Jack and the Beanstalk

I was in the middle of another project when I realized it was no longer going to be a July birthday project it was going to need to move to a Christmas project. This left a hole in my birthday schedule of projects. I pondered the Jack and the Beanstalk project. It seemed straight forward enough but what if I got drawn into it and it too became challenging enough that it also became a distant Christmas list present. I pondered and then began crocheting.

For those of you interested in the pattern you can find it in the book Crochet Stories: Grimms' Fairy Tales along with 4 other fairy tale patterns.

This project was made with sport weight yarn as I was trying to keep the set to a reasonable size. I used an f hook. Hair has always been a challenge for me. Jack's is modeled after the trolls from the Three Billy Goat's Gruff. I followed the pattern a bit more closely trying to get the beard and the hair correct for the giant but he was tough. The piece I thought would be most challenging, the beantstalk actually worked up pretty easily.

For my own notes I added Trust Me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks!: The Story of Jack and the Beanstalk as Told by the Giant and It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk to this package.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff Large Goat

I've long been a fan of giving gifts of books combined with themed toys that help kids act out the book as it is being read and retell the story long after they've heard it. My next project is to go with a gift of The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Paul Galdone Classics) for a summer birthday gift.

The pattern for the goats comes from Once Upon a Time... in Crochet: 30 amigurumi characters from your favorite fairytales a book I picked up with a couple of fairy tale crochet books that I'm finally putting to use. I found a free pattern online for a troll that has some unique techniques I wanted to try out so, I'm experimenting with that pattern first as I liked the troll better and I wanted to see if I could manage the challenges of the other pattern. If it doesn't work out I'll be back working the troll from this book. I'm sure I'll be documenting my journey at some point.

I haven't been working much from books lately and one of the challenges is keeping your page. One of the things I appreciated about this book was the end pages that bend in to create page holders.

The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn and C or D hooks for the goats making them around 4-4 1/2" for those of you interested in the pattern as written. I had no interest in making them that small and I also wasn't crazy about working in the round in such a tight area. There was also my quest to use as much yarn on hand as I can. Using worsted weight yarn to make the goats means not ordering more yarn and that is important to my goals of trying to use up yarn on hand.

I often read reviews where people say they don't like X pattern because they prefer X yarn. The reality with amis is that most can be adjusted to different yarns but it will effect size and in some cases textures and patterns created if there are yarn/hook changes, etc. In the case of the goats making them larger was not a huge issue. These will actually be about the size of the farm animals I made previously and something tells me they may end up on the farm play sets along with their journey through the Three Billy Goats Gruff so making them a compatible size was not the worse choice I could make.

Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppets

It's the New Year and I'm still catching up on posting my Christmas projects but there are worse fates. Little Red Riding Hood was a theme for one of the family members I was making gifts for this year. I'd made her Handmade Kitty's Three Little Pig Finger Puppets for her birthday so it seemed fitting I add the Red Riding Hood ones for Christmas. You can purchase the pattern here.

I've always been a huge fan of matching toys to books. I sent along a couple different versions of the Red Riding Hood tale to go with the present as I did with the Three Little Pigs. I think puppets are a great way to extend the play with a story. I've come a long way with the puppets and I promise myself some day I will master the houses for these puppet sets.

These are great scrap projects. I used up more left over bobbins from the farm blanket I blogged about previously. I've been targeting color choices on various projects in an attempt to use them up. I also used up some light cotton yarn I've been trying to finish off as I don't have enough to do much with but I don't want to waste it either.

Dragon Finger Puppets

Around Easter last year I wrote about the Crochetme Dragon finger puppets I was making as part of Easter basket fillers. I posted pictures and did not feel I had the skill to work on the human characters that went with the set.




When I started this fairytale project I found an additional dragon finger puppet pattern in the April 2010 web bonus patterns at Crochet World. As of the date of this blog entry that pattern is still available at Crochet World for subscribers if you are interested in finding it.


This picture does not do him all the justice I hoped, but he actually looks rather cute when in his natural shape.

As I mentioned when discussing the farm project, I am hoping to recreate in crochet some of my favorite childhood toys. I had the original Fisher Price Castle and loved the figures. The dragon and knight were two of my favorites from the set. Being able to find some fun crochet options has made preparing my Christmas packages fun.



If you arrived here looking for free toy patterns please see the following pages:

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

Dinosaurs and Dragons

Hello Kitty

Teddy Bear Patterns and Clothes

Knit and Crochet Food Patterns Great for Play Food


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