And Now Its 2024...

 Man, if I didn't just almost type 2014.

So I thought I would catch up a little on 2023 crafting. I've already started some 2024 crafting, so hopefully I will blog a few more times than last year.

The birds. I did post about them to start with. I had such a great time crocheting small birds (and bats) last year. My sister-in-law got a dozen for her birthday in November, and I just had to thank her for unknowingly giving me such joy making these little birds. Of course I made more than just the dozen she got. I can't even tell you for sure how many I DID make. Enough chickens to enter a flock into the fair.

Naomi's bird tree

Flock of chickens at the fair. One of my friends got most of these guys to put on her Christmas tree.

Enough to give a couple dozen more out as Christmas Ornaments.

Bats for the Christmas tree!

Enough to gift them to people all around me.

ostrich - YES!

flamingo - OMG the cuteness!

emu - fuzzy!

Enough to start making up some...

I didn't like the black bird in the book, so I made my own, in velvet yarn.

Fox bat - for Ron of course

Turned a peacock into a phoenix.

What would you call a flamingo bat???

On to other projects... I did some sewing, of course. Made some shirts for Raine, and some flannel pants. Some baby blankets, and some fleecy ones. Made LOTS of kid's clothes for the summer Charitable Crafting project.

Here are some of the kid's clothes... I made so many, I think I leveled up a bit.

I was in the mood to dress bunnies this year, and made some new dresses for Ron's mom and sister.

Then his sister couldn't find her bunny, so I made her a new  one, and one for her boyfriend. So they could match. You know, like you do... Which meant more outfits. And a new bunny for me, too! I had forgotten how much fun bunnies were to make and sew for!

Butterfly Princess Bunny

Easter Outfit (with baby chick)

Matching bunnies with matching outfits.

Matching in October!

An autumn dress and bunny for me to keep

An autumn dress for Linda's bunny

Festive 4th of July outfits

And then, my friend Cheryl found some super cute crochet patterns online, and sent some to me to try out. Oh. My. Goodness. Of course I had to try them out! There are evidently many patterns in this collection, which were made by a mom, for her son. It is a collection online called Son's Popkes. Here are some I made:

First up, a fox. I did the first one for Ron, as practice

The second one went to Cheryl

Bumble bee

A striped kitty. I have another kitty pattern to do, still.

Then, I finally finished the cross stitch project I had been working on for about 3 years. The Last Supper. It was 18 pages of pattern. I got done it time to enter it into the fair this past fall, then Carl got it. (He requested it, that's why.)

The Last Supper, with the Best of Show Ribbon.

Last, project for the year, but not least, was inspired by a book that I have enjoyed making several dolls from.

This pattern book has some very cute dolls and outfits in it!

A bear suit!

I didn't have enough of any one yarn to make the suit, but wanted to practice it and see how it worked, so this happened...

Almost but not really a bear suit. With a doll inside.

Well, I wasn't sure how the doll would get into and out of the suit as one piece, so I decided to make the suit the doll's body, which worked out for my purposes, but I did (finally) get that the suit would open up the front to dress/undress the doll. I made it for one of Ron's presents, so, as you may have guessed, I changed the bear to a fox.

Fox Boy!

I enjoyed doing a lot of making this past year. I only wish I had kept up with posting about it! Hopefully this year, I'll do better! If I have a New Year's Resolution, that would be it.

Little Crocheted Bird Watching

 So I found this book in my local Joann's store:

Mini Amigurumi Birds

As you might guess from the title, it is full of small crochet bird patterns... and a bat. There are a couple of general patterns that are used for multiple birds, with different colors of yarn, of course. That makes some of the birds go a little faster as I get practiced at some of those general patterns. Other birds are individual patterns, and most of them have some details that are specific to that bird. They take maybe a couple hours to complete, and they are just so darn cute!

Most of the birds I've made so far are made with cotton yarn, which is a little less stretchy than the acrylic yarn I often use. Once I got used to the UK directions for the crochet (they call the stitch I know as a single crochet, a double crochet...), I've enjoyed making these little birds. And the bat.

My first effort was the swan

These three take advantage of one of the common patterns, with different colors and finishing touches.

Bat

Baby Chicken

Owl

I want to try another owl with different thread colors... 

Here is another set of birds with a common body pattern:

flamingo

peacock

I did the peacock first, so I got the flamingo a little straighter, but... it took a little negotiation with the pattern... I like what they did with the peacock tail feathers. I'll be making that one again to try some different color combinations... I saw a video of a peacock with red tail feathers and I also bought a turquoise thread to work with too. This flamingo is from an acrylic yarn which was a little easier to work with (the cotton yarn is a little bit stiffer than the acrylic), so I may do a set of at least some of these birds in acrylic as well.

I'm no where near having tried out all the patterns, but I think eventually I will. So far, each project has been fairly quick and easy, and would only go faster with practice. I can see these as fun gifts. They could work ok as small pet toys, if your pets won't chew apart the threads and swallow them. They could also be a nice handful for a baby or toddler, although I would embroider the eyes instead of using beads. Maybe the safety eyes are OK?

Kingfisher

Robin red breast

Dolly

 I like dolls. I like making them and dressing them, almost as much as I used to like playing with them. During the last third of 2022, Charitable Crafting was making - among other things - some comfort dolls for the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation. We wanted something fairly easy, and of course it had to be cute! I suggested this pattern, which I've had for a while, waiting on the perfect time to make her:

Cloth doll with clothes, and carrying case (not pictured)

We thought it was a good choice, and we could make it serve as either male or female, and we found a small checked fabric in the stash at Cruces Creatives that we liked, so we cut out several dolls, each with an outfit, which we decided to sew on to each doll. 

I sewed up three of them, and once the construction questions were answered, they went pretty smoothly. They have embroidered faces, and looped yarn hair, instead of the longer braided hair that the pattern shows. I thought they were very cute, and the clothes went together pretty well. They are kind of reminiscent of a Raggedy Ann doll. Yes, I'm old enough to have one of those.

Once upon a time, long ago, I found some in my mom's sewing room, that she had cut out and started embroidering, but then got busy with other stuff... like kids. So I sewed them up and dressed them and shared them. One for me, one for each of my brothers and one for a friend of mine. There may have been one or two more, I'm not sure. It was a long time ago!

So anyway, I like this pattern, and its friendly, soft feel, and the leggy doll (which is an oops I'll talk about later). I also wanted to try out the doll carrier that the pattern includes, which has pockets to hold dolly clothes or other belongings, and a bed to tuck the doll into. The only thing is, I wanted to make the doll and accessories, but I didn't want to keep the doll forever myself. So, I had to think about who would get this project. Well, I found a suitable candidate and approached their parent about whether it would be OK. I mean, not every kid wants a dolly! How do I know that? Mine never did. Sigh.

So the project began again. This time, I worked on the carrier first. Since I have been working on bowl cozies for Christmas, I felt like this was a continuation of that, sort of and I like to call it a doll cozy. I think it turned out pretty well, although I'm debating the addition of fasteners for the pockets and for the overall carrier. I used denim for the outside of the carrier, and a stripe that seemed sort of wall paper-y for the inside. The bed covers are flannel on the top layer (blanket) and the green spotted cotton for the pillowcase and sheet. I had a flowered fence fabric that made up the smaller pocket and the flap for the bigger pocket.

Doll Cozy!!

Now, here's the thing. The bed is SHORT! When I tried to put the doll in, her legs had to fold up for her to fit. WHAT??? 

Cozy doll!

So I looked back at the pattern cover, and at the pattern pieces, and at the pictures of the earlier dolls, and at the doll I had just sewn up. Yes, the legs looked longer than on the pattern. But the pattern included two "leg" pieces. I think there was one for each leg? Maybe? Anyway, I ALSO liked the cute leggy look of the doll as I had made it, so I kept it. Yep, dolls don't mind having to curl up to fit in their beds! 

So, onward to the outfits! First of all, the child who will receive this doll is about two and a half. Some simple clothes for them to manipulate are in order. But also I wanted to make some outfits for a variety of clothes for the doll. One of the things I like on a doll is undies. Mom agreed that undies could stay on the doll as well. I used small double fold bias tape to trim many of the pieces I made. I though it worked particularly well on the camisole. The pattern called for non removable socks and shoes, and I sewed the camisole and shorts/undies to the doll.

Shorts for undies with a camisole and socks to match.

One of the ideas I had was to make some of the pieces reversable. My first reversable piece was a simple elastic waist skirt. This wasn't even included in the pattern, but so simple that I didn't need one. I was hoping that I could make the overalls reversable as well, and that turned out pretty easy as well. The final reversable piece was the sleeveless jumper dress. I tried to coordinate the palette to make things a very interchangeable mix and match. Here are some of the pieces:

Reversable skirt, orange shirt

Orange shirt again, with flowery overalls that are reversable to blue

Jumper dress has an orange reverse side

Over all, I made 5 shirts, a skirt, overalls, the jumper dress, a pair of shorts, and a long sleeved dress, which may - or may not - become her nightgown. I think the idea of the pattern may be that the clothes should fit in the pockets of the carrier, but...

The wardrobe

Finally, I finished the doll's hair and face. I really like the look of the looped yarn as hair. it is fun and happy, and a little messy, like a busy kid. 

Ready to play!

I'll suggest to Mom that they start off with a few pieces, and as the child grows and becomes more able to dress the doll, and more interested in having more outfits, they can be shared then. I know I didn't include a party type outfit, but would be willing to work on that in the future if the doll becomes a favorite, and maybe even some other pieces, like the coat that was included in the pattern. But for now, I think she's ready to have someone to play with! I would recommend this pattern!

Raindrop The Fox - Another Christmas Project

Say hello to Raindrop the Fox

Ron got an orange skein of yarn in his stocking. Why? Because he likes foxes. I've wanted to make him one for a while, but have been busy with other projects.

A few years ago, a friend and I came across this series of amigurumi crochet patterns. The animals in them are SO CUTE!!! I think we could happily make at least one of each. Here's the book Raindrop is in.

Pattern book

Here's the back, it shows some of the other projects in the book...

See! adorable!

We had plans to go camping over New Years, and I knew I would enjoy a crochet project so off we went, with hooks, and yarn and even fiberfill, But I didn't think of packing the eyes and nose I would need to complete this guy, so I ended up getting all the parts complete, but not actually constructing the fox.

Getting started

Since crafting and making are a learning process for me, I'm not embarrassed to show my mistakes. And man, did I make one! I put the eyes on too far to one side, and yes, it made a difference because the head had cheeks crochet stitched in for shape, and that put the whole thing off kilter. I took the backs of the eyes off and moved them, then stitched the muzzle back on, and the pink cheeks, and he looked much better.

Wonky Face

PARTS!!

But soon enough I had Raindrop all stuffed and sewn together, and even embellished. 

Belly Button and all!

I used worsted weight yarn instead of the sport weight the pattern called for, so my fox is larger than the pattern would normally make, but I think it turned out well, and still pretty well in proportion, which isn't always true when you change elements like that. I chose a pretty small crochet hook for the yarn, and I think that helped, but I think I'll look through my sport weight yarn to see which of these patterns I'm going to have a go on next!