Spring projects - including cleaning!

I've been knocking out some big projects in the last couple of weeks, so I thought I'd update on progress. I'll start with the headliner...

I finished Sophie!! I did not add any of the "extra" border rows, but I did add the optional light pink flowers. I'm very glad I did.

I gave her to my friend, who was very excited indeed. I must say, I'm sort of missing working on her and having her around, so I guess I did the right thing in buying a kit to make myself one next year. I'll be using a smaller hook to crochet the first few parts, though, because this thing bulges in the center something awful.

In the midst of knitting some other projects that are somewhat frustrating (neither of which is finished yet), I knocked out a quick little pattern of some bulky weight crochet baskets. I had some extra bulky yarn lying around, and I'm trying to clean house a bit.

I think they are the cutest!! I have them at work right now because I don't know what I want to do with them. But I can tell there are more of these in my future. 

And speaking of cleaning house, I took a total inventory of my yarn today, organizing by color and donating a few skeins. 

Obviously I have quite a bit of yarn. But my closets look very nice now, and I have a better idea of what's in there now. And I found some bulky yarn to make some more baskets!

And I saved the funnest one for last - I completed an amigurumi airplane!

My friends had a kid, and I haven't crocheted anything for him since the blanket for the shower. The father of this particular child is really really into airplanes, and I found a cute pattern online.

Here are all the pieces:

Sewing it together was a bit slow-going, because each of the wing pieces and propellers had to be made twice and then sewn together so that they stood up sturdily. In fact, the wings also contain some plastic canvas cut to size, which helps them hang straight out.

The pattern was pretty cool and turned out exactly like the photo, but I did find some errors. I don't think anyone else on Ravelry has made the pattern, so I might be the first to notice, so here are the errors I found in case anyone following me needs this information:

Side Wings Rows 48-53 should say TWICE, not once

As written, the propeller body has two more rows of single crochets on one side (1-10) than the other (11-18)

Propeller Tops Round 2 should be “sc in 2nd ch and across” (as written it only tells you to sc in the 2nd ch.

Well, that's it for Val's World of Crochet today. I'm also working on a couple of sweaters, but I'm dreading one of them and bored with the other. Must soldier on.