Crochet for the Classroom: 'Teacher's Gallon Friend'

Sometimes my son brings home school assignments that strike me as crochet-worthy. Maybe it's my imagination, but doesn't this look like a crochet design waiting to happen?
 
The body is a gallon and the arms and legs are the four quarts. They each have 2 pints, and each pint has two cups (or "fingers"). 

Surely this diagram would also help metric-using visitors to the United States who are confused by our strange logic of pints and quarts :-)

Here's what I worked out, and uploaded the downloadable pattern PDF today to my pattern shop at DesigningVashti and in Ravelry:

My son wanted to keep the original prototype (red at the center). We presented the new yellow-centered one it to his third grade teacher, Mrs. Karen Newhall. 
It now hangs at the front of her classroom.

Sock Alien Chooses Crochet for Fall Accessories Line

Even aliens can catch a chill. [Ravelry page]

News Item!! 

Some extraterrestrials use fashion
to express their individuality

The younger extraterrestrial populations (that we know of) seem to be turning to crochet for the practicality, fashion looks, and feel of luxurious comfort against their alien skins.

Important Developing Trend for Crochet

The number of crocheters will skyrocket (so to speak) if this popular hobby catches fire on other planets.

It will then become a beloved tradition across the galaxy in just a few generations. [Or however it is that aliens reproduce.]

Human crocheters can look forward to new crochet patterns by alien designers. Hopefully it will be easy to substitute Earth yarns.

This young alien sees crochet in the stars

The Venus Flytrap Action Puppet

Your basic two-piece Venus Flytrap crochet toy.

The Big News

Pick one for me, I can't decide:

Flytrap "zipper" action holds captured fly securely.
(i.e. keeps kids busy)

• A bidding war broke out at the elementary school holiday event for the last one.
• A kid can make one. Or at least significantly help the parent. It's an ideal beginner's crochet project. 
• It's educational: botanically accurate flytrap "zipper" action when a juicy fly (see the lavender one above) is captured.
• Extra fast and easy, thanks to the foam sheets & simple shape. Especially valuable on the night before the school event.
• As safe for rambunctious boys to play with as a sock puppet—for example, if/when they attempt to make the Venus Flytrap capture other children. (Not safe under age 3 due to chain loops and possibility of small foam pieces.)

Slip fingers into these pockets, puppet-like.

This is one of the educational toys available at my new crochet pattern website, and now also in my Ravelry store. Especially see Gallon Friend, Stingray Puppetmittens, and Cheerful Chores!

Crochet Rings for Cuties

I love it when kids design their world!

I Had a Visitor

She was entranced with my craft supplies. It was her idea entirely to put a pom pom bead at the center of a crocheted rainbow flower.

Here's another one: the Flower of Power ring (project in Ravelry).

Toasty Crocheted Jacket Gets Extensive Testing

I ended up adding a drawstring to the hood.

Just in time for a record cold front, this yarn stash buster is holding up pretty well (though in unexpected ways) under rigorous kid testing.
'Bob' requested a new crocheted sweater and rifled through my yarn stash to be helpful. He liked the bright twists of color in the Lion Brand Landscapes. The challenge: only 3 skeins and no time to track down more. I like its wool content and it's a fun crochet yarn.

So, to make the most of the first yarn, I did strips of Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS) because it gets the most mileage out of the yarn. 

It's true! Eva Owsian once posted a comparison of yarn used for a knitted stockinette swatch, TSS swatch, and single crochet stitch swatch. (Angela refers to it here.)
Would you believe that with the same amount of yarn, the TSS swatch was bigger than the knitted one?

Yeah! Totally.

Then, based on the Marco Jacket (my first TSS strips experiment), I found yarns that coordinated with the Landscapes colors. Lion Brand Suede colors were great but I had to add strands of a medium-weight yarn to beef up the yarn thickness so that it matches Landscapes. Naturallycaron Country adds a nice sheen, and some Brown Sheep wool looked great.
The yarn is actually holding up better than the blocked finished shape. As time goes by, the bottom hem is hiking up a bit, and the shoulder seam is growing--relaxing and creeping down his arm as if it's not his size. It's not supposed to! 

I was counting on the inelasticity of the TSS return rows to support the weight of the sleeves without stretching! In retrospect, I didn't account for the air (the extra space around each stitch) that gets built into chenille yarn when it's crocheted. And get this: it's magnified when chenille is held together with another yarn strand, like I did.

But I'm enjoying seeing these rich textures and more mature colors on him, rather than the usual primary colors. So for my Ravelry project page I've named it "Velvet Motley, A Midwinter Coat."