Superquick tablet sweater

Take an old sweater...

Cut out a piece slightly larger than twice the tablet/phone you want to make a cover for...

Fold over, sew up the sides, turn right way out, sew on a button and loop...

All wrapped up...

Grumpy cat doorstop

Grumpy Cat is an internet phenomenon with her own wikipedia entry and merchandise. And several crochet patterns so you can make your own! A nice free pattern can be found on Ravelry here.

This pattern lends itself very well to turning Grumpy Cat into a doorstop, a role she fulfills with obvious pleasure. I just made her body slightly bigger and stuffed it with metal bits wrapped in a towel, so it's soft (for kicking in bare feet) yet heavy enough to hold the door.

How long can you stand all the grumpy looks before getting cheerful?

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...

Pet football scarves

Do you need a gift for someone who’s crazy about their pet and their football team (or any other franchise with characteristic colours)? Why not knit them a pet-sized scarf in their fan colours? 

I’m not in favour of dressing up animals just for the sake of their owner’s amusement, but the scarves I made were never intended to be actually worn by their furry owners. The scarves may have been proportional for rabbits, but they would make a full mummy-style body wrap for the rats they were intended for. Nevertheless, their owner loves them, and the rats don’t mind posing while sitting on them. We have not managed to confirm whether or not the rats actually support the team in question, or secretly cheer for the rival team…

To get started, you can try to find a picture of a human-size scarf to copy or at least find the characteristic colours of the team/franchise. I used dk yarn for this project, but if you’re aiming for bigger pets chunkier yarn could speed things up. 

This is a very simple project, requiring only 2 basic skills: knitting in garter stitch & changing colours. Optionally, you could add tassels and/or embroider a monogram/logo.

Knit every row (garter stitch), changing colours at the start of a row. Afterwards, you can add tassels e.g. as shown here. After adding tassels in this way, I teased apart the separate strands that interweave to make up the yarn to give the illusion of smaller tassels. I used a crochet hook for this, but any other tool with a fine point that wouldn’t destroy your yarn would work too. 

Finally, if desired, add some embroidery. In my case the rats couldn’t fight over the scarves, since they were clearly labeled with the monogram of their owner! An alternative would be to embroider a logo, or sew on a patch with the logo on it (probably fairly easy to find online if it’s a popular franchise).

Your options are endless. For example, if the rats had been mine, I might have given Harry a Gryffindor and Malfoy a Slytherin themed scarf…

Ragged baskets

After cleaning out my wardrobe, I was left with several tops I thought were too tatty to donate to the local charity shop. My mum tends to recycle such clothes by making cleaning cloths out of them, but since I'm not such a fan of the noble art of cleaning, I found an alternative use on Pintrest: t-shirt yarn. I quickly realized that it's probably much easier to make t-shirt yarn out of X-large men's t-shirts without seams than fitted small women's tops of various fabrics! But it does work, and in case you want to try it out yourself, here's one possible way to go about it.

To make the 'yarn', cut the fabric into strips. I used a width between 1-2 inches depending on the thickness of the fabric (thinner fabrics were cut into wider strips). This worked quite well with a crochet hook of 20 mm, but for smaller hooks you may want to experiment with smaller strips. I used different types of fabric, most of which didn't allow me to stretch the fabric to create tubular yarn, which is a common step in online tutorials (e.g. http://www.craftpassion.com/2009/05/recycle-tutorial-making-of-t-shirt-yarn.html/2). But no fear, it also works with strips, although the end result looks maybe a bit more ragged. Think of this as a feature, rather than a shortcoming :-) Finally, to join the strips of fabric into one continuous ball of 'yarn', I used the slit and slip method from this tutorial. 

I started with a magic circle of 6 double crochet (dc, UK) / single crochet (US) stitches. There are loads of tutorials about the magic circle/loop out there in case you've never done it (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLUaywX0-WE). For the next row, I increased by making 2 dc stitches into each dc stitch in the ring (ending up with 12 stitches). At this point, a stitch marker comes in handy to start tracking the rows (I used my trusty paperclip).

For the next rows, keep increasing till you're happy with the size of the circle; this will be the bottom of your basket. My method for increasing was to add increases (2 dc into 1 stitch,) in every second stitch for the next row (dc 2dc dc 2dc ...), in every third stitch for the row after that (dc dc 2dc dc dc 2dc ...), in every fourth stitch in the row after that (dc dc dc 2dc dc dc dc 2dc ...), etc.

When you're finished with the bottom of the basket, just continue with rows of dc, one dc in every stitch from the last round. This will form the 'walls' of the basket. Continue adding rows till you're happy with the height of the basket.

To finish off, use a slip stitch and then weave in the ends. I quite like the slightly unfinished, ragged look of these baskets, with some pieces of fabric sticking out occasionally (I wasn't very precise in cutting my strips and the fabric didn't curl up to form neat proper 't-shirt yarn'). Mixing colours & fabrics also adds more character, in my opinion. In addition to looking nice, they are sturdy and quick to crochet. The bigger basket in the picture below has a diameter around 20 cm and can easily be finished in one evening, though you may want to allow extra time to cut up your fabric if it comes from a lot of small tops rather than larger pieces of fabric.

My mum has already put in an order for one of these. Even she can't deny it's much more fun than cleaning cloths...