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.

Ocean Play Tower

I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to finish up the Ocean Play Tower so it would be ready for the July birthday box. I'd been working on the pattern, you can purchase here, for some time and the main structure was finished at the beginning of May. I had stalled when doing the finish work. When I realized it was Memorial Day weekend and June was around the corner I decided it was time to finish off the tower. What additional animals I add will be a matter of what I get done before the mailing deadline.

Along with adding another play set to the birthday box it also added the feel of a coral reef to the project.

The instructions for creating the towere were excellent. The tower came together well and the part that took me the longest were the outside decorations which I added before putting the towers together. The directions for these are also clear just time consuming. I chose to use smaller fibers rather than split fibers as suggested for some of the projects. My fish are larger than prescribed because I failed to change fiber and hook size.

Diver

This was actually the pattern that made me want to buy Bathtime Buddies when it first came out. This guy just stood out and made me laugh. I knew some day I was going to have to make him. When I thought about putting together this ocean set I realized he was going to have to be a part of it and thus the hunt began for the book I had lost.

The diver is made with Schachenmayr Catania sport cotton yarn and a D hook.

I added the eyes to the face plate before joining to the head as I wanted to use saftey eyes. This was something I learned after making the first head, which required me to make a second one. I make note of it should I decide to return to this project again. The hands are flat I made mine round.

Island Play Set

I've been writing about this project for a while now. I started it at the beginning of my ocean/sea birthday project. It has been finished but for the paracord for some time. I even had the paracord threaded through but was contimplating the best way to use the paracord locks. I finally decided it was time to push through and finish this project so I could focus on finishing the Ocean Tower that I hope will accompany the play set.

The Island Play Set is a free pattern and you can find it here.

I found paracord at Hobby Lobby. I looked around at different types of cord locks and decided on an oval cord lock that I found at Paracord Planet. I ordered a few as I can't imagine this will be the last set I make.

This play set is a double thick mat. This means does allow it to lay down flat, it holds up the island, and you get to hide all the ends from changing colors and sewing on the island. The downside to this additional bulk is it is harder to close. However, while not being the ultimate bag it still provides storage for the ocean/sea creatures.

The original pattern does come with a selection of creatures for the play set. As I've written about I've been using this as an opportunity to explore a range of books and patterns to create my own selection of amis for the project. As I was putting the creatures back after their photo shoot I noticed the dolphin had avoided the picture taking but he will be headed off with the birthday box. He's already back in the bag.

Mermaid in a Shell Playset

This is another Laura Sutcliffe playset. You can purchase the pattern here.

This pattern is designed so you can make your mermaid as a doll dressing up as a mermaid or as a mermaid. I opted for the mermaid as there are fewer pieces to lose later. I have been making more of my ami sets with sport cotton but my hands needed a break so I wanted with worsted weight and a g hook. The designer suggests DK weight but I didn't have any suitable colors in my stash so I went with worsted 4. If I make this again I would think about the sport cotton and a smaller hook size. I like the finished set but I think it would be cuter if smaller and the shell would be sturdier in cotton.

One of the reasons I don't make many "dolls" is I really don't enjoy making hair. This was a fun wig that is sewn on and it is a great altenative to trying to "root" hair.

If you choose to go with the doll that dresses up as a mermaid there is an additional dress pattern for the doll to wear.

This set works up quickly and was a nice additional playset to add to my ocean theme birthday box.

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.

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.