Another Unicorn Lovey in the Books

After making my first African Flower Unicorn Lovey, I was itching to make another one. So when my cousin’s due date approached, I was more than happy to start another unicorn lovey. I got her mom (my auntie) to send me this adorable photo of her soon-to-be-born baby girl’s nursery so I could pick out some colors to go with the theme. And let me tell you, I’ve never had such a difficult time picking out colors. I even went as far as to ask my favorite Facebook crochet group for suggestions.

I finally settled on a color combo that I was more than pleased with. Isn’t the combo lovely?

I used the same techniques as I did on my previous African Flower Unicorn Lovey, with the exception of my joining method. This time around, I got smart, and did the join-as-you-go method. Here’s the link to Heidi Bears’ great tutorial on how I accomplished this. She also has a video for those of you who are more into video tutorials. The only thing I did differently, was join in EVERY stitch, rather than just the few times she instructs you to. I wanted it sturdy since this is a lovey.

I used my favorite yarn–I Love This Yarn by Hobby Lobby for its soft and workable qualities. My colors for this project included: Menthe, Ocean, Soft Pink, Pink, White, Greybeard, and Yellow for the horn.

Love this one. The colors worked out perfect.

Harry Potter Lovey & Mermaid Tail

It’s no secret that I love Harry Potter. So when I had the chance to make a Harry Potter themed lovey for an expecting family member, I jumped on it. The new mom-to-be may be the only one I know that’s a bigger #Potterhead than I am.

Ever since seeing Crafty Ridge’s Harry Potter ‘Potter Pillow,’ I knew that I wanted to make it, but wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for. Then I had a genius (okay, well maybe not genius, but damn good) idea. I was going to use the Potter Pillow for the lovey. But knowing me, I had to embellish it. And this was born:

On each corner, I attached a Harry Potter themed little stuffie (Amigurumi)–a lightning bolt, Hedwig, the Golden Snitch, and the Sorting Hat.

For the lightning bolt, I used this cute little pattern by The Perfect Knot. I joined the two pieces together using a SC stitch around (I wanted a really defined edging). I also skipped an SC in the pattern (both sides) near the top so I could easily thread my attaching link through both pieces. I didn’t want to attach the items using just a chain, so I chained, threaded it through the loop and the item, then joined the chain, and SC in each chain (I wanted it sturdy). I used this method for all of my items.

Hedwig is my favorite little Amigurumi that I attached. I used this awesome (free!) pattern by Little Muggles. I obviously used a different color scheme than her original pattern, going with a stark white owl, grey eye detail, and black ‘V’ feathers on the wings. I also altered the pattern to make it smaller than the original, leaving out several increasing rounds to make the size match the rest of the items dangling from the corners.

The Golden Snitch was another free pattern found here by Inner Child Crochet. I enlarged this snitch a round or two to obtain the right size. I love the little wing detail!

The Sorting Hat is just one piece in Made by Mary‘s Harry Potter Mini Wizard Friends collection found here. For this hat, I used a fun brown yarn (Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice Barley) that has little specks in it to make it look aged like the Sorting Hat is.

For the rest of the lovey, I used my go-to yarn–Hobby Lobby’s “I Love This Yarn” collection in White, Red, Light Peach, Black, Sungold, and Greybeard.

My niece requested a mermaid tail for a newborn photo prop (how cute is that?!). She had a particular color scheme she wanted, and of course, when I finally figured out what yarn it was, I also found out it was discontinued. But have no fear, thankfully somewhere on the internet had 5 in stock, and though I didn’t need all 5, I bought them all *just in case.* It’s a good thing I did too, because I used at least one more skein than the pattern called for. But it turned out gorgeous!!  The pattern is by the Hookeraholic and can be found here. The yarn is Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in Luau (discontinued).

Hope she loves it all! Now I get to wait for pictures :)

Baby on the way!

No, not my baby. I’ve been there, and done that. But a new little niece of mine should be here any day now. One of my younger brothers is about to be a daddy for the very first time, so of course,  I had to whip my brother and sister in law a few baby items.

The secretness of this project has kept my Facebook and Instagram account pretty quiet lately, and I’m so excited to FINALLY be able to share it with you. I’m not gonna lie, this whole gift makes me all giddy and kinda wish I had a baby on the way.

Don’t you just love it?! Details on the patterns I used are found below. The color scheme was pulled from the baby’s nursery. The vibrant coral and turquoise pair perfectly with the dark grey and crisp white. What a fun color scheme for a nursery! I used my go-to yarn line, Hobby Lobby‘s ‘I Love This Yarn’ in Greybeard, White, Mango, and Turquoise (all worsted weight).

The striped baby blanket is a pattern by The Felted Button found here. Since this was meant for a baby,  I altered the pattern just a bit to make it smaller. But isn’t that a gorgeous pattern? I have plans to make one that will stay in my house.

These teeny little sandals are by TMK Crochet found here. I used a different bow pattern, but I have no idea where I found it nor do I remember how I did it (of course, right?).  The headband is AWESOME. If you are familiar with crocheted headbands, you know they stretch (or don’t stretch) kinda funny so their fit is a bit off. Well, fear no more, I found an easy, adjustable, and perfect headband by The Lovely Crow rightly called ‘The Genius Headband’ found here. Seriously, this headband IS magical. And the flower I used is by Autumn Berry Crochet and can be found here.

Now for my favorite part of this whole package–the unicorn lovey. You may have noticed that I tend to mix-and-match various patterns to come up with what I make. I first saw an African Flower Hippo lovey made by the talented Amy over at Spicy Tuesday Crafts and knew I HAD to make a lovey using the African Flower motif as the blanket base. It’s just that colorful and fun.

I used a random African Flower pattern from the internet (just Google ‘African Flower pattern’ and you’ll find a TON of them) for the base and joined them in a layout that suited my needs. The unicorn head and arms are from One and Two Company‘s Nuru the Unicorn pattern found here. In order to achieve the right scale, I had to go up a hook size or two on the unicorn. The head was made as the pattern states, with a different type of hair because of my own personal preference. I chose to make the arms longer than the pattern stated, again to achieve the right scale. I added a bow over her ear to fancy her up a bit :)

Now, to wait for another little baby on the way because I really really want to make another unicorn lovey!

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