Hurricane FO: A Pair of Birdie Rattles

After making my Lions on Saturday night, I had to get situated for another project on Sunday night (when the worst part of the storm passed through). When packing my yarn, I deliberately chose colors that I could use on multiple projects for multiple babies. Next up were a couple of birdies!

This is the Sweet Tweeter! pattern from Modern Baby Crochet by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches. I just love her books, and I love this pattern. It's so simple (and quick) to make, but babies seem to love the shape and they make for a fun opportunity to use bright colors. This one is for a particular little girl, so having already made a pink one I wanted to make this different and chose purple. I used I Love This Yarn in the hGrape colorway for the body and Red Heart With Love in Daffodil for the beak.

And of course I added a rattle :) Rattle all the things! I haven't seen the baby this one is intended for in a while, but I'm hoping she likes it.

Since the storm was still raging, I settled in to make my second bird rattle of the night. This is where I had to do a lot of starting and stopping as well as crochet by candle light and/or flashlight, lol. Our power kept going on and off while I was making the body of this birdy, but I was undeterred.

This is another bird intended for a baby girl, and I just love this color so I try to fit it into projects wherever possible. I used Red Heart With Love in Jade for the body and the same Daffodil for the beak.

And this has a rattle as well :) Don't you just love their little faces? I used 10 mm safety eyes for both birds, and I like to put them a little closer together then the pattern calls for.

And here are both birds just after I finished them :) This picture was taken by candle light and with my camera flash, lol. I hope the little ladies I made these for like them and have as much fun shaking them as I do!

FO: Beagle for Baby

I found out earlier this year that my cousin would be having her first baby in June. I knew I wanted to make a toy for her, but it took me a while to decide what to do. Now that it's made I know it's so perfect that I can't believe I didn't see it straight off!

It's a beagle! This particular baby has two beagles siblings that my cousin has had for years now, and they are an integral part of their family. So why not make a mini beagle of her very own for the new baby girl :) I used the Beagle pattern from Fresh Stitches by Stacey Trock. I always love her patterns - they are so straight forward and well explained. Because of her fantastic directions, this puppy only took a few hours to make.

I love the body shape and the color blocking - I think with amigurumi dogs it can be hard to make different breeds, but this one is obviously a beagle to everyone, so that's a sign of a job well done to me. I love the bog floppy ears! I worked from my stash on this one (as ever), so this is made of Red Heart Super Saver in Cafe Latte and Black along with Vanna's Choice in White and Dusty Rose.

The back has a black splotch that continues onto the tail. I also love that the tail is curved to one side - so cute! To add to the fun (and hopefully make this more interesting to a very young baby) I added a jingling cat ball to the belly and a speaker to the foot. So not only does this have many appendages to chew on when teething, there are even fun sounds to go with it :)

I was also very excited to use some of my dog noses on this make! I have regular triangle generic toy noses too, but I grabbed some of these dog style noses at The Sewing Studio in one of their sales a while back and I've never made any dogs that called for a safety nose. I LOVE the little nose. I think it really adds to the cuteness factor on this doggy.

Once I finished assembly, I thought it looked a little plain, so I made a pink collar to jazz things up. All I did was chain 3, sc into 2nd st from hook, ch 1 and turn, sc 2, ch 1 and turn, etc until it was long enough to go around the neck. I cut a long tail so I could not only sew the collar together at the back, but also so I could go in and out of the collar and secure it to the body. In my experience it's pieces like this that get pulled on and stretched out and quickly look icky when they aren't secured down. I think it turned out as just the right touch :)

And here is the puppy with her new owner - Emma! Isn't she adorable?! I can't wait to meet here in person. I hope she grows to enjoy her very own beagle. My cousin says it's great to have a beagle that won't get up and leave the room when the baby come in, lol. 

Yay for babies, and cute puppies, and great patterns to make them with :) If you need a beagle of your own, I can't recommend this pattern enough!

Mystery Revealed: Meet Bradley!

So, I had a blast participating in the Fresh Stitches Bradley Mystery Crochet Along this past month, and the final clue was just released on Monday, so f course I finished him up as soon as possible. Meet Bradley!

He's an adorable sea turtle! The mystery had an extra twist this year that was so much fun. Clues #1 and 2 were all the pieces we had to make - all don in natural, undyed wool yarn. Clue #3 told us which pieces to dye what color and how to dye them ... with Kool-Aid! Stacey at Fresh Stitches has blogged about Kool-Aid dying for years now, but I never took the plunge until now. I'm so glad I was slightly forced to finally do it, lol.

Here is what my pieces looked like at first. Totally creamy white colored. I decided to use quart sized mason jars to dye my pieces, so I just boiled some water in my kettle, put the kool-aid in a jar, poured in enough water to cover the pieces, and added the crocheted parts.

It looked pretty cool immediately and lots of color showed up within seconds.I let my pieces soak for quote a while, then let the water cool down before I removed them officially. About 40 minutes into dyeing, I noticed the green pieces were pretty splotchy looking with some pieces much darker than others, so I removed the pieces, added a bit more water and half a packet of kool-aid, then added the pieces back and they looked much better for it. Nice and evenly colored :)

The truly magical thing is that all of the dye from the drink mix soaks up into the yarn, leaving your yarn pieces sitting in clear water when they're done. Isn't that amazing?! I was a convert right then and now I seriously want to dye everything with Kool-aid.

Straight out of the jar, this is what my pieces looked like. I set them on my drying rack for a few days to make sure they dried really well in preparation for the final clue. Clue #4 told us how to assemble the pieces and make him into his cute turtle self.

I seriously love the colors I got with dying. The pieces are so vibrant and bright! I actually had a hard time adjusting the photos due to how bright the yarn is. Also, the shell still smells like blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid (it's not crazy obvious, but if you stick your nose on it you can smell it) which is so stinkin' fun. 

The dying process left slight irregularities, but I think that just adds to the fun. He has a very painterly quality to the dying now.

The only thing to keep in mind is that they underlayer of yarn inside each stitch didn't get as much/any dye. This wasn't noticeable until I was sewing the pieces together, and it's not a deal breaker at all, it just makes me think it would be better to dye the yarn before using it (even though it's more of a hassle).

So there you have it: a mystery solved! Everyone I show this little cutie to lights up and says how cute it is, so I call that a successful design. Thanks so much, Stacey, for another awesome mystery crochet along! I can't wait to see what you dream up next year :)

Mysterious Monday...

So, if you're a long time reader you will know that I am a big fan of the mystery make along. I have two in particular that I participate in every year and they happen to  both go on at the same time. Now is that time, lol. Not that I'm complaining - I love the social aspect that goes on in Ravelry groups during the mysteries and seeing everyone's toys coming together. No matter how busy I am, I always make a point to join in the fun :)

First off this time was the FreshStitches Mystery Crochet Along. It started on April 4th, and the neat thing this time around is that it will involve Kool-Aid dying. She has you make everything in undyed wool yarn and then we will learn how to dye the pieces and what pieces should be what color later on. Pretty cool idea, huh? As of now, I have Clue 1 and 2 completed, and thy look like this:

At this point in clue #1 I was thinking it would be a seal (which is why I have the pieces arranged like that).

Clue #2 gave a different and undeniable perspective - that's looking to be a shell, friends. It was pretty obvious at this point that the pattern is for a sea turtle. I also peeked at Clue #3 (which was released today) and saw that all the pieces get dyed green except that shell, which is dyed blue. Pretty sure that means I'm right, but I'm still excited for the final clue next week :)

My second mystery project just started this past Friday, April 15th. It's the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery Knit Along 2016. This has become one of my favorite knitting projects of the year :) I've loved every one of the animals Barbara has designed for us, and I'm sure this time will be no different. She says that this year the animal will be bigger than normal, but also she decided to release the body parts first and the clothing after over the 6 weeks of clues (usually it's the other way around to keep the mystery alive longer). She says it will be obvious what we are making after the 2nd or 3rd week, but this way we will be able to make sure our clothing fits (we've had issues before with not getting a good gauge on the clothes and not knowing they were too big until it was too late). I managed to finish knitting the first clue during church on Sunday and this is what I've got:

It's hard to see in the photo, but the two needles on the bottom have a bind off section between then, so these are going to be the legs. Barbara give you the option of adding panties to the animal for modesty in the pattern or going without and I just decided to go au naturale and leave mine in the nuddie pants. The decreases in the middle are looking like a belly button (which is super cute), and I'm slightly worried it's a doll - as in a human - in which case mine will look like a nudist, lol, but oh well. It's fun. We'll see what next week brings.

I've been having a lot of fun with these two project lately, and I've been working on a very old toy project in between clues. I even managed to do some sewing (gasp)! It's true! I've been in such a funk with sewing lately. My sewing room is moved and completely functional, but I still technically live at my house (meaning I sleep there and my clothes and kitchen stuff is all there). It's a strange kind of limbo to live in, and I never thought it would be a big deal, but this dissected life has turned sewing into a planned event. I can't just meander into my sewing room when the mood strikes like I'm accustomed to since my entire sewing room is now a 45 minute drive away. Because it requires planning and setting aside time, I then guilt myself into being more productive with all the things I need to do to get out of this horrid dichotomy, making sewing seem frivolous and wasteful. It's a sad state of affairs. Thank heavens knitting is so portable. I've finished several other projects that I still have to photograph (again, my stuff is split between 2 places, making photos a planned chore), so hopefully those things will show up here soon and you won't have to just see random book reviews, lol. I did devote my Saturday night to sewing this past weekend though, and I managed to finish a skirt I started in January as well as mend 2 other me made skirts (gotta get ready for Me Made May), and I even cut out a shirt that I will hopefully sew some of later tonight. Life is crazy, but I still need to flex my creative muscles to keep myself from going completely insane.

So that's how things are going with me :) I'm so grateful for these fun mystery projects that add a sense of urgency to making the pieces so I don't miss out on the surprise. I definitely recommend joining in if you feel so inclined!