Shark Pouch

I made this pencil pouch for my nephew.  As with my niece's pumpkin hat, I had the best intentions of making it earlier.  As in, for his birthday in September!  When that deadline passed, I thought Christmas for sure.  Obviously didn't happen!  He ended up getting it just because, which is probably a nice surprise for him anyways!

I don't recall where I first saw the pattern, but it is also on Ravelry.  

My gauge is really tight!  I had already sized up the crochet hook, but had to go up even larger, otherwise there is no way I would have gotten any zipper to fit the mouth opening.  As it was, I had to  buy a smaller zipper than what the pattern called for.  Again, I don't have any of the details in front of me, and if I don't post now, it will be a while.

The pattern was fairly well written.  I decided not to attach the felt teeth.  There is a project link on Ravelry that gives directions for crochet teeth, which I had initially planned on doing.  In the end, I omitted the teeth altogether.  I had chosen a zipper with large teeth which can do double duty as shark teeth.  Oh, and I really wanted to finish this before my long work trip...

Despite my tight gauge, this pencil pouch is still fairly large!  I filled it with markers and you can see that then shark ate the markers with no problems at all.  In fact, I could have stuffed a lot more markers/pencils, etc. into it before it would have filled up.

Overall I really like this pencil pouch and I kind of want one for myself!  Since I would have no use for it, I will resist the temptation.  It's not like I don't have anything else to do!

Dragon hat

A few weeks ago I posted a crochet hat WIP.  I mentioned that the hat I showed at that time was quite a bit more interesting than it first seemed.  The hat is not only complete, but my nephew received it so I can finally post it!

I made this following the Dragon Hat pattern by BriAbby.  I first saw the pattern last summer and immediately thought of my nephew.  I had not planned on making him another silly hat since he is getting older, but how could I resist making a dragon?!?  Initially the plan was to make it for Christmas, but other things got in the way so I didn't even start making it until the holidays.  The hat itself was pretty quick, but the dragon took a while!

I didn't realize until I started making the pattern that each little piece of the dragon is made separately and then sewn together (there are three pieces just for each eye!).  I thought I took a picture of all the individual pieces together, but apparently not.  Shown above is just the dragon after it was all sewn together.

It took a few tries to get the dragon started.  Initially I started to make it with Red Heart Super Save in a very nice dark green, however the dragon ended up huge!  He would have hung over the back of the hat and I didn't think that would look too good.  I ended up going with Red Heart Soft in Guacamole, but I had to scale down the hook size to get the dragon to fit on the hat.  I found this particularly strange since my tension is normally pretty tight.  Although I was not happy about having to switch colors at first, this green grew on me.  It also makes for a larger contrast between the hat and the dragon so it turned out well.  The one thing I was adamant on is that the dragon is green!  I had a very particular dragon in mind when I made this hat, besides, everyone knows that dragons are green:)

Sewing the dragon to the hat was probably the most nerve wracking part.  I think the instructions call for attaching the dragon fist and then sewing all the pieces onto the dragon, but I thought that would bet very difficult to handle.  I decided to pin everything in place, take the dragon off the hat to attach all the parts and then attach the dragon to the hat.  The wings and hind legs were attached after the body of the dragon was attached.  Despite it all, the dragon decided to perch on the hat a bit crooked...

It's most noticeable from the back, but I am trying hard not to let it bother me.  My sister in law said she would not have noticed anything if I hadn't pointed it out.  I think I also made a mistake in the ridge of the first wing.  I didn't notice it until I got to the same point in the second wing.  I suddenly realized that the two wings did not look alike!  I decided to go with the mistake I made in the first one since it resulted in a more dimensional ridge.  It took some figuring out on what I did wrong in order to replicate it though!  Now that I no longer have the prototype in my hands I don't think I could figure it out again.

For the most part the pattern is very easy to follow and everything is clearly explained.  I did have to play with the sizing a bit, but that is not unexpected considering individual gauge plays such a large role in that.  I would definitely make this again if I found a willing recipient, but I do need a break before I even think of making it again.

Overall the hat was a hit and my nephew really likes it.  My sister in law even said that she almost does not want to let him wear it so he doesn't lose it.  I told her hats are wearing!  I was most happy to hear that he is not too old for silly hats and that it will get a little bit of wear this spring and then again next year!  (I found out he still wears both the monster hat and the fish hat!).

Crochet hat

Seriously, I don't know what got into me this year with all the hats I made/am making!  This is one of the last ones and it is actually almost done by now.  This is also a gift and will wait to post the finished item until I know the recipient has received it.  I promise it is a lot more interesting than you would expect from this picture!

Pompom hat

After making this year's second monster hat, my husband decided that he also wanted a green hat.  I seem to recall a similar request after I made my very first monster hat!  I roughly followed the same pattern I did for my husbadn's first crochet hat.  I didn't keep very good notes though, so I am not sure what exactly I did.

This year when I made the hat, I realized that it looks like the hat does not just spiral from one row to another (not sure I'm describing it correctly, but it makes sense to me!).  I tried to follow the instructions and eded up with a strange, not-quite-straight line down the back.  If I do this hat again, I will just spiral from one round to another.  I don't think it's as noticeable as I first thought, but it does bother me a little.

When I was making the hat, I thought a replica in green sounds pretty boring and I had planned on adding a large pompom on the top.  At first I planned on adding it without running the idea past my husband, but then I decided that there is no point in making a pompom if he wouldn't wear it.  Luckily he thought the pompom was a great idea!

The pompom ended up being a bit heavy - I made sure to make it nice and full.  It hangs on the hat a bit funny, so I'll see how long it lasts.

Crochet Cloche

...And here is the third hat I crocheted for Christmas.  This hat went to a 5 year old girl who is very much into pink and purple.

I had initially planned to use a different pattern and make this a true cloche.  I was running behind though and got hopelessly lost in the first few rows when I tried to follow the pattern.  I think it would have been much easier to follow if had been working in a solid color, but at that point, it was too late to go buy new yarn.

Instead I went with the monster hat pattern figuring it would be a good base for the hat.  Initially I had planned on adding a huge pom-pom on the top.  As I was completing the hat though, I realized that I could try to add a ruffle to turn it into a mini cloche.  After completing the hat per the pattern, I added two more rows.  The first row was 2 dc into each stitch and in the second row I simply made 1 dc into each stitch.  This added just a small amount of ruffle.  I had toyed with the idea of making the ruffle in half double crochet, but wasn't sure if that would be too much of a change in the texture.  I think using a "shorter" stitch would have made the ruffle slightly less floppy.  It is OK as is considering it is so short though.  No problems with the ruffle flopping over the eyes.  It's a good thing though that I stuck with only two rows.  If I had done a third row as I had thought about, the ruffle would have been too floppy.

Crocheted with Red Heart Soft.

Monster Hat II

This is the second monster hat I made for Christmas.  I followed the same pattern as for my previous two monster hats.  Obviously the base and spike colors are different.  Although I was initially very much partial to the blue and orange one, I really like this one as well!

For some reason the eye and spikes ended up a bit wonky and uneven on this hat.  It is fairly obvious when you lay it flat, but not too obvious when it is on a little boy's head.  Besides, everyone knows that monsters are not perfectly symmetrical!

This monster hat went to a two year old boy.  He loves is so much that he wears it all the time and even went to sleep with in on the first night!  So gratifying:)  I told my friend that with him being such an enthusiastic recipient, he will be first on my list the next time I get the urge to make a silly hat!

Crocheted with Red Heart Soft.

Below is the sneak preview for the third hat I made.

Monster Hat I

Christmas 2015 was obviously "the year of the hat" for me.  I hadn't really planned on it, but I ended up making several hats as gifts.  Three were made for Christmas and the other two will follow a bit later.  I am also very seriously contemplating a sixth hat.  We'll see.

This monster hat went to a 4 year old boy.  It was made following the pattern of the monster hat I made for my nephew several years ago.  I decided to omit the mouth and teeth for two reasons.  One reason was time - I wasn't sure I would be able to finish all the crocheting in time if I added the mouth and teeth.  The main reason though was the longevity of the hat.  I always suspected that the mouth and teeth were the weak point of the hat.  Surprisingly my nephew's hat is still intact but I didn't want to take the chance.

I wasn't expecting to have a hard time with the spikes and the eye since I have made them before, but they gave me quite a bit of grief.  It probably does not help that I have not done much crochet recently and was essentially starting from scratch (at least in terms of nomenclature and following a pattern).

Crocheted with Red Heart Soft.

The little boy was happy to receive it and wore it all evening:)  Appreciative recipients are so nice!

Below is a sneak preview of the second hat I  made.

More crochet

There is really not much to say about this little motif.  I completed it a while back (May?) but just recently scanned it.  Reading my blog you would think that scanning is a very difficult or time consuming endeavor and I am not sure why I don't keep up with it more.  It's not like I even had to work in the ends on this but, although working in ends is a whole different story altogether.

This motif is called paddle wheel and is from Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.  It was also made with the mystery size 10 crochet thread that I have been using for all the motifs from this book.  I suspect I would like crochet more if I switched to better thread!

The motif is just over 1.5 inches across.

Rainy Sunday Crochet

I hope anyone reading this in the midwest is safe from the tornadoes going through the area.

Although we needed the rain, I was a bit disappointed to see it rain for most of the day yesterday.  Luckily I had completed most of the yardwork on Saturday, but I had hoped to plant a few more things on Sunday.

I took advantage of the rainy day to get some things completed around the house including lace:)  At one point I also pulled out my crochet hook to make another motif from my Reader's Digest Needlework guide. I know that's not the proper title, but I don't have the book in front of me...  Also, I know that crochet is also lace!

Since it had been a while since I last tried to crochet, I had to look up all the stitches as I was making them. I am making progress though - I now remember how to do single crochet without having to look that up! (sarcasm).  It took a few tries to complete this since I mis-read the directions at one point.  I am also quite sure that I miscounted the outer row a few times, but decided I can live with that...

Although the patterns are fairly well written, I don't think they are very clear when going from round to round.  Luckily I now have enough crochet experience that with some trial and error and looking at the picture carefully I can usually figure it out.

Made with a random thread that I have long ago lost the label, I assume it's size 10 though.  The motif measures ~ 2 inches across.

Random crochet sample

As I was looking for items I have to rescan after losing the files when my hard drive crashed, I found this little crochet square.  I believe I finished it last year (probably early last year), but have never gotten around to scanning it.

It is another motif from the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework and was made with the random crochet 10 thread that I have on hand.

There is not much to say about this square.  Not crazy about the thread.  Definitely don't like the size of thread.  Not crazy about the color and as a rule, I don't like square motifs.

I think the main reason I made it is for some crochet practice:)

One thing I do need to figure out at some point is how to finish the ends.  So far I have been avoiding them!

Crochet experiment

This is one of the small crochet squares that I had mentioned in a previous post. I think I made two of them either late last year or early this year, but have only scanned one so far. the second one is probably still upstairs tucked into the large spool of thread...

This motif is also from the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework and was made with some size 10 crochet thread. At least the thread is good for something! I think I will like crochet more once I move to finer thread though. I don't think "lacey and dainty" when I look at this!

Crochet Hat

My husband liked the monster hat I made for our nephew so much, that he asked for one of his own - minus the teeth, eyes and spikes! That's a pretty round about way of asking for a hat.... It was quite obvious that a hat would have to make its way under the Christmas tree:)

Since I thought the fabric of the monster hat made with double crochet was a bit loose, I decided to go with single crochet for my husband's hat. In retrospect I would have also remade the monster hat with single crochet, but I was afraid of running out of time. I didn't really follow a pattern for my husband's hat - I looked at several free crochet patterns on line and saw that they are all pretty much constructed in the same way.

If I had to remake the hat, I would probably make a little bit wider. My husband swears it fits, but I suspect a few additional stitches wouldn't have hurt! I would also have made it longer from the get go. On Christmas morning, I had to add a few rows:)

Made with Red Heart Soft and 0.5 mm hook (size H).

Despite the recent flurry of crochet activity on this blog, I am not about to become obsessed with crochet. I do like knowing that I am comfortable enough with crochet that I can pick up some thread or yarn and a hook and start making something, however I realize that I do still need a lot of practice and I am not sure I really want to invest the time right now. Counting stitches still occasionally gives me fits, but even that is slowly getting better. Over all though, I think that for winter accessories (hats, scarves, mittens, etc.) you can't beat knitting. Although I have more practice knitting that crocheting, I am more hesitant to pick up knitting needles, especially if I have a tight deadline. Crochet just seems easier. My mom discovered that when she was in elementary school and I never quite believed her until now. Having said all that, there are a few more motifs I completed that I have to scan and post. I am not quite off the crochet wagon yet!

Monster Hat

Although it may not seem like it, the crochet samples I recently posted had nothing to do with the project I just completed. I just never got around to posting those samples until recently...

Not too long ago (towards the end of November, I believe) I stumbled upon this monster hat crochet pattern. It really reminded me of my 2 year old nephew for some reason:)

This is the first time I have ever crochet something other than a small motif. It was also the first time I made a hat. I did have a bit of a hard time deciding to crochet a hat since I grew up with knit hats, never crochet. Since I had never made a hat before, I decided to follow the pattern as written and not to try and come up with something knitted. I'm sure I could have used any basic knit hat pattern for the hat itself, but I was not about to figure out how to knit the eye and the spikes!

I had considered other colors, but in the end decided to go with the same colors as the original pattern. Most of my nephew's winter outerwear is blue and his favorite color is orange.

Made with Red Heart Soft and size H crochet hook.

Happy holidays!

Crochet experiments

I don't really know how to crochet. I never felt like I needed to learn since my mom crochets so well. Every few years I get the urge to pull out my crochet hooks though. Unfortunately since I literally pull them out every few years, I have to reteach myself the basics each time...

Early this summer I pulled out my crochet hooks, a ball of cheap crochet thread in size 10 (and I really have no clue why I even bought this thread...) and the handy Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.

The motif shown below (eyelet square) was the first thing I made. At one point I lost track of the rounds...

As soon as the first square was completed I moved on to the next one - Hawaiian square. With this one I lot track of the stitches going from one round to the next. As I was making each round I thought I would catch up, but somehow I never did.

I haven't touched crochet since then, however each time I pick up the hooks, I feel more comfortable crocheting. I would definitely want to move to finer thread though. This size 10 seems huge!

Actually the above paragraph is not 100% accurate. I picked up crochet again early this month to make a Christmas gift. It was very much different from what I had shown above. That project will come later.