Crochet Ferris Wheel Coaster and Tea Light Holder

I cracked.......I couldn't help myself. My crochet addiction just got the better of me and I had to rummage in the storage container for my stash of wool. Fortunately, it wasn't buried too deep and I only had to climb up one layer of boxes.......Anyway, I found some remnants of the axminster wool used for my circular doily rug and the heart and flowers bunting, chose a pattern and got started. I found the ferris wheel coaster pattern on the boys and bunting blog which I discovered after reading Simply Crochet magazine. The pattern is perhaps not a beginner pattern but would definitely be suitable for someone who is ready to progress past granny squares. It has bobbles and crochet cables (front post double crochet) so there is plenty of surface texture. The tea light holder pattern I made up with a bit of playing about. I made so many of these for homemade Christmas presents a couple of years ago that I could remember how to do them, and then added some bobbles since I had just been doing these in the coasters. I'm still finishing off a second tea light holder but I need to find a jar exactly the same size as the original as I'm using this as a pattern. Hopefully this won't prove to be more difficult than the actual crochet!    

Crochet coasters and tea light holder

Crochet baby blanket

I haven't any of my own home made offerings to show, but can share the crochet glory of a daughter. She did all the crochet hard work but needed a bit of speedy joining up by me to be able to gift the baby blanket at a baby shower the following evening. There wasn't enough time to do the edging, so it has been given and taken back to complete the finishing touches which may also include some little flowers if the baby is a girl. The photo doesn't really do it justice as the colours have a lovely fresh spring look. I have to say that the best bit about this blog post is that (at last) I have an offspring who has persevered with learning to crochet!

Baby hats and bootees

More hats and bootees.........I'm on a roll. More babies are due and I'm really getting the hang of baby bits and pieces and am trying a few variations. This time I've used 'Vintage Pearl Baby Hat' pattern found on www.hopefulhoney.com. I looked at adding pearls, but I wasn't sure that it would be worth the effort as the hats have a vintage charm without.

Crochet flower brooch

Another quick holiday crochet effort. This time it's a flowery brooch. Inspired from 'Crocheted Flowers' by Jan Ollis, I adapted the antique rose pattern to match the yarn and fabric available (yarn left over from a hat, and organza from a bunch of flowers) to make this pretty brooch. It was a bit fiddly, but I was pleased with the final result.

Baby crochet

Crochet is such a portable craft and baby items are perfect for being small and achievable things to complete on a holiday. Combine this with a plethora of babies and it makes a homemade gift for a new baby very do-able. Hence the following array of hats, bootees and bear. 

Credit where credit is due; the lilac hat and all bootees were based on a pattern from loopy love. The delightful boy hat is from LisaAuch.com. The bear from Crochet Now issue 2  and is the kit from the magazine.

The FINAL poncho push

At last it's the end of the poncho story. We have a poncho Ta da! to end all ta da's. I'm not sure I'll ever let myself be talked into making a poncho again, but they are statement items of style and beauty (even though I say this myself) and the quality of the wool really shines out. I really am quite determined that I will use good quality yarn for as many projects as possible (funds not withstanding) because it just makes the most enormous difference to the finished item. And I have two happy daughters, which is never a bad thing to say. I'm only wondering now what the other two children will request for me to make. Please, oh please, not more poncho's.

I have another tick on the things to complete list; this time it's the hat started only last week. Oh the speed I can drum up when there is a bank holiday, a lovely sunny day, a warm spot shaded from the the chilly wind and a complete disinclination to do anything other than sit and crochet in the sun. Such decadent idleness :)

A break in the torrential rain of Easter Monday tempted us out to our most local National Trust house - Hardwick Hall (more glass than wall). It's a lovely hall built in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. We had a stroll around the gardens which are just coming to life with spring flowers. It has beautiful gardens which are not enormous but are cleverly planted. I love the herb garden with it's wavy box hedges.

Poncho Progress

You make something nice for one child, and it's like a fever going round, because you get a request for another. In this case it started with a pattern for a poncho from Simply Crochet magazine. It seems to take me about a year to get on trend, so you could argue that I'm decidedly untrendy. Anyway, the poncho thing started last year, maybe even the year before? but last year I thought it would be nice for our budding crochet beginner (a daughter) to have a go and she really liked the idea but was making all the usual excuses..... "too slow" and "hadn't got enough time" and "it would be quicker if you made it", and in truth I really thought it would suit her and would solve that perennial problem of the birthday present, so made use of all the spare time during the Christmas holiday and quickly made one up. I digress, however, and back to today's story, I inevitably was requested to make one for another daughter, it being another birthday present opportunity. As is the case amongst sisters, they have their own style and this poncho is as different to the other as night is to day. The first is an explosion of rainbow colour, and this is more 'grey is the new black'. It's coming along nicely, and should hopefully only take another week if I crack on with it. Just a quick note, for both poncho's I have used Drops 'Nepal' yarn which is a wool and alpaca blend. I didn't want to make so much effort with cheap acrylic and the Drops yarn is so reasonably priced, especially so if you can get it in the sale :)

After a day (yesterday) of the most appalling diet choices which included a bevy of biscuits and crisps and wine, today has been atonement day. Starting with a deliciously decadent smoothie of banana, avocado, blackberries, almond milk and apple, it was followed up with a fabulously fishy lunch which was surprisingly quick to do and was really, really tasty. It starred stuffed and baked rainbow trout with stir fry spiralised vegetables. The stuffing was a zesty sourdough and buckwheat concoction, whizzed in the blender with lemon zest, seasoning and lemon thyme, coated in olive oil to stick it together a bit. This was stuffed into the trout, placed on a foil lined baking tin and baked at 200C for 20 mins. Whilst this was cooking, the spiralised courgette, carrot and sweet potato was stir fried with some garlic and chilli. Super quick and surprisingly hearty (and I can wear my healthy diet halo with pride).

As an aside to all the making and baking, my Christmas cactus has again surpassed itself by flowering for a second time this winter, adding a bright splash of colour against the grey backdrop of the window.

Home made Christmas presents

At last the big Ta Dah for all the Christmas home made presents. This year's theme has been hats for the boys and headbands for the girls. All the headbands were crocheted from a great pattern by Rosedew from Etsy and have the appearance of aran knitting, but are actually crochet but  perhaps at an intermediate standard. It probably took a couple of evenings to suss out the pattern, but once I'd worked it out each headband only took two or three evenings including the flower. The especially speedy aspect was that the yarn used was a chunky weight and so the headbands grew very quickly despite the complexity of the pattern. I found another slightly easier pattern for headbands and with the chunkier yarn they were very quick so I made a number of these - see the cream headband below

The boys hats were two different styles. The quick and easy one was a Drops pattern for a slouchy beany in a 'Boshi' style. 'Boshi' hats were devised by couple of snowboarders and you can buy 'MyBoshi' designer style labels to attach to the hat's, which of course I did. The labels hopefully add a designer look rather than homemade or mumsy.  I think I made 6 hats in this style.

The second style of hat was also a slouchy beany but made with a Drops aran weight yarn and it was much more densely crocheted and consequently took a long longer. This is why I only made 2 of these!

I'd like to report that all the headbands and hat's were an unqualified success, but I had to make a few adjustments to suit their recipients - the headbands were a bit big but fortunately, they are fastened at the back and so I just needed to move the buttons at the back, although I stitched a couple of them closed so that the button is just for show. The beanies above also needed adjustment - the slouchy one needed to be more slouchy so I added some more rows and the not so slouchy one needs a fleece lining around the forehead as apparently it's a bit itchy! Here's a pic of my homemades on holiday in Scotland.

A Christmas tree decoration was also part of the Christmas homemade bounty. Here are a couple of them, although it should be noted that the tree is a very, very small one and the heart shaped one is for a Hull City fan. The little bird is the Attic 24 bower bird pattern from a Simply Crochet kit.

Everyone also had a little pottery penguin from the penguin flock I made during the 2014 New Year holiday.