Poppy the pony

Requested for a beautiful baby girl, this horse/pony was made using a free pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/paudie-the-kerry-bog-pony

Lots of mane equaled lots of fun! Poppy got nicknamed the Tina Turner of my amigurumi friends...

Ninja turtles

Looking for teenage mutant ninja turtles (TMNT) crochet patterns on the web, I found quite a few:

• http://wolfdreamer-oth.blogspot.ca/2011/03/tmnt-michaelangelo.html
• http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-tmnt.html
• http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=209461.0#axzz38zEvPrR0
• http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-crochet

However, I ended up paying for this pattern on Etsy, because it was just too cute. Baby mutant ninja turtles, yeay!

I received loads of help on this one with sewing them all up and creating their little weapons. The weapons were not in the pattern, nor was the belt and the elbow/knee bands, which come on handy to pose the turtles with their weapons.

Leo's katanas are made from an old saw blade spray painted silver and partially covered in yarn to simulate the hilt. Raph's sais are paperclips twisted into shape, again with yarn wrappings for hilts. Mikey's nunchuks are chunks of cocktail sticks joined by an old key chain part. And Donnie's staff used to be a twig found on the road that was whittled down and wrapped with yarn in the middle.

Beware, your pizzas are no longer safe with these around...

Kokeshi crochet

Kokeshi are Japanese dolls, traditionally made from wood. But you can make them from your favourite yarn too thanks to several free patterns out there!

We mainly based ours on an excellent video tutorial on youtube: part 1, part2. We weren't too fond of the big belt, so opted for a smaller version made by simply using chain stitch. Also, we added some extra embroidery to the neckline and front of the kimono.

Some more free patterns can be found here:

• http://www.craftymamasanchez.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/new-year-new-post.html
• http://lascosasdemisimisi.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/kokeshi-amigurumi-patron.html
• http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amigurumi-kokeshi-doll

I also found a nice free pattern for Japanese lanterns and since I had time to spare whilst travelling...

The character on the lantern is a nice way to personalize it. Mine is supposed to mean 'mindfulness', since crochet is one way to 'meditate' / be in the present moment :-)

Crocheted giraffe

One of my fondest early childhood memories, is my dad taking my toys & me on an adventure, guided by nothing except the music of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and my dad's imagination. I think one of the most important gifts you can receive as a child is the key to your own imagination. As Einstein put it: 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.'

Cuddly toys are great sources of stories, and make excellent companions when journeying in fantasy worlds. This crocheted giraffe (my second attempt at crocheting amigurumi so low difficulty level) was a present for a newborn baby. I used a freely available pattern, with a few little tweaks to make it -hopefully- more baby friendly. Still, I would recommend this kind of toy to be used under supervision only, since it contains small parts that could become available for tiny mouths and nostrils if our sewing job fails.     

   

You can find the original free pattern here. I used a 4 mm crochet hook and dk yarn. I picked a sunny golden colour for the yellow yarn,  and a rich chocolate brown one; making it warm and bright and unisex.

My only deviations from the instructions were that I changed the yellow tufts of hairs at the end of the tail for brown ones, and added some more tufts of brown hair at the top of the neck. I used a fine crochet hook to tease apart the individual stands of yarn. See adding fringe & teasing the yarn in my pet scarves post for another use of this technique.

I used polyfill to stuff the giraffe, and added in a few small bells with the stuffing so the toy makes a gentle noise when being shaken. More specifically, I added bells to the head & main body, since the head can be shaken without the body (I attached it relatively loosely) for some added interest. To make sure the stuffing & bells wouldn't escape their crocheted cage, I first added some lining (reusing lining from an old jacket) before stuffing. I didn't bother attaching the lining to the crocheted shell; rather, I first pushed in the lining, then the polyfill & bells, and sewed the lining to itself to close it. Basically making a stuffed package that fits inside a given crocheted part:

At the moment of writing, Gigi is on her way to join her new friend, and hopefully the both of them will share many wonderful journeys...

First attempt at crocheting amigurumi...

Or crocheting full stop. I can vaguely remember we may have done some crochet in primary school, but I don't think I was any good at it then, nor (or maybe because of that) was I very interested in it. But after (re)kindling my interest in knitting, crocheting seemed like a logical next step. So I bought a general how-to book, googled some free patterns... and found out about amigurumi.

If you don't know what amigurumi are, have a look at the wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi). They require little yarn and are relatively quick to make, plus there are many free patterns out there. And they look so cute and cuddly!

To decorate the bathroom, I'm trying to implement a seaside vibe and I thought some knitted/crocheted sea creatures and shells might work well. They are more quirky than any bought piece of decoration, and because of the yarn they may bring a warm and cuddly tone to a room that is otherwise quite clean and cold due to the tiles and blue & white colour scheme.

I searched for a project easy enough for a complete beginner, but one that looks nice enough to remind myself I want to make more of these. Also, I didn't have stuffing or eyes etc, so when I came upon this pattern, it was love at first sight: http://stumptious.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/free-crochet-jellyfish-pattern/

I used dk yarn in 2 colours of blue and a 4 mm crochet hook. The tentacles were especially fun to crochet, curling up into a neat spiral without me doing anything fancy!

It took me about 3 hours (in 3 separate sittings) and I made at least one mistake I'm aware of and didn't correct. But even though he's slightly ill proportioned, Johnny the jellyfish (he prefers to go by John) is now hanging happily in the bathroom, reminding me he wants more friends around...