Lamb lovey

We’re awaiting a new nephew or niece, so I got to crocheting again. I found this pattern for a lamb lovey and, well, adjusted it to what I found pretty *grin*

I made it a little smaller and didn’t have the big, bulky white yarn (plus I wanted it to be cotton), so the head looks a little different.

However, the body differs most. I didn’t really like the head-in-the-middle-of-the-cloth, it makes it feel more like a dress, and also I didn’t want stuffed arms… the whole thing would’ve gotten too big for a small baby to snuggle with, I feel. So I made a sort of granny square for the body-cloth…

And basically made little flat hands and feet to give the body a bit more character and to match the colours more. Also, I can just imagine a baby fiddling with those little grey paws.

Isn’t it just cute?

Because the white yarn is bulkier than the other yarns, the fringe on the face keeps moving around a bit. This means it doesn’t always look completely neat, but you can rearrange it by hand. Gives it a bit more character too, I think.

Oh well, let’s hope they like this one *grin*

The blanket is growing

Having fun with the fantasy seaside blanket.

Line after line after line…

It’s pleasant to work on and it keeps me on my toes because I have to figure out each round. Quite often I end up with too many stitches on a round, which is often only noticable after the next two. So I’ll have to take out the last three rounds, figure out a different stitch for that one and get back in again.

So it grows and grows…

It’s getting big enough to keep me warm while crocheting 🙂

See?

Now to figure out when to turn the circle into a square…

Fantasy patterns

In spring I started a sea blanket with leftover yarn from a number of baby blankets I made. It was going to be a simple square blanket, with a V-stripe pattern. However, after a number of stripes I just… got bored with it. Where I’ve loved making big, relatively simple blankets before, with granny stripes or a ripple pattern, this particular pattern started to really bore me.

So what better to do than to take it all out and start over? To get rid of any boredom, I decided I was just going to make something up as I went a long. A fantasy pattern, if you will, constantly varying the stitches used.

I didn’t want to do stripes again, because I’m actually not sure how much yarn I have and how big I can get it. So I decided to start in the middle. It is still going to be a square blanket (to fit on our bed), I think. But thinking of patterns like flower granny squares or Sophie’s universe, I decided I might as well start in the round. It’s not that difficult to work up to a square at, well, any point during the blanket.

So far, I haven’t looked up stitches to try out, so anything you see here was made up as I went along. It can be kind of annoying, because since I’m working in the round, I sometimes end up with a row that’s too wide or too tight, messing up my flat circle. So I have to pull it all out again and start the row over.

It’s fun, though, and I’m enjoying it so much more than the previous pattern.

Can you find the changes I made to the pattern in the different pictures?

Kim is enjoying the blanket work again. She loves sleeping next to me while I’m crocheting. And lying down on whatever it is I’m crocheting whenever I put it on the floor near her *grin*

Beside the blanket, I was also working on some sort of crochet top. This one I’m also making up as I go along. I was working on a very simple pattern for another top, but that one also got me bored. So I decided to switch the stitches up and frame it in simple rows of double crochets.

This is actually quite enjoyable too. I suppose I’ll be able to wear it over a bright coloured top on cooler summer days. That is, if I ever finish it, because I’m not sure I’ve got enough yarn…

I decided to repeat some patterns to make the top a bit more coherent.

Doesn’t look much like a top, yet, does it… I’m curious what it’s going to look like when it’s finished.

De kleine dolfijn

One of my nieces requested I crochet a dolphin for her. And after about a year, I finally managed to finish her request *grin*

I didn’t have a pattern so this little dolphin was made by trial and error.

I think it came out pretty okay for a first try, although there are all sorts of things I’d like to have fixed. I’m just glad to have it done before her birthday, though.

Swimming through the grass sea! It’s sort of cute, isn’t it?

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