Friday, March 20, 2026

Chilly the Wooble Frog

Today I finished the Wooble named Chill-lieve in Yourself along with his Tiny Buckle Backpack. My ten-year old Grandson in Oklahoma loves these little critters and puts in his requests for Grandma to make them for him. This is the fourth in his collection after Strawberry the Axolotl (post for 1/22/24), Creeper (post for 10/15/25), and VAN (post for 2/6/26). The main body generally works up very quickly and then I stall and procrastinate making the appendages or accessories. This time I moved right ahead to do the belly and eyes on the frog.  He came out amusing and huggable. The backpack is tiny and easy, but fussy to do. After the bright turquoise and rich gold, the dull gray and black color combination was uninspiring. I dragged my feet to complete the Tiny Buckle Backpack. Once I started it, though, it was no big deal at all. I kicked my self for delaying — yes, kicked myself with those very same feet I had been dragging. Here are the frog and his accessory completed. They are both incredibly adorable.


The Chill-lieve in Yourself Bundle came in a series of packages. I worked from a tray to keep all the components organized and together. The illustrative teaching videos are excellent. I am right-handed but it is good to know that there is a left-handed learning option as well. For those with enough crochet background, there is a straight text pattern option to follow also, so your pace is not constrained to video speed. Though, as a perk, the videos themselves have selectable speed options. Another feature to be praised about these Woobles is their customer service.  I had trouble locating the directions for the backpack. I did not know that they were separate from the frog itself and needed a different designated password. I texted the customer service number provided in the kit; within an hour I got a reply! After a couple of exchanges over the next two hours, my issue was completely resolved. I was given a password to move forward, and I went merrily on my crocheting way. This occurred on a late Saturday evening — now that's service!



Here is the promotional photo for advertising the completed project on the left, next to my own version of Chilly on the right. The stitches attaching the belly look different, so I either misread the directions or the video described a technique for attachment other than the photo. When you cook up a recipe, it is alway gratifying if your creation looks like the picture. The same is true of needlecraft. Close enough and still cute... I am pleased. I also strongly believe Isaiah will love them.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Walker Bag

When you are between projects and you need inspiration to renew your sew mojo, sometimes a short project is just the trick. I made a bag for a friend's walker using the free online pattern available from Spruce Crafts. After quickly skimming it, it seemed to me that it would be straightforward. I downloaded the pattern to a pdf  so I could print out just what I wanted. Before beginning, I read through the pattern first, and was confused. After scratching my head for a bit, I figured out that the file had advertisements superimposed on parts of the directions, so my printout was incomplete. Once I went back to the source, and read about those "missing" steps, all was well and the pattern was accurate and straightforward.


Since I had a sufficient amount of the gray/white/blue fabric I opted that the lining be the same as the main body. I added little notes on the cut out pieces so I could distinguish when the directions referred to lining or body. The photo with the directions used a contrasting fabric for the pockets and they show up well. Since I did not do that I added the blue ribbon to make it more obvious where the pocket edges would be for inserting stuff. The front and back of the body has different width and varying depth pockets to accommodated varied sized things such as a cell phone, a pen/pencil, or ear buds.



If I had it to do over, I would have made the top tabs and side ties ties custom-sized for a particular walker. As it was, they were extra long to provide versatility. Given their extra length, I would have also put longer strips of Velcro so the tabs and ties could have been configured in a shorter way with more overlap. 
Overall, this was a satisfying, quick project that came out well.