Swordfish

While I've added a number of ocean creatures that are common to ocean sets I've also tried to find some uncommon ones to include as well. The swordfish comes from Bathtime Buddies which I've used to make some of the other creatures for this project.

I found a ball of blue I wanted to use up and realized later this was Red Heart Sport yarn and thankfully I had another skein as I didn't have quite enough to finish the project with the original ball. I've been working on keeping these creatures smaller so I used a D hook for this ami.

The pattern gives you options for using terry towel material or felt for certain animals in the set. I'd never used terry so I wanted to try it. For the rest of the animals in this set that require cloth, I'm going to use felt. While I liked the textured look it creates, I didn't like the way the terry sheds.

I have some other creatures I need to finish in order to match up with the books I've included in this birthday box so you can expect to see those soon along with more doll clothes as I continue to prepare for the Christmas donation.

Clown Fish

From the fall to Christmas last year several retailers were offering BOGO type deals on books that often included crochet books. I was able to pick up many titles on my wish list including several Kerry Lord titles. The Clown Fish comes from her How to Crochet Animals: Ocean book.

This pattern worked up quite quickly. I used Hobby Lobby Sport weight yarn and a D hook. Even with the change in size the fish is still one of the larger items in the set I'm making. If I did this set again I'd go with the cotton sport weight I've been using with the hot pads and likely have a better sized fish. However, I'm happy with this little guy for this project.

One thing to note and I've read it as a critism of the book is the other doesn't specifiy hook size for the project. She suggests you use a hook appropriate to the yarn you choose. The yarn she discusses is a UK yarn and thus you are going to be choosing your own yarn for this project anyways. If you have experience with amis you have a general idea what size hook you want to get the size ami you want with the pattern you are using. I did misjudge the picture and thought the fish would be smaller and hoped by using a lighter yarn and a smaller hook mine would be even smaller. Thus my suggestion for smaller yarn the next time out.

All the pieces have arrived to finish off the island play set so I'm hoping to have that completed this weekend. I have the inner and outer layers of the ocean play tower complete so I can start making the many decorative elements that have to be added to the outer towere before they can be put together. I feel like this project is coming along.