groovy duvet rag pot holder

Perhaps not worth an entire blog post of its own, but I was pretty pleased with how my crochet rag (tea)pot holder turned out and thought it was a fun way of using up fabric scraps.

As a last minute idea for my mum's birthday I decided to crochet a pot holder to go with the green, wooden tray I had bought for her. I used left over fabric scraps from my groovy duvet dress (it's the fabric which keeps on giving, I still have more left!) and loosely followed this tutorial I found through ravelry. I ripped my fabric into 1 inch wide strips, sewed them together like bias binding and crocheted round and round on a 8mm hook until the circle was big enough to cover a teapot base.

Other than loose fabric threads getting in a bit of a tangle and my brain forgetting how to crochet as it's now used to knitting, it was an easy, fun and quick project to make. I'm definitely tempted to make more, but first I want to knit an old fashioned tea cosy!

cheerful crochet pineapple garland

Hey, look, I crocheted something! This is worth celebrating for 3 reasons:

1. It has been 2 1/2 years since I last crocheted.

2. I actually remembered how to crochet - a great achievement as I have the memory of a goldfish.

3. I didn't give myself tendonitis/repetitive strain injury like last time. Epic win, as the cool kids say.

I've had the crochet pineapple garland tutorial from By Hand London bookmarked for ages, knowing it would make the perfect birthday present for my friend Kirsty as we have a daft in-joke about pineapples. I set aside a few weeks to make the garland, restricting myself to 1/2 hour - 1 hour crochet time per day as I really didn't want to risk injuring myself again (stupid hand and arm muscles...) and I finished it within a week. Yay!

The only change I made from the tutorial was to chain 30 instead of 20 between each pineapple and hang them from the top of the central "leaf". I made 13 pineapples in total (I like an odd number) and the garland is just over 6ft long which I think is nice, manageable size.

I felt a bit sad parting with the pineapple garland as it matches my yellow formica table so nicely, but I can thankfully report that it is very happy in its new home.

Things I've made

I know Christmas has passed and I shouldn't mention it again until at least November this year, but I wanted to share a few of the non baked gifts I made for Christmas last year.

Fleecy hot water bottle covers are cosy and easy gifts to sew and can be jazzed up with a bit of applique, embroidery or fancy trims. For my friend Sarah I went with a bit of simple embroidery. Yay for embroidered dinosaurs!

After all my crocheting I managed to make 5 festive garlands! I'll have to make one for myself this year as I was so pleased with them. Both patterns came from the Royal Sisters blog.

Impressively and pathetically I managed to injure myself due to all my festive crocheting. After 3 weeks of really stiff finger joints and a shooting pain up my arm I went to the doctors to be told I have golfer's arm. Careful children, crocheting is dangerous.

Beware of the crochet Christmas trees.

I also made quilts for my nephews but I don't have any photos. I bought fleece blankets of Peppa Pig and Wall-e and quilted plain fleece blankets on to the back with wadding in between. They worked a treat.

Did anyone else make any Christmas presents last year? I'm not going to ask whether anyone else injured themselves crocheting, I must be the only idiot who managed that!

Homemade festive decorations

I decided to make a couple of presents this year, little extras for family gifts and easy to post away to uni friends.

It soon became apparent that knitting is not my forte, in fact I'm pretty cack handed. If I make a mistake I have no idea how to correct it and inevitably shout "MUM!" and thrust it in her face. Crocheting, on the other hand, I can manage. There's only one needle/hook so if I drop a stitch it automatically goes back to the previous step. Easy. 

I found the tree pattern through Tea at Weasel's which, along with the star pattern, originally came from The Royal Sisters blog. The wool I used was a bit thinner so my trees and stars look a bit different to the tutorials. 

Despite being a complete crochet novice (well, I crocheted a beanie hat five years ago) I found her tutorials very clear to follow. So basically, if I can manage it anybody can! I really enjoyed these decorations and I've rediscovered a crochet book Mum gave me for Christmas years ago (just after I made the hat) which has sat on the bookshelf unused. Next year, I will use it!

Check out all my festive fabrics, oooooh!

I might string these stars/snowflakes together, although I don't know whether to use thread, ribbon, or wool (maybe even crochet chain them). Any suggestions?

And lastly, do you collect old Christmas and birthday wrapping paper because it's pretty but don't know what to do with them? Yes? Well turn them into Christmas decorations! Cut into festive shapes, laminate (so much fun!), string them up and you'll have your very own colourful, shiny, cheap decorations! We hung ours across the kitchen blind and it casts lovely shadows in the evening.

Has anyone else been making last minute decorations? I really need to stop crocheting and start baking mincemeat pies! Hopefully tomorrow will be a productive day in the kitchen.