I haven’t been able to post anything in *such* a long time … have moved, twice now;  am working more hours at the office, and a host of other things …

About a year or so, I discovered a new craft – loom knitting … I’ve since bought a set of Provocraft’s Knifty Knitter Round Looms and a set of their Knifty Knitter Long Looms.  I have also bought the AKB 10″, 28″ and sock looms.  I never could get the hang of knitting with needles, and it always took so much longer than crocheting, but I can’t seem to put these down.

I have also recently taught myself the Tunisian Knit Stitch as well as the Afghan Stitch, aka the Tunisian Simple Stitch.  I prefer the Tunisian Knit Stitch, and plan on creating something with this stitch … someday … hopefully, sooner than later.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of things I’ve made in the last year.

Loom Knit Hat & Scarf Set for Office Holiday Gift Exchange

I will upload these pictures once I find which box my external hard drive was packed in.

A Co-worker’s 1st Grandchild’s Bear and Blanket

My co-worker became a grandparent for the first time in the past year.  His grandson’s name is Max.  I wanted to crochet a teddy bear  with fuzzy yarn, but discovered that my eyesight wasn’t good enough to see the stitches to crochet the bear.  So, I ended up loom knitting a small blanket with this fluffy yarn instead.  Here is a picture of the blanket and the bear before I personalized it:

Max's Bear's Blanket

Max's Crocheted Bear

Max Is My Hero

I wanted to personalize the bear for Max.  I couldn’t come up with exactly what I wanted to say, but my business partner, Mark, thought up the perfect phrase.  I made a cross-stitched ‘badge’ which I attached with velcro so that the bear could be washed, if necessary.  The ‘badge’ says “Max is my hero!”  Here are pictures of the Bear with the Badge and another one showing the full Bear and his blanket.

Max's Personalized Bear w/Blanket

Another co-worker’s Baby Gift Set

At the same time I was working on Max’s bear and blanket, the place where I work hired a new employee who was several months pregnant.  I would have loved to make her a bear, or some other amigurumi as a gift, but I didn’t have time to do that before her scheduled baby shower.  I also had LOTS of fluffy yarn left over from Max’s bear’s blanket, so I decided to loom knit a Baby Cacoon, a hat, a pair of booties and a ball.  Here is the picture of this Baby Gift Set:

Jaime's Baby Gift Set

Crocheted Dishcloths

As I soon as I figure out which box the crocheted dishcloths are in, I will be updating this post with pictures of those as well.   I hope to have these pictures really soon.

I just finished this crochet teddy bear for a co-worker who just passed her bar exam.  I took it into the office late last night to put it on her desk with the cross stitch design I made for her.    Looking forward to getting her reaction when I go into the office tomorrow!

You can get the pattern for this crochet teddy bear here.

I’ve learned a lot since making my first amigurumi just a few weeks ago.  I’ve learned how to:

• use the magic circle;
• make invisible decreases; and
• how to crochet tighter so that the polyfill doesn’t show through the stitches

These techniques definitely work at making a much better end result.  I’m quite pleased with the results.  I hope you are, too.

My friend / co-worker gave me permission to show the crochet teddy bear holding the stitched sampler I made her.  Here it is:

I took this little guy to the office and he was a *big* hit! I was really pleased with how well he turned out for just my second amigurumi. I slightly modified the arms, and the next time I make him, I’m going to modify the muzzle a wee bit as well.

My business partner wants me to make him one. Just before taking the pictures he was carrying Squeaky Mouse around on his shoulder. Can’t get much of a better recommendation than that.

Since making Squeaky Mouse I’ve learned how to do the magic circle and the invisible decreases, so the ears will turn out better, and I’m now using a smaller crochet hook and crocheting tighter in an attempt to keep the holes to a minimum.

This pattern* was so easy and fun to make. I’ll be making more of him to give away.

* PLEASE  NOTE:  The pattern link is not broken.  The pattern is located at http://www.favecrafts.com/Crochet_amigurumi/Squeaky-Mouse.  You may need to register an account or login to favecrafts.com first.

Another co-worker’s daughter had her baby last week. I made her this cute and cuddly teddy bear for her first grand-baby. This was my first ever amigurumi.

I’m not sure why but the bear looks much better in real life than in this picture. Not sure why it looks so poorly made in this picture. It didn’t look like that when I gave it to her. Weird.