Category: Crochet

12 Days of Christmas Charity Hats

This year was my third year of taking part in the annual 12 days of Christmas charity hat challenge – making 12 premature baby hats in 12 days to donate to charity.

We were given lots of different patterns to choose from to make our hats, but one in particular appealed to me, so I used the same pattern for all my hats.

I chose a range of colours to make my hats in. Each one should fit a baby weighing around 3-5lb.

They are being sent to a local charity who will send them to hospital baby units where they are needed.

Frankenstein Hat

I haven’t done much crafting lately at all. I did, however, make this Frankenstein crochet hat for Halloween.

I hadn’t planned to make it at all. But on the Monday lunchtime I was accepted into a private Facebook group for the baby group I attend on a Tuesday afternoon, and the top post in the group was to inform us that the following day was a Halloween party and fancy dress was encouraged.

Panic stations! We don’t have Halloween fancy dress at home. We don’t really celebrate Halloween usually. So what could I come up with in 24 hours that didn’t require a trip into town?

My first thought was a pumpkin. Orange sleepsuit, simple orange crochet hat. Easy! Until I discover that I don’t in fact own any orange yarn. Pretty much any other colour you like, but not orange!

So I trawled Halloween hat patterns on the internet and came up with this:

The pattern is from Simply 2 Irresistible on etsy. It was quite easy to follow and make, and I think I finished with about an hour to spare on Tuesday! I could probably have done with making a size larger though, as it’s quite a snug fit.

And just for the ‘ahhh’ factor, here are some photos of the hat in action.

My little monster:

Halloween parties are such hard work!

Pascha Bear

This is Pascha bear. He’s made from a free pattern by Crafty is Cool, who also sent me the eyes and nose to make him.

I used Rico Design Creative Cotton Aran yarn to make Pascha, which is the same as I used to make Upsy Daisy, nice and sturdy for a toy.

He has made his way to Ireland with lots of other Pascha bears that people have made to the charity ‘To Russia With Love’ who help and support abandoned children.

Upsy Daisy

My youngest niece turns 1 today!

I wanted to make her a toy for her birthday, and after thinking about which characters she might recognise decided on Upsy Daisy from In The Night Garden.

I looked at several patterns for making her on the internet, but only came across one that I thought really looked like her, from a etsy shop based in Finland called Fjukten.

The yarn I used was Rico Design Creative Cotton Aran which comes in lots of bright colours, which is perfect for Upsy Daisy, and should stand up to more cuddling than acrylic yarn!

Each part of Upsy Daisy is made separately and then put together. Her head has lots of parts, as each bit of hair is separate, as well as the hair base, the eyes, nose and eyelids.

I really liked the pattern because it was very detailed and specific about what to do at each step. It also had a lot more detail than any of the other patterns I’d seen, including the white petal pattern on her skirt and the handle she uses to make it inflate.

Here is my finished Upsy Daisy:

I’m really pleased with her, and hope my niece likes her too 🙂

Baby Hat

It’s probably about time that I caught up and posted photos of the things I’ve made in the last 6 months. There’s not too many, but there are a few that have been sitting waiting for a while to be shown.

I made this hat back in January, for a friend who was expecting a baby.

She didn’t know if she was expecting a boy or a girl, so I decided to stick to plain white. I used the same pattern as I had made for several of the Christmas hats I’d made, but omitted the corkscrews and replaced them instead with a pompom on top.

Crochet Owl

The sewing machine is still on its round the world cruise, so I’m doing lots of crochet at the moment, in fact I started and finished 4 things in the last week – this must be a record for me!

One of those was a cute little crochet owl. The pattern (found here) was linked to on Facebook, prompting a friend to ask me to make her one.

I copied the exact colouring of one of the example owls in the pattern to make the stripey tummy and think he turned out quite well.

I used Rico Creative Cotton Aran to make it. I like cotton for making toys as it’s a bit more sturdy than wool and acrylic. The eyes are brown safety eyes (which I conclude that the only unsafe part is trying not to injure yourself fastening them on!) and the beak in just stitched on at the end.

Royal Mail did a pretty good job and he arrived the day after he was finished and is now living in his new home in Rugby 🙂

Tardis Hat

We’re back in the UK and it’s a bit chilly!

W has an owl hat I made him, but since it’s a year or so old his head has grown and he needed one a little bigger.

What better for a mini Dr Who fan than a TARDIS hat?!

Even more impressive – I didn’t use a pattern!

I searched online for a pattern, and did find a couple, but not one that I liked enough to buy. So since I’ve made enough hats to know how to make the basic shape, and done enough colour work to know how to change colours I though I might as well just make it without one!

This is the first hat I’ve made in aran yarn, usually I use DK, and it makes it a bit bigger without having to add in extra increases.

There are two sets of windows on the front and the same on the back. The words ‘POLICE BOX’ are only on the front. Really they should be on both, but letters are a pain to do and at least he’ll be able to tell which way round it goes with it like this! There is a white pom pom on the top for the flashing light.

He seems happy with it, he even let me take a few photos of him trying it on!