Teacher gifts!

Whew, good thing B only has 4 "teachers" to Thank this year.  In years past, its been closer to 12, with all of his therapists, aides, regular ed teachers, special ed teachers.   He's only been at his school for a month, so we don't know everyone yet.

So I crocheted up some bath mitts with cotton yarn and flowers to make them pretty. 

Note that I got turned around somehow and the orange one turned out lefty.  Still not sure what happened there, but I have asked B to find out if one of the four is a Southpaw.   Let's hope!

Then I added some delicious soaps from one of my neighbors and voila, pretty presents!  

The girls wanted in on the act, so I also whipped up a Monster Mitt that I think is adorable, but E has decided she is scared of it and will not allow it near her.   Eh, I could make scarier.  

A quickie

Well...until I had to make 3 of them! 

Here's a cute headband pattern from Crochet Spot.  Its a paid pattern but the basic band is available for free.    Its super quick and I made one for E (my test) and one to add to her friend's Bday gift.   Well, of course Little Bit also insisted on her own headband.    But she does look rather adorable in it, no?

Now this is right up my alley

I'm always looking for cute, portable, unique and practical but not time consuming baby gifts for the moms I work with (homeless expecting moms in a residential program).    I stumbled across these cute onsies for $3 at Walmart and decided to crochet a toy to go with the applique.   Perfect!   Absolute cuteness and it only took a couple hrs of crochet time.   The octopus has a bell in the body and small bells in the legs, so he is a rattle, too.   I also picked up a few more onsies with other various sea life forms on them.


(And yes, I am still working on Birthday Gift, Baby Gift and Birthday Gift #2)

I need serious help (of the mental health kind)

In the past couple days when I am supposed to be finishing up a birthday gift that is 75% done for a friend....I started a sunflower (which I am planning to combine with 4 other flowers for a gift for a friend's daughter) and a baby hat gift set for another friend who is expecting.   Both are in progress.

Earlier today, I bought the cutest baby onsies from Walmart with critters on them and just looked up an octopus amigurumi pattern to go with the onsie as a gift for another new baby.

I either need less friends or less access to the internet if I ever want to complete a project. 

Tomorow...will finish sunflower and post pics since its 90% done (just need to sew 2 leaves and assemble).   Then will commit myself to 1 hr of work on birthday gift.   If I need a break from that, onto baby hat.  

NO OCTOPUS UNTIL BIRTHDAY GIFT IS FINISHED.  DO YOU HEAR THAT CRAZY LADY?   STEP AWAY FROM THE GOOGLE!

Bring on the apocalypse!

This is not just a crocheted bag, its evidence of my ability to make a net with nothing but a ball of yarn and a crochet hook.   Come the apocalypse, y'all can loot the gun store, I'm headed to the local yarn shop.  We'll see who eats better. 

It also makes a lovely disguise.  For keeping your mug off TV during all that yarn looting. 

It all started with a trip to Joann's for white yarn to...ready for it??? complete a project.   I found myself enthralled by the netted bag pictured on a roll of Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn.   The colorway didn't thrill me, but I picked up two balls just to get the pattern inside, so I could make the bag when my current project was done.

Once home, I began on the bag immediately.    After I mastered the netting stitches, I decided that I could turn this into a water bottle holder, with the benefits of it being smaller and quicker to finish.   So I did what any ADHD crafter would do, I abandoned the bag to start on the bottle holder.

This one remains unfinished because I have the idea to use D rings for the strap to help cope with the inevitable strap stretching issue.  I'll update whether it worked.  Once the project is done.

A brief synopsis of my crocheting history

My disclaimer....I am still a beginner.  I took a class Feb 2010, the intention of learning just enough to whip out some baby blankets for the new moms and babies at the ministry I work for.   Well after my first two scarves and the first attempt at a baby blanket, I learned I have no patience for repetition.  The blanket continues to mock me from the corner of my bedroom, but I swear to it, "you shall only be completed if I am threatened with bodily injury!"

So I moved onto something smaller.  Hats and booties.  After a series of regrettable and misshapen hats, I finally made a couple of cute gift sets for expecting friends and may have stuck with them had I not discovered Amigurumi!   Wheeeee!   How much fun is this?  Around and around and around we crochet, and little critters appear!

My first pattern turned out ok, but I learned I have a serious problem with face embroidery. 

Next I made a snoopy doll for a friend who calls her in utero child "Baby Snoop".  The plastic eyes and nose give a professional touch that masks the fact that his limbs are not exactly attached in an anatomically correct fashion.

Next I moved onto Powerpuff Girls and by the third one, I learned some valuable things like...leaving the tails long enough to stay woven in and using cheap Red Heart yarn, that may have the texture of 70s wallpaper, but its stiff and holds a doll head well!   But my daughter loves them.   I even did some modifying of a different pattern to make the professor, which has emboldened me to work "off pattern" some more. 

Like this Abby Cadabby "ball" I made for a friend's new baby, but which later gave me the creeps since its basically a disembodied muppet head that jingles.

I have also dabbled in shawls, slippers, baby rattles and cat toys.  Bottom line, I am still learning but continue to try to find patterns to tweak my interest and keep me going.   I have 4 things in progress now, but since one is a surprise for a friend, no pics til I am done.   If that ever happens. 

I present to you...a crib for Barbie's baby

Earlier in the day, my 4yo asked me to crochet her Barbie-baby a wrist rattle, a blanket and a crib.  I made a wrist rattle that looked like the baby had a basketball strapped on her wrist.  I cut a blanket from a scrap of fleece (lazy mom) and I scoffed at her idea that I could take a soft substance like yarn and make a structured item like a crib.

Until this evening as I lay on the girls' bedroom floor, waiting for them to settle down and surfing my iPhone, I came across this pattern for a crocheted box.    Hmmm, the wheels started spinning and of course I had to ignore the 4 current projects I am working on (1 of which I just started this morning) and the screaming from my carpel tunnel due to the frenzy of crochet I have been doing this week....and make my daughter a barbie baby crib!

Ignore the fugly yarn, she picked it out for my Bday this year.   And the cheap stuff does make a stiffer product.   For rows 9-10 I substituted a Ch + HDC and skipped a stitch around to make the openings kind of look crib-ish.    We'll see how the critic responds in the morning.  

Welcome

I've been wanting to start a blog to show off and blather about my concurrent crochet projects.  I cant stick with just one, I must jump around like a fidgety mouse.   So here goes.   Enjoy!