The Rest of the Stockings

I finished all of the stockings for Christmas, but I never got around to posting pictures. Here they all are together. Some of them I tried to modify a little bit and didn't quite love. I especially don't really like the bottom one. I think I at least need to redo the snowflakes using crochet thread. Even though they didn't turn out perfect, it was fun to have some handmade stockings hanging at Christmas time.

Elf Hats

In December, two of my children were sick for a couple of weeks. It was bad. On one of the Saturdays that we were stuck at home, I decided to sit down and make these hats. For one of these, I never even got up from start to finish - they work up pretty fast.

I found the pattern on the blog, Busting Stitches. I used Lion Brand's Thick and Quick yarn, which is thicker than what this pattern is for, so I ended up following the infant pattern, I think, even though the hats were for my 3 and 4 year olds.

Boxy Bear

I finished the last of the stuffed animals for my kids for Christmas. I really liked this one. It was easy and I found the pattern at this link. She has a couple of other boxy animals that I would be interested in making some day. This picture isn't great, but I think it turned out cute.

Creamy Textured Stocking

Here is the next stocking. This one is for me.

 

Like the last one, I got the pattern from Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree.

Basketweave Stocking

I want to make new stockings for my family. I'm not sure if I'll get all five done before Christmas this year, but I'll see how far I get. I started with this one for my husband. This one used a basketweave stitch. I got the pattern from the book Christmas Crochet for Hearth Home & Tree.

It is full of mistakes, but I think it was pretty forgiving and looks okay. I plan on doing the next one from a pattern in the same book.

Giraffe

I finished my second animal for my kids for Christmas. The first was the frog, this one was a giraffe. I picked a giraffe for two reasons. One was that I saw this giraffe on Pinterest and I thought it was cute. The other was that I had found some yellow yarn for sale (practically free) and I bought without a plan and it had just been sitting around in my basement. This seemed like a good use!

I found the pattern from Flourish and Tots. The pattern was easy to follow and it was fun to make!

10 Snowdrifts Tree Skirt

This tree skirt was one of the first things I found on Pinterest that I wanted to make. I had the hardest time tracking down the pattern, but I'm so glad I finally did. I just used Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the color Aran. Now I kind of wonder if I should have done it in something more white, since it is supposed to look like snow drifts. Oh well, I like it how it is. I think it would even look pretty if the ruffles were different colors if you forget the whole looking-like-snow part.

Now I just have to wait until December to see how it looks with the tree. I started it early because I knew it would take a long time. I worked on it for about two hours every night for 3-4 weeks. I'll try to remember to update and put a picture of it under the tree. I can't wait to see how it looks.

Amigurumi Frog

I made my first attempt at amigurumi. I thought that my kids might like little animals for Christmas (I'm trying to give them some handmade things this year), so I started out with a little frog. Honestly, I don't love how it turned out. I made the eyes too big and when I embroidered the mouth and nose, it made the face pucker. When my kids saw the finished product, though, they didn't care about those things. They fought over who got to hold it for a few minutes, and then I put it in my hiding spot where it will stay until Christmas. Hopefully they will forget about it by then.

The pattern was great...the problems with the frog were my own. I found the pattern here. I read through the comments for the pattern on Ravelry and some people suggested putting pipe cleaners in the legs to help them bend. I followed that suggestion and I really like what it did for the legs.

Cloche with Ribbon

I had some leftover yarn that I needed to use up, so I decided to make a hat for my daughter. I love how it turned out! The pattern was really easy and the hat worked up quickly. I got the pattern here.

Girl's Playground Cardigan

I'd had my eye on this cardigan pattern for a while and finally got around to making it. Since I stitch tightly, I decided to follow the instructions for a size bigger than I wanted it to be. I guess I didn't stitch tightly this time, because it ended up bigger than I needed! I think it is a pretty design, though, and I'm excited for when it fits my daughter.

When I went to buy the yarn for it, I first grabbed the suggested yarn for the pattern. I would have ended up spending about $28 on yarn for this! I just couldn't. I ended up getting some Bernat Satin yarn for MUCH cheaper, and I think it is just as pretty.

I got the pattern here.

Maybe I'll update this post with my daughter wearing it once it fits!

Baby Mary Loop Shoes

I have decided that I am not meant to crochet baby shoes. I wanted to make some cute baby shoes and actually tried a few different patterns. The pictures on the different patterns were super cute, but when I made them, they just didn't turn out right. Here is my most recent pair, which I decided turned out okay, although they are also far from perfect. The pattern is from SkipToMyLoop.

I thought it was fun to add a matching headband, and I liked how it turned out.

Waffle Stitch Blanket

I finally finished this blanket for my son. I made a blanket for my daughter's birthday earlier this year, so I figured that I better make a blanket for my soon to be 3 year old.

I started a waffle stitch blanket a while back, but after getting a few rows into it, I decided that it wasn't as long as I wanted it to be. So I made it into a scarf. I started this one on a road trip, so it was a little hard to lay it out in the car after starting it to see if I liked the length. I should have taken the time to do that, though, because I ended up making this blanket a bit longer than I really wanted to. That, combined with the fact that the waffle stitch eats up a lot of yarn, turned this into a very big, heavy blanket and I lost count of how many skeins I used.

Something with the light in my room made the gray look funny in this picture. But here you can kind of see the look of the waffle stitch. The colors look more like the other two pictures.

My son kept asking me if the blanket was for him and told me several times that he liked it, so I think he'll be happy with it. Now I just have to wait a couple of months to give it to him!

Snowflake Table Runner

I stumbled on this table runner on Pinterest a while back and was excited to work on it. It's not winter time yet, but I didn't feel like waiting! I've been working on a blanket for the past FOREVER and I needed a break to work on some smaller projects. 

The pattern is from Red Heart. While looking for the suggested yarn from the pattern, I saw this Red Heart Shimmer yarn on clearance and decided that it was perfect for snowflakes. Plus it was cheap!

 

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Some of the snowflake points weren't laying flat, but I just misted the table runner with a spray bottle, fixed everything so that it laid how I wanted, and then let it dry overnight. It's still not perfect, but I like it!

Basket

I had seen several neat baskets on Pinterest, so I decided to try one out. I liked the one on Crochet in Color. I did my best to follow the instructions, but mine doesn't seem as stiff as hers. When it was done, the shape was a little off, so I tried getting it wet and having it dry filled with rags to make it the right shape. 

That helped a lot, but you can see that the top is a little uneven. I had made it taller than the instructions said to, which may have contributed to it not looking right. Definitely not a perfect basket, but it will work to hold my yarn for other projects.

Pillow Cover

My husband ran Ragnar last weekend, so he was going to be gone for a couple of days. Whenever he is out of town, I like to come up with some projects to keep me busy. One of my projects this time was a pillow cover. I found a pattern that I liked at one little rayndrop. Her pattern was for a different sized pillow than I had, but I figured I could adjust.

I ended up making my cover too tall. The ends were supposed to meet at the top of the pillow, but mine overlapped by quite a bit. I decided to just pull the top over and put the buttons down a little lower. I actually like how it turned out, and maybe prefer to have them down a little instead of right on the top.

Another project I had was to cover a lamp shade for the lamp in our living room. You can see it on the table in this picture.

Baby Girl Flip Flops

I'm glad I know people having babies so that I have an excuse to try out some of the cute baby things that are out there. I made these flip-flops that I found on Whistle and Ivy.  The first pair I made ended up super small, I think even too small for a newborn, so I tried out the 3-6 month size. I think they turned out pretty cute. I hope that they actually fit on little baby feet!

I thought it would be fun to make some coordinating things to go with the flip-flops, so I used the same yarn to make a pacifier clip and a headband.

Baby Boy Loafers

We went on a road trip last week and I needed a project for the car. One of my projects was this pair of loafers for my 7 month old. I found the pattern by TwoGirlsPatterns on Etsy. 

These were a fun project and I like how they turned out, except that mine don't look as stiff as they do in the picture with the pattern. Maybe I should have been doing my stitches tighter? Different yarn? More practice? Maybe all of those. I still think they are cute, though.

Easy Headband

My daughter has really fine hair that doesn't stay up in her ponytails and can get kind of wild. I try to keep it out of her face by using barrettes, but she doesn't like them and is always pulling them out. I decided to try out a headband and see if she would like that better than barrettes.

I found an easy headband tutorial at KT and the Squid and tried it out last night.

I liked that it used a rubber band in the back.

This was the thicker version of the pattern. I think I would try the thinner one next time. I would also pay more attention to making sure that the braid doesn't twist when I'm putting it together. It has purple, though, which is my daughter's current favorite color, so she's in love with it.

Baby Boy Flip-Flops

I have some friends having babies this summer, so I thought it would be fun to make some sandals. I made these flip-flops using a pattern by Two Girls Patterns. I would have had my baby boy model them for a picture but his feet are too big!

The soles don't lay as flat as I would like them to and they don't look as nice as the ones on the website. I think it's mostly because I'm still learning, and also maybe because of the kind of yarn I used. They turned out okay, but I obviously need to keep practicing.

Waffle Stitch Scarf

After making a blanket for my 4-year-old's birthday, I knew that I would need to make a blanket for my son when his third birthday comes around. I had seen blankets using the waffle stitch and I really liked the look, so I planned on making him a blue and gray waffle stitch blanket.

After looking through a few tutorials, I finally figured out how to do the waffle stitch. The instructions that I found the easiest to follow were from Crochet Geek. I started on my blanket and I was a few rows in when I realized that it was a lot shorter than I wanted it to be. I showed it to my husband and told him that I was just going to rip it out and start again (I really hadn't been working on it for long), but he suggested that I just turn it into a scarf and he would use it. So I finished it up as a scarf.

If I were to make another scarf, I would make it longer than this one. I do like the texture of the waffle stitch, though.

Now that I've made something with the waffle stitch, though, I might want to try something different for my son's blanket. I have a hard time making myself do the same thing twice. I have been working on some baby sandals and once I make up the first sandal, I have a hard time making myself finish up the other one!

Bow Tie

After spending so many hours on the blanket, I was ready for a quick project that I could do in one sitting. I found a pattern for a bow tie at Mollie Makes and made it in about 45 minutes!

My First Blanket

I decided that I wanted to be more productive with my free time, so I thought that I would try out crochet. I bought some hooks and yarn around two years ago with plans to learn, but about a week later, we started the process of buying a house and suddenly packing and moving took over and I forgot about crochet until a couple of months ago.

I saw come fun crochet projects on Pinterest and my motivation to learn came back. The simplest project I could think of to start with was a blanket (although maybe I should have started smaller with a dishcloth). My sister taught me how to do a single crochet stitch, and knowing only that, I started making a blanket. I was several hours into it when I realized that I had a big problem with the sides not being straight. I tried to make up for it, but was unsuccessful. At one point, my blanket looked like this:

After deciding that it was beyond repair, I gave up and started again and focused on not making my stitches too tight. I decided to do my second attempt using double crochet, which helped it go faster, too. 

My almost 4-year-old daughter was so excited about the blanket that I was making that she drew up a little schematic of what she thought it should look like. She would tell me over and over how much she loved the blanket, and since her birthday was coming up soon,  I decided to make it for her as a surprise gift.

It's not perfect, but she loves it!