Hats for babies born too soon

I was at a bit of a loss as to what my next crochet project would be, when I accidentally came across a website called Preemies UK it's a voluntary group run by Shelley Mitchell. They supply over a hundred hospitals around the UK with parcels of clothing, blankets and other items for babies who are born too soon and they are looking for volunteers to join in. This really struck a cord with me, I have only recently finished five years of IVF, I wasn't successful and suffered many miscarriages. I decided I wanted to help this group as well.

I am not particularly accomplished at crochet, so I decided I would start with something small and decided to crochet hats. I googled preemie patterns, there are a lot of patterns out there. The first one I decided to try was a pattern for Preemie Puff Hats, they are for 1lb to 2lb babies from a site called www.ambroright.com. The first hat I did I couldn't stop crying while I was crocheting it was so so small, but this is for a good cause and it will keep someone's baby warm. Once I did one I couldn't stop I ended up crocheting nine during the course of two afternoons. I used picot edging around a few of them and added flowers and hearts to the hats as well.

Another pattern I used involved skipping stitches so the end design looked like a bow, this was from a site called www.lacycrochet.blogspot.co.uk, this pattern was called a Preemie Butterfly Hat, again for a 1lb to 2lb baby.

 

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Homemade Cushion

I made this particular cushion a couple of months ago using material from IKEA, just a basic beige colour that would go with anything, I bought about four metres of it for about £6.00, really good value. The other material is from a company called Sanderson, it's from a collection called Option 11 and it's name is Jubilee Square. The Jubilee Square comes in three different varieties of colour, this particular one is in pink and yellow. They also have one in blackcurrant and orange and the last one is multi coloured.

I used my 1940's Singer Sewing Mchine to sew it together just one beige panel for the back and four strips of beige around the side attached to the Jubilee Square in the material. It was very easy to put together and took about thirty minutes to complete it.

 

 

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Planting Bulbs and Crocheting a Baby Blanket

I've had a fairly busy weekend last week....

Weeding my front garden and planting a few more bulbs. I couldn't resist, Homebase are selling pots of crocus, daffodils and irises for £1 each really good value, I just hope they don't get nipped by any frost.

I finished my nephew's (he's due to make an appearance sometime in February) baby blanket. I used a UK double treble stitch, which I had never used before and edged the blanket in a picot stitch.

Close up photo below..

If anyone would like to try the Double Treble crochet stitch (dtr), you can either visit http://www.learn2knit.co.uk which is where I learnt it from or I have listed it below.

UK Double Treble Stitch

1. Wrap the yarn over the hook twice and insert hook into 5th chain from hook.

2. Wrap the yarn over the hook, draw through the chain only and wrap the yarn again.

3. Draw through the first 2 loops only and wrap the yarn again.

4. Draw through the next 2 loops only and wrap the yarn again.

5. Draw through the last 2 loops on hook - 1 dtr made.

Picot Edging Stitch

First of all crochet a chain of 3 and then stitch 1 double crochet into the second chain from your hook, after that *crochet 3 chains, slip stitch into the third chain from the hook, skip 1 stitch, 1 double crochet into the next stitch and repeat from *.

If you have problems following the picot edging instructions above, have a browse on www.newstitchaday.com. It's an excellent website, ideal for learning knitting as well as crocheting, but please bear in mind this is an American website, so you will need to alter the stitches to the UK version.

 

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Second Delivery

I received the second part of my order from Emma Bridgewater today, I bought two 1/2 pint mugs in the sale. I'm very pleased with them. I just need to find some extra space on my kitchen shelves :) and I must not forget to inform my husband under no circumstances is he to use them. I've lost count of the amount of mugs he has chipped or smashed.

 

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Tilly's Blanket

This blanket has been a joint effort between myself and my mum, simply because I had another crochet blanket to do, so my mum finished the last five rounds for me. I loved doing the crochet edging around the blanket, using a double crochet, half treble and treble stitch. I didn't have a colour scheme, as you can see :) I just used all the oddment balls of yarn I had.

This blanket was made for my 12 year old dog called Tilly, I'm the first one to admit she is spoiled, unfortunately I have no children, so she is my baby. She has already claimed two of my crochet blankets, so I thought it was time she had one of her own.

 

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Happy New Year

I've been clearing all the Christmas decorations away and cleaning the house over the last couple of days. Today my postman delivered an Emma Bridgewater box, I bought some mugs in the sale. I collect spongeware mugs and just couldn't resist the 40% off sale.

I'm very pleased with them, I bought five in total, two half pint mugs and three baby mugs, can't wait for my second box to arrive.

I've also been sorting my craft attic room today. Tidying my wool and embroidery threads and sorting through my fabric pieces. I'm dying to spend some time in there.

My Auntie gave me a large box just before Christmas, full of embroidery transfers, thread, tablecloths, which belonged to my grandma. Hopefully this weekend I will get the time to have a good look through them and decide what my next project will be.

 

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