I don't do a lot of crocheting but when I saw this old pattern from a 1960s-something Crochet World (I only have the page torn out of the magazine), I just had to make them for my granddaughters. I went to Michael's to buy the heads and hands but couldn't find them. I think they may be discontinued. So I put the project on the back burner when low and behold I found 3 sets of them at the Hospice Thrift Store for $.25 each. Well, of course I bought them.

The dolls were pretty simple to make but very plain. So I added additional ruffles around the bonnets and embroidered flowers on the little shirts. The dolls are actually sewn to the blanket. I didn't realize this until I was almost done. I didn't really want to crochet a blanket since crocheting isn't my favorite thing to do so I used some polyester fleece I had and added pink rickrack.

Best of all I didn't purchase anything except the heads to make the dolls. Everything, including the fleece and stuffing are from my stash.

Our 12-year-old granddaughter, Ella, comes every summer to spend some time with us. We have lots of fun doing the usual things (amusement parks, shopping) and we also have fun being creative.
She designed this skirt herself from a couple of pair of jeans she had outgrown. She cut out all the patches and stitched them together by hand (white stitches). I then went over all the stitches with a machine buttonhole stitch. The lace was the finishing touch.
Below is the belt she designed and crocheted to go with her skirt.


We then went to a thrift store to purchase a wool skirt to make a bag. When I felted the skirt, the white wool shrunk more than the black stripes giving the bag a shibori look. I added a bottom, lining and handles. We call it a designer bag because it was an Ann Taylor skirt (we left the label in).

Now isn't this the cutest little bear? Ella combined crochet cotton and sport weight yarn to get the unusual pattern. The muzzle and tie are crocheted from crochet cotton. This is her own original pattern.


I'd say we had a pretty full week.

Ella has gone to the dark side. She no longer knits. Instead she has taken up crocheting Japanese Amogurumi.


Ella with her Amigurumi turtle. This pattern can be found at http://www.fortheloveofyarn.com/Issues/Spring06/patterns/spring06_seaturtle.shtml

Ella has also almost completed a hippo and camel. She said it's more fun than crocheting dishcloths and afghans.

What is Amigurumi? According to Wiki it is (Japanese: from amu [編む, to knit] and nuigurumi [縫い包み, stuffed toy]) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be knitted, but the vast majority of amigurumi are crocheted.

Amigurumi are usually crocheted out of yarn. The simplest designs are worked in spirals. In contrast to typical Western crochet the rounds are not usually joined. They are also worked with a smaller size needle in proportion to the weight of the yarn in order to create a very tight-looking fabric without any gaps through which the stuffing might escape. Amigurumi are usually worked in sections and then joined (some amigurumi have no limbs whatsoever and the body and head is worked as one piece). The extremities are often stuffed with plastic pellets to give them a life-like weight, while the rest of the body is stuffed with fiber stuffing.

The pervading aesthetic of amigurumi is cuteness, or kawaii. To this end, typical amigurumi animals have an over-sized spherical head on a cylindrical body with undersized extremities.