Finally got a few new things into my Etsy shop

Gosh my Etsy shop was looking sad and dusty. The online equivalent of one of those sad shop windows with displays of kitchen roll and dead flies...! I've finally had a chance to list a few new things, so I hope you'll forgive a little promotional post.

Here are the new things:

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using gorgeous Michael Miller Zoology fabric.

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using funky Kaffe Fassett Fan Flowers fabric.

Some tawashi veg scrubbing / dishwashing cloths.

There's more to come, but that's enough advertising for today!

Actually that's not quite true because I also wanted to write about some brilliant yarn that I'm using for my granny square swap gifts. I am a huge fan of the yarns and the ethos of The Mirasol Project. I've used their Miski baby llama yarn before - it's gorgeously soft and fluffy and comes in a great range of colours. This time I've invested in some of their T'ika 100% cotton. Again, there are some great colours, and it is an absolute joy to crochet with. And great to feel that by buying the yarns I am supporting the textile heritage of Peru. You can read more about the Mirasol Project and their yarns on the project blog. It makes really interesting reading.

Hats, hats, hats...

I've been horribly absent lately, but for a good reason, I promise. I have had an order for lots (well, lots for me!)of sunhats via my Etsy shop. They are off to the Aardvark Tea Room and Craft Gallery in St Leonard's on Sea, here in the UK. It looks like a fabulous place (I wish I lived closer) and I am very excited that they wanted to order from me. It seemed like such a great opportunity that I agreed to come up with half the order before I go camping tomorrow. So I have been working very hard to get 5 hats made (including working out a smaller pattern for a different size hat) in the last week. And here they are! I feel pretty proud of them. They're all made with preloved fabric from a pattern I developed myself. It's a real lesson in not giving up hope - I developed the pattern and did all the work early last year and haven't had any interest until now. I apologise for the rubbish picture by the way... I was rushing to get these into the post this morning and couldn't come up with anywhere tidy or with good light. I had really hoped to get a pic of them all hanging on our washing line - I think it would have looked really cool - but sadly it was chucking it down here this morning!

The other exciting news is that I won Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters competition! It really means a lot that so many people liked what I made with my dad's tie. I've blogged my business card holder before, but I also made a needle book for my sister's birthday. She was so pleased with it that she had to call me from a rehearsal to tell me about it. There's still quite a bit of fabric left (they made ties big back in the olden days!) so I am going to try and come up with something else too. Thanks Vonnie for running such an ace competition - I look forward to the next one. And am now trying to avoid your Bake Swap, which sounds fab, but not good for my diet!

PennyDog's Garden Swap

PennyDog's Garden Swap has been such a great experience - I feel lucky that I got paired with Chrissy - it's been great to get to know her better (she goes dolphin watching! she lives in Aberdeen! she is considerably cooler than me!) and she has been so generous. Her parcel of goodies arrived here yesterday and as you can see I got some fabulous things - a lovely hand-printed tote bag (that I have decided to use for current crochet projects), a fabulous hand made ring and fridge magnets, a very stylish b&w rose picture, a japanese lantern, some chocolate (that didn't last long) and some incredible fabric. I also got a 10% off voucher for her brilliant shop. See, I told you I did well! There's been some other great swap parcels - you can take a look at the Garden Swap Flickr group. A huge THANK YOU to Chrissy for all the lovely thoughtful goodies you sent - can't wait to make something fabulous with that fabric!

While we're on the subject of the swap I thought I'd blog the bag I made to go in to Chrissy's parcel. It's a small bag (about 20cm x 20cm) made with navy cotton twill with a handsewn, wool felt, flower garden applique. I have to say that I am pretty much more proud of this than anything I have ever made, and it was VERY hard to send it off to Aberdeen. Doing the applique was a real challenge (I always like to set myself a bit of a challenge when I'm doing swaps!) but I think it worked well and I got the slightly retro feel I was going for. I'm also very pleased with the colour combination, because I'm never confident about how colours go together. The handles are recycled from an charity shop bag find, and I used that bag as a template for this one. That's my bag making top tip actually... You can find some ace bags in charity shops - I like to use them to make a pattern and reuse all the bits and bobs (handles, zips, buttons, beads, etc), that come with them. I am really hoping Mary Portas' ideas to revamp charity shops don't catch on - I'm worried I wont be able to find bargains any more...

A pattern for a tiny flower

Introduction

A couple of days ago I needed a tiny flower to embellish my business card wallet. I was very confident that I could make it up as I went along, and after a couple of false starts, it worked out pretty well. Here's the pattern. Using DK weight yarn and a 3.5mm hook this creates a 6 petal flower about 3 cm (1 1/2 inches) across.

Tip: Make your chains in the 1st round quite loose, otherwise the 2nd round is a bit of a trial on the nerves.

Pattern

Make a magic ring and make 5 dc (double crochet) in the ring.

Join last dc to 1st in the ring

Round 1: Chain 2, then slip stitch (ss) in 1st dc. Chain 2, ss in next dc and repeat around and join with a ss. You will end up with 6 chain spaces (ch sp).

Round 2: 1ss, 1 ch, 3 trebles, 1 ch, 1 ss in each chain space round. Join to 1st ss with ss.
As you can see from the picture, it's a pretty cute pattern, and I think, quite versatile. The yarns I've used here are all Rowan Wool Cotton, in my favourite shades of purple.

Talking of cute and versatile - Hannah over at Span's Stitchin' has had a fantastic idea - a Granny Square Swap. It's such a fun idea, and as I am swap-free now, I've jumped to sign up. If you are keen crocheter, why not pop round and sign up?

A Fancy Card Wallet

Duelling Crafters' Challenge

The last couple of days, when I haven't been busy in the garden, I've been working hard on my project for Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters' Challenge. I decided to use my dad's old tie to make a wallet to hold my business cards, and the cards I get from other crafters. It will be great to have somewhere to keep the safe and easily findable amongst all the rubbish in my bag! I got it finished four hours before the deadline and managed to upload the photos on to the Duelling Crafters' Flickr Group with a couple of hours to spare.

The wallet has a very simple design with 2 business card-sized pockets inside, made using turquoise cotton fabric, which is also used for the lining. There is a little bit of fusible fleece between the lining and outer fabric, just to give the whole thing a bit of structure.

I was quite pleased with the result and was going to submit the wallet at that stage, entirely unadorned. However, having slept on it, I decided that, much as I love the tweedy wool fabric, it needing prettying up a bit. So I added a tiny crochet flower, complete with some recycled, bright red beads. The final touch is a little bit of red stitching - just because I think red and turquoise go so well together. I still have some of the tie fabric left so I've just cut out another piece so I can make a needle book for my sister's birthday next week. It's going to be really nice to use something every day that brings back such great memories of my dad.

Bright and Breezy Crochet Tawashi

Whilst browsing a (very useful) list of lovely Japanese craft books the other day, I noticed one for crochet 'tawashi'. I was intrigued and on further investigation realised that I had been using a traditional style Kamenoko Tawashi to scrub my veggies for a while now, although I no idea what it was called! It's extremely effective and has an excellent name which translates as 'tawashi (bundle) like a larva of a turtle'. So, a plan began to form. I like my tawashi, I love to crochet, I have lots of brightly coloured acrylic yarn (the ideal stuff because it's usefully scratchy)... it had to be time to make some eco-tawashi! Although there are, as far as I can tell, lots & lots of patterns available - just Google crochet tawashi or magic scrubber and you will find loads of links and books - I decided to have a go at my own. The pattern I've used on one side (pictured) consists of rows of double crochet interspersed with lovely lumpy bobbles which are very effective in getting the dirt off your pans. Also great fun to see hanging around your kitchen sink too. The other side is just double crochet stripes in the same eye-wateringly bright colours. I crocheted up the 2 sides separately then crocheted them together, creating a loop to hang it with at the same time. It was hugely fun to do and I've already started another one in slightly more subtle colours. I'm hoping to write up the pattern and blog it here very soon. The other thing that I'm working on at the moment (and in fact is finished apart from it's final press!) is my Garden Swap project. It has taken quite a lot of time, but as far as I am concerned the finished product is absolutely worth it. I hope Chrissy (of the brilliant Spoilt Pig) likes it...

A Cuddly Little Owl - Pattern

Introduction

This very cute little owl measures just 8cm x 8cm (c 3.5"x 3.5") and is very cuddly indeed. I've used a chunky/bulky yarn and a 5mm crochet hook for the pattern, which means that it's exceptionally quick to crochet up. My choice of yarn is Rowan Yarn Classic (RYC) Soft Tweed - this gives the owl a lovely cuddly cosy look & feel. This shade is called Bark - but there are lots of other lovely ones.

Although I am UK-based I have written the pattern using USA crochet terminology. The piece is crocheted with just one stitch throughout - for a UK person this is a double crochet (dc) & the USA it's single crochet (sc).

When decreasing (2 sc tog) I would really recommend using an invisible decrease - it looks so much better. I've just discovered it myself and think it makes such a huge difference. This is a really helpful tutorial.

If you like this little guy, but don't crochet, or for whatever reason would rather someone else made him for you please visit my Etsy store to order or commission your very own cuddly owl.

Body
Round 1: Start with a magic circle, and crochet 6 sc in the ring. Alternatively chain 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain from the hook. Insert marker.

R2: 2 sc in each sc round, move marker (mm), 12 stitches
R3: *2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next sc, repeat from * around, mm, 18 stitches
R4: *2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next 2sc, repeat from * around, mm, 24 stitches
R5: *2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next 3sc, repeat from * around, mm, 30 stitches
R6: *2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next 4sc, repeat from * around, mm, 36 stitches

R7-8: 1 sc in each sc around, mm, 36 stitches

R9: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 10sc, repeat from * around, mm, 33 stitches
R10: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 9sc, repeat from * around, mm, 30 stitches
R11: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 8sc, repeat from * around, mm, 27 stitches
R12: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 7sc, repeat from * around, mm, 24 stitches
R13: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 6sc, repeat from * around, mm, 21 stitches
R14: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next 5sc, repeat from * around, mm, 18 stitches

R15: *2 sc tog, 1 sc in next sc, repeat from * around, mm, 12 stitches

If you want to use safety eyes, insert them now.
Stuff the owl - how much stuffing you use is up to you - I prefer something a bit squidgy for this particular owl.

R16: 2 sc tog until hole is closed.
Fasten off (FO)

Feet

The feet are crocheted together as a whole - so only make one of these!

Chain 9 and turn.
Skip the 1st chain and SS (slip stitch) in the 2nd chain, chain 5, SS in same chain as 1st SS, chain 8, SS in same chain as 1st SS, chain 5. You've created your 1st foot!

SS in next 6 chain.

SS in final chain stitch, chain 5, SS in final chain, chain 8, SS in final chain, chain 5, SS in final chain.
FO.

Wings

Chain 6 & turn
Skip 1st chain, 5 sc, turn
Skip 1st sc, 4 sc, turn
Skip 1st sc, 3 sc, turn
Skip 1st sc, 2 sc, turn
Skip 1st sc, 1 sc
FO

Assembly

Sew the feet to the bottom of the owl (the wide bit!) and the wings on the side. This tutorial at Planet June has some excellent tips on how to sew all the bits together.

Making the face is up to you! You can use felt like I have, and sew it all on after you've put everything together. Or you can use buttons, embroidery, safety eyes. Whatever works for you - a good face can make all the difference to your finished owl.

I hope you enjoy making your owl. All feedback is appreciated. Please consider that I've spent a lot of time developing and writing up this pattern and use it for personal projects only.