Christmas in July

A couple of Facebook groups are doing Christmas in July.  It is hard to think of snow when it is in the 90’s out. The snowman is called Sparkles and  is part of one of the Christmas in July groups. He is actually pretty tall. The snowman is made of two pieces stitched together instead of working in the round like many snowman are.  I really like this pattern and how it turned out. The white is Vanna’s Choice and the shirt and hat are out of Red Heart yarn called Real Teal (it was in my stash and I think discontinued.)  The pattern is free on here or you can purchase a pdf on Ravelry.

The placemats are from a Herrschners kit.  I bought two kits a year or two ago. Each kit made two placemats.  I struggle with making things more than once.  I like to make one thing and move on to the next thing.  I had a mental challenge to complete these.  I felt like the first two TOOK FOREVER. They really didn’t.  It was just my attitude. I picked this project up the other week and quickly got the other two done.  I don’t see that these kits are still available which is too bad.  They included plenty of yarn in the kits. I have used some kits that have poor quality materials and/or not enough.  These are the second kits I have purchased from Herrschners. In my experience, they are worth buying.

Now to pack these away and enjoy the warm weather.

CAL’s

I joined a few more Crochet-Alongs. The bunny with the antler headband is called Christopher the Bunny. The designer is LittleAquaGirl. Her Esty shop is here.  For $5 a month, amigurumipatterns.net is hosting CAL’s. I decided to try it. The pattern was very well written. There was a lot of pictures which helps when sewing the bunny together. There is a forum where the designer is active. This comes in handy if there are questions regarding the pattern. I probably won’t keep this subscription as $5 a month adds up and I already have a lot of patterns I want to make. My payment for December already processed, so I will be doing it for one more month at least 🙂

The mitten was super fun and fast to make. It is designed to be a gift holder but I plan on using it as a decoration. I can see making more of them. There are so many color combinations. This was hosted by Happily Hooked Magazine. I have an annual subscription to the magazine. The pattern was also well written. You can get the pattern on Ravelry here (you do not need to have the magazine.) The designer is Sonya Blackstone.

Snowman!

For some reason these two snowmen took me awhile to finish.. They aren’t very big but they had accessories to be made and buttons to attach. I don’t always enjoy making things with lots of pieces so I think I was procrastinating some.

I fell in love with the pink scarf one. Although the pom pom on his hat caused me a lot of problems. I have made pom poms in the past with no issues. This time I tried 4 times and they kept falling apart. I gave up and found a store made one in my stash. I just added some glue and it is staying in place with no problem. He has joined my Christmas decor.  That pattern came from a Happily Hooked magazine. I have an annual subscription to the on-line version of the magazine.  I go back and forth as to if I will continue my subscription. You can get the issue on Ravelry here or on their website http://www.happilyhooked.com. It is in Happily Hooked Magazine #43 October 2017.

The snowman with the ear muffs was also fun to make. His nose ended up reminding me of Pinocchio.  This pattern is out of the book Amigurumi Winter Wonderland. You can find it here on Amazon.

Christmas Trees

I made a few Christmas trees from free patterns. My favorite is the cream one. It worked up really quickly. The pattern had some mistakes but easy to catch and adjust. The pattern is here.

The red, green and white striped one my mom confiscated. It is written in UK terms. It still needs a little tlc in shaping and the ribbon trimmed up. The pattern is here.

The other one with the face was fun to make. I had one with a pink base that my sister wanted. It was quick and fun to do. I think the face adds a lot of character (but there are some people that don’t like faces on inanimate objects 🙂 ) The pattern can be found here.