I wasn’t kidding when I said that I couldn’t stop with the crocheting. Here’s Mr. Cactus, from the seriously cute crochet book. He’s about 6″ tall, so pretty big I feel like as far as amigurumi goes. This took me about 3 or 4 days to finish. The green and white are one piece and then the brown pot is separate. I pretty much think that he’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!
A few weeks back, when I last saw my grandmother, I had mentioned to her that I was having trouble figuring out how to double crochet. I asked her if she could show me, but we never had a spare moment to sit down during all the craziness of a large family get together. I eventually figured it out, but yesterday in the mail from her, I got this:
This is the book that she used to teach herself how to crochet. Copyright 1959. The price was 29 cents. Not only does it have basic crochet instructions, it has some patterns, such as this cute tote bag, which I think I might try!
There are also instructions for knitting, tatting and embroidery. This little book rocks!
Even with all this awesomeness, the following pages are my favorite part. My grandmother made little notes all over the pattern for these mittens. It’s mostly just her counting her rows, but it is a little piece of her that I will always have, no matter what.
As requested by my sister in last Friday’s post, I have made her boyfriend a ninja for his birthday. 
I deviated from the directions a little bit, giving him an aluminum foil ninja star instead of crocheting one out of embroidery floss. I used a little bit of rice to stuff the bottom so he would stand up better. He also has a tiny ninja buddy - they like to hang out together!
It seems that I just can’t stop with the amigurumi lately - I can no longer just sit and watch TV, I must be crocheting. Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of cuteness!
I had a blast this weekend with my new amigurumi books! I started off with Cthulu out of the Creepy Cute Crochet book, mostly because he was one of the easier projects. I think he’s pretty cute, for a giant head eating monster, of course!
Watch out for your head…. aaaagggghhhhh!
Cthulu was a big hit with Tim - he decided to keep it! I’m going to have to make another one for me!
My awesome little brother gave me an Amazon gift certificate for my birthday. I couldn’t quite decide what to spend it on, but with my new-found crochet fascination, I finally decided to get some amigurumi books. The first one I picked out seemed pretty standard.
So, on the cover it looks like a chichen, an owl, bunny, lion, turtle, and is that a hedgehog? Anyways, seriously cute, indeed! I’m excited to start making them.
But then… I saw this……..
I cannot wait to make a zombie army! OMG, it is going to be so awesome that the entire world might implode!!!! Zombies, ninjas, robots, oh my!
Both of these books should be arriving today, so I can have the weekend to buy some supplies and get started on my zombie army! Brains….. yum…. must eat brains…….
This continues my new obsession with all things crochet. I made this headband from 1/8″ ribbon that I had left over from another project. It took a little bit more than one spool. I think I used an H hook, but I can’t quite remember now. Edit: I used an F hook!
I simply made a foundation chain that was almost long enough to go around my head, and then did one row of triple crochet into that chain. I attached a tiny strip of 1/4″ elastic to the ends to make it the right size and that’s it! A pretty simple project to use up left over ribbon, that produces a pretty headband!
I made this card for my dad for Father’s day. I made the grill and fire from Perler beads - I had most of a bucket left over after thing-a-day back in February. I’ve been intrigued lately with the idea of putting 3D type things onto greeting cards.
The legs were made separately, and in hindsight it would have been best to iron one side of all the pieces, turn them out, push them together and then iron the opposite side. But, now I know! They managed to stick together rather well though, and I attached the grill to the card with super glue, using a book for pressure for about 5 minutes. The card filled out a father’s day theme since I got him a gift for the grill as well!
Having a little rest on your coffee table, this tiny snake looks pretty calm and harmless….
…but when he shows up in a place you would never expect, he might give you a little fright!
I made this little snake with my newfound crochet skills - just single crocheted a tube starting from a spiral bottom, starting from the head with variegated camouflage yarn. It would have been a great idea to stuff him as I went along, but poking all the stuffing in there later worked out eventually. I also threaded some copper wire inside to give him some bendy-ness, although if I was going to give this away to a small child I would probably skip that part. He did have some shape forming abilities without the wire, just not as good.
The only problem I have left is that he needs a name, preferably one that starts with an S. Any ideas?
For those of you who mastered crochet long ago, this post will not be too exciting (unless you can envision this as a meager start to an afghan). For me, however, it is a huge step up that I finally figured out how to make a granny square.
Now it seems so simple, but I really did struggle with this! I finally got it through my head with Crocheting for Dummies, which I found at my local library. The book has very clear descriptions of the different stitches, with tons of pictures (both animations of each step and photos of what the finished product should look like). I definitely recommend it to anyone struggling as much as I was with crochet! Now, on to amigurumi!
I’ve never bustled a wedding dress before, and I was a little nervous working on my best friend’s dress, but I think it came out alright. I tweaked it a little more after we took this picture so it doesn’t hit the floor quite as much anymore, but she wasn’t wearing shoes when we did this, so I left it a little long. (As an aside, I’m not sure that I could wait less than two weeks before my wedding to get shoes, but that’s another story!)
It looks really pretty when she moves too, and it only takes a minute to put up or down. I think the best part about a french bustle is that it is all hidden on the inside of the dress, so it’s easier to make things more functional without having to also worry about making them pretty!
