Intro­duc­ing!! 12 Days of Wood­land Crea­tures (and Their Favourite Things)!

You’re invit­ed to a cro­chet-along! :D

I’ve been plan­ning this for a while now. Every year I try to do a “dai­ly prac­tice” kind of project, where I make some­thing every­day, as a way of keep­ing cre­ativ­i­ty flow­ing, like the square-a-day project. This year I was asked by a good friend to make a for­est-themed mobile for the newest mem­ber of her fam­i­ly (excit­ing!!). So, to hon­our my friend’s gen­er­ous spir­it I thought I would share how I make each crea­ture with every­one on this blog :D

And then I thought this would be a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for a cro­chet-along! The crea­tures don’t only belong on a mobile, they can be used for a lot of dif­fer­ent things…

Brooches?

Applique?

Orna­ments? Maybe for an advent cal­en­der like this? Or, by the end of the project you would have a set of wood­land orna­ments for the Christ­mas tree, just in time for the hol­i­day season!

Char­ac­ters for felt sto­ry­boards, with vel­cro on the back?

Car­ry-along plush toys?

Pock­et pets?

Pos­si­bil­i­ties are endless :)

 

So! This is how it works: 

Every 2–3 days I will post a pat­tern for a cro­chet wood­land crea­ture (or its favourite things). And I won’t be pre-announc­ing what the crea­tures are, so it will be a sur­prise every time! At the end there will be 12 pat­terns. You can cro­chet along for all of the pat­terns, or just one, or pick the ones you like. And if you send me pic­tures or blog posts about what you have cre­at­ed, I will share it here, like our craft-along gallery a cou­ple of years ago (that was lots of fun! :D), then we can see all the dif­fer­ent and fun and cre­ative ways that every­one has used for the creatures!

I’d love to know if you’d like to join in the fun, please make a com­ment below! :D

AND!! Today we have our first crea­ture — yup, you guessed it. The hedge­hog!

Love the fuzzy yarn on this one :)

I also learned the loop stitch in the mak­ing of the hedge­hog. There’s a great pho­to tuto­r­i­al of it if you haven’t made it before.

I used:

Worsted weight yarn — one colour for the body and a con­trast­ing colour for the head.

4 mm hook

2 small black beads for eyes (just one if you’re mak­ing a brooch)

Nee­dle and thread for sewing

Pink embroi­dery thread and brown yarn for embroi­der­ing rosy cheeks and nose

 

Note: the turn­ing ch 1 in this pat­tern does not count as a stitch. The pat­tern alter­nates between loop stitch (lp st) rows and sin­gle cro­chet (sc) rows, with the increas­es and decreas­es made in the sc rows and work­ing even in the lp st rows)

Pat­tern:

With body colour, ch 5

Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in each ch across, turn.

Row 2: ch 1, loop stitch (lp st) in each sc across (4 lp st), turn.

Row 3: ch 1, 1 sc in each of the next 2 lp st, 2 sc in each of the next 2 lp st, turn.

Row 4: ch 1, lp st in each sc across (6 lp st), turn.

Row 5: ch 1, 1 sc in each of the next 4 lp st, 2 sc in each of the remain­ing 2 lp st, turn.

Row 6: ch 1, lp st in each sc across (8 lp st), turn.

Row 7: ch 1, 1 sc in each lp st across, turn.

Row 8: ch 1, lp st in each sc across (8 lp st), turn.

Row 9 & 10: repeat rows 7 & 8 (8 lp st).

Row 11: ch 1, 1 sc in each of the next 2 lp st, *2 sc tog over next 2 lp st*, repeat from * to * twice, turn.

Row 12: ch 1, lp st in each sc across (5 lp st), turn.

Change to head colour, fas­ten off body colour.

Row 13: ch 1, sc in each lp st, turn.

Row 14: ch 1, 2 sc tog over first 2 sc, 1 sc in each remain­ing sc across, turn.

Row 15: ch 1, 1 sc in each of the next 2 sc, 2 sc tog over the remain­ing 2 sc, turn.

Row 16: 3 sc tog, fas­ten off.

If you’re mak­ing a dou­ble-sided hedge­hog:

Make a mir­ror image of the above hedge­hog shape by revers­ing the increas­es and decrease in the pat­tern, i.e. if the row ends with increase/decrease stitch­es in the pat­tern, start with increase/decrease stitch­es when mak­ing a mir­ror image, and vice ver­sa. Leave a long tail for sewing when fas­ten­ing off both the body colour and the head colour. Sew on eyes, embroi­der nose and rosy cheeks, then sew the two hedge­hog shapes togeth­er, using the long tail of head colour when sewing the head sec­tion and the long tail of body colour when sewing the body section.

If you’re mak­ing a sin­gle-sided hedge­hog, like a brooch:

Make a back piece for the hedge­hog using head colour fol­low­ing the pat­tern above, replac­ing all lp st rows with sc rows. Sew pin back to the back piece, sew on eye, nose and rosy cheek, then sew the back piece to the hedgehog.

And that’s it! You have a new hedge­hog friend :D

Hope you like the pat­tern, and please drop me a note if you want to join me in cro­chet­ing along!