Let’s Play Catch-up!

Well, it’s already April.

Where the heck did March go?! One minute I was working on March’s “Meet the Maker” (yeah, that didn’t pan out – but more on that in a minute) and the next thing I knew it was Easter! It could be because I have kids, but the time just seems to go by so fast now. You know, unlike the K-12 years which seem to drag on and on and on. Ha!

Since we’re on the topic of Easter, let’s start with that for our catch-up.

Because my kids get royally spoiled by their Grandparents when it comes to holidays involving gifts, I didn’t go overboard on their Easter baskets this year:

I filled both of the baskets with 3-5 large plastic eggs containing fruit snacks (more in my youngest’s since he didn’t have much else put in his basket), a Reese’s chocolate bunny, and a plushie. Also included in my oldest’s basket was a “carrot” filled with Reese’s Pieces and a Kinder egg. He used to watch those mystery egg videos so I thought he’d love it – he was underwhelmed. Heh.

For the plushies, I used free patterns from Ami Amour! I made the chick for my oldest and the duck for my youngest. I’ve made the chick in the past but I have no clue where it is! So, I felt it was time to make a new one and what better time than Easter? (I’ll need to find my old one so I can compare them!) You can find the “Eggy the Cute Chick” pattern here.

The duck pattern was released right before Easter and it is too cute! It’s also smaller than I thought it would be – I was thinking it’d be about the same as the chick. But he’s so cute and squishy! I almost added in a plastic egg filled with rice to make it into a shaker, but it made the duck too hard. You can find the “Fair is Fowl” pattern here.

Here are the two plushies on their own playing spin the egg:

They are both just too cute! If you want something quick to make for Spring or for your kiddos, I’d recommend these two.

Onto the next item on our list!

…what do you mean there’s no list? Oh, there is. It’s a mental list – the best kind! The one where the items magically disappear when you need them.

Alright – so we’re going back in time now. Exactly a week prior to Easter, my husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! Now, the traditional gift to give for your 6th anniversary is iron. But… what the heck am I going to give him that involves iron?! One suggestion online was golf clubs, but that’s not our jam. My friend made jokes about a ball and chain or sword. And, later on, my husband said cast iron skillet (but he doesn’t cook anything involving one, sooooo why?). At this point, it was a few days before our anniversary (I totally forgot!) and there wasn’t time to order anything. So, I decided to make something instead.

I searched and searched and FINALLY saw a photo that saved me:

Click for source

Donuts? For an anniversary gift?! Woo hoo!

But, there was a catch – I didn’t want him to be like, “Why are you trying to make me fat?!” So, I opted for some crochet donuts instead…

Okay.

I also made some donuts.

Because I like donuts.

I was going to go buy some, but my lazyness got the better of me (hey, I have two kids I’d have to pack up, etc). So, I found a recipe for some baked donuts that use a cake mix and made those.

They were… not that great. Oh, well.

The crocheted donuts, on the other hand, were super cute!

I found a YouTube video from Jayda InStitches and used that for 5 of the donuts. They were super easy to make!

Then my friend, the same one who suggested a sword, said that I needed to include a heart-shaped donut, too! I remembered that Twinkie Chan had made her heart donut pattern available for free on Valentine’s Day and made my way over to her YouTube channel.

Here are the completed donuts:

They’re so small!

Now that I’ve made some donut patterns from other people I want to try my hand at making my own. I just need to get on that. Someday. It’s interesting to see the different techniques used to make them!

Alright – next item on the “list!”

I also made a Diglett!

I adapted my Whacka pattern to make this guy since they are such a similar shape. Easy peasy.

I’ve already added him to my Etsy shop!

Let’s see… what else is there to mention?

Well, I guess the last thing to talk about is the March “Meet the Maker” prompt I was trying to follow on Instagram (started – didn’t finish).

Prompt by @joannehawker on IG

I think I might have been doomed from the start considering I didn’t even start posting until a few days in!

If you’re already following me on IG, then you’ll have seen that I got up to Day 17! That’s more than halfway – I really should have just finished it. What kept happening is that I wouldn’t post and then I’d have to catch up and it started to get annoying… Oh, well.

Here are a few examples:

Day 16: Helper

Day 7: Routine

Day 8: Flatlay

It was interesting seeing everyone else’s posts during this time and learning new things about the artists I follow!

I’m thinking that maybe I’ll finish them up in a blog post at a later time. What do you think?

Well, I guess that’s it for now! I think I’m all caught up on here now. As always, I’ll promise to be more active, but you know how that goes! I may just start doing a monthly post instead. 😉

Until next time!

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It’s Poogie Time!

My husband has been playing a lot of Monster Hunter World recently – anyone else?

I’ve never played it myself, but it has this cute little pig in it called a Poogie! My husband has said to me in the past (before this particular game was out) that I should make one. I, of course, added it to my mental to-do list which always seems to be mentally deleted. Whoops.

So, I studied a few pictures of it, including some screenshots of my husbands game, and got to work! Originally, I was going to use white and teal because I was loosely basing it off of a plush they sold at one point. However, I found this lighter teal in my yarn stash from a different project and it is a perfect match to the outfit Poogie is wearing in Monster Hunter World! I was also just winging it on the amount of stripes to use and we ended up counting those, too. Gotta have it as close as possible! The only thing I didn’t include was the buttons on his back. I’m not sure if that is a normal inclusion on previous Poogie generations, but I didn’t want to use them on this one.

I did use a new technique on this little guy! Where his head leaves his sweater/pajamas/bodysuit(?) I did the first row of beige in the 3rd loop which is on the inside of the plushie. This gave it a bit more definition than if I had just done it in the back loop which I had done originally. It looks so much better this way!

For Poogie’s tail, I found a cute bow pattern online from Daisy Cottage Designs! I went down to a size F hook, I believe, to make sure it was small enough. I also used a pipe cleaner in his tail to make sure the tail had a cute little curl.

Poogies also have ridiculously long ears! Haha! I probably should have made them slightly longer and even added in pipe cleaners to those, too. But I think they look fine as is… although maybe a smaller hook might be a good idea as well. Hmm… thoughts for next time! It’s always a good idea to update a pattern once in a while to change the things you may not have been 100% on in the first place. Plus, it will give me a future post. I’m also thinking of making a regular pig based on this pattern as well.

Well? What do you think? I think Poogie turned out great!

___

Poogie is now available in my Etsy shop as made to order! I’d love it if you’d check it out and share it with your friends! 🙂

Getting into the Valentine’s Day Spirit!

Hello and Happy Monday!

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and my V-day crafting is in full swing! I’m generally not one to hype up this particular holiday, but the feeling was just so right this year!

So far I’ve made a bunch of hearts, some red and pink bees, and a few sets of my Mini Meat Boys and Bandage Girls (which aren’t really V-Day on their own, but whatevs). You can find all but the hearts in my Etsy shop (but if you’d like some hearts, I’d be more than happy to include some)!

Here are a few photos:

If you’re following me on Instagram (which I hope you are!) then you’ve already seen these. I’m much more active on there than I am on my poor, forgotten blog…

I’ll try to make more posts – promise! 😉

What are you making for Valentine’s Day?

If you need some inspiration, check out my old Fresh Friday post that has a bunch of cute crochet ideas!

Have a great week! ❤️

Sandy the Sea Dragon

I got to test a pattern! Yay!

I haven’t had the chance to do this for anyone in a while (I did try but the slots filled up QUICK). I’m always making and re-making my own patterns/designs, so following someone else’s pattern is a nice change!

This time around I had the pleasure of testing the Sandy the Sea Dragon pattern by Emma at Emma Crafts Designs. This pattern was tested by myself and three others. We all finished our projects by the first weekend, I believe.

I think that one of the best things about having others test your patterns is seeing the different colors people choose for their project! For this amigurumi, for example, all four of us chose different colors for our main color: green (mine), black, red(dish), and blue!

To be honest, we hardly had to do any pattern changes because it was already almost perfect! I was able to suggest a minor edit involving the tail fins which made it slightly more efficient. 🙂

Thank you so much, Emma, for letting me test your pattern!

You can find the final pattern for sale on Ravelry! Enjoy!

c2c Project: Texas State Flag – Mario Bros. Style!

Happy New Year!

A little late, I know, but I still wish you all the best!

I’ve been a little absent on here (as per usual), so I plan on making a couple different posts with updates in them. This first post is the biggest project I’ve finished since we last met: The Mario Bros. Texas State Flag!

Ta-da!

I made this mini afghan for a friend of ours as a housewarming/Christmas present. It wasn’t always going to look like this though! Originally, I was going to make the Texas State Flag or a longhorn. We (my husband and I) decided on the state flag and I began to map it out.

Like my c2c Galaga afghan – which I’ve yet to finish –  I plotted it out using Stitch Fiddle. The red, white, and blue part was easy enough to plot out but I had no idea on how to go about making the pixelated star. I searched online for an image and the only one I could find was the Mario Bros star! I mentioned it to my husband and another friend of mine and it was unanimous – use the Mario star! It was especially fitting since our friend is a gamer and we thought this would be perfect for his new game room!

It took a little longer to make than I expected it to. When I started the afghan, I think around the first week of December, I was really sure I was going to be able to finish it by the weekend. I started at the bottom right corner and knew the red and white portions would go by really quick! While this started off well enough, life got in the way as it usually does. I had very little time to work on it since it can be a bit difficult to work on such a large project with two small children running around trying to hurt themselves (crazy kids). Aside from that, we had a very bad case of the Mondays on the 11th.

You know how they say bad things come in 3s? Well, that Monday it did. To start it all off, I woke up sick (I ended up being sick for almost all of December). Around noon, we headed out for lunch and shopping. When we returned home we noticed that we were in the process of getting a flat tire and found a huge screw in our tire. How do these things even get in there?! (That reminds me – we still need to bring that tire back to Costco…) And the third, and final, thing that day was:

I slipped on the stairs.

While carrying my 16-month old.

Ugh.

We’re all okay now. The baby was uninjured (but it took us about an hour to figure this out. We think he was just really scared.) Luckily, I just fell straight onto my buns and only fell about two steps down. I did hit my back pretty hard on the step behind me but nothing broken! Needless to say, I was a bit uncomfortable for the next few days.

Anyway, you get the idea. Life interrupts your crochet time. Ha! Once I got back into crochet mode I was hard at work on this blanket and any Etsy orders I had at the time.

But again, it took longer than expected because I MESSED UP! (-_-)

I sped through the remainder of the blanket and finished it. But, as we were getting ready to pack it up, I noticed that there was an extra pixel (square) in the star! Nooooo! You can see it here in my finished blanket photo (minus weaving the ends):

Do you see it? Second row at the top of the star. There should only be two squares/pixels – not three!

What’s funny is that when I sent the picture to my husband he thought that something looked off, but he was looking at a different spot of the star. He was more fixated on the arms of the star which are different due to the stitching but that’s just how c2c works and can’t be changed.

I had to frog about 20 rows just to reach the part I needed to fix. I thought that this setback was going to take me FOREVER to fix and that our shipment was going to be pushed back several days. All in all, it only took me an afternoon to finish it up and that included having to frog it AGAIN because I messed up on the star. AGAIN. What is wrong with me?! I can’t even follow my own pattern…

How far I had to frog it.

The fixed star (and toys).

In the end, it turned out perfect and we sent it out a few days later. I’m really pleased with how it turned out and our friend seemed happy, too! It was funny though… about halfway through we thought, “You know what? He’s either going to love it or be really offended!” We were a little worried while we waited for it to arrive, to say the least. But it arrived safely, along with some other gifts, and was well liked. Phew! (At least, that’s what I was told. Who knows? Maybe he hates it.)

There you have it! My biggest project from this winter. What do you think?

🙂

The Lin Lin Beanie

Hello, friends!

So, I made a thing.

Well, that’s nothing out of the ordinary – I make a lot of things! But this time I made a beanie with more than just the usual single crochet and double crochet. I even used a stitch that I didn’t know the name of but had used in another pattern once upon a time (I have since found out that it is called “crossed double crochet” or “XDC” thanks to @acassafrass on Instagram)!

The Lin Lin Beanie

First off, grab your tools.

Oh… Uh. Not those tools (although that ruler could be useful). These tools:

You will need:

• Yarn of your choice (I used Impeccable Loops & Threads in “Butterscotch“)
• Size H (5mm) hook (I got this one from Daiso and I love it!)
• scissors
• yarn needle

Special Stitches:

Crossed Double Crochet (XDC) – skip the first stitch, DC into the next, then DC into the skipped stitch. This makes an “X.” Click the link mentioned above for visual instructions or view photos included in the pattern.

Let’s begin!

With yarn of your choice, start with the magic ring and chain (ch) 2 – ch 2 counts as the first double crochet (dc).

Row 1: Double crochet 9 stitches, attach with a slip stitch (sl st) to the starting chain, and chain 2 – 10

Row 2: DC into the same stitch as the chain 2 (counts as the first increase), increase (inc) around, attach with sl st, and chain 2 – 20

Row 3: DC into same st as chain 2, DC into the next st. (Inc, DC 1) around. Join and chain 2 – 30

Row 4: DC into same st as chain 2, DC into the next 2 sts. (Inc, DC 2) around. Join and chain 2 – 40

Row 5: DC into same st as chain 2, DC into the next 3 sts. (Inc, DC 3) around. Join and chain 2 – 50

Row 6: DC into same st as ch 2, DC into the next 4 sts. (Inc, DC 4) around. Join and chain 2 – 60

Row 7: DC into same st as ch 2, DC into the next 5 sts. (Inc, DC 5) around. Join – 70

You may need to add another row to your base – my head is on the smaller side so this fits me fine. If you need to size up, repeat the above step but change the DC 5 to DC 6 making it a total of 80 stitches.

Now that we’ve finished the base of the beanie, we’ll start with the main part of the pattern. The next two rows will be repeated until your desired length.

Row 8: Chain 2 (this does not count as a stitch). Work XDC throughout the row (see note above).

(Note: for the very first row of XDC, you’ll skip the stitch with the join and DC in the next stitch. Then DC in the joined stitch.This is the only row you’ll do this). Join with sl st to the starting chain. – 70

Row 9: Chain 1 and work half double crochet (HDC) throughout the row. Attach with a sl st to the chain 1. – 70

Repeat Rows 8 & 9 until you reach your desired length. When you reach that point, you will add 3 additional rows of HDC for your brim.

For this beanie, I repeated the rows 5 more times.

For the slouchy beanie I made previously, I repeated the rows 9 times.

You can make this as long/short as you want! Also, if you don’t care for the HDC brim, you can use another method (ribbed brims seem to be popular right now). If you have any questions, or find a mistake, feel free to contact me!

If you happen to make one of these beanies, I’d love to see it! Please link back to my blog or tag me on Instagram @pleasantplushies. I’ve also added this pattern to my Ravelry page.

Enjoy!

Rachel

Progress – Galaga c2c Graphgan

I’ve officially finished the first two panels to my Galaga afghan with all the ends weaved in!
First, I finished the ship:

Up next, I made the moth:

Source

I’d have liked to make it white, red, and blue, but my hubby wanted it to be as close to the original as possible so grey it was (although I already changed it up by making the ship white!). The grey actually looks really good in the final panel.

We’re still trying to figure out which other ships and enemies to use. We went to Michael’s the other day to find yarn for this project but ended up leaving empty-handed! We couldn’t find a good enough color for one ship (we need to check JoAnn’s) and I already have a lot of the other colors. No new yarn for me! 😣 That’s okay… I have so much. I need to use up some of my stash!

I think I’m making the bee next.

Click for source

On to other things!

I also completed my custom Dunsparce! It turned out so nice. I found a really pretty light turquoise (Red Heart Baby Steps in Aqua) at Michael’s, bought it, and sent a picture to the customer asking if it would work (I asked 3 different people their opinions so I was hoping!). They loved it so I got to work! Here is the completed Dunsparce:

I love how it turned out! So pretty with the light blue and pale yellow! 😄

 After finishing this, I had some downtime and decided to take part in Knot Bad‘s #knotanoddish fun! The objective was to turn another character/animal/person into an Oddish using his Oddish pattern. As soon as I saw this, the first thing I thought of making was a Jigglypuff! Here’s what I made:

So… It wasn’t until I finished that I realized the ends of Jigglypuff’s ears are NOT black. I was making it based on memory and, apparently, my memory is not that great. For whatever reason, I was thinking that Jigglypuff had Pikachu-like ears. 

I don’t know why…

Oh, well.

That’s all for now. We’ve had company over for the last week so I haven’t done much crocheting. Hopefully, I’ll get to my next Galaga panel soon! 😄

Have an AWESOME weekend!