Lion and Pig Loveys

This past Christmas, in anticipation of her friends gaining a couple of new grandchildren, Jenni (my mother-in-law) asked if I could crochet two loveys for her to give as baby gifts. In all the amigurumi work I've done over the past year, I hadn't made any loveys, and now I'm kicking myself for not making more because they are so much fun!  Basically, you make the head and the arms of any stuffed animal (or human character) and attach it to the middle of a small blanket.  Loveys are helpful because they don't tend to roll out of the stroller as easily as stuffed animals.

For the first lovey, which she wanted to be for a baby boy, we went with a lion.  The free pattern for Tau the crocheted lion was amazing-- perfectly written even though it used several slightly tricky techniques.  Look at his handsome little nose!

A short tangent: When I started crocheting the blanket part, I laughed-- this was the same pattern (alternating single crochet stitches and double crochet stitches) as the very first afghan I ever crocheted.  I need to take a picture of that monstrosity and post it on the blog some time because it is hilarious.  I was having trouble figuring out how to begin and end rows, and I felt there were too many stitches to count as I made each row (WHY did I choose an afghan as my very first project?!?!), so I didn't notice until about 40 rows into the afghan that I was losing a stitch or two after each row.  Also, I had mis-read the pattern, and the afghan was turning out really skinny and long.  Did I rip out the bad rows where I lost stitches at the turning point?  No.  I just then started adding stitches to try to get back to the original width.  Did I leave out rows and turn the skinny afghan into a baby blanket?  No.  I just decided I'd still make it adult afghan length but I'd have to stretch out underneath it and not move around too much.  I'm an idiot.  I still have the afghan because I can't stand to throw it out.  I still bring it out and laugh at it every once in a while.

Anyway!  Here's a bird's eye view of the lovey all spread out.  I love it!

For the other lovey, which Jenni wanted to be for a baby girl, we chose this adorable Piggy Lovey pattern.  I love the little bow on her head and the granny square blankie!  So adorable.

I went with the same colors as the pattern originally suggested except that I swapped out the beige for gray because I had a beautiful heather gray that I thought would coordinate nicely.

The granny square pattern looks like a cute little dress (well, more of a ball gown, really).  Jenni had me add a few extra rounds to increase the size of the blanket part in proportion to the piggy's head

So much fun to make!  Great pattern.

Welcome to the word, babies!

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!!

A rainbow of piggies!

I love the free crochet tiny pig pattern from Lucy Ravenscar, which I can whip up in about 20 minutes each.... This rainbow family of piggies was crocheted for Sonia and her little dance class buddies (and a couple of the dancers' older sisters):

Sonia has claimed the light blue one for herself because it matches her eyes.