One of my favourite things to do is to crochet applique flowers, or little animals like elephants, or houses from fine cotton and sew them onto hats and booties or other nice bits and bobs.
The coiled rose and green leaves are from Pink Milk’s blog.
Category: Crochet
Fondant rainbow
Have got kitchen refurb going on so no baking going on until it’s done. It’s in okay shape but the new flooring isn’t fitted for another week and a half and the concrete down at the moment is grim.
I did have a play with some fondant.
I also made the little cloche hat and applique crochet flowers:
Hat and booties with crochet flowers
I made a couple of bonnets and bootees over the last couple of weekends. I love making the little flowers and embellishments. 🙂
Call the midwife!
Nothing finished but getting there. Sums up where I am with Everything at the moment!
The blanket is growing. I’m going to continue until the whole ball of wool is used up (providing there’s enough to complete a ‘block’ of pattern). I swear the ball gets no smaller no matter how many rows I do. It’s like when Prometheus stole fire from the Gods. Zeus had him bound to a rock and an eagle ate his liver… every single day. Imagine eating liver EVERY day! I swear the ball grows back every night and will never diminish.
** Update: Finished the blanket!!***
I posted the pattern here.
I tried a new recipe and made a bakewell-flavoured bundt cake. Bundt cakes aren’t the easiest to make. You have to cook the cake for longer than in conventional shallow cake tins. They can end up crusty and dry on the outside and still mush on the inside. The recipe came from Dolly Bakes: Bundts on the brain
The cake molded beautifully; I coated the Bundt tin with melted coconut oil followed by sieved icing sugar (turned upside-down and tapped to dislodge the excess). Perfect. The flavour was really nice but I confess to finishing it in the microwave because I wasn’t convinced the middle was cooked.
The Christmas Pudding mold came in useful to create a Chocolate Biscuit Cake to look like a Christmas pudding. The holly is real and pinched from Shouty Man – his holly grows over into my garden. Not complaining – it’s lovely.
And getting more and more into the Christmas spirit, I made some Coffee Cream Liqueur. I posted the recipe a long time ago, you may remember it. If not, here you go:
And tree decorations! Love finding pretty new decs for the trees! These lovely hearts came from The Flying Tiger:
The reindeer are from Penneys – little and cute!
A robin on a post box (from Mr Dunnes – I added some red to his breast as he was a bit orange).
Am in love with this glass robin. It is far prettier iRL; my photo doesn’t do it justice at all.
And that’s about it!
Vintage blanket free crochet pattern
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I tried a pattern found online but just kept falling foul of it and was frogging every five minutes. I gave up on that one and worked one out for myself. I’m about half way through and think another 5 or 6 blocks will make a useful sized blanket for a little one.
Want my pattern? Here you go find it in your downloads! Crochet blanket
xoxoxo
Crochet baby hat
The yarn is Elann Pippilongcolor (*update 2019 – the yarn has been rebranded to Impromptu Lite*) in Crystal Spring shades, perfect for a pair of crocodile stitch bootees and a little hat. The pattern is a free download from MyLittleCityGirl.
I made some apple, blueberry and cinnamon cupcakes, using muscavado sugar instead of the usual castor for some extra rich flavour. The blueberry colour turned the butter icing a lovely shade of deep raspberry which was enhanced with a drizzle of imperial purple edible food glitter.
Papercut L for Lisa.
xoxoxo
Yarndale Heart
This is the heart I’ve made to go on its way to Skipton to help raise money for Mind at the Yarndale event. I have to coat the back with a solution of PVA to stiffen it as it will (hopefully) become part of a bunting heart. Here’s the link if you’re interested in sending one yourself.: Crochet heart with daisy centre
Jess xox
A sunny side up, crochet cherry on top, kind of day
Today is a cherry on top kind of day even though the sun has stayed in bed and left the sky looking like a big bruise. I’ve crocheted up a little bunch of cherries with leaves and stalks based on a vintage pattern called Cherries Boutonniere #2249. 
These squares are still a favourite – you can get the free pattern on Ravelry.
Then I found these plumpy dumpy bobble tops. A double row of popcorn stitches – worked in trebles rather than DCs for really boppy bobbles.
Anyway, these bobble tops are worth the time and effort for the fabbiness they bring to all sorts of projects.
The pattern is on Ravelry: Lily Pad Hexagons. For information, mine are made with a 4mm hook and Baby Bamboo which is soft and comes in a lovely selection of colours. 🙂
What did the hat say to the afghan? You stay here and I’ll go on a-head… 🙂
Crochet Granny Squares
The squares below make 6″ squares (using the same hooks and yarn).
Butterfly Garden: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/17-butterfly-garden-square
I can’t remember what this one was called. Sorry 😦
The Victorian Lattice Square: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/victorian-lattice-square
The latest one to catch my eye was this one from Haafner: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/smitten-blanket
She calls it her Smitten blanket (she made several squares and joined them together). It’s really lovely. 
US / UK crochet terminology and hook sizes
A quick look-up table for UK and US crochet terminology.
No More Mondays 