Category — Crochet

Progres is being made on the Christmas play food project – despite leaving the majority of my food coloured yarn at work and all of my crochet hooks. Oops. Note to self – buy a second set of hooks for home.

This weekend, I switched gears and did some knitted items that weren’t in the “official plan”. I tried my hand at two cupcake patterns and I’m starting to think, I could totally write a better version since I didn’t exactly follow the instructions on either pattern. I definitely preferred the cupcake that was knitted with a removable wrapper for two reasons: first, it has a wrapper! second: the smaller size is really much cuter. So, sometime I’d like to write a seamless version because I found the seaming fiddly and had problems making the base of the wrapper and cake flat.

On Sunday night, I made up a pattern for a spring onion / baby leek and I think it really worked out well. I just need to whip up a couple more so that I can tie them together as a bunch.

Last week during my lunch hours, I finished up a carrot and a garlic bulb. The carrot was inspired by the pattern from Tasty Crochet but without all the weird decreases. I prefer the storybook style triangle carrot to her more realistic version. Seriously, this is like the cutest carrot ever. Alden’s bunny is going to be soooo happy. The garlic bulb was a modifed version of a mini pumpkin pattern that I saw on Ravelry. Again, I think if I made it again, there are a few things I’d change to make it a bit taller and tapered at the top, but overall, I think this one is passable as a garlic bulb.

Finally, a knitting hack that I am pretty proud of… the kiwi! I didn’t have the exact kiwi-brown in my stash, but I don’t think it matters. It still looks 98% like a real kiwi.

Still in progress – the pizza slice. I’ve reached the annoying toppings part and I’m not really looking forward to finishing it. Ugh.

If you’re on Ravelry, you can find all the details and links to the patterns from my project page.

I just put down on paper my “stock a play kitchen for Christmas” plan and frankly, there are no words other than ‘yikes’ for what I envision. Last week I cruised around the internet checking out different play foods and wowzee, the prices are pretty steep… especially the nice wooden ones. (And frankly, momma could really use that cash for some new work clothes or you know… a new roof next year. Home ownership – yay.) I know there is a little set at Ikea, but since I can’t order it online, I have no interest in driving out to Pinecrest in my very precious free time to pick up a $10 item. In my convuluted reasoning, I have convinced myself that I should just knit and crochet a full kitchen’s worth of fruit and veg. You read that correctly. Make it all.

Yummy nummy sandwich

I have a pretty serious yarn stash, so I don’t even need to buy any yarn for this project. And I already own a book with dozens of patterns for crochet food. The only things that we need to buy are some of the pots, pans and utensils. Most of which I was able to pick up at Preston Hardware. They have the CUTEST mini colander ever and lots of tiny muffin tins, tart pans, spoons and whisks. My boy isn’t going to be fooled with the plastic toy versions… he knows what the tools in the kitchen should look like and they aren’t purple. (Total spent so far on cooking supplies/tools: $36)

Oh, and did I mention that the husband is going to make a small play stove? Yeah. He has the wood, the skills and the know how… so why bother buying one?

And I’ve “contracted” out some of the sewing tasks to my mother – oven mitts and an apron. (Hi Mom – did I mention the part about the apron to you? I don’t think so. I hope you don’t mind!) It’s really going to be a full family affair getting this kitchen off the ground.

Despite the effort involved, I am SO excited about the whole plan. Each vegetable that I finish looks cuter than the last. And wow, does it feel great to use yarn from my stash. Virtuous even. If we leave out the cost of the materials that we already own and our time, it’s actually a really thrifty project. (If you’ve seen how much those play kitchens can run, you know what I’m talking about.) And hopefully it will be a Christmas that he will remember.

We may tuck a few trucks into his stocking … we’re not totally crazy. The boy loves his wheels. They will not be knitted.

I’m keeping track of all the crafting over in my Ta-da list for this project. As of today there are 46 days until Christmas. That means that I need to complete a veg or fruit every three days to deliver the goods on time. YIKES. I always seem to set myself up for these superhuman feats of craftiness.

Way back when, I crocheted the apple and apple slice from the Tasty Crochet book. The boy didn’t pay them much notice until a few weeks ago when he decided he loved apples… and so did his horse puppet. And then most of his other stuffies jumped on the bandwagon and started to be “fed” apples at mealtime (complete with the ‘munch munch munch’ sound effects. Seriously, mega cute.)

Also, way back when, I had planned on making a whole batch of food from the Tasty Crochet book to go with the play kitchen that I had planned on buying Alden for his second birthday. Well, the birthday has come and gone, the play kitchen was not purchased and I didn’t get any veggies crocheted. Oops. But hey, Christmas is coming up, so hey, guess what is going to be in Alden’s stocking!

So, back to the story. I was in the mood to make and finish something in one evening. It was mushroom time and I had the perfect mushroom coloured yarn in my stash too (some Cascade 220 heathered grey). The next day, I gave it to Alden and he scurried to the kitchen to start making some mushroom soup. And then I felt guilty that I didn’t have any more play food for him. Sigh. How fast can you crochet a garden’s worth of fruits and veggies? Gulp.

I searched high and low online to find a cute little mailbox to “deliver” mail to the little guy.  We seem to get a lot of junk mail and I thought that before those letters go into the recycle bin, they could be “delivered” to Alden.  And most importantly, he needed a way to have his Valentines Day cards delivered!

I found the crochet pattern online from Etsy seller Crafty Anna and made a few modifications in height and length to accomodate an adult sized envelope.  This project was a total yarn eater.  Gosh.  In the end, I used just over two skeins of this nice wooly Galway yarn (colour 401).  (So yes, I have an almost unsused third skein tossing about the stash now – ugh!)

So far, the boy sort of likes it.  He prefers tucking his stuffed wombat into the mailbox best.  Sigh.  I should really just stick to buying him diggers.

Let’s face it the only ‘yarn diet’, I am on consists of making crochet fruit.  What’s that old saying?  A crochet apple a day keeps the need to buy more yarn at bay.  Well, I can confirm that is just.not.true.

Last week, I got into a big bowl felting spree.

I totally caught the felting bug after seeing these loooovely felted bowls and vases online.  I test felted a few yarns from my stash:

1. Sirdar Eco Wool – I used a double strand to knit up a little bowl.  Felted up slowly.  Took a lot of elbow grease.  But it looks just lovely.
2. Briggs & Little Regal -I crocheted a test square using a double strand and think it’s a good contender for felting.  I should have used a smaller hook – my felted square has a few “air vents”.  With a little more elbow grease, maybe I could felt it into a solid square.
3. Lett Lopi - Love this!  Use a double strand to make a stiffer fabric.  The subtle variation of colour in this yarn makes for a sophisticated final felted object.

I think my favourite bowl was made with the Sirdar Eco Wool on size 5mm needles.  (Check out my Ravelry project page for all the details.)  It felted up nice and still and I love that it sits perfectly flat thanks to a clever idea of purling a couple of rows.  I can see myself knitting up a few more of these in different sizes.  Love them.

If you’re not using a washing machine to felt your piece, here’s a handy tip that I found online:  For ‘traction’ when hand-felting, try using a rubberized mat.  You can buy these in rolls at the hardware store.  Worked like a charm!

The crochet apple comes from Tasty Crochet.  I have visions of crocheting everything in the book (ha!) for Alden’s future play kitchen.   I picked a yummy handspun red yarn from my vacation to PEI.  It had just the right amount of colour variation for a realistic apple.