Crocheted Poppy Appeal Update.

A few post back I mentioned I was crocheting poppies for Remembrance Day. I just wanted to let those who are interested that I raised £65. Instead of donating it to the poppy appeal charity, we decided to donate it to the Erskine Charity which has been caring for veterans since 1916.

For more information on the Erskine charity please visit www.erskine.org.uk

Free Crochet Christmas Tree Pattern.

This will be the first free pattern I've posted in a long time. I've been so excited for christmas this year, but more for getting to decorate things! I feel this pattern totally blows any pattern I've ever posted before out of the water.

I decided I wanted to put a tree on my desk in work and came up with this little cutie!

Materials: 

3.5 mm/E crochet hook
2.75 mm/C crochet hook
Red DK yarn
Black DK yarn
Brown DK yarn
Green DK yarn
Green thread
Yellow DK yarn
Various coloured beads (you'll need about 40 - 50)
Something to weight the bottom with.

Stitch translation:

BLO - Back loop only
FLO - Front Loop Only
SC - Single Crochet
SCDEC - single crochet decrease

Using your 3.5 mm hook

In red.

make a magic ring 

Round 1: sc6

Round 2: 2sc in each stitch

Round 3: 2sc in first stitch sc next, repeat to the end of the row

Round 4: 2sc in first stitch sc next 2, repeat to the end of the row

Round 5: 2sc in first stitch sc next 3, repeat to the end of the row

Round 6: sc blo around

Round 7: sc around

Round 8: sc around

Round 9: sc around

Round 10: 2sc in first stitch 14sc, 2sc next stitch, 14 sc

Round 11: sc around 

Round 12: 6sc, 2sc next stitch, 15sc, 2sc next stitch, 9 sc

Round 13: sc around

Round 14: 12sc 2,2sc next stitch, 16sc, 2sc next stitch, 4sc

Round 15: sc around FLO
At this point weigh down the pot and stuff, and stuff as you go along the pattern.

In black

Round 16: scdec 4sc, repeat to the end of the row

Round 17: scdec 3sc, repeat to the end of the row

Round 18: scdec 2sc, repeat to the end of the row

In brown

Round 19: sc around

Round 20: sc around

Round 21: sc around

In green

Round 22: 2sc in first stitch sc next 2, repeat to the end of the row

Round 23:  2sc in first stitch sc next 3, repeat to the end of the row

Round 24: 2sc in first stitch sc next 4, repeat to the end of the row

Round 25: 2sc in first stitch sc next 5, repeat to the end of the row

Round 26: 2sc in first stitch sc next 6, repeat to the end of the row

Round 27: 2sc in first stitch sc next 7, repeat to the end of the row

Round 28: 2sc first stitch, sc next 8, repeat to the end of the row

Round 29: sc around 

Round 30: BLO, scdec, sc 28, scdec, sc 28

Round 31: BLO sc 9, scdec, sc 27, scdec, sc 18. 

Round 32: BLO sc 18, scdec, sc 26, scdec, sc8.

Round 33: BLO, scdec, sc 25, scdec, sc 25.

Round 34: BLO sc 8, scdec, sc 24, scdec, sc 16.

Round 36: BLO sc 16, scdec, sc 23, scdec, sc 7.

Round 35: BLO sc around

Round 37: BLO scdec, sc 22, scdec, sc 22.

Round 38: BLO sc 7, scdec, sc 21, scdec, sc 14.

Round 39: BLO sc 14, scdec, sc 20, scdec, sc 6.

Round 40: BLO scdec, sc 19, scdec, sc 19.

Round 41: BLO sc 6, scdec, sc18, scdec, sc12.

Round 42: BLO sc12, scdec, sc17, scdec, sc5.

Round 43: BLO sc around

Round 44: BLO scdec, sc 16, scdec, sc 16.

Round 45: BLO sc 5,scdec, sc 15, scdec, sc 10.

Round 46: BLO sc 10, scdec, sc 14, scdec, sc 4.

Round 47: BLO scdec, sc 13, scdec, sc 13.

Round 48: BLO sc 4, scdec, sc 12, scdec, sc 8.

Round 49: BLO sc 8, scdec, sc 11, scdec, sc 3.

Round 50: BLO scdec, sc 10, scdec, sc 10.

Round 51: BLO sc 3, scdec, sc 9, scdec, sc 6.

Round 52: BLO sc 6, scdec, sc 8, scdec, sc 2.

Round 53: BLO scdec, sc 7, scdec, sc 7, scdec.

Round 54: BLO sc 2, scdec, sc 6, scdec, sc4.

Round 55: BLO sc 4, scdec, sc 5, scdec, sc 1.

Round 56: BLO scdec, sc 4, scdec, sc 4.

Round 57: BLO sc 1, scdec, sc 3, scdec, sc 2.

Round 58: BLO sc 2, scdec, sc 2, scdec.

Branches:
 
For the branches I threaded my beads onto the green thread and then formed a slipknot with the thread and green yarn together. I then worked slip stitches (SS) into the loops left by working in BLO in the main body of the tree, and made the branches by using a picot stitch. To work the picot stitch:

 Chain 3, and slip stitch into the third chain from the hook, to add a bead to a branch bring a bead up and work it into the second chain.


To make the star I used the smaller crochet hook and a pattern from Inner Child Crochet which can be found HERE. The pattern shows three different sizes, I used the smallest size.

Now that your'e finished crocheting, take a few minutes to sew in any loose ends and show off your new decoration with pride!

I'm still new to writing up my patterns so if you encounter any problems please let me know!

Crocheted poppy appeal

Recently in work I have been asked to crochet things for various charities, which I love! I've been thinking to myelf for a while that I'd like to do something craft related for charity, but I've been struggling for ideas.
 I'm very happy and proud of these opportunities for two main reasons; It's for  great causes, I'm using my skills to help people in need, I can do what I love but with a greater purpose. The other reason is being requested to do this gives me a a huge sense of approval and validation, a lot of people are amazed at my skills (even more so due to my age and sex.) It feels great to get some gratitude and appreciation every now and then , and these projects give me just that, the sense that, my work is good enough.

The latest charity project I've been working on is The Poppy Appeal, which is a annual campaign held on the run up to November the 11th, Remembrance Day, or as it is known in the USA, Veterans Day.
 Here in Britain every year poppy pins are sold everywhere and all money raised goes to The Royal British Legion charity. The Royal British Legion is a leading UK charity providing support to the serving and ex-Service community and their families.
 So this year instead of the usual paper poppies bought I've been crocheting as many as I possibly can and selling them in work for the The Poppy Appeal and so far I can't make enough they're a real hit!

I'll post the two patterns I have been using shortly, should you wish to get in on the action for if you just want to make poppies.

The Basic Guide To crocheting Stuffed Toys (Amigurumi)

Here is my basic to guide to creating crocheted stuffies. In this guice I will aim to teach you how the create the magic ring (magic loop, amigurumi ring etc.) and go on to tell you how to crochet a stuffed ball.

To begin you will need only three things;

Yarn - you can use any yarn you want, for this I'm using robins DK

A crochet hook - For this I'm using a 4.5mm (US G/H) though I would normally use 3.5 mm or 2.5mm (US C or E)

Stuffing - I'm using a synthetic fiber to stuff you could use anything fluffy really, though polyfil gets the job done and is cheap too :)

 First off you'll want to learn how to create the magic ring (there is other ways to start but as I said this is my guide :P)

I've found a quick video showing how to do so:

Basically you just wrap your arn around your two fingers twice,

place your hook under the two loops,

wrap the yarn over the hook pull through the two loops in your fingers,

wrap the yarn over the hook and and pull through,

this is your magic ring:

From here you will then proceed to make 6 Single Crochet stitches into the magic ring and pull the end of the yarn, not attatched to the ball tight, resulting in this:

From here we shall continue to make the ball:

you should currently have 6 stitches in the ring, amigurumi is normally worked in a spiral, so no stopping at the end of rounds, thus after finishing the last stitch of a round you would then just stitch into the next.

round 2: work 2 sc into each of the 6 sc in the starting ring, making 12 stitches

Round 3: Work 1 sc into the first stitch, work 2 sc into the next stitch repeat in this pattern to the end of the round making 18 stitches.

Round 4: Work 1 sc into the first 2 stitches, work 2 sc into the next stitch, repeat in the pattern to the end of the round, making 24 stitches.

Round 5: SC into each stitch around

Round 6: SC into each stitch around

Round 7: SC into each stitch around

Round 8: SC into each stitch around

Round 9: SC into each stitch around

Round 10: work 1 SC into the first two stitches, work one SCDEC over the next 2 stitches, repeat in this pattern until the end of the round making 18 stitches

Round 11: work 1 SC into the first stitch, work one SCDEC over the next 2 stitches, repeat in this pattern until the end of the round making 12 stitches

Round 12: SCDEC into every stitch making 6 stitches

Now cut the yarn and tie off leaving a long tail of yarn, sew the final 6 stitches together to close the hole, poke the yarn through the middle of the ball, trim the excess and you're done! you've completed a crocheted ball.

What you do with this ball is up to you, you could sew a face on it, glue felt to it , make ears or legs.

This is the first thing I think anybody should learn whilst learning to create amigurumi.

I hope this helped a lot! if you have any questions or suggestions leave a comment or email me at kimurakraftmail@gmail.com

Free Pumpkin Crochet Pattern

I've been Incredibly excited about halloween since may! And i decided I needed some some crocheted spooky decor! so here is what could be the first installment of a few I mean i know halloween is VERY soon, but who say's i have to be spooky for one day a year only?

As you can see I may have slightly botched the face, i decided to try my hand a gluing felt to the finished project.. as you can tell it did not go so well.. next time I think I'll stick to needle felting or sewing...

so here goes!

I used Robins DK yarn and a 3.5mm (USA - E) crochet hook, for a really dainty and cute pumpkin you could use a 2.75mm (USA - C) hook also.

Abbreviations:

SC - Single crochet

FPDC - Front post double crochet

In Orange

1: 6sc in magic ring

2: *2 sc each (12 stitches)

3: *(2 sc first stitch)FPDC. Repeat from * (18 stitches)

4: *(2 sc 1st stitch) 1 sc, fpdc. Repeat from *(24 st)

5: *(2 sc 1st stitch) 2 sc, fpdc. Repeat from * (30 st)

6: *(2 sc 1st stitch) 3 sc, fpdc. Repeat from * (36 st)

7: *5 sc FPDC. Repeat from * (36 st)

8: *5 sc FPDC. Repeat from * (36 st)

9: *5 sc FPDC. Repeat from * (36 st)

10: *5 sc FPDC. Repeat from * (36 st)

11: *(sc dec) 3sc, fpdc. Repeat from * (30 st)
12: *(sc dec) 2sc, fpdc. Repeat from * (24 st)

13: *(sc dec) 1sc, fpdc. Repeat from * (18 st)

14: *(sc dec) fpdc . Repeat from * (12 st)

In Green

 - 15: 12 sc (12 st)

16: 6 sc decrease (6 st)

17: 4sc 2x(sc decrease) (4 st)

 cast off.

I hope you Enjoy this pattern :) I like the addition of the FPDC as it gives a nice ridged effect :). Happy Halloween everybody!

Also I have a youtube account now and Plan to make basic tutorial videos like the FPDC stitch for example. I'll keep you's updated :)

Spring!

Over the winter months my creativity has been dead. but now it's brightening up (slighlty as it may be) My creativity is flowing without control, I've been making hats recently and tonight im starting a new piece for yarn bombing using an interesting stitch That I've only used once before.

The pattern I promised may be delayed as there's been a few problems with it but there's annother bubbling inside my head :)

Why Buy Handmade?

In this article i will attempt to alert you to some of the endless reason to buy garments, tools and toys handmade by everyday people like you and I.

As I'm sure you are aware for good quality home made products it can be quite costly, and If you are waiting for your item to be made you can also be waiting a small while for your order.
 Many people would ask questions like, 'Why would i want to spend £35 on a handmade top when i could go to the store and get one for £25?' I wouldn't blame somebody for asking this question, especialy in the times we live in, Jobs are hard to come by and people are saving every penny just to get by!

Now by no means am I suggesting that everything in your wardrobe and yout house should be handmade, definitely not, nobody can afford to buy everything handmade.


Handmade clothing Is made on the small scale thus original and you will most likely never come accross somebody with the same garment of clothing as you whereas store bought is mass produced and very popular making it hard for you to avoid seeing people with the same clothes as you.

store bought clothes are lovely yes and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them other than the fact everybody has them, but would you rather be remember as 'that guy/girl with the same top as me,' or 'that guy/girl with the really interesting outfits'

as awesome as this is, it's a fine example of mass produced style and no individuality:

Since the dawn of trade, sellers have followed the cheap labour, which unfortunately in todays world means that there are children in third world countries working for pennies, although many spokespeople for major company's will deny any involvement with these factories, in many cases they turn out to be knee deep in what may aswell be slave labour.

with handmade clothes, you know exactly where your product came from, who made it and how much they will be getting paid for that item, which is great knowing for definite that you are not supporting child labour.


With handmade items generaly are more expensive that those mass produced, you have to take into account what it is you're paying for:

Materials, the people selling their handcrafted wares will most likely not be buying thier materials in bulk so will be paying public rates which can be quite pricey.

Originality, The item being sold will be of their own imagination and they will have spent endless hours planning, sketching measuring and editing this particular design and probably maybe a few prototypes which is more time and materials used.

Time, as the products are handmade the crafter will have spent hours working away on your purchase, whilst it will be doing something they enjoy, it's still time of their life they have spent to make this for you.

you have to take all these facors into account when thinking about the price of a handmade product.



I hope you enjoyed reading this, i spent a lot of time writing this and if this changes at least one person's opinion of handmade goods then that's my aim completed.




I hope everybody is having a great year so far, I have a new pattern to post for you's I was going to post a different one but i figured this one would be better

speak to you's soon bye :)