The Penguin Pages

No-Sew Positive Donut Pal

2026-05-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Donuts have always been a hit at my craft shows... so when "Postive Pals" (little crochet animals and such holding an encouraging sign) became popular, I worked on making a Positive Donut. I've sold a few at craft shows, so I wrote up the pattern and now I'm sharing it with my crafty friends.

It takes less than half an ounce of worsted weight yarn, a bit over .2 ounces of a light brown for the donut, and about the same in a frosting color. You want to make sure the yarns are very close in weight, so that the halves of the donut match up. If you use a thinner weight for one side, and thicker worsted for the other, it will be hard to line up the stitches to crochet them together.

I used .25 ounces of light tan and .25 ounces of a medium brown with a 3.75 oz hook.

I also used 6 different colors of scrap yarn (4" - 8" lengths) for the sprinkles.

You'll need a stitch marker for keeping track of your rows, a yarn needle for weaving in your ends, and some polyfill. I used 9 mm safety eyes and a short scrap of black yarn to embroider the mouth.

Start with your donut color. Chain 15 and join with a slip stitch. Ch 1

I do not work over my yarn tail. I leave it exposed to help with attaching the frosting yarn later.

Round 1: Sc in each chain. (15) Do not join - we will work in continuous rounds.

Round 2: (sc 2, inc) x 5. (20)

Round 3: (sc 3, inc) x 5. (25)

Round 4: (sc 4, inc) x 5. (30)

Round 5: sc (30)

Round 6: Make arm, sc 15, make arm, sc 15. (30 + arms)

(Arm: Ch 8. Make a 3 dc bobble in the 2nd chain from hook. Sc in remaining chains. Slip st in the side of the last sc before the arm)

Arm 1

FO at the end of Round 6.

Now it's time for the frosting side. Attach your frosting color yarn to the wrong side of the donut. Bring your working yarn up through the hole in the donut. For the first row or two, you will be pulling your yarn through the hole of the donut. Don't worry, you don't have to do that for the whole frosting!

Round 1: Sc in the backside of each chain from the donut starting chain. Count to make sure you have 15 stitches (it's easy to miss one... if needed, you can do in increase to get up to 15). The right side of your frosting should be facing the right side of your donut.

Starting frosting

Rounds 2 - 5 of the frosting are the same as the donut. After round 2 or 3, pull up a long loop (so your stitches don't unravel), take the hook out, and push your frosting through the hole of the donut. Now the wrong sides of the donut and the frosting are facing each other, the way they should be. Continue until you're done with round 5. We won't need to add arms on the frosting side.

Two rows of frosting done

Frosting pushed through

Round 6: sc (30)

At the end of round 6

Now is the time to add sprinkles... using short scraps of colored yarn, make random little stitches around the frosting. Once I was close to the end of one scrap, I would tie the next color to it (on the wrong side of my work) and continue on with the new color. Figure out where the center top of your frosting is, in relation to the placement of the arms, and put safety eyes 3 rows down, with 4 stitches between. Embroider a small mouth 1 row below the eyes, centered between them.

Once your sprinkles and face are done, we'll crochet the donut edges together. You can just sc them together, but I prefer a bit of a frilled edge. I get them by doing a sc, then I chain 1, spin the donut around once to twist the chain, and then I go on to the next sc. It makes an edge that looks a little like a crab stitch, but it's a lot easier!

Round 7: Hold both sides of the donut together and work 30 sc (or sc, twisted chain) around, working through both the frosting and donut layers. When you get the arm, push it toward the front of the donut and work around the back of it. After every 10 stitches or so, stuff the section you just finished. Before you finish the final stitches, give the donut a pinch all the way around to make sure you don't have any gaps where you missed stuffing. If you find a gap, you can usually push stuffing into it and re-stuff the area you just pushed stuffing out of. You want your donut to be pleasantly plump!

Here are the pictures for the little card that he holds. You can paste them into a document, change the size to suit your donut, and print them out. I "laminate" mine with packing tape or self-adhesive laminating sheets and use hot glue to attach to the donut. First I put two little stripes of glue on the back of the sign and press it onto the donut. Then I put a touch of glue onto the bobble at the end of the arm, and press the bobble onto the edge of the sign.

Alien in Flying Saucer no-sew amigurumi pattern

2026-02-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

Alien in Spaceship

I used worsted weight yarn and a 3.75 mm hook. Weights below are based on worsted weight yarn, which has about 50 yards per ounce, in case you want to figure out yardage for another weight of yarn. (The alien in the yellow spaceship is made with two strands of a lightweight DK and an H hook)

Alien Color: .25 oz

Spaceship main color: .35 oz

Spaceship Accent color: .15 oz

Starting at top of head with the Alien Color

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: (sc, inc) x 2, Antenna, (sc, inc) x 2, Antenna, (sc, inc) x 2 (18)

Antenna: ch 5, work 2 dc bobble in 3^rd chain from hook, sl st 2, make a sl st in the side of the last sc worked

I goofed with this guy, and only put one repeat of the (sc, inc) between the antenna.

R4: (sc 2, inc) x 6 (24) Push the antenna out of the way, toward the MR, as you work past them.

R5-10: sc (24)

Change to spaceship color. In Round 12, use spaceship accent color for 3-dc bobbles (BOB)

Place 1 eye between rows 5 & 6, centered between the antenna. Place two more eyes between rows 7/8, with 2 stitches between. Embroider a smile below the eyes. Optional: you could just use one big eye. It’s an alien… have fun and be imaginative! Once eyes and embroidery are done, stuff the head.

R11: (sc 2, inc) x 8 (32)

R12: (sc, BOB, sc, inc) x 8 (40)

R13: (sc 4, inc) x 8 (48)

R14: (sc 5, inc) x 8 (56) Change to spaceship accent color, but do not cut spaceship color.

R15: Hdc (56) FO spaceship accent color and weave in end. Continue r16 with spaceship color

R16: In 3^rd loop, (sc 5, dec) x 8 (48)

R17: (sc 4, dec) x 8 (40)

R18: (sc 3, dec) x 8 (32)

R19: (sc 2, dec) x 8 (24)

R20: (sc 2, dec) x 6 (18)

Stuff the spaceship, making sure you get into the edges of the widest part.

R21: (sc, dec) x 6 (12) Add any additional stuffing.

R22: dec x 6 (6)

FO, leaving short tail to close up.

Percival the Impatient - free low-sew pattern

2026-01-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

Angry items seem to sell well for me at craft shows... angry coffee, angry bananas, angry ducks... so I decided to try an angry bird... and Percival the Impatient came to be. He is a grumpy little fellow who works up quickly, and the only thing you have to sew on is his beak!

Percival the Impatient

Body color: About .5 oz

Accent color: less than .25 oz

This pattern uses a double increase, where you make 3 sc in one stitch. I abbreviate it as *3sc*.

Beginning at bottom with body color:

R1: sc 9 in MR (9)

R2: (sc 2, *3sc*) x 3 (15)

R3: sc 3, (*3sc*, sc 4) x 2, *3sc*, sc (21)

R4: sc 4, (*3sc*, sc 6) x 2, *3sc*, sc 2 (27)

R5: sc 5, (*3sc*, sc 8) x 2, *3sc*, sc 3 (33)

R6: sc (33)

You should have a three-sided figure. In round 7, we will add legs in the contrast color.

Leg: change to accent color with the stitch before the leg. Chain 15. Starting in the second st from hook, sl st 3, (ch 4, sl st 3) x 2. Sl st back to the end of the chain, changing to the body color with the last sl st.

R7: Sc 11, Leg, sc 5, Leg, sc 17 (33)

Non-counting summary of round 7: legs are centered on the front side with 3 stitches between legs and the corners, and 5 stitches between the legs.

R8-10: sc (33) For Round 8, make sure Percival’s legs are on the outside of the body and work around them.

R11: sc 9, BLO sc, sc 12, BLO sc, sc 10 (33) The BLO stitches should be on the sides of the body, each one the same number of stitches from the closest leg. You can place stitch markers in the front loops you leave open, to make them easier to find later.

R12: (sc 9, dec) x 3 (30)

R13-14: sc (30)

R15: (sc 8, dec) x 3 (27)

In Round 16, we will add arms (change to the contrast color with the stitch before the arm if desired. For my cardinal, I made the arms in the body color). The bottom of the arms will be attached to the body in the front loops left in Round 11. This gives Percival his “hands on the hips impatient” look.

R16: sc 9, arm, sc 10, arm, sc 8 (27)

Arms should be on the sides.

Arm: ch 12, make 3 dc bobble in the 4^th chain from the hook. Sl st into the R11 loop, working behind the “hand” (so the hand is between the legs and the chain for the arms). Sl st into the next chain and each of the remaining chains, changing back to body color with the last chain.

R17-18: sc (27)

R19: (sc 7, dec) x 3 (24)

R20: sc (24)

R21: (sc 6, dec) x 3 (21)

R22-23: sc (21)

R24: (sc 5, dec) x 3 (18)

Insert eyes between rows 21 & 22, with 5 stitches visible between them. They should line up with the feet, and be centered between the arms. I used oval Kawaii safety eyes that are ¾” tall.

Stuff body and continue to stuff as you decrease.

R25: sc (18)

R26: (sc, dec) x 6 (12)

R27: dec x 6 (6).

Finish off, leaving about a 6” tail. Use the tail to gather the stitches of R27 and pull closed. Don’t cut the yarn yet… Cut two more pieces about 6” long. Latch them through at the top of Percival’s head, adding the single strand from closing the hole through the loop as you pull the yarn through. Trim to about 2”. Separate strands of each piece of yarn, and, if desired, brush out with a pet brush.

Options: You could add more strands of hair at the top of the head, to make more of a crest (as I did with the cardinal) or you could do the hair in the accent color.

Beak

With accent color, chain 4. Sl st, sc, hdc. FO, leaving tail to sew to Percival’s face, centered between and 1-2 rows below the eyes. (Since the cardinal beak was black, I left an extra-long tail and used the extra to embroider his eyebrows.)

Embroider Percival’s angry eyebrows. \ /

With black yarn, start 3 rows above one eye, centered over the eye. Insert the needle two rows down (one row above the eye, even with the inner side of the eye). Repeat with other eye.

Thank you to Strawberry Bonnie for helping to test my pattern.

For my bluebird, I skipped the BLO on round 11 and left this arms untethered, so he can cross his arms (also looks impatient and a bit grumpy)

How about an angry mallard?

Rounds 1-17: Brown

Round 18: white

Rounds 19-27 Green

Use orange for legs and yellow for beak

April's Baby Monster Pattern

2025-06-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Back in April of last year, I designed a boxy-looking monster for my Monster of the Month series. This year, I had someone ask if I could make a smaller monster to match. So, I worked on it, and this is the result. The original monster was close to 10" tall. This one is closer to six.

April’s Baby Monster

This little guy has the same construction as my April Monster, but on a smaller scale, so you can have Mom & Baby monsters.

Made with worsted weight yarn and an F hook, he measures about 6" tall.

I used .8 ounce of the main color, less than half an ounce of the accent color, and less than a yard of white and black for eye accent and smile.

I used 10 mm safety eyes

Start at the top with main color. First section is worked in rows. Note: the body is done in HDC, while arms, legs and horns are made in SC

Row 1: Ch 10. Starting in 2nd ch from hook, hdc 9

Rows 2-3: Ch 1, turn, hdc 9.

Row 4: Do not turn. Add an additional hdc in the same stitch just worked. Rotate your work and work 2 hdc down the side, with an additional hdc in the corner. Rotate work and make 9 hdc across, with an additional hdc in the corner stitch. Rotate and work 2 hdc up the side. Place one more hdc in the corner. (26: 9 on each long side, 2 on each short side, and one additional hdc in each corner)

Now we work in continuous rounds. Use a stitch marker to mark your beginning point to help keep track of rows.

Round 1: BLO hdc (26)

Rounds 2-7: hdc (26)

Now we go back to working back and forth. If needed, hdc over to the beginning of a long row.

Row 1: BLO hdc 9

Rows 2-4: ch 1, turn, hdc 9. FO, leaving long tail for sewing closed.

Arms, starting with Fingers (make 2, starting with accent color)

Ch 6. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st 2, *ch 2, sl st 2* x 3. Change to body color and continue with arm.

Round 1:Sc, skip one chain, sc, skip one chain, sc. Turn your work and sc in each of the skipped stitches, then make one last sc in the same chain as your first stitch. (6)

Alternate round 1. Sc 4 down the chain, with an increase in the last ch. Fold to form a tube and continue working in the round. (6) This is a bit easier, but it makes an open tube, which doesn't hide your yarn ends. You can use your yarn tail to sew it up a bit if you like. I like to make a closed tube, with the first option.

Rounds 2-5: sc (6)

FO, leaving a tail to sew to body.

Foot (make 2 in main color)

Round 1: sc 4 in mr (4)

Round 2: inc x 4 (8)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 4 (12)

Rounds 4: sc (12)

Round 5: *sc 4, dec* x 2 (10)

Round 7: *sc 3, dec* x 2 (8)

Stuff lightly and fold the top together. Sc 4 across the top.

Ankle transition:

Ch 1, turn, hdc 4 (4)

Ch 1, turn, FLO sc 4, turn your work and BLO sc 4 on the other side. (8) Now we will go back to working in the round again.

Round 1-2: sc (8)

FO, leaving a tail to sew to body. You can stuff the legs or leave them unstuffed to make him more of a sitting monster.

Horns (make 2 in accent color)

Round 1: 3 sc in MR (3)

Round 2: inc, sc 2 (4)

Round 3: inc, sc 3 (5)

Round 4: inc, sc 4 (6)

FO, leaving tail to sew to head.

Eyebrows: (make 2 in accent color)

Ch 4. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st, sc, sc. FO, leaving tail to sew to head.

Place safety eyes between rounds 3 & 4, with 4 stitches between. Before securing safety eyes, place the eyebrows above the eyes to make sure you have enough room. Use a little white yarn to make an accent on the outer side of each eye. Sew eyebrows over eyes, with the thickest part at the center of the face. Embroider a mouth over round 6. Stuff head/body and sew the bottom flap closed.

Sew the horns on the top of the head. I placed mine close to the outer edges.

Sew legs to the bottom of the head/body. I positioned my legs so that the edges lined up with the edges of the bottom of the head/body.

Sew arms to the side of the body, even with the bottom of the eyes. I didn’t stuff my arms, so they would hang better against the side of the body.

Many thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing this pattern for me!

A Freebie a day keeps boredom at bay!

2025-04-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

So, somehow I came up with the idea of trying one new free pattern each day of April. I have printed out so many cute patterns, saying, "oh, this is cute! I need to make this!" Well, I'm finally getting around to it!

I started on April 1st with Frankie the Frog

This is a free pattern on Ravelry from The Stitchin' Mommy

You can check out the pattern here: Frankie the Frog

On April 2nd, I made a turtle with the free pattern from All From Jade. This worked up really fast! I used leftover yarn from Frankie plus some bright yellow yarn I got from Temu

April 3 - Fuzzy Bunny

I watched a YouTube video by Danika for this pattern

I used some fuzzy yarn (got it in a yarn gift, no label!), held together with a strand of sport weight white yarn, hoping to make my stitches more visible. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but I finished!

April 4 - Capybara

I used a pattern by Sweet Beans Crochet on Instagram (found here)

April 5 - Rubber Duck by Emily J. Miller (found here)

The pattern is on a crochet discussion board, with no pictures and limited info (there's no note about what size safety eyes, where to put them, where to sew on the beak, etc.)

I do like the way it turned out, and plan to make another with a few changes: one less row on the beak, a larger neck (doing less decreases before sewing it on), and smaller safety eyes (I used 12 mm with worsted weight... maybe go down to 10mm?)

April 6: Chubby Dino

Pattern by Studio Phoebe 22 on Instagram

I'm not used to working with plush yarn, and I had an issue keeping my tension consistent. There are some gaps in my stitches.

April 7: Little Bunny by Grace and Yarn

I love how this one turned out, and I want to make some more!

April 8

Rainbow fish by Chai Coffee Crochet

Quick, cute, and uses up little bits of yarn. What more can you ask for?

April 9:

Little Bitty Bear by Darling Maple Designs

I must admit that I made mistakes, and then took liberties with this pattern to cover my mistakes. I was working on it past my bedtime, and missed a row of increases in the head, so the muzzle didn't fit... so I had to improvise.

April 10:

Splooting Triceratops

Free YouTube Tutorial by Allez Crochet

Eek!

This is so cute! I have seen her Splooting Triceratops on her YouTube and Instagram channels, but I'm trying to stick to a buying ban, until I have some good craft shows and get my spreadsheet balance back in the black. Well, she posted a free YouTube tutorial, and I jumped right on and made it from her tutorial. I used worsted weight yarn rather than plush, and he is such an adorable little guy!

April 12 -

Mini Hippo From Amigurumi Today

Pattern found here

April 13 - Ice Cream Cutie

This is from a free YouTube tutorial

It folds up to look like an ice cream cone, but then opens up to a little doll. It worked up pretty fast. I think I'll eventually make some more!

April 14 - Dog in Beret

Okay, I found this pattern in my cat/dog notebook. Working from the pattern did not go well. In fact, I made a video called This pattern was driving me crazy.

The pattern just said "add eyes"... with no indication of which row and how many stitches between. The pictures were close up enough to count rows or stitches... and the pictures don't seem to match up to the actual dimensions of the finished dog when you follow the directions. The head ends up smaller, the beret is smaller, etc.

I tried going to the website listed on the pattern, and my security software said "don't go there..." ...so I didn't. So I don't have a pattern to share for this one

April 15 - Penguin

This one was from a YouTube tutorial

I think I need to cover up that one little bit of black that shows through above the eye on the right.

April 16 - Ice Cream Cone

This sweet pattern checks off all the boxes for this challenge: quick, cute, free...

April 17 - Mini Easter Egg Bunny

Eek! This pattern is giving the Splooting Triceratops a run for the money as my favorite make from this challenge! It turned out so cute and used up some scrap yarn.

It's a free pattern download on Ravelry

April 17 (oops, I made two in one day)

Cute Crocodile Amigurumi

from amigurum.com

Pattern notes: the pattern shows him in a shirt, but there is no indication in the pattern of when to do color changes for the shirt. Also, you need to add one more row of increases to the tail to get to the 24 stitches indicated.

April 18

Pony by Ohana Craft

free pattern on Ravelry

April 19

Sad Kitty by Yarn Society pattern here

April 20

Claude Chick

Free Pattern download on Ravelry

April 21

Crocodile

Free YouTube Tutorial

April 22 - Goose

Free Pattern by Instagram by Crochet_Crochey

April 23 - Loaf Cat

YouTube Tutorial by Annie Carroway Arts

April 24 - Mouse

Pattern by Sharon Ojala of Amigurumi To Go

April 25

Mystery Frog

I saw a post on Facebook with a screenshot of a Mystery MakeAlong by

KittenMallow on Tik Tok. I grabbed some green yarn from my craft card, added a strand of white baby yarn, and started out. I decided it looked froggy, so I made a few changes to the pattern to keep going with the frog idea.

Also April 25 - Cape for Winter Mouse

April 26 - Nantes the Carrot Top Monster

Mix and Match Monster by Chai Coffee Crochet

I introduced this cute in this video

where I explain the tweaks I made to the pattern,

as well as how I made the hair.

April 27 - Birthday Cake

Pattern from Furls Website

For the candle, I used half of a cake pop stick, with brushed-out red and yellow yarn for the flame (I used hot glue to attach).

April 28 - Cow by Oombawka Designs

April 29

Ziggy Zebra by Chai Coffee Crochet

I made this guy with bulky yarn and a K hook, so he's signficantly larger than the pattern says he will turn out!

April 30

Peyton the Polar Bear by Sweet Softies

#GrandAmiVenture

2025-03-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

The project / series I'm calling #GrandAmiVenture started back in 2023. I gave my daughters a little booklet I made up with pictures of some of my best sellers, asking for my granddaughters to come up with color combinations for them.

I got the pages back at our family Christmas in 2024. My two oldest granddaughters took turns coming up with some fun color combinations!

So, for 2025, starting in April, I will be making one of their color combinations each month. (edited to add... that plan didn't work out... other projects got in the way!)

I finally finished Monday, January 19, 2026! I made a YouTube video showing all 14 items.

Grand Ami Venture Finale Video

First... pattern links:

Cute Little Dino is a pattern here on my blog. Pattern Link

5-year old Sophie wants me to make one in Pink with yellow accent stripes and green spikes, and red cheeks!

Well, I cheated on the cheeks... and made them hot pink... but here it is!

Bonus... when I was working on Sophie's Cute Little Dino in pink, another granddaughter asked what I was doing and asked if she could submit colors... so here is another mini dino in Lyra colors!

Big Head Turtle

This is a free pattern on Instagram

8-year-old Aliya picked out the colors for this one:

Royal Blue for the head, and a multi-colored yarn (pink and white) for the shell.

I couldn't find any pink variegated yarn in my stash, so I did stripes in bright white and two shades of pink.

Ankylosaur is a free pattern on Ravelry

(The pattern can be found here.)

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too. Forest Green body, yellow shield, light pink bumps! That one is going to be interesting!

And here it is! The first finish from the list!

Fancy Elephant: I'll have to track down the pattern info for this one! It's been so long, I don't remember where I put the pattern!

(Found it! Pattern here )

Aliya's color choices: grey body, light pink dress with forest green for the top ruffle, mint green for the middle, and a pink/green ombre for the bottom... and coral hair bows.

(Definitely not colors I would have thought of... that's why this is going to be so interesting!)

Axolotl with sleeping bag is a free pattern from Whimsical Yarn Creations

You can find info here

Aliya wants me to make it in dark green with yellow gills and a multi-colored blue sleeping bag.

And here it is... oops, I missed the part about "blue" and just made a multi-colored sleeping bag.

Tanner the Mini Triceratops by The Nicole Chase is one of my favorite dinosaur patterns. Here's the pattern

Aliya said "this will be a silly one"... Green body, blue accents at the bottom of the feet and arms, light pink frill, light purple edge on frill, yellow horns by the frill, white horn on the snout.

I don't think he looks all that silly!

Hatching Party is a paid pattern from One and Two Company

Hatching Party Pattern

I made baby brother in the egg shell years ago, with a blue "Big Brother". Over the years, I keep making the "Big Brother" over and over again (well, there may have been big sisters in pink and purple)... but nobody has purchased the set yet.

Sophie thinks the next big brother should be light blue with light purple spikes, and purple dots on the eggshell.

He was project #2:

FoFo the Bull... what a cutie! Here's his pattern

I've made him twice. Following Aliya's instructions, he will be a purple bull, with aqua blue pants (and orange pocket embroidery), dark pink feet, a light pink bow tie, and light brown ears and horns. Oh, and his arms are supposed to be coral. That's going to be one interesting cow!

I had to switch up the colors a little, as I didn't have coral in the yarn I pulled for this project.

Honu the African Flower Sea Turtle is a long-time favorite. Looking through my Ravelry projects, I can tell that I made at least 18 of them so far! Here's the pattern.

Aliya picked colors for this one: light purple head and flippers, yellow in the center, royal blue petals, dark purple to separate the petals, and light blue to finish off.

I did this one for project #3... here is how it turned out:

The Aliyasaurus is my own pattern, designed from a drawing done by my granddaughter Aliya.

Of course, she picked the colors for the next one.

Head: a very colorful ombre, green neck, yellow body, orange tail, teal legs, dark purple spikes and dark pink ears.

Little Bigfoot Puppy is a pattern by Sharon Ojala

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too: Turquoise head, light pink body, turquoise muzzle, blue and pink arms, red and green legs, brown tail, purple and yellow ears.

(That girl LOVES color!)

I goofed... did both ears in yellow, when one should be purple.

I have a few modifications I make to the Chameleon pattern from Red Heart. Here's one I made with some Christmas yarn:

Aliya thinks I should make one with a pink body, blue eye spot, red frill with yellow edging, and orange legs.

Here is what I came up with:

And, last, but by no means least, is the Ballerina Kitty by Grace and Yarn (pattern link)

This is one of my favorite patterns, and I have made over a dozen of them through the past few years.

Chosen colors are: white cat, teal dress with dark blue stripe. Slippers/hair bow in teal.

Okay, the granddaughters have spoken... Now I will spin the wheel of names and see which one I make first. I am putting the #GrandAmiVenture on my to-do list for April!

Project 1: Ankylosaur

Project 2: Hatching Party

Project 3: African Flower turtle

Project 4: Cute Little Dino (LOL, 3 of the first 4 were dinosaurs!)

Project 5: Big Head turtle

Project 6: Chameleon

Project 7: Axolotl in Sleeping Bag

Project 8: Aliyasaurus

Project 9: Tanner the Triceratops

Project 10: Little Bigfoot Puppy

Project 11: Fancy Elephant

Project 12: Ballerina Kitty

Battle of the Scrap Bags

2025-01-08T08:41:00.000-08:00

On Veterans' Day (11/11/24), I went to a local thrift store, AmVets, knowing they would have 50% off all items. My husband needed a pair of jeans for gardening, and I was looking for a pair of jeans for myself, too. I figured if they had any yarn, that would be a perk! In the past, I got several full skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn for $2 each at that store.

I hit the jackpot with yarn! I picked up 18 bags, a whole cartful! I spent $30.80 on yarn, and managed to find a pair of jeans for my husband, and a pair for myself!

When I got home, I made a YouTube video about the yarn haul: Thrifting Haul Video

I pulled out a bag and got started.

Bag 1

One of the first projects was making granny squares from the small scraps. Why? Because the jeans I bought myself were too short! I made some granny squares, sewed them together, and sewed them to the bottom of the jeans.

In all, I made 10 projects from the bag, with an estimated sales value of $105. Some of the items sold already! (Marked with *) I worked on bag 1 from 11/11 to 11/21. I was busy on some other items because of a large custom order and craft shows.

1. Variegated Pink Loaf Cat*

2. Granny Squares for my jeans

3. Blue-Green T-Rex

4. Variegated Pink Stingray*

5. 3 eggs

6. Ballerina Kitty*

7. Camo sea turtle*

8. Flip Octo

9. Denim Cat

10. Ocean Ombre Turtle

I summarized the projects made from this bag in this YouTube video. There were a total of 10 projects with an estimated sales value of $105. Since I made these items in the middle of my fall craft shows, I already sold $36 worth of them, thus paying for all 18 bags of yarn already.

On to bag #2 - started on 11/22

This bag was a tangled mess. It took me an hour and a half to wind it into neat cakes. There were 36 balls/cakes of yarn.

Projects:

1. Rainbow Kooky Owl*

2. Green Snake

3. Green Axolotl

4. Rainbow Patches the Bear*

5. November Monster v. 1.0*

6. November Monster v. 2.0

7. November Monster v 3.0

8. Rainbow Loaf Cat

9. Green Snake

10. Happy Coffee (Matcha) Red

11. Red T-Rex

12. Christmas Snail

13. Christmas Snake

14. Green Angry Coffee

So, 14 items from this bag, with an estimated sales total of $96. I sold three items from the list, for a total of $34. I finished on 11/28 (Thanksgiving), thanks to craft time at my daughter's house, and somebody else cooking Thanksgiving dinner! Here is the summary video for that bag.

On to Bag 3, which had a lot of small balls of Red Heart Neon Stripes yarn. This video

goes through what was in the bag.

Here's what I made from that bag:

1) Neon Stripe Loaf Cat

2) Purple Monster - November Monster of the Month

3) Hilde the Highland Cow - Brown

4) Happy Coffee - Rainbow

5) Micro Octo

6) Purple Whale

7) Black/Rainbow Gecko

8) Gray Whale

9) Axolotl sleeping bag

10-12) Owls (Gufo Ernesto)

13) Rainbow Gecko (purple to red)

14) Super Scrappy Snake

15) Rainbow Dinosaur

16) Tanner the Mini Triceratops

17) Brown Mouse, red shirt

18) Neon Stripe Turtle

So, a total of 18 items, with an estimated sale value of $197. So far the most items from one bag!

I opened bag 4 just before a trip down to PA (Dec. 13-15) for our family Christmas. The bag had a lot of white, which I needed for a Christmas gift for my granddaughter Lyra. She watches a show called "Hilda and Twig", so for Christmas she got a book and her own amigurumi Twig (a white deer-fox). I don't think I got a picture of Twig, but it is in this video.

1) Twig

2) Highland Cow "Curly"

3) Tanner the mini triceratops - Blaze

4) Snowman

5) Stegosaurus - Brick

6) Chubs mouse

7) Ombre Rex

8) Mouse - Purple Shirt

9) Stingray Purple

10) Stingray orange

11) Mouse - Blue & White

12) Hilde - Snowball

So only 12 projects from that bag, but many of them were bigger, more expensive items, so the estimated sales value was $218 (the best so far as I'm typing this). I finished up that bag 12/19

Bag 5 - This bag was pinks and purples, one pound, 3 ounces.

1) Ballerina Kitty - pink dress

2) Pink Jellyfish

3) Macaroon

4) Ankylosaurus (purple and gray)

5) Pink penguin

6) Purple Dachshund

7) Pink Monkey

8) Pink/Purple Turtle

9) Purple Bear, Pink Scarf

10) December Monster Pink

11) Pink Axolotl

Only 11 projects, estimated sales value $177

Bag 6 had lots of small pieces. It had 11.4 ounces of bigger yarn balls (27 of them) and 2.4 ounces of tiny scraps

1) Blue penguin

2) Green Penguin

3) Purple Tail Merkitty

4) Rainbow turtle

5) Crazy Daisy Giraffe

6) Merkitty - white / pink

7) Pink Possum

8) Blue Brown Camo Cute little dino

9) Mico octo sad red

10) Micro octo angry blue/brown

11) Micro octo angry blue

12) Loopy Chicken Blue

13) Loopy Chicken Pink/Brown

14) African Flower Sea Turtle Pink/Blue/Brown

15) Pink/Purple Turtle

16) Navy Blue Monster

Pretty good assortment from this bag: 16 items made, $166 in estimated sale value

Bag 7 - started January 8

1 pound, 1.3 oz of yarn - 16 good-sized balls and 40+ pieces of small scrap yarn.

I set aside the yarn in the box for my first project.

Bag 7:

1. Ballerina Kitty

2) Crazy Daisy Cow

3) Camo T-Rex

4) Platypus (Blue)

5) Ombrea, teal turtle

6) Mini Stingray, purple

7-9) Micro Octos

10) Orange/White Chill Pill

11) Blue/Cream happy Pill

12) Brown/Blue/Pink African Flower Turtle

13) Blue/Camo Micro Octo

14) Green steg with rainbow spikes

16) African FLower Rutle Sunny

16) Light BLue Stingray

17) Messy Monster

18) Bluwe Axolotl

19) Purple Triceratops

20) Camo/Brown Land Turtle

21) Light Blue Triceratops

Bag 8

1) Ivory Basket

2) white Basket

3) Ballerina Kitty (brown with green dress)

4) Macaron

5) Peeps Bunny

6) Loopy Chicken Orange

7) Green/White turtle in egg

8) Orange Happy Coffee

Bag 9:

1. Flip the Fish

2. Blue Peep

3) Tanner - Pastels

4) Green Peep

5) Tanner Multi-Color

6) Armie of One

I ran out of purple yarn making arms for project 5, so I used the one extra arm to make a cute little guy, an "Armie of One"

7. Christmas Chameleon

8. Tri-Color Happy Coffee

9. Mostly Blue African Flower Turtle

10. Green Maccaron

11. Yellow / Pink Maccaron

Bag 11

I started Bag 11 on January 28. It was mostly orange with one skein of gold and one skein of gray. I discovered that the gray was wool, so I couldn't use it for amigurumi... so I made myself a nice warm cowl for this "winter that never ends".

1. Gray Wool cowl

2. Mushroom Duck

3 Highland Cow

4. Cute Mini Dino

5. Allez Crochet Duck

6. Orange hat for #5

7. Orange Platypus

8. Small Beer

9. Large zBeer

10. Gold baby axolotl

11) Orange hamster

This bag was a total of 11 projects with an estimated sales value of $142.

Bag 12 was a single skein of burnt orange yarn (very vintage... back when there were K-Mart stores all over, and they carried yarn!), and it matched some of the leftover yarn from Bag 11, so I kept on going with orange projects:

1) Orange Gecko

2) Loaf Cat

Only two items from that "bag", with an estimated value of $30.

Bag 13 also had orange in it! I was having a spinning wheel pick my next bag, and it kept coming up with the orange bags!

1-2) Carrots

3) Mini Dachshund

4) Reese Ankylosaurus

5) Foxy Knoxy

6) Tommy Tiger

7) Peach Axolotl

8) Peach Hamster

9) Text Me Cookie

10) Geen Sparkle Turtle

11) Cactus

12) Green Stingray - small

13) Green Stingray - Large

14) Hug Monster

On February 8, I opened up bag 14. It contained over 90 very small balls of yarn, totalling about 15 ounces.

Once I sorted things out, I saw that there were a lot of the same colors in bag #15 so I decided to merge them.

I ended up with 8 bags of mostly one color, a scrap bag of pinks and purples, a scrap bag of blues, and a misc. scrap bag. I think I'm going to get a lot of projects out of this collection... 1 pound, 14 ounces total.

1. Chubby Blue dinosaur

2. Hatching Party Dinosaur

3 Black loaf cat

4) Flat Bear

5) Purple Elephant

6-8) Mushy Boi

9) Mushy Boi Mini

10-11) Mushy Boi

12) Mr Blue Striped Giraffe

13) Mushy Boi Mini

14) Pink Hamster

15) Pink Striped Stegosaurus

16) Camo Stegosaurus

17) Camo Baby Steg

18) Camo Mushroom Boy

19) Blue Stripe Steg

Bag Summary:

Bag # # of items made, Estimated sales value

1 10 $105

2 14 $96

3 18 $197

4 12 $218

5 11 $177

6 16 $166

7 20 $200

8 8 $83

9 11 $114

December Monster of the Month

2025-01-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

December Monster of the Month

This monster comes to you courtesy of my four-year-old granddaughter Lyra, who drew me a picture of a monster back in November. Since it was just before Thanksgiving, she drew me a “Pumpkin Monster”.

When we were at her house for Christmas, I started work on designing the monster.

When I said I needed to make the nose, she said she wanted me to use gold pony beads for the nose.

I tried putting them on the snout, but they looked more like eyes than nostrils, I added a smile at the bottom, and version 1.0 ended up with a turtle-type face.

I used a worsted weight yarn and size F (3.75 mm) hook.

I used less than an ounce of each color.

The body is worked as a rectangle shape, then sewn together at the short end and gathered at the long ends.

Start with chain 21 with color 1. Starting with the second chain from the hook:

Row 1 (and every row): sl st 4, sc 4, hdc 4, sc 4, sl st 4, ch 1, turn. (20)

Keep your slip stitches loose, so you can work in them more easily. Short version of the pattern: work 4 rows of each color until you have four wedges of each color. Change color with your turning chain.

Row 2-4: Color 1

Row 5-8: Color 2

Row 9-12: Color 1

Rows 13-16: Color 2

Rows 17-20: Color 1

Rows 21-24: Color 2

Rows 25-28: Color 1. At the end of row 28, finish off color 1, leaving a long tail to gather that end.

Rows 29-32: Color 2. Finish off, leaving a long tail to sew seam and gather other end.

Snout: (I used one of my colors for the snout and the other for the stem – but it’s your monster… you can do whatever you’d like!) I have included two options for row 3, to make a plain snout, or to make the pony bead version.

R1: 5 sc in MR (5)

R2: inc x 5 (10)

R3: sc BLO (10)

R3 pony bead version: BLO sc 4, pull yarn through bead, sc 2, pull yarn through bead, sc 4

R4: sc (10)

Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to face. If you did the pony bead “eyes”, embroider a smile along the loops of round 3.

Fold in half with the right sides together and sew the curved ends together. Use yarn end to gather the ends of your slip stitch rows together. Turn right side out. Sew snout over the hdc stitches on the center front of the monster. If you did the plain snout, add safety eyes 2 stitches over the snout, with 2-3 stitches between. Embroider nostrils on snout.

Stuff well and use the other yarn end to gather up the slip stitch edges. Weave in your yarn end.

Stem: with color of your choice

R1: 4 sc in MR (4)

R2: inc x 4 (8)

R3: BLO sc (8)

R4-5: sc (8)

Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to top of monster, over the gathered stitches.

Thank you to Strawberry Bonnie for testing the pattern for me. She used worsted weight yarn and 10 mm safety eyes.

November Monster of the Month

2024-12-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

November Monster of the Month

Made with worsted weight yarn and a 3.75 mm (F) hook, measures 3.5” tall sitting, 6” at full height.

Takes about .5 oz main body color and 8 assorted 16” lengths of scrap yarn, plus small amounts of pink and black for face embroidery. I used 10 mm safety eyes.

Foot/Leg (make 2 in body color)

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: BLO sc (12)

R4: (sc 4, dec) x 2 (10)

R5: (sc 3, dec) x 2 (8)

R6: (sc 2, dec) x 2 (6)

Lightly stuff foot, then fold top together and sc across (2). This is Row 1 of leg.

R2-6: ch 1, turn, sc (2)

FO. Legs will be crocheted in, so you do not need to leave a long tail for sewing. I leave about 3” so I can tie the two yarn tails together inside the body.

Variation: for longer legs, do more repeats of row 2.

Body:

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: (sc, inc) x 6 (18)

R4: (sc 2, inc) x 6 (24)

Now we will add the legs. Hold the leg in front of your work and work through both the leg and the body as indicated.

R5: sc 8, sc 2 with leg, sc 4, sc 2 with leg, sc 8 (24)

R6: sc (24)

Now we add the arms. To make an arm, ch 9, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook (finger made), (ch 4, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook) x 2, sl st in original chain back to beginning.

Variations: for longer arms, make a longer starting chain. For more fingers, repeat the (ch 4, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook).

R7: sc 6, Arm, sc 12, Arm, sc 6 (24)

R8-10: sc (24)

R11: (sc 2, dec) x 6 (18) Stuff body.

R12: sc (18)

Place eyes between rounds 10 & 11, with 4 stitches between. Embroider a nose between the eyes, one row lower, and a mouth two rows below nose.

R12: (sc, dec) x 6 (12) Add more stuffing if needed.

R13: dec x 6 (6)

FO, leaving a long tail to close hole.

Hair: Take one of your 16” strands of scrap yarn. Pull up a loop at the top of the head. Ch 8. FO and trim ends if needed.

If you continue to use your F hook, the “braids” will be stiff and stand up straight. If you prefer a more droopy braid, once you have pulled your yarn loop through, change to a larger hook (I changed to a K hook).

Variations:

· Use longer strands of yarn for longer “braids”.

· Use the horn from a previous monster to add horns to your monster. Monsters from February, March, April, June, August, and September have horns!

Thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing the pattern for me. Her monster turned out so cute!

October Monster of the Month

2024-11-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

October Monster

By Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

Uses .6 oz worsted weight yarn in main color and a few yards in contrasting color, small amount of black for mouth and optional eyebrows

Size F (3.75mm) crochet hook

12 mm safety eyes

Sorry this is showing up a bit late, in November. I'm into craft show season, with craft shows every Saturday from October 26 through November 16, with three days of weekday shows mixed in!

Since I've been so busy with shows, I made the October monster a smaller, simpler, quicker version. The only sewing needed is to add the spike strip to the head.

Pattern:

Start with legs, in main color.

R1: 6 sc in MR

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

R4-6: sc (18)

Finish off first leg. After making the second leg, don’t cut yarn. Continue on to connect legs and start work on the body:

R7: sc 6 on first leg, inc x 6, sc x 6. Sc 6 on second leg, inc x 6, sc 6. (48)

R8-9: sc (48)

R10: *sc 10, dec* x 4 (44)

R11: sc (44)

R12: *sc 9, dec* x 4 (40)

R13: sc (40)

R14: sc 8, dec, sc 4, arm, dec, sc 4, dec, sc 4, arm, sc 4, dec, sc 8 (36)

(Arm: ch 15. Sl st 3, *ch 4, sl st 3* x 2, sl stitch back along chain)

Stuff legs, and continue to stuff body/head as you go.

R15: sc (36)

R16: *sc 4, dec* x 6 (30)

R17: sc (30)

R18: *sc 3, dec* x 6 (24)

R19: sc (24)

Eyes go between rounds 18 & 19, with 2 stitches showing between. Embroider a small smile under the eyes.

R20: *sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

R21: sc (18) Finish stuffing.

R22: *sc, dec* x 6 (12)

R23: dec x 6 (6). FO, leaving tail to close up hole.

Spikes:

With contrasting color:

Ch 5. Starting in second chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc. *Ch 6, starting in second chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc* x 5. Sew spikes to sides of head. Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to monster. The chain between your 3^rd and 4^th spike will be over the final round of the head.

Thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing my pattern for me. She did embroidered eyes, and added some cute little cheeks!

#MYC1024 Option Two

2024-09-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on my YouTube Channel you would know that I took over the Mystery Yarn Challenge from Lori, the Armchair Chef. With shipping prices going higher and higher, some people can't afford to send a package of yarn, so I want to have an Option 2 for people to participate.

For the month of October, we are playing Bingo! Here is the Bingo board:

How is it going to work? When you finish a project that matches one of the squares on the board, you cross it off (or fill it in with pretty colors). If you get five in a row, you are entered in the end-of-month drawing for a prize.

Here is an explanation of the squares:

Some have a color (orange, purple, green, ombre, Retro Stripe (a Red Heart Super Saver yarn) and Candy Corn Colors (bright yellow, bright orange, white). For this square, you just need to finish a project using that color. No double-dipping, though! If you make a project that uses orange and green, you can only fill in one block!)

There are three designers in the grid... Yes, I am one of the three.

You can see all my patterns on Ravelry

Katie at Yarn Society is also on Ravelry, YouTube and has her own website

The third is Stringy Ding Ding, who has a bunch of adorable free patterns on her and she is also on Ravelry

Some of the blocks list a specific animal or group of animals: penguin (of course... since I love penguins), Pet (dog, cat, fish, ferret, hamster, gerbil, etc.), Creepy Crawlie (bug, snake, lizard, dinosaur, turtle), Forest (deer, squirrel, fox, bear, etc.), Farm (chicken, horse, donkey, pig, etc.)

Other blocks:

Fantasy: dragon, unicorn, mermaid, monster, etc.

New to you pattern: find a pattern you have never made before

2 oz scrap: find a 2-ounce (or more) scrap yarn and finish it off

From a Book: pull a book from your crafting library and make something from it

New To You yarn: make something from a yarn you have never used before

3-weight or lighter: make something with thin yarn (yes, you can hold two strands together)

5-weight or higher: pull out that bulky or super-bulky yarn!

Halloween: anything with a Halloween theme

Fuzzy Yarn: fun fur, yarn with a halo, eyelash yarn, etc.

Motif: make something with a motif, like a granny square or hexagon

I know that some people make wearables, not Amigurumi, but you can apply the categories to wearables, too... you could make an animal hat, or add an animal applique to a blanket. I hope this challenge inspires you to try something new!

No double-dipping, please. One project cannot fill in multiple squares. For instance, if you made a green and purple snake with bulky yarn, you would have to choose one square to fill in... you can't do green, purple, 5-weight or higher, Creepy Crawlie and Halloween. Sorry!

Pics of the 5 items to complete your Bingo row need to be in by October 31. You can do more than one Bingo. I will enter your name in the prize drawing for each Bingo row you complete.

Once I have my YouTube video done about the challenge, I will link it here.

If I get questions in the comments on my YouTube video, I will try to remember to post the answers here, too.

Micro Octo - no-sew pattern

2024-09-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

An early version of the pattern, where I put more rows in the body, making it taller.

Micro Octo

Pattern by Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

This is one of my go-to patterns when I'm trying to finish off some scrap yarn. It works up quickly, about 20 minutes, and only uses half an ounce of yarn. I usually have a basket of them on my table for craft shows as an inexpensive option for parents wanting to get their child a little stuffie.

I made these with worsted weight yarn and an F (3.75mm) crochet hook. I have also made them with two strands of sport weight yarn held together for a "tweedy" look, or with bulkier yarn and a larger hook. With the worsted weight yarn, I used .47 oz for the light blue octo I made as I was preparing this post.

You start at the top, add the tentacles in the front loop of your last full row, then move to the back loops of that same row to close up the bottom. Here goes:

Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6)

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

Round 4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

Rounds 5-7: sc (24)

Round 8: hdc (24) Sl st to FLO of first hdc in the round. Move your stitch marker to the back loops of that same stitch.

Note: I like to do my last full row in hdc so that I have one front loop for the tentacles, and two back loops for the decreases.

It's easier to embroider your octo's face now, before the tentacles get in the way. I put the eyes around round 5, and the smile over rows 7/8. You can use safety eyes instead of embroidering.

Round 9a (tentacles) All of the stitches of 9a are worked in FLO

*Ch 7, in 2nd ch from hook, sc inc, sc inc, hdc inc, hdc 2, connecting dc, skip the next stitch, sl st* repeat from * to * 7 more times. Your final sl st will go into the base of your first tentacle.

Connecting dc: draw up a loop in your last available chain, and then another loop from the next available front loop. Finish off as a normal dc (yarn over and pull through two loops, yarn over and pull through two loops).

Round 9b: Now you are working in the back loops of round 8, starting with the stitch with the stitch marker.

*sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

Round 10: *sc, dec* x 6 (12) Stuff your octo's body.

Round 11: dec x 6 (6). FO, leaving a tail to sew closed. Weave your yarn tail through the stitches of round 11 and pull to close. Tie off and hide your yarn tail inside the octo.

Variations:

It's easier to make your tentacles longer... start with a longer chain for each tentacle, and add extra sc.

You can make the tentacles less curly by doing sc in the first two chains instead of sc increases.

If you turn your work before you start working on the tentacles, the tentacles will curl inward instead of outward.

September Monster of the Month

2024-09-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

September Monster

The first two (in front) are made with chunky yarn and an H (5 mm) hook. The pink monster in the back is made with worsted weight yarn and an F (3.75mm) hook. It used .7 oz of worsted weight yarn, and a small amount of contrast color for the bottom of the feet and the horns.

Leg (start with contrast color)

R1: 6 sc in MR

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

R4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

Change to body color

R5-8: sc (24). FO first leg, after second leg, continue on to body:

Body:

R1: continue with second leg. Ch 3, sc 24 around first leg, sc in each chain, sc around leg 2, sc in back loops of ch (54)

R2-5: sc (54)

R6-18 : decrease one stitch at each side. You should have 28 stitches now.

Insert eyes between rows 16 & 17, with four stitches showing between them. Embroider a small mouth between rows 15 & 16. For the pink monster, I used the yarn from embroidering the mouth to add some eyebrows, too! Stuff the feet well, and continue to stuff the body as you decrease.

R19: *sc 5, dec* x 4 (24)

R20: *sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

R21: *sc, dec* x 6 (12) Add more stuffing if needed.

R22: dec x 6. FO and use tail to close opening, then weave in end.

Long ears:

Ch 20. Starting in 2^nd chain from hook, sc 18, 8 dc in last chain, sc 18 in the back side of the chain. FO, leaving a tail to sew to head (or crochet in) at row 20.

Arms:

Chain 10. Starting in 2^nd chain from hook, sc 8, 5 dc in last chain, sc 8 in the back side of the chain. FO, leaving a tail to sew to head (or crochet in) at row 16. I like to sew mine on, so I can sew them at an angle toward the belly.

Alternate arms (shown on pink monster):

Ch 15. Starting in 2^nd ch from hook, sl st 4. (Ch 5, sl st 4) twice. Sl st back to the beginning of the chain. FO, leaving a tail to sew to the body.

Horns:

With white:

R1: sc 3 in MR

R2: inc, sc 2 (4)

R3: inc, sc 3 (5)

R4: inc, sc 4 (6)

R5: sc (6)

FO, leaving tail to sew to head. I sewed on either side of the magic ring, lined up with the eyes.

Thanks to my tester, Bonnie. She made her monster in worsted weight yarn, using 12 mm safety eyes and the alternate arms.

Monster of the Month free pattern summary

2024-09-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

Since January, I have made 8 new monster designs and put them up as free patterns on my blog.

In January, I introduced this cutie with fuzzy yarn and dreads:

https://freecellpenguin.blogspot.com/2024/01/monster-of-month-january.html

In February, I made up this pattern:

May Monster

June Monster

June Monster Pattern:

July Monster

August Monster

September Monster

October Monster pattern link

November Monster pattern link

December Monster of the Month

This monster was designed by my four-year-old granddaughter.

Happy Monster Making!

No-Sew Flip Coffee

2024-08-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

I've been selling my Happy / Sad / Angry coffee cups at craft shows for a couple of years now... but at a show last year or so, a guy said, "You know what you should make? A coffee that flips from angry to sad."

At first, I was using the same pattern as my Happy/Sad coffee, but then I realized they were a little too small to flip easily, so I played with the pattern a bit. Here is the result:

Each coffee cup takes about .4 oz yarn (worsted weight). I used an F hook (3.75 mm)

Worsted weight yarns can vary in weight, so it's important that the yarn for both cups is the same wraps per inch. If you don't want to mess with wraps per inch, you could do the first two rounds in each yarn and make sure they're the same size.

Round 1: 6 sc in MR

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

Round 4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

Round 5: *sc 3, inc* x 6 (30)

Round 6: sc in BLO (30)

Round 7: make handle - ch 10, starting in 2nd ch from hook, hdc 9. Sl st in the side of the last sc of Round 6. Sc around (30)

Round 8: sc around, pushing handle to front. (30)

Rounds 9-11: sc (30)

Round 12: attach handle with your first two sc, then continuing sc around (30)

Round 13: sc (30) For your first cup, finish off. Embroider a face centered on the cup (fold the cup in half to find your center). For second cup, don't finish off. Continue on to join the cups.

Once you have both cups finished, with faces, place them with their rims together and sc around both rims.

For best results, work with the first cup (not the color you are crocheting with) facing you, as the right side.

August Monster of the Month

2024-08-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

August Monster

By Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

Uses 1.4 oz worsted weight yarn in your main body color, with less than a yard of red needed for embroidering the mouth, and a few yards of white for the antenna.

Size F hook (3.75 mm)

I used 12 mm safety eyes. I think he would look cute with even bigger eyes. He measures about 6.5” tall (including antenna) when made with worsted weight yarn.

I made my legs first, so I could crochet them in as I went. I like putting the arms on at an angle, so I sewed them on. If you wanted your arms to stick out to the side, you could make them before the body and crochet them in, too.

Leg (make 2)

Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6)

Round 2-4: sc (6)

Round 5: dc 3, sc 3 (this helps to make the transition from foot to leg) (6)

Round 6-8: dc (6)

Round 9 is a short row to even out the row: hdc, sc, sl st. FO. Do not stuff legs. If you are crocheting them into the body, you stuff your yarn tail into the leg. If you prefer to sew the legs on, leave a long tail.

Head:

Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6)

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

Round 4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

Round 5: *sc 3, inc* x 6 (30)

Round 6: *sc 4, inc* x 6 (36)

Round 7: *sc 5, inc* x 6 (42)

Rounds 8-13: sc (42)

Round 14: sc 19, (2dc bobble), (4 dc bobble), (2 dc bobble) (nose finished), sc 20 (42)

Eyes go between rows 11-12, centered over the nose. There are about 6 stitches between.

Rounds 15-16: sc (42)

Round 17: *sc 5, dec* x 6 (36) We’re decreasing for the neck. Stuff head, and stuff body as you go.

Round 18: *sc 4, dec* x 6 (30)

Embroider a smile below the nose.

Round 19: *sc 3, dec* x 6 (24)

Round 20: *sc 2, inc* x 8 (32)

Round 21: *sc 3, inc* x 8 (40)

Round 22: *sc 4, inc* x 8 (48)

Rounds 23-29: sc (48) If you are crocheting your arms in, you can do so around rounds 23-25.

At this point, make sure your starting point is at the center back, so your tail is centered. You can fold your monster in half using the nose as the center front, and move your stitch marker if needed.

Make tail – ch 20, starting with 2^nd chain from hook, sc inc, sc inc, hdc 7, dc 9, sl st to last stitch of round 29.

Secure the legs with stitch markers to be crocheted on in Row 30. I put my blue monster’s legs under the eyes, about 8 stitches apart, but further apart with the brown monster. Placement is up to you! After all, it’s your monster! Continue on as usual with the rest of round 30. When I got to the stitch where a leg was placed, I removed the stitch markers and crocheted through both the leg and the body. Make sure the foot faces forward!

Round 30: *sc 4, dec* x 8 (40)

Round 31: *sc 3, dec* x 8 (32)

Round 32: *sc 2, dec* x 8 (24)

Round 33: *sc, dec* x 8 (16)

Round 34: dec x 8 (8) FO, leaving tail to close up round 34.

Arms: make 2 or 4, depending on how much yarn you have, and how crazy you want your monster to be.

Round 1: 8 sc in MR (8)

Rounds 2-7: sc (8)

FO, leaving a tail if you are sewing the arms on, or weave in the tail if you are crocheting the arms on. Arms are not stuffed.

Sew arms to body over rounds 23-25, angled toward the belly.

Antenna: make 2 with white yarn

Ch 6

Round 1: Starting in 2^nd ch from hook, sc 4, 3 sc in last chain, sc 4 on back of chain. (11) Ch 3 and turn

Round 2: Sl st in first stitch. *ch 3, sl st in next stitch* x 10. (11 loops). FO, leaving tail to sew to head. Sew on sides of head over rows 6-7.

Thank you to Strawberry Bonnie for testing my monster! She used 14 mm eyes and I think they make her monster look adorable!

July Monster of the Month

2024-08-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

July Monster of the Month

By Elaine Okupski

Penguin Place Crafts

I made this guy with Lion Brand Homespun yarn and an H hook. He used 1.5 ounces of homespun, with a very small amount of red worsted weight needed to embroider his mouth (You could also use black or pink. I felt that red would show up best with this color Homespun). I used 12 mm safety eyes, but you could go bigger.

As you can see, my samples are very different. The guy in the middle is the original, which is presented below as "body one"... then I made the red guy... while watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and with all the numbers being mentioned, I messed up my row counts and he ended up taller and skinnier. Putting the short, stubby legs on him made him look inappropriate, so I updated the legs and made them longer (so we have short stubby legs and longer legs in the pattern). And my tester Bonnie made another set of arms and added them for legs!

For the guy on the right, I changed up the rows to make him chubbier, more of a pear shape. That is body 2!

So you can mix and match the body and legs and get some very different looks from this pattern!

You start at the bottom and work up, adding the arms as you go, then sew on the tail and legs and add the mohawk.

Body 1:

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

R4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

R5-7: sc (24)

R8: *sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

R9-11: sc (18)

R12: *sc 4, dec* x 3 (15)

R13: sc (15)

R14: sc 4, (ch 20, starting in 2^nd ch from hook, sc back – arm made), sc 7, make another arm, sc 4 (15)

R15-17: sc (15)

Place eyes (I used 12 mm) between rounds 16 & 17, with two stitches between. Sew a mouth 1-2 rows below the eyes, centered between them. Add stuffing to the head, and continue to stuff the body as you go.

R18: *sc 3, dec* x 3 (12)

R19: *sc 2, dec* x 3 (9)

R20: dec x 4, sc (5)

FO, leaving tail to close. Weave tail through FLO of the stitches of round 20 and pull closed. Weave in tail end.

Body 2:

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

R4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

R5: *sc 3, inc* x 6 (30)

R6-7: sc (30)

R8: *sc 3, dec* x 6 (24)

R9-10: sc (24)

R11: *sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

R12: sc (18)

R13: *sc 4, dec* x 3 (15)

R14: sc (15)

R15: sc 4, (ch 20, starting in 2^nd ch from hook, sc back – arm made), sc 7, make another arm, sc 4 (15)

R16-18: sc (15)

R18: *sc 3, dec* x 3 (12)

R19: *sc 2, dec* x 3 (9)

R20: dec x 4, sc (5)

FO, leaving tail to close. Weave tail through FLO of the stitches of round 20 and pull closed. Weave in tail end.

Tail

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: sc (6)

R3: *sc, inc* x 3 (9)

R4: sc (9)

R5: *sc 2, inc* x 3 (12)

R6: sc (12)

R7: *sc 3, inc* x 3 (15)

R8: sc (15)

FO, leaving tail to sew to body.

Short Stubby Legs (make 2)

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3-4: sc (12)

FO, leaving tail to sew to body.

Longer, skinnier legs:

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3-4: sc (12)

R5: *sc 2, dec* x 3 (9)

R6-7: sc (9)

FO, leaving tail to sew to body.

Set your monster down on a flat surface and place the stuffed tail on the back so that the bottom of tail lays flat on the surface. Pin in place and sew. Set the monster back on the flat surface and pin the stuffed legs in place on the front of the body, so they are also laying flat on the surface. Sew them to the body. Mine had one stitch between them on the front of the monster for my original monster with stubby legs, but I put the long skinny legs about 6 stitches apart.

Cut 15-20 strands of yarn about 5” long. Loop the strands from the back of the head (at round 19) to the tip of the tail. Brush them out to give your monster a nice fuzzy mohawk. Trim as needed.

I hope you enjoyed making your Monster of the Month!

Tester Photo from Strawberry Bonnie

Monster of the Month: June

2024-08-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for the delay in getting this guy published! Just as I finished up version 1.0, we found out that we were getting some out-of-town company. It was a mad dash to clean up, getting the dining room table (currently being used as a computer desk for my laptop) ready for family meals, and the craft room ready to accommodate guests.

In the clean-up flurry, I lost my copy of the pattern with changes marked! Then I had two big craft shows in July, so I was more focused on preparing for those shows than looking for the pattern.

So now, the shows are done, the pattern is found, and I present to you my June Monster!

June Monster

By Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

Made with worsted weight yarn and an F hook (3.75 mm), it measures 7” long and 4” high.

Uses 1 oz main color and small amounts of contrasting color for mouth, spikes and horns.

Starting at front with main color:

R1: sc 2, 5-dc Bobble, sc 2 in MR. (5) (Bobble is his nose. You can see with my yellow monster that I changed color for the bobble.)

R2: inc x 5. (10)

R3: *sc, inc* x 5. (15)

R4: *sc 2, inc* x 5. (20)

R5: *sc 3, inc* x 5. (25)

R6: sc 3, inc, *sc x 2, inc* x 6, sc 3. (32)

You are leaving 6 stitches on the bottom without increases to keep the bottom flat, and keep him from rolling over.

R7: sc 4, (sc 3, inc) x 6, sc 4. (38)

Place safety eyes between rounds 4 & 5, with 6 stitches between. Embroider mouth below nose, between rounds 4 & 5.

Rounds 8-10: sc. (38) Stuff as you go.

Rounds 11-24: sc around, decreasing at the top center. This takes your stitch count down to 24.

Round 25: *sc 6, dec* x 3. (21) Stuff body well, and continue to stuff tail as you go.

Round 26: *sc 5, dec* x 3. (18)

Round 27: *sc 4, dec* x 3. (15)

Round 28: *sc 3, dec* x 3. (12)

Rounds 29-30: sc (12)

Round 31: *sc 2, dec* x 3 (9)

Round 32: *sc, dec* x 3. (6) FO, leaving tail to close hole. Weave tail through the FLO of round 32 and pull closed. Hide yarn tail inside tail.

Spikes: make one with contrasting color

*Chain 5. Starting in 2^nd chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc.* Repeat until your spikes reach from the end of the tail to the center of head (around row 10). My monster had 10 spikes. FO, leaving a long tail to sew to back.

Horns (make two)

R 1: with contrasting color, 4 sc in MR. (4)

R2: with body color: *sc, inc* x 2. (6)

R3: with contrasting color: *2 sc, inc* x 2. (8)

R4: with body color: *3 sc, inc* x 2. (10)

R5: with contrasting color: *4 sc, inc* x 2. (12)

R6: with body color: *5 sc, inc* x 2. (14)

FO, leaving tail to sew to body.

Assembly: sew spikes to body, centering on the top of the body. Sew horns to head, over rounds 10-13. evenly spaced from the spikes.

Thanks to my tester Bonnie!

Monster of the Month: May

2024-07-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

This guy got lost in my to-do pile for a bit... we had company at the end of June/beginning of July, and in the clean-up process, I lost my copy of the pattern that I had put all my edits and corrections on... I just found them this week!

As you can see, he can be made two ways: with white circles behind the eyes, and a crocheted mouth, or just use plain safety eyes and embroider a mouth for less sewing.

May Monster

I used worsted weight yarn and an F hook (3.75 mm). Each monster takes 1.6 oz worsted weight in main color and less than half an ounce of your accent color and white for the tentacle bobbles.

Make arms and ears before the body, so you can crochet them on. I also like to crochet the eyes and mouth before making the body (if you’re doing that version), so I can sew those on while I can work from both sides.

Arms: Make 2 in main color with white bobbles. Note: arms are not stuffed.

R1: sc 6 in MR (6)

R2: (sc, inc) x 3 (9)

R3: sc (9)

R4: sc, change to white, 4dc bobble, change to main color, sc 7 (9)

When you sc over your bobble stitch in round 5, use the BLO of the bobble. This gives a cleaner look to your bobble.

R5-7: sc (9)

R8: repeat row 4

R9-11: sc (9)

R12: repeat row 4

R13: sc (9)

R14: (sc, dec) x 3 (6)

Fold in half (if needed, do another sc or two so that your bobbles are centered) and sc closed. FO and weave in end.

Ears: Make 2 in main color. Ears are not stuffed.

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3-10: sc (12)

R11: (sc 2, dec) x 3 (9)

R12: (sc, dec) x 3 (6)

Fold and sc closed. Weave in end.

Eyes: Make 3 in white

Round 1: 8 sc in MR. FO, leaving tail to sew to body. Don’t tighten MR completely, as you will be putting a safety eye through the center. I used 10 mm safety eyes.

Mouth: Make 1 in white

Ch 8.

Starting in second chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc, hdc, sc, sl st. FO, leaving tail to sew to body. Using embroidery floss or sport weight yarn, embroider 3 vertical slashes. Sew centered under the eyes with the top of the mouth (the chain) at row 13.

Legs: Make 2 in main color. You will finish off leg one, but after leg two, you continue on with the body.

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: (sc, inc) x 6 (18)

R4-8: sc (18)

Body:

Chain 3 and join leg 1 with a sc. Continue to sc around leg 1 and make 3 sc in the connecting chain. Sc around leg 2 and make 3 sc in the back side of the chain. (42)

R2-12: sc (42)

R13: sc, attaching arms at sides

To determine arm placement, fold body in half and mark side stitches. When you get to the stitch before the marker, hold arm in front of your work and sc through both the arm and the body for the next three stitches. Repeat for other arm.

R14-21: sc (42) Stuff legs, stuff body as you go.

Two of the eyes will be sewn with the center over row 16/17. The third eye will be centered between the other two eyes, over rows 19-20. The mouth is centered between the lower eyes

R22: (sc 5, dec) x 6 (36)

R23: (sc 4, dec) x 6 (30)

R24: sc , attaching ears to sides. (30)

R25 (sc 3, dec) x 6. (24)

R26: (sc 2, dec) x 6. (18) Finish stuffing

R27: (sc, dec) x 6. (12)

R28: dec x 6 (6) FO

Cut 10 7” strands of hair. Latch, two at a time, evenly spaced across the top of the head.

For my purple monster, I used Kawaii safety eyes rather than making the white backgrounds, and embroidered a simple smile, making it a no-sew version.

From my tester Bonnie

Crazy Mixed Up July

2024-07-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

Usually, I have a very organized list of projects to make in any particular month. My lists are a bit more scattered in July. I have two big craft shows in July - outdoor shows where I have a 10x10 tent to fill up. I have plenty of inventory... it's just a matter of having stuff organized. It just seems I'm so disorganized lately! I still haven't put up the free patterns for my May & June monsters of the month. Every time I go into the craft room, see some yarn, and think "Oh, I was going to use that for ____." So many project, so little time. Add to that... I am working at my old job for two weeks to cover for my replacement, who is away for two weeks of music camp.

The first show is done (July 13th) and went well, which means I have a long list of items to restock. I also have some tweaking to do for the next show. I was missing a new display item I picked up from Temu, and forgot to take snakes and cacti! And the chapstick I thought I had in my craft box? Not there. If I'm spending 8 hours outside, I need some chapstick!

In the midst of the craziness, I put together three different lists.

The first includes the "foundation items" that I make every month... a pattern from one of my amigurumi books for the #amibookchallenge, a pattern I purchased, but have never made, and my monster design on the month.

So #1 - I am working on Greta the Hen from Animal Friends of Pica Pau as my #amibookchallenge. It's taking a while. Right now, rows are about 90 stitches! #2 - my purchased, not made pattern is the Gingerbread Boy Basket from One and Two Company. Still haven't started it. It may be moved to August at this rate! I haven't started my July Monster design either...

I finished Greta on August 2nd.

List #2 is for #MYC724 - Christmas in July. There are five designers with YouTube channels & Christmas playlists, plus a bonus bag to be made in Christmas colors. The idea is to make something from each designer. I've made three items of the six to be made.

I made the Funky Chicken ornament by Sara Sachs

I made the Christmas tree dishcloth by Glenda - Creative Grandma

I made the Icy Scarf by Mikey of the Crochet Crowd, from the Yarnspirations channel

I plan on making a bathroom tissue cover from Jayda DONE

still looking at the Fiber Flux projects (made the Merry Berry Dishcloth)

and the Dippy Hippy Bag.

Oops, the picture is upside down. The red at the bottom is the handle! DONE with #MYC724

List #3 is a 25-square board with projects I want to make, yarn I want to use up, and other categories (such as 5 under 5 and $10 and under projects). I'm making progress! I did color in "Turtle" in the bottom row, as I finished an orange turtle last night!

Dragon is started, Pica Pau is started, I have patterns out for the axolotl, Platypus, and Impkin. I have projects planned for cotton yarn. I printed up a new Stingray pattern to try.

Dragon is finished!

I have 14 of the 25 squares filled in, but no Bingo yet!

#MYC624

2024-06-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of 2024, I have been participating in a monthly YouTube challenge called the "Mystery Yarn Challenge". It is hosted by Lori, whose YouTube channel is The Armchair Chef

When I first started, you sent yarn to someone, you received yarn from someone, and you made projects with the yarn you received and posted the pictures on YouTube. Since then, options have expanded (such as a WIP only option, where you send pictures of the Works in Progress you will be working on that month, and submit pictures of the finished items at the end of the month).

Due to some postal glitches in May, Lori decided to go a different route in June. She published a list of YouTube tutorials for stitches and projects and said if we complete any of the projects from the list, our name is in the running for a prize. If anyone finishes all the projects from a category (crochet or knit), they automatically win a prize.

Since I both knit and crochet, I decided I'm going to shoot for both categories... so as soon as the tutorial playlist went up, I pulled out yarn and watched this video and made a chicken (LOL, using #MYC524 yarn!)

But wait! The night was still young, and I still had yarn, so I whipped up another project, this time in knit:

The pattern called for you to stuff just the front, but leave a bed of stuffing in the back, and put candy on top of that. I could just picture little fingers pulling all the stuffing out, so I closed off the front and made a planter that fits a plant from Dollar Tree.

Oh, wait... let's do one more chicken!

It took a few days to finish up my next project because I had a bunch of projects in the works, but I made a triangle wrap from this tutorial using a big cake of bulky yarn I got from Temu and size 13 needles.

The next day, I finished a bright pink sun hat from this video

The next day, I went back to the chicken pattern again and made "The Blue Bird of Fluffiness"

I took some time for other projects, then came back to projects by finishing a chunky cowl using vintage ribbon yarn.

Sticking with crochet, I used the Ice Cream Stitch to make a ten-inch square which will eventually be put into a blanket for Boggy Creek Camp.

Back to knitting: a purple cotton dishcloth in Edelweiss stitch. Who wants to sing Sound of Music songs while doing dishes?

Then a crocheted square using the Tulip Stitch

I finished the mesh sweater!

And the Beginner's Crochet Tote

And the Strawberry Square... but I didn't get a picture of that yet.

Then I switched to knit to make the 2 x 2 beanie in pastels:

Then another knit hat: the spiral rib:

Then some knit baby booties:

I knit a fish-shaped dishcloth:

Then I made the "Afternoon Stroll Cowl", which finished off 8 knit projects for me!

Project Count: 18

Crochet 10

Knit 8

Summer Bucket List

2024-05-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, It's the beginning of June. I came up with the idea of making a 50-point list of items I've been meaning to make, and see if I can get through the list over the course of the summer. I do have two big craft shows in July, so I may be doing some emergency restocking in the two weeks between the shows if show #1 goes well.

So, I'm compiling this list by looking around... looking at patterns I've printed, but not done yet, yarn I have around that I'd like to use up, summer challenges, etc. I'll give a little explanation of why that project popped into my head, and as I finish items, I'll add pictures here. Let's see if I can knock off all 50!

1. Ballerina Kitty - it's a great seller, would like to have a few for the big sales

2. Ankylosaur - Again, a best seller, I would like to have 3 or 4 for my big shows.

3. Bumble Bees - I have yellow & black bulky yarn!

4. Glow in the dark alien - I have glow in the dark yarn!

5. Fancy Frog - blue stained glass skirt (using Fancy Fur yarn I have left over)

6. Goldfish (#amibookchallenge for June) - from the book Crocheted Softies

7. Avocato - my June challenge from the "Bought, not Made" category

8. Highland Cow mini - saw a pic online, just have to make it

9. Mesh Sweater - #MYC624 - crocheted sweater for ME!

10. Scrappy Tote - #MYC624 - I'm going to do a color block tote

11. Easy Crochet Scarf - #MYC624 (because I'm trying to ace this challenge)

12. Strawberry Stitch blanket square #MYC624

13. Ice Cream Stitch Blanket Square #MYC624

14. Tulip Stitch Blanket Square #MYC624

15. Edelweiss Dishcloth #MYC624

16. Baby Booties #MYC624

17. 2 x 2 Rib Knit Hat #MYC624

18. Spiral Knit Hat #MYC624

19. My Dachshund - best seller

20. Afternoon Stroll Cowl #MYC624

21. Pastel Stripes Loaf Kitty - because I have leftover yarn from a striped chicken

22. Rainbow Turtle - because I don't think I have one in stock

23. Schnauzer - #amialong2024

24. Parasaurolophus - #amialong2024

25. Cockatiel - #amialong2024

26. Bulky sea turtle - good seller, and I have bulky yarn to use up

27. Purple Monster - I need to test my pattern and review the yarn!

28. June Monster of the Month - Because I design a new month each month!

29. Pink puppy - because pink yarn from the #blairstitchproject24 is calling to me (I sort of cheated by making #20 in pink...)

30. Gray Donkey - because I love the Duo Donkey pattern and think he'll look great in gray!

31. Purple Hilde - because I don't have one in stock

32. Retro Stripes Hilde - because I don't have one in stock

33. Toby the Baby Dragon - because I made one before and it was super cute

34. Colorful chicken - because I made one before and it was super cute

35. Trunk the Turtle - cute turtle with removable shell

36. Cactus - finish up yarn from kit

37. Pink Frog - because the pattern is cute!

38. Purple Frog - Let's make a rainbow of my favorite frog pattern!

39. Yellow Frog - see above

40. Blue Frog - see above

41. Puddles the Duck - made before, it sold

42. Duck on a swing - so cute

43. Mallard on a swing - let's try this variation

44. Eagle on a swing - and another

45. Cute Dino - green / yellow - restocking sold item

46. Bearded Dragon - restocking sold item

47. Hedgehog using Fancy Fur (because I have Sooooo much Fancy Fur!)

48. Purple Possum - sounds cute to me!

49. Chubby Mouse - I bought the pattern months ago, but haven't made it yet!

50. Mini Penguin - purple

35 down, 15 to go!

The #BlairStitchProject24 begins!

2024-05-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

I felt like some shopping therapy today... But I wanted to keep the cost down, since May has been an awful month for sales. My first show of the month didn't go well, and it's been a month since I had a sale in my Etsy shop. So I figured I'd just swing by the Goodwill on my way to Walmart and see if they had any yarn in the color of the week.

But... as I was driving in that direction...I saw that the Blair Farm was having their spring garage sale, and they always have a yarn corner!

I filled up a reusable tote I had in my car and headed to the checkout at the front of the barn... I got 3.6 pounds of yarn for $12.75 (all I had on me!)

I have this in a separate box, and will be keeping track of the items I made from the yarn. I'll be sharing them here, on Instagram, and on my YouTube channel, tagged with #BlairStitchProject24

See those three fluffy pastel yarns in the bottom right? Actually, there were four, and one of them became a fluffy little hedgehog, project #1!

Happy Coffee Cup #2

#3 - Frog on a Swing. I played yarn chicken with this one and lost. I was going to make little eye bumps for this frog on a swing, but ran out of yarn. So I embroidered the eyes. He looks pretty goofy. Then he kept flipping over on the swing, so I had to sew the ropes to his head. Ouch!
I had seen a picture for a cute little chicken, the size you can hang from a backpack. I tried making up on freehand...

Maybe a little too long...

Oh, that's better. Make another one!

or two... or three

A few more scrappy projects with the small balls of yarn: a pink possum, two turtles, a micro cat and a scrappy loaf cat!

There was some rug yarn in the mix, so I made a couple of coasters.

April Monster of the Month

2024-05-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

April Monster of the Month

This month’s monster is a cheerful little guy, with a few different design features. I mix up rows and rounds in the head/body to give it more of a boxy shape. The foot/leg section has a built-in ankle.

Made with worsted weight yarn and an F hook, he measures about 9” tall.

I used 2.1 ounces of the main color, less than half an ounce of the accent color, and less than a yard of white and black for eye accent and smile.

I used 15 mm safety eyes

Start at the top with main color. First section is worked in rows. Note: the body is done in HDC, while arms, legs and horns are made in SC

Row 1: Ch 13. Starting in 2nd ch from hook, hdc 12.

Rows 2-4: Ch 1, turn, hdc 12.

Row 5: Do not turn. Add an additional hdc in the same stitch just worked. Turn your work and work 4 hdc down the side, with an additional hdc in the corner. Turn work and make 12 hdc across, with an additional hdc in the corner stitch. Turn and work 4 hdc up the side. Place one more hdc in the corner. (36: 12 on each long side, 4 on each short side, and one additional hdc in each corner)

Now we work in continuous rounds. Use a stitch marker to mark your beginning point to help keep track of rows.

Round 1: BLO hdc (36)

Rounds 2-8: hdc (36)

Now we go back to working back and forth. If needed, hdc over to the beginning of a long row.

Row 1: BLO hdc 12

Rows 2-4: ch 1, turn, hdc 12. FO, leaving long tail for sewing closed.

Fingers (make 8 in accent color)

Ch 4. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st 3. FO, leaving a 2” tail for attaching.

Arm (Make 2 in main color)

Round 1: Ch 5. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sc 3, 3 sc in last chain, turn work and sc 2, inc in the back side of the chain. (10)

Rounds 2-7: sc (10) (See note below about attaching fingers.)

Finish off after row 7, leaving a tail to sew arms to body.

After row 2, attach fingers. Your starting chain will have four small holes. Pull your starting tail for the first finger through 1st hole and your finishing tail through the 2nd hole. Triple knot your yarn ends. Trim close to the knot.

Continue with three more fingers. Finger #2 will go in holes 2 & 3, Finger 3 in hole 3 & 4, Finger 4 in hole 4 and the adjacent sc in round 1.

Possible variations: you can make your fingers longer with a longer starting chain. Since the arms are not stuffed, you could go up with your hook size to make the arms more flexible.

Foot (make 2 in main color)

Round 1: sc 6 in mr

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

Rounds 4-5: sc (18)

Round 6: *sc 4, dec* x 3 (15)

Round 7: *sc 3, dec* x 3 (12)

Stuff lightly and fold the top together. Sc 5 across the top.

Ankle transition:

Ch 1, turn, hdc 5 (5)

Ch 1, turn, FLO sc 5, turn your work and BLO sc 5 on the other side. (10) Now we will go back to working in the round again.

Round 1: sc (10)

Round 2: (sc, inc) x 5 (15)

Rounds 3-6: sc (15) FO, leaving a tail to sew to body. You can stuff the legs or leave them unstuffed to make him more of a sitting monster.

Horns (make 2 in accent color)

Round 1: 4 sc in MR (4)

Round 2: inc, sc 3 (5)

Round 3: inc, sc 4 (6)

Round 4: inc, sc 5 (7)

Round 5: inc, sc 6 (8)

Round 6: inc, sc 7 (9)

Round 7: inc, sc 8 (10)

FO, leaving tail to sew to head.

Eyebrows: (make 2 in accent color)

Ch 7. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc 3. FO, leaving tail to sew to head.

Place safety eyes between rounds 4 & 5, with 6 stitches between. Before securing safety eyes, place the eyebrows above the eyes to make sure you have enough room. Use a little white yarn to make an accent on the outer side of each eye. Sew eyebrows over eyes, with the thickest part at the center of the face. Embroider a mouth over round 6. Stuff head/body and sew the bottom flap closed.

Sew the horns on the top of the head. I placed mine close to the outer edges.

Sew legs to the bottom of the head/body. I positioned my legs so that the edges lined up with the edges of the bottom of the head/body.

Sew arms to the side of the body, even with the bottom of the eyes.

Possible variations: add some hair between the horns: a mohawk, a few strands of yarn, or dreads. To make dreads, I take about a yard of yarn and pull a loop through a stitch where I want the dread. Then, using a K hook, I crochet a chain using both strands of the yarn. When I run out of yarn, I finish off the chain, pulling the yarn nice and tight, and trim the ends to make them even.

Thank you to Bonnie for testing my pattern for me! Here is her adorable monster!

May Goals

2024-04-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Pictured above: Yarn I received for #MYC424

Pictured at right: the 12 projects I finished with that yarn

And I'm off and running... finishing up my April goals with a few days to spare! I will have two craft shows in May, so I'm going a little light on goals for this month.

1) #amibookchallenge - This month's choice is from Mini Amigurumi Animals - a black cat!

2) #MYC524 - I am once again doing the Mystery Yarn Challenge hosted by Lori the Armchair Chef on YouTube. Once I get my yarn, I'll decide what sort of critters are calling out to be created!

3) Monster of the month

4) Bought, not made - I'll be making the Majestic Owl Stuffie by Trifles and Treasures

5) Ballerina Kitty, pattern by Grace and Yarn (the one I made last month sold already)

6) Emotional Support Chicken

7) 5 Pop mushrooms (Mushy Crushy - free IG pattern by Crochet_crochey)

8) 5 Frog Mushrooms