"Hi I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!!!!"

I spent A LOT of time trying to find the most *authentic* looking Olaf pattern. There are lots out there, but some of them just don't look like the real deal. Thankfully, One Dog Woof has a FANTASTIC Olaf pattern, and to top it off it's 100% FREE!
I've made him twice, and the second time I made just a few minor changes. I found that he was a little wobbly when I brought the head/upper/lower body to a full close at the bottom (down to 6 single crochet), so instead I stopped the pieces a couple rounds before the pattern suggests, giving the pieces a wider hole. That way I could sew them together at the final round of each piece. I found this really helped stabilize Olaf, but if you prefer to close all the way, that works well too (maybe you'll be more successful than me).
The first Olaf was a gift for a graduate, so I opted out of the hair and instead gave him a cute little grad cap. I just kind of guessed a pattern for this, but basically I made a long strip, sewed it into a ring, and then crocheted a square and sewed it on top. I also gave him a cute tassel in my high school's colors.

Some people are worth melting for. :)

Ooooooooooooooooooooo Tannenbaaaaaaauuummm

I'm home for Christmas and I couldn't be happier to crochet and sleep and eat and do very little else. I took a small small small break from making things for other people to make myself this sweet little Christmas tree. The pattern is FREE and comes from Pops de Milk. I saw it and decided I just had to have one, especially since I have so many buttons. I added a pom-pom to the top instead of a star, mostly because I didn't have a star haha. Here's mine:

Merry Christmas!!!

My Serious Obsession (with this friggin duck)

I would be lying to you if I didn't say that I am FRIGGIN OBSESSED with this FREE duck pattern from AmigurimiBB. It produces probably the cutest most perfect thing I have ever made. I've made four. I'm going to share them all with you. Because I'm obsessed.

You'll notice I've only made the "boy" version of this duck. Most of them were for people with babies/baby showers and honestly the duck with the bow tie is just more "gender neutral" than the "girl" duck. I've never had the chance to make the pair although I would love to have a set just for me!!!

Notes about this pattern:

The pattern doesn't say to do this, but I tacked the tops of the feet to the duck's body. The pattern has them hanging, but I thought they looked like of weird hanging and I wanted him to be always sitting, so I sewed them on with one stitch in the middle. I guess it's all about personal preference, I like him better this way!

As for the hair, the author of the pattern suggests that you first crochet the hair, and then sew it on. To skip the sewing step, I just inserted my hook in about the middle of the duck's head, pulled up some yarn and crocheted right from the head. I found it made the hair more secure (and also let me skip the sewing part, which, let's be honest, is the WORST PART). 

There are lots of instructions within this pattern, so be sure to read them all!!

I just can't stress enough how obsessed I am with this duck. I can't stop looking at him. He is SO FUN to make just because watching him come together in all his cuteness is almost too much for me to handle. (I have a lot of feelings about this duck).

MORE Owlies!

I just LOVE this sweet Chubby Owl Family from KnotSewCute on Etsy.  My mamma found them on Pinterest and sent them to me and I just HAD to make them. I love that they come in three sizes, and that you can mix and match the colors and how many of each size you want, so that you can make them to match any family! I've made two sets of these so far, the first for a baby shower my mom was going to and another for a friend's niece. You'll need to pay for this one, but it's 100% worth the cash I spent on it! They worked up perfectly according to the pattern, no alterations needed. I glued the eyes on using tacky glue, but opted to sew the buttons on because I was afraid you'd see the glue through the button holes. :)

Crochet Furby pattern!

So I have this friend who has this hilarious Furby costume that she acquired when she was in like the third grade. It's like a giant sack, so when she was little it fit her whole body and now that she's grown it still fits her torso, she just has to wear pants with it now (hahaha). Her mom asked me if I could crochet her a Furby for her birthday, and of course I had to try.

Who freakin knew crochet Furby patterns even existed??? It took me a while to settle on one - some of them didn't even really look like Furbies (more like owls or weird birds???), but I figured I'd be able to draw parts from each of them to create what I was looking for. I finally chose this Furby pattern from Lori-Anne Ketola on Ravelry, with some of my own modifications of course. Here is my finished product!!

Obviously, I opted out of using the feather style yarn. I just didn't think it was necessary, and since I wanted my Furby to be black I knew that it would probably be much easier to just work with regular yarn! What I liked best about this pattern was the ears - I thought they looked the most like Furby ears, especially with the little tufts at the top!!

Since I didn't use feather yarn, I also opted to make pom-poms for the head tuft and tail rather than follow the pattern, because I knew that the regular yarn wouldn't produce the "fluff" I was looking for by just crocheting it. I use a Clover pom-pom maker, which, as I've mentioned before, I love using!

I also reworked the feet here. I tried to do the ones in the pattern but for some reason had some trouble with them (I can't remember what the problem was now!) I kind of made up my own pattern for the feet. You can find that pattern below!

My friend LOVED her gift. I cracked up when her mom asked me to make it for her because honestly it is SO HER and it's just so funny. 

Here is the pattern I made up for the feet!!

Furby feet:

Toes (make 4)

R1: Make a magic ring, SC 4 in MR

R2: Inc in each st around (8)

R3: Sc in each st around (8)

For first toe of each foot, cut yarn and fasten off. For the second toe, keep the yarn on the hook and move onto the foot

Foot (make two)

R1: With the second toe still attached to the hook, slip stitch into a stitch on the first toe. Crochet around the first toe, and then crochet around the second toe. 

R2-3: Sc in each st around

R4: *Sc2tog, sc4* repeat * 2 times, sc2tog, sc5

R5: Sc in each st around

R6: *Sc2tog, sc3* repeat * 2 times, sc2tog, sc5

R7: *Sc2tog, sc2* repeat * 2 times, sc2tog, sc3

R8: *Sc2tog, sc* repeat * 2 times, sc2tog, sc2

R9: Sc2tog 3 times, sc

Owlies!

About a year ago someone asked me if I could make them one of these sweet owls from Craft Passion. I posted it on Facebook when it was done, and I've made probably 10 more since for other people. They are so cute and they work up so fast! You need hardly any yarn to make them, and I've made plenty of them using only scrap yarn! The pattern suggests you add "brads" to the corners of the eyes. I didn't really look but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find those here in St. John's. I suppose you could add beads to the eyes, but since I wanted to keep mine kid-friendly, I opted out of any extra small pieces. I think they look just as cute without them!

I really love these - I think they look so great in pairs with alternating colours!! These were for a pink and turquoise baby girls' room.

Miss Monkey!

This monkey pattern from Heart & Sew is just so sweet that when someone asked me if I could make them a monkey, I knew exactly where I needed to go!

Here is the first one I made:

I used floss for the embroidered nose and it just didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to - it was kind of hard to see. I LOVE the way the arms/legs hand - they're so long and dangly!

This one was for a "Ms. Monkey" themed baby nursery, so naturally I added a nice little pink flower to her ear for some added cuteness.

Here is the second one I made:

This one turned out quite a bit bigger than the other one I made. Everything still worked out fine, but I guess it had been so long in between when I made the two that I wasn't sure what hook I used and I picked the wrong one. Not that it really matters, he's just as sweet a little bigger!! I also added pipe cleaner to the tail of this one, which I didn't do for the first one since it was for a baby and I didn't want the wire to work its way out. I also used wool for the nose and mouth and I like it a lot better. :)

FREE Printable Tags

Since I started crocheting for friends, I have found that a lot of them like to give my creations as gifts. I LOVE that they feel like these make good gifts, but I wanted to make sure that the receivers of those gifts knew the work was mine. I found these FABULOUS free printable tags on Pinterest thanks to the wonderful Everything Etsy. I bought some brown card stock from Michaels, and printed a whole bunch of them to attach to my creations. I love how they look professional but also personal. They come in all different shapes and sizes, but I've found that the round ones best fit my needs (mostly because they are small). I just punch a hole in them and attach them with a little bit of yarn and a knot!

Polar Bear Twins!!

I made these for a friend's niece and nephew and I am TOTALLY OBSESSED with how they turned out!!! I think they are just sooooooo sweet and will make such a perfect Christmas gift.

I used the Leopold the Polar Bear pattern from Amour Fou and I loved every minute of it. I am a HUGE fan of amigurumi that is done largely in one piece - it means less sewing for me and therefore a more sturdy finished product. I also think they just generally look a lot neater and more even. The scarf on the pattern is knitted, but as we have already established, I am not a knitter! So, I crocheted the scarves on these guys. I made them really long so that I could double them over and tie them, imitating the scarf in the pattern.

I also used buttons for the eyes rather than safety eyes. I use buttons on most of my amigurumi. I like how they look, but also in order for me to even get my hands on safety eyes,  I'd need to order them since no place in town sells them.

I added a smile to snout as well, even though there's not one in the pattern. I just thought it would make them look friendlier!