February Lesson Learned

Keeping with yarn projects, since it's still the season ~ so to speak...For February I decided to take up Crochet again.  I had been OK at this many years ago, and was pretty good at the Granny Square, making several huge blankets for myself, daughter and hubby....but couldn't quite go beyond that successfully.  Where to start and stop on a row confused me to no end.  After looking for other knitted projects to learn for this month, I found I was excluding myself from some fun crochet projects.  Projects I really wanted to do....With my decision made, I set about looking online for tutorials and patterns ~ for free, of course.  I found there are TONS of great things out there! 

So to start things off, I watched videos and read tutorials (all googled and free, again).  {I would post who I watched and read from but there were so many, I just don't have room...sorry}.  With the mind set that I COULD do this pretty easily, I set about finding patterns for some very easy stuff.  I found several patterns for dishcloths and took those into my head....I came up with something similar (this is my own pattern taken from memory of several I saw online, so not one I read or printed).  I came up with this....

I am also not one to really use these, or so I thought!  I decided to try one for the shower/bath,  in place of a "loufa" plastic thingy you can buy at any store for about $1....I also gave some to my kids to try too in place of theirs.  What a difference!  I no longer feel like my skin in being cut up by the plastic "sponge" and still feel fresh and clean!  So with that said I bought more cotton yarn....And this is what happened!

This isn't even all of them!  I still have some with ends to weave in and some (OK quite a few) I gave away for others to try.  I went crazy! 

Well, as I'm making these (which "trained" me where to stop and start a row) I got to thinking, not everyone uses soap from a bottle....there are people who use bar soap.  So I thought I should make some for bar soap too.  This is what happened...(Again, my own pattern)

That's not all of them either!  I have more!  LOTS more!  I know!  I'm crazy!  But these were ALL done after the little ones left and it was relax, TV time...Each one took anywhere from 10-20 minutes.  They are addicting!  And the colors I found in 100% cotton (Sugar & Cream)....I didn't even buy them all....Goodness!

Then, last week, I started thinking bigger....I was online (one of the rare occasions during the week that I can be...) and I found these little animals you can crochet (oh and knit too!).  For some reason, I thought I could do one.  I printed out a few patterns to read them later...but they were calling to me to try now!  So I sat down Wednesday night and read through a couple.  I thought "I can do this...I think".  Grabbed some yarn I wasn't going to make anything with and got to it.  I ended up with a body.  The next morning one of my little guys came and found it.  I told him what it was going to be (a bear, I hoped)....he wanted me to finish it (he's almost 2 yrs old).  My husband told me to get going and he watched the little guy for me.  Before lunch I was done!  This guy was soooo beyond thrilled with it.  He grabbed it and claimed it for himself!  I could not grab it for a photo even though I tried several times.  So, no picture of my first little stuffed crocheted bear!  I'll try next week again since he seems to have adopted it for naps. 

Since he was so thrilled with that little bear (which in my opinion, he could have bought a cuter one) I decided to set out trying to find another pattern for other animals.  I did find an easy bunny for knitting....Just a square!  Who knew!  And made one on Friday.  Not the best choice of yarns, but turned out all soft and squishy!  My other little one I watch, snagged that for her baby sister....so nope, no picture of that either.  I'm in the process of making 2 other bunnys for these little ones.  They just need the ears.  I promise to take a picture of those BEFORE the kids get here to steal them away for their own snuggles....Just warms my heart to make those little ones happy like that!  I can tell you, I will not be going nuts on this project.  Too time intesive, too many steps, and too many fingers stealing away the finished projects ~ HAHAHA.....