I started this project back in January when we were moving cross-country, and finally finished all the pieces and sewed this little guy together!

I am really pleased with how he turned out. I’m still debating on whether or not I should add eyes… for now he’s a blind stegosaurus.

That doesn’t prevent him from climbing all over the house, though.

This yarn is hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn by my friend and crafting buddy. =) The pattern is from Planet June. This was my first attempt at following a crochet pattern for something more complicated than a scarf, and although it took a while to make all the pieces, I really like how it came together. I already have my eye on some other patterns from Planet June for equally cute little animals. Since I now live in California, the idea of crocheting cozy hats and scarves has lost its appeal, and instead I see a lot of amigurumi in my future…

Months ago, I started braiding a rug with strips torn from old sheets. I liked how it looked, but it was taking fooooorever. I would braid a foot or so of strips together, then hand-stitch them to the rest of the rug, and repeat over and over. I hadn’t worked on it in a few months, mostly in the busyness of Christmas and then moving, and also because it was so slow-going.

That was before I learned how to crochet, however. We just moved into a new place that has all hardwood floors, so we’re in need of some rugs. I realized that crocheting a rug would probably be much faster and more enjoyable than the braiding process, so last weekend I purchased the biggest crochet hook I could find, unpicked all the braids, and started over. In one evening, I had undone hours and hours of work, and crocheted all the strips back into a rug.

I’ve been adding more colors from my stash of thrifted sheets, and am amazed at just how fast this rug is growing! I’ve got a few more sheets in similar blue/green/white colors, but I think I may have to start scouring the thrift stores near me to find more material – it goes fast.

Interested in making your own? I’m using 2″ wide strips of cotton, torn from old sheets. I sew the ends together at a 45 degree angle (like this), and then use that as “yarn” to crochet with. My crochet hook is a size Q, and I’m crocheting in the round. I started with a chain of about 20 single crochets, and am putting three single crochets into each corner stitch of each round to create the rectangular shape. You can see that it was ending up a bit parallelogram-esque at the beginning (the white/green rounds), but by shifting which stitch you put the 3 single crochets in, you can move the bulk to one side or the other.

Hopefully this attempt at the rug won’t take 6 months to get past this point!

Well, somehow three months have elapsed since my last post! A lot has happened between then and now: my husband graduated, we traveled a bunch for Christmas, we moved to California (!) and we traveled more for a belated Christmas with my family.

Now that all our Christmases are over, I can share a few of this years’ handmade gifts.

This charming, quirky bonsai tree is a pattern of my own invention. I wasn’t sure about the leaves until the very end, but I am now quite enamored of this little guy.

The leaves are loops of green yarn, stitched through the crocheted limbs of the tree. Most of the limbs have pieces of thin copper wire inside them, to give the tree the characteristic bendy-ness of a bonsai tree. I wrapped some additional wire around some branches as well, since this is a young bonsai tree, still in training.

A tiny knitted gnome took up residence under the bonsai tree for a few days, until it was time for the bonsai to go home with my brother’s girlfriend, and the gnome to come home with me!

My crochet habit continues… this time with crocheted candy corn!

I got the idea from the purl bee, but their pattern called for knitting, which my lovely crafting coworker has not yet convinced me to learn (and I’ve been having too much fun crocheting anyway). I figured it’d be easy enough to crochet one.

My first attempt looked more like a missile (according to Ryder), but I quickly resolved that by making two more. I started at the top with white yarn, crocheting in the round. The key to make them candy-corn-shaped is to make a one-stitch increase at each of the two sides on each round. This gives them the classic slightly flattened shape while still having some dimension. Happy Halloween!

I’m having tons of fun crocheting these little cacti. They come together in an hour or two, so it’s a great project for an evening when you want to have something to show at the end of it! It’s also a good way for me to experiment with various crochet stitches and techniques to figure out how to get the look I want. Don’t worry, there will be more to come!

Update!
I’ve written up patterns for two of the cacti:
Saguaro cactus crochet pattern
Barrel cactus crochet pattern