Summer=Epic Fail

Summer has been great but I have neglected my blog and  haven't finished many crochet projects either.  Wah wah...
Anyway.  I have been working on a blanket that I found the pattern for on etsy.com. It looks so pretty on there and in theory the flowers shouldn't be that hard.  I started the blanket and I must have picked a bad kind of yarn that kind of fell apart so I had to start over with some Sugar and Cream 100% cotton yarn and it has made a big difference.  It still bothers my hands more than regular crochet but hopefully it will be done soon. 

One project I did finish this summer was a caterpillar from Stacy Trock's Cutey Crawlies he was super easy and pretty quick.  I made him for my nephew.

I also found a really cute bee pattern from Amigurumi Patterns.net. I had to make him but did change up the colors a bit and embroidered eyes in order to give it to my hairdresser's daughter.

I also participated in Freshstitches.com's dragon crochet along.  Love the community of doing that and Stacy Trock is awesome about helping you along the way.

I made mine using a very girly variegated yarn.  It was one of the most fun ones I have done.

She is really much cuter in person.  I need to come up with her a name...

Goodbye summer!

Purple Kitty

Also from Stacey Trock's book Cuddly Crochet, I found the kitty pattern.  I changed the hook size and increased the eye size from what she recommended in the book making the cat itself smaller and obviously the eyes bigger.  I really was happy with how this turned out.

Monkey

I love, love, love Fresh Stitches.  Stacey offers a lot of really helpful tutorials and amazing books and patterns.  My first little bird came from her book Cuddly Crochet.  I bought this pattern from her website (freshstitches.com).  He turned out okay.  I plan on retrying to make him and use a little different yarn but he turned out pretty cute.
I also modified the ears a bit to make them two different colors.

Beagle

I don't know why I had a hard time with this pattern.  It was well written and easy to read but I had a really hard time with it for some reason.  He still turned out pretty cute and I really like the patterns from this lady (planetjune.com).  I read her book too and it was also very good. 

Okay so...

So I know this blog is called cutesy crochet but I have a new accomplishment and I am kind of proud of myself.  I made some low fat muffins today and they turned out great!  I modified a generic banana muffin recipe and I am really pleased how they turned out.  Also for Weight Watchers (which I personally follow) it is only 3 points for two yes two muffins.

The recipe is as follows:

1-4oz container no sugar added applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
3-4 very ripe bananas-for sweeter muffins go with 4
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and thoroughly grease muffin pans
2. Mix all the moist ingredients together and all the dry ingredients together in two separate bowls
3. Mix the moist and dry ingredients together
4. Pour muffin cups about 2/3 full
5.  Bake for 20 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Flower Bookmark

For Justin's grandmother, who also watches our daughter during the day, I made her a bookmark instead of a tulip like I did for my mom and mother-in-law.  I kind of made it up as I went along and didn't follow a pattern but I kind  of drew inspiration for the bookmark from other patterns I saw that I found on crochetpatterncentral.com.  It took me about two hours start to finish.  I hope she likes it.

Mother's Day Tulips

For mother's day next week I decided to make my mom and mother-in-law flowers.  I found the pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tulip-15http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tulip-15

The pattern recommends wooden skewers for the stems but I found that cookie sticks from Michaels worked really well.

Also Facebook bought Instagram so now Android has Instagram too so I have been playing around with that too.

First and Second Attempts at a Baby Hat

I was invited to a last minute baby shower last weekend.  I decided to make a hat and this was my first attempt

I decided to use the same pattern for this hat but varied it a little and didn't add the ruffle at the bottom.  I decided to add a bow to it instead of flowers and I found several patterns for bows but I didn't use them instead I chained 13 and sc in 12 starting at the second chain from the hook, turn and repeat for four more rows and slip stitched the entire rectangle at stitch 6 I tied it (in the middle) very tight and attached it to the hat.

I found the pattern for the first one and varied it for the second from here: http://crochetvolution.com/archives/spring-2012-archives/baby-belle

Caleb's Cow and Chick

A work friend is having a little boy, Caleb, next month.  She had asked me if I could make a cow and chick to match his room.

I found the cow pattern on etsy (of course): http://www.etsy.com/shop/jennyandteddy

And I found the duck here for free: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-duck

I didn't use safety eyes on either one.  I don't think my friend will let Caleb play with them but knowing how toddlers are I did it just in case he managed to a hold of both of either of them.

Ninja Turtle

I found this pattern on etsy also.  In this shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OtakuCrochet I got this pattern for my husband for his birthday also.  It is kind of like 4 in one cause all you have to do is change the mask color for each one.  Justin wanted Michelangelo first.   He was super easy to do and I think in total I spent three hours on him.

You do have to be careful attaching the shell like the pattern says but otherwise it was pretty easy.

Easter Lamb

So I have been awful at posting recently as the semester was wrapping up.  I finished up this little lamb while on Spring Break for Eden's east basket.

Here is a link to the etsy shop where I found it: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewoolpurl

She was not as cute as the original but still pretty cute!

Hoppy Chick

I have a toddler and so she can't eat candy really for Easter.  I still wanted to give her something fun for Easter.  I found this pattern via Pinterest (have I mentioned I love that website?!?!?!?!).  Anyway it turned out pretty cute and she even caught a little glimpse of it and started carrying it around.  I can't wait for her to see it.

It's time to make some music, it's time to light the lights...

My husband is obsessed with the Muppets.  Of course his favorite is Kermit.  I found an awesome pattern and made one for him.  I had a hard time getting his head to be pointy but I think he still turned out okay.

I bought the pattern from this shop on etsy.  My husband loved him, now he wants a Fozzy.  Unfortunately I haven't found a pattern so I emailed some people on etsy and messaged them about writing a pattern.  Hopefully that will work out.

The Ugly Dolphin

I decided to make a dolphin for my husband's little sister for her birthday.  I found an awesome pattern here.  The first one I made turned out really bad.

She should have looked like this:

So I gave it to Eden because she doesn't care and will play with anything and I give her pretty much.  I set out to make a new one to give to Justin's sister using the same pattern.  Here is the result:

I think she turned out a lot better.

Flower pot

First and foremost I love love love pinterest.  When I first started researching crochet I saw the cutest pattern for a flower pot.  I loved it and pinned it so that I could save it for later.  I found the pattern here.  It was super quick and easy and I really like the way it turned out.  I gave it to my mom and she was really excited.

Hello Kitty

One of my friend's birthdays was this past week.  She LOVES Hello Kitty.  I decided it would be a fun cute gift to make her a Hello Kitty amigurumi.  I had the HARDEST time finding a free pattern for Hello Kitty but I finally found a good sized one here.  She was really fun to make and put together.  She wasn't gorgeous by any means but I think she is an improvement from the bird and definitely the Snoopy.

P.S. My friend loved it so who cares what I though I am just glad she liked it.

Turtle Turtle

I originally set out to make a turtle for one of my friends but Eden saw it after it was finished and kind of took it.  She's 19 months old what can I really say? 

I found the pattern here.  I didn't do the stripes but I did add a little bow to her.  I think she turned out pretty cute even if my dad made fun of me for thirty minutes for how big her head is. 

Okay Koala

My next project was also from amigurumipatterns.net.  I found a really cute koala pattern that was small and fairly easy.  I again still was unable to find craft eyes.  I really need to find some online.  I found one size here in Asheville which is great but doesn't fill all my needs.

Here is what he should have looked like:

Here's what mine looks like.  Eden loved this little guy and carried him with her everywhere for days.

Snoopy Amigurumi

For my second amigurumi I found amigurumipatterns.net and they have tons of free and fairly inexpensive patterns.  I decided to make my little girl a Snoopy.  My husband and my mom both thought that my Snoopy turned out pretty good since at that point I had been crocheting for ten days.

Here's what he was supposed to look like:

I would like to come back and try it again sometime soon.

Here's what my pitiful  Snoopy looked like:

First Amigurumi

For Valentine's Day my husband got me this book which is also good.  It points out a lot of techniques. 

He also got me this book which has a lot of little people gift ideas in it.

I loved this book, there are so many great patterns in this book.  For my first amigurumi I made a little bird.  It's beak turned funny and I could not find any craft eyes in Asheville so again it is quite ugly but not because the article isn't good but because I am still learning.

Second Project

For my second project a few days after I made the ugly washcloth I made a little hat for one of my daughter's dolls. 

I have to be a braggy mommy and put a picture of her on here:

I made the little hat for her baby Ariel doll.

I was pretty excited how well this turned out.

Starting Out

A few weeks ago I started teaching myself crochet.  Some of the things still look ugly but it's all a work in progress. 

I bought this book and it was pretty well written and easy to follow.  I also used youtube.com videos to fill in blank spots.

Within the first couple of days I made my first washcloth.  Ugly yes but also functional.