Baby Doll Carrier

A few days ago I posted about a felted swan that I received the instructions for in "Living Crafts" magazine. This Baby Doll Carrier is another project that I did from that same magazine (Spring 2011).

I did not jump at this particular project since it was crochet and I had not done crochet for years. However, I was already in the process of making India some knitted stuffed animals that needed some accessories.

I found some yarn that I already had on hand and found a crochet hook that had originally been given to me by my Grandmother Nina Knittle along with a skein of yarn one Christmas. (This is the same grandmother that tried to show me how to tat) I read over the instructions a few times and settled down to start to crochet. I was impressed by how much I remembered and also how much faster crochet was than knitting.

Crochet is so versatile and blends easily with knitting and many other fiber arts since you do not have to find a way to pick up some stiches to "cast on" as you do when you add knitting to a piece. It was worth giving a try once more and I plan on doing a crochet vest for my daughter soon.

Felted Swan

This is a very easy swan to felt. You start with a pipe cleaner in the basic shape and start to build the swan by wrapping wool roving around the shape that you have formed.

I got the instructions to make this swan from Living Crafts Magazine Spring 2011. This was the first issue I got of this magazine and I made almost every project that they listed. I highly recommend this magazine for fun, natural, easy, and fast crafts that your family will appreciate.

For this one I started at the beak and worked down from there. Using red roving on the beak and white for the body. Once I had buit up the body enough I layed the feathers on either side and then added wool over top of the tips of the feathers and then pinned them down with the wool. For the water I took two colors of wool (blue and green) and felted it together layering the colors to imitate algea on a pond.

I have made several of these and used them for gifts for my daughter's friends. What little girl does not like a swan. I mean really. Quick and easy you can be done in under an hour with roving you may already have on hand. The feathers you can get at any craft store.