Multiplying Darleks

Sorry again for the delay in posting... I've been busy with lots of crafty things so there is plenty to share, I'm just finding it hard to put the hook down and write about what I've been up to.

These darleks were made back in November as Christmas presents - you may remember that I posted about this fantastic egg cosy pattern back in September last year... well I loved the pattern so much that I ended up making another three cosies and then using bulky yarn and the same pattern again a cute cuddly blue darlek too.

One whole year of work

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)

The light at the end of the tunnel

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...

Slowly turning purple

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!

Woooo woo woo!

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.

Toddler handbag

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

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.

Crocheting with wire

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!

Finished at last!

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

First attempt at blocking

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...

...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?

Pretty ladies all in a row

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...

Latest upcycling attempt..

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.

Piggy pair

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.

Summer time = scarves?!

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!

Beautiful crafty goodness

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.

Planet June spring crochet along

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 :-)

Who's this?

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.

Tiny stitches

After writing up my review for "Blanket statement" I was inspired to have a play with some of the felt scraps in my stash. Because of being drawn to small projects at the moment the pattern for the tiny gnome took my fancy and these two little mischievous guys were made before I quite realised it.

The pattern called for small circles of pink knit fabric and as I only had a normal bit of cotton I had to go with that, though they did end up looking a bit wrinkly. My little garden elves also have a little bit of lavender stuffed in their bodies, just in case their future owners want an excuse to have them around after the Christmas trees get packed back up next year.

Surprisingly I still had a little spare time to have a go at another of the projects that was calling me from this beautiful book. This time I pulled out a bit of white felt and made up the pretty little pony. I'm very pleased with how he came out - so tiny and so much detail but somehow still neat and even. Again this little pony would be a pretty addition to a Christmas tree but I'm tempted to pass him on to one of the little girls in my family as I think he would be most loved that way.

These three little ones took me only three days to complete which is astounding. Usually it takes me a good week to see an item from start to finish so while doing these it felt like I had time on my side for a change. The patterns and instructions were very easy to follow and now I really can't wait to get started on another project from this book soon.

That's another three items tucked into the Christmas box, hooray! Hopefully with a few more successful little projects like this I'll be much closer to have next Christmas under control.

Searching for a home...

This little mouse has made his way into my home in the last week - he came over very quietly while I was busy crocheting up Easter gifts (which I will hopefully be able to post about next week). He seemed lonely and said that he wants a home. Sadly we don't have any suitable mouse holes here at Tea Towers so for now this little fella is going to make do with a roll of kitchen paper and hopefully by next Christmas I will have found him a new home.

I can't believe that it is already March and my grand plan of starting to make Christmas presents in January has slipped this far. This little mouse was from a pattern in "Super-cute crochet" by Nicki Trench and he was simple and easy to make - just right if you really don't know where to start when you have a huge list of presents to make. I don't have a clue about who I am going to be giving him too yet but hopefully he won't be the only little crochet critter you see on this blog in the next few months!