February Goals - 2024

 Okay, I'm actually getting my goals set up early: 

1) #amibookchallenge - My wheel name picker picked one of my newest acquisitions, KnotMonster Breakfast! - DONE

I made the milk carton! 

2) I also want to make a pattern that I have purchased, but never made... PJ Pals, Charlie Horse got picked. I got the pattern in 2017. It's an adorable horse in unicorn pajamas. 

Pattern Link

Didn't get around to it... so it's getting moved to March. 

3) Monster of the Month - I am designing a monster (I already have the design sketched out) that is pink with green stripes. Once I have it designed, and the pattern typed up, I will make a second one to check my pattern, and eventually put it up on my blog as a free pattern.

Here is version 1.0, along with the sketch I worked from.

4) Scrap Yarn Challenge: my recent yarn gift (here is a video of the unbagging) left me with a big tray of scrap yarn, so one of my goals for February is to use it up! DONE! 

It took hours to untangle and wind this bag! 

The finished scrap yarn tray. The largest cakes were moved to storage bins, so my actual "use this up" tray is about half this size. 

First I made a couple of mushrooms: 

 

 Then a platypus

 

Since there was so much red in the box, I brought a skein of red fun fur from my stash and made an extra furry monster! 

Then it was back to mushrooms... pop mushrooms, a free pattern (Crushy Mushy) by crochet_crochey on Instagram. 

Next up, a pink turtle!

I must have been hungry... I made a Cherry Chip donut! 

Then I played with the dinosaur pattern from the book Tiny Toys to Crochet, and made this dude. I played yarn chicken and lost... so his legs, arms, and tail are a slightly different color! 

I pulled the brightly colored yarns and made a rainbow chameleon: 

He's probably my favorite of the projects I made... 

Then I really burned through a lot of tiny balls of yarn with a scrappy snake. 

Then I pulled up the Mini Monster pattern from my friend Katie at Yarn Society... 

Then I made a chicken... and made her a little carrying pouch with a patch that says "emotional support chicken"

I cut out a leather piece from an old purse, and my husband did the lettering with his wood-burning equipment. 

The yarn supply was getting pretty low, so I made up a few little balls... I will have them on my craft tables for $2 each or 2/$3... I think I have about 10 in stock now.

I thought I was done... but then I found a half-finished turtle. I ran out of green yarn and forgot about it... So I pulled out some more green and finished it up, for project #17: 

5) Artist's Choice Bag - My husband made up bags of yarn for me in coordinating colors, so I will be working on using up one of those bags. Projects will probably be pretty colorful, as I think I'm going with the bag that has orange and purple! 

Project 1 was a hug monster, pattern by Yarn Society

2nd project was Pixie the Robot, a free pattern from Lion Brand yarn

I also used the yarns in another robot, with more colors added: 

6) Mystery Yarn Challenge - I participate in this YouTube challenge hosted by Lori the Armchair Chef. Here's the yarn I got this month: 

The first project I made from the yarn was an airplane from the book Tiny Toys to Crochet.

Then I made an African Flower Turtle (Pattern)

 I ended up making four projects with the yarn.

7) Publish one paid pattern - since I didn't get that done in January... didn't get it done in February, either! 

8) 15 Etsy listings (updated or new listings) - oops, haven't been keeping close track of this one! 

      1. Pop mushroom 2. Chameleon 3. Hug monster 4. African Flower Turtle 5. Chicken 

      6. Jelly Bean Bunnies 7. Planes 8. Robots 

9) Use up 5 yarns from my Ravelry Stash

2/22 update. My progress on my goals has been slow, as I got a big custom order (for a baby blanket). I'm hoping to have that finished this weekend, and do a mad dash to finish up as many of my goals as possible! 

Monster of the Month - January

My first Monster of the Month was a blue monster with white dreads. He's low-sew... you only have to sew on the eye. If your monster was a lighter color and you had a big safety eye you wanted to use, that would work, too... but I thought a safety eye would just get lost in this guy's blue fur. 

Yarn: I used one 50 g ball of Bernat Allure, a super bulky yarn, held together with a strand of sport weight yarn (to help me see my stitches better). I used a K hook for the body, arms and legs of the monster. 

I used small amounts of white and black worsted weight for the eye, and more white for the dreads. I used an F hook for the eye, and K hook for the dreads. 

First, I made the arms. I started in the round, but then moved on to rows. 

Arms - make 2

R1: 5 sc in MR

R2: *sc, ch 4, sl st 3* x 3, sc 2 (5 sc + 3 fingers)

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc 2

Rows 4-7: ch 1, turn, sc 2. Finish off. Set aside until called for while making the body. 

Legs: make 2

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: BLO sc  (12)

R4: sc  (12)

R5: *sc, dec* x 4 (8)

R6-8: sc 8 (8). Finish off leg one. When you finish leg 2, do not finish off... continue with body. 

Body:

R1: ch 4, sc 8 around first leg, sc in each of the 4 chains, sc 8 around second leg, sc in back loops of the 4 chains (24)

R2-3: sc (24)

R4: decrease at sides (22) Stuff the legs, and continue to stuff body as you go. 

R5: sc (22)

Time to attach the arms in round 6! Fold your monster flat (like he's on his back) and find the two stitches at the center of each side. You will crochet through these stitches and your arms at the same time. 

 R6: sc, crocheting through the arm and marked stitches at each side. (22)

R7: decrease at sides (20)

R8: decrease at sides (18)

R9: decrease at sides (16)

R10: *sc 2, dec* x 4 (12) Get that last little bit of stuffing in... 

R11: dec x 6 (6) Finish off, leaving a tail. Weave tail through the front loops of Round 11 and pull to close. Weave in remaining tail. 

Eye (with worsted weight yarn and F hook)

With white: 

R1: sc 6 in MR

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18) Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to monster's face. 

With black:

R1: sc 5 in MR. Finish off, leaving tail to sew to white of the eye. Sew the black circle off-center on the white. Sew eye in the center of the monster's face. 

Dreads: 

Cut 10-12 lengths of yarn about 48" long. I just take the end of the yarn in one hand, hold the yarn in the other, and stretch my arms as far out as they will go, then cut the yarn.

Fold your yarn in half, and using the K hook, pull the center of the yarn through a stitch on top of the head. Now make a chain with both strands of the yarn held together, until you run out of yarn. I was getting 19-20 chains per strand. Just pull your yarn through the last chain, trim the ends, and move on to the next dread. 

I guess this one would be Mama Dreads... I made her with one strand of Bernat Boa (Peacock) and one strand of light blue worsted weight yarn. 

January 2024 Goals

 Wow, it's 2024 already! 2023 was a bit rough around the edges... bad weather for outdoor shows, poor sales at shows and on Etsy, extra expenses as I changed the spare bedroom to a craft room... but here we are in 2024, and I'm ready to start with a fresh slate. 

Overall, in 2024, I would like to cut down my yarn stash, grow my YouTube channel, and keep up with monthly goals, like the #amibookchallenge and my Crazy Critter Challenge. 

So, here are my goals for January: 

1 - do the #amibookchallenge by making a robot from my Crobot book. - DONE

I think I'm going to make this one, shown on the cover. 

2 - My Crazy Critter Challenge will have a bit of a twist this year. All 12 crazy critters will be Monsters, which I make uip as I go along, and I will publish the pattern here on my blog as the "Monster of the Month." I've already finished January's: a blue monster with white dreads: DONE

Pattern is up on my blog! 

3 - I'm calling this one my "Artist's Choice Bag". I had my husband make up some bags with colors that go well together, and I will use up each bag to make some projects. I asked for one bag... he made three! I'm working on the smallest bag first, which has a dark green, a bright green, and a burnt orange. 

First project done... DONE

One cute chameleon led to another...

4 - Make one project from a pattern I've purchased, but never used... for this month, I'm choosing a mermaid tail hat. DONE 

5 - My first Mystery Yarn Challenge. I found about about this on YouTube - a channel called The Armchair Chef hosts a challenge where you ship out a box of yarn to someone, and you get a box of yarn from someone else... and you make items that use the colors that you have received. My package is sitting at the post office, waiting for mail service to start up again after the holidays, so I should have it tomorrow! I will do an unboxing on my YouTube channel. 

Package arrived: will be starting on projects soon! DONE

Three projects finished from the yarn! 

Final Count: 7 Amigurumi & 1 hat

6 - Yarn Use Up - pick a skein of yarn from stash and use it up. DONE - I pulled a old skein of Bernat Allure and used it for my monster! 

7 - Finish my Boggy Creek Camp blanket and get it in the mail - DONE

1/3 status - working on the border, then I'll just need to do the applique. 

1/4 - finished

1/5 - mailed! 

8 - Publish one paid pattern - oops, didn't get around to this. I have three patterns that just need some formatting and testing. I'll move this one to February.