Meet Hetti

Its a Hippo! Hetti the Hippo to be precise.

Hetti the Hippo Baby Hat

I gave you a sneak peak of something I was working on in the last post and now here she is all complete.

Complete with button eyes, flaring nostrils and poking out teeth she the happiest hippo around.

Hippo eyes & nose

Once again I relied on my favourite 100% cotton yarn and worked this little lady up in Drops Paris. The pattern is courtesy of the very fab Repeat Crafter Me although I used my own pattern for the hat and just followed the instructions for the nose, eyes, ears and teeth. The finished item is now listed in my Etsy store!

Hippo teeth

I love how quickly a hat works up using the pattern I have, you can easily complete the bas of the hat in an evening.

When I can eventually find the time during daylight hours I will make an effort to write the pattern up properly with lovely pictures and everything but I tend to be a bit of a night owl crochet at the moment and that doesn’t work so well on the photo front…

I’ve already started and finished another hat that is ready to go to its forever home and in between all that I am working on a commission from my sister…. my first ever piece of proper adult clothing (although technically teenager clothing). It currently waiting for a quick fitting to see if I am on track but again its working up so quickly.

Here is a little peak and stage 1, the colours are lovely. Brownie points to anyone who has an idea of what exactly I am making with these for her!

Earthy Granny Squares

B x

New Year, New Products

A belated Happy New Year to all you lovely followers!

I have been busy working on so many lovely new patterns and building up my collection lately. I was asked by a friend before Christmas if I could make so baby hats for her to give as presents, and I was very excited to get started. She knew what kind of hats she wanted and had seen patterns on Etsy so I decided to give them a go, however I have to admit the patterns were incredibly confusing and seemed to be missing parts so in the end I decided to give up and work it out myself. Thankfully they were pretty straight forward and after not too long I had finished two adorable hats.

The first was a sleeping owl hat in soft shades of blue and green. I used thick 100% cotton yarn which worked up so quickly and feels incredibly soft.

Sleeping owl baby hat

I decided to give this hat another go in slightly different colours and hence the winking owl hat was born. I still used the 100% cotton but opted for cream on the bottom instead.

Winking Owl Baby Hat

The second hat was a little bear hat, unfortunately this pattern was even worse than the first one and the measurements just made no sense so I resorted back to the pattern I had made for the Owl and then worked out the ears. I stuck with the same cotton yarn for this one too as I love how quickly it works up and I like how soft it is, which is just perfect for a babies head.

Little Bear Baby Hat

Next time I will probably move the years just slightly further round but I still think it looks just too cute! I am hoping to get the pattern for these hats written up properly so keep an eye out for it shortly.

At the same time I was in the process of making a cowl for my Mum as her Christmas present. I knew I wanted it to be thick and chunky but also not to rough that it would be uncomfortable to wear so I opted for King Cole super chunky in Graphite.

Scallop Edge Cowl

Again this cowl worked up so quickly with such a thick yarn and using a scallop stitch it has a lovely pattern and scalloped edging along the bottom. I finished it off with a coconut shell button to contract against the soft grey colour of the yarn.

Scallop Edge Cowl – close up

I have so many more ideas running round my head at the moment that I have set myself a challenge for this year to try and complete 1 new crochet item and 1 new crafting project each month in the hope of getting them out of the idea notepad and into the world.

These items are now listed in my Etsy shop should you want to have a nosey 🙂

B x

Winter is on its way

Winter truly is on its way. It has been very cold with lots of rain for the last week, the cold I don’t mind as you can wrap up warm with a hot drink, some fluffy socks and get all cosy, the rain however is quite depressing.

The one thing all this bad weather has reminded me off though is that my favourite time of year is not far away… HALLOWEEN! I love Halloween and wish it was celebrated a bit more in the UK. Regardless of this I cannot wait and figured what a great excuse to finally start looking at my crochet to do list again (as if I really needed an excuse!).

I have compiled a list of my top projects to make for this Halloween (or any Halloween).

Nearly all of these have free patterns for them, however there is one or two that are Etsy buys and such like, I’ve included them purely because I think they can probably still be made just looking at the picture without buying anything.
  Bats – Theses are great for decorating your house especially if you plan to have a party this year. You can hang them with some yarn from anywhere. This is a free ravelry pattern.

Boo Ornament – Again this great for decorating your home ready for a party, or if you have a front facing window then why not pop it in there. This is a free downloadable pattern.

Boo Necklace – I love this and would happily wear it on Halloween myself. Its an etsy buy but I can see two ways of doing this, one is to crochet around some wire so it bends or alternatively crochet in a flat line and then bend and sew them with black thread to keep it in place. I am going to give this a go at some point so I will let you know how I get on.

Count Dracula – How cute! A little amigarumi vampire, cant get much more Halloween than that. This is a free Lion brand yarn pattern.

Eyeballs – Urrrgghhh eyeballs…. I see these laying around on a buffet table at a Halloween party. Sadly there is no pattern for these but I couldnt leave them out as I’m sure some of you out there are clever enough to work these out.

Halloween party banner – How cute and funny are these little monsters. I love that this pattern includes the bat, Frankenstein and pumpkin. I know I keep saying it but party decoration! If I made this I would probably have it in a window as well. This is a free Red Heart pattern.

Halloween Garland – This a different version of the previous banner, you get instructions on how to make a ghost, Frankenstein and pumpkin but these ones are stuffed. It also shows you how to make the twisted string. I love that beads and such like have been included. This is a free pattern.

  Wreath – This is such a simple and quick way of creating a wreath for your door this Halloween. I would be inclined to make some of the appliqués from the Halloween party banner above and sew them on for decoration as well.

  Jack Skellington Hat – Sadly another one with out a pattern however all you need to do is make a basic beanie hat in white (like this one here), make two circles in black attach them and then using a needle sew on the nose and mouth with more black yarn.

Halloween Monsters – There is whole collection for this one. You can get a spider, witches hat, pumpkin, tombstone, owl, skull, bat, ghost, mummy, witch, and many many more all completely FREE. They are available from Lion brands website. The Mummy is my favourite.

  Colourful Monsters – Another without a pattern but these are super simple to make. Crochet a circle to be the diameter you want, obviously the bigger the circle the larger your monster will be, once you have the desired size circle keep crocheting in rounds with the same amount of stitches until you have a tube with one end sealed (again stop whenever you are ready). Do a sharp decrease to close the end so that its quite flat on the bottom and lastly decorate with googly eyes and felt teeth!

Pumpkin Garland – If I had some orange yarn in any shade other than neon I would be making these right now as they are adorable. Being the ambitious person that I am though I would love to crochet around the string of some LED fairy lights and then make the pumpkins around bulbs (LED’s don’t get hot like normal fairy light bulbs so wont pose the same fire risk).

Skull Appliqué – This is the last one that doesn’t have a pattern, however I have already given it a go myself and you can find the pattern over on my patterns page here.

Witch – This little amigurumi witch is just too cute not to include. Its a free pattern that has pictures throughout to help.

Zombie Phone case – This is my favourite pattern that I found. If I had some fluffy yarn I would certainly have made this by now. I also need some beads but that is besides the point, this little fella is awesome. You get right into the spirit of Halloween every time your phone goes off.

Tutorial Week – Puff Stitch

I’m a big fan of this stitch as its so quick and easy to do and I have already used it twice on my two beanie hats in previous posts (see here)

Start by chaining the desired length

1. Yarn over, insert hook into stitch, yarn over and draw through loop, yarn over and draw through 2 loops on hook (2 loops still on hook)
2. In the same stitch repeat step 1, 2 more times leaving you with 4 loops on your hook.
3. Yarn over and pull through all 4 loops on your hook.
4. If you want a bigger puff then when you are repeating step 1 do it 3, 4, 5 or however many times you wish then carry on as normal.
5. Usually after doing your puff stitch (step 1-4) you would then do ch1 before doing another puff in the next stitch but if you’re working from a pattern it should tell you if it wants you to do this.

Free puff stitch patterns:

Newsboy Hat – Having made two hats with this stitch already I think hats are ideal for learning this stitch and the end results almost always look great. I recommend checking the gauge as you go to ensure it will fit when done, and don’t use a wool to stiff or has no give in it

Scarf – This scarf looks lovely in the puff stitch and would be fabulous in any colour. I will be making one of these ready for winter!

Flowers – You can never have enough flower patterns, and this one is brilliant as its completely different to the usual ones you find, plus its 3D thanks to the puff stitch so really stands out.

Have a great Saturday

B xx