life with monkey

one sooper-seekrit project: DONE. and since the person for whom this project was created says that he doesn’t read this blog, i can post the results. [though if he IS reading this, he can't blame me for ruining the surprise. hee!]

i saw this knitted olive project at Cut Out + Keep, and decided that would be a nice little vday gift for my husband. instead of knitting, however, i thought i’d crochet, since i don’t crochet as much as i used to anymore. i certainly don’t want my crocheting skills to deteriorate. use it or lose it, right?

since i didn’t have instructions for crocheting these little guys, i winged it and figured it out by trial-and-error. my favorite crochet stitch is half-double, so that’s what i used for the olives. so here’s a (hopefully not too confusing) rundown of the project:

ingredients:
berroco softwist yarn in olive green
a square of red felt
size D crochet hook
a jar with a lid
a label for the jar

directions(-ish):
ch 3, join chain to form a circle
ch 2, then 5 hdc into middle of circle, join round
ch 2, then [2 hdc into one st, 1 hdc]*, repeat* to end of round, join round
ch 2, [hdc, hdc, 2 hdc into one st]*, repeat* to end of round, join round
ch 2, hdc each st to end of round, join round
ch 2, [hdc, then decrease by either skipping a stitch or doing one hdc that uses the next two stitches]*, repeat* to end of round, join round, fasten off
push yarn tails into the completed olive
cut a rectangle of felt about 1″ x 2.5″. starting at a short end, roll the rectangle into a tube and insert this rolled “pimento” into the opening of the olive.
voila! one pimento-stuffed olive done.

YMMV, as far as the stitches go. they don’t have to be exact – goodness knows mine weren’t.

when you have enough to fill your jar, then make a label to complete the project. the knitted project called for a label saying “olive you”, but since my hubby and i say “olive juice” (i saw it in an old Happy Days episode when i was a kid! Fonzie told Richie to muth “olive juice” at some girl at a party or dance or something, i swear), i did that.

the frame is scanned from a Dover copyright-free book, and the rest of the layout was completed in MS Publisher.

my jar isn’t quite full. there are 11 olives in there. i was using a leftover ball o’ yarn and i ran out. whoops!