Feeling blah at work? Grab a random tool from your desk and PUT A BIRD ON IT! 3 minutes and I felt 1000% better.

I drew the owl on some white card stock that I had in my desk, cut out the body leaving a 1 inch tab under the feet to fold under, and taped that tab to the staple remover.

Now I can pretend the owl is using it's talons to remove staples. 

This makes me ridiculously happy.

I hope you feel that way, too.

We all have to start somewhere

Last night, I was looking at my very neglected Myspace account and found some buried treasure!

Dog, octopus, and turtle

The dog stands alone

A couple of pictures of my very first amigurumi! I used the book, Amigurumi World, to teach me the art of crocheting amigurumi. I remember being really surprised at how fast I was able to complete the animals. I think that's what hooked me (ahahahaha no pun intended--it just happened!) along with being able to make stuff for my kids other than blankets and sweaters. Blankets and sweaters are awesome, but if you're going for that eyes-light-up-when-they-see-it look then usually toys are a better option for kids.

What an awesome find!

Jelly Bean Bunny Pattern

Just in time for Easter, I bring you the first crochet pattern I have ever published for other people's personal use: the Jelly Bean Bunnies.

If you remember yesterday's post, you will remember that I mentioned it took me from Friday evening to Sunday morning to finish these little cuties. This happened because 1) I was making two of them so the creation time was doubled and 2) these are presents for my kids so I could only work on them while the kids were asleep.

One bunny should really only take about an hour to an hour and a half of continuous work.

Jelly Bean Bunny
Pattern
(Crochet)

Work in the round using an F hook unless otherwise specified.

Body:
1) Chain 2.
2) Single crochet (SC) 6 times into second loop from hook (or first loop in the chain depending on how you look at it).
3) SC twice in each SC around the circle (=12)
4) SC in each SC around the circle (12)
5) SC one, then SC twice into the next SC. Repeat 6 times to complete the circle. (18)
6) SC 18 for 6 rows (18)
7) SC one, then decrease (DEC) one. Repeat 6 times. (12)
8) Turn the body right side out.
9) SC 12 (12)
10) DEC around the circle (6)
11) Tie off and resist the urge to stuff the body. You can, but things are a whole lot easier if you wait.

Ears (make 2):
Using an E hook, work across.
1) Chain 3.
2) SC in second loop from hook and SC remaining loop on the chain. (2)
3) SC 2 for 4 rows. (2)
4) SC twice in each SC across. (4)
5) SC 4 for 2 rows. (4)
6) DEC across the row. (2)
7) Tie off leaving a long end for tightening up the edge.
8) Using a children's needle (you know, those thick light blue plastic ones that are perfect for yarn), tighten up the edge of the ears by working in the long end along the stitches on the very outside of the ear shape. Once you've sewed all the way around, pull the long end and tighten it to a nice, neat ear shape. If you don't have a long enough end to attach the ear to the head, cut yourself a short piece of yarn and tie the ear on with that.

Head:
1) Chain 2.
2) SC 6 into second loop from hook (or first loop in the chain depending on how you look at it).
3) SC twice in each SC around the circle (=12)
4) SC one, then SC twice into the next SC. Repeat 6 times to complete the circle. (18)
5) SC 18 for 6 rows (18)
6) SC one, SC one, SC twice into the next SC. Repeat 6 times. (24)
7) SC 24 for 3 rows (24)
8) SC one, SC one, DEC one. Repeat 6 times. (18)
9) SC 18 (18)
10) Turn the head right side out.
11) Attach ears and embroider the face before completing the head.
12) SC one, DEC one. Repeat 6 times. (12)
13) DEC around the circle. (6)
14) Tie off and stuff the head.

Arms and Legs (make 2 of each):
Using an E hook, work in the round.
1) Chain 2.
2) SC 6 into second loop from hook (or first loop in the chain depending on how you look at it).
3) SC one, then SC twice into the next SC. Repeat 6 times to complete the circle. (9)
4) SC 9 for 5 rows (arms) or 6 rows (legs).
5) Tie off leaving long ends for sewing the legs to the body.
6) Stuff the legs if desired. I left mine unstuffed and the bunnies transition quite nicely from sitting to standing. I think that stuffing the arms and legs would make them a little harder to move around, but I could be wrong. Try it out and let me know!

Tail:
Make a small pom-pom and leave long ends for tying to the body.*

*How to make a pom-pom with your finger:
1) Wrap some yarn around your pinky finger close to the fingernail (for bigger pom-poms, use a bigger finger) about 10-12 times. Cut the yarn.
2) Cut another piece of yarn of the same color about 8 inches long.
3) Take the circle of yarn that you just wrapped off of the end of your finger.
4) Wrap the short piece of yarn around the middle of the circle of yarn and tie a knot.
5) Cut the loops on each side of the knot. (Do you see the pom-pom taking shape now?)
6) Trim the edges of the pom-pom until it is the desired size and shape.
7) Roll the pom-pom in your hands to fuzz up the ends of the yarn a little bit.

Assembly:
Attach the arms, legs, and tail to the body. Then stuff the body. Last, attach the head to the top of the body.

And you're done!


I hope you get a chance to try these out. Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, comments, corrections, etc.

Happy crocheting!

It's been a crochet kind of weekend

I've been crocheting like a mad woman this weekend!

It all started early on Friday night when my husband rescued my F sized crochet hook from our evil couch. Overjoyed at our reunion, I got the bright idea to make a pair of amigurumi bunnies for the kids for Easter. One for the boy and one for the girl.

Considering my children are both under 4 years old, their toys generally get dirty pretty quickly. Because of that, white bunnies were out and I wasn't really too keen on the idea of making brown bunnies. So that led to the creation of our bright yellow Jelly Bean Bunnies! Come back on Monday evening when I will post a pattern for the Jelly Bean Bunnies.

By the end of naptime on Saturday I had made enough bunny body parts for two bunnies and by this morning, the Jelly Bean Bunnies were completely assembled. The kids are going to be so happy when they see them!

With that project out of the way, I was left with the rest of a perfectly good Sunday for crafting and other miscellaneous family fun.

So a little bit later on while the kids were napping (and their Dad stayed with them), I went to the craft store and bought some supplies to do the kid friendly batiking from That Artist Woman's blog. And after the kids got up from their nap, we completed stage one of the process. Now we wait until tomorrow after work and daycare when we will paint!

Next, I made a mushroom for myself. It's the first one that I've kept and I think it's my favorite so far. Purely by coincidence, but what a happy coincidence it is.

The last project of today was to put some more work into the crocheted mushroom bag. It's substantially bigger than any other mushroom that I have made to date. And I'm not going to stuff it so the shaping of the mushroom is a little bit less forgiving than what I'm used to. But it's taking shape. Slowly. At least it actually looks like a mushroom now instead of a hat. So that's a step in the right direction...

And that's what I have made in my free time this weekend. How about you?

The pink elephant and the devil duck

Interested in testing my metal as a free form crocheter, I offered to make some animals for my kids last weekend.

They picked the kind of animal that I made and then I gave them free access to my yarn stash to pick the colors. Let's see if you can tell by what I created:

The duck on the left is for the boy and the elephant on the right is for the girl.

That's right, folks. Flaming red with baby blue accents was the idea of my almost 2 year old son, not me.

Anyhow, the elephant was pretty easy to figure out. The hardest part which wasn't really hard at all, was figuring out how to get the trunk to curve. It's all single crochet with increases and decreases worked in the round.

This project went really fast and I had it completed in a couple of hours.


Then there's the duck...well, let's just say that it has a nickname now: The Devil Duck.

The nickname was created not just because of the color, although it does make the duck look a little bit devilish. No, the nickname came because it took me MANY hours and MANY stitches to figure out this pattern. I'm talking: Crochet a shape, look at shape, decide it's not right, rip the stitches, crochet, look, decide, rip, crochet, and on and on until the duck started to take a duck-like shape. The head was really easy, but the body was certainly not. <--UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR

Right before I figured it out, I looked from the pile of ripped out yarn to my husband and proclaimed, "This is the last time I'm going to try this. If it doesn't work, the boy is getting a duck head and that's it!"

So I tried one last idea. An idea that if it hadn't worked would have been hell to rip out (see the theme here?). And then, to my utter amazement, the duck's body started to take shape.

In the 2 days that it took me to make the duck, I spent about 8 hours on the dang thing. Sad considering that once the pattern was figured out it took me about an hour and a half to complete.

I can tell you this: I won't be making another duck anytime soon. And when I do, I'm using a pattern.

All that trouble and turmoil and I still managed to pump out 2 crocheted critters in a weekend.

And the best part is that my kids love the animals. To date, they have slept with them every single night. That right there makes all the duck frustration worth it.

As I always say: If I made this in my free time, then imagine what you could do in yours!