Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Definitely still feeling springy so I went in search of a pattern for something fairly small, colourful and fun to make.  I have always wanted to have a cottage with a little plot of land somewhere in the rolling countryside, with a vegetable patch, chickens clucking about the yard and peace and tranquility. Unfortunately, in reality, I live in a town about quarter of a mile from the M62, I can dream!

Lately I have also had a fascination with old vintage lacy crochet patterns, you know, the little squares of super fine, precise lace that you would need a microscope to be able to make. I am in awe of people that have such good eyesight they are able to make these things, some of them are really quite wonderful. But my appalling eyesight was not going to stop me from having a go - OK so I wouldn't be able to use a half mm hook and fine lace cotton, but I can still follow a pattern. So I had short-listed the patterns to several 2D flowery panels when I stumbled upon this rooster!

Perfect, just what I was looking for.

I really didn't want to make him all in one colour, I had visions of something to hang in my kitchen that would be nice and cheerful, so it would need a fair amount of improvisation.

The pattern said he would be about two and a half inches across when finished, yes, mine is considerably larger than that, about ten inches. So I sat beavering away this morning trying to work out where to make the colour changes and which colours to use. Isn't the internet wonderful for inspiration like that? So many beautiful pictures of roosters:

 

 

I knew that I really wanted mine to have a big bright tail, even if the body would just be plain (it was far too difficult to work out how to change the colours on the body, but if I do make another one I will have a better idea next time).

The pattern  is well written, perhaps not great for a beginner as there as some bits which are a bit confusing but with a bit of perseverence and trial and error I'm sure most people who know their way around a crochet hook could work it out.

I got there in the end, lots of ends sewn in neatly and stood back to admire my handiwork:

 

Hmmm. This chap would definitely need some blocking and not just a light steam with the iron, some heavy duty pinning and PVA glue treatment.

40 minutes later, with an old tea-towel on the ironing board I had him pinned and every loop in place:

So many pins! Top tip, it's worth having a separate pin cushion and pins for blocking as they are horrible to use for anything else once they have been painted with glue.

So there I go merrily painting my rooster with glue until I had nearly finished when I realised I had pinned and painted the wrong side! Too late to worry about that now, it would either look awful or failing that, the back was pretty neat anyway and only I (and now you) would know about it :)

Turns out that the glue soaked right in and it really didn't matter, phew.

I love him! 

I have tried stringing him up with a hanging loop but he is just too big and weighty for that so i need to find him a frame. For now he can sit between a couple of heavy books on the shelf to keep him nice and flat. Well worth the effort, the endless counting, pinning and ruining a tea-towel for, I think :)

So I did make a bag :)

What a busy week so far! I am currently a lady of leisure and it has been extremely easy to get into a routine of getting up when I like, sticking something on the TV and spending a few hours every morning with my crochet and lots of tea. So it has been a bit of a shock to the system having places to be and things to do. Nothing exciting mind you, just more structure to my days than usual. I have still managed to fit in plenty of hooky time at the expense of less important things like cleaning and ironing... priorities!

So after my disaster of an attempt at the bag on Monday I have had another bash with much more satisfying results:

 Bright isn't it?!

I used some left over Sirdar Supersoft aran, a great yarn to work with and they make some lovely bright colours, I just wish they did more as I would love to make a giant flowery blanket out of it.

I had a rummage through my fabric scraps and found a fat quarter of a pink flower print to line it with. Nice neat edges done with the machine and then a not-so-neat hand sewn running stitch to hold it in the place:

The bag itself didn't take too long to make at all, but as with most things the finishing touches took longer (the strap, the edging, the lining). The strap is just a row of doubles then a row in pink on either side with a picot every third stitch, quite effective I think:

 

 If you would like to make one of these (and why wouldn't you want some of this prettiness in your life?) then the pattern can be found here. Google translate doesn't do a bad job of getting it into English but some of the finer points are lost and in a couple of places just plain wrong, good luck!

I best get on and tackle the kitchen before I choose my next project, oh go on then, a little browse first :)

 

A frog if ever I saw one.

I wanted to make something today that would take a couple of hours and be totally finished. I searched through all the saved patterns that I have in my favourites and found a lovely little purse/bag. It is the same idea as this pot holder I made a while ago.
























I think that turned out well so I would use the same hook and yarn (my ever dwindling supply of Rico Creative Cotton) and make a little bag. I made both sides of the bag and got to the sewing up bit and realised it's all wrong. The yarn is just to heavy to hold any shape, the straight lines between the petals won't go straight because the yarn is also too flimsy and I'm not sure I like the colours much either.

 

 Definitely all wrong. 

So I will try again tomorrow and hopefully the next one will be better, if not I might just adapt the pot holder pattern - or scrap the idea altogether (do I really need another bag?) and make another happypotamus!

Let me introduce you to Tulip, my second of these beauties.

I have been trying to stick to 2D projects recently as housing large hippo-type creations is getting difficult, (they take up so much room!) hence all the wall hangings and frills - but I really do love making toys :)

Wall Clock

Having a great Friday, the weather has been hit and miss all morning, bright sunshine then a few showers then sunshine again. I've been pottering in and out of the house all day and it really does feel like spring is in the air.

I have been visited three times by a huge great bumblebee - I have no idea how it is getting in, it suddenly appears in the kitchen where all the windows and doors are shut. I do like bumblebees and I'm not scared of bugs in general but in an enclosed space, trying to shoo it out, it seems massive and wants to fly straight at my face!

Anyway, back to the point of my post... I have put the finishing touches to my wall clock! It took some doing, sewing it onto the cardboard that I've used to back it with and then working out how the clock mechanism went together as sadly the instructions were in Korean. I'm still not sure it is finished, I may add more to it and I might buy some larger wooden numbers as I think in 3D they would show up much better, but all in all I am very pleased with it.

Sometimes when you make something you can't help but grin at how damn cute it is, this butterfly and little daisy chain just sort of happened but I love it.

The two-tone flower also works really well:

I wish I had thought of doing that before for the other flowers, still they look good too. 

not sure what to do with what's left of the afternoon, I might drag myself away from the crocheting and do something thrilling, like the ironing! Have a great weekend :)

Got any spare merino?

This week I have been struggling for inspiration. I realised that it isn't ideas that I need, it's yarn! I have so much but none of it's right. It's all miss-matched bits-and-pieces of this-and-that, ideal for a scrap blanket I suppose but I don't want to make scrap blankets. I like to make blankets that are pretty and well thought out where every row is a pleasure to hook.

Coming on isn't it?!

So granny stripes aside, a sulk thrown (because all the yarn I want is far too expensive), I decided it would be a good opportunity to finish some bits that I have neglected since before the mad Christmas rush on stockings, wreaths and bunting.

My clock! An idea I had thought was all mine, 100% original until a google half way through it found some amazing (and very similar) clocks. It will be pretty useless actually, I have no where to put it - but like so many things,  I just wanted to make it.

All that is left are a few details to crochet and a fair bit of sewing. That's my Thursday afternoon taken care of then :)

For My Daffodils

Ah spring flowers! One of the best things about this time of year are the super cheap bunches of tulips and daffs that you can get. I got a large bunch of daffs from the market at the weekend and they have been happily sat on the side since then. Unfortunately I have yet to find a pretty jug that I like for my flowers so they have been stuck in a plain glass one and every time I look at it (even though the flowers are pretty) I have wanted to yarn it up a bit.
So this morning, I had a look through my Crochet Borders book and decided to make something to give it a wooly finish.

This is a variation on one of the patterns I have made before, with just a few extra rows of DCs to make it chunkier. Pretty isn't it? it really needed some blocking to get the pointy bits pointy but it only took a few minutes with an iron and a tin of spray starch.

I had measured around the jug several times and thought it was a perfect fit but when trying it all finished I had to squeeze the button right on to the edge to make it do up. It doesn't matter though, it's out of sight at the back.

 Of course I couldn't leave it like that, it needed more! Beads it is:

 

A bit rough and ready with the sewing of the beads but still, I would rather have it with than without.

A bit of sunshine in my house to make up for the complete lack of sunshine outside.

Very happy hour of hooky today :)

Happy-Heart

Morning! Up with the lark again and tried out a brighter version of the hearts I made yesterday

I am so pleased with it! The embellishments were my idea, or rather elements that I borrowed from the happy flowers by Lucy of Attic 24 that I have made.

So I am calling this a Happy-Heart and I might keep this one for myself :)