How to attatch a crochet dreamcatcher

Hello all hope you had a lovely Christmas. Today I thought I would tell you how I make dreamcatchers. I made some for a craft fair just before Christmas and a couple for Christmas presents and those who received them loved them and I've had a couple of people wanting to know how they are done so thought I would write it up a tutorial. I don't know if there is any "proper" way of making dreamcatchers but this is my way and so far it seems to work very well.

Just note I haven't included the crocheted web for the centre because depending on the size of your hoop you may need one made to different size then mine. However I you can use a doily pattern or make up your own.

Let's start with what we need.

1. Scissors or a stitch picker. It needs to be able to cut very close to your hoop without destroying other stitches. 

2. Glue. I use glossy accent crafting glue. It's stronger than Pva but don't worry to much if you haven't got strong craft glue because the beads will help hold the feathers in place anyway. I just like the extra security.

3. A stitching needle, one with a big enough eye for the thread you are using

4. Cotton thread. I used vertuoso by coats which is about a number 8 but the packaging doesn't say and it's discontinued now. Use whatever thin cotton you are comfortable with. 

5. As many feathers as you want dangling from your hoop. You can even have more than one together.

6. Crimping beads and as many beads as you want dangling with your feathers. I didn't crimp the beads because the thickness of the feather stem held them tight enough but if you need to then use a crimping tool to do so. 

7. The hoop. You can buy hoops from online stores such as Amazon that are suitable for dreamcatchers or you can use the inside hoop of a circular cross stitch frame. I however am currently using plastic hoops that are about 3 1/2 inch in diameter given to me by a friend from an old scarf hanging rack she had. So look what you may have around your house too. So longs the circle is solid and smooth I think just about anything can be used. 

8. Lastly pins to hold your stitching in place, but I forgot to add them to the above picture. So here they are...

                       

Ok so now we have everything we need to make our dreamcatcher let's get started with attaching the feathers. 

Firstly cut your cotton to a length a bit longer then you would like your feathers dangling from your hoop, this will allow for knoting.

Make sure the stem of the feather is fluff free, about a cm should do it.

Tie the cotton once around the feather as close to the fluff as possible

Wrap the little strand around the feather and smear some glue to hold the strand in place. I make the strand go up the stem ready to add beads.

Add a crimping bead to the long strand of cotton. If you need to use a needle to feed the beads through then do so. Pull what's left of the small strand through the crimping bead and pull the bead over the feather stem. It may take some tugging to get the feather through the bead but be careful not to snap the feather. It maybe that you need to trim or twist the stem to make it fit through better. Be aware that if you use more than one feather your going to need beads with bigger holes in order to fit everything through.

Add another bead to the long strand and again feed through the small strand and end of the feather. I use a large bead after the crimping bead and it helps make the crimping bead more snug if I push down slightly. I then trim the short strand down to the bead. 

Add as many more beads to the strand as you want and then tie to the hoop. Do not worry about the little thread left from the knot we will deal with that later.

Repeat these steps for as many feathers as you want to add and place them where you want them on the hoop.

Next you need to make a bobbin with however much cotton you think you need to wrap around your hoop.  I just wrapped my cotton in a ball but you would probably be better of wrapping it around a piece of cardboard. For how to do this check my trick or treat blanket post.

Tie the end of your bobbin around your hoop. I like to start at the top because if the knot looks lumpy at the end you don't notice once the thread used to hang the dreamcatcher is added.

Hold the small strand in front and start wrapping your bobbin around it and the hoop. Don't worry that your strands will be to far apart just push them together and keep wrapping around and around. When you think you have trapped enough of the loose strand just cut of the end as close as possible to your wrapping strand so it doesn't poke through. Keep wrapping.


When you get to where you attached the feathers pull the feather strand in front of the hoop. Your wrapping strand goes under and around the cotton strand so it doesn't get in your way. The loose strand from the knot you made earlier goes in front and you wrap over it as in the last step. Do this for all the feathers you have dangling.



When you get back to the start, thread your cotton onto a needle and pass the needle through a couple of strands on the hoop. Do not pull the thread all the way through but instead leave a small ring.



Pass the needle through the ring you just made and pull. This will create a small knot. Pass the thread through several strands on the hoop to weave in the end and then cut the thread as close as possible to the hoop.


This is what you should now have. 

Now you have to create a crocheted design for your centre, you could use a doily pattern providing it is to the size of your hoop. I will put my own pattern on here soon, the reason I haven't here is because I would like to explain in a separate tutorial how to attach the beads and make it larger if needed.

This is my crocheted web. I made sure my strand left at the end was big enough to start attaching to my hoop. I weaved in the chain I made to get behind one of the beads.

 
Go through the 2 loops at the back of the bead.

Thread your needle through a couple of strands on the dreamcatcher where you would like the first point to go and pull tight so that the point of the web is touching the hoop but don't pull so tight that the web crumples up. I like to start at the top.

At this point or even before you attach the web use your pins to mark out where you would like each point to go. Just be careful not to prick yourself like I always do. 

 Once you are happy with your placement go back to your first point and pass your needle again through the two loops at the back of your bead and through a couple of strands on your hoop. Now if you want you can pull your strand all the way through but once you feel your point is secure enough create a loop to pass your needle through and create a knot. Then weave in the ends by passing your needle through several strands on the hoop.

With each of the other points attach your thread to the loops at the back of your bead. I do this again by creating a loop and passing the short strand through it to hold it in place. Then attach the point as in the last steps. This time you will be left with two loose ends to weave in I do this by passing one through the hoop in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. I try to work at the back of the hoop so that if there is any lumps created from weaving in ends you won't see them once the dreamcatcher is hung on the wall, but so far I really haven't had much of a problem with this. Another thing I thought I would note is that if you do not have beads attached to your doily then just do as I still have and pass your needle though the two loops at the point of your work that you want attached to the hoop. 

Once you have attached all your points then thread your needle with a strand long enough to use for hanging your dreamcatcher. Remember you have to fold your strand so it needs to be twice as long as you would want it. Now thread your needle through a couple of strands at the top of your hoop.

Make sure your two ends are of equal length and knot the top together and ta da you have one pretty dream catcher!

 This is the view of mine from the back and front just so you can see how neat it looks. Sorry for the mess in the background but unlike my crocheting my desk is never tidy.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first tutorial and that you found it useful please let me know if you need any further help xxx 

Crocheting for a craft fair

So it's been about a month since my last post and that's because it dawned on me about a month ago that I really need to get making stuff for a craft fair I helped organise for my daughter's dance school month's before. Haha any normal person would have started crocheting the minute they decided to do a craft fair. I have definitely got to get out of the habit of doing things at the last minute.

Craft fair, I'm unprepared for :)

Any way the craft fair is this coming Saturday and I'm still rushing around panicking that I haven't made enough. This was meant to be my only craft fair but I have had a few friends asking for me to make something and someone has ordered 2 hooded cow's I made.

He so cute, he makes to hooded cowl look super!

I am now debating with myself whether I should actively try and sell my crochet bits and bobs rather than doing a one off, but still not sure. Will get this craft fair out the way with first and catch up with this blog. I have found so many lovely pages trying to find simple things to do for the craft fair and have made some things from my own patterns and have thought of more to try afterwards, so a lot of catching up to do, which is good because my hands need a break from all the crocheting.

Hope your all having a great run up to Christmas xx

Halloween

So Halloween has been and gone and we had a great time.

I loved the run up to Halloween making decorations with the kids

Having friends over to carve pumpkins

and baking Halloween cakes and decorating biscuits which the kids loved giving out to anyone that knocked on Halloween night. It certainly made them smile to be giving their home made treats to others.

I even got round to making a Halloween wreath

The pattern for the leaves comes from http://www.happyberrycrochet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/how-to-crochet-maple-leaf.html?m=1 very easy pattern to follow and there is even a video. The ghost I made up as I went along but I am planning on redoing it and writing up a pattern ready for next Halloween.

Halloween night the children went out trick or treating but not before getting some great shots of them posing with their dad. 

The older two definitely made a great Chucky and Chucky's bride they just looked so creepy.

The trick or treating was fun. I love how some people go to such lengths to do up their homes all creepy and try and scare the children. 

After the kids had gone bed it was mine and hubby's turn to dress up for the night, both started out as vampires but I became a witch when my teeth decided to fall out.

Looking forward to next year. Thinking Johnathan should dress up as Freddie Krueger.

Hope you all had a spooktacular night xx

Trick or treat crochet blanket

It's almost Halloween, I absolutely love Halloween and getting creative this time of year, but have never crocheted anything hallo-weeny before...I know shocker! So I decided to make a pram blanket for my youngest, because although she will enjoy walking around and knocking on people's doors and probably chatting to every passer by she still will spend a lot of time in her chair. I have also never done a graphgan before so perfect time to try.

This is the graph I drew :)

To do the graph I firstly downloaded some graph paper from http://www.printablepaper.net/ I found that the cross-stitch graph paper was best to use. This one has 14 squares per inch which was perfect for the height but I did actually have to add another square on each side for the width. Each square was to represent a single crochet and with that in mind I drew out what I wanted the blanket to look like.

I had a little bit of trouble at first with starting the blanket because I had all the colours I needed but black so I went to buy black from the shop and once I got home realised I spent £8 on the wrong type of wool. Instead of double knit I had gone and brought chunky. Well after some moaning and contemplating going to buy yet more black wool in double knit I decided to stick with the chunky as the nights are getting colder and it would keep Pennie extra warm. I brought white and red in chunky but not having much patience for internet buying and not being able to find orange and green in town I decided to double up the double knit I had to make the wool thicker to match the rest of the blanket and having now finished it, you can not tell the wool used for the pumpkin is thinner than the rest. 

Starting the blanket, I obviously hadn't learnt my lesson from the last blanket I did...don't use loads of big balls of wool because...

this happens!

And when you try to untangle everything which is surprisingly relaxing, this happens...

Where I had been pulling at the wool to try and untangle everything some of the wool had stretched and the strands were beginning to part. The string to the right looks fine but as you can see the one on the left has got gaps along it. 

So lesson being learnt I decided to make some bobbins 

They don't look like anything significant, all they are are bits of a cereal box cut up to wrap wool around. I was apprehensive about using them because I hate weaving in ends and I didn't think they looked as if they would hold that much wool but surprisingly they hold quite a bit:

If anyone decides to make these make sure to put in a split at the end of each card because it can be used to hold the strand in place when not in use. If it is not held in place then you still end up with a tangled mess.

So having spent quite sometime sorting out my bobbins my crocheting continued with my two little helpers,cutting up my bobbins and running away with my balls of wool.

and after all that there was the dreaded weaving in aghhhh. Some of it I had weaved in as I went along; holding the loose strand in place under the wool I was using but I only did this if the colour I was using matched the colour I was trying to weave in. Most of the time this wasn't possible and so I had to weave in after by going back and forth through the matching colours. I do not like my loose strands under a different colour in case they are visible and going through after with a needle 3 times means the strands would definitely never loosen. 

And ta-da

A completed blanket measuring 26 inches wide and 31 inches high

I am pleased with the finished blanket but I'm in no rush to work with chunky again as it hurts my wrist and arm a little to much. It maybe that I did the project with a 5mm hook which made the stitches a bit stiffer to work with but it will definitely keep Pennie warm. Thinking of a Christmas one next. 

Oh one more thing...can you tell what's different from the graph to the actual finished project:

I decided I wanted the writing more centred so recounted as I went along. I'll have to redo it one day and post it.

Happy Halloween xxx

Corner to Corner Blanket

A couple of weeks ago I decided to learn a new crochet stitch called corner to corner. I had seen a lot of lovely items made with this stitch so wanted to give it a try.

I started by looking through the internet for an easy lesson and came across one of the crochet crowd videos http://thecrochetcrowd.com/cornertocorner/ which is very easy to follow.

This is what I did as my first practise piece using the video tutorial. 

The idea of this stitch is to start in the corner of your project, so instead of working length ways you end up working horizontally. The practise piece I finished off as a rectangle but it can also be finished of as a square. To finish of as a square you decrease equally on both sides of the project but for a rectangle you only decrease one side whilst continuing to increase the other.

Anyway after doing my practise piece I decide to make a small pram blanket and just plan as I go along for colour changes...remember I said small!!!

This isn't even half way!

I started the pram blanket with just a change of colour when I got to start a new line. I soon got bored. I wanted to try and see if I could start another square within the square I was making and so came the multi-coloured square you see here. It was surprisingly easier then I thought it would be; just make sure to start the square on a line with an odd number of stitches so that when the first set of stitches go in to make the corner you have an equal amount of stitches on either side. I was really amused and confused at one point because I expected the white to get smaller as my multi-coloured square got bigger. Of cause it didn't because for each increase on the multi-coloured square I was increasing the white...duh. 

As you can see though I wasn't satisfied at just doing one multi coloured square. I had to try and add another square but this time having the side facing the original starting corner. At this point I was still completely clueless about just how big this blanket was about to get, although I knew it was no longer going to be pram sized.

It's huge!!!

Reality soon set in about how big the blanket was getting and my eldest daughter had now laid claim to it, I still wasn't satisfied with the lack of changes in colours so decided I was going to make the entire thing look symmetrical, with both halves having the multi-coloured square and also one in the centre of the purple square. I wanted to put the purple lines seen at the starting corner at each of the other 3 corners but  by the time it came to possibly adding them in my brain had decided it no longer liked maths and I couldn't figure out if I had correctly counted the stitches and couldn't be bothered to frog everything if I was wrong, so I left that idea and decided I will just make the last corner match. Also I was starting to panic that I was running out of wool and had no clue where I got the purple from...oops. I had plenty of white and the multi-coloured wool I knew was sold by paintbox so that was ok but the purple I thought I brought from the £ shop wasn't.

2 different shades

Luckily I remembered I had a tub full of different shades of purple buried under an avalanche of other things waiting to be used for crafting one day and there inside were 3 balls of the exact colour I needed. I only needed the one and was extremely happy because now I didn't need to buy any more.

I finished!!!

After about 2 weeks I finished the blanket which measured 43 inch squared and my eldest loved it, she hasn't allowed me to take it off her bed since she got it at the weekend; so well worth doing. I love how the pattern of corner to corner works with the stitches, it looks so different from what I normally do. I still regret that this blanket hasn't got more colour changes though and I wish I had outlined the multi coloured squares to make them stand out more but as a first blanket using this stitch I don't think I did to badly.

I have already started planning my next corner to corner blanket and by planning I mean actually drawing it out on a graph and counting out how many stitches it will be before it comes to actually making it so no more surprises on how big it will get. 

Next time I'm also going to be more careful not to knot up my colours...well I say that but I just started a graphgan yesterday and so far haven't kept to my promise of keeping my colours a little neater. Maybe next time.

If you like crocheting and haven't done a corner to corner give it a try it is very easy and if you don't plan it can be quite fun to see what you end up with xxxx