Latest creations

With a lack of inspiration for new items to crochet, I decided to make duplicates of some of the pieces that I did before, but with different coloured yarns or slightly different accessories..

So... Presenting... More owls and snowmen!

Snowman is coming to town

Time flies and we are in October, just a couple of months away from Christmas before we say goodbye to 2014 and welcome in a brand new year.

As someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, it is the time of the year for me to take a long break from work, do some traveling and spend some time with the family without the burdens of daily life's stress pressing on us.

I have always been fascinated by snow being from the tropics where we never have snow.  However, I am lucky enough to be able to travel to places that do snows.

To friends and folks who have never seen snow, here are some snowmen that will hopefully make you smile when you look at them.

Pattern found here.

Roly Poly kitty keychain charm

This is one of the free crochet patterns that I have kept in my pinterest board for a while.

Finally drummed up the energy to pick up the hook and start on it.  As usual, once I start on it, I had to get it done asap or risk not finishing it.

Somehow, not that satisfied with the end result but... Maybe I will do another one in another colour.  Let's see how it goes.

Link to similar pattern.

Crochet bone

I was looking for some quick and easy project and was going to make cute little amigurumi hearts since I already had the pattern for that.

While in the midst of making it though, it dawned on me that I can actually expand the pattern to get a bone... I just needed to make 2 pieces of the extended heart and join then together.

So that's what I did!

What I did was to start off with the same stitches as got making the heart but instead of closing it totally at the end, I started crocheting a stem by just continuing in rounds with the same number of stitches.

This is a really small version of the bone and cannot replace the previous felt version of the bone that I made to use as a cable tie.  It is however, small enough for me to use it as a  handphone charm to hang on my phone. :)

Needle Felted Giraffe

It has been a while since I last needle felted... In fact, it was needle felting that started me off this round of crafting around needlework, felt etc. 

But with no crochet inspiration the recent weeks, I went digging in my craft box and found this pack of felt wool that I bought.

So I set off to work on the giraffe after my Sunday ironing session. This is what came out of about 2 hours of poking and a hole in my finger.  Not too bad though I don't think it can take any rough handling.

At least it helped me get some craft done this weekend. :)

Wave-a-head hat

After the last hat I did, I could not find any pattern that inspires me to make yet another one until I come across this.

Something new using fpdc stitches to make the waves.  However, I think my hook must be too big as I got a rather decent sized hat even before reaching the end of the pattern and thus, the hat you see is not the complete pattern but stopped halfway thru.

Pattern is here..

Kerokeropi Amigurumi

This was the first amigurumi that I did recently after all the hats, hairbands etc.  After making hairbands and hats with thicker yarns and bigger hooks, this is definitely a chance with some small parts and more strenuous on the eyes.

As usual, the original pattern I found here was for making a much bigger amigurumi and I really prefer mine to be small and cute.  Thus, I went ahead and made slight modifications to the original pattern and came up with this.  This is still not as small as I would prefer but definitely a step closer to a smaller sized doll.

The one problem with this (and most patterns of frogs) is that the head, when seen from the side, looks out of balance.  Blame it on the big eyes...  Oh well.. 

When I showed this to my dearest hubby, he made the comment that the black eyes looked too big and proceeded to perform "cosmetic surgery" on it to correct that.  The 2nd picture showed the comparison of the before and after effect. Which do you like better?

Here's the modified pattern I used:

Head and Body:

Light Green and Dark Green Yarn.

Starting with Light Green.

Rnd 1: MR, sc 6 in MR. (6)

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12)

Rnd 3: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (18)

Rnd 4: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (24)

Rnd 5: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (30)

Rnd 6: *sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (36)

Rnd 7: *2 sc in next sc, sc 5*, repeat around. (42)

Rnd 8-15: sc around. (42)

Rnd 16: *sc 5, dec 1*, repeat around. (36)

Rnd 17: *sc 4, dec 1*, repeat around. (30)

Rnd 18: *sc 3, dec 1*, repeat around. (24)

Rnd 19: *sc 2, dec 1*, repeat around. (18)

Change color to Dark Green.

Rnd 20-21: sc around. (18)

Stuff head with fiberfill.

Rnd 22: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (24)

Rnd 23: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (30)

Rnd 24: *sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (36)

Rnd 25-28: sc around. (36)

Rnd 29: *sc 4, dec 1*, repeat around. (30)

Rnd 30: *sc 3, dec 1*, repeat around. (24)

Rnd 31: *sc 2, dec 1*, repeat around. (18)

Stuff fiberfill to body.

Rnd 32: *sc 1, dec 1*, repeat around. (12)

Rnd 33: *dec 1*, repeat around. (6)

Add on fiberfill to stuff the entire head and body.

F/O.

Eye: (make 2)

White Yarn.

Rnd 1: MR, sc 6 in MR. (6)

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12)

Rnd 3: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (18)

Rnd 4: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (24)

Rnd 5-6: sc around. (24)

Rnd 7: *sc 2, dec 1*, repeat around. (18)

Stuff eyes with fiberfill.

Rnd 8: *sc 1, dec 1*, repeat around. (12)

Rnd 9: *dec 1*, repeat around. (6)

Add on fiberfill to eyes. Do not over stuff.

F/O.

Arms: (make 2)

Light GreenYarn.

Rnd 1: MR, sc 6 in MR. (6)

Rnd 2: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (9)

Rnd 3-7: sc around. (9)

Stuff arms with fiberfill.

F/O, leave long end to sew to the body.

Legs: (make 2)

Light Green Yarn.

Rnd 1: MR, sc 6 in MR. (6)

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12)

Rnd 3: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around. (18)

Rnd 4-6: sc around. (18)

Rnd 7: *dec 1*, repeat 6 times, sc around. (12)

Rnd 8: *sc 1 dec 1* repeat 4 times. (8)

Stuff legs with fiberfill.

F/O, leave long end to sew to the body.

Baby Booties

A couple of ladies from the office are having babies and gave me the perfect excuse to whip up some baby stuff.

The first is this pair of blue baby uggs.  They were so cute and I just couldn't resist when I saw the pattern in the web.  They were extremely easy and can be done very fast.  Great if you are trying to come up with some last minute baby shower gift.

Added there pink one to the collection. Now I have one pair for each of the ladies.. And the good thing is.. They are having one of each, a prince and a princess!

Link to pattern.

Baby Hairband - a gift for someone special

A WhatsApp message from one of my cousins had me making yet another hairband... This time, for a little girl who is the daughter of another cousin of mine..

This is a cousin whom I have grown up with but sadly have lost touch over the past few years. I didn't even realized she was married till I heard of the birth of her baby early this year.

So, here's a hairband to my niece whom I have never met but nonetheless holds a special place in my heart. 

Link to pattern.

My most intricate crochet piece

This is a crochet amigurumi monkey and done with thin yarns and small hooks.  Because of it being so small, it was really a test on my eyesight and I frequently had to guess my way through when making this.

The end product was great and could even stand on its own with its tail supporting it, but unless they come up with something to help my aging eyes, I don't think I can make another one of these again... Sad. 

A new hat that doubles as a neck warmer

While searching the web for more patterns to crochet (my criteria is they must be free), I chanced upon this pretty pattern for making a convertible neck warmer cum hat and  immediately fell for it!

Armed with 2 balls of yarn from spotlight, I started this pattern, dreading the end as I have this bad feeling that I won't have enough yarn. What I have will work for a normal hat, but this pattern calls for more since it is an uniform size from top to bottom...

Lo and behold, I really fell short of just a few rows.  I had to dig thru my old yarn supply and was lucky that I had a bit of the dark blue yarn from the other hats left over.

The end product turned out much better than I thought thanks to the pretty yarn I had bought.  Really love the colour of that. Now I am itching for more of the same kind yarn to make more...

Link to pattern.

All about hairbands

A passing comment by a colleague had me searching for hairband crochet patterns.  

These are small projects that can be completed easily and with small amount of yarns - perfect for all the left over yarns I have.

So, here I go, crocheting hairbands in different colours and adding flowers where appropriate.

The pink one is smaller, in toddler size for my friend's girl.  Hope she will like it.

For the pink and red hairbands, the flowers are actually detachable, just in case the girls they are meant for find it too childish to have flowers.  Personally, I think the bands looked much better with flowers though.

Link to pattern.

Owls

I am not sure when it started, but I fell in love with owl accessories, be it necklaces, key chains or crochet  amigurumi...

My first amigurumi was actually an owl and I love it... Some people commented that it looked like a lychee, but still, it holds a special place in my heart for being the first.

With my thick yarns all out, I went back to crocheting small amigurumis to while away my time and it is back to owls!

These are easy to make with not that many parts to assemble and they look adorable!

Link to first pattern.

Link to 2nd pattern.

Crochet hat no. 4

I was actually planning to make a small bag for my next project and even got the handles ready... 

However, I had no time to go shopping for yarns and had to make do with those I have in stock.

The pattern called for 2 yarns to be crochet together, but since I only have 1 ball per colour, I decided to  experiment using 2 different colours.

After a few false starts, the colours were finally picked: grey and pink...  However, a few rows into the pattern, it looked more and more unsuited to be a bag but more of a hat color.. Thus the birth of my next hat.

With the pattern for the hat in hand, I set out to work on this.. It was pretty easy and i managed to get it done in a few hours.

Final product was not universally accepted with my boy commenting that it looked funny. :(  oh well.. You can't please everyone..

Crochet hat no. 3

This one took me a few tries before I got the size correct. Somehow, I kept thinking that my base was too small and enlarged it too much from the original pattern.

The pom pom on this one was a failure though... I wanted a mixture of colours but ended with stripes since I went color by color when twinning the pom pom.  Next time, I will either have to twine all colours together or keep rotating between the colours when twinning.  A lesson learnt.

And that is the last of the yarn I bought. Till I find more yarns and some takers for the hats...

Link to free pattern

Yet another crochet hat

Found some wool yarns at a warehouse near my office and got to work on this new hat...

My girl wanted something with furry balls and so, I added a pom pom to the pattern I found.

This hat has quite a fair bit of holes and I an not sure if it will help to keep warm on a cold winter holiday.  Oh well... Maybe it will be good for autumn. :)

Link to free pattern.

Felt crafts

I have neglected my felt crafts ever since I picked up my crochet needles, but believe me, I was making them by the bus loads just before my current craze of crocheting.

So, to do them justice, here's just a few of the felt crafts I have made over there last few months. Will upload more pictures of post projects soon.

Power bank casing

With no more thick yarn on hand to try out more hats and a craving to make something useful rather than the usual amigurumi dolls, I decided to hunt up some patterns for making a casing for my power bank.

Since I doubt there is a pattern for my specific power bank, I adapted from a simple pattern I found.

Simple enough. :)

Added a simple button with crochet backing and viola! My new casing!

Crochet hat

I have been wanting to crochet a hat for a while but did not have the correct yarn nor the hook since I have been doing mostly amigurumi and those uses small hooks.

Happened to be at Plaza Singapura yesterday and got a ball of worsted yarn from Spotlight and a hook from the Daiso next door and I am all set!

Armed with my reliable note for searching of the hat pattern on the web, I sat down after dinner and started working on it.

It took me a few hours but it was easier than I expected since I was doing a very simple beginners hat... 

This morning, I put on the finishing touches, added a flower to it and viola! My newly minted hat! Too hot for our weather though.. Will have to keep for my next winter holidays or give it away as a gift.

Click here for link to pattern.

All about bears

Here are some amigurumi bears I made with the free pattern I found on pinterest..

Link to free bear pattern.