Return of the Granny Blanket.
My life’s work has had another makeover, returning in a smaller, more manageable format, and with a whole lot more sturdiness.
You’ll no doubt recall that I’ve been making this blanket since before I can remember (so – what – like, 10 years or something) and it’s never really been finished off properly, despite the fact that it’s been put to use on many occasions.
Since the weight of it meant it was starting to pull itself apart, I finally got my act together and rejoined the pieces (properly this time), taking out some squares to make it less heavy, and actually took the trouble to edge it as well.
However, as you’d expect, I’m still not entirely happy with it. I want to do something a bit more fancy with the edging and make it a little bit bigger. But it will do until I have my next little blanket break down.
PS. You’ll note that I’ve left in the “bright orange monstrosity” that I so objected to last time. That’s because it’s grown on me and it’s now my favourite one. Further proof that I just can’t get enough of ugly crochet.
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Black crochet tea cosy – surprisingly tasteful for me
Those of you who hold each and every update I write close to your bosom, remembering every word and every project as though they were your own children, will have no trouble in recalling this “trendy tea cosy” (as I dubbed it at the time), which went disastrously wrong thanks to an ill-judged bit of sizing guess work on my part.
Well, I finally got the unfinished project back out of my stash box and added the extension required to make it fit my tea pot. And now I have an *actual* bit of tasteful crochet in my house, as well as a very nice warm tea pot. It’s like some kind of Christmas miracle. Except for without the Christmas.
The cosy didn’t really suffer from the half-arsed bit of bodging I had to do to make it big enough. In fact, I rather like the sideways rows I’ve added to each edge of the cosy. And the fact that it’s custom-made to fit my pot gives it that special edge that I know will drive all my friends crazy with tea cosy-envy. They’ll try to hide it with looks of complete indifference or polite interest, but *I’ll* know the truth.
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Whitting in the Wood – my first handmade wood crochet hook
We bought a woodland recently. You know, as you do. The story of how it happened is too long (and possibly not very interesting), but the short version is that we love camping, we love woods, and we found a woodland for sale that was near enough to Crystal Palace for us to be able to drive to our very own woodland campsite in an hour.
Most of our time spent there so far has been used for clearing some space for the undergrowth to start returning, making a few paths and taking down dead trees. But in between the hard work, there’s plenty of time to sit and stare at the camp fire and pass the time with a spot of gentle whittling.
I thought I’d have a go at whittling a crochet hook. As you can see, I still have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near to making something that’s usable. But since this photo was taken, we’ve got some proper wood working knives, which makes life easier. It’s also a lot easier once you’ve got a bit of wire wool involved in the process to help keep it looking a bit more tidy. I’ve made better attempts since this one, but still nothing I’m entirely happy with.
My brother in law is an especially keen whittler, and he produced this finished hook (above), which he’s sanded and gently waxed, making a hook that’s surprisingly easy and comfortable to use – much better than those jumbo plastic ones I’ve got. (Click for bigger)
Maybe one day, we’ll be as talented as the amazing Jimbo. Check out his blog for some truly beautiful handmade wooden crochet hooks.
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Yet another baby tomato hat
I don’t really see the point in having babies unless you dress them up in ridiculous clothes for your own amusement. Luckily, there have been plenty of powerless babes appearing in my life recently, and I’ve taken full advantage of their helplessness by plopping a tomato hat on their innocent noggins as soon as they hit the air.
My latest victim is my nephew, George, who’s shown his gratitude to his favourite aunt by instantly growing too large for his. What he doesn’t know, however, is that I can knock these things up at a hell of a rate of knots, and each time he outgrows a hat, another one will soon appear to replace it.
It’s important that these youngsters know who’s boss.
Here’s a picture of him pretending he doesn’t care that he looks ludicrous.
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Orange Crochet Baby Hat. Almost as good as tomato hats
I never got a photo of the two cute little tomato hats I made a while ago. They were both used, but neither set of proud parents managed to get a photo of his be-hatted sprog before it grew out of the tomato hat. “Useless” is the word that springs to mind.
The hats seemed to have gone down well, especially with Al’s brother, who asked me to make a bigger hat for little Maya, but requested that I make it an orange instead.
Thanks to the lovely Craftster forum people, I came up with the bright idea of making the hat using the orange peel stitch that Jan Eaton uses in her 200 Crochet Blocks book.
I think it came out pretty well – though I ended up over-estimating the size and produced something that almost fits me (as you can see in the pic). However, Maya’s growing like a fast-growing thing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it fits her soon. Though, no doubt, now she can speak she may have something to say about being made to wear a comedy hat.
I learned a useful lesson while making this hat, which I can’t believe I hadn’t learned earlier: never iron acrylic wool. It goes floppy and lifeless and there’s no getting it back once you’ve killed it.
The hat’s still wearable – it’s just a bit limp.
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Yet another free crochet pattern – Link from Zelda. Will this kindness never end?
Yes, I did it again. Far from being content at offering the world my free Jolly Roger pattern, I set to work to create yet another masterpiece, this time in the form of the wonderful Link from the Legend of Zelda. He’s not exactly perfect, but I’ve tampered with the final pattern which means that your version should come out a lot better. Please do let me know if you make one of these – the validation makes me feel… well… validated (wrote myself into a bit of a vocabulary cul-de-sac there).
As before, the pattern can be obtained from the wonderful Crafty Crafty blog here, edited by the marvellous Abi Silvester, who also edits our green blog, Hippyshopper. She works very hard editing both those blogs for us, so do go and visit one of her sites and leave her some nice comments. It makes *her* feel validated.
I should probably also mention the fact that it’s thanks to the wonderful artistic talents of my other half, Alex Milway (to give him his full name to help his Google rankings), who made the pattern for me from his childhood memories of Zelda and nothing more. He really is very clever. Annoyingly so, in fact. But don’t tell him I said that.
By the way, if you would like to read the blog of the world famous children’s author and illustrator, Alex Milway, you can do so here: www.themousehunter.com/blog. You can also leave him some comments if you like – he’s also a fan of validation.
Click here for free Zelda pattern from Crafty Crafty
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Free Jolly Roger Pattern from Crafty Crafty
Because I’m such a nice and lovely person, I made a pattern especially for all the readers of Crafty Crafty. If you suddenly realise, upon looking at this, that your life has been an empty and meaningless existence without a skull and crossbone patch, you can download the pattern and create your very own Jolly Roger forthwith. It’s a good job I was here, that’s all I can say.
Get the free pattern here! Fill your heart with joy.
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Amigurumi Dude – my half-arsed attempt
Oops! Just discovered this on draft from ages ago. I actually made this *last* Christmas, which makes this quite a feat of forgetfulness.
Thing is, I love the idea of making cute amigurumi dolls, but when I actually start, I find the whole process a bit too boring to keep me going. Lots of fiddly little bits and not an awful lot of mindless crochet fun, which is why blanket and hat-making command so much of my loyalty.
Anyway, as you can see, this is a fairly half-arsed little Amigurumi Dude, which I didn’t ever quite finish off. I’m not even entirely sure what became of the poor little fellow. He was supposed to be a Christmas king, and I was planning on giving him to my sister. But I probably fobbed him off on some innocent child who was visiting one day. One thing worth noting, though, is the fact that I took the trouble to *knit* him a scarf, which is a very rare occurrence and should probably be marked with some kind of national feast day.
My friend put the little tassles on. She’d popped in with her other half and before either of them knew what had hit them, both Al and I had got them assisting in each of our craft projects. We really are fun people to know…
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Mmm, crafty books.
I’ve been thoroughly sated on the crafty book front in the past couple of months. My Secret Santa gift off Sheldon in the office (everyone fessed up who had bought what about 5 minutes after everyone had opened their gifts) was a fantastic book called Knitted Icons, which clearly comes from the mind of a twisted genius. It is surely enough of a reason even for me to dust down my much maligned knitting needles – even if it’s just so I can make the knitted Gandhi.
The Crochet Me book was sent into the Shiny offices for the Crafty Crafty team, so I’ve commandeered it and promised to write up a review. But since all my craft-related possessions are in storage, I haven’t had a chance to do much more than pore longingly over the pages and read the biogs of the craftsters.
And, finally, my first issue of Craft magazine has arrived and I’ve been carrying it everywhere with me, and lovingly leafing through it whenever a spare moment appears. I’m not actually sure it has much in it that I’ll ever even think about making, but it’s been so beautifully designed, laid out and published, that it’s just a lovely thing to hold in your hand. After years of working in magazines I thought my love for them had entirely gone, but this little publication has reminded me how great it is when you find a mag that makes you want to join its club (which is the key to any good magazine).
Not entirely crafty, but one of those great “inspiration” books, nonetheless, “Recycled Home” was in my pile of Christmas presents this year, and it’s already driven me to give an old table a bit of a makeover. Since I was going to throw it away or flog it, I’m now feeling all good inside about my recycling job. I wish I’d taken “before” shots so I could put up a post about it’s transformation, but I didn’t think about it for some reason.
Anyway, I think it’s fair to say that I’m booked up to the eyeballs for the time being!
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Why I’m not making any more presents for anyone ever again… maybe.
It’s been a long time, I know, but it’s been a busy old year and although the crafting has continued, the blogging has gone sadly astray. We have been having our flat done up, and it’s been a much bigger upheaval than we expected (thanks, lady project manager!!!! We *loved* being homeless). Because of that, my wool has been put into storage and I only have one size 6 crochet hook that somehow missed being boxed away. I haven’t managed to fulfil my usual ambition of making everyone a present for Christmas, but I don’t think anyone’s too cut up about it, since my sister’s tea cosy sits unused and unloved in her spare bedroom, Al’s grandma has hidden the cosy I made her in her kitchen drawer and uses a different one, and I’ve never seen any evidence of the little bag I made my niece being put to use (in fact, I’ve never seen it since that fateful day it was unwrapped with much false glee.) As for Lia and her various gifts. Well, the least said about those the better.
Screw them, that’s what I say. If they can’t appreciate the genius of my ugly creations, then I’m just going to keep all that crafty crochet goodness to myself. Ungrateful wretches. Apart from the hat I made my niece (same as my Petrol hat – this is now the third time I’ve made this hat since I lost my first one), the two hats I’ve made for my new baby niece-in-law (which I will get round to posting about some day… when I’ve found the pictures), and the skull and cross bone placemat I made for my skull-loving friend (post about this one coming imminently). Apart from all those gifts, I’m not making gifts any more… OK, that’s probably a lie – making things for other people is more fun. Even if they do just quietly secrete them into a bottom drawer for the moths to enjoy. The buggers.
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