Elephant Snuggle

This was a quicker project than I thought it would be, especially since it was my very first time actually making granny squares. But thanks to the links provided in the pattern (DenDennis is ever so thoughtful) it was much easier than I anticipated.

The pattern can be found here, by the way ^_~

The yarn I used is Katia Mississippi 3 for the head and arms and Scheepjes Softfun for the blanket-part. Especially the Softfun is very soft and has a kind of velvet-y feel to it. It took a lot less yarn than I thought it would, so I have plenty to make more in the future ^_^

There is only one thing I hated about this pattern and that’s the fact that you have to weave in so many ends of yarn! And to make it so that they’re nearly invisible and almost impossible to get loose… But I managed and it’s certainly not something to keep you from making this adorable security blanket ❤

Cheers, Lydia

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I love shopping, especially if it means getting some new stuff for my ever growing crochet collection. Last week was spent spending money ^_^

I bought more yarn to work on Boyfriend’s scarf. Yarn to make the Elephant Snuggle. Yarn I needed for the patterns I have in mind. Yarn for the baskets I want to make. Folders to sort the printed out patterns I have. And a box to store and sort the buttons I bought some time ago. Next to that, I got a big bag of yarn from a friend, I still need to sort it. So yeah, I probably won’t run out of yarn anytime soon ^_^”

Yarn for the scarf

Yarn for the baskets, with one already done (I couldn’t help myself and they’re rather quick to work up)

Yarn for the Elephant Snuggle (I also bought a skein of off-white)

Folders! I now have four with various categories of patterns

A box with loads of compartments to store the buttons

Sorted on one side

And the other

BIG bag of yarn ^_^

The yarn for the snuggle (Scheepjes Softfun) and the baskets (Lammy Hawai) has a lovely soft feel to it. I really enjoy working with it. It only takes one skein to make a small basket, so I bought two of the grey and blue to try and make some larger ones. Maybe play with the dimensions a little bit ^_^

I wanted to ask if you guys enjoy your shopping trips for your crochet projects, but that’s a rather silly question I think ^_~

Cheers, Lydia

Upcoming projects

Inspiration has struck and now I’m drowning in plans for things to crochet! So I guess what I’m going to put here will be my to-do list for the coming few weeks ^_^

–Elephant Snuggle

Free pattern by DenDennis

This pattern by DenDennis is so insanely cute that I wanted to make at least one as soon as I saw it. Sadly, no babies in the future in my group of family and friends. A coworker of mine made me very happy yesterday by asking if I could make something for her. Friends of her have a lovely baby girl and she wanted to give her a snuggle/security blanket. Do I ever have the right pattern in line for that! So yesterday when I came home, I started on the elephant part, since I need to get some yarn to make the blanky part.

This is how far I’ve gotten yesterday

It’s a pretty quick and easy pattern, I guess that’s what I love about DenDennis (he’s got a book coming out this march, I need to get my hands on that!)
Today I have a trip planned to the market to see if they have the yarn I need. As I’m writing this, I suddenly realise I might as well pay a visit to the local yarn store, they might have what I’m looking for as well and I haven’t been there in a while ^_^”

– Baskets (Dutch!)

Free pattern by EchtStudio (Dutch!)

I’ve been looking for new and bigger boxes to store my stash of yarn in. And even though I have considerably lessened the amount of yarn I have laying around, I still want some more storage space. My eye had fallen on some nice boxes from Ikea, but they didn’t have the right one in store at that moment. Then I came across this free pattern from EchtStudio and realised my mistake. Instead of buying something, I could just as easily make something myself! And I fell in love with the colours of the yarn: Lammy Hawai. So I need to put in an order sometime soon ^_^

-Boyfriend’s scarf
I need to go to the market today either way, because I really want to get some work done on the scarf I’m making for Boyfriend. Lately, I’ve been pondering just frogging the whole thing and making a slightly shorter one. But that does mean starting all over again.. Oh well, I’ll see what I will do when I get my hands on some more yarn and am able to continue.

– Own patterns
I’m not entirely sure why, but I really feel like making some Legend of Zelda characters! I really love the games. The Minish Cap was the first one I ever played (yes, I’m a late-bloomer)
I searched around on the web to find suitable candidates for me to turn into crochet. I’ll keep it a secret for now, but I do have three characters/enemies/weapons/whatevers planned, so stay tuned!

Today will be filled with taking up stock and getting the yarns I need and want to keep myself busy.

What are your crochet-plans for the coming weeks? Anything big, or just quick little projects in between?

Cheers, Lydia

First Pattern of the year: Desk Chair

Or maybe I need to call this the last pattern of last year, since that’s when I created it. Oh well, doesn’t really matter, does it?

This is something I worked up really quick in order to have a Christmas present for Boyfriend. I was going to buy him a full-sized chair, but he had to come with me to pick one out. So in order to not leave him empty handed when everyone was getting gifts, I fibbed this:

I promised you guys I’d share the pattern soonish, so here it is ^_^

Desk Chair Pattern

Materials:
I used little bits of leftover yarn, since it’s very small. You can use whatever colour you want, but I used blue, grey, and a tiny bit of black for the wheels. You could also use small black beads for the wheels.
I made this with a 3,5mm crochet hook.

Abbreviations:
ch: chain
sc: single crochet
ss: slip stitch
st: stitch

The seat and backsupport are worked in rows, while the stand is made in rounds.

Seat
Using blue yarn, ch11
Row1: Starting from the second chain from the hook, sc10, ch1, turn (10)
Row2-7 (6 rows): sc1 in every st, ch1, turn (10)
Row8: sc5, fold your work in half and sc around to close. Stuff lightly before fully closing the seat.
Finish off and weave in end.

Backsupport
Using blue yarn, ch16
Row1: Starting from the second chain from the hook, sc15, ch1, turn (15)
Row2-7 (6 rows): sc1 in every st, ch1, turn (15)
Row8: sc8, fold your work in half and sc around to close. Stuff lightly before fully closing the backsupport.
Finish off and leave and end of yarn.

Now sew together both parts to make and L shape.

Stand
Using grey yarn, ch2
Round1: sc5 in the second chain from the hook (5)
Round2-5 (4 rounds): sc1 in every st (5)
Round6: ch4, work back from the second chain and sc1 in every ch (3) ss in next st of the chair. Repeat around, so you get a star (*) shape with five legs.
Finish off and leave and end of yarn. Pull the end through the stand and sew the stand to the middle of the bottom of the seat.

Now make the wheels by putting a little bit of black yarn at the end of each leg. You can secure it with a drop of glue (you can see that I didn’t and my knots came loose 😦 ), or make wheels out of small black beads.
You can put a bit of pipecleaner or wire in the stand to give the chair more stability.

And there you have it, your very own, teeny, tiny desk chair ^_^

I hope you enjoyed this pattern and if you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
(Also, please do not post this pattern as your own. If you do want to share, link back to my site and give some credit ^_~)

Cheers, Lydia

Suzy Sheep

The last project I finished in 2013 was Suzy.
This was a pattern I’d been eyeing for a while before getting my hands on it. I’d already bought the yarn I needed, but decided to put the pattern on my Christmas list. Santa came through and even gave me another set of yarn, so now I can make another one if I want to ^_^ or maybe save the yarn for another project.

You can make her in all kinds of colours, so it’s a great way to bust some of your stash ^_^

I love how she’s all cute, soft, and fuzzy, thanks to the use of Phildar Douce. Though it can be hard to work with, I really fell in love with this yarn all over again! I think it’s a bit easier to use than other types of fuzzy yarn (like Brazilia from SMC Schachenmayer), since my hook doesn’t get stuck in the hairs. And as long as you keep track of your rounds and count properly, it’s pretty quick and easy to work up a project. Plus, you don’t really see the stitches, so it looks like it isn’t even crochet at all (which I believe is pretty amazing)

The pattern is from Stip&Haak and can be found here (both links are in Dutch!)

Cheers, Lydia

Toadstool Paul

In the crochet world, you come across patterns that make you go: WHOA! I really need to make this one!

Toadstool Paul was such a pattern. I saw it on the Amigurumi Patterns.net FaceBook page and couldn’t resist making the purchase. It’s even designed by a namesake of mine ^_^

The pattern itself isn’t too difficult, except for the collar that uses a backpost stitch. I’ve had my fair share of trouble with that one, but after some practise I managed to make it look right. Another thing that can make it a bit hard to work on, is that it’s pretty much worked up in one piece. On the other hand, that does limit the amount of sewing you have to do, which is a good thing for me ^_^” In the end, it turned out that I didn’t stuff the neck enough, so now he kind of hangs his head because of the weight from his toadstool hat. But I think that makes him look a little bit shy and a whole lot cuter ❤

He loves hanging around near the lights that are left over from the Christmas decoration

Or just staring outside, thinking of how lucky he is to be inside with all this cold weather

I love how, in the pattern, he’s made with yarn that looks kind of earthy. So I tried to find the right colours and succeeded with my first try! A stand at the market had just the yarn I needed (Annell Rapido Plus) and I love the way he turned out. This was a heavier kind of yarn than was used for the pattern though. The main colour was said to need about 50 grams, which amounts to one skein most of the time, but I ended up using three skeins of 50grams. For the other colours, one skein per colour turned out to be enough, luckily. Especially since it was quite a hassle to get my hands on the two extra skeins I needed. But I already vented that fruststration ^_~

A detail of his grass-embroidered sweater

And his toadstool hat of course! (you can take it off ^_^)

I always love to know who I’m making an ami for and I had just the person in mind for this one. As I’m writing this, I haven’t given it to him yet, but when I do, I’ll be sure to let you all know if he liked it 🙂

Cheers, Lydia

Edit 1-15-2014: He LOVED it ^___^

Obligatory Resolutions Post

Happy new year everyone! I’m finally taking the time to write a proper post, even though I don’t really have much to talk about. So I’ll just discuss my New Years Resolutions, since that’s what pretty much everyone in BlogLand has been talking about lately 😛

I have to admit, I never really liked the idea of resolutions. If you want to change something, you don’t really need to wait until the new year to do so.
On the other hand, I do have some plans for things I want to do this year, so I guess that’s kind of the same thing, right?

#1: Continue to make loads and loads of amigurumi
I’m probably already in the clear for this one, since I busted my stash using a cute little octopus pattern. It all started very innocently with just two tiny octopi, but then, I got the hang of it and now I have 19 >_< I usually don’t like to repeat a pattern, but this one was so quick and simple, I couldn’t contain myself.

I made two more after this picture was taken

The pattern is from Tessa van Riet-Ernst and can be found in her book Amigurumi&Mini’s (Dutch).
Since I’m not sure what to do with them yet, I’ve decided to store them in some yars until a plan unfolds.

#2: Design more amigurumi’s of my own and write down the patterns
The last thing I fibbed a pattern for last year was a desk chair. Now, why would I need a desk chair, you might ask. Well, I gave Boyfriend a new chair for Christmas, but since he had to come with me to pick one, I didn’t actually have a gift to give him. So I decided to crochet a tiny chair. Turns out, there aren’t many desk chair patterns out there, but it was simple enough to create one from scratch.

I did write down the pattern, but have yet to make a nice document of it. So I’ll probably post it here in the near future.

#3: Work on this blog
It’s been a while since I made crochetnanigans.com my own, but I still have to move this blog there. I want to wait until I have my own laptop to do so, so I’ll have my own space to really work on it. It will most likely still be WordPress, though, as it’s really easy to work with. I do want to add some features, but you’ll have to wait and see. I also want to try to blog more often and regularly. Maybe even throw in a weekly feature? But the ideas for that are still pretty vague, so no promises!

#4: Spread the crochet love!
A friend of mine (Doretta, from Hagoort&Co [Dutch]) came up with the plan to start giving crochet workshops. Even though I never have much patience to explain things, I want to try this together with her.  And who knows, I might be a great teacher ^_~

Of course, there are also some non-crochet related plans:

#5: Be nicer to people
#6: Move out of the appartment together with Boyfriend (we want to buy a house)
#7: Work on my career (I want to get in to the course for assistant manager, but still have a long way to go)

In the end, I’ll just have to wait and see what the new year brings me. But hopefully there’s a lot of nice things coming my way and yours, of course! ^_^
Have a great 2014 everyone!

Cheers, Lydia

First amigurumi of the year, also from Amigurumi&Mini’s