It feels incredible to release a new pattern after such a long break!!! Please welcome new crochet bear motif! Although the story behind it kind of hurts… The thing is, lately I´ve been suffering with back pain. I´m still not sure why it started or how long it will go on, but it forces me to take it a bit slower and crochet less. So instead of hurting my body with crochet, I decided to complete a pattern started in the summer. A cute little crochet bear motif that has tons of creative ways of usage. STORY BEHIND IT The first bear motif was made many years ago for my child`s school cardiga ..read more

This video tutorial is about how to starch crochet motifs. The link to the video is included below, so scroll down if you want to get to the point ASAP. It is one of the questions I often get from people using my crochet motif patterns. So I thought it needed a little explanation and a quick video example of how it`s done. Is starching crochet motifs necessary at the first place? Well, my experience shows that this depends on how you`re going to use the motifs. I mostly use them for making garlands and there I would say starching is almost inevitable. It leaves the motifs flat and strong ..read more

My Christmas tree motif has been a hit since the pattern was released in 2017. I believe it`s because of its versatility. Hereby I want to show you 5 creative ways of using this simple motif for creating Christmas decorations. OPTION 1 – a rope + mini clothespins Attaching the tree motifs on a rope with mini clothespins is the simplest version of making a garland, and it has some great advantages. For example, the motifs won`t be attached permanently which means you can remove them and use in some other way if you like to. Or you can change the interspace between the trees. Next ..read more

In this crochet tutorial I am showing how to attach the yarn into leftover front loops. It`s one of the basic techniques in amigurumi you can use on many different toys. It lets you add another unremovable layer to a piece or a body part you`ve already crocheted. For example when you want to add a skirt or a collar to a doll. Keep in mind that the skirt or a collar won`t be removable. If you want to add a removable skirt, you have to crochet it separately and not use this technique. To be able to add the additional layer, you must at some point leave front loops of one round unworked. Y ..read more

New crochet cactus teethers or baby rattles for the local flower shop here in Tallinn. A couple of years ago I made these special rattles for them. The name of the shop is Kaktus which means cactus, so they wanted something related with that. This time I tried a little brighter shade of green. It`s 44 grass green from Ricorumi DK. You can find the earlier version with the darker green in this blog post. The rattle is about 18 cm / 7 in. Makes a nice subtle noise. The post Crochet cactus teethers appeared first on lilleliis ..read more

Crochet garland with bears and letters was made for my nephew August for his first birthday gift. I think it turned out cute. Why I decided to make a garland? The reason for this was that later when the kid is bigger, I can please him with toys. But until he is a baby, he won`t get the idea of the gifts anyway, so it`s nice to gift something that pleases his mom :) In the past I already had made a garland for my son Paul. He still has it decorating his room. So I started with making the letters A U G U S T. I didn`t invent those patterns myself. I took them from the first crochet book I ..read more

I did a little yarn test comparing Schachenmayr Catania and Ricorumi DK on the same bunny pattern. The idea was to make the same bunny (my favorite Sweet Childhood Bunny) with different yarns but in almost identical color scheme. I wanted to see how similar or different the bunnies turn out. Also how much the yarn affects the final design and proportions. So I used light pink shade of both yarns and the same fabric on the ears and feet. I´ll put some specific information below, but here`s how it started. Already when finishing the first 5 rounds, it was clear that Ricorumi bunny (on the r ..read more

Before and after the year change I worked on an amigurumi acorn. It was a customer order and kind of a sad story. The rattle is a gift for a 4 months old baby who was just recently diagnosed a lymphoma. While I was crocheting, it wasn`t clear yet as they were waiting for the results. It`s horrible to think of a little human being starting his life in a way like this. But I was happy to create something with love for this little guy. And I knew from the beginning that the acorn must have the friendliest smile on Earth. It will give the little guy courage to fight. Actually, making th ..read more

Happy New Year, dear crochet friends!!! Wishing you lots of happy crochet hours and many exciting amigurumi projects for 2023! It has become a tradition to look over the past year in our personal life, and remind us about the most exciting things that happened or major changes that took place. It`s a pity I never did this for my lilleliis brand before, but better late than never. I decided to put together a little overview of the year 2022 (mostly photos!) and make some stats and analysis. So here are some important numbers of my crochet year 2022 :) NEW PATTERNS 2022 2022 was one of the l ..read more

Before Christmas I finished a new doll. Here she is – my Christmas tree doll. We had a couple of really stormy days here in Estonia, even the electricity services stopped working for a while. Well, on one of those cold and stormy days the inspiration suddenly came to me. I created a doll inspired by Christmas tree. She has a tree dress made with layers of different green shades. Her shoes and legs are in the colors of the tree stalk. On her head there is a golden star just like on top of the Christmas tree. She has some sequins embellishing her dress and shoes. I really love those fairy hai ..read more