Mister Mouse

I finally finished Mister Mouse today.  I started him months ago before our trip to Cuba, but put him aside to work on two Ripple Blankets. 

Mister Mouse was happy to pose for photos spinning round to show off his front and back. Doesn't he look dapper in his bright blue scarf?

 

After posing, I showed him the fancy faerie door in our basement. Mister Mouse opened the door. He thinks it is perfect for mice too.

To make Mister Mouse, I followed this free pattern by blogger Sharon Ojala at Amigurumi To Go. I have made a few of Sharon's patterns and loved them all. Check out her site. You won't be disappointed if you do.

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Christmas Decorating Done

I have been busy decorating for Christmas this week. I started Thursday night switching out regular dishes with Christmas dishes and carrying all the bins of Christmas stuff upstairs to the dining room. Friday night, I unpacked the bins and arranged our Christmas decorations then carried all the empty bins back to the basement. 

My Saturday morning cappuccino is served in a Christmas mug of course. The book is used for checking off rows as I crochet toys. I like to keep my colourful button jar on display as you never know when a button might be needed.

I love this colourful crochet snowflake banner made from a pattern by Attic24 found here and a tin snowman. This is the view from my crochet corner on the sofa.

I like to display a jar full of colourful yarn ends and bowls of yarn balls on our mantle. I think it's fun and appropriate considering my passion for everything crochet. 

Crochet dolls adorn our mantle too. I plan to make more once my Christmas Decorating is Done.

Last year I made this crochet striped stocking using a free pattern by blogger Yvestown found here. It provides a perfect place for my little crochet mouse to hang out. We also have a whole family of snowmen sitting in front of the window by the fireplace. I love to see them there.

A couple years ago, I crocheted a pretty edge around some of my favourite Christmas cards. They make a nice display hung with clothespins to some twine along our railing wrapped in Christmas lights.

I also added Christmas knickknacks to our hall  cabinet. The cute little snowman was a gift from our daughter many years ago. The little Christmas tree is a music box. 

 

I have hung crochet stars and a little snowman on the wreath in our dining room. The snowman was made using this pattern by the Dapper Toad and the stars from a free pattern found here on Ravelry.

Today my husband carried our Christmas tree up from the basement. We store it in the original box which is held together with a big yellow strap. Over the years, we have set up the tree in different rooms. The living room and the family room were both popular spots but last year, I put it in the hallway and loved it. We see it every time we walk by and it's across from the dining room which is perfect for Christmas.

I spent a couple hours assembling the tree and decorating it today. I couldn't help but notice some of the branches have broken and/or sagged over the past 20+ years but it's amazing what lights, beads, bows and ornaments do for a tired old tree. Doesn't it look great?

I think the new crochet tree skirt fits in perfectly too. Remember it from this post? This is a meo my crochet original pattern and it's free if you would like to make one too.

I've taken a few more photos to share. I hope you enjoy our simple Christmas decorating. I love the memories stirred by all our ornaments collected over the years. 

This angel was purchased in the after Christmas sales from a little store on Bayview in Toronto where we lived when we first got our tree.

So many homemade and gifted ornaments added to our collection over the years.

This old wooden sled fits nicely under our tree and the singing Christmas monkey is a fun addition.

Crochet skates I've had for years (not made by me) and an ornament made by our daughter many years ago. This year she will be in Brazil visiting her husband's family and enjoying a different kind of Christmas on the beach.

Three things of note here; a crochet star (made by me), an ornament my husband brought back from Germany and a very cute snowman our son gave us for Christmas 2007. Did I mention I love snowmen?

And this is the view from upstairs. I think our Christmas Decorating is Done. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Our poodle spent the morning waiting patiently and comfortably on the back of our sofa. All the moving and rearranging is unsettling for her so I think she is very happy Christmas Decorating is Done.

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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.

Awesome Amigurumi

I think Amigurumi is Awesome. As I mentioned in my first post, my daughter suggested I make crochet toys. I was reluctant until I found a Paddington Bear pattern posted by blogger Yellow, Pink and Sparkly here. As it turned out, this bear was just the start. I soon discovered the world of amigurumi.

1. amigurumi

   Web definitions

   1. Amigurumi is how Japanese call the trend of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. ...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi

After the first Paddington Bear, I altered the pattern to work in the round following the amigurumi style which omits the seam created by "joining" each round. I made a few bears before I found a cute free bunny pattern here.  The first bunny I made was grey. I called him Dudley and mailed him to California along with a yellow hat made from Paddington Bear's pattern and 6 crochet Easter eggs. I found an Easter egg tutorial by Greedy for Colour here. Dudley's hat doubled as a basket for the eggs. He was a big hit with our grandson who was 1 1/2 years old at the time. 'Hide and seek' for eggs became a popular game.    

Dudley Bunny

After making the bear and then the bunny, I found all sorts of free animal patterns I was eager to try. Before long, I had completed a bunch of Awesome Amigurumi for our grandson. Check out the photos below. The caption provides a link to each individual pattern.

Boyington Bear

Buttercup Bear

Tootsie Bear

Tiny Bear

Bonnie Bunny & Benny Bunny

Curious George

Baby Elephant

Mouse

Spike the Dragon

Alby the Baby Snow Dragon

I finished all these toys then decided to write a story for our grandson featuring each one. I wrote the story then my husband and I spent a lovely summer afternoon in my parent's garden getting just the right photos to illustrate the book. It was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to see our grandson's face when our visit brought his 'book' to life.

I have used some of the book photos in this post but here is a link to the book if you would like to take a look. There were four copies printed: 1 for our grandson, 1 for us and 1 for each of our parents. 

I have to confess I missed one typo on the front cover. I credited my husband for the photography but mistakenly called him "Gandad" instead of "Grandad". I truly did not see it until my daughter pointed it out. Oh well, I corrected the on-line version. Our grandson did call my husband Gandad before he could say Grandad properly. He used to call me 'Mimi' but now says Grammeo very clearly and I love to hear him call me that.