Deer baby

This is one of my favourite critters- a little baby deer. It's been sitting half completed on my desk for months and the other day I finally motivated myself to finish it.

This little guy is made with brown felt, some of my favourite apple printed fabric and is sporting a hand knitted bright blue scarf.

I also wanted to share with you this scarf that I made for myself a while ago, photographed and then promptly lost the photos for:

I was thinking about including the free pattern for it here- what do you think?

cathycullis on Etsy

I just discovered this shop today on Etsy. cathycullis is the home of a range of gorgeous embroidered works including birds and brooches. I love the black bird and the heart the most. You can also check out the website here.

Meet Oliver and Harper

Wow! Actual completed craftiness on my blog! A doodle, a couple of hours, some corduroy, fabric and yarn and a whole lot of embroidery thread later and I had a couple of new friends to share.

This is Oliver. He likes books, chocolate biscuits and whistling. Oliver was kinda my prototype and after finishing him, I just had to make another.....

.........and this is Harper. Harper likes Gregory Peck movies, listening to music and thick fluffy carpets.

I've been quite good lately in that I have been actually finishing projects that I have started. Also completed are a (modified) babushka doll and a deer. Those I'll share in the next couple of days.

It was my birthday yesterday too. Happy birthday to anyone who shared theirs yesterday also or today!

Doodles

To get the creative juices flowing, I've been doing a bit of doodling. I get bored with projects very easily (as I'm sure a lot of people do), so there are always some new ideas which I jump at the chance to try out. Amidst other ideas, I think that this one has a lot of potential:

Bad picture, but what do you think of little Oliver? I think I feel a plushie coming on!

Free Pattern #2

Hurrah! Another free pattern! This time it’s a hat. It reminds me of when we were young.

Whimsical Hat

Materials:

- 5 mm crochet hook
- DK/ Worstered/ 8 ply yarn. I used Pallette Collection (155 m/ 170 yd, 50 g per ball) a 100% acrylic yarn in Sage ( available for 99c at K- Mart in Oz)
- A stitch marker or scrap of yarn to do the same job
- A small wooden button for the centre of the flower
- Yarn needle

EDIT- The following are US crochet abbreviations. The UK equivalents for slip st, sc and dc are sc, dc and tr respectively. Sorry about that!

Abbreviations:

ch= chain
sc= single crochet
dc= double crochet

yrh= yarn over hook
inc= increase
st/s= stitch/es

Tension:
Approximately 21 sts by 25 rows per 4 inches/ 10 cm

Note on sizing:

This hat may be a bit on the large size as it is made to fit my unusually large head. The increases in the pattern should only be used as a guide, so what I would recommend is following the pattern until the top of the hat is as large as the top of your head. Then just stop increasing and single crochet for the specified amount of rows. Easy!

Copyright note:

Method:

Start by making a circle. Here’s how (hope these pictures are clear enough):

- Hold yarn with the tail in your right hand (sorry lefties!).

- Place yarn tail behind itself.


- Insert hook, yrh, draw yarn through then ch 1.


- sc 6 into circle, then pull on the yarn tail to draw the hole closed tight.



Place stitch marker to mark start of round, replacing at the start of every subsequent round.

Round 2- inc in each st (12 sts).
Round 3- (sc 1, inc in next st) to end (18 sts).
Round 4- (sc 2, inc in next st) to end (24 sts).
Round 5- (sc 3, inc in next st) to end (30 sts).
Round 6- (sc 4, inc in next st) to end (36 sts).
Round 7- (sc 5, inc in next st) to end (42 sts).
Round 8- (sc 6, inc in next st) to end (48 sts).
Round 9- (sc 7, inc in next st) to end (54 sts).
Round 10- (sc 8, inc in next st) to end (60 sts).
Round 11- (sc 9, inc in next st) to end (66 sts).
Round 12- (sc 10, inc in next st) to end (72 sts).
Round 13- (sc 11, inc in next st) to end (78 sts).
Round 14- (sc 12, inc in next st) to end (84 sts).
Round 15- (sc 13, inc in next st) to end (90 sts).
Round 16- (sc 14, inc in next st) to end (96 sts).
Round 17- (sc 15, inc in next st) to end (102 sts).
Round 18- (sc 16, inc in next st) to end (108 sts).
Round 19- (sc 17, inc in next st) to end (114 sts).
Round 20- (sc 18, inc in next st) to end (120 sts).

Sc in each st for 30 rounds.
You will now be crocheting the edging.
Working in front loops only- slip st, (ch 3, slip st) to end.
Working in back loops only- slip st, (ch 4, slip st) to end.

Finish off and weave in all ends.

Crocheted Flower:


Back-

Make a beginning circle as for the hat, leaving a long yarn tail which will be used later on to attach the flower to the hat.
Round 2- 2 ch, 13 dc, slip st and turn work.
Round 3- 2 ch, dc, (inc in next st) to end, slip st and turn work.
Round 4- 2 ch, (inc in next st, slip st) to end.

Finish off and weave in end.

Front-

Make a beginning circle as for the hat.
Round 2- 2 ch, 13 dc, slip st and turn work.
Round 3- 2 ch, (inc in next st, slip st) to end.

Finish off and weave in all ends.

Attach flower to hat using tail of yarn from the back of the flower.

And your finished!

How about trying some of these ideas to individualize your hat?

- Use a multicoloured and/ or glittery yarn to really make a statement.
- Forget about the crocheted edging and flower and work the hat in bold stripes of about five or six rows.
- Add a pompom or two!
- Or........add your own idea here!

Any problems? E-mail me! cookie.monster-36@hotmail.com

I'm back!

Hurrah! And how I missed all my fellow bloggers. Catching up on missed posts is one of my favourite things to do after an absence. There are so many new projects to enjoy and lust after and plenty of crafty goodness. You may recall that I too promised a completed project. About that. I had been working on a new hat pattern (which will soon be available as a free pattern!) and had almost completed it, when to my absolute horror, I found a small imperfection. There, to my utter annoyance, was one minute increase near the start of the piece. Naturally, I had to undo the whole damn thing and start again. But it will be completed soon, and to satisfy your craftiness in the meantime, here are some more etsy finds (I heart etsy!):

Hannibal Lecter Mouse

Hulk Mouse

Obiwan Kenobi Mouse

Emperor Mouse

Hehehe, being a Star Wars nerd I absolutely love the last two mice. Some of the other characters you can get are also hilarious, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Beatles and James Bond, and you can also place custom orders. I'm also loving this zombie mouse:

All these wonderful creations are from TheHouseOfMouse

P.S. A while ago I included a link in one of my posts about an article on blog etiquette. However, I just realised that I forgot to source it properly. The article is courtesy of Meet Me at Mikes (sorry!).

Note of Abscence

JUST A QUICK NOTE THAT I WILL BE AWAY FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR SO!!!! MORE CRAFTINESS THEN!!!! (is that how you spell abscence? absence?)