No-Sew Positive Donut Pal

Donuts have always been a hit at my craft shows... so when "Postive Pals" (little crochet animals and such holding an encouraging sign) became popular, I worked on making a Positive Donut. I've sold a few at craft shows, so I wrote up the pattern and now I'm sharing it with my crafty friends. 

It takes less than half an ounce of worsted weight yarn, a bit over .2 ounces of a light brown for the donut, and about the same in a frosting color. You want to make sure the yarns are very close in weight, so that the halves of the donut match up. If you use a thinner weight for one side, and thicker worsted for the other, it will be hard to line up the stitches to crochet them together. 

I used .25 ounces of light tan and .25 ounces of a medium brown with a 3.75 oz hook.

I also used 6 different colors of scrap yarn (4" - 8" lengths) for the sprinkles

You'll need a stitch marker for keeping track of your rows, a yarn needle for weaving in your ends, and some polyfill. I used 9 mm safety eyes and a short scrap of black yarn to embroider the mouth. 

Start with your donut color. Chain 15 and join with a slip stitch. Ch 1 

I do not work over my yarn tail. I leave it exposed to help with attaching the frosting yarn later. 

Round 1: Sc in each chain. (15) Do not join - we will work in continuous rounds. 

Round 2: (sc 2, inc) x 5. (20)

Round 3: (sc 3, inc) x 5. (25)

Round 4: (sc 4, inc) x 5. (30)

Round 5: sc (30)

Round 6: Make arm, sc 15, make arm, sc 15

(Arm: Ch 8. Make a 3 dc bobble in the 2nd chain from hook. Sc in remaining chains. Slip st in the side of the last sc before the arm)

Arm 1

FO at the end of Round 6. 

Now it's time for the frosting side. Attach your frosting color yarn to the wrong side of the donut. Bring your working yarn up through the hole in the donut. For the first row or two, you will be pulling your yarn through the hole of the doughnut. Don't worry, you don't have to do that for the whole frosting! 

Round 1: Sc in the backside of each chain from the donut starting chain. Count to make sure you have 15 stitches (it's easy to miss one... if needed, you can do in increase to get up to 15). The right side of your frosting should be facing the right side of your donut. 

 Starting frosting

Rounds 2 - 5 of the frosting are the same as the donut. After round 2 or 3, pull up a long loop (so your stitches don't unravel), take the hook out, and push your frosting through the hole of the donut. Now the wrong sides of the donut and the frosting are facing each other, the way they should be. Continue until you're done with round 5. We won't need to add arms on the frosting side. 

 Two rows of frosting done

Frosting pushed through

Round 6: sc (30)

 At the end of round 6

Now is the time to add sprinkles... using short scraps of colored yarn, make random little stitches around the frosting. Once I was close to the end of one scrap, I would tie the next color to it (on the wrong side of my work) and continue on with the new color. Figure out where the center top of your frosting is, in relation to the placement of the arms, and put safety eyes 3 rows down, with 4 stitches between. Embroider a small mouth 1 row below the eyes, centered between them. 

Once your sprinkles and face are done, we'll crochet the donut edges together. You can just sc them together, but I prefer a bit of a frilled edge. I get them by doing a sc, then I chain 1, spin the donut around once to twist the chain, and then I go on to the next sc. It makes an edge that looks a little like a crab stitch, but it's a lot easier! 

Round 7: Hold both sides of the donut together and work 30 sc (or sc, twisted chain) around, working through both the frosting and donut layers. When you get the arm, push it toward the front of the doughnut and work around the back of it. After every 10 stitches or so, stuff the section you just finished. Before you finish the final stitches, give the donut a pinch all the way around to make sure you don't have any gaps where you missed stuffing. If you find a gap, you can usually push stuffing into it and re-stuff the area you just pushed stuffing out of. You want your donut to be pleasantly plump! 

Here are the pictures for the little card that he holds. You can paste them into a document, change the size to suit your donut, and print them out. I "laminate" mine with packing tape or self-adhesive laminating sheets and use hot blue to attach to the donut. First I put two little stripes of glue on the back of the sign and press it onto the doughnut. Then I put a touch of glue onto the bobble at the end of the arm, and press the bobble onto the edge of the sign. 

Alien in Flying Saucer no-sew amigurumi pattern

 

Alien in Spaceship

I used worsted weight yarn and a 3.75 mm hook. Weights below are based on worsted weight yarn, which has about 50 yards per ounce, in case you want to figure out yardage for another weight of yarn. (The alien in the yellow spaceship is made with two strands of a lightweight DK and an H hook) 

Alien Color: .25 oz

Spaceship main color: .35 oz 

Spaceship Accent color: .15 oz

Starting at top of head with the Alien Color

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: (sc, inc) x 2, Antenna, (sc, inc) x 2, Antenna, (sc, inc) x 2 (18)

Antenna: ch 5, work 2 dc bobble in 3^rd chain from hook, sl st 2, make a sl st in the side of the last sc worked

I goofed with this guy, and only put one repeat of the (sc, inc) between the antenna. 

R4: (sc 2, inc) x 6 (24) Push the antenna out of the way, toward the MR, as you work past them. 

R5-10: sc (24)

Change to spaceship color. In Round 12, use spaceship accent color for 3-dc bobbles (BOB)

Place 1 eye between rows 5 & 6, centered between the antenna. Place two more eyes between rows 7/8, with 2 stitches between. Embroider a smile below the eyes. Optional: you could just use one big eye. It’s an alien… have fun and be imaginative! Once eyes and embroidery are done, stuff the head.

R11: (sc 2, inc) x 8 (32)

R12: (sc, BOB, sc, inc) x 8 (40)

R13: (sc 4, inc) x 8 (48)

R14: (sc 5, inc) x 8 (56) Change to spaceship accent color, but do not cut spaceship color.

R15: Hdc (56) FO spaceship accent color and weave in end. Continue r16 with spaceship color

R16: In 3^rd loop, (sc 5, dec) x 8 (48)

R17: (sc 4, dec) x 8 (40)

R18: (sc 3, dec) x 8 (32)

R19: (sc 2, dec) x 8 (24)

R20: (sc 2, dec) x 6 (18)

Stuff the spaceship, making sure you get into the edges of the widest part.

R21: (sc, dec) x 6 (12) Add any additional stuffing.

R22: dec x 6 (6)

FO, leaving short tail to close up.

 

Percival the Impatient - free low-sew pattern

 Angry items seem to sell well for me at craft shows... angry coffee, angry bananas, angry ducks... so I decided to try an angry bird... and Percival the Impatient came to be. He is a grumpy little fellow who works up quickly, and the only thing you have to sew on is his beak! 

Percival the Impatient

Body color: About .5 oz

Accent color: less than .25 oz

This pattern uses a double increase, where you make 3 sc in one stitch. I abbreviate it as *3sc*.

Beginning at bottom with body color:

R1: sc 9 in MR (9)

R2: (sc 2, *3sc*) x 3 (15)

R3: sc 3, (*3sc*, sc 4) x 2, *3sc*, sc (21)

R4: sc 4, (*3sc*, sc 6) x 2, *3sc*, sc 2 (27)

R5: sc 5, (*3sc*, sc 8) x 2, *3sc*, sc 3 (33)

R6: sc (33)

You should have a three-sided figure. In round 7, we will add legs in the contrast color.

Leg: change to accent color with the stitch before the leg. Chain 15. Starting in the second st from hook, sl st 3, (ch 4, sl st 3) x 2. Sl st back to the end of the chain, changing to the body color with the last sl st.

R7: Sc 11, Leg, sc 5, Leg, sc 17 (33)

Non-counting summary of round 7: legs are centered on the front side with 3 stitches between legs and the corners, and 5 stitches between the legs.

R8-10: sc (33) For Round 8, make sure Percival’s legs are on the outside of the body and work around them.

R11: sc 9, BLO sc, sc 12, BLO sc, sc 10 (33) The BLO stitches should be on the sides of the body, each one the same number of stitches from the closest leg. You can place stitch markers in the front loops you leave open, to make them easier to find later.

R12: (sc 9, dec) x 3 (30)

R13-14: sc (30)

R15: (sc 8, dec) x 3 (27)

In Round 16, we will add arms (change to the contrast color with the stitch before the arm if desired. For my cardinal, I made the arms in the body color). The bottom of the arms will be attached to the body in the front loops left in Round 11. This gives Percival his “hands on the hips impatient” look.

R16: sc 9, arm, sc 10, arm, sc 8 (27)

Arms should be on the sides.

Arm: ch 12, make 3 dc bobble in the 4^th chain from the hook. Sl st into the R11 loop, working behind the “hand” (so the hand is between the legs and the chain for the arms). Sl st into the next chain and each of the remaining chains, changing back to body color with the last chain.

R17-18: sc (27)

R19: (sc 7, dec) x 3 (24)

R20: sc (24)

R21: (sc 6, dec) x 3 (21)

R22-23: sc (21)                 

R24: (sc 5, dec) x 3 (18)

Insert eyes between rows 21 & 22, with 5 stitches visible between them. They should line up with the feet, and be centered between the arms. I used oval Kawaii safety eyes that are ¾” tall.

Stuff body and continue to stuff as you decrease.

R25: sc (18)

R26: (sc, dec) x 6 (12)

R27: dec x 6 (6).

Finish off, leaving about a 6” tail. Use the tail to gather the stitches of R27 and pull closed. Don’t cut the yarn yet… Cut two more pieces about 6” long. Latch them through at the top of Percival’s head, adding the single strand from closing the hole through the loop as you pull the yarn through.  Trim to about 2”. Separate strands of each piece of yarn, and, if desired, brush out with a pet brush.

Options: You could add more strands of hair at the top of the head, to make more of a crest (as I did with the cardinal) or you could do the hair in the accent color.

Beak

With accent color, chain 4. Sl st, sc, hdc. FO, leaving tail to sew to Percival’s face, centered between and 1-2 rows below the eyes. (Since the cardinal beak was black, I left an extra-long tail and used the extra to embroider his eyebrows.)

Embroider Percival’s angry eyebrows. \ /

 With black yarn, start 3 rows above one eye, centered over the eye. Insert the needle two rows down (one row above the eye, even with the inner side of the eye). Repeat with other eye.

 

Thank you to Strawberry Bonnie for helping to test my pattern. 

For my bluebird, I skipped the BLO on round 11 and left this arms untethered, so he can cross his arms (also looks impatient and a bit grumpy)

How about an angry mallard? 

Rounds 1-17: Brown

Round 18: white

Rounds 19-27 Green

Use orange for legs and yellow for beak

 

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! 

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

Pattern by Studio Phoebe 22 on Instagram 

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. 

April 7: Little Bunny by Grace and Yarn

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

April 8

Rainbow fish by Chai Coffee Crochet

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

April 9:

Little Bitty Bear by Darling Maple Designs

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

Free YouTube Tutorial by Allez Crochet

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. 

It's a free pattern download on Ravelry

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

Cute Crocodile Amigurumi

from amigurum.com

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

free pattern on Ravelry

April 19

Sad Kitty by Yarn Society pattern here

April 20

Claude Chick

Free Pattern download on Ravelry

April 21

Crocodile

Free YouTube Tutorial

April 22 - Goose

Free Pattern by Instagram by Crochet_Crochey

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 28 - Cow by Oombawka Designs

April 29

Ziggy Zebra by Chai Coffee Crochet

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