Another little gift...

I had some Patons Smoothie DK left from some jumpers I made for Baby Button a while back.  I really like this yarn because although it's 100% acrylic (shocker) it's actually very smooth, soft and quite chunky for a DK.  It's actually hard to tell it's 100% acrylic.  It has none of the horrid hairiness you get with the really cheap acrylics, and it's still quite reasonably priced.  Plus, washable!

I made a little hat and mitts set for a little friend in the village who is 1 year old.  I hope they fit and he likes them.  The blue is not as bright in real life as it seems in this photo.

The patterns are free (and not by me either, bonus).  The hat is the "Simply Spring Beanie" by Megan Grewal, and the mitts are "Fun Freebie Baby Mittens" by Amber Perry.  Clicky linky, my friends.

Little loopy lamb hat

I found out with a week to go that the children had to dress up for the village nativity play (well, duh).  So I spent a week making loop stitch so that Baby Button could be a little lamb.  Sadly that was as far as the costume went, but he was toddling off around the church so much I'm not sure how much time he spent in the stable with the Holy Family anyway.  The other lamb made it into the pulpit...

I should get this pattern tested soon so that I can sell it and you can all make your lamb hats for Easter.

You know you want to...

Little dress for a little friend

Baby Button has a little friend who is a very cute little lady.  We got to give her a gift in a "Secret Santa".  Even though it won't end up being that secret, I couldn't resist the chance to make her a little dress myself.  Plus, all I had to buy were the buttons.  THE AMAZING SPARKLY BUTTONS!  Behold:

Whoa there, buttons!

I used up some of the purple linen I had lying around from making one of my first dresses ever (so that makes it about 12 years old, eerrrp).  Then I made some hot pink piping from a ribbon I found, and used some bright pink lining fabric left over from a prom dress I made.

The pattern the Vivienne Toddler Jumper and it's free, see here at BurdaStyle.

I hope she'll enjoy wearing it!

Crochet christmas baubles

I heard that switching colours in crochet work in order to make a picture is called "tapestry crochet".  I've only ever tried this with knitting (where it's known as "intarsia").  I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas Bauble with tapestry crochet.

Because it's in-the-round, the stitches are offset from the ones below and I had to make up some special crochet graph paper to draw the design.  I've gone for reindeer, and I'm telling you that because I'm less-than-pleased with the result and I think you'll need telling what I was aiming for (whoops).

Firstly, I tried to align my increases and decreases to give me more space for the design.  While this works with knitting (because knitting is stretchy), it doesn't work for crochet (because it's firmer) and the result is a slightly wonky and lumpy ball.

Secondly, my choice of pale blue and white was poor because there is not enough contrast to see single stitches in the design, which is why the reindeer looks like it has only three legs.

Gah.  It's now too close to Christmas to fix this pattern ready for release, so I've got another 340 days to perfect this one...

hello space bunny

I finished space bunny!

He was my excuse to use the glittery grey wool I bought at the £1 shop.  In addition, because I wanted a different challenge, he has a transparent PVC visor that I crocheted into.  Good times!

 Bunny is with the good kind pattern testers of Ravelry before his pattern is for sale.

Better chameleon pictures

Astute readers will note that the previous three tutorials have clearly been made while crocheting this chameleon!

I owe the internet (outside of Ravelry) some pictures of the chameleon taken in the cold light of day.  I will owe my testers on Ravelry a huge debt of gratitude when they're done, since it's not that easy to make the tail!

*Pattern coming soon!*  Woo hoo!

Behold the glittery beast:

Tiny Santa Hat

Hello m'dears!

It's advent Sunday, so I've made my first batch of 14 mince-pies, listened to some carols and made a teeny-tiny Santa hat to adorn my secret Santa gift for the WI Christmas dinner tomorrow.  Shhhh - don't tell or they'll know it was me!  (If you are reading from my WI then I'm impressed, and don't give me away on Monday...)

Here's how to make your own, should you wish to make gift-tags or tree decorations from them.  Please contact me if you find an error and I'll be pleased to correct it!  I hope you enjoy it and will consider following my blog.  Please don't sell this pattern or items based on it - it's for your personal enjoyment only.  If you want to sell items made from this pattern then contact me and we can work something out!  :-)

You will need:

DK wool scraps in red and white
3mm crochet hook
tapestry needle for weaving in ends
safety pin (for use as stitch numarker)
scissors

Key to abbreviations:

ch = chain
sc = UK single crochet
dc = UK double crochet
tr = UK treble crochet
dec = decrease by dc two stitches together
[tot] = stitch total at end of round
This pattern is written in UK terms throughout.  To convert to US terms, note that UK tr = US dc, UK dc = US sc, and UK sc = US sl st.

Pattern

1)  In white, make a slip stitch onto your hook.  ch 18.
2)  Join into loop by making a dc into your starting ch.  dc around.  [18]
3)  dc around.  [18]
4)  Switch to red.  dc around in back loops.  [18]
5)  dec, 7 dc, dec, 7 dc.  [16]
6)  3 dc, dec, 6 dc, dec, 3 dc.  [14]
7)  1 dc, dec, 5 dc, dec, 4 dc.  [12]
8)  4 dc, dec, 4 dc, dec.  [10]
9)  1 dc, dec, 3 dc, dec, 2 dc.  [8]
10)  dec, dec.
11)  Switch to white.  dc, then make a popcorn stitch as follows:  into the next stitch, tr 5 times (all into the same stitch).  Remove the hook from the loop currently on it (to leave it hanging "free"), insert your hook under the bar made by the first tr, then pull the "free" loop through.  Finally, make a sc into one of the other stitches at the top of the hat to close it.  Bind off and sew in ends.