Special Projects!

I think those of us who have a hobby or craft that we avidly pursue want to use that skill to solve any problem we come across. It's no different for me. I crochet a lot, and it's generally the first thing I think of when someone's dolly needs a new dress or somebody needs a costume piece for Halloween that just can't be found. So the grandkids have often brought me projects and ask me if this too can be fixed with yarn and a crochet hook.

Grandma does not say 'NO' very often. Many times I will take a project home to work on it during the evenings, and return it the next time I visit. Sometimes the project gets brought over to me. I think it's a sign of trust that some beloved playthings have spent a week or so at my house getting fixed again. It's tough for young children to part with a toy and there's always some angst that it will not be fixable or won't be returned. Thankfully we live in the age of smartphones so that I can send a picture of the repair in progress or the end result. Such a case was Barney the Dog.

Barney was adopted from a Build A Bear shop. If I have the story right, my little granddaughter helped insert his heart through an incision in his upper back and sewed it shut. Unfortunately over play times and with lots of hugs, the stitches came out along with a little stuffing and Barney's heart, which got lost. When Terra came to me and showed me what happened, she was in tears. Could Grandma fix Barney and give him a new heart too?

Of course Grandma could! I asked Terra if it would be alright if Barney got a new crocheted heart, and she said that would be fine. But I'd have to take him home with me for that, because that's where all my materials and tools were. So rather late on a Friday evening, Barney went home in a bag, and I started working on him the next evening. First I had to make that heart, which Terra said was red and white cloth. I decided to make one in red yarn with white trim, and sent a picture, but had to wait to have that approved. She saw it on her Uncle Jason's phone and immediately loved it. Such a simple thing to make, but it brought so much joy...

Next the heart got inserted and pushed to the front of Barney's chest, where it can now be felt. Then I added a bit more fiberfill to make up for what was lost and keep the new heart in place, before sewing Barney's back shut. I used a small curved needle, you can find them in most sewing aisles on a card with other special needles for heavy hand sewing projects. That made it far easier to see what I was doing as I sewed through that fur fabric, trying to line up stitches to get a halfway decent looking seam. I have quite a collection of thread, so found a pale blond color that didn't stick out like a sore thumb. A little fiddly, but worth it for the smiles.

Since Barney was spending the week with me, I decided he could use a nice new hand-crocherted collar and a leash. So Grandma got out the yarn and crochet hooks, and got to work. You can see the collar alone in the pictures above, the gold button (it's sewn on) fits into a loop so it can be taken off. Easier for little hands to do and undo. Below is the finished collar again with the new leash as well in bright red. That has a built in loop on one end to go over the arm, and the other end slips under the collar and also buttons shut. That was a big hit when Barney made his triumphant trip back to his own home. He got his first leash training lessons that evening.

Just a random dog leash I made for brother Zack's toy dog, who already had a collar. I brought that along with me when Barney got dropped off.

It doesn't take much to please a child sometimes. Just a little time, patience, and ingenuity. I figured while I was working on Barney's problems, I'd update his two little cousins that live at my house, so they'd have new collars too. These are rescue toys, meaning they were passed along from people who no longer wanted them. So they needed some love too. That was the surprise the next time the grandkids came over, and those little doggies got towed or toted everywhere! I was told that the bigger pup needed a leash, but the small one was too little for that, so he just gets carried. Those doggies had many adventures that day, providing plenty of imaginative playtime.

Pinky Penguin had a similar problem to Barney in that a seam had opened and some fiberfill had come out. I'm not sure where Pinky came from, but the stitching was with poor thread that easily snapped, and didn't hold up to child hugs and sleeping with her best friend. Again I had to take a stuffie home, and work on several areas, reinforcing the stitching. As I told Terra later on, Pinky was so well behaved I made her a pretty decorative collar. As far as I know, she's still wearing that.

Another problem we had was a dearth of blankets for the dolls that live at my house. They're all rescues as well, aged Barbies and other dress-me type dolls from flea markets. I have made some clothing for the naked ones, but blankets were a big deal. So I got out my scrap yarn and got busy.

I have several containers of bits and bobs of of fine yarn like the one above from a project that started out as a garbage bag full of granny squares sewn together by someone who had no clue what she was doing (and admitted that to me). I got it for a few dollars at a local flea market over 10 years ago. The yarn was somewhere between light and fine, and the squares were very loosely done so that the ends kept pulling free. I wound up unsewing the squares, pulling them all apart, cutting out knots, and redoing them on a smaller hook than the original person used. And when I was done, there was a lot of small rolls like what you see above. Good for small scrap yarn projects, like those doll blankets.

So this is what I did with some of it. Those are two different doll blankets, with random rows of whatever bits and bobs came up in the container. I had the white yarn sitting around so just used that as a quickie edging. You never saw such a happy bunch of dolls. They slept beneath them and went swimming with them spread out as beach towels. Sometimes it pays to be a scrap saver.

This is probably one of the ugliest things I've ever made. I saw this really interesting pattern online for join-as-you-go crocheted yo-yos called 'sea pennies' and was intrigued. Another good way to use those really small scraps. It turned out to be a lot more fiddly than it sounded. I couldn't imagine making an enire throw from this stuff, so I turned it into a dolly carpet. My granddaughter thought it was great. Wish all my fans were that accomodating!

For the grandkids once more, these soft, fiberfill stuffed swirly balls are safe for play indoors. When Zack was about two years old, he was watching a Red Sox baseball game with us at his house, and Rick Porcello was pitching. I told him to watch how the pitcher wound up and lifted his leg, and he caught on fast. Zack grabbed a plastic toy food lemon and for the next half hour, he practiced that windup and kick, pelting everything around him (including us) with that darn lemon! His windup, enthusiasm and velocity were great, but he needed more control to hit the strike zone... 😆 Sometime later I saw this pattern and printed it up, and made 'safe' baseballs to pitch with. They are still living at my house though, because mommy did not like the idea of pitching practice in her living room. These would make nice lightweight ornaments for the tree as well. At least when they hit something, they don't leave marks. 😨 The do get played with!

Not everything I make is for kids. This was supposed to be an easy care plant for a birthday present. The problem is the base (pot) needs some weight to keep it upright and the stem needs something inside besides fiberfill to make it stiff. Someday I will revisit it and do it right, because I do like the concept. Right now the kids play with it or it simply gets moved around my living room. The picture was taken in the single 10 minutes it actually stood upright.

The first flower I made for it is still hanging around as well. I didn't care for it, it reminded me too much of Henry Gibson on Laugh-In back in the late '60s, holding that huge flower and reciting some lame poem. Yeah, I'm showing my age here...

Now and then, I actually do a project just for me. I have several things around the house that would be a far sight handier if you could hang them up! So for the backscratcher here which is hung near my PC, the one by my bed, and the bath brush I use, I got out the cotton yarn and made little lanyards. Nothing much to look at, but they aren't always hitting the floor when you reach for them. In fact, they're right nearby, where they can be useful. Like when you're in the midst of writing a big fight scene and suddenly that itchy spot you can't reach is nagging you, taking your attention off the keyboard and the words that magically result from those pounding fingers. No more dropping the bath brush in the tub and not being able to bend down and pick it up. You get the idea. 

Sometimes it's the little projects that make life easier or more fun. That's another good reason to make whatever it is that you make, in your 'spare' time.

~Nancy