The Easter Bonnet

At the beginning of term my son came home from Preschool with a newsletter detailing all the activities for the next couple of months. I diligently wrote all the events down on our calendar and subsequently forgot all about them. Luckily a week before the event the preschool sent home a reminder that they were having an Easter parade and activities day on the Monday before the end of term- and that each child would require a handmade Easter Bonnet.

During some moment of madness and over-ambitious appraisal of my own skills I decided to put myself forward for the title of "Crafty mum that took it too far" and crochet the items for his Easter Bonnet. With one week to go.

I started with the eggs. This was my first go at 'amigurumi' The Japanese art of creating stuffed toys or objects with crochet or knitting. I followed some tutorials on YouTube and within an evening I had created 4 small eggs. There's something very satisfying about getting it right first time and my confidence lead me to start searching for more Easter related patterns.

Next came the bunnies- these are so cute and still quite simple to make. After the first one was born from my hook it was immediately claimed by my son who has a penchant for the furry lop-eared creatures. It wasn't easy to remove it from him to attach it to the hat! The finishing touch on the bunnies was the little pom pom tail!

After this I just went a little mad, I made chicks, daffodils, more eggs, flowers and a chick applique. I was constantly wondering if I had enough, then just making a couple more to be sure. I even managed a couple of baskets to hold a Cadbury's Crème Egg each!

The hat was actually purchased from Home Bargains for the grand sum of 99p, I'd decided from quite early on that I wasn't going to crochet the hat too- far too much work on top of what I was already doing and I was working to a deadline.

The most fiddly and difficult part of the whole project was sewing everything on. I've said before that sewing isn't my thing, and I spent my whole Sunday evening before the parade cursing and swearing and sucking on my poor injured fingers every time I stabbed myself with the sodding needle. I had to leave the egg baskets off in the end as they were just too heavy, the rim of the hat kept collapsing under their weight.

The next morning I anticipated my sons reaction to the hat like a child waiting for Christmas morning. I imagined him squealing with excitement that he would get to be the one in the best hat, parading it around for everyone to see. Unfortunately I am not the mother of such a child and "I not want hat- Get it off" was not the reaction I had hoped for.
Luckily once the other children started the parade with their own hats, he decided he would quite like to join in.

Maybe when he's older (and has worn the hat to every parade for the next five years) he will appreciate just how much work went into it. Maybe :)

Berni xxx

Baby blue corner to corner

For a while I've been wanting to try a corner to corner blanket. It's naming comes from the fact that you start your stitches in one corner and increase its size to the desired width. Then you decrease each row until you end up at the opposite corner. It produces a lovely diagonal striped affect which can be created by changing colours or by using variegated yarn.

Some good friends of ours are due a baby boy at the end of March, so this was the perfect opportunity to create them a gift for his impending arrival. I have to admit that I chose my colours based on what I had in my stash. Stylecraft comes in many shades of blue and I chose these 7 as I felt they complimented each other: Aster, Cloud Blue, Denim, Sherbet, Storm blue, Petrol and Turquoise.

 

The pattern works up reasonably quickly and before long I was considering the border. I cannot claim any credit for the design as it was the creation of a lady called Heather over at The Patchwork heart blog. She calls it geometric edging to compliment the mathematical nature of this blankets design. Here's a link to her instructions: The Patchwork Heart Corner to Corner.

Once the blanket was complete I felt it needed a little something extra to make it a suitable gift, so I whipped up a little newborn sized hat to match. I love how quick and easy these are to make and was able to finish it while my own little one had a nap. I used the same colours as the border of the blanket- Storm Blue, Turquoise and Sherbet.

 

The finishing touch was one of my new labels! I had these made by a company called Label-on. They're not much fun to sew in but I think they complete the project. I had the washing instructions printed on the rear to make it much easier for the new owner to care for it.

 

 

I do hope the little bundle enjoys snuggling under this as much as I enjoyed making it. It's a pleasure to create things for babies, hopefully he won't keep his parents waiting too much longer before he's welcomed into the world.

 

 

 

 



 



Thanks for reading, my next project isn't far from finishing so I'll be back again soon

Berni xx

The Rainbow Ripple

I'm a naughty mummy. From the moment I finished Aria's blanket (see previous post) I have been promising my son Blake a blanket for his bed. That was five months ago and that's why I'm naughty mummy. I will use the excuse that I had a few other things in the pipeline and then we had Christmas which kept me busy making gifts, so as soon as the January pay packet landed I put a yarn order in and set to work.

I did however use those five months to ponder over what to make him. There are so many beautiful designs out there and so many wonderful colours to choose from. Sometimes starting with a blank canvas can be daunting, so I went to my client and asked him what he would like. This wasn't actually the mistake it could have been as he's only three and some three year olds can have very vivid imaginations!

I started with a simple question and the conversation went like this-
"What's your favourite colour Blake?"
"Red"
Great, something with red, maybe some thing complimentary like grey... "and Blue" ok ok, I can do blue too, that's not a problem "and Green" Green too huh? Maybe a patchwork of three main colours could work "and Yellow and Orange and Purple and Pink and" STOP.

I thought for a moment as an idea began to form in my mind.

"Blake- Is your favourite colour Rainbow?"
"YES!!!" Cue renditions of the rainybow song from episodes of Bing Bunny (Non mummies of toddlers I tried to find it on youtube but you've been spared)

So rainbow colours it was, but I still had the pattern to think about and I didn't think asking a three year old if he preferred a half treble stripe over chevrons was going to end well. I pondered over granny squares, stripes and even a corner to corner - it very nearly was a corner to corner, but I eventually settled on another ripple.

Picking the colours was a little more difficult this time and I changed my mind several times before placing my order. I wanted to use more than just seven colours and felt it would have a nicer effect if I could have at least two shades of each colour required to make it flow. I spent a lot of time looking up rainbow designs on Pintrest before I picked out the final 13:

Lipstick, Spice, Sunshine, Citron, Spring Green, Bright Green, Aspen, Turquoise, Aster, Lavender, Violet, Magenta and Boysenberry.

I was determined to use bright green in there as I bought a ball of that ages ago and wanted to use it. If I'm totally honest I think I should have used that as the lighter green and used something more 'Grassy' instead of the Spring Green. We're all our own worst critics right?

Once my yarn arrived I set to work. I love how easy the rows of a ripple are made but have to admit that I made several mistakes while tired or after too much wine and had frog it back to put it right (Note- to Frog is to Rippit Rippit, its a legitimate crochet term I swear) the problem with a ripple is there is nowhere for mistakes to hide.

It was also stolen off me on a regular basis for sofa snuggles which slowed my progress somewhat!

 

 

 

I have to admit that it was an absolute pleasure to make, its colour therapy in its most concentrated form. I found it quite easy to spend each evening gleefully completing each row just so I could start on the next colour and it kept me lovely and warm as it got bigger. I even worked on it in bed one night and left it on the bed until morning so I could enjoy it's warmth.

 

After just 3.5 weeks it was done, and I couldn't wait to lay it out to see it in it's full colourful glory. 

 

 

Yes- that is a racing car bed, what toddler wouldn't want to sleep in that?

I should also mention that in our house, blankets are akin to empty cardboard boxes- as soon as you place one down it's cat magnet is activated.

 

 

My girls especially like to have a good rub on a laid out piece of crochet, so if I making something for somebody else I'm careful not to leave it unattended!

 

 

I love how the colours just seem to run into one another here, just like in a real rainbow!

 

So its all done, I have fulfilled my promise of a blanket for the boys bed. I hope he grows to appreciate the love that is stitched into every row and I hope it will keep him warm for many years to come. If he should ever decide that he's too big or too cool for a bright rainbow creation, Aria already has her eye on it!

 

Here's the sniffly little monkey getting some use out of it "I not very well, I need rainbow blanket and bunny"

 

 

 

Thank you for reading, hope to see you again soon!

 

Berni x

 



 

The growing up blanket

Shortly after my daughter Aria was born I had the urge to make her another blanket. We chose not to find out the sex while I was pregnant, and I wouldn't change that amazing feeling when she was born for the world, but it did of course mean that the blankets I had made for her arrival were gender neutral. I wanted to make a girly blanket.
She already had plenty of car seat, pram and cot sized blankets so I started to think towards something bigger, and the idea for the Growing Up Blanket was formed. I wanted to make something suitable for covering her bed as she grew up. Something she could lay on the sofa with to watch films or when she is poorly. Something she would take to university and her friends will ask where she got her beautiful vintage afghan from (warm and fuzzy feeling building again!)

I knew immediately that I wanted to make sunburst granny squares as they just scream girly, pretty floral thoughts to me, so the next big decision was colours. This was actually really easy as I just picked my favourite pinks and purples out. I went with Candyfloss, Fondant, Clematis, Raspberry, Magenta, Plum, Wisteria and Violet. I decided to edge with cream to allow the colours to shine.

I had no idea at the beginning just how long this was going to take me and just how much yarn it would use. I started shortly after Aria's birth and it was complete when she was 4 months old.

I ordered 3 balls of the cream for the joining and used 7 in total! I was quite inexperienced at this point and have gone up a very steep learning curve since. Each square is made of 4 rounds and I tried to make every single one different. When I was joining them together I discovered I had one duplicate and this irritated me somewhat, but not enough to redo it.

For the border I decided upon the block stitch as I felt it gave a nice finish with distracting from the main pattern. If you stare at it for too long it starts to play tricks with your eyes.

As mentioned in previous posts my choice of yarn is Stylecraft Special DK. Every week the Stylecraft Facebook page hold a spotlight called Clevercrafters#, where they invite people to send in pictures and details of their makes and they choose 5 of those projects to feature on their page.
Shortly after completing this blanket I sent them some photos and a brief story about it and it was the first project they showcased that week! I was beaming with pride as so many talented people send things in each week, they sometimes have hundreds of entries. For them to pick my work was such a confidence booster.

At the time of writing this Aria is 9 months old and has been using her blanket every day. She takes her naps under it and it sits folded at the end of her cot when not in use. It has been subjected to the usual baby bodily fluids and has washed well!

I do of course have two children, and as any parent will know- you cant give to one and not the other right? My Son Blake has a blanket on my hook right now, and I'm hoping to have it completed in time for next weeks post.

Take care and thanks for reading

Berni x