Plesiosaur

It's hard to believe I'm still posting about Christmas presents but I think I'm pretty close to the end of 2019 Christmas gifts. This is what happens when you are finishing Christmas presents in the middle of December to get them mailed and you want to post them so you'll have some record of what you've made for future reference.

This was the last dino I was able to finish for the dinosaur package. I had hoped to add a mammal to the package with a Wooly Mammoth but I ran right up to my deadline finishing the flippers on this one. Perhaps the mammoth will make it into a birthday package.

This pattern was part of a pattern set gifted to me from my husband many years ago but you can still purchase it. It has moved from Etsy to Ravelry. I don't believe she offers the patterns as single patterns. You can find it here.

This was another experiment with sports yarn. I had bought a bunch of AC Moore's Nicole brand yarn to experiment with smaller dolls for either gifts or donations for next year. I've not decided which direction I'm going with the smaller dolls. However, with AC Moore closing I figured I can't rely on it as a source for these yarns so I don't want to get dependent on them as a reliable source of yarn that will fit these dolls so using the yarn for another project didn't seem like a bad choice.

Little Red Riding Bear

I fell in love with this bear pattern years ago and received it as a gift, but never had the chance to make it. While it is I promise the last Red Riding hood project I'll post for a while it wasn't the last I finished. I just chose to write about it last because it was one of those projects I had wanted to make so long it was almost a promise to myself.

For those of you interested you can purchase the patterns for Red and her Grandma here.

Teddy bears have always been a favorite of mine and themed bears even more so. Sharing that love is an even greater pleasure.

I like it when the designer talks about options. In this case one option was to give Red a white dress rather than red to contrast with her hood. This made sense as the Red dress and hood were a bit too much together. The white dress actually helped the hood stand out. This actually helped my thinking when making the Baby Doll Red Riding Hood outfit. As I mentioned in a previous blog I was working on multiple projects at once prior to shipping everything before Christmas so one project sometimes helped me rethink another.

Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppets

It's the New Year and I'm still catching up on posting my Christmas projects but there are worse fates. Little Red Riding Hood was a theme for one of the family members I was making gifts for this year. I'd made her Handmade Kitty's Three Little Pig Finger Puppets for her birthday so it seemed fitting I add the Red Riding Hood ones for Christmas. You can purchase the pattern here.

I've always been a huge fan of matching toys to books. I sent along a couple different versions of the Red Riding Hood tale to go with the present as I did with the Three Little Pigs. I think puppets are a great way to extend the play with a story. I've come a long way with the puppets and I promise myself some day I will master the houses for these puppet sets.

These are great scrap projects. I used up more left over bobbins from the farm blanket I blogged about previously. I've been targeting color choices on various projects in an attempt to use them up. I also used up some light cotton yarn I've been trying to finish off as I don't have enough to do much with but I don't want to waste it either.

Bert the Triceratops

While I speak mostly about the little girls I make presents for a couple of years ago a family member had a little boy who had a dinosaur baby theme. I made a blanket and some dinos. I always had the intention of getting back to making more dinos but life has a way of mocking you. So this Christmas after finishing off the girls stuff I got to working on the dinosaurs.

If you are ever stuck and need a quick dino crochet pattern Bizzy Crochet's Bert pattern is for you. You can find the free pattern here.

Bert was another great stash busting project. This was a lighter yarn I'd bought for a teddy bear project a while back and hadn't had a use for it since. Bert was a quick day project and using the lighter yarn and f hook he was a nice small size compared to many of the dino pattern that are huge and can make storage of the animals more challenging. This is also more in line with play size which is also a plus.

After finishing this around December 10th I immediately began work on a reindeer ornament and a T-Rex. The T-Rex is larger but using lighter yarn smaller than the pattern suggested. The reindeer is using the same yarn as Bert. I'm hoping to finish off that skein and see it gone with this project.

Red Riding Hood Set

This was actually the last set I made but I do have one more to write about that I'll mention next week. I almost didn't make this set. I had another set I'd had my eye on since I landed on the idea of doing the Red Riding Hood theme. However, time was starting to be an issue.

To complete the other set Red Riding Hood had rather long legs with red and white striped stocking which meant lots of color changes and weaving in ends just for her legs. While the effect was cool the time was an issue. It also lacked a Grandma.

As I was flipping through my pattern books I stumbled across a free Red Riding Hood pattern I'd printed ages ago from Red Heart that was a complete set that had Grandma, the wolf and Red herself. While adding a character the time needed for each was significantly less. Problem solved this was my pattern for the final Red Riding Hood project.

This is a Michelle Wilcox pattern and you can find the free pattern here.

For those of you used to round ami construction starting at the top of the head and working down these are a little different. These work from the front of the face to the back. The legs are formed as one piece and divided through sewing yarn to make an indentation. I liked the change, especially the way it allowed for Red's hair. It made adding eyes easier as well. If you don't like the leg formation it would be easy enough to adapt to a more traditional ami style. I rather liked it.

Snow Family

I posted a while back about finishing the first member of the family the little snow sister. I didn't get the chance to post updates as I completed the family so I thought I post one update of the whole family. This family is made from an out of print pattern Annie Potter presents leaflet The Snowbuddies from Snowville. I've not currently seen it released as an e-pattern but I hope some day it becomes available as it has 3 sets of snowmen including this one, a Vicotrian Christmas Caroling set, and a snowmen nativity.

The first one finished was big sister who I wrote about previously. I had intended to write about them as I finished them, but this time of the year gets busy and I finished these up the week before Thanksgiving when I was rushing to finish my Christmas presents and donations. So after posting big sister I ended up waiting to get the pictures done until everyone was completed.

Mom was the next one I took on and completed. I thought I had a brilliant idea with Mom's hat. I had purple yarn from previous afghans that I really wanted to use up and it looked promising. However, promising is not a sure thing. Thus Mom's hat is two-toned and not intentionally. However, I did finish off yarn I'd used for an afghan for a child while she was in high school who is now in college so it was nice to see the stash left overs gone and the two tone looks Ok.

One reason for choosing this pattern over several snow family patterns was the baby. The family this is going to has a big sister and a new baby this year. Having the baby snowman seemed a wonderful way to make it personal. However I wanted this set to be something that could be played with not just a decoration. The pattern calls for sewing the baby to the Mother snowmen. I didn't see this being a long term solution. So I adapted the baby doll carrier I make for the donation to a smaller snowbaby size and made it so Mom or Dad could carry the snowbaby. It can also be set down and the baby can be removed to play with at any time. My thought is next year to add a sister to the snow family. After all I can't imagine the littlest one will want to be the "baby" forever. We will see what time allows.

Papa Snowman was the last of the set to be completed and thankfully, other than baby, the one with the fewest and simplest accessories. Where the pattern suggested gluing I sewed everything on to make it more secure to endure play time. I found the button for Papa's vest from a collection of extra buttons I've acquired over the years that come as spare buttons. Mind you I'll never be able to remember which outfit they belong to, but they do make excellent buttons for items like this because they are a little different from the buttons I buy in the store. I've decided to take those odd buttons and start storing them with my doll buttons. They could prove useful.

Just a note to myself, I made Papa's scarf in long rows rather than short. My hands were getting tight from doing close ami stitches and I found the longer rows easier to make. I don't think it created any issues when it came time to wrap it around Papa's neck.

One last shot of the happy couple together.

Koala Christmas Ornaments

I love making unbreakable ornaments for people with kids or those who have kids that visit because its nice to have ornaments little ones can help hang or you don't worry too much about them touching.

I inherited my Mom's Christmas ornaments when she moved and I have a box labeled unbreakable ornaments from our childhood that were boxed separate for this purpose. When we were little these were the ornaments we were allowed to hang at the bottom of the tree. Safe for us to put on and safe for us to touch during the excitement of the holiday. Some were hand made, others purchased.

As we got older and grandchildren appeared the unbreakable still was an important feature of holiday celebrations. I can say in my own home I've been grateful that these distractions have kept other ornaments safe from little hands.

That being said as I've learned over the years unbreakable doesn't always mean unbreakable. My plastic childhood ornaments that seem to have been made of steel have been broken as I've dropped them in my adult years. However, they have been less likely to shatter than the beautiful glass ornaments from my grandmother's time that I've inherited.

So how does this all relate to the Koalas you may ask? I've tried to pass on this tradition to other family and friends with little ones who want/need their own "unbreakable" ornaments for little hands by making crocheted ornaments for their trees.

This year I opened my holiday binder to the Christmas section in search of an ornament I wouldn't mind making 2 of to send out in my Christmas package. I struggle when I need to make duplicates in short periods of time. I can duplicate doll outfits yearly, but not one after the other. So I needed a pattern that was quick, simple, and interested me enough to make 2 in a close time frame.

I've learned over the years that while it may seem a good idea to make different items for different ones sometimes it can create problems if one item is deemed to be the "better" item. So I decided why not try to make the same item slightly different for the ornaments. Thus I bring you this years Koala ornaments.

This is a free pattern found here. Now the original pattern uses sport weight yarn and I primarily work in worsted weight yarn. The patterns author kindly provided a link to someone who built on the pattern to make it the same size but using heavier weight by adjusting the rows. You can find that here. You will need both patterns if you decide to use the second pattern for the worsted weight option as the second pattern refers to directions only found in the first pattern. The pattern sets include directions for a panda bear and a brown bear too.

This is a fun project and a great way to add a little holiday cheer.

Santa Baby

I made a two holiday outfits that I mailed out with the Big Sister project and I mentioned I was working on a Christmas outfit. This was another project on my to do list after DH purchased this pattern for me a while back. The Big Sister project motivated me to start thinking about holiday outfits and as I was digging through my patterns I came across the Santa Baby pattern. You can purchase the pattern here.

I loved this pattern because despite the fact it is a 15" doll pattern it required very little adjustment to get it to fit the 16" doll. I played a little bit with the back on joining and that made the color change a bit cleaner on the back. I also used a crochet pom pom that I've used for years from an 18" doll hat pattern that has been out of print for a while. I also added white trim to the bottom of the pants. I just couldn't resist.