Orca

The July birthday box started the journey to its new home last Friday. The Orca was the last ami to make it into the box.

The Orca pattern comes from Bathtime Buddies. I used Schachenmayr Catania sport cotton with a C hook to make this a smaller ami. I chose felt for the accents.

This was a fun project and I kept finding more projects I'd like to make at some point. However, it was time to mail this project off and get started with my fall birthday box and Halloween.

I know many of you are thinking but we just finished July 4th. I'm not looking to rush celebrating Halloween but I have 2 boxes to finish before October as well finishing off the doll donations by end of November. These are summer projects to be enjoyed in the fall and winter months. That doesn't even include the Thanksgiving box and the Christmas boxes. You can expect to see some fall decorations creeping into the blog in the not to distant future.

Narwhal

One of my goals when working on this ocean/sea themed project was to add some characters that aren't always found in traditional ocean/sea sets. The Narwhal was a good fit for that goal. I even included I'm a Narwhal to provide a little more age appropriate info about the Narwhal.

There are so many more patterns I'd love to add to this set but my time is winding down. I have one more ami to finish and then I have to wrap, pack and put the birthday box in the mail in order for the box to arrive on time.

The Narwhal pattern comes from Bathtime Buddies and I chose to make it in Schachenmayr Catania sport cotton with a C hook. I also chose to use felt instead of terry for the white features. This was a much better choice than what I did with the swordfish.

Seahorse

I wanted a seahorse to send along with Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse for July's birthday box. I chose the pattern from How to Crochet Animals: Ocean and I found the pattern to be easy to make. I used worsted yarn and a D hook. I'm thinking about making a second one with sport yarn and a c hook to fit with the size of the rest of the ocean animals.

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.

Shrimp

I'm continuing my quest for ocean/sea creatures to add to my summer birthday project. I found the shrimp pattern in 75 Seashells, Fish, Coral and Colorful Marine Life to Knit and Crochet and it worked up quickly.

I found the picture funny as it almost looks like he's holding up an arm yelling "No pictures, no pictures!!"

I found a used copy of this book but I'm holding on to my library edition until it arrives. Thankfully, it isn't a high volume requested item so I shouldn't have trouble renewing until my copy arrives.

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.

Manatee

When I was thinking about creating an ocean play set I never thought I'd find a manatee or a stingray pattern to include in the set. I was quite pleased to see the range of sea creatures I've been able to find crochet patterns for as I've proceeded with this project.

This is another pattern from Bathtime Buddies that I still have on loan from the library. I do have the PDF to work from once the library book goes back, but for the moment it is easier working from the book.

The manatee works up quickly. As I mentioned before I'm trying to keep my animals small for the play set. If I had to do this again I'd have used sport yarn, but grey is in short supply in my yarn sport section so I used a D hook with worsted weight 4 yarn.

Dolphin

I'm continuing to trade off working on my summer birthday projects and my doll donation items. I've got two playset items that are larger I'm working on and then the creatures and other items to use with the playsets to make for the birthday box. I'm working on a variety of different sized doll clothes for the Christmas donation.

The Little Chubby Dolphin pattern is a free pattern you can find here. I've been mixing and matching patterns from different books and pattern sites as I go. I finally got around to purchasing Bathtime Buddies as a Ravelry PDF download even though my library loan has not expired. There are cloth patterns for the tummies of some of the animals to add and instead of photocopying them to use to cut out the pieces (which I'd have had to do even if I'd owned the print book) I can print the patterns as I need them, cut and reprint again if I remake the animals and lose the precut patterns.

I did make some changes to the dolphin. As I've mentioned in previous posts I'm trying to keep the animals small so they will store well and fit the playsets. With that in mind I went from the suggested f hook to a D hook. I did make a white stomach rather than the multi-color tummy for the dolphin, but I wasn't thrilled with the look so I left it off. If I made another one I might try using a lighter weight yarn for the stomach as it just seems too bulky with 2 layers of worsted weight yarn.

I have 75 Seashells, Fish, Coral and Colorful Marine Life to Knit and Crochet on reserve at the library to pick up this weekend to see if there are any additional ideas to add to my ocean playset. I've not looked at this book before but I'm not a huge fan of the combined knit and crochet books as I don't knit. It always seems like the projects I most want to do are the knit ones. I've tried knitting and the best I can do are dishcloths. Crocheting is my fiber talent. That being said it is free to preview from the library so it is worth seeing if there are any fun things to add to the mix.

I found dishcloth material this weekend to use with the patterns in Bathtime buddies so I'm looking forward to experimenting with using cloth and yarn together. I've used felt as an add on but never to cover a hole in a crocheted piece before. It will be an interesting project. If it doesn't work I will have to crochet the holes closed or patch with a crochet patch.

Stingray

The Stingray was the first creature I made from Bathtime Buddies and I'm already trying to decide which ocean creature I'll be attacking next. I'm hoping to get the most out of my library loan before I need to get a PDF copy of the book from Ravelry here.

I used worsted weight acrylic yarn and a D hook to complete the Stingray.

I finished another portion of the island ocean bag and ordered some paracord to try to close the bag. I've never used paracord as a bag closure so we will see how it all works out.

Jilly Jellyfish

My Ocean themed summer birthday project continues with another pattern from Hooked on Amigurumi Jilly Jellyfish. My one disappointment with this pattern was unlike the last two sea creatures I've made from the book I did actually have to sew on the tentacles for the jellyfish. It wasn't hard but I've come to enjoy the way the designer incorporates crocheting all the pieces on to the items to avoid the need to sew.

My goal with these projects is to keep the amis small so they will fit into the ocean playset I'm crocheting to go with this birthday set. You can find that free pattern here. I used a D hook with a lighter worsted weight yarn to make this jellyfish. I added more tentacles than the pattern called for but I liked the look as I was working on the project.

I'm eying a project from Bathtime Buddies which I've got on loan from the library for my next ocean creature. I'm planning on picking up the e-book from Ravelry when my loan expires so I can dowload and print the patterns as I go along. I looked into buying a second hand copy of the book as the print copies are currently out of print but the prices are quite overpriced and unreasonable. So, the best option is the e-pattern option. If interested you can find the ebook on Ravelry here. If you crochet from a Kindle book Amazon does offer a cheaper option as a kindle book Bathtime Buddies. I like a printed copy I can make notes on as I work and I don't tend to like to work from a screen.