Looking for an Easter Bunny?

I was looking for an Easter crochet project for our Relief Society group. The first pattern I tried was this one.
 
It wasn't hard to make, but when I finished, I decided that it wasn't quite the project I hoped. The eyes are maybe a little far apart for a universal appeal. It really was the best free pattern I could find for a bunny (you can give it a Google and see if you agree).

If you're willing to pay for patterns, this one is the most adorable bunny ever. I bought it thinking our ward could use it. It was after I bought it that I saw her copyright restrictions prevented it. So sad.

In the end I decided that we would not do bunnies at all, but poultry. Ana Paula Rimoli's website is great. She sells patterns, but also offers some for free. She's also authored books, so her patterns are well written. Check out these chickens! 

These two took a while to make. If you're in a hurry, just make the baby. The author said hers turned out to be 4" and just over 2" tall. Mine were 5" and 3". I used Sugar 'n Cream crochet cotton, so I think that's where the size difference came from. This photo is hers; I still have to take a picture of mine.
Happy Easter!

Ball of Yarn

I had a baby shower to go to last week. I pulled out some crochet patterns from the "to make someday" file and got to work. The first thing I made was this crocheted ball.

It comes from the Roxycraft website.

It was fun to make this ball. The white part was new to me. I've never done a front post half double crochet stitch before.

It was bigger than I expected. It just kept growing and growing. I ended up leaving off a few of the "increasing" rows. I also ended up taking out the middle pink part because it wasn't quite a circle with it (probably a result of reducing the first part).

You can make the ball even smaller by ending your increase rows whenever you want. The trick is to only do just enough of the middle rows to keep it a circle. 

Pierre Chaton

I'm really loving crochet lately. I've been working to expand my skills. I spent a lot of years only doing things that involved square and rectangle shapes. Pierre is certainly the most complicated thing I've ever made.

As a lover of the French people and language, I could not pass up this cool cat. I hate cats! But a cat with a beret? Well, he's okay.

The pattern comes from a book called AMIGURUMI! by Elisabeth Doherty. She gives a great introduction to the art of amigurumi in her book. I thought her pictures and instructions were really easy to read. Along with the hep cat, you can make a monkey, deer, pig, mouse, a hamburger, cookies, carrots and others. I just borrowed the book from the library.

Silas loves his little friend. He hugs him before he throws him. That's more courtesy than any of his other toys get. Also, Pierre only speaks French, so I hope he'll be able to help Silas learn some.

Baby Shoes

This pattern was one of the first patterns I came across when venturing into the internet crafting world.  It was perfect for my needs. My son endured 9 months of boring footwear (socks, white ones) because I was too cheap to buy many pairs of shoes when he didn't even walk yet.  

My only problem was that these shoes are about the right size for a 3-6 month old.  I ended up scaling up the pattern for my son's feet. As per advice I got from another blog, I measured Silas' feet. I added 1/2" for wiggle room, 1/2" for a seam allowance and then blew up the pattern to fit. (You need to be sure to increase the width, not just the length.) 

I also decided not to pay the extra money for suede on the bottom.  Because my son was crawling and not walking, the tops got more wear than the bottoms. I simply cut two feet bottoms from the fabric, and put an extra layer of felt between the two for stiffness. It worked out great.

For Silas, I used solid corduroy fabrics and used flannel prints for the lining. I sewed buttons on for decorations, but kept them pretty simple so they fit his age. In this photo, Silas is wearing his navy shoes for our family Christmas photos.