Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope you have a happy, healthy Thanksgiving with those you love.

Pilgrim Girl Lovey

It was time for a Pilgrim Lovey. I'd previously made a turkey and when I found the Pilgrim girl it seemed a good fit. You can purchase the pattern here.

After making the over large Halloween lovey from the same designer I went with a g hook for the head and an H hook for the blanket portion of the lovey. I was finishing off worsted acrylic yarn from previous projects so I'm not sure what brand I used for this project for everything but the face. The face was Herschnerr's worsted brand I'd bought on sale earlier in the year. The color was perfect for projects like these.

This finished off my Thanksgiving box. I have two more ornaments and a lovey to make for the early Christmas box I hope to get out soon.

Pilgrim Gnome

I wanted to add a gnome to the Thanksgiving package and I had a turkey pattern but I wanted to start with this designers patterns as I was thinking of purchasing more patterns and wanted to know if I'd complete them or not before buying more holiday themed patterns for Christmas. This is a Garden Gnome Sunflower Pattern available for purchase here. I would like to make this as a fall decoration for myself at some point but the lines were perfect to strip it down and make him into a Pilgrim for my Thanksgiving box.

As I mentioned in my previous post I've been choosing fiber based on creating items of a certain size and using fibers I have in enough quantities on hand to avoid having to buy more fiber. So as with the turkey I wrote about yesterday, I used size 10 crochet thread and my Tulip Etimo size 2 thread hook.

The only major changes needed were color changes and not adding fall details.

Turkey

I fell behind in my plans for Thanksgiving Crochet as I was late finishing my Halloween and birthday boxes in October. I decided I wanted to try some new patterns. The first one I purchased was this turkey pattern. He was funny and silly and I felt like I needed a bit of that to get this holiday box started.

This has probably been my most succesful year in shopping from my stash for projects. I've been picking projects to match my stash or adjusting projects so I can use fiber on hand. This fiber change for this project had a dual purpose. First I wanted a slightly smaller turkey. Second, I lacked the suggested yarn and even the colors of my go to substitute for this yarn on hand. With time being a factor and my goal of using up fiber on hand I switched to size 10 thread which I had the colors and my Tulip size 2mm Thread hook.

This is an incredibly detailed pattern that you can purchase here. I chose to not back the eyes and went with special eyes I had on hand. I lacked the white yarn for the top of the tail so I played with the thread to make it stand out of bit more.

At some point I'd like to make one of these for my own decorations. He has such a silly look to him that he makes me smile.

Snowman Ornament

I always try to get the Christmas ornaments out with the Thanksgiving boxes. For those of you who hate to see the holidays rushed I agree with you. However, this allows for the ornaments to make it on this year's tree without the pressure of me trying to get the Christmas box out really early so the Christmas ornaments make it to the tree. I don't expect them to see the light until tree day, as I'm sure Mom will put them away, but this way she has them when the day comes rather than having them show up after the tree is done.

I had purchased Amigurumi Christmas Ornaments because I wanted more simple options for amigurumi style ornaments. This always ends up being a busy time of year so having quick to make ornaments that are still cute is a plus.

I started with the snowman as a break from a thread turkey I'm making. It was nice to return to a g hook and worsted weight yarn. This was a really quick project and I was able to use up yarn on hand to finish the ornament. I did not use the metal hooks for the top of the ornaments as these are going to children, I crocheted a hook that a metal ornament hook can be added to as I thought this was a safer option. The metal could be glued in but there is always the option that it can release from the yarn and stab a small one.

I used saftey eyes which differs from the pattern and since I'm currently crocheting with size 10 thread for a turkey thread I used the orange thread for the nose rather than yarn. It made for a more detailed nose.

One ornament down, two to go. I'm going to continue alternating between the smaller Thanksgiving projects and the larger ornaments to keep my hands healthy and happy.

Rag Doll Red Dress

I'm contining to cycle the dolls through the free Flamenco doll pattern found here. This was also a great chance to use up some yarn that has been in my stash for a very long time. I purchased it for a long ago Christmas project and had more left over than I'd anticipated. It was quite nice to find a way to send it off to a new home.