Well.. sort of. Does this count?

I wrote this little bunny book for my niece, who loves crochet. It became her Christmas gift, but I made it months ago when I had absolutely nothing to crochet and a big obsession with making new and interesting things. But I’m really proud of the idea and I was so excited to give it to her- even though she can’t read yet. Here’s the full story!

There was a little bunny,

Inside a little book,

Read by a little reader,

Who took a little look.

He knew he was a story,

And he was being read,

But then Bunny decided,

To come and play instead!

He borrowed a few letters,

And made himself a hook,

He tugged and tugged and turned the page…

And came out of the book!

He cuddled with the reader,

He found a place to hide,

But then Bunny decided,

To go right back inside!

There was a little bunny,

Asleep inside a book,

And maybe he’ll come play again,

So come back for a look!

This is by far the smallest craft I’ve ever done. You can’t really tell the size by looking at it, but it fits in the palm of my hand, whereas the things I usually made are average stuffed-animal size.

This one was for a coworker that likes pokemon. She said her favorite was Charmander, but I couldn’t find a pattern online I liked because none of them seemed to properly portray the shape of his nose. Most of the ones I found, even on google images, were simply flat. So I decided to make my own! And I’m rather proud about how it turned out, particularly when I was freehanding it. I think that when things calm down, this one will be my first written pattern; hopefully I can replicate it!

This one also marks the start of better pictures! I asked my mother-in-law to take some higher-quality pictures for me so I could feel professional maybe opening my own etsy shop when I have more of a stock to show in it. So that’s a mini-dream of mine in the future. Hopefully it’ll pan out the same way this Charmander did!

A work friend of mine became a grandfather recently! He has two daughters, and last month brought the addition of his first healthy granddaughter.

…

Not meaning that he ever had an unhealthy granddaughter.. just that he didn’t have one at all. Or a grandson. It’s a celebratory occasion, really. And knowing that his daughter- the mother- is a big Nightmare Before Christmas fan, I decided to make her a baby head blanket in the shape of Zero!

Which is great, because it’s pretty much just a Zero doll, considering Zero is already in the shape of a baby head blanket.

And in the spirit of Hallow-uhuhhmerrcough..Christmas-!- I’ve decided to post this one next!

The greatest thing about this one is that it was actually made FOR Halloween, but it’s ok I didn’t see him until long after that, because then it just became a Christmas gift. I mean, the movie title has the word “Christmas” IN IT. It should’ve been a Christmas gift to begin with, really.

But I plan to get better about that! Once a week until I’m all caught up on my crafts, I’m going to post a new craft on here. Starting with…. OCTWOPOINTO!

I call him Octwopointo because it’s short for Octopus 2.0 and he’s the second one I’ve made. I’m not perfectly happy with how he came out, but there were a couple of improvements between him and the last one, like the shorter neck, better color choice (considering the first guy started out as a frog) and more evenly sized legs. Here’s the comparison.

Huh.. actually.. now that I look at it, I think I like the old one better. Have I.. retrogressed?

..Well, the kid who it was for liked it at any rate. He fell asleep holding it, and that’s good enough for me!

Octwopointo, everyone.

…With getting married and such. But I’ve also done a little bit of crocheting! So here’s just some catch-up:

Tiger

Sleeping Bear Baby Blanket

Mug Sweater

So I guess I really haven’t accomplished much for how long I’ve been gone, but I’ll hopefully have more time for crocheting in the near future!

This one is actually my very first crocheted doll and my first completely patterned project! Everything else I’ve made has been personally patterned by me, but this one comes from the lovely Sharon Ojala of amigurumi to go. I think it came out quite well!

And of course, I had to add a topical picture of me sewing the eyes in.

Made for a coworker’s granddaughter, due in November! It’s quite possibly the best work I’ve ever done, and I’m super pleased with how it came out!

There’s a sweet girl at work that’s been really nice to me about my crocheting, and her sharing of what I’ve done has actually gotten me a couple of sales, so I wanted to do something for her. When I found out her favorite animal was an elephant, I made her one, but wasn’t overly happy about the way it turned out. Planning to ignore it and move on, I chalked it up to just “not my best work,” until one of our co-workers came along and- seeing her elephant- wanted to buy two of them! I vowed to make them look even better than the original, and I did!

On the left is the prototype, and on the right is the finished elephant for sale, in the colors the buyer wanted.

Improvements made:

• Less strained arms
• Rounder body shape
• More elephant-y ears
• Better length of trunk
• New Alabama colors =)

I’m ultra proud of the difference between the two!

I offered to make this little guy back when I first started crocheting, and agreed to make it for just the yarn. The buyer stalled long enough for me to get good and confident in the crocheting business and still hadn’t gotten the yarn, so I got it myself because I was running out of things to make. But he agreed to reimburse me.

I don’t know why I gave him yarn eyes instead of button eyes, but it is definitely his biggest downfall. But I think it’d definitely be worth making another, as he was fun to make and came out so darn cute!

A beautiful craft taught to me by my good friend Kaylee. There are tons of ways to craft granny squares, and now thanks to her, I know one of them! And it’s probably the only one I’ll use till the end of time because life is easier that way. (No, I kid).

But I used my excellent new skill to crochet a baby blanket for a pregnant friend at work who, as luck would have it, has a gender-neutral favorite color, as we don’t know the gender yet.

And that favorite color is orange. Orange. Whose favorite color is orange? Hers, apparently. I confronted her on this and she said, “You know, like the sunset,” and I was like “huh.” And then, after I was almost done with the blanket, she came to me with a skein of orange yarn that was very much not the yarn I’d lovingly used to crochet her baby’s blanket and said “This is the closest color to what I’m talking about I can find.” Curse my critical nature. But she ended up liking the blanket, and has even since then started to crochet! Blankets. Without granny squares. But I’m sure that’s a coincidence.

After that fun, I made a doily for a co-worker and a tablecloth for a friend, which was just an over-sized, pentagon-shaped doily that I was too embarrassed to take a picture of. But he’s the first doily:

I even crocheted a little bow to wrap it up with because presentation is everything.

Granny squares are fun- overall, they may be close to my favorite thing to crochet.