Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Always a fun holiday growing up. Best wishes to all of you on this day. I'm celebrating by remembering my holiday themed projects.

Crochet Cupcakes

I love toys that encourage creative play. So when ever possible I try to include items in the holiday packages that encourage kids to pretend, act out stories, etc. Play food has long been a favorite present. I've started adding play food to some of the packages. Last month it was Valentine cookies and candy. This month I crocheted green cupcakes to keep with the St. Patrick's Day theme.

Cupcakes are not a crochet project I have much experience with so I decided to try two different patterns to learn a little about making them.

You can find the top pictured free cupcake pattern here.

Notes for myself:
I reduced the total number of stitches for the cupcake from 36 to 30 because it fit better in the cupcake sleeve. I found it was tight when I did the full 36. I also reduced the total number of rows because I wanted it to sit on top of the cupcake sleeve. When I made the full number of rows it stuck out. I kept measuring it against the side of the sleeve to make sure it would fit.

The second free pattern can be found here. While not as obvious this cupcake is also made with a separate cupcake and cover. I learned about surface crochet for this project and I like the stitch.

Irish Lass Crochet Bear

I finished up the Irish Bear pair for my St. Patrick's Day package the last weekend in February. The pattern comes from an out of print American School of Needlework Crochet Pairs of Bears #1182 for those of you who may want to look for it.

The girl bear's outfit was much easier than the boy's. I made the skirt and the arms less full and with fewer trims. I also added a crocheted ear bow.

At some point I'd like to try to make these bears in the smaller size possibly with thread. We'll see how it goes.

St. Patrick's Day Bear

This is the first project in a while that I really wanted to keep. I fell in love with this little fellow. However, he will be making his way to his new home after his new owner gets into her new home.

I found this free pattern here while searching for a bear pattern for this project. I was going to purchase this one here as it comes as a complete set, but when I started this project it hadn't been released as a single pattern. It was only available as a set and I didn't want the rest of the patterns in the set. Perhaps it will work for next year if I'm still doing these. Then again he's cute enough I might want one of each of these for my house.

Now for my notes, I started doing this project in worsted weight acrylic yarn and even with a smaller hook the bear was huge. For my house it might make a cool decoration. For the child it is going to it would have been a monster. So, I used Knit Picks cotton sport weight yarn I had left over from making the Christmas bib and the yarn I'd hoped to make a St. Patrick's day bib with to make the toy. I believe there is a mix of the Cotton Sports comfort and shine.

The hat came from two other free patterns as clearly the bear pattern was just the cute bear and his shorts. The hat can be found here. The buckles can be found at the same designer different article here. The biggest change was hook size to get it to match my bear's head, but you will have to adjust to fit it to your bear as needed.

An additional note about the pants these are constructed making the pant legs first and connecting them to form the pants. You will want to make sure the legs fit over the bears legs before continuing. After crocheting tightly making the ami, my stitches were too tight making the first leg and the pant leg would not fit over the bears leg. I had to make a second one watching myself to ensure I did not crochet too tightly. The second two worked fine. I generally prefer to work from the waist down and split the crotch making the legs that way, however with the stripes it worked better using this method. The shorts really were adorable. The light green had been used on some Christmas projects and was left over. I had just enough to finish the shorts without digging into another skein.

Elephant Leprechaun

Yes, we've finally reached the last of the holiday elephant amigurumis. I had to take a break and post about other things before returning to him, but he has the honor of finishing my ami posts for a bit. I've already started some doll clothes that I should be finishing well before this posts. Since I got so far behind on posting, I decided to catch up and prepost a bunch of entries taking me all the way from April into May.

This pattern is based on another one of Crochet Spot's holiday patterns Liam the Leprechaun. He can be purchased here. I was fortunate that a very kind person gifted him to me during one of Crochetville's wishlists. As with the Crochet Pilgrim I adapted the face so it would be elephant friendly. I added the trunk and ears from Red Heart's Baby Elephant found here.

After not being happy with the leg situation on the Pilgrim, I decided to go a different direction with the Leprechaun. I think I will do the same when making Liam for myself at some point. I didn't create the legs separately, I created them by separating them from the body and making them part of the core of the ami. I thought he looked better standing. He still isn't perfectly balanced, but he doesn't have the stubby look he gets when sitting.


If you arrived here looking for free patterns you may be interested in the following blog pages:

Dinosaurs and Dragons

Knit and Crochet Food Patterns Great for Play Food

Hello Kitty

Crochet and Knit Puppets

Crochet Amigurumi Animals and Stuffed Animal Free Patterns

Knit Amigurumi and Stuffed Toys

Crochet and Knit Amigurumi and Other Dolls

Knit and Crochet Toys

Teddy Bear Patterns and Clothes

Halloween Page

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Valentines

Easter

Graduation

Patriotic

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