Chester at Lustleigh Spring Show

You will be pleased to know that with all your help and comments last week, Little Ted now 

has a name!

Let me introduce you to ......

wait for it ....

I whispered a few names in his ear and he seemed to like Hugo so ... Hugo it is!

Hugo just seemed to suit him for some inexplicable reason! 

I am so grateful to you for your wonderful suggestions, thank you. 

I really couldn't have done it without you :)

Chester at Lustleigh Spring Show

As far as I can tell, Chester had a very pleasant time at Lustleigh.  He was all by himself this time but being a male he doesn't give much feedback!!!!  Here are just a few pictures for you. 

For those very observant ones amongst you, you may have noticed I have altered Chester's eyes slightly.  I have attached them with velcro this time so I can position them looking in different directions.  I think his extreme crochet flowers were equally as good as those on show, don't you?

I apologise to everyone last week as I had a quick peak at what you were all up to but I didn't have a lot of free time to place many comments.  We've been decorating you see, it seems to eat up the hours!

I shall aim to remedy that this week! 

Popping over to Handmade Harbour very soon. 

See you there!

Oh! Just one last thing

Now have to spend the evening re-threading the heading tape on a new set of curtains I bought from Dunelm Mill.  First pair were tied.  Only when I started to gather the second pair, and didn't seem to be getting anywhere   -  did I twig they weren't attached!!!!!!!!!! Doh!

Thank you Dunelm !!!!!

Extreme Crochet Teeny Weeny Update!

I'm going to need your help for this post!  Nothing too taxing though I assure you :)

First of all Chester is going on an outing next weekend!  He has been asked to appear at the Lustleigh Horticultural Society's Spring Show! Ooooh Errrrr!!

I thought it may be appropriate for Chester to take some flowers along!  Well I'm beginning to have second thoughts!

Those of you who know me may have already seen my extreme crochet flower, so I thought if I did a few more to look like real flowers - Bob's your uncle!  So to speak!

So here's my daffodil.  Difficult to show the scale, but easily as large as the blue one if not slightly bigger.

The trouble is I need 2 or 3 more for Saturday and I'm trying to decorate the house too, and go to work - help!  Time is not on my side!

Wish me luck!

I'll let you know how I get on :)

Now, to the bit I need your help for!! 

You may remember I showed you a teeny weeny bear I was making.  Well he is now finished and here he is :)

I photographed him next to a primrose in the garden to give him a sense of scale.

And a few more just for good measure!

The trouble is at the moment he is known as Little Ted.  But, I think he needs a BIGGER name as he is such a tiny teddy!  

What do you think?

I thought if I asked you all nicely, you may just come up with one or two suggestions?

Do you think you can help me with this?

I'm off to give some thought to my next extreme crochet flower and to have a quick peak over at Handmade Monday

Have a good week all of you and do pop back next week to see how I get on

Bye x

Teeny Weeny Crochet!

You have all been wonderful again this week, leaving some very cheerful comments on last weeks post Crochet Baby Sandals.  Please keep them coming, it's what makes this blogging business so much fun   :) If any of you have made the sandals I'd love to see a photo of them.

We have just been for a walk along Teignmouth Sea Front and despite the weather forecast saying it was 5 degrees c it felt more like -5!

Personally I would have rather stayed home doing my crochet but my OH dragged me out!!  It was worth it though as the sea was quite rough which made it a bit more fun!

Only WIP to show this week!

Those of you who follow me on fb may have noticed I shared a picture of a teeny weeny teddy bear made by Sharon O'Jala  I decided I would have a go too.

This is as far as I got!  Not a particularly flattering photo, but you get the picture :)

Sharon's teeny teddy couldn't have been above the size of a penny from head to toe, but she crocheted hers on a very tiny hook and with sewing thread.

I have used a 2mm hook and size 5 Perle thread, so mine will come out a little bigger, but tiny by my standards! Chester springs to mind :)  You may remember Maisy, she was one of Sharon's patterns too.  If you would like to have a go at a tiny creature you can find Sharon's FREE patterns over at Amigurumi to Go!  Have fun!  They are rather cute :)

My other WIP is this .....

I bought some gorgeous cotton yarn in 14 rainbow colours from Planet Penny the other day.  It was perfect for the project one of my daughter's requested.  I am using a pattern posted by Emma of 'I love Buttons'  I'll put you out of your misery and tell you what I am making next week, but in the meantime if you pop over to Emma's blog you may just be able to work out what it will be!

What's the tiniest item you have ever made?

There are a lot of links in this post I'm afraid, although they are all worth a peak.  You'll have to let me know what you think.  Just one more link and I think you regular readers can guess what it will be!!  But, for those of you who haven't experienced the fantastic Wendy over at Handmade Harbour I suggest you grab yourself a cup of tea and pay all the lovely crafters taking part in Handmade Monday over there a visit.  You wont be disappointed :)

x

Crochet Baby Sandals

First of all let me start with a big 'thank you' to everyone for the wonderful comments on last week's blog post Taffy, a birdie decoration and a pot.  I'm so glad Taffy brought a smile to your week :)  I am entering my Birdie Decoration in The Crafty Network's February Craft Challenge - Winter Blues.  Voting is now open, so if you wouldn't mind popping over to place a vote my way I would be very grateful :)

I had a bit of a play this week making some baby sandals.  I know of at least 3 people having babies this summer so thought these may come in handy for one of them in particular!

Here is the link to the pattern if you would like to make some for yourself.

I adapted it slightly by making a half treble foundation with a puff stitch edge for the straps.

The soles are just over 3" long.  I am guessing suitable for 0-6months.

 I'm going to settle down with a nice cup of tea now and pop over to Handmade Harbour to browse all the skilled craftspeople taking part in Handmade Monday this week.

Wait a minute there's something missing??

I think I need a biscuit too!  A Jammy Dodger would be nice :)

Oh! Look at this!  Here's one I made earlier.

Believe it or not this Jammy Dodger took me just over 2 hours to make!

Just as well I didn't have to make a whole packet!

If you would like to make one to go with your cup of tea this afternoon, here is the link, Crochet and Crafts - According to Matt

Enjoy your cuppa and your biscuit :)

See you next week!

Taffy, a birdie decoration and a pot!

Don't you think this is a stunning title for my post this week? :p  I couldn't think of anything witty to combine all three so just said it as it was!!!  No prizes for this one me thinks :D

Before I start I must thank all of you for your lovely comments on my Spin A Yarn blog last week, I have an Introduction to Crochet workshop this weekend, if it goes half as well as the Jumbo Crochet Basket one I shall be very pleased.  I shall be popping over to Handmade Monday later to have a nose at all your lovely makes.

Taffy hasn't been out for a while so we thought we would take him on a walk.  As usual he is into mischief, so took a bit of a tumble this time! (If you are new to my blog and are wondering who Taffy is, just click on the link to find out how he came about - if you enter his name in the search box on the left hand side of my blog you will be able to see what other adventures he has had.)

He didn't seem any 'worse for wear' though and all that messing about made him thirsty :)

In the pictures below you can see Taffy waiting for the steam train to come along.

If you are very astute you will see in the last picture we also saw the train heading back home!

Taffy was a lucky teddy!

I thought these snowdrops were beautiful, but Taffy decided to play a game of hide and seek!

Can you spot him in amongst the snowdrops?

You'll be glad to know, we did find him and he is now safely tucked up at home :)

We decorated our bedroom recently and whilst we were doing this we moved into the guest room.  This room is blue and white (mainly white) so it got me thinking that it needed a few bits of decoration to catch the eye.  So I popped over to Attic 24's website and found this birdie decoration.  

I hope you like my version of it. I adapted the wing and the flowers slightly.

It now hangs on one of the walls in the room.

I also made a pot for the window sill.  I placed a jam jar inside so I can pop a posy of pretty, fresh flowers in it for when any guests arrive

I used front and back post stitch and finished it off with a sort of rope edging.

I'm crocheting a little pair of baby sandals at the moment so hopefully I shall have those to show you next week, meanwhile, take care everyone and have a good week :)

x

Spin A Yarn

Have you ever used a hook the size of a broom pole?  

Have you ever crocheted with multiple strands of yarn?

 I didn't think so! That was the same for the ladies who came on the Jumbo Crochet Basket Workshop at Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey on Friday 8th February.

We began the workshop like 'children in a sweetshop', choosing from all the gorgeous yarns you can find in Spin A Yarn, to make our baskets!  This helped us get to know each other a little and soon the room (and therefore the whole shop!) was filled with cheerful banter and plenty of giggles.

I had made a few samples so the ladies could decide what size baskets they would like to make.

They got off to a flying start.

After lots of counting stitches, a bit of cursing (well perhaps a little more than 'a bit'!),  more counting stitches, a bit of unpicking and more counting ...

.......... the bases of the baskets were complete.  

Time for a bit of relaxation!

We all sat down to a wonderful lunch of Joyce's home cooked quiches and salad followed by homemade cake for desert.  Scrummy :)

After lunch, everyone was eager to get started again!

Feeling rather relaxed now, we all seemed to slip into a jovial, playful mood!  We decided it may be fun to use our partially made baskets as berets!!!

Don't you just love the results?

My apologies to Chrissy as I don't seem to have a photo of your 'beret'! Sorry :(

Following our jovial interlude, the crochet hooks were operating swiftly again and with a little blood (2 blisters acutally!), sweat (we had to turn the heater off, we were working so hard!) and tears (well not strictly true, we didn't have any of these, but it wouldn't sound right without this on the end!) we finally finished our baskets!  

Take a look! What do you think!

I know for sure, from the positive feedback I received from the ladies, how pleased they all were with the baskets they produced.  The colours and textures chosen were stunning, and, I also know for a fact, that at least two of them have started on basket number 2!

I think you will all agree, the ladies produced a wonderful selection of unique colourful baskets.  Well done to all of them! 

And a big thank you to all of them too, for making my day so special :)

I'm off over to Handmade Monday now!  

Why don't you join me and see what other crafters have been up to?

Thanks for reading :)