Witch Lovey

My Life Chef needs a new hat

Our neighbors set up an amazing haunted yard every year. As I saw them setting it up this year I saw the skeleton had an apron but no chef's hat. I asked if they were interested in one and offered to see if the doll hat would fit. It did and I will be making another one for the donation doll after I finish the outfit I'm working on now but it was worth it to contribute to a fun Halloween night.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Time to celebrate by remembering all the Halloween projects.

Pumpkin Man

Since I do the holiday boxes each year I'm always looking for new patterns to try. Pumpkin man was on my pattern birthday list and I was very pleased the pattern arrived on my birthday. You can purchase the pattern here.

The pattern calls for Yarn Art Jeans. I've been working on the goal of using up yarn on hand when ever possible. This isn't a huge hardship as I've got a large yarn supply but I often find I don't have the specific brand and colors called for as I begin new projects. I chose Omega Sinfonia cotton sport yarn for this project and used a B hook. The buttons are some of the new ones I've purchased to use with Barbie's outfits.

One change I had to make to use safety eyes rather than sewing on beads for the eyes as suggested was to not have the eyes sit in the pumpkin ridges. I love the look of the ridges but they are made after the pumpkin is stuffed and I needed to place the safety eyes before closing the pumpkin. It was the right trade off for me, others may make a different choice.

This ami is onn the edge of being small enough to fit into last year's Halloween Village that I'm hoping to add on to for this year with additional houses and Halloween villagers.

Bewitching Sloth

After sending off the summer birthday box it became time to start the fall boxes. I've already posted a couple of the October birthday projects, this is the first of the Halloween box items.

I'd been looking for a sloth pattern to go with Eric Carle's "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth that I'd picked up during the Christmas sales. I hadn't planned on a Halloween sloth but after seeing this pattern I decided to put sloth and book in the Halloween box even though the book was not a Halloween themed title. For those of you who are interested, you can purchase the Bewitching Sloth pattern here.

I've been trying for some smaller Halloween figures that would fit into a growing Halloween village that I started last year. With that in mind I used a D hook and worsted yarn for the sloth. When I did this I found I needed to use sport cotton for the hat and cape to make them fit using a B hook. I continued this trend with the Pumpkin. If I make this again even for a village I'd make the pumpkin with larger yarn as it was a bit smaller than I'd anticipated.

Happy Halloween

For many of us it has been a strange Halloween season but we hope all of you are enjoying it the best you can. I wanted to look back at my Halloween fun this year for my Halloween post. I hope you enjoy.

Candy Corn Witch

I had certain pattern sets that I used to create my Halloween villagers this year and then I just found some fun "extras" to add as I went along. This is a free pattern found here.

This proved to be a good chance to use up more of the yarn I had left over from making the Halloween hot pads. I love projects that help me downsize left overs.

Mr. Vampire

Another villager is finished and ready to be part of Halloween town. I've finished all of the characters from this set with the exception of the pumpkin. Not sure I will have the chance to make the pumpkin this year as there are a couple of other Halloween villagers I want to finish before I mail off this Halloween box. We will just have to see how things work out.

You can purchase the Halloween Minis here. I'm hoping to purchase her two Christmas pattern sets soon as I'ld like to get a jump on making some Christmas characters to send off, too. I've become a huge fan of the way she designs her ami's and I love following her patterns.

Mr. Vampire is made using Schachenmayr Catania yarn which is a light sport weight cotton yarn. I've become a huge fan of light sport cotton for ami's recently. For those of you who haven't used cotton for ami's this has a much different feel than the kitchen cotton you might be familiar with using. It is softer and I've found for the smaller ami's it creates and holds shapes nicely in a way I don't quite get when I use lighter acrylic weights.

For those of you who have been using it for years, I mention this only because I really had limited experience with cotton yarns outside the kitchen cottons until a several years ago when I started looking for fine and sport weight yarns and started purchasing cotton and cotton blend yarns. I don't often make clothing so acrylic often works well for the projects I make. I've not often explored natural fibers.

This year my experience broadened even more when I bought patterns that called for even lighter yarns than I'd used previously and I not only discovered new yarns, but new places to purchase yarn. So I mention it here because cotton was something I associated with kitchen cotton for a long time. My experience with the range of cotton yarns continues to grow as I look for different weights and especially colors of cotton.

Pumpkin House

I was actually looking for another pattern by the same designer for the Halloween box when I came across a folder that I'd failed to file away in the appropriate pattern binder after I received it as a gift. I'd forgotten about this pattern and it works perfectly into my Halloween themed village. You can purchase the Pumpkin Pocket Pal pattern here.

This pattern didn't specify yarn or hook size for the pattern. I started with a g hook and worsted weight 4 yarn and I found my pumpkin was smaller than I wanted for my village theme. I moved to an I hook and worsted weight 4 yarn and was happy with the outcome.

There is no requirement to sew a hinge on the pumpkin stem to attach it to the pumpkin. I did this because I figured it less likely to be lost if it was partly attached and it still allows figures to go in and out of the house.

This is the only house I will be making this year that has the option for the figures to enter the house. I have other patterns that provide that option but those hopefully will appear next year when I have more time for assembly. This year the pumpkin house will be the only interactive house.

The pattern has two options for figures for the house, the pocket pal of the title. There is a doll like figure which while cute didn't quite fit my Halloween villager theme. However the designer also gives directions for making a ghost using the same directions and that fit my theme much better.

I did start by using worsted weight 4 yarn and a g hook for the ghost however, I mistook the ghost bottom for the face and needed to begin the pattern again. I put the pattern aside went to bed and approaching the pattern the next day I decided I wanted to try it in sports cotton. I added an additional bottom row to make the ghost a bit wider as it was considerably smaller once I switched from worsted 4 to sports cotton 3.

You may have noticed in the first ghost picture he lacks a smile. I realized when I took the picture I'd forgotten to sew his smile. I chose not to retake the house pic but I wanted an up close picture of the ghost completed.

Candy Corn Villager

I was a huge fan of Fisher Price's Little People as a child and I've bought many of their holiday sets for gifts over the years. This year with Covid I've been writing about starting to create a Halloween village as part of an annual Halloween box I've been sending out. However, what is a village without its villagers?

One of the patterns I've chosen to help with this is one purchased from Pamspatterns, Crochet Little Halloween set found here. The pattern set comes with a house but again more likely would make next year's box than this years. However, I am hopeful about adding some of the characters.

You may recognize some of this yarn. While the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn I wanted to use up some of the left over sport yarn from the hot pads as it is in Halloween colors. I had some acrylic yarn in peach color that worked for the face. I think the sport weight is a good choice for these smaller figures. I'm going to look into making sure I have some on hand for future projects.

I've seen lots of ghosts, Frankenstein's, and Dracula's, but I rather liked this character because I hadn't seen a candy corn little person before. Just a note, the designer does sell holiday and other collections of her little people as well as holiday set. The candy corn character is not included in the holiday pack. I have both the holiday set and the Halloween set and realized I didn't have all the Halloween characters when I was comparing the patterns and deciding if I wanted to buy the Halloween set.

Halloween House

In light of the limited activities that are going to available for Halloween this year I wanted to add something special to my Halloween box this year and settled on beginning to build a Halloween village.

Now time is limited so this might be the only house in the village this year. We will see if I get to build more, but every village begins with a building. So we begin with this round home with a witch hat for a roof. I have a haunted house pattern that if I don't get to this year will be a good addition for the village for next year. For those of you interested in the witch house you can purchase the pattern here.

The pattern calls for cotton sport weight yarn and a 2.0/2.2 hook. I started with acrylic sport weight and a D hook and even with increasing the hook size to an E I just found the house was too small. This actually worked out well for me because it meant I could use up some worsted 4 weight yarn I had left over from making the baby doll carriers from the Christmas donation. I love projects that help me work on finishing off yarn I've already dug into. I still have enough to make a small village but it is a start. To make this size house I used an E hook.

To make the door and window I did use acrylic sport yarn as I was concerned the worsted would make the items too large to fit on the house. I also added a few rows to the hat brim to make the brim wider.

I ordered the yarn I need to make more of the villagers so I have hopes of this being a fun play set for the little ones who may have curtailed fall activities. I'm hoping to have this out of here in time for it to arrive by the beginning of October so I do need to get moving.

Pumpkin Hot Pad

I'm continuing to work through the mug rug patterns in Spooktacular Crochetturning them into hot pads by crocheting an additional single color mug rug and crocheting the two together to make my hot pad.

I've recently seen more mug rug patterns so it is clearly becoming a thing. As I type this I'm looking at my mug sized square ceramic coaster and that is really all I have space for on the table. As cute as a mug rug is there really just isn't room for one and it would likely end up causing the item to fall off the table. So all things considered a hot pad is a practical useful choice for me as I love having holiday ones to use.

The pattern calls for Omega Sinfonia light a 3 sport weight 100% cotton yarn and as I mentioned in the previous post it was not easy to track down all the colors required. When I ordered the yarn for all three patterns Hobby Lobby had nothing in stock online. I checked as of writing this blog and they now have the black, yellow, and white back in stock online. I don't know what they carry in store. It's been a LONG time since I've been out to a yarn store in person. I did find all the colors required at Creative Yarn Source. If you notice I'm mentioning all sources not because I'm getting anything from the vendors but lately I've been extremely frustrated that I see a pattern I really love and then spend fruitless hours trying to find either the yarn mentioned or a reasonable substitute. If I can save someone the search then hopefully someone will know where to find the yarn I need too.

Just a note as I mentioned in the Frankenstein post if you intend to use these as hot pads and not just decorations it is important that you do not use acrylic yarn if you make them into hot pads. Acrylic will melt. Cotton is a great solution for the challenge. I know some use wool it isn't a favorite for my hands.

Frankenstein Hot Pad

I saw the mug rugs in Spooktacular Crochetand thought I don't have much use for a mug rug but they might possibly work as hot pads.

The first task was to locate the yarn. It is one of my constant frustrations with designers that they choose yarns that are less than easily found or substituted for with the colors you need.

Omega Sinfonia light a 3 sport weight 100% cotton yarn is not as easy to find as one would hope. It is important to use 100% cotton or natural yarns like wool if you intend to use the hot pads rather than just making them for decorations as acrylic will melt. That is why it is important to check the fiber make up of your cotton. I have some that are blends that are fine for dish cloths but not for hot pads because dish cloths aren't exposed to the same heat as hot pads.

I thank Creative Yarn Source as they were the ONLY place I was able to locate that had all the yarn colors I needed to complete the project. I had never done business with them before am getting nothing from them for stating this but I was impressed with the turn around of my order. While the website said there could be delays my yarn was here far quicker than I'd expected.

As for ordering the yarn the pattern called for one skein of each color to complete all three mug rugs. Normally I tend to order more than I need but I've ordered a good deal of yarn lately and this yarn is not inexpensive for a hot pad. With that in mind I decided to take my chances and see if I could pull together enough yarn to back the rugs to make them into hot pads.

I was rather impressed by how far the yarn went. To be certain I had enough yarn to complete all the projects I made all the pieces I needed from the orange for all three projects. I ended up remaking a couple so I had to use extra yarn. With that in mind despite making a full yarn mat from the left over orange I still had this much left over for future projects. I'm thrilled because orange is one of those sport yarn colors I often find myself in need of for fall holiday projects so having this in my stash is great. Most importantly though despite the fact I changed the pattern to add a backing for the hot pad I won't need to buy more yarn!

I'm planning on making the Black Cat and the Pumpkin Mug Rugs into Hot Pads soon.