best for my project is by Lucy at Attic 24.  I used embroidery floss, a size US 6/1.6mm crochet hook, kids hair clips, and a hot glue gun.  

Instructions:  

1.  Make the flower & leaf with the pattern from Attic 24.  I wanted smaller flowers for baby proportions, so I only crocheted the first layer of petals in the flower pattern, but to make a larger flower you can make the second layer as well.  

2.  Hot glue the flower & leaf to a kids hair clip.  I like the ribbon covered clips I found at Target, although they had ribbon bows on them that I had to remove.  I just pulled at the bows until the glue came off.

So much of crafting with what’s on hand comes from taking something you can no longer use for its intended purpose and seeing the possibility of what it can become instead. This involves creativity and abstract thinking. But it also requires that a packrat (like me!) actually looks at what I have collected into my stash from time to time. Since I craft primarily with my sewing machine I have a lot of fabric scraps. I get attached to a color and I don’t want to part with it, even if it is a little shred less than three square inches.

I had an inspirational moment after I read this post from Indian By Design. There are all sorts of earrings made from left over, and brightly colored fabrics. The picture here reminded me of these vintage blue tatted paisleys that my grandmother-in-law bought me SIX years ago at an antique store. I put them in my stash and have only looked at them once since then. But once I saw all of the beautiful earrings photographed in that post I finally knew what these bottom-of-the-craft-stash-notions were waiting to become.

All I did was open a sterling silver jump ring and connect it to the sterling silver earrings. I used round nosed pliers to keep from crimping the metal. They were simple to make. They are comfortable to wear. And I have four paisleys left which might become a matching bracelet and necklace!

I have to look at the bottom of the pile more often. It was almost like these earrings were a gift to me twice over.

I tried to put The Lion King in the VCR for the girls today and it died. I have about 30 tapes that my mom gave me from when I was a kid that I use for “quiet time.” I knew that our VCR would kick the bucket eventually so I haven’t been buying any new tapes for it, but now that has happened I realised that I have a LOT of trash unless I can find a way to reuse these.

This project is most likely what will become of my miles and miles of plastic trash that will never decompose. I am not likely to actually use a purse like this. Not really my style, but I would make a bunch of reusable bags. I can put groceries in them, dirty cloth diapers, stuff to give to friends. Hopefully they can reuse them, too.

There was one other project I found that seemed like a fun challenge. I’m not sure I’m up to making an illuminated USB charger for nostalgia’s sake. But it sure looks cool!

Maybe I can save 2 or three of the VHS cases and make these for my techie friends and dump the rest in the recycle bin.

If anyone wants the tapes for their kids before I destroy them leave a comment and I can send them to you. We’ve got a ton of Disney, some Pooh, Veggie Tales and Spot.

I know that everyone says they’re Irish on St. Patrick’s day, but our family really is at least half Irish. Last year I even corned a beef all by myself to celebrate, but that’s not happening this year. I also do not plan on drinking anything colored with green dye. I want to find something crafty to do to commemorate, but I’m not coming up with anything using my normal method: staring into my stash cupboards until something looks like fun to do.

I decided to click around on the internet for inspiration and this post caught my eye: Skip To My Lou’s crochet shamrock garland. This looks like fun because it will be quick, I have a ton of green yarn from a scarf I stopped trying to knit after 9 inches, and it is reusable every year.

I searched all of my regular craft websites that I like to read and wasn’t coming up with much. Anyone out there have any projects that look like fun? Any websites with unique holiday crafts I’m missing to add to my Google Reader? When I Google “St. Patrick’s Day crafts” I mostly get stuff specifically for children, which is cool, but not quite what I’m looking for.