Niles the Purple Hippopotamus

What you need:

1 ball of purple wool
2 plastic eyes (can be replaced by buttons or stitched on)
1 crocheting needle (size 3)


Body
Start by crocheting a flat disc (see previous tutorials), but this time with a twist. Instead of starting with a sling, you crochet a small row of slip stitches. Crochet the first row normally, then put several stitches in the last one. By doing this, you turn the row "around" and you can now crochet in continuous rows. Repet the same at the other end, until you have an oval concave shape. Voilà, this way, you will have a more "square" shape for your hippo!

Legs
Start with a sling and 5 single crochets in it. Continue in rounds until the legs are long enough.

Tail
Crochet a row of four stitches and reduce until you end up with one. Don't sew up the remaining thread, but fuzz it out with a needle. That way, you will have the "typical" hippo tail.

Head
This is the trickiest part. Crochet a first round into the body. Then, in the susequent rounds, you will need to increase on one side and stick to the pattern on the other. Following that, you will need to decrease again to form the snout. Continue for a couple of rounds. Then, crochet a triple crochet - 2x single crochet - triples crochet pattern on the top snout. Attach this to the lower part and add teeth if you are so inclined ;-)

Ears
This is easy. You will need a slip stitch and then you can put a couple of single crochets in it. Press together on the lower side and attach to the head.

Olli, the travelling Owl, finally has his own Facebook page

Check it out and "like" here:

Olli the Owl

Late Autumn Addendum: Halloween Monsters

I know, I know.... Halloween took place two months ago.... My excuse? I was very busy in my new job, learning everything that there is to learn which left me with scarcely the energy to take care of other things.

None the less, I did finally get around to photgraphing my season-specific works and here they are, folks:

From left to right I may present the Mummy, the Witch and the Wardrobe... ahem... the Ghost.

While I created the Ghost and the Witch with my usual techniques of going in circles, I decided on another approach for the Mummy. For it, I crocheted a very long string (ca. 2 meters) with simple hooks. Then, I took a small bundle of white wool and wrapped the string around it in rows in order to give it that mummified look. The arms and legs were essentially done with the same technique, but I supported the stability with additional stitches from another white wool string. So it was basically a sequence of wrapping - sewing - wrapping - sewing. Once everything was tight, I sewed on the remaining loose end and created the face with black wool.

My tip when doing a ghost: attach a loop to the head, so that you can put it up everywhere in the house or scare others with it while flinging it around. Worked at least for me ;-)

Cheers,
your devoted Crocheter Fran

Good Wool Hunting

With me living in Munich - third-largest city in Germany - , one would think that finding the right material for crocheting would be like a walk in the park. Wrong! Munich does sport an adequate, or better said fashionable number of wool shops.

But the selection is anything but fashionable. Rather old-fashioned, to be honest. A couple of months ago, I went to have a look into one of the shops just to find that the balls cost an obscene amount of money and the range was really small. Then, last week, when I asked for effect wool I was told that they "do not feature synthetic fibers just because".

Where, do you ask, is the creativity? The fun? A wool shop is not social media playground, admitted, but the why do owners not experiment a little? A couple of years ago, effect garn was the latest hype and you could get it everywhere. Where has this initiative gone? For such a traditional sector, you would not expect trends to come and go like that.

Anyway, this leaves me with fewer options that I thought. Furry guinea pigs? Not possible. Fluffy teddy bears? Not realizable. A remake of Alf? Forget it!

So please, please, shop owners, be a bit more innovative and give us creative, young, energetic crocheters something to work with. Until then, I will have to beg my mother to get me the appropriate wool in tiny Würzburg (where, suprisingly, there is still some choice). Hrrmmppff!

Summer update

It has been a while since I last posted an instruction, but alas! It is summer in Munich, which means that I am out and about rather than sitting indoors crocheting. Needless to say that, as soon as winter has Germany back in its icy claws, I'll be working away again. There are one or two things in the pipeline already... In the meantime, I would like to share with you my recent works and give you another glimpse into the life of lli the Owl.

Here is a turtle that I recently did for a colleague (sorry for the bad quality, but you get the idea):

 

 

Olli meanwhile was visited by his new friend, the Kiltschröte (a wordplay on kilt and the German word for turtle). This particular Scottish friend moved in with him and they now share the apartment. Looks like Olli got himself a new best mate ;-)

Tutorial: Polar Bear

Body

Begin by tying a slip knot in white. Make sure not to close the knot completely and close the sling with a sling crochet (SlC). Cover the result, a ring, with 5 single crochets (SC) into the hole. When you are done, make sure to draw the loose string tight so that no hole remains. Increase the number of crochets in the next row by doubling them in each previous crochet (=10 crochets). Row three is continued with one single crochet and one doubled crochet per previous crochet in turns (=15 crochets), row four with two crochets per previous two crochets and a doubled crochet per previous crochet in turns (=20 crochets) and row five with a 3 per 3, double per one pattern (=25 crochets).

Continue with 25 crochets per round for the next 10-20 rounds. Then decrease accordingly and do not forget to stuff the ball that you create with batting. 

Arms + Legs

Crochet a white disc with one round. Start fresh with a new thread and crochet the first round into the upper sling of the last crocheted round on the disc. Continue in a circular pattern until the size of the arm / leg fits the body. Stuff with batting and sow the parts onto the body. Then, sew the claws onto the arm / leg with black string.

Head

Start by crocheting a white disc. Complete the first round and second round, then slowly decrease in the next round for the snout. Continue normally for two more rounds, then sew the mouth shut. Glue on the eyes and sew on the nose and mouth in black.

Ears

Start with a sling of three crochets in white and crochet the first round. Then decrease. Sew the ears onto the head.

To fish, glue on the plastic eyes. If you want, you can also add a little tail. This is how the polar bear looks:

Olli the Owl goes traveling

A year ago, I gave a self-made present to one of my travel-hungry friends. Turns out that owls are migratory birds, after all....

Ile St. Helene, Canada

London, UK

Montreal, Canada

New York, USA

Niagara Falls, USA / Canada

Toronto, Canada

I am looking forward to seeing more of Olli's adventures in the future!

Flower Girls

Check out our newest works of art in my video on YouTube.


Cheers,

Fran

Tutorial: Ladybug

 

Body

Begin by tying a slip knot. Make sure not to close the knot completely and close the sling with a sling crochet (SlC). Cover the result, a ring, with 5 single crochets (SC) into the hole. When you are done, make sure to draw the loose string tight so that no hole remains. Increase the number of crochets in the next row by doubling them in each previous crochet (=10 crochets). Row three is continued with one single crochet and one doubled crochet per previous crochet in turns (=15 crochets) and row four with two crochets per previous two crochets and a doubled crochet per previous crochet in turns (=20 crochets). For more information on how to do this, please see this video.

Continue increasing until you have approximately a half-ball. 

Bottom

Stuff the half-ball and sew close with a disc in the same color.

Head

Begin by tying a slip knot. Make sure not to close the knot completely and close the sling with a sling crochet (SlC). Cover the result, a ring, with 5 single crochets (SC) into the hole. When you are done, make sure to draw the loose string tight so that no hole remains. Increase the number of crochets in the next row by doubling them in each previous crochet (=10 crochets). Sew onto the tip of the body. Glue on two plastic eyes.

Legs

Make a file of two sling crochets. Continue with approximately 4 rows of single crochets and then decrease in another row to one. Repeat 6x and sew the legs onto the body (3 legs per side).

Wings

Start by making a row of sling crochets in red (the length depends on the size of the body, so adapt accordingly). Crochet the first row with single crochets. Then decrease in layers at the end of the following rows. Finish by framing the rounded side with single crochets. Sew the wings onto the body.

Dots

Make at least six discs in black (one row should be sufficient, as they need to be kept small) and glue them onto the wings.

Voilà, your own little ladybug is done!

The art of disc

Discs can be used for a variety of things. Want to make a vase? Use the disc as the bottom! A stylised tree? Create discs of various sizes! A flower? Use the disc as a starting point! And there are many more possibilities...

Creating a flat disc is a challenge. Why? Because you need to harmonize the number of crochets with the size of the object. Don't worry, this doesn't require mathematical skills! ;-) Rather, a good eye is needed and the ability to recognize waves or creases early on. Here is how you easily make your own disc (please also see my video for more clarity):

• Start by making a ring or better-said, a slip knot. Make sure not to close the knot completely and close the sling with a sling crochet. 
• Cover the result, a ring, with 6 single crochets into the hole. Usually, I use 5 crochets in the first round, but we are aiming for a flat shape, so the more crochets there are, the better in this case. Caution! If you try to put more than 8 or 9 crochets into the ring, you will have to deal with a lot of crochets in the first rounds. Bottom rule in continuous crocheting: few crochets - concavity, many crochets - waves. As we want to avoid that here, it is better to stick to an average number first; you can increase later on at any given point.
• Now comes the tricky part: Increase doubly in the second round and stick to a 1-for-1, 2-for-1 pattern in the third round. Once you have done that, it is necessary to increase according to the size of the disc. If you want a big disc, I recommend that you continue this pattern. Please note that anytime you spot a slight concavity, you might have to go back to increase the stitches. The same applies to waves or creases. That is a clear sign of having too many crochets. You will also note it in the way the crochets stick to each other. The tighter the fit, the worse. In that case, just go back and continue with less crochets than before.   

As said before, the eye is your most important tool! By spotting irregularities early on, you will be able to create a beautiful piece bit by bit. I would love to see some of your examples or hear of your ideas, so feel free to send me some pictures :-)!

May the force be with you!

Recently, a friend of my mother's asked her if she could make a Star Wars figurine for her son, who is a huuuge fan of the saga. Ever up to the challenge, my mother started with R2D2 and then simply could not stop. Check out her supercute assembly of prominent Star Wars characters:

In contrast to me, my mother does not stuff with cotton batting, but with styrofoam objects. For example, she uses a ball or cone and then fits the crocheted shell to the object. This has the advantage that the figurines are much more stable. So while mine are fluffy and cuddly, hers are solid. Each to their own, as they say...