Crochet Projects - Chicken Hat & Chris-moose

I love the summer. It gives me time to work on projects. In-service days begin next week and students come back on August 13th. These are the last projects I had time to work on this summer - Chicken hat and Chris-moose.

After I finished working on my version of a Dolly Parton-ish doll,

I had the itch to work on something else. I dug through my printed pattern box and found the moose pattern from K's Crochet Critters. I modified the pattern a little bit to make my Chris-moose. It will carry a gift card and be part of my work's annual White Elephant Gift exchange at Christmas. 

Then, I was randomly scrolling crochet patterns and came across the Chicken Hat pattern and the Angler Fish hat pattern by Crochetverse. I immediately bought both patterns on Etsy and decided to work on the chicken first.

The chicken pattern is made using a double strand of yarn. I looked through my yarn stash and found a skein the perfect yellow color. The only problem was that I needed 600 yards of yellow so I had to go buy another skein. 

 

Luckily, Red Heart Super Saver yarn is pretty consistent. The yarn skein from my stash was from 1986. It felt a little bit rougher than the new yarn. I was surprised the Bright Yellow color was almost an exact match. I also had to buy Bernat Velvet red yarn. The rest of the yarn came from my yarn stash. Most of the other colors feel like they are Red Heart Super Saver Yarn. I have had several people give me collections of yarn so I don't have labels on a lot of my yarn stash skeins/balls.

I started working on the chicken pattern on Sunday and finished it around midnight on Thursday. I have no idea how many hours I spent making it but it was most of the week. My husband, son, and I went skydiving Thursday morning and I took the project to work on the one hour drive each way and in the lobby of the skydiving center. It helped calm my nerves before the big jump.

I forgot to take pictures while working on the chicken. The pattern was well written and easy to follow. I added a few extra feathers at the front and lengthened the collar by about two inches so it would sit on my shoulders. My version is not perfect but I love how it turned out.

I plan on wearing it for Book Character Day at my school on Halloween. I am pairing it with the book The Little Yellow Chicken by Joy Crowley.

Faces cannot be covered by masks at school so I am leaving the face hole open. but I am planning on adding a yellow piece of material, not sure what kind, to cover the hole from my nose down. I'll attach it with little hooks so it can be removed, if I want to wear it at places other than school.

I ordered several things from Amazon to add to the costume.  I am having fun with it.

I'm curious... What have you been crafting?

Dolly Parton (ish) Crochet Doll

My friend and I were out shopping and came across this crochet kit at World Market.

We laughed about it because we have been talking about planning a Dollywood trip with our personal trainer KK. KK loves Dolly Parton so my friend said I should buy this kit and make it for her. I told her that kit was not very good and I could make a better Dolly Parton doll.

I searched for patterns and found two that I liked:

This one is called Western Girl from Crown Country Crochet  I really liked the outfit, hat, and hair. I thought the face was too round for what I wanted. 

Then, I found Country Singer With Guitar by Crafty is Cool. I liked the face shape, figure, boots, hair, and guitar.

I used a mish-mash of both of these patterns to create my own Dolly Parton (ish) doll. This was the first time I have worked with cotton yarn. It took about 65 hours to complete the doll with a bling covered outfit, a hat, guitar, boots, and two wigs. Here are some pics of her creation:

Green eyes with lots of eyeliner

It took 6 hours just to make the straight hair wig. I cut 120 pieces of 10 inch yarn. Then I had to comb out each strand individually with a dog brush to separate the fibers and make it look like hair.  I made a wig cap and individually attached each strand. Then, I used my flat iron hair straightener on its lowest temperature setting to smooth out the "hair" once it was on the wig cap.

I used 14 gauge spool wire and pipe cleaners to create a body frame. The Western Girl pattern said to use pipe cleaners, but it was not sturdy enough. 

This is the torso from the Western Girl Pattern.

I added the breasts from the Country Singer pattern to make it look more like Dolly Parton. 

For me, the arms were the hardest parts to make. They were sooooo tiny. I kept losing my stitch so I ended up using stitch markers for each round for the entire arm. I put a little neck brace on it because I was twisting it around so much while making the arms. I was worried about messing up the neck strength.

I took a break between the arms and added the pants. I love how they bell out at the bottom. 

I made a guitar with a detachable guitar strap. Of course, I had to put bling on the strap.

I made a second wig cap and attached 24 curl strands to create the curly hair wig. This curly wig has a bit of weight to it at the back and would slip off of the doll's head.

I stitched in a pipe cleaner loop onto the inner wig cap to attach it to the doll's head.

The straight hair wig fit perfectly on the doll's head without slipping.

I think it really does look like Dolly Parton's hair.

I love the little boots. They turned out so cute. Of course I had to add a little bling.

I did not take pictures while making the vest shirt. I know that Dolly Parton does not like to have her arms showing. I went to Michael's and found this cute piece of lace to use for sleeves and a bustier. I am not good at sewing, but I gave it my best shot. I added a lot of stick-on bling to the top, scarf, and pants. There was a gap between the bottom of the shirt and the pants, so I bought some rhinestone ribbon and added it like a belt. 

You can see the little shank button I attached to the doll's head for the curly wig to stay on more securely. The button does not affect how the straight hair wig fits on the head.

When I was making the back of the vest, I felt like adding stitches to fill in the hole would make it look bulky and lumpy. So, I left a hole and added a band at the bottom then used the lace to fill in the cutout. I think it turned out really cute.

I cut up a pair of fake eyelashes and attached them to her eyes. I am still not happy with the mouth. I made and attached 6 different mouths before I settled on this one. I later used some brown chalk to darken the eyebrows a little bit.

This is the completed doll. She looks ready to sing Jolene. I love how the curls turned out.

This shows the bling down the side of her pants and on the guitar strap.

I like the straight hair wig, too.

Dolly looks ready to hit the stage and wow an audience.

I did remember to put a mole, like Dolly Parton has, on the doll before I gave it away. I just did not get any pictures of it. 

KK said she is going to give the doll to her daughter, who is a singer who lives in Nashville. KK thought of using it like Elf on A Shelf but calling it: Dolly on the Trolly, Dolly on the Dolly, Holly Dolly Christmas, and a few others I can't remember. KK said she wants to include little notes with the doll that say things like: 

Get up and sparkle, honey! 

What would Dolly do? 

Pour yourself a cup of ambition! 

In a world full of Kardashians, be a Dolly.

Dolly for President.

I had a lot of fun making this doll. What do you think about it?

Crochet Spring 2024

I started crocheting in February of 2021. I really like making crochet animals and plushies. I started on a sweater, but quickly got bored with it. Here is what I have been working on this Spring.

Astronaut for a space explorer themed nursery for one of my co-workers. 

One of the people attending the baby shower asked if I could make her an astronaut using her school colors. Her school's mascot is an astronaut. It was easier the second time. I rarely make the same thing twice. 

The pattern for the astronaut came from Studio Wow.  The pattern was easy to follow and fun to make.

Another co-worker had a baby shower at the beginning of May. I made this little sleeping puppy. I think it turned out so cute. I have a hard time using velvet yarn because it is soooo slippery. I slightly modified the Dreaming Beagle Oskar pattern by Marivan Crochet.

My school's mascot it a ray. I made several rays for people who were retiring or leaving the school. I added little tags that say "Once a ray, always a ray".

I used THIS YouTube video to crochet a pickle but I forgot to take a picture of it. I made a tag to turn it into a Positivity Pickle for a friend who is going through a rough time. 

Right now, I am trying to complete this hippo by Funny Hook Design. It is for a jungle themed baby nursery of a friend. It is starting to look like a hippo. Hopefully, I will complete it soon.

What creative projects are you working on?

Crochet Woodland Animals

One of my co-workers is pregnant with twins. Her nursery is woodland animal themed. She said it would have animals like bears, moose, and foxes. I looked at a lot of crochet patterns for bears and moose. I picked one and started working on it and then decided I didn't like it. It turned out a bit wonky. I am not sure if I will frog it or finish it.

Then I found the Hang In There Bear pattern by Heather Kumpf. The pattern is available on Ravelry, Etsy, and LoveCraft. This is the photo from her ad. The pattern calls for the bear to have poly pellets to add weight to the head and an unstuffed, floppy body. 

I decided to change that up a bit and add stuffing to the body before adding the fur so it would be more cuddly. I used brown eyelash yarn from Jubilee Yarn. I was surprised that I was unable to find brown or tan eyelash yarn at Micheal's, Joann Fabric & Craft Store, or Hobby Lobby. Luckily, Amazon carried it.

This was the first time I had used eyelash yarn. It is very tricky to work with, I had trouble finding each stitch as I went along.

The shape of this little bear's head is adorable. I only used stuffing in the head, not poly pellets. I have trouble making eyes out of yarn. I didn't want to use plastic eyes because this is going to a baby. This is the head before I sewed eyes on it.

It took about 20 hours to complete the bear. 

I took the little bear outside for a photo shoot. It looked perfectly at home in the tree.

I also started a couple of different moose crochet patterns but really fell in love with Murphy the Moose by K's Crochet Critters. The pattern is on Etsy. I used Yarn Bee Effortless Super Bulky yarn in burnt autumn and barn owl. I used Yarn Bee Velvety Smooth in black for the hooves. Hobby Lobby only had one skein of the burnt autumn and I decided to play yarn chicken and lost by 98 single crochet stitches.

Luckily, there was another Hobby Lobby store nearby that had another skein of the burnt autumn so I could finish the moose. I was surprised to find that the skein at the second store had the same dye batch number as the first one I used.

I think he turned out really well. I did not follow the pattern exactly, I never do. But I like the way this moose turned out. It took me about 12 hours to make him.

I think these two animals will be the perfect addition to my coworkers woodland nursery. I hope she likes them.

What do you have on your crochet hooks?