Animal Ponchos

Last year I decided to make Lily a poncho.    I was searching through various different types patterns and pictures to find something I liked the look of for her.   I eventually came across this pattern for a hooded fox poncho.    It's a paid pattern, although I generally use the free ones I love this so much I bought it.  I could also see that the pattern could be adapted for other animals and so I decided to make Oliver one  as well as both my niece's one each for Christmas.

I actually made one in grey with a white trim and bunny ears initially as I happened to have this wool already.   The pattern originally calls for super chunky wool, but I ended up using 3 strands of aran to give the same thickness.    My niece Holly really loves her bunny and so this one was for her.

I then went shopping for wool to make the remaining 3 ponchos and could only find chunky wool in the colours I wanted.  I had to adapt the stitch count and hook size to get the ponchos to come out in the size I wanted.   After a bit if work adapting one I just copied them for the others.    In the end I had created 4 great looking animal ponchos.   Oliver has a green dinosaur, Lily the fox, Holly the bunny and my other niece Layla has the panda.

I deliberately made them a little big to give them room to grow into them so they would last longer.   As a result I think they will do better for next winter than this one so I haven't really got photos of them all in them.   I have bribed my two kids with sweets to model them for this blog post though!  I really love how they turned out and actually wouldn't mind an adult sized one for me!   Maybe when I have some spare time I will make one for me for next winter!

Hope you have enjoyed this week's blog post.   See you again next week.

Vicky x

Scrap Wool Granny Blanket

 It's finally finished!   This week I finished putting together the granny squares blanket made of scrap wool.    I've been working on it most evenings.    I am very pleased with the final product.   It measures 160cm x 160cm (the biggest project I have ever worked on) and should cover a double bed although it's actually going to be for the new sofa arriving tomorrow.

It consists of 196 granny squares - some in plain colour and other that are mixed in colour.    I joined them together in black using the flat braid join and then just did a few rows of black and white to make the boarder.    I love how the black boarders give it a stained glass effect.

I still need to block it - since it is made of scraps not all squares are the exact same size and so makes it a little uneven but hoping blocking will help with that (although I haven't blocked anything yet!)    I am definitely looking forward to seeing this on the new sofa tomorrow!

Now this is finished in am working on extending my daughters baby blanket for her second birthday.    I look forward to sharing it with you when it is done.    There will probably be lots of mini projects in between especially as we sort out the kids bedroom now they are both older and sleeping in big beds!

Thanks for reading today's and I hope you like my blanket as much as I do!    See you next week!

Vicky x

Children's Toys

 I was hoping to have finished the scraps wool blanket this week, whilst I am close to finishing it, I seriously underestimated the amount of time I would need to join it all together!   Therefore I have decided to save it for next week and write about the soft toys I made my children in the last couple of years.

Lily is now 1.5 but before she was born I wanted to get her a bunny.  I wasn't able to find what I was looking for at the time so I ended up making her one.   I adapted this pattern making her bunny purple and a little larger.   I also added contrasting patches on her ears, tummy and feet to personalise her a little.     I was very pleased with the result and she now lives on lily's bed with the rest of her toys.  She was so cute that my sister wanted me to make her a brown one - so of course I did!

Another toy I made before lily was born was an owl comforter.   Oliver loved the comforter he got when he was a baby and I wanted to do something similar.  Lily has a woodland themed nursery so I used this pattern just using the colours that I had.    This was made only a few months after I started to crochet so my sewing in of the ends hasn't worked very well and they are coming out.   However lily enjoy holding her owl when she as younger and still has it amongst the pile of toys on her bed.

Last year Oliver got the books about alien's and underpants.   For those who are not familiar with it the stories they are written in rhyme and are about alien's coming to earth to wear our underpants.   Oliver really enjoyed these stories and was reading them every night at one point.   So I decided to make him the alien from there.   I had no pattern just worked off the cover picture and I think he turned out really cute!  Oliver loved him too and he lives in his pile of toys on his bed to

  I have also made the children themed playmats with soft toys but I will talk more about these in detail in another post.

I would love to see what soft toys you have made for children (or adults!).  Please feel free to comment with pictures or share on Cosy Crochet Facebook page.

Hope you have enjoyed today's post and next week I should definitely have the finished blanket for you to see.

Vicky x

Winter Wear Part 2

 This week I continued working on the gloves pattern.   It is near impossible where I love to find gloves with fingers for small children and my daughter is not overly thrilled with mittens.   So after having successfully made gloves for Oliver, I worked on making them smaller for Lily.  It turns out that only a few adjustments were required to the pattern to make them the right size.    I ended up using a smaller hook and 1 strand of DK yarn and I am pleased with the pattern.

Having made Lily her gloves it took a couple of days to convince her to wear them I think she was worried they might be mittens!   However, once she had them on she was very please she could move all her fingers!   I then started work on completing her winter wear set.  She already had a hat so I started on a scarf.   I have been wanting to try the C2C (corner to corner) stitch so decided to have a go.  Turns out this is  very simple stitch and after watching a couple of videos I figured it out quickly and made her a scarf in 1 day (amongst looking after the kids!).    I finished it off with a few rows of single crochet and a shell border.

The same day we managed to loose her hat and so since she had glove and a scarf that were made from the same wool I made a hat in a couple of hours to Match adding a flower as decoration.   After seeing the set together I also added a flower to them too.   She loved trying on her hat and scarf although she does love to play dress up anyway and I am very pleased with her new winter wear set!

 

I am now only 23 granny squares away from being able to put together my first scrap wool blankst.    I hope to have it ready to show you all in next weeks post.

I hope you have enjoyed my second winter wear section!   See you all next week.

Vicky x

Toddler Gloves – Age 1-2

 

1.  Materials and Resources

Below is a list of everything you will need to make these gloves

·        Double Knit Yarn Yarn – 100g balls in the colour of your choice

·        3 mm hook

·        Tapestry needle

  

2.  Stitch List

Below is a list of all the stitches (and their abbreviations) featured in this series of patterns.  All terms used are American.

·        Sl st – slip stitch

·        Sc – single crochet

·        Ch – chain

·        Hdc – half double crochet

·        Fphdc – front post half double crochet

·        Bphdc, - back post half double crochet

·        Sc dec – single crochet decrease

 

 

3.  Pattern

 Glove

Row	Instruction	Stitches
	Ch 30 sl st in into 1st ch to form ring
1	Ch2 HDC in each st around
2-8	Ch2, *FPHDC, BPHDC* Rep from*to* around
9-11	Ch2 HDC in each st
12	Ch2, HDC 12, ch 5, sk 5 st and join with HDC in 6th st from start of ch, (this makes thumb hole) HDC 13
13	ch2 HDC 12, 5HDC in ch 5 sp, 13 HDC
14-15	Ch2 HDC in each st

 

Little Finger - Continue on from the hand part above (you should be directly opposite the thumb hole which will be on the left hand side)

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	Ch1 and SC in same st, 3 SC, ch1 and join with SC directly opposite (4 st from starting SC), 3SC (do not sl st go straight in to next row)
2	4 SC, SC in ch1 sp, 4 SC
3-5	SC in each st
6	SC Dec x 2, SC, SC Dec x 2
	Cut yarn and thread through loops and pull tight to close finger.  Sew in ends

 

Ring Finger - Holding the glove with the thumb hole on your left, attach yarn to the final st on the left side of the little finger with sl st

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	SC in same st as sl st, 4 SC, ch1, join with SC in St directly opposite (the 4th st from little finger), SC in the last st of prev finger, SC in ch1 sp of previous finger and this should bring you back to the starting SC of the round (do not sl st go straight into next round
2	5 SC, SC in ch1 sp, 6 SC
3-7	SC in each st
8	SC Dec x 6
	Cut yarn and draw yarn through loops and pull tight to close finger.  Sew in ends.

 

Middle finger - Holding the glove with the thumb hole on your left, attach yarn to the final st on the left side of the ring finger with sl st

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	SC in same st as sl st, 4 SC, ch1, join with SC in St directly opposite (the 4th st from little finger), SC in the last st of prev finger, SC in ch1 sp of previous finger and this should bring you back to the starting SC of the round (do not sl st go straight into next round
2	5 SC, SC in ch1 sp, 6 SC
3-7	SC in each st
8	SC Dec x 6
	Cut yarn and draw yarn through loops and pull tight to close finger. Sew in ends.

 

Index finger - Holding the glove with the thumb hole on your left, attach yarn to the final st on the left side of the middle finger with sl st

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	SC in same st as sl st, 8 SC, SC in the last st of prev finger, SC in ch1 sp of previous finger and this should bring you back to the starting SC of the round (do not sl st go straight into next round
2	5 SC, SC in ch1 sp, 6 SC
3-7	SC in each st
8	SC Dec x 6
	Cut yarn and draw yarn through loops and pull tight to close finger. Sew in ends.

 

Thumb - Attach yarn at Base of HDC from row 11 on right hand side of thumb hole (thumb hole on left side of glove) with sl st

Row	Instruction	Stitches
1	SC in same st as sl st, 5SC, SC in Base and top of HDC from row 11, 5 SC across ch5 gap, SC in top of HDC you started round in
2-5	SC in each st
6	SC Dec x7
	Cut yarn and draw yarn through loops and pull tight to close finger. Sew in ends

 Glove string

Sl st in middle st of starting ch on 1 glove and ch 110, sl st in same point on second gloves then SC in each ch until you reach first glove again and end with sl st.   Cast off and sew in all remaining ends.

 

  

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