Age UK Big Knit - Free Crochet Pattern

Whilst I was away, I had some time to make a few little crochet hats for the Age UK Big Knit, which you have probably heard of or seen the little hats on bottles of Innocent Smoothies. Just incase you haven't heard of this, it raises money for Age UK, with 25p per bottle sold with a hat on donated to them. For all the details and more advanced patterns (mostly knit ones) check out their website HERE, and also the Age UK one HERE.

The pattern I am going to be sharing is for one of these simple little crochet hats :)

You will need -
6mm hook
Chunky yarn (not much, they're tiny!)

This is in UK crochet terms, substitute dc for sc if a US reader :)

Inc = Increase

I will write the details for the red/white striped ones, for a plain one just ignore the colour changes.

1) 5 dc in a magic ring   (5)
2) Inc round                  (10)
3) [dc, Inc] round          (15)  
Change colours here, I pull the last loop of the round through with the new colour
4) dc round                    (15)
5) dc round                    (15)
Change colours here
6) dc round                     (15)
7) dc round                     (15)
Change colours again
8) dc round                      (15)
Finish off - I usually do a slip stitch then a knot.
Cut off ends and weave tails in.

And you're done! I think I will add a few pom poms to mine, but they look cute without too.

Enjoy!

Completed Puppycat - With Free Pattern Alterations

At the beginning of the week I finally finished my giant Puppycat!
Isn't he a beaut?!

Well the cat is still suspicious...Or jealous....

As you can see from this bad picture taken when he was just finished, he was sitting a little bit taller, but over the past few days the weight of his head has caused him to sag and I don't think there is much I can do about that - although if anyone does have any anti-sagging tips I would love it if you could let me know! I plan to make more giant crochets in the future, they're so much fun!

As you can see I made a few alterations to Twinkie Chan's pattern, because he is so big, I decided to put his back legs into a different position to aid sitting, and I also stitched his tail to the body because I couldn't get it to bend correctly and thought this was a good alternative. It isn't obvious but I also added an extra increase into the body.
This was my inspiration moment -

So here are my pattern alterations, which can be used on a regular sized Puppycat too. The only difference between the two sizes is that  I used a 7.0 mm hook, and crocheted 3 strands of dk weight yarn all at the same time like a super size yarn.

BODY ALTERATIONS
**American terms used here to follow with Twinkie Chan's original pattern and avoid confusion**
Follow rounds 1-9 as per Twinkie's pattern for the head.

10) [Sc 8, inc] round   (70)
11) [Sc 9, inc] round   (77)
12 -16) Sc round         (77)
17) [Sc 9, dec] round  (70)
18-20) Sc round          (70)
21) [Sc 7, dec] round  (63)
22) Sc round               (63)
23) [Sc 7, dec] round  (56)
24-26) Sc round          (56)
27) [Sc 6, dec] round  (49)
28-29) Sc round          (49)
30) [Sc 5, dec] round  (42)
31) [Sc 4, dec] round  (35)

Finish off with a slip stitch and knot, I used the tail from the head to attach the head to the body so no need to leave a long tail here. Stuffing at the end is fine if you are making the large version, if making the regular one, I would stuff before the hole gets too small - use your own judgement on this one :)

BACK LEGS

These are made in two parts, the circular part that is lightly stuffed and sewn onto the sides, and the foot part which is stuffed halfway and attached underneath.

The circle bit, make 2 -

1) Sc 7 into a magic ring (7)
2) inc round                     (14)
3) [Sc, inc] round            (21)
4) [Sc 2, inc] round         (28)
5) [Sc 3, inc] round         (35)
6) [Sc 4, inc] round         (42)
7) Sc round in blo (back loops only) (42)

finish off as before, leave a long tail for sewing onto sides of body.

The foot bit, make 2 - 1) In brown Sc 4 in magic ring (4)
2) inc round                              (8)
3) [Sc, inc] round                     (12)
4) [Sc 2, inc] round                  (16)
5-6) Sc round                           (16)
7) In white Sc round                (16)
8) Sc round                              (16)
9) [Sc 2. dec] round                 (12)
10-13) Sc round                       (12)
14) [Sc, dec] round                  (8)
15-16) Sc round                       (8)

finish off, leaving a long tail. Again, if making the regular size, start stuffing the feet after round 13 whilst you can still jam it in is best.


BELL1) in goldish yellow Sc 6 in a magic ring (6)
2) inc round                                               (12)
3) [Sc, inc] round                                      (18)
4-5) Sc round                                            (18)
6) [Sc, dec] round                                     (12)
**Stuff bell here**
7) dec round                                              (6)

Finish off, Leave a long tail for sewing on, and thread it through the loops of the last 6 stitches to ensure it stays closed. Cut two slim strips and 4 small circles from black felt and stitch/glue on to make the ball look like a bell. Either attach to collar, or slip a couple of stitches into the body like I did to secure it firmly. I have a cat who could spot a loose looking bell at 100 paces and would proceed to steal it, hence the extra stitches!

As usual, if there are any queries, do not hesitate to ask in the comments :)
Obviously I do not own the rights to Puppycat and this pattern alteration is not to be made to sell either as a pattern or as a completed toy.

So, is anyone going to take on the giant crochet challenge?! The only problem is where to keep him, at the moment he is guardian of the front room book depository (every time we buy a new bookshelf it gets filled up immediately and an even bigger pile seems to amass on the floor...until we move there is no more room for bookshelves, not that it stops us buying more books!).

If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands....

*clap clap!*

I'm making a Puppycat.... a rather large Puppycat!
My own lack of foresight meant that a cat which is about 30cm in size in the original pattern made by the amazing Twinkie Chan, is now err bigger.... Who knows how big he will be in the end!

Sense told me to frog him and go smaller, insanity said (and i hate these silly phrases but it is the most appropriate thing here) F*** it - YOLO!
  
Stay tuned for the finished project (when I buy the whole of Lincoln out of white yarn!) and maybe I will make a little aubergine or Peon to go with him too!

Ghostbusters Egon Amigurumi

This post has been sitting in my drafts for almost a year now, and I never expected the prompt for posting it would be the sad death of Harold Ramis :(
Egon is what my other half calls me when I wear my hair up in a rockabillly bouffant style, I forget normality sometimes and it can get a bit tall! Like smuggling kittens in it tall!

This was made in 2012 (yep, that long ago!) as a birthday gift.
He was easy to make, I just did a basic head, body and stumpy arms. The hair has a piece of foam inside to make it bouffant. To be honest the hair isn't very good but live and learn hey?!

From the back you can see I made the world's most basic proton pack, namely a rectangle with a little hose coming off it!

If there are requests I will dig out the pattern I made, but I think if you make ami's it is fairly self explanatory!

Russian Doll Tea Cosy

This is the first of my two entries to a local tea cosy competition, it is a crochet babushka/ matryoshka/ Russian doll (whichever term you like best!) cosy.

It was fairly quick to make, however, I was unaware that the deadline for this was being extended so I rushed the embroidery and am fairly disappointed by it.

It is based upon THIS pattern over at I'd Like To Be Original. When I made up the pattern as instructed it was huge so I adjusted it to be smaller. It is probably just me not checking tension or something, but it is easy enough to scale down.

I got to enter two cosies to the competition because of a low amount of participants, I won't have a picture of my other one until I go and collect them from the cafe at the weekend.

Any one else out there with the tea cosy bug?

Twinkie Chan's Radish Amigurumi

Hello folks!

I'm sure everyone has heard of the crochet genius that is Twinkie Chan? Well if not you are missing out!

I brought her awesome book "Crochet goodies for fashion foodies" and wanted to make something very quickly to satisfy my need to crochet. So I made a variation on her radish scarf, to be a cat toy. The radish body is the same, I just didn't make the leaves as long.

It is stuffed with a carrier bag and the eyes are just sewn on with some embroidery floss.

I only wish that I had made the leaves a little bit longer so that when I am playing with the cat she doesn't get quite so close to my fingers!

Awww.... she's so adorable! I totally did not just sneak the radish in there for a photo op......

....but it sure does look cuter than when she is trying to  kill it!

Has anyone else made a Twinkie Chan pattern?

Extra Slouchy Beanie Hat Crochet Pattern

When I was making the hats and scarves for the homeless I ended up making not one, but two beanie hat patterns. This was the first, a VERY slouchy beanie! I have got all my hair tucked up in the bottom of the hat and anyone who knows me will tell you I have a LOT of hair!

You can get a better idea about the size of this hat by the silly pic I took when I was messing about!

Anyway, enough tomfoolery, here is the pattern! I used regular DK wool, it takes around 50g of wool and I used a 4mm hook.
The pattern is written using UK terms and hopefully the way I like to set out my patterns will be easy for everyone to follow. Any problems then just leave me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
DC = Double Crochet, INC = Increase, rnd = round, TR = Treble crochet, DEC = Decrease, numbers in brackets are the total number of stitches.

1) DC 5 in magic ring                                        (5)
2) INC rnd                                                         (10)
3) INC rnd                                                         (20)
4) (TR, INC) rnd                                               (30)
5) (TR 2, INC) rnd                                            (40)
6) (TR 3, INC) rnd                                            (50)
7) (TR 4, INC) rnd                                            (60)
8) (TR 5, INC) rnd                                            (70)
9) (TR 6, INC) rnd                                            (80)
10) (TR 7, INC) rnd                                          (90)
11 - 16) TR rnd                                                 (90)
17) (TR 7, DEC) rnd                                         (80)
18) (TR 6, DEC) rnd,                                        (70)
Slip stitch x 2 then finish off, weave in the loose end.

Enjoy! Again, if there are any problems let me know! I am also interested in how other people find reading patterns the way I set them out so give me some feedback please folks!

P.S. I am a big fat liar, I actually made three beanie patterns, one was just for me though!






Linked up to - Wicked Awesome Wednesday @ Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Think Pink Sunday @ Flamingo Toes

Did You Ever See A Llama....

....Kiss a llama, on the llama, llama's llama, taste of llama, llama llama duck.......

When I was in my teens (which feel like a rather long time ago!) I was a little obsessed with that wonderful gem about llamas, and with llamas in general. Now I have aged, the song is quite clearly annoying but my love for llamas is still there. Although I prefer alpacas and wish to smush my face into their soft fuzzy bodies!

But I digress, I took an exam back in June (Which I passed thank frick!) and as a celebration I decided to make a crochet llama as I saw a pattern on Pinterest. As you do. However I had also just brought a 9mm crochet hook which I was itching to use. The logical result of this was to make a GIANT LLAMA! I didn't have any super bulky wool so I just used 2 balls of cream DK and a ball of cream aran all at the same time, and with the brown yarn I just cut three lengths off to use simultaneously. So after a little bit of hooking I ended up with this beautiful bad boy!

He stands around 19" tall! How awesome is that?! I sewed his legs on a bit dodgily, but he still stands up so I haven't bothered to change them, if I make another one I will just be more mindful of the placement.

If you would like to make your own regular or giant llama toy, the pattern can be found HERE at crochet_goods.
If you do make one then I would love to see it, link me up in the comments!

Foxy Lady!

Hey guys!
I thought I would share with you a project that was initially conceived over 2 years ago but only completed last autumn!

Meet my fantastic dead fox scarf!

He is very long and his paws have little bags of rice in to make them hang properly, although the wind does like to pick them up and swing them right in my face...

I love his tongue the best!
He is crocheted with a double layer so he is super cosy, perfect for the extended winter we have just suffered here in England. I wish I had the foresight to make part of his face cream as well but I tend not to overly plan what I want to make as I am a bit impatient with things like that.

In typical fashion when I came up with this idea I had a look around the internets and found nothing. Since then these style scarves are everywhere. Moral of the story - Don't take so bloody long making things! Although the length of this bad boy meant that even a hardened crocheter would have struggled to crank it out quickly even if they weren't so lazy about it!

Has any one else made any funky scarves? Be sure to link 'em up below if you have!

Totoro Tote Bag!

One night when I was feeling super blue and was unable to sleep, I decided to be pro-active and crochet up this cheeky little fellow! I didn't use a pattern (and unfortunately I was not in the right frame of mind to have even thought to write down what I did) but it was a straight forward double crochet (US single crochet) extended oval base and then rounds of treble crochet (US double crochet) until I reached the desired height. I used treble crochet for two long straps. I appliqued the eyes, nose and belly (with yarn used to make the little arrow bits) using felt. The bag is also lined using scrap t-shirt fabric. I keep meaning to make him some whiskers so the poor people who have no knowledge of this magnificent beast stop thinking he's an owl.

What a cutie!

Get A Life!

Just a quickie here ;) I found what I like to call "Mario green" wool and whipped up a 1up mushroom to add to the growing collection of Mario crochet. Pattern is the same as the one used here.

New Mario crochet!

Finally I can blog about these bad boys! As they were gifts I couldn't risk putting them on here in case they were seen and the surprise ruined!

First up is my version of a big Bob-omb, saw him on a google image search and fell in love with the moustachio!!

 

Big Bob-omb is about 9 inches tall at a guess without including his fuse. I actually used a mixture of patterns and genius to make him, the main part of the body was from this King Boo tutorial from the delightful Wolfdreamer OTH, and the rest was made using the normal Bob-omb tutorial which I have previously made here, as a rough guide and guesstimating it to fit the dimensions required!

I was supposed to make him a crown (found on the King Boo tutorial) but it kind of didn't happen!

I also made a Boo from the King Boo pattern but decided to stick to the non-regal variety.

I used felt and some scrap white fleece for the mouth, the eyes were done using a tulip pen as I'm not too good with the embroidery on stuffed toys. 

Finally I made a Luma (the star....yes I know it looks like a spiky tear drop but just go with me!) which is pretty cute. Wish it was a beanie (or in my case a popcornie as I'm not buying expensive poly pellets when the corns do the same thing) but the little legs wouldn't have coped with the weight.

The Luma also came from Wolfdreamer, it can be found here.

I think if I did it again the arms and legs could do with a few extra rows to make them bigger as mine did not come out the same as the pictured one on the tutorial!


There are a few other "easy" Mario tutorials I'm going to do before trying the hard stuff!
We were getting a little silly and ambitious last night dreaming up an entirely crocheted Mario world and doing crazy things like a rideable sized Yoshi! It would be cool but my wrists would probably give up entirely and err.... crochet hooks are kinda small.....and I don't have a million hours to commit to it at the moment! Perhaps one day!

Slippers!

I guess these are a little out of season but I crocheted some slippers! They are in fact bright cherry red not pink as they appear here. I started off with a pattern for Mary-Jane style slippers but as I crocheted them up it became apparent that the pattern was wrong! Or some unknown weird thing was happening.....

Anyway, I ended up unravelling the whole thing and made up my own pattern - yay! I wanted a more ballet pump look to them anyway so making my own pattern was the perfect thing to do, I'm proud of myself for taking the plunge rather then consulting the internet for a different pattern.

 

I plan to make more of these to sell at an event I will hopefully be doing, there will be ones the same as above, black ones with a red trim and a cherry motif on the toes, navy blue ones with pink trim and a flamingo motif and finally pink ones with a navy blue trim and either  navy polka dots or a navy rose. I haven't decided which yet! The event is in September so slippers will be more appropriate, they're super cozy!

One for the boys....

Mario crochet toys!!

A mushroom to make you grow bigger and a bombomb :D

Here's the mushroom next to Colin to give you an idea of scale, they didn't take very long, about an hour and a bit each so when I get some more yarn I'm going to make more mushrooms (green, yellow with red spots and a purple one, all my fellow geeks will know what they do!) and create my own Mario universe! Will eventually make the main characters but they're a bit more advanced than the level I'm at now.

The bombomb even has his own little key detail as well!

I got the patterns for the bombomb here, and the mushroom here.

I did alter the mushroom pattern by adding a few extra rows for the stalk/face part.

Prototype Rockabilly Amigurumi

Okay, this is what I got up to last night! I know I should have been finishing things but when an idea hits you, you've gotta go with it!
This is only a prototype of a design I made up, just wanted to test out various things such as hair (which previous to this I have never made) and lips.
Below is the front view, everything is a little bit wonky but I would sort this out on further versions.

The picture below shows the side view, I know the head placement is a little off. The polka dot pattern is made up with sewn on beads, perhaps when I am an expert crocheter I will know how to incorporate this pattern with the yarn alone, however as a beginner the beading suits me fine!

Last but not least, a close up of the face! I wish I could style my hair into such a magnificent pomp/bouffant but realistically speaking it would be about 6-8 inches tall! And a 2 inch one looks plenty tall enough whilst not getting weird looks in the street!
I think I will need to use some slightly larger eyes, had to use what I had in my stash though as it was late and I'm trying not to spend money on new things when I have enough stuff downstairs to open my own craft shop!
The lip shape could also use a bit of work but for a first attempt it isn't too bad!

The stitching joining the head to the body is also visible, obviously if it was one for sale I would put more effort into making it as invisible as possible.
I think that the next one I make will have to have more hair to go round the face and an additional strip of hair placed behind the pomp as when the hair is elevated it shows through to the white of the head.

But overall, I'm well proud of this! Hard to believe that less than a month ago all I could crochet was a dodgy chicken egg cosy....which does just about resemble a chicken but looks nothing like the picture in the magazine!

Part 1 of the finishing week!

You know how easy it is to get distracted from what you were doing by something new and shiny? Well I have been getting distracted by all sorts of things and ended up with a whole load of stuff that needed finishing off! Things vary from just started to practically done, with some things recently cast aside and others have been neglected for months!

I've finished quite a few things in the past couple of days, with plenty more to be sorted!

First up.....

.......A crochet cactus! Pictured here with my coconut Colin. As I can't seem to keep any real plants alive I decided a woolly one would be better! I have killed off three cacti before! I might make a few more cacti when I can afford some more yarn :)

Second up there is a skeleton groom amigurumi, which got included in finishing week because he finishes off the pair of bride and groom! The picture doesn't show it very well but he does have a little top hat on :D Unfortunately his days are numbered as his face is terrible even for me! Another problem is that the groom is significantly smaller than the bride. This is annoying because I thought I had bought the right thickness of wool and although it wasn't expensive I can't afford to go out and buy more :( So I also can't mix up the black wool or the white wool with any other wool I have in my stash - so annoying!!! Perhaps the new wool is the correct sort, the wool previously used came "free" with an expensive craft magazine's crochet issue, so I had assumed this would be the correct sort, it is only marginally thicker but makes a big difference when crocheted up. Really really annoying.

For some reason the damn picture thing won't appear to let me upload any more pics, will have to do the rest in part two!

Silly crochet!

Two macaroons and a jammy dodger!
I did these a while ago but forgot to blog them - silly and adorable!

Introducing Grim Rita!

Greetings to my second amigurumi from the creepy crochet book pictured in all her glory!
I had done most of it yesterday and finished her off tonight, it's getting easier to read the patterns now which is good and my ability to remember how many stitches I have done is also improving thank god! Nothing more frustrating than forgetting and having to unwind the thing for the fiftieth time.
Not sure which one I'm going to attempt next, would like to make the skeleton groom but that requires going into town to purchase some black yarn... which means I will put it off until I have about a million reasons to go and have no choice in the matter. Should probably finish off all the other things I have to do before starting another creepy cutie... but they're so quick (well a couple of hours) to make and sooooooo adorable!!

Amigurumi skeleton bride!

For my birthday I got a super cool book called 'Creepy Cute Crochet' by Christen Haden. It is full of the most adorable little amigurumi creations....sod kittens, I want a crochet zombie!!
For those of you who have never seen a crochet pattern it is basically a big enigma with sc's (in England we call them dc's - more confusion!) and inc's and all manner of coded mumbo jumbo. The picture guides of said mumbo jumbo make quantum theory look like a child's homework! So I had to start off with a beginner project from the selection including a skeleton groom to accompany the pictured bride, a ninja, a fuzzy alien and the grim reaper.
For future headaches and eye strain I can move up to intermediate, difficult or epic projects, epic projects including a Trojan, Spartan and cyber zombie!
You also have to learn how to make a magic ring, otherwise renamed in my house as the magic anus. This was problematic, frustrating and made me violent. Eventually I found a tutorial online that I understood and from there it was up, up, and amigurway!
Finished article is cute albeit wonky (what a surprise there...) and I'm almost done with a pink grim reaper (I had no suitable black yarn so improvised) but my eyes are about to explode so it will be finished tomorrow.