Striped Teddy and Giraffe!

So here they are, my Teddy Bear and Giraffe are all finished!

I have to say, I am a little bit pleased with these two. I had never made a stuffed toy before and I'm hooked! The Bear was made from a pattern from Rico Patchwork Family Crochet Pattern Book, which you can get from Claires Yarns. I would recommend this book highly, as there are so many lovely patterns in it, its well worth it. 

The giraffe was made from a free pattern posted on I Love buttons by Emma blog. Its a lovely blog full of inspiration and the giraffe pattern is well written and easy to follow. They were both made from Rico Creative Cotton Aran which comes in a wonderful range of colours, I'll definitely be using it again. 

I have a few pics of the teddies in progress below...

Teddy body Stuffed...

Teddy head stuffed...

Head, arm and body starting to be attached...

Nose being embroidered on in black cotton...

All done, looking very relaxed chilling out in wardrobe...

Giraffe, all ready to go off to his new home.

Teddy, relaxing in the garden.

I've really enjoyed making these, and I'm already planning to make more for two littles boys in the summer. Maybe a blue striped one and a green striped one, what do you think?

Happy Crocheting!

x

Spring Colours

Afternoon all, 

Its such a lovely spring day here in London, and were finally seeing some sun! Look!!

This kind of weather just makes me want to go outside with a basket of wool and a glass of Pimms! Shame its a tuesday, so its off to work for me. 

Before that though I just wanted to share these new cottons with you. Part of the Rico family, these are all Creative Cotton Aran, and are perfect for arigurumi or small projects. The threads split slightly but if you adjust your tension, they are fine to work with. They come in a huge range of colours and are great to have in your stash. 

What's your favourite yarn to work with?

Happy crocheting!

x

My First Blog Post!

So, this is my first blog!! How Exciting! I guess I should explain why I want to do this in the first place...

It all began with a hook, some wool and a very bored dresser. I currently work in theatre as a dresser and have a huge amount of time to fill during shows. As exciting as live theatre can be, on a long running show it can become a little monotonous. Some dressers read, some shop online, some gossip, I chose to learn to crochet. 

I guess I wanted to start this blog to share this craft with others, it'd be fab to hear what others think, and to see their projects to get inspiration, but perhaps I'm getting a little ahead of myself. For now I'd like to show you what I'm working on at the minute...and we'll take it from there!

So, first up we have my very first attempt at making a blanket for a friend who will be leaving London in 2 months (I'd better get a move on!). It is made from 144 squares each with a flower in the middle. I started it just after Christmas and its coming along well, it's the kind of project you can keep coming back to. More details and pattern to come soon!

Technically these are finished up now, but I thought I'd put them in anyhow. These were made for a little girl recently who is 18 months old and not very well. She is apparently incredibly girly, hence the bubblegum pink colour scheme. I used a pattern from TwoGirlsPatterns on etsy, who sell some lovely crochet patterns which are definitely worth a look. They are american terms but its easy enough to translate them to UK terms, perhaps I'll go into this more soon.

And finally, I've started making Bruno the Bear from the Rico Design Patchwork Family Crochet Idea Booklet (no 24) which I got from Claires Yarns. This seemed like a great idea, and I'm really enjoying it, however the intention was to make two teddies for twin girls whose birthday it is next week, and I'm running out of time! It's a fairly simple pattern, but I think changing colour so often, combined with a small hook means that its taking a little longer than planned! Fingers crossed I get them both done in time.

That's all for now!

L x