Pearl’s Cardigan

The next project for Me Me Me Month is crochet: Pearl’s Cardigan (click here for the free pattern). This was a crochet-along on the Lionbrand blog last year. I bought my yarn mid-way through the crochet-along, but was in pregnancy nesting mode, so it wasn’t a high priority on my to-do list.

I naively included the yarn (Moda Vera Chantilly – 70% Acrylic 30% Milk from Spotlight) and instructions in my hospital bag for when Little Miss arrived, and I did pull it out once while I was there, but then put it straight back – way too much concentration required!

I picked the project back-up when Little Miss was a month or so old, doing a row or two a night before passing out in exhaustion. It was a slow process, with a lot of unravelling. This project was more advanced than anything I’ve crocheted before and after doing a couple of rows, I realised I was doing some of the stitches wrong, I’d never worked stitches in groups or worked over a chain rather than in the actual stitches and it took me a few goes (and a bit of Googling) to work out why it didn’t look the right!

The cardigan is worked from the top down so it was really easy to try it on and adjust the pattern for size as I went along. I also decided to just make capped sleeves, rather than long sleeves.

It was also the first item that needed blocking. I dampened it under the tap and then pinned it to a towel and left it lying on our spare bed for a couple of days to dry (it took a while with the humidity here in summer).

I made a sash for the belt from some cream satin purchased from my local chain fabric store.

I love how the cardigan turned out, except for at the top of the side slits. That pokes out a bit and looks a bit strange. After crocheting such a nice piece of clothing, I’m keen to buy nicer (i.e. more expensive) wool for my next clothing project. I feel like I’ve earned some crocheting stripes!

Crochet Bear in a Jiff

When I was pregnant with my son, I made square man and long skinny dude for him:

With number 2 on the way, I was starting to feel bad that I hadn't made any toys for her. A quick search through the Lionbrand website (I have no affiliation with this site, but it's my go-to resource for all things crochet!), and I found the "Bear in a Jif" crochet pattern.

I picked up a cute variegated baby yarn (I once again didn't keep the label, so I have no idea what brand etc it is - I think I need a crochet journal!).

The pattern was simple enough to follow for a self-taught beginner like myself. It was a bit fiddly sewing it all together, and I'm not totally happy with my face embroidery skills, but it certainly has that homemade charm to it (which I think adds to the personal value of a teddy bear).

Now we just have to patiently wait for bubs arrival to see if she likes it!

My first crochet project - Baby Blanket

As I've mentioned previously, when I was pregnant with my first child, I decided to teach myself to crochet. The first project I tackled was a baby blanket from the Learn to Crochet booklet I bought at my local craft shop. Nice and simple - all single crochet in a rectangle in a baby-friendly wool, and then a couple of rows of single crochet around the edge in a fluffly wool (sorry, I made this a while ago and don't have the exact details of the yarn anymore).

I studied the diagrams for how to single crochet and plunged into the project (it's just a blanket, so no worrying about gauge for me!). As I went along, I knew something wasn't right with my crocheting - it didn't look quite like the pictures. I decided there was no going back, and continued on - once again thinking, it's only a blanket so as long as it's all the same, it doesn't really matter.

When I started my next crochet project (Square Man and Long Skinny Dude), I did some googling to work out what I did wrong. The instructions in my book only showed making the stitch on the foundation chain, where you only pick up one loop of the previous row, so I did that for all the rows. Trap for young crocheters! I was actually supposed to poke the crochet hook through the two loops of each stitch. Oh well, just makes my blanket all the more special and unique!

It also ended up way too small to use for a baby, but I'm sure will make a great doll's blanket sometime down the track. You've got to start somewhere!

What was your first crochet project? Have you made something where you knew you were doing something wrong, but went ahead anyway? Let me know in the comments.

Pablo the Panda

A long time ago, Masterchef was just starting, and I announced that I would crochet whilst watching. Well, the finale of Masterchef is tomorrow night, and whilst I've been a bit slow with the blog posts, I have actually completed a few crochet projects (including a crochet plane).

The first project I completed was Pablo the Panda, using a pattern from the Lionbrand website (lots of great FREE knit and crochet patterns). I used black and white wool from my stash – I think it is DK wool from Lincraft. I don't keep my labels so I'm not really sure!

I made a self-taught crocheter mistake by not joining my rounds, so the black band around the middle doesn't really line up properly, but I tried to hide it when I attached the arms. I also added an extra row of black than the pattern as it didn't look enough to me. I didn't quite follow the pattern for the ears because it was really difficult at night to see the stitches in black wool, so I just kinda did what I could and thought it looked good enough (I can't remember exactly what I did now!).

I was originally going to put a bell inside and make it a rattle, but I forgot when I finished it off. I'm now thinking it might be cute on Number 2's cot mobile for the early days when babies love black and white. I'll have to find a couple of other black and white patterns to fill it up.

Crochet Plane

We live not far from an airfield (thankfully only for light aircraft), and my son is obsessed with pointing out every single plane that goes near our house (whether he can see it or not). In fact, the couple of photos with his arm out in the men's jeans to toddler pants are him pointing to planes!

However, he doesn't have any toy planes in his toy collection. I'm not a big fan of going out and buying more toys for the sake of it, but I thought it would be nice to make a toy plane for him. Right on cue, this post arrived in my feed reader from the blog Muffins and More - a small and very cute crochet plane, based on the tutorial here at Inner Child Crochet. This was a great little project to do while watching TV (Masterchef, to be exact, for the Aussies). Here's how it turned out:

The nose of the plane ended up a little crazy from the way I weaved in the ends (not really sure what I was thinking!), and it wasn't my best work at sewing for the windows, but my son recognises that it's a plane and loves playing with it, so mission accomplished!

Crochet Turtle

After the early success of Square Man and Long Skinny Dude, I decided to embark on a more ambitious crochet project. There are so many cute crochet toy patterns out there (not to mention all the Amigurami), so after much debate and internet searching, I settled on a Turtle after finding this pattern.

I found a great multi-coloured wool for the turtle shell - Patons Jet in Colour 9, and then used up scraps of wool for the undershell, legs, head and eyes. Here's the end result:

I probably should have used a more contrasting wool for the eyes.

I haven't got my crochet hook out in a while (since I started a jacket for myself that I never got around to finishing, and fell into a rut!). What crochet  toys should I make next? Let me know in the comments.

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Square Man and Long Skinny Dude

When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, a strong desire to make things for my future child kicked in. I think it is the lucky combination of the nesting instinct and the engineer in me (Miscellaneous fact about me: I am a chemical engineer by training).

I'd tried knitting as a kid and never really had the patience for it, always dropping stitches, losing focus. I'm sure I drop my Nanna crazy when she tried to teach me. My pregnancy brain decided that I should teach myself to crochet. Why? I have no idea, but off I went to my local craft store, and bought a booklet "Teach Yourself How to Crochet", some wool and a crochet hook. My first attempt was a baby blanket, which is a topic for another day. Project number 2 was Square Man and Long Skinny Dude.

I didn't know if bub was going to be a girl or a boy, so I tried to pick gender neutral colours, and for some reason picked the following:

Does pregnancy have some impact on your perception of colour? I have no idea why I picked such bold, dark colours. Maybe I was thinking they wouldn't show up the dirt!?

It took me about 2 weeks of crocheting in front of the TV in the evenings, but Square Man and Long Skinny Dude were born:

When my little man was a baby, he used to love having something to stare at as he drifted off to sleep, and the contrast of the crazy white eyes on the dark wool always captured his attention, so I used to cram the toys into the mattress into the edge of the cot mattress at eye level for him:

What were your first crochet projects? What simple toys have you made?