Video: My Spooky Cute Halloween Makes! (PLUS plans for more!)

 

I've been making all the Halloween themed items lately, so I decided to show all my latest projects :) Head over to My YouTube Channel or click the link below to scope out all my spooky cute makes.

 

FO: Elephant for Amelia

This is very much out of order, but it's been so long since I did a proper blog post that wasn't about a video and this is one that have photos of already, so you get to see it now :)

A girl I used to work with was having her first baby - a girl - so of course I had to make her a stuffed animal. The mom is obsessed with elephants, so I knew that would be a good choice.

This is the Peanut the Elephant pattern from Stacey Trock's book Crocheted Softies.  I made this pattern back in 2013 and gave it as a gift, and this is one of the first patterns in this book so it is designed to be very easy. It's really just circles and the only shaping is in the trunk. 

There is a little mouth beneath the trunk, which is very cute.

There is also a tiny tail - so cute. I used I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby in the Gray Mist colorway. I picked this because it's the color gray I had in my stash, but I wound up needing to buy another skein anyway, lol. Oh well, it's a very useful color for making animals.

I changed the shaping on the trunk just to give it a little more bend, but it honestly looks the same as the first one I made lol. 

And I gave her a bow since this is for a girl just to jazz things up a bit. This is just a tube of about 20 stitches around and 4 rows tall. I keep the yarn attached and did a few single crochet stitches until it was long enough to wrap around the center tightly, then I used the tails to sew it all on the elephant. Easy peasy. The bow was made of some ancient yarn I've had since high school and I have no idea what it is now.

I did baby safe felt eyes this time, which look a little bit surprised, but at least the baby won't choke. I just realized I should have embroidered eyelashes. Dang...

But here is the elephant with her lovely new owner. Isn't she adorable? I hope she grows to love her elephant with time especially since it has so many appendages to chew on. It was nice to make a crochet animal again after a long time, and now I kind of have the bug so I expect you'll be seeing more of them in the future again.

Video: Are Dollar Tree Crochet Kits Worth It?

 

I learned that Dollar Tree sold amigurumi kits and I set off on the mission to try them out and see if they are any good. Curious if they are good for beginners or kids? Head over to my You Tube Channel or click the box below to see how my projects turned out.

FO: My Heart

 

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, but I had mine out on my knitting needles a few weeks ago for this quick project.

I've known about the Heart pattern by Kristin Ledgett for years. This is a free pattern on Knitty.com that has been up since 2009. It's an anatomical style heart made in fingering weight yarn and I finally felt inspired to knit this up. The pattern suggests size 1.5 DPNs, but I only had 1 or 2. I decided to go with the size 2 in hopes of getting this a bit bigger, which made the gauge a smidge loose, but I think it turned out fine. I grabbed a skein of Wendy Family Choice 4 Ply yarn that was still sitting out after using it on the heel and whatnot of my Sock Week Socks since it was the right size and didn't require any skein winding and therefor I could just start knitting.

The pattern starts at the bottom point of the heart and grows up into the various ventricles. The body itself is simple to knit and then things get a bit fiddly as you divide several times for the tubes. Thankfully the pattern is written really well, so I had no issues getting the correct shape in the end. The last part you knit is the severed, divided ventricle that wraps through the center and faces outward. Interestingly, you bind off the knitting and leave the tubes open and the pattern suggests you stuff it with red fleece or sew felt over the holes. I wanted this to be durable since it was going to be a gift, so I went the felt route. I stuffed little pieces of red felt in the holes and then used a running stitch with red embroidery floss to sew them in place. It's hard to see in these photos because RED is so hard to photograph like this, but the stitches are visible on the felt and I like the handmade look it gives.

Once the heart is made, the pattern tells you to wrap the ventricles and then stitch them in place. My advice is to not pull the stitching together too tightly or you will end up with divots in your heart, and who wants that? Not me. So if you pull on the ventricles too much, you can see the stitching, but I'm not worried about it. As this will be more of a decorative item anyway, I think it should be fine. After I had the whole heart technically done, I wanted to add some embroidery for veins. I like the more realistic look it gives and yet it also makes it slightly more creepy. I went with just a freehand chain stitch in burgundy and blue embroidery floss. I simply looked at the heart and stitched where I felt it needed something. I made sure the veins were present on all sides, again for a bit more realism. Obviously this isn't a photo-realistic replica, but the sentiment is there.

The end result is a palm sized heart, which worked out perfect for my purposes. I'm honestly thrilled with how this turned out. It's sentimental but also creepy, and that is exactly what I was going for. I'm glad I finally felt like it was time to make this up, and if you need your own anatomical heart, I definitely recommend this pattern.

Need to give your heart to someone?

FO: Coo and Coy for Valentine's Day

This project has been planned for a few years now and I'm so glad I finally made it up :) This is the Coo and Coy pattern by Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land. It's twin birds that make a heart when put together, so what better surprise gift to make my twin girls for Valentine's Day?

I managed to make this entirely at night after my kids were asleep over the course of a few days. The body shapes are very simple and I finished one body per evening and then one more evening for the limbs and assembly.

One very cool touch of this pattern is that one of the wings gets a strap on the back, which enables you to make the birds hold wings! Isn't that cute?! lol It also keeps them together very effectively.

The feet are littles hearts, which I think just adds to the cuteness factor even if they were a bit tedious to make. For this project, I dug in my stash and came across this unloved skein of Loops and Threads Impeccable in the Rich Orchid colorway and then I paired that with Red Heart Super Saver Perfect Pink for the wings and whatnot.

I did change the recommended hair style to make my birds more girly - think pig tails. I think it turned out very cute. The only head scratching part of making this was assembling the limbs so that things looked even but still made them face the right way and mirror each other. It was a bit of a challenge, but not too bad. 

So that's my latest cute creation :) My kids loved them, but of course they fought over who got the bird with the strap on its wing. Oh well. It made for a very cute and personal Valentine's present and I hope they love them for years to come.

FO: Beulah Bee

Sometimes you just need to make a cute toy, right? That's my thought at least. I haven't been having a really great time lately, yet whenever I saw this adorable bee pattern on Barbara Prime's Ravelry page, it made me smile. It's just so adorable. Since I had finished the knitting on my Mohn Cardigan, I bought the pattern magazine just for this pattern and cast on the next day. 

This is the Bunblebee and Flower pattern by Barbara Prime and it's in the December 2023 issue of Knit Now magazine (issue 163). This is a British knitting magazine, but thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to download a digital copy for myself online for just $7.99. Gotta love it. The issue does have some other lovely patterns too, so I will be exploring that further in the future for sure. This is a "bun"blebee because it is bun shaped. She has a series of animals called bunimals that are all based off this idea and I just love it. This is the first one I've knit, and I have to say I think a bumblebee is the perfect animal to make bun shaped. It just adds to the chubby cuteness.

As always with toy projects, I grabbed yarn from my stash for this baby. The black, yellow, and white are all I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby and the blue is a mystery acrylic I got at a thrift store way back when. I just picked the blue to match the color of the eyes :) I made my bee in the round instead of seamed. I've made a lot of Barbara's patterns in the past and she is definitely pro-seaming, but having just seamed my entire Mohn cardigan the night before, I just wasn't feeling up to it. This bee is shaped like a ball, so what better shape to knit in the round, right? Very easy to change and I had no issues.

I will admit that since my bee was knitted in the round that my rear end doesn't have quite as tight of stitches as the rest of the bee from before I added stuffing, but it's still fine. It's a toy and there are no holes, lol. It's fine. The one complaint I get from everyone is that this bee doesn't have a stinger. The pattern didn't include one and I just didn't feel like adding one. This is a kindly bee. No stinging.

The bottom does show my jogs from knitting in the round, but it's the bottom so it doesn't bother me. I just learned a cool trick to avoid this in the future, so that's nice. The feet were actually the last part I knit - after I had already done the flower. The pattern gives nice details about how to space out the feet when sewing them on, so I just went by the photos and referenced the distances to make sure I was getting somewhat close.

The flower construction is pretty cool, but it honestly took as long to make the flower as it did to make the bee. I don't know why this surprised me because it had to be big enough to fit the bee, but you know, lol. I love all the details of Barbara's patterns, but mentally it feels like the accessories take so much longer since in my mind when the animal is done the project is done. Does that make sense? I still finished this in just 2 days, so I don't know what I'm complaining about.

So that's my bee :) This project did exactly what I needed it to do and it cheers me up every time I see it. My kid love it, I think it's adorable. All around a very adorable palette cleansing project. Now I just have to decide where this little baby should live in my sewing room so I can see her all the time.

WIP Wednesday: Blocking, Decisions, and New Projects

Friends, I have finished the Mohn Cardigan! I managed to finish this in less than a month, which is still pretty shocking to me. I got it completely knit and seamed Sunday night and it is currently blocking. Now I just have to make my ribbon button bands and she is totally done. I finished the knitting on Saturday night, which left me with only a sock project to knit and I just didn't feel like it - so I cast on a toy!

Between Sunday and last night, I knit up this adorable bee project. Every time I look at this pattern, I smile, so I just bit the bullet and knit it up. Now I smile when I see it in person too, lol. This project definitely served its purpose of cheering me up in a hard time. I'll post all the details about it soon, but I definitely love this one :)

After my deliberations in the last post about all the projects I want to cast on, I have finally decided to go with my original plan for my Rose Street Cardigan. It's really a toss up between the two yarns I was contemplating (Knit Picks Stroll in Duchess Heather or Knit Picks Felici in Dragonfruit). I tried looking through my collection of sweaters that still fit me to see where I had a gap, but that didn't help. In the end I really go for more cool toned clothes, so I decided to go with the purple for that reason. The Dragonfruit color would go as well, but I just need to start this project, lol. Purple it is! I still need to knit a new swatch last night and get the calculations going, so this will be my main sweater project now.

With finishing my bee, I also grabbed my Jaywalker socks I cast on in December of 2022. I'm just mentally determined to get these done so they can stop plaguing me. I'm honestly not sure what it is about this project that has me never reaching for it. Is it that I've knit this pattern before? But I've knit the same vanilla sock pattern several times and that has never been a problem before. Is it that I'm not thrilled by the yarn? I just really can't say. Either way, I want this project to be done, so I think this is going to be my main focus for a short while. That's the thing with socks - when you actually hunker down and focus on getting them done, they really do go fast. I'm also knitting this with a heel flap and gusset as the pattern is written - last time I changed for an after-thought heel to avoid disrupting the striping pattern. Since then I've discovered that I really prefer the feel of a heel flap and gusset when wearing the socks, so this time I'm just letting the chips fall where they may on the striping. I'm thinking it will work out fine in this sock because the speckled sections are so wide.

My New England dress is still hanging out on my dress form thinking about what it's done. I need to finish that one too so I can move on with my life, lol. But knitting is going very well!

How are things with you this first month of the new year? Getting anything made up?

FO: Pusheen

My niece who got the embroidered jacket turned 1 and after I made the jacket I realized that I hadn't made her a gift yet, lol. I immediately started hunting through my Ravelry library to see what I could whip out in just a few days.

How cute is this guy, eh? My sister loves Pusheen, so when I saw this pattern in my library I knew it wud be a good one. I grabbed yarn from my stash and made this within abut 24 hours.

The yarn I used is all I Love This Yarn in the Gray Mist and Greybeard colorways. The little bit of colorwork was fairly easy to accomplish. This pattern is Pusheen the Cat by Emma's Animal Creations and it is free on her blog. I was able to just keep the webpage open on my phone next to me and get this whole thing made

I decided to make baby safe eyes since my niece is only 1 so she could decide to chew on this a bit. I simple used black yarn and made a circle in chain stitch and then a French knot of the gray in the center. I embroidered the rest of the face with the same back yarn scraps.

While I was making this, it brought up the question: What is Pusheen from? I didn't know if he was just an internet cartoon or part of an adorable Japanese show or what, so I looked it up. He was just an internet cartoon created by some people from Ireland. Very interesting. He's so adorable in general though and now since he has gifs and emojis, he is a household known face whether they know his name or not.

I stuffed this bad by into a flat rate bubble mailer and I was pretty proud of my stuffing abilities on that package, lol. I had to tell my sister to open it carefully But he arrived and my niece loves him as much as a 1 year old can really love anything, so that's god. My sister thought it was awesome, so that's what really counts on a baby gift, right?

FO: Minion Rattle

 My youngest sister has decided she wants to learn to crochet. She has seen all the chunky stuffed animals made with fuzzy yarn on instagram and pinterest and wants to make her own. Now that she lives near me again, I'm working on teaching her. We are starting simple with the bird from the Craftsy Woodland Animals Class, but I needed something to work on myself so that I could demonstrate the stitches for her. We started the first weekend in September, but given that we both have kids and she just bought a house, we didn't have time again until 3 weeks later, lol. I reserved this project to only be worked on while I was teaching her, so he took 3 weeks even though it actually only took a couple of hours. Anyway, let's meet the minion!

I used the Minions pattern by Jenni Ferwerda, which is free on Ravelry. The pattern has 3 different shaped minions, so I used the twinkie shaped one - so this is Kevin. There was really no rhyme or reason to me picking this guy, it just happened that way. My sister's husband is obsessed with minions and they just had a baby back in June, so I decided that my project would be a rattle for her baby. He can't really enjoy the characters much yet, but I figured adding a rattle and making it something that had lots of chewable appendages would be the best way to go. So he got a minion, lol.

I grabbed acrylic yarn from my stash to make this. These are I Love This Yarn in Yellow and Gray Mist, and the rest are Vanna's Choice in Colonial Blue, Black, and White. All in all this was a good example to use for teaching purposes but still keep it simple and interesting for myself. You make the twinkie body shape, then do the legs, then the eyes and mouth, then the arms. The only change I made was putting a rattle in the middle of the body. The pattern is very straight forward. The only part that could use a bit more explanation is the suspenders - the pattern just says to embroider suspenders, no mention of what stitch to use or anything like that. I used a chain stitch because I knew it would be the simplest, but if I wasn't familiar with embroidery I would not have known what to do for that feature.

I went with baby safe eyes because obviously. This was meant to be chewed on from the very beginning, so I couldn't justify shank eyes. For my eyes, I just used the same black yarn and chain stitched a circle then added a white French knot with embroidery floss. I find that the French knot is key to not having your item have "creepy eyes" as my sister was worried they would be. You have to give them that little glint or they seem like dead eyes. I spent a decent amount of time on the eyes and glasses alone just to make sure everything was even so it didn't throw off the look and I'm pleased with how he turned out. I also forgot to add the strap to his goggles, so I chain stitched that last.

My nephew is still a bit young to quite know what to do with this offering, but he likes the color contrast and the rattling sound because he just stares at it and sometimes wiggles excitedly, lol. He was a bit too wiggly to get a not blurry photo, actually.

And he has already christened his minion with a chewing session! The ultimate baby seal of approval. I know once this little guy gets a handle on grabbing things, he will be all over this toy.

This was a very fun little project that was not too complicated to teach and talk while I worked on it. That's a good project in my book :)

FO: Gus Gus

I'm under a bit of a rock sometimes with things that are new. I see indie patterns from a few designers I follow online, but unless someone I follow talks about a new pattern or book, it doesn't usually cross my path for a while. Back in May, I decided to see what new knitting books my library had to offer and man was I surprised. They had all kinds of things, old and new, but I was so excited when I got Knitting with Disney. Now, I'm not one to wear Disney themed items (I'm scarred by the 90s character t-shirts I always wore as a kid), but I do still love the movies I grew up with. When I saw Gus and Jaq amigurumi in this book, I had to cast on immediately. 

This pattern is Gus by Sarah Elizabeth Kellner and it's published in Knitting with Disney. I mean ... how could you not cast this on? Impossible. I used all yarn from my stash: Red Heart with Love in Tan for the body, Red Heart Super Saver in Pink for the ears, Loops & Threads Impeccable in Kelly Green for the hat, and Vanna's Choice in Mustard for the shirt and Chocolate for the shoes and nose. I kind of wish I had a lighter pink for the ears, but that's splitting hairs. I went down in yarn size for mine because I don't have chunky weight yarn on hand in lots of colors like I do worsted and aran weight, and I used size 5 double pointed needles since that's what Mochi Mochiland's patterns always have you use for that size yarn.

So I knit the feet 6 TIMES. Yes. The saga is this: you knit the body first and then pick up in a specific place to get the feet to angle outward like normal feet. I'm used to body patterns that are either exactly the same on the front and back or so obviously different that I don't have to think about it. So I didn't mark the front and when I assumed the front and made 2 feet, I thought I got it wrong (spoiler alert: I didn't). So after knitting both feet, I pulled them out and made them on the opposite side of the body. Only then did I realize I had actually got it right the first time, so I pulled them out YET AGAIN. This is dedication, folks. Anyway, after the feet you do the head and then the arms and sweater. The sweater is knit flat and then seamed onto his back, much to my kids chagrin (they immediately asked if they could take his shirt off).

The face was one of those embroidery puzzles we sometimes get. The pattern is designed to make felt eyes, which is good because plastic eyes would just not give the right effect, but it's bad because they are ovals and I had to freehand them. I like to use my Sizzix paddle punch circles for my felt eyes since then I know they are true circles and don't come out wonky. I got there in the end and I'm happy with my eyes, but the perfectionist in me is looking at them critically. Oh well, he's a stuffed animal, lol.

I made this guy during an extremely emotional and stressful week for me, so he was a nice little break from reality. This is a bit of a hack I figured out years ago when I first started knitting - no matter what is going on in your life that you can't control, you can control this. You can make an adorable stuffed animal and control everything about it. And it's cute and everyone knows its cute and it makes you feel superficially better about that one thing. So that is what this little project did for me, just like so many of the animals I've made in my life. 

Gus Gus now sits in my thread rack above my sewing machine, just like he should :) Sometimes all we need is a somewhat pointless but cute project to keep us going.

FO: Baby's First Planet

There have been so many babies in my family this year and I was majorly feeling the pressure to make them all gifts. I've made a baby gift for all of my nieces and nephews, so when my sister had her 3rd baby I knew I had to keep up the tradition. But what to make? My sister was planning a space theme for his room, which was surprisingly hard to find patterns for. In the end, I decided to keep it simple and just make my newest nephew a planet.

This is the My Own Planet Amigurumi pattern by Stacey Trock, which is a free pattern. I have a soft spot in my heart for Stacey's patterns because she is how I learned to crochet amigurumi. Her patterns are always a pleasure to work with. This was an extremely simple shape, so I was able to make this up in one evening.

I had this really neat skein of Lion Brand Mandala Ombre I picked up in a thrift store a while back and I knew it would be perfect for this project to add some interest. The previous owner had wound off each color into separate balls and the biggest one I had was the darker blue color, so I made that my main color. You knit most of the main planet, then you stop and make the ring, then finish the planet and tuff it all. Pretty cool, but I ran out of the main planet color where I stopped to make the ring. 

No problem! I just used the lighter blue from the ball of yarn to finish it up. Because of the marled nature of the yarn and it's a planet, I just call it a topographical difference, lol.

Since I had the different colors of yarn that all matched, I decided to switch colors in the middle of the ring. The pattern just uses one color for the planet and one for the ring, but why not have fun with yarn when you can, right? It was a very easy change to make. I also put a rattle inside this to give some interest for the baby when he gets bigger, and the more I think about it the more I think this planet is the perfect baby toy. It rattles, it's compact, the ring is perfect for little hands to grab and chew on. It's washable, lol. All good things.

In the end, this is what yarn I had left, so it worked out great. I really liked this yarn - it was very soft and stitched up great.

And I was able to bring this with me to the hospital to give to my fresh little nephew :) He was born on May the 4th, so space is definitely going to be the theme of his life. I'm glad I could keep up the tradition I've made of making something for my newest little family additions. I hope this little guy enjoys his planet as he gets older.

Summary:

Yarn: Partial skein of Mandala Ombre by Lion Brand - $0.50 (thrifted)

Pattern: My Own Planet by Stacey Trock - Free

Notions: Jingly Cat Toy - $0.25

Time: 2 hours