Seafoam Cotton Crochet Shawl

Seafoam Cotton Crochet Shawl, a photo by tree_bridge on Flickr.

A simple crochet shawl in cool cotton 4ply, using my 'Blackberry Jam' shawl pattern. The pattern uses 4ply sock yarn, but here I've used some cotton yarn in a seafoam green colour. You can use any weight of yarn really, and just keep adding rows until you get to the size you want.
Pattern available at etsy.

Toddler Apron Pattern

Toddler Apron, a photo by tree_bridge on Flickr.

I wrote a new pattern for a little apron for H. He's always busy helping (or trying to help!) with baking, gardening, and even dusting. One of his favourite things to do is to 'paint' the cake tins with oil using a pastry brush before I put the cake mixture in. Also he really, really likes raking soil. It's a busy time, being a two-year-old, so he needs a little apron to protect his clothes.

I chose double knit cotton because it's washable and durable. Also it's a nice project for summer because cotton is cool and comfortable to work with. There's a handy little pocket and choice of apple or cherries applique, but you could add your own motif. The pattern is in two sizes, 2-4 and 4-6 years but I find small children vary so much in size its best to use the measurements included rather than ages. 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. 

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!

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!

Yes, my name is Iggle Piggle...

I crocheted these 'In the Night Garden' toys for H & P for Christmas. I'm not very good at embroidering faces on toys, luckily Iggle Piggle and Makka Pakka are meant to have slightly daft expressions! Makka Pakka is my favourite, he is a quirky stone-age type character who lives in a cave and collects rocks. 

The Pattern was from Ravelry, by Magdalena Svartlok, easy to follow and fun to make.