Going through my files, I found some odds and ends of crochet projects that I didn't get a chance to post here. I'm rectifying that now, though most of them are out of season. It really doesn't matter to me when I make something that will get used year after year. Creating them is half the fun, and when there's no holiday deadline looming, I can relax and take my time.
This first one is an older project, something I made around 10 years ago after posting pictures on Facebook of these cute little holiday elf/gnome figures I had made. Someone asked me if I could make a zombie gnome and I said, sure. So I did. I was supposed to give it to that person at a writer's conference but he didn't make it, and time has moved on. My 2 younger grandkids play with Mr. Zombie Gnome now, and his rather grim look doesn't seem to faze them. Of course they play Minecraft with their parents and older brother, so I suppose there's nothing too shocking in a soft-bodied zombie. His neck is a little wobbly but he's been keeping kids entertained for over 7 years now.
Bonapart the Skeleton was another one of those impromptu projects that I found online and just had to try. He doesn't quite look as well proportioned as I pictured him being, but he's recognizable and that's all that really matters. He comes out to hang around with us every October until Halloween is over. The grandkids seem to get a kick out of him.
You never know what you're going to find on my worktable. This head standing on a funnel was the start of a fall scarecrow doll project that I whipped up from scratch a couple years back. I used some basic doll proportions for it, but I actually winged it and just wrote stuff down as I went along. You have to sew on the buttons and embroider before you stuff it, and it's tough getting everything even. But it's a scarecrow, it's supposed to appear rustic, right?
Actually I made two of them, a boy and a girl. For some reason she came out a little larger than her partner. The clothing is actually part of the body, so to my granddaughter's dismay, she could not dress or undress them. But they are only supposed to be seasonal decorations that come out in September and disappear after Thanksgiving. I used sewn on felt patches to make the clothing appear timeworn. The straw for hair and hanging out of sleeves and cuffs is just a dark gold yarn that was attached and then had its plies unwound. The hats are sewn in place.
This year I made a turkey to go with the scarecrows, though I finished it after Thanksgiving. Once again I just made it up as I went along. I stuck with more traditional turkey colors rather than the rainbow tail feathers I often see. This used yarn I had on hand too. I know the beak is too long, but no matter. I just attached feet to the bottom to give it something to stand on. It does stand up on its own. The head and body are pretty much one unit, but the tail, wings, beak, snood, eyes, and feet were all sewn on afterward. The grandkids recognized it so I guess it looks enough like a turkey to be passable.
Some years back I made a couple witch dolls from a pattern I found online, but then we moved and they got packed away. I found them a couple years ago and have been wanting to revisit that pattern ever since. The problem was, I couldn't find it in my files! One of them had lost her hat along the way, so that's the first thing I made. Then in 2019, I found the notebook that had the pattern in it and started a new doll.
One thing that the original pattern did not call for was fingers. I wanted the dolls to have them, because it makes them appear as if they are conjuring something. Also in the boots part of the leg, there was something wrong that never seemed to come out right, so I had to try and recall how I fudged that with the other two. I think she came out pretty nicely though, and now she has been reunited with her two sisters. The hair is knotted to the scalp area and then the plies untwisted. She looks like a 1980s glam rocker!
The picture above is the witchy girls all together. I don't put them away for the season, I'm too fond of them. I bought 3 doll stands and they remain on display. The one on the right had lost her hat, and I couldn't find any of the other colors so she got a sage green one to match the stripes on her tights. I still want to make some witchy jewelry for the new gal.
This was the start of a special project I made in the winter of 2019-2020. Most of it was done by the time the pandemic became a thing. Since the gap between New Year's Day and Valentine's Day is so large, and winter can be a dark, quiet and solemn time, I wanted to create something that celebrated the Winter Solstice and the lengthening days as the new year progressed toward spring. So I started with this simple crocheted wintry backdrop and then began to add details to it as I went along. It is more rectangular than it looks in this crummy cell phone pic, but it does need some blocking as well.
These are all the crocheted components laid out before being sewn in place. That in itself took some time. Because the solstice is about the gradual return of longer sunlight hours, the sun had to appear in all its radient glory in such a stark landscape. Once these were all sewn down, I used the same yarns—often split into smaller plies—to add additional details via simple embroidery. Other than the crocheted framing border, everything that you see below that is not in the picture above this paragraph was embroided to it. It took several months until I was satisfied that I had it the way it should look.
And this was the end result. I added more trees in the backdrop, some animal life, and things like bird houses and bird feeders, along with many bare branches. This is similar to a primitive-style painting, as embroidery on crochet is a little fiddly at times. But I think it turned out well. The back of course is not terribly attractive, but nobody really sees that. I still need to make a hanger for this and get it up to display.
Yes this stuff does take time and effort, but there are far worse things I could be doing. Like sitting around worrying and fretting, or getting into political arguments online. Keeping my hands busy and my mind on making a project allows me to relax, unwind, and get my feet up in the evening. I generally work with something on TV in the background that I can occasionally glance up at over the reading glasses. That's a very soothing way to end my day after long hours of writing, because in these golden years, a day's work for me is simply adding to whatever books or short stories I can turn out to be published. Crochet and other crafts use a slightly different part of the brain than writing, and aren't nearly as intense. They also give me things I can show off. So who cares what holiday is looming next or how insane the world seems these days! Why focus on all the negatives when you can do something interesting and maybe learn something along the way as well? For me, crafting or other hobbies are a positive ways of using what I laughingly refer to as my 'spare time'.
~NANCY
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