This was the last little dude to make into my box of toy donations. He is a free pattern called “Howie the Holiday Penguin” and is available on the Fresh Stitches site. And he is so, so, so cute! Seriously! How freakin’ cute is this guy? I will definitely have to make him again. This pattern is also a good one for newbies to amigurumi. The hardest part is crocheting with black yarn. You need to have lots of light, so that was kind of a pains for me since I usually crochet in the evenings while watching TV. Other than that issue, this is probably one of the easiest softies I’ve ever made, and I whipped him up in just a few days.

Some of the last few softies I made for the shelter included a few bunny rabbits. Of course, my menagerie would not have been complete without a funny bunnies, right? Since I had already done this pattern before (and honestly have not found a different bunny pattern that has interested me), I went ahead and made the Lion Brand Best Bunny pattern again.

For the blue bunny, I used Lion Brand yarn as well that was donated to the club, Baby Wool. Actually, it’s not real wool, but that’s what the name of the yarn is for some reason. I held it double in order to get a larger bunny from it, and used a size I hook. This was the first time I doubled my yarn to make an amigurumi, and it was not as difficult as I had anticipated. He ended up being 10 inches tall.

For the second bunny, I used some Lion Brand purple Fun Yarn. It claims to be an Aran 10ply yarn, but I am a little skeptical. I just thought it would be noticeably thicker than regular worsted. He ended up to be 9 1/2 inches high, and I used orange and yellow felt for his features because this yarn was so dark.

Even after making this multiple times, I still struggled with those ears and had to frog a few times before getting them right, but the ears are what make this guy so dang cute, so I had to get them right.

I surpassed my goal of 12 and have a total of 18 amigurumi toys to donate to the shelter. Along with loads of wash cloths, soaps, coloring books, blank journals, and crayons, my car is just about full, and I will be delivering the goods tomorrow.

It feels weird saying good-bye to my little gang of amigurumi, but hopefully, they will comfort a little one or at least put a smile on a few faces when they arrive at their new home.

Above is a photo of some of the bags my craft club is putting together. They include travel soaps we have been collecting as well as hand made cotton wash cloths made by both club members and the Yahoo Crochlist, who have sent a whooping 33 wash cloths already! We are even able to double up and add two cloths per bag, which is great. It looks like I will have about three boxes full of these bags by the end of the semester.

Along with the toiletry bags, we have made blank journals and coloring books. I picked up some boxes of crayons at the dollar store. Plus, of course, there are the amigurumi toys I’ve been make. I’m up to 15 so far. I may be able to squeeze out one or two more before I deliver everything. We may also be teaming up with another club who wants to donate children’s books to the shelter. So I will have one full car when I make the final delivery!

I had a request from someone to make a hippo. I have not made one before, and while I found a few patterns (free and otherwise) none of them really were what I was looking for. However, I decided to go ahead and make a few using various patterns with the idea that I could make a few extra to add to my charity toy stash. This is the first attempt, and it is from a free pattern called Hungry, Hungry Hippo.

The pattern was very strangely written when I compare it to other amigurumi patterns I’ve followed in the past. I could go into a lot of detail about this, but I am not a pattern expert by any means. In fact, I can’t even imagine coming up with my own amigurumi patterns, so I’m not even going to go there. Let’s just say that I would not recommend this pattern to anyone who is not familiar with the technique of amigurumi. If you are, then you probably have enough skill to make it work generally speaking.

As far as the finished product, he is cute, even though his snout is too large and this makes him topple over easily if you don’t set him down correctly. I had a heck of a time getting a decent picture of him. As a result, I took a number of them, which you can find on my Ravelry project page. I think one other reason besides the odd pattern that I did not enjoy making him is because I’m so, so, so sick of using Red Heart Super Saver yarn! I want to touch something soft for a change.

I do not plan to making this pattern again and have moved onto hippo attempt #2, a free pattern I received in an e-book published by Crochet Me. It is one of 8 patterns, and this one is called Hugo the Not So Hungry Hippo. The designer is my fav, Stacey Trock. I have already started hippo #2, and while I know the pattern will be easy to follow, I’m not sure what I think about this guy’s snout. It is open and shows a few teeth. I may change that once I get to that point because I’d prefer the snout to be closed.

Along with knowing I have a pattern that make sense to me, I found two skeins of bright pink Vanna’s Choice yarn in my stash, yippy! As this finished hippo will probably go to my requester, which means it’s not a charity toy, I wanted to use some of my own yarn anyway and not yarn that was donated for the cause (all of which is RHSS…eeehhh gads!).

Though I continue to make amigurumi toys for donating (currently working on a hippo), April brings with it a another charity crochet focus - wash cloths, lots and lots of wash cloths. Along with the toys I’m making on my own, I will also be delivering hand-made cotton wash cloths and soap donations. My craft club has been working on learning crochet and also making wash cloths, and I am coordinating the April 2013 donation drive for the Crochetlist Yahoo group as well, who is also going to donate wash cloths.

My craft club collects toiletry items on an on-going basis. For example, when you go on a trip and take those little soaps home but may or may not use them later, we ask staff and faculty to give them to us. Then we organize them in zip lock bags and put the wash cloths we make into the bags as well.

Since I am the one coordinating the wash cloth drive, I am also making them like crazy. Any time I’m in a meeting or sitting with a friend chatting for a few minutes, I pull out the wash cloth and crochet. I’ve actually made at least a half dozen wash cloths just by doing this alone. None of them are fancy. I usually just make about 30 chain stitches and do a mix of single crochet and/or double crochet until I get a square. Then I finish off the edges with single crochet. One wash cloth usually takes about an hour for me to make, and since I’m not following a pattern, I can multitask.

Stacey Trock has become my favorite amigurumi designer. For me at least, I find her patterns very easy to follow, and she has a style that connects each of them so that once you have done one or two, you feel like you can make any of her designs. After making her Cliveton the Tiny Pig pattern, I wanted to do it again but larger. Cliveton is about 5 inches tall.

Of course, if I wanted to do the math, I could have just altered her Cliveton pattern, but who wants to do math when you don’t have to? Not me! I could also have used chunky yarn or even held two strands of yarn together. However since I have made so many other animals using her patterns, I realized that I could just take parts and pieces from different patterns to make a larger pig. I was not 100% sure it would work out, but luckily it did.

The final pig toy is about 9 inches tall, and I used the following parts and pieces from her patterns to make it: Stretch the Giraffe (ears and snout); Woodland Reindeer (arms and legs); Teddy the Bear (head and body); and Cliveton the Tiny Pig (tail).

Generally speaking, I am pleased with how it turned out. I’m still having problems with getting my heads stitched on straight. My animals always seem to be looking off to one side, but I think I might have a way to fix that in the future.

Before I get started, let me clarify that I have nothing against Red Heart Super Saver yarn. For many purposes, such as amigurumi toys, it works great. It washes up wonderfully, and it is just about indestructible. However, I am just plain old tired of it! I have been using it to make donated toys for months now. Some of it I purchases and some was donated to my craft club. I feel compelled to use it for all these reasons.

That said….I can tell such a difference when I use something other than RHSS, and my hands really appreciate the difference. So the other day when I straightening up my office and discovered some Lion Brand Baby Wool, I was giddy with excitement. Yeah! Donated yarn that is not RHSS.

I’m picturing a pink and a blue teddy bear. There might even be enough here for a few in each color. There was another bag with some purple and some yellow baby wool, so perhaps I can manage another giraffe.

When you get donated yarn this is clean and does not smell like smoke and your club is on a limited budget, you have to take it, and if you take it, that means you need to use it. I wish I just didn’t know the difference between RHSS, well, many other types of acrylic yarn!

After making numerous teddy bears, I have noticed that my brown yarn stash is dwindling. Between this full skein of Loops and Threads and some other odds and ends of various shades of brown, I’m hoping I have enough yarn to squeeze out two more Buddy the Bears.

This is one of my favorite (and free yeah!) patterns from Lion Brand. I love how he has a little tummy on him, and the is not too hard to make. I think the legs and arms a little more fiddly than the other bear pattern I’ve made a few times, but it isn’t fiddly to the point that I don’t enjoy making them.

I am still on an amigurumi kick, and my collection for charity is growing. I now have a total of 8 amigurumi for the shelter: 2 birds, 3 teddy bears, 1 dog, 1 pig, and 1 reindeer. Though I will probably make a few more teddy bears, I have Cliff the Brontosaurus on my radar. My goal is to get at least a total of 12 amigurumi finished by the end of the semester and donate these to the shelter when I also bring over the wash cloths that my craft club and Yahoo Crochet List members donate.