Wooly Owl Hat

I stumbled across this cute little pattern on Ravelry. I love making baby hats because they are so incredibly cute and because they take less time to make than adult hats. I have seen tons of animal hats in stores and I have wanted to make one for a while.

Kat has SO many cute patterns! She sells some on Etsy and offers a few for free. I will definitely be purchasing some soon. They are just too adorable to pass up. I might even invest in getting a baby doll (or some sort of mannequin) so I can take better pictures of the hats I make. Being a busy student though, I don't have the time/resources I need to take super quality pictures (shame, I know).

Here is the finished product, and here you can find the pattern.

I have to say, I love this one! I will be posting a scarf and another Star Wars figure soon! Be on the lookout :)

Yoda Amigurumi

I discovered amigurumi last year and I LOVE it. I happened to stumble upon it when I was looking up "Star Wars" on Etsy. Much to my delight, up came the cutest Star Wars amigurumi patterns. As soon as I saw they were crocheted, I was hooked. I bought a bunch of patterns.

My friends are quite fond of the Star Wars amigurumi (as any SW geek would be). They don't take long to make, they're cute, and they don't take that much yarn at all.

One of the men I work with saw the Star Wars figures I previously made for a friend of mine for Christmas, and he was hooked. He asked me to make some for him but wanted beans instead of stuffing. I never thought of using beans, but it worked out great! I did stuff the head with actual stuffing, and I stuffed the body with pinto beans. Here is the finished product:

Isn't he the cutest? Thanks to Jerod for the high-quality picture, also. I am making him a set and he's going to take great pictures for me so I can continue to share them with you on this blog. :)


I credit lucyravenscar for the patterns. In my opinion, she has the BEST Star Wars amigurumi patterns that I have found online. They are affordable and WELL worth the money.


Luckily Jo-Anns sells black safety eyes and stuffing. I also have purchased hand-painted eyes and safety eyes from 6060, whom I would highly recommend. Very affordable and the shipping is fast.

More to come soon!

Bearded Beanie Hat.

This was a fun one. I have seen these bearded beanies before and always thought they were ridiculous. A friend of mine asked if I could make him one in exchange for a painting (of course I said yes). He even found me a complete pattern when I told him to find a pattern for a beanie he liked. That pattern is here.

At first I was a bit skeptical about making the hat....I haven't had a lot of luck with crochet hats because the ones I have made tended to come out looking like bonnets (especially the smaller the hook). However, this pattern was made mainly with double crochets, so it seemed more hopeful.

I'm really thrilled with the way it turned out. It is absolutely hilarious. Excuse the stich markers in it and the loose yarn (I haven't sewn the beard on yet - I only pinned it on).

I normally don't try things on that I make for people, but I had to see if the beanie fit and where to put the beard (and, let's face it, I couldn't resist). I got a good laugh out of it, that's for sure.

The whole project took maybe 4 ours-ish to do, I believe. I watch Netflix while I crochet, so that is somewhat of a distraction. It definitely turned out great and I have a feeling I will make more in the future (my brother already told me he wants one now).

Baby Hat!

Today I spent some time making a baby hat. I saw the pattern a few days ago when I was browsing patterns online and it was just too cute. The lovely teal yarn I picked up last night was perfect for it as well. I'm very excited about the way it turned out - so cute!

The pictures do the teal yarn no justice. It is Sincerely Teal from the Sincerely line of yarn by Sensations (isn't that a tongue twister?). It has such a vibrant and lovely color that the pictures don't emphasize.

The pattern was from the Lion Brand Yarn website. You have to be a member to see it, but it's free to sign up and only takes a couple minutes. You can find the pattern here.

As a side note, I joined a new site - Ravelry. It's basically a social networking site for knitters and crocheters. You make a profile and can browse patterns and see what other people have made. I'm quite partial to Pinterest and definitely update that a lot more, but I always look for opportunities to network with fellow crafters. If you're on there, be sure to say hello!

Lion Mittens for Kids

I finished the lion mittens...aren't they cute?! I started them a while ago, made one mitten, then got caught up making Christmas gifts. I'm glad I finally finished them.

I found the pattern in an old crochet magazine I picked up at a thrift store: Anne's Crochet Newsletter, No. 17, Sept. - Oct. 1985. That's the best thing about crochet patterns - minus some clothing articles (those old sweaters and vests aren't really fashionable anymore haha) they never go out of style. In addition, they were written then how they're written now.

I know there are a lot of free patterns online, but I love going to thrift stores to look at magazines and books to see what I can find. It's easier to pay ~25 cents for a book and have something tangible rather than searching a bunch and having to print it off (not like that takes an immense amount of time, but still). I usually always find old magazines wherever I go. Even if there's just one cute pattern, it's worth it.

I had a 50% off coupon for one regular priced item at JoAnn's today. I love those coupons, but the unfortunate (and rather cheap) aspect of it is that whenever they have said coupons, they put almost everything on sale. I picked up some yarn to create a Chewbacca figure that I will be making sometime in the near future and I also got a skein of a lovely shade of teal yarn for $2. Not bad.

My next project will be some Star Wars figurines, but I will also be looking for other simple patterns to make. Now that I have that lovely teal yarn, I want to make something with it. The funny thing is, I have both a big Rubbermaid container and a huge box filled with yarn, yet there are still so many colors I don't have! Someday I will have an entire wall filled with cubes of yarn. Someday.

Another Simple Dishcloth

It's a Friday night and I am crocheting, watching The X-Files on Netflix, and updating my LinkedIn profile. Let's face it - I'm probably the coolest college student you know.

While I am working on finishing a pair of mittens that I will post soon, I just finished another easy dishcloth. It's made using an afghan hook and a different style of crochet called called Tunisian crochet. Basically, an afghan hook looks like a knitting needle with a crochet hook at the end.

It almost seems like it's a mix of crochet and knitting; the piece is worked on one side, so there's never any "ch 1, turn" sequences. In basic terms, it's stitching from right to left and then back to the starting point over and over. Going to the left you put loops on the hook (much like knitting), and going to the right you work them off. It's really neat and easy to learn.

Basically, I did 25 stitches across and kept working the rows until it made a square. Then, I fastened off the yarn and did a simple border around the edge (2 rows of single crochets). The beige yarn actually has little specks of blue in it (that you can't see) and that's why the border is blue.

The extent of my Tunisian crochet knowledge is making these dishcloths, but I plan to learn more in the future. I do enjoy this project in particular because it doesn't take a lot of thinking. If I sit down and put a show on, I can usually finish one in a couple hours.

My mom tells me there are a bunch of dishcloth and other patterns for this type of crochet on the web, but I have yet to check them out.

I look forward to posting a picture of the mittens in the next few days. Keep a look out for those!

EDIT: I forgot to add I got both skeins of yarn at Wal-Mart for pretty cheap!

Heart Dishcloth

I haven't sat down and crocheted anything in a while...still trying to settle into classes, my internship, and the semester as a whole. I've been pretty busy but I love it so far; my brain is always running pretty quickly and requires constant tasks. Now that a balance is starting to form, I have been designating more time for crafting.

On that note, I completed a heart dishcloth from a pattern I found here. It's very straightforward and overall an easy craft. I'd say altogether it took me about 2 hours to make. The only modification I made was in the edging - that section was a little harder to follow and seeing as it's night time and I am tired, I created my own edging.

What I did was single crochet around the entire heart and do the same edging I do on my dishcloths and potholders - chain 3, skip one single crochet, crochet in the next single crochet, and repeat all the way around.

I am satisfied with how it turned out - I used a new skein of Lily Sugar n' Cream variegated yarn and have enough left to make another dishcloth. There's also the option of making two hearts without the edging and then stitching them together to make a potholder.

I will apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photo - as you can see, a textbook of mine is under it and I really should be reading it right now. I'll try to get a better one later (although when it's small it doesn't look too bad).

I also will be posting my cute little amigurumi octopus soon...I just have to finish all the legs (2/8 are complete). I hope you all had a lovely MLK day!