House of Pinheiro Swap

As previously mentioned I took part in House of Pinheiro's Pincushion swap this month.

The lovely Katie from Booty-Full Things sent me the following:

I feel super-lucky to have been paired up with Katie. She sent me a beautiful hand-made crocheted strawberry pincushion, an embroidered card, a sewing set AND pins! I was actually ridiculously pleased with the pins. I've been in semi-desperate need for pins for ages (the only ones I had are lace pins, which get easily lost in things that are not lace).

Thank you Katie!

Her blog is full of equally wondrous crocheted goodies - I recommend going to read it. She's also currently hosting a jar swap. I'm taking part, you should too.

Also world, if you're into swaps - don't forget to enter my bird swap over at Tre La Creativity.

I Spy... 99 feelings

I stumbled upon this video is of artist Misty Sleurs talking about her 99 feelings project on Kimono Incarnate. It's really lovely so I felt impelled to share it here too.

Making a pincusion

I've recently discovered craft swapping and have decided to launch myself into it. Mainly because I love getting post, love making things and love a challenge. Swaps involve all of those things. Swoon.

So when I heard about House of Pinheiro's pincushion swap I signed right up!

Having received my swap partner I went and stalked her blog and started sketching ideas. I decided that it should be summery, and made of felt (of course). Felt sharpens needles so is in fact the perfect material for making a pincushion.

I decided to make a felt watermelon pincushion.

I assembled my ingredients:

Pincushion ingredients

I cut out my shape and started to piece it together. I decided that black beads would make good pips.

I folded the halves together and stitched in up with blanket stitch, pausing to stuff it with fluff and rice. 

The finished pincushion, avec pins.

Crocheted jar covers

Having whipped out my crochet hook (I only have the one) to make my amigurumi teddy bear I then proceeded to go on a crochet FRENZY. The next few posts will be documenting the chaos.

I have a whole bundle of glass jars sitting in a cupboard in my kitchen. They're the remains of yoghurts and Gu chocolate deserts. At times I can be a massive horder. I've been trying to think of a way of using them. It occurred to me that it might be cute to crochet covers for them (CROCHET FRENZY).

I was pretty confident that someone else would have had this idea so I googled for it and discovered hundreds of people had and that they had also usefully written tutorials. Tangled Happy had a great collection of jam jar cover tutorials from many different websites. These were great. I also really liked Attic24's tutorial on making crochet tin covers.

As mentioned previously I am quite rubbish at following crochet instructions, so although these websites gave me a starting point, I soon abandoned them and just made it up as I went along. This may be obvious by looking at my covers.

It was fun though and gave me something to do whilst watching Game of Thrones. Now I just have to think of what to do with glass jars covered in crochet.... tea lights maybe?

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Winnings

I took part in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway day by both offering my own giveaway item and entering other people's competitions. I was very lucky! I won two! Huzah. I rarely win anything so I was pretty chuffed. 

First I was informed that I'd won a crocheted flower ring on Coprnije's blog.

It arrived last week and is beautiful:

Coprnije's lovely ring on my finger.

She also sent me some of her branded badges and business cards. Thank you!

Next, I was delighted to learn that I had also won The Willow Nest's bird necklace. 

Bird necklace, photo from The Willow's nest

This is also very lovely. I haven't worn it yet, I'm planning just the right moment to whip it out. Thank you also.

Last week was a good week for post. I'm feeling very chuffed with myself right now.

Book Review: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi

Takamori Tomoko, Chronicle Books

I've had Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi sitting around for a while. I think it was a present. Then again, I may have impulse bought it. If so it's one of my better impulse buys. It's written by Tomoko Takamori, a researcher of knitting and crochet who started her career in amigurami creation in 1993.

There are several cute little amigurami creatures to make including teddy bears, sheep, tigers, kittens and jackrabbits. I decided to have a go with the little teddy pattern.

The pattern was really easy to use. The author provides a page describing the symbols and stitches used in the book which was great. I'm rubbish at following printed instructions and even I managed to follow these. I even referred back to this book whilst following someone else's pattern. The only criticism I have is that how to start crocheting was not made clear. I had to look that up somewhere else. 

Here is the teddy I made:

He needs a ribbon or something because fool that I am I stitched his head on with thread instead of the wool. He looks a little like he has terrible scarring around his neck. I think with finer wool this would look even cuter. I only have chunky cheap wool though. I will buy better wool - one day when I've finished the cheap stuff.

All in all a very excellent book. I recommend it whole-heartedly! I haven't put it away yet because I want to try more patterns from it. That's the sign of a good craft book.

Playing around with Hama-style beads

Months ago I bought a giant jar of Hama-style beads originally from Ikea from a charity shop for £2.50. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them. "What to do" I mused. I made a couple of bracelets, used some for teeth in some felt zombies. Mainly though the jar has just been sitting and gathering dust.

Then the other day I decided to actually see if I could use them like Hama beads. I bought a Hama board from Amazon. I arranged the beads on the board, covered them in baking paper and then ironed them. This was my first attempt:

I think I'll glue a brooch pin to the back of it.

Then I had another go and made this one:

Tee hee hee! It worked very well! This one is a little too big for a brooch so I'm currently trying to think of something to do with it.

I also bought some actual Hama branded beads which are sparkly (I have no will power). So am trying to think of a good pattern for them.