Crazy for Crochet

While browsing through Pinterest and seeing a bunch of adorable crochet items I decided that I needed to learn to crochet. When  I was much younger my sister-in-law taught me how to crochet a granny square and if I had stuck with it I would be a master crochet artist by now but being young and foolish I didn't.  As you know the Internet can be a wonderful source for learning how to things but being a bit old fashioned I love me a good book to use as a reference.  So I bought a book on the basics of crochet, some hooks and some yarn to begin practicing.  I did find YouTube videos to be very helpful when I was uncertain about how to do a certain stitch and the picture in the book just wasn't quite clear enough.
  One of the things that really drew me to crochet was the adorable little critters you could create.  The Japanese art of amigurumi was especially intriguing. The word amigurumi is derived from a combination of the Japanese words Ami-which means crocheted or knitted. And nuigurumi, which means stuffed doll.  After a little research I found that most amigurumi was made with only one stitch and that was single crochet-I could do that!  So I went about finding some patterns and of course a couple books and I was soon on my way to making some cute little critters!  The amigurumi patterns work up pretty quickly so I got this quick little feeling of accomplishment every time I made one.  Another bonus is that my kids are loving the little creations too!
I soon found crocheting to be very addictive and wanted  to crochet everything.  And when I say everything I mean to the point of crocheting hats for eggs, otherwise known as an egg cozy.  You know know it's important to keep your eggs cozy right?!  Actually the fact that such things actually exist and were not created by me just goes to show I am not the only one who is crazy for crochet.  I do believe the actual purpose of an egg cozy is too keep soft boiled eggs warm while you prepare the rest of your breakfast and not a fashion statement but either way they're pretty cute!

Here's a few of my favorites-

 

 

And here is something a little more useful, a jar cozy.  I made this for Becca to hold her paintbrushes!

I have got an ever growing list of things I want to try making on my Pinterest boards so stay tuned for further creations!

Hedgehog Sleep Sack

As I mentioned in my earlier hedgehog post, while doing some research online to learn more about hedgehogs I found that they really like to snuggle up and sleep in fleece.  Soon I found sleep sacks that you could purchase and it wasn't long before I came across a tutorial to make your own. Being a crafty kinda gal it seemed simple enough and I decided to take on the challenge.  A very important fact that was stressed is that hedgehogs have small little feet, toes and toenails that can easily become entangled in stitches and they like to dig, which further increases the chance of a toe or toenail becoming entwined which coud lead to serious injury.  Because of this you need to have as few seams showing as possible, simple enough if you are an avid seamstress.  Not so simple if your sewing machine hasn't seen the light of day in several years. Not to be detered I dusted off the sewing machine and set up shop on the kitchen table with all my supplies close at hand.  I carefully read and re-read the very simple five step instructions(complete with pictures). and then attempted to make my hedgehog sleep sack. I say attempted because the first one didn't come out quite right. 
Neither did the second.
Lucky for me the third times a charm. Also lucky for me I had bought extra fabric.  I wanted to make more then one so that we could wash one and still have an extra.  After making one correctly I could easily make another one.
Or not.
It was the whole turning things inside out and having the correct side of my fabric showing but not having any seams showing that was throwing me off.
Out of five tries I did manage to make two cute sleep sacks that I am proud of.  I am not so proud of how long it took me or how much fabric I wasted or how my aspirations of being on Project Runway got flushed down the toilet. ( Kidding. I have no to be on Project Runway.)  I do, oddly enough despite all my frustrations, have a desire to learn how to quilt.  I think I may head over to Skip to my Lou where she's got some cute projects for teaching kids how to sew.