Erin's past projects

I first taught myself how to crochet right after grad school, in the summer of 2000, in an effort to combat boredom during the weeks between graduation and starting my job in Chicago.  For the next 9 years, I crocheted a lot of doilies and afghans, but I sometimes took a year off in between projects, so I wasn't all that prolific. Then, Sonia was born in the spring of 2009, and I stopped crocheting altogether.  My brain just couldn't handle childcare AND being creative.

But, as Sonia got older (she's about to turn 4), I started thinking about crocheting again.  Niki got me the Amineko book (which is utterly hilarious and awesome), so I picked up my hooks and gave crocheting another try.  The first blue amineko (that's Japanese for crochet cat) was a success, so I crocheted a little pink one.  Niki finally convinced me to give Pinterest a try during this past Christmas, and when I saw the insane amount of awesome free crochet patterns available on the internet these days, I got instantly and hopelessly addicted to crocheting once again.

Here are a few of the projects that I've made since Christmas:

Octonauts!!  Because Octonauts is a relatively new cartoon and series of books, the British and American crocheters of the world took it upon themselves to create their own toys.  People posted a bunch of free patterns!  I found Kwazii (the orange cat) here, Captain Barnacles (the polar bear) here, Tunip (the turnip-fish vegetal) here, Peso (the penguin) here, and I free-handed the rest. These guys were some of my first forays into the world of amigurumi (that's the Japanese word for crocheted or knitted plush figure), and now that I've completed a lot more amigurumi work, I kind of want to go back and re-do the Octonauts to make them better.  But Sonia barely even watches this show anymore (it was a brief love affair), so it seems like a bit of a waste.

Hello Kitty hats for my two favorite girls in the world, Sonia and Charlotte!  I found the pattern here.

Batman hat for Peter!  I found the pattern here.

After I made the Hello Kitty and Batman hats, I wanted to try to find a dragon hat to make for Sonia's BFF, Ike.  None of the patterns I found on the internet looked all that great (I couldn't even find a good pattern to buy!), so I decided to create one myself by copying an awesome crocheted dragon hat picture that I found on the internet. I used the Hello Kitty base hat design and then emulated the picture as well as I could.  Unfortunately, I only have cell phone pictures of the hat because I keep forgetting to take better pictures of Ike the Dragon!

Crocheted purse!  I made one for me and one for Niki....  She lined them both with her mad sewing skills.  Niki, we need to take pictures of the linings!  I bought the leather strap from Joann Fabrics and found the pattern for the purse here.

Ladybug backpack!  Free pattern from Red Heart Yarns, my favorite cheap yarn to use!

Owl change purse! I decided to try out using a clutch clasp that I found at Joann Fabrics by adding it to this pattern.

Ella's dinosaur purse!  This was completely freehanded because as far as I could tell, no crocheted dinosaur purse exists on the internet either for free or to buy....

Sonia's Easter basket.... Freehanded as well because I wasn't able to find a pattern that I liked.  I did model it after this pattern a bit.

Max's Yoda hat!  I still need to tweak the forehead wrinkles a bit, but it turned out okay.  I made it using a pattern posted on a craft forum, and the pattern wasn't entirely complete or detailed, so I had to do a lot of extrapolating.

This post just scratches the surface of all the crocheting I've done over the past 4 months....  When I find or take more pictures of my projects, I'll post them!