Bit of background.

Hello this is me looking very cold at Bambrough castle.

This post is about me.

3 years ago I couldn’t crochet to save my life. I was a knitter, I’d tried to teach myself crochet a few times but I was worse than useless. I did loads of other crafts as well, I made jewellery, cards, did a bit of cross stitch and sewing. I work managing a Haberdashery that specializes in buttons (hence most of my gurumis have buttons on them) and one of the girls I work with was really into crochet, she’d taught a few of the other girls and whenever there were quiet times they all had their hooks out going through the stitches. She wanted to teach me too but I told her there was no point I’d tried it I’m useless, I’m a knitter and a knitter I will stay.

Anyway one quiet afternoon I gave in, thinking if she wants to waste her time trying to teach me, and it’s a choice between doing that and cleaning then I’ll give it a go. It would be a very big lie to say I was a natural crocheter, I found doing the chain so mind blowingly complex I didn’t even want to attempt a single crochet stitch but I tried my hardest. I would chant what I was doing, through, round, back, round, both off and such, so I’m sure most people thought I was mad; apparently the look of concentration on my face was hilarious. I got there though and when I could do chain, single, double and treble stitches I felt like a crocheting god.

So now I could do the basics badly I started looking crochet magazines. I might get slated here but I found a lot of crochet items in them old fashioned, crochet just didn’t look as cool as the stuff I was knitting and very few thing in the magazines made me passionate about picking up a hook and making that right now.

I started making flower motifs these are great because you learn a lot of different stitches and techniques and they led me to the first time I noticed I could get hooked on this. I was looking at a pattern and thought, so you’ve got a chain space, into that you do SC, 2DC, TC, 2DC, SC and it makes a petal. Of course it does, it goes up then down that’s simple maths I can understand this, I’m a geek. Suddenly patterns that looked like they were written by aliens, just made sense, not only could I read it but I could write this new language too.

Then I stumbled upon amigurumi and Andy but that’s for part 2

Chocolate orange cheesecake

Today I'm having a few friends over for festive food and nattering. I'm not really celebrating Christmas this year its all a bit too soon after Andy dying. I don't have a Christmas tree but I planted an apple tree in our garden. I still wanted to see our friends though so I'm having a day in the kitchen making lovely grub for them to enjoy. I'm gonna try and recreate this chocolate orange cheesecake and if it goes to plan I'll post the recipe, and if I can find my pipping bag I'm gonna make tardis cookie



Update Chocolate orange cheesecake mark 2 is ready and here's the recipe

Chocolate orange cheesecake

You will need

Small pack of digestive biscuits

100g Unsalted butter melted

284g pot of Double cream whipped

600g cream cheese

3 large spoonfuls of icing sugar

2 packs milk chocolate melted

2 teaspoons of orange flavouring

1 chocolate orange

Sprinkles

Cake tin

Start with the base

Crush the biscuits to crumbs, add the melted butter and stir well to combine

Put the mix into the cake tin and press down to create and even base.

Put this in the freezer for 15-20mins to set

Cheesecake filling

Whip the cream cheese and icing sugar and orange flavouring together

Fold in the whipped cream and melted chocolate

Spoon over the set base and even out with the back of a spoon

Place the chocolate orange pieces around and decorate with sprinkles

Place in the fridge for a couple of hours to set

Enjoy x

Mr Snowman

Well this morning I got locked in. The door decided to break. I had a bit of a stupid girly moment and got all panicky, then I decided to man up and get some tools, only to remember they were in the shed. I found a screwdriver eventually, screwed the door handle off, only for the other side of off the door handle to fall off outside where i couldn't get it. I hit things with a screwdriver for a while then gave up, rang my in laws who are also my landlords and left it to them to sort out. While waiting for my freedom I made this snowman. His arms are made from wool dipped in glue then shaped. Other than that he's just 3 balls of crochet and a hat (If anyone is interested I'll post the pattern for the top hat.). So now its finished, the door is fixed and I'm free but its raining so I think I'll have a cup of tea and make this snowman a festive friend.
If you like this click on the linky and help me win best christmas craft

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Cat and mouse

No time for crafting for me today cause i've a house to tidy and goodies to bake for my christmas party, but i thought i'd share this. This little mouse was my first ever attempt at amigurumi. He's was a bit tricky, you start at the nose end and those first few rounds with only are few stiches on are fiddley but worth it.



Modeling this time is my other bengal kitty Cassi, she has the same mum and dad as Calypso but is a year older. She likes to play with crocheted mice but prefers real birds, though thankfully she hasn't caught one yet.

Winter warmer

As I don’t have any patterns for amigurumi ready yet I thought I’d share this very simple pattern for these fingerless gloves I made last winter. Theses make a great stocking filler or last minute gift as they only take about an hour to make and use less than 50g of DK wool.

You will need

5mm crochet hook

40g Dk wool

6 buttons

Wool needle

Abbreviations

CH – chain

SC- single crochet

HDC - half double crochet

BPHDC – back post half double crochet (half double crochet in back of loop only)

SS- slip stitch

Pattern

CH 32

HDC in second loop from hook, HDC to end

CH2 turn BPHDC to end

Repeat the last row 18 more times this will form a nice ribbed pattern.

Now fold in half and join the 2 ends together , SC through the stitches on both sides 10 times, SS on one side only 6 times (this makes the whole for the thumb), SC through the stitches on both sides to the end of the row.

Finish off and cut thread leaving a long tail.

Use the loose thread to sew on 3 buttons on the thumb edge

make another so you have a pair

My little bengal kitty Calypso helping me model the pair I made this afternoon.

Happy crocheting x