Crochet Scuba Diver

 

Whew! This was a tough doll to make. I really wanted to find a cute scuba diver pattern to make a gift for a friend. All the patterns I found were really fat looking and I thought that would be kind of rude. Then, I found THIS pattern on Ami Loves Gurumi. 

  

I loved the body shape, mask, snorkel, and fins on this adorable crocheted frog, but I did not want to make a frog. So, I used Ami's pattern for everything but the head. I looked up a bunch of crochet head patterns and came up with one for the scuba diver I wanted to make. 

I have only been crocheting for 4 months, so I still have a lot to learn. For instance, I am unable to see the stitches in a magic ring. I constantly end up with more stitches in the second round than I am supposed to. So, I use stitch markers every time I make a magic circle. My sister has been crocheting for a long time, she thought this was really funny.

My first try at making a human head for my scuba diver did not turn out well. It was way too round, so I had to frog it. Hee hee. How appropriate was that??? "Frog it" is a crochet term for ripping/undoing stitches.

I finally figured out a way, with my sister's help, to elongate the diver's head. Then, I had to think backwards through Ami's pattern for the head. Her frog head was attached to the body and worked up. I had to work from the top of the head down. I did this because I wanted to attach hair. I only know how to attach hair by going through the scalp. That would not work if I started the head from the chin area.

I tried to make it look like my scuba diver had the same sun bleached blond hair as my friend. I think it turned out okay. The reason the mouth is so big, is because it has to hold the regulator mouth piece from its scuba gear. After I took this picture, I went back and added bumps to the top lip to make it look more human.

Ami's frog was all one color. I made a color change to make it look like the hands and feet were coming out of the blue wetsuit. I think the fins are my favorite part of the pattern. Aren't they adorable?

I also love, love, LOVE the air tank, bcd vest, and regulator. So cute! My diver was not quite the same size as the pattern, so I had to rework the vest to make it fit.

I was very pleased when the body was able to stand up on its own. The pattern said to firmly stuff it. I also poked two pipe cleaners twisted together inside the legs to help with posing.

The scuba gear comes completely off. I think that is good because you can make other accessories or outfits to change the doll's appearance. I later added two small buttons to keep the bcd vest closed.

This was such a fun project. I am giving it to my friend tomorrow. I hope she really likes it. I have already had someone ask if I can make one for her daughter who is a free-diver. I guess I will try to make it again.

I really appreciate Ami Loves Gurumi for sharing the frog scuba diver pattern. 


I wanted to keep track of all the crochet I am doing. So far I have made a blanket, straw sun hat, ski hat, fox, turtle, starfish, whale shark, black cat, octopus, lobster, crab, seahorse Hobbes, 3 birds, 4 sting rays, and 3 jelly fish. Today, I am finishing up a beagle puppy. I found this crochet planner and am putting it to good use. I ordered it from Amazon.

What projects are you working on?

Crocheting Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson is such an incredible comic. Calvin's antics with Hobbes were what sparked a desire in Boogs to read on his own. HERE is an old post showing the transmogrifier Boogs made after reading about it in one of his Calvin and Hobbes collection books. My sister made Boogs an amazing crocheted Hobbes stuffed animal. He loved it! Recently, a librarian at another campus in my school district asked if I could make a Hobbes for her library. I am new to crochet. It has been 15 weeks since I learned how to make a stitch beyond a simple crochet chain, but I said I would give it a try to create Hobbes.

I called my sister to ask her about the pattern she used to crochet the Hobbes for Boogs. She pointed me to the free pattern on Sukigirl created in 2013. You can find the pattern HERE. I am so glad she shared this pattern. It was easy to follow and her directions and pictures were clear and helpful. I was very intimidated about crocheting stripes that line up properly. I sent a picture of my first leg to my sister and she said it looked good.

Then she told me to turn it over so she could really see what my stripes looked like. Hee hee!

I wasn't too bad and kind of looked like a seam, so I continued crocheting the rest of Hobbes. After making his arms and legs, I moved on to his ears. I used any spare time I had to work on him. It sure made waiting at parent pick up in front of the band hall go by faster.

I made every piece of Hobbes before I tried to tackle his body. I knew I would have a hard time lining up all those stripes. 

And I did.

So I cheated a little and hid that mess behind Hobbes' chest patch.

All I had left to do was put a face on Hobbes and stitch him together.

I used my sister's Hobbes face as a guide for my own. The stripes and facial features on Hobbes' head are made out of felt. I used adhesive stick-on felt so I would not have to sew it on.

My Hobbes is so much bigger than the one my sister made even though we used the same pattern. I think she used thinner yarn and a smaller hook than the pattern called for. I am terrible when it comes to sewing things together. I had to take off his right leg twice because my stitches were so messy. Finally, I felt like I had him put together well enough to give away.

My Hobbes can sit or stand. He will be perfect for sitting on top of a library shelf.

Hobbes looks like he is ready for any adventure the elementary kids in his new home can throw his way.

I really enjoying trying to figure out how to create things with crochet. My next project is already started. It will be my first time to try and alter a pattern to create something similar but different from the given pattern. I'll share it if it turns into anything other than a mess of knotted yarn.

What crochet projects are you working on?

Amigurumi Marine Animals

I am still working my way through the list of marine animals my friend wants me to make for her new classroom next year. This week, I made an octopus, leatherback sea turtle, lobster, crab, and sea horse. I decided to try again to make an octopus. I still had a ton of trouble with the tentacles. I think I remade the tentacles 4 times before I got them the way I wanted them. I used THIS pattern from The Friendly Red Fox for the octopus. I love the huge eyes and the little white spot of light. It really brings character to this octopus.

I made a turtle a few weeks ago, but my friend wanted a sea turtle. I found this adorable leatherback sea turtle pattern HERE. Another friend gave me a bunch of yarn they had been storing for about ten years. There was a skein of camouflage yarn in that stash. I thought it was the perfect yarn to use for the shell. The pattern was clearly written and easy to follow. I think this little turtle turned out really cute.

I found a cute little lobster pattern HERE. I did not realize how small this amigurumi creature would be. It is about 4 inches long. I redid the lobster with thicker yarn and a larger needle, but that piece did not turn out well. I gave my friend this lobster and she was happy with it.

I found this Kurt the Crab pattern HERE. The pattern was easy to follow. It did take longer than I expected it to take. I need to get better at attaching pieces together. 

This turned out to be a funky little seahorse. The color combination is because I was using up leftover yarn that I had laying around. I found the pattern for the seahorse HERE on One Dog Woof's site. She has a blue whale pattern that I have been looking at making.

I think I am pretty much finished with marine animal crochet for a little while. I have a cuttlefish pattern and a hammerhead shark pattern printed, just waiting for me to get started on them. I had a request from a school librarian for a Hobbes tiger. I have been avoiding it because I am scared of making the stripes on Hobbes. I think I am going to start that next and then go back and finish those last two marine animals. I am looking for an easy, but looks great, beginner pattern for a scuba diver to add to my friend's marine animal collection. If you know of a good one, I'd love to see it.

I think my crochet skills have come a long way in the 12 weeks since I first started crocheting. Eventually, I want to try and tackle making a cardigan sweater. I am really nervous about making the arms and armholes match perfectly. I will probably wait until school is out to start a big project like a sweater. I am really enjoying making these small, quickly finished projects. It is fun to make them and give them away.

Amigurumi crochet

I have had a lot of fun learning how to crochet amigurumi patterns. Amigurumi is the art of creating small stuffed yarn creatures, working in rounds, and making cute things. I started crocheting in February and have made quite a few cute creatures. I have posted about all of the animals in this picture except for the cat.

I have a friend who had two feral kittens living under her backyard shed. When we had an ice storm back in February, she trapped the kittens and set them up in her guest bathroom until the weather warmed up. She had quite an adventure getting through that week with feral kittens. After the storm, she had the cats neutered before she released them. Both kittens were jet black with green eyes. I decided to make a little black crocheted cat for her. Here is a picture of one of the feral kittens glaring at my friend.

I think my crocheted kitten turned out really cute! I found the free crochet pattern HERE from Little Bear Crochet's website.

It looks like it is ready to pounce. The pattern was written for a black cat with white paws or a white cat with black paws. I kept the entire cat black to match the little feral kittens. The pattern calls for a 2.5 mm hook. That is teeny tiny and I did not have yarn small enough to use that size hook. My kitten is a bit larger than the pattern. The pattern was easy to follow and I love how it looks like this cat is ready to play.

I gave this same friend one of the jellyfish I had made the previous week. She is moving to a new school next year and has decided to make her new classroom marine themed. She asked if I would create some marine animals for her new classroom. I found a post on pictopals.com with links to 23 free sea creature patterns. My friend and I went through the list so she could pick out which animals she wanted.

First, she asked for a ray that was multiple colors of blue. I made four rays using patterns from here, here (I made it without the cephalic horns on the sides of its mouth), and here. She chose the striped ray and I gave the other rays away. The ray is my school's mascot.

I tried crocheting an octopus next, but I could not get the tentacles to cooperate. I tried to make a starfish next but I had trouble with the arms. My friend kept the star fish and said it had "character" and "charm".  Sure! Definitely not my best work.

My friend fell in love with Whitney the Whale Shark, a pattern created by The Kotton Kaboodle. My friend loved the look of this whale shark so much that she purchased the pattern for me to use. The picture below shows the start of Whitney's mouth. If you look at the paper behind it, you will see that the mouth is covering up some little yarn skeins. Those yarn skeins rate the difficulty of this pattern at 5 yarn skeins. It was a 12 page pattern. On her post, the creator of Whitney stated that there are more than 4,300 stitches on the body of this whale shark.

I love the way the mouth pushes into the face of the whale shark. I added a few stitches to keep the mouth open without any sagging down.

If you compare my Whitney to the original one, you will notice that mine is a bit shorter and is missing two stripes. I got confused on my count and just persevered and fixed it as best as I could. I think it still turned out fantastic! I was very surprised that I was able to complete it and it turned out so well. The pattern is easy to follow. I think if I were a more experienced crocheter, it would have turned out to more closely match the original.

Whimsical Stitches Crochet Patterns

A few years ago, my sister gave Boogs a crocheted Hobbes and a crocheted dragon. Boogs had expressed interest in learning how to make some crocheted animals for himself. I searched for patterns and found the book Whimsical Stitches by Lauren Espy. Shortly after I bought the book, Boogs lost interest in wanting to make the animals for himself. I completely forgot about this book until I recently learned to crochet.

I made a bird and a fox from Woobles patterns for my friend's son and he asked if I could make him an octopus. I remembered this book and showed it to them. After seeing the picture of the jellyfish, he forgot all about wanting an octopus. My friend jokingly said she would love a turtle. So I got to work.

Espy's patterns are easy to follow and great for beginners. There are lots of pictures for each pattern. So it was easy to make a few jellyfish and a turtle. My friend and her son really liked them.

I have made and given away a few jellyfish. People seem to really like them and they are fun to make. I'm a little sad that this fun book has just been sitting on a shelf for the past three years. I know I will be making more cute creations from it soon.

My Woobles Fox

I learned how to crochet in February using the Woobles Penguin Kit. Woobles has 13 different crochet kits. I kept looking at the Francois the Fox Crochet Kit because it is absolutely adorable. Since I am so new to crocheting, I could not justify spending $50 for the kit when I had a stash of free yarn. So, I bought the Francois Pattern for $5. The pattern is listed as "intermediate" level. I like a challenge. I had some burnt orange yarn thats label said it was from Kmart, possibly from 1976. I loved the color and free yarn is a wonderful thing.

I started working on Francois on April 7th. I love how easy it is to follow the Woobles patterns. It was a bit challenging for me to make this fox. Before the first week of February, the only exposure I'd had to crocheting was making crochet chains when I was ten-years-old.

I liked how the pattern had you attach the ears and snout to the head. That made it simple to complete the head without worrying about making the snout as you went along.

It took me less than a week to complete Francois. You can see that his snout was a bit of a mess. I had yet to master attaching pieces to the body. The white part of Francois' chest is a bit wonky. It turned out okay. I am getting better at reading crochet patterns but it is still something I need to work on.

I loved the little backpack, but the more I looked at his snout, the less satisfied I became with this piece. I had to redo the snout. When I snipped out his snout, I was worried that I would accidentally cut into the face. Luckily, I didn't.

His redone snout (being more careful when following the pattern) made him look more like a fox and less like a bear. I was very happy with the change. Francois the Fox was now ready for an adventure. I sent a few pictures of the start of his exploration to my friend's son before he found his way to his new home with them. Her son was excited to hear about his travels.

If you are looking for a fun way to start a new crochet hobby, you really should check out Woobles. I have my eye on the hippo, rabbit, and crocodile patterns. I didn't receive anything from Woobles for singing their praises in this post, I just love their kits and patterns.