Little Bear - Hooded Cowl Pattern

 

Winter is coming... if anyone haven't noticed. And where is winter there is the opportunity to make crochet goodies like hats, scarfs, gloves and cowls. I decided to make a little bear cowl for my little bear :). I don't have much experience in doing crochet accessories but I have to say this came out great. People are actually turning heads on the street and saying how cute he looks. Today we were at the pool, and my son was wearing his cowl and a group of 6-8 years old girls stopped to stare and was saying what a cute bear he is. It was hilarious, my husband couldn't stop laughing and said that I will find him a wife soon at this rate cause he is irresistible to the opposite sex now. Does it make me a bad Mommy to say he will never get married I will not let him cause all of the girls are not good enough (Kidding! Probably :)


(A bit of private interest) This pattern would not be so beautifully presented if not for a photos of my little model. Maybe in some time he will be reading it himself, so to my son: Thank You my beautiful, wonderful boy for being such a talented and patient model. You are great I love You soooo much.
I hope when You will see those pictures, in a couple of years, You want say: "Mommy what did You made me wear, it's so embarrassing, please delete those photos, I look so stupid" :D:D "What were You thinking..." :D
OMG That will happen won't it?!

After making this crochet baby bear cowl I am wondering about making one for myself. There is one thing You need to know about me: I hate hats, no that's not true - I hate wearing hats! They are to tight and ruin your hair. So I thought, maybe a hooded cowl is a perfect winter head protector for me :) But there comes the question Should I make myself the one with ears as well or am I too old for that? :D

Materials:

• two colors of yarn, mine are as You can see dark brown and light blue. When going to the store I was thinking about other colors but seeing this two together made me rethinking the color palette. I am a fan of dark- natural colored hats and cowls, I would love to see this cowl in grey, lighter brown or black but You can always use color You like most, but try to choose two: the base color of the cowl and additional color for boarders.  ( My yarn's gauge is 17 to 13 sts = 4 inches/10 cm)
• 7 mm hook

Additional notes before starting:

I write this notes because I know the pattern is not perfect it works for me, well for my son actually but If You would like to modify the pattern to fit Your child or You better please read the following notes, they might be helpful:

• My son is now 1 year 8 months old and I was designing the pattern for him, I was trying it on when making the cowl and I was certain it's long enough but now that we are using it I can see the back/hood could be longer. It's ok now but every now and then when he is pulling the ear or turning on making crazy moves his neck is peeking out. So to fix that I would add a few rounds around row 18-22
• The circle in which the head comes out is not tight enough for the baby. I actually made that on purpose my son hates everything that is tight. But if You are doing the cowl for yourself, your husband or older baby it is perfect - both me and my husband tried it on ( Maybe that's why it's not as tight now :P )
• If You are making the cowl for yourself just make more rounds, cause my cowl fits me perfectly only if it would be long enough
• On the back of the cowl You can see the diagonal line (see the photo below ) I think that's where the rows are starting. You can't really see it when wearing it but for all the perfectionists I am writing these information. 

Pattern:

I AM GROOT... AGAIN - custom order

I just finished another potted baby GROOT for a custom order.

If You would like to know more about custom orders write me an email or fill the "contact me" form on the right.

If You would like to make Your own GROOT following my free pattern see the link:
http://krawka.blogspot.com/2014/08/i-am-groot.html


But that's not what I wanted to write about. I wanted to make a review of my own pattern and I would title it: Following someone else's pattern ( or the pattern You made some time ago and don't remember much) is HARD. I will make alterations in the pattern as soon as possible, in my opinion there are some parts of it that are unclear or should receive more pictures or picture from another side so one.... But please remember that I'm only human (or maybe not TAM TAM TAM...ominous music) and I can't find every bug in patterns. If You are following any of my patterns and have suggestions what is wrong or what could be made better, please don't be afraid to say so :)

10 Extremely creative crochet toys for babies - every pattern is free

Since my son was born ( I probably need to explain he is my first baby) I am spending almost every hour of every day with him. Reading books to him, learning him new things and of course playing with him. There are on this world some amazing toys which both child and adult can play every day (few times a day) without getting bored like block-s ( I can't wait for more complicated ones) and puzzles ( read the previous bracket :) or find and seek books ( did You try some OMG they are great and pretty hard some of them ( I do have this one in polish but I think it's similar to this one. I recommend them to any parent )

What was I..? :) Yes, there are great and creative toys but most of them become boring after one day from buying them. In a perfect world I would buy my son new toys every single day or few every day this way he would be sooo happy (and spoiled) and I would get some quiet time for my hot beverage. Well that's not an option for now.

Second idea which I've got from more experienced parents is hide some toys for a week than pull them out gradually every day. This way the toy is just like new for your baby and You will get 10 to 15 minutes for Your hot beverage. Yay!
(This is actually a good advice consider it )

Last idea is somewhere in between previous two. What could it be? What could it be? Well You probably know my blog theme and You might have read the post title, so I won't keep the suspense any longer..... maybe a bit longer...... You can crochet toys. And if Your kid would get bored or too old for some of them You can rip them and make something else. Plus You get to crochet! Isn't it the most important!

So I decided to share with You my own list of free patterns for creative crochet toys that You have to make to Your baby. I know I will.


1. Baby mobile by Amigurumi Askina

Crochet baby mobile is such a wonderful idea or so many reasons. First is that You can make any toys You want on the ends of the strings. You can adjust it to Your baby room both by color and theme for example on my strings You would see pirate-pandas and pirate-monkeys but You are free to make whatever You like :) Another reason is that You can make a lot of sets and change it once a week. You can actually watch Your baby preferences If he/she likes all the same color or different, same shape or not, He/She prefers red or maybe white...

One option Your mobile won't have compared to bought in shop ones is  the music. But to comfort You, most of the mobile musics are sooo annoying. And If You are still not convinced You can always buy one and make one and have both!

So the pattern is for a mobile with planes and clouds it's actually very cute and simple. Follow the link under the picture to see the pattern.
From what I can get:
X is single crochet
V is increase
A is decrease
I know the pattern is not so easy to read but with the explanations above and enough perseverance I know You will make beautiful baby mobile.

http://amigurumiaskina.blogspot.ca/2014/06/amigurumi-ucakl-donence-tarifi-free.html#_a5y_p=1840005

Big Hero 6 - Baymax free pattern

I looooove Disney movies - all of them, probably every single one and now that my son is old enough (1,5y) I have an excuse to watch them from the beginning once more :) YAY!!! I'm trying to avoid to much television so we are not watching every day but I can definitely say that the favorite one for now is "Where is NEMO?" but from what I have heard it's not uncommon.

Anyway it's always so nice to watch something new I especially love the ones with a new concept. Since I have watched the trailer of the new movie BIG HERO 6 I knew immediately I would like the movie very much, but the most importantly that I'm in love with Baymax.

The  world premiere of the movie was 7.11.2014, but as always, in Poland the movie will be released 28.11.2014 because of the Polish dubbing they need to record. ( For those who doesn't know we have amazing dubbing for animated movies, sometimes even better than the actual text. SERIOUSLY ).

If You don'tknow the movie yet, watch the trailer:

So I didn't see the whole movie yet but I already made the little Baymax for my desk and I would like to share the pattern with You. As always I hope You will make more cute Baymax's and I would love to see the photos when You finish. You can always send photos to me by email kamilakusztal@gmail.com or share it via google+ or post it on ravelry or do all of the above. 

Designing the character:

Back to crochet pattern. First step for me is always designing the character on paper. Below You can see the first project. I always try to make my characters the size I designed on paper, but they are always a bit bigger. Also below You can see the drawing that inspired me. I loved the little red heart  on otherwise one colored character. I also wanted to incorporate the lines to my crochet character, so I decided to sew them with thick, grey embroidery floss.

Materials:

When You have the concept of the character ready You have to collect the materials. Below is the list of items I used

• white yarn ( I use the yarn which gauge is 24.0 to 30.0 sts = 4 inches )
• hook 4 mm
• black and red sheet of foam (mine is 1 mm thick) for eyes and red heart. If You don't have foam do't worry You can easly use little scrap of material or even embroider with thread. It's really up to You
• hot glue gun - If Yu are using foam like I did
• cotton or something else You will use as filament
• grey embroidery floss