A Pink Flowery Purse

My obsession with crochet and with Nicki Trench's book Cute & Easy Crochet continues, with yet another little project. This time, the Floral Purse...

I used Rico Creative Cotton in Fushia, purchased from here, with oddments of cotton DK in soft green and cream for the little flowers. The lining fabric is a pretty green floral print that I had already and a little daisy button was just right for the fastening. I loved making this little purse, it was a nice quick project which took only a couple of evenings to complete. The trickiest part was the the lining, which I admit, could be neater, but nonetheless, I am still happy with it. It is the perfect size for holding a little compact mirror and a lipstick or two...

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Father's Day

It's Father's Day today and Miss M and I organised a few small, but thoughtful gifts for G...

Miss M drew this picture of G cycling up a hill. She spent quite a while on it, wanting to get it "just right"! We popped it inside a little frame and G was very pleased with it...

A new mug for coffee at work...

We made a batch of "Bounty", coconut and chocolate truffles. G adores coconut and he has already eaten quite a few this morning....

This chocolate and marshmallow fudge we made on Friday night to give to my own lovely dad. (I love the sweet labels Miss M made!). We took it to him yesterday and also helped him to eat it...

Now, as it is Father's Day, G has gone out on his bike for a few hours and Miss M and I are going to spend a relaxing afternoon playing and reading in the garden.

Thank you for the lovely comments about my tea cosy and pattern. I think it probably is a simple enough pattern for a beginner, with the increases being the only tricky parts really.

Back soon with some crochet...

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Tea Cosy Pattern

In a blog post a few weeks ago, I included a photo with a tea cosy in it which I made last year. I had a few really nice comments about it and so thought I would include the pattern here, in case anyone would like to knit their own...

To make the tea cosy I adapted a couple of patterns I had to get the effect I wanted and to fit the teapot I have. Apologies if this post is overly long, I have never written a pattern out for anyone but myself before!

Tea Cosy Pattern ( Fits a standard 4 cup teapot)

Materials

Approx 100g Aran weight yarn (I used Sirdar Supersoft Aran)

6mm & 3mm knitting needles

Oddments of DK weight yarn for flowers

Abbreviations

K - knit M1 - make one (instructions here) Psso - pass slipped stitch over

K2tog - knit 2 stitches together

Directions for main part of tea cosy (make 2 pieces the same)

Use the yarn doubled throughout ( to make the tea cosy nice and thick, and well, cosy!). Knit in garter stitch throughout.

* Using 6mm needles and Aran weight yarn (doubled), cast on 24 stitches.

* Rows 1-4 - garter stitch

* Row 5 - K1, M1, knit to last stitch, M1, K1 (26 stitches)

* Row 6 - garter stitch

* Row 7 - K1, M1, knit to last stitch, M1, K1 (28 stitches)

* Row 8 - garter stitch

* Row 9 - K1, M1, knit to last stitch, M1, K1 (30 stitches)

* Row 10 - garter stitch

* Rows 11-22 - knit in garter stitch without shaping

* Row 23 - K1, slip 1, K1, Psso, knit to last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1 (28 stitches)

* Row 24 - garter stitch

* Row 25 - K1, slip 1, K1, Psso, knit to last 3 stitches, K2 tog, K1 (26 stitches)

* Row 26 - garter stitch

* Row 27-36 - knit in garter stitch without shaping

* Row 37 - K2tog x 3, knit to last 6 stitches, K2tog x 3 (20 stitches)

* Row 38 - garter stitch

* Row 39 - K2 tog x 3, knit to last 6 stitches, K2 tog x 3 (14 stitches)

* Knit 3 rows in garter stitch without shaping

* Cast off remaining 14 stitches

Flowers (I made twelve)

* Using 3mm needles and DK yarn, cast on 60 stitches

* Row 1 - garter stitch to end

* Row 2 - K1, cast off 8, repeat to end until there are 12 stitches left on the needle

* Break off the yarn leaving a long tail, thread through the 12 stitches and pull up tightly, then secure and

stitch in place to make a flower.

Making Up/ Finishing

Block the 2 pieces of the tea cosy and spray the flowers with some spray starch and leave to dry.

Using mattress stitch, sew the 2 top pieces together along each cast off edge.

Sew the sides of the cosy, leaving a space of approximately 11cm open for the handle and 8cm open for the spout.

Pin the flowers to the top of the cosy and sew securely in place.

 

I hope the pattern is okay, I have checked it a few times but if anyone does decide to knit one and finds a problem with it just let me know, and I will amend it! Happy knitting...

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Five Good Things

1. Lots of lovely colourful embroidery threads given to me by a good friend last week...

2. A pretty little buttercup posy from Miss M...

3. Baking and eating simple fairy cakes...

4. New yarn. I cannot wait to start the project I have planned for this...

5. Souvenirs from a nice day out with my little family on Saturday...

Thank you for the lovely comments on my tiny heart picture, they really made me smile...

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Tiny Hearts

Last week I had lots of fun making some tiny crochet hearts...

They are really tiny, measuring only 3 cm. I used this great tutorial. They are so simple to make and really quite addictive! I used some oddments of Rowan Cotton Glacé that I had and they really only take such a tiny amount of yarn. Originally, I had been planning to make a little garland with the little hearts but came across an empty frame and decided to make a little picture instead...

I sprayed the hearts with some starch and left them to dry or an hour then glued them on to a piece of white card stock using extra strong all purpose glue before putting the little picture inside the frame...

Here it is looking quite at home on Miss M's bookshelf. I think it looks quite sweet! It was a really quick and satisfying little project which only took a couple of hours. I may still make that garland though...!

Happy weekend!

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Beautiful Blue

It's been a blue kind of week...

New dark blue yarn. I am planning a Christmas (!!!) present with this...

Loving my teacup necklace bought with some birthday money recently...

A little posy of flowers picked in the garden by Miss M especially for me...

Lots of lovely blues in my current cross stitch...

Blue straws. I bought a lovely pack of prettily coloured straws in Ikea recently and Miss M sorted them all out into colours. This week has been a blue straw week, last week was pink...

In town with a good friend today I bought this skirt. I really love the pretty print...

Thank you so much for the sweet comments about my jam pot covers. I am still trying to finish off the ice cream blanket but keep getting distracted by crochet! I seem to be obsessed by crochet at the moment and keep planning new projects. I have another really small little crochet make to show you really soon and then it's definitely back to knitting at least until the blanket is finished. I didn't realise how much slower than crochet knitting is!

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Jam Pot Covers

Crochet has definitely been my craft of choice over the past couple of weeks. Now that I am becoming a little more confident, I have begun tackling some slightly more difficult projects from Nicki Trench's Cute & Easy Crochet. At the end of last week I finished these sweet little jam pot covers...

It took me a few attempts to get them right! But I am pretty happy with how they have turned out and like how they look filled with mini marshmallows on one of the kitchen shelves.

Thank you so much for all of the lovely comments on my little crocheted cushion, they really mean a lot. Also hello and welcome to my new readers and followers.

Back soon, most probably with more crochet...

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