eeek!

Chickenbutt wanted a soft black widow spider for Christmas.  I had to modify a pattern from a book (the title is lost to me, Christmas was months ago) as the spider had to be anatomically correct.  I did forget the spinnerets but so far Chickenbutt has not noticed.  I did remember the pedipalps and the fangs. 

Christmas black widow on the table topper I made my mother-in-law.

For her birthday she needed a boy black widow spider.  Male black widows are brown or yellow and have different markings.  They are also smaller. 
She also managed to get my mom to knit her a pink spider. 

All three spiders.  Happy Birthday!

 I designed Wren an owl for Christmas.  I was not happy with the first draft but had used all of the brown fabric.  I really liked the brownish chenille but couldn't find anything cute enough in my stash to match it.  In future I would like to make the body a bit longer and rounder. 

Busy Busy

I am participating in the Freshstitches Mystery Crochet-a-long on Ravelry.  I really like the colour I chose and the wool is so soft.  I have to redo one of the pieces as it is way to tight but overall am not finding it too hard.

I have been ogling Stacy Trock's patterns for a while so I thought this was the way to go.   I also signed her book out from the library - I like to preview pattern books before I make a purchase.  Like a moron I showed the girls the book and told them to each pick out one thing they would like me to make.  Wren is all over me to finish "mine crab".  "Mine crab done yet?"  She picked the thing with the most pieces!  There are 8 tiny legs to make!  8! 

Seven little legs, two claws and most of the body. 
Two eye stalks and one little leg to go.

 

More Crochet

One great thing about crochet is I can do it around the kids.  While they watch a movie or play outside.  I can be in the same room and still get something done.  (I have tried to do other things like clean cupboards but as soon as I am in just far enough not to quit a fight will break out.)

I am in love with amigurumi!   It is so much faster then sewing a toy!  I still really enjoy the sewing but there are so many patterns out there for crochet.  I can only imagine the time I am saving (and not using productively) And it is easier to hide all the yarn I am accumulating.

My friend's little girl had a Brave themed birthday so I set out to make a Merida.  I purchased three patterns from JanaGeek - Merida, Belle and Ariel.  These are excellent patterns and Merida was the first little person I have ever made.  I did forget their little smiles though.

That same friend's other daughter had a Star Wars themed party.  I purchased three patterns from Lucyravenscar - Yoda, Leia and Darth Vader.  I made Leia for the birthday party and a Yoda to practice (he has a bit of a gap in the back).  These patterns really worked out for me as well.

I also made each of the birthday girls a purse.  I could not find Brave (or any other princess themed) fabric which is bizarre since it was everywhere last year.  So one girl got butterflies and the other got Star Wars   These bags are from Diary of a Quilter and only take 32 minutes!  I also have a pattern for messenger bags with a flap closure but I cut the fabric sideways for the butterfly bag and it was too much waste to cut the Star Wars fabric correctly.  I really like the little fold on the butterfly bag, it makes the whole project look sharp and professionally done.  I think I could attach the straps on the inside so there are no seams visible.   I am going to add a few of these to my craft sale in the fall as a way to cut down my stash.

Finally!

I can not believe it has taken me this long to learn to crochet!  Just thinking about the amount of time and energy I could have saved on the Wall-Es alone is maddening!

I started by making each girl a hat.  Of course Wren needed a cat and Chickenbutt a spider.
I used the Hello Kitty hat pattern from 5PacksCrochet but left off the ear flaps since it is a spring hat.  I did have to add a few extra rows to get the length I wanted but overall it turned out nicely.

 

 

I then used the same basic beanie pattern and added a spider for Chickenbutt.

 



I have made two cats, one for each girl.  This is a pattern from Ana Paula Rimoli in her book Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet. It did not turn out quite as well I had hoped but Chickenbutt assures me she loves it.  I suspect she may be trying to convince herself.  I know it is not a problem with the pattern because I can see other people on Ravelry have had success.

 
 This is a different cat for Wren.  Our cats are all orange because our real cat is orange.  (And the poor guy would love it if the kids would just stick to the cat toys and leave him alone!)  This one turned out much better except that the ears are a bit too round.  The pattern was free from Amy Gaines and is the pouncing Siamese cat. 

Skeletons-photos to come soon!

In September we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas (which I know is not appropriate for my kids!) and both girls became obsessed.  Chickenbutt loves Halloween and wanted to be a skeleton.  Since it was already September I apparently missed my chance to buy black skeleton pajamas, to use as a costume, locally.  I found some online but they were way too expensive and finding a skeleton costume for a preschooler and a toddler was tricky.  Now I know that it would not have been hard to sew but then we saw pink skeleton pajamas online and they glow in the dark.  I ordered two sets (from different places on eBay) and we waited until the last weekend before Halloween before panicking.  Finally I took Chickenbutt to the dollar store where we found toddler size skeleton costumes.  We picked up two. 
Meanwhile I made two skeleton hats.  Despite the fact that Chickenbutt was excited for the pink skeleton pajamas she insisted that her hat look like Jack Skellington.  I explained numerous times that it wouldn't match the costume but was instructed that it had to be black. 


It is important to note that it took until after Christmas that Chickenbutt would wear the hat without the rest of the costume.

I was also told that both girls (Chickenbutt did all the talking for them both at that time) that they would both need skeleton dolls for the costumes to be complete.  I was also told that the skeletons had to be pink.  I purchased the pattern from Dolls and Daydreams and it was very easy to follow.  Once again I probably could have made this myself but the pattern was very well done and already has all the bugs worked out.  I am really happy with the way they turned out but am way happier with the way the black one turned out which I made for a friend. 

 

In addition to all the skeleton costumes and toys my dad brought over a large decorative skeleton.  After it fell over too many times in Chickenbutt's room (she has a Halloween display), I hung it in our dining room.  Then we had to decorate it for Christmas.  I have some beautiful quilted wall hangings that could go in that space.

 

Knuffle Bunny

THANK YOU PLUCKY MOMO!

Emilie at Plucky Momo created a Knuffle Bunny pattern back in 2010 and I am so thankful.  Wren has been so in love with the book that we maxed out the renewals at the library.  When the book went missing I had a few moments where I wondered if her almost 2 year old brain was cagey enough to hide the book to avoid the return. 

When I came across the pattern I was super excited because I even had fabric in the exact right colour.  Sadly it is minky and I hate working with it.  It moves, it sheds and it is a bit thicker then I like to deal with normally. 

I made a few changes to Emilie's pattern.  I traced the pattern with the head and body already attached and made the ears entirely blue on the front.  These changes were both made to make my life easier, fewer steps for me. 

When I finished there was one very happy little girl in our house.  So far Chickenbutt has not asked for one.

Wall-E

I tried to avoid the Disneyfication of my kids. I really did. But it's everywhere. And they do a FANTASTIC job of advertising. Although we do have a few of the dolls we have avoided princess mania so far. The other day we did buy two fairies (with kids this close in age it is just easier to buy two of everything) but Chickenbutt wanted her Tinkerbell to play with Superfairy from Sesame Street. We added paper wings to a dancing Cinderella doll to create a reasonable facsimile of Superfairy.

We recently went to a Wall-E themed birthday party. A few days before the party I pulled the movie out of my stash and popped it in. This was on a Wednesday. By the time we went to the party on the Saturday we had watched Wall-E three times.  By the way, the cake at the party was AMAZING!  Honestly, you would think the Pixar people were involved.  It was a PERFECT Wall-E.

We are now BIG into Wall-E.  It is VERY hard to find anything Wall-E! In a moment of pure insanity I took Chickenbutt downstairs into the sewing cave and we chose the felt colours so I could make her a Wall-E.  Then I was under constant pressure and close supervision until he was finished.



Version 1
*Note the cockroach, our librarian gave it to Chickenbutt and I
got to spend an hour at the doctor's office asking her if she still had it.  That kid is weird!

"You can work on my Wall-E now if you want."

"Daddy, finish my Wall-E"  "Mommy has to, I don't know how."  "You just have to read the instructions"

"You have to take time now!"

"Apparently you need one more thing on my Wall-E.  He's missing his red button."

"You make one for Wren now!"





Version 2



 As with everything I am unsure of, I decided to make the first Wall-E out of felt.  I did find two cute crochet patterns but am not quite that skilled.  I am quite pleased to say I was really happy with how he turned out.  While I was working on him I took numerous photos with the thought of creating a tutorial.  Then I realized that Disney would break my legs.  And sue me.  Wall-E version 2 is made out of quilting fabric and I like him better except for the arms.  They are a bit wonky and too fat.  Wall-E version 3 (if he ever shows up) will be perfect!

"Now I need an EVE and a cleaning robot."