Crochet Toadstool

I've been getting overwhelmed by the size of my crochet blanket project so I decided to work on a couple of smaller crochet projects that I could finish quickly - sometimes you need to bask in the satisfied glow of a finished piece! First up, a crochet toadstool! I found this pattern on the lovely Annaboo's house blog and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make it!

This is my first attempt at amigurumi and it wasn't as tricky as I expected! Apart from a short break because I ran out of red yarn it all went pretty smoothly. I think I lost count of my stitches a couple of times but the pattern was pretty forgiving and it all seemed to work out OK in the end!


As you can see here I used crocheted circles the spots for the toadstool top. The pattern uses beads and crochet to decorate the stem of the toadstool which looks gorgeous however I decided to put a classic amigurimi face on mine instead as I have been waiting to use the eyes I bought for ages! The smile is a bit wonky but I think my toadstool looks pretty cute! I am really pleased with him and am enjoying having him smiling down on me from the mantelpiece!

I think I must have a bit of a thing about mushrooms and toadstools. As soon as I saw the crochet toadstool pattern I knew I wanted to make it and looking round my house I have been drawn to mushrooms in the past. There were the felt mushrooms I posted about way back in 2009:

These were one of the first things I made when I started crafting again.


And then, earlier this year I decided to mosaic some mushrooms for my garden (I say garden - its more of a step!)

These were some cheap ceramic garden ornaments which I thought would be greatly improved by covering them in mirror and turning them into disco mushrooms! They haven't actually ever made it out onto the step (apart from for the photo shoot!) and are still languishing in my fireplace.

So, I think we can conclude from this that I have a slight mushroom obsession! There must be more mushroom crafts out there..... Oooooh - a quick google search suggests that yes, indeed there are....I shall have to get to work!

Happy Sunday xxxx

I’m back!

Hellllooooooo! Anyone out there?

I’m back! Finally! It’s been a while….and I’m sorry I left you for so long. Things got pretty complicated in my life for a while and I wasn’t very well. And then by the time things started to improve I’d got out of the habit of blogging.

Anyway, you don’t want to hear about that – you want to know all about the crafting! You’ll be pleased to hear that the lull in blogging wasn’t combined with a lull in crafting. In fact I think I’ve been doing more and more. I find making things very therapeutic and it has been very helpful in improving my health. I’ve carried on with sewing and monster making but I’ve also learned some new skills which I am looking forward to telling you about.

But, before all that, I wanted to talk about this post. I signed up for pay it forward AGES ago and started working away on my gifts for the people who had signed up. I had most of my gifts complete months (years!) ago and then things went a little bit downhill and the PIF project fell by the wayside. I feel really bad about it, especially as Beaky sent me such a lovely gift. So, before I started blogging again I wanted to make up for it and send my PIF gifts on and start with a clean slate. I managed to get hold of Sue from BeeDesigns and her gift is on its way as I write. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get in touch with Sandra or Wilkie and both of their blogs seem to be defunct now :o( Guys, if you are out there then please get in touch…….

Right, that’s the business out of the way. Now for some sneaky previews of what I have been up to in my time away……

There’s crochet:

And fused glass:

Screenprinting:

And stained glass:

Patchwork:

And Tapestry:

And finally a spot of mosaic:

More detail in later posts…..

I’m looking forward to it.

Dotty xx

Fab weekend :o)

This weekend was one of the best I've had in ages and it was full of crafty goodness. Most of the weekend was spent at a fab workshop in London playing with these:




Yummy mosaic tiles. I've wanted to learn how to mosaic for ages so my hopes were pretty high for the course. I wasn't disappointed. Our teacher, Jo, took us through the basics of nipping mosaic tiles into different shapes and how to fix them and then we were away. After drawing a brief sketch on a piece of mdf we started nipping tiles into shape and sticking them to our boards. First we were all quite nervous - gently nibbling at the tiles but after half an hour or so small pieces of glass and ceramic were flying everywhere as we descended into a nipping frenzy. I was in heaven - the tiles were all so pretty and shiny and I got to play with them.

The design I had in mind before I arrived was for some stylised modern poppies but it turns out that red is one of the rarer shades of tile and there were no enough variations to make my plan work. In contrast green and blue came in every shade you could imagine since most tiles are made for the swimming pools! As I worked I started to understand the shapes I could make and the properties of the different tiles and adapted my design accordingly.

These were the results at the end of the first day:

During the second day of the workshop I really started to get the hang of cutting and placing the tiles. I was able to shape the tiles more accurately and I place them closer together. This was great although it did have the unfortunate side effect that I wanted to redo all the parts I did on Saturday! I resisted the temptation to do this (knowing I would never finish if I did) and this was the result by mid afternoon yesterday:

The last part of the process was to grout the tiles. As the colours I used were all quite light I went for a light grey grout. Its amazing the different that grouting makes - it completely changes the design. This was the finished result:

I am really pleased with it. It looks nothing like my original plan but it is more professional looking than I ever expected. I can't say that it is what I would do if I had the chance again - I would do something in much brighter colours (I think mine is a little wishy!) with different patterns (I'd like to do something more geometric I think) - but that is what learning is all about. One of the other great things on the course was seeing what everyone else was doing and seeing how it developed. I'd really like to have another go now I have a better understanding of what can be done with the tiles, how the colours look and what the grouting does to the design.

In the middle of the mosaic-ing weekend I also found some time on Saturday night to make 20 cards for my mum whilst watching a recording of Kirstie's Homemade home (my quilt is never going to be as good as hers!). The cards are good luck cards for my mum to give to the other performers in the amateur show she is in (it has a Mexican theme!). I think they are quite effective for something so cheap and quick to make:

Just before I stumbled off to bed last night exhausted but happy something supremely exciting and momentous happened. At 20.41 exactly I made my FIRST EVER SALE in my folksy shop. I am so pleased. YAY!

This little fella is already winging his way to a new owner. I know I will miss him but I'm happy to share his love with someone else! Plus, there is plenty more where that came from...

Now off to art class....

Dotty xx