Rainbow Crochet Gifts

For my littlest sister's birthday this year I got hookin' with the 7 colours found in the rainbow. The year before last I pinned this, totally in love with the idea of a rainbow scarf, but not so in love with the heart. 

 

Once I knew enough crochet, I decided to have a crack. I didn't really follow the tute initially, just chained as long as I wanted and then double crocheted in each colour until I was done. But I did use it to get me started on the clouds, with some adjustments as I didn't need to make them as big with the yarn I had. A nice little coincidence of making them the way I did was that they turned out looking a little like love hearts, which wasn't my plan, but cute.

For the clouds I used a Lincraft brand yarn called "giggles" which was a massive pain to work with, but ended up getting the result I was after and my sis just loves them. She tells me she plans to use the clouds to help deal with stress by giving them a good squeeze when she needs, lol.

For the hat I used this tutorial. My stitches were quite tight so I added another row and did 2 in white for the cloud at the bottom of the double rainbow :)

Despite the 3 months wait, Sis was delighted with her belated rainbow birthday gifts and oh my, how cute she made them look!

Granny Stitch Beanie

My 2 year old daughter's bestie celebrated her birthday this month. I decided to give hand crafting a yarny gift a go, and managed to create a granny stitch beanie in 3 different colours in time (thanks to the very long train rides between our houses, lol). 

My girls modeling the finished gift en route to the birthday party

I used this rainbow beanie pattern, with a few slight adjustments. I stopped increasing sooner, so at most there were 20 sets of 3 double crochets, and when it was long enough (which took longer than I expected, turns out two year old heads are bigger than I first thought! Thank heavens I have a two year old head to test these things on!) I single crocheted before tying off and calling it a day. As much as I would have loved to have added the ear flaps, it was a tad beyond me in the time I had.

The birthday girl was delighted with her gift, and my oh my, what a feeling to gift something hand made and for it to be so loved immediately! 

Birthday girl sporting her gift (& a cake-mix face!)

Rumour has it that in the days that followed, she wandered around with her beanie, proudly telling all that her friend's mummy made her hat #melt! Now my lot are each requesting a beanie of their own, but  the question is: just how much do they want it? Do they: "let-her-yarn-shop-alone" want it? That is the crux of the matter ;D

Attack of the Brain Slugs!

Every year I ask Huz what he'd like to do for his birthday and every year it's the same: he doesn't think of anything until a few days before and finally settles on asking friends to go out for dinner. Counting on this, I decided to throw him a surprise party in 2011...nice and unexpected for a 29th.

On his birthday he came home from a walk with our eldest to discover the house transformed into the Brain Slug Planet and a group of his friends and extended family had fallen prey to the infamous brain slug race from Futurama!

I made us all brain slug headbands using cut up egg cartons, green paint, googley eyes, glue, wire and elastic. When Eale entered the house there we were wearing these slugs, droning "welcome to The Brain Slug Planet" lol.

 

The whole party was inspired by Alicia Policia's original brain slug cupcakes of pure awesome.

Practice brain icing: butter cream with a dash of rose food dye

White fondant dyed green with food gel, molded into brain slug shapes

They're made using fondant, green food gel, royal icing, black food gel, rose food dye, butter cream icing and vanilla cupcakes. Their antennae were not edible. I spent a fair bit of the party reminding people not to bite down on their fondant brain slug before removing the antennae (which were made from cut up wire, painted green).

For decorations I sourced green balloons and painted white eyeballs and black pupils onto them to turn them into brain slug balloons. I ran out of time and only ended up painting half of them.

One of our old college friends got in on the Futurama theme and made Slurm for the party.  I believe the recipe included apple slurpies, mountain dew, and red bull as well. The finishing touches: two green straws, like the antennae of brain slugs. 

For his birthday card I made a big carboard brain slug for everyone to scrawl their wishes on. I added messages from friends who couldn't be there on the day.

For his birthday present I got some yarn and commissioned my friend Saree to whip up a crochet brain slug beanie as his birthday present from both of us (which I believe was based on this pattern + a double crochet stitched beanie).

It was quite a fun afternoon. I was satisfied that the festivities left Huz feeling the full wrath of my love and appreciation for him, brain slug style :D

First Foray Into Crochet

Four years ago I joined ravelry and learned how to knit very basic scarves. I looked for patterns to inspire me to stick at it, but everything I liked most, turned out to be crochet projects, not knitting. I got into other things like birthwork, cross stitch and clarinet, and I've stayed at the basic scarf (with help for casting off lol) stage of my yarn craft until recently. About a year ago, I stayed at a friend's place in the country and she decided she would teach me to crochet. Knowing I'm a sooky pain in the arse when it comes to learning textiley things, I got myself a set of rainbow hooks to inspire myself to see the sookiness through.

 

Yarny crafts really impress me. It absolutely spins me out that a ball of yarn can become something else, it's magic. So, when my ball of yarn was starting to become something else I was very excited:

For my very first crochet project my friend selected the Uterus Menstrual Cup Cozy. It's a little draw-string bag shaped like a uterus, tubes and frongs just big enough to store a menstrual cup. Perfect timing too, coz I'd just got my menstrual cups and was very excited about the whole thing :)

This is what the project looks like when it's complete (with a cup next to it to show you the size and what it's storing:

The completed project above is not mine! That's the one my friend made and gifted me :) This is mine while it was a WIP (and when it looked like it still might turn out just right hahaha):

And *drumroll please Mr Kaloper* my first completed crochet project, my uterus menstrual cup cozy:

 

It's not a healthy looking uterus ;) but it can hold a cup. Looks far more Monsanto strawberry to me (should've done the top parts in green!).

Next I started learning how to crochet a beanie, ut ended up shelving it for a while when I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong with my magic circles:

Magic in the sense that it looks like I was on magic mushrooms when I crocheted it

But aforementioned friend stayed over and helped me lick the circle. Following that, I spent the latter parts of my nights going round and round, hoping for the best.

I <3 how I can take crochet anywhere

Everything seemed to be going okay...

 

Until it wasn't...

I unraveled the whole thing when I realised it was too big even for Huz's boofhead. I gave up on crochet yet again, exasperated and convinced that yarn and I simply do not mix. Until last month, when my five year old wanted to play with knitting needles and hooks and yarn, so I dusted them off and felt re-inspired.

This time I decided to make my second project a little less ambitious than a beanie. Instead I took the advice of another friend who had made her kids a big striped crochet blanket using a single stitch over and over and over and over ad infinite. And this time I had success!

Five year old was so enthusiastic and supportive of my new project (even before I'd started and was just buying the yarn, lol) that I suggested it should be a blanket for her. She is so delighted with this plan. She regularly checks in to see how I'm going and to marvel at how lovely she thinks her evolving blanket. It's just the most lovely thing to share the creative journey with the recipient, and rare too! Usually hand making gifts for others is shrouded in secrecy until their birthday, or whatevs.

I found myself totally hooked on crochet. Within a few days I was learning how to change colours and weave my ends in as I stitched along (thanks to the help of youtube):

I was immensely proud of myself. Yarn no longer alluded me ;) And this inspired me to try another yarny project: the granny square. But I shall save the tale of the granny squares for another post, dear reader.