FO Friday, Part 1: Meet Petunia Pig!

Well, I gave a little teaser of this project on Wednesday, and today I finally get to reveal my first animal since December - I've been in withdrawals, I swear! Meet Petunia Pig!

This pattern was gifted to me by the oh, so generous Natasja from My Crochet Plush and I was itching to make it all month. I needed a baby gift for a girl at church so I used it as an excuse to make this, lol, what baby girl doesn't need a cute little piggy friend?

The pattern is Phoebe the Pig by Adrialys and the yarn happens to be unknown acrylic yarn that I bought from a thrift store for 25¢ each! They just happened to be the perfect color combo, if I do say so myself. The yarn was really thick, plus I crochet really tight, so my piggy came out a little less plump than the example photo in the pattern, but I still like just as well.

The things I really loved about this pattern were the nose and the hooves. Just so cute! The nose was my teaser photo (posted here) - I lined it with a piece of a milk jug to stabilize the shape. I wish I'd had a clear jug handy because you can sometimes see the yellow a bit, but at least this makes it still washable. The arms and feet hooves are actually done in two different ways to make the arm a bit smaller than the leg. I love both methods and think they came out super cute.

And of course the back view. I like how the ears are droopy, kind of like a dog's would be. 

And no pig is complete without a curly tail! The tail has a hidden secret - there's a pipe cleaner in there so you can bend it in a spiral. I even had a pink pipe cleaner on hand, what are the odds :)

I really love this little piggy and I hope that its new owner does too!

This is just PART 1 of my FO Friday posts. Stay tuned for my other - it will be epic as promised!

FO Friday: Meet The Stylish Nadine!

I'm so excited to have this as an unexpected finished object this week - and it's the last FO Friday of the year! I'm so glad I got this finished and it gets the distinction of the last one of the year :)

Nadine is a fashionable young pig, and as such likes to switch up her hair style as the mood strikes. So once I made Nadine herself, I made her a selection of wigs to accessorize to the fullest :)

 Nadine herself is seriously the cutest little knitted pig ever! My sister kept threatening to steal her and called her "the perfect pig"! She's such a cute size and she's so symmetrical! I just love it. I made her using the Pigs With Wigs pattern from Knitting Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec. And yes, I will confess I purchased this book mostly just for this one pattern - it was totally worth it!

The pattern includes 4 different wigs: a bouffant, a bob, an afro and a mohawk. I actually made the piggy back at the beginning of September, but I wanted to wait to unveil her til I had all the wigs finished. I have them listed in the order that I made them. I started with the bouffant, and I went with white so it would be oh so Marie Antoinette. I wish I could make some type of removable beauty mark to go with it :) Then came the others. Each wig has i-cord straps that you just tie on.

The other nerdy part of this project is that it is made entirely of Cascade 220 Superwash yarn, lol. I'm sure most people out there don't mind mixing types of yarn when making a toy, but I'm a purist I guess so I just had to make them all out of the same. It worked out though, because all of these yarns were technically in my stash and purchased for other projects! The pink and cream were from The Ruffled Cloche Hat, the orange and yellow were from The Not So Itty-Bitty Giraffe, and the blue/purple was purchased to make a sweater (I have 10 skeins of this stuff, so I could certainly spare a wigs' worth). In fact, I only have 1 color of Cascade 220 Superwash that I didn't use - the red from my Rosie Hat. Maybe Nadine will get another wig later on :)

I'm seriously in love with this project. It was a nice satisfying project to pick up in between other things I was working on over the last few months, even more so because you get newly excited about it with each new wig! I love that this was my first Anna Hrachovec pattern, and it really gave me a great stepping stone into the Mochimochi Land world. She has such incredibly creative and cute designs. She has the most fantastic imagination! You should check out her books and countless other patterns, you'll be hooked too, I promise.

So that's my final FO Friday for the year - sigh - it feels so good! I'm so glad I was able to finish so make long standing projects over the last few months. It's such a nice feeling to get them done - I'm down to only 5 UFOs! That is really a big accomplishment for me, and 2 of those projects have hit a snag that I need to sit down and sort out to be able to finish. I am determined though, so they will hopefully not be too much longer in completion.

That's it for me this week :) I'm not sure if it's even still going on (I think she's been sick), but you can check out Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others have made this week.

WIP Wednesday: The Final Christmas Stretch!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I only have one Christmas present left to finish and it will take me about 10 minutes more to complete!

My brother saw a picture online of a bearded beanie a few months ago and asked me to make him one. I didn't say anything else about it, but I filed the info away and made it as a surprise Christmas gift :) The nice thing about these beanies is that there are several free patterns out there, and since it's crocheted it was a super quick make. The beanie is from this free pattern and it's just a basic dc beanie with a ribbed edge. I used Vanna's Choice yarn in Kelly Green and a size H hook. It came out kind of big, but I know the beard will help keep it on his head and then he can grow into it more. For the beard, I liked the look of this bobble beard beanie better, so I made the large size. I used Everyday Soft Worsted yarn in Chocolate and I had enough yarn to get to literally the last half of the final row ... and I ran out!

See how the mustache bobbles are a little shinier? I used some Caron Simply Soft yarn in Chocolate I had just to see if it matched well enough. It's pretty close, but it drives me crazy, lol. I'm going out tonight and will be near a Joann's so I will be able to grab another skein of the simply soft while I'm there. I also want to make the beard removable, so I will be making button loops at the edges of the beard and putting buttons inside the edge of the hat :) I'll be excited when it's done and wrapped since this will be my last gift to finish!

I actually found myself without any projects to work on this weekend! It's was a crazy phenomenon. I'm waiting until after Christmas to continue on a few projects or to start certain new ones since I will be receiving a new set of interchangeable knitting needles :) In light of that, I decided to work on a project I actually started back in September that I still haven't unveiled here. This is a wig for my pig, lol, which will make much more sense once I post the finished product.

I finished up the actual wig last night and now I just have to finish the i-cord ties :)

So that's all that's going on here this week. I can't wait to actually post my finished projects from the last month this Friday - it's gonna be a big post! To see what others are making this week, check out Tami's Amis' blog!

Crochet Update: It's So Tiny!

I actually finished this on Tuesday night, lol. He was supposed to be my WIP Wednesday post, but I finished him quick. So here he is as my FO Friday :)

I whipped up my submission for the FreshStitches Tiny-A-Long! I call him Mr. Pig :)

Look how small he is! I used the Cliveton the Pig from the Rainbow Amigurumi eBook. All of the animals in that book are designed to come out small just using worsted weight yarn, so I decided to up the ante and make this guy ... in fingering weight yarn ... with a D hook! MUAHahaha! lol The result is a little piggy that is right at 2.5" tall.

I used 6mm safety eyes, which just happened to be the perfect size. I must say, his parts were kind of difficult to attach just because they were so teeny. Also the black was really difficult to see in that small of yarn, what can I say? I'm old. Alls well though because he is just so stinkin' cute!

Look at his curly little tail! lol Yay! The yarn is Red Heart Baby Fingering yarn in light pink which has a shiny white thread mixed in with it, so he has a nice sheen. The black is Premier Yarn Serenity Sock Weight.

I'm super excited about how this guy came out. My nephew thinks he's pretty great - he's the perfect 10 month old baby hand size lol. I wish I had more tiny yarn in different colors so I could make more of the animals from this book. There's still plenty of time for the Tiny-A-Long, so maybe you will see another little guy :)

That's it for my Finished Object this Friday. To see what others have made this week, check out Tami's Amis' Blog!