Blog Archives

Image

Meet Roary

Say hi to Roary, who ventured out on his own this morning, off to join his new family.

I started Roary 1.0 on Friday, but horror of all horrors, ran out of yarn with three legs and a tail to go! Most of my amigurumi projects are made using Drops Paris (or Cotton Light), and I couldn’t find another ball of yarn anywhere without ordering online. Poor Roary 1.0 was abandoned and I had to make Roary (2.0) from a different yarn that I picked up in Amsterdam last minute.

Here’s Roary 1.0, banished to the WIP box until my next Drops order…

The pattern for this wonderful little fellow can be found in Zoomigurumi, which for a really limited time can be ordered together with Zoomigurumi 2 via amigurumipatterns.net (my new favourite pattern site).

Roary is designed by, you guessed it, A Morning Cup of Jo Creations.

14 Comments

Posted on May 27, 2013 in Projects

Tagged amigurumi, crochet, haken, zoomigurumi

Image

Proof that crochet is not just for old ladies

A friend of mine made a special request recently:

That’s right. Those are nipple pasties made to look like nipples! This friend is right onto burlesque and obviously has a fabulous sense of humour.

They took me ages to make though. I would make one and get distracted so wouldn’t be able to make the second. Then when I’d sit down and make it, my tension was different, or I would get the stitches wrong and they’d look completely different. So tonight I decided, right. Time to do this.

They look cool, don’t they?

5 Comments

Posted on May 1, 2013 in Projects

Tagged burlesque, crochet, nipple, pasties

Image

Amigurumi, keeping me busy!

Pattern can be found at Dol-Op-Wol, in Dutch

To say I’ve been busy would be the understatement of the century! I’ve been so busy working on projects for friends and customers that I haven’t had the time to scratch myself, let alone take photos and post here.

Here are some samples of what I have been up to, and these are only the projects that I remember to photograph before whipping them in the post and sending them off to their new homes.

Penguin and Spring Squishy

Rainbow Owl mobile phone charm

Rainbow Owl mobile phone charm in blue

Sheep Squishy

The owls, sheep and penguin are all patterns that I downloaded from Craftsy, and have been designed by A Morning Cup of Jo Creations, whom as you well know by now I LOVE!

In between all this crochet, my family and I took a week’s holiday to Ireland to celebrate a friend’s wedding and then see the amazing country.

Here are some photos of what we got up to:

My husband and daughter at Blarney Castle.

Yep, we kissed the Blarney Stone. You know, for some reason I always imagined that the Blarney Stone was just a rock on a hill in a paddock. I never realised that it is actually a brick in a castle! You have to lie on your back, hang over the edge, hold onto an iron bar and reach as far as you can to kiss the stone. We visited late in the afternoon and that stone was looking pretty slobbery. Plus it’s like a production line of people. Queue, lie down, kiss the stone, get your photo, get up and get out. Mass tourism at its best (worst?).

Actually, once you get away from the castle proper, the grounds at Blarney are stunning. There is a fern garden which is just how I imagined paradise to be, and the stately home is also lovely. Well worth the visit, and not just to kiss the stone.

We also visited the Cliffs of Moher. Wow.

Cliffs of Moher

You can see that in this view, the sky is grey and rainy. Then, from the same spot, in the other direction it was blue and gorgeous:

Cliffs of Moher

Here’s why:

Here comes the weather

The wind was blowing at 100km/h plus easily the day we visited the Cliffs of Moher. I even saw a person lose their balance and then get blown over and down some stairs. Spray from the ocean was even being blown up over the 200m high cliffs in places. But it was spectacular.

So, busy times. I also have to remember to squeeze my actual job in there somewhere. Fingers crossed I’ll be back to regular posting from now on.

8 Comments

Posted on April 29, 2013 in Holiday, Projects

Tagged amigurumi, bird, blarney, blarney stone, cliffs of moher, crochet, eire, haken, Ireland, kawaii

Image

Bring on the Summer!

I made this lovely sun hat for the mother of a friend of mine and when I gave it to my friend, she loved it so much she has decided to keep it for herself and now I’m commissioned to make a second for her mum.

I found the inspiration on Pinterest (of course!) and it comes from the Japanese site for Pierrot Yarns. The chart pattern left me scratching my head for a while, but I figured it out (mostly) in the end.

I only followed the pattern very loosely. I used a bulkier yarn than the pattern called for and then when I was almost finished I realised it was too floppy and I hated it. There was no way I could allow my friend to take it. By this stage it had become a bit of a monster project. Who knew so many single crochet stitches would take so long!

I kept pushing the project to the bottom of the pile to be looked at much, much later. When I couldn’t put it off any longer I decided to re-evaluate. My solution was to rip the entire brim out and start it again.

I’m so glad I did! The second time around I just seemed to get how to do it. and make the brim lovely and firm. I worked some leather chord into the last three or four rows to add just a little bit more strength, but I’m not sure if that really helped or not, but I like to think it will.

To finish off I added three flowers, which complement the hat perfectly. I found the pattern for those on The Party Artisan and added beaded embellishments to the centre of each one. It was pure luck that I had the same colour beads lying around. It must be because I’m so in love with pink…

Here’s the hat with the edges rolled up.

Now I want one for myself, it’s one of the projects I’m the most happy with so far and one that will only improve the more I do it.

Materials used

Hat: Drops Paris 26, 5mm hook for the hat and 4mm for the brim
Flowers: Drops Paris, 33, 59, 60, 5 mm hook
Leather chord from a craft store worked into the final three rounds for some added stiffness

Today I’m linking this post over at Hookin’ on Hump Day on Moogly and My Merry Messy Life, hosted by Tamara and Sara, go check out all the fabulous projects linked this week.

9 Comments

Posted on April 9, 2013 in Hookin On Hump Day, Projects

Tagged accessories, craft, crochet, crochet pattern, flowers, free pattern, hand made, hat, hookin on hump day, ladies hat, moogly, my merry messy life, summer, sun hat

Image

An itty bitty basket

On Easter Saturday I had much of the day to myself. Well, as much to myself as I can with a 13 month old child… We were invited to my in-laws for Easter dinner on Sunday (which was delicious, as always. Thanks Geerke!) and I decided that instead of the usual bottle of wine I would whip up a couple of Easter baskets and fill them with chocolate eggs and handmade salted caramels, courtesy of my gorgeous friend Lori of Southern Charm Cupcakes.

These caramels are to die for. The family was lucky that any made it to the baskets; I was sneaking the odd one here and there, absolutely irresistible!

I used recycled t-shirt yarn for this project and the basket is about 10 cm high – perfect for itty bitty girls itty bitty fingers.

What do you think of the basket? Should I turn it into a pattern?

1 Comment

Posted on April 3, 2013 in Projects

Tagged celebration, chocolate eggs, crochet, Easter, Easter basket, handmade, salted caramels, southern charm cupcakes, t-shirt yarn, zpagetti

Image

Summer beanie

When my daughter Raina grew out of the first hat I made her it was the middle of summer. Because I was (am?) obsessed with crochet, I had to make her a replacement straight away. But because it was so warm – well, warm by Dutch summer standards – I had to come up with a cool alternative.

So, using cotton yarn, I whipped this together using a pattern I made up as I went along (must start writing these down) and a butterfly I found on Pinterest. Raina is about six months old in this photo, and it fits her perfectly.

So far it has also been one of the most requested items I make, so I’m busy making more! Want one for the warmer weather? Just send me a message or comment below.

May the force be with you

This was a special request from a woman in my mothers’ group. Her husband is mad about Star Wars, so as a fun surprise, she asked me to make this hat as a tribute to everyone’s favourite green man, Yoda.

The design is a half double crochet hat with single crochet ear flaps and braids. The Yoda ears are two flaps I made by experimenting with shapes.

It all came together very well, I’m extremely happy with the result. I have the pattern ready to be turned into something legible, so watch this space!

Want one? Just send me a message or leave a comment for more info.

3 Comments

Posted on March 22, 2013 in Projects

Tagged Art, crochet, DIY, Geek, handcrafted, handmade, Nerd, Sci-fi, Star Wars, Yoda

Image

Squishies Rule

One of my absolute favourite crochet designers is Jo from A Morning Cup of Jo Creations and recently she released this pattern for free!

Along with the adorable squishy bunny, you can get your hands on a duck, a chick and a sheep (I’m dying to get started on the sheep).

The absolute best thing about these patterns is that the possibilities are endless! I don’t have to restrict myself to making squishies from her patterns, now I want to create my own! When I can find a spare moment, I’m going to whip my daughter up a little piggy squishy, because we love snorting together (too much Peppa Pig, perhaps?).

I thoroughly recommend you check out Jo’s Facebook page and look her up on Craftsy (click the picture, it will take you straight there).

But while I have you, who’s your favourite pattern designer? It’s ok to say yourself, by the way. A bit of horn tooting never hurt anyone!

1 Comment

Posted on March 21, 2013 in Projects

Tagged amigurumi, bunny, crochet, free pattern, handcrafted, handmade, squishy

Image

Beautifully Stashed

Beautiful basket, made from Zpagetti t-shirt yarn. Whips up within an hour or so and looks fantastic, don’t you think?

I’m quite new to using chunky yarn, but am fast becoming a fan. I’m in the middle of making a cover for a particularly ugly footstool, but have run out of yarn! As if I need an excuse to buy more….

I found the pattern at Crochet in Colour (click the image for the pattern), where I find a lot of my favourite projects.

I’ve added this project to Hookin On Hump Day over at Moogly, which is one of the greatest crochet blogs around!