Summer Birthday Presents

I try to make lists and I do take pictures but I'm finding these posts to be helpful in keeping track of what I made and when. So I decided a birthday post would be worth while. I"m posting it at the end of July because the box will be long gone and I'll have had to start work on the crazy fall schedule of a fall birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. It all creeps up so fast.

Jeremy Fisher

I'm continuing to add more Beatrix Potter characters and books to the October birthday pile. Up next we have The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

This pattern is part of the supplement from Simply Crochet issue 110. You can purchase this edition of the digital magazine here.

I've gotten used to looking for yarn substitutes first because I've been trying to keep my amis smaller than many of the suggested sizes and secondly in this case the UK yarns aren't always readily available here in the US.

It is also a great chance for me to work through my stash rather than buying more yarn. For this project I used a combination of Hobby Lobby's acrylic sport yarn and A.C. Moore's now discontinued house sport brand to get the colors I needed for the project. I used a D hook for all items except the coat. I started with the D but found the coat was too small. The coat had a much better fit when made with the sport yarn and an F hook.

Bottle Carrier

We are starting to return to outdoor activities and I am remembering that even prior to COVID more places had restrictions on bringing bags into places. I understand the restrictions but one thing I miss about our backpack to carry our stuff was the water bottle holders on the side of the pack. Whether you can bring water in or you have to buy your water at the venue I still can't finish a bottle on opening. I like being able to walk around an hydrate as necessary. I tend not to finish a bottle if I have to carry it for long in my hands.

On our first longer outing in the heat this issue came back to me. At home I can have as much water as I want so hydration hasn't been an issue. However walking around outside seeing the sites recently I realized just how much I missed my backpack with its drink holders.

When I came home I was thinking about a solution to my challenge and my husband mentioned drink holders I had made for family members for Christmas a few years back. I pulled up the blog posts for information and sure enough back in 2017 I'd made a bunch for Christmas gifts. The pattern comes from All About Cotton Leisure Arts (7055) and along with the bottle pattern I've made several of the kitchen and bath items. One of the things I love about this blog is it does remind me of what I made and where to find the patterns I used.

I've been on a kick to use up yarn I have on hand so this carrier is made with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Yarn, Hippi that I had on hand as I tend to stock up on the larger sized Bernat Cotton when I can find it on sale. Therefore when I go hunting in my stash I can almost always find one color from that brand.

This pattern worked up for me according to directions without changes. I'm working on a second one for myself and I'm thinking of a longer handle so I can wear it like a cross purse rather than a shoulder purse just to give myself a little more support. I'll post it when finished.

These easily fold and can be carried in my purse when not in use. You can see through them and they really only have room for the bottle so they satisfy the requirements of most of the outdoor venues we plan to visit so I'm pleased with my project.

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.

Monkey Finger Puppet Blue Overalls

I finished the second finger puppet to go with the Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed book that will be going out with the October birthday box. You can purchase the pattern here.

I used Aunt Lydia Size 10, Natural, Peackock, and Fudge. Peackock was not a pattern choice but as I mentioned in the previous post I decided I'd use colors on hand for the puppet's clothing.

I had an issue with the straps last time so I made them shorter and I crossed them in the back. This seemed to make it easier to join them.

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.

Lil Cutesies Variegated Set

I made a second outfit for the JC Toys Lil Cutesies 8.5" Baby Doll using Shady Lane's Crochet Gingham Tote Tykes Pattern set 411. You can purchase a digital copy here or a printed copy at the website here.

I used Bernat Baby Sport Yarn, Ombres, Baby Baby and Bernat Baby Sport Yarn, Baby Pink with an f hook to complete this outfit.

Squirrel Nutkin

I made Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit for the Easter box. I wanted to continue with the series and next up is The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin which appeared in the supplement of Simply Crochet issue 110. You can purchase a digital copy of the magazine that includes the supplement patterns at Ravelry here. The supplement includes four Beatrix Potter patterns Squirrel Nutkin, Jeremy Fisher, Tom Kitten, and Samuel Whiskers.

While the pattern calls for a UK brand of DK yarn I chose to use Vanna's Choice Rust and a D hook as I am determined to use up as much yarn on hand as possible for my projects. It took almost a complete skein to finish this project.

As this is a UK magazine the terms are UK crochet. However, since the stitches don't change, I didn't have to write down any changes. I was able to easily remember the dc was the US sc. I tend to get more confused when the pattern moves between stitches and I need to keep converting as I'm working through a pattern.

Monkey Finger Puppet Yellow Overalls

During the Christmas book sales I'd picked up a copy of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and put it away for this birthday box.

At the time I had a different finger puppet pattern in mind for the box. It was on my wish list but when I went to buy it the pattern was gone. As luck would have it I was looking through e-pattern central and found one I liked even more as these puppets had clothes and I had limited experience clothing finger puppets. It seemed like a fun challenge. You can purchase the pattern here.

This pattern requires size 10 thread and with my ever growing thread collection I had the colors I needed for the monkey in my stash. I'm choosing clothing colors from my stash. This is a brighter yellow than suggested but I'm happy with the color.

I was concerned I'd get the tail hole placement on the overalls wrong but instead my mistake was following the directions for the back right strap. I'll watch this more carefully on the next monkey. I'll also decrease the number of chains as I found the straps to be a bit long for the pants.

This was a unique construction pattern that allows the pants to be open for the finger portion of the finger puppet. Most of my finger puppet patterns are finger tubes with perhaps heads and arms. Only a few like this one include additional features like legs and tails that extend below the tube. It was fun to see how it came together. Only 4 more to go. I will be spreading these out with other birthday, Halloween, and doll projects.

I used an Etimo Steel 1.8 mm Crochet Hook for the monkey body and clothes. The facial features were made with a Tulip Etimo 1.25mm Steel Crochet Hook. I was able to use safety eyes because I crocheted the eye sections before decreasing the head and then placed the saftey eyes through the crocheted eye sections with their backings before finishing the decreases.

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.

My Life Chevron Skirt and Summer Blouse

This was a unique fiber challenge for me. Both projects suggested using size 10 crochet thread for their respective patterns. In the case of one I ended up using the smaller size 20 crochet thread. In the other I was able to meet a goal of using up some Spud and Chloe sock yarn I'd won as a door prize from a fiber event years ago and have been slowly targeting for doll projects.

I purchased the Chevron skirt pattern from e-pattern central during one of their many sales. When I checked back today the pattern was no longer available. However if you are interested the designer still is selling it at Ravelry here.

I tried making the skirt with size 10 cotton thread and went down to my smallest steel hooks with no luck. This could be my issue as it looks like at least one other person has completed it on Ravelry with size 10 thread. However, I decided to try an experiment and started the skirt with size 20 thread I had left over from a Barbie project and used my Tulip Rose Steel Crochet Hook-Size 4/1.25mm. The skirt quickly showed signs of fitting better but I had to order more size 20 thread from Creative Yarn source so I put off finishing the skirt until my thread arrived.

With the right hook and thread this was actually a fairly easy pattern to follow and I like the look of the finished skirt.

While I like sending separates because the child gets to mix and match outfits to create a fashion pleasing to the child it creates a need to find more patterns. I turned to ABC Knitting's Doll Crochet section for the Elgegant Summer Blouse. You can find the free pattern here.

As I mentioned earlier this pattern also called for size 10 cotton but when I'd tried it earlier it had been too small. I remembered the sock yarn and decided it was worth a try. I used a size B hook with the sock yarn and am pleased with the fit. This might not be a bad way to use up more of the yarn and give myself tops to use with skirts and pants.