Crochet decorations

The Christmas decorations are all packed away for another year in readiness for welcoming in 2018. Before they all got sent off to the loft I managed to snap a few photos of some of my crochet (and one knitted) decorations.

These little thread crochet stockings may be the first tree ornaments I ever crocheted and were simple to make up with a heel worked in too. The pattern is by Karen Perkins.

These ginger bread men are also some of my first - you can tell as they date back to when I only ever worked in one loop so my crochet in rows looked corrugated! Pattern by Priscilla Hewitt.

This is my crochet poinsettia - made using the lovely pattern by June Gilbank but with thread instead of yarn so it would fit on my Christmas tree.

I've made so many of these lovely crochet granny squares over the years, they look very lovely in crochet thread and also show up beautifully on a tree when made up in white cotton. 

Pattern by Michelle Kludas from the Royal Sisters blog.

Next up are these very quick and satisfying to make simple crochet baubles pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

These little Christmas trees were designed by myself 10 years ago - one of the first patterns I wrote up and shared. Pattern can still be found here on the CrochetMe site.

Aww - this little bear bauble still makes me smile each year with his snuggly blue striped scarf wrapping him up. Pattern by Stephanie Jessica Lau.

Another favourite are these snow men ornaments - they turned out so very cute (unfortunately I didn't think to keep any for my own tree, all of these made friends in new homes). Pattern by Audra Brown and available as a free Ravelry download - you may need a Ravelry account to access this one.

This is one of my few knitted decorations - made after my visit to the first Yarndale back in 2013. Pattern was published in the Yarndale program that year. I really love this pretty bauble and if it hadn't taken me about 5 hours to make I would have covered my tree with more :-)

Last decoration now - these are the holly leaves I made up this year as presents (as well as making up so many felt hearts) - simple and pretty from the holly pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

Even more decorations

This year I finally got around to photographing some of the handmade Christmas tree decorations I've made over the years for our family tree. I've focused on just the felt decorations this time, I'll also try and take some more photos of a few of the yarn ones as well.

I made a batch of these pretty white decorations back in 2012 (original blog post) inspired by the decorations shown in the Christmas 2011 Mollie Makes issue.

These delicate little bells decorated with buttons were made about 3 years ago, I made them from a pattern in one of my craft magazines but can't remember which one now!

I absolutely love this little felt gingerbread house decoration (original blog post) this one is from a pattern in "Fa la la felt" a fabulous book packed with beautiful felty Christmas goodness.

This little Christmas Scotty dog was made a joke for my husband (original blog post) - he had thought a 'Poinsetter' was a type of dog, so I made him this and told him that was what it was :-)

These stars are what I made and gave out to family last year. They turned out very pretty with some Christmas fabric from one of my sisters and a tiny wooden star button sewn on.

This snowflake bauble was from another year... I borrowed a friend's diecast machine and couldn't stop cutting out these pretty snowflakes. They were quick to sew on with a bit of silver thread and some little silver star sequins as well to add some extra sparkle.

These two gorgeous felt decorations are full of character and detail. They are both from kits by paper-and-string - she does such beautiful and well thought out patterns. (Original Christmas pudding post)

This simple and pleasing felt tree decoration is another one from "Fa la la felt" - I love the vivid pink with the green and the free hand swirls in contrasting colour on each side (original blog post).

This little stocking was a quick attempt at a Pusheen style decoration for my husband who loves the silly and cute cartoons... didn't quite turn out as well as I had wanted... would have been better out of the stocking and looking plumper.

These two felt decorations I made back in 2010 (original blog post) using a pattern in the December 2010 issue of Sew Hip magazine. I love the ric-rack detail across the middle and the little bit of embroidery at the top of the baubles.

Last one to share with you... these stars I made many years ago to decorate our first Christmas tree together - probably back in 2006. They are as simple as they look - just a simple star shape with some sequins added for a little bit of extra sparkle. The sequins catch the light from the tree lights and I love seeing them up on our tree each year.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my past tree decorations - can you tell how much I love working with felt? I'll get some more photos taken of my yarny ornaments to share soon too :-)

After a bit more sewing I've finished my little deer decoration.

He has a very sweet little embroidered blanket/saddle with gold thread details. He also has a pompom collar with thread tassels attached.

I'm super pleased with him and he is now hanging happily on our very full Christmas tree :-)

Happy Christmas!

I've been trying to finish up this adorable little reindeer felt tree decoration, and I'm very almost there...

I'm a little stuck with the gold embroidery on his blanket saddle so I thought I would just share a photo of him unadorned as he is beautiful already.

He has been made from the lovely kit which came with issue 86 of Mollie Makes.

Crazy Christmas crafting

I've been a busy embroidering bee over the last two months making up a lovely stack of these Nordic style snowflake hearts. For each heart I free hand embroidered the snowflake before blanket stitching together and filling with stuffing.

I'm delighted with how they came out, these are on their way to new homes right now to help make lots of friends and family's trees a tiny bit more Christmasy. 

I've got sunshine, on a cloudy day

Now we are coming to the end of November most of our days are cloudy and dull... so it was lovely to make up this sweet little unicorn with a rainbow mane.

In fact I was so pleased with how she turned out I made a second one straight away!

The mane is lovely and wavy from having the yarn unravelled (see the unicorn on the left) and though it is fiddly to do the effect is really lovely. 

The pattern is by Ilaria Caliri and can be found in issue 54 of Simply Crochet.

Mini Pikachu

"Mummy you said you would make me something next and Pikachu is one of my favourite Pokemon too..."  Right - so that would be another order for Pikachu then :-)

This time I used a very cute and quick pattern by Gladys at The Bunny Studio and I love how he turned out.

He also has a cute lightening tail and brown stripes at the back.

I choose you Pikachu!

Our growing collection of Pokemon just wouldn't be complete without a Pikachu.

This little guy is very dinky, he has tiny little limbs and is a good size for a toddler hand. My Emily insists he is a Pichu because he is so small.

I used the lovely free pattern by Clare Heesh. I love the detail that has gone into his tail to make the lightening shape.

He even has some brown stripes on his back.

Aww - such cuteness!

Poliwag!

This little pokemon has been in my to-do pile for over a month - but I'm so glad I cracked on with him and got him finished to show you all. He was inspired by the new Sun & Moon Pokemon cards which have featured a few new artworks with crocheted versions of the Pokemon. Pokemon and crochet make a fantastic mix and I've loved seeing the creatures that have been obviously lovingly made to go on these cards.

I wanted my Poliwag to be as close to the original artwork as I could manage so I've spent a lot of time ripping out and reworking the different parts to get the shapes as close to the original. His main body is shaped a little like a squashed raindrop so I had to do some interesting shaping with increases and decreases to get him to be a non-rounded shape. I also reinforced his tail a little with thick felt to help it stand up unsupported when attached to his body.

Now Poliwag is completed he is going to be making his way over to Australia to meet Ando who is a huge Pokemon fan and has the YouTube channel Unlisted leaf.

Who's that pokemon?

Can you guess who this crocheted creature is going to be turned into?

Parts assembled in the wrong places without final embroidered details

Books and baking

Currently at Tea Towers we are busy getting the most fun possible out of our Summer holidays. We have a long list of what we want to do with our time and have been enjoying reading, crafting and playing games.

My reading pile is looking pretty tall right now. I was delighted by all the beautiful books I received for my Birthday recently and I have further added to these with some lovely ones from the Library and a few borrowed from friends.

"Sense & Sensibility" by Jane Austen
"The Lie tree" by Frances Hardinge
"Stone mattress" by Margaret Atwood
"The Heart goes last" by Margaret Atwood
"The Street" by Bernardine Bishop
"Charmed life" by Diane Wynne Jones
"Witch week" by Diane Wynne Jones
"The Magicians of Caprona" by Diane Wynne Jones
"The Lives of Christopher Chant" by Diane Wynne Jones
"Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
"Ruby and Custard's crochet" by Millie Masterton
"Crochet home" by Emma Lamb
"The Gentle art of stitching" by Jane Brocket

Talking of books I also was given a copy of Nadiya's "Bake me a story" which is a lovely book containing a range of recipes to try with the kids each with a story to read.

We had a try at making the 'Breakfast muffins' using blueberries from the garden.

We have also had a go at the 'Zebra cake' recipe which is a rather tasty chocolate topped marble cake.

Yumm! I hope your Summer break is just as tasty as ours is turning out to be!

Seeing rainbows

Now Summer is here I'm noticing all the beautiful colours showing up in the garden as well about the house.

I've been busy sorting through the kids hama beads and I have found it very rewarding putting them all into colour groups, the kids have been intrigued by my doing this and can't wait to get hama beading again.

Talking of bright rainbow colours I thought I would also share these crochet flower brooches I made a couple of Summers ago to join the massive rainbow "Flowers for memories" display at Yarndale 2015.

Red theme brooch

Orange theme brooch

Yellow theme brooch

Blue theme brooch

Purple theme brooch

Wreath wrestling

Sorry for bring up Christmas in July - I'm extremely late getting this finished as it's taken me 2 and a half years to complete! I've crocheted 100s of leaves and berries to go on and then spent hours arranging and changing my mind and generally faffing.

My friends and family have put up very kindly with my wreath related mood swings and managed to stop me giving up on it when I got dispirited that it wasn't turning out how I had envisaged.

The robin is from a Brigitte Read pattern that I found tricky to make up but with a little bit of extra embroidery to even up the shape of the face I'm very happy with him.

Ahh - glad to have this project finished, hopefully I'll be moving on to something more season appropriate next!