When my niece, Molly, was expecting her third child, I made this whale for her youngest son, George. He was affectionately named, “Whaley.” I suspect the name came from not wanting to be outdone by his older brother, Oliver’s naming his Longhorn, “Horny.”
My niece, Molly, was expecting her third child and I decided to make a blanket and stuffed toy for the baby. She has two young boys and I did not want them to feel left out, so I decided to make something for them as well. Molly (my wife) suggested a Longhorn for the oldest son, Oliver, since Molly (niece) and her husband both went to the University of Texas. I thought it was a great idea. I went to Texas A&M University though, and it took all I had in me to get excited about a Longhorn!! He turned out really cute.
But the cutest part of this story is what Oliver decided to name him.
Horny. That’s what Oliver named him. Horny. I died laughing when Molly (niece) was telling us some of the conversations they had surrounding this Longhorn. “Dad, will you get Horny for me?” I think she told us too that he showed off Horny for show-and-tell in Zoom kindergarten. I can just imagine the look on the teacher’s face!!
I don’t remember how I stumbled across this pattern for the Educational Baby Ball, but I thought it was adorable! This is another “stash buster” because I just used yarn I had on the shelf. I posted a picture of it on Facebook and a friend of mine, Logan, private messaged me and wanted the ball for her first child. She hadn’t told many people at this point that she was even pregnant, so I felt super excited for her and the ball was shipped to Oklahoma. Finn has since arrived and I hope he has fun with this when he gets a little bit older!!
I have amassed quite the yarn stash in the last couple of years. One “stash buster” pattern is the African Flower motif. I saw this giraffe pattern thought he was adorable! I used random colors from the stash and after I got the hang out of attaching the motifs together, he turned out pretty cute. He’s around 18″ tall or so.
My niece, Brina, asked if I could make her three dinosaurs from plush yarn and I found these three patterns for the Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Bracheosaurus. They are made from Bernat Blanket yarn which is really soft and squishy. They turned out rather large!!
Early in the days of picking my crochet hooks back up again, I saw this free pattern for a bunny Crochet Big Flappy Ear Bunny Amigurumi Free Pattern (craftsyamore.com). I was pretty pleased with how she turned out. I used Bernat Blanket yarn and she’s really soft and fluffy. She loves to lounge around under the Easter Egg tree.
My daughter, Korinna, gave me a sea life crochet patterns book for Christmas. The first critter I chose from this collection was the octopus. He just looks like a Gus to me. I made the red one with yarn from my stash. I posted a picture of it on Facebook and my friend, Lara, commissioned one in green for her niece who is studying to be a marine biologist.
I saw a really cute scarecrow pattern here Crochet – Scarecrow & Pumpkin – #EC00294 (e-patternscentral.com) and decided that would be an easy project to take with me traveling to see Jackie (my mother-in-law) last fall. I picked up the yarn and packed it to go. I started working on it at Jackie’s house when we weren’t out and about on the magical island of Nantucket. Jackie got the biggest kick out of watching “Jack” come to life. I finished him while we were on the island and brought him home with me. As it turned out, Jackie passed away a couple of weeks later. It was at that point that I christened him “Jack” in her honor. I hadn’t intended to keep this one, but that all changed. Now Jack lives in our house forever.
One of my nieces, Hannah, asked me if I could make her a reversible stuffy. So I found a pattern on Ravelry: No Sew Reversible Mood Octopus pattern by Michelle Hall that worked perfectly.
A friend of mine, Rob, saw some of my crochet madness and asked if I could make him a Kraken Hat. Well, of course, I could! I found the pattern here Ravelry: Twisted Kraken hat pattern by Natalie Allen. After I finished this one, a friend of Rob’s saw it and ordered an identical one.
