Did You Guess Whose Hands These Were?

I showed you these a few days ago, so now it is time to show you my finished puppet. I am really happy with how he turned out. He is a lovely shade of bright green, with a huge smile. His crown is complete with red and purple beads.

Now I just need to decide which puppet to create next. I am not sure whether I will keep going with the fairy tale theme, or branch off into some other animals that might be useful for the preschool Vacation Bible School theme at our church this summer.

I have just realized that the only Frog Prince book we own is The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka. I guess I need to head to the library and check some more of them out to pick my favorite version. I do enjoy the Scieszka version, which tells what happens after the story ends.

ASL Sign for the Post: To sign frog, you put your dominant hand under your chin and flip out your index and middle finger a couple times.

Read Full Post »

Whose Hands Are These?

I have finally returned to my puppets and worked on making some arms with hands the other evening. Any ideas whose hands these will be? If you have been paying attention, you can probably guess. Here is a hint: think fairy tales….

I just finished this and mailed it off for a four year old this week. Fortunately, with my Ott-Lite, making this with the navy blue yarn was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. The last navy blue letter I made had to be put together during the day because I just could not see what I was doing.

ASL Sign for the Post: To sign the letter J, you close your dominant hand, keeping your pinkie finger out. Then make the J shape in the air with your pinkie finger.

Read Full Post »

Big Bad Wolf Puppet Pattern Giveaway

I completed writing out, taking photos, and having others check out my Big Bad Wolf puppet pattern recently and am braving offering it for sale. Now for the fun part. To launch my pattern selling debut, I am going to give away the pattern to a blog reader this week.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Check out my shop, especially the puppets.
2. Post a comment here, with a suggestion for the next pattern I should offer or the next puppet I should create.
3. Make sure you include an easy way for me to contact you if you win.

On Friday, April 18th I will have one of my daughters draw a number from my Mad Hatter’s Hat to choose the lucky winner of the Big Bad Wolf pattern. I will then email you for confirmation of the email address to send the pdf of the pattern.

Good luck, and thanks in advance for giving me some suggestions….

Read Full Post »

Quick post — Kate has been featured on another blog

My Kate’s Red Shoes Ballerina has been featured on this blog:

Blue Pebble Designs

Thanks so much for noticing her!!

Read Full Post »

Kate’s Red Shoes Ballerina Puppet

After making my first ballerina puppet with the standard pink tutu, I decided to think about fairy tales a bit and come up with a ballerina from a fairy tale. I remembered I used to listen to Kate Bush when I was younger and had a cd called “The Red Shoes.” The song came from a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

I already had all the yarn as well as the red tulle, so I did not have to hit the craft store for this one, which is good since I have no craft budget right now. I do have a little list in my head of yarn colors I want to buy for future projects, but for now I need to think of projects that use my stash.

ASL signs: I am trying to incorporate a little signing with each post so for this one I would like to share the signs for red and shoes since I already shared dance and dancer. For red, your index finger touches the middle of your lips and moves down to about your chin or a little lower. For shoes, make two fists and knock them together midway in front of your torso. Think of knocking the dirt off your shoes before bringing them in the house.

Read Full Post »

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

After finishing the Big Bad Wolf, I decided to try another girl type puppet doll so that I would not have to think about shaping the head. Instead, I had the challenge of figuring out hair. I like this one, but it has also given me different ideas of how to do hair, which makes me ready to start the next puppet so I can try out the next idea in my head.

She has quite a head of hair. I used the method of crocheting a cap the color of the hair, which I then used a latch hook method of attaching the yarn. I think my next doll might have more hair, but with thinner yarn so that it does not get full so quickly.

Here is a last photo of her so that you can get a look at her legs. I would really like to add some trim to the next doll’s dress, perhaps with thread or sport weight yarn.

Read Full Post »

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Wolves seem to be in every other fairy tale, so when my dear husband challenged me to create a puppet wolf after I finished my Red Riding Hood I figured it would be a good idea. Since I was going to all the trouble of creating him by myself, I spent a long time writing out each part of the pattern as I did it so that I can recreate it. I also hope to make the pattern available after I follow my pattern at least once to make sure it makes sense.

He was a little difficult to photograph since his head is rather large. I also wanted everyone to see his cute fluffy tail. I made two different prototypes for the tail with some great eyelash yarn I picked up at ACMoore.

Here is a closer look at that tail.

Now I just have to make him again to test the pattern and figure out which puppet to create next. Maybe Grandma….or maybe Rapunzel….what do you think?

Read Full Post »

Red Riding Hood….inspired by my daughter

I just finished this darling new puppet last night during the Super Bowl. (Click the photos to see more in my shop.) I had to figure out her face and hair. I checked out several sites online with suggestions for putting yarn hair on a doll. Many of them expected more work than was needed since Red Riding Hood has a hood, with only a bit of hair sticking out.

She has a little basket attached to her arm for the goodies she takes to her grandma. It is securely attached so that it won’t be lost by little ones.

In my head I already have ideas for several more puppets, using ideas from this one and modifying parts that did not quite turn out the way I expected. It is funny how I start to make something and end up having to go off in a different direction because some part just is not what I envisioned. Sometimes it turns out great; other times it ends up not quite finished in the bottom of a project bag. Fortunately, this one turned out mostly as I pictured her.

My oldest daughter inspired me to do Red Riding Hood because she wants a red hooded cape from me as the next project I make for her. I have not found any easy to follow pattern for that one yet, so I will probably just wing it.

My projects always start out with yarn in my stash, but somehow I can never quite finish something new without purchasing something. For this doll, I had to buy the yarn for the basket and hair. Everything else was already in my stash. Now, I just need to find many more projects that require brown yarn and the color I used for her skin so that I don’t feel those are just stashed away.

Have you noticed there are several versions of Red Riding Hood? In some versions, the wolf is just killed by the woodsman, but in others, the woodsman cuts open the wolf and then sews him back shut with rocks in his stomach which then causes him to die.

My daughters like this version by James Marshall, but we also have:

Read Full Post »

Sneak peak — Crocheted Doll Puppet

This lovely doll is currently in the washing machine in a pillowcase, testing for shrinkage. The pattern called for acrylic, so I had to go up two hook sizes and am testing washing machine on it. Hopefully I will have a good result and will be able to continue steps towards offering her in my etsy shop this weekend.

UPDATE: I have already pulled her out of the pillowcase twice to check on her. I hate not knowing yet. She has a few pills on her from washing, but I think I can handle that. I do, however, think if I do any more dolls in cotton I will suggest surface wash instead of machine wash. I will put up a photo in a bit of her fresh from the dryer.

Here is the after photo. Unfortunately, the lighting conditions were not nearly as good, but she came through the wash fairly well.

Want to buy her, or one like it? Check out my shop: Laura’s Left Hook

Read Full Post »