Father's Day Socks

crochet socks, a photo by tree_bridge on Flickr.

Looking for a project to make for Father's Day? These crocheted socks work up quickly using 100g of sock yarn, and fit sizes 6-12.
Crochet pattern available in my etsy shop.

10% off all patterns in my etsy shop.

To celebrate the May Bank Holiday weekend, here's 10% off all purchases in my etsy shop. Just enter the code MAYTHE4TH when you checkout. Offer ends on Tuesday. Happy long weekend!

Instant Downloads

Good news - Etsy have made a huge improvement to their site for buyers and sellers of digital goods (such as crochet & knitting patterns or digital artwork). They've introduced 'instant download' so once you have paid for your digital item, you can immediately download it. This means that now you can receive crochet patterns from my etsy shop straight away and I no longer need to email you them as an attachment. It's great because now you won't have to wait for the email, search your spam folder, and it doesnt matter if its the middle of the night here in the UK if you are in a different time zone. It's what Ravelry have been doing for a while now.

All crochet patterns in my shop are now available as PDF instant download. 

Easter Bunny Crochet Kits...

New for Spring!

 

Make your own sweet crocheted bunny...

Yarn, stuffing, safety eyes and printed pattern, all in a brown paper bag.

The perfect springtime gift for a crocheter.

 Available in my etsy shop

Happy Spring!

Rainbow Toddler Mittens & Scarf Set

 

A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law asked me to crochet my nephew (her son) a rainbow striped scarf. He was 3 years old at the time and she said that by the next winter he would start refusing rainbow colours, so she wanted him to have one while he was still young enough. They loved the scarf so I made him a couple of pairs of mittens.

 

The pattern for both the mittens and scarf is available in my etsy shop, and on Ravelry. To make them you'll need double knitting yarn in 7 colours and a 5.5mm hook. The mittens can be plain, striped or blocks of colour and will fit a 2-4 year old.

Hands and Feet!

Patterns for gloves and socks, all available in my shop and at Ravelry.

Advent Calendar Crochet Pattern

There are lots of knitting patterns around for advent calendars, but hardly any crochet ones, and those that I found look like they were from the seventies! Nothing wrong with retro patterns, but I decided to try making my own. Here's what I came up with:

 

There are pockets for each day, for sweets or small toys. I'm going to make it again using cotton next time, but for now, I'm pretty happy with it :)

The pattern is available at etsy and ravelry. 

Free Crochet Pattern - Extra Chunky Tea Cosy

I'm taking a break from pattern-writing for a little while (I just had 2 babies within a year, phew!) but here's a pattern I wrote a couple of years ago for a ribbed tea cosy. It's been available on Ravelry and my etsy shop for a while, but here's the pattern for free:

Extra Chunky Tea Cosy Pattern

Use extra-chunky yarn to work up a super-quick tea cosy. It fits an aberage 6-cup teapot.

UK / British Crochet Terminology. For USA terminology, click here.

You will need:

9mm crochet hook

100g Extra Chunky Wool (I used Sirdar Denim Ultra). Any super chunky will work, as long as it has an approximate tension of 9sts x 12 rows = 10 cm square.

Yarn needle

Stitch key:

dc = double crochet

bldc = back loop double crochet (crochet in the back loop of each stitch).

Instructions:

Chain 16

1. Dc in 2nd ch from hook. Dc across to end of row (15sts). Ch1, turn.

2. Dc in 1st st. BLDC in next stitch and all stitches to end of row. Ch1, turn.

3–18. Repeat row 2 until you have 18 rows (or until your work loosely covers one side of your teapot.)

19. Dc in 1st st. Ch 13. 1dc in last st of row. Ch1, turn.

20. Dc in 1st st. 13DC in chain space. 1dc in last st. Ch1, turn.

21-38. Repeat Row 2 until you have 18 rows starting from Row 20 or until your work loosely covers your teapot.

Break off yarn leaving a long sewing length.

Joining:

Fold work in half. Sew together first st from first row to last row, leave 13 sts open, and sew last st to last row.

Alternative method – crochet together first sts, slip stitch across 13 sts on one side only, then crochet together last sts. Leave a long sewing length then weave this in an out like a drawstring, pull tight.

Making the pom pom:

Wrap the yarn around your hand until you have lots of layers of yarn, approx 20 times. Cut off.

Cut a length of yarn about 10 inches and tie this around the middle of the bundle. Put scissors through the loops and cut so you effectively have a lot of short lengths tied in the middle. Attach this to the tea cosy using the long sewing length. Trim your pom pom to desired size.

Sew in ends.

Welcome Little Peter

Here's my baby boy modelling a Peapod Soup original cardigan. He's nearly 8 weeks old now, getting more aware of his surroundings and starting to smile.

I'm slowly getting back into making things, but H is nearly 14 months old and almost walking, so I've kind of got my hands full!. We've converted our loft into a craft / office space, so I'm really excited about having some space to work and be creative once the littleys are in bed. 

Both my etsy shops are now open after a short break.  Holding a street party of the Royal Jubilee? Then you need to whip up a patriotic tea cosy, available from The Tree Bridge, my crochet pattern store! There's also a pattern for English cakes and biscuits, for your Jubilee cake stand. 

Happy Making!

Waiting...

 

It's kind of a strange time here, I have 3 weeks until my due date so I'm tying up loose ends with work, making sure my website is up to date, sorting out baby clothes, packing my hospital bag, and just generally nesting, but not making any plans and trying not to start any new projects. We're in the middle of having our loft converted, and in the meantime all our junk is piled in heaps in H's bedroom, (which is soon to become 'the boy's room!'). So until it's finished, I wont feel I'm ready for our new little boy. I still think I'm denial about having another baby!

I guess its time to enjoy H being on his own for the last time, but I'm still pretty much housebound, I can just about walk to T's car but managing stairs, or picking up H are getting harder all the time. I can handle constant pain (just about!) but I can't handle having to ask my husband to do pretty much everything for me.

Here's H, falling asleep halfway through lunch! Probably my own fault for keeping him in his PJs all morning.

I finished my hexagon blanket, the colours I chose were just scraps of yarn I had, but I really like how it turned out. 

 

I'll be turning off my online shops in 2 weeks, so now's the last chance to buy my crochet patterns until autumn.

Lovely new colourful things in my etsy shop...

Christmas Crafting...

Inspired by this gorgeous post at TeaWagonTales, I decorated some baubles. After trawling ebay for vintage glass baubles which cost a fortune, I managed to find a set of 12 in a charity shop for 50p. 

I used narrowboat style flower decals. A really easy and fun project! Got a bit addicted to making them. Our house is too small for a real tree, so I just used twigs in a jar.



Crocheted baubles from a pattern by Lucy at Attic 24. I love her patterns!






Crocheted Santa and his helpers, from this Gnome pattern.



Stocking pattern from my etsy shop. We put the decorations up early because it's H's first christmas and we're a bit over excited. Must calm down...

Other things...

Experimenting with Vegan Cupcake recipes, because our hens have stopped laying for winter.

These are Coconut Heaven Cupcakes, from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes, from somewhere on the internet. The coconut ones were amazing, the vanilla ones not so great, although the 3 children I made them for managed to wolf down a couple each...

Frome Flea Market & Christmas Artisan Market, so lovely, but you can't actually get to any stalls because it's so crowded. The Flea market was much quieter. If I was rich I'd buy everything. 

What's happing here? We stumbled upon a rabbit show, it took us a while to work out what was going on. Really bizarre! I dont really like 'pets'. I only like things like chickens and goats. I am absolutely terrified of dogs.

 

I'm looking forward to a couple of quiet weeks of present-making, baking, avoiding christmas shopping, snuggling on the sofa, and crocheting.

Happy Christmas Crafting!

20% Off All Patterns at Etsy

To celebrate my best ever month for crochet pattern sales, I'm offering a 20% discount on all patterns in my etsy shop.

Just enter the code CHRISTMAS2011 at checkout, on the right hand side of the page where it says 'Apply Coupon Code'. Offer ends Saturday 10th December, at 8pm.

There are patterns to make lovely christmas presents, and many projects work up quickly, including socks, mittens and baby cardigans.

Happy making!

Peapod Soup Etsy Shop

Hurrah! Finished Socks.

I seem to have about a hundred crochet projects waiting to be started, mostly for other people, so I'm glad I finished my cosy autumn socks last night. Now I can start on something else...

They are made from 1 ball of King Cole Zig Zag yarn, (bought from ebay for less than a fiver) and I went up a hook size because my feet are bigger from being pregnant. I also added a few more rows to the main foot part. A really nice project to carry around because they're so small, I worked on them a lot during our 3 and a half hour car journey to see my grandmother, it was the first time she had seen her new great-grandson. The pattern is on Ravelry and Etsy.

Hurrah!

It's time to start thinking about making things for Christmas; the raspberry gin is getting nicely pink in the back of the cupboard, I've made my little H his first stocking, and today I baked the Christmas cake. I've used this Delia recipe for the past 5 years and it always comes out great, the only change I made was, after soaking the dried fruit in sloe gin (instead of brandy) overnight, the mixture still seemed quite dry so I so added half a cup of strong black tea and let it soak for a few more hours. This will be my first christmas at home with my husband and baby, (we got married in July), I usually go to my parents in Worcester, so I'm getting really into the idea of making it really special. After 4 and a half hours in the oven this is what came out:

Really moist and yummy looking. I will wrap it in foil, feed it every now and again, then decorate it with fruit and nuts.

Crochet Tank Top... or vest if you are American.

Check out my handsome model! This tank top was made using a pattern I wrote a couple of years ago, available at Ravelry and Etsy. The pattern uses 4ply sock wool, and comes in 4 sizes up to 24 months. Perfect for autumn with a cute t-shirt underneath.

Folksy

In between looking after a baby and doing tons of housework (how did it ever get done when we both worked full time?) I'm really enjoying getting back into crochet pattern writing. I've just re-opened my Folksy shop. Folksy is a British version of Etsy, lots craft-loving people selling handmade, vintage and quirky items. All my patterns which are available on etsy, ravelry and my website, are also now on Folksy. 

The Tree Bridge Etsy Shop

Happy Hexagons Organic Cotton Baby Blanket

Happy October! We've having a heatwave, so it doesnt feel very autumnal at the moment. Yesterday I somehow a lot of work done, which isnt easy when you're looking after a 6 month old at the same time. I managed to get some patterns listed in my etsy shop, and this is one of them!

My brother & his girlfriend are expecting a baby in 2 weeks, so I decided to make them a blanket. They love bright colours and dont know whether they are having a boy or girl, so I raided my stash and found lots of different colours to make motifs with. I played around with squares, and stripes, and finally settled on hexagons. I wanted a plain kind of shape that wasnt too girly.

 

Later, I was making a cushion cover from some organic cotton, and when I had some left over I decided to make some more hexagons, as they are so nice to make! So I ended up with another blanket. It's made from lovely Twilley's Freedom Sincere Organic Cotton.

I enjoyed working with Sincere, it was a bit splitty, but all cotton yarns are. I often question the ethical and environmental sourcs of yarn. Acrylic yarn is essentially made from oil. When I was (mostly) vegan I hesitated about using Sheep's wool, also it makes me itch. There are soya and bamboo yarns available, but I guess there isnt really a truly sustainable yarn. 

   

Freedom Sincere is just like Rowan Organic Cotton, but about half the price. I stopped liking Rowan yarns so much when I worked in a wool shop. The colours and textures are gorgeous but when you come to work with it, it often has knots in, and it bobbles when you wash it, which isnt great when you've spent a lot of money. Modern yarns like Sirdar and Patons are so much nicer than they used to be, and are washable and dont bobble. When I'm making things for H, I tend to use budget acrylic yarns because they need to be washed so often, and he grows out of things so quickly.

Happy Hexagons Baby Blanket pattern is available from The Tree Bridge and Ravelry.

Northern Star Christmas Stocking

I wanted to make a stocking for H's first christmas, but I couldnt find an interesting pattern I liked, so I decided to make one up! I chose traditional green and red, and used a granny square motif. The stocking is made as two motifs, and then worked in the round, just like a sock. I had great fun decorating my fireplace for Christmas to take these photos when it's still only September!

   

The pattern is available at Ravelry and The Tree Bridge etsy store.