A Little Travelling Companion 

Ok, so it’s not everyday that your younger sister comes up to you and announces that she is going travelling with her friend. You have quite a few mixed emotions going on in your head!!! First of all, it’s pure panic that something will happen to them, then you have pure excitement for them, as you can see how excited they are. But then you go back to slightly freaking out and that you want to fill their heads with all sorts of safety measures that they need to take!!!! I’m hoping some of you out there have similar feelings to me, or maybe I am just a bit of a worrier!! Any how, once I’d realised that she was old enough and daft enough to look after herself, I decided they might need a little travelling companion with them!! A little bit of crocheted love to look after her. So without further a do, may I present Miles. (I can’t take credit for the name!! Thanks Sis!)

So little Miles was created and found his way on to an aeroplane & managed to hot foot it out of the country for a few weeks. It looks like he has been having some yummy food & visiting some pretty cool places. They travelled round, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Ljubljiana and Lake Bled.

I think you can safely say he had fun!! And you will be pleased to know, my sister came back safe and sound!! Phew!!

So Miles is one of my Mini Monster Men. They are really quick to make up and great for little birthday presents or party bag fillers. I first created them for my daughter, years ago for her parties treasure hunt. As they are lovely & small, so great for little hands. They loved finding the little monsters all around the garden!!

The beauty of them is that they can be made taller or shorter, wider or thinner and even with multi yarn strands to completely change the look. (Multistrand ones are really quick to make up.) I love how versatile these little dudes are!!

These are with 3 dk strands together and using a 7mm crochet hook.

These are even bigger. I used some of my Aran sock yarn up. So 2 strands of Aran and one strand of dk. 9mm hook should do the trick.

 

 

Another great thing about them, is that you can change the expression on their faces to whatever you want. I don’t seem to have made an angry one yet, but you could easily make one by changing the direction of the eyebrows!!! (They remind me of a poster that I had at uni!)

So little Miles is back now at uni, awaiting for his next adventure with my sister!! (And knowing my sister, it won’t be long before he is on another one!!) As my daughter is one of my sister’s biggest fans, she took rather a liking to little Miles and the idea of taking photos of him on her adventures, really appealed to her. So a request was put in by the little lady and a little Smiles was created. (He was named by my daughter!!)

He’s bigger than Miles, as I have used aran wool instead of double knit, but I have used the same pattern. He’s quite a nice size, fits well in my daughter’s hand. Crikey, I had better get on with giving you the pattern. Now I had planned to create the photo tutorial as I usually do, but it took a little holiday turn and I thought I would create the tutorial whilst I was on my own holibobs. So please forgive me if the photos are all a bit different, but this one is an on-the-go tutorial.

So, if you want to make Miles (multicoloured), then you need to change the colour after every two rounds. (See changing colour tutorial) I have given you the basic pattern, but you can adapt it to however you like. So to make it taller or shorter, just change the amount of dc rounds. Or if you want to make it wider, just increase more rounds at the beginning. But remember if you do this, you will need to increase the base to the same amount. (I promised my sister a door stop one, which should be fun!) Whoops, forgot to mention – I’m sure some of you know this – but the reason we are using a 3mm hook with double knit yarn is that it makes a tighter weave, so no toy stuffing can come out. So if you wanted to make these in Aran weight, you would need to use a 5mm hook. Smiles is made in an aran sock yarn, so it is already colour changing, which was very handy when your daughter has ordered a rainbow Smiles!! It doesn’t need to be sock yarn, any will do, wool or cotton!

Stitches –

Magic Ring (mr) – For a magic ring, make a loop with the yarn, leaving a tail. (Make sure the tail is under the working yarn.) Now insert your hook into the loop, from the front to the back. Wrap the working yarn around your hook and pull the yarn through and pull tight to create a ring.

Slip stitch (ss) – This is where there is no height to the stitch. It’s usually used to join rounds. So insert the hook into the front of the stitch you are joining to. This is usually the first stitch you made in that round/row. So yarn over hook and pull through that first stitch then also through the loop on your hook.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Supplies –

Miles is made from one strand of double knit. So you need a 3mm crochet hook, toy stuffing, blunt ended tapestry needle, a small amount of black yarn (for the face), DK yarn (small amount required – so great to use up those odds & sods left over from other projects!

Smiles on the other hand is an Aran weight gradient yarn, so the colour changes by itself. So use a 5mm hook. As before, you will also need scissors, a blunt ended tapestry needle and some toy stuffing and of course some black yarn for the face.

Here we go…

Body

1 – So start with a magic ring, chain 1 then 6dc into ring, then pull the tail to create a ring. (Don’t forget to use the magic ring tutorial if you are unsure.) (6)

2 – Now work *2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. After this round, ensure you use a stitch marker so you know where the round start and ends. You can see my black stitch marker in the photo below this one. (12)

This picture shows multi strands round 2 with two strands of double knit yarn. You can see how it’s quite a bit thicker!!

3 – In this round work *1 dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around.  (18)

4 – Haha, you may not be crocheting your 4th round at 6am whilst in a queue for the ferry. But you now need to work *2dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (24)

5 – Loving how the colour is changing in this yarn!! It’s rainbow sock yarn from the West Yorkshire Spinners. It’s lovely to work with. So in this round you need to work *3dc, 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (30)

6 – Now this is the last round where you will increase. So *4dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (36)

This was on the ferry, when a certain little boy had come back from exploring with his Daddy!! He definitely loves crocheting!! He had that look of “Mummy, I just want to give that hook a chew!”

7 – 18 – In these rounds, dc into each stitch all the way around. These will make the main body of Smiles. Keep folding over the stitch marker so you know which round you are on. (36)

Love the early morning light coming through the front windows of the ferry. Managed a little bit more whilst on our journey at sea. (My two little ones were off getting their passports stamped.)

Ok so here you have the body nearly finished. Once you have finished the last round, slip stitch and fasten off. You don’t really need to leave a tail, just enough to weave it in with a needle.

Base

Right so now let’s create the base. It’s basically a circle, that will fit snuggly into the bottom of the body.

1 – Ok, so start off with a magic ring, then chain 1 and work 6dc into ring. Now as before, pull the tail to create a ring. (6)

2 – Now work *2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (12)

3 – Now work *1 dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (18)

4 – In this round work *2dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (24)

5 – In this round work *3dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around.  (30)

6 – Now this is the last round so *4dc, then 2dc into each stitch*. Repeat ** all the way around. (36)

Ok so now that you have created your base you need to slip stitch and fasten off, but leave a tail. With this tail you will attach your base to your body. (Remember you need to increase the size of the base if you have increased the size of the body! It needs to be the same amount of increases.)

 

Now stuff the body with toy stuffing. Don’t fill it too much, it should be nice and squidgy!

Then sew the base onto the body using a blunt ended tapestry needle. You need to work it back and forth from the base to the body by picking up the bottom stitch of the body. This will secure them together.

And there you have your finished Smiles.

Hair

Now for that lovely hair.

Attach your yarn with a slip stitch, then *chain 10, join this chain of stitches with a slip stitch* and repeat ** this process till you have as much hair as you would like. When you have enough hair just simply slip stitch and fasten off. Sew in yarn ends. (You could do multicoloured hair, by changing the yarn colour!! Which would be quite fun.)

So first of all, attach your hair yarn, by inserting your hook through one of the top stitches, make a slip knot with your yarn hair and then pull this through with your hook. (Making a slip knot with your yarn hair, will make it quite secure.)

Once you have pulled it through, place your yarn over the hook and pull it through the stitch. This is your first chain.

Now chain 9 more.

You now need to attach your chain of 10. So choose the stitch you want to attach it to and insert your hook. Place your yarn over your hook and pull it back through the top of your chains. This makes it into a loop, which gives you your first strand of hair.

Now carry on making and attaching these chains till you feel you have enough. Don’t worry if some of your chains aren’t quite 10 or are more, it will be nice if some of the hair strands are different lengths anyway!

Eyes and mouth (Don’t forget you can make the expression anyway you like.)

For the eyes, I use black double knit yarn. Attach by knotting one end and threading it through a gap in between a stitch at the back of the body, This will hide the end. Now pull the needle through where you would like the eye to be. I tend to sew over one stitch to make the eye and sew over this stitch about 5 times. You can add eyebrows in the same way but with one stitch.

    

I love the simpleness of the eyebrows. They can make such a difference to a face!!

For the mouth. Pull the yarn through where you would like the mouth to start then thread back through where you want the mouth to finish.

  

Now here’s the tricky part. You now need to anchor the mouth in the middle to make it a smile. So simply push the yarn back up in the middle of the mouth by one stitch lower, go over the top of the mouth, then back through the same stitch. This will give you the smile. Again simple, but effective.

And there you have it, your little Smiles or Miles depending on your yarn weight is all done.

Hope this all makes sense to you. I really hope you have fun making these, I know I have. They are great for children to make too.

As this was an on-the-go tutorial, my lovely little Smiles was finished on our holibobs. So here are some of our holibob adventures in Normandy. We went to Honfleur in France and as you can see the weather was beautiful. My daughter loved taking these. She was desperate for me to post them on here, bless her. I like how she wanted to share with you a little Smiles in a snugglepod! I think her little monkey wasn’t very impressed being turfed out of it’s cosy bed!!

  

  

This was a beach in Normandy that was full of shells!! My daughter’s eyes were on stalks!! I can safely say, it was a good job we had the pram with us, as the bottom tray was full of them!!

I hope you have enjoyed my post and I look forward to hearing from any of you about your mini monsters and where in the world they reach. Would be great to see photos of them all over the world. There’s a challenge for you!!

Happy hooking.

🌈 Xx

P.S Don’t forget you can add Pom Poms instead!!! Just attach your Pom Pom with a bit of thread and your tapestry needle. Have fun.