Crochet Pumpkin Poncho: The pattern and bodging tips!

This is a day's work. Max. All of my patterns are shift-able, mess-around-able and not too precise. Perfect for learners, free form thinkers and the basically-crap-at-reading-instruction types. 

You will need:  

• Small amount of green chunky;
• 3 x 100g balls of orange chunky;
• 4mm Hook;
• Button;
• A 2yr old to make look cute. 

General Notes:

This is all worked in treble (tr), double (dc) and with bobbles. 

To make a bobble stitch, you need to yarn over (yo) as with any other treble, insert your hook into the stitch, yo, pull out and repeat twice more, then insert your hook, yo and pull through all except the last stitch on your hook. It helps if you wiggle the hook on its way through. Then yo hook and pull through the remaining stitches (like the second stage of a treble). You should have a puffy, chunky bobble in your work. 

Spooky Halloween Craft Happenings...

It being half term, I have a Sam to amuse. You may have looked over 'The Wednesday Project' pages before, where Sam and I took on various craft and cooking activities whilst I was on maternity leave...Some were good, some were more for my benefit I think and most were messy!

Three very lovely ladies; Helen, Charlie and Trudie (the 'Three Wise Women') decided to run a spooky badge making class out of Helen's studio in the Essex countryside. They have all the facilities required to entertain, amuse and inspire small groups of crafty kids for nearly two hours.

For £10, diddy crafters had access to great tuition, a wide range of craft supplies and equipment, all in a converted barn space (that has it's own loo too!). The morning was topped off with coffee for mums that stayed (they didn't mind if you popped off for an hour as long as you leave your contact number), juice and cookies for the kids.

Everyone who came had the chance to colour, design and decorate several badges which were then pressed in a badge-making machine. This covered the designs in plastic and gave each one a professional finish. Then badges could be mounted on cards (Sam made a den for his badge monster) for spooky offerings to friends.

The time zipped past and contrary to my personal obsessive need to keep everything tidy, creative mess was allowed (which I actually enjoyed, honest). Having Helen on hand for the arty advice was brilliant for the children, many of who already had her illustrations on their bedroom walls and in their houses. Charlotte was a whizz with the scary badge press and Trudie has super craft skills and is great at explaining the instructions to groups of kids that vary in age.

The Three Wise Women are happy to run badge parties and I can honestly recommend them for birthday groups, or even Christmas and Easter themed sessions. I'm sure they could even be talked into a bit of baby shower/hen crafting if the prosecco was provided...



To find out more, visit Helen's Facebook page or follow any of the link clicks on this page. Helen also has a fabulously festive range of Christmas cards and illustrations (originals and prints) available from her studio and can be contacted via her etsy page...Have a snoop and support UK crafters & artists! xx

Crochet Critters...

So this weeks' addiction (aside from cleaning and rearranging the living room) is making variations on the diddy pumpkins I made for Halloween...

Where the pumpkins ended up!

©my mate Han...

© crafty_lu

©elfinstar

This has really cheered up my week -seeing where my diddy pumpkins ended up! Thanks to those who got involved, and for diddy crochet fans, there are puddings in the pipeline!

Diddy Crochet Pumpkin Giveaway!

I have 5 mini pumpkins looking for a new home! The first 5 people to e-mail me their name and address at jencrumpuk<at>yahoo<dot>com will get one of these little chaps in the post as soon as humanly possible (depending where you live in the world...) Just because I'm nice...and starting to get over-run with small orange pumpkins....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to make your own, you're going to need:
Orange and green yarn (really small amounts!)
Two black beads and invisible thread
A crochet hook (about size 3 but it really doesn't matter too much)
A smidge of toy wadding (or cotton wool from the bathroom cabinet)
Darning needle and normal sewing needle

To make:

In Orange:
-Chain at least 12 stitches (about 10cm depending on tension and your hook/yarn size);
-Turn, and work a row of single crochet, starting with the second loop along from needle. At end of row, ch1 and turn.
-Keep working rows of single crochet until you have a rectangle approx 12-15cm in length.
-Fasten off and leave a tail of 15cm for sewing up.
-With needle and tail, gather the sides and fasten tightly (this is the base), then matching the stitches in the cast on and fastened off rows sew up the sides.
- Add stuffing, then gather the remaining side and fasten tightly, passing the needle through top and base (through the middle) to form the desired pumpkin shape.

In Green:
- Chain 5, and join into a circle with slip stitch;
- Chain 2, then double crochet into the circle until all the way around snuggly. Join circle with slipstitch;
-Chain one, then carefully remove loop from hook and pass up the middle of the circle. The wrong side of the circle forms the base of the stalk, you are now going to work the stalk up the middle!
- Chain 7-10 stitches, then turn and single crochet twice up and down this row. Fasten off with a reasonable tail.
- With needle and tail, secure stalk to other side of the circle. If you gather through the stalk stitches you can adjust the tension to add a curve which looks quite cute.
- Place the stalk on top of pumpkin and sew with a couple of stitches under the base. Fasten off and trim.
- Add eyes!

If you work this in double crochet, or even triple, you get a chunkier pumpkin -play around with the original orange rectangle width for taller pumpkins!

Show us your fangs!!

I've always liked those neat and tidy iced biscuits you can buy -and was really surprised how staright forward it is to mimic the effect at home. I'm not saying my sugary-bats are up there, but they look pretty fangy.

I used St. Delia of Smith's gingerbread men recipe as it is utterly brilliant and fool-proof and you can re-work the pastry several times (which is excellent if you have a little 'help'). Then I waited until the 'help' was busy elsewhere before I embarked on the fiddly bit as it would have looked like a bat massacre...

You will need:
Powdered icing sugar
Paintbrush (small)
Couple of tbsp water
Black colouring (the Silver Spoon brand has a really intense colour that doesn't go grey)
Small piping tubes, ready filled (I used a Sainsbury's chocolate selection)

Technique (I use this in the loosest sense of the word!):
Using the ready filled tubes, pipe about 3-5mm from the edge a border around the outside of your biscuit. Try to go reasonably fast and allow the icing to 'drop' from the tube onto the cookie -I know this sounds a tad dare devil but you actually get a smoother line. Set aside to dry a little.

Mix up the powdered sugar, colour and water. The quanities you need depend on the number of cookies, but it's easier to start with a small amount and make more. You need to have the thickness of thick cream (that you can spoon) or cake batter. Using the brush dollop the icing as in-fill onto the cookie and push to the edges. You need to do this quite thickly to get a shiny finish -it's like you're shoving it around rather than painting it! Put to one side to set.

Go back to the ready filled tubes and add wing details and fangs. allow to set before wrapping or allowing small people to eat, unless you want to have a black icing disaster on your sofa...I speak from experience!