Lowly Worm

I've long been a Richard Scarry fan I've added three of my favorites to the Christmas box this year GREAT BIG SCHOOLHOUSE, Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever, and Richard Scarry's Best Nursery Tales Ever.I also added two of his Christmas classics Richard Scarry's The Animals' Merry Christmas and Richard Scarry's Christmas Mice.

While there are many reaccuring characters cats, bears and other creatures, my favorite was always Lowly Worm. When I was thinking about a character to include with this package of books, Lowly was the first one that came to mind. This however wasn't the first pattern that came to mind. I'll be writing about that project later. I soon realized as I worked on that project it wasn't going to be practical with Lowly's hat and shoe.

Fortunatley for those of you who want to crochet your own Lowly this pattern is a free pattern available here.

This was a great project to use up some knit picks sport cotton. I was a little nervous about the blue because it was the only blue I had close to the right color and a small left over ball I was hoping would hold out to finish the project. I had just one long strand left when Lowly was done. Always a good feeling to have a little left in case you have an issue. Since I wanted a slightly smaller Lowly I went with a D hook and it worked out well with this yarn.

Make Way For Ducklings Nack and Ouack

The end is truly near. I can feel it. I'm now making them in pairs. Only two more and the ducklings will be done, with just Mrs. Mallard to complete the set for Make Way for Ducklings and I think I'll make the deadline with room to spare.

The pattern for all the ducks in the set can be found in Zoomigurumi 7I plan to adapt Mr. Mallard's pattern to make Mrs. Mallard.

If you need a duck pattern these do work up remarkably quickly. I know ducks are often popular at Easter. The ducklings are made with sport yarn and a D hook to get them to this size. I tried worsted weight yarn but the first one I made was too too big for a set of 8. I do plan on using him as an Easter decoration.

One thing I do love about this design is other than the beak and the wings it is all one piece so it limits the amount of sewing I have to do later. This is a huge consideration when you are making 8 ducklings and 2 adults.

Make Way For Ducklings Kack

I'm continuing to work on the amis for my Make Way for Ducklings birthday present. With Kack and Jack finished it leaves me with just six more ducklings to hatch.

I've promised myself that when I've finished half of the ducklings I will tackle either the mallard which is also found in Zoomigurumi 7 or the mother which I am planning on adapting from the mallard pattern.

I'm thinking of using this pattern for the swan cygnet unless I find a better option for The Ugly Duckling but I still have to decide on a color. More research. I have a couple of swan patterns I'm choosing between so we will have to see what happens as I get closer to making that project happen.

Make Way For Ducklings Jack

If you follow this blog at all you will notice a trend of making toys to go with books as presents for kids. I just find it is a great way to engage kids in retelling stories, making up their own stories, and getting more involved with books and story telling in general.

Make Way for Ducklings has long been a family favorite back to the days of Captain Kangaroo. There is a stature in Boston of the duck family and the story seems to have remained popular with families for a very long time. So it seemed a good choice for my October birthday package. Somehow I'd forgotten there were 8 ducklings. I was thinking 4, maybe 5 but no there are 8.

I found the pattern for the mallard and the ducklings in Zoomigurumi 7 and it is actually the cover pattern for the book. When I saw the cover I realized this was my chance to go forward with my Make Way for Ducklings book and amigurumi set.

Jack is the first Duck listed in the book and this is how I am keeping track of my progress. This is actually my second attempt at the duck however. This duck is made with the Red Heart sport yarn and a C hook. The first was made with worsted weight yarn and a D hook and was much too large when you realize there will be 8 of them not to mention Mom and Dad. I'm keeping the first one as an Easter decoration for my house. Mom is going to be a remake of Dad's pattern. I haven't worked it out yet, but I'll get there.

My hope to get double use out of these ducks is to make a darker one and swan and include The Ugly Duckling as part of the package. Thus making the ducklings more useful in telling stories.

The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

It was a very Nursery Rhyme Fairy Tale themed Christmas gifting season for one set of presents this year. As I've written many times I love toys that link to books. I sent along My First Mother Goose with Humpty and this gift. I thought they'd make the rhymes more fun.

This is an old out of print Michele Wilcox pattern found in an 1988 Annie's Attic pattern booklet called Toy Chest. Annie's has been recently releasing some of their out of print patterns so if I do discover this one I will post a link. After writing up the Humpty blog post I stumbled across the pattern looking for another out of print pattern on their e-pattern site and updated my post to include the link for anyone who might want to make that pattern. You never know when they will reissue an old pattern in digital format.

The challenge of this pattern wasn't the shoe it was completing all the little people. I alternated making little people with finishing other projects. It was the only way to finish everything that needed to get done. It almost became assembly line crochet. Finish a little person, crochet an arm of something else, start .... and return to little person. I did get a remarkable amount of stuff done.

Mouse and Her Cookie

As I mentioned in a previous post I've gotten behind in posting. I'd meant to post this right after the Pig and her Pancake, but then I got busy with summer things and Mouse never got posted. The Pig and the Mouse along with their books were also a huge hit at the birthday party. Although the cookie was a huge disappointment when it was bitten into only to discover it wasn't a "real" cookie.

Giving If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (If You Give...) with the mouse and cookie makes a great gift set. This pattern has disappeared and been found several times. If it is something you want I suggest downloading and storing a copy as it seems to pop up and disappear as the owner changes blogs. You can find it here.

Pattern notes for myself:

I used size 10 thread to crochet the nose this time as I've run out of plastic pink noses. The place I used to order the noses from is no longer in business. It is time to locate a new source, but this worked for this project. I crochet an inner lining in pink for the ears and crochet it to the back of the ear rather than using felt.

Pig and her Pancake

Laura Numeroff's If You Give series have been huge hits in various branches of my family for many years. I was looking to make something for a summer birthday coming up and I turned first to If You Give a Pig a Pancake which I'd had success with completing an ami from previously.

The pattern is a free one but from a blogger who has since deleted her blog. It reappeared at one point but has since been deleted again. It is available here but there is no way of knowing how long it will stay available, so if you think at some point you might wish to make the pattern my suggestion is download it and print or save it as it could disappear permanently at any time.

When possible I love giving toys inspired by books as I think it creates even more interest for children in reading. This one is a quick and easy project.

Now for my notes to myself. I used a g hook instead of the e for the body of the pig. I didn't find it necessary to use the smaller hook. I also used some peach yarn similar to Caron Simply soft for the pig. I know it isn't Caron but it has that feel. I ended up using a c hook to get the sweater to fit and I used Knit Picks cotton yarn. It was just too big when I attempted to use worsted weight yarn. The pancake worked up well with worsted weight yarn and a g hook.