Happy Easter

Wishing you all a peaceful and

Happy Easter

X

Birthday flower

A special young lady is seven today...

..a card 

and picture all in one!

Happy Birthday!
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Spring chick(ens)

The little chap hooked for my husbands Christmas card inspired me to make some colourful spring chicks...

A simple crocheted circle, 

sew a ribbon beak onto the back,

fold less than half of the circle behind and secure with stitches,

needlefelt an eye,

make a tail by tying some short ends,

or shaping near the tail end with a knot,

 

or shape by chance and secure with a few stabs of a barbed needle

or add a spare shard offcut of amazingly co-ordinated handmade felt.

Some were adventurous and headed outside for a freezing photo shoot!

Others stayed at home in the warm...

Some might have featured more than once..and some flew away before being captured on camera!

Great way to use small amounts of wool - each one has two, three or four strands for each stitch.

Everyone a stash buster!

 Their bodies weighed in at a m-egg-a 65g!

So totals for March are:

Sherlock Stitch - 37g

Red noses 14g, Shamrocks 3g

Nests - 110g

Chicks - 65g

Total 229g

So with January (218g) February (186g) and March (229g)

I make that  663g busted so far!

I can tell the volume of my colourful yarn is decreasing as I have room  in my containers..

however, a new local woolly emporium has opened this week..

 I must go and check it out soon - maybe the gaps are there to be filled?

Nesting...

Thanks for all your great bloggy comments, I really appreciate each one and many of them raise a smile, or further inspiration.
My last post certainly promoted some curiosity....
So without further ado....
going round in 3D circles...

 ...crochet nests!

...we did have some sun in March!

(Sorry Melody another sentence of woolly-randomness follows)
Starting with 3 chains and about 9 trebles in a magic circle (using a slip stitch to close the circle each round) - Round 1 increasing in each stitch, and then varying

combinations of  rows of trebles or  half trebles, and/or doubles, some in back loop only, some in front loops, sometimes increasing...

...each one is absolutely unique...

All of these were either (lovingly) hand felted or unceremoniously bunged in the washing machine with the usual washing...and felted!

The top of these two tweedy nests was washed in the washer and the lower one hand felted - both giving a different effect.

Following the felting process some are more irregularly shaped than others...

this pinky firey one has a gentle scoop shape on one side, but however hard I tried I couldn't capture it on camera... it does mean though that the recipient will have a unique experience not seen by others!

During felting, the bumpy texture (made by the back or front loop only rows) was usually lost, but some of the stitch texture is still visible.
I enjoyed experimenting with the hot water, soap and rubber gloves making different nest shapes and pummelling the fibre! 

It was also exciting to open the pouch when the washing machine cycle had finished to reveal a finished felted nest..

The colours in this particular wool became much more vibrant after  agitation!

Fuzzy nests were made with some mohair blended yarn...

 ..not felted but filled!

All the wool was from my stash ...

...and came to a eggsiting total of 110g!

The great thing about this project is that you don't have to count stitches or stick rigidly to a pattern - just go with the flow as a lot comes out in the wash!

My next post will be a picture-full one too....with a special selection of circular celebrities!

Round and round in circles!

Two of the Easter projects in progress involve circles....

Flat ones....

excuse the rudimentary sewing - not my strong point!

and rounded ones!

Using wool from this stash

and this one....

....and the washing machine!!

There'll be more photos when the sun comes out!!

Raising a smile

I try to avoid posting photos of myself, however I love this one so much I thought I'd share it with you all! 

It was  artistically penned by RW junior for the front of my Mother's day card, and is a good likeness!

I'm very proud of him!

Later this week its Red Nose Day and I have given a few of these brooches away to raise a smile!

The recipients have been asked to make a donation to Comic Relief.

Inspired by the easy to follow Lucky Shamrock Tutorial over on the colourful TACIStudio's blog these brooches were made for two friends who will celebrate St Patricks Day on Sunday.

 The first I followed the pattern to the letter..

and the second I changed a little for fun!

Stashbusting a comical 14g for noses and a green 3g for shamrocks!

Inspiration strikes!

I love a challenge, 

and have been captivated by BBC dramatic series such as

 Dr Who, Sherlock and Merlin. 

So when Ashley left a Sherlock related comment on the post about the Dr Who square my mind began to race...very much in the way that the superb Sherlock's does -  though not quite as scientifically!

During the mundane washing up that uneventful evening,  my mind wandering over microscopic elements of Sherlock -  inspiration struck!

I know this may be more cryptic than Ashely was hoping for,
 its possibly out there in another pattern,
but it was so much fun to work out!

So I present to you the Sherlock stitch!

Chain 2, miss 2 stitches, 1 dc (sc) in back loop only

in other words or should that be symbols

221b

aptly named after Sherlock and John's address 221b Baker Street!

In straight lines it made a great washcloth  - 

made here with Katia cotton and Sirdar White Whispers 100% bamboo, which makes it so soft the tension wavers!

The foundation chain should be a multiple of 3 stitches, (I used 36 for the washcloth) 

miss 2 stitches and dc (sc) into 3rd stitch.

At the end of the chain, turn, chain 2, miss two stitches and 1dc (sc) into the back loop of the 3rd stitch. continue to the end and repeat.... 

Each dc (sc) happens at the same place on each row so that its a rhythmical pattern after the 2nd row theres no need to count. 

(Having said this I'm hoping it is the case as I made quite a few errors the first few rows of experimenting and being a novice pattern writer I might have developed something that's not how its written?!)

 It also makes a  pretty lace like vessel

 the one below named 'A Study in Pink'

after the first Sherlock episode!

Well and truly Sher-locked!

Thanks to Ashley for the initial spark and washcloth inspiration, Astri for the back loop and washcloth ideas and I was thinking of Elisabeth whilst hooking with the Spanish Katia cotton!

All used yarn from my stash...

washcloth  23g, vessels 6g and 3g , messing about bits 5g, total = 37g .

I think Sherlock stitch will lend itself to a scarf which will be in the pipeline...possibly in navy blue just like Sherlock's!

Now....Merlin.......??!