Tag: crochet

Finished Object – Baby Dinosaur

Leave a comment

This little Baby Dinosaur by Complicated Knots was equally deceptively difficult and deceptively easy at the same time, and I can’t exactly explain it.


A crocheted baby dinosaur made in various shades of blue, teal, and purple, sits on a wooden table facing the camera.


It’s made in parts, a stuffed main body piece, head overlay, two arms, two mirrored legs, and a back panel, and then sewn together at the end.


The right side of the baby dinosaur.

I actually finished most of the pieces long before I sewed it together because I pulled one of those “putting off the easy part” moves.


The left side of the baby dinosaur.

It’s made of partial mini-skeins of Knit Picks Brava, hence way more colors than the two colors it’s supposed to be, and the back piece is slightly scrunchy, but it turned out super cute. It was very confusing, however, that I decided to pick the opposite colors of the original (blue as my dark color and purple as the light) because I would occasionally get mixed up seeing her pick up the purple where I was supposed to be using blue or vice versa.

The back of the baby dinosaur.

It was definitely fun to explore the different shaping techniques like using surface crochet to curve the legs, and to know that other people use the same “make a bunch of fingers and stick them together to make a hand” technique that I tend to use for creating hands and feet.

While this is not a beginner-friendly pattern, I would say don’t be scared to try it if it looks interesting and you have made a few Amigurumi before. My one tip is just for my fellow lefties:  when it comes to the back legs, the one you make for the “left” instructions will go on the right of the dinosaur and the “right” on the left. This is visible once the legs are finished and ready to sew on, but it might be good to remember while you are working on them.

Follow me on Instagram and Ko-fi.

Finished Object – Scrap Blanket

Leave a comment

I present my second finished and washed scrap blanket.

A blanket with diagonal stripes of varying lengths, widths, and colors with a blue and green border laying across the top of a bed.

It’s made of all the unknown scraps from my stash box, so it’s definitely got a few bits that felted slightly in the wash. But not enough to affect it too much. 

A black dachshund puppy laying on the blanket piled up on the bed.

It’s definitely passed the puppy test. In fact, it’s passed the puppy test so well that he’s basically claimed it as a nap spot and I’ve taken to leaving it and most of the rest of my blankets on the floor at the end of my bed as his cozy area.

A ball of triple-stranded yarn with each strand a different color, the outer layer with two shades of pink and black, and inner layers involving blues, purples, yellows, and oranges in addition to the black strand.

Like I said, this was random scraps, so I don’t actually have a lot of precise info, but I can outline the general process. The base is a C2C blanket. I think this is the tutorial I learned from a few years ago, though if it isn’t I still think it’s a good, comprehensive one: C2C blanket blog post tutorial from Sarah Maker. I started in my heavier worsted weight yarns and used the magic knot method to create a ball of yarn to work from and add subsequent balls of yarn created the same way. With my thinner scraps I just used more strands together to get the right thickness. I “measured” by laying it on my bed and working until one side went across the foot of the bed, then turned one corner while lengthening the other side until it was as long as the bed before turning to make the final corner. 

The inner portion of the blanket before the border was added laying on a light wooden floor.

Once the middle had four finished corners, I took apart another C2C blanket that had been abandoned for a very long time because I ran out of the colors and used it to crochet a 6-row border around the outside using a pattern from the Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary and making up the corners.
Scrap blankets are my favorite way to use up scraps, especially if you are like me and just have an entire box you need to use up. I just probably would suggest that, unlike me, you wait until the heat wave dies down before you start working on one.

Follow me on Instagram and Ko-fi.

Finished Object – Trellis Tee 2

Leave a comment

You know what’s really difficult to photograph? Black yarn, almost as difficult as it is to see properly while working with it.

A close up of a white woman’s torso standing in a garden in the sun facing the camera wearing a knit shirt made mostly of black yarn with stripes of brown and blue on the upper third and a skirt with white and black stripes.

But I managed to grab a couple pictures of this finished Trellis Tee by Lauren at Mother of Purl. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but even though it was my “cooler” version of the previous one I made in acrylic yarn, it was still too hot for the second summer heatwave we’ve been having recently.

A close up of a white woman’s torso standing in a garden in the sun facing away from the camera wearing a knit shirt made mostly of black yarn with stripes of brown and blue on the upper third and a skirt with white and black stripes.

This version is made from Knit Picks Cotlin yarn in varying colors of scraps I had in my basket, hence the stripes near the top working in the brown and blue.

A close up of the top of a knit shirt showing the varying-sized stripes of black, blue, and brown going toward the neckline.

Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to keep any notes of how much of each color I had, so this isn’t a very helpful post in terms of yarn specifics. But what I can be helpful about is that this pattern is wonderfully written in a “recipe style,” meaning you take your measurements, make a swatch, and do a tiny bit of super easy calculator math to get your cast-on number, and then you are set.

A close up of the lace detail panel on the left side of the front in black yarn with a “wheat stalk” pattern.

The one modification I did (aside from the striping) was to work in the round where the pattern normally calls for seaming the sides. That was also necessitated by the fact I was working from scraps, so that I could keep track of where I needed to start adding the other colors. 

I have finished a few more projects, and am slightly motivated to do those write-ups as well, so hopefully a string of finished object Fridays is going to happen over the next few weeks.