Cactus Amigurumi Pattern

I have been meaning to make a little crochet cactus for ages now and looking online I saw lots which people had made to look like the realistic plants. These are brilliant but I already have a healthy collection of cacti which look as realistic as they come! So I thought, what is better than a cactus? The answer came to me; 'A cactus with a face!' And so my pattern came to be.

This little amigurumi cactus will never need to be watered. No matter how much you neglect her she will continue to smile at you from her place on the shelf. She will never spike you (even if you sit on her!) and she will stay in flower all year round. As I am not known for my green fingers (hence the cacti collection) this is my ideal plant!

The pattern only calls for a few odds and ends of Double Knit (light worsted) yarn so it is great for using up your stash. It uses simple stitches and typical amigurumi techniques such as the magic ring and working in a spiral. You could use any colour combinations you like for the pot and the flower and will just need two shades of green for the cactus itself and a brown or neutral for the sand/soil at the top of the pot. The rest is up to you!

My cactus has safety eyes but you could use beads or buttons, or you could embroider the eyes with black thread. I used plastic toy pellets in the base of my pot for weight but you could use sand, small pebbles or dry rice instead.

I need to make some friends now for this one. She tried to make friends with the other cacti but they are just too spiky!

If you buy my pattern and have any questions please comment here or email me. I would be glad to help. If you make a cactus and want to send me a photo I would love to see it! I am on instagram so you could tag me there or just drop me an email. I hope you have as much fun as I did making her!

Pumpkin Crochet Competition!

Hello everybody! I worked up this cute little pumpkin amigurumi crochet pattern for the guys at Stitch Craft Create to go out in their Autumn catalogue and I will pop all the instructions up here for those of you who don't receive their mailing, in time for you to hook up your own spooky cutie's for Halloween!

There's just this one thing...

... I would really like to get to 2000 followers on Instagram and I am a couple of hundred off so I thought it would be a nice way to pick up more followers if I ran this as a giveaway. I will therefore release the pattern when I reach my magic number. In addition to this I will send the three pumpkins shown in this photo to a lucky winner (drawn at random from all entries when I get to 2K followers). I hope you don't all think I'm being too mean making you wait!

So, to enter the competition you will need to:
Have an Instagram account (if you don't, get one! It is my fave ever social app - just wow!)

Be following @dottydoily

Be following @stitchcraftcreate

Re-gram the photo tagging @dottydoily and #ddpumpkinwin

When I get to 2k followers I will do the draw for the winner and launch the free pattern. Good luck everyone!

(A little note to private instagrammers. You will need to either comment on my original post so that I can follow you to see your entry, or send me a Direct message to take part.)

What we've been up to - Instagram Version!

For those of you that don't follow us on Instagram, here's a preview of our latest pictures showing what we've been up to.

If you don't have a smart phone then you can still look at our photos from your computer as Instragram have now launched on the web too - Have a peek here

If you do have the Instagram app and want to follow us, our username is @twobirdscraft

Looking for feedback!

Hello everyone!

Sorry we've been a bit quiet on the blog front again, holidays and little people's birthdays have got in the way and we've been neglecting this part of the web but hopefully you've still been following our posts on Instagram and Facebook!

We have recently been thinking up some new products and our latest have been crochet stitch markers, but with a twist...
We've made a set of 5 stitch markers in pretty complementing colours that can also be worn on a necklace/brooch/keyring. You can buy these from our Etsy shop here:

Anyway..as mentioned at the top of the post. We want to hear from fellow crafty bloggers what you think of these beauties!

So, if you would like to review a stitch marker set for us, please e-mail us at twobirdscraft@gmail.com or comment below and we'll get in touch!

Please note this is for bloggers in the UK only!

Getting ready for winter

Hello!

We are still here, crafting away incase you were wondering where we'd disappeared to!

We're both working on larger projects at the moment so that's why our Instagram feed has been a bit quieter than usual!

Both birds are happily hooking cosy blankets in preparation for the winter! And both, funnily enough, are patterns from our favourite craft blogger - Attic 24!

The pink bird is speeding through a colourful ripple blanket. The pattern for this can be found here: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/neat-ripple-pattern.html/

Meanwhile the purple bird is also taking a colourful route but is working on Lucy's Granny Stripe pattern: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/granny-stripe.html/

So, once we've finished our blankets, or need a break from the looooong rows, we'll be back to business creating some smaller items for the shop.

As always, we love to hear from you so please let us know what you've been making recently - see the contact us page for various methods of getting in touch!

Making Crochet while the Sun Doesn't Shine!

Hello everybody!

We have been a little quiet for the last few weeks as you will have seen. This is in part due to the purple bird's return to work after her super lovely maternity leave. Because of this and a decision to spend more time making things rather than writing about what we want to make, we have chosen to limit our posts to more sporadic stories of what we have been doing over a period of time. This should mean that they will make better and more colourful reading, and that we are not bombarding you all with every thought running through our heads. After all we have Twitter for that!

So, what have we been up to since we last wrote?

First of all you may remember a few weeks back we ran a competition to win one of our bunting necklaces. We announced the winner on Instagram and Twitter and are pleased to say she received her necklace just in time for the Jubilee celebrations at the weekend. God bless Royal Mail who managed a next day delivery!

We have been making and experimenting lots over the last few weeks. Here some of our creations below. You may have seen a few snapshots if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Some have been added to our Etsy shop today and more will be added soon. The photographing process is more time consuming than we would have thought but once we get used to it I think we will get things clearer and quicker.

Love Heart Doily

Scrumptious Scrubbies!

Sold in packs of 4

Rainbow Hearts...

Lots of Jewellery and Accessories for our Etsy Shop!

FREE UK POSTAGE on all Etsy orders!

No need to add anything further here really is there! We are running this offer until further notice. Take a look and see if there is anything you fancy.

The pink bird has had this week off work. Today is her last day of official holiday (Boohoo!) and she has been trying to make it count with more making and some time to update a few things online. In a way all this bad weather has been good from a crafting point of view but our tans are fading and tempers fraying. Hopefully the sun will come out in time for us to go back to work next week!

We were recently asked by a friend to make a raffle prize for an outdoor playgroup that she is involved in. The playgroup is run in Ivybridge, Devon and encourages kids to have fun outdoors whatever the weather! They had a coffee morning on Thursday which we are pleased to say went really well and they managed to raise a total just short of £400 which is brilliant! If you're local and fancy attending, their first group is on the 25th of June. You can find more information here - https://www.facebook.com/BluebellsOutdoorWoodlandPlaygroup
Also, the purple bird bought some raffle tickets and won a Build-A-Bear voucher which she is very much looking forward to spending with her little chick! :-D

Just before all the rain we managed a few outdoor activities. First of all there was a lovely walk with a group of friends at Becky falls in South Devon. It is so beautiful there and we took a few snaps to show you here.

Babbling Brooks

Slightly concerned looking little chick!

Pretty Pathways

Waterfalls

Pretty pink flowers...

...and yellow ones!

A beautiful end to the walk

it was all too much for little chick!

We also snuck in some gardening at the Purple Bird's nest as her lawn had gotten a little out of hand and needed some serious strimming! Mr Pink Bird came too and did all the hard work whilst we entertained the little chick and then planted some pretty flowers. That is our favourite kind of gardening. There should be some pictures of this coming on Instagram once the flowers settle into their new pots.

There was lots going on around our towns for the Jubilee and we attended a few places and watched lots of Royalty TV. We have topped up our patriocity full to the brim now so that should hold us for a few more years!

Well that's everything we have been doing recently. Well, the parts you might be interested in anyway! There was more but we thought you could do without hearing about things like putting up shelves and hanging pictures etc! We're off to bake a cake now... Lemon Drizzle - of course! What else?!

TBC x

Freebie Friday: Competition - Win a Jubilee Bunting necklace!

To celebrate the upcoming Jubilee, we are giving away one of our new bunting necklaces.

You could be the proud owner of the beauty below in time for next week's festivities..

To win this necklace, all you have to do is suggest what you'd like to see us to make next!

You can send us a comment below this post, Tweet us or send a message on Facebook to enter.
You can also e-mail us at twobirdscraft@gmail.com with your suggestions

The best suggestion will then be picked and we will contact the winner to send them their prize!

We will take on board all your ideas and try to make the things you all want to see!

Good luck everyone!

Terms and conditions:

More than one entry is permitted. The winner will need to have an Etsy account although no payment will need to be made. Entrants must be in the UK to win the necklace. Closing Date for Entries: Weds 30th May 2012.

Freebie Friday: 10% off all purchases in the TBC shop!

As promised last week, we'll be giving something away free each and every Friday!

To celebrate it being the best day of the week, we're giving a 10% discount on all orders placed in our Etsy shop today.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

To claim your discount add your item(s) to the basket, click checkout and then enter coupon code FREEBIEFRIDAY1805



Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, we'd love to hear what you get up to, whether it be craft related or otherwise!

Contact us:
e-mail: twobirdscraft@gmail.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/twobirdscraft
facebook: www.facebook.com/twobirdscraft

Thrifty Thursday - T-shirt Yarn

A great way to upcycle unwanted clothes...

During the course of our crafty internet exploration we came across this great tutorial by craftpassion on how to make t-shirt yarn. 

The process is explained really well and we found it easy to follow. As we both had a few bits and pieces from our wardrobes which had seen better days, we tried it out and had a few balls of t-shirt yarn ready to use in short order. Thanks craftpassion!

It is so much fun to create giant crochet using a massive hook! The contrast between our usual tiny, intricate patterns and these great big loops which grow so quickly is brilliant! 

We used a 10mm hook as it was the biggest we had but I think we could have done with a bigger hook still to keep things a bit more flexible. As we were limited on colours we created a chunky trivet which would be great in the middle of the dinner table for serving up a hot pan of food such as paella or fajitas.

Now we have tried this method we are hungry to try more colours and different patterns. This type of yarn is great for creating rugs, baskets, bags and other containers - anything which needs to be a bit thicker and more rustic. 

The plan is now to keep an eye out in thrift stores and charity shops for different coloured t-shirts so that we can get a palette together for a larger project. We were in serious danger of hacking our wardrobes up to do this, but realised that it would not be the most economic plan of action! Instead we will be patient and post again once we have the materials created to make something new but we urge you all to give t-shirt yarn a try and let us know what you did with yours. Send us a photo!

Lots of love,

TBC

Tutorial Tuesday: Crochet Flowers and more!

One of the first books we bought when learning to crochet was Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

The book is wonderfully laid out and easy to read and understand. The crochet terms, hook sizes and wool names are all UK terminology.

We have both made several things from the book but one of our favourites has been the crochet flowers.

These are easy to make and really add an extra something to whatever you're making. - We have used them for adornments to things like purses and gadget cases, and even made a pretty flower garland!

Here's the pattern to make these lovely little flowers, it's really quick and we've found you can use whatever wool and hook size you like - it will just mean you make different size flower!!

• Using your first colour for the inner of the flower, chain 6 then join with a slip stitch in the first chain to make a circle.
• Make 16 double crochet into the circle. Join with a slip stitch and fasten off.
• Join second colour for outer part of flower into fastened off stitch.
• *Chain 3, make 1 treble into next two stitches, chain 3, slip stitch into next stitch, repeat from * 4 more times  - this makes 5 petals.
• Pull tail to close up centre hole and sew in ends.

See, easy peasy! 

One of our favourite crochet bloggers, Lucy from Attic 24, has also written a post about a pattern in this book, you can read about that here - she, like us, can't sing this book's praises highly enough.

To end the post, here's a picture of one of our creations from the book which was easy but also very satisfying to make - a lovely crochet purse with the pretty flowers we mentioned already. 

Happy hooking!

TBC xxx

We want to hear from YOU!

We love telling you all about the things we've been making, but we'd also love to hear what you've been up to.

We'd be happy to help feature and promote any fellow crafter's websites/Etsy shops via our blog and Twitter.


Whether you've got a long term labour of love, like our crochet blanket, or you've just worked out a new pattern for something - get in touch!


e-mail: twobirdscraft@gmail.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/twobirdscraft
facebook: www.facebook.com/twobirdscraft


Have a great weekend everyone, we'll see you back here on Monday!

Freebie Friday: Free P&P on all Etsy items TODAY ONLY!!

That's right, you read it correctly. Free postage and packing! But only for today, so be quick and visit our Etsy shop here - even multiple purchases will be posted free of charge, how generous are we!?
All you need to do is enter the coupon code FREESHIPPING at the checkout.

And as we are super lovely, if you pay us a visit every Friday, then we will have some sort of freebie every week!

Freebie Friday is part of our new way of posting entries - you may have noticed Woolly Wednesday and Thrifty Thursday already.

So remember to come back and see what the other days of the week bring, especially next Friday for more freebies!

Woolly Wednesdsay: Giant crochet lions

Mr Pink Bird stumbled across this video yesterday about an artist who has created 3 GIANT crochet lions to celebrate the 2012 Olympics. They are truly spectacular, and make our granny square blankets seem minuscule in comparison.

That's some good hooking!

Here's a BBC news acticle about it for more information.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17915318

Some of our newest creations

What we're up to this weekend...

What a week it has been!

We've only been up and running since last Saturday but we have been amazed at the amount of followers and page views we've acquired so far!

Thank you so much to everyone who's taken time to read our posts and tweets, we hope you've enjoyed them.

We are loving our new blog and being a new part of the crafting community. We have met some lovely people online already and hope to meet many more.

This weekend the two birds are getting together for a good old shop for some more supplies in the morning, then we will be having a brainstorming session over lunch, followed by some crafting in the afternoon.

Top on our making list this weekend are:

- Animal Keyrings
- Pretty Hairclips and..
- Buttony Bracelets


Please check back with us from tuesday for some information on our new creations! No doubt we'll be posting pictures of our progress on Instagram as we go.

Have a brilliantly long Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

Love
TBC xxx

Rave Reviewers

Are you hatching a new product, pattern or idea? If you have anything craft related which you would like field tested or reviewed by real people, we would be happy to have a go and let you and our followers know what we think. We would give a fair and unbiased review and promise we won't peck it to pieces!

Our specific areas of expertise are Crochet, Knitting, Jewellery Making, Felting and Beading, but we are constantly expanding on that range so if you have any books, kits or products which are targeted at beginners in a particular craft then we would love to have a go!

Get The TBC Rating!

Contact the birds by email, twitter (@twobirdscraft) or comment on this post to talk about your ideas and see if we can help.

Crochet - UK vs USA hook sizes

Following on from our post on Monday helping you work out the difference between UK and USA stitch terms, we thought it would be useful to also include a chart which shows names for UK and USA crochet hooks, so here it is:

Metric (mm)	US	UK/Canada
2.0	-	14
2.25	B/1	13
2.5	-	12
2.75	C/2	-
3.0	-	11
3.25	D/3	10
3.5	E/4	9
3.75	F/5	-
4.0	G/6	8
4.5	-	7
5.0	H/8	6
5.5	I/9	5
6.0	J/10	4
6.5	K/10.5	3
7.0	-	2
8.0	L/11	0
9.0	M/13	00
10.0	N/15	000
16.0	P/16	-
16.0	Q	-
19	S	-