Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm continued with the breakfast and other food and kitchen themed items I started with for the Valentine Box

Bacon

Little Baker Set

Milk Carton

Pancakes

I've enjoyed sharing my St. Patrick's Day projects with you. Hope you have a great day.

Pancakes Round 2

I wasn't completely happy with the pancake I made for the Valentine box so I decided I'd go back to my traditonal pattern from Tasty Crochet: A Pantry Full of Patterns for 33 Tasty Treats which works up quickly and honestly looks less like a bagel and more like a pancake. I made two with butter slabs to send off with the St. Patrick's Day box.

Milk

I've always been a huge believer in the value of pretend play for children. With COVID kids are even more restricted from activities and having creative play items at home just seems like a good idea to me.

I keep adding in play food and kitchen items as I have the chance. I hadn't really planned on the milk carton but I was flipping through my crochet food books and I came across 2 patterns and they both inspired me to add one to the St. Patrick's Day box.

I ended up using 2 patterns for this project. The directions came from Hooked on Amigurumi but I used the pictures from Kawaii Crochet to assemble the top as it is a little different from anything I'd made before. I used the first pattern as it starts with a magic circle. I'd be interested in trying the second pattern to see if you get more square corners the next time I make one. I liked the look of the one in the first book better but it is the beauty of owning so many crochet books you can adapt patterns once you understand how something is constructed and I am likely to be more comfortable playing with it the next time around.

Happy Valentine's Day

This year's Valentine Box:

First the traditional Valentine themed items:

A non-traditonal theme for the Valentine box this year I made breakfast food.

My new holiday projects:

As always what better way to celebrate than by remembering what I finished for the holiday.

St. Patrick's Day Cupcake

I know it isn't even Valentine's Day and I am already posting about St. Patrick's Day?? Well the reality is that if you are going to make stuff and mail it you have to start well before the holiday in question. COVID has only made the mailing situation more challenging so getting these projects finished and ready to be mailed is even more essential.

I was quite surprised to find this pattern in Kawaii Crochetas St. Patrick's Day patterns aren't all that common. This is a color themed book and I guess green was a good time to introduce a St. Patrick's Day themed item.

This pattern is designed for lighter yarn but my stock of light green cotton yarn in multiple shades was limited so I went with acrylic worsted weight yarn and I wasn't disappointed with the outcome. I used an e hook for this project.

I hope to finish a couple more St. Patrick's themed items and a few more breakfast items and then have this package on its way so it hopefully arrives before the holiday.

Bacon

One of the things I love about being part of crochet communities is how people share and help each other. I had been sharing about my food projects for my Valentine box when a very kind person sent me a link for a free pattern for a BLT sandwich that you can find here. I plan on making the sandwich to add to a later box but the bacon pattern was perfect for the breakfast foods I wanted to add for the St. Patrick's Day box.

The pattern works up incredibly fast and easy. I made all 4 while watching play off football on Sunday after I'd finished off the Valentine Gal. It was the perfect project because it required limited supplies and focus.

The simplicity of this pattern is what I love. There are many bacon patterns out there free and paid but most require additional work. Many patterns have additional embrodiery but this relies on the color shading provided by Lily's Sugar and Cream's Terra Firma yarn. I bought a few skeins as I suspect at some point I'm going to be making more play breakfast sets and this yarn makes the bacon much easier.

Maple Syrup

With my mailing deadline fast approaching this is the last of the breakfast items to make the Valentine box. I chose it because again it adds to the pretend play aspect of the set to not only have pretend maple syrup and butter for the pancake and waffle but now you have a bottle to "pour" the syrup from while playing.

The syrup pattern is part of a larger breakfast set and you can purchase it here.

This pattern works up really quickly and easily. The largest challenge for me as always was the lettering for the bottle. I was thrilled to discover I had red felt left over from an earlier project and I dug into some extremely old embrodiery supplies for the thread to letter the bottle.

I went up to a g hook for this project. As the size of the bottle emerged when I used the suggested hook I frogged it and started again with the larger hook. I wanted the bottle a little larger. I also added an extra row for the cap. I debated this but it was easier to fit and sew with the extra row.

I don't think I'm done with play food or even breakfast food just yet. St. Patrick's Day is coming and it seems like a good time to add some extra food to this set.

Breakfast Egg

I love adding items to a play set that creates encouragement for imaginative play. This cracked egg set is such an item. The pattern comes from Tasty Crochetand it would work with a breakfast set like I'm putting together or a play baking set where a child wants to be able to "crack" eggs for mixing.

The pattern works up quickly and the egg tucks nicely into the finished egg.

I am starting to get close to the deadline for mailing so I'm going to have to finish up the projects, get them boxed and into the mail. It seems breakfast will be continued on into St. Patrick's Day.

Toast with Jam

Toast is a fairly common crochet food pattern. You can easily adapt any bread patern. I chose this one from Kawaii Crochetbecause I liked the added jam. It added a little extra fun to the pretend play intention I have for this play set.

My plan is for practical play. I haven't added the eyes and other decorative items because I want this to be like traditional play food. I also haven't sewed the syrup, butter or in this case jam to the various play food items because while it risks them getting lost I'm hoping it adds some play experience as the kids can decide do I want butter or jam on my toast.

I'm coming to realize this breakfast is a work in progress. There are many items I'd like to add that won't make it to the Valentine's box. However, St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be a bad time to continuing to add to the food collection. We shall see what happens.

Pancake

I'm continuing to add breakfast items for the Valentine box. For years I've used the flatter pancake pattern found in Tasty Crochet: A Pantry Full of Patterns for 33 Tasty Treatsit makes a nice flat pancake pattern. My personal preference has always been for nice fluffy pancakes so I decided to try the pattern in Kawaii Crochetleaving out the facial features to make it more of a traditional play food.

These are designed to be small projects and to make mine larger I made mine from worsted weight yarn with a g hook. This gave me the size I wanted but they did end up slightly fluffier than I wanted. There are always trade offs. Next time I'd make the syrup with a smaller hook.

Along with Valentine's books I found Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes!to send along with the breakfast food.

One thing I loved about this pattern is it is made in one piece, no joining. That being said I am strongly considering returning to my flatter pancakes only because these are just too tall if I make them play set size. Something to think about for another day.

Breakfast Sausage Links

The breakfast crochet patterns are nice quick projects to work on as I rotate through some other projects which at times get more complicated. I'm working my way through a heart thtat I think I finally conquered. Don't want to declare victory to early on that one. However, the sausages were a quick break as they worked up without a challenge.

For those of you who haven't been following along I'm planning on including a crochet breakfast play set with the Valentine box this year. I'm working on some themed Valentine's projects as well but I was thinking with most of the country still shut down it is nice to have creative fun things kids can do at home that keep them busy and entertained while Mom and Dad have other things to do.

This pattern is the same pattern the sausage patty came from and you can purchase it here.

Sausage Patty

I'm continuing to alternate between making donation doll items and working on my Valentine box to mail out. I'm hoping to get this one there before the holiday. This was a nice quick project to finish off between working on a doll play set that had multiple pieces to finish. It is part of a breakfast play set Breakfast Time which you can purchase here.

I'm enjoying pulling from a variety of crochet food patterns and books I seem to have accumulated to put my crochet breakfast play set together for the holiday box. Play food is a great way to engage kids in pretend play and crochet food is a great alternative to the plastic stuff found in the stores.

I'm on to breakfast sausage links next which were more common in my house growing up than the saugage patties. The first one was a bit larger so time to move to a smaller hook and see where that takes me. I'm also hoping to finish the Lil Cutesies' set soon and be ready to move on to the next doll project.

Waffle

I was trying to decide what to include in the Valentine box this year and one choice I made was breakfast food. I like a hot breakfast on a cold day so it seemed like something fun to add for a cold February day. I started with the waffle pattern from AmiguruMe Eatswhich gave me a good starting point for the project.

The waffle is based on the waffle stitch. I made mine slightly larger than the pattern although I stayed with the suggested yarn and hook. If you are interested in adding scents to your projects this book gives you some ideas. I'm not a fan of toys that smell so I use the book strictly to make the patterns and you don't need the scents to make them work.

The pattern suggests attaching the syrup and butter to the waffle. Normally I sew on anything I can so it doesn't get lost. However, this is supposed to be play food and I thought one of the fun concepts of play is being able to do as much for yourself as possible. Leaving the syrup and butter unattached leaves it to the child to add it to the food. I've a pattern for a syrup bottle that I'm hoping to make later.

Apple Pie

This is the last item headed into the Thanksgiving box for 2020. I have a couple of items for my house to finish for the holiday but then it is on to Christmas.

Of all the pie patterns I've worked with this is one of my favorite sets because it adds a bit of fun to the play because kids can put the pies together. The pattern includes a pattern for the apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and a berry pie. You can purchase the pattern here.

I made this pie many years ago for another family member and some things stuck with me about what I'd do differently if I tried it again. First the pie is large and storing all this food can be a challenge, so bringing down the size to a more manageable pie plate was a goal. The second thing I remembered from my previous experience is that the acrylic yarn didn't hold the shape of this pie very well because it isn't stuffed. The idea is that the child can "make" the pie by putting the pieces together. I found the acrylic yarn was a bit floppy when I made this the first time and I wasn't completely pleased with the experience.

I've been experimenting more with cotton sport yarn and thought it would be interesting to try that yarn for this project to see if it would provide more stability for the pieces. I used a Omega Sinfonia cotton sport yarn for this project with a C hook. I am pleased with the substitution and will stick with it if I come back to this pie pattern again.

I've preordered a book due out in December with more food patterns and kitchen accessories that I'm hoping to try out to add to future boxes. We will see what happens. For now I need to finish my Thanksgiving projects because I really need to get the Christmas box ready to ship.