HALLOWEEN CUTIES...

Those two words don't really sound right together do they? When I showed these little baskets to my hubby, his first question was "Are they mean't to be scary?". My reply "No". His reply "Oh good!!!". So now you understand where the title for this post came from:-)

Every Halloween we have a handful of kids that we like to give a little something extra too ..... family friends and the kids best friends. Given this is the year of "use what I have on hand", I took my crochet hook and some Halloween colored cotton yarn I had in my stash, and just got busy crocheting - this is what evolved. I am sure there are probably hundreds of tutorials for similar little baskets all over blogland and I'm sure these aren't an original idea, but they're what I came up with while "playing", and I'm very excited about how they turned out!!!! We'll fill them with some Halloween goodies and they'll be pretty cute gifts I think.

I thought I'd share how I made them with you - just incase anyone wanted to give it a try ...... they're really quick and easy. I found some purple yarn in the yarn bucket this evening, so I'm going to make a witch next.

Get Ready....

I used 100% cotton yarn and a D (3.25mm) crochet hook.

Felt and/or googly eyes

A little ribbon

Here Goes .....

With Jack O Lantern or Frankie colored yarn, make 2 chains (CH)

Row 1 - Single crochet (SC) 6 into the 1st CH (6 ST)

Row 2 - SC 2 in each SC around (12 ST)

Row 3 - SC 1, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (18 ST)

Row 4 - SC 2, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (24 ST)

Row 5 - SC 3, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (30 ST)

Row 6 - SC 4, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (36 ST)

Row 7 - SC 5, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (42 ST)

Row 8 - SC 6, 2 SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (48 ST)

Row 9 - SC 7, 2SC in next SC, continue like this all the way around (54 ST)

Row 10 - SC into the back loop of each SC (54 ST)

Rows 11 - 20 - SC 54 STS

Row 21 - 25 - Change yarn to green for Jack O Lantern or black for Frankie, and SC 54 STS.

At the end of Row 25 cut yarn and thread through loop to bind off. Weave in all the ends of your yarn.

To give them faces I cut circles from felt and just played around with their placement until I was happy, then I glued the pieces on .... It's really not an exact science (which makes them all the more fun). Both their mouths I embroidered with a piece of the black yarn.The ribbon handles are just lengths of ribbon pushed through to the wrong side of the basket and tied off to secure them - you can make them as long or short as you like. I prefered mine to be fairly small.

I'm linking this to Val's Spookify Me Saturdays over at Yarni Gras. If you haven't visited yet, you should as there are some really great Halloween ideas to see.

Until next time....