Totoro Bean Plushie

Pattern/Technique: Grey Totoro Amigurumi Pattern by Lucy Collin

Modifications: Left off tail, arms, and embroidery on tummy

Materials: Knitpicks Swish DK in Marble Heather (3 skeins), Coal (1 skein), White (1 skein)

US E (3.5 mm) crochet hook

9mm safety eyes

New skills: n/a

Lessons/Notes: A pretty straightforward project. I don’t love seaming and was running out of grey yarn, so I simplified and left off a bunch of little details like the tummy embroidery and arms/tail, but the finished project is still Totoro, albeit a minimalist version.

Past Lauren didn’t add much stuffing in the main body, so I unpicked the woven-in ends and poked in a bunch more poly fill to make it more rigid. I’m mainly worried about it compacting and getting lumpy/floppy with use, so the extra filling should help prevent that.

I’m really happy with how the nose turned out: I embroidered a bunch of horizontal stitches, making them longer in the middle and slightly shorter at the top/bottom and layering multiple stitches to get a 3D tapered nose.

What I'd do differently: I think I might have ended up with slightly different length ears and slightly off axis placement of the eyes, both of which I’ll chalk up as “proof of hand”.

Care: Hand wash, dry flat

Crocheted Raffia Basket

Pattern/Technique: Crocheted Raffia Basket by Anne Weil (part of a kit from The Crafters Box)

New skills: crocheting around another material

Lessons: The optimal thickness of the raffia bundle seems to be roughly the same diameter (maybe even a bit larger) than the crochet hook.

It's quite challenging to keep even tension on the working yarn while also holding a core material--particularly one that needs to be bundled tightly like raffia. Manipulating the material, while trying to insert the crochet hook into the linen loops and avoid snagging raffia hurt my hands, so I ended up cutting this project short and doing 1/3 of the recommended number of coils.

I noticed that the coil of the basket can be manipulated to be flat or very steep/conical. It's unclear whether this is endemic to this style of basket, or due to some issue with my tension.

What I'd do differently: The technique is quite interesting but trying to keep an even core of raffia was a challenge, and manipulating the crochet hook was physically painful over time. If I attempt a crocheted basket again, it with a more uniform core material like cotton rope, and one of my soft grip crochet hooks vs. the wooden hook included in the kit.