merrymakes

[merrymakes]

[merrymakes]

Important Update:

Their name is now Pear :)

SPIDER!! :D

Details under the cut:

Omg it's so cute. 🫠🥺

This thing turned out better than I could've imagined. :)

I struggled a lot with this project. But not at all with the pattern xD. The yarn I was using was absolutely awful to work with. It was hairy and had bumps everywhere and kept trying to unwind on me. Plus it was tangled as hell to start with so I actually got to learn how to wind it up into a ball as well, which was a bit of a pain in the ass lol

And then I disappeared halfway through and couldn't do any work on this for a week and a half, which honestly worked out cause that's how long it took for the eyes to arrive lol

Anyways. Onto the project itself. (You can find it HERE)

This only took me maybe 5 hours to do (guesstimating a little bit here 😅). But it went by really quick.

The legs were a bit of a pain because it was tricky to get the spiral into them. I'm still not sure if they're as good as they could be. But aside from that, they were really simple to make.

And the body itself was actually pretty easy. It was a good expansion on the increase/decrease concepts I learned from the jellyfish, really helping to cement them in with how long the rounds got.

First time using safety eyes and stuffing. Omg I love them :) The safety eyes were really easy and simple to use and add so much charm to the piece.

I don't really have much else to say 😅

This was just a fun and cute project, and I think I could definitely get behind doing another with a different yarn :)

Wips:

[merrymakes]

Good luck!!

I'm making a bag right now and it's great! Just so. Tedious.

I'm getting near the end though so I'm really excited :)

All my projects are in time out right now for being terrible and impossible. Which is to say, i am starting a new crochet bag. Crochet bag will be good to me..

[merrymakes]

Mama Jellyfish!!!

Details under the cut:

It's finally done!!!!

This one's been a while in the making 😅. Took around 15 hrs total (I think) but with my schedule...

Whatever :)

Either way it was a lot of fun to make and do. :)

This really helped to solidify my basic skills. Lots of sc 🙃. The most complicated things in there were a half double on the swirly tentacles and learning the invisible fasten off.

This is a great first big project for beginners. You can find the pattern HERE. It costs about $5, but honestly I'd say it was worth it :)

Now I just have to make all the babies to go with xD

Wips:

[merrymakes]

Reminder that almost any truly vintage and antique knit or crochet pattern can be found FREE on many sites including:

On both internet archive and project gutenburg it helps to know what book or magizine you are looking for but you can still do a regular vague key word search and find something.

Even your local library and ravelry might have antique pattern books on file! On ravelry you will have to exclude all purchasable patterns instead of just looking for free for some reason, then get past the first page or two of patterns people thought "looked antique" but once you get to the black and white photos you are golden!

So please don't buy an etsy shop's antique pattern when there is really no reason to, and if you are one of those selling these patterns, know I am judging you big time!

[merrymakes]

The culprit >>:c

Ok fatigue is real xD

I've been going at it for like 2 hours now just doing round on round of sc, and omg 😅

I just thought I was getting sleepy but my eyes were actually getting messed up, (I was seeing double looking at my phone 😅😅) and I'd also worn a groove into my tension finger lol.

Definitely need to take more breaks in the future 😅

[merrymakes]

Ok fatigue is real xD

I've been going at it for like 2 hours now just doing round on round of sc, and omg 😅

I just thought I was getting sleepy but my eyes were actually getting messed up, (I was seeing double looking at my phone 😅😅) and I'd also worn a groove into my tension finger lol.

Definitely need to take more breaks in the future 😅

[merrymakes]

SPIDER!! :D

Details under the cut:

Omg it's so cute. 🫠🥺

This thing turned out better than I could've imagined. :)

I struggled a lot with this project. But not at all with the pattern xD. The yarn I was using was absolutely awful to work with. It was hairy and had bumps everywhere and kept trying to unwind on me. Plus it was tangled as hell to start with so I actually got to learn how to wind it up into a ball as well, which was a bit of a pain in the ass lol

And then I disappeared halfway through and couldn't do any work on this for a week and a half, which honestly worked out cause that's how long it took for the eyes to arrive lol

Anyways. Onto the project itself. (You can find it HERE)

This only took me maybe 5 hours to do (guesstimating a little bit here 😅). But it went by really quick.

The legs were a bit of a pain because it was tricky to get the spiral into them. I'm still not sure if they're as good as they could be. But aside from that, they were really simple to make.

And the body itself was actually pretty easy. It was a good expansion on the increase/decrease concepts I learned from the jellyfish, really helping to cement them in with how long the rounds got.

First time using safety eyes and stuffing. Omg I love them :) The safety eyes were really easy and simple to use and add so much charm to the piece.

I don't really have much else to say 😅

This was just a fun and cute project, and I think I could definitely get behind doing another with a different yarn :)

Wips:

[merrymakes]

Made another 😅

They're just too cute!! 🥺

Details under the cut :P

Same story as last time lol.

Well.. except for the colors :)

I found these lying around in my mom's scrap bin and figured they'd be cute :)

I used the salmon for the body. The red for the frill. And did half and half for the tentacles. I wanted them to alternate, but accidentally did half of each type so we ended up with two of each color in a row lol.

Wips:

JELLYFISH!! :D

Details under the cut:

Omg this was such a fun project!! :D

This is my first time exploring 3 dimensions in my crochet and this was an excellent starting project. Big big thank you to @akirameta84!! It was a huge help. I wouldn't have found this project if not for it. Plus she helped me a bunch with figuring out what the hell I was doing. :)

If you want to do this project yourself you can find instructions HERE. This was honestly a fantastic tutorial and an excellent walkthrough of how to crochet like this. It's aimed at complete beginners which was excellent for me.

As for the project itself. It was mostly single crochets. The most complicated things in there were the increases/decreases which honestly weren't too bad at all once they were explained. Honestly, I had the most trouble with the slip stitches on the rim (optional) but that's cause I'm just special like that :)

Speaking of the optional rim. There's actually a lot of optional variation here. The video calls for [ch 1, sl st (same), sl st 2] and I misheard and just did it with 1 instead of 2, so I ended up with twice as many frills. And that got me thinking. You can totally have a lot of fun with this by messing with like the chain length and the spacing you can add a lot of personality to your little guys!

All in all. I'd love to have a go at this project again. They're really quick and simple to make and I'd love to make a whole bunch in different colors and styles. :)

(oh! And speaking of styles. The danglies are completely separate bits of yarn so you can make them whatever colors you want! Plus. There's a step where you shove the loose ends from the danglies inside in lieu of stuffing, and I think they could look really cool if you just left it out)

Wips:

[merrymakes]

JELLYFISH!! :D

Details under the cut:

Omg this was such a fun project!! :D

This is my first time exploring 3 dimensions in my crochet and this was an excellent starting project. Big big thank you to @akirameta84!! It was a huge help. I wouldn't have found this project if not for it. Plus she helped me a bunch with figuring out what the hell I was doing. :)

If you want to do this project yourself you can find instructions HERE. This was honestly a fantastic tutorial and an excellent walkthrough of how to crochet like this. It's aimed at complete beginners which was excellent for me.

As for the project itself. It was mostly single crochets. The most complicated things in there were the increases/decreases which honestly weren't too bad at all once they were explained. Honestly, I had the most trouble with the slip stitches on the rim (optional) but that's cause I'm just special like that :)

Speaking of the optional rim. There's actually a lot of optional variation here. The video calls for [ch 1, sl st (same), sl st 2] and I misheard and just did it with 1 instead of 2, so I ended up with twice as many frills. And that got me thinking. You can totally have a lot of fun with this by messing with like the chain length and the spacing you can add a lot of personality to your little guys!

All in all. I'd love to have a go at this project again. They're really quick and simple to make and I'd love to make a whole bunch in different colors and styles. :)

(oh! And speaking of styles. The danglies are completely separate bits of yarn so you can make them whatever colors you want! Plus. There's a step where you shove the loose ends from the danglies inside in lieu of stuffing, and I think they could look really cool if you just left it out)

Wips:

[merrymakes]

I guess we're calling this a project lol

Details Rant under the cut:

This was not going to be a project piece lol.

This was going to be a practice piece to learn how the hell circles work cause I want to make something for my friend for Christmas.

Instead I struggled my ass off (magic circles are hell omg) and managed to make a cute little 3 round circle.

Theoretically, it's just a simple little 9 stitch/round circle. But omg this was hell to make 🙃😭

It started at the beginning. The magic circle. Omg I hate it.

Making it's ok.. putting stitches in it? Absolute nightmare. It just wants to move and wiggle, and the damn thing just wants to grow and eat up the end of your yarn! And the stitches keep curling around it?? Idk how that even happens!!

And omg!! How the hell do the people making these tutorials make everything look so nice? And so neat? And so loose?? By the time I was done with the first bit I was about ready to strangle the damn thing to keep it in place! And they're making it look just insanely easy!

Whatever.

It's fine.

After the magic circle things went alright. The second round wasn't too much trouble. Things were a bit tight. And figuring out how to start and finish the round was a bit rough. But I made it work.

The third round though? That drove me insane.

To start with, apparently you only add the same amount to each row instead of like doubling it each time or something (which sounds dumb now that I'm saying it out loud) so you had to keep in mind a 1sc 2sc (per like, idk, stitch) pattern as I went along which wasn't too bad. Just obnoxious. It just really stank cause everything was even tighter than it was before!! Which made it so easy to lose my place 🙃.

But I made it to the end. I finished the round. (Oh and by the way? Top tip. Keep note of where the start is. Things look really similar) And so now the hardest part. Actually completing the damn round. It wasn't too hard to find the stitch I needed to go into. But it was murder trying to get into it. It took me like 5 min trying to get into it. And then getting back out was an adventure in and of itself!

But I pulled it off. And decided I fought too hard to just take the damn thing apart so now we're keeping it :)

Takeaways? Try like hell to keep things loose. And circles are hell <3

[merrymakes]

Second Potholder's done!! :D

I felt the first one was really lonely so I made it a friend. :)

Details under the cut:

This is a continuation of my first post.

I kept literally everything the same lol.

This one was also like ridiculous curly for some reason. Idk what's doing it lol

[merrymakes]

I completed my first project!! :D

Nothing too crazy. Literally just a square potholder out of single stitches. But it's mine and I did it!!

Details under the cut:

The project took me about 5 hours total. Maybe a bit less. It's 30 stitches by 31 rows. I used single stitches the whole way but used a double for rows 5 and 27 to add a little extra flair. :)

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I mean sure it keeps trying to curl up into itself. But I did manage to pull off a square shape which was actually really tricky! Especially trying to gauge when to throw in the second double row

The entire time it felt like it was way too short. And it didn't help that the bottom row was stretched to hell. But I started trying out folding it over to test it, along with measuring across the middle, which helped a lot.

This'll probably end up being a potholder or something lol. But I had a lot of fun making it :)

Wips: