Pet Sweater and Blanket

I found a new favorite site -- crochetkitten.com! It has many pet items but also other free patterns. As you can see by the picture, Baby was NOT the model for the sweater. I knew I would never get her in it and I didn't want to cover it in cat fur -- any more than it is just by my working on it!

I used Sensations Multi-Brite for the center of the sweater and blanket and trimmed it with Lion Brand Jiffy Wine.

I bought the Wine colored yarn to help fill out the second Linus project blanket I made. I bought a second skein of the Sensations yarn when I realized I did not have enough for the blanket and learned my lesson about buying enough at the same time because the dye lots were VERY different.

So, I tore out the additional rows. So then it was too small, so I edged

it with the Jiffy yarn. It was not very easy to find a color that went with the yarn, Jiffy was the best match.I double-crocheted onthe short ends and singled across the sides that were ok.

Towel and WashCloth Set

Well, I finally finished the towel and washcloth set. I found the pattern on the Coats & Clark site. I even bought the eco-cotton blend yarn. It feels so soft! However, I found a cotton yarn at A New Yarn that matched the Mary Kay containers I planned to combine with the towel and cloth for the Workplace Giving Auction.

The first time I made the towel. I did not make the 8 sqaures (4 for each end of the towel)

at the same time. So, when I went to make the 4 for the end of the towel, I grabbed the wrong hook -- the downside of the Clover Ergo hooks, they are all the same color -- they were too big. Which I did not notice at first. The second error I made was slip stitching the 4 squares to the center of the towel instead of sewing them. This made it real puffy which may have been why I didn't catch the size error.

I didn't see the error until I brought it to the Seattle Crochet Guild meeting! Fortunately, I only showed it to a few people before I realized the errors.

So, today, I finished the towel for the second time. It came out MUCH better. While I was at our meeting, I bought the last 2 skeins of the same cotton (we have our meetings at A New Yarn). This time I made all 8 squares at once and I even sewed the 2 groups of 4 together at the same time so I used the same process.

I had to take apart the old towel to used some of the yarn for the new towel. It took me a while to find the ends I had woven in -- that is a good thing! I always feel like my ends are so obvious.

Finger Puppets

I also made finger puppets for the auction along with their own little container. The directions were from Crazy Crochet. This book is geared toward children to the patterns are pretty general. Basically, make a rectangle as tall as your finger and wide enough to go around.

It said to then sew it together and THEN put the face on. It was much easier to put the face on before sewing it closed. It suggested hair for the girls and hats for the boys.

The next project was creating milk and cookies. So I used the pattern for the mike glass as the container for the puppets

Gecko Bookmark and snake

I created a Gecko bookmark and a bending Snake for the workplace giving auction at work. I have not made toys before. I was a little worried but I think they turned out okay.

Both sets of instruction were a little lacking but I was able to figure out most things. On the Gecko pattern, it did not tell you to slip stitch onto the leg after making the 3 toes. If you do not, they are more in a line instead of how they appeared in the pattern picture.

For the snake it said to put in craft wire. However, when I got to the store, there were SEVERAL different weights of the wire AND it was $5 for the smallest container. I only needed one foot but I would have to buy significantly more PLUS a set of wire cutters. So I used a cigar filter cleaner instead. It is not quite strong enough but it worked!

I have the googly eyes left over from making candy cane raindeers with my nieces back when they were young and wanted to that type of activity :)