Crochet Easter Bunny Basket

I was asked by Hobbycraft to design and make an Easter Bunny basket for their blog.   I love these commissions, they really challenge me to think of something different.

This cute bunny basket is what I came up with.  The ears and nose are a soft pink, but they don't show up very well in the photograph.

You can find the tutorial HERE on the Hobbycraft blog   :)   Let me know if you make one.

A colourful, crochet Blossom Cushion

A couple of years ago I made a Blooming cushion.  It was adapted by a blogger I follow from another person's pattern.   Anyway, I always thought the petals never sat right for me, or at least on the one I made, so I worked out a way of making it flatter, and easier for people to make.  Well, we all like easy don't we?

So, after some jiggery pokery, a lot of frogging  (rip it - rip it) and some shorthand notes typed into my iPhone, I worked out my own version.

I will type it up soon, I promise, but in the meantime I thought you might like to have a little look.

Using Hayfield DK Bonus yarn throughout, I started with the first few rounds.

then I added a dusky dark blue,  Hmmmmm, not sure if I like it or not.....

So I frogged it and put an orangey coral colour in instead.

Then after asking advice on my Facebook page, I decided to put the blue back in again  :)

The result was a 16 row riot of colourfulness.  Blossoming petals everywhere!!

I finished it off with a large, cream fabric covered vintage button.

The back I just did plain rounds, with no petals.  It worked up so much quicker!!!

So, as I mentioned, I will be writing this pattern up, so watch this space   :)

Stencilling with Doilies

Did you ever play with doilies and felt tipped pens as a youngster?   I remember my parents going to parties and often bringing my sister and I back a doily each to colour in.   Sometimes they would have grease marks on them, so I guess they tool them from the empty plates once the buffet was done  :)

They were such great fun to colour in, and to colour through the gaps onto plain paper, until the doily actually fell apart in the end due to overuse.

So, I thought I might relive it, in a slightly different way.

I took a stretched canvas, some different patterned doilies, some acrylic paints and a small brush and started to play.

The paint dried quite quickly to I could peel back the doily and re-use it.  I used a couple alternatively to make sure they were perfectly dry before re-using though so there was no colour bleeding.

I am thinking that young folks might like this, it should keep them busy for a while and make a pretty wall hanging for their rooms too!!  (Or a nice gift for a relative).

Monochrome Crochet Cushion

You know those times when you are sitting on the sofa and you need to craft?  I had just finished one project and really could not be bothered going to the shed to root out new products for a new project, so I had to make use of what I had in the living room.    (I have a storage pouffe box thing with bits of yarn in).

I found a black yarn and white yarn and got to work making a cushion.

Now, if you have followed me for a while I guess you will know that I like colour in my work, black and white just doesn't rock the boat for me.  Black is good, always, and teams up with anything.  White, however, is my least favourite colour to work with.  It;s just ..... boring!

But, I managed and created this cushion front.   But by the time I had done one side I was bored with the pattern so changed it about for the other side.

Now, don't look at this one too long as you might find yourself being hypnotised!

You are getting sleepy......

Well, its finished now, and I really don't like it at all  :)   I should stick to my gut feelings and work with what I feel is right.   As I said, black and white just does not rock my boat.

A very colourful baby blanket

I was recently asked to make a baby blanket by a friend, for her friend.  The brief was "colourful and stripy".  Which works for me, I rather like making stuff in bright popping colours.

We chose the yarn together, starting with the variegated Hayfield Bonus Buzz DK in blue, aqua and lime.  We then added a bright lime green (although it does look quite  yellow throughout these photos) and a gorgeous spearmint aqua shade.

So, stripes.   It's a bit boring doing rows and rows of the same stitch, so I thought I would change the pattern as I changed the yarn.   I did a variety of stitches in the end, which seemed to work ok together.

It grew......  

And grew some more.....

Then it was time for the edging, which I decided to do in the lime green.

Still not satisfied, I finally finished it with a shell edging in the variegated yarn.

And Voila!   That was it done.  And by all accounts, the new mummy loved her bright new blanket.  Makes a change from pastels I suppose   ;)

Dreamcatching Bunny Wreath

When the new Easter lines arrived in Hobbycraft this year, I spotted this unusual Bunny Wreath. Made from rattan, it was such an interesting shape, I just had to do something with it.   But what......

I started by grabbing some cream yarn and wrapping it around the wreath.  

Obviously one wrap wasn't going to be enough, I ended up wrapping it three times in total to try and hide as much rattan as possible.

Then I decided I would add a kind of "dream catcher" design to the centre.   I threaded a needle with yarn and looped it through the wraps at equal intervals.  I then went back around looping each new wrap until it all met up in the centre.

Doesn't look too bad does it?  So I did the bottom hoop as well  :)

Time for the ears.  This time I picked a cream yarn with splodges of pinks and lilacs in it, and started to wrap.

I added the design in the ear gaps just like the large hoops.

What else did I need to finish it off, I thought.  Ahh yes, a pom-pom for a fluffy tail.

Using the same cream, pink and lilac yarn, and a pom-pom maker  (as we don't need to cut cardboard circles anymore) I quickly made a big fluffy pom-pom.

And that was it finished.  It did take a little while to wrap the wreath form, but worth it I think.

Now little bunny is ready to catch those nasty dreams   :)

Teen Stitchers Sewing Course

Just after Christmas I started a "Teen Stitchers" course for young folks, wanting to learn how to use a sewing machine.

There were four girls in total, two 10 year old, an 11 year old and a 14 year old.

On the first session they all learnt how to wind a bobbin, change a needle, thread the machine, change stitches etc....  and they all seemed very competent so I set them off on their first project.

Bunting!  They got to choose their own fabrics, make themselves a template then cut out the pieces before sewing them neatly in place along their cosgrain ribbon tape.  (the ribbon has "Handmade by Me" printed along it)

The following week was cushion covers.  First they made a cushion pad from sheeting, then using that size as a guide they then made the cover to go over it.   The pieces were cut and sewn back together with ribbon edging to embellish. 

They did actually all start off with the same size pattern, but different cutting styles ended up making them all a bit different   ;)

The next week was supposed to be a simple stuffed animal, but when I thought about it I thought I needed to up the ante a bit as these girls were quite clever and very adept.

So I designed a stuffed owl, but with appliquéd patches for eyes, tummy and beak.  They also had to learn how to add a pair of wings, then stuff and finish with a bit of hand sewing to close gaps and add buttons for eyes.

I am very impressed by these, I have to say.

The final week was a "Tool Roll", I asked them to bring what they would like to store in their rolls, so had paint brushes, pens, pencils and make-up brushes.

Again, they chose all their own fabrics and trimmings and went away very happy with their very own hand-made tool storage rolls.

It was an absolute pleasure to teach these young ladies, and I do hope they will continue to use their machines and make lots of lovely things in the future.

It's been ages.....

I don't think I have ever left it a month to blog, a week at worst, but a month?

I mean, where did that month go?  Who stole it?  In fact, where did the last TWO months go since Christmas.  

They say the years get faster as you get older... well, I must be getting really old now then as they are just zipping on by.

So, this post is an apology post really.  I AM still here, working away at new patterns, running workshops, making things, being crafty - I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day to write about it all too.

There are numerous blogs in my draft box, waiting to be properly written up.  The photos are there, just need to put words in.   The worst thing is, as time goes by some become irrelevant then have to be deleted, it seems such a waste.

I have done loads in the last month.  I was invited to the Harris Tweed exhibition at Rheged, and met Patrick Grant!   I'll tell you more about that later.
I have also run some Kid's Clubs and Young Folk sessions in the half-term - I will tell you more about that later too.
I am also planning a tour around a few Hobbycrafts in April with my Crochet Fireworks Blanket.  Crewe, Droitwich, Bicester, Derby are booked at the moment, there may be more added later.

Do bear with me, I will be back up and running soon enough I am sure   :)

A walk around the Oxford colleges

We were in the beautiful City of Oxford a couple of weeks ago.   

Now, for those of you that don't know, we live in Carlisle, but Hubster is from "down South"  (Born in London, brought up in Abingdon, just outside of Oxford)

So, we do pop down there from time to time to visit relatives and friends, but as our time is quite limited we usually end up just visiting and have never really done the tourist thing of exploring such a beautiful place.

Until we popped in to see my friend Sandie.    

After a lovely home-made lunch and conversation, she was surprised to hear that I had never actually been into any of the colleges that are part of the University City of Oxford, so guess what?  we jumped on a bus and set off   :)

Sandie's son, Richard really knows his stuff about the area and was giving us a proper guided tour with loads of really interesting information.  I would suggest to anyone that getting a tour guide would be worth every penny as there is so much to find out about this wonderful place.

Now, do forgive (and correct) me if I get names and places wrong, I was clicking away and scribbling notes, so I am hoping that they all match up.

The first thing that amazed me was how you could go through a small wooden door, just off the high street, surrounded by retail and coffee shops, and walk into this amazing 'other land'.  A big square of green surrounded by beautiful buildings and huge 'chapels' that were more on the size of cathedrals!

How can this happen?  How can all this be just behind a high street?  

This is Exeter College.  I wanted to go into the chapel as I love old church buildings, but there was a wedding going on so we couldn't.   The wedding guests were very nicely dressed though  :)

Just look at those pointy arch windows, such a beautiful shape.

We walked back out onto the street and around, down and across (I have no sense of direction and I could never repeat the steps we took) to All Souls College and the Radcliffe Camera.  What an amazing building that is, I didn't get the best photo, but click on the link to see better ones.

Then it was onto the Bodleian Library - this place has SO many books as I believe I remember being told that it gets a copy of every book issued in the UK.   We didn't see the books (it was a very late afternoon trip out) but we stood in the room above them and imagined just how many books there were under our feet.

Look up, you will see that the ceiling is stunning, all hand-carved no doubt.

Some scenes in Harry Potter were filmed in this building. 

Back out into the rain where we passed the Bridge Of Sighs, which connects two parts of Hertford College.

Our last college to visit was Magdalen College - pronounced at "Maudlyn.

I couldn't resist snapping this beautiful stained glass piece.  I love stained glass.

It was getting dark outside now, so my photographs are not so good, but this was inside the chapel.

As was a copy of the Last Supper painting by Leonardto da Vinci.  This painting is HUGE, I am not sure if it is a size-for-size copy, but I didn't expect it to be quite so big.

I loved walking down these corridors and I learnt that they are called cloisters - isn't that a great name?  It means the covered walkways around the quad, which in this case is the pretty green grass in the centre.  I wanted to run through them singing songs from the Sound Of Music - for no particular reason.  But I resisted.

This is the view from the cloisters.

And we got to look inside the dinner hall, set for dinner.  Can you imagine all the scholars in their robes sitting their meals?  It's almost like stepping back in time, or into a film set.

Magdalen College also boasts a Deer Park, which happens to be featured on Trip Advisor as an attraction  :)

As you can see the weather was getting a bit pants at this point, but we did spot some deer sheltering under trees in the distance.

The final visit of the afternoon was a trip to the Ashmolean Museum to see the Egyptian exhibits - as I love that kind of thing   :)  Obviously, having been to the Cairo museum to see their offerings, nothing quite stands up to that experience, but it was a really good exhibit, and free entry, so if you are passing, do pop in.

And that was my trip to Oxford.  Maybe over the past few years we should have taken time out of our hectic visiting schedule to go and explore, but family and friends are a little more important. Pairing up the time with visiting friends and sight-seeing was a perfect alternative.

Thanks Sandie and Richard for your everlasting patience, sharing your knowledge, the wonderful food and hospitality and an amazing day.