Category Archives: Crochet

Making it in Making Magazine!

Well, almost. It’s not a full page double spread or anything, but hey! Making Magazine noticed me!

Well, Planet Penny anyway and Higgins, who is terribly excited. He’s very aware that he might be recognised and so has taken to going around incognito!

Things have been a little tricky on the Clovis front. The circulation in his foot was compromised as the bandage slipped (too much jumping on to beds etc) and after a night at the vets he was allowed home without the dressing. However infection has set in, which was always a possibility given the seriousness of the break and so we are on the long haul with twice daily antibiotics. He is now confined to the crate…

and being very good about it all things considered, only mewing piteously when I arrive on nurse duty!

Let me Owwt!

Fortunately my mum lives less than a mile away as I now have to visit three times a day. Once in my carer’s capacity to make mum’s lunch etc, and twice as veterinary nurse!

As you may have guessed from my Silent Sunday post, I had a birthday this week, with a lovely lunch at the Marsham Arms near Norwich, which is where we had such a wonderful time at our son and daughter-in-laws wedding reception. I really didn’t need sticky toffee pudding, but it was soooo delicious! Kit made me a beautiful matching gift bag and card using vintage Laura Ashley wallpaper.

I wish Laura Ashley would revive the original woodcuts that they started out with as they are so simple and pretty. Years ago I had blue wallpaper with white swans on it, I loved it and not a scrap survives…

In the midst of all that’s been going on I finally completed the Heart and Flower Garland Pattern so it’s now available as a PDF via the Etsy shop, along with some Mini Mice hairslides, crocheted with embroidery silk. They really are weeny and cute!

I’m now revisiting the owls from this post as I’ve had several requests for a pattern, I’ve just got to refine it, and make some decisions about the different formats.

So, plenty to be going on with, as well as a visit from the grandsons this week, which will make Higgins very happy. He does love his boys! (And I’ve just found this post that Higgins wrote all about his boy, which I had forgotten about which did make me smile, do have a look!)

I’m linking up again with Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday again so you can follow the link and find lots crafty blogs to visit. Have a great week…

Back soon…x

Crochet, Cats and Crochet Mice….

Welcome back to Planet Penny and another Handmade Monday post. It’s also a catch up post, because last week I didn’t feel able to bring you up to date with the ‘Clovis the Cat Saga’ because I was dreading the outcome. But I’m back now, with more crochet, more mice, and even more cats!

If you’ve not visited before, Clovis is my ‘foster’ cat, living with my mum and who suffered a nasty accident 10 days ago, you can find out more in this post. Last weekend he was safely ensconced in his crate, and I thought I had the after-care sussed. That was before the Break Out, when he hefted his 8 kilos plus frame out of the crate just as I was juggling with a used earth tray (YUK!) and got out outside!!

To cut a very long story and traumatic story short, he got out, panicked, ran under the neighbour’s car, got up inside the car while we searched elsewhere. Reappeared several hours later when the neighbour started the car and belted down the garden on three legs and vanished into the undergrowth. Hours of fruitless searching and calling later I gave up for the night, hoping he would creep in via the catflap under cover of darkness. The next morning my mum went to look for him inside…no sign… By now it was raining, and I went back to search, dressed in waterproofs and wellies…convinced that he had displaced the pins, caused an infection, had soggy bandages, was lying somewhere in pain and unable to move and it was all my fault…

The neighbour came out and suggested starting his car again, just to make sure he hadn’t gone back underneath, and, just on the off chance before he did, I went back inside just to check Clovis wasn’t inside. And there he was, on the bed in the spare room!!! I couldn’t get near enough to check him over, so I shut him in with food, water and a tray and left him alone over night to recover his nerves, as the following day I had to catch him again and take him to the vet.

Against all the odds he was absolutely fine, I meanwhile have aged 10 years….

Tomorrow of course, I have to catch him again for the next vet visit, please wish me luck!

However, I have still fitted in some creativity, the first being a little ‘Granny’ project with the Planet Penny Cotton. It’s fun making all the little bits and bobs with the rainbow colours, but I wanted to make something pretty for the home…

This small remnant of beautiful vintage Provençal Print was crying out to be a cushion back…

…and I was pretty pleased with the front too!

I can’t get away from pussy cats though, while my back was turned Henry decided to give it a quality control check!

…it passed!

And the crochet mice?

Well, after my last post about using different yarns and hooks to change the size of the mice on the Mouse Patterns, I had lots of comments via the Planet Penny Facebook Page about the cuteness of the teeny tiny mice made from Coton Perlé using the Planet Penny Mini Mice pattern. I’ve raided my embroidery basket to make some pretty little crochet mouse hair slides…

and have now bought a mini rainbow selection to have a play with using this much finer crochet hook…

Very happy colours!

I hope you’ve had a slightly less exciting time where ever you have been over the last week. I know I’ve given the impression with my photos lately that Norfolk has been having the summer no one else has had, but we’ve had our share of wet days too. It’s St Swithin’s Day today, and this is supposed to happen…

‘St. Swithin’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.’

So far around here it’s been dry, so fingers crossed!

I’ll leave you with the usual link to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour where you can find lots of lovely blogs to visit…

See you soon …x

Size Matters…

Tension, yarn weight and hook size, making it all match up

…or does it? I’m talking about crochet hooks here, I don’t think that qualifies as any sort of discrimination!

I’ve been having the occasional email from people about the size of hook I use to make up the Rainbow Mouse patterns so I thought a short blog post about hooks and yarn was in order.

Any one who knits and crochets and has made garments knows that there is a stress on making your tension squares initially just to check that your style of working produces the correct number of stitches and rows to the inch/cm. Obviously size is crucial when it’s something has to fit and look good, but it’s not as desperate when you are making little toys and Amigurumi creatures. What is important then is getting the correct hook for the yarn you are using.

The Planet Penny Cotton Colours yarn is supplied to me as double knitting weight, but it is quite fine for DK, although still thicker than 4 ply. If I’m using it to make something which requires a little drape or movement, such as a throw or cushion cover, then I use a 3.5mm hook. However, if I’m making a mouse which requires stuffing then I need a denser fabric so the stuffing doesn’t show and then I use a 3mm hook.

But the Rainbow Mouse Pattern, and the Mini mice patterns are just that, patterns to tell you which stitch comes next. If you are not using the PP cotton yarn, you can be adventurous as you like with the yarn you use as long as the hook suits the yarn. You will usually find the recommended hook size printed on the yarn binder, just go down a size to make sure the fabric is has no little holes in it.

With this in mind I have been experimenting with size and differing yarns.

This is the Rainbow Mouse Pattern made up in Planet Penny Cotton, using a 3mm hook. He’s about 3 and a half inches/9cm long excluding the tail… Rainbow_crochet_MouseNoText

The Mini Mouse Pattern made up the same way is 2 inches/5 cm long…

Mini_Crochet_Mouse

However, when I use cotton embroidery thread and a 2mm hook, the mini mouse gets a teeny tiny brother, who is only an inch long…

and conversely, making up the Rainbow Mouse pattern in Aran yarn using a 5mm hook results in a fat cuddly friend who is 5 and a half inches/14cm long and perfect for a baby’s first toy (no beads for that though!)

So be adventurous, and you’ll be amazed by the possibilities. I’m going to put a brooch back on the teeny tiny fellow, but he could equally well go on a hair clip or head band for a little girl, or decorate a pencil case.

Meanwhile, because I know it’s not always easy to get the correct size of hook to make up the Rainbow Mouse and Mini Mice patterns, the pack now include a 3mm hook so you can get going straight away!

The Planet Penny Cotton Colours yarn and patterns are all available through the Planet Penny Etsy shop, there’s a link here, and at the top of the page.

If you’ve made your own mice, do share them on the Planet Penny Facebook page, or just come along to ‘like’ it and see what else is going on!

Back soon…x

Hearts and Flowers and a Nurses Hat for Handmade Monday

It’s been touch and go whether I would actually get this post written today. Wearing TWO nurses hats has been rather time consuming, so this post is going to be light on text, but I hope the pretty, colourful photos of hearts and flowers make up for it.

Thank you all so much for your good wishes sent in Clovis the cat’s direction. It’s been a little dicey over the last couple of days, but I’ll leave an update until I have concrete news to report. Please keep up the positive vibes for our trip to the vet on Monday morning!

I’ve been working on a new pattern and although I said I wasn’t going to post pictures until the pattern was ready to publish, well, what the heck! Just bear with me, and it will be ready in a week or two.

I can think of lots of pretty ways of using this pattern of hearts and flowers. Strung across a dresser, used as curtain tie backs, interwoven with fairy lights (thank you, (Marigold the Goat!) and individually as a key ring, bag or phone charm.

Anyone with any other ideas? I love to know what you think!

I’m leaving you with the usual link to Handmade Harbour and all the creative people who take part in Handmade Monday. My message to them is to send apologies if I don’t have a chance to visit anyone this week, but I hope all my other lovely readers will make up for my absence!

See you soon…x

Wearing my Needlefelt Hat

I’m resisting having too much of a moan about the weather having seen just how badly other parts of the country have been hit by floods, but I had a soggy old trip on Thursday when I went off to teach needlefelting at The OutHouse Studio! We’ve had a brief interlude of windy sunshine since then, but today is grey, and soggy and Higgins had a horrid morning because of a thunderstorm. We’ve had the longest day, but when are we going to get some Summer?

Still, on Thursday we were warm and dry with needlefelt, coffee and homemade biscuits. It was only a small class, but it does mean those there get more individual attention. We were making brooches again, which is a nice way for people to learn needlefelt basics and have something wearable to take home.

These are my samples…

…but being definite ‘Duck Weather’ the final choice for the class wasn’t surprising!

There are all sorts of pretty things in the shop itself….

I’m kicking myself for not taking close up photos of Caroline Nash’s beautiful and unusual jewellery which she makes from pieces of old cutlery. You can just see them in the first photo. I was terribly tempted, I think I will be going back before too long when I have more time to choose!

Back on Planet Penny, I was very grateful for a really useful comment on last week’s Handmade Monday post and my pondering about the relative merits of Folksy v Etsy. Thank you, Siobhan, for helping me make up my mind. I really needed a buyer’s point of view to add to my own feelings about the ease of using Folksy, and as I’ve used it more over the last few weeks there have been several issues about the ‘clunkiness’ of the Folksy website which have been quite inconvenient. I haven’t taken the decision to move over to Etsy lightly; I tend to be very loyal once I have given my allegiance to something, added to which a couple of weeks ago I was number one in the Folksy best sellers list, but I couldn’t sit on the fence any longer!

You’ll find the yarn, patterns and kits are all on Etsy now in the Planet Penny shop. All the new Fridge Magnet Kits sold very quickly last week but I’ve been beavering away making more, winding yarn…

…and making magnets which are a bit boring…

…look pretty!

I know that, despite loving the colours, the cost of Airmail postage on a 750gm pack is off-putting for some people in the US, so I hope that by making up the kits which weigh so much less it will make having a little piece of the Planet Penny Rainbow a little more affordable!

Looking outside, it seems we are having a sunny interlude, and so I must step away from the computer, put on the wellies and persuade a small dog, who does NOT like puddles, that a spot of exercise might be a good idea!

I will leave you with the usual link to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour. Do go and visit, there’s a lot of creativity going on!

See you soon… x

Crochet Mini Mice for Handmade Monday

When I introduced the Mini Mice on a Handmade Monday Post a month ago I had just finished making them, hadn’t written the pattern and was in the run up to Open Studios etc. Definitely the last time I introduce something that isn’t in the final stages of going ‘live’! Since then I have been asked over and over about the pattern, the kits and when I would have them available. The thing is, I really want to get it right. I don’t want to disappoint anyone with a pattern that doesn’t work or a kit which doesn’t look like fun, which is why I’ve been beavering away all week to get things ready for this post.

As you can imagine, the Crochet Mini Mice kits take a little while to build, and I had to find a way to supply the yarn so it’s tidy, but also looks attractive.

I now have a new little windy gadget and some cards. Here’s the yarn in all it’s rainbow gorgeousness…

The Mini Mice kits will also contain the magnets, the stuffing, the eyes and noses and the all important pattern, enough to make 14 mouse magnets. All you will need is a 3mm hook and a needle and black thread. I think my next quest will be to source a supplier for 3mm hooks as I’d love to be able to add those to the kits.

The pattern will be for sale on my new Etsy shop. I’m sort of teetering in the middle at the moment between Etsy and Folksy. Because I have so many visitors from the US, Etsy seems to be more geared toward that market, while being very user-friendly for the UK and other places. Does anyone else have any thoughts or experiences about this? I’d love to hear from you if you do.

If you have previously bought a full pack of the Planet Penny Cotton Club yarns from me and would like a copy of the pattern, do let me know and I will send you a copy free of charge.

I will be putting the kits on Etsy this week at £17.50, but as an introductory offer I have 5 to sell at the special price of £15.00 on a strictly first come, first served basis. If you would like to buy one, please contact me through the Planet Penny Contact Form.

I was all set to leave you with the links to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour where you will find all sorts of crafty goings on, but I embarked on a mini project today inspired by the lovely Penelope by the Sea on her blog L is for Love.

She has been Noticing Yellow this weekend so I popped out for half an hour to see what ‘yellow’ I too could notice. Quite a lot as it happens…

What a lovely sunshiney end to the week!

See you soon…x