Make do and mend...

The plan was that I'd look after the boys during the day, and then after they had gone to bed, I'd write some new crochet patterns. It hasn't turned out that way at all, P started out as quite a good sleeper but the last few months he's been waking up maybe 3 or 4 times a night. So once he's in bed, I'm exhausted and the last thing I feel like doing is switching on my laptop and typing up patterns, my brain switches off after 7pm! So I've been doing some easy crochet or hand-sewing in the evenings, (because my sewing machine is too noisy and would wake them up).  

I found all their old bath towels from when they were tiny babies and I didn't want to throw them away, so I edged them with polka-dot bias binding, and turned them into hand towels. It's an easy project because the towels are already edged, you don't need to cut anything. I added a band of ditsy polycotton along one edge.

Then I got addicted to bias-binding everything, and made some easy quilts. These are cotton cot sheets from Ikea, one has funny vegetable characters on (they remind me of those Garden Gang childrens books from the 80's), and the other is cats and dogs.

I quilted around the characters by hand, then I backed them with some soft blue jersey, and edged them with bias.  

Lovely and snuggly for nap time!

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!

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.

Blackberry & Apple Jam

It's definitely feeling more Autumnal here in Wiltshire, and there are plenty of berries in the hedgerows. I took H out blackberry picking, its such a nice feeling picking the abundant fruit, knowing its going to make enough jam to see us through the winter. People always stop to talk, and lots of kids stop to ask what I am doing.

Blackberry & Apple Jam

You will need:

Equal quantities of fruit to sugar.

For example, 3lb of blackberries, 1lb of apples to 4lb of sugar.

If you use crab or cooking apples, you wont need to use jam sugar, regular granulated sugar will be fine.

About 8 jam jars with lids

Cling film or waxed disks

Directions:

Wash and sterilise the jars, either by putting them upside down in a warm oven for 20 minutes (about gas mark 4, 180 degrees) or use sterilising solution.

Wash and pick over the fruit. Peel and core the apples and put them all in a large saucepan, and heat until soft, about 30 minutes. At this point you can strain the fruit pulp to get rid of pips, but I don't usually bother.

Add the sugar and stir on a gentle heat until you reach the setting pojnt, this should take about 20 minutes. To check for setting, put a teaspoonful of the jam on a cold saucer, leave to cool for a few seconds, it should be jam-like and not runny. 

Pour the jam into the jars,m sela with waxed disks or clingfilm and put the lids on. 

Enjoy on toast, or my favourite is a big spoonful on my porridge.

My brother & his girlfriend are expecting a baby next month, they don't know what they are having but I know they like bright hippyish colours, so I made them a hexagonal blanket in yellows and using all sorts of scrap colours I had in my stash. I will be publishing the pattern in the next few weeks.