Margaret's Double Cross Stitch Pot Holder. Free Crochet Pattern

 This is one of the most elegant pot holders I have seen in some time. Well done to Miki for the design

You can find the free pattern here 

Psst, while you are there, take a look at her La La Loopsy creations!

 For more free crochet patterns and links please visit again

Crochet Kokeshi Doll Construction

After making my very first Kokeshi doll

 I wanted to make more.

So I did!

I took pictures as I made them and wanted to share them with you.

It's very clever how they come together.

 As you can see I am making 3, this is the body and head made in one piece, these have been stuffed and a small weight placed in the bottom to make them stand up.

These dolls are your typical amigurumi, made with sc's in the round next was their hair, made separately and placed onto their head.

Then their little back thingies are made, I think they are called an obi.

Then I made their sleeve's and hands, the sleeve is just a basic triangle.

They are really taking shape now, with their hands and sleeves attached it was play time for me, sewing eye's and mouths and little extra features.

I did go on line to get inspiration, I mucked up the pink one's eyes a bit and had to play around with them more, but I achieved a different look with her, I also made up my own little flower and found a pattern for a small umbrella

 I did the screen free hand and am currently thinking on lanterns or small pieces of furniture to finish the setting off.

I'm not sure if I should add a little more bling to their hair, chop sticks and beads.

The main thing is that I had fun!

But I have so many more items I want to crochet I may just leave these ladies the way they are and move onto something else that I have in mind to do, as a matter of fact I have already started a bit of it, thumbs up for crochet!

I found this pattern for the doll using the way back machine, here is the link.

Cute Crochet

Just a few pictures of what I have been making of late, some cute and cuter!

I've used a hdc in the round in some of these, looks just as good as the sc in the round and works up faster.

I made my own pattern for the cup cakes and doughnuts, using lots of inspiration from other patterns.

These look good enough to eat

Free patterns here

These are made with a hdc, no pattern, I was inspired by other pictures, Duncan on the left and Earl on the right.

There are so many ways to make a crochet coffee or tea cup look so cute!

I also made my very first Kokeshi doll

And some out fits for my Grand daughters

 Good colors and a cute factor = success

For Savannah 1 yr old

Free pattern link

These colors were a shade too dark, but they match Cindy's skin color, pattern from the Candy Tots pattern book

 

 

Crochet a Baby Mobile

Not a difficult project to make if you are familiar with making Amigurumi's (small crocheted toys).

First I had to select a few dolls to make and a color scheme, nice and bright to catch baby's eye's.

You can do a google search for many free crochet Amigurumi.

I found the 2 on the out side at this site for free, called sleepy sarah, the little girl was found else where, can't recall where right now.

Ella Phant was made from the pattern book, Amigurumi World.

Mona Key was made from the same pattern book. Not their names in the pattern book, I just made the names up for fun.

At this stage I was thinking about the construction of the mobile.

I knew I had some wooden hangers to use and tried to visualize the hanging of the dolls, it was then that I thought of it's balance! I did plan to make more dolls for the mobile but I was now, more aware of the space I had to use and how to balance the dolls.

I put the largest 2 at the very top.

Then the matching pair on the center hanger.

Then the single doll on the bottom hanger.

But before I attached the dolls to the hanger I crocheted a plain white cover for them.

I now needed the final touch and crocheted some colored cork screws to go in between the blank spaces. There is a you tube tutorial on how to make these.

My plan was coming together. I used clear plastic line to attach the dolls to the coat hanger, being careful of the balance of the whole thing.

I'm really happy with the out come and baby Cindy now 4 weeks old seems to look at it, once she has her eye sight fully focused I am sure she will spend many hours admiring her mobile. The whole project will take you a relaxed week of crocheting if you choose to make one for your self.

My little girl is growing.

If you crochet over a hanger, just make the chain about 1 inch longer than the hanger.

Once I made the row height for one facing of the coat hanger, I crocheted into the back loops of the next row to get a turning seam.

 My next side was done and I needed to crochet into the front loops for the next turning seam.

 I repeated alternating front loop and back loop for the turning edges and I closed it up with a simple slip stitch then inserted the hanger and sewed the ends closed.

Amigurumi is made in a circle with a sc and rounds are not joined, there is lots of counting to do and a stitch marker is your best friend to avoid mistakes. Below you can see an abacus that I use for counting, it also doubles up as a pattern book holder, very handy.

 

Amigurumi World Pattern Book.

Crochet Mario

After making the crochet Yoshi's for my grand sons it was now onto a crochet Mario, as soon as I made the first Mario every body wanted one, so I have now made 3 Mario's and have more requests for a Yoshi and a Luigi too. Mind you it was great fun making them and I don't mind making more. Mario is an old friend of mine, I have been playing him for years.

Below is the picture of my very first Mario.

Now these are the second Mario's I made, but I changed the shoe, it has a yellow sole and a brown upper shoe, I placed cut up plastic from an ice cream lid and put it into the bottom of his shoes before stuffing.

And here are the 2 Mario's completed, one is a little plumper than the other.

If you want to make Mario and use my shoe method I will put the pattern below. I also made the bib for his overalls then attached the shoulder straps. I hand sewed the Mario M onto the hat too, made one hat a bigger size just to see what it looked like.

Pattern for Mario Shoe.

shoe is worked in the round, do not join rounds.

Beginning at sole

Using sole color:

1. Work 8sc into a magic ring (8 sc)

2.work 2 sc in each sc around (16 sc)

3. work 1 sc in first sc, work 2 sc in next sc, *work 1 sc in next sc. work 2 sc in next sc* rep from *to* around (24 sc)

Change to brown for upper shoe:)

4. Work 1 sc in each sc around (24)

5. Working in back loops only, work 1 sc in each sc around (24 sc)

Now decrease shoe

6. Work 1 sc in 9 sc , sc 2 together 3 times, work 1 sc in next 9 sc

7. Work 1 sc in next 8 sc, sc 2 tog, 1 sc in next sc, sc 2 tog, 1 sc in next 8 sc

8. Work 1 sc in next 5 sc, sc 2 tog twice, 1 sc in next sc, sc 2 tog twice, 1 sc in next 5 sc

9. Work 1 sc in next 3 sc, sc 2 tog twice, 1 sc in next sc, sc 2 tog twice, 1 sc in next 3 sc

stuff shoe

10. sl st into 2nd sc and finish off leaving a long tail for sewing.

I hope that you have fun when you make your Mario's, Yoshi's or Luigi.

Crochet Doctor Doll, with link to the free pattern.

On Sunday night I was walking down the stairs reading a bit of paper

(not a good idea to read something whilst tackling stairs)

when I came to the very last step I missed most of it and slipped off, rolling my toes underneath my foot and I came crashing down in agony.

It was immediately obvious to me that something had broken.

After a 3 hour visit to the hospital, I arrived back at home with a pair of crutches to support my fractured foot.

Now I have lots of spare time to crochet.

Nursing my Foot.

I made a cover to keep the bandage cleaner.

I have a follow up visit with my Doctor this Thursday.

He has been my family Doctor for over 20 years and he has seen me and my family through some very rough times.

You see drawings of appreciation from children in the Doctors rooms, I can't draw for nuts, but I sure can crochet.

I have been wanting to give a token of appreciation to my doctor for a while.

So I chose to make the Doctor Who Doll.

But I left out the Who part and gave him a stethoscope to make him look more like a regular Doctor. He has the stethoscope in his ears and the white button thingy in the picture is the end of the stethoscope.Thin black plastic tubing makes up the rest of it.

It's a little hard to make out as it is black on black.

The link to the free pattern is here.

Thanks to Tracy from snuffykins journal.

Just an update here... I gave the Doctor Doll to my Doctor, he thanked me graciously and stated that he was not going to leave it in his Doctors Office where it may come to harm. I was a little nervous giving it to him, but his reaction put me at ease.

Crochet Cat.

I named this cat. Sophis-ti-cat.

I read some where that once you've made one type of amigurumi, you can make any type of amigurumi using the same technique. So I gave it a go with-out a pattern and just made it up as I went along. I visualised the shape I wanted it and either increased or decreased where I wanted to change shape. It's all done in SC and where you want a smaller or larger beginning, the trick is in the beginning circle. Starting with 4 SC in the circle then increasing will give you a smaller beginning. Starting with 8 SC in the circle will give you a larger beginning. The smaller size being for arms and legs and the larger for the body. 6 SC in the circle is usually the head and the most used beginning. Once you have done the body, you bring your project alive by adding features. One feature being the ears, shaped differently can determine what your project will be. Adding a tail will determine it even further.
The fun part is adding facial features, the eye's can say it all. I am awake, I am asleep, I am a wide eyed beauty, I am Asian and so on. Some makers don't include a nose or a mouth. Whiskers for a cat are a great feature, you can make them long, short, stand out or flat to the face. Felt can be used for these features along with pipe cleaners or even the yarn. I have purchased eye's and you can get them in various shapes and colours. Adding jewelery or clothes can make your project more life like. I also add thread wire to the parts I want to shape. Well good luck with your amigurumi project. There is plenty of help on the web to assist you.

My First Amigurumi

Another amigurumi I made.

I found the free pattern for this one here.

http://www.katcrochet.com/littledog.htm

Below is my very first amigurumi.

http://www.katcrochet.com/freebies.htm

http://www.geocities.com/crotiques/origcradle.htm