Happy Sunday everyone! I am back with some updates on the crochet projects I shared with you all last time. If you need a refresh, you can read Part 1 here: crochet-catch-up.html

As I had shown, I was making a big bunch of squares using a flat granny stitch to use up my thinner yarn scraps. Once I had them completed, I laid them all out to get a pattern that I liked. I ended up making a few more squares after taking the picture below so the finished product will have slightly more than this:

I then used up another type of yarn I had to stitch all the squares together using a single crochet stitch. I didn't quite crack the code on how to put these all together perfectly as some of the seams bunch up a bit more than the others, but not bad for my first attempt! This made a lovely little lap blanket that I use at my desk when I'm working. 

We now move on to the blue/green and purple/pink squares that I had made out of the thicker yarn scraps. Where I last left you with those, I had followed a tutorial that showed how to crochet a fabric lining onto the back of a crocheted piece. This did work and the tutorial I followed was very helpful, but I wanted to try some other options as well.

I had a meeting with my creative consultant yesterday (also known as my mother) and we brought out her sewing machine to see if we could find an easier way to line the crocheted squares. We tried many a test and none felt quite right to us. We had issues with the yarn being too thick, the stitches getting bunched up on one side and the fact that it was hard to get a clean finished look. Here are some of our attempts:

After much consultation, we came to the conclusion that I was trying to make the fabric lining work with these and it simply just wasn't working! The new plan for these is to crochet two of the chunky squares together with the unfinished sides in to make a thick fully crocheted potholder. When I crochet the edges together, I can add a little loop for hanging as well. Don't worry, you'll see an update on those when I try out that idea! Seems as though we will have a Crochet Catch-Up Part 3 sometime in the future!

We did, however, come to the conclusion that a fabric lining would work well for some thinner squares I had made. The thinner yarn and my skills just generally improving the more I crochet allowed me to give these squares some sharper corners so it will be easier to attach a square fabric piece to it.

We looked up another helpful video that showed us how to make mitered corners on a sewn piece so that the fabric square would have crisp, finished edges as well:

Once we had the fabric square complete, we could then sew it onto the crocheted square. As this crocheted piece used a thinner yarn it was much easier to sew through. This was actually my first time using a sewing machine so please ignore how terribly crooked my stitches are. The good corner is the one my mother did, the crazy corner is mine ....

There is obviously room for improvement, but we think this is the general idea for these! They make a cute little oversized coaster or "mug rug" as some people call it.

And that's where I'm at for right now! I will be sure to share how everything turns out when it's completed and thanks for following along this crochet journey with me!

 - Rebecca

​P.S. Today's photo on the homepage comes from Pexels user Castorly Stock:
www.pexels.com/photo/brown-and-white-knit-textile-3614132/

Hello and happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely week. I am here today with a blog to share what crochet projects I have in the works at the moment.

In a recent blog I shared that I was taking some of my thicker yarn scraps and making my own variegated balls of yarn like so:

I also ended making one with some blue/green scraps:

Now that I had these balls of yarn ready to go, I had to decide what I wanted to crochet. Without a real plan in mind, I started making some small squares using just a single crochet stitch and border like this:

I went to town on both the blue/green and pink/purple yarn and ended up making a whole bunch of squares like the one above.

Because these balls of yarn were made by tying together separate strands there were quite a few loose ends and knots that I made sure to pull through to one side of each square. I then used fabric glue to secure down the loose strands and ensure the knots would not come undone.

Once I had my many squares, it was time to decide what to do with them. I wanted to try my hand at lining one side of the crocheted square with fabric. I thought this would be a good idea as it would hide the knots and strands that were glued down on one side and would also add some stability to the piece. I did have some spare thin cotton fabric pieces and I prewashed, dried and ironed them.

I then followed this really amazing tutorial that I found on YouTube which explained how to sew a fabric square, create loops around the edges of the square and then crochet into those loops to attach the pieces together. This video explains this process far better than I ever could so I would highly recommend giving it a watch!

This is what my first attempt at this process looked like:

It's not perfect but I'm proud of my first attempt at this process! I did learn that I had made my square of fabric a little too big so it bunched up a little more than it should have.

​I am going to work on perfecting this process and am even thinking of purchasing myself a small sewing machine to make projects like this easier in the future. Once I get the process perfected, I think with an added hanging loop these would work really well as potholders!

As I mentioned, the variegated yarn balls I had made for these potholders in progress were using my chunkier yarn scraps. However, I also had quite a variety of thinner yarn scraps in all sorts of colors. Instead of putting these together into one ball, I decided to start crocheting them into larger squares that I plan on making into a chaotic and colorful blanket just for myself. 

I wanted to learn a new stitch for this project and taught myself the flat granny stitch using a few tutorials. I have tried and failed a few times at granny squares, so this stitch was a nice homage to the look of the granny square but with an easier process. I am still in the process of using up all of my thinner yarn but have quite a few squares ready to go already. 

Once I have used up all the yarn of this weight, I will work on attaching them all into a blanket. I have actually only made blankets before that are continuous stitches back and forth so this will be my first time connecting smaller squares together in this way. I know that some people crochet the pieces together and others prefer to sew them so I will see what ends up working well for me!

And finally, I have another amigurumi project that I need to get started on. My father is a lover of Sasquatch/Bigfoot lore, so I found this adorable pattern for a Bigfoot plushie on Etsy.

www.etsy.com/listing/1557551244/bigfoot-cryptid-amigurumi-pattern

I have the brown yarn ready to go so I think I will tackle that next once I'm done making all these squares! I'll be sure to do another blog once all these projects are completed so you can see how they all turned out. Thanks for catching up on my crochet journey with me and I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

 - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Anete Lusina:
www.pexels.com/photo/knitted-piece-and-yarn-with-hook-4792079/

Hi friends!  It's Suzanne, happy to be back on the Patterned Paper Plate.  The Patterned Paper Dad and I are part of a committee at our church that plans a fundraising Christmas Fair.  One of the stations at that fair is a Christmas tree filled with handmade ornaments that people can purchase for a small donation.  I started crafting some ornaments for that tree so I thought I would share with you what I'm making to celebrate Christmas in July and add a little chill to these dog days of summer.

​For the first one, I use a small piece of wood, three white buttons and the tiniest scraps of fleece material.  A little bit of paint and my trusty glue gun are also needed.  I'm starting with a piece of wood that is 3 inches long and about 1.5 inches wide.  This is a piece of a wooden mini blind slat that was salvaged when my brother and sister-in-law changed out the blinds in their house.  To start, I paint the wood with a light wash of red paint. ​

I hope you enjoyed taking a little detour into the Christmas season for our blog post today.  It's never too early to think about Christmas and while we're sweltering today, cooler weather will be here before we know it.

Rebecca here: Thank you to my mother for the fun Christmas in July blog! The puzzle wreaths are very nostalgic to me as I remember making some of those when I was little! Is everyone enjoying the heat or ready for winter? Let me know in the comments below!

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Gary Spears:
www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-christmas-decoration-hanging-on-tree-250177/

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday! I know it's been a minute since my last blog so it's lovely to be chatting with you all again. 

I don't have a big project to share today, but thought I would do a quick little blog about what I have been working on and what I'd like to work on in the future.

A big reason as to why I haven't been in craft mode lately is that I've very much been in video games mode! I am a big fan of the game Stardew Valley which had an update recently so I've been spending a lot of time playing that. However, I do have a few crafty things up my sleeve!

My biggest project I've been working on in the midst of game playing is a crocheted blanket using a fun variegated yarn. I won't say who it's for just in case they happen to read this, but I am reaching the final stages of this project: 

I have also been spending some time consolidating my various yarn bits into some larger balls of yarn. I am looking to use up all of the end and smaller pieces I have left over from various projects to make some smaller baby/lap blankets for upcoming fairs. 

Here is an example of this project. I took my variety of pink/purple-toned yarns and cut them up in different lengths. I then attached all the pieces together one by one using a magic knot technique which involves overlapping the lengths of yarn, making two knots and then pulling them together. I always go ahead and make another knot or two over the "magic knot" as I'm slightly paranoid about the knots coming apart. I was able to make 2 decent balls of yarn with all these scraps.

I'm excited to see how these turn out! I have some various ends of blue/green/brown yarn as well so I could do the same process if I like how it turns out with the pink/purple. I did make sure to only use yarns of similar weight. It would be very hard to make a cohesive project while using extremely thin and extremely thick yarn at once so I think a big key to making your own yarn ball is ensuring all the yarns are roughly the same size.

Finally, something I have had in the back of my mind lately is finding something to do with the rest of the pole wrap I have from my IKEA upcycle last month.

If anyone has any bright ideas on how I could use this up, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

That's all she wrote for today. I'll talk to you all soon!

​ - Rebecca 

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Anvi Jain:
www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photography-of-colorful-yarns-635002/

Happy Sunday everyone! I am back with part 2 of the IKEA cabinet upcycle we started last blog. I had shared my inspiration as well as the state the cabinet was in before I started. If you missed part 1, you can read it here: ikea-upcycle-part-1.html

I started off by purchasing the pole wrap that I was going to use for the fluted wood effect. The pole wrap I bought was primarily MDF but had an oak veneer that could be stained. It could be bought in multiple sizes, but I bought a 4 by 4 foot piece as that is the size that would allow me to cut out my front panels each in one solid piece.

To cut in between the slats of the pole wrap, I was able to use a box cutter and it was very simple. The width of each door was 13 inches, but my piece ended up being a slightly smaller width due to the size of each slat. On the finished product, I don't think its too noticeable at all! 

To cut across the slats I used a hand saw and miter box. It ended up being a little harder to cut across the slats than I had originally thought, because of the thickness of the pole wrap when it was rolled onto itself. It took a few passes but eventually I made it through!

I ended up with a slightly jagged edge after the hand saw but I was able to clean it up with some sandpaper. I also ended up putting that edge at the bottom of the doors so it was less noticeable. 

Then it was time to stain! I purchased this 2 in 1 stain and sealer in a color that matched some of the other wood tones in our living room. I ended up doing 2 coats of the stain and instead of just applying it to the veneer, I applied enough to let it sink into the MDF grooves so that everything was a cohesive color. 

The directions on the stain were to wait at least 6 hours in between each coat. I was impatient and did not wait that long and wished that I had. Although it ended up looking pretty good at the end, I do think the first coat went a little better and the second coat would have gone on smoother if I had waited the right amount of time!

After letting the panels dry overnight, I then used some construction adhesive to attach them to the doors. I do know that it would have likely been easier if I had removed the doors, but to be honest I was not 100% sure how the piece was assembled and I did not want to risk messing it up when I put it back together! I used a decent amount of glue and some clamps to keep things in place when they dried. 

I purchased 2 sizes of the same simple black handle and ended up using the larger size as it felt better with the size of the doors. In part 1 of this blog, I know I had mentioned wanting to do colorful legs and handles on this piece but after thinking on it, my husband and I actually decided black would look better with all the other decor we had in the living room which is where this would end up going.

To figure out where to drill for the handles, I dabbed a small amount of paint on the back of the handles and then placed them down in the correct spots. Then I had a perfect template for where the holes should go.

I bought some plain wood legs at Home Depot and used 2 coats of some black outdoor acrylic paint and 1 coat of sealer. Once they were dry, I added some furniture slidey pads that I attached with a dab of the same construction adhesive I had used before. 

I used the existing hardware that was already on the cabinet from the previous legs and also added a dab of construction adhesive before screwing the legs in to ensure they were very secure.

Finally, I purchased some battery-operated strip lights to light up the inside of the cabinet. I attached them to the underside of the top of the cabinet and the underside of the shelf to light up each section. You will see how that looks in the final shots!

I am so happy with how this turned out! I had quite a journey with this cabinet from thinking we would just end up throwing it away to turning it into this!

I'm really glad that I decided to upcycle it into something that worked well for us and fit the style of our living room. Let me know what you all think about it in the comments below!

​ - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Chris F:
www.pexels.com/photo/assorted-wine-bottles-1283219/

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday and Happy Mother's Day (in the US at least) to all the mothers out there!

Today I wanted to share a quick introduction to a project that I am going to be embarking on over the next few weeks. I have a simple IKEA cabinet that I plan to DIY and upcycle into something nice!

So here is the cabinet in question. This is what is looked like a few weeks ago:

I got this cabinet from my parents and put it in my craft room/office for a while. It is just a white particle board cabinet and I added the peel and stick wallpaper and gold knobs to the front of the doors. Recently I rearranged the room this piece was in and there was not a good spot for it anymore. I removed the knobs and peeled off the wallpaper, thinking I would be left with a nice clean slate, but that was not quite the case. I should have used heat when removing the wallpaper because just pulling it off actually ripped off the top layer of the particle board as well.

The cabinet also has a leg that's a bit wonky and caving in as well as some stains on the top.

Originally my husband and I were just going to bring the piece to the dump, but the longer I stared at it the more I felt that I could make it into something cute. It also felt wrong to dispose of something that, although it has a few flaws, is still a fairly sturdy piece of furniture.

So I got to googling and found a few inspiration pictures. The general vibe I will be going for is a decorative wood feature of some sort on the doors while leaving the base of the piece white. These are some cabinets I found online that fit the general idea I'm going for.

I'm personally a little more drawn to the West Elm one on the right as I'm intrigued by the fluted wood look. I follow several DIY Youtubers who have used a product called pole wrap to achieve the fluted look in an easier way. It is essentially wood or MDF on a backing that is intended to be wrapped around a pole in a house to make it more aesthetic but could also be applied as a flat piece. I have never used this product before so I think I would like to give it a try. I would certainly not need 96 inches of it as shown in the picture though!

I would also like to deviate from my inspiration pictures a little bit as well and add some color to the handles and feet as opposed to a wood or metal look. These are some feet and handles I found on Etsy that are speaking to me. They might not be exactly what I end up going for, but this is the direction I would like to take I think.

That's all I have today but I wanted to show you guys the beginning mood board stages of this project I'm excited to start! I'm not sure if I will need one or two more parts for this project, but there will certainly be more to come. Let me know what you think about my plans for the cabinet in the comments below!

 - Rebecca

​P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Alexander Isreb:
www.pexels.com/photo/ikea-building-1797405/

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

Today I am here with a fun and simple craft I made yesterday. I subscribe to a YouTube Channel called The Sorry Girls and in a recent video, one of the women on the channel made a very cool wall tapestry featuring a map of the United States and Canada. Here is a link to the video so that you can see her project:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZdgDXREKA

The map template that she used was a simplified map of the 2 countries that focused on the different bioregions as opposed to being divided by states or provinces. As I mentioned, the map is very simplified so it does not include Hawaii or the many islands of Canada. I think those would have just been too small and intricate to include in the pattern! The pattern used by the channel is available for purchase and download on their blog for only one dollar so I purchased it and decided to try my own take. If you're interested in the template yourself, you should be able to find it via the YouTube video link I shared above.

I decided that I wanted to make my version out of paper rather than fabric and wanted it to fit inside a 12 by 12 frame. I originally printed out the template on a normal sheet of printer paper but felt it was too small so then printed it out across 2 pieces of paper which worked out much better.

I then cut out all of the different sections of the template. The ones you see that are marked as 1 and 2 were just a reminder to myself that although these pieces did not connect, they would need to be the same color.

I then pulled out my colored cardstock and started deciding what color I wanted all the pieces to be. I went for a sandy tan color as the background and initially thought I would use just blues and greens for the different sections of the map, but pivoted and added some brighter colors in as well. I started out by just trying to hold the white paper template pieces against the cardstock as I cut around them but that was way more complicated than it needed to be. I realized about halfway through that it made much more sense to tape the white piece to the cardstock so it was firmly in place, cut it out and then gently remove the tape. 

Once I got all the pieces cut out it was time to glue them down to the tan base. I used a liquid glue that is nice and strong but allowed me a few seconds of wiggle room if I needed to reposition anything. I did fairly well lining everything up until the last piece which ended up having a sizable gap that should not have been there. I started by just coloring in the gap with a matching marker color but the difference in texture and sheen was really bothering me.

I finally decided it would just be better to cut out a tiny sliver of the appropriate paper color and glue it down into the gap. It's not perfect, but I do think it ended up looking better than the marker did!

I also tried my best to line everything up so the map would be centered on the tan paper, but once that first piece is stuck down there's really no going back. The finished piece was not as centered as I would have liked so I actually ended up cutting down the sides of the tan paper. I cut varying lengths off of each side to get the map more centered but made sure that the amount I cut off the top and bottom combined and the two sides combined both equaled 1.5 inches so there would be a nice border all the way around. The backing board of the frame was black, so this actually worked out well to look like a picture mat.

I then felt like it needed some additional detail. The original craft done by The Sorry Girls was a sewn tapestry as I mentioned so I thought it would add some interest to draw on some stitch lines on each piece of the map. I used black on all of the lighter colored pieces and a white gel pen on the black and navy-blue pieces.

I then popped the piece into a frame and it was good to go! It now lives as part of a gallery wall I have behind me when I'm sitting at my work desk. 

I was feeling like doing something crafty but also low stakes and this was a great way to spend an evening! I got everything done in a few hours and felt like it satiated my desire to make something. Let me know what you all think in the comments below!

 - Rebecca 

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Andrew Neel:
www.pexels.com/photo/assorted-map-pieces-2859169/

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

Today I wanted to take some time and shout out some small businesses/Etsy shops I have purchased things from recently. We live in a world where its virtually impossible to buy "small" for every purchase we make, but I love to try to when I can. Be sure to give some of these artists a look if you are interested!

First off I wanted to shout out somebody who I have shouted out before, September Sun Studio. Cara is a lovely artist and created my paintbrush logo that you see on the blog homepage and my socials. I have bought stickers and pet portraits from her and they never disappoint! She also donates some proceeds from her sales to various causes that are meaningful to her.

You can find her Etsy shop here:
www.etsy.com/shop/SeptemberSunStudio

Next I wanted to shout out an Etsy shop I recently bought something from, JandT3DCreations. This one was a little out of left field for me and not a shop I might normally go searching for as they do a variety of 3D printed things. However, I recently was looking for something kind of niche, a small plastic trashcan or dumpster. My husband uses contacts and I wanted a silly little thing that could sit on his bedside table for him to dispose of his contacts in and stumbled upon this shop. I ended up purchasing a little green dumpster and its adorable!

Here is their link:
www.etsy.com/shop/JandT3DCreations

As you all know, I have been really into crocheting lately and have purchased crochet patterns from many shops. Here are some links to shops whose patterns I have purchased:
www.etsy.com/shop/SmallBeanCraftStudio
www.etsy.com/shop/KristinaaCreates
www.etsy.com/shop/StitchenGiggles
www.etsy.com/shop/WildSunflowerCreate

As I have talked about on the blog before, I go through phases with my nails. Sometimes I want to paint them myself, sometimes I want to make my own press on nails and sometimes I just want to buy press on nails created by someone else. Here is the shop I frequent most often when I'm looking to purchase handmade press on nails. I have found their nails to be high quality, but also not as expensive as others I've seen on Etsy.
www.etsy.com/shop/2SisterNails

I also wanted to share a few people who were not on Etsy and I actually found on Instagram. I always like finding fun art prints for my office/craftroom gallery wall and have purchased art from both of these artists.

One goes by @evergreenqveen on Instagram and the 3 prints I bought from them were about Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and then just a cute little witchy kitchen scene. Here is their link to buy art prints:
www.inprnt.com/gallery/evergreenqveen/

I also just bought some prints from @amina.illustration on Instagram. I bought 2 of their overgrown planty art pieces and I really love them. Here is the link to their shop:
aminaillustration.com/shop

That is not an extensive list of people I have purchased from recently, but they are some of my favorites for sure. If you are looking for something unique for yourself or someone else, don't forget to try checking out a small business. I know it's not always as accessible or affordable as buying something from a department store or large retailer and often people will try to make others feel bad if they are unable to support a smaller business. I don't want to make anyone feel that way! I just thought this would be a fun reminder and shout-out to some cool creators that I have seen recently who I think are worth a look. 

Have a great weekend everyone, talk to you all soon!

 - Rebecca 

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Eva Bronzini:
www.pexels.com/photo/support-small-business-text-on-a-white-surface-7661138/​

Hello Friends – It’s Suzanne, Rebecca’s mama, happy to be back with you on the PPP to share three quick and easy paper crafts that will be perfect to either decorate your Easter table or send to school for a classroom treat.

First is a cute little basket.  For this basket, you’ll need a square piece of paper that is sized to be divisible by three – 3 X 3, 4.5 X 4.5 or 6  X 6 inches is a perfect size for a mini basket or 9 X 9 or 12 x 12 inches would give you plenty of room for larger treats.  The basket I am making in these photos starts with a 6 X 6 inch piece of paper.
​
To begin, either fold or score in both directions to create 9 equally sized squares.  Then, cut up on the score lines on each side of the paper, up to the opposite score line.  Your paper should remain in one piece, with four cuts all lined up in the same direction.

​Refold all your score lines and use your fingernail or a bone folder to make sure the folds are sharp.  Be sure that the pattern is to the outside of the folds.

​Bring the two side pieces up behind the center flat , overlapping the points as high as you wish, but not completely vertical.  Tuck a thin strip of paper in between and staple the side in place. Repeat on the other side.

​With that, your basket is done.  You can decorate it as simply or as much as you wish.  For this one, I punched out a few daisy shapes, layered them onto each other and used a glue dot to hold them in place, covering the staple.  For the back of the basket, I punched a simple circle to hide the staple.

​To finish, I stamped a small Easter sentiment and tied that on with a piece of cotton thread.  You can see that basket can hold a fair amount.   I made another with a 3 X 3 inch piece of paper and ended up with a teeny tiny basket that would be large enough for a few chocolate eggs or jelly beans.  For this one, I just punched a couple of small circles to cover the staples.  These will be the perfect size to use as place cards for Easter dinner.

​Next up is a quick and easy lollipop cover.  You will want to start with a piece of paper this is roughly three times as wide as your lollipop and about twice the length of the overall lollipop (including the stick).  For these Dum-Dums, I started with a piece of paper 4 inches wide and 8 inches long.  Fold the paper into fourths and draw one ear and one half a face against the folds of your paper. I made myself a small template, which would be helpful to keep your pop covers the same size, if you were making a number of these. Your  lollipop should be able to fit comfortably in the head of your bunny. 

​Cut the shape out and clip a tiny corner off the point (to make a hole for the stick of your lollipop.

​Pop the stick through the hole and use a tiny bit of adhesive to hold the ears together.  You can decorate these as elaborately as you wish as well.  I decided to just add some eyelashes and a small bow, but you could add a nose, whiskers, flowers, etc.  This would be great as a quick and easy classroom treat and since most kids will simply tear the covering off to get to the candy, I would chose to go simple with the decorations.

​The last item is a small three dimensional box just large enough to hold a Ferrero Roche or a Lindt ball.  For this one, start with an 8 X 8 inch piece of paper, folded corner to corner in both directions.

​The shape for this one will be one ear, half a face and a longish body with a little slit in the end of the body.  This should be drawn with the corner of the shape in the folded corner of the paper.

​Fold up each side of the resulting shape to create a flat bottom to your candy holder.

​Bring the four bunny ears together and push them through one of the slits at the end of the body portion.  

​Pop your candy into the body and then push the other slit over the ears, closing the box.  You can use a pencil or your bone folder to push the sides of the box out to ensure the shape is rounded.  Here again you can chose to decorate as much or as little as you wish.  I like the simple bow on these boxes.

​I wish you all a happy Spring and a happy Easter.  And, of course, happy Crafting!

Thanks to my mother for a fun and springy blog! - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user George Dolgikh:
www.pexels.com/search/easter/​

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Today I wanted to share my initial experiences trying amigurumi, which is a Japanese style of crocheting small stuffed animals or creatures.

I have been getting pretty comfortable crocheting flat pieces and have been wanting to try my hand at some more complicated patterns. My best friend got me a Harry Potter crochet kit and book for Christmas that I was very excited to dive into, but found that it was a bit too advanced for my skill level at the time. Recently, my husband bought me a Woobles beginner crochet kit, also of Harry Potter, and I feel like that kit really helped the pieces fit together for me in terms of crocheting in the round and crocheting 3D pieces. Here is my little Harry Potter I made with that kit!

I feel like when I go back to the Harry Potter book my best friend gave me, I will now be much better equipped to take it on! After completing the Harry Potter Woobles kit, the next project I embarked on was some small animals. I have a friend who is pregnant and she mentioned that their nursery theme would likely be animal/jungle-ish so I wanted to try crocheting some cute little things for them. (I won't share pictures of those here, just in case she happens to read this!) Some of the animals I have tried out so far have been penguins, elephants and whales. Here is an elephant that I crocheted for my mother:

This is the pattern I used for the elephant for anyone who might be interested, although I did change it slightly: www.mariskavos.nl/free-elephant-crochet-pattern/

The elephant was probably the most complicated of the ones I have tried, but I have found penguins to be the easiest as they are basically a big oval with some additional pieces added on! I wanted to try my hand at altering the penguin crochet pattern I had been using thusfar to make a slightly chunkier and rounder penguin. I also wanted to try following this pattern using different weights of yarn to show you all how much of an impact your yarn makes in terms of the size of your final project. 

The pattern that I have made a few times and decided to alter slightly can be found here:
 www.roseandlilyamigurumi.com/2021/10/crochet-chubby-penguin-free-crochet.html?m=1

For any who might be interested in trying out my altered pattern, I will share that below! I wanted to try and make it fairly simple and only use basic stitches. I also wanted it not to include changing yarn while crocheting, so any different colored pieces are crocheted separately and sewed on. I want to say here that I don't believe I am good enough yet to give a tutorial on how to do different crochet stitches; what I will do is give a quick glossary of any abbreviations I use so that you can find a tutorial that works for you and helps you learn the necessary stitches!

SC - Single Crochet
MR - Magic Ring
INC - Increase
DEC - Decrease
You will also need to know slip stitch.
​You will also need to know a chain stitch if not using a MR. 

Body
R1 - 6 SC in a MR (or chain 2 and do 6 SC into the first chain if you struggle with a MR) (6)
R2 - INC x 6 (12)
R3 - (SC, INC) x6 (18)
R4 - (2 SC, INC) x 6 (24)
R5 - (3 SC, INC) x 6 (30)
R6 - (4 SC, INC) x 6 (36)
R7 - (5 SC, INC) x 6 (42)
R8-16 - 42 SC
If using safety eyes, attach between rows 10 and 11, 7 stitches apart. If using black yarn to sew eyes, sew over the 10th row of stitches, 7 stitches apart. Sew nose 1 or 2 rows below eyes, in between eyes and over 2 rows of stitches, in a triangular pattern. 
R17 - (5 SC, DEC) x 6 (36)
R18 - (4 SC, DEC) x 6 (30)
R19 - (3 SC, DEC) x 6 (24)
Partly stuff.
R20 - (2 SC, DEC) x 6 (18)
R21 - (1 SC, DEC) x 6 (12)
Finish stuffing.
R22 - (6 DEC) x 6 (6)
Fasten off with a slip stitch and use the tail to sew the hole closed.

Wings x 2
R1 - 4 SC in a MR (or chain 2 and do 4 SC into the first chain if you struggle with a MR) (4)
R2 - 4 INC (8)
R3-R6 - 8 SC (8)
Finish off with a slip stitch, flatten and sew open end together.

Feet x 2
R1 - 4 SC in a MR (or chain 2 and do 4 SC into the first chain if you struggle with a MR) (4)
R2 - 4 INC (8)
R3 - (1SC, 1 INC) x4 (12)
R4-R6 (12 SC) (12)
Finish off with a slip stitch, flatten and sew open end together.

Stomach
R1 - 6 SC in a MR (or chain 2 and do 6 SC into the first chain if you struggle with a MR) (6)
R2 - INC x 6 (12)
R3 - (SC, INC) x6 (18)
R4 - (2 SC, INC) x 6 (24)
R5 - (3 SC, INC) x 6 (30)
R6 - (4 SC, INC) x 6 (36)
​Finish off with a slip stitch, gently pull the piece into an oval shape without overstretching.

Sew the stomach onto the piece, right under the nose. Sew the feet and arms onto the piece, making sure to place the wings low enough that they do indeed look like wings and not ears!

​Here are all the supplies/yarn I used for this project:

Here are some photos of various stages of crocheting this penguin!

And here it is all completed!

I love him! I then wanted to try the same pattern using a different weight of yarn to show you how much of a difference the size of your yarn plays in the final size of your piece. For this attempt, I used the smaller purple yarn I showed in the original picture of all the yarns above. This was a tweed yarn and I ended up figuring out that I would not recommend this type of yarn for amigurumi! It has a very thin and gauzy texture and I felt like it did not hold its shape well, meaning that my final piece was kind of lumpy and bumpy no matter how much I stuffed it.

Once I realized that, I will admit I somewhat gave up on making this little guy look good and just completed it to prove my point about size differences based on yarn. I also used some safety eyes on this one to show you the difference that those can make. I like the look of the safety eyes, but if you are making something that might be near an infant/toddler or a pet, it's safest to simply sew on the eyes with yarn. If you are interested in safety eyes, you can buy a package of many sizes on Amazon for a good price. Safety eyes are essentially a little plastic screw that you push through the front of your piece, with another plastic piece you place on the back that locks everything into place. As I mentioned, I wasn't all the interested in this second penguin looking good (I kind of think he ended up looking like a puppy as I didn't listen to my own advice and made the wings look like ears) so ignore his general silliness and just focus on how much smaller he is than my first one!

I hope that was somewhat helpful to show how the same pattern can yield wildly different results based on the size of your yarn and hook!

I know this wasn't a perfect tutorial or introduction to amigurumi, but I hope it gave you all somewhat of an idea how it works and the kind of results you can expect to see when trying it out. I have been having so much fun expanding my crocheting knowledge and have been reminding myself that it doesn't need to be perfect every step of the way. I have been working on some other crocheted pieces and am hoping to have some things to add to the shop soon. 

If anyone happens to try this pattern and has any feedback about ways that I could make it better or clearer, feel free to drop those in the comments below. Talk to you all soon!

​ - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Anete Lusina:
www.pexels.com/photo/crochet-needles-and-threads-on-windowsill-4792084/​