Costume making

Since Sam started at school it seems like there have been quite a few 'dressing up' days where he has needed costumes for some event or other. One week it was a 'cosy day' where they had to wear pyjamas/dressing gowns (Sam was excited that he also got to take in his blue crochet blanket too). 

But some have been a little trickier... like having to find a fairy tale outfit for a boy. So instead of dressing him like a knight like the rest of the boys in his class I thought he could be Hansel. Thankfully I was able to borrow some lederhosen from another mum and all I had to make was a suitable hat...

Then we had World book day and Sam's class had to dress up as characters from Julia Donaldson books. Sam decided that he wanted to be the ladybird from "What the Ladybird heard" and this time I had him helping to make his costume which consisted of cardboard wings (painted by Sam and then decorated with spots and much glitter then applied) and a ladybird mask we had in our dressing up box.

Now on to making up a Easter bonnet for the school parade...

Felt fantastic

Look at what I got in the post this morning... a copy of Laura Howard's "Super-cute felt animals"!

I can't believe that I was the lucky winner of Super Cute Kawii's recent giveaway - thank you ever so much Marceline!

Wrist warming

Over this cold and damp winter my little girl has decided that she would much prefer to wear my plain and boring black gloves rather than her pretty pink mittens. Seeing as I can't fit into her mittens my hands have been getting quite cold out so I thought I would have a try at making some fingerless gloves for myself.

I pulled out of my stash a couple of balls of Artesano Alpaca yarn that I've had for years and didn't know what to do with. Then after a quick search on Ravelry found a beautiful pattern for 'Dragon Skin Gauntlets' by Aoibhe Ni (the link to the Ravelry pattern is here). I love how they turned out, pretty, delicate and so toasty warm... however I didn't want to wreck them by wearing them outside so decided to re-raid my stash and make up a second pair.

This time I used up some pretty colours of plain old acrylic yarn and worked up these wrist warmers (based on the instructions on Lucy's Attic24 blog). Ah - lovely and snug now... only problem is that my little girl seems to be taking a liking to these gloves now!

Gruffalo update

Remember my little crochet gruffalo that I told you about back in November 2012? Well a while back a lady from Macmillan books emailed about using my photo of my mini crochet gruffalo in a new gruffalo website they were creating...

Well it looks like the website is up and live now and there is my little gruffalo in their gallery section http://www.gruffalo.com/join-in/gallery/

Tiny totoro

This little totoro has been made using a very light 4 ply yarn and so is perfect for the tiny hands of little totoro fans :-) The pattern is another wonderfully written pattern by Lucy Ravenscar and you can find the Ravelry page for it here.

Okay - I'll admit it, these photos were taken last Summer... not sure why it has taken me so long to share him with you!

Happy March everyone :-)

Buzy buzzing

Lots of lovely things have been hooked up here recently including this very cute little bumble bee (this lovely free pattern is by Emi Carmichael and you can find it here).

Baby things

Just wanted to share some pretty little baby clothes that I've made for a new member of my family.

This baby dress is one of my favourite things to make - really enjoyable to crochet, works up quickly and always turns out well. Pattern is by Marianne Cant and was published in Inside Crochet Magazine issue 9. Previously blogged about here.

Baby socks were made with what I had left of my lovely Regia Design Line 4 ply yarn - had to improvise my own pattern as I was very tight on yardage. Love how they turned out and hope they just about managed to fit!

Quick making

Things have been very hectic here recently - I've been pretty busy since Christmas trying to get my two businesses up and running again after the holiday. In between looking after my two little cheeky monkeys I also sell Phoenix cards (www.phoenix-trading.co.uk/web/jessicafelton/) which as I love cards is good fun. I've also got an Etsy store for some of my crochet designs which I'm currently trying to get refilled (www.etsy.com/shop/prettycrochetthings).

So with all this 'work' type active going on quick and easy makes are all I've got time for. Luckily enough I've been stock piling the craft kits from my issues of Mollie Makes magazine. So here are my latest make - pretty little fox brooches with super cute faces, hope you like them :-)

Amigurumi for all the family

Instead of trying to make hand crafted presents for all my friends at Christmas I decided to focus on making special amigurumi for Sam, Emily & Rich. 

 
First of all I made up the lovely grey Totoro amigurumi (pattern by the very talented Lucy Ravenscar). He is a very big and cuddly amigurumi and is so cute - we now have quite an army of Totoro's in this house :-)

Next to make something for Sam - and what could be better than a mini minion? Sam loves the Despicable Me films and finds the antics of the minions hilarious. He is very pleased to have his own minion now and has shown it off to lots of his friends. Lovely and easy minion pattern by Kristen McCrory)

 

Lastly I crocheted up a rather scary Gengar for Rich - he used to have a plastic one that scared me silly and this crochet one does the same, it's probably those red evil eyes that are responsible. This is another clear and well written pattern - lots of separate parts though so quite a mission to finish it all up. Pattern by Ana Amélia Mendes Galvão