Crochet Love

I have been knitting forever. Well, for 49 years since the age of 5. It all started in the Infant School playground.

I have always been unsporty and have seen risks in things physical. Even at 5, reading was my favourite pastime. However, books weren't allowed on the playground. The craze was skipping. Skipping solo or jumping rope wielded by 2  friends. Could not do it. Could not co-ordinate. So I needed a substitute activity - knitting.

Do you remember when trolls were cute little toys with lots of hair, not nasty people on the internet? Well, I knitted up wardrobes of clothes for my trolls. All kinds of lacy effects and textures.

And so it remained...though I moved on to clothes for my boys.

2 years ago, I thought I would try my hand at crochet and made several blankets.

Well, 2 weeks ago, I had the desire to make toys.

So far, just 2 made, but I am very happy with them:

This puppy was originally meant to be a bear! However, I did not make the head spherical enough and I sewed the muzzle on too low. So,

 a quick rescue mission by making long bunny ears and voila a hybrid bear/bunny/puppy. Despite these *ahem* newbie mistakes design modifications, I love the way it turned out and will be deliberately making more, in other colours.

The 2nd toy is a giraffe. Crikey, crochet produces MASSIVE toys. I reduced the neck length and it is still 15" tall sitting. Similarly, 

I reduced the length of the arms and legs to be in proportion.

I made another mistake with this one! I buy nearly all of my yarn on line. I love filling virtual shopping carts, even if I never proceed to the checkout! Well, apparently the baby yarn in pale turquoise and pale lemon that I had chosen was in 4 ply. I don't do 4 ply. So I held the 2 colours together and I like the resulting green effect. I also love the way you can see the two separate colours close up.

The spots gave me trouble. The pattern didn't have any, because it was designed as a stripy giraffe. I started off by sewing on fabric spots, like I sewed fabric into the puppy ears, but that didn't work for me. So I crocheted the spots and used embroidery thread to blanket stitch them on and stitch a lazy daisy in each one.

I will be back in a couple of days with a teddy bear (or a dog/rabbit/unicorn/dolphin depending on my accuracy in interpreting the pattern!)