Mister Moose

I started to make another striped giraffe but I thought it would be cute to make it into a moose instead.
I changed the horns to antlers, made the nose a bit longer and the neck shorter.
I think he turned out pretty cute.

Cutest Striped Giraffe

When I first saw this giraffe I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I tried to find a pattern but my search left me empty handed. So, I thought I would try to make him myself without a pattern and when I went looking for the image again I found the pattern and it was free.
I found the pattern at I Love Buttons by Emma




He is really really cute.

I had to make a few changes to the pattern and I outlined them below. This was fun to make!

Changes to the Body Pattern

Change colour (tan)

R23: Sc 2, dec 1, rep 6 times (30)
added Row 24  SC1, DEC1 repeat 6 times (24)
Follow the rest of the pattern just increasing the row numbers by 1.

Giraffe Parts

No ears or horns

Is it a bunny or giraffe

He is done...

When doing my rows I followed the invisible join method as found a PlanetJune website.
My joins turned out OK.

 My invisible joins... no that invisible

invisible join at back

Kitty Key Chain

My daughter was still asking for me to make a toy for the cats as the mouse I made was much too big and I found these kittens at Buddy Rumi. I have to say it is amazing how many free patterns are out there for us to use.

This was very quick to make and I didn't have to make any changes to it. My embroidered nose and whiskers are in pink (although in the picture you can't tell) and the nose is a bit better than on the hedgehogs.

There was a new stitch in this pattern that I had to look up how to do. It is the Invisible Decrease. When ever there is a new stitch for me to learn I just do a search for it and I can always find a video or instructions on how to do the stitch.
The following video does a great job of showing how to do this stitch.

I am sure I will make many more of these. My Daughter was pleased with this and decided to give it to her friend for her birthday as her friend loves cats.

My Kitten.

Odd Ball Mouse

My daughter was really liking the new creations I was making and had made a  request to make a cat or mouse toy for our cats. So in my search I found these Odd Ball Mice and thought I would give one a try.
The pattern comes from Woolly Toons blogspot. I used a larger hook and heavier weighted yarn, only because it was what I had.

 Her mice are cute and reminded me of the rats from the Muppets.

I made a just one change to my mouse and that was to make the inside of the ears pink.
I just crocheted a circle the right sized and stitched them in.
The eyes of my mouse are set too far apart and if I make any more of them I would make them actually touch.

My Odd Ball Mouse. 

I placed him a little closer to the cat in this next picture.

The camera really picks up the white stuffing through the crochet holes. You don't see these normally. Not only do I need to improve on my embroidery skills but my picture taking skills. Perhaps I should use something other than my BlackBerry to take the pictures with.

Helga the Hedgehog

I found this image on Pinterest a while ago and thought it was super cute, and made me think of my children's baby sitter who has 2 real hedgehogs. The pattern comes from Drunken Aunt Wendy's Designs and is another free pattern. I wanted to give this a try and I am always up to learning new stitches and the loop stitch was a new one for me.
This critter turned out much larger than I thought it would. I am not sure how large the original one turned out to be.
My first try at this one I was happy with how she turned out but the view of the bottom was a bit wonky. I wish I had taken a picture of it before giving it away.
My second try on making Helga I put the bow at the neck and called him Homer. I played around with the number of loop and non loop stitches to make the bottom flatter and it turned out better. Also, for some reason Homer was smaller than Helga. I am not sure if I used a smaller hook or not.
I am going to make another one for my own keeping as Helga and Homer now live with the kids sitter.

My Helga.

Helga meets her man..

I am still not happy with my embroidery skills. I liked the thought of embroidered noses instead of beads, however, the threads are not lined up as nice as I would like them to be... again more practice.

Lionel The Pig

Another find on Pinterest are these 3 cute pigs. I had the yarn at home to make at least one of them so I thought I would give Lionel a try. This pattern comes from Primary Yarns and the link is to a pdf file.

The pattern again is quite simple and there is sewing involved to attach the ears, legs and tail.
I didn't have to make any changes to the pattern to create mine.
My Lionel...

 The above picture is before I embroidered his eyes and mouth and he is pictured with Momma and Baby turtles made in my previous post.

This is Lionel with his face. My embroidery skills need some improvement but he does look better with his eyes and mouth.

Tiny Turtles --- Tried something new...Momma and Baby

I posted the pictures of my tiny turtles on facebook and I had a request to make some for a niece of mine. So I made a cute baby turtle using a thinner yarn. Then I got adventurous and thought I would make a Momma turtle that could come out of her shell. I basically just followed the same pattern for the body as the head but increased how large it got and was able to make the tail with the body. I tried to make the shell so the body could slip in and out easily but my first try was too small so I changed it so I made the top of the shell following the pattern and then created a circle and sewed the one side to the shell and added a button to attach the other shell. I unfortunately didn't take notes of my pattern. If I do make it again I will takes notes then.

Tiny Turtles

A friend of mine got me hooked on Pinterest, and I found these tiny turtles and I thought they were cute and something I could try as my first crocheted critter.

The free pattern is from crochetville. They are small turtles and the pattern is quite simple and quick to make.

I didn't have to change the pattern at all to make them. There is some 'sewing' involved as you have to attach the head, feet and tails to the shell.
 
 The following image is the image from pinterest and the spiral effect on these turtles are nicer than what mine turned out to be. More practice for me.

My Turtles