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!

Beginner Crochet

This area is strictly for newbie crocheters looking to pick up a hook for the first time or those who know the basics and want to add some new stitches to their repertoire. I aim to build a library of photo tutorials and possibly video instructions (if I work out how to set up the tech), working through from that first slip knot and endless string of chains (which you will not be able to stop making once it clicks!) to all the usual stitch suspects and the different ways of working crochet. I will add in some information about yarn weights and hook sizes along with anything else I can think of that I had to go and hunt down somewhere on the internet when I was a beginner crocheter.

There is a TON of information available to anyone learning to crochet these days, with youtube videos and blog tutorials aplenty, there is hardly cause for me to reinvent the wheel here! And yet I feel the urge to give something back.


Here are some of the great blogs and resources I found inspiration and instructions from when I started out crocheting...

Attic24 - My first project was Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Square

Crochet Geek - All kinds of crochet tutorials with clear instructions

the Purl Bee - Great patterns and tutorials for crochet and more

Annaboos House - Cute, quirky and original patterns with clear photos and instructions

I started my crochet journey with a video here and a tutorial there, all available for free thanks to the hours of time given up by crochet guru's the world over who have blogged and recorded all their tips and tricks to help me and many others get to grips with a new craft. However, I Googled and Pinterested my way around the web to find each piece of relevant information I needed in a way which suited my style of learning so my hope is to create a cohesive source for beginners, free of charge and easily accessible right here on my blog, to save all that searching. I will include links to other brilliant bloggers and free patterns which I benefitted from in my early days as well as my own content, because part of the fun of learning is reading about different methods and tips which will vary between people.

Your comments are always invaluable to me - if I start putting stuff out here and it isn't helping at all - let me know! Or if you are just confused by one step or your work isn't turning out the same as the picture I show, get in touch! I will try to answer your questions as quickly as possible. It will take a while for me to build up this collection of information so bear with me and please ask if you are looking for a tutorial I haven't written yet - I will point you in the right direction if I can.

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!

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

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

Woolly Wednesday: Yarn Thickness Chart

A great resource for newbie hookers...

When we were learning to crochet, we found there was a real trove of free information, patterns and tutorials to be found online. Whilst these were amazingly helpful in getting us started, there was a little confusion in using them due to the differences in terminology between UK and US patterns.

We have already covered the different stitch terms and hook sizes in tables earlier in the blog. The final hurdle was the terms for the yarns suggested at the start of the patterns. It took a while before we realised that 'DK' or 'Double Knit' yarn is the same as 'Worsted Weight' yarn over in the states! 

Here is yet another useful table to help you avoid any confusion as you get hooking.

There will be further fibre related posts each Wednesday. If you would like us to cover a particular subject one week, please comment or email us here.

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

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

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!

Some of our newest creations

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 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