You can be part of a yarnbomb!

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Pattern, Yarnbombing

Tags

crochet, crochet applique, Surbiton Food Festival, Yarnbomb, yarnstorm

You know you want to!

All you have to do is crochet a piece of fruit and post it to me. No measurements to take, no getting onto ladders, no braving the elements to put up the yarnbomb. You dont even have to find a pattern, I’ll supply you with one. Just raid your stash, hook and go to the post office. Are you in? Want to know more?

The yarnbomb is for Surbiton’s first annual Food Festival from 4 to 19 May 2013. The organisers contacted Bobi of The Craft Inn to do the marketing for the festival and being a crafter extrodinaire she immediately thought of a craftbomb. My Thames Ditton yarnbombs (here, here and here) caught her attention so she asked me if I wanted to be part of this great crafty endeavour. Of course I said yes!

I don’t want to tell you exactly what I’m planning or how I’m going to use your fruit, but I can tell you that I need to cover a lot of space. I need a lot, or big pieces, of crochet. All before 29 March.

This is where you come in. It would be great if my blog buddies from all over the world could be part of the yarnbomb. A multi-national fruit salad for Surbiton!

As I receive your pieces I’ll give you credit on this blog ~~and if you include a business card, I will attach it to one of your fruit as well~~ . Due to a change of venue I will no longer be able to attach business cards to the crochet.

As for the pattern, you can find it here: Fruit crochet for Surbiton Food Festival (the link will open a PDF document). The pattern is in fact four crochet fruit coaster patterns, all courtesy of Louise Howe of the Lally Lou Lou blog, that I just put together in one document. Louise’s original patterns can be found here and here. Thank you so, so, so much Louise for agreeing to me using your fruit coasters for the yarnbomb. Dear readers, Louise has also promised to send me a couple of apples, pears and strawberries to use in the yarnbomb. It’s only right that the designer should have her handiwork included in the yarnbomb, don’t you think?

These are the fruit that I’ve made so far. I used Double Knit, Aran and Chunky yarn. I think towards the deadline of 29 March I’ll probably be sticking to only Chunky yarn as it works up so quickly.

The orange was made using Double Knit cotton and a 4 mm crochet hook:

Sliced in half apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook (and a dodgy uneven backstitch):

Apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook:

Strawberry in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. There is a combination of white french knots and two straight stitches to indicate the strawberry hairs. After three french knots I gave up and stuck to the straight stitches:

Pear in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. Later I realised that the pear looks more like a pear if the leaf is at the top of the stem (the way Louise does it), not the bottom :

I just want to stress that (if you haven’t already gathered this from my backstitch, strawberry hairs and pear leaf mistakes) the fruit doesn’t have to be perfect. Honestly, it’s just a bit of fun (I can hear Uncle Bryn‘s voice in my head as I’m typing here). The yarnbomb will be outside during the British Month Of April and when all the pieces of crochet are put together no-one will notice mistakes, so just enjoy it.

And of course you can send me any crocheted fruit, you don’t have to use Louise’s pattern. In fact, I hope someone will send me something different. The multi-national fruit salad could do with lemon, lime, cherry and banana.

When you’re ready to post me your crocheted fruit, send me a message and I will email you my address. The yarnbomb will be going up over the Easter weekend, and I need time to do my thing to turn the pieces into a workable yarnbomb, so I need your fruit before 22 March 2013 please.

I’m really looking forward to receiving your yarnbomb contributions. Remember, every time you finish a piece of crocheted fruit, it counts as one of your five a day. Fact.

Hand towels for my Dad

13 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet applique

My Dad turned 60 in March this year. As a birthday present Hubby and I bought him a ticket to come and visit us here in England for 10 days in September. We started to plan the holiday in February, applied for his Visa in July and in last week he collected the visa and currency. All that’s left to do is for him to get on the aeroplane on the 7th September! (To put my excitement about this visit into context, this is the first time one of my parents will see the country I’ve been living in for 8 years, and the house I’ve been living in for 6 years. His visit is a BIG DEAL to me!)

As a welcome gift, I made my dad these crochet applique hand towels:

To understand the farm scene, you have to know that my Dad has been working as a Scientific Technician at the Department of Agriculture farm in Elsenburg, South Africa since 1974. Yes, 1974! His main field of expertise are milk cows. Two years ago he did his Masters Degree on the subject. It’s such a big part of my Dad, that I just had to do something cow and farm inspired for him.

I went for hand towels, as it’s something that he uses daily on the farm. His “office” (I’m using the term loosely as it’s actually a room with desk and chair in a farm outbuilding) also has a basin which he uses to wash his hands after a few hours in the dairy or the stables, so hand towels were the obvious choice.

The crochet appliques are a mixture of two oneandtwocompany patterns: the cow and shed from Cow Pig and Farm, and the tree from The Tree The Houses and The Cloud (I blogged about these cute crochet applique patterns here way back in February). It was so much fun making these, even more so since I knew it was for my Dad and he wasn’t expecting it. The patterns are easy to understand and work up really quickly.

It was essential that I use the cow for both towels, but to make each one special, I did one as a Jersey cow (the brownish) and one as a Friesian (the black and white). The yarn is Rowan Handknit Cotton and Stylecraft Cotton Classiqe with a 5 mm crochet hook.

I sewed the applique onto the towels with invisible thread. I got the idea of using invisible thread from Sarah London’s Crochet Love book (she calls it monofilament thread). It worked really well. You can’t see the stitches at all! I didn’t sew the ears of the cows onto the towel – I think it’s cute that they stand out and can be played with as you dry your hands…. not that my Dad would want to play with cow ears, but I like to give him the option.

Hubby came up with the idea of blanket stitching along the bottom in green yarn so that it would look like grass. I think it looks great and really “pulls everything together” – that’s a direct quote from Hubby. Such a clever husband!!

I really like how the towels turned out. I just hope my Dad feels the same.

(P.S. If you read this post and you know my Dad please don’t spoil the surprise.)

Applique to match

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by Natasja in Etsy, My ramblings, Other people's crochet, Pattern

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet applique, crochet pattern, Etsy

When I launched the pattern for my crochet wall clocks, I said that in stead of crocheted circles to indicate 12, 3, 6 and 9 you can use any applique motif, as long as the hands of your clock are able to move over it freely. To quote myself:

I’m thinking stars, hearts, cupcakes.

The Gods of Crochet must have been reading my blog and sent inspirational hooky vibes to the owner of OneandTwoCompany. This young nurse is selling applique crochet patterns in her Etsy shop, which include exactly that: the most beautiful stars, hearts and cupcakes! Can you believe it?!

She also sells patterns for whales and hedgehogs that would work well with my clocks. I’m especially loving the hedgehogs!

Can you see it? A white clock face with a brightly coloured whales or hedgehogs (or both!) on 3, 6, 9 and 12?! It would be sooooo cute!

Ooh, and what about this scene. Absolutely perfect*!

OneandTwoCompany sells many other applique patterns, but I think only the ones I mention here, would work on my clocks seeing as they are flat enough.

PLEASE NOTE: I have to point out that her finished items (apart from the hearts pattern) are a bit big for the standard size clock, so you would have to:

either keep going in pattern rounds for the clock face so that the clock is large enough to accommodate the applique; or
use a 4 ply yarn and smaller hook for the applique.

Even if you haven’t bought my clock pattern, I’m sure you will find something to decorate with OneTwoCompany’s cute applique. Hats, scarfs, blankets, towels, cushions – just about anything!

The patterns start from as little as $2.50 (roughly £1.62) so what are you waiting for? I certainly didn’t wait…. *I bought the cloud, tree & houses pattern. Not sure what I will be using it for yet, but inspiration will hit soon enough I’m sure.

Pattern stashing is like yarn stashing isn’t it? You know you love it, you know you have to buy it, and you know that you will (probably, eventually) find a use for it. Right?