Drive by crochet projects ....

I've been subbing the past couple of weeks now that I'm a shiny new college graduate (yes, I plan on gloating a wee bit) and haven't really had the time to sit and just take a moment to say "Ahhhhhh." My evenings are full of kids and bubbles and my first attempt at Pho soup and ...and .... and..... all the things I've been missing out on.

However, in the grand tradition of being me and unable to sit and do nothing, I have found a minute or two (during Dr. Who catch-up) to crochet few little projects.

A bit of back story: you might not know this about me. I'm quite obsessed with microbiology and the history of disease. I get oddly and absolutely giddy over the prospect of studying the Black Death or perhaps growing some E. coli in a petri dish. It comes from being a history and science nerd, I suppose.

Anyway, since I spent weeks working on my lesson for the Plague in Europe, and it was all around my students' favorite, I decided to crochet a plague doctor doll as "thank you" present to the teacher I worked with at school.

Why yes, yes he is hanging out on la Guillotine replica made by a student for a project, but that's a whole other post. Ha! I didn't come up with this pattern, but it is available by NeedleNoodles. Super cute and creepy!!! For those of you kind of wondering what the heck a plague doctor is... these were the guys who walked around in slightly terrifying bird-looking masks trying to save those suffering from bubonic plague. Creeptastic!!!! 

I was also able to work with another wonderful teacher who let me take over her biology class. I'm certified for both because I can't make up my mind on a single thing, ever. So of course, nothing would do but that I continued the plushy theme and crocheted her a cute little E. coli! He's my favorite bacteria after all. 

I loved him so much I had to crochet one for myself immediately and then added in a little Rhinovirus (aka the common cold  to you non-nerds) so that he has a friend. This may become a slight addiction as the pattern by TheSoftScientist I found had several viruses and bacteria to play with. Mr. E. coli is not included in her pattern, I worked his little flagella up on my own and added it to her pattern for Tuberculosis. Icky, squishy, adorable microbiology fun!

To step out of the realm of slight gross, but no less weird.... I also crocheted this little guy as a gift for one of my very favorite kiddos. He is in love with all things Toy Story, but he didn't have a lot of the alien toys. Voila! 

Once again, due to time, I purchased a pattern, rather than worked him up on my own. I made changes as I went, but that's mostly because I can't seem to stick straight to patterns. Every time I picked this guy up, I was thinking "The ..... CLAAWWWWWWWWWWW." Hehe.

Since it's the beginning of summer, I've picked up the forever unfinished Ugly Awesome Granny 'Gahn to work on again. It's almost done crochet wise, but may take five million years to weave in ends and put together. I've tried to set a goal for myself to enter it in our state fair to see if I could actually finish it up. If you remember, I had to practically start over as I really didn't know what I was doing when I set out.

Wish me luck! Get out and enjoy the sunshine!!!

Crochet Puppets are quite possibly the best thing ever.

I had this great idea earlier in the summer. Crochet. Puppets. 

Despite my ever growing crochet skills, I hadn't quite made the brain jump to make this idea work out. I tried about five different times.

Too big. 

Too small.

Mouth is too weird. 

And so on. Picky, picky.

Finally, I figured it out. A big part of that was due to this wonderful pattern from Stitch 11. I searched for hours trying to find a pattern just like this one. So then I tried it and that huge help to me led to these adorable little friends!

I kind of took the snake puppet idea and ran with it. These two puppets were for some of my friends of the shorter nature. A pair of 6 year old twins who were very particular when placing their orders. Twin #1 requested a blue and green puppet with an orange hat. Twin#2 requested a pink and purple puppet with yellow hair. I think I did pretty good. Aside from the basic idea of Stitch 11's pattern, the rest of the puppet such as the hat, eyes, hair and tongues were all my own. I even added eyelashes to the girl puppet! 

I wanted to also try playing around with crochet letters, and I had a lot of fun doing that part! 

The first letter of their name on their puppets was the icing on the cake for the twins. I was so cool for doing that part. There are some great letter tutorials out there and pattern diagrams, if you are interested. Each letter took less than 5 minutes to make and look how personalized of a detail it is! 

Lily and Sage were my product testers. About thirty seconds in to testing, I got the approval. I had to immediately promise Lily that I would make her a girl puppet. And a dragon. And a fish, because Sage likes fish. 

I have since started on Lily's list of puppets and I'll post more pictures of those later! I think these are my new favorite thing to crochet. I know, I know, I always say that. But look at these happy faces! There was no counting stitches, no worrying about perfection. These puppets are more charming because they aren't perfect. I think we all need a little less perfect in our life.

Now Lily is wanting a puppet show. She wants a stage and chairs and of course, an audience! So if you randomly get invited to a puppet show and the invitation is in crayon, you'll know where it came from! 

If you are interested in a pattern for the hat, eyes, hair, etc. please let me know. I can write those up if someone needs them! Also, for yarn buffs: I used Lily  Sugar and Creme 100% cotton yarn (you can guess why I picked this yarn I bet). These puppets can go on adventures and get wet and go in the wash. I wanted them played with after all! The colors I used were: Hot Blue, Hot Green, Grape, Hot Orange, Hot Pink, and Sunshine. Lot's of hotness up in here...

I loved making these and I am so proud of how they turned out! I just can't seem to stay away from making toys. Although, husbandy face even mentioned that he wants one of these puppets. HA!

If you use my puppet idea, please make sure to thank Stitch 11 for her pattern and also to link back here to my blog! I would love to see how you come up with some adornments and puppet friends! 

I have linked this post to: Hooking on Hump Day Frugal Friday Hooking Up with HOH Inspiration Gallery

More baby toys, because they're soft and squishy.

So, my world is full of babies lately! Yay babies!!

I have a brand new itty bitty niece who just came into the world. So very exciting! Finally, I am no longer the only "kid" with kids! A weird thing to be excited about, but it works for me.

I also have a friend who is just about ready to bring her darling boy into the world. She had the coolest shower, which I had to miss to go out of town with my mom and sister to do her wedding dress shopping. Another thing to squee about which I can't get into here because this is a baby post, not a wedding post. Two totally different types of squee-worthy madness.

Anyway, You know how it's now cool to have an activity at your shower instead of games? Or is that only the showers I'm attending? Seriously, crafty is the new mom middle name, because every shower I go to these days has me making a hair bow or some such thing. Well, this shower that I had to miss chose to do the best. freaking. activity. ever. They tie-dyed onesies. HOW COOL IS THAT?! That may be the hippie in me talking, but that is so fantastic. I really wish I could have been there. Ah, regrets.

Even though I missed out on all the fun, of course, I had to make the new mama a baby gift. Baby gifts are so darn happy. I had so much fun with the last baby toy gift I made, I decided to try some new ones.

After much searching and getting sidetracked by pinterest, I found this tutorial from Make It and Love It. It's a soft block and rings. Lily calls the rings a chewy chain. The tutorials are nice and clear with some great pictures. I have been itching to do something in black, white, and yellow. I have seen such cute baby gear in those colors lately.

I added in a crinkle toy because they are so quick and fun. (You can find my post about that tutorial tryout here.) I have started hoarding bits of ribbon from wherever I find it since I started making these crinkle toys. I have a whole ziploc bag full of ribbon bits. Ha.

The block was quick too, until I got to the hand stitching part. I hate hand stitching. It feels like I am cheating on my sewing machine. Plus, I'm no good at it. It took me longer to stitch a one inch whole than it did to sew the whole rest of the block.

I found a genius way to make a rattle at a {day} with lil mama stuart. Take one easter egg, add beads, presto. Instant rattle. Oddly enough, I could find an easter egg, but my bead box had deserted me and so I used pennies. Yup, they were the closest thing I had handy that could make noise. I glued the egg shut so it wouldn't open. So the block makes a rattle sound, but it's surrounded by soft squishy goodness. I stayed up way past bedtime making Sage her own block. She grabs onto it, squeezes it to death and throws it across the room.

The chain was a little more difficult than I anticipated. Trust me, totally worth the effort.

I had a duh moment and sewed a ring shut before I connected it. Try not to do that. Also, keep the rings skinny, you won't be able to sew them shut otherwise. That part is a bit tricky. However, once you're done, you have a washable, chewy toy that is perfect for little hands to hold onto. I'm making one of these for Sagey Poo too.

Instead of a card, I wrote a quick note in a book. Mama and baby will see it each time they read together! Another great pinterest idea. I was going to include a little poem about the gift being handmade, but ran out of time. That's always something to do next time. With three more friends and family who have babies on the way, I'll have lots of practice making toys and gear!


I have linked this post to...

Tutorial Tryout: Crinkle Toy

Meet my new favorite baby shower gift ever. I am pretty proud of this little darling, seeing as it only took me about 20 minutes to put together and was made from bits and pieces about my house. I didn't get any other pictures of it before I gave it away as a shower gift, but it's composed of the following:

Orange and white butterfly fabric, from my scrap stash.

Pink Minky (on the back), also from my scrap stash.

Rainbow ribbon, rummaged from a bathroom drawer of hair accessories.

Purple ribbon, packaging from a set of baby blankets given to me as a gift that hadn't been used yet.

Cellophane. Here's where I had to get creative. I took the outside wrapper from a bag of microwave popcorn and used that. 

Polyfill stuffing, about a handful. I wanted it squishy, but not too big for tiny hands to grab onto.

I searched around several tutorials for how to make this little beauty. I ended up using the tutorial I found on Simple Things, Sweet Life (sidenote: I love the gifts in a card section!). I didn't sew in my crinkle and I added that bit of poly, but the basics were the clearest on her tutorial. Also, her toy was adorable.

I adore giving handmade gifts and don't want to follow the common crowds by giving baby blankets, so this is a perfect idea. And considering how many babies are on the way in my world of friends and family, the adorable and easy factors of this toy cannot be denied. I've already sewn up a second one for baby Sage to play with. She likes to stuff it in her mouth. 

With this second one, I added a zig zag edge. I also didn't add any polyfill. Just playing around, trying to find my own personal groove. (I really need to work on this picture thing.)

Have fun!