This is the time of year I start thinking about Christmas; crocheting for Christmas, that is. If I start in July, I have plenty of runway ahead of me and don't feel rushed and panic'd as Thanksgiving rolls away and the Big Day looms :-) Since I love to crochet, making crochet items for Christmas is no hardship.I'd love to see Christmas become a simpler and happier holiday. I think handmade can go a long way toward this end. Also, make doing something for others less fortunate a part of your Christmas traditions, and ease up a bit on all of the store bought items. We place so many expectations on ourselves at Christmas that is it sometimes impossible to live up to them all, and we wonder where the joy has gone.
Okay, enough lecturing; I'm getting off the soapbox and ready to tell you about the cute crew in the picture above. They are irresistible amigurumi from Ana Paula Rimoli, found in the May/June 2010 issue of Crochet Today. The book bags are a free pattern from the Creative Me blog site; here is a link:
http://bwalker8706.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-sons-bookbag.html
The only changes I made to the book bag were to use half double crochet instead of double crochet. I made three more increase rows, and five additional body rows for the bag. It turned out great! These are for my three nephews, ages 7, 5, and 3. Making stuff for kids is the most fun of all.
The Pocket Spirits fell in love with Oskar! They couldn't resist a photo op with him :-)