Crochet Easter Bunny Pins!

Hello!  I have been very busy with bunnies this week.  I discovered a pattern on the internet ages ago for this, and I have been saving it for this Easter!

Every Easter I give my family little baskets - or pouches this year - of chocolate goodies, and I usually include a little gift inside too.  Last year I found some cute little wooden rabbit decorations, the year before that I found some really pretty glass egg decorations.  This year I'm making the gift - and I decided on Easter Bunny pins.

This was quite useful for me actually, because I do have quit a bit of wool at home here, which I keep looking at and thinking "Now what can I make with this?".  I have a habit of buying wool and deciding what to make later.....but I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this..! :)

Anyhoo, here's a link to the pattern: Easter Bunny Pin or Fridgie.  This is a great pattern which allows you to do what you like with the face - for example, I got some of those craft eyes from an art and toy store, and I used black wool to sew a little nose and smiley mouth on my bunnies.  I thought mine didn't really need a bowtie and I decided not to put on a tail.  I made all of mine with bent ears because they look so cute!

Regarding the back of the pin, I had bought lots of these craft pins in bulk a little while ago and it's a great idea to leave a longer tail of wool at the beginning than the pattern suggests because you can use that to sew it on.

Happy crafting!

Siobhan x

Easter Crochet

My latest crochet project is for Easter - I usually go out and buy little baskets to put my chocolate eggs in to give out to my family, but I thought I would attempt to cut costs this year by making little pouches instead!  I have lots of wool here which I haven't used for anything.  Why?  Well, it's the downside of buying wool online.  Although it may be cheaper to buy online, sometimes the colour isn't exactly what you thought it was according to the photo on screen.....!!  Anyway, I had a blue and a purple which I thought would go with a nice bright yellow ribbon to look nice and Eastery, so that's what I did:

Cute, right? :) The best thing about these is that you can make them as small or as large as you like! What I did with these was try a different pattern or two in the middle before reaching the last part to finish off.  This gives each pouch a different pattern so no two will look the same.

I got the pattern from here: http://roundshape.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/round-crochet-medieval-purse/ where it is called a "Medieval Purse".  I guess the size also depends on the wool you're using too - I like fairly chunky wool so this one measures about 11cm high and about 10cm in diameter.  Of course, the wool stretches with whatever you put inside which can be a good thing if you have - like me - a number of little chocolate eggs to put inside them :)  I haven't got the chocolate yet so I hope I haven't made these pouches too big!

And no, I don't mean I've eaten the chocolate - I really haven't bought it yet!

Happy crafting!

Siobhan x

Knitting and Crocheting Books!

Hello everyone!  Finally I managed to remember to blog again today LOL!

Okay, today I'm going to tell you about what knitting and crocheting books I have which I would recommend for other people to use if they are a knitting beginner.  Let's start with knitting.

I have "The Knitter's Bible" by Claire Crompton which I think is excellent.  There are really easy to understand instructions on how to knit different ways (right handed, left handed), what's knit, what's purl, increasing, decreasing - all the basics.  It also includes lace and cable knitting, and contains a buner of projects which you can do including scarves, bags, cushions, sweaters, and how to sew everything together. It really is a very comprehensive book on how to knit and it is IDEAL for beginners (like I was and ...sort of still am LOL!).  There is a "Stitch Library" at the back as well, which is really useful if you want to try something new or if you're after something really simple and just want to practice it over and over.  Really, this is an excellent book and I don't think I could recomment it enough - I taught myself how to knit with this book.


Moving on to crochet, I taught myself with Debbie Stoller's "Happy Hooker" which is in the "Stitch 'N Bitch" series - there is also a knitting one.  This has everything you need to know and the language is very informal and friendly.  The essential thing with crochet is to remember the differences between the names of the stitches with regards to whether you have an English or an American written book.  The patterns themselves are the same, but the names of the stitches differ.  This is explained in this book, but if you buy any other book with crochet patterns in, just have a look to see if it's English or American before you start, or you might end up with a slightly different looking item!  The patterns themselves I find quite easy to understand, so if you can make sense of them you shoudl bejust fine.  But this book is excellent at explaining everything and I recomment it for beginners, definitely.

Now, remember those flowers I've been crocheting?  The patterns of those come from a book called "100 Flowers to knit & crochet" by Lesley Stanfield.  Now, don't look at the cover and think "No way can I make any of these!" because you CAN make these.  There are a range of projects to knit AND to crochet, although I must admit I have only used the crocheting part of this one since I have had this book.  I will try knitting at some point though!  The book is really well laid out with patterns and instructions so you never have to rely on one or the other and there is a good variation of flowers, leaves, fruit, vegetables and the odd butterfly, bee and ladybird here and there.  It's full of really cute things to make, and both the knit and crochet sections are split up into 3 segments of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, so you can practice at whatever level suits you.  It's a great book to use and I recommend it if you fancy making some flower brooches, especially if you have some bits of wool you're not sure what to do with!

The thing I like about crafting with wool like this, is that if you make a mistake, you can take it back and start over.  If you make something as a practice piece, you can unravel it and make a hat out of it!  If you makea scarf or a bag as a project from one of these books and you find you're not using it, go ahead and undo everything so you can use it for something you WILL use.  There are plenty of books out there with patterns in like these, but these are just the ones I have and I highly recommend.

One thing I will say though - if you're planning on making something as a gift for someone, it's very important to find out if they are allergic to wool.  There are a surprising number of people with wool allergies out there, and if you really want to make something for them, it's so easy to choose a wool which is 100% acrylic, which is what I have done a number of times.  It's nothing to stay away from either - there are plenty of acrylic wools out there, the price is often pretty good (wool has been going up in price recently, at least in the UK), and it can be just as soft as any other wool you can find.  I made a scarf for someone with 100% acrylic wool at Christmas, and she told me it's really warm and snuggly.

Another great resource for patterns - free and for sale - is on the website www.ravelry.com -it's free to register and includes knitting and crocheting patterns, some of which I have used.  You'll be surprised to know that there are MANY knitting and crocheting patterns available for sale in PDF format on www.etsy.com too - which I have also bought myself!  Just search for them and see what pops up :)

Happy Crafting!

Siobhan x

Regular posting!!

Ok.  I know I haven't posted YET AGAIN for a long time......!

No excuses this time though.  Now I have put a memo in my computer which tells me to blog about something I have created or something related to crafting etc at least once a week.  Think of it as a late New Year's resolution...... ...... :)

Ok, so first off I will star with some crochet.  These two flower brooches were made as gifts for Christmas to a couple of friends.  I don't think I have blogged about these, and although it wasn't yesterday when I made them, they are handmade by myself, which is what this blog is all about.

 Both these flower brooches were crocheted using a simple flower pattern and 3 colours of wool which I had at the time.  Crocheting little flowers like this are really useful for using up leftover bits of wool!

It's great if you have lots of colours, because you can play around with whatever you like!


Brooch pins are very easy to come by in craft stores, and quite cheap too - they don't need to be sterling silver especially as there will be very little in the way of skin - metal contact on brooches like this, AND I always like to get the pins which have "safety clasps" whatt you have to twirl the end around to move the pin out.

They are very easy to attach at the back of the flower.  You just need to take your time when positioning them at the back so you can't see the metal from the front, and PLEASE be careful with the pin because it is sharp and you have to have the pin OPEN when you attach it to the back of the flower.

It's very easy to thread the wool through the holes in the back of the pin and secure it tightly although a drawback of this is that I use a big needle which is made especially for sewing wool, and I don't know about what's in the stores at the moment, but mine (which used to be my Mum's) does not fit through the holes so I have to thread them through by hand.  Yes it's a little time consuming, but its definitely worth the effort!  I have given away a few of these flower brooches recently, and everyone is always very pleased with them (YEY!) :)

Sometimes I like to put a little bead in the centre - I may have posted a photo of one of those before but I'm not sure..!  Anyway, these can be worn on coats, jeans, bags, or even pinned to a scarf at the end or by the neck.  There are so many flowers you can knit and crochet and turn into pins / brooches, or whatever other creative use you can find for them.  There is a book I have which I will strongly recommend and talk about in my next blog - I promise! :)

Happy Crafting! :) x

Exploring my Creativity

Over the last few weeks I have been researching and reading up on running a small business and marketing, all the ins and outs of it.  I already have a store on www.etsy.com but I haven’t really been able to market it properly or sell a great deal of what I make.  What do I make?  Jewellery.  With silver wire and gemstone beads.  I currently have  a schedule which I plan on keeping to (hopefully...!) and part of my list of things to do is a blog.  Of course, I have this ‘Creativity Blog’ which I will use to post up the Jewellery which I make, but this will happen later.

Before I go ‘full steam ahead’ with my Jewellery, I plan not only to read up on everything I can find which is essential to run a small business, but in the meantime, I plan to blog about what I am creating in the meantime, and about me exploring my own creativity.  The aim of this is not only to make lots of things I can give away as gifts, sell to friends and family, online or at craft shows (the latter of which I have yet to do!), but I want to find out what I can do, what I am natural at, what I am terrible at, what I hate doing, and what I love doing.  I have no idea how long this process may take, but at the moment, the Jewellery business will happen after my exploration of Creativity.

So, let me begin by talking about my current crafting obsession – knitting and crochet!  I learnt to knit before crocheting and I can say I can do both.  But some things do elude me – I have tried crocheting a hat several times and I just cannot get the tension right for the rim!  I either end up with floppy, flat rims and a hat that just kind of sits on the head and easily flops off, or I go to the other extreme and end up with a beret sort of hat with a rim which is simply impossible to fit on anybody’s head.  I have, however, knitted a hat which was successful, although I haven’t knitted one since – this is something I will be pursuing at some point!

In the meantime, as you can see on my blog AGES ago, I knitted a few scarves, and although I have successfully crocheted a couple of flower brooches as gifts, I am mostly knitting – lots of Christmas presents!  But first let me show you my first crochet scarf.  This is a simple straightforward pattern combining three rows of 203 double crochet stitches, and a border of shells all the way around the edge.  I got this pattern from “The Happy Hooker” (Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet) which is a book I cannot recommend highly enough if you want to learn how to crochet – because I learnt from this book!

In the book it looks a bit larger, wider spacing between stitches, but then again I always come out with something different from patterns because I tend to buy the wool and think about the pattern later!  I thought this scarf looked very pretty in pink and it has a slightly floral feel to it thanks to the shell border and the mottled pink colour.  A spring/summer or summer/autumn scarf I think.