Festive gifts

Now that the festivities of the big day are over, I think it’s safe to share some of the gifts I made for Christmas…

First off, my mum asked for a bobble hat, so I showed her various yarns and drew different designs, but eventually this is what I crocheted for her:

Crochet hat for mum

I used an aran-weight alpaca yarn, working in treble stitches in the round. I started off in blue and then worked the increases in red, creating an interlocking spiked effect. There was a lot of colour changing and counting involved, but it was worth it because mum really likes the finished hat. I think it has a subtle crown-like element to it. It’s certainly unusual anyway.

The weather is unseasonably mild at the moment so my mum won’t need to wear it for a while, but she says it’s lovely and cosy. She wanted the big bobble pompom on the top, which used a lot of yarn and took a while to make. And it really does ‘bobble’ about on your head when you wear it, which is fun!

Next up, I also used my crochet hooks to make this adorable owl for my aunty:

Crochet owl

Owls are my aunty’s favourite and it just so happened that Simply Crochet features an owl pattern in issue 40 (on sale soon) – as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it for her. The pattern actually comes from a book, Sweet Crochet by Sandrine Deveze, and it was really easy to make. I used a cream linen yarn with variegated lengths of sparkly gold, which gives the owl a lovely texture. And of course, I had to make a little gif of him in his natural woodland habitat!

I also made a few foodie treats, as is customary at Christmas. The most effort fun was making jars of pancake mix for two of my cousins. My cousin Adam is coeliac so I had the idea of making him a gluten-free pancake mix, to which he could just add milk (dairy or dairy-free). I like to keep a good stock of empty jars for such occasions, although of course, I had to do a bit of dressing up to make the jar look festive:

Pancake mix

So I glued a circle of red fabric over the lid, then added a circle of glittery gold netting over the top and worked some gathering stitches to keep the two fabric layers in place. Then I added another piece of festive ribbon to the body of the jar (my mum had just given me this ribbon so that was perfect timing!). The only thing missing was a label, so I designed that on the computer, printed out the front and back, glued the two sides together and attached it to the jar with a small piece of ribbon. Here’s a close-up view of the label:

Gluten-free pancake mix label

This jar turned out so good that I decided to make a second jar (not gluten free) for another cousin – I figured, who doesn’t like pancakes? They’re such a treat, which is what Christmas is all about.

Pancake label

If you’re interested in the recipe for the pancake mix, please head to my foodie blog, littlegreenplate.wordpress.com where you’ll also find some of the other foodie treats I made for a happy vegan Christmas! Hope you had a good one 🙂

 

Christmas crowns

One of my favourite parts of Christmas day is pulling crackers and then wearing the silly crown while eating my Christmas meal. I like the idea of wearing a crown (we’re all royalty for the day at Christmas!) but all too often, the flimsy paper crowns rip or they’re too big and fall down over your eyes! What I really like is the idea of a crocheted Christmas crown, that’s been designed to suit you, and that you can use year after year.

Last year, I crocheted a children’s Christmas crown for Simply Crochet (see the post here and buy the pattern on Ravelry here or on Etsy here), but I didn’t get it back in time to give it to anyone for Christmas. So I stashed it away, ready for this year.

I’m aunty to two gorgeous little girls, who I’ve crafted plenty of treats for – but I sometimes forget that I’m also aunty to my other half’s nephew and niece, William and Lauren. So I decided that last year’s bright red and gold crown would be fit for a king, or rather for 8-year-old William, and that I’d make a new pink crown for 4-year-old Lauren. Here they are…

Christmas crowns

Lauren loves pink and princesses, so I tried to make a crown that would make her feel like a princess on Christmas Day. There’s a little bit of lacy, girly-ness in the central band and gentle peaks at the top, which I finished off with some dainty pearl beads…

Pink crown

I hope they like their Christmas crowns and use them again and again. The red crown has some elastic sewn in the back so it’s quite stretchy, while the pink crown has a stretchy lower edge thanks to a special technique I used. So hopefully, both will be able to stretch to fit their heads for many more years.

The special technique I used is crocheted foundation rows, which means you start crocheting by making the first row, rather than having to crochet a chain and then work stitches into it. I recently learned how to do it and this was the first project where I got to use those new skills. I’m loving the results and it’s so much faster and easier! If you haven’t tried it yet, please do give it a go.

Merry Christmas and hope you all enjoy your Christmas meals, wearing brilliantly silly crowns!

 

Simply Crochet: winter

If you read this post about the summer edition of Simply Crochet, you might be interested to know that we’ve now done a winter edition as well!

The summer edition was hugely popular and I loved working on it, so I was really pleased to be asked to work on the winter issue. And by the way, if you’re still after a copy of the first, summer issue, you can now buy a copy on Zinio – just click here.

Anyway, I think the winter edition is even better! And it’s on sale now:

Simply Crochet winter edition

There are so many projects that I want to make, which is either a reflection of how good the magazine is or how much more confident I am with my crochet skills now – or both!

I love the cute projects, like the little penguin, the panda hat and the Christmas tree decorations – but I also love the grown-up patterns, like the party bolero on the cover, the green mittens and the sparkly table runner. When you’ve got lovely projects like these to look at every day, work doesn’t feel like work!

Then there’s the one project that I know very well – because I made it! In collaboration with the wonderful Cara Medus, we created this fab crochet Christmas crown for kids (and adults!):

Crochet crown from Simply Crochet (winter)

The crown uses simple treble stitches, with a double crochet edging in metallic gold yarn – bling! You can find the pattern for the crown on my Ravelry shop here or my Etsy shop here

I think you know you’ve mastered a craft when it becomes automatic and you can work the stitches without really thinking too much about them. I finally experienced this feeling while crocheting this crown, so it’s time to admit it… world, I am hooked on crochet! Phew, that feels better…