Jess gets crafty

January's craft: Cross stitch

2012-01-24T19:23:00.000Z

January seems to have flown by incredibly quickly - so I'm finding it a little tight to get the first of my monthly craft posts in. This year I'm going to try and complete a project using a different craft each month and to start me off I've been working on a little cross stitch project.

This little cross stitch kit is was the free gift that comes with the Cath Kidstone "Stitch" that I got for Christmas. The kit is to make up a simple little purse on some pre-printed canvas fabric. To help keep your stitches lovely and even you are also provided with a little piece of dissolvable cross stitch cloth. Once I had finished working the cross stitch design on the front of the purse I got to rinse the canvas in water and see the dissolvable stuff magically disappear. Before finishing up the purse I also added a piece of white felt to the back of the design which will hopefully help prevent any of the thread at the back of the work getting pulled.

Pretty and quick - my favourite type of project! Now I wonder what I shall do for February?

A new venture?

2012-01-11T08:24:00.001Z

My regular followers are possibly getting tired of seeing photos of baby booties - I seem to make them a lot. In fact I make them so much I even designed my own pattern for them (which is currently available through the CrochetMe website but hopefully will be moved over to Raverly later this year as the CrochetMe page is getting heavily spammed).

Last year I was finding myself very frustrated at not having any of my own earnings coming in and I wanted to try and find some sort of flexible/part time money making venture. I did a basic "how to start your own business" course and after that registered as a Phoenix trader and started selling their beautiful cards.

I also started crocheting booties - lots and lots of booties. I've simplified and fine tuned my crochet bootie design, sampled a number of different yarns as well as stocking up on some of the lovely hand dyed buttons that paper-and-string sells. So now I have quite a pile of booties made up and after I've worked out how to set up an Etsy shop as well as draw up a logo I'll be able to start selling these too!

Real life angry birds

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000Z

Remember the red angry bird I made for my husband recently (the geeky crochet post is here)? Well I also managed to make the green pig to go with it and I'm very happy with them both.

After a bit of a play with some of my 3 year old's building blocks we managed to get this action photo of a real life game of angry birds. I love these - if you do too then you should be able to get hold of the free patterns through Ravelry (red bird, green pig)

Wishes for the New Year

2012-01-02T16:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year fellow crafters! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

We've spent the last few days here at Tea Towers tidying away Christmas decorations and getting a few odd jobs done round the house. Our son's room is finally how we want it with pictures up on the wall and all his toys unpacked and currently arranged neatly about the room. We have also been trying to get more of our family photos printed out and framed so our new house is finally feeling like home.

With the extra kick of starting the New Year well I also want to do some tidying around my blog. This year I would love to be able to make more use of my free time and do a lot more crafting so hopefully I'll have more to share with you all. These are a few of my blog related New Years resolutions:

Make at least one Christmas tree decoration each month (so that I'll have a good stash of them in time for Christmas 2012)
Try and write about a different craft each month
Do more book reviews - I have lots that I want to write reviews for... just trying to find the time to test projects from each of them
Dust off the sewing machine and start using it regularly.

That list should keep me out of mischeif for this year - what are all of your craft resolutions?

Geeky crochet

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000Z

My husband is a gamer. If I had more time then I would probably be more of a gamer myself. Sadly free time isn't one something I have much of at the moment - but in the few short slots of quiet time I am managing to steal for myself I've been able to get a couple of little crochet projects done.

One of the good things about having a geeky husband is that there are always plenty of amigurumi projects that I can make for him - my Ravelry queue is always bursting with tons of possible projects. Amigurumi is fantastically suited to making cartoony toys and so perfect for so many of the creatures and items to be found in video games. My favourite of these would have to be the 'Mr Bubbles' that I made him last year - which though the hardest amigurumi project I've ever done it is also the one I am most proud of.

Recently I completed a 'weighted companion cube' for him (which is from another of the brilliant designs by nerdigurumi). If you've not heard of the game Portal then it may seem a little strange to take the time to crochet a cube - but believe me it is a fantastic game and this little inanimate cube has a big fan following and so has quite a few free crochet patterns as well as some pretty amazing reproductions - just type 'weighted companion cube' into a google image search and prepare to be impressed.

Most recently I have just finished up a much quicker pattern for one of the birds from the 'angry birds' game which my husband plays on his iPhone. This game involves catapulting some kamikaze birds into some fortified pigs with hard hats - strange but oddly addictive. If I had more time then I would give making one of the green pigs a go so that Rich could have something to target his new angry bird at - perhaps I'll get round to it later in the year - along with all the other cool but geeky patterns that I want to try...

Slime from the Dragon quest games
Lemmings
Mario mushrooms

Quick ornaments

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000Z

Even though I'd given myself a year off from Christmas crafting I couldn't resist making a few little ornaments as presents. These little trees are one of the projects in "Fa la la felt" a simply gorgeous book containing 45 different Christmas decorations you can make with felt.

These trees looked to be the simplest in the book - just a simple shape with some freehand back stitching for decoration and after whip stitching both pieces together you're done. So very quick and satisfying, I would have made more but I ran out of felt!

Now I should really go and wrap some presents... happy Christmas crafting everyone!

Christmas cross stitching

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000Z

Our little girl is now 2 months old and things are finally starting to get into more of a routine here at Tea Towers. For the past two months I have spent every evening trying to settle Emily by holding her in my arms which makes doing any craft particularly difficult. As we are starting to get better at settling her down in her basket I'm starting to have my hands free for half an hour every evening which has finally given me the time to finish off these pretty cross stitch decorations.

I tend not to do much cross stitch now I have kids as there is never enough time in the day to do long projects and if I tried to do a large piece it would take me years to complete. However, I was given a copy of a cross stitch magazine while in hospital before having Emily and it included a lovely kit to make these cute little Christmas houses. Surprisingly I found it didn't take me long at all to do the cross stitch element of these houses, what took the time was having to sew them all up, iron and stuff with fiberfill. I'm really pleased with how they came out though and will have to try and choose one to keep for us as the other two already have intended new homes.

Getting into the festive spirit

2011-11-30T11:37:00.000Z

Every year I get myself into a pre Christmas panic, so when I start hearing Christmas carols or seeing the Christmas lights being put up round the shops I don't enjoy them at all. This year by some miracle I'm almost finished with the shopping for presents (so far I've done about 95% of it online - much easier!) and although there is still lots to do in the way of wrapping and card writing I'm feeling a lot more festive than I usually do at this time of year. Things have probably been helped by my not trying to get a huge amount of Christmas crafting done last minute which, though fun last year, does put me in a bit of a mad panic.

This year I'm going to be taking it a bit easier on myself, I'm not going to worry that I haven't bought all my friends and family the perfect present and just be happy that everyone will get something to say we are thinking of them. I have got a few small presents that I'm finishing off this week - but nothing too difficult so when the time comes to get all our Christmas decorations out of the loft tomorrow I should be very happy to see them all and relaxed enough to really enjoy putting them all out.

Friday book review

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000Z

"Natural crochet: For babies and toddlers"
by Tina Barrett
ISBN: 978-1861086242

UK crochet terms

This book has been sitting on my computer desk for months now waiting for me to review it - and I've really wanted to do so, there just hasn't been the time. Seeing as the two little ones seem to be sleeping I'll try and write you a quick review now.

The book is beautiful.

The layout is simple with a photo gallery at the start with a few photos of each project model by some pretty adorable looking little ones which if you are at all like me you'll spend a good amount of time cooing at. This book is unusual in that I found most of the projects really appealing and would be very happy to have a go at making all of them. Sadly my own little boy is probably too old to make for now as he is past the largest size this book has patterns for.

The first half of the patterns are for babies and usually have instructions for more than one size, either 0-6 or 6-12, but there are some patterns with just the one size given. Some of my favourites from this section include the hooded cardigan which is particularly lovely and the little matinee jacket that is very similar to the Maisy baby cardigan I made up for my little niece last year

The second half contains the patterns for toddlers and has some really cute jumpers for little boys in which are so much nicer than the boxy crochet patterns you normally get for boys. However as I need to make a present for my soon to be one year old niece I went with the swing jacket pattern and made the version for a 1-2 year old. To achieve the gauge I had to use a 5.5mm hook instead of the 4mm hook that was recommended, however I did get the jacket to match what the finished dimensions were supposed to be. The jacket looked massive though, but as I didn't have a 1-2 year old about to try it on I crossed my fingers and sent it off. Well - it was far too big as I thought, in fact it was a much better fit on my other niece who is 5!

There is a brief techniques guide at the back of the book - but even so this is definitely more for the intermediate/advanced crocheter. I'm not too convinced with the sizing of these garments after the results I got from the coat I made, but I'm tempted to think it was a one off as a good number of other Ravelry users have had lovely results from the other patterns in this book. So I think I'll try another pattern from here next year and I'll let you know more then.

Kirstie's Handmade Britain

2011-11-02T16:19:00.000Z

I've been a fan of the Kirstie's Homemade Home craft TV series (you can watch the old episodes through the 4oD player) since watching the first episode back in April 2009. The first two series covered quite an array of crafts and though they only touched briefly on each of them they did give you a taster and got a huge number of people in the UK crafting.

This new series is a little different (you can also watch Kirstie's Handmade Britain on 4oD) , instead of Kirstie just having a quick go at a few crafts each episode she is instead trying to enter what she makes in the various craft competitions being held in Farm shows across the UK. This does mean that Kirstie has to actually make the things she is entering (in the earlier series it was always a case of her doing an hour and then leaving her craft creations to be finished off for her) but I'm not too sure why the focus is on doing craft at a competitive level. The latest episode was about papercrafting and I found it quite disappointing. The items Kirstie made though interesting were not particularly taxing (I do love these paper roses though). The episode also focused on the other papercrafts entered and these were disappointingly old fashioned - the embriodered cards were especially so. So instead of being fired up to give entering what I make at a local fair I'm not even tempted to try.

Oh well - it's not like I have any time to do much craft at the moment anyway :-(

Three little ghosties

2011-10-31T08:00:00.001Z

"Three little ghosties,
Sitting on posties,
Eating buttered toasties,
Greasing their fisties,
Up to their wristies.
Oh, what beastesses to make such feasties!"

Happy Halloween everyone!

(Felt halloween decorations pattern by paper-and-string)

More handmade goodness

2011-10-15T16:01:00.000+01:00

Life with baby Emily is pretty hectic so I've still not managed to complete any crafty projects. However, my list of projects to make is getting pretty long now - it isn't helped by seeing all the lovely things that other craft bloggers have been making.

I must find some time this weekend to give these extremely cute felt Halloween decorations a go. I also need to try and make a quick costume for my 3 year old - I'm tempted to try and dress him as a bat, any suggestions for how?

Until I do get something finished I have some more gifted craft goodness to share - my good friend Esther (etsy shop Bunting & Beads) recently sent me a bumper parcel full of crafted goodness. About 6 months ago I challenged her to make me 10 different things for when my little girl was born all using a different craft method. She took me up on the challenge and managed in that time to do just that! My parcel contained the following:

Two new baby cards, one made with paper craft and the other done with cross stitch

One little crochet handbag

One lovely knitted baby hat

A hand sewn felt elephant toy

A pair of pretty felt hair clips (made using a Cuttlebug)

One girly beaded necklace

One lovely little tapestry stitch needle case for when little Emily gets into crafting in a few years

Some very beautiful bunting to decorate her room with

A gorgeous butterfly mosaic tile

All these lovely hand crafted items have started me thinking - how many different crafts can I do? I'm tempted to try and challenge myself into doing a different craft each week and see how many weeks I can keep it up for... though this may have to wait until I have our home situation more under control!

How many crafts can you do?

Our latest arrival

2011-10-04T16:15:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, I've only just come out of hospital after giving birth to my second little one - baby Emily. Life here at Tea Towers has for this reason been pretty hectic so normal blogging has had to stop while we get ourselves settled in to our new life.

So far I'm loving having little Emily - she is such a sweet little one and seems to be quite a sleeper so hopefully I'll be able to find some time to craft and blog again soon. Until then I have been receiving some very lovely handmade presents from friends and family which I'll be able to share with you all while I get myself back on track.

This beautiful blanket has come from my sister in Wales - look how lovely it is! Liz has only been crocheting for a year but seems to have really taken to it and has produced quite a number of lovely things already (you can check out her blog here).

My turn to win :-)

2011-09-21T21:31:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to do a very quick post about the lovely items I won in a recent blog giveaway. I don't usually win things so having these lovelies arrive from the other side of the world was so very exciting.

The lovely Angelique from No Life Without Wife recently celebrated her 550th post with two fantastic giveaways, one for the cute Japanese craft supplies that I was lucky enough to win and another one which had a range of Blythe goodies in it.

Thank you so much for this wonderful prize Angelique - I'll be thinking up ways to use some of these very soon!

New supplies

2011-09-10T08:00:00.003+01:00

There has been lots of crochet going on recently here at Tea Towers - and there are also piles of lovely yarn scattered about that has been bought with what was left of my Birthday money. However, due to needing to be a little secretive about a new project I'm working on I can't show you too much of what I'm making, hopefully I'll be in a position to do so soon.

This little stash of yarn (as well as a small supply of the lovely hand dyed buttons available through paper-and-string) is all part of my secret project - must get to work on that right now as the yarn is all so temptingly soft...

I'm also trying to get a last minute Birthday present made up for one of my lovely nieces who is due to turn one in a couple of weeks. I'm having a few issues with gauge on this project, but hopefully will end up with something wearable in time if I crochet nonstop until it is done.

The pattern is from the very lovely "Natural Crochet" book by Tina Barrett and is for the lovely looking 'swing coat' which looks simple and snuggly. Once I'm finished with this project I'll be able to do my next book review for you all - but until then let me just say that the patterns in here are all very adorable and hopefully I'll be able to find the time to make loads more from here.

Lovely sequins

2011-09-06T08:00:00.001+01:00

Things seem to be starting to come together here in the new Tea Towers, new furniture is steadily being added, new kitchen appliances being installed (still stuck with the scary old gas oven though... hopefully will have a new one of those some time soon). My crafting has also taken off again and I'm back up to my usual crafting capacity.

Having all my craft things back out and nearby has been such a relief after 3 months of them being stowed away in storage. I've been sorting through what I have and during that time have come across a few exciting bits that I can't wait to find uses for. The sequins you see on this little bag were one of my discoveries and they match the little handbag I was making perfectly.

So now with it's added glam and straps securely fastened it can be sent off as a slightly late Birthday present for a little girl I know - I hope she likes it!

We have a winner!

2011-09-02T14:32:00.000+01:00

Firstly - thank you to everyone who entered my little felty giveaway, it's always lovely to hear from you all!

Secondly - hello to my 3 new followers! It's fantastic to have some extra people following and I hope you enjoy reading my little crafty blog.

Now quickly on to the winner of the giveaway before monkey eats all the prizes (naughty monkey!)...

The Random Number generator gave me the following result so the lucky winner this time is TheBigMango, congratulations! I'll be sending you an email shortly to let you know you've won and once you've gotten back to me with which doughnut/cupcake you want it will be in the post to you pronto!

Sorry to all those who didn't win this time - hopefully I'll be up to 100 followers before too long and will be hosting another giveaway then.

Giveaway: Felt goodies

2011-08-26T08:00:00.001+01:00

Drum roll please!

I'm very happy to announce that this blog has just recently gained it's 50th follower and to help celebrate I thought I would bake some cakes.

However, as I am still trying to tame the old gas oven we have inherited in our new home I thought it would be better for us all if I used felt and a needle instead of real baking ingredients!

For this give away all you have to do is leave a comment (no need to become a follower of this blog - but if you are new here then it would be lovely if you did!) on this post with some way for me to contact you. I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner on the 3rd September - so that will make the closing date for entries Friday 2nd September.

The prize is simply one of those yummy looking cupcakes or one of these donut keyrings - you can choose which you would prefer and what colour you would like me to send.

This giveaway is open to any of my readers worldwide - so feel free to enter where ever you are :-)

If you don't manage to be the lucky winner then not to worry - these tasty looking treats have all been made with the lovely kits avaliable from the very talented paper-and-string. Some of you may remember my winning these kits back in November last year.

Between moving home twice over the last month I've finally managed to make up all the items from these kits and I love how they have turned out. The kits are very clear and contain everything you need to make up the items apart from a needle and thread. The felt comes in beautiful vibrant colours and is good quality, so it's perfect for hand sewing. Seeing as my favourite item from the three kits I won was for this lovely owl ornament I am going to be keeping him out of my giveaway - but can you blame me as he is so cute?

Good luck to all who enter and if I ever manage to get to 100 followers I'll do another giveaway then!

Mini turtle - mini post

2011-08-21T08:38:00.000+01:00

Just finished this little guy up this morning using some of the yarn scraps I have kicking about. The pattern is from Brigitte Read's "Super-super cute crochet". He is really very tiny - only about 6cm across including his little legs.

Not having my main amigurumi yarn stash about has been quite a problem... but I have good news - after a lot of searching I finally found the box it was hiding in so I can do lots more Amigurumi again!

Because I'm now a very happy crafter and also because I have just gotten my 50th follower it's time to do another giveaway. I'll try to get that sorted in the next couple of days and let you all know soon what will be on offer for the winner :-)

Tea Towers mark III

2011-08-15T16:33:00.000+01:00

After 3 months of living up in Yorkshire with family we finally have a lovely new home in Manchester. Though it has been a very stressful journey to get us into our new home we are so happy to finally be here and able to start settling into what we hope will be our home for a good many years to come.

You may remember me telling you about this little plaque I made on my Birthday - I've been meaning to make one for years so when it came back from the kiln last month I was so happy to see how it turned out as well as relieved that it survived. It's now hanging up proudly in our front porch to help welcome all our visitors to our new home.

While our house sale was completing I also found some time to do a bit of paper stamping and made up a stack of these little notecards to send out as new address notices.

The stamp set I used is one that my mum-in-law got free from her card making magazine (Quick cards, issue 90, August 2011) and I completely adore. Because I made such a fuss over her set she went out and bought me my own copy so hopefully I'll be making some cards using these lovely stamps soon.

It's been just over a week since we moved in but we already have most of our belongings out of boxes and are working steadily through an impressively long list of 'to do' jobs as well as trying to buy new furniture to fit our new home. Once piece of furniture that we have just bought is already made up and stacked full of my precious tea things.

Though moving in has gone brilliantly well there has been one disaster - my most used wool stash bag that contained most of the yarn I use for making up Amigurumi has gone missing. We've done a thorough search and it is starting to look like it is gone for good. I really hope it shows up as there are tons of things I want to start making and can't - however if it is definitely gone then I'll need to try to replace some of it, do any of you have recommendations for cheap online (UK based) yarn suppliers?

Baby crochet

2011-08-03T09:00:00.002+01:00

While browsing through the freely available patterns listed on Ravelry I came across the pattern for this little beauty (Pink baby sweater by Nélia Botelho).

Seeing as I had a ball of 4 ply wool sitting in my mini craft stash I thought I would give the pattern a go, and I'm so very glad I did. The cardigan is made up in just one piece so no fiddly joining and only 2 ends to work in. The pattern works up in rows and once you get the hang of the increases for the chevrons you can quite happily crochet away anywhere.

I managed to complete the whole cardigan in just 3 days and I'm very pleased with the result. It's a lovely light and lacy little cardigan and will look fantastic layered over whatever baby clothes I choose to put our new little girl in once she arrives.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for crochet girl baby clothes - I have a little Amazon credit left over from my Birthday so would love to invest in a new book if anyone can recommend to me a good one?

Basic sewing...

2011-07-30T20:41:00.000+01:00

While we've been living up in Yorkshire (not long until we move again now) I've been making good use of the local children's centres here. If you are a mum of under 3's then it is well worth you having a look at the services your local centre offers, as not only do they do plenty of activities and sessions for little ones, most also offer adult education courses.

In the past I've done child first aid, card making and a small business course. Over the last month I've just completed another course - this time a basic sewing course which though very much targeted at beginners was still interesting and once we get all our belongs out of storage I'll be sure to dust off my own sewing machine and put some more time in on it.

The course was just for a 2 hour session over 4 weeks and in that time we covered very briefly threading up machines, using basic patterns, cutting pieces, sewing seams and a little bit of hand embroidery.

Unfortunately course materials were limited - we only had 4 machine between 10 mums so often there was quite a wait to do any sewing. The fabrics provided were also just scraps and nothing really exciting - even so we all managed to make use of what was available to add our own personal touch and when a course is free you can't really complain.

First up we had a go at making a simple taggy - a tactile sensory toy blanket thing with ribbons sticking out around the edge. These were pretty simple and quick to make and we all managed to get one done within our 2 hour session.

For the next 2 sessions we made up a little purse thing which involved doing some simple hand embriodery on the front - this is what took most of the time and now I've finished mine I'm not entirely sure what to use it for... it didn't quite work out as nicely as I had hoped.

For our last session we optimistically tried to make up a little hand bag - however with the limited sewing machines we didn't all get to finish so I've still got a few things to do on my bag - hopefully I'll get round to it soon as it would make a cute little bag for a toddler.

Friday book review

2011-07-22T08:00:00.001+01:00

"Candy babies: Cute crochet for wee ones"
by Candi Jensen
ISBN: 978-1931543545

US crochet terms

It seems strange to be coming back to this book again - I gave away my original copy years ago (before I was writing this blog) over on Crochetville. This was one of my early online craft book purchases where I would just order based on the cover photo instead of trying to find out a bit about what the book contained first (Ravelry is a great place to check before you buy, you can search out the book on there and see what patterns it contains as well as have a peek at what other people have made and if they had any problems).

Nothing in this book appealed to me back then and so I gave my copy away a few years later and forgot about it. Seeing as my lovely crochet book collection is currently in a storage container somewhere I had a rifle through my local library for any suitable baby crochet books and this is the only one that was half decent (can anyone please recommend some good titles for baby crochet?). On second inspection I did find one pattern that I thought would be worth a go - the Party Princess one, so after a quick trip to a local yarn store I started work.

Seeing as I haven't been doing much in the way of crochet my brain seems to have stopped working correctly as it took me over 3 hours to figure out that my gauge was horribly wrong because I was using the wrong yarn weight - I had bought DK instead of the worsted weight that the pattern calls for. After realising this I had to rework the pattern to account for the finer yarn and thankfully this was possible with a bit of tweaking due to the pattern having the finished measurements marked up. The instructions were clear and it was a simple pattern to follow so I ended up enjoying making this item.

So perhaps a book worth looking at - but I would strongly recommend you have a browse through it first to make sure you like the patterns it contains first, for me it still isn't one I would buy but I am glad that I gave it a second chance.

More Birthday goodies

2011-07-20T20:42:00.000+01:00

I'm really loving all the wonderful presents I've received this year, so many lovely crafty related things.

I thought I would share quickly with you all a carefully cropped photo of me (so you can't tell just how huge I'm starting to look) featuring the beautiful necklace that my younger sister made me. We used to make these helter skelter friendship bracelets (more commonly known as Chinese staircase bracelets) as girls and she has cleverly used this method to make me this fantastic necklace which I really love.

My sister Liz has also started up crochet this year (you may already be aware of my other sister Thea's blog) and seems to have caught a bit of a craft bug at the same time as she also made me a beautiful Flower Fairy card as well. Thanks so much Liz - what a wonderful present, I can't wait to see what you come up with next :-)

Birthday treats

2011-07-13T20:38:00.000+01:00

I'm feeling pretty lucky again when I look down at my latest crafty haul for gaining another year.

My crafty books are all from my Mum who very wisely visited my Amazon wishlist so this year no need to try and return anything as I've wanted all these books for ages.

I was also delighted to receive a small crafty supply stash from my lovely sister containing pretty zips, some little deco tapes and a bag of pretty pastel buttons (all from the lovely paper-and-string). She must have read my mind as not only was I planning on ordering her next present from there but I've also been hankering after some of these hand dyed buttons...

The large pile of pretty wool is part of my present from my Mother in law who took me out for a morning of porcelain painting and then let me loose in the attached wool shop to buy whatever I liked!

So many lovely crafty things that it's hard to know just where to start :-)

Crochet updates

2011-07-03T14:52:00.000+01:00

Life in our temporary home has been quite hectic recently but I have managed to find the time to do a little bit of craft while here. Before posting about those though I thought I would show off the two crochet pieces that I completed just before moving out of Tea Towers back in May.

Firstly I came up with this crochet pot cover for a friend who was keen on learning crochet and thought she would start straight out on something like this herself. Because I find working with thread to be quite tricky even for me I discouraged her from having a go and instead got her to come along to my 6 week crochet course where she picked up all the basics really quickly - hopefully she'll be able to make me one some day :-)

The star/flower in the centre is based on a cushion cover pattern in "Crochet gifts in a weekend" (read my review) which I then added some extra points to round the edge with glass beads crocheted in to add the necessary weights.

Last up is yet another pair of crochet booties from my "Simple bootie pattern". On making these booties up I finally noticed the problem in the pattern that has caused so many of the crocheters who have gone on to make them such difficulties. I can't believe that it's taken me two years to notice the problem but when I get a free minute I'll try republishing the pattern here for you all.

I'm also going to be slowly removing my free patterns from the CrochetMe website. The pattern pages get a huge amount of comment spam on them and as the support team have ignored my requests to do anything about it I'm going to take back control of them. So don't panic if patterns start disappearing, I'll be putting them all up here and will link each of their Ravelry pages to their new location.

Flower brooch pattern

2011-06-05T21:13:00.003+01:00

As promised last week I'm posting up the pattern for my crochet flower brooches. They are very simple to make and depending on the yarn and buttons you choose can be made to suit any outfit. Feel free to make up these flowers as gifts for friends and family. If you do want to make some to sell then I would appreciate being credited as the author of the pattern. Please DO NOT publish this pattern elsewhere.

Materials list

Scraps of DK yarn

4mm crochet hook

Darning needle (to work in loose ends)

Pretty buttons

Glue gun

Brooch backs

Notes

This pattern uses American crochet terms. The abbreviations used here are:

Chain – ch

Slip stitch – sl st

Single crochet – sc

Treble – tr

* - shows where a pattern repeat takes place

Row 1: Make a magic circle, ch 1, work 8 sc into circle and pull tail to close (8 sc)

Row 2: Sl st into top of 1^st sc from the previous row. Ch 1, work 2 sc in each sc around (16 sc)

Row 3: Sl st into top of 1^st sc from the previous row. *Ch 3, sl st into next 2 sc* repeat around (8 3 ch loops)

Row 4: *Sc into 3 ch loop, ch 1, 3 tr, ch 1, sc* repeat around (8 inner flower petals worked) Sl st into first sc worked and finish off

Row 5: Join second colour to back of flower (see photo) with a sl st *ch 4, st st between base of next two petals* repeat around finishing with a ch 4 and sl st into first sl st worked. (8 4 ch loops)

Row 6: *Sc into 4 ch loop, ch 1, 5 tr, ch 1, sc* repeat around (8 outer flower petals worked) Sl st into first sc worked, finish off and work in loose ends

Attach button and glue clasp to back – finished!

Glad to be back

2011-05-31T21:39:00.000+01:00

Hello and sorry to all my followers - I've missed keeping up with my craft blog and reading all your comments, hopefully now things are settling down here I'll be able to write more often.

I don't usually put much about my personal life up on this blog but as I just disappeared for almost 4 months I feel like I owe you all a bit of an explanation. Thankfully it is all good news :-) I'm pregnant again with my second little one and everything seems to be going well though I'm finding that this time round I'm a lot more tired. As well as this we have recently sold our last house and are in the process of trying to buy a new Tea Towers. Until we do we are staying with family and I only have one box of craft things to be getting on with so I haven't got much to show for myself.

I'll try to get a bit of craft done soon - to be honest I'm going a little crazy as I haven't crocheted anything for months now, but until then I can tell you a bit about a crochet course that I got the chance to teach just before moving out of our last home.

I love getting people to start crochet - it's been my favourite hobby for many years and when someone gets the hang of it and starts to see the fantastic things you can do with crochet it makes me very happy. The craft group that I wrote about in my last post were kind enough to give me the chance to run a 6 week crochet course there and though very nervous to be teaching a group instead of just one person at a time I jumped at the chance. I covered the basics for the first two weeks and then went on to teach granny squares, flower brooches and for the week before Easter we even had a go at making little bunny egg cosies.

For each week of the course I wrote a couple of pages of crochet notes as well as writing my own pattern for a flower brooch which I'll be sure to post here soon. I also wrote a 'recommended reading' list based on a good few of the books that I've reviewed here on this blog. I really hope that I get another chance to teach a class as it was a lot of fun and I love seeing all the photos of things that the ladies I taught are now having such fun making.

Thanks to everyone on the course for all the support and enthusiasm, I had a great time and will miss you all. Oh and thanks also for the delicious cakes, now if I could bake as good as this then I may make crochet my second favourite hobby...

Craft group goodness

2011-02-03T15:07:00.000Z

For the last week I've been busy doing a lot of hand sewing, both at my usual Mum's craft group and also at a new craft group that I've just joined. Crafting in the evening with a group of other like minded women is really good fun - especially when there is tea and yummy cake to be had!

Though I'm a little shy with starting out meeting new people I think I'm going to fit in well at this new group - we're starting the year with a 6 week hand sewing course and I've already made this very sweet little felt elephant (the free pattern is available from here) as well a very lovable little felt scotty dog (from another free pattern which is available here).

Working with felt is always so soothing (at least once you've finished cutting out all the piece and can figure out how on earth you start blanket stitching) and I love how pretty a contrasting thread colour looks on felt.

I'm so tempted after all this felt goodness to go and spend a large amount of money at paper and string for even more felt... Before I do that though I should probably make a bit of headway through a few of the lovely felt kits that I won late last year - hopefully I'll have something to show you from them soon!

My other weekly craft group is also going well, with more hand sewing to show off from there. We've all been making sewing mice which double as a pin cushion and a thread reel holder. However, in my enthusiasm to finish my mouse I took him home and sewed his ears on flat, completely forgetting that I was supposed to sew the ears on with a kink that would make them stand up. So while I'm pretty happy with how he turned out I'm going to be doing some remedial ear surgery on him soon in an attempt to make him even cuter.

We are now moving on making to felt fairy cakes in a variety of pastel colours, they are pretty quick to make, you need two circles of felt (one slightly larger for the cake case, the other will be the main cake piece) and a smaller piece to add on top for the icing. You sew the icing to the top of the cake with any extra beads that you want to add as sprinkles, then you sew the two circles together with a running stitch that you pull tight to get a puckered edge, remembering to add some stuffing before you close it off completely.

Friday book review

2011-01-28T21:31:00.000Z

"Yummi 'Gurumi: Over 60 gourmet crochet treats to make" by Christen Haden & Mariarosa Sala
ISBN: 9780740792601

US crochet terms

Last week my copy of this tasty looking book arrived all the way from America and I sat up with it gazing at all the yummy looking treats inside. My favourites to look at were the pretty looking cakes in the last section, that was until I read that they were all made with crochet thread and so would probably take quite a bit of work (as well as a whole stash of crochet thread in a large number of colours) to recreate.

Slightly disappointed I decided to give some of the fruit a try - starting with strawberries. Apart from there being a confusing error in the pattern I was very pleased with how mine turned out and before long I had four juicy looking strawberries so I started on some of the other tropical fruit on offer. I tried to keep to some of the more recognisable fruits as these were destined to be play food for little ones (there were also patterns for a persimmon slice, peach slice and pineapple slice) and after a few issues with a couple of the patterns I ended up with a lovely collection of tasty looking fruit.

Because I wanted my fruits to be easily recognisable I had to alter some of the patterns a little, my orange segments have a white pith and an orange rind - which though a little more of a fuss does mean they look more like orange slices. I also made the white centre in my kiwi slices a little larger and I embroidered far more black seeds in mine to try and make them look more real.

After all this healthy food I decided to give a sandwich a go, and because I loved the look of the tomato slices shown in the book I decided to make up a BLT. Again I found a problem with one of the patterns, the instructions for the lettuce were slightly wrong and were quite hard to figure out how to fix. After reworking it a couple of times I really loved how it looks and think that the design is lovely, but the instructions need rewriting. My bacon got real crochet streaks of fat as I felt that the running stitch shown in the book looked a little naff. And because I ran out of time I didn't make up the slices of bread and just used some of the bread I had made previously that was tucked in my son's play food box.

This book was sadly not as good as I was hoping it would be. There are a number of errors in the patterns that would make it very confusing for a beginner to use - which is such a shame as more pattern testing would have highlighted all of these. The patterns all look lovely, though because this focuses more on adult food tastes like sushi and a fun looking cheese board, there is little that I would end up actually making. I just don't know anyone who could use a crochet bottle of wine or a crochet stir fry.

Loving hearts

2011-01-23T20:51:00.000Z

After trying diligently to get through some of my more tricky UFOs I've succumbed to doing some fun crochet as I'm rubbish at working through projects when the going starts to get tough.

What tempted me away was a free pattern by June Gilbank called 'Love Hearts' which gives you detailed instructions for how to make these very cute hearts.

On the left are the three different sizes worked in crochet thread - they are so tiny and very cute... I used them on my husband's date-a-versary card and they look so good I may have a go at doing some more in thread.

Seeing as the thread hearts only took an hour to hook up I thought I would try making some with my DK wool, and this time I went with making the puffy hearts. They look so cute and squishy with a little stuffing in and I got pretty carried away with using up scraps of DK wool that after a couple of evenings of crochet I found I had made this pretty garland!

This is a lovely quick and easy pattern and makes some really lovely heart motifs. What would you use them for?

More cards to show

2011-01-19T21:09:00.000Z

My lovely card making course is now drawing to a close so I thought this would be a good time to show you a selection of the different cards that I've made.

From the top left in a clockwise direction we have:

1. Sunflower card - made using an embossing machine (a Cuttlebug)

2. Spirelli card - winding thread round pre-cut card

3. Cat card - stamp embossing

4. Thank you card - done with the Iris folding technique

5. Recycled paper card - made with paper punches

6. Black & white card - embossed and then lightly inked to show the image

7. Paper pricking card - hand paper pricked and spirelli added to the centre

8. Candle card - candles embossed on to card and cut out

Centre:

9. Tulip card - made with a sticky outline which is then painted with watered down inks and mounted

I've really enjoyed doing some paper craft for a change, it's so nice to do something different from crochet and sewing occasionally and I'll definitely be giving some of the techniques another go in any future cards I make. The other half of the course is about how to run your own small business which is giving me lots of grand ideas - perhaps 2011 will be the year I give that a go?

Christmas goodies

2011-01-17T09:00:00.003Z

Before we get too far into 2011 I wanted to share with you some of the beautiful craft related goodness that I was given for Christmas.

I'm really lucky to have some very talented craft people in my family, my sister (check out her beautiful blog here) who has only be crocheting for 4 years seems to be a pro already - check out this beautiful tea cosy with matching mat that she made me for Christmas. It is so beautiful that when I first got it I couldn't stop admiring it. So I've gone from no tea cosy to having 2, what a great start to the year!

Next up we got this fantastic door stop from my sister in law who is always coming up with cool sewing and crochet projects. I love the fabric she has used (I really should have included a back shot of him too as you can see more of the design... oh well) and with the addition of buttons to his felt eyes he has lots of personallity. I'm really going to have to make 2011 the year of the sewing machine so that I get a bit more confidence and perhaps even do a few fun projects like this.

My little boy has taken quite a shine to him and keeps removing him from the kitchen door (which Mr. Owl is responsible for keeping open) and taking him for rides on his wheely bug. In fact he is sitting on the computer desk with me right now as he has had his morning ride and has been brought over to me to keep me company.

Next up I was given this cool Christmas tree bunting from a local crafty friend of mine (she has an Etsy shop called Bunting and beads - but it seems to be sold out at the moment). I can't wait to get it on the tree next year and I'll try to remember to take a photo of it for you all to see in it's full glory then.

Lastly I was given another whole year subscription to Inside Crochet as well as this box which is choc full of fantastic card making supplies all from my very generous Mum in law :-) I just love the pretty snowflake stamps she's included and there are even some tea cup card decorations that suit me so well!

Friday magazine reviews

2011-01-14T09:00:00.070Z

Just thought I would put up a couple of magazine reviews this Friday as I've been getting a bit behind with doing them and they aren't much use if you get them 3 or 4 months late!

"Inside Crochet" issue 13
January 2011
UK crochet terms

This issue of Inside Crochet starts the New Year on the right foot with a good collection of patterns including the beautiful 'Esmee cardigan' by Sarah Francis which I am definitely making for myself one day. There are also patterns for some cute kids stripy jumpers, a very pretty 'Lily shawl' and a lovely 'Henna rug' which would look so pretty on our wooden floor.

As well as having plenty of good patterns this month there are also some great articles covering topics like customising your clothes, doing freeform crochet (which has intrigued me for a while and I may well have a try myself soon...), and some interviews with a couple of London based ethical craft shops which look fantastic (Fabrications and Prick your finger).

"Inside Crochet" issue 14
February 2011
UK crochet terms

I really enjoyed reading through this issue of Inside Crochet too. There are some lovely patterns in here with my favourite being the 'Bloom blanket' by Rebecca Velasquez which looks so very bright and cheerful that it would be perfect for bringing Spring into your home nice and early. I also really like the 'Valentine settings' place mats, the pretty bobbily 'Artichoke hat' and the cosy looking 'Cherry wrap', so lots to keep you busy this month.

The articles also make a good read with a feature about filet crochet, some impressive fashion crochet pieces and a fantastic interview with Emma Lamb who makes some very beautiful crochet banners, cushions and pot holders that are bursting with colour.

Finishing off - continued

2011-01-13T15:25:00.000Z

So far I seem to be doing quite well with my resolution to finish off some of my long forgotten projects. I've finally gotten round to putting the last touches on my patchwork - all that was needed was a lining adding and then it was done.

Did any of you manage to guess what it is?

Top marks for anyone out there shouting "it's a tea cosy!" go and make yourself a cuppa right now as a reward for your good sense.

For a girl who loves her tea as much as I do it seems crazy that I've never had one of these, so when we were given the option to try making one at my local mum's craft group I jumped at the chance. Now I just need to invite some friends round for tea and cake and show it off to the world.

I've also finished off some more squares for the SIBOL project which got sent out a few days ago. Sue who runs the project has already written a blog post about them (she is so very organised!) which you can find here. So much granny square goodness over there, even though I've just finished up a pile of squares it gets me itching to make a few more.

So now I'm off to sort through some more of my neglected projects, but perhaps I'll have a cup of tea first to get me in the mood...

The crochet gang

2011-01-11T09:00:00.000Z

Over the last 4 years I've been on a real crochet mission. Though I've been doing crocheting for roughly 18 years it's only been in the last 4 that it has taken over my life and with all the inspiration that there is to be found online I have always had tons of projects on my to do list.

My enthusiasm for crochet seems to increase by the day, and with all that enthusiasm flowing over I always seem to be telling friends, family, complete strangers, just how great crochet is. I've managed to 'turn' a good few of my family over to crochet as well as a few of my friends. Both my sisters now crochet - one has only just started and the other has been doing it for a few years now and can't stop. In fact she enjoys it so much she has also started writing her own blog: Mummycat gets organised which is a fantastic read - be sure to pop over if you have a minute as I know she would love to see you there.

Hopefully I'll be able to spread the crochet word even further soon as I should be doing some informal crochet teaching at my regular mum's craft group - any suggestions for teaching a group of beginners to crochet would be very well received!

Finishing off

2011-01-09T09:18:00.000Z

Seeing as we are only just starting the beginning of 2011 I feel like I should be finishing up some of the unfinished projects that I've got on the go at the moment. There seem to be quite a few of them though - and I've so many lovely new projects that I want to get started on that it is very hard to concentrate.

I've still not finished my patchwork that I started all the way back in September, though I have progressed it a little and now it looks like the photo on the left. Hopefully I'll get it done soon - any guesses as to what it is going to be?

Then I've got a pile of craft books (the top three in fact were presents for my Birthday back in July!) which need reading through, crafting from and then doing reviews for.

I'm especially excited about the "Gifts from the Kitchen" book which is full of lovely tasty things that you can make and send as gifts. I love the idea of giving out baked treats as presents so hopefully I'll be organised enough to make a few things for some of my friends this year.

So far all I have on my finished list for 2011 are the two hyperbolic crochet pieces that I started back in October. I will soon be sending them off to the new exhibition of the UK reef in Salisbury - a little bit too late for the opening but they'll still be added thankfully.

New Year - new challenges

2011-01-06T15:21:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone!

Sorry for not posting over the last week, after all the work of Christmas I took a little time away from blogging and crafting to give me a chance to do something different for a short time, like spending far too many hours on my DS playing the latest Dragon Quest game. I'm back now though and I have lots of things to start posting about so be reassured that I won't have any problems in doing my regular blog posts again.

What new challenges are you all setting yourself this year? Right now I want to hold off making any proper resolutions as this is going to be a busy year for our family, we have a house move to start planning and all the work that will involve should keep us pretty occupied. That said, I would like to be able to contribute a bit more to other projects this year - especially the SIBOL project that takes 6" granny squares to make into lap blankets for the elderly.

These two squares are tests squares I made up from a block pattern that was being discussed as a potential blanket theme. I'm also going to try and make more blocks for their 'Jan Eaton' challenge, I've already contributed my first block to the first Jan Eaton blanket (you can see the finished blanket here - and I've put a note on the image to say which square I made) and I'm working on a second block to go into the second blanket now.

The SIBOL is a fantastic project to be a part of - why not make doing one square for it as one of your New Year resolutions?

One whole year of work

2010-12-31T09:00:00.094Z

This photo was taken before all of these were wrapped and sent out to their new homes. Hopefully they have all been received by now so I won't be spoiling any surprises for my friends and family who visit here.

Setting it all out like this really brought home to me just how much I've achieved craftwise this year. I'm really proud of all these projects and hopeful that I've managed to make items that will appeal to their intended recipients.

Below is a mosaic of some of my particular favourites and I've also looked out all the links for the freely available projects that I made.

Simple booties with little flowers by Me!
Green bag lady bags
Manta ray by Brigitte Read
Bumble bee by kristieskids
Tardis
Sheep by kristieskids (scroll down)
Kokeshi dolls by Suncatcher eyes
Crocheted owls by Brigitte Read
Tiny whale by Planet June
Mouse by kristieskids (scroll down)
Toddler handbag by Me!
Toad by Brigitte Read
Branching leaves scarf by Olenka
Mini Totoro by Natalie Aldhouse (Ravelry download)

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-25T09:00:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who has visited me here this year, I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and get lots of crafty presents from Santa. Happy Christmas - ho ho ho!

Friday magazine reviews

2010-12-24T10:04:00.000Z

"Sew Hip" issue 23
December 2010

This Christmasy issue of Sew Hip has quite a few projects that I like from some pretty dresses to a handful of lovely quick and fun Christmas projects. My favourite was the mini Christmas tree bunting which was simply little triangles of fabric quickly sewn together on a machine and joined together with line of stitches. After showing my issue to a friend she had a go at making some for my Christmas present so hopefully I'll be able to show you how that turned out soon.

I've also had a go at making something from this issue, the very pretty felt baubles that you can see on the cover. I added some sparkily sequins to my baubles so that they would reflect the lights on the tree and I'm very happy with how they have turned out. My only problem in making them was trying to cut the pattern sheet out of the magazine which was very tricky.

As well as some pretty patterns this magazine also had some good articles including one about a blogger who is trying to learn a new craft every week for a year. What a fantastic idea - if a little exhausting! Christine's blog is a very inspirational place to visit so why not have a look for yourself?

"Sew Hip" issue 24
January 2011

Strangely the contents of this issue didn't come as much of a surprise to me... remember that I won their Etsy competition last month? Well they reused a copy of their magazine layout as the address label for the parcel and I got a quick preview of what this issue would contain that way!

Not as much in this issue that I was keen on, I did love the little simple dress on the cover and the patchwork panda was very cute too. I also enjoyed reading the article about the work of Heidi Kenney who does such beautiful softies and has such a distinctive style to her work.

Card making

2010-12-21T15:21:00.000Z

Since becoming a full time mum I've had the chance to join a few new crafty groups and meet some of the fantastic crafters who live in my local area.

Recently I started a card making course and though I'm not that keen on papercrafts I've really been enjoying myself each week learning a number of different card making techniques as well as getting some time to have a quiet cup of tea with some other like minded mums.

Due to the run up to Christmas a lot of the card designs we have been doing are Christmas themed (which means I've made plenty of cards to send out to family) happily though the course will be continuing into the new year so I'll be able to show you a number of other cards and perhaps even do a few posts here with brief notes on how to make them yourselves if you are interested.

Pictured above are cards that use embossing stamps and powder, Iris folding, decoupage as well as the very popular just sticking stuff down method.

Loving felt

2010-12-16T14:26:00.000Z

What do you do when you suddenly realise you are missing an extra little something to go with a friend's present? Well I have a play with my scraps of felt and so far it has never let me down.

For this little elephant I had an idea of what I wanted to make and then for added inspiration I did a quick google image search for 'felt elephant' and I fell in love with this beautiful little elephant by Art Flow.

This elephant is the result of that inspiration and few hours quietly crafting - yup, I just love felt!

The light at the end of the tunnel

2010-12-14T21:50:00.000Z

I've been buried under a large pile of UFOs over the last month which is why I've been posting less frequently. However with the time I've not been blogging here I have been getting most of my Christmas crafting finished, and just in time too!

These stripey mens hats are all finished and ready to be wrapped as presents for some of my lovely male friends. The pattern is similar to the ' Boy Beanie' pattern from the "Happy Hooker" however I had to adjust it somewhat to take into account that I was using DK yarn instead of the suggested worsted weight yarn. They turned out nicely though and hopefully they are stretchy enough to fit all the different heads they are destined for.

This mysterious pile of pretty leaf fabric has all been sewn up now into gifts - the sewing machine and I almost came to blows over making these, but after all the tears things came good and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. I'll post more details about them after Christmas as I don't want to ruin any surprises for a particular sister who follows this blog quite closely...

Lastly I did a bit of salt dough baking and came up with these little hearts and stars for tree decorations. Sadly the paint that I used seems to be chipping quite quickly so I'm going to have to do some repair work and add a few layers of varnish before I can send any of these out... it almost seems like too much work for something that was supposed to be a quick and relaxing project.

Now I had best get back to some final crochet projects and hopefully I'll be back soon without any of the Christmas panic hanging over me...

Friday book review

2010-12-10T09:00:00.129Z

"Country crochet & Knitted lace" by Jan Eaton
ISBN: 1-85368-227-6

UK crochet terms

This book is where my love for crochet first started... back when I was 17 I found this book in my local library and I fell in love. I could already crochet as I had taught myself a few years before from some old issues of 'Golden hands magazine' but I hadn't really gotten past making up test squares of the different stitch patterns. Then I saw the photos in this book of some stunning crochet lace pieces and I wanted to make it all. Sadly the Library wanted the book back and even though I tried a few bookshops no one could get hold of this title any more (even though at that time it had only been published two years before) and that was the last I saw of it.

That is until I recently found an entry for it on Amazon, without a cover image and available only through marketplace sellers. So I ordered myself a copy in 'good condition' and I'm delighted with how good the condition is. The book is as beautifully presented as I remember it to be, in fact with all the different crochet books I've read through since I can now see just how good a book it is. The photography is beautiful, there are some very lovely photos throughout the introduction of a number of the projects featured next to some other old and new pieces of lace that the author has inherited from her own grandmother.

This book is really two separate titles in one (see the bottom of this review for links to the original two books) - as I don't really do much knitting I'll just be focusing on reviewing the first half of the book which is all about crochet lace.

The introduction is lovely and includes a detailed section about the history of crochet especially focusing on how crochet has been used to imitate a number of different lace making techniques. There is a good section on selecting the right materials and hooks for your project (with some handy conversion charts for UK/US hook sizes, yarn types and stitch terms) as well as a short but nicely illustrated section for how to work the various stitches. Then the book goes into detailed instructions on a number of crochet techniques from how to do filet crochet to following a written and a charted pattern. There is also an illustrated finishing techniques section that is very useful and some detail on how to care for your finished crochet project.

The projects are almost all worked using crochet thread of varying thicknesses so none of them are what I would term 'beginner' projects as I find working with thread to be very tricky and not very forgiving of mistakes. That said the projects have all been given a difficulty rating by using a cute ball of wool with crochet hooks stuck through it to show how much work each would take, 1 hook = quick to 4 hooks = a very, very long time indeed. The larger 4 hook projects are both for table cloths one a beautiful looking butterfly edged table cloth and two a very large and wide edging for a 'crystal and silver' table cloth. Both of these would take me about 3 years to finish so I thought it better that I focus on the 1 hook projects.

Some of you may remember the Christmas tree stars I made for friends and family last year - well these stars are one of the first things that I started making and the pattern for them came from this book. These stars are very simple to make up - if you can do a granny square then you can make these. After working the central granny hexagon you then work each of the triangular points directly on to the sides, you then sew in a good number of loose ends and starch the finished star to make it stiff for hanging.

These stars went down a treat last Christmas (though I did at the time promise never to crochet with thread again after getting blisters on my fingers trying to sew in all the loose ends on these) as I hope will the next project that I have to show - little lavender bags.

These lavender bags are made using a filet crochet motif worked in thread which is then backed with some felt and made into a little lavender bag. They are simple and very effective, especially if you use a dark coloured felt to highlight the detail in the pattern. Though I had some trouble working the hexagon windmill design it turned out that the pattern was fine, it was me that was reading it wrong.

So after over a decade since last seeing this book my enthusiasm for it hasn't declined, in fact in some ways I appreciate it more as I've read through a lot of crochet books over the years and know how rare it is to come across a book as well written as this one. I love all the patterns, though I may never have the time to make most of them, and the detailed introduction as well as the pattern library that you find at the back make it worth having for just those alone.

After a bit of digging I've discovered that this book is in fact a combination of two earlier titles published by New Holland Publishers Ltd. You may have more success in getting hold of these as separate titles "A creative guide to knitted lace" & "A creative guide to crochet".

Beautiful banner

2010-12-08T13:54:00.000Z

I have been one very lucky girl this year, not only did I receive all that fabric goodness from the Sew Hip competition recently I've also just had this beautiful banner arrive in the post.

Wendy from the corvidarium was giving away one of her banners on her blog a couple of weeks ago and I was lucky enough to win. It looks so lovely hanging above my mantel piece - almost as if it was made to go there... Thank you so much Wendy from all of us at Tea Towers, we will treasure it!

Winter hats

2010-11-30T15:01:00.000Z

It has started snowing quite heavily in my little corner of the UK, the garden is a blanket of white and I've been snuggled up on the sofa refusing to go back outside. So I'm officially announcing that winter has arrived and it is only fitting to show off a couple of new hats that I've made recently.

The first is another little frog hat (designed by Jane Bibby) from an old issue of Inside crochet which is quite quick and easy to make up. I adjusted the pattern for the eyes to give this hat larger pupils as the eyes in the original pattern scare me a little. I found doing the embroidery on the face easier this time too - perhaps practice really does make perfect?

For Sam's winter hat this year I decided to keep it simple and just make him a bear hat. I used the frog hat pattern for the basic hat shape and then just added two little ears on top to finish it off. Sam does quite like it, but would much prefer to wear his mum's cheapy free gift hat that has a monkey on the front of it - typical.

Even though Sam isn't as delighted as I had hoped he would be he does get quite a few admiring glances when he is out and about in it so at least adults appreciate my work!

Now I'm off to try and find an easy pattern for a basic men's hat - any suggestions?

The UK Hyperbolic coral reef is back!

2010-11-29T22:01:00.002Z

Back in March 2008 myself and my sister went along to a workshop in London to teach people about the Hyperbolic coral reef and how to do hyperbolic crochet. Back then it was the first I had heard about the project so I went along not really knowing what to expect.

I discovered that the project had been set up to heighten awareness of the damage being done to coral reefs around the world that were being 'bleached' by the rise in water temperatures due to global warming. People all over the world had been contributing something called 'hyperbolic crochet' which were then made up into reefs which tour their country of origin to help raise awareness of this issue.

Well the UK reef is back and will be available to see at the Salisbury Arts Centre from 6 January - 26 February 2001 or if you too are keen to learn how to make these intriguing hyperbolic crochet pieces then you should try to get along to the centre for the workshop on Tuesday 7 December at 6pm. Send an email to info@salisburyartscentre.co.uk to find out more.

Friday magazine reviews

2010-11-26T09:00:00.001Z

Sorry yet again for the delay in getting my Friday magazine reviews up - this time we have the latest two issues of Inside Crochet to have a read through...

"Inside Crochet" issue 11
November 2010
UK crochet terms

I'm not particularly taken with most of the patterns in this issue, especially the 'Nautical sweater' which is yet another shapeless looking pattern for men. I'm also not convinced about the baby leg warmers which go with a pattern in the previous issue for baby nappy soakers... and the Harlequin cardigan is also a bit too dated looking for my tastes.

The patterns that redeem the issue for me include the lovely looking chevron cushions which look like a lot of fun to make, I'm also quite taken with another hoodie pattern (which you can see on the cover image), but as I don't have the time for any large projects at the moment I'll just have to bookmark it for trying after Christmas.

The feature articles this week focus on colour theory and include a piece on choosing colours, working chevrons and also include an interview with Sarah London who does some of the most beautiful colourful crochet that I've ever seen.

"Inside Crochet" issue 12
December 2010
UK crochet terms

Lots of lovely patterns in this month's issue, the cover project 'Anastasia dress' is very pretty and the different stitch patterns used give a lovely individual touch. The 'Waterfall coat' for a little girl is also very lovely so I'll be bookmarking that for potentially making for one of my nieces, then there is the 'Winter mist jumper' that looks very cosy and with its rib effect it should be quite flattering when worn. As well as all this there are also a selection of smaller project designed to be quick makes for last minute Christmas presents - just what we need!

In the articles there was a piece about Pauline Turner (she has the impressive web address of http://www.crochet.co.uk/) who set up and runs the Distance Learning Crochet course as well as a feature on Irish crochet incleding a how to guide on how to work it.

Slowly turning purple

2010-11-23T16:23:00.000Z

As the weather steadily gets colder I've been piling on the layers but even so my hands are still getting that purple tinge. So it's quite fitting that I've been making a good few projects in purple recently.

Firstly I've finished up two more toddler handbags (from my free pattern) which has used up some of the stash of purple and silver yarn that I bought years ago and then couldn't think of what to make with them. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out, I even managed to find some sparkily purple buttons to match them. Any other ideas of what to make with some pretty scratchy purple and silver acrylic yarn?

Next up are these little newborn baby booties for a new arrival on our road. These booties are one of my favourite things to make for a new baby (as you can see from this old blog post). The pattern is very quick to make and the simple strap should help these stay on the feet of the most active little one.

This time when making them I used the invisible decrease method that I recently learnt while making Mr. Bubbles, this has left the front of the bootie looking much neater and gives a lovely finish.

Next up we have a little purple butterfly that was needed to add a homemade touch to a baby jumper that I bought as a first Birthday present.

The pattern for this butterfly is very quick and easy and well worth having a play with to make embellishments for any of your own projects. It is made as one piece and if you then fasten it on to something you can just hide the ends at the back if you want to be extra lazy!

Be sure to also check out Nichole Romano's blog as there is lots of great crochet going on over there.

Last up I have another simple beaded bracelet from the free pattern on Futuregirl's blog. After struggling with crocheting wire I decided to have a go with some black crochet thread and see how it turned out. I love how even and consistent this bracelet was after the slightly crazy uneven look of the wire, and it feels so nice to wear.

Oh - and you can see how purple my hands are turning in this photo too!

Posting delays

2010-11-19T08:47:00.000Z

I'm sorry - this post is supposed to be a double magazine review for Inside Crochet, but due to illness at Tea Towers I've not had enough time to sit down and write it.

So instead I'll leave you with a photo of my 'Simples' scarf modelled by my son's favourite meerkat. It really was 'simples' using a long foundation sc row to start and then just working stripes across the length of the scarf.

Lovely and snuggly!

Will be back soon, hopefully all better and with lots of things to share :-)

Halloween candy

2010-11-18T09:00:00.001Z

Some friends of mine have just returned from a holiday in New York (lucky devils!) and as they where there for Halloween they thoughtfully brought me back some candy.

If you don't live in America you may also have wondered what their famous Candy Corn actually tastes like... well strangely enough it tastes a bit like fudge.

Not really what I was expecting but quite nice anyway, just thought you might like to know :-)

Woooo woo woo!

2010-11-17T09:00:00.005Z

I'm still working hard on getting all my Christmas presents made at Tea Towers, I've been going a bit into crochet overdrive recently so there are a good few completed projects that I have to show you.

Surely no one needs an explanation about what this blue crocheted Police box is? Well just in case there is someone out there who does then in brief this is a crocheted version of "The Tardis", an alien space ship used by "The Doctor" (a time lord) to travel through time and space. Go now and search through YouTube for "Dr. Who" if you really have no idea of what I'm talking about.

This Tardis is loosely based on the free pattern by Army of Owls (which I think is a fantastic blog name) though I've made a few changes of my own, namely mine is taller and has a different roof and light. I also went for broke on the embroidered detail, using a darker blue to work all the panels on the doors, using white felt for the windows and embroidering on the sign and writing of 'Police box' on the front. I'm really pleased with how good it looks and I'm very glad I went to the extra effort to get it looking that way.

Mr. Bubbles!

2010-11-14T20:16:00.001Z

Let me introduce you to Mr. Bubbles...

Though he looks pretty scary in his deep sea suit and with that strange gun type thing on his back (not to mention the ominous drill coming out of his right arm) he is in fact quite a pussy cat really and is definitely quite a cuddly monster.

For those of you who don't enjoy violent video games then you may be a little confused as to what Mr. Bubbles is - well he is the iconic baddy from the first BioShock game and then in BioShock 2 you actually get to play as him. My husband has played through the first 2 games and enjoyed them both immensely so after seeing that there was a free pattern for him I thought I would have a go at making one.

Well after about 60 hours of work I managed to make Mr. Bubbles just in time for my husband's Birthday and though he is the most challenging thing I've ever crocheted he is most definitely the most worth the effort. The detail in this pattern is incredible - there are at least 30 different crocheted parts that have been joined together and apart from the the button port holes he is all yarn and fibre fill. Even though this pattern is so challenging and involves so much assembly the end result is perfect. Especially considering my son managed to tip a cup of tea over him half way through his creation he survived being thoroughly rinsed out a few times to remove all the stains (though my son did have a very distressed mum there for a couple of hours...).

So a huge thank you goes out to Emjay Bailey who designed the Big Daddy pattern and was so generous to publish it on her blog for free. Thanks Emjay - your pattern is the greatest and I've loved every minute I've spent working on Mr. Bubbles (even doing the piping round the head).

Delighted!

2010-11-13T14:09:00.000Z

On a Saturday morning I have a lie in - for as long as possible, sometimes even until midday, I look forward to it all week. Not this morning though, the postman woke me at 10.20 with a parcel. Still in my dressing gown I trudge up to my bed and try to get back to sleep and then realise that I'm not expecting a parcel so I decide to find out what it is.

I won something!

Last month I entered in an Etsy competition featured in Sew Hip magazine and one lucky winner would receive some beautiful screen printed organic fabric from Showpony (blog), 2 lovely hand-printed fabric rolls in pretty containers from Summersville and 3 fantastic make your own felt kits from paperandstring (blog). I just can't believe that I was so very lucky to win all these beautiful things - I'm going to have to do some serious thinking about how I use these beautiful fabrics and I can't wait to get started on these beautiful felt kits.

Completed squares

2010-11-09T09:00:00.000Z

Some of you may remember that back in June I did some work on some squares for the wonderful Sunshine International Blanket of Love project (SIBOL). Well shamefully I never got around to finishing those squares off as I had wanted to make a few more squares to go with them.

However, after reading that Sue needed one more square for her first Jan Eaton blanket I decided that this was what I needed inspire me to finish off those other squares and make me feel a little less guilty about not sending them sooner. Sue was very understanding about just how long it has taken me to send her the original squares that I had promised and said that she would be happy for me to have a go at block 21 "Blue shades".

So this weekend I tackled "Blue shades" and though it was a quick and easy block to make up I wouldn't recommend it as one to base a blanket on - it would be very tricky to join up with other squares and even after having a go at blocking it this weekend it still looks crocked to me.

I'm very happy to be done though and so very proud to be included in the first of the Jan Eaton blankets - I can't wait to see how Sue puts them all together.

Disappointing...

2010-11-08T14:25:00.000Z

When I noticed another Ros Badger & Elspeth Thompson book being released this month I got very, very excited as I had enjoyed their "Homemade: Gorgeous things to make with love" so much. This new title "Homemade: 101 beautiful and useful craft projects you can make at home" is in fact the same book. It has just been republished with a different cover and a slightly different title.

I'm really gutted.

Oh well, I'll just have to return it to Amazon and see what else I can get off my wishlist instead.

Friday book review

2010-11-05T09:00:00.002Z

"Love.. Crochet: 25 simple projects to crochet" by Carol Meldrum
ISBN: 978-1-84773-595-9

UK crochet terms

My latest visit to the local library gave me the opportunity to borrow a copy of this new UK crochet title - it had only just come in before I snapped it up! Ah - I do so love libraries!

This book is aimed at beginners and so has a beautifully photographed how-to section which includes information on hooks, yarns and how to hold the hook as well as step by step photographs for the different stitches. Strangely though the photographs for working the stitches are taken from the opposite angle to how they usually are so you are looking at the stitches as if you are watching someone else crocheting which I would find a little confusing.

All the projects in this book are very simple and would be a good place to start for a new crocheter. Most of the patterns didn't appeal much to me, finding good clothing crochet patterns is tricky normally and I didn't think much of the look of the ones shown in here. Out of the other patterns there were a couple of things that I thought worth having a go at including the cute little cupcakes at the back of the book.

The pattern for these little cakes turned out to be wrong. If I had followed the instructions as written I would have ended up with some very tall and thin cakes. To remedy this with my cakes I added a couple of extra increase rows to both the base of the cakes and the icing. I did enjoy working the sides of the cake though as they used something called 'linked stitch' which I haven't come across before and produces a lovely dense looking fabric that I really like.

As I wasn't very impressed with the first pattern I tried I thought I would give this book one more chance and try a second pattern. For this I chose the very simple looking crochet hook case that seemed such a nice simple solution for all your hook carrying needs. The pattern was as basic as it gets, you just need to work a long strip of crochet with a few colour changes to create a piece of crochet fabric that you can fold in half for the outside of the case. To the inside of this you sew a felt pouch to contain the hooks and after you've added some buttons and bits of elastic you're done.

I'm really pleased with how my case turned out but again the pattern was a bit confusing - this time with the hook sizes. The materials list a 4mm hook and the gauge also says to use a 4mm hook, but when you turn over the page the pattern specifies a 3mm hook. I stuck with the 4mm hook and also had to make my case a bit longer to fit my hooks, but after that it was a very easy make.

In summary I wouldn't recommend anyone to go out and buy this book - it is well presented and has lovely photographs of the projects but the patterns don't seem to be very well tested and the project ideas are nothing really special.

Toddler handbag

2010-11-04T14:30:00.003Z

As part of my quest to make all my friends and family handmade gifts this year I needed to come up with a suitable present for a few little toddlers that I know. One of the them loves bags and will unpack any bag she can get her hands on, especially her mum's handbag. So I thought it would be nice to try and make her a handbag that was toddler sized and this is what I came up with.

The idea is simple enough, I just made a front piece, back piece that was longer so that it would fold over to make the front flap and one long strip of crochet that became the sides and handles. Joining up the finished pieces was a bit tricker as trying to get it all to line up was not very easy so I strongly recommend that you pin the pieces together before you try joining them. I'm very pleased with how it has finished up and thought I would share my pattern with you here in case you also know some little toddlers that would like one.

Toddler handbag

Materials:

50g DK yarn in any colour you choose
1 large button to match yarn
4.5 crochet hook
yarn needle for working in loose ends

Finished size:

This will vary depending on how tight you crochet, my finished bag measured 14cm wide by 12 cm high (excluding straps)

Terminology:

This pattern uses American crochet terms. The following abbreviations used are

ch - chain
st - stitch
dc - double crochet
sl st - slip stitch
dec - decrease (working 2 dc stitches together)

Front:

chain 20
Row 1: dc in 3rd ch from hook and dc in each ch across (18 dc)
Row 2: ch 2, 2 dc in first dc, dc in each st across until working 2 dc in last st (20 dc)
Row 3: ch 2, 2 dc in first dc, dc in each st across until working 2 dc in last st (22 dc)
Rows 4-13: ch 2, work dc in each stitch across (22 dc)

finish off

Back:

chain 20
Row 1: dc in 3rd ch from hook and dc in each ch across (18 dc)
Row 2: ch 2, 2 dc in first dc, dc in each st across until working 2 dc in last st (20 dc)
Row 3: ch 2, 2 dc in first dc, dc in each st across until working 2 dc in last st (22 dc)
Rows 4-18: ch 2, work dc in each stitch across (22 dc)
Row 19: ch 2 dec over first 2 sts, dc in each st across until working dec over last 2 sts (20 dc)
Row 20: ch 2 dec over first 2 sts, dc in each st across until working dec over last 2 sts (18 dc)
Row 21: ch 2 dec over first 2 sts, dc in each st across until working dec over last 2 sts (16 dc)
Row 22: ch 2 dec over first 2 sts, dc in each st across until working dec over last 2 sts (14 dc)

finish off

Sides and handles:

ch 9
Row 1: dc in 3rd chain and dc in each ch across (7 dc)
Row 2: ch 2, work dc in each stitch across (7 dc)

continue working rows of 7 dc until you have a strip that is 80cm long. Join ends of strip by sl st together.

finish off

Finishing:

Find the middle point of the bottom of the front piece (the end that you started working from) and with the join on the strap positioned to the bottom rejoin your yarn and sl st up round the side to join the two pieces together. Break the yarn off and rejoin again at the bottom this time sl st up the other side of the bag front. Do the same for the back of the bag but only sl st up as far as the front side goes so that you leave the top of the back loose as this becomes the flap. Sl st around the front of the flap and when you get to the middle point ch 10 (to make the button hole loop) and continue sl st across the rest of the flap. Weave in all loose ends and you're done!

Ponyo amigurumi

2010-11-01T08:44:00.001Z

My little niece became a Studio Ghibli fan two years ago when I gave her a DVD of My Neighbour Totoro (as well as a crocheted Totoro to go with it) - according to her mum she would wander round the house sing the theme song to herself and would keep asking to watch it again and again. So when the new Ghibli film Ponyo came out I knew I had to get it for her. I also wanted to have a go at making her a little crocheted Ponyo to go with it and this is what I've ended up with.

I had hoped that my Ponyo would turn out a lot cuter than this but to try and do a better job would involve starting back from scratch again which I sadly don't have enough time to do at the moment. For any of you Ponyo fans out there I've included my pattern - beware though the bottom of the skirt is very fiddly to make.

Ponyo

Materials:

DK yarn in pink, red, white, orange/brown, black
pair of safety eyes
3.5 crochet hook
fibrefill
yarn needle for working in loose ends

Finished size:

This will vary depending on how tight you crochet, my finished doll measured 10.5cm high.

Terminology:

This pattern uses American crochet terms. The following abbreviations used are

ch - chain
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
dc - double crochet
tr - treble crochet
sl st - slip stitch
inv dec - invisible decrease
rep - repeat

This pattern is worked in the round so use a stitch marker to show the first stitch of each row.

Eyes - make 2

- Using white yarn -

make a magic ring and ch 1
8 sc into ring, pull end to close (but not too tightly) sl st to first sc and finish off

Head

- Using pink yarn -

make a magic ring and ch 1

Row 1: 6 sc into ring, pull end to close (6 sc)
Row 2: 2 sc into each sc (12 sc)
Row 3: *2 sc into next sc, sc* rep around (18 sc)
Row 4: *2 sc into next sc, 2 sc* rep around (24 sc)
Row 5: *2 sc into next sc, 3 sc* rep around (30 sc)
Rows 6-11: sc around (30 sc)
Row 12: *inv dec, 3 sc* rep around (24 sc)

Row 13: *inv dec, 2 sc* rep around (18 sc)

attach eyes roughly halfway down the face

Row 14: *inv dec, 1 sc* rep around (12 sc)

stuff head firmly

Body

- Change to red yarn -

Row 15: work in front loops only *2 sc in sc, sc* rep around (18 sc)
Row 16: *2 sc into next sc, 2 sc* rep around (24 sc)
Row 17: *2 sc into next sc, 3 sc* rep around (30 sc)
Row 18: *2 sc into next sc, 4 sc* rep around (36 sc)
Rows 19-24: sc around (36 sc)
Row 25: *inv dec, 4 sc* rep around (30 sc)
Row 26: work into the front loops only *sl st in next sc, 2 hdc and 1 dc in next dc, 1 dc and 2 hdc in next dc* rep around

- Finish off red and change to white yarn -

Row 27: working into the back loops behind the red frill *inv dec, 3 sc* around (24 sc)
Row 28: work into the front loops only *sl st in next sc, 2 hdc and 1 dc in next dc, 1 dc and 2 hdc in next dc* rep around
Row 29: work into the back loops *inv dec, 2 sc* rep around (18 sc)
Row 30: *inv dec, sc* rep around (12 sc)

stuff body firmly

Row 31: inv dec around (6 sc) sl st to first sc and finish off with a long tail to sew close with

Flippers - make 2

- Using red yarn -

make a magic ring and ch 1

Row 1: 4 sc into ring, pull end to close (4 sc)
Row 2: *2 sc into next sc, sc* rep around (6 sc)
Row 3: *2 sc into next sc, 2 sc* rep around (8 sc)
Rows 4-5: sc around (8 sc)
Row 6: *2 sc into next sc, 3 sc* rep around (10 sc)
Row 7: sc around (10 sc) finish off with a long tail

Hair

You may need to adjust where you put your hair spikes depending on where you've placed your eyes on Ponyo

- Using brown/orange yarn -

make a magic ring and ch 1

Row 1: 6 sc into ring, pull end to close (6 sc)

Row 2: 2 sc into each sc (12 sc)
Row 3: *2 sc into next sc, sc* rep around (18 sc)
Row 4: *2 sc into next sc, 2 sc* rep around (24 sc)
Row 5: *2 sc into next sc, 3 sc* rep around (30 sc)

hair spikes: work 1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 tr, ch 2, sl st all into one sc

Row 6: work 1 hair spike, sl st into next 2 scsl st into next 4 sc then work 1 hair spike, work sc in remaining stitches with a hdc in the last st before the first hair spike
Rows 7-10: ch 1, turn, 1 hadc then sc across working 1 hdc into last st
Row 11: work a few more hair spikes in this last row and finish off leaving a long tail for sewing hair to head.

Tummy

- Using white yarn -

make a magic ring and ch 1

Row 1: 6 sc into ring, pull end to close (6 sc)
Row 2: 2 sc into each sc (12 sc)
Row 3: *2 sc into next sc, sc* rep around (18 sc)
Row 4: *2 sc into next sc, 2 sc* rep around (24 sc)
finish off with a long tail for sewing onto the front of the body.

Finishing

Use the photo at the top to help and carefully position hair on head and sew it in place. Embroider a mouth - either a nice big smiley one or a little surprised red 'o'. Sew flippers on at the sides and sew the white tummy circle on to the front. Sew in any loose ends and your done.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T10:50:00.000Z

Hope you are all getting into the Halloween spirit, I've got to go and decorate Tea Towers but I thought you might like to see the little pumpkins that I made to add to my decorations this year.

These little cuties are from the free pumpkin pattern available from PlanetJune and are so quick and easy to make that you'll have a stack of them in no time!

Crocheting with wire

2010-10-30T09:00:00.001+01:00

One of the challenges that I set myself this year was to see if I could make some crochet jewellery by crocheting using fine wire.

While on a rare shopping trip to a pretty craft shop in Yorkshire back in July I came across some suitable looking wire (34 gauge) as well as some seed beads that were on offer and I've had them in my stash ever since, just waiting for me to take the plunge and have a go.

After a bit of playing around with the wire I decided that a 2.5mm hook would be best and threaded a load of beads ready to start making my bracelet. I used the lovely futuregirl's beaded bracelet pattern as a starting point and made a start.

My first attempt ended up being frogged as I hadn't threaded enough beads on to start with. Trying to pull out crochet that has been done using wire is very, very tricky but I did manage it in the end and I even managed to re-crochet the much kinked wire into one of my finished bracelets. After this I found the crochet to be quite easy going and enjoyed seeing the bracelets come together. Some of the beads in my bracelets have moved about a bit during crocheting due to the nature of the wire leaving a looser finish but even so I think they are very pretty and I'll definitely be trying more crochet wire jewellery soon!

Patchwork progress

2010-10-28T09:00:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember my post back in September about trying a bit of patchwork at my weekly craft group.

Well I thought it was time that I showed you how it was getting on. As you can see I've joined all the little hexagons together now (using something called the "English method") and I'm almost finished sewing it down to the backing fabric.

It looks a bit of a strange shape doesn't it - can any of you guess what it is going to be?

Finished at last!

2010-10-25T09:00:00.001+01:00

Just thought I would show you quickly how my finished baby booties came out. After a suggestion from one of my followers (thanks Never Knew!) I added a crochet flower to the toe of each bootie in the contrasting colour from the other bootie and now they look much more like a pair

These flowers are very quick to make up and would be useful for so many different projects that need a little extra finishing touch. As I came up with the pattern for these flowers myself I've quickly written up the pattern so that some of you might have a go at making a few too:

Pretty little flowers

Terminology:

This pattern uses American crochet terms. The following abbreviations used are

ch - chain
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
sl st - slip stitch

Row 1: Make a magic ring, work 10 sc into the ring and then pull the loose end to close the ring.
Row 2: *3 sc into next sc, sl st into next sc* x 5
Row 3: *hdc in next sc, 3 dc in next sc, hdc into next sc, sl st into previous sl st* x 5

Finish off and weave in loose ends

Friday magazine reviews

2010-10-22T14:46:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the delay in my usual biweekly reviews - there has been a lot of crafting going on here at Tea Towers which has distracted me a little from writing up my usual blog posts. I'll try to drag myself away from all the crafting excitement to get my 'to blog about' pile under control.

"Sew Hip" issue 21
October 2010

Not much in this month's issue of Sew Hip managed to hold my attention for very long. The smaller, quicker projects didn't really appeal to me as they were either too simple to really merit the instructions (like the coasters which were just wool beads threaded together) or far too advanced/time consuming for me to want to start. The duffle coat on the cover is very cute - but definitely beyond my beginner skills. I also liked the pretty patchwork throw but sadly I just don't have enough free time at the moment to start anything that large.

The articles were quite interesting but more aimed towards the experienced sewer as there was a focus on tailoring and adjusting patterns to fit. I enjoyed the interview with founder of Craftsville which is a new craft website based in the UK that has recently been started. Craftsville is definitely worth taking a look at especially if you are a UK based crafter as they have up to date details of upcoming events.

"Sew Hip" issue 22
November 2010

Ah - much better! This issue of Sew Hip had quite a lot more in it that I enjoyed including a good few projects that I would like to try my hand at making. For me my favourites were the very cute little egg cosies that look so fun and quick to make, the pretty ruffled shoe clips that I could see being used on a number of different projects, the lovely fabric hampery baskets that would look so good with a pile of yarn in.

The articles in this month's issue were also more enjoyable. The interview was with the Felt Mistress who makes some truly fantastic softies which are so unusual and full of character that they really don't fit in with traditional softies. There was also a piece on the curator of the UK edition of the Etsy blog which highlighted a few fantastic UK crafters which made for lots of drooling over photos of beautiful crafty goodies.

Maybe I'll have had a go at one or two project from Sew Hip by the time I next do a magazine review...

Jayne Cobb hat - revisited

2010-10-13T21:37:00.000+01:00

Two years ago I had a go at making up my own crochet version of the Jayne Cobb hat in response to a hat making request from Kim Werker at Crochet Me. For those of you who don't know who the heck Jayne Cobb is then I highly recommend that you go out and borrow a copy of the Firefly series or the film Serenity.

Now two years later on I've had a request to publish the pattern I wrote for this hat so I'm going back to my roughly scrawled notes to try and piece a basic pattern together for them and anyone else who is interested. However, there are a few other much better crochet patterns out there as well as a good number of knitted patterns too so be sure to do a Ravelry search to help you decide which pattern you want to use.

Now on to the pattern!

Jayne Cobb hat

Materials:

DK yarn in 3 colours or more. For a true Jayne hat you need red, orange & yellow
3.5 crochet hook
yarn needle for working in loose ends

Finished size:

I forgot to measure my hat before I sent it off to my sister but as it fitted me it was probably a size small. You may need to adjust the number of increase rows you work in the crown to get a perfect fit.

Terminology:

This pattern uses American crochet terms. The following abbreviations used are

ch - chain
hdc - half double crochet
sl st - slip stitch
tog - together (decreasing)

At the end of each row sl st to the first hdc worked in the previous row

- Starting yellow yarn -

Row 1: ch 3, join with a sl st to form a circle, ch 2 then work 8 hdc into circle
Row 2: ch 2, *2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (16 hdc)
Row 3: ch 2, *hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (24 hdc)
Row 4: ch 2, *2 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (32 hdc)
Row 5: ch 2, *3 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (40 hdc)
Row 6: ch 2 *4 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (48 hdc)
Row 7: ch 2 *5 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (56 hdc)
Row 8: ch 2 *6 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (64 hdc)
Row 9: ch 2 *7 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (72 hdc)

- Change to orange yarn -

Row 10: ch 2 *8 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (80 hdc)
Row 11: ch 2 *9 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (88 hdc)
Row 12: ch 2 *10 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (96 hdc)
Row 13: ch 2 *11 hdc, 2 hdc in each stitch* rep around (104 hdc)

if you want a smaller or larger hat then either work a row or two less or do a row or two more of the increase rows.

Row 14- 21: ch 2, hdc around (104 hdc)

- Change to red yarn -

Row 22- 24: ch 2, hdc around
Row 25: ch 2, 65 hdc, turn
Row 26: ch 2, hdc across, 1 hdc in top of 2nd ch (66 hdc)
Row 27: ch 2, hdc across (66 hdc)
Row 28: ch 2, 21 hdc, hdc 2 tog, 20 hdc, hdc 2 tog, 21 hdc (64 hdc)

First ear flap

Row 29 - 35: ch 2, 18 hdc, turn
Row 36: ch 2, 2 hdc tog, 14 hdc, 2 hdc tog (16 hdc)
Row 37: ch 2, 2 hdc tog, 12 hdc, 2 hdc tog (14 hdc)
Row 38: ch 2, 3 hdc tog, 8 hdc, 3 hdc tog (10 hdc)
Row 39: ch 2, 3 hdc tog, 4 hdc, 3 hdc tog (6 hdc)

- Finish off and repeat ear flap on other side of the hat -

Make up a nice big pompom for the top using all three of the yarn colours and stitch it on to the top of the hat. Sew in any loose ends and you're done!

First attempt at blocking

2010-10-11T21:21:00.000+01:00

Before blocking

You may be surprised to learn that in 18 years of crocheting I have yet to give blocking a go. I've heard good things about the results you get from it so always thought that it may be worth a try. However until now I had always ended up avoiding doing it as it seemed to be far too much like hard work. Now I'm at the stage where I would like my crochet to look a little more professional so I've been doing a bit of background reading on the subject and have been looking for a suitable project to try it out on.

Well after deciding it was high time I gave it a go I started working on some "branching leaves" scarves which were turning out quite wrinkly and so I thought that these would really benefit from a good blocking out and steaming. I finished working up these scarves quite some time ago and then hid them in my crochet work bag while I put off spending the time to laboriously pin them both out on my bedroom floor.

Go steam iron!

After two months of feeling a little guilty about them I pulled them out and went at them with a pile of pins. After a good few pins and some very sore fingers I had them all arranged nicely and looking a lot flatter. As I wasn't too sure just how taunt I should pull the stitches on these scarves I just settled for trying to get them straight with the leaves lying mostly flat. Then I turned my steam iron on full and blasted away at them with the steam which turned my bedroom into a bit of a sauna but seemed to be doing the trick.

Then I closed the bedroom door and ignored them for a good few hours while I enjoyed a well earned cup of tea.

All pinned out

After roughly 7 hours I went back to release my scarves from all those pins. It was a little bit of a let down seeing that they looked just how I had left them (I'm not too sure what I was expecting to happen behind my closed bedroom door) but after taking all the pins out they did keep their flatter shape and looked much straighter and neater than they did before.

Though I'm happy with the result that I got with my first blocking experiment I'm still not convinced the end result was worth all that effort. Oh well - at least that's two more presents to add to the Christmas box.

So many projects...

2010-10-03T21:42:00.002+01:00

...and so little time. There has been some manic crafting going on here at Tea Towers and I've got about 5 different projects on the go right now, but getting anything finished seems to be causing problems.

Take this beautiful baby dress (pattern from Inside Crochet issue 9), making this up was so quick and easy that it fooled me into thinking that I would get through my to-do list in no time. However, trying to make up a pair of matching booties has been a real struggle and has taken me over a week to do - which is quite shocking really when you consider that the dress took me only 4 days to crochet!

To start with I tried out a lovely free pattern that used 4 ply yarn and a size 5mm hook. But using such a large hook with the finer yarn felt very strange to me and I didn't like the loose fabric it created. So I decided that adjusting my 'Simple booties' pattern would be the best option. The adjustments to the original pattern were pretty easy so that isn't what took me the time - no that would be trying to keep a consistent gauge. For some reason recently this has become a bit of a problem for me, not sure why though but I really hope it sorts itself out!

So now I finally have two slightly mismatched booties (due to the colour changes in the Wendy Happy yarn I ended up with two booties in two different colours - well at least they go with the dress!) and though they are very cute I don't feel that they are quite 'finished'. I want to add some sort of extra decoration to make them look more of a pair - any suggestions?

Friday book review

2010-09-24T09:00:00.002+01:00

"Super-super cute crochet" by Brigitte Read
ISBN: 978-1907030246

UK crochet terms

You may remember that back in June I featured a designer focus on the work of Brigitte Read who has been a long time favourite designer of mine. Well a month later I was lucky enough to be given a copy of her first book of patterns for my Birthday and as I've finally gotten around to trying a few of the designs I thought it was time to write the book review.

Sadly my first impressions were not as good as I had hoped. A handful of the patterns published in the book have already been made available for free on the roman sock blog and due to the way the patterns have been printed some of the useful step by step photos from the free patterns have not been included. Even though there are a number of patterns that feature Brigitte's brushed crochet technique the instructions in the book have been limited to only two paragraphs and no photos which considering the detailed guide that is available from the roman sock blog seemed a little odd.

There are a wide variety of patterns in this book all for cute animals ranging from the more usual cat, dog, bird pattern to some much more unusual designs including a walrus, anteater, silkworm and star-nosed mole. Most of the designs I liked the look of so there was plenty in here to keep me busy and I found it quite hard to single out only a few designs to do.

First up I had a try at the cute little blue whale which looked pretty simple to do. The main body was a basic oval shape and the tail was worked separately and added on at the end. Because there are only photos in the book of the finished toys it was hard to work out where to put the eyes and where to attach the tail to the back. A close up photo of the back of the whale would really have helped but the focus seemed to be to show how cute the whale was and hide the fact that the tail looked a little odd just tacked on at the back. Other annoyances included that the mouth of the whale in the book was just a piece of pink yarn stitched straight across and positioned to look nice for the photos - not actually embroidered properly. The method used for starting the main body section would not have left the nice tidy top that you see in my photo and in the book photos - I tried it and it left a gap at the top... you need to use a magic circle to get the finish you see here. Lastly the main body construction is made of two pieces which are joined together at the end which leaves a clear ridge at the bottom of the whale's body (I've carefully photographed mine so it isn't noticeable) which in my opinion looks a bit silly.

So not a very good start so far. For my next pattern I tried the more difficult looking flamingo and was much happier with the finished result. There were a couple of errors in the pattern but nothing too difficult to figure out and even though the instructions for stuffing were contradictory I found this pattern much easier to follow.

(If you want to try this pattern then I recommend you stuff the head before you get too far crocheting the neck. Once you've finished the neck insert a pipe cleaner with a little bit of stuffing as well, then stuff the body before you finish it off.)

The long bendable legs and the funny little wings make this a very cute toy and well worth the time you spend putting all the separate pieces together.

Lastly I decided to try one of the patterns that is also available for free from the roman sock blog - the beautiful Manta ray that I've been meaning to make for a few years now. The pattern for this ray is exactly the same as you will find online except it has all the useful step by step photos stripped out of it so the free version is more helpful then the pattern published in the book. However this pattern seems to be error free - perhaps because it has been available for a long time before this book and so has had plenty of time to be tested for errors. I found it to be easy to make up though quite fiddly to put together due to all sewing in of pipe cleaners and needing to construct a pink felt mouth. I love how he turned out and would definitely recommend making him to anyone.

In overview - although this book was sadly a bit disappointing as I had expected much better pattern instructions from this designer I would still say it has some of the nicest designs for amigurumi animals that have been published so far. There are still at least 10 more pattern in here that I want to have a go at making which means this book ranks pretty high in my collection of crochet titles. So yes I would recommend it as one to add to your collection - though beware that you may also find some of the patterns have errors in them.

Pretty ladies all in a row

2010-09-22T21:12:00.000+01:00

Life seems to have reached a new level of hectic here as I've started back at my weekly Mums craft group and also signed up for a card making course. Some how during all this chaos I found the time to make these very pretty little crochet Kokeshi dolls and I'm really glad that I did.

Such a simple design and a great example of amigurumi - quick and easy to make and very customizable. The pattern is available for free here however the instructions for the hair are very wrong so I ended up rewriting them. If any of you want to have a go at these lovely dolls then my corrected instructions for the hair are as follows:

Hair:

Row 1 - make a magic circle and work 10 sc into it, tighten and then continue work in a spiral
Row 2 - 2 sc in each sc around (20 sc)
Row 3 - *sc in each of next 4 sc, 2 sc in next sc* repeat around (24 sc)
Row 4 - sc around (24 sc)
Row 5 - *sc in each of next 4 sc, 2 sc in next sc* repeat around (30 sc)
Row 6 to 10 - sc around
Row 11 - ch 1, turn, sc into next 20 sc
Row 12 to 17 - ch 1, turn, sc across
Row 13 - don't turn, work sc around the inside edge of the hair and fasten off

I finished my Kokeshi dolls with a little bit of embroidery on the dresses and some handmade felt flowers and they will be very difficult to part with when it comes time to empty the Christmas box...

Learning patchwork

2010-09-13T15:24:00.000+01:00

With all the crochet that has been in progress here at Tea Towers it was so nice to go along to my craft group this week and do some hand sewing instead.

We were all let loose on a pile of scraps and after a few basic instructions we made a start. Because I love blues and purples so much I decided to focus on these colours and I was surprised by just how quickly the strips of hexagons all joined up.

I'm still undecided about what these patches are going to be made into - the original idea was that they became a teapot cosy but I'm also thinking that a little patchwork money purse would be very cute. Any other suggestions?

Friday magazine reviews

2010-09-10T22:11:00.001+01:00

"Inside Crochet" issue 9
September 2010
UK crochet terms

Inside Crochet magazine has just gone monthly which means two things, firstly I'll have to try and wait to do my magazine reviews until I have the two latest issues (otherwise I'll just end up every two weeks with just magazine reviews and no book reviews). Secondly I'm going to need to get it renewed again at Christmas time as what I thought was a year's subscription now will disappear after 6 months!

This September issue was the first of my new subscription to Inside Crochet and so also came with some lovely white merino lace weight yarn that I can't wait to have a go with. The only problem is that I only got 50 grams of it and trying to find a pattern that will use that quanity is going to be tricky. Hopefully you'll be seeing the start of a project with it soon.

Now on to the contents of issue 9! The new monthly Inside Crochet has a new editor and for this 're-launch' issue she has found some new contributors which is a bit of a relief as we were starting to just get patterns and articles from the same people each time. There are some lovely patterns in this month's issue that really appeal to me, especially the beautiful baby dress that I just got on my hook yesterday and I'm alreadly loving how it is shaping up.

There is also a feature on working hairpin lace with a couple of lovely patterns designed for that technique. My other favourites include a very cute mushroom shaped pouch that I'm tempted to have a play with for a mystery project of my own, a mesh tank dress and the very beautiful flower square blanket made up using sock yarn in blues and silver.

The new magazine format includes crochet news with details of UK based crochet events, an array of lovely crochet related buyables, and a number of book reviews (the September issue also did a review of "Tasty Crochet" - obviously a popular book this month!), photos from reader projects, yarn reviews and a feature on a crochet related website. There was also a great article on crochet in fashion this month with some really fantastic photos from the graduate fashion week which was very inspiring.

So all in all a great new issue - I hope the new editing team continue to deliver!

"Inside Crochet" issue 10
October 2010
UK crochet terms

This month didn't seem to do so well for patterns, most of them I'm not even slightly tempted to make though there are a couple that redeem the issue for me, the lovely little kingfisher amigurumi designed by June Gilbank (I love her designs - the pigs I made recently were also by her), the Damson tunic looks lovely, the petal beret is very pretty and I like the stitch pattern for the Ammonite scarf.

The articles in this issue are what made it worth reading for me as there was another great piece about crochet in fashion with some more great photos of crochet designs on the catwalk. The article about the history of crochet was also very interesting, it spoke about the mystery over when crochet first started and where as well as about the highs and lows for crochet over the years.

Latest upcycling attempt..

2010-09-06T21:45:00.001+01:00

These little granny square coasters are part of an attempt to try and make use of old unwanted items like some old duvet covers that I have gathering dust at the back of one of my cupboards.

Originally I had wanted to turn this blue and white striped double duvet cover into a lovely crocheted rag rug for which I've seen a few lovely project photos of in some of my craft books. This project seemed to be doomed to failure though as my original hope to make a circular mat wouldn't stay flat and then when I realised just how long it would take to cut up a whole double duvet cover and then try to crochet it was just too big a time commitment.

So while looking at the bag containing the failed rag rug I came up with the bright idea to try and make coasters instead. Crocheting with fabric gives you a lovely thick material which seems well suited to making hard wearing rugs and so I thought it would also make good chunky coasters. These are just very simple granny squares which after only the first two rows were finished. The downsides to working with fabric scraps though is that it is very hard on your hands as well as being very slow to crochet up, each of these coasters took me about an hour to complete!

To the right you can see the original attempt at a rag rug being used by my little boy... seeing as I had wanted to make it square and it was about a metre long I would have still been doing it this time next year if I had continued with it. Maybe next time I want to try and make a rag rug I'll have a go with the plaited method instead.

Friday book review

2010-08-27T09:00:00.001+01:00

"Tasty Crochet" by Rose Langlitz
ISBN: 978-1600613128

US crochet terms

Doesn't this book look so yummy - just look at that juicy apple and those adorable apple slices, even though I don't particularly like apples myself I'm still itching to get the crochet supplies out and have a go at making some myself. The patterns inside are all just as yummy as promised on the cover each beautifully photographed and with some you have to look twice to work out what is crochet and what is proper food.

I also love the layout of this book. The patterns are divided into four sections, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with each pattern including a 'ingredients' sidebar listing everything you'll need to make the item. The patterns are all well written with clear instructions and minimal abbreviations making them very easy to read and follow. In fact these patterns are so easy to follow that during the last two weeks of crocheting I've managed to make 9 of the projects and all of them I'm pleased as punch with!

This is certainly a book that I would highly recommend and perfect for making a really good range of play food for little ones or perhaps even yourself... I'm now off to try and make those cute little slices of apple, perhaps have a go at making a slice of pizza and if there is time then maybe I'll give the pattern for the pita pocket with falafel a go too!

Piggy pair

2010-08-21T15:49:00.002+01:00

Crochet seems to be taking over my craft time a little at the moment, there are just so many different projects that I want to make (my Ravelry queue is now up to a shocking 43 items - when will I ever find the time?) So please forgive me if my blog seems to be a little over full of crochet items at the moment, I am planning to do some more sewing very soon.

These two little pigs are from a lovely pattern by June Gilbank who writes the fantastic blog PlanetJune which is well worth checking if you too love all things crochet. I was lucky enough to get a discount on one of her fantastic patterns and so I choose to buy the pigs - these are the most realistic crochet pigs that I think I have ever seen and the pattern also included instructions for how to change colours so that you could also make the Saddleback pig (black and pink).

You may have noticed that I have made a few piggies in the past (little pig & felt pig), my Mum is a big pig fan so whenever I see a pattern for a new pig I rush to get it so I can have a go at making it up for her. These two pigs will also be heading off to her as part of her Christmas present but until then they will have to try and get comfortable in the slightly crowded Christmas box.

Too old for dressing up?

2010-08-18T09:00:00.001+01:00

I'm pretty sure that when you pass 30 you shouldn't really be found wandering around the house wearing a feather headdress. Unless it is Halloween or perhaps even your Birthday, but as neither of these applied to me the other day I'll have to come up with a better excuse.

Oh, I remember now - I was testing it out.

Yeah.

This little feathery headdress is in fact meant to be a present for a soon to be 4 year old that I know who loves dressing up. Last year I made her a little pink crown and as that seemed to be well received I decided to try my luck again, this time with the help of feathers.

This simple headdress has been made with the remains of an old pair of jeans (already much cut up to make a robot plushie) a few bright feathers that I've had kicking around for ages and some blue furry ribbon stuff. I cheated a little and glued the feathers in place before sewing the front and back pieces of the band together. Then to finish off I hand sewed the blue zig zag to the front and attached some ribbon to the back for ties.

The only thing I in fact forgot to do was to double check the size. This turned out to be quite an error as I have found that it is more suited to a 30+ head and not a little 4 year old. Never mind - I'm sure with the help of a safety pin it will stay on the Birthday girl's head and there will be plenty of growing room :-)

Friday magazine review

2010-08-13T21:52:00.000+01:00

"Sew Hip" issue 20
September 2010

Earlier in the month a copy of this magazine popped its way through my letterbox, along with a special subscriber gift (but more on that later). I'm still a little cautious when it comes to getting out my sewing machine and trying to make anything with it so my way of trying to beat that is to read a magazine about all the fantastic things I could be making if only I was brave enough to try. So this is where the Sew Hip magazine comes in...

The cover project really draws you in - that lovely dress looks so summery, and after reading through the instructions I'm startled to find that I think even I may be able to make it. In fact there are a large number of beginner projects in this issue, and on reading through a few of them carefully the instructions look clear, well written and easy to follow with clear diagrams for any of the trickier steps. But before having a go at trying to put together my first handmade garment I decided to tackle something a little bit more approachable, the lovely kit from clothkits which was my subscriber gift.

The kit was great, the pattern pieces and all the guidelines for folding were actually printed directly on to the canvas so no need to fiddle with cutting round a template - what a fantastic idea! The instructions were clear and helpful and I found myself working my way through them with very little difficulty. The only real problem I encountered was due solely to my not understanding my sewing machine... this was the first time I had every sewn on a zipper and working out how to change the normal foot to the sewing foot took quite a bit of puzzling out.

So now I have a rather lovely new wash bag to add to the increasingly crowded Christmas box. I'm so proud of myself for managing to make something that I think is good enough to give as a gift and I hope that this new found confidence means you'll be seeing more sewing projects here soon.

Summer time = scarves?!

2010-08-08T14:54:00.000+01:00

The weather here in the UK recently has been really lovely and warm with lots of sunshine and only the occasional downpour. This is probably why I've been getting some very odd looks when I've been out and about crocheting scarves...

My quest to fill the Christmas box has lead me to making scarves as for some reason I thought that these would be simple and quick projects that would make great gifts. Somehow though I have managed to turn making a simple single crochet rectangle into a bit of a faff... not quite sure how, possibly starting with the wrong hook size didn't help.

After a good deal of frogging and re-working I now have two chunky and snuggly scarves which are long enough to wind well round your neck for maximum Winter comfort. I used 3 balls of the rather lovely Sirdar Crofter DK yarn and a 5mm hook and kept crocheting until I ran out of yarn.

As I'm still of the mind that scarves make lovely Christmas presents I've also started a Branching leaves scarf to use up some of my left over Sirdar Calico yarn - however there is no way that this is going to be a 'quick' project!

Friday book review

2010-07-30T22:13:00.002+01:00

"Creepy cute crochet" by Christen Haden
ISBN 978-1-59474-232-3

US crochet terms

This lovely little book is one of my latest additions to my craft book shelf and it is already one of my favourites there. The patterns are fantastic - so very cute and so very different from any other crochet books out at the moment. Who wouldn't want their own little grim reaper or amazon warrior to brighten up their work desk?

One of the problems I'm regularly faced with is what on earth to make for the male friends and family that I like to send gifts to. Well this book provides 19 perfect gift ideas suitable for blokes and I'm sorely tempted to try making them all. Another great reason to buy this book is that the creatures are very simple and quick to make up, all of them are are based on a basic head and body but once you add the different accessories they become very different and take on their own personalities.

The book starts out with some clear advice about all the techniques that you need to create your own creatures including guidance on working with modeling clay, making yarn hair and some specialist crochet techniques (I found the 'clean fasten off' technique to leave a much nicer finish and I'll definitely be using that a lot with my other crochet projects). Each pattern has a clear ability level, a clear photo of the finished item, stitch diagrams, written instructions and step by step assembly instructions (which I found really helpful in creating a professionally finished item).

After searching through my yarn stash I discovered that I was missing a good few of the colours that I would need to make a lot of the creatures (a suitable yellowy zombie flesh colour is a must and so is brown... I must stock up!) so I ended up just making the grim reaper, the devil and a valiant knight. The grim reaper I made up first and he was the simplest of the three, but I think probably my favourite. With just a simple body shape, a little crochet hood, some embroidery on the face and a little felt scythe he really comes alive (or as alive as a little crochet skeleton can get!)

Next up I decided to try a more tricky creature, the handsome knight - and again I found the pattern clear and easy to follow and had no problems putting him together with the help of the assembly instructions. I love his little shield and the embroidered detail on his little sword. One slight problem I did find was that the templates for the weapons were not to scale which would have been easy to do as there would have been plenty of room to print the full scaled versions.

Last up I made the little happy devil and because I didn't find the finished version in the book to be as cute as I wanted him to be I made a few changes. The eyes I used for my creatures were very small safety eyes so my creatures already look slightly different to the original designs. As well as this I moved the mouth lower down and made it a smile instead of just a line. I also left off his goatee as I didn't think it would suit my devil and I gave him a felt trident for extra devilishness. All simple to do and now I have a few more ideas for ways to personalise any future creatures that I make.

So to sum up, I love this book. Simply love it. If you too need zombies, vampires, ninjas or any warriors in your life then you really should go out right now and get yourself a copy of this fantastic book.

Pretty baby things

2010-07-28T20:23:00.000+01:00

I'm starting to make a little progress through some of my UFOs and I thought I would show off the finished baby cardigan that I gave you a sneak peak of a few weeks ago.

The pattern is called "Maisie baby cardigan" designed by Alicia Paulson and available in the book "Vintage crochet". Though I found the pattern clear and easy to follow I was a little disappointed with how much construction was needed - the top half consists of 5 separate parts that need sewing together (including the two separate sleeves that each were worked flat for some reason and then needed sewing up at the end) with the lower skirt then getting crocheted directly onto the finished top half. Because I used a blueish yarn for this cardigan I decided to add a lilac trim to feminise it a little more and I think it ended up working nicely.

To accompany the cardigan I also worked up some simple baby booties this time from the book "Essential crochet" by Erika Knight. The pattern was quick and easy to make up and I love the chunky little flowers that go on the front. I still need to make up little crochet ties for these booties as the soon to be mum has expressed a preference for those as opposed to the ribbons suggested in the pattern.

As these are all done I've now got a hankering to make some more baby bits and bobs so if you've any favourite patterns that you can recommend I would love to hear about them!

Experimenting with felt

2010-07-22T09:00:00.000+01:00

What do you do when your dad is going to be celebrating his 60th Birthday but absolutely refuses to say what he would like you to get him? My dad would not hear of anyone making a fuss for his big day so I was forced to try and think a little bit more creatively and as I always do when I'm stuck for present ideas I turn to my craft stash.

Because I'm out of white, brown and yellow yarn (how this has happened without my noticing I'm not too sure, perhaps we have a yarn elf stealing it?) I moved out of my crochet comfort zone and turned to the next best 3D craft medium - felt.

What the heck is this strange looking little hut? Well it was supposed to be a small Celtic round house based loosely on the buildings constructed at Butser Ancient Farm (check the photo below) although somehow while I wasn't looking it became too tall and thin. I made the main section separately from the roof, added the door detail to it, stuffed it with rice and fiberfill and then had a devil of a time trying to get the roof to sit straight on the top while I sewed it on.

My dad (who is one of the volunteer workers at the farm and has even helped to thatch a few of the buildings there) loved it, so hooray for craft saving the day again!

Beautiful crafty goodness

2010-07-19T14:23:00.000+01:00

I'm starting to think that there is no way that I can make enough handmade presents for all my friends and family this Christmas (I'm still going to give it my best shot though) but instead of letting this drive me almost crazy with stress I'm going to try and make the most of some of the beautiful work from other local crafters.

The more I get to know people in my local area the more people I find who also love making things. One of my newest friends embarked on trying to sell her work for the first time at a fair yesterday and so I made a trip out to see what crafty goodness I could find to add to the Christmas box. From my friends stall I bought the beautiful pink card with ribbon and bead weaving as well as the very delicate snowflake ornament which we will be adding to our own handmade Christmas tree decorations this year.

In a different stall which was the joint work of a number of local women I found the fantastic tote bag embellished with hand sewn felt and buttons which will be perfect for one of my nieces, another lovely card and a pretty notebook with handmade papers patchworked on the cover.

All this came to under £20 which really is astounding if you think of the time, care and love that went into these items. So perhaps this Christmas I'll be able to take the handmade pledge and stick to giving items that are original and beautiful.

Off the hook

2010-07-16T14:18:00.002+01:00

Friday seems to have come round very quickly this week and I'm sorry to say that I don't have a book review ready for you. The reason being that I want to get a few UFOs finished off as they have been lingering in my craft corner making me feel guilty.

So I've been hard at work trying to get this little baby cardigan finished (by Alicia Paulson from the book "Vintage Crochet") for a soon to be little niece. The yarn is almost the colour of the lavender in the garden and so very soft it should be perfect for a new little one.

Give me another couple of weeks to get the next craft book review written up and I'll try to keep you all amused with photos of some finished projects.

Birthday pause...

2010-07-13T14:29:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the delay in my usual posts - I've just returned from a long weekend up North with my mother in law and so I'm running a little behind. My husband and father in law were off marshaling at the Grand Prix in Silverstone while my mother in law and I got in touch with our girly side.

We spent a lovely weekend enjoying the nice weather by visiting parks and picnicking as well as watching a very large amount of Pride & Prejudice in the evenings (somehow we managed to get through both the 6 hours of the BBC TV series as well as the 2 hour Kiera Knightley version).

Because I had forgotten to pack any crafting to do while away so treated myself to some lovely Sirdar crofter DK and a beautiful knit pro hook and in those long evenings managed to crochet up two thirds of a scarf. The knit pro hook is lovely to work with, my first wooden hook yet.

After getting back yesterday afternoon I opened up all my Birthday presents and cards and as well as being given the very beautiful butterfly box above I also got some crochet and cupcake books which I can't wait to have a good read through and tell you about in more detail. On top of this I've had my subscription for Inside Crochet magazine renewed and a new subscription to Sew Hip magazine also taken out!

Now I had best start putting out all my Birthday cards - I'll try to be back with a more crafty post soon.

Panda love

2010-07-04T22:21:00.000+01:00

You may recognise these colourful fellows as being related to the little panda I made up for my most recent blog giveaway. These two ended up being more colourful as I've run myself out of white yarn and had to find an alternative in a hurry.

As these were to be part of a present for my little niece who is going to be having a baby sister soon I thought it would be a nice idea to make up a mummy and a baby panda. I adjusted the original Lion Brand pattern to come up with a smaller version and I thought that you all may be interested in knowing what my pattern for the mini panda was.

Baby Panda

Work as a continuous spiral without joining rounds. Keep the gauge tight so that the stuffing doesn't show through.

Body

Using white (or a paler shade if you also want a colourful panda)

Row 1: ch 2 and work 6 sc into first ch
Row 2: work 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Row 3: *work 2 sc in first sc, sc* rep 5 times (18 sc)
Row 4: *work 2 sc in first sc, sc in next 2 stitches* rep 5 times (24 sc)
Row 5: *work 2 sc in first sc, sc in next 3 stitches* rep 5 times (30 sc)
Row 6-14: sc around

Change colour to black (or a darker shade if you also want a colourful panda)

Row 15 - 17: sc around
Finish off leaving a long end

Eyes (make 2)

Row 1: ch 2 and work 4 sc into first ch
Row 2: work 2 sc in each st (8 sc)
Row 3: *work 2 sc in first sc, sc* rep 5 times (12 sc)
Finish off leaving a long end

Legs (make 4)

Row 1: ch 2 and work 4 sc into first ch
Row 2: work 2 sc in each st (8 sc)
Row 3-5: sc around
Finish off leaving a long end

Ears (make 2)

Row 1: ch 2 and work 4 sc into first ch
Row 2: work 2 sc in each st (8 sc)
Row 3-4: sc around
Finish off leaving a long end

Putting him together

Sew the eyes onto the body using the photo as a guide and then insert safety eyes through crochet eyes and secure at back. Embroider nose details on face. Stuff body firmly and sew close using long end. Sew ears to head without putting in any stuffing Lastly stuff and sew on arms and legs. Ta da - your baby panda should now be all done!

Friday book review

2010-07-02T15:48:00.001+01:00

"The Softies kit: Instructions and tools for creating 15 plush pals" by Therese Laskey
ISBN: 978-0811858861

This is more of a set of instructions and a few materials than a book but even so is well worth doing a review for. The title is a little misleading as you could easily think that you are getting instructions and all the materials you need to make all of the 15 designs - you actually just get all the bits you need to make up the party cake design. So when I first received this kit back in 2008 I made the cake out of it and was quite put off by how tricky I found it to be. The kit also includes 14 other designs all printed on separate folded instruction cards, all the templates to make the designs and a little basic instructions book to show you all the techniques you'll need for the projects.

While having a browse through my craft book shelf I came across this kit again and felt that I had to give it another go as there are so many adorable softies shown. So while my husband was out with our little boy for the morning I started to iron out scraps of fabric and got to work on one of my favourite patterns - the "flat 'in' fat penguin".

Cutting out all the pieces was fiddly, and the purple corduroy that I had chosen as the main body colour was tricky to cut accurately but as I wasn't in a rush I managed it all fine. Once all the pieces were cut and ready I followed the very clear and simple instructions and before I knew it I had already finished putting together the face. During the next free chunk of time (nap times are fantastic) I got the flippers sewn together and the feet with their embroidered toes. Then once little Sam had gone to bed I put all the pieces together back to front, sewed all the way out and breathed a big sigh of relief when on turning the penguin the right way out everything was in the correct place.

I love this little penguin very much and finding him so easy to make has been a real confidence boost. I'm definitely going to be trying a few of the other designs in this kit and I'm sure the most crafters will also find a good few patterns in here that they too would love to have a try at making.

I love my craft group :-)

2010-06-28T14:43:00.000+01:00

For the last year I've been regularly going to a mums craft group which is organised and heavily subsidised by a local charity. This is the one time in the week where I get to leave Sam with a creche while I go off to chat and craft with a group of other mums. It has taken about 6 months for Sam to become comfortable with me leaving him as he is so used to my always being near him, but now he is very happy for me to go out of sight while he plays with all his favourite toys.

So now I get the full two hours to sit and join in whatever craft project the group is doing that week - bliss! For the last 4 weeks we've been making paper mache money box mushrooms and I've found that gluing lots of newspaper to rolls of cardboard and plastic plates has been very relaxing especially as I also get a cup of tea while I'm there.

As I had finished up my mushroom today I got the chance to try my hand at paper pricking - which is a craft I hadn't even heard of before. You place the piece of card that you want to embellish on top of a block of foam, and after gently taping a metal punched template over it you are ready to use a little pricking tool to prick through the template onto your card. The repetitive pricking can be quite addictive and this is another great craft to do while having a chat as you don't really need to think too much when you get going.

I love the finished effect that paper pricking gives - so simple and detailed at the same time (to see the detail more clearly click on the image to enlarge it).

Designer focus - Brigitte Read

2010-06-25T15:36:00.001+01:00

After reading the lovely comments on the previous 'designer focus' post I did (about the talented KristieMN) I thought I would try to make it a regular feature of my blog, Doing this will also give me a chance to show off again some of my favourite crochet toys as well as perhaps having a go at making up some new ones as well.

Thankfully there are a good number of very talented crochet designers around and with a lot of them also offering free patterns finding people to do a focus on shouldn't be too hard. If you think of anyone that you would like to see in this focus slot then please let me know - I love finding new crochet designers!

So let's move on to today's focus which is about some of the patterns by Brigitte Read who has the following two fantastic crochet blogs:

Roman Sock - cute crochet inspired by the natural world

Curiosity cute - a newer blog with a slightly more sinister feel to it than Roman Sock.

This very talented crocheter has also authored the recently published "Super, super cute crochet" which I am very much hoping will be among my Birthday presents next month.

When I first came across the Roman Sock blog it took my breath away - I couldn't believe just how beautiful some of the work that Brigitte did. Back then Brigitte had all her crochet patterns available for free and even though she has started charging for some of her new patterns she has left those free patterns up for everyone to make use of. These patterns are available as PDF downloads and have all been written to a high standard with clear instructions and lots of quality photographs to help lead you thorough the pattern.

Brigitte is also well known for coming up with the 'brushed crochet' technique with which you can transform a normal crocheted toy into something which has very realistic looking fur - without having to try and crochet with the very tricky fuzzy yarns that are usually used to get a similar effect. Unfortunately I've yet to make up anything to test out this technique though I really do want to have a go at the lovely pattern for the meerkat as these look just fabulous.

Even though I haven't tried any brushed crochet I have made up a number of Brigitte's patterns and I've been very pleased with how all of them have turned out. At the top of this post you can see a couple of little owlets that I whipped together in a couple of hours recently from Brigitte's Instant Crochetfication pattern selection. These little patterns are very quick makes and are all very cute, just what you want when you need a quick crochet fix.

The little elephant that I made up for one of my giveaways last year is also from the Instant Crochetification range, and though I really love how the finished elephant turns out he is quite a fiddly little critter to make and takes me about 3 hours to complete, even after having now made three of these little guys now.

Recently I also made up the Toad pattern (see left) from the Instant Crochetification range and while I'm happy with him as a finished item he didn't turn out quite as nicely as I wanted. For some reason I had real problems placing his back legs so that they would look right and enable him to sit up right. He looks a little pensive for some reason - I wonder what he is thinking about?

My favourite pattern that I've made so far has to be the beautiful Greek Tortoise that you can see in the top right of this post. The design was well thought out and surprisingly simple to make up and came out far better than I could have hoped for. Out of all of the things I've crocheted over the years this little tortoise has been one of the hardest to part with so perhaps I'll have to treat myself by making another one day.

Coming a very close second favourite would be the Tree Frog pattern (second photo down on the left) which I also fully intend to make up another for myself. My frog ended up being less froggy than the original pattern as I didn't have the requisite amber cats eyes so I stuck with the pair of green ones I had and kept my frog all green. Though there were a large number of different parts which all had to be sewn together at the end leaving a ton of loose ends to work in he was well worth all the effort.

The last creature that I have to show you is from the Pass the Piggies pattern which for some reason isn't clearly available on the blog sidebar like the other patterns but you should be able to find it here. I'm always on the look out for new pig patterns as my mother is a big pig fan so this little guy got made up last year as a Mothers day present. He was another quick pattern to make and both my mum and my little boy really loved him.

So to sum up - Brigitte Read is a crochet genius and you should go and take a look at her blogs right now. Oh, and if I do get my wish and get given her new book then I'll be sure to post a review here soon :-)

Friday magazine review

2010-06-18T20:50:00.000+01:00

"Inside Crochet" issue 8
June/July 2010
UK crochet terms

Because I've only recently returned from holiday I've not been able to make anything from the latest issue of Inside Crochet so please forgive this project-less review, I'll try very hard to make it up to you next time!

This issue focuses on more summery projects with a good number of light weight crocheted cover ups that would be great for those cool summer evenings. There are also a few other projects that catch your interest with a very cute tea pot cosy (which I may have fallen a little in love with) as well as a chunky bag that has a great woven/plaited texture, a very sweet little crochet top for a young girl and a quick crochet project for kids to try. There are also a good selection of interesting articles to read through including a short piece about the fantastic SIBOL project that I wrote about in my previous Friday review.

Overall this was a great issue, there are a good number of pretty patterns that I'm sure would suit a range of tastes as well as some interesting articles and crochet news that focuses on events in the UK (including a brief piece about the upcoming Stitch yourself event being held by the Science Museum). This issue marks the last of my current subscription, though I'm hopeful that one of my family members will renew it for me as a Birthday present as I really do enjoy getting it through the post and so far it has been well worth the £25 for 6 issues. So keep your fingers crossed for me and hopefully there will be more Friday reviews for this magazine soon.

Last minute panic

2010-06-15T15:25:00.000+01:00

Last week the Tea Towers residents (ie: myself, my husband and little Sam) were all away on a quick break at one of the UK Center Parcs during which time I managed to completely forget about a number of impending Birthdays... So after finally getting through most of the laundry on our return I notice in my diary that I needed to do some Birthday related crafting - and quickly!

That's where Sasha the Seahorse comes in. My little niece loves sea life and is particularly fond of seahorses so when I found the free pattern for Sasha on Futuregirl's fantastic blog I was determined to have a go at making it for her. This little seahorse was pretty quick and simple to make thanks to the detailed and clear instructions. I found cutting out the pieces to be the fiddliest part while the sewing was strangely quite easy and satisfying.

Now I'm off to tuck this in with my niece's Birthday card and then I should probably check my diary again in case there are any more Birthday related surprises lurking in there.

Wild beast a-roaming

2010-06-11T21:40:00.000+01:00

My latest crochet request has been for a lion and after the success of the lovely amigurumi panda which I made with a free pattern on the Lion Brand website I decided to try another of their free patterns.

The pattern for this little lion used fuzzy yarn for the mane which would probably have looked great, but after a less than enjoyable experience of using fuzzy yarn I opted for latch hooking on a mane with normal non-fuzzy yarn.

I'm not as pleased with this little guy as I was with the panda (who is now happily living in Texas and has his own personal bamboo plant) though he is still pretty cute. He was pretty simple to make up and I'm sure his new owner will love him very much.

Robbie the Robot

2010-06-08T09:00:00.000+01:00

As I seem to have been inundating you with crochet recently I thought I would share with you a photo of my recently finished Robbie the Robot.

Robbie has been made from a very well loved old pair of jeans that I had worn so much they had holes everywhere. He has been put together without a pattern (probably my first proper sewing project that has) and has been entirely hand stitched. He has a little bit of crochet for his arms and legs which have pipe cleaners in to make him more poseable. He has only been lightly stuffed to make him more hugable and my son has already spent some time giving him a few :-)

I really love Robbie and I already have plans of trying to make a Robbie mark II, perhaps as a smaller version. I'm also trying desperately to think of other bloke friendly toys/gifts that I can make as there are not many guys who would want to be given some of the cute girly stuff that I make. So if you have any ideas then please let me know!

Friday book review

2010-06-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

"Crochet inspiration" by Sasha Kagan
ISBN: 978-1933027128

US crochet terms

This book has been sitting on my craft shelf for a few years begging me to have a go at some of the beautiful things inside, but until I found out about the SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets of Love) project I didn't really have any need to make anything from here.

Fired up with all the lovely images of different granny squares over on SIBOL I dove into my stash and spent a good few hours to come up with these 4 different 6" squares.

From the top left clockwise we have the Accent square, the Circle square, the Grannies-Lace square and lastly the 3-D Rose square.

For some reason my accent square seems to be a bit squiffy - I'm going to have to try a bit of careful blocking on it to see if I can straighten it out. The other squares all seem to have turned out similar to the illustrations so I'm pretty pleased with them. These squares will be making their out to the project soon, possible with some extra squares as I've developed a bit of a taste for doing them now.

This is a beautifully laid out book with great colour photos of all the motifs and projects. It is divided into 5 main sections with stitch patterns for different crochet fabrics at the start, some beautiful crochet motifs, lots of different squares, some very beautiful flowers and a few projects at the back to give you some ideas about how you could use the patterns. This is a book that you could find yourself turning to for all sorts of things and I do find myself spending hours gazing at the photos to give me ideas and inspiration for the work that I do.

This isn't a book that has been aimed at beginner crocheters, there are no diagrams/photos of how to work the basic stitches and all of the patterns have been written in a heavily abbreviated form which can make them difficult to follow. There are a good few errors in the patterns which should be easy to spot as each pattern also has a crochet diagram underneath. Even so this is a book that I would highly recommend a more experienced crocheter to own as it contains such a wealth of lovely crochet patterns.

Planet June spring crochet along

2010-05-31T21:57:00.002+01:00

I've been working my fingers to the bone with crochet for the Christmas box recently so I very almost missed the crochet-along that Planet June was hosting over on Ravelry.

She has a beautiful free pattern for a daffodil which was the first choice for the crochet-along and for those of us with a little less time she also decided to include the pattern for her little whale.

Because I left this all to the last minute I went with the little whale and I love how simple he was to make. In just under one hour I had completed this little guy and I think he turned out very cute :-)

Designer focus - KristieMN

2010-05-25T22:06:00.000+01:00

For the last couple of weeks I've been making more of a concerted effort to try and fill my Christmas box and to help me I've been using a number of free patterns by the fantastic crochet designer KristieMN.

Kristie has designed a large number of patterns which she has either very kindly made freely available on her website or sells from her Etsy shop (www.kristieskids.etsy.com). She has a great selection of patterns and if you are an amigurumi addict like me then you'll love her clear and simple patterns.

My family and friends all remember the little crocheted ladybirds that I made a ton of to use as decorations at my wedding reception. They were attached to the flower arrangements as well as being hidden in a number of places around the venue. All of them were found and taken to new homes apart from the two that I managed to keep hold of for myself! After seeing just how popular those cute little ladybirds turned out to be I bookmarked a number of the other free patterns that I liked and making them up was such fun :-)

My favourite out of the free patterns is probably the little mouse just above. A very quick project to make and so cute! I love how tiny this little one is, I love it's cute round ears and little tail. The bumble bee above is also a very quick project, and with the round black head and little pipe cleaner antenna it seems to go well with the ladybird.

Next up I made the little horse, but this took me much longer than the other creatures and I found that putting all the separate parts together pretty fiddly so I'm not likely to make this one again any time soon. He turned out okay though and I'm quite happy with how he looks even if he isn't quite as cute as I had hoped for.

Lastly I made up this very cute sheep that I enjoyed making a great deal. The pattern for the body seemed a little odd as you had to turn the work after every row which is unusual when working in the round. However after a few rows of doing this you saw that it started to create a slightly bobbly texture that made the sheep look fluffy.

There are a load more free patterns available on Kristie's web page which are well worth having a look through, and then if you are still keen to have a go at some more patterns be sure to visit her Etsy page. I can also highly recommend her Lazy days (and Lazy days 2) patterns that I've made a few items from over the years.

Friday book review - a little late

2010-05-22T14:54:00.001+01:00

Sorry for the delay in publishing my latest book review - the pattern that I choose to make from the book took me a little longer than I had anticipated.

"Vintage crochet: 30 specially commissioned patterns" by Susan Cropper
ISBN: 978-1903221884

UK crochet terms

This beautiful book contains a range of lovely looking projects all in the vintage style that seems to be becoming very popular at the moment. The projects range from cardigans and wraps to crocheted food covers and a beautiful summer canopy. The projects seem to be aimed at a confident crocheter as they all seem to be between intermediate and advanced level and there is only a limited techniques section at the back.

There are a number of patterns that I have fallen in love with from the photographs with my favourite being a beautiful wrap called the 'Ava wrap' which is made up with a repeating large open crochet motif. I also love the 'Papilon canopy' which is a simple open worked net which is designed to be hung up in your garden to give a little bit of shade in summer, if I had a larger garden to fit it in then I would be making it right now. My other favourite patterns are both by the same contributor - Alicia Paulson, and I've book marked the baby cardigan as one to make up so I'll let you know how I get on with it.

The pattern that I choose to make up for this review though was the 'Peony corsage' by Kate Jenkins, mostly because I thought it wouldn't take too long... but I quickly realised it was fiddlier than it first appeared. I had a few disagreements with the pattern - there were some basic errors in the pattern that should have been picked up in pattern testing and there wasn't any guidance about making the flower up from the separate crocheted pieces.

However after about 5 hours of fiddling with petal placement and weaving in a ton of loose ends I did end up with a very pretty flower so this is a pattern worth making a bit of extra effort for.

Giveaway winner...

2010-05-18T20:51:00.000+01:00

The result is finally in for the winner of this little panda - the random number generator choose comment #6 - Anne Marie from Texas. (Junie Moon wanted to be skipped as she is trying to have a house clear out at the moment)

Congratulations Anne Marie, if you could let me know your home address I'll send this little guy out to you straight away.

It's been great to have a few new people visit here so thanks for joining in and I hope to see some of you here again soon, you are all very welcome!

The next giveaway will be for when I hit the 50 followers mark so if you want to be involved in that then be sure to click on the Follow link at the top of the page.

100th post and giveaway!

2010-05-11T09:00:00.009+01:00

After 2 and a bit years of blogging I'm proud to be able to say that I've finally reached my 100th post. When I started writing this blog back at the beginning of 2008 I really didn't think that I would be doing it for so long and I've surprised myself with how addictive it can be. Thank you to all the people who have left encouraging comments in the past - they really do make it all worth while. Thanks also to all my followers - watching the number of people who follow this blog climb has helped keep me motivated.

To say thank you properly I'm going to do another giveaway - see this cute little panda, well he could be yours! Just leave a comment on this post and I'll enter you into the draw for him. I'm happy to post him anywhere in the world so everyone is welcome to enter.The draw will be done on Tuesday 18th May so all entries need to be made before then.

I'm also planning on doing a little giveaway when I reach the 50 followers mark, so if you add me as one of the blogs you follow then that giveaway will come round that much quicker!

Oh - and if you don't win this time then not to worry, this little guy was made from a free crochet pattern on the Lion Brand website so log on there and have a go - the pattern is lovely and simple and would be a great first pattern for anyone wanting to try Amigurumi.

Friday book review

2010-05-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

Because I want to try and add an example of something that I've made from each of the books that I review I'm going to be now only doing a review every two weeks. These new bi-weekly reviews should hopefully give me enough time to have a go at crafting one of the projects. This should in turn help me to write a better review of the book and give you something more exciting to look at than just the cover image.

"AntiCraft: Knitting, beading & stitching for the slightly sinister" by Renee Rigdon and Zabet Stewart

ISBN: 978-1-60061-030-1

Sometimes the sugary sweetness of crafting can get too much and after looking through page after page of cute bunnies, pretty pink booties and lovable soft toys you start to get tooth ache. The antidote for that is probably this book - but be warned as this isn't crafting for the faint of heart!

This book has it all from a load of skull and crossbones emblazoned projects, evil Easter eggs and crochet whip with handcuff set. There is something for knitters, crocheters and people who sew (surely not sewers though?) alike with some simple getting started instructions at the back for beginners.

There are a large number of projects in this book that I will probably never make as I'm fairly sure that I don't need a menstrual cup cosy shaped like a squid or a two headed albino rat. However there are a small handful of projects that are really lovely, like these beautiful little owls by one of my favourite crochet designers Alice Merlino. Alice is super talented (does some beautiful crochet as well as very cute felt soft toys) and I'm a regular reader of her blog so when she posted about being one of the contributors to this book I just had to get my hands on a copy. The pattern instructions for these owls were simple to follow and as the owls themselves were such quick projects I was able to make all three of them for you to see - hooray!

As well as all the projects you also get a really good fun read. There are lots of little tongue in cheek articles about the dark side of crafting with plenty of Gothic old style images to enjoy and the occasional anticraft comic strip thrown in as well. This book is well worth having a good look through, but if you are looking for a more practical project focused book then this isn't one that you would want to spend money on.

Who's this?

2010-05-04T14:29:00.000+01:00

After a few more days of construction I managed to put together the pieces that you saw in my last post and I can now proudly reveal my latest crochet critter - a tiny amigurumi giraffe from the free pattern by Anjapanda (if you are a Ravelry user you can get the pattern from here). Well done Hannah for guessing it correctly, must have been because you make so much amigurumi yourself!

Look at him peeping out from behind some of the overgrown grass in our garden (perhaps he'll help me keep our lawn a little shorter if I ask him nicely?) isn't he sweet! Though he is very cute he is also rather shy and after a good deal of coaxing I've managed to persuade him to come out properly so you can have a good look at him. He seems to be enjoying the garden which is great as we've put quite a bit of work into it this weekend so I'm glad that someone is getting the chance to spend some time in it.

The pattern turned out to be surprisingly simple with a simple head and body shape, 4 little legs and one long tube for the neck. The hardest part as ever was the construction, but even with all the fiddling with pipe cleaners, sewing bits together and embroidering on all the spots it was all done quite quickly.

Now I'm going to have to somehow try not to get too attacted to this little fellow as he is destined for the Christmas box. Hopefully I'll find someone who will love him lots and make sure he has plenty of fresh grass to eat.