Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all who visit here as I revisit my Christmas projects for 2020.

Snowman

I'd hoped to finish more of the Christmas themed ami's from the Christmas Ami's set. I finished the penguin and the snowman this year. There is always next year. You can purchase the set here.

This was the last project that made it into the Christmas box. I realized as I looked at the calendar I had to ship to have any hope of getting the package there before Christmas.

Gingerbread Man and House

You may recognize the style of this Gingerbread Man and his house if you follow this blog. It is by the same designer as the Dragon in the Castle. You can purchase the pattern here.

This is the most decorative of her patterns I've made to date. In some places I did use buttons instead of embrodiery. I've commented several times that while I can embrodier on cloth I find embrodiering on yarn to be a much bigger challenge and where possible I find alternatives. I will say I loved her directions for making the candy canes. It was an easy and really amazing effect that I can see using again. Her directions for surface crohcet were the best I've encountered to date as well. All and all I learned quite a few useful techniques that I'll be able to apply to other projects.

This was almost the last gift to go out in the Christmas box. There is always the temptation to put one more item in the box.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Elf

I've been building my collection of 8 inch Lots to Love dolls dressed with crocheted holiday outfits. I always mistakenly think I can get more than one made per holiday, but the up side is that I have something to look forward to making next year if my back order of dolls ever gets shipped.

This outfit was made from Annie Potter's Holiday Babies available here.

These patterns call for sports yarn but I used worsted weight yarn and a D hook for the pants and the shirt. I used an e hook for the first row of the hat because it was too tight and then switched back to a D hook. It was a little loose with the e hook but again with the D it wouldn't fit over the head so it was an interesting call to make.

In other notes I added rows to the top of the pants to make them fit a little better before moving to the legs. I made 6 chains instead of 4 to split the legs. I also made adjustments to the arms. I used a heart button instead of crocheting one. I played a little with the shoes to get them to fit the feet. Doll feet are always interesting as patterns have to be adjusted to the way your doll's feet are constructed and that's what I ended up doing.

Knight Hand Puppet

This is the knight to go with the dragon hand puppet I posted previously. I have a castle theme gift set going out to two little ones this year. One is getting the hand puppets the other the castle with the finger puppets. I hope at a later date to finish the princess and prince but that isn't going to happen for this Christmas box. Time is quickly running out to finish items and ship. You can find the free pattern here.

The only big change I will make when I make the prince which is a variation on the knight puppet is to increase the arm hole chains. I found the arms a little tighter on this puppet than on the dragon and I think it has to do with attaching the arms. Not a huge change but one worth mentioning as I tend to consult these pages for notes for future projects.

You don't have to sew the sword or shield to the puppet's hands. I chose to do both as I doubted either would last long without being lost forever if I didn't. I really liked the shield and sword pattern and could easily see using those on future ami projects.

I can tell it is getting time to mail this box as I am finding myself wanting to make doll clothes again and I haven't made any since summer. Yet around Christmas I always start up again. This year I'm even more eager as I have a few new dolls being added to the donation so I get to experiment with some new ideas.

Still nothing can get started until I finish what needs to be mailed.

Dragon Finger Puppet

This is the final puppet from the free set I started posting about last week. You can find the pattern here.

The Castle Tote will be going out with finger puppets and a copy of The Knight and the Dragon as part of this year's Christmas box. I'm running out of time to get this box finished but I'm getting close.

Worm in an Apple

I mentioned in my Lowly Worm post I started on a different project with Lowly in mind. This is that project. As I worked on the apple it quickly became clear that if I added the hat and the shoe Lowly would never fit through the apple so another plan needed to be created. That being said the apple was almost completed so why not finish the project and make him a friend of Lowly's to send with the package. You can find this pattern in Zoomigurumi 4 a series that has become kind of a go to for my children's book projects.

I made the apple using worsted weight yarn and an e hook. To make the worm fit I went with cotton sport yarn and a b hook. The book suggests you can use the same yarn but I increased the size of the apple and I still found with decreasing the size of the yarn and the hook size it was a tight fit for the worm.

My Christmas mailing deadline is drawing near so I am budily working on finishing up my Christmas box projects so they can head off. Then it will be time to start on doll donations with an eye towards the Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day boxes as they creep up really fast after Christmas.

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.