Hugging Hearts

This was the last crochet item I made for the Valentine package. I love these little hearts. The original pattern has a boy and a girl, but since I'm sending the pattern to two sisters I thought they'd each want a girl, thus two girls.

The pattern is part of Crochet Village's My Silly Valentine Pattern CV089 that I wrote about in the Valentine Cookie post. You can purchase the pattern on Etsy here. The pattern set also includes a large sized Hershey Kiss pattern I've made several times.

I was at Dollar Tree picking up greeting cards and came across these little mailboxes and thought they'd be cute to mail the hearts in and I managed to find some heart boxes to put away for next year. I like to have fun boxes to put the toys in when I mail stuff out.

This has been a another great scrap project. I finished off a skein of off white that I've been working on since December. I was quite glad to see it go. The dark pink was from a ball of yarn from last year's doll projects. I am determined to target my left over yarn this year.

Valentine's Day Was Fun

I am one of those fortunate crochet lovers who have a supportive husband. Along with a Jazz brunch on Sunday, dinner at one of our favorite restaurants last night, he did not forget my crochet habit.

He braved Barnes and Noble to pick up The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic & Original Patterns knowing I've been going online to try to figure out ways to make the math work for patterns that are not quite the right size for my needs. I had no idea this was on his radar.

Then he headed off to shop at Crochet Village where he proceeded to pick up a few of the items on my wish list from there. I got the Halloween Goblins set, which will be perfect for my Halloween box. My favorite pattern in this set is the boy in the ghost costume with the high top sneakers. There is something about this pattern that reminds me of the costumes in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and I really want to make it for next year's box. The Dracula and the bat are adorable as well and I need multiple projects to make sure there is enough for all the kids.

He also picked up North Pole Residents from Crochet Village. While I fell in love with the pattern for the Rudolph and Polar Bear pattern, I have been informed DH expects a penguin for his troubles.

Lastly, I got their Christmas Card Gift Holder Set 2. What I love about these sets is they make adorable ami gift hard holders, but they also make great smaller stuffed animals for gifts or donation packages. They can easily be made without the gift bags. I asked DH how he picked between the three gift holder sets and sure enough, it was the penguin. I will have to make the little guy for his office next year. I still owe him a Candy Kiss and a Leprechaun for next month.

While the gifts are wonderful and I am already anticipating getting started on these fun projects, what is such a gift is that he supports what I do and why I do it.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day.

My Valentine's Day Crochet gifts were a hit. I got an email about the package I mailed and my weekend visitor loved the doll dresses I made. Barbie's dress was the bigger hit of the two. Of course, Barbie's dress was pink so I guess that made the difference.




My husband surprised me with flowers yesterday and my Valentine's gifts at breakfast. His are still in the closet upstairs waiting until he gets home. I planned for a dinner exchange of gifts. I was thrilled as he once again fed my crochet habit. He had asked me about patterns I was interested in and got me a cool gadget. While I have overcome my fear of downloading patterns, I still leave him with lists of those for these occasions. It is hard to hide my love for holiday patterns and I got two more Halloween patterns to use for next year.

I had been eying Fun and Fang's Dracula's Castle pattern for a while now. She had a sale after Halloween, but I had just purchased a bunch of vintage patterns and my home printer was not working. Therefore, I passed on the opportunity. I love the castle along with the mini Dracula. I am sure my younger relatives will enjoy it, too. The other pattern he bought me was Frankenstein and His Bride from Crafty Deb Designs. I believe I orginally saw this pattern on Annie's Attic but again missed the opportunity to purchase it. When looking for Fun and Fang's pattern, I came across the Frankenstein pattern and put it on my list of patterns I would love to own. I love making the Halloween ami's to send and I noticed they are becoming popular with the adults in my family, not just the kids.

Lastly, he found a better chart holder than the embroidery one I purchased ages ago. The Knitting Chart Holder from Knit Picks stands up and it is portable. I am looking forward to using it on my side table as I work on crochet projects.


If you arrived here looking for free toy patterns please see the following pages:

Hello Kitty

Crochet and Knit Puppets

Crochet Amigurumi Animals and Stuffed Animal Free Patterns

Knit Amigurumi and Stuffed Toys

Crochet and Knit Amigurumi and Other Dolls

Knit and Crochet Toys

Dinosaurs and Dragons

Teddy Bear Patterns and Clothes

Knit and Crochet Food Patterns Great for Play Food

Valentines

Easter

Graduation

Patriotic

Halloween Page

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Pictures may not be used without permission.

Valentine Mouse Finger Puppet

This mouse finger puppet was adapted from Finger Puppets 12 Designs to Crochet by Susan Pippen. Leisure Arts published the vintage Leaflet, number 435, in 1986.

I love these ami style finger puppets and have blogged about them before. I decided to make a Valentine's themed one when I found a shortage of Valentine's themed toy patterns. When I have shopped for Valentine’s toys in the store, I have found most are traditional toys created in holiday colors. Since I did not have a Valentine's finger puppet pattern, I decided to create one using the same theory. I took a regular finger puppet pattern and simply changed the color. I am thinking about doing the same for St. Patrick's Day.

The box is now full, taped, and addressed and ready to head off to its new home filled with Valentine goodies. I have one American Girl Dress almost done for my local package. I need to work on the Barbie Valentine Ball Gown, which I believe is going to be in pink this time.

If you arrived here looking for free toy patterns please see the following pages:

Hello Kitty

Crochet and Knit Puppets

Crochet Amigurumi Animals and Stuffed Animal Free Patterns

Knit Amigurumi and Stuffed Toys

Crochet and Knit Amigurumi and Other Dolls

Knit and Crochet Toys

Dinosaurs and Dragons

Teddy Bear Patterns and Clothes

Knit and Crochet Food Patterns Great for Play Food

Valentines

Easter

Graduation

Patriotic

Halloween Page

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Pictures may not be used without permission.

Valentine's Barbie Outfit

Mom was far more organized than I after Christmas this year. I just started learning to knit and crochet at the end of summer. I finished several projects for Christmas, but was not prepared for Valentine's day as I had hoped to be for doll's clothes. My only contribution to the outfit was the hat from the same book.

Mom whipped up Barbie outfits for relatives' and friends' kids. This outfit is from the book listed below. I have found it at several libraries. Mom was generous enough to make an extra outfit to share with a young relative on my DH's side of the family. I grabbed a photo of Barbie in her Valentine's outfit before shipping it off.

I retain rights to all my photographs and they are not for reuse without my permission.