My Last Post Before Our Holiday

Here's a little 'something' I at long last finished the other day! A crochet kitten! I used a free pattern from Beth Webber.

Why did I make it? Well ..... my son left home to set up in a flat with his girlfriend in January, but he sorely misses our cats! Although they did entertain the idea of possibly having a cat in their flat, I think they have (thankfully!) decided that a flat is not really the right place for a cat. It wouldn't really be fair. So ..... I thought I'd crochet them one!

I was aiming to make him to look like Minstrel but, as a very novice crocheter, I couldn't quite work out how to do the white on the body to make the 'tuxedo' bib under the chin. I must actually say that I found the pattern a bit of a challenge and I'm sure I went wrong a couple of times.

I also haven't quite got the ears right ...... but try as I might, I couldn't make it appear more like the examples in the pattern. Also, for ages I pondered how I could give it whiskers as the pattern doesn't have any whiskers ...... and no whiskers just didn't seem right!!

For several weeks he wasn't finished whilst I wondered what to do! Then John had a good idea! We have a swift tag gun that shops use to attach labels to things. What if we put several tags into the whisker area and then cut off the square end of the tag? We tried it ...... and they make pretty effective whiskers. So ..... yesterday off he went to be an 'indoor cat' for James and Liz :)

Finally ...... we're off on holiday to Devon tomorrow! I have a horrible feeling that they are having even wetter weather than we are ..... but never mind! I always take a craft activity with me and I shall be taking my cross-stitch tiger. I know I haven't blogged about him for ages but I have been steadily doing a little bit most weeks even though I've been doing lots of other projects in between.

Here is how he looked the last time I blogged about him back in October last year (believe it or not!) .....

And here he is now ......

Let's see how he looks by the time we come back :)

Easter Chicks Party?

Had to share this photo! It perfectly sums up my John's sense of humour!

On getting up this morning, the Easter chicks have been arranged around a little glass chicken ornament I bought when we were on holiday in Jersey.

Are they set to party? I think if I was that chicken, I'd feel a tiny, weeny bit intimidated :)

Happy Easter

Just a quick post to send Happy Easter greetings to all :)

Here are two little crochet chicks to get in the Easter mood :)

They are a mix of two different patterns I found on the web. The body comes from a lovely website called Pepika who has got some lovely tutorials explaining the mysteries of the crochet magic circle with some fantastic photos to explain how to do things.

The feet, beak and the coxcomb on the left hand chick comes from Ami Amour. In actual fact, the first chicks I made came from Ami Amour. You can see them in the following photo ..... the two on the left. Sorry for the 'busy' photo. The tissue box in the background is my constant companion due to a horrific sinus infection that has gone on and on and on ....... and on! Currently on a course of penicillin and instructions to steam my face at regular intervals. Sigh! But I digress ........

 
For reasons that I'm not sure about, the wings came out bigger than the photos at Ami Amour suggested they aught to be! Also ...... looking at them again, I think I sewed the wings on slightly incorrectly! They look like big ears rather than wings :)

I think I will treat them a proto-types!!!

It was my Mum's suggestion to sew the coxcomb on the white chick at a different angle. She has a point ..... on a chicken they do go front to back rather than side to side. But then I thought ...... baby chicks don't really have coxcombs, do they? So the final one I made ..... the yellow one on the right, doesn't have one!

I think he's the one I like best :)