A demogorgon for Wendy

I am really pleased with how well this Stranger Things Demogorgon free pattern by Andrea Leek turned out. My grandniece Wendy is a huge fan of "Stranger Things," so this will be her birthday present. 

I decided to make the demogorgon in a slightly less demonic chibi ragdoll style. I worked the pattern as written for the legs and arms but subtracted two rows from the torso to shorten it slightly. I worked the head separately so it could be stuffed and closed and then stitched to the top of the unstuffed torso. Legs and arms are also unstuffed.

The toes, fingers, and "flower" face are worked as written in the pattern. Don't worry if the flower seems too full and wants to curl as you make it; it will straighten out as you stitch it to the head. I added more teeth to this one than was shown in the pattern to resemble the original character more closely.

I worked on this back in July and August, so my only problem was having to wait so long for December to get here so I could gift this little guy to Wendy! 

Even though my yarncraft productivity has fallen dramatically in recent years due to my chronic pain issues, it felt great to be able to finish this project. And now I bet Wendy's sister Charlotte will want me to make one for her too! 💜

A housewarming gift

I had a hank of some old, heavy worsted weight green yarn that either came from my mother's stash or else the big bag of random yarn balls that Mika gave me when she and her wife moved to Wisconsin.

Now that Mika and Emmy are buying their first house, I wanted to make them something as a housewarming gift. Since green and black are colors they are planning to utilize in their decor, the idea for this knitted pumpkin/floral display started to form in my mind.

The yarn was too heavy to run through my Sentro machine, so I tried it on the Addi instead, and, of course, the Addi was able to handle it just fine. (Addi only grumbled a tiny bit about how heavy the yarn was.)

There was enough yarn in the hank to get a tube of 114 rows, plus leaving a long tail (about 3 yards long) for finishing and sewing the pumpkin's sections.

Fold the tube inside itself in half, as for making a double-thick beanie. Cinch and secure the ends. Stuff the interior. Then using the long tail, wrap around the outside and through the center to create "sections" of the pumpkin. As you create the sections, the bottom will cinch itself closed. You can secure the bottom with a few extra stitches, if needed.

I cinched the ends while keeping a finger in the top hole so it would remain open after assembling the pumpkin. Leaving the hole slightly open this way will allow me to use the pumpkin as a "vase" for holding some silk flowers, which I think will make a lovely display. 

I also cut a stem from piece of black faux leather, making it about 6 inches long by 3/4-inch wide. I used a yarn needle to punch 2 holes near the stem ends, and used those holes to sew the yarns ends through after tying down the pumpkin's sections. Having a stem there means the pumpkin could also be displayed plain, without flowers.

The flowers I'm using are in autumn colors, but Mika and Emmy should be able to switch out the flowers throughout the years to match the changing seasons, if they wish. I cut the flower stems at about 4-5 inches long and bent them to help the flowers curve toward the pumpkin after inserting the stems into the hole at the top and working around the leather stem.

Crochet spring wreath

My dear friend Pam shared this super cute crochet spring wreath idea by Sarah at Repeat Crafter Me. The instructions are in this post on her blog.

Fandom Headband commission

My friend Pam messaged me to ask if I knew of a pattern for a headband similar to the ones made by crochet artist Sydne Elam of Simply Squid on Etsy. Pam said she had looked but couldn't find one made with stripes that go around the head the long way instead of up and down, and she also wanted a layered flower on the headband like the Simply Squid ones have. (The flower part was not going to be difficult, as I already had bookmarked a favorite layered flower pattern designed by Melissa of Action Hero.)

I searched around but had the same difficulty Pam had in not being able to find a nice headband pattern online that looked similar to what Pam showed me, and Simply Squid only sells the finished headbands in her shop (no headband patterns for sale there).

It didn't take long for me to realize that I would need to write up my own pattern for a striped headband for Pam and then write a blog post about how oddly difficult it was to find a pattern for this particular type of item!

As I set out to design a pattern for Pam, my first question was whether she wanted the headband to button in the back the way the Simply Squid ones do, and she said yes. Then I crocheted a prototype, sans flower, with some green, white, and black yarn scraps out of my stash so she could see what I came up with. (When I made the prototype I didn't know what colors Pam wanted for the headband she had in mind.)

My prototype photos show how the green headband fits on a 21-inch wig form head:

Pam said my prototype looked like it would be perfect (with a flower added, of course!). For the colors she wanted brown, orange and white -- Cleveland Browns colors. She said her sister's family goes to all the Browns' home games, and it is really cold up there during football season.

It took me a couple of days to find time to work up the headband again in Cleveland Browns colors, but eventually this is what I came up with:

I didn't have good lighting for this photo, so the main color looks more black than brown, but it really is brown. I set out an assortment of buttons to see if Pam liked any of them for the button closure, but she ended up deciding to sew on a button herself.  I think Pam also was going to add a decorative football type of button to the center of the flower, similar to what Simply Squid adds to the headbands in her Etsy shop.

Princess Morgan Frilly Jumper free pattern

After seeing some cute, fun knit dress designs for little girls that utilize ruffled scarf yarn in the skirt, I wanted to knit a jumper for my grand niece, Morgan. However, since none of the dress designs I had seen were quite what I had in mind to make for her, I started working freehand, from the bottom hem of the skirt upward.

The skirt and the bodice part of the jumper were totally straightforward, so I had no trouble improvising them. But I knew I was going to be in trouble when it came to making armholes and a yoke because I had never done anything like that before from the bottom up. So I started scouring through Ravelry patterns in the hope that I would find a bottom-up little girls top pattern with a yoke design that would be close enough in garment size, needle size, and yarn weight that I could use its yoke to finish the jumper I was working on.

The yoke of Kristy Demoe’s gorgeous Arrowhead Lace Topper fit the bill EXACTLY. After finishing my prototype for the Princess Morgan Frilly Jumper pattern, I approached Kristy to ask her permission to use her work as part of this free pattern, and she agreed. Therefore, to complete this dress pattern, you will need to also download a copy of Kristy’s free pattern at the link above.

Princess Morgan Frilly Jumper knits up quickly in aran or worsted weight yarn on circular needles and is easy enough for an advanced beginner. This pattern is free because it is ONLY being released in little girls’ size 4.

The skirt is a simple garter stitch in the round. Ruffles are added on alternating rows by holding the main and scarf yarns together. The bodice is a very stretchy twisted rib. And it is all elegantly topped off by Kristy’s Arrowhead Lace yoke. Instructions for an optional button-on flower are included.

Dress sample shown in the photos is made with Red Heart With Love Candy Pink 100% acrylic yarn and Rozetti Yarns Marina Multi Valentine 100% acrylic ruffle scarf yarn.

Approximate finished dimensions: Dress circumference: 24 inches. Hem to neck length: about 21 inches.

Update: I got some photos today of Princess Morgan wearing her dress, and it just barely fits her but I think she looks beautiful! Mom reports that getting Morgan’s head through the neck opening was pretty tight, so I will definitely have to make the next one larger.

Hats for baby Elise

A shell-stitch earflap hat, a little pink cotton sun hat, and a white christening bonnet for new baby Elise! 😍

The earflap beanie is based on Britta Graham's lovely Shell Stitch Cloche pattern.

I unfortunately lost track of what patterns I used for the sun hat and christening bonnet, but I know there must be dozens of similar crochet patterns to be found online if you do a quick web search.