Cotton and washable items

I have been working increasingly with cotton yarns - partly because it is lovely material to work with and partly for environmental reasons.

At the moment I am making washable and reusable items, such as washable make-up remover pads and face cloths. Being able to reuse these items saves so much waste.

Here are a few recent items I have made,

Please check out my new Folksy shop too!

Nativity (Christmas project)

This year for Christmas I decided to make one figure for the nativity scene every day.

I used Crafty Cattery's patterns for Mary, Joseph and the baby as a base pattern. Apart from adding facial features and using DK yarn I made little changes to the original patterns.
I then added a variety of other objects - wings, a staff, cloaks, a lamb, gifts and head coverings. I made a manger for the baby and designed the sheep from scratch. I made the legs by covering pipe cleaners with lengths of i-chord.

Really pleased with the outcome. It was great fun and a wonderful way to retell the Christmas story over the 12 days of Christmas.

More Easter eggs ...

You know that feeling when you start making something and then you end up making more than you ever planned?

Here are my little chocolate egg cosies - 30 of them - ready to be taken to work next week to raise money for my daughter's trip with the Voluntary Services Overseas.

And I got an order to make another 40 for the children's group at our church. Just how many days until Easter??
Luckily I persuaded my daughter to help me with stitching on the eyes. That will make a huge difference!

Easter eggs - the sequel

Having made a few of the googey-eyed eggs, I decided to amend the pattern to make covers which fit a small chocolate egg (Cadbury's creme egg or similar).
Here they are.


The problem is that my cupboard now hides a couple of dozen creme eggs. I wonder how long they will stay safe?!

Woolly Toons Easter Bunny

Well, I did promise myself some Easter projects.
I started with crocheting this this delightful Easter bunny. You can find the pattern in Woolly Toons' blog.
The pieces were quite easy to make and although assembling the face was a bit fiddly (I will ask my daughter to do it for me next time), it was a real hoot seeing the little face come to life!

Now I am in the groove, I think I will add a few eggs to the collection ... and perhaps another bunny or two.

I am feeling particularly self-righteous, as I am still counting this as part of my stash-reduction.

Elves

Nearly Advent. Time to call on those little Christmas helpers. Hurray!

Remembrance Poppy

I have designed a pattern for this poppy just in time for Remembrance Sunday. You can find the pattern on my Ravelry page.
All proceeds from patterns sales will go to the Royal British Legion, a charity which supports serving members of the Armed Forces, ex-Service men and women (veterans), their families and dependants all year-round.

Please consider supporting this cause.

Christmas slippers

It is certainly time to start thinking about Christmas knitting - both for presents and for our church Christmas fair.

Here is a pair of Christmas slippers (crocheted, not knitted). The free DROPS pattern is available here.

I haven't fully decided, but these slippers will most likely be for my daughter.

Crocheted hearts

This is my last Valentines project. I promise to move on to more sensible things, which don't include hearts! :)

I usually prefer knitting to crocheting, but I couldn't resist these lovely crocheted hearts.

The pattern is from K and J Dolls Blog and is available for free.
More fun patterns are available of Ravelry.

Cotton basket

This cotton basket took me ages to make ... after all, I am a nutty knitter and not a nutty crocheter!

I really like it though, and it is very versatile.
Made from from natural cotton string, it is strong and yet flexible.

Can be viewed in my etsy shop

Totoro

My daughter wanted to crochet Totoro for her friend Poppie's birthday. Typically for her, she thought about it two days before the party - so we had a frantic couple of days!
Here are some pictures we took:



In our excitement and rush we forgot to take a picture of the finished item.
Here are a couple I found on the web:

Colours of the rainbow

I have just received an order for a crocheted floppy summer hat, made from DK cotton yarn.

What a fine opportunity to get out my colours and arrange them in the right order. The top of the hat will start with the cream, then work its way down to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and red ...

I love to look at and feel yarn. Makes me wish I had my own wool shop!!

Fingerpuppets (again) ...

This is what I have been doing for the last five days or so - eight fingerpuppets for neuart.

Neuart is a knitter herself and makes very detailed dolls clothes for Blythe doll.

Fingerpuppets

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6961558

These little rabbits are crocheted to my own pattern.

I have just had a request for 8 of them - so I will be busy.

They are ideal for Easter (or any other time of year), and perfect for little hands as well as adult ones ...

They are operated by either using fingers to move arms and head, or to move the legs. They are also just the right size to hold a small chocolate egg.