Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Happy New Year! (A bit late...)



I have decided that 2012 is going to be the year of COLOUR! I always used to like dark, earthy colours, greens and browns and the colour of trees and woodlands. Most things I crocheted for myself were sludgy organic earthy 'Rowan' type colours. I would never, ever choose pink. Even though my vintage shopper bike is pink. When I worked in a fabric shop, new yarn would arrive and we would all choose which where 'our' colours, and mine were always the natural undyed organic yarns, or deep jewelled shades. But gradually bright colour has been creeping in more and more, especially now I've been crocheting a lot for babies. Lots of bright colour in my etsy shop! 



I'm blaming blog-land for this tranformation, in particular, Nina and Lucy! I think it's safe to say that i have been Lucy-fied. Her blog is so warm and comforting and colourful, I love the photos of her sofa covered with about a bazillion brightly coloured crocheted blankets. I still shirk away from pink though! Insired by Lucy, I am making her crocheted hexagon blanket for my armchair. 



Look, it even has pink in it. It isn't finished and it still needs to be edged. I spend a lot of time in my old-lady armchair, I'm 7 months pregnant and find my sofa impossible to get up out of. We bought it from a junk shop when I was pregnant with H (I had SPD then, too). So, inspired by this post by Cecily Mae (she makes gorgeous colourful cushions by the way), I have transformed my dull and practical armchair!

Before & After:

        


Yellow shawl I crocheted for my wedding (but never wore!). Mini cushion is from Needful Things at folksy. Definitely helping to make dark, dank, dismal January a bit cheerier!

Thursday, 8 December 2011

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!


Santa & His Helpers



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.

Coconut Heaven Cupcakes

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

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes

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

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. 

caught with a camera

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.
  posh first place rabbit

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!

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Free Crochet Pattern - Santa Hat

I found a Santa outfit in a charity shop, but it didn't come with a hat, so of course I had to make one. Here's the pattern.... Really its just an excuse to post pictures of H in his hilarious outfit. 



How to make a really simple Santa hat for a baby or child.

You will need:
100g Double Knitting Yarn in Red
20g Double Knitting Yarn in White
A white pom pom or a jingley bell
5mm Crochet Hook

This pattern uses British Crochet Terminology, so tr = dc in US terminology.


Starting at the point of the hat, and with red yarn Ch3, and work 5tr in 3rd st from hook. 
Do not join. You are working around in a circle and not joining, so when you get the the end of the first row, you just work the next stitch into the top of the first stitch you made.

Work this sequence of stitches: *work 1tr in each of the next 6 sts, inc in next st*. Continue until there are 12 rows in total.


Work this sequence of stitches: *work 1tr in each of the next 12 sts, inc in next st*. Continue until your hat has a slightly larger circumference than your littley's head.


Work 1 tr in each st around for 3 rows. Dc in next st. Change to white yarn. 
Dc in each st around for 8 rows. Fasten off.

Sew on pom pom or jingley bell. You also could make this hat in green for an elf's hat.