The Dress Fits

As mentioned in a previous post, I made an aqua dress which was much too big for my little crochet mouse. To fix this dilemma I made a bear using a free pattern by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly found here. As promised, here are some photos of Betty Bear along with instructions for those of you who might like to make one too. 

I think Betty Bear turned out rather well. She is 8" tall which is perfect for little hands. The dress fits yet is loose enough to remove and also fun for little hands.

To crochet Betty Bear, you will need to make the following alterations to this free pattern offered by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly:

I used Bernat Softee Baby yarn in white and aqua for the bear and black acrylic worsted weight yarn for the eyes, nose, mouth and feet. Hook size 3.25 mm

Instead of working stripes on the bear, the first 6 rows of the body are done using aqua to form matching panties for the dress. The body of the bear is crocheted in the round meaning the rows are not 'joined'.

The arms and head are worked in the round in plain white.

The legs are worked in black for the first 5 rows to make shoes. I followed the pattern for the right foot then made a left foot by switching the beginning and ending stitch count for rows 5 to 7.

So for the left foot, use the following instructions:

R5 - 1 ch, 1 sc into next 11 sc, [sc2tog] 4 times, 1 sc into next 7 sc. Sl St into 1st sc (22 sc)

Switch to white

R6 - 1 ch, 1 sc into next 11 sc [sc2tog] 2 times, 1 sc into next 7 sc. Sl St into 1st sc (18 sc)

R7 - 1 ch, 1 sc into next 10 sc [sc2tog] 2 times, 1 sc into next 6 sc. Sl St into 1st sc (15 sc)

Continue working in round with white to end of R15.

Switch to aqua

Last 3 rows worked in aqua to make matching shorts/panties for dress.

It is Victoria Day weekend here in Canada. I hope you're all having a great time. I am happy to have finished another project. Another toy to add to my stash.  

I haven't decided what I'd like to make next.  Oh well, it's time to take a break and enjoy some fresh air before it rains.

Very Good News

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post Crochet Cushion Covers. In that post I mentioned taking a break from crochet due to a painful bout of what I thought might be frozen shoulder (left side) starting Easter weekend. 

I am happy to report that I do not have frozen shoulder which is Very Good News. My physiotherapist Jim Millard at Body Mechanics in Byron Village tells me I have what is commonly referred to as 'baby' shoulder. Basically, a shoulder injury from 20 years ago flared up after riding to work on my commuter bike all week then taking it for a longer 35 km ride on Good Friday. It's a fun bike but the straight bars put my arms in a position similar to cradling a baby (hence the name) which pushed my shoulder joint forward in the socket creating an impingement. That's just a fancy word for pinching. The prolonged irritation caused inflammation which resulted in extreme shoulder pain whenever I tried to lift my arm in any direction or even lay down to sleep.

The first week, I visited my chiropractor Dr. Carolyn Dalgity twice for laser therapy and adjustments. The second week, I saw my physiotherapist who immediately diagnosed the problem and taped my shoulder for a few days which helped immensely.  He also gave me some simple shoulder exercises designed to get my rotator cuff muscles to activate and relieve the tension in my shoulder and neck resulting from other muscles doing extra work to compensate. 

I will continue to see my chiropractor and physiotherapist once a week until the inflammation has completely cleared. Already it is much improved which is Very Good News and I have the all clear to ride my bike also Very Good News. Although, I am riding a different bike to avoid aggravating my shoulder too much.

Crochet has taken a bit of a back seat while I've been nursing this sore shoulder but now that things are improving, I'm happily back at it. I made a bonnet for Sweetie Bear using this free pattern. Does it look like a baby bonnet or more like a bonnet worn by a granny? I haven't decided if it is an improvement or not. What do you think? 

Another small project I finally finished is this cute little mouse. If you would like to make one too, this pattern by blogger Yellow, Pink and Sparkly is available for free and can be found here. The first time I made this mouse I used pink yarn for the dress and added a small button nose. I gave it to our niece who happened to be wearing a very similar style dress in red when she was visiting and she loved it. 

This time I made an aqua dress using a 3.25 mm hook instead of the recommended 3.0 mm as I do not have that size, at least not among my favourite Addi-Swing crochet hooks. If you're not familiar with this ergonomically friendly hook and are interested, there is a very thorough review on blogger PetalsToPicots site here. 

Of course the aqua dress is too big and does not look right on this little mouse. You'll have to take my word on that as I did not take a picture of the mouse wearing the aqua dress before making a new dress in white using hook size 2.5 mm.  

This white dress fits just right. Doesn't it look adorable with a little green ribbon adding a pop of colour?

I'm considering making a bear from another free pattern by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly found here. I expect this bear will be just big enough for this lovely aqua dress to fit nicely. When I finish I'll post a photo so you can see how it looks. 

I love making these little crochet toys but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them. Over the past few years, I've made a bunch for my grandson and a few for my new granddaughter. They have so many toys now that they don't really need any more. I might just continue to enjoy the process of making them and taking photos for my blog and then perhaps sell a few. Do you ever make anything without any particular purpose in mind? I like the idea of making things for fun but for some reason I hesitate to make things to sell. Although if I made something for fun and somebody wanted to buy it, I would be willing to sell it. Phew, that is a roundabout way of saying I might perhaps be selling a few of my hand-made pieces.  

So my Very Good News is I'm on the mend and getting back to enjoying some of my favourite hobbies - crochet, biking and blogging. I hope all of you are also keeping well and able to get out and enjoy this warm spring weather which has finally arrived. It looks like a perfect weekend to celebrate Mothers' Day here in Canada.

Happy Mothers' Day to all the wonderful Moms out there and especially to my Mom, my Mum-In-Law and my Daughter. Have a wonderful weekend.

Appreciation and Gratitude

Last Thursday was the first day of spring. I love spring with longer days and warmer weather but this year 'normal spring' is very, very late. I was disappointed at the start of this week when the weather continued cold. The snow and ice refused to melt. I decided to make the best of the situation and spend my evenings inside working on my goal to reduce clutter.

I cleaned out kitchen drawers, my closet, the linen closet upstairs, the spare room closet in the basement, the spare room and spare room closet upstairs, the linen closet in the bathroom and the large walk-in storage closet in the basement. After 13+ years of accumulating stuff in our current house, there are a lot of spaces that need attention. I am quite pleased with my progress so far. 

I have been reading blogs on simple living, minimalism and general clutter control. There are quite a few and I find them inspiring. So far I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Well OK, some of the process is a bit stressful and it is a lot of work, but I'm absolutely loving the results. I've been making regular trips to Good Will on my way to work and have plans to post a few items on Kijiji. It's turning out to be so much fun.

I also cleared my crochet clutter out of the family room and moved to a corner of our bedroom. Now that we have a new and improved internet provider TekSavvy and the router is more central, I can work here with perfect reception. This is a great spot to work and Sadie loves it too.

Yesterday, I spent the morning enjoying crochet with cappuccino in my new crochet corner. I have been working on a bear in between clutter-clearing sessions this week. This morning I was able to finish the bear. I followed a pattern called Big Honey Bear posted by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly. The only changes I made involved working in the round instead of joining each row and I made the legs 31 rows instead of 37. Actually I did 37 rows to start and realized they looked too long as they were much longer than the arms. I think it must be a typo in the pattern.

Since I can't knit a sweater, I decided instead to crochet a dress for my bear. I am using the dress pattern for Monica Mouse also posted by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly but increasing the size to fit this larger bear. I am happy to be exercising my creative side in this way and will be sure to show you a photo of the dress when it is done. For now I will just share a photo of Sweetie Bear. She is made with Bernat Softee Baby yarn using hook size 3.25 mm. The colour I used is called "Little Mouse" which is light tan. Although it looks grey in this photo, it really is light tan. I used a light weight wool blend in medium brown for the bottom of her feet and black worsted weight yarn for her nose, mouth and eyes. Isn't she sweet?

Just as I was finishing Sweetie Bear, our neighbour stopped by to return cross country skis borrowed for the winter. She also brought a beautiful bunch of purple tulips to thank me for the loan. It was totally unexpected and not necessary but I must confess I love the flowers. I put them in a lime green vase in our bathroom below "The Toucan" painted a few years ago by our son. I think the flowers are beautiful and add a much appreciated hint of spring to our house.

After arranging the flowers, I decided it was time to head outside for my first bike ride in London this year. I rode in Boulder, CO over March Break in shorts and a jersey but it has been much too cold and slippery for me to even attempt riding here. Today it was +2 C (feeling like -5 C with a 25 km/hr north wind) but it was sunny and the roads looked relatively clear. I rode a 35 km loop west of the city and thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time I got home my back and neck were tight but I was happy. I had booked a massage for 3 p.m. which took care of all my aches and pains. I just love sun, fresh air and exercise.

Our neighbour returned from a hike with her dog at the same time I got back from my ride. She said Ziggy had brought home a 'surprise'. He jumped out of the back of their vehicle with this in his mouth. He was very proud of his treat from Komoka Conservation Area. Our neighbour said she was waffling between being grossed out and fascinated. Our son was definitely fascinated and took a couple photos.

Would it be macabre to make a 'foot in mouth' comment? I included both photos because the first one shows Ziggy clearly pleased with his 'treat' and the second shows our smiling son. I'm really pleased with the way his teeth look. After about 3.5 years, he finally got his braces off this week. Our son is so happy with his nice straight teeth that he is constantly smiling. I love it.

I want to share a few more photos of my spring decorating and take your mind off the gruesome images above. I removed the colourful crochet stars from the wreath in our dining room and added a bunny plus a couple little pom-poms. I think it needs more colour in crochet so I will work on that once I finish the dress for Sweetie Bear.

I replaced the pine cones and crochet white pumpkins with balls of yarn, pink fluffy bunny, crochet chicks in shells and crochet eggs. This bowl sits on our dining room table.

This little table sits in our front hall. The bunny was made by our daughter when she was in high school and I just love the way it turned out. The doily was a $1 purchase at a charity shop downtown and I made the crochet eggs.

I removed the colourful crochet snowflake garland from our fireplace and added a colourful crochet shamrock garland for spring. I followed this pattern for the shamrock garland and used Bernat Handicrafter Cotton yarn in four different bright colours (white, hot pink, lime green, aqua blue) to make the shamrocks. The joining string combined all these colours in a rainbow effect. I think it adds a nice bit of fun to our fireplace.

The weather is finally improving and I can feel spring in the air. I think I'll pack my biking bag and anticipate riding to work tomorrow. Now that my son has his driver's license I no longer feel obligated to drive him to school. In fact, he would be all too happy for me to ride so he can take the car. Lucky for him, I much prefer biking as long as the roads are clear and the weather is decent. 

Appreciation and gratitude sum up my feelings for the week and especially for this weekend.