Minion Hat

Sonia asked if I could crochet her a minion hat (we had seen several on Pinterest), and I decided that I didn't need no stinkin' pattern (although there are a ton of great free ones out there, just FYI!).  Well, I didn't need a minion-specific one, at any rate.  I went back to my old standby, the greatest hat pattern I have found so far: the Hello Kitty hat by Crochet in Color. Then, all I had to do was freehand a monocle (Sonia's loves the one-eyed minions the best) and add some hair.

I purposely made the hat big so I could fit a fleece lining inside (I'm addicted to lining hats with fleece!), but I ended up making it a wee bit too big.  Whoops.

Once again, I wish I had just crocheted a black monocle strap and sewed it on because my color changing stunk!!!

Sonia seriously loves posing for pictures with my crocheted creations.  She was telling me which poses she wanted to do.

I couldn't get her to let go of the braids! Oh well.

Here's a quick shot of the fleece lining:

Christmas 2013 Crocheted Ornaments

In addition to several commissioned pieces, I crocheted a ton of gifts this past holiday season. Did I remember to take pictures of everything? Nope. I'm so annoyed with myself!!  In this post, I have linked the name of each ornament to the pattern's location on the web.  For posterity's sake, I'm listing  all of the Christmas items I made, even if I forgot to take a picture.

I made this Santa and Rudolph pair for an ornament exchange I went to with some preschool & dance mom friends. Both patterns were so great!!  They weren't originally meant to go together (the patterns were written by two separate people), but they were roughly the same scale, so they looked nice next to each other.  Sorry for the slightly blurry picture.

This Santa & Snowman pair were crocheted for Sonia's preschool teachers, and they seemed to be a big hit!

After being inspired by the pattern I saw here, I freehanded this minion ornament for my playgroup ornament exchange. To get the perfect sphere shape, I used this amazing tutorial on crocheting mathematically perfect spheres.  It's awesome!! (For the uninitiated, minions are characters from the Despicable Me movies.) 

I chose the one-eyed minion because I knew it would end up in a house that contained a four-year-old kid, and all the four-year-old kids I know seem to love the one-eyed minions the best.

I had a hard time sewing the strap to the minion's monocle straight....

In action as an ornament!

For our fabulous Hindu friends that subscribe to the "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" philosophy and celebrate a secular version of Christmas (the parents of this family are originally from India and now live in the US), I crocheted this Ganesha (a Hindu deity) and tied a hanger on it so it could be a Christmas tree ornament.  The pattern was wonderful and amazingly detailed.  I did some research on Ganesha to educate myself and I love how the pattern has him holding some of the classic items that Ganesha figures hold: an axe, a rope, and a delicacy.  This Ganesha even has the classic broken tusk.  I have to admit that Ganesha might be my favorite of all the ornaments I made.... He was so much fun!!  (Note the "'Tis the Season" wooden ornament to Ganesha's left, made by my wildly talented Aunt Janet, AKA the Roonie Ranchers' crafting hero.)

- Niki's tree received a flying pig ornament based on Lucy Ravenscar's pig pattern (remember the rainbow of piggies I made last year?) with free-handed wings.  I seriously love this tiny piggy pattern.  I'm pretty sure I've used it for at least 15 piggies at this point.

I made my nephew, Nicholas, this adorable penguin. In the picture on the pattern, he was shown as an ornament, but when I used Red Heart Super Saver worsted-weight yarn rather than the suggested sport-weight yarn, he turned into more of a small stuffed animal. All the better to cuddle with!  Not sure why the hat turned out a wee bit too small, but by the time I realized it was too small, I had already added the puffball details and was too in love with it to start over.  Now I've talked myself into thinking that it just adds to the penguin's charm.

And now for the ones with a glaring lack of pictures....  I am selfishly including these in this post just so I don't forget that I made them.

- Perhaps next year the Roonie Ranchers' mom will be able to take a quick picture of the angel I made.

- For our hilarious brother, I thought a lobster in maroon would make the perfect Christmas tree ornament.

- I gave this Santa ornament to Andrew's Aunt Anita and Uncle Bob before I took a picture of it. Whoops!!

Nicholas's One-Eyed Minion

Happy 4th birthday to my fabulous, funny, adorable, sweet nephew, Nicholas!  I heard that he likes minions (from the Despicable Me movies), which is perfect because I had seen a bunch of minion amigurumi patterns pop up on Pinterest lately.  These little dudes were made to be crocheted-- big blocks of color and simple shapes.  This is one of the biggest stuffed creatures I have ever made:

He was so fun to crochet!  Nicholas's mom (my sister-in-law) said that he likes the one-eyed minions the best, so that's what I made.  When I looked at pictures of minions on the internet, I found millions of facial expressions that they wear, but for simplicity's sake, I chose an extremely simply sheepish smile.  Here's one of the inspiration pictures I used:

The free pattern was very easy to follow, but I had a hard time making the color change between yellow and black look smooth.  If I ever crochet another minion, I think I'll just make the black strap on his glasses a whole separate piece and whipstitch it on.

Love the overall straps!  I added the front bib pocket (it wasn't in the original pattern).  My materials consisted of Red Heart Super Saver worsted weight yarn & poly-fil stuffing, and my weapon of choice was an F hook.

Margie Cat was very suspicious of this little yellow dude.

Today is Nicholas's actual birthday, and his mom said that he loves his minion!  She sent me this picture a little bit ago.

Happy birthday, little buddy!!  We love you so much!