Totoro!

  

I finished crocheting this small white Totoro, apart from his small pink feet.  The eyes are a bit far apart and the tail is a bit high.  I used a pattern available free here: http://heavens-hellcat.livejournal.com/730.html.

New wool!!

I found a haberdashery in Westbury-on-Trym which has a bit of everything - paper, scrapbooking, wool, fabric, ribbon, stuffing...  So I couldn't resist buying a few cheap balls of wool that I can use for making toys, etc.

I also collected my parcel today with my delivery of King Cole Merino Blend DK wool in a range of pretty colours, which I'm going to use to create granny square cushion covers or something, in the style of this throw.

So here's the total collection of wool that I have acquired today:

It makes me very happy looking on Ravelry and seeing my 'stash' all laid out in colour order!

Yet more Flickr favourites!

I really should stop rummaging around on Flickr - there are so many lovely things that I want to make right now!!  Once I've finished the white totoro, I think slippers will be next, and then I think I'll have to start a granny square blanket, having seen all the gorgeous ones on Flickr!  It will require a whole new stash of pretty coloured yarn though... what a shame!!

1. Christmas bird, 2. Little Birdy, 3. Crochet flowers and leaves, 4. New Yarn Stash, 5. Big Bed Blanket, 6. Circles-to-Squares, 7. Granny Hearts dedicated to Lucy, 8. Birdie with wobbly legs !, 9. Pattern - crocheted slippers (adult size), 10. crochet trims on pillowcases..., 11. Crocheted Heart Stuffy, 12. Butterfly, 13. Baby Amigurumi Giraffe, 14. tiny crochet heart pattern, 15. Granny Square Blanket 1, 16. honeymoon slippers, 17. Brooch #1, 18. Sis Boom Fabric Bunting Flags!, 19. Dixieland Tree Embroidery, 20. granny squares, 21. crochet bag, 22. first crochet food!, 23. Batch of Rag Teddy Bear Plush, 24. Doodles from class, 25. My Study (so far), 26. Rescued Chair, 27. making life easier, 28. Etsy Take Five Tuesday, 29. artandghosts, 30. lvgetc 12-09 kids room, 31. Crochet bowls, 32. DSC01609, 33. ruby hex blanket 2, 34. Big Summer Garden Blanket, 35. Summer Garden Blanket

Unfortunately, the first six photos do not show up on here as the user has opted out of Big Huge Labs.  She uses the most lovely combinations of yarns!!

Andy the Alien

Andy the Alien, originally uploaded by happythoughts80.

I finally finished Andy the Alien, who I started over Christmas following a pattern in Nikki Trench's 'Super-Cute Crochet'.

At first I was a bit disappointed because mine didn’t turn out much like the photo in the book! I couldn’t get the hook into the right places to do the hair, so I crocheted it directly onto the head and worked the slip stitches into one loop only. I attached the legs and eyes in kind of the wrong places.

But he's grown on me, and I actually quite like him now. The legs in the wrong place help him to sit up better. And he certainly looks odd, which I guess is what an alien should look like!!

Another Flickr favourites set

1. SP05F4110A - Spiegel, 2. blue paisley, 3. Elphie 1, 4. pink paisley, 5. Freeform Paisleys, 6. crochet paisley #3, 7. crochet paisley #1, 8. crochet paisley #4, 9. cmbs8-box-inside2, 10. box #31 - otherworld forcible and spink, 11. DSC02848, 12. Coraline Miniyo, 13. Buttons in Blue, 14. buttons heart - day 7/365, 15. Grandma's Buttons, 16. jars-o-buttons, 17. buttons buttons buttons, 18. red buttons and linen, 19. Button Tree, 20. Amo botões!, 21. Button Wreath Ornament, 22. Totoroskit3, 23. Sootsprite3, 24. Pocket Pets, 25. Mini Birds, 26. Wicket the Ewok, 27. Totoro, 28. mini-donut, 29. Tiny Turtle - Earthquake Relief Donation, 30. A View To, 31. ~Grishko~, 32. Beauty is the Pointe, 33. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, 34. pretty!, 35. JENKINSTOWN WOOD. KILKENNY, IRELAND.

Another Flickr Inspiration

 This one very much reflects the searches I did:

• ballet
• crochet quilt
• crochet cupcake
• crochet kokeshi

plus a few other images found on blogs and other people's favourites collections!

1. ~Grishko~, 2. Beauty is the Pointe, 3. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, 4. pretty!, 5. JENKINSTOWN WOOD. KILKENNY, IRELAND., 6. rainbow, 7. Color Me Pretty, 8. The End Result, 9. Buttons, 10. Winter Fairy Tale, 11. Another look!, 12. A flor e as folhas, 13. More Colors: ready for final blocking (C365:295), 14. Crochet - work in progress, 15. Virkade grytlappar. :o), 16. Festa, travesseirinho perfumado, 17. babette's granny: ready to be blocked, 18. Untitled, 19. Cherry, Cherry Chocolate Cupcake, 20. Donut, 21. Touch of Amethyst, 22. pink & purple, 23. lavendar skies, 24. Cross Out Purple Walls, 25. Cupcake Potholder, 26. Mini Felt Donuts (Group 2), 27. Cupcake, 28. Gourmet Playtime Dessert Assortment, 29. Cupcake with Swirly Frosting Crochet Pattern, 30. Strawberry Swirl Cupcake, 31. Crochet Kokeshi Doll Side, 32. Suki And Kimiko, 33. Dudley Bird free amigurumi crochet pattern, 34. Japanese kokeshi girl doll amigurumi Crochet pattern, 35. kokeshi apaixonada

Scarf

I am crocheting this scarf using Cascade 220 Paints (shade 9921 - Carribean Sea) in a half treble stitch (UK) crocheted into the front loop and some other loop below it!  This was the first item I began to crochet, and I was still a bit confused about where the loops were.  Then by the time I realised, I was too far into the scarf and I decided I quite liked the rib effect on alternate rows.  It also gives it quite a bit of stretch.

I started this scarf ages ago (when I taught myself how to crochet), but then ran out of yarn, re-ordered and had to wait ages as it was out of stock.  Unfortunately the new yarn is a bit different - more dark turquoise than light and pink/purple patches in a completely different arrangement in the scarf.  But I'm not going to unravel it all!  It's a very relaxing project to crochet - the combination of the large hook and smooth yarn means that the stitches slide on and off the hook very easily.

Now I just need to hurry up and finish this while it's still winter (and very cold!).  It's almost scarf length now, but it's the same length as a scarf that's always annoyed me for being a little bit too short!

Flickr inspiration Jan 2010

I've just discovered how to use http://bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php to create mosaics of my favourite Flickr photos.  So here's my first inspiration board (click for larger view):

1. Bella Luce Photography, 2. A Creative Mint, 3. inspiration board, 4. Lori Marie, 5. Selina Lake, 6. Meet Rachel Ashwell, 7. Color Me Pretty, 8. Etsy artist The Black Apple, 9. Etsy artist The Black Apple,
10. Cath Kidston Sew_bag (I got this book for Christmas, but haven't started any of the projects yet),
11. softies_05 (This would be a great present to add to my mum's collection),
12. My Softies book cover (I have this book too),
13. Russian dolls, 14. malabrigo_turquoise,
15. Filatura di Crosa Maxime print (I'd love to find some wool in this colour combination),
16. Cascade9871_Grape (I also like this combination and it would be great for something wintery),
17. Cascade9921_Caribbean-Sea (I have this yarn and am in the middle of making a scarf with it - need to finish before the weather warms up!),
18. cascade cushion (I like this round cushion in sock yarn),
19. Amigurumi cookies (These would also be great for my mum),
20. Super Mario Star, 21. Hexagon blanket - it grows!, 22. Papier Mache Boxes, 23. beaded heart, 24. Don't keep calm and carry on., 25. Gingerbread Biscuit Bunny in blue tea cup, 26. Crocheted Cupcakes, 27. bonnie, 28. vintage kitsch, 29. bird detail.jpg, 30. Embroidery vine on white linen, 31. Pam Garrison's sampler 2, 32. design 1, 33. Little old quilt house, 34. Haikea Art Zine, 35. beata's crochet pillow cases

Christmas 2009

I came back to my parents' for Christmas. It was the first time I've driven that far on my own (ended up being a 5 1/2 hour drive), but the drive wasn't as stressful as I imagined. Christmas day was the usual lovely late lunch (but lamb this year instead of turkey), flurry of presents and a scattering of games (this year, Bingo and a pub quiz). Boxing day involved lots of leftovers, and then yesterday we took Grandad out for lunch.

I've spent most of the afternoons crocheting, following patterns in a gorgeous book: Super-Cute Crochet (by Nikki Trench), which Andy bought me for Christmas. So far I've made a Buff-Orpington Baby Chick, a hatching egg (with a tutu) and the legs and body of Andy the Alien.

There's loads more cute animals in this book that I want to make, including Sparkles the Snowman, Rebecca Bear, Ned the Naughty Old Goat, Pickle the Puppy, Melody the Kitten, a family of sugar mice, Shakira the Baby Elephant, Kimmie the Koala Bear and Dave the Dolphin.  There are pictures of quite a few of the animals on Ravelry.  Some of the projects are really quick and simple, whereas others are a little more complicated or time consuming.  The book also includes very clear crochet instructions.

I received a new digital camera from my parents, so hopefully there will be more pictures and posts on here soon.  One of my resolutions this year is to finish more craft projects!