Bewitching Sloth

After sending off the summer birthday box it became time to start the fall boxes. I've already posted a couple of the October birthday projects, this is the first of the Halloween box items.

I'd been looking for a sloth pattern to go with Eric Carle's "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth that I'd picked up during the Christmas sales. I hadn't planned on a Halloween sloth but after seeing this pattern I decided to put sloth and book in the Halloween box even though the book was not a Halloween themed title. For those of you who are interested, you can purchase the Bewitching Sloth pattern here.

I've been trying for some smaller Halloween figures that would fit into a growing Halloween village that I started last year. With that in mind I used a D hook and worsted yarn for the sloth. When I did this I found I needed to use sport cotton for the hat and cape to make them fit using a B hook. I continued this trend with the Pumpkin. If I make this again even for a village I'd make the pumpkin with larger yarn as it was a bit smaller than I'd anticipated.

Ghost in a Haunted House

Laura Sutcliffe has a whole series of affordable pattern designs featuring various creatures in various types of homes, blankets, etc. I made the Rabbit in the Carrot for Easter. She also designed the pumpkin house I made for the Halloween village.

She's become one of my favorite designers for quick holiday themed projects and I even have some of her non-holiday projects on my to do list for future packages. The haunted house was the most detailed one I've made to date. I haven't done much embroderiery on crochet but this was fun. I'm not a huge fan of spiders in general but they were necessary for this project and I like the way the came out.

Yarn can be tricky for project choices. She suggested using DK I wanted worsted 4 but the yarn I chose is a lighter worsted and my project was slightly smaller than I'd envisioned which meant less room to add the details for the project. Sometimes color becomes an issue. I loved the color for this project and I had nothing in a heavier weight that equaled it and I was not buying more yarn.

The results were less room for the details of the house. I ended up using sport weight cotton for most of the details on the house other than the door. I loved the bat motif and I could easily see this appearing in other Halloween projects. It is easy to make and looks better than others I've tried making.

I was least pleased with the windows. I just couldn't get them to work out the way I wished. I loved the spider web which I made with size 10 cotton rather than sewing thread. It made it easier to see. The only other change I think I'd make is use a smaller hook or perhaps sport weight yarn for the ghost. While I do love him he ended up slightly larger than I'd expected. He's a good size for the little one he's headed to so I'm not overaly concerned.

I made a backing for the house following the house directions and joined it with sc to the house pattern. I waited to add the roof and used the roof to join the top of the house. This solved 2 issues for me. It cleaned up the back of the house stitching so it wouldn't be seen and it also made a more solid house for a child to hold. The single house is a little light for the ghost not to fall out of or for a child to hold. It is quite easy to add a back and doesn't change the product overall.