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.

A Natural High - Woolly Wednesday

Our Cotton Yarn Addition…

As you know we birds get a real buzz from anything colourful but there is something extra special about this dyed 100% Cotton which has had us emptying out our bank accounts in a quest to obtain every available shade! We must be addicted!

Like most crochet newbies do, we started out using acrylic yarns as they are so much cheaper than anything else and available in a lot of varieties of thickness, colour and texture. However, once we progressed and became more adept in the ways of the crochet hook, we ventured into the sacred realm of natural fibres!

Yarns with a wool content or other natural fibre content are a lot more costly, some more than others, so we had to be careful only to buy a specific yarn for a particular project, rather than splashing out on the full range. We found this to be a little limiting to our creativity as we love to experiment.

One day we found a great supply of this Patons 100% Cotton yarn in both DK and 4-ply weights at www.rucraft.co.uk  and remembered that we had read about this kind of yarn a lot on Lucy's (Attic 24) blog when we were starting out. She talks about using Rowan Handknit cotton for her projects and I am sure this is the ubercotton of cottons but when we looked at it pound for pound, the Patons stuff is pretty much half the price so we let our wallets do the talking!

Colourful cotton we can't keep away from!

Cotton is a lot less fluffy than any yarn we have used before. It tangles less, splits less and the finished item really shows the stitches well, making the stitch pattern a big part of the creation. Because the stitches are so clear to see we agreed that we wish we'd splashed out on some sooner when we were learning as it would have made life easier!

See how clearly you can see these crocodile stitches
we are learning.

Cotton yarn is washable so great for any children's products. Because it does not tend to fray or shed easily it is also brilliant for creating jewellery and presses beautifully flat with an iron. There is not much this cotton can't do. 

The bright range of colours are great for kids,
and it is fully washable too!

What can I say? We are seriously addicted! You can see from these pictures that our supply is growing. We may have to start dealing soon to fund our habit! Half of the circle below is DK weight and of course, we had to match it with the same colours in 4-ply for teeny tiny stitches! Find out more about yarn weights here.

A rainbow of cotton in both DK and 4-ply

I think the limit for cotton is that when it comes to warm, cosy clothing or a cuddly teddy bear, there is nothing to beat soft, fuzzy wool. Therein lies the contradiction!

There are products in our Etsy shop which use 100% cotton yarn and we are experimenting with it a lot at the moment to tie it in with our jewellery making as it works so well in this way so pop back from time to time and see what's on offer. We would also love to see if any of you get bitten with the cotton yarn bug and what you create with it. Send us links here or tag us on facebook or instagram.

Make and Tell Monday - Bracelets, Purses and more...

Hello everyone,

Well, last week didn't go entirely according to plan. We have both been a bit lazy on the production front and to make matters worse we had illness in the nest, plus a lack of jewellery supplies which we were expecting to arrive. All in all, a pretty rubbish start to this post, which should be where we tell you all about our new creations!

Looking back at last Monday, we outlined our plans to work on several items based on the experimentation we had done the week before. As far as this goes, the little heart we showed you now has a big brother made with DK 100% cotton which we are LOVING at the moment! (More on this yarn on Wednesday) However, the heart operation (groan!) has been… wait for it… Bypassed… ahem, as we found a great pattern for little crochet flowers and have spent nearly all our time making these instead!

The little flowers we have been making are in readiness for a line of jewellery we want to create, subject to the arrival of our belated supplies so hopefully we will have more to show you on these later in the week. We put together a prototype for your comments shown here, but it is unfinished as we have no clasps at the moment. Flower hair clips are another idea we want to try too.

The Jubilee coasters have been similarly pushed aside but we need to crack on with these this week or there will really be no point at all! 

In addition to these we had a great idea for mini bunting necklaces which may just make it into our Etsy shop for the weekend in question but the way things have been going recently one really can't tell!

So this week we have been blocking up the pipeline with even more ideas and experiments. We promise we will behave ourselves and start stocking our Etsy shelves soon though!

Now for the finale. The pink bird's niece and nephew are coming to stay in the Summer so she thought she should get a move on and start making them some goodies! Here is the first. This little fella is an owl purse based on a circle which we adapted after lots of tries with other patterns. the top opening is pretty narrow but it is for the niece who is only three so it will be perfect for her little paws! To give you an idea of scale it is about 15cm wide and the strap is 45cm long so she can wear it over her shoulder just like mummy! 

 

We hope she likes it and would love your comments too. A photo went onto Instagram earlier and it got lots of likes. If you think we should make some for our shop let us know. We are still finding our feet with the Etsy shop so any free market research would be appreciated!

So we have not been completely idle this week but have a lot of work still to do! Once again, let us know if you would like us to try any particular ideas out or just send us your comments on what we have put together so far.

Lots of love,

TBC x

Make and Tell Monday

What we have been making this week...

Hello everyone, 

Hopefully you all had a great weekend and are fully charged ready for the new week ahead. If you need just one more hit of something pretty to stand you in good stead, take a look at the two birds creations of the last week.

In the experimental stages we are looking at little stuffed hearts. The self striping colours on this worked really well we think! We will be looking at ways to use these and other colour combinations and finishes this week.

 

Also in the works are Jubilee coaster sets! We started out with solid colours to test the pattern and then stumbled across this amazing striped jubilee wool! Please comment and let us know if  you think we should have a set of four striped coasters, or a set with one of each solid colour and a fourth striped one. We can't decide… Perhaps we will try both!

Something we were trying out a few weeks back was the tiny crocheted owls. We now have a complete rainbow of the little creatures all ready to adorn your keys! Each owl is made with 100% cotton and decorated with a patterned cotton tummy and cute, button eyes! They all turn out just a little differently and have developed unique personalities!

Our little rainbow owls are available for purchase in our Etsy shop right now so take a look! If you would like a particular colour which has sold out please email us direct and we would be happy to commission another for you.

We have lots more ideas queued up but if you have anything you would like us to have a try at making for you please email your suggestions.

Lots of love,

TBC x