What I’m Working On Now… Jack Skellington

I have been trapped in the house on bed rest since surgery #4 on my foot. Honestly this reminds me of people who are on house arrest. I am stuck at home with no car, not allowed to do much of anything and there is this big heavy cast attached to my leg and I spend much of my day fighting the urge to cut this damned thing off. BUT… it’s healing, all looks good, and I am almost halfway there.

That being said…. I am bored out of my skull. I have been playing around with amigurumi (fancy word for stuffed dolls) ideas. I suck at following patterns, I prefer to play around and figure it out on my own. I have had some cute little dolls, and by cute I mean evil octopus, a couple of grim reapers, and a skeleton bride and groom.

I got tired of fat dolls and decided to try my hand at coming up with an actual doll. Of course I am not a cute little girl doll kind of girl. So I started with a skull head and now it is looking like my take on Jack Skellington. I have been tracking my progress as I go and making adjustments as necessary. Right now I am not too happy with the hands and still need shoes and some more details but I wanted to share how he is coming along.

Jack Skellington VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Still figuring out if I am going to change the hands. Of course he will need his white chest piece and I may attempt the bat collar. The hat was a random decision, resulting from discovering I made 3 leg pieces instead of 2. My youngest daughter wanted a rainbow scrunchie so I stuck it on his hat till she comes home.

I will post pics when I am done and try to translate my randomness into a pattern to share.

 

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Granny Square and Daisy Baby Blanket

This was a quick and easy granny square baby blanket. Total cost including flower loom was less than $10. I also made a matching hat using a circular loom.

I used a size USH8/ 5.00 mm hook.

Caron Baby Soft Yarn (4 ply) in Peach (1 skein)  and Cream (1 Skein)

Nifty Knitter Flower Loom

 

Abbreviations:

• ch = chain 
• sl st = slip stitch
• dc= double crochet
• st= stitch

20 Granny squares:

Row 1. Chain 4, join to first st using sl st.

Row 2. Ch 3 (counts as first dc.)- 2 dc, chain 2, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch 2 3 dc, join to first st with sl st

Row 3. Ch 3 (counts as first dc), dc in each st to corner. 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in corner. repeat to first st, then sl st to join.

Tie off and pull yarn through. leave tail long enough to weave in later.

Make 20 Granny Squares. Use a yarn needle to weave in the ends into squares.

Assembling Squares:

I used a whipstitch to connect the squares (5 by 4). Sewed Flowers onto corner squares.

Using the cream  yarn, I attached to blanket and started with ch 3 (counts as first dc).

dc in each stitch. I used 5 dc in each corner to round of square corners. Sl St in first dc.

ch 3, dc in each st around. sl st to first st.

Tie offf and leave enough tail to weave in.

Using Peach yarn, attach to blanket with sl st.

Ch 3 (first dc), 4 dc in first stitch. skip 3 stitches. 5 dc in next st, skip 3 st (repeat to end).

Tie off and weave in the tail.

 

Used flower loom to create 4 daisies for each corner of blanket.

Flowers:

Very easy to make with loom. Found video here

to show how to use the loom.

I did 3 rounds on pegs in cream and tied off the middle with peach.

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Granny Square,yarn,baby,blanket,flower,loom,crochet,daisy,soft,scallop,nifty knitter,bloom,pretty,girls,peach,cream

About me:

About me:

When I was little I had a great aunt who was a big part of my life, especially after my grandmother passed away. I was always fascinated that she could take a ball of yarn and make these intricate blankets and clothes and scarves and whatever else she could think of. She loved to crochet.  She taught me how to do some basic stitches and I remember being so proud when I finally mastered a chain. There had to be 100 ft of chain wrapping around her living room. My great aunt was one of the strongest women I have ever known. I could not think of a better role model. I wish my children would’ve been able to know her. She loved crochet and she loved to garden. Their parents died young and she practically raised her brothers including my grandfather. She was afraid of nothing and she worked hard every day growing her own food and making beautiful things for all of us. She passed away when I was 11.

The years moved on and I grew up and had a child of my own. After a while I started wanting to learn to crochet again. I wanted to learn how to make blankets and toys for my own kids. I found some great videos online that were easy to follow along with. Once I mastered a granny square there was no stopping me. I began a blanket, which took me almost 3 years to finish. I was working full time, commuting an hour each way and raising a child. Free time was something I never had enough of.

During this time, I began having health issues that lead to me being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. A few months later I was forced to stop working and became a stay at home mom. Once my daughter started school, I found myself with free time. More than I knew what to do with. I also found myself in a very stressful 2 year battle with trying to get approved for disability.  I found crocheting was a great stress reliever as was painting.

I continue to learn new stitches. I am no expert by any means. The real reason I even started this blog was because I lost my Creepy Cute Crochet book and could not find the grim reaper pattern my daughter wanted online anywhere without people trying to charge money for it. It made me angry enough to freehand it and write out the pattern as I went. I don’t feel anyone should ever charge money for a pattern they did not come up with. And personally, I do not charge money for any patterns because I like being able to share my work and find new patterns to try.

As I was looking through the pictures on my computer I found pictures from projects I had long ago forgotten about. I figured I would share some of these projects and some of these patterns for anyone who may be interested in trying it out for themselves.

 

Grim Reaper Crochet Doll

Grim Reaper Crochet Doll

My daughter requested this doll. And being the crazy yarn lady I had to oblige.






The only problem with this idea was that I had seen this doll in an old crochet book and could not find said book anywhere.


I looked online and found all kinds of pictures of this pattern but everyone that had the pattern were being jerks and charging to share. I would be okay with this concept if this was an original pattern and not a copy of someone else's work.






I ended up free handing this pattern and writing down the steps as I went. I did make my doll bigger than those I had seen because my daughter likes bigger stuff she can show off.






Unlike the other jerks on the web I will be happy to share my version of this pattern for free.



Click here to open pattern. Grim Reaper Doll Pattern

Feel free to share pattern with others.