Crocheted Mochi Golf Club Cover

My dad has been suggesting this thing forever and ever and I finally decided to tackle this project.

I'm not THAT much of a yarn hoarder, but I've been meaning to go through my rubbermaid bin of yarn and use up some stuff that I've had for years.  When my dad first requested making a golf club cover out of my dog's head (I just realized how morbid that sounds),  I knew I had the yarn for it (same yarn used for my turkey tissue cozy), but I didn't have any freaking clue on how I would start such a pattern.  Luckily I found a free pattern from Lion Brand for golf club covers, and just made one in a Mochi-colored shade.  Because the yarn was sport weight, I decided to double the yarn to make the project more sturdy.  I created a snout by crocheting a cylinder-like piece, adding some polyfill inside to make it fuller.  Black satin ribbon was used for the nose and mouth, and I cut out some black stiff felt for the eyes, using hot glue to stick it onto the face, and then stitching around the eyes with thread for added security and to make it look more finished.  For the ears, I kinda played the shape by ear (pun!).   I crocheted small triangles and then single-crocheted all around to make the triangles rounded in shape.  I felt like the overall face wasn't shaggy enough, so I added some yarn whiskers on the top of his nose.  For the final touch, I added a pom pom on the back because Mochi's tail is fluffy like that.  He's so cutie.

Twinsies

I can't stop laughing at this thing.

God, I hope my dad doesn't lose this on the golf course.  He loses everything.

Vasarely Blanket (ongoing project) update #8

Progress! To get a better overview of my blanket layout and to keep track of my pieces, I easily created a handy little printout of my blanket layout using Photoshop:

This way, I get to map out my blanket without having to unfold the blanket and spreading the thing all out onto the floor or bed.  I took some scrap yarn in a different color and tied a bow onto the top left corner to mark the front* side of the blanket so I can match it up with the printout.  This printout is so helpful.  I'm less likely to make any mistakes e.g. sewing a white diamond on one side when it should've been a black piece, or sewing on a piece upside down.

It is way easier to sew smaller groups of the blanket at a time, too.  So when I stitch together a section of a blanket, I outline that section on the printout.  Then when I stitch that particular section to the rest of the blanket, I shade that area in.

Sometimes the length of the sides do not match (because I didn't block my diamonds), but I found that using this hair clip to hold /match the sides together helps me distribute the stitches evenly without any worries of leaving any slack behind.  These hair clips make things so much easier, and are definitely staying in my crochet bag for future projects.  I wonder if there is even a product actual made for this purpose?  I bet you its way more expensive than these clips.

*There really isn't a front or back side of the blanket, just using this to match the printout/pattern layout.