After finishing a couple of gifts I was asked to make, I think I'll finally make something that will remain in my posession instead of being wrapped up and given away.  What, I'm not sure!  I have plenty of patterns to choose from, so who knows I'll decide on.  :)

This is a shawl I made for my mom.  I made it from bamboo yarn with a bit of silk in it, and it is super soft!!

The pattern is called Aphrodite Shawl and is available for free online.

I also made some stuffed animals for my nieces.  They each wanted a Snoopy...

A yellow lab puppy for Sophie...I bought the pattern on Etsy and unfortunately had problems making the legs.  I spent so much time frogging them and redoing them.  Then when I was down to the last leg I  discovered I made a mistake in the previous one and made it a few rows too short...by that point I was so frustrated and couldn't bear to redo it, so I just made the 2nd leg to match it.  It makes him more of a sitter than a stander, but I don't think Sophie really cares.  Phew.

Last but not least, Cheer Bear for Nicki, from a Care Bear pattern book I have...as with Grumpy Bear I made for her birthday, I cheated and made the tummy symbols, eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and hearts from felt and hot glued them on.  I also didn't finish the feet the way they are in the book, giving them the look of having toes, but I didn't understand the instructions so I left them plain on both bears.

I also made a get well gift for my brother-in-law Dustin.  There is a bit of a back story to this...a few years ago while visiting Dustin & Kristelle, we watched Willy Wonka (the Johnny Depp version) and found ourselves singing a catchy little tune from the movie. It has remained something of a running joke, and we still sing it.  While Dustin was recently in the hospital with some health problems, I pondered what I could send as a get well gift.  While browsing Etsy one night, I came across a pattern for the Mad Hatter, and figured I could alter it to make it a Willy Wonka doll.  What would make it perfect would be if I could find a little music box to put in it that would play the Willy Wonka song when you squeezed it.  Good luck finding that!  As it happened, while I was checking out a craft supply website, I came across recordable boxes.  BING!  Problem solved.  I ordered the box, and the 10 seconds it allowed me to record was just perfect to record the part of the song we always sing.  Then I made up the doll, put the box inside, and voila, he was done.  We ended up going to visit over the Christmas holidays, so I was able to deliver him personally.  I didn't pose him very well, but you get the idea!

I took along some yarn and my hooks thinking I might work on some other things while we visited, but I didn't touch any of them.  I don't have my next project planned yet, but I'm sure it won't be long til I'm back at it!

I got the pattern from etsy, which included a shirt and pants, but I wanted a dress instead, which I made up as I went along.

I can't wait to give her to my sister for her student. :)

My next project is something I'm making for a student in my sister's classroom.  My sister is a teacher, and given I have lots of yarn left over from those first projects, I asked her if there were any kids in her class that might not come from good financial situations at home, and be in need of a new little friend to play with.  She knew of one little girl that fit the bill, so I'm working on a doll for her.  Here she is in progress...so far so good!

Just as an aside, for anyone wondering why I take pictures of projects while they are on or near my laptop, it's because a lot of my patterns are stored on my laptop and instead of printing them off I just open them up and work from the computer...not because I can't go anywhere without my laptop :)

And now, back to the doll!

Hello Mr. Penguin!

Good day, Mr. Reindeer!

Meet their new friends! (please don't laugh at my attempt at embroidering their eyes...I couldn't find safety eyes so I had to!)

Ms. Giraffe, Mr. Seal, Mr. Monkey, Ms. Hippo and Mrs. Lion! Here is a different view of Mr. Seal, he's kinda hard to see in that picture.

Here are the finished version of the ornaments I posted before...

And last but not least, a spa set, consisting of a wash cloth, back scrubber and slippers.

Now I just need to package them up and send them off to their recipients.  Then back to the hook!

Thanks for visiting!

Fast forward a bit...and tah dah! Hello penguin!

What I spent most of my crafting time on today was blocking some ornaments...sorry the pics aren't that great, the lighting sucked and I was too lazy to move to a different room in search of something better! Perhaps when I unpin them I'll take some better pictures so you can also see them right side up.

There are also a few other projects not yet pictured and/or completed...so again, more to come!  But for now, I actually need a crochet break!

So many little pieces to sew together!

Many more pieces in the works...photos of the completed works to come!

In any event, for part of that month my hubby and I spent some time away as he took a much needed break from work.  I intended to take along some small projects to work on, but the weekend before we left was so hectic that I just didn't have the time to choose a project and gather the supplies I'd need, so I left empty handed.  We kept ourselves busy during the day, but by the time evening rolled around and we were back at the hotel for the night, I was regretting not having a hook or yarn with me.  So off to a local store we went, where I picked up a hook and a few balls of cotton yarn.  If I'd have found any patterns I could use, I'd have picked them up too, but they were few and far between.  Not a problem, I've crocheted long enough to not need a pattern all the time.  I decided to make some good old dishcloths, perfect little stocking stuffers with Christmas coming up!  I wanted to make some that were a bit smaller than my last batch, so I just adjusted as I made each cloth until I found the numbers that worked.  The pattern wasn't anything special, basically just rows of alternating single crochets and chain 1 spaces.  I didn't work on them every night, but in the end I came home with 15 completed, 1 partly completed, and 2 1/2 balls of yarn to make more cloths with.  Here are the completed ones!

Jared picked out a lot of the colors for me.  One ball was self striping, the first time I've worked with that type of yarn.  I think they all worked out quite nicely! 

Now to decide on the next project(s)...

No pictures of it yet, but I'm sure there will be one up shortly!  Then perhaps I will finally make up a new pattern to share!!

Thanks for visiting!! :)