Amigurumi Fried Egg

I've been doing loads of crochet recently and as well as working on my blanket I've had a go at some smaller amigurumi projects. I've also started using ravelry properly (oooh - so addictive!) which has given me access to loads more patterns. Which is probably how I found myself at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning (after a night out!) trying to finish crocheting a fried egg for no reason at all! Here is the result:


The pattern is on ravelry here. Unfortunately it is in Japanese and I don't know about you but my Japanese isn't up to much!! Luckily there is also a charted pattern here and some speedy googling led me to a conversion chart so I could work out what the symbols meant. Once that was done the pattern came together very quickly - the only frustrating bit was adding the safety eyes (does everyone else find them an absolute pain to put on?! they drive me mad!). The pattern didn't call for a face but I do love a spot of anthropomorphism. And who couldn't love an egg with a smiley face :o)

Having sent the photo to a few people telling them they were a good egg (aaaah I love a lame pun!) I decided to make another one, this time with a sad face:


Apparently the egg is actually supposed to be a tawashi which is a traditional Japanese scrubbing brush. I won't be using mine as a scrubbing brush though (I'm not sure I could with the safety eyes in there!). I will be giving one away and keeping one to add to my collection of cute but ultimately pointless things (item #713).


(Sorry - I couldn't resist a pic of the eggs together in a frying pan!)

I'll post some of the other things I have been working on soon. In the meantime if anyone wants to find me on ravelry I am here with the username thedottyone. Although I have been on ravelry for a while I have only just started using it properly and I will be putting up my pictures and completed projects soon. Please free to add me as a friend if you are on there too - I'd love to see what you are up to and don't have many friends at the moment!! :o(

Happy crafting xx

Dress a Girl Around the World

One of my intentions for 2012 was to get involved in doing some crafting for charity/craftivism and on Saturday I had the chance to do just that. My local craft studio, the Create Place, ran a session making dresses for a charity organisation called Dress A Girl Around the World. This is a fab project which sends dresses to girls in the developing world who wouldn't usually have a new dress of their own.

The dresses are simple to make using just a pillowcase and some trimmings (with patterns provided on the website) but look very cute and pretty. Our sewing gurus Jennie and Lisa were on hand to help us if we got stuck and provide refreshments as we sweated over our machines! We had lots of fun sewing and chatting and embellishing but most importantly we made a stack of dresses to send of to girls in the developing world.

I made two dresses. One fairly simple in white with blue straps and a little red heart on the front:

And another one in such loud material that I didn't think it needed any embellishment!!

I wish I'd taken more pictures of the dresses everyone else made but I was so wrapped up in my sewing I forgot until it was too late! By the time I took my pictures the light wasn't too great either! Jennie's blog has more pics.

I had a brilliant afternoon, made all the better by knowing that I was doing something worthwhile. I am definitely looking forward to getting involved in more projects like this.

xxx

PS. If you want to get involved in this project then a lady called Louise Horler is the UK coordinator. Her blog is here and the facebook page is here.

Crafty Intentions 2012

I'm not really one for making New Year's resolutions but I thought it might focus my mind to think about some of things I would like to achieve this year creatively and for this blog. I have also posted photos of some of my favourite things I have made over 2011 in the hope that it might make you read this selfish post right to the end!!

My creative intentions* for 2012 are:

1. Try at least 4 new crafts - either in classes or self taught.


2. Get involved in craftivism/crafting for charity


3. Teach a crafty skill to someone else.


4. Finish my granny blanket - this will involve attaching together the 100 squares I already have and possibly adding many more!


5. Finish at least one knitting project. I've only just learned to knit and I'm not sure whether it will be my thing or not but I would like to try and make at least one thing to give it a go.


6. Hand make the majority of the cards I send.


7. Turn my Emily Peacock tapestries into cushions - this is something that I have been meaning to do for ages and I just need to get on with it!


8. Have another go at silver clay jewellery - I bought all the kit at the end of my course and its just sat in my spare room ever since. Whoops!


9. Look into getting a stall at a craft fair, probably selling mainly glass goodies, maybe with someone else.


10. Use up some of my fabric stash BEFORE I buy any more. I should probably try to do this for yarn too!


11. Write a tutorial for this blog.


12. Have 2 blog giveaways and participate in some swaps.


13. Aim to blog at least once a week.


14. Start using ravelry and documenting my projects on there.


15. And to finish on a more general intention, I always like to have several projects on the go but I would really like to get better at finishing things before starting new projects!

Phew - looks like I've got a busy year ahead! I've actually already managed to put the wheels in motion for some of these intentions already and it looks like I should probably get started on the others! If anyone is thinking of putting a list together like this then I would definitely recommend it - just typing this all out has got my brain whirring with things I want to get started on. Hmmm....maybe I should take note of number 15 in particular!!

Hope you are all having a lovely (crafty) weekend xx

*I was inspired to use the word intentions rather than resolutions by Heather - I think it sounds much more positive and less pressurising!!

I'm back! And giveaway news.....!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. Mine was pretty hectic with last minute crafting and a holiday over New Year which is why I haven't been spotted much around these parts of late. I had a lovely time but I am also looking forward to getting back into a routine and checking out all your blogs to find out what you've been up to. I'm also excited about getting back to some projects for myself after all those Christmas makes!!

Before Christmas something very exciting happened to me: I won my first giveaway! Hurrah! I was very lucky to win an early Christmas present from Cute Crochet Creations. I got a gorgeous little crochet drawstring bag:

I don't know if you can see from the picture but the yarn has got sequins in - so pretty! I'm definitely going to hunt some of this out - you can never have too much sparkle as far as I'm concerned! In the bag were some festive earrings and a cute little phone charm too:

Thanks so much Laura - I loved my early Christmas present :o) My earrings were much admired on Christmas day and my little crochet bag was very useful for taking my jewellery on holiday!

If you haven't visited Cute Crochet Creations before then I suggest you head over there now! There are lots of cute amigurumi creatures and gorgeous cross stitch to check out. I only wish I could be that prolific in my creations!

Now also seems like an appropriate time to announce that I am planning a giveaway shortly too so please look out for that. I decided to have a giveaway when I reached 60 followers which I have done recently (actually 61 as of today! hello new follower!) so I am currently working on some goodies to send to one of you.

I know lots of people have a giveaway when they reach 50 followers but I chose 60 for two reasons. Firstly, although I do have 60 followers I am aware that some of them don't seem to exist anymore (or, less morbidly, their blogger accounts have been deleted!) so when I reached 50 followers I knew I didn't actually have 50 followers so if felt like cheating somehow. Secondly, and probably more importantly, I didn't notice I had passed 50 followers for a good while after it happened - whoops!! Anyway, I hope you will enter my giveaway when I post about it in the next couple of weeks.

I'm going to start planning my crafting for the year......YAY! I wish you all a lovely and creative 2012 xx

Christmas Decorations (Part 2)

I've had my Christmas decorations up for over a week now and I've just realised that I never shared the rest of them with you. Whoops - I think it is all the pre-Christmas manic busyness that made it slip my mind. This year I've added to the felt decorations I made last year with some glass ornaments. (As always, I've struggled to photograph the glass - sorry if the pics are a bit blurry!)

First up the fused glass decorations for the tree. This is the "star" I made for the top:

There are more stars dotted about the tree.

I've tried to keep all the decorations in a roughly white and clear theme. The sparkly ones are made of either iridescent glass or dichroic glass.

This decoration is inspired by one I saw on flickr. Unfortunately I now can't find the original photo. If anyone knows whose it was then please let me know so I can credit the original maker:

I've also made around 10 stained glass stars using the copper foil method.

I haven't done that much copper foiling so these stars were a really good project to practice on - and brilliant for using up all the scraps of glass I have hanging around.

I haven't quite finished decorating the tree (I still need to add those crochet granny stars!) but here is my almost complete tree:

The tree is actually in my bedroom. This is partly because there isn't really enough room in my living room and partly because I have a lovely bay window in my bedroom which is perfect for a tree. When it gets dark I turn the lights off, leave the curtains open and people going past can see it sparkling in the window.

I've also added a bit of decoration in the living room to make things a bit more festive in there, mainly centred on the fireplace:

The mini baubles were a set from Paperchase which I spent ages knotting onto a ribbon this time last year! Again, I've got some fused glass decorations hanging here. Here are some closeups:



Phew - that was quite a photo heavy post! I hope you enjoyed seeing all the decorations I have made for my flat. I am now working frantically on all the Christmas presents I need to finish before next weekend. Eeek! Still, it is much nicer sitting on my sofa sewing than it is doing battle in the shops! Hopefully I should be able to show you the products of my efforts soon.

Hope all your Christmas crafting is going well and you are looking forward to Christmas. Unfortunately I got so much into the festive spirit last night that I have now pretty much lost my voice!! Whoops!

Have a good week xx

Granny Christmas Stars

Over the last few days I've become slightly addicted to making these crochet granny stars. Since I discovered the pattern on Jelly Wares blog (via this post on Paisley Jade) I've been crocheting them every spare moment!


They are really quick and satisfying to make and I am planning to hang them on the tree once I have blocked them with some PVA glue. I might even add some glitter if I'm feeling particularly festive!!

I made the smaller stars by missing out the last round of the pattern and in the second round replacing the half double crochet with a single (this will make sense if you look at the pattern).

My original plan was to make crochet snowflakes for the tree. I even bought these books for that purpose. Unfortunately it turns out I don't have the patience for the snowflakes - they take FOREVER! I don't mind all the fiddly bits on the first or even second branch of the snowflake but by the third and fourth I get grumpy!! I've started about five snowflakes and haven't managed to finish one yet! If you want to see some beautiful crochet snowflakes from the book then check out these posts from someone who has a lot more patience than me!

Maybe I'll have enough patience to attempt snowflakes next year but for the moment I'm pretty happy with my cute little granny stars!

Christmas Decorations (Part 1)

I've been digging out my Christmas decorations from last year and realised I never did a post about them. So, before I show you the ones I have made this year, I thought I'd show you last year's ones. 2010 was the first year I had a Christmas tree in my house. I was very excited and had grand plans to decorate it with only homemade decorations. Unfortunately my eight foot tree was a bit of a challenge but I did manage to make some felt hearts:

Felt stars:

And felt Christmas trees:


I can't remember where I got the idea of this type of decoration....I think it might have been from the Hobbycraft website! (Ooooh yes - I've just checked, the inspiration for the idea was here.) I took the idea to the extreme and made loads of little hand sewn ornaments.


I spent some lovely afternoons last November sitting on the sofa making these when I really should have been being more productive. I remember having great fun choosing different buttons especially the tiny little ones.


I even managed to get some little mitten buttons which you can just about see in this picture:

In the end I didn't have enough decorations so I supplemented these with plain white baubles from John Lewis. It was all very tasteful - and I always swore I was going to have a tacky brightly coloured tree when I got my own!!

I haven't put the tree up this year yet but will post some pictures when I do. I'm not feeling that festive yet and I feel so much less organised this time around. The tree was definitely up by this time last year because I had some people round for a Christmas do on the first weekend of December! Last year I was so efficient I even screen printed my own cards and wrapping paper!! I can't find any pictures of the cards but here is an example of the wrapping paper:


I'm not doing anything that ambitious this year! Although I am making lots of presents so I'd better get to work!! Will be back in a few days to show you the decorations I've made this year and hopefully a fully decorated tree (fingers crossed).

Hope you are all getting into the festive spirit a little more than me! xxx