Making Time to Make it: Dolly the Dachshund

I was having a tea-break at work and reading through some of my favourite blogs when I came across Gretchen's new pattern for Dolly the Dachshund.  I knew right then that Dolly would have to be my Making Time to Make it project for this month!  I decided there and then to make Dolly that very evening.


And here she is...

Isn't she lovely?

She has been stolen already of course.  Anything soft and cute in this house seems to end up in Lillia's nest.  Here's Dolly being held in a pair of very chocolatey sticky hands (post chocolate krispie cake making!)

Of course another was requested.  In bright pink naturally.  So now Dolly #1 has a new friend in Dolly #2...

This is such a cute pattern, thanks Gretchen!




What are you making time to make this month?


x

Happy Hooker Backwards Project #34: Bedfellows

I started this particular project on my second night in hospital.  It took me nearly two hours to get beyond the first round of stitches - no matter what I did I just couldn't get it to work.  The old lady in the bed opposite, Joyce, kept encouraging me though.  She kept saying "don't give up girl!" So I didn't...I just changed things a bit, altered the slip stitches to become single stitches, changed from an 8mm to a 4.5mm hook, and kind of winged it.

Nearly everything I did was wrong.  The size, the yarn, the stitch, the hook, the technique, the increases and decreases.  This project was doomed from the very start.

But somewhere along the way....

...a new friend began to take shape...

...and what should have been a disaster....

....actually turned into....Topsee :)

Named by Lillia (the spelling is hers too) Topsee is a new firm favourite in our house.

I made her arms and legs longer than the pattern, and her head is bigger, her ears are floppier.  Her eyes are beadier and her nose is wonkier.  But Topsee is our beautiful bunny friend...

She is already to be found mingling amongst the toys...

...helping with morning spelling practice...

...and I had a little smile to myself when I found her abandoned in the reclining position in Lillia's bed...

Lillia says she is "nimble and flexible", a Ballerina Bunny, which then led to the request for Topsee to have her own wardrobe.  We love Strictly Come Dancing in this house and we always watch it together on Saturday nights.  We decided that Topsee's first dress should be just like Holly Valance's salsa dress.

Here's the original...

And here's Topsee's very own crochet and sequinn version...

  

Yes, we do love Topsee :)

And here's the usual summary of the project:

• Cost - about £6 - I used less than a ball of each colour to make topsee, plus a little extra for her dress. 
• Yarn -  The purple is Patons Cottom Twist Aran (55% cotton, 45% acrylic) and is delightfully soft and tactile.  The light pink is Patons Smoothie DK.
• Hook - 4.5mm and 3mm.
• Difficulty - Goodness I struggled with this one!  I just couldn't get the hang of the slip stitches, but once I changed to single stitiches instead I got along better, but I had to make a lot of adjustments along the way.
• Overall happiness with finished object - Oh very happy!!  But not as happy as Lillia and her new best friend :)

Horge - a crochet creature

Sometimes I come across a crochet pattern I just have to have.  My eyes go all starey, I get the look of a hunter about me, my debit card twitches in my purse... Horge was one of those patterns. 

The pattern is from Mr Fox's Toy Emporium on Etsy, a UK seller whose shop is stuffed (geddit?) full of wonderous, and sometimes scary, crochet creatures.

 

Horge is small so is incredibly quick to make - I made mine over the course of two evenings in front of the telly. I couldn't find the recommended 16mm eyes, so mine are 10mm (from Hobbycraft) but I think they work just as well (dare I say even better...)

 

If you too now have the starey eyed look of one desperate to make your own Horge you can buy the pattern here.

Thanks for those who left comments on the last post, at least now I know it is possible...even if I can't do it myself.  I am still trying to sort out my laptop problems, in the meantime I am stealing time on my mum's and...sssssh...at work (during breaks of course...ahem). 

Speaking of work, I am still slowly trying to find the balance between working four days a week, commuting, doing the school run, being a mum in general, crafting and blogging...as well as being rather unwell with this blasted ulcerative colitis.  Will there ever be a balance?  Probably not.  In the meantime I am finding lots of cheats to get through.  Today for example I took these pictures using my iPhone 4 on the window-sill at work...the light is pretty good at 7:30am. If you look closely you can see the London Gherkin building...

Horge is now off to live with his new owner, K, who writes over at Grillyfish.  K is my friend and co-worker (and talented children's book illustrator/writer) who is selfishly abandoning us in return for nothing more than a higher salary and a better job, pffft, some people...

:)

Ali

x

My first arigurumi - Blue Monkey

March sees the start of Birthday Season here in the Snipsnaphappy household.  It starts with Hubby's birthday (god he is scarily old now...closer to 40 than 30) and ends with mine in April with various parents, siblings, friends, god-chidren and relatives in between.  It is utterly exhausting and more expensive than Christmas.

For my nearest and dearest I always like to give a little handmade gift and this year is no exception.  I've never really tried arigurumi before, I made a little heart but not a proper creature, so being me I waited until three days before Hubby's birthday before starting.  Nothing like a little pressure to get things moving. 

Now, I don't know if it was the lovely yarn (Patons Smoothie in cream and Rowan Alpaca Cotton in blue) or the pattern, or just the fact I love monkeys, but this project was thoroughly enjoyable.  Best of all though is that at the end of it I had a new little friend...

Lillia has named him Bluey White, which suits him well I am sure you agree!  I added a jaunty little bow made from Cath Kidston ribbon as he seemed to be a dapper little fellow.

He was waiting with Hubby's pressies when he got home from work.  Hubby was delighted!  Though possibly more delighted with the lovely bottle of Chateauneuf...

Bluey White will have to spend his days above floor level at all times though.  You see his bottom is stuffed with lentils and the last creation I made with lentils in its bottom (a gremlin named Rosie) had a rather unfortunate injury when we had mice.  The mice have now been evicted and Rosie has recovered well but still bears the scars and doesn't like to talk about it...

Bluey will therefore be protected from a similar fate, just in case the mice sniff a treat and return :)

More birthday makes from me later this week, including a cake the colour of a dead fish and a dancing skeleton...you have been warned.