Turtle Power

My Gran loves turtles and growing up living next to the beach she saw them quite often. She's due to have surgery soon so decided to make her a small gift of a turtle. He's called Terry.

Terry is made using Patons Jet wool and alpaca yarn. I crocheted him on a 5.5mm hook in the back loops to give a ridged effect. It produces a softer more snuggly style quite diff from my normal 3.5mm amigurumi. I may try a slightly smaller hook next time to close the holes a little.

I'll try and post an abbreviated pattern later.

Enjoy x

Granny square from Grandma

Look what arrived in the post today. A granny square blanket from my Grandma.

My Gran knows I get cold and kindly made this lap blanket for me. Aaah!

The best presents are made with kindness and love. Not only do I have a blanket my Gran also taught me how to crochet. Thanks Gran.

Zingy Cotton

Hello! Meet my version of the EDF blob Zingy. My Alpaca Sky worsted cotton arrived and after I unravelled it (made quite a hash of it) I got to work on my little blob.

The yarn is lovely - soft, bright and smooth with no spilts. Yeah! Although it does shed a little but this might be to do with the tangled mess I ended up with whilst trying to wind into a ball.

I used a 3.5mm hook to make the blob but I know other crocheters use up to a 5mm on worsted. I wasn't that brave and wanted to make sure the stuffing would be well hidden as I'm giving the blob to my baby nephew.

If you would like to make your own. Here is my free pattern...

Yarn envy...

There are so many lovely things out there that I would love to make only if I could find some decent yarn. I love using cotton for Amigurumi but only have access to dk weight here, so I use it double which is no bother but trying to find some decent colours is impossible.

My sister has asked me to make an orange blob for my nephew. Orange cotton - you would think that would be easy to find but both my local craft shops have failed me dismally. So, I've opted to buy some worsted weight cotton that Stacey from Fresh Stitches uses for her crafts. It's by Blue Sky and looks lovely - but check out the price. In OZ it is $14 per skein plus $8 postage from Perth. Ouch! There is even one website which will remain nameless that charges a non optional extra $1 to wind your yarn in a ball. What a cheek! Anyway I'll let you know when it arrives.
I would love to buy more Australian products from Australian shops but they really seem to be few and far between. Come on suppliers - Oz is one of the biggest producers of wool and cotton. In fact I did find some cotton mix in 8 ply from Aus Spinners under the Panda brand but they don't sell online and I haven't found a stockist so far.
Anyway. Do you know any good lines of cotton yarns for Oz customers? What yarns do you use?

Buy more...

Hello, I finally found some yarn to make a an infinity scarf (I'm suffering a bit form yarn envy at the mo... will write about that another day). I chose my stitch. I wanted it to be chunky and ribbed. I patiently cast on about 200 stiches, worked about 20 rows (30 mins each row) and then I ran out of yarn....no!
I hot footed it back to Big W - no gray skeins in sight! A week later, still no yarn. Lesson - always by more yarn. So here is my scrarf halfway. I've still worn it out and about and it looks great if I do say so myself. Will let you know when I find more yarn.

Coco

Please welcome my latest crochet project ...Coco! Isn't she cute!
Coco is a ballerina bunny complete with tutu and ballet shoes. She is a present for a friends new baby girl due August. Mum is a dancer so I thought this would go down well.

Okay. Will post some close ups and the materials used later. Enjoy.

Crochet Slippers

Winter is approaching here on Oz and it's getting pretty cool in the evenings (hence the socks). So I decided to use my new bamboo hook to make some snuggly crochet slippers.

As per usual I've made my own pattern.I wanted them to be quite firm but have the look of a Mary Jane or clog. So, I got googling and found these two videos mikeysmail & bobwilson 123 .

I used 3 strands of yarn 'Sean Sheep Stirling' machine wash 100% Oz wool and a 5.5 hook. Keep notes as you go along. I had a lot of trial an error as I was using thinner yarn (hard to get worsted yarn here) and used hdc's.

If you'd like to make your own, here is my free pattern...