Pure Wool Love

Unfortunately the bug is still in the house and now we're all poorly!

*cue sarcastic woop!*

Fingers crossed the bucketfuls of hot lemon and vapour rub will see us right

I don't know if it's just me, but I refuse to work on anything for my customers whilst I'm ill. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right, especially if it's a wonderful snuggly blanket for a little one!

So, work aside, I've decided to treat myself to a few crochet goodies myself!

Today's project, a lovely crocheted bowl made from a gorgeous pure wool from The Lost Gardens of Heligan 

Since I started my love of wool through felting, it's always been very important to me to make sure that the wool I use is actually wool and not a plastic hybrid.
I love wool! 

It's beautiful, practical, wonderful to work with and in all honesty pure magic!

Read a few points here to get an idea of its total awesomeness:

http://www.campaignforwool.org/about-wool/ 

I thought I'd treat my house to a pure wool bowl (it's found a home in my bathroom, keeping all of my hair bobbles in one tidy place at the moment).

It's a very simple crochet pattern, but I'll write it down in case you want to have a go:

(UK crochet pattern)

Using a crochet hook sized 4.50mm

and Heligan Garden Twine, 100% pure wool

~ Ch 4 and sl st

(working in continuous rounds)

~ htr 12 sts into the centre circle

~ 2htr into every st

~2htr in the 1st st and 1 htr in the next st - repeat to the end of the round

~ 2htr in the next st and 1 htr in the next 2 st - repeat to the end of the round

~ 2htr in the next st and 1 htr in the next 3 st - repeat to the end of the round

~ dc into the front loop of each st to the end of the round

(changing to a size 4mm hook)

~ dc in every st to the end of the round

~ repeat the previous step for another 8 rounds ( or to your desired height)

~ change the colour of your yarn for the finishing st (I chose a scrap piece of blue yarn from my stash. You don't need much)

~ sl st to the end of the round

~ fasten off

I love how the twine gives the bowl more rigidity than what a softer wool would.
I've made bowls from normal, household string before too, and that's worked out quite well.
Perhaps even replace the blue edging for red and make an adorable Xmasy bowl and fill it with treats for a present with a personal touch!


Fall in love with wool!

x

Wednesday Makes - Cross Stitch

My felting might have been put on hold

(mostly because I couldn't bear the thought of little Finn discovering a felting needle, they're as sharp as anything!)

But that won't stop me from making things!

I've had a great time making little toy boxes and crocheted hats and at the moment, I'm really enjoying exploring the world of cross stitch.

Cross stitch was one of the many crafts that my Gramma was amazing at! She used to have great big landscapes and old town scenes neatly framed up on her walls and there would always be her next project all set up and half completed in the conservatory.
They were the sort of pictures that were so detailed and perfect, that only when you got right up close to them could you see all of the little thread crosses.

She's my craft hero, I swear!

I remember my very first cross stitched piece that I got as a kit when I was quite young. 

I still have it, tucked away in a pocket in my sewing basket 

:)

I've been getting into cross stitch recently as it seems to be a direction I can take the Pheeples, but I can easily lock it all away in a box with no fear of it all being ransacked when Finn gets mobile!

I started with some large Pheeple pieces which are still in my 'to-do' pile at the mo!

But these are my babies!

I love it!

It's like drawing in textiles.

There's so many more directions I can take my little guys and having a drawing come to life without the difficulties of 'how on earth am I going to make that?!' It's a lovely feeling now that I don't as much time as I did to ponder my little creations!

I've got a lot of plans for my cross stitch pieces! 

I can't wait to get more of them done...

...I just need more time!

:)

x

A Toy Box DIY

 How to make fun little toy boxes out of used milk cartons:

Do you find that you've got far too many baby bits and bobs lying around the house without a home?
Here's a super simple way to keep things tidy but still an attractive decoration and easy to personalise!

Make sure you have thoroughly washed out your box and it's completely dry.

First cut the top off at your desired height. If you want a shallower box, simply cut further down from the top.

Then, using a basic acrylic paint of your choice, start painting your box! 

A couple of coats will be needed to cover the writing,

and if you want the box to be more hard wearing, a coat of gloss or PVA should give it a nice finish.

To cover those raggedy edges up and give the box a homely feel, I felt a cosy crochet cuff would work lovely, or even a fabric one would work too.

Crochet cuff:

• Cast on and chain stitch to the circumference of your box
• Then undo 3 or 4 stitches (This will make the cuff slightly tighter than the box opening so that it will hug the box close and not slip down
• Slip stitch into the 1st chain to create a circle.
• Then single crochet (or double crochet - depending on if you use US or UK patterns) 8 rounds
• And cast off your stitching

You can make your cuff longer or shorter depending on how much of your box you would like to cover.

Once the paint on your box is dry, wrap your cuff around the rim of your box and fold half of it into your new toy box to give the edges a lovely finished touch.

Ta da!

A simple, cute and fun way to turn milk boxes into toy boxes!

x

Organising... Kinda!

Sorry I don't seem to be writing so much at the moment folks.

I am still here!

- just multi-tasking poorly I'm afraid!

I've been re-organising things in our house.

I love my new -kind of functional- shelf!

~ To Lewis: "It looks really pretty and puts lots of colour into the room!"

~ Secretly to myself: "Now I won't have to tidy up my wool stash after a crochet/knitting binge! Mwahaha!"

I've been knitting away at some little bobble hats for Innocent Smoothie's Big Knit!

TheBigKnit

Some people have made some amazing designs! It's worth popping over to the website just to have a peek at the teddy bear bottle hat. And it all helps Age UK too, so definitely not a bad thing!

And I've heard that some people have literally knitted hundreds! Hundreds!! I feel quite guilty with my little mob of 6... hopefully they'll do some good though, I'll try do more next year. Let me know if you see one of them about, it'd be great to find out where they end up.

I've been doing some more baby organising too!

~ it feels like that's all I do now, organise this, organise that! But it feels good knowing it's all done ~

I attempted following a knitting pattern for a baby's "elf-style" hat. It's not great, and I'm half tempted to cover it in pom poms, but hopefully when there's a cute little head in there it'll look much better!
Plus with a winter baby, it'll need all the head warmth it can get.

:)

AND... are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Get some red baby wool, pop a white pom pom on the end... hey presto! Baby Santa hat!

Oh yes, there will be many an embarrassing photo for our poor little Sprog to try and hide when it's older!

We got this too:

I know it's a bit main stream, and I probably could've knocked something up myself, but I just adore this little pond-style play mat.

And the little Caterpillar plays music! Hehe, hell, if the little one isn't entertained by this, I certainly will be!

Taggies Bugs and Hugs Playmat

I think it'll be perfect when our little one starts seeing and interacting with things. The mat's really soft too, and will be a great little play area when the mosses basket and baby bouncer get boring!

And look at all those tags to attach things too!

I must be careful not to go too nuts!

But I'm thinking pom pom garlands, toys, bells, soft bunting... ok, so maybe not all at once...

I've got an idea for one of our little rugs too. It's all fluffy and a bright green, kind of like grass, so I'm thinking of sewing in some crochet daisies and other flowers and making a mini indoor garden mat.

Maybe I'll make a few worms and butterflies too!

~

So with all of these wonderful distractions, you might be able to tell that I haven't been able to felt as much as I normally would.

I still have a custom order on the go, and keeping a few ideas open for Xmas and Halloween.

But I'm also trying to plan some 'baby safe' designs to keep me going when the little one is here.

To be honest, I don't feel 100% comfortable with the idea of having my felting needles about when I have a new, teeny, tiny human to look after!

So I've been branching out with my wet felting and trying some designs to keep me going until I can organise my felting world!

 I'm loving these cake topper and garland ideas. Simple, wet felted balls and a bit of glue or thread, but they look quite effective.

And having a few bowls of warm soapy water around a little one sounds a lot safer than a foam block stuck full of sharp felting needles!

I need to work on some lovely colour schemes, but hopefully these designs will be hopping into my Emporium soon.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week,

and haven't been struck by the doom of Friday 13th!

I apologise if my next post isn't for a while, my to-do lists seem to be getting longer rather than shorter at the mo!

But still, a couple of months to go, and then the only to-do I'll have will be to feed, burp, change, hug 

and repeat!

x

Crochet Love

 

 

Sorry I haven't been very bloggy of late folks!

I seem to be having my time zapped away from me lately

How it's the middle of August already is beyond me!

 

I hope you're all having a lovely, summery month!

I've been seeing lots of family and friends, going on lots of little baby shopping sprees and I'll be off to visit Scotland at the end of the week!

I can't wait!

 

 

 

I've also been finding myself diving into the crochet world a little more this month.

I've dipped in and out in the past, seeing all of these lovely creations people have been making with a simple hook a yarn.

I was quite jealous.

I managed to teach myself the very basics using books and YouTube tutorials, but once I'd figured out how it worked, I admit, I became less interested and didn't pursue it further.

 

But recently, I've been venturing back into it.

With little bump getting bigger and bigger, I've been starting to think about things that I would like my little baby to have. Little keepsakes like I have.

And I have 2 very lovely crocheted blankets, made for me by my Gramma.

One of them was my baby blanket, and I want my little wriggler to have one too!

Especially seeing as it'll be a winter baby. I want it to be all warm and cosy, snuggled into a homemade blanket.

 

So - back to the hook I go!

 

I've just been focusing on making a granny square style blanket.

I'm aiming to get 2 done before baby pops

~ One, quite loose using a larger hook, in pastel purples and white.

~ And one, more tightly crocheted, stronger, and more a collection of little, different coloured squares.

 

I haven't got any photos to show you yet, but I will take some soon!

 

 

This is the same granny square idea that I'm going to work with.

I made this small blanket for a family member's new little baby boy.

I think he likes it!

 

 

I have to admit, I'm surprising myself with how much I'm falling in love with crochet!

 

I followed a pattern in my

Mollie Makes

magazine and made this adorable bow brooch

 

And I will be hopping back to their website for more crochet inspiration!

 

:)

 

 

I think I've got the bug.

I'm finding myself wondering what I can attack with my crocheting hook next!

 

 

 

One of my lovely followers on my Facebook page told me about an online crocheting club that I couldn't resist joining too.

 

 

 

slugsontherefrigerator

 

 

And Innocent Drinks are doing their Big Knit!

http://www.innocentdrinks.ie/static/ie/bigknit/crochet-pattern.pdf





Mwahaha, so many things to keep my new crocheting addiction busy!

And, with my sensible head on, it might be a better thing to be addicted to when baby comes along too.

- Less spiky needles involved!

*baby kicks in agreement*

 

 

On a sneaky side note, I couldn't resist a bit of knitting as well.

So many woollen adventures!

 

I decided to try to make a small, very amateur attempt at knitted bunting!

 

With pom poms of course!

 

Not too shabby?

 

Hopefully I'll get better in time to make more fun things for the little one when it gets here.

I just hope the poor little thing likes wool!!

 

 

I would advise anyone and everyone to have a go at crocheting something.

It's very therapeutic, and being able to create something useful/decorative with a simple hook is so rewarding!

Join the Crochet Club for beginners help, they're lovely folk!

 

 

Hope you're having a lovely day all!

 

x