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.)

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!

Crochet Blanket - Flowers in the Snow

Both us birds have had our beaks into Crochet for several months now. We started with online tutorials and free patterns, bought some books and are now designing our own patterns and devising exciting ways to use crochet to brighten up our lives! 

Along our journey to crochet enlightenment we have found lots of sites, blogs and information online. To help any trainee hookers out there we will be placing as much of this information as possible here on our blog so you can use it as a resource whenever you get your yarn in a tangle!

If there is anything in particular any of you think would be a valuable addition to our trove, please comment or pop us an email.

Some of our crochet items will be made available for purchase, along with patterns and kits of our own creation. The blanket featured here, however, is very much a work in progress and a labour of love. It will not, suffice it to say, be appearing in our Etsy shop but will instead festoon a sofa or bed back at the nest when it is finished. But when will it be finished I hear you ask?!

Ahem!

We love the way this pattern allows every possible colour combination we can possibly think of, whilst still maintaining a softness and subtlety with the white edging to each square. 

As you can see we have gone into major production of the inner circles as we need so much variation to avoid the same shades turning up together. Looking at these pictures though, we agree it is time to start adding some of them into the blanket now!

We are using DK acrylic for all the inner colours. This is a thrifty way of getting the varied spectrum we need for such a large project. The overall quality and softness of the blanket is not something we wanted to compromise on though, so the white edges are done in Rowan pure wool 4 ply which is divine! We bought this and most of the yarns from www.rucraft.co.uk an online retailer with an outlet shop near to our nest.

The pattern for this blanket is named 'Flowers in the Snow' and we stumbled across it a while ago on www.ravelry.com where it is available as a free link. The designer of the pattern is Solveig Grimstad who is a lovely and talented lady. She has provided the instructions in both Norwegian and English! Here is the direct link to the pattern.

When we finally do finish the blanket and have fought over where it will live, we will add a snapshot for your comments. Of course if any of you fancy a go at this pattern and want to show us how you get on, please send us your photos or tag us on instagram. You will no doubt put us to shame with your speedy progress!

Happy Hooking!
TBC

Useful and related links

www.ravelry.com

A valuable source for all things yarn related - you can set up a free account and there are many free patterns for those who are experimenting)

Flowers in the snow pattern

Solveig Grimstad

Two Birds Craft Etsy shop
RUCraft Craft Supplies

Stitch terms US/UK

Hook Sizes US/UK