Circle Centred Crochet Granny Square :: A Pattern ::

As I've been working on my crochet granny square blanket, as part of my series on how to design your own granny square blanket, I've got this particular granny square well committed to memory now! My heart centred granny square pattern is one of my most popular blog posts, so I thought you may like the pattern for this square too.

The main square has 4 rounds and I've been finishing all of mine off with a round of regular granny square in white and joining them as I go, more on this soon. It's a nice, simple square, that looks classically granny, but with a little bit of a twist on the traditional square.

Little Crochet Rings :: A Pattern ::

I've been whipping up loads of these little rings over the past couple of weeks. They are the perfect little craft for me right now, quick, simple and full of colour!

They are great little accessories for me right now too with the babe, as they are soft and I don't have to fear catching her on any sharp edges.

You can stack them up, wear the whole rainbow or keep it simple, whatever takes your fancy, though you'll most likely end up with a stack of them as they're so addictive to make. 

If you fancy having a go yourself here's how you do it ::

Ingredients ::

4ply/fingering weight mercerized cotton yarn. I used DMC Petra 3 and 5 (holding 5 double for thickness).

2.5mm hook

Tapestry needle

Abbreviations ::

ch - chain

dc - UK double crochet

dcBLO - UK double crochet through back loop only

sl st - slip stitch

st - stitch

Method ::

Chain 13 (now this may not be the right size for you so pop the chain around your finger to give you an idea if it will work. I found 13 to be good for me, but also made some with 12 and some with 14 too so I had a mixture of sizes, play about to find the best fit for you) join last ch to first ch with a sl st to form a large ring.

Rnd 1 : Ch1, 1dc in each ch to end of rnd, join to top of first st with sl st, do NOT turn.

Rnd 2 : Ch1, 1dcBLO in each St to end, join to top of first st with sl st.

Fasten off.

Weave in ends.

Told you it was quick!

Box Pencil Case :: A Crochet Pattern ::

I have a love affair with washi tape and pencils with rubbers on the end. They are very much two of my favourite things. Unfortunately they are also two of my cat's favourite things. He loves nothing more than to bat these treasures of mine around the room, until they get trapped under the abyss of the sofas. Therefore I am forever battling the dust bunnies that reside under said sofas to retrieve them and I'll tell you something else, cat chewed washi tape loses some of it's original beauty.
So I decided what I really needed was a new pencil case, especially for these particular treasures.
Getting the sewing machine out seemed like a bit of a daunting challenge, but I have learnt how to hold a baby and crochet, so a crochet pencil case it was to be.

If you fancy making your own pencil case to prevent cat stationary attacks or maybe as a quick Christmas gift, I've shared my pattern with you below.

Enjoy x

Sling Cowl :: A Crochet Pattern ::

One thing I definitely don't really need is more neckwear. I have a bit of scarf/shawl problem, I just love knitting/crocheting these garments and I do put them all to good use. However I've discovered since the temperature dropped, that scarves and baby slings do not make for great companions. I'm always worried about the tails getting in Effie's face and they just don't sit quite right with the sling in place.

When we pulled all the knitwear out of storage last week, I noticed the snood I knit for Johnny a couple of years ago and realised that was exactly what I needed. Something that fits perfectly around my neck, without any ends to get in the way and sits high enough to be well out of Effie's face. As knitting isn't really working for me at the moment, for whatever reasons, I decided to crochet my version.
I thought I'd share this simple little pattern with you here. It's quick, easy, unisex and would make a great Christmas gift too.

Crochet Lego Head :: A Pattern ::

I originally made this Lego head about 18 months ago now, after taking Stacey Trock's fabulous Monster Making class on Craftsy.  I only ever really intended to make one for Milo and leave it at that, but I've had so many requests for the pattern for this I thought I'd write it up for you.

It's really very simple and if you've tried your hand at amigurumi before I'm sure you'll have no problems with this.  If you haven't here a few notes to help you on your way.

• The whole head is made in one piece, working in continuous rounds of double crochet (UK), meaning you don't join or chain at the beginning of each round, you just carry on in to the next stitch.
• You start at the bottom and work up to the top, increasing and decreasing at various points to create the shaping.
• You start your project using the magic loop technique.  This gives you a nice tight first round with hardly any gap in your starting ring, this is especially important for amigurumi as you want your work as tight and as free from holes as possible.  There is a really handy tutorial for magic loop over on craftsy here.
• You need to use a marker to keep track of the beginning of your round, I find a scrap of yarn much, much easier to use than an actual stitch marker.  I have a tutorial on how to do this here.
• There is much talk about the right side and the wrong side of your work, I say as for most crafty endeavours, there is no right or wrong, go with what looks/feels best for you.  I know some folks prefer to work through the back loop only of each stitch too. I take the side that faces me as I work to be the right side and work through the whole stitch, but like I said, do whatever works best for you.
• I recommend you go at least a hook size smaller than your yarn ball suggests, this helps to get a nice tight fabric.
• You can use whatever kind of yarn weight or content you like for this project, obviously the chunkier the yarn the bigger the head, for my bigger version I used aran weight yarn held double and for the smaller head I used a fingering/4ply weight yarn.  The smaller head measures 5cm tall and 5cm wide.

Festival Watch Strap :: Free Crochet Pattern ::

With the weather attempting to improve and summer definitely within reach, I've been thinking a lot about summer festivals and was reminded that last year I made this watch strap for Latitude Festival. I originally offered it as a free pattern especially for my newsletter subscribers, but I thought I'd share it over here on the blog now, so that if you wanted to make your own for this summer you could.

The pattern is written out in it's entirety below, but if you'd rather you can download the PDF here.

Please note it is written in UK crochet terms.

Enjoy x