Thought baby Abby needed a wizard  in her finger puppet collection so I worked up this guy.  Most all of her other finger puppets came from patterns shared so freely by all the wonderful crochet bloggers, so I thought I’d make my second contribution.  If you haven’t seen the first, Einstein, you can go see it by clicking here.

As I said in Einstein, if I omit something or blunder, please forgive me and if you let me know in the comments, I will make corrections and improvements as they come up.

Please if you are going to re-share, give link to my blog and credit accordingly.  Please do not sell this pattern, but you may sell your own finished products with aforesaid credit.

Materials:
G hook
Worsted weight yarn (I used Peaches and Cream cotton worsted weight yarn)

Head- Work 5 sc in a magic circle and pull tight.  Join and ch1.  If you don’t want to make a magic circle, you can chain 2 and do 5sc in second chain from hook.

At the end of each row join with a slipstitch and ch 1 to start the new row.

Row 1: inc each st (10)
Row 2: 1 sc, inc (15)
~weave in loose end on underside of skull cap~
Row 3 & 4: sc around(15)
Row 5: 1 sc, dec (10)
~this is a good point to make the eyes with black yarn doing two french knots~ you can stuff Merlin’s head with polyfill or scrap yarn now~
This Merlin does not have a neck, but rather a high collar in white yarn so you will be attaching white yarn at this point, but put Merlin’s head aside for a moment and we will work on his beard.

Thought about this and the best I could come up with is a one piece beard & mustache that I attach later.  So I made a ch 7 ring.  Leave tails on, they will be the longest part of his beard, bottom center.

The top 3 chains are for his mustache and the bottom 4 are for his beard.  I cut strings about 3″ long and attached them by folding in half and pulling the loop end through a chain and pulling the ends through the loop and tightening, in a hook rug kind of method.  Then, when his beard was full enough, I took a needle with white yarn and “tamed” his beard a little to keep it in place by tacking them down. 

Then I filled in the mustache portion with white yarn and the needle.  Trim beard so that it angles down on each side to a point (not shown in this pic but shown later.) You can hold it against the face to get an idea of what it will look like.  Give him a coif that looks right to you.

Set aside and go back to head.

Attach white yarn and work 1 row of sc, join and switch to blue yarn (or whichever color you choose for his robe.)

Body/Robe:  After switching to blue yarn, ch 1 and turn.  Working in backloops only, (sc, inc) all the way around to give him shoulders.

Then sc around until you get the length you want, add 1 inc every row to give his robe a slight flare. End off and weave in end.

Remember the front loops of his collar?  Attach white yarn to a front loop at the back and, working with his head toward you and body away from you, sc around once, join and weave in ends.

 Now we’re going to make his hat.  Make a chain to encircle the crown of his head.  I used a circlet of ch 9, but check your length to see what will work best.  Remember that he will have hair underneath so make it a tiny bit loose.

Work continuous rounds of sc, dec evenly every so often until you come to a point.  End off and weave in ends into his pointy hat, or make your tail long enough to use to sew his hat on his head later.

Now for his hair.  Cut several pieces of white yarn about 3-3.5″ long and knot around at the crown of his head.  His hat should cover the knots so try to keep them knotted within where his hat will go, but no big deal if you don’t.

When you feel he has enough hair, part it down the middle and lay it down and give him a hair cut to what looks best to you.  I cut it around collar length.

Now sew his hat onto his head.  Use blue yarn.  It should keep his hair in place.

With white yarn, sew his mustache and beard to his face. 

This is what he looks like all the way around.  He’s looking kinda like a gnome to me so I thought I’d add a few stars to his pointy hat.

And here is Merlin the Magician!

Merlin Finger Puppet Says Hello!

I’m so grateful to all you crochet bloggers out there who have brilliantly created such incredible finger puppets as the pirate, wild man, knight, dragon, horse and damsel… and freely shared the patterns on your blogs.

Baby Abby has enjoyed all the finger puppets I’ve made for her.

So, this is my contribution to finger-puppetdom.
Please if you are going to re-share, give link to my blog and credit accordingly.  Please do not sell this pattern, but you may sell finished products with aforesaid credit.

Einstein Crochet Finger Puppet

Materials:
G hook
Worsted weight yarn (I used Caron Simply Soft- soft pink and Peaches and Cream cotton yarn)

The E=MC2 on his sweater was done with an embroidery needle and would turn out better if his sweater is done in a tighter stitch.

These are my first written directions, so if I omit something or blunder, please forgive me and if you let me know in the comments, I will make corrections as problems come up.  So, here are the instructions…

Head- Start with a magic circle and make 5 sc in it and pull tight.  Join and ch1.  If you don’t want to make a magic circle, you can chain 2 and do 5sc in second chain from hook.

At the end of each row join with a slipstitch and ch 1 to start the new row.

Row 1: inc each st (10)
Row 2: 1 sc, inc (15)
~weave in loose end on underside of skull cap~
Row 3 & 4: sc around(15)
Row 5: 1 sc, dec (10)
Row 6: 1 sc, dec (7)
Row 7: sc around for neck

At this point, you can add your eyes (2 french knots)  and his mustache can be added.  Stuff head with polyfill or scrap yarn.  I say this because it may the inside of head can more easily be reached.

Sweater Body- Switch to his body/sweater yarn.

Row 1:  ch1 and turn for starting sweater row and work in backloops (inside), leaving the frontloops to add his collar later.  Sc around.

Row 2: sc, inc (10) to make his shoulders
Row 3-5: sc around
Row 6: put 2 dec evenly in row while sc-ing around
Row7: sc around front loops only.

End off yarn. Weave in ends. Attach to the frontloops for his collar and sc around, join and end off, weaving in ends.

Finishing Touches- Now to add the E=MC2 to his sweater front.  You can see in the picture, mine didn’t come out clearly but I’m sure you can do yours better.  😉  Also, in this picture, I did hadn’t done his eyes and mustache yet, but if you chose to do that earlier, yours will already be done.

Okay, now ready for his hair…

For his hair, I wound white yarn (gray would look good too) around my hand and cut both ends.  Then attached hair strands by doubling each piece and use crochet hook to pull  loop end through his scalp randomly and pull ends through loop (hook rug style.)  You can use scissors to trim his hair a bit for a classic Einstein hair-doo.

The key to this is capturing Einstein’s characteristic large round head, sweater, his trademark hair and mustache.  I thought about adding sweater arms too but baby Abby thinks they are perfectly grabbable without them.  😉

Enjoy!!

Einstein Crochet Finger Puppet by Joanne Boyle

Been a while since my last post.  Taking a short break from my jewelry for something very important.  While in PA visiting our kids and grandbaby, we met a very special family from Quebec.  Tomy and Marie and their sweet little Angel Leila stayed at the campground for two months so that Leila could receive treatment for a rare type of cancer.  Knowing this loving and courageous family has been a true gift that we will always treasure.

After making several hats for our new grandbaby Abigail, I decided to make some for little Leila and sent them off to her when she got back home to Quebec.

One of these owl earflap hats went to little Leila and the other is baby Abigail’s.  This was a fun hat to do and can be made in many colors.  I used a pattern at repeatcrafterme.com and you can find it here

You might remember in a post last winter, I cut my hair and sent it off to Locks of Love, an ultra-worthy organization that makes hairpieces for disadvantaged children.  Since I was getting pretty good at making these hats, I was inspired to make a bunch of hats for other children going through serious health challenges.  So, I’ve been working away on creating several cheery crochet hats for special little heads.

Here is baby Abigail modeling the bunny hat.  I found the free pattern in a small book called “Hats & Diaper Covers” by Shelle Hendrix Cain (Leisure Arts, Inc) sold next to the yarn at Walmart.

 The patterns for the next hats were all found at Amy’s Crochet Creative Creations.  If you scroll down the right hand side of her site, you can find these hats and many others in the list.

This dinosaur hat pattern is the best I’ve seen on the net.  If you notice, I left off the earflaps and made them as caps.  Best not to have hanging flaps and pigtails getting caught in IV and feeding tubes.

A word about Amy’s patterns, sometimes you need to adjust them, so use your noodle as you follow them.  I think the next time I do this tiger, I will make his jowls smaller by two or three rows.  Also, I made yarn eyes instead of buttons to avoid any choking hazard.

Amy’s creativity in her patterns is undeniable genius.  These hats make me smile and laugh, and that is the goal, as I hope they will  for many children going through chemo.  I added my own freeform eyes to this pattern.

I have 22 hats so far, and still have plenty of yarn left.  I will try to get a group picture of the hats for my next post.  When I run out of yarn, I will take them to the nearest children’s cancer center. 

Here is little Leila wearing her owl hat.  😉  Isn’t she adorable?

Just finished this hat today for Leila and I will send off to her tomorrow.  It’s a sort of newsboy cap, with a French flair.  I wanted to give it plenty of color to be cheerful and have a clear visual message of hope.  I used the cloud applique pattern (found here) on knits and knots.  After I made the first cloud on the left, I freeformed the smaller one on the right.  I’m sorry, I do not have a pattern for the hat, I freeformed it.

UPDATE March 2014:  Mom and Dad just announced that little Leila is officially in remission!!  Yeah!!!!

Such a bright, joyous gift for our little family, darling baby Abigail is almost two months old and is now smiling.

She’s growing so fast and this beautiful pudgy baby is so loved and well taken care of.

We took a walk along the Hudson River with baby Abigail…

… and her beautiful Mama.

We had views of Manhattan and the new building being built on the 9-11 site (it is the one with the new spire– just became the tallest building in the western hemisphere)…

… and Ellis Island…

… and the Statue of Liberty.

Our sweet little baby slept peacefully through it all.

Grandmommy made her an Angel with a Missouri Lace Agate dress and Golden Moonstone face in Sterling Silver and it will hang over her crib.

In fact, Grandmommy’s been very busy in her little workshop/house on wheels.

A Shattuckite and moonstone in Sterling Silver moon and star pendant.

A Sterling Silver Golden Moonstone sun.

Graveyard Point Plume Agate in Sterling.

Rainbow Obsidian heart in Sterling Silver.

Sonoran Dendritic Jasper in Sterling Silver.

And lastly, a Sterling Silver Tiger Eye and Carnelian shield pin.