Wednesday, June 25, 2025

April's Baby Monster Pattern


 Back in April of last year, I designed a boxy-looking monster for my Monster of the Month series. This year, I had someone ask if I could make a smaller monster to match. So, I worked on it, and this is the result. The original monster was close to 10" tall. This one is closer to six. 

April’s Baby Monster


 

This little guy has the same construction as my April Monster, but on a smaller scale, so you can have Mom & Baby monsters.

 

Made with worsted weight yarn and an F hook, he measures about 6" tall.

 

I used .8 ounce of the main color, less than half an ounce of the accent color, and less than a yard of white and black for eye accent and smile.

 

I used 10 mm safety eyes

 

Start at the top with main color. First section is worked in rows. Note: the body is done in HDC, while arms, legs and horns are made in SC

Row 1: Ch 10. Starting in 2nd ch from hook, hdc 9

Rows 2-3: Ch 1, turn, hdc 9. 

Row 4: Do not turn. Add an additional hdc in the same stitch just worked. Rotate your work and work 2 hdc down the side, with an additional hdc in the corner. Rotate work and make 9 hdc across, with an additional hdc in the corner stitch. Rotate and work 2 hdc up the side. Place one more hdc in the corner. (26: 9 on each long side, 2 on each short side, and one additional hdc in each corner)

 

Now we work in continuous rounds. Use a stitch marker to mark your beginning point to help keep track of rows.

Round 1: BLO hdc (26)

Rounds 2-7: hdc (26)

 

Now we go back to working back and forth. If needed, hdc over to the beginning of a long row. 

Row 1: BLO hdc 9

Rows 2-4: ch 1, turn, hdc 9. FO, leaving long tail for sewing closed.

 


Arms, starting with Fingers (make 2, starting with accent color)

Ch 6. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st 2, *ch 2, sl st 2* x 3. Change to body color and continue with arm. 

Round 1:Sc, skip one chain, sc, skip one chain, sc. Turn your work and sc in each of the skipped stitches, then make one last sc in the same chain as your first stitch. (6)

Alternate round 1. Sc 4 down the chain, with an increase in the last ch. Fold to form a tube and continue working in the round. (6) This is a bit easier, but it makes an open tube, which doesn't hide your yarn ends. You can use your yarn tail to sew it  up a bit if you like. I like to make a closed tube, with the first option. 

Rounds 2-5: sc (6)

FO, leaving a tail to sew to body.

 

Foot (make 2 in main color)

Round 1: sc 4 in mr (4)

Round 2: inc x 4 (8)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 4 (12)

Rounds 4: sc (12)                                                                                   

Round 5: *sc 4, dec* x 2 (10)

Round 7: *sc 3, dec* x 2 (8)

Stuff lightly and fold the top together. Sc 4 across the top. 

Ankle transition: 

Ch 1, turn, hdc 4 (4)

Ch 1, turn, FLO sc 4, turn your work and BLO sc 4 on the other side. (8) Now we will go back to working in the round again. 

Round 1-2: sc (8)

FO, leaving a tail to sew to body. You can stuff the legs or leave them unstuffed to make him more of a sitting monster.

 

Horns (make 2 in accent color)

Round 1: 3 sc in MR (3)

Round 2: inc, sc 2 (4)

Round 3: inc, sc 3 (5)

Round 4: inc, sc 4 (6)

FO, leaving tail to sew to head. 

 

Eyebrows: (make 2 in accent color)

Ch 4. Starting in 2nd chain from hook, sl st, sc, sc. FO, leaving tail to sew to head. 

 

Place safety eyes between rounds 3 & 4, with 4 stitches between. Before securing safety eyes, place the eyebrows above the eyes to make sure you have enough room. Use a little white yarn to make an accent on the outer side of each eye. Sew eyebrows over eyes, with the thickest part at the center of the face. Embroider a mouth over round 6. Stuff head/body and sew the bottom flap closed.

Sew the horns on the top of the head. I placed mine close to the outer edges.



Sew legs to the bottom of the head/body. I positioned my legs so that  the edges lined up with the edges of the bottom of the head/body.

 


Sew arms to the side of the body, even with the bottom of the eyes. I didn’t stuff my arms, so they would hang better against the side of the body.

 

Many thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing this pattern for me! 



Monday, April 7, 2025

A Freebie a day keeps boredom at bay!


So, somehow I came up with the idea of trying one new free pattern each day of April. I have printed out so many cute patterns, saying, "oh, this is cute! I need to make this!" Well, I'm finally getting around to it! 

I started on April 1st with Frankie the Frog

This is a free pattern on Ravelry from The Stitchin' Mommy
You can check out the pattern here: Frankie the Frog

On April 2nd, I made a turtle with the free pattern from All From Jade. This worked up really fast! I used leftover yarn from Frankie plus some bright yellow yarn I got from Temu

April 3 - Fuzzy Bunny
I watched a YouTube video by Danika for this pattern
I used some fuzzy yarn (got it in a yarn gift, no label!), held together with a strand of sport weight white yarn, hoping to make my stitches more visible. It didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, but I finished! 



April 4 - Capybara
I used a pattern by Sweet Beans Crochet on Instagram (found here)




April 5 - Rubber Duck by Emily J. Miller (found here)
The pattern is on a crochet discussion board, with no pictures and limited info (there's no note about what size safety eyes, where to put them, where to sew on the beak, etc.)
I do like the way it turned out, and plan to make another with a few changes: one less row on the beak, a larger neck (doing less decreases before sewing it on), and smaller safety eyes (I used 12 mm with worsted weight... maybe go down to 10mm?)

April 6: Chubby Dino
I'm not used to working with plush yarn, and I had an issue keeping my tension consistent. There are some gaps in my stitches. 



I love how this one turned out, and I want to make some more! 



April 8
Quick, cute, and uses up little bits of yarn. What more can you ask for? 




April 9:
I must admit that I made mistakes, and then took liberties with this pattern to cover my mistakes. I was working on it past my bedtime, and missed a row of increases in the head, so the muzzle didn't fit... so I had to improvise. 



April 10: 
Splooting Triceratops
Eek! 
This is so cute! I have seen her Splooting Triceratops on her YouTube and Instagram channels, but I'm trying to stick to a buying ban, until I have some good craft shows and get my spreadsheet balance  back in the black. Well, she posted a free YouTube tutorial, and I jumped right on and made it from her tutorial. I used worsted weight yarn rather than plush, and he is such an adorable little guy! 

April 12 - 
Mini Hippo From Amigurumi Today
Pattern found here

April 13 - Ice Cream Cutie
This is from a free YouTube tutorial
It folds up to look like an ice cream cone, but then opens up to a little doll. It worked up pretty fast. I think I'll eventually make some more! 




April 14 - Dog in Beret
Okay, I found this pattern in my cat/dog notebook. Working from the pattern did not go well. In fact, I made a video called This pattern was driving me crazy.

The pattern just said "add eyes"... with no indication of which row and how many stitches between. The pictures were close up enough to count rows or stitches... and the pictures don't seem to match up to the actual dimensions of the finished dog when you follow the directions. The head ends up smaller, the beret is smaller, etc. 

I tried going to the website listed on the pattern, and my security software said "don't go there..." ...so I didn't. So I don't have a pattern to share for this one 



April 15 - Penguin
This one was from a YouTube tutorial
I think I need to cover up that one little bit of black that shows through above the eye on the right. 


April 16 - Ice Cream Cone
This sweet pattern checks off all the boxes for this challenge: quick, cute, free... 



April 17 - Mini Easter Egg Bunny
Eek! This pattern is giving the Splooting Triceratops a run for the money as my favorite make from this challenge! It turned out so cute and used up some scrap yarn. 

April 17 (oops, I made two in one day)
Cute Crocodile Amigurumi


Pattern notes: the pattern shows him in a shirt, but there is no indication in the pattern of when to do color changes for the shirt. Also, you need to add one more row of increases to the tail to get to the 24 stitches indicated. 


April 18
Pony by Ohana Craft

April 19
Sad Kitty by Yarn Society pattern here



April 20
Claude Chick
Free Pattern download on Ravelry



April 21
Crocodile


April 22 - Goose



April 23 - Loaf Cat
YouTube Tutorial by Annie Carroway Arts



April 24 - Mouse
Pattern by Sharon Ojala of Amigurumi To Go



April 25
Mystery Frog
I saw a post on Facebook with a screenshot of a Mystery MakeAlong by 
KittenMallow on Tik Tok. I grabbed some green yarn from my craft card, added a strand of white baby yarn, and started out. I decided it looked froggy, so I made a few changes to the pattern to keep going with the frog idea. 



Also April 25 - Cape for Winter Mouse



April 26 - Nantes the Carrot Top Monster
Mix and Match Monster by Chai Coffee Crochet
I introduced this cute in this video
where I explain the tweaks I made to the pattern, 
as well as how I made the hair. 

April 27 - Birthday Cake
Pattern from Furls Website
For the candle, I used half of a cake pop stick, with brushed-out red and yellow yarn for the flame (I used hot glue to attach). 


April 29

I made this guy with bulky yarn and a K hook, so he's signficantly larger than the pattern says he will turn out! 

April 30
Peyton the Polar Bear by Sweet Softies


















Saturday, March 1, 2025

#GrandAmiVenture

The project / series I'm calling #GrandAmiVenture started back in 2023. I gave my daughters a little booklet I made up with pictures of some of my best sellers, asking for my granddaughters to come up with color combinations for them. 

I got the pages back at our family Christmas in 2024. My two oldest granddaughters took turns coming up with some fun color combinations! 

So, for 2025, starting in April, I will be making one of their color combinations each month. 

For ease of copying and pasting into a spinning wheel of names, here are the patterns still left to do: 

Cute Little Dino

Big Head Turtle

Mini Tanner the Triceratops

Fancy Elephant

Aliyasaurus

Axolotl in Sleeping Bag

Little Bigfoot Puppy

Chameleon

Fofo the Bull

Ballerina Kitty

First... pattern links: 

Cute Little Dino is a pattern here on my blog. Pattern Link

5-year old Sophie wants me to make one in Pink with yellow accent stripes and green spikes, and red cheeks! 

Big Head Turtle
This is a free pattern on Instagram
8-year-old Aliya picked out the colors for this one: 
Royal Blue for the head, and a multi-colored yarn (pink and white) for the shell. 

Ankylosaur is a free pattern on Ravelry
(The pattern can be found here.)

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too. Forest Green body, yellow shield, light pink bumps! That one is going to be interesting! 

And here it is! The first finish from the list! 



Fancy Elephant: I'll have to track down the pattern info for this one! It's been so long, I don't remember where I put the pattern! 
(Found it! Pattern here )
Aliya's color choices: grey body, light pink dress with forest green for the top ruffle, mint green for the middle, and a pink/green ombre for the bottom... and coral hair bows.
(Definitely not colors I would have thought of... that's why this is going to be so interesting!) 


Axolotl with sleeping bag is a free pattern from Whimsical Yarn Creations
You can find info here

Aliya wants me to make it in dark green with yellow gills and a multi-colored blue sleeping bag. 

Tanner the Mini Triceratops by The Nicole Chase is one of my favorite dinosaur patterns. Here's the pattern 
Aliya said "this will be a silly one"... Green body, blue accents at the bottom of the feet and arms, light pink frill, light purple edge on frill, yellow horns by the frill, white horn on the snout. 

Hatching Party is a paid pattern from One and Two Company
I made baby brother in the egg shell years ago, with a blue "Big Brother". Over the years, I keep making the "Big Brother" over and over again (well, there may have been big sisters in pink and purple)... but nobody has purchased the set yet. 
Sophie thinks the next big brother should be light blue with light purple spikes, and purple dots on the eggshell. 

He was project #2: 




FoFo the Bull... what a cutie! Here's his pattern
I've made him twice. Following Aliya's instructions, he will be a purple bull, with aqua blue pants (and orange pocket embroidery), dark pink feet, a light pink bow tie, and light brown ears and horns. Oh, and his arms are supposed to be coral. That's going to be one interesting cow! 

Honu the African Flower Sea Turtle is a long-time favorite. Looking through my Ravelry projects, I can tell that I made at least 18 of them so far! Here's the pattern
Aliya picked colors for this one: light purple head and flippers, yellow in the center, royal blue petals, dark purple to separate the petals, and light blue to finish off. 

I did this one for project #3... here is how it turned out: 





The Aliyasaurus is my own pattern, designed from a drawing done by my granddaughter Aliya. 
Of course, she picked the colors for the next one. 
Head: a very colorful ombre, green neck, yellow body, orange tail, teal legs, dark purple spikes and dark pink ears.

Little Bigfoot Puppy is a pattern by Sharon Ojala

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too: Turquoise head, light pink body, turquoise muzzle, blue and pink arms, red and green legs, brown tail, purple and yellow ears. 
(That girl LOVES color!)

I have a few modifications I make to the Chameleon pattern from Red Heart. Here's one I made with some Christmas yarn: 

Aliya thinks I should make one with a pink body, blue eye spot, red frill with yellow edging, and orange legs. 

And, last, but by no means least, is the Ballerina Kitty by Grace and Yarn (pattern link) 
This is one of my favorite patterns, and I have made over a dozen of them through the past few years. 

Chosen colors are: white cat, teal dress with dark blue stripe. Slippers/hair bow in teal. 

Okay, the granddaughters have spoken... Now I will spin the wheel of names and see which one I make first. I am putting the #GrandAmiVenture on my to-do list for April! 
Project 1: Ankylosaur
Project 2: Hatching Party
Project 3: African Flower turtle
Project 4: Cute Little Dino (LOL, 3 of the first 4 were dinosaurs!)