Granny Bunting Fun and Crochet for Children

If you’ve been following the wonderful Attic24 blog, you’ll have heard all about the Yarndale Festival, a festival of creativity and craft, being organised in Skipton, Yorkshire this September. Inspired by Lucy of Attic24’s request for granny bunting for the event, and looking for something fun to do during school half term, we dived into our basket of Stylecraft DK stash to crochet some granny bunting triangles – how could we not oblige!?

My 10 year old daughter who is quite a crochet whizz these days (I had better watch out!) quickly whipped up a triangle or two whilst I was searching for Lucy’s bunting pattern on her blog. Proud mummy moment:

Making the granny bunting is really quite addictive and we’ll be sending some off for Yarndale (the deadline for sending in bunting is the end of July if you would like to make some too) and also using the pattern to make some granny bunting for our camper van and maybe the chicken house – my girls think it might brighten up their day! (watch this space…)  Thank you Lucy for a super pattern and tutorial!

Here’s a snap of some of my granny bunting using my little stash of Rowan Handknit Cotton:

It’s great to have a child who shares my passion for yarny things. We taught ourselves to crochet using You Tube and books like Nicki Trench’s Cute and Easy Crochet.  A great little book for teaching children to crochet is ‘Kids Learn to Crochet’ by Lucinda Guy.   It features simple language and sweet animal illustrated characters with step-by-step instructions to help children to master crocheting chains and basic crochet stitches with projects such as a striped toy cat, a small bear, a sweet bag and some flowers.

In the early days, we went along to and were very inspired by a Scumbled Crochet workshop run by the talented Tamsyn G where my daughter made this gorgeous freeform crochet heart with ribbon and beads which we have in a little wooden frame:

If you haven’t tried scumbled crochet yet, do check it out, its really fun and the results are quite beautiful.  You can see some of Tamsyn’s projects in the gallery on her blog here.

Here’s a snap of my daughter’s latest scumbled crochet project.  Its fun, portable and you can add to it whenever you fancy a spot of crochet:

Another great crochet book for kids that I’ve discovered is ‘Crochet for Children’ by Claire Montgomerie:

It contains lots of delightful projects (adults might be tempted here too!):

There are sections on techniques, including tools, how to hold the hook and the yarn, and instructions on basic stitches. The projects are set out in themes that include ‘warm and cosy’, accessories, bedroom essentials, playtime and amigurimi toys.

The author has also written a knitting version ‘Knitting for Children’ which is equally gorgeous and contains ’35 simple knits that kids will love to make’. We have a copy of this too!

Of course, the younger members of the family shouldn’t miss out – I bought this second hand book recently for my three year old:

I love the start of the book:

The illustrations are so lovely, don’t you think?

The littlest member of our family likes to call our crocheted Granny Squares ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’ Squares: so cute!

P.S: I haven’t been asked by the authors to review these books – I just happen to like them 🙂

Claire x

Sunday Night Make : Crochet Iphone Case

Many thanks to Little Poppits for suggesting this great idea on her blog.  My Iphone came to a sorry end a few weeks ago when I accidently dropped it on the quarry tile floor in our kitchen and it smashed!  This iphone case is just the job to protect my new phone from my butterfingers!  The design originally comes from this great little granny square crochet book, but do check out Little Poppits blog to see her gorgeous version.   I decided to add a little button to mine to keep my phone extra safe and try and prevent future ‘phone dropping anxiety’!

The Iphone case is crocheted in Rico Creative Cotton (Aran).  My daughter whipped one up too : she is queen of the granny squares!:

This would make an excellent project for those that are new to crochet.

Bye for now…  super exciting anouncement to follow shortly…

xx

Easter Preparations…

This weekend I have been eating mini-eggs preparing for Easter….

I’ve been working on a little crochet basket/bowl inspired by designs in this lovely book, using some pretty Rowan pink handknit cotton from my yarn stash.  The pattern starts off with a few rounds of simple trebles (UK) to form the base of the basket, followed by some rounds of bobble or popcorn stitch to form the sides and double crochet (UK) to finish off.

Today I made a floral lining out of a scrap of Liberty Tana Lawn “Betsy” that I purchased from EBay.

 

To be filled with eggs from our chooks:

 

Thank you ladies:

Or Easter delights:

 

 

I think after Easter, my little crochet bowl might find a nice home in the bathroom or bedroom as a tidy for bits and bobs:

This weekend, we’ve also been enjoying the pre-school puppet show and getting Easter tattoos:

And I’ve been trying on my new sandals:

With fingers crossed for some sunshine instead of the wintery showers and hail that the UK has been experiencing this afternoon!

Have you got any Easter projects on the go at the mo?

I’m possibly off to knit some bunnies from Made by Ewe here and Rowan’s Easter Collection here &/or these cute little chickens ‘Esther, Ernie & Enid’ from Rowan (pattern here).

And knit some more of my big project…

Happy Easter crafting!

xx