Tiny Red Love Heart Garland

I made this tiny red love heart garland, thinking it would be a Christmas decoration, but we kind of skipped Christmas this year, so now it decorates David’s computer!

For this garland, I simply made tiny love hearts in between 24 chains, using Suzetta’s love heart pattern. It turned out to be trickier than I anticipated because the tiny hearts sometimes turned out bigger than the first one. I simply redid them until I got 6 about the same size.

We have a tiny Christmas tree that I thought this garland would look nice on, but because I ended up in hospital this Christmas we didn’t get around to putting it up. Our Christmas tree is a small Norfolk Pine sapling I saved from our garden, it’s about a year old.

Now this love heart garland is stuck to David’s pc as a lucky love charm! We can think of it as an early Saint Valentine’s Day decoration!

Three Small Things – dishcloth, heart, face washer

>>> Here is a face cloth that I edged last night, I simply did one round of double crochet (US sc). This cloth came in a gift pack from the hospital where Tom is staying and it was perfect for a quick edge treatment! I nearly did the edge in blue but decided that would be too boring so did it in a contrasting green instead! The single row looks less frilly I think, so will go well in our growing stash of baby boy goodies. I vowed years ago never to edge face washers with crochet but I succumb to the urge this year while teaching myself crochet. So far I’ve edged a pair of white with purple, and a pair of pink with pink!

<<< I whipped up this variation of Suzetta’s small heart earlier this month. This one has a second round so you can have two colours like I have here. For this one I used my 1.75mm hook. I think this is my favourite heart pattern, thankyou Suzie! I first had a go at this pattern back in January when I was teaching myself how to read crochet patterns, and I’ve come back to this pattern several times so far.

>>> Here is a small ridged green cotton dishcloth that I did up earlier this month using a 4mm hook and the last of the cotton in this colour. I now have two dish cloths this colour, the other green dishcloth I made up last month.  The ridged stitch is at crochetspot.

Four Little Lost Angels

As I was taking them home from the market, I knew I would have so much fun cleaning up these second-hand dolls and dressing them in new crochet outfits, perhaps even with angel wings! In the end I settled on summer dresses complete with pretty bonnets and mary jane slippers. These tiny Kelly dolls are just 4.5 inches tall.

I first found the little blonde in a washing basket full of toys. The stall holder was busy selling a set of Dora dolls, so when I said I would like the tiny doll, she dismissed me saying I could have it for free. Well, I wouldn’t take something so special for free, it just wasn’t right! Her hair is in excellent condition, and she even has two near new shoes. I was thinking to give a dollar, but when we looked in David’s wallet a 50 cent coin was sitting on top so I grabbed that and pressed it into hand of the man that was helping her with the stall. I think it must have been Karma, because later on at another stall, I saw the three other dolls, all with different coloured hair and all just 50 cents each! It was so uncanny it must have been fate that these four tiny Kelly dolls should meet in this way!

Crochetting some clothes for these dolls turned out to be a lot more challenging than I first anticipated. I made several attempts before I ended up with a dress I was happy with. At first, I did a smaller version of the Barbie doll dress I usually do, using baby yarn, but I decided the result looked too bulky. Later, I made matching knickers for that dress using a free pants pattern I found on an old blog, again using the baby yarn. I made a top using baby yarn and a free ruffle top pattern, but I did not use the right size hook and yarn, and it didn’t fit. The problem was, I was using baby yarn when I should have been using fine cotton thread.

At first, I really didn’t think I would need to follow a pattern for this project, but I did. I had a little success with a free dress pattern @ Crochet Crafts by Helga, using fine cotton and 1.5mm hook as recommended. But I didn’t like the skirt, I thought it was too short so added more rows, which then made the result bulky. Finally, I made a dress I liked using the bodice from Helga’s free pattern, but adding my own skirt. Using the same cotton, I made some panties using Helga’s free pants pattern,shortening the legs by making just one row of sc. I stitched up the gap at the back of the pants as I don’t think it needs a button, pull on pants are fine for this small doll. I then made matching pull on panties for the other dresses I made, one each of pink, green, apricot and yellow. Each dress has one button on the back of the bodice.

Because you can’t see the panties underneath the dresses, I decided the dolls needed some little tops to show them off! Maybe these outfits can be PJs or summer beach outfits? The tops are just the bodice part of the dress, with every stitch in the bottom frill incr. The tops looked a little plain, so I crochet a tiny heart, clover, flower and sun to attach in contrasting colours to the front, to make them look more fun (hopefully!). The flower is just clusters to form 5 petals, and the sun is a round of 15 trbls, with a 2nd round of a picot in every 3rd trbl. I used the heart and clover patterns explained in previous posts.

Then I made them all matching Mary Jane slippers with my own made up pattern.

Mary Janes for Kelly Dolls by Teena Sutton
using 1.25mm hook, fine cotton
1. ch 7, trb (US db) in 3rd ch from hook, 2 trb, 2 db (US sc), turn
2. ch 2, trb in next 5 trb, 3 trebles in the stitch space at the toe, go round to the other side of the shoe and do trb in ea 5 trb, 1 trb at the heel, sl st in 1st trb of this round
3. ch 2, db in next 2 trb, sk 2 trb, trb in next 3 treble to form top of toe, sk 2 trb, db in next 3 trb, sl st in 1st db  of this round
4. ch 8 to form ankle strap and sl st in 1st ch

Finally, I finished the outfits with bonnets, again with a pattern I made up myself. When I found these dolls, their hair was mostly ‘fly-away’ and a real mess. After shampooing, conditioning, air drying and finally smoothing with baby oil, their hair came up very nicely indeed. The pretty bonnets help keep the hair in place.

Pretty Bonnets for Kelly Dolls by Teena Sutton
using 1.25mm hook, fine cotton
1. chain 10, trbl (US dc) in 3rd ch from hook, trb in ea next 6 ch, 5 trbl in last ch which is the bottom of the last trbl, trb in the bottom of the other 7 trbl, turn
2. ch 2, trb in ea trbl, extra 3 trbl in last trb, trbl in bottom of each trb, turn
3. ch 2, sk trb, (3 trb in next trbl, sk trb, trb in next, sk trb) twice, 3 trbl ea in next 3 trbl (9 trbl), sk trb, trbl in next trbl (sk trbl, 3 trb in next trbl, sk trb, trb in next) twice, turn
4. ch 2, (sk trbl, 3 trb in next trbl, sk trbl, trbl in next) thrice, 3 trbl in next, trbl in next, (sk trbl, 3 trb in next trbl, sk trbl, trbl in next) thrice, turn
5. ch 2, repeat (sk trbl, 3 trbl in next, sk strbl, trbl in next) seven times, each cluster of 3 is in centre of cluster below, turn
6. repeat row 5 except don’t turn, ch about 12 or enough to be long enough to form the chin strap, measure, slip stitch into the other side of the bonnet to form chin strap, don’t turn
7 (bonnet frill), ch 2, repeat the pattern from previous row, except each cluster has 5 trebles instead of 3, turn
8. ch 2, repeat the previous pattern, except each cluster has 7 trebles instead of 5, fasten off.

Making outfits for these four Kelly dolls was heaps of fun and very satisfying. I learnt more about adjusting patterns for size, and also how to make pants. These are such a joy – but I think they will be going in a box soon. One day I’ll bring them out again as a special treasure.

This is my post for this week’s Transformation Thursday hosted @ The Shabby Chic Cottage. Be sure to check out fun crafty stuff at this blog party!

Three Small Things – fingerpuppet, granny square, doily

Here are three small things I’ve made in the last few days, a Teddy Bear fingerpuppet, a cross-my-heart granny square and a lemon doily.

<<< There is no pattern for this finger puppet, it is merely one of my early attempts at making a crochet toy. I decided to pop a little dress on her, along with a matching flower headband. It was after I embroidered her face that I realised she was back the front. Oh well, her backwards legs are hidden beneath the skirt so it doesn’t really matter. She is just for practice after all, and was fun to make. You can see her before she was decorated in my Five Tiny Teddies post as one of my early attempts at making a crochet toy. I think she makes a great companion for my Octopus Boy!

>>> When I asked David what he thought I should make next, his idea was for me to make a lovey-dovey blanket for the lounge, one with a heart motif. I’ve seen lots of square heart motifs so went back to the net for some ideas. One I saw was a cross my heart granny square. I didn’t use that pattern, just looked at it for the idea. I think I might have a go at making a granny square all in one colour then out-lining just one of the four hearts in a contrasting colour using chain stitch.

<<< I was feeling brave so was ready to give making a doily another go. I found a simple doily diagram at a page of beginner crochet doilies. I hit a snag at the 10th round so took it to the Women’s Creative Centre to see if I could get some advice on it. Apparently my tension was too tight and I need to use a bigger hook, so after we unravelled the mistake we fastened this one off to make a small doily. It’s just the right size to put under the phone that is sitting on my piano.

Love Heart Rag Rug

This is my first completed rag rug and it was hard work so I don’t think I’ll be making these very often!

Using crochet to make a rag rug like this uses a lot of material, so I want this to be the only one that uses material that’s not recycled. Really, rag rugs should be made from strips of material salvaged from discarded clothes and sheets. But I had a small collection of cotton material squares that I’d been carrying around for ages, so I decided to put it to good use. It’s all the same type of matterial and I think the colours kind of go together. Luckily I have a heap of that blue otherwise this would have turned out a lot smaller.

I needed some new mats for the kitchen and knew I could make some from strips of material. After hunting around on the net for ways to turn recycled material into rugs, I found the best one at The Sunroom. My first attempt didn’t work out because the biggest hook I had was a size 6, so I went and got myself a size 10, the biggest one they had at the shops, and started again.

Using my new pinking shears, I cut strips of ribbon from the material to reduce any fraying. I cut up one square of material at a time to give my hands a break, but my wrists hurt a little from all the hard work! lol. I spent at least two whole days on this, plus several hours here and there spread out over two weeks. I think this is a great way to reuse material that can be cut into long strips, but only if you’re time-rich like me. If you don’t have the time, I think paying $10-20 for a small rug from the shops might be worth it! But this is a good way for me to make things for my home without spending any money (other than getting a new hook which I’ll reuse) and using up things that I might otherwise throw away. From what I’ve read, this rag rug will flatten out and I can wash it in the machine. This one is about 60cm wide and it’s my Valentine’s gift this year for the home I share with my true love.
/awww

Love Charm Pincushion

I started the week off yesterday morning with a quick tidy up and stocktake of my current projects. I had some scraps lying around that needed a home and last week’s scraptrap was currently deployed! So I quickly whipped this one up, and already its full of scraps and finished to become a lucky love charm or pincushion… or both!

I was upstairs in my sewing room and couldn’t be bothered coming downstairs to the computer to check the love heart patterns, so did the only one I could remember from the top of my head. The new scraptrap just had to be a love heart, right? The square based love heart was the only one I could remember, probably because I actually didn’t follow a pattern for that one, its just a square with trebles to form the cheeks. I made one, then did a row of trebles along the side which would become a side panel of the 3d heart. Then I made a second heart, putting the treble cheeks where they would match the first heart. It was all matching up nicely, I just had to sew around the two sets of heart cheeks using slip stitch, then a few more trebles down the other side. I left an opening for the scraps to go in during the day, and also some from today went in. I just closed up the opening when it was full. I added a chain at the top, so if I want to hang it up, like in a window or something, I can.

I think this very simple pattern will make a lovely luck charm to hang in our home somewhere, or I’ll probably use it as a pincushion so I can retire the silly old spider thing I made! If anyone would like the pattern for this 3D heart charm, just let me know. I’m pretty sure I could write it out if anyone wanted me to.

If you’d like to use this idea on your own website, please link to my blog 🙂

Three Pink Hearts

I did up some more hearts for practice, with varying degrees of difficulty but equal in cuteness!

The smallest heart is another go at a very easy heart pattern from Suzie’s Stuff. The first one I did was blue and wonky, so I had another go and this one is much better and very cute. I’m thinking of slipping it in somewhere for good luck, like in David’s wallet or sock drawer!

I thought I could try the square lattice heart by just looking at the picture, without reading the pattern. The change from square to round was trickier than the other heart I did from Drops Design, so I did peek at the pattern. I think my reading is getting a bit better, because I could find my place. I found a small bit of yarn left over from my childhood and used that, still not sure what will become of this heart yet.

The large heart of fans is impressive, still at first I thought I could try it without reading the pattern, but ended up following it which is from Donna’s Crochet Designs. This one was a little more tricky than the others, but very nice. This one might end up in the trials and samples rug, or perhaps I’ll save it for something special like a bag.

A Day of Crochet Trials

I spent the entire day yesterday trying new small crochet projects (except for when I did a quick run to OS with the guild and some pugs for the weekly on my paladin tank, Yulara!) Recording this learning process will be good for me to look back over later, I’m sure!

To start me off, I had a go at this four leaf clover. It looked pretty simple and I figured it could be used as a lucky charm fridge magnet. At the start of the day my purpose was to work on my crochet pattern reading skills, and this one went fine.

I was off to a good start, so I thought to try something a little more tricky with this three layer flower. I followed the large flower pattern and discovered I didn’t know what “bpsc” was. Turns out that’s “back post single crochet” and I learned how to do it by watching the youtube video.

After these successes I thought I would try a little lady bug pattern I saw. It started off with the magic ring, which was great to learn so I can make my start rings small if I wanted. But the lady bug was not working out at all, all the extra stitches formed a type of hyperbolic shape and it reminded me of what I kept getting when I was trying the beanie pattern at crochetspot. Then I remembered that there are two crochet languages, English and American. Crochet Australia has several charts on how stitches, yarns and hooks vary between the two. I also did some reading up on Wikipedia on the history of crochet, which of course was very enlightening. All this made me wonder that that beanie pattern is American, so I went back and tried it again, this time doing English DC instead of SC, and guess what… it worked! But when the ball of yellow yarn I quickly grabbed to try this ran out I thought that I would put in a different colour. I fooled around with some wavy stitches, trying something I learnt in the morning from those little round patterns and made up a stitch (sl st sc hdc 3dc hdc sc). From Smart Knitting-Crocheting I found some example of stitches and chose a wavy fan pattern. The diagram was very easy to read and a good alternative than trying to read a pattern when I wasn’t sure if DC =/= SC !! But my initial row didn’t match so I unwound it and did it again. I thought the pattern would simply continue the beanie, as it was up to the point where the rounds were no longer increasing, but that didn’t happen. It doesn’t quite lie flat either, but this is definately not a beanie. Serve me right for trying to put in fancy stitches! One day I’ll get around to following Rachel’s beanie pattern to complete one, which now I know what I was doing wrong, I’m sure will work just fine. I’ll keep this large flower thingy for another project I’m working on.

Another small project I had open to look at was a dancing shells washcloth pattern at All Free Crafts. It didn’t look too hard so I gave it a go, but my cotton is too thin. A fair few American patterns call for “weight worsted cotton” and all I’ve been able to find out is the Australian equivilant is a 10ply which doesn’t make sense to me.  I think my mum will know, so I’ll ask her next time I speak to her. A new stitch I learnt here was Dc2tog (double crochet two stitches together) and again, I learnt how to do it from a youtube video. I actually unwound this little exercise to reuse the cotton.

My mum gave me several balls of this lovely cotton so I was determined to do something with it and tried one of the many patterns she gave me. This square motif was easy enough and if I made 38 of them, I could make them into a top. I wonder if I’ll get around to doing that one day …. lol! If I went to that much trouble, I would want to be sure to wear the thing!

I have lots of pictures of crochet hearts bookmarked to try, including some from the Drops website. I didn’t follow the pattern for this Christmas heart decoration, I just looked at the picture and did it very quickly. I simply SC a 6 x 6 row square, then 5 trebles into the middle 3rd space, then ch st around the edge. Easy as! Lol, more crochet junk to work out what to do with ….

After I did the square heart, I set to work on making a toy shrug. Now that was a full day’s worth of work! /satisfied sigh

Hardest Heart Yet

This is the most challenging heart I’ve crocheted yet as I found following the pattern very difficult!

Using the pattern at Inspired Crochet Design, I sometimes had to guess what was meant by the pattern. I don’t know if the pattern is flawed, or if it is my lack of skill in reading patterns that made it difficult, but I think the latter is more likely! I unravelled the 3rd row a couple of times before I had to guess what the pattern meant. I didn’t know what hdc was and this was the first time I remember seeing it. I learnt how to do this “half double crochet” stitch from watching this youtube video.

Somehow, it works out in the end looking somewhat like it was meant to! Yay for me!! … lolzz

Wonky and Blue

<<< While I was surfing the net for inspiration I stumbled upon this seemingly simple small heart pattern. I had success with the pattern from Crochetspot, so thought I should give this one a go, too! It’s a little wonky I know, but I think my next one will be less so.  I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but who knows, it might end up as a bag handle end or something, lol.

>>> I used the same wool as I did yesterday when I whipped up a quick project at the end of the day. I got the idea to make a scraptrap from Granny Judith’s website. But I figured I could use it as a pin cushion when it was done, instead of a child’s toy. I didn’t use any pattern, I just made it up as I went along, so like my blue heart, its a little wonky! But for a pin cushion, I have a feeling that’s going be quite ok (take That, perfectionist tendancy!) And at the end of the day, I had a heap of cotton and scraps to go in it already. It was an excellent way to finish up the day, with a quick tidy up!

<<< While I’m waiting to go to the doctor, I’m keeping myself busy so I whipped up this one in a few minutes. I really liked this photo of a ten petal flower doily. I just looked at the picture and tried to copy it. My flower only has seven petals because I didn’t count the dc in the 1st round. I just … gave it a whirl!!