Goldilocks and the Three Bears

I mentioned in a previous post I got distracted with new ideas for the birthday box and thus it went out a week late. Well this was one of the culprits. I came across two competing patterns for Goldilocks and the Three Bearsamigurumi sets. I'd already done puppets but the sets were both in their own ways interesting.

The first was from Amigurumi Fairy Tales: Crochet Your Own Enchanted Forest and I found the bears to be intriguing. These bears had personalities and props. They weren't random bear patterns thrown in to fit the fairy tale theme.

The more challenging issue was Goldilocks. I began to feel I was trying to cast a part in a play or movie. I liked this one's hair but the rest just wasn't right for the part. So I went back to hybrid design. Once Upon a Time... in Crochetalso had a Goldilocks set. The bears were fairly generic but the hair design for Goldilocks was something I hadn't encountered before and I liked it. Unfortunately I only liked the hair part of the Goldilocks pattern. The rest didn't work for me. I still liked the body from the Amigurumi Tales book better. Normally a switch out isn't much of an issue however, there was a slight problem the dolls were not exactly compatible to exchange in a one for one manner. So I kept the head and body from the Amigurumi Tales book and modified the hair from the Once Upon a time book to fit. I also brought along her porridge bowl. Goldilocks, the fish, the basket, and the apple are all done in sport weight yarn. The bears were done in worsted weight yarn.

In notes for myself regarding the bears if I make them again I'd ignore pattern and opt for a more traditional round ami head. After making the first one I thought it would be odd to correct it on the other two and I was rushing to finish, but I'd not make them this way again. I wasn't crazy about the bump at the top of the head due to smaller initial increases. This is something easily fixed.

As you can see I forgot Baby Bear's snout and I had already inserted the saftey nose when I realized my mistake. The challenges of late night crochet on a deadline. I had already attached his head when I realized what I had done so I didn't redo it as I'd have risked destroying his lower half as well as having to remake his head.

Note to self this went out with hand puppets and
Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!: The Story of the Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear and Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Three Billy Goats Gruff Small and Finished

I mailed the July birthday package a week late because I had one more project and then more. As a result I was so focused on crocheting I wrote nothing. I do like to keep records of what I made, who it went to and any important details for future efforts. Recently I've found myself going back to older projects that I made years ago now that I again have younger relatives that might enjoy such items and knowing what I did can help.

This was the last item I needed to complete The Three Billy Goats Gruff project. I was glad I left the smallest goat to the end. I worked on him while I began the next project and it kept me from not wanting to repeat the same project multiple times.

As I mentioned in my other posts about this project I chose to stick with worsted weight yarn I had on hand and returned to an f hook after going down to an e hook with the middle goat do to the yarn I was using.

The pattern for this set comes from Once Upon a Time... in Crochet: 30 amigurumi characters from your favorite fairytales although I used a free pattern for the troll. You can read about that in the troll post here.

The companion book to the one above I included with this set was Listen, My Bridge Is SO Cool!: The Story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff as Told by the Troll a note to myself.

Three Billy Goats Gruff Troll

I mentioned in a post last week that I was working on a crochet play set to accompany a book gift of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and I'd completed the large goat for the set from Once Upon a Time... in Crochetbut I wasn't happy with my options for the troll from the book.

This is the beauty of making your own toys. You can mix and match as you choose and I found a free pattern for my troll here. This troll is extremely adaptable and customizable.

There is a whole series of videos for the creation of the troll that are extremely detailed. If you've never made an ami before this starts right at the beginning and takes you through step by step. I had the current video for the section I was working on loaded on my phone and I'd fast forward to the places where the techniques were new or different than those I am used to using. I'm not generally someone who uses videos, but I'd advise anyone making this pattern to be prepared to refer to the videos as not everything you need to make the troll is documented in the print pattern. You will need to see some of the videos for directions on how to complete certain parts of the troll.

While my hair differs from her hair options I learned a wonderful new technique for rooting the hair which I will be using for my hair projects now. I loved the tail and I almost thought of using the technique for the hair as a throw back to the trolls of my youth but I really liked the way the hair looked when I was done rooting it and I left it as it stood. The feet are not attached to the body but to the pants and that was a really interesting technique I'd never seen done before. I learned a number of new shaping techniques that I used on the ears and face. The nose is another unique technique that I'd not encountered before.

This is one of my favorite types of projects because I loved the finished product and I learned quite a bit by making it. After making this troll and seeing how cute he came out I couldn't resist picking up the Troll's version of the story Listen, My Bridge Is SO Cool!: The Story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff as Told by the Troll (The Other Side of the Story) to send with my gift. After all I'm sure this troll has something to say on the subject of goats crossing his bridge.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff Large Goat

I've long been a fan of giving gifts of books combined with themed toys that help kids act out the book as it is being read and retell the story long after they've heard it. My next project is to go with a gift of The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Paul Galdone Classics) for a summer birthday gift.

The pattern for the goats comes from Once Upon a Time... in Crochet: 30 amigurumi characters from your favorite fairytales a book I picked up with a couple of fairy tale crochet books that I'm finally putting to use. I found a free pattern online for a troll that has some unique techniques I wanted to try out so, I'm experimenting with that pattern first as I liked the troll better and I wanted to see if I could manage the challenges of the other pattern. If it doesn't work out I'll be back working the troll from this book. I'm sure I'll be documenting my journey at some point.

I haven't been working much from books lately and one of the challenges is keeping your page. One of the things I appreciated about this book was the end pages that bend in to create page holders.

The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn and C or D hooks for the goats making them around 4-4 1/2" for those of you interested in the pattern as written. I had no interest in making them that small and I also wasn't crazy about working in the round in such a tight area. There was also my quest to use as much yarn on hand as I can. Using worsted weight yarn to make the goats means not ordering more yarn and that is important to my goals of trying to use up yarn on hand.

I often read reviews where people say they don't like X pattern because they prefer X yarn. The reality with amis is that most can be adjusted to different yarns but it will effect size and in some cases textures and patterns created if there are yarn/hook changes, etc. In the case of the goats making them larger was not a huge issue. These will actually be about the size of the farm animals I made previously and something tells me they may end up on the farm play sets along with their journey through the Three Billy Goats Gruff so making them a compatible size was not the worse choice I could make.

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.

Three Little Pigs in a Bag

Once again I've fallen behind on my posting. This was part of a July birthday present. I love presents for kids that connect to books. I found several copies and versions of the book to add to the gift. You can purchase the pattern here.

This was one of my stash busting projects which is why one of the pigs is a different color. I thought I had enough of the dark pink for all the pigs, but I didn't. Time being what it was I chose not to remake the pigs so they'd all be the same shade of pink.

This was a fun project and one I'd make again. The bag makes a great storage holder for the toys.