Saturday, 23 March 2013

Crochet Daffodils

I wasn't sure what to get my mum for Mother's Day she's not easy to buy for. I remember as a kid I used to give her 3 daffodils every Mother's Day. However I don't live near my Mum anymore and wasn't going to see her on Mother's Day so couldn't get her any real daffodils.

After having a gander online for making daffodils I came across this great website http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/daffodils/. These daffodils are the best pattern I could find and a really good idea for Mother's Day or just a spring decoration. Not hard to make, if you can crochet in rounds with increases and decreases then you can do this. It did take longer than I expected. Worth it though.

Here's my effort:


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Thursday, 21 March 2013

DIY Orange Candle

I love candles but if I used them as much as I wanted it would cost quite a bit... However I heard you can make candle out of oranges so I gave it a go.

All you need is an orange, a knife, a spoon and any kind of cooking oil. Cut the top* 1/3 of the orange peel off, scoop out the orange fruit (eat this bit, waste not want not). When you scoop the fruit out do it gently as you dont want to break the peel or dislodge the stem. Fill up the orange with any king of cooking oil such as olive or vegetable oil to just under the top of the stem.  Make sure you dip the end of the stem into the oil for a few seconds to cover it just before you light it. It may take a few attempts to light but once lit it should last for 2 hours or more depending on the size of the orange.

*when I say top I mean top, not the bottom like I did on my first attempt...the shame. However I did sort of rectify it by placing the small top part with the stem into the bigger bottom part of the orange and filling that up with oil.

This is my first attempt (yes the one I did wrong) so excuse the roughness. Also take note of the amount of matchsticks next to it...patience is key!



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Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Ninja Amigurumi

A friend of mine asked me to make something for him for Christmas 2012, rocking my brains I could only think of one thing I could crochet him that was cool and he'd love.... A ninja. However looking all over the Internet I couldn't find a free pattern that I liked so this is my first attempt at making up a pattern.


This ninja took me a long time to do as I wasn't sure how to crochet my own pattern and I made the stitches really tight so that the white stuffing I used wouldn't be seen though the black. The 'sash' is pretty much a macramé bracelet made out of square knots with red yarn. 


To add to the ninjas side I found some very thin red wire and curled it up into a roll which I sewed onto the sash. I found various ninjas with a crochet ninja star but I hadn't got a clue how to make one of those and I like the look of the wire. 


To the back of the ninja I made a sword which I think looks cool. I was going to leave the sword unattached so he could take it out, but it would most probably get lost so I used a bit of thread and sewed it in place. 

After giving this to my friend for Christmas he proceeded with a plan to post it to my house (as we don't live near each other) without me knowing and for my boyfriend to leave it in a place where I'd randomly come across it, proper sneaky ninja style! 

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Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Snake Amigurumi

A friend of mine has a pet snake which bit her a while back so I decided to make her a snake which wouldn't bite...


Click here for the pattern

This pattern isn't too difficult, but I found it good as a practice. For the eyes I used very small dark brown coloured beads which I sewed in horizontally to make them look more like eyes.

I chose this colour because this is pretty similar to the colour of the snake that my friend has. I would post a picture of her snake but alas I do not have one.

I would suggest this pattern for the beginner chrocheters as its quite repetitive so good for practice but still fun to do and pretty cute.

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Monday, 4 March 2013

Baby Lamb Amigurumi

My next project again was slightly harder than the last but I thought I'd give it a go, and to be honest I couldn't resist.

Front: 


Back:


The pattern that I used can be found here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=155762.0#axzz2Mbdk2YL0

This little guy took me quite a while to make but it was interesting enough to do. Not a patch on the lamb in the link though. Sort of getting the hang of sewing at this point. I used buttons instead of the safety eyes again, but this time I quite like the look. The ears aren't exactly even but I think it adds to character! 

This one I gave  to a friend but I kind of have the urge to make one for me too! 

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Sunday, 3 March 2013

Angry bird Amigurumi

After finding out I really enjoyed making crochet mushrooms I decided to try something slightly more difficult. My friend loves Angry Birds and had just got her first car so Angry Bird car decoration anyone?



Find the pattern I used here: http://www.queeniechan.com/2011/11/24/angry-birds-free-crochet-pattern/


I didn't find this too difficult to make. The hardest part for me was sewing the bits onto the main body. But thats because I only started sewing at the same time as I started crocheting (yup a 23 year old who can't sew- shocking). So I just made the sewing up as I went along. Luckily it's sill in one piece!

The only difference that I made to the pattern is that I didn't have safety eyes so I tried making small black crochet circles which I thought looked a bit weird....I then decided to cover these up by sewing on black buttons. I think the safety eyes look better but having the patience to wait for things is not my forte, I just wanted to get it done. 

To make it into a rear view mirror hanging all I did was sew a bit of yarn through the top of the bird in a position so that the bird hung the way I wanted then tied it off leaving a loop. Done. 



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Beginner Crochet (Mario Mushroom)

I tend to jump straight into things, generally just to give myself a challenge. After not finding many projects that I wanted to macramé I started to look at crochet. I bought my first yarns and crochet hooks and got started. With no practice or ever doing anything like this before here's my first try.

Mario Mushroom Amigurumi:


The directions for this mushroom are here: http://wolfdreamer-oth.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/mario-brothers-mushrooms.html (I take no credit for this awesome pattern.) 

As you can see its not perfect and it did take me a few tries to get bits right, but for my first crochet I'm pretty pleased with it. Pleased enough to give it to my friend anyway and then make another!

I wouldn't recommend this as a first crochet project unless you have a lot of patience.

Update: As it turns out, I sewed the white stalk/stem on inside out, rookie mistake. 

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