Christmas stockings

The holidays are over and I'm happy to report, that I was able to finish my holiday crafting this (or should I say last?) year. Of course I finished my husband's stocking on the 24th, around midnight and a flashlight was the only source of light. But what really matters, that is was finished by the time Santa stopped by. You had already seen Alex's stocking in an earlier post, but things have changed since then. I get to keep that stocking, and I made for my monkey-boy a bigger one.

And, boy, were we all nice last year. Santa filled our socks to the top! Happy new year Everyone, may 2014 be full of joy and a little bit of crafting!

Owl hat

My sister requested an animal hat. She said it can be anything except for a monkey. At first I was torn between two super cute patterns, but then I decided I will HAVE to make both. Below yuo can see the first one, the owl. What makes it extra special is that I only followed the pattern for the hat and the white eye circles part. And the rest... well, that's all me.

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Snowman and snowflake

These two were my husband's Mikulás presents. I made a winter themed key ring of them. The snowman is big enough for someone to find it easily, in case that someone forgets where did he put his keys. Which happens a lot. Both project work up quickly and the patterns are super easy.

You can find the FREE snowman pattern here. And here's the snowflake pattern, which you can also use free of charge.

Holiday zebra

I made this little guy for our landlady. It took an awful lot of color change, but he turned out really cute. The pattern was very easy to follow. He wears a hat and a scarf, those were not part of the original pattern.

You can find the FREE Zebra pattern here. As for the hat and the scarf, I borrowed their patterns from here.

White kitty

I made this white kitty for one of Alex's friend, Nong, who adores cats. For the eyes I used black felt and yellow yarn, mainly because I didn't have yellow felt, and I'm quite happy with the result. This was a quick and easy project, great last-minute gift idea.

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Gecko

Alex's big discovery in Thailand is the gecko. They are literally everywhere, mainly on the walls hunting for the occasional mosquito. Their colors vary between brownish and yellow. They also croak, freaky! But Alex simply loves them. Every evening, when they come out, we go on an adventure to find as many as possible.

This whole thing single-handedly solved this year's Mikulás question. If you are curious about the Mikulás, you can read about him here. And if you fall in love with the little guy below, you can find its FREE pattern here.

Baby bear

I made this little cutie for a friend, who often comes to play with Alex. She carries it around on her keys, so you can imagine the problem we faced a couple of days ago, when Alex decided he wanted to keep baby bear. Of course we gave it back, but it resulted in a small tantrum. Oh, well. That's life for you!

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Pikmin

A friend of mine on Ravelry created the pattern of this cutie. Pikmins are supposedly the characters of an online game for kids. Even if you haven't heard of the species before, their bright colors will cheer you up for sure.

The FREE pattern can be downloaded its Ravelry page. Although you'll need to do a quick sign up if you want to make one of these cuties.

Christmas tree beanie

Alex will wear this cute little beanie in our Christmas cards this year. Can't wait to do the shooting!

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Pinky sheep

I made Pinky for a friend who adores sheep. Working with the white yarn wasn't simple, but it turned out great. Pinky, like most babies, sleeps a lot. She also loves to cuddle with his mommy.

You can find the FREE pattern here. The pattern of the little bow is not included, you can find its pattern in a previous post on my blog.

Santa stocking

My family and I will spend the Holidays in Thailand this year. Since we couldn't bring all my Christmas stuff here, I made this cute stocking for my son. The total length is 40 centimeters. I think Santa has quite the task cut out for him to fill it up.

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Little bow

This tiny bow will be a nice touch for the baby sheep I'm currently working on. It gave me a great opportunity to practice my treble crochet stitches. It was a fairly easy and quick project.

You can find the FREE pattern here.

Angie, the white bunny

The newest member of my little Zoo is Angie, the white bunny. She loves carrots and always carries at least one around. She also likes to play in the garden, but all the butterflies better watch out, because Angie's favorite hobby is making butterfly wing collage.

You can download the bunny's pattern for FREE on its designer's blog.

How to store?

As my crochet to-do list grows I needed something that will hold both my yarns and the smaller items (hooks, needles etc.). Since there's a one-year-old in the house, that something could never be a basket. But rather something I can close AND hide in the closet. Because, let's face it, if the little angel can't open something (s)he wants to, mommy will have to do it for him/her.

After careful consideration I decided it should be a bag. In addition to all the above-mentioned qualifications I will also be able to carry my stuff around easily. Since, I happen to live in Chiang mai, Thailand for the time being, and the city also happens to be a tourist paradise it was quite easy to find a suitable bag. Chiang mai has many handmade items to offer in its markets. After an hour of looking at various bags, I present you the winner:

And I found this cute little case for the small things:

In case you were wondering, yes, I love elephants.

Gumby, the cat

Originally Gumball is made with one color, but I had some leftover green yarn and wanted to learn how to change color. Thus Gumby was born.

On Stacey's website I found an awesome video on color changing. It's easy to learn and works very well.

Regarding decrease and color changing, my experience is that invisible decrease works much better than the regular one. If you're not familiar with the invisible decrease (invdec) technique, there's a very good tutorial for both right-handed and left-handed crocheters on Planet June.

You can find Gumby's pattern for FREE on the designer's blog or on ravelry.com. 

Droid robot

Earlier this month I surprised my IT crazed hubby with a droid robot. It is supposed to look like the android logo, and it does look exactly like that when experienced hookers (an absolutely legit term for crocheters) make it.

You can find Bethany's FREE pattern on raverly.com (although you'll need to register on their site) or on her blog.

Below you can see my version of the little droid.

Pedro, the penguin

I started this blog to honor my new hobby: crocheting stuffed cuties AKA amigurumis for my son. In a nutshell amigurumi is a Japanes word that means crocheted or knitted soft toys. Since I've never ever had anything to do with yarns, except to wear the various pieces of clothing my mom knitted for me, it was a bit of a challenge to learn how to single crochet.

My greatest help was Stacey Trock and her website, FreshStiches. She has a neat and very detailed guide for beginners just like me (and possibly you) downloadable for FREE. Not only she teaches you the techniques, she talks about yarns, hooks, fills and everything amigurumi related. On her website the curious wanderer can find awesome patterns as well, not all of them are free of course.

So, without further ado, I give you Pedro, my first ever amigurumi. You can find his step-by-step pattern in Stacey's guide.