I saw some patterns on Pinterest that I liked, and used that as inspiration, but in the end, each one I made was different.
I had some unexpected challenges. Funding Christmas yarns was one. I wasn't able to get to a Michael's, the only craft store option, during my trips to the city. The best option I had was Walmart, and their Christmas craft supplies were almost non-existent. I couldn't even find the miniature decorations I used to be able to fund easily.
Then, after my first few, I started running out of stuffing, but when I tried to buy more, I couldn't find any!
I even had a hard time finding Styrofoam balls, which I used to see everywhere. I did finally find some at a dollar store, along with some miniature decorations.
So I made do with what I had, with white and sparkly red yarn as the main connecting theme.
This is all that I've made, and I think I'm done for this year. We aren't even putting up our usual tree, so we don't have space for them on the mini tree on the piano, in the cat free tool!
This is the first one I made. Just diagonal lines in back loop single crochet, sewn together. One end was closed up, the stuffing added, then the other end sewn closed. When I finally found some mini decorations, I added the little present on top.
The next one I tried was straight rows of back loop double crochet. Otherwise, it was assembled the same way.
I didn't like the sewing, so the next one was done in simple rounds.
I found some wooded beads and the little bow to dress it up a bit.
At this point, I was almost out of stuffing, and switched to the foam balls.
This variation is really just a tawashi dish cloth pattern I'd made in the past, except stuffed. The rows are done in the back loop, starting with sc, then hdc, then dc, then hdc again, and ending with sc. The end result was bigger than the balls, so it is quite loose around it. A miniature bauble got it's hanging cord removed, than added on with the excess yarn used to sew the sides together, and close off the end.
Again, I didn't want to sew things together, so I did this one in rounds. Once the foam ball was added, though, it was pretty awkward to stitch around it. Especially when doing decrease rounds.
Time for something different.
This one was done as two circles. Those were crocheted together, with the ball added inside when they were half joined. This fit more snuggly, so those last stitches were harder to work, but I liked the end result.
Then a friend gifted me with some craft supplies, including miniature decorations! I used a tiny garland in this last one.
The mini garland was worked into the last round on one circle, only. I tried sewing the circles together at first, but they turned out to be juuuust too small. So I did a different crochet join that added the equivalent of another round in the middle. I'm quite happy with how this one turned out!
With the Styrofoam balls, making two halves and joining them together was much easier than working in the rounds, but takes longer. With the stuffed ones, working in the round was easiest and fastest.
I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. Even considering they turned out to all be experiments!
