Spirit of Spring

I was inspired by 60F weather, the thawing of ice, and this womans wonderful crochet jewelry to create a Spirit of Spring.  Most of North America and Europe have suffered from a brutal winter; so it is time for this Spirit to heal our hearts.

The meadow scene is one I made last year, about this time.  The dear little owl on the stump is from a free pattern on the Roman Sock blog by Brigitte Read; patterns for the rest of the scene are available here on my blog.

I've never been a big bunny fan, but bunny ears seemed appropriate for a Spring Spirit :-)  They are crocheted directly to her head:

Bunny ears:  Ch11, dc in the back loop of the third ch from the hook, dc in the back loops of each ch to the last two chains, hdc in the back loop of the last two chains, sl st to the head, turn, sl st in the first st, sc in each dc up to the top of the ear, three sc in the turning ch at the top, and sc in the remaining ch on the opposite side back to the begining, with a sl st in the last ch.  Fasten off and leave a long tail to neaten up the ears where they attach to the head.

For her hair, I used Yarn Bee 'Elvish' (appropriate!) from Hobby Lobby.  I must say, it is a bugger to work with; you can't really see the stitches, you have to feel them.  But, being an eyelash yarn, mistakes are well hidden.  I worked the wig cap for several rounds, then tried it on her head to see where I would need to work openings for her ears.  For the ear openings, ch3, skip three sts, sc in the next three, ch3, skip three stitches, sc the rest of the way around.  Work one or two more rounds, then a final round of (ch7, sl st in the next) 10 times, then (ch15, sl st in the next) the rest of the way around.

Her dress is from a lace pattern, worked in two shades of blue/green, with the final round beaded with fringe beads.  The top of the skirt is gathered up with 42 stitches, then a simple bodice is crocheted from spring green.   Size 11 seed beads were used on parts of the flowers and at the waist and neckline of the dress.  The flower patterns were from different sources, but mostly from 'Crochet Bouquet,' a great book of crochet flowers and leaves.

 She is wearing Elven Boots crocheted from size 8 perle cotton.  With a slight modification (in the pattern) they can become Mary Janes.

Today we have four inches of snow, but the Spirit of Spring is here!