My Life Chef needs a new hat

Our neighbors set up an amazing haunted yard every year. As I saw them setting it up this year I saw the skeleton had an apron but no chef's hat. I asked if they were interested in one and offered to see if the doll hat would fit. It did and I will be making another one for the donation doll after I finish the outfit I'm working on now but it was worth it to contribute to a fun Halloween night.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Doll Candie Corn Halloween Costume

I'm continuing my tradition of making costumes for the Lots to Love 8 Inch dolls to decorate for the holidays. I made a Pumpkin Kitty last year and this year I decided to adapt a pattern from an old Crochet Calendar for the 5 inch baby dolls from Michelle Crean called Candie Corn Doll.

I always separate out the patterns into my category binders so I don't know what year of the Daily Crochet calendar this was from but it was the October 24th and 25th entry for year. I've checked Michelle Crean's website and this is not one of the patterns she lists for sale. If I do find it I will add the link for those who might be interested in the pattern.

To make this fit the 8 inch Lots to Love doll instead of the 5 inch doll I used a g hook and I Love this Yarn Sport Weight Yarn in Orange and White along with a discontinued yellow from Red Heart Sport.

Note to myself the booties fit really well and could easily be adapted for another pattern that comes without shoes.

Pumpkin House

I saw this pattern last year after I'd sent out the Halloween box and had it on my list as a canidate for this year's additions to the Halloween Village I'd begun for last year's box. The pattern is Elisascrochet and I purchased it from both Annie's and Etsy. I returned it to Annie's after working with customer service and not getting it to print. I tried again with Etsy hoping for better luck. I was able to download the pattern which is how I made it working off my laptop. However, even with the amazingly helpful designer who sent me a PDF of the pattern for some reason I just can't print it. Others may have better luck or do as I did.

Since I needed to work from my laptop this became an Olympic viewing project for me. As my DH and I were streaming the Olympics I'd open my pattern on my laptop and work on the pumpkin. This actually worked well because the directions are clear and it made a wonderful viewing project.

I used a light worsted yarn and a c hook as I wanted to keep this pumpkin smaller so it wouldn't overwhelm the other houses I'd made. If I'd had lighter sport yarn in orange I might choose that next time as this is still a good sized pumpkin.

This was actually one of the easier stem constructions I've made to date and I'd use it again, possibly as a substitute as it works up and attaches better than others I've used.

Square Crow Garland 3 and 4

Well this puts me through the half way point as I need 7 square crows to make the garland. When I finish 3 more I can start to assemble the garland and finally get to enjoy the fall decoration.

I realized I was reaching the point of wanting to finish this project when I made these two together rather than as individual projects as I had with the first two. These two I made in more of a assembly line format. First the bodies for both, then the heads, sew the faces, and so on until I had two completed motifs. I think I'm going to try to finish the last 3 the same way and finally be able to put this together as a garland. It's not that I don't love the project, I just want to enjoy the finished item.

The pattern for the Square Crow Garland is found in October 2020's Crochet World Magazine.

Halloween House 2

I've been writing for some time now about my quest to create a starter Halloween village to go out with the Halloween box at the end of this month. I've only seen a few Halloween themed crochet house patterns and I've already made one of them. The other 2 I have require more construction than I have time to commit to this year. I have hopes that they might become part of next year's offering. However, with some creativity I realized Christmas actually is more promising for crochet houses than I'd realized.

One of the reasons I make such a point of noting where I find patterns when possible is I'm so grateful when someone leads me to a solution to a pattern hunt. Recently I came across a reference for a different pattern from repeatcraftme and thought I should check out the website. While there I came across something I'd never seen before a free pattern for a gingerbread house made all in one piece. If you read my blog at all you know I love to limit the amount of sewing I have to do so this really intrigued me.

As I realized I was looking for more simple houses to add to the Halloween village I wondered if this could be converted to a more Halloween style house. The is not only one piece but one color. I wanted a different color roof so I wanted to see how easy it would be to figure out where to make the color changes for the roof. It is actually fairly simple. The roof pieces for the slants are created through increases there is also a rectangle section of roof. What they all have in common is they all start with increases. If you change color at these areas and follow the really great pictures the designer has included of the one piece flat house section prior to being sewn together it is amazingly easy to figure out where to change colors.

To create the look I wanted I pinched the roof and house edges sewing them in place. I also crocheted a door and windows. The gingerbread pattern uses holiday buttons. I actually wanted more Halloween themed buttons but I just haven't been out to find them. I did add a few pumpkins I had left over from previous projects. I also crocheted a chimney to add to the roof. It seemed to need one.

I found another free Christmas house pattern I'm hoping to convert. We shall see what happens.

Square Crow Garland 2

This garland requires 7 alternating colored square crows and I've now got two finished. I've been alternating my square crow work with the fall birthday and Halloween box projects. I'm hopeful the garland will be ready to hang before I put up my Halloween decorations.

I tried an experiment with brown yarn for the face with this one but I'll be going back to black for the rest of them. I wasn't as happy with it as I'd hoped but not enough unhappy to redo his face. After all I still have 5 more to experiment with and see what I like best.

Square Crow Garland

I've been adding to my fall decorations and still on the lookout for new ideas. Looking at the October edition of Crochet World I found the Square Crow Garland. Not a typo but a mash up of granny squares and scarecrow.

Crochet garlands are something I've been adding to my holiday decorations over the last couple of years. I just find them fun to make and display.

These scarecrows or square crows as the title of the pattern states are primarily made from granny squares using worsted weight 4 yarn. My one major issue with this pattern is the gauge. The pattern calls for an I hook to make a gauge of 7 dc=1 inch. The first square crow I made was adorable but far too large to be practical for a garland. I'll admit I didn't check gauge for the first one. He's now become a separate decoration. I did check gauge before starting this guy. I was at a D hook before I was even close to an inch for 7dc and I wasn't going down to a C hook.

One other note there are 3 sizes of granny squares used in this project. The largest size is used for the hat. I found the hat to be too big for my square crows head so I used the medium granny for the hat and I was happy with the fit. If that changes with the remaining square crows I will note that when I write them up. I need 7 to finish the garland.

Once you get passed figuring out the sizing these are fun and rather easy to make and I'm looking forward to completing the set so I can hang them up with my fall decorations.

Lots to Love 8 Inch Doll Halloween Kitty Pumpkin

I'm preparing a Halloween box to go out to a family member with kids but I like to decorate for Halloween even though we likely will not have ghosts and goblins visiting this year.

This is the 3rd holiday doll I've completed from this holiday leaflet to decorate my house. I started with Easter, I made the Patriotic doll for the summer holidays, and now I have the first of my Halloween dolls. I'm hoping to finish more Halloween ones as I have time.

While I was able to complete the Patriotic doll with Red Heart sport I tried a different type of Red Heart sport and while incredibly soft it was unfortunatly not the right yarn for this project. The costume was a bit see through when finished so I moved to worsted weight yarn with a D hook and didn't have an issue. The pumpkin already called for worsted weight yarn so it worked out well, although to make it fit I ended up using an H hook.

This was made from Annie Potter presents Holiday Babies pattern. You can purchase the leaflet here or the digital pattern at Etsy here.