By Helen

crochet blossom…

I thought that I’d share with you my crochet blossom pattern.  It is perfect for May and was May’s crochet flower last year.  The pattern is one of my very favourite.  I use it, quite literally, all the time.  I use it to embellish hats (the green one), wreaths and phone socks.  One of my favourite uses was when I needed hair clips in an emergency…

To crochet the blossom, so that it looks like blossom, I used Debbie Bliss’ Angel, but any fluffy yarn would be prefect.  For easy of seeing the stitches in the pattern I have crocheted it using some DK which I had.  Hopefully you can see the difference…

Gather your yarn, you don’t need much, and a hook which suits the yarn you are going to use.

Working into a magic circle, **3ch…

1tr, into the magic circle…

3ch…

ss ** into the magic circle…

Repeat ** - ** four more times, so you have five petals…

Don’t worry if your magic circle gets bigger and bigger!  After your last ss, finish off and pull the ends of the magic circle…

Weave in the ends and decide what to embellish!  Or secure to branches, to make your blossom bloom…

NB - To turn your blossom into a hair clip, stitch a bead into the centre of your flower, attach a kirby-grip and wear with pride!

 

felt flower…

Really sorry that there hasn’t been a posting this week: I have had a very hectic week at work, parents moving home and on top of that a nasty cold.  Other than doing what I have had to do, I haven’t felt like much else: that has included crafting.  I know it’s not like me at all: normally when the going gets tough: I get crafting.  I know that this is a temporary blip and that in a few more days, of rest; I will be back to feeling like myself and back crafting.  I know this because my head is all-ready beginning to whirl with all the projects that I want/need to do; crochet, braiding, baking, fabric flowers and lots more beside.  One thing I have managed to craft this week is a variation on a fabric flowers.  Normally when I make fabric flowers I use ditsy print, oh how I love ditsy print.  But when your head feels a bit ditsy, you don’t really want to be looking at it!  I needed something a bit chunkier to work with.  I had some felt left over from other projects, so I thought that I’d give that a go.  I am quite pleased with the results, although they need to be made with a little more care (again that will come when I’m feeling better).  I think that they’ll make great brooches or hair clips...

What do you think?

cute crochet collar…

How that Spring is definitely here, I decide to bravely go outside without a coat:  relying on just my cardi to keep me warm.  I found a lovely bright red cardigan, in a really soft yarn, in a local charity shop for just £2.50.  It was love at first sight: it had to be bought.  The cardi looked great: but I thought that it could do with a little-something, just to make it something really special.  It needs a cute crochet collar.  A friend gave me a pattern written by the very talented Nicky Hale, for Arabella, the cutest little crochet collar I had ever seen.  The pattern is bri-lli-ant!  So well written and with a clear chart.  After a couple of hours crochet, I was ready to attach the collar to the cardi.  I was sooooo pleased with the result.  Are you ready for a ta-dah moment?  Here goes…

Not bad for £2.50, the end of a ball of King Cole Bamboo Cotton and a couple of hours!

crochet flower for April: Primula / Primrose…

Now that Spring is here: I decided it was time to cheer up the front of my home, with a hanging basket.  After spending a happy hour browsing York’s Newgate Market, I came home with some Primulas. Or are they Primroses?  I’m not sure, I think Primroses are pale yellow and Primulas are stronger coloured (if you know let me know).  Anyway, I came home with five, in fact, for the bargain prices of three pounds (perfect just in case Spring isn’t here and the late frosts attack them).  Don’t they look cheerful…

So colourful and zingy…

They got me thinking, Primulas (or Primroses) would be the perfect flower to crochet for April.  So, get your crochet hook ready, here’s how to crochet yourself a Primula (or Primrose) posy or table centre.  Like with many of my crochet flower patterns, I suggest you use any yarn that you have to hand and a crochet hook which works with the yarn.  I used two contrasting colours, so the cute little centre really shows up.

With yarn A make a magic loop (sometimes called a slip ring or magic ring)...

2ch, 9dc into the magic ring…

Slip stitch into the top ch, to join together…

Finish off, pull the ring tightly to close the ring and secure the ends, so that they don’t get in the way.  Change to your second colour.

Join B into any stitch, secure with 1ch…

*work htr, tr, dtr, htr, dtr, tr, htr, into next dc, ss into next dc* …

Repeat the above instructions until you have five petals, finish off and secure your ends…

Crochet a few more Primulas and pot…

Perfect for little table centres, and Primulas (or Primroses) that don’t have to worry about the frost getting!

Happy crocheting!

NB - All crochet terms are UK terms. 

second blogversary…

Wow!  I can't quite believe it, but it is almost two years since I started my little blog.  Two years!  I thought I was doing well to get to one year: but here I am two years on.   I have to say that I love, loVE, LOVE blogging to you all: and a MASSIVE thank you, to you, for calling by and reading what I have to say and looking at all the picis that I share with you (I know sometimes there is a lot), thank you!  I love this world of creating and sharing, that I am part of: and it is only possible because of people like you.  I thought that it would be a good time to look back over the last twelve months, and celebrate some of the highlights.  Here goes...

1. Discovering Mollie Makes I am now a complete and utter convert.  I love this magazine, if you haven't discovered it yet - you REALLY should!

2. Lots of brilliant things happened in May, especially seeing the blossom on the trees (I am witting that pattern up for you and will share it with you next month).  I think my very favourite thing was seeing my friend's little girl I in her crochet festival hat...

3. Crochet hair clips, you would not believe how much wear I have had out of these...

4. Lots of great things happened in July: if I had to choose just one thing then it would be my crochet Sunflowers ( if you want to have a go at crocheting them the pattern for the Sunflower is HERE)...

5.  Discovering the sudden revival of friendship bracelets which I hope will continue this summer: as I have something very exciting to share with you about friendship bracelets very, very soon!

6.  September saw the chaos of the start of remodeling our home, this meant spending lots of time out of the house, so that the builders could get-on-with-it, this meant spending lots of time in my favourite shop Ramshambles. Tis a hard life!

7. The building work chaos continued into October, but I did find a little bit of crochet time ready for Halloween...

8. November saw Christmas come early as I crocheted samples for a course I was running in York.  There will be more classes in , and near, York very soon.  Look out for them!

9. December meant Christmas; where I tried to wish you all the best in all the different languages of people who I know are reading my blog.  Sorry if I missed your language, let me know so I can include you ALL next time.

10. January was a brilliant start, to what is turning out to be a brilliant year!  I loved sharing my crochet Hellebore with you...

11. By February our back room was finally finished after finding the most perfect table. Now I have somewhere to blog from, somewhere for my sewing machine, somewhere to craft, oh, and somewhere to eat! 

12. March another brillaint month: despite of, or because of, the cold.  I loved the way my fabric flower sampler tured out...

13. This brings us full-circle, back to today.  My favourite thing in April?  Well that has to be my wreath made up of crochet Daffodils which reminds us that Spring is REALLY here...

So, there it is, another year on.  Once again a massive thank you to all of you for calling by, please do keep checking-in as I have lots of exciting thing happening this year and I can't wait to share them with you!

Love Helen

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teeny tiny crochet hooks…

I thought I carry on the teeny tiny theme, I started on my last posting: and share these with you all…

Aren’t they just the teeny tiniest crochet hooks you have ever seen?  My wonderful husband found them for me on a market stall.  They were hiding away, in a tatty box which he just had to open…

He wasn’t sure what they were, even when the box was open…

So he investigated further…

Teeny tiny crochet hooks: each with their own teeny tiny cover!   To give you a true idea of just how teeny tiny they are: look at them next to my faithful 4mm hook…

Not sure I will ever get round to crocheting with them.  Imagine the yarn you would have to use?  Not sure I would have the patience for that.  But I love the fact that Si bought them for me and I love the fact that I will love them as much as their previous owner(s) did.  I can see the start of a collection coming on…

teeny tiny fabric flowers…

I really loved the wreath that I made for Easter; so I thought that I make another, only I would combine two of my favourite crafts; crochet and fabric flowers.  Here’s what I made…

To make it I covered a small polystyrene ring with crochet…

Then set about making the teeny tiny fabric flowers: cutting out lots and lots of teeny tiny circles…

Stitching the teeny tiny circles together to make teeny tiny petals: this, to begin with, looked like teeny tiny bunting…

Making lots of teeny tiny flowers: with lots of teeny tiny buttons to cover, to make the teeny tiny flower centres…

Gluing the teeny tiny flowers on to the wreath…

Each teeny tiny flower is no bigger than a one-penny coin…

I love how the two crafts work together so well; crochet background and teeny tiny flowers.  Perfect!

learning something new: tunisian crochet…

A few weeks ago, I decided that it would be a very good thing to have ago at learning something new.  I promised Si, no more new crafts (I think he despairs at the thought of more unfinished projects) so technically learning tunisian crochet, isn’t something new: just an extension of what I already know.  Right? So I went to Ramshambles,York,  where the wonderfully talented Katey showed me how to get started. 

I started by learning how to crochet the plain or basic tunisian stitch….

Tunisian crochet is a cross between crochet and knitting, you crochet one row and then (kind-off) knit the next…

Very quickly your crochet grows…

The crochet does curl: but that is nothing a little bit of gentle blocking wont sort out.    Once we were happy with the basic stitch, we moved on to crocheting the treble stitch…

Again, you work one row crochet one row (sort off) knit…

Again, your work grows very quickly…

We then moved on to something a little more difficult: crochet mesh…

I found this a bit tricky as my tension went really tight: this is bad for tunisian crochet and very unusual for me!  Next we moved on to colour work…

How pretty!  I really took to tunisian crochet and can’t wait to crochet some more.  I just hope I can remember how…

Happy Easter…

Happy Easter!  I really hope that you are loving the long weekend: plenty of time for crochet and crafting.  Perfect.  I thought that I would share with you my finished Easter / Springtime wreath.  The wreath is both a follow-on from my last post and a recycle from last year's post.  Last year I made my wreath by stitching my crochet Daffodils on to a fabric (stiffened with buckram) circle: while this worked, it did begin to droop.  Something needed to be changed: inspired by Attic24 and a polystyrene ring bought in a craft shop I set about crafting something new.  Hope you like it…

I am chuffed to bits with how it has turned out.  Here’s how I made it.  I started by crocheting a long green panel, to become the background of the wreath.  Using half-treble crochet, I didn’t realise quite how long it needed to be…

I pinned the background crochet to the polystyrene ring, to stop it moving around while to stitched it together…

Once that was finished, to real fun started: pinning the flowers to the wreath…

It took a few attempts, adding extra flowers and moving them around; to get the look I was happy with…

After another move around and adding some crocheted leaves, I was happy…

I wonderful, happy, crochet mix of background, Daffodils, Primroses (I am wiring-up the crochet pattern and will share it with you very soon), and leaves…

what a difference a year makes…

Ok, the snow in York is no-way as bad as it is in other parts of the UK.  No big snow drifts, no power lines down, no real snow; just lots and lots of coldness.  Despite the lack of real snow, I had to share this with you…

And what was it like a year ago…

Do you see my point?  The poor shivering Daffodils…

So, if anyone those in the know are reading this, please; a little bit of greenness and a little bit of sunshine.   If it is not too much trouble?