Have you ever tried really teeny-tiny knitting or crochet? If you're one of those people whose leisure hours are spent perfecting 2mm-high reproductions of Notre Dame in gossamer-fine thread, then I salute you. Know-ye that I'm intimidated by your brilliance. Having made some reasonably small paraphenalia for that project, I was bitten by the smallness bug, although only gently nibbled by it rather than properly bitten: there'll be no micro-amigurumi around here any time soon. So I bought Continue Reading
Teeny Tiny Picnic
So if you’ve been reading this blog since roughly the late Jurassic*, you’ll know that I’ve been working on a giant mostly-crochet-with-a-smidgeon-of-knitting house-related project for a while. And I hope that you’ll believe me when I say that it’s honestly nearly done. I’ve been busy in its garden, and there’s more progress to show you. Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait when you see the (bonkers) finished object. Now, for reasons that will be obvious when you see the outcome, the garden Continue Reading
Begonias And Barn Owls.
Sometimes, I think that barn owls must have been designed by a six-year-old. (There is crochet coming later in this post, but I just need to get the barn owls off my chest, so to speak.) Don't get me wrong: they're beautiful and magnificent birds of prey, but they do have some odd design elements. I'm writing this because I saw one up-close at dusk the other day. It flew alongside my car for a moment, just as I topped the Berkshire Downs ready to descend into Oxfordshire. There I was, Continue Reading
Crochet Garden
So, I'm embroidering and crocheting the garden of the big furniture-related crochet house project, when I really ought to be doing proper useful stuff. The fire is lit already because it's been one of those grey, drizzly mornings that makes you think, "Really? Do I have to get up and adult today? Again?" I decided to build a rockery around the pond. First, I made some rocks in subtly variegated grey yarn, by single-crocheting (that's double crochet in UK parlance) with strategic increases and Continue Reading
The Crochet Cottage Bag Pattern!
Well, here it is, at last. The pattern. The pattern... for the crochet house shoulder-bag that I designed. It's been a while coming. Would you like to make one? It's not that hard, honest, just a little fiddly around the windows. But I've explained everything in the pattern. And if you run into any problems, you can always give me a shout. I'm really very, very excited about this thing. Sometimes a crazy idea in your head just works. And it's free! :-) So without further ado, shall we Continue Reading
How To Crochet The Brick Stitch.
Well, noble folks of a fibrous persuasion, I have good news, and I have... good news. Which would you like first? The good news, you say? OK then. Well, I've finally finished writing the pattern for the crochet house bag. Hurrah! I'm excited to share it with you (for free), probably tomorrow unless the universe maliciously interferes. I'm conscious that people don't want to download/print patterns with over a million photos, so the other piece of good (I hope!) news is that today I have put Continue Reading
Those Carrots
But anyway, back to the knitting/crochet. And also a little bit of embroidery, because working round the garden of that big crochet house-related project, I’ve realized that at this teeny scale, some things are just easier embroidered. Yep, despite taking on such a monstrously bonkers, months-long mega-project, I’m all for making things easy when I can. So. This garden is going to have a lot of veg. I’ve always preferred growing things you can eat to growing flowers, although let’s not discuss Continue Reading
Crochet Crocodile Stitch Photo Tutorial
One of the crochet stitches that's important for the house bag is the crocodile stitch. Look, here it is, used for the roof of the house, which forms the flap for the bag:- It's not difficult but it looks fancy, and it's a stitch that works well for scarves. Since you work the scales one-at-a-time, it can carry a variegated yarn quite well, more so than - say - a granny square, which can get weirdly splodgy in a variegated yarn. Just don't make an entire cardigan in this stitch, Continue Reading
Mostly Crocheting The Vegetable Patch
September. The season is on the swing, towards autumn here in the UK, but towards spring if you're in the southern hemisphere. There's a hint of chill early in the day, regardless of whether or not the later hours become warm. The logs are stacked beside the fireplace and the kindling bucket is full. It's so tantalisingly nearly time to light a fire. There are blackberries to be gathered from the hedgerows for crumble-making:- As the temperature falls, it's spider season, and those of us Continue Reading
The Challenges Of Pattern-Writing
Gosh, this is complicated. Whilst I dither about the garden of the big crochet house project, I’m writing up the pattern for the crochet house bag, because I want to offer it (free) to those of you who are crazy enough to want to make one yourselves. And hey folks, guess what? Insanely complicated fiddly piece of crochet translates into insanely complicated fiddly pattern. Who’d’ve guessed?! One of the things I love about knitting/crochet is that a relatively short list of instructions on a Continue Reading