Start of the hyperbolic crochet reef

The growing of a hyperbolic crochet reef has started at Paper Village - for those who are not sure quite what that is, here's a picture example of one created somewhere else in the world. I like this reef, especially the green and blue crocheted thingy on the wall. Vicky at Paper Village has organised crochet get-togethers and classes for crocheting a reef which will be displayed as part of the Southville Arts Trail. It was great spending a Saturday afternoon in the shop, crocheting and chatting with other ladies.

If you happen to read this post and live in Bristol and crochet, please come along to the next crochet jam. All the dates are on the Paper Village website.

Bath Flea Market visit - want versus need!

Ellis, Errol and I went to Bath Flea Market for the day on Sunday, lots of gorgeous stuff. And here's some of the treasure we found. In the competition of want versus need, want won hands down!!!

1. Box of ever smaller houses - WANT!
2. 1960s fitted dress - WANT!
3. 1970s crocheted hat - WANT!
4. 1950s crocheted suit - WANT!
5. Pirate binoculars for Ellis - WANT!
6. Green cap - WANT!

Flea markets are dangerous places for us as a couple. We keep finding unique items that we know we'll never find again, which seems to totally justify having to buy it.

Free form crochet

This is my first and only piece of free form "scrumble" crochet. It took a long time to make!. The way I did it was to crochet individual pieces and hand sew them onto an old piece of crocheted material, building up piece after piece of mini scrumble. I loved doing it, especially adding different types of yarn. It's inspired by succulent plants, especially those found in the Barbara Hepworth house in St. Ives.

Here's some other gorgeous scrumble crochet by a blogger called Hook and Scumble .

Bo Peep

This little crocheted lady was an old project of mine. I intended to crochet a bride and groom for a friend for her wedding, but got as far as doing the bride and gave up! It was fiddly and took ages. So she sat around for about eight years until Ellis came along and named her Bo Peep. At last, she has a name!

Crocheted cats

These crocheted cats are the first crochet pattern I invented when I first started to crochet many years ago. The tummies have little poppers on the side so you can open them up and store things inside. They're basically a series of circles crocheted together, some single crochet for ears and some double crochet for the tail. Then a bit of hand sewing for the face. I stuffed their heads with cotton wool.

I tried selling them at the Christmas Craft Fair in Portishead once, for £5 each but no one was interested - what a travesty! They're all made with dishcloth cotton, one of my favourite wools.

Crocheted box

 I haven't managed to photograph any of the craft stuff I've made for Ellis since he was born, so until I manage to get that done, I'm going to post some pics of other things I've made. Here's an interesting crocheted box which is in fact a bag turned inside out. The pattern is from the book Hip to Crochet, and has the most amazing stitch in it which creates the bobble effect you can see around the sides of the bag. The book was worth having just to discover the unusual stitch!

I love this crocheted box and use it to store my tea lights. The main wool was very thick, so was probably crocheted with a needle size 5 or 6. And the cream edging is dishcloth cotton.