Other Crafting: Owls

via Amazon.co.uk

As well as a large knit and crochet book and magazine collection, I have a number of other craft books including a number about sewing toys and sewing felt decor and toys. I have pulled all these books out recently to look through them as part of my Other Crafting days. I have settled on a few sewing projects I would like to work on and this weekend I traced and cut out the patterns for the owl from Make Your Own Soft Toys by Rob Merrett.

Here are the Owl patterns cut out from three different fabrics that I had as part of my stash. One is a fairly thick tweed fabric, one has a floral pattern and the dark brown fabric on the left is a very soft fabric with a floral pattern that can’t really be seen in this photograph. The wings, feet, beak and belly are cut out of felt to be sewn on to the fabric body and stuffed.

I am going on holidays in a few days so the sewing project will have to sit for a while until I get back but I am pleased with the fabric choices and how the patterns look so far, I think the owls will look really cute. Not sure what I am going to do with all these new owl friends but I’ll figure that out later.

Polar Bear

This is a polar bear for a co-worker who is having a baby. The pattern is from Knitted Toy Travels by Laura Long.

I had to make two of them because I was struggling with the chubby legs. The second one is made from Red Heart Soft. It is my favourite yarn for baby toys because it is silky, has a nice sheen to it and it is still easy to clean.

Cute face!

Penguin

This is a penguin I made for a co-worker who is expecting a baby. This is a pattern I have made before from Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long.

I used Red Heart Supersaver in White, Patons Canadiana in Black and Paton Astra in Yellow.

I want to give him a scarf, I think he needs an accessory.

Crochet Shark – in progress

I started working on this crochet shark from Vanessa Mooncie’s Crocheted Sea Creatures and I had to put it aside while I made the cats and the frog recently. I started working on it again and I got to this point where the mouth has been created but not much else. It looks hilarious and I had to share.

The shark is conveniently on the cover of the book so you can see what it is eventually supposed to look like.

I found the instructions for the mouth confusing and there was not a good photo in the whole book of the underside of the shark or the sharks mouth so I could get a good idea of what it should look like. There is a chart with the pattern, but I find crochet pattern charts difficult read.

Anyway, I hope to have this guy done soon. Maybe next week!

Ginger Cat Pillow #2

This is the second Ginger Cat pillow that I made for a baby gift. He is smaller than the last one and was made with Lion Brand Heartland Yarn in Yosemite. I really like Heartland yarn, it is very soft and has a bit of a sheet to it, very similar to Red Hear Soft and Caron Simply Soft. The Heartland colours have a heather kind of look to them so they blend together well. For the stripes I used Heartland yarn as well, in Acadia. I used a 4.5mm needles to make this cat as I wanted to be sure the stuffing would not show through. If I continued to use a 5.5mm needle he would probably have been the same size as the other guy.

Here is a side view. It is a bit too dark to see the tail.

Credit to Amanda Barry for the pattern.

Ginger Cat Pillow

This is the first of two cat stuffies or pillows that I am making for ladies in my Mum’s office who are having babies. This one was made with Red Heart Supersaver in Carrot, with some light grey stripes. It is quite a bright orange colour for a cat but he is cuddly and cute!

This pattern is by Amanda Barry and is from Let’s Get Crafting.

Crochet Chameleon

I made this chameleon for my niece for her birthday in April. I was surprised she asked for it, she just turned 14 and is no longer interested in my knitting stuff for her. Anyway, she saw the pattern in Crocheted Wild Animals by Vanessa Mooncie and liked it because “it looked like it was barfing up his best friend”. She was talking about how the chameleon is turned inside out to change colours.

Whatsit update

The little peanut whatsit from a few weeks ago has been given some spikes so I think he is more of a dinosaur now.

No one adopted him from the craft fair so maybe he will become a Christmas gift!

A Whatsit

This little guy was supposed to be another frog, but once I put his little i-cord legs and arms were attached I realized he was something else. A dinosaur maybe?But he has no tail.

For now he is a whatever or a whatsit but he may turn into something else.

A Peep of Chickens

Here are more chickens I made for my two craft fairs coming up. There are three large chickens, 1 medium and two chicks. Five of them are made with Loops & Threads Impeccable in Buttercup. The odd chick out is made with Patons Astra in yellow. Reminds me of school bus yellow. I am thinking of adding legs to a couple of the larger chickens but leaving some with no legs.