She's a tad necky, but at least she's warm...

Seed-Stitch Cowl



She attacked like a knitted ninja...

Ok, lame, and talking about myself in the third person, but hey. This autumn, cowl neck scarves are the way forward -no loose ends dangling in your coffee, coming untwiddled in the wind and generally causing a level of 'how-to-tie-it' frustration not seen since pashmina's became a wardrobe staple. You just sling the blooming thing on, add some vintage broochery or rebellious badges proclaiming something important and go. They're also a brilliant starter project for novice knitters -big wool, big needles, straight edges and quick. Have a go!

Crafty Cupcakes...

I'd never done this before -and best friend was turning a certain age, and after another certain age, nobody makes you birthday cake (I think because they assume you just make it yourself?!). So, I made some Red Velvet cupcakes (that I could do), bought some sugar paste and spent a happy morning modelling things to go on top. 

It would be fair to say that I ate quite a lot of mistakes, but with some trusty cocktail sticks and judicious use of the fridge to set stuff as I went along, I ended up with something quite cute. A little practise and I might just get there!

National Wear a Tea Cosy on Your Head Day!

Clearly gone for the turned back inner trim reveal...classy...

Another one of the plethora of reasons I love being British and thoroughly non-sensical! Today is the day to don a tea cosy on your head and smile...It really is, honestly... Led by The White Company we are all being encouraged to display our inner tea pot for charity. Check out their website for competitions, more information about the charities that they support and how you can make a donation (and an idiot out of yourself).

Should you scandalously be lacking in the tea cosy department (shame on you!), or even worse, have never made tea in a tea pot, follow some simple steps to whip up your own...

1. Get yourself to a charity shop and purchase a tea pot. Check particularly for spout cracks as this can significantly effect the pour!
2. Gather two types of fabric (one inner and one outer), sewing machine and notions, and either some wadding (toy stuffing or patchwork wadding will do) or even an old fleecy blanket that you are done with. Anything insulating will do...ok, draw the line at anything sold in trade shops meant for lofts.
3. Draw on a piece of newspaper a semi-circle around your teapot allowing half an inch (or 2.5cm) seam allowance. Cut this out.

A little applique madam?

4. Using your ad-hoc pattern, pin and cut out two inners, outers and paddings.
5. Make a sandwich with your layers: inner, wadding, outer, outer, wadding inner.
6. Turn over and sew the base seams of each half sarnie (you can zig-zag the edges if this is tricky, or add contrast bias binding if feeling flash!).
7. Sew all of the top semi-circle of the sandwich together and turn right way out.
8. Voila! Make tea (you are seriously on your own there, I'm not about to get into an argument about pot warming or milk in first).

Obviously, this is a SUPER-basic concept -the more experienced stitchers amongst you will be able to get smart with hidden seams, add some applique and a tag. But I would rather all houses had a pot and cosy than none at all!x

The Brilliance of Caravans...

I accept that a) it's clearly the wrong time of year, b) this reflects my further intellectual demise into mashed potato head and c) will only appeal to a 'niche' audience, but crikey, I really like vintage caravans. My hope is to one day own a shiny airstream of my own as an office/workshop, where I can basically hide with balls of wool and eat cake. So in the interests of caravan related therapy, my name is Jen, I'm a caravan-a-holic and here are some lovely beauties to share!

If like me your budget can't quite stretch to the whole airstream ownership thing just yet, do what we did and spend a soggy weekend in a borrowed one on the Isle of Wight via Vintage Vacations...Simply fab.

Marvellous Muzzies...

or, how to make mopping up baby puke slightly more attractive...

I've been going through my old baby stuff and washing up the salvageable bits for this one...and came across a stack of grey, depressing muslins. Functionally, there's nothing wrong with them and I can't really justify binning them all on account of their pallor (if that rule applied to people, I'd have been on the scrap heap years ago), so I needed a plan...

I used Dylon Cold Water Dye tins and followed(ish) the instructions on the packet. It's bloomin' easy to change the colour of muslin given that it's such a basic cloth. If you buy new ones and want to cheer them up/ personalise them as a gift, wash them on a hot cycle first to remove any of the manufacturers finish on the fabric, then dye.

Then, on a plain piece of cotton, I drew out eight 6cm x 6cm squares (making a card template first helped). Make sure you leave enough of a gap around each one to cut and turn the edges when you applique to the muslin. After practising some line sketches, I decided upon 8 designs and embroidered onto the squares -keep it simple and make sure all your loose ends are neatly tied in to prevent little fingers unpicking them!

 Once the muslins were dry, ironed and I had finished stitching, trim out your squares and applique to the cloth. Here, you can either iron all the edges over first, use some Bondaweb to secure your patch or just turn the hem as you go. All depends on the time and skill you have really. A final running stitch finishes them off neatly. Job done! Can't stop your kid puking, but can make wiping up the mess slightly more glam.

The big crochet flower swap!

Pretty Primroses...

Ever wondered how to ensure you get sent some flowers (short of sending them to yourself?) whilst keeping the elephant of surprise? ... The Making Spot have given us until the 28th September to send in a crochet flower with an SAE, and they'll pop one in the post by way of return. Bloomin' lovely is what I say!

Send your offering to: Crochet Along, The Making Spot, Future Publishing, Bath, BA1 2BW making sure to enclose a self addressed and stamped envelope.

Spikes and Ears (aka. Hats and Maths #2)

So the gremlin declared he needed a 'Gruffalo' hat...This book features highly in our house and I though, ok, give it a whirl. Sized up the baby hat recipe and added spikes and ears -Beaton-Bodged instructions below!!

Ears:
You will need -Smallish crochet hook (mine's a size 4) and two tonal colours unless they're alien ears in which case, clash away.
1. 4 ch, join into a ring with a sl st.
2. 2 ch, 9dc into ring, join with a sl st.
3. 3 sc, 2dc into next 3 dc, 3sc, join with sl st.
4. 3sc, 2dc into next 6 dc, 3sc, join with sl st.
5. Change colour, 3sc, 2dc into next 12 dc, 3sc, join with sl st.
6. Complete a row of dc into every stitch, join and fasten off.

(should look like a big teardrop shape. I found it helped to keep the original casting on thread at the bottom to help with the tension -the yarn's not mine).

Spikes:
You will need -Smallish crochet hook (mine's a size 4) and a variety of spikey colours...
1. 4 ch, join into a ring with a sl st.
2. 2 ch, 7dc into ring, join with sl st. (If you want a fatter spike, increase steps 1 and 2. You might need a touch of toy stuffing to keep the spike spikey on the finished product if you want fat spikes...)
3. Spiral up working a dc into each dc (basically keep going until you're happy that the chunky base bit of your spike is big enough).
4. To work to a point, work 1dc into every other dc until you run out! If you want a more gradiated spike, miss out every third dc to start with, then cut down to ever other. Basically experiment until you get the effect you want.
5. Sl st to fasten off, with a yarn needle, thread loose end down to base and secure. If you want a curve in your spike, fasten down the thread more tightly.

Campaign to reintroduce cake fork usage...

An intriguing gift but bloomin' useful!

Birthdays can be quite nice even if it is bloomin' hot, you're bloomin' pregnant and have reached bloomin' 31! Many thanks to my little man who makes an excellent tea date when his Dad is at work, Aimee and her little chap who made up a nice foursome and Southill Village Stores and Tea rooms which has an excellent range of vintage crockery, exceptional portions of cake and the lovely manners to serve the aforementioned cake with cake forks. I went to bed happy.

Leafy Prints...

IKEA clips

This started out as a project with Sam on a Wednesday but turned out far better than expected and still has my fingers twitching to carry on and experiment, so main page it is. We went to the woods at Rowney Warren, ostensibly to hunt the Gruffalo (there had been rumoured sightings amongst three year olds in the area). These woods are ace as they have lots of shelters made by highly enthusiastic Scouts or army personnel from the camps nearby that the Gruffalo could feasibly live in.

The owls are just about visible!

We collected some oak leaves and some ferns, and when we brought them home, splodged a whole heap of acrylic paint on them. You could use fabric paint for a permanent finish, but this was all I had at the time! We then pressed them onto plain white cotton and smudged it up a bit with our fingers. Yes, it's messy and not the usual neat and tidy finish I'd go for, but I have to admit it works.

After it dried I made it up into a cushion cover for Sam's bed -combined with some excellent bed linen (owls and spider's webs) I found in IKEA and some dinky little owl clips that now cling to his lion and the curtain it all looks a bit autumnal and foresty. I've also saved the dried out leaves to make a mobile as they've gone all shiny and stuff and I figure with some wire, beads and twigs we could have a whole forest canopy thing going on. Happy days.

Back to School -Jar Socks!

No, it's not a toddler friendly form of swearing...Jar Socks are crafty ways to make pencil pots far more interesting and house-friendly, particularly if you have to give over kitchen table space for kids homework but can't stand having the yucky neon plastic of kiddie pen tubs out on your sideboard. Pretty easy to make too (assuming some rudimentary crochet knowledge and the ability to bodge), they can be adapted for make-up brushes, button jars, jewellery pots, key stores or pretty much anything with a couple of badges, a vintage brooch or some buttons.

You will need:

Crochet hook - I used a size 4, but shrink/enlarge depending on your yarn;

Couldn't resist a diddy one...

Scraps of DK yarn -don't go and buy a whole ball for this, odds and ends are great if you like stripes;
Scissors
Darning needle for loose ends
A selection of jam jars

The basic idea:
You have to think in 3D and imagine you are making one of those coil-type pots at school from clay...just with wool.

Start with a basic granny square principle: Ch 5, join with a slip stitch then ch 3. Treble 2, ch 2, treble 3, ch2, treble 3, ch2, treble 3, ch2 and join with slip stitch. Slipstitch along 2 until you reach the corner gap, then ch 3. Treble 2, ch 2, treble 3 ch2 and repeat until you have 8 clusters of trebles and a granny square. Join with a slip stitch.

Then start movin' on up: Ch2, complete a circle of double crochet around in each stitch, then join with slip stitch and repeat at least twice. Then I moved onto rows of trebles -make sure you ch3 at the start and join back at the top to keep your rows even and not spirally. Keep measuring against your jar for height as you go along. When the jar tapered in, I made 4 evenly spaced sneaky decreases in each row to ensure that the finished product would 'grip' the jar (no-one likes Nora Battie Jar Socks).

Up and over: When you are approaching the top, switch back to double crochet rows as this holds things together more snuggly. Think of this bit like a roll neck sweater -you need to create a roll over that holds everything in place. You can either switch colours to make a contrast neck or keep the same, but either way, another set of sneaky decreases are called for (especially if your tension is pretty loose). Four rows should create a snug neck, go crazy with more if you want your jar to slouch.

Neat and tidy: Sew in your loose ends snuggly and add buttons, badges, even a small school tie if you are so inclined. Insert Jar, feel smug and fill up with stationary (preferably fresh out of the packet).

Now on to the algebra...