Country Garden Crochet Bicycle

In line with the current trend for cycling what better way to celebrate than to our craft than upcycling a bicycle.

I had so much fun creating this quintessential english country rose garden wrapped around one of the bicycles that were kindly donated by our local recycling centre in Burniston.

A bed of 20 roses in shades of red, pink, peach and lemon made the cover for the seat. It wouldn’t be a rose garden without a cute little bumble bee, this little honey maker was donated by Mrs G, a very talented knitting friend.

Continuing the rose theme with 2 giant blooms displayed on the rear wheel.

With his cute pink button cheeks a snail this sweet just has to be forgiven for having a little nibble on the vegetation.

Nestling on the front wheel is a silky silver spiders web, home to two (not so scary) spiders, but wait a minute there’s only one!

There he is, he’s obviously just been for a spin, pardon the pun.

He has just been exploring the rose vine that’s creeping around the cross-bar.

The Country Rose Garden bicycle featured in the 2015 yarn bombing at the surgery along with another themed on the seaside. They certainly gained a lot of interest.

It took me approximately two weeks of crocheting to cover each bike and make the adornments

Charity Yarn Bombing 2015 – Part 2

Here is the second part of the yarn bombing.

In addition to the five themes we had these gorgeous blankets that were donated by 2 lovely Mama’s. This one is called The Lily Pond and was very generously sent from Mama H, my lovely mother in law. There is so much work in creating a piece like this I don’t know how she could part with it, we offer our heartfelt thanks.

Colourful crochet hexagons make up the second blanket, these were made by my lovely Mum. The hexagons were made from a random batch of yarn and there was an odd number of each colour, this made it quite a task to get the layout right. We had it laid out on the floor so many times before we found a pattern where the colours balanced. I actually joined them all together and edged it and I think it worked out ok in the end.

This rose vine was very sought after on the day which was a huge compliment to the creater who fashioned this pretty floral garland out of donated oddments. Isn’t it amazing what can be made from scraps of yarn when you pass them on to a talented knitter?

Jungle Capers

Cheeky monkeys swinging amongst the vines were a feature in the jungle, these twin primates each sported a little flower, one blue and one pink. Don’t know how they managed to keep them in with all that swinging around!

“And how clever am I? Look one hand!” His lovely stripes must give him super gripping power.

Just in case you are wondering why they all have tickets pinned onto them, we used raffle tickets as an identifier. To make their bid our visitors filled in a form using the number and indicating how much they wanted to offer for the item before slipping it into a sealed box.

Slithering below were the snakes in there glorious stripiness.

This little critter was soooooooo long.

A host of other jungle animals gathered together on the steps just taking in all the adoration bestowed upon them

Under the Sea

If you saw last years event you may recognise the sea blanket but this year we focused on under the sea adding some more creatures and a trio of lovely mermaids. There were three honestly but one of our helpers popped into the pub over the road with a collection bucket and a local fisherman made such a good case for why she should allow him to make a generous offer (too good to refuse) and take her straight away, we were left with two. Their sister was already on her way out to sea on the fishermans trawler!

Sorry about the poor photography of the bicycle, I will try and get some better images for another post but for now I hope you can make out the little fishing boat with it’s net cast into the woolly sea on the front wheel.

And the fish and chip supper residing on the seat.

Round by the farm was also a basket of knitted fruits.

And a wheelbarrow just back from the yarn allotment.

Our event was suported by the local library and their knitting group sent us a several baby and toddler knitwear items. Also the sister of one of our dispensers is a prolific knitter, she sent us some gorgeous jackets and cardigans, I think we must have received one a week! Thank you.

We strung up a washing line and pegged out these hand knitted garments.

Last but not least at the bottom of the drive we put a rose tree and ………………

………….. a country garden crochet bicycle.

This shot was taken outside our house before it was transported to the surgery where it stood against the tree to attract passers by.

The event was a lot of work but so worthwhile on many different levels, it brought together patients, staff and friends of the surgery at our crafty Saturday morning gatherings. So many patients who couldn’t attend joined in by dropping into the surgery with yarn for us or with items they had made for one of the themes.  We were also very generously supported by the blogging community so thank you to all of you too.

 

Charity Yarn Bombing 2015 – Part 1

 

For those who followed the project last year you will know we are a small GP surgery on the beautiful coast of North Yorkshire. We have a group of patients and friends of the surgery who love crafting with yarn, following the sucess of the yarn bombing last year we ran the event for 2015 following a similar format for but with some new themes.

Dinosaur Park

I had my doubts about including dinosaurs anticipating it would be limiting in terms of patterns, couldn’t have been more wrong as you can see.

We had quite a few knitted prehistoric deliveries both large and small.

Lots of dino’s for our park in a variety of sizes from the miniature 4-6 inch creations above that patients brought in. To the rather large Stan the Stegosaurus who you may have seen in a previous post where I shared the working progress of creating this colouful prehistoric creaature.

And Monty the Diplodocus.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

This was one of my favourite pieces, you can see from the size of the raffle ticket just how tiny these little teddies are, they sat on their little picnic blanket contemplating their miniature sandwiches and cakes throughout the weekend. As I am sure you can imagine they were one of the first items to receive a bid.

There was an array of little woolly bears and teddy toys gathered in the picnic corner to share in the knitted and crochet cakes, biscuits and sanwiches including Mrs Baker Bear sat on the chair with piping bag in hand to finish off the last bun.

Rollo the african flower bear settled down amongst the log pile for a snooze after devouring his fill of the picnic.

To sit alongside the picnicing bears we had a stand (ok and yarn bomed step ladder) laden with tea cosies.

These were a very popular contribution to the event, it must be in celebration of the great british brew!

Down on the Farm

One of our group particularly requested we include a Farm theme this year, she had a new book by Sarah Keen that she was dying to try and we were so pleased with results, you can almost hear those little piggies snorting.

Our Parctice Nurse managed to aquire a hay bale for us to display our farmyard creatures, I was thrilled but my lovely hubby was less so as I used his car to collect it! Four weeks on and he has just about got the last of the straw removed from his car boot.

A patient kindly donated this gorgeous african flower horse, I believe it is from the Heidi Bears pattern but sadly the donator remains anonymous so I cannot be sure.

We also had a gathering of owls nestling in the bushes casting their wise eyes over the weekend proceedings.

And in the hedgerow below gathered a collection of bunnies and other creatures.

And birds simply sat on the fence watching the world go by.

 

I don’t want to bore you so will call this post part 1, I will continue working on compiling the other half of the images to post early next week. I am working tomorrow as we are open for our first Flu clinic, it is always a bit crazy at this time of the year when everyone wants to get their vaccination done early to protect against catching a flu bug!

 

 

Beautiful Fern Leaves from Tajana

During our preparations for this years yarnbombing we would get together in the waiting room at the surgery every Saturday morning to share the latest makes and additions to our event. Everyone was overjoyed by these gorgeously colourful fern leaves kindly sent by Tajana from Tatie’s World.

Such lovely vibrant colours and different sizes stiffened and ready for displays. True to a delicate fern shape these are the larger size, I love the turquoise blue, it is so striking, Such delicate work so neatly executed.

Thank you Tajana, you are so very kind and most generous to send these beautiful leaves.

If you haven’t seen any of Tajana’s work I recommend a visit to her blog on the above link. Photos of the yarn bombing event will follow soon.

Charity Yarn Bombing 2015

It’s coming round again, I can’t believe it is June already. Where does time go?

This years Charity Yarn Bombing at the surgery will be on 29 and 30 August 2015

Last year patients, friends and family and crafters from around the globe helped us create a woolly fantasy garden in the grounds of the small GP surgery where I work raising over £1000.00, the proceeds were shared between our local hospice and the hospital.

We have commenced our regular Saturday meetings to plan and share our ideas and creations for this years woolly display. We wanted to challenge ourselves so the themes are different as listed below, although we thought it was appropriate to keep a seaside theme again as we are on the coast.

• Dinosaur park
• Teddy Bears Picnic
• Down on the Farm
• Jungle Capers
• Beside the Seaside

Read last years post here and see the three posts showing what was acheived for last years event in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

If you would like to join in everyone is welcome, any contributions will be most gratefully received and put to great use. Just leave a comment or drop me an email if you would like any further information. Alternatively please stay in touch and we will share our progress with you in the coming weeks.

You may have already guessed that Stan the Stegosaurus and the crochet cave kids Magnar and Sadiki are for the Dinosaur Park and I look forward to sharing further makes with you all.

 

Crochet Cave Folk

May I introduce you to Master and Miss the crochet Cave Kids, named Magnar and Sadiki respectively. I wanted some company for Stan the Stegosaurus and found the pattern for these and was instantly inspired to make them.

Magnar goes out each day armed with his club to capture food and drag it back to cave for  Sadiki to cook.

Sadiki’s a little vain and is always trying new hair styles, today is a simple ponytail with a polished bone clip.

If you want to make your own cave folk you can buy the pattern here.

Happy hooking.

 

 

Stegosaurus

Meet Stan the Stegosaurus. Yes this is unmistakeable as another pattern from Heidi Bears design catalogue.

The making up part of the Stegosaurus pattern is different from the Bluebird of Happinness, you make the outer edge of each hexagon as you put him together. It took me a while to appreciate quite how this would work, but neverthelesss I set to and made all the flowers. It was very satisfying sitting with all the lovely colours in a neat row like little soldiers whilst I worked down the line selecting each colour in turn to create the flower centres ready to create my historic creature.

It has to be said, the pattern is huge, I started to print it out and the pages just kept on coming off the printer, I started to wonder if I had asked the printer for several copies! Eventually it stopped and I browsed through the umpteen pages feeling more daunted by the page!

But don’t be put off, this story has a happy ending as you can see. Once I got started it was so easy to follow, it takes you step by step with great photo tutorials for every hexie you join. Starting with the tail………..

……………. then the hind legs……………

……………..the back, belly and fore legs…………

………………… finally the neck and head.

Then once the body is completed you make the spikes for along his back.

Once fully assembled Stan the steg took a little break on the stool before heading out for a forage in the garden.

If you fancy making a Stegosaurus yourself you can purchase the pattern from Heidi Bears

 

 

Woolly Beards

Yorkshire Beard Day 2015? Yes there really is such an event. My friend makes woolly beards and sells them at the TBBC Northern Beard Meet up at the Spa in Scarborough, this years event takes place on 21 March 2:00 to 7:30pm. Organised by The British Beard Club, it’s a family friendly event and it’s free, the funds raised from the sales go to The Prostate Cancer Charity UK.  An all round light hearted event that’s not only a good day out for the family but helps a good cause too. Last years beard stall………… ……and a bearded assistant. Here are some close ups of the crazy beards featured at last years event by this very skillful young lady. Gnome Fishing Beard Birds Nest Beard Very Long Beards Dr Who Inspired Scarf Beard.   There is even a doggie version My contribution looks rather normal next to Bluebeard and co, I think I will have to get a bit more creative with my next beard!

Crochet Leaf Garland on a Trellis

Who says you can’t have colourful foliage all year round? Crochet your own Leaf Garland and let it wind it’s way around a garden trellis.

The beauty is you can choose the colours you want to use, not sure if I have ever seen turquoise leaves in reality but I liked the colour combo so who cares about reality?

The trick is to twist the leaves as you place them on the trellis to give some dimension to them. They don’t look as real if you fix them to your trellis flat. I tried to take a photo from an angle to show this but am afraid it was quite difficult to get the shot right.

I have done this leafy garland before and the last time I stiffened the leaves with PVA glue but this time I tried it without the glue and it works just as well. There are 3 garlands altogether on this one so it’s nice and leafy.

Once you have made enough garlands for your trellis its good to wind them roughly into place before finally fixing them. This way you can make sure that you have enough and they are evenly spread across your display area.

Here is the whole thing to give you a better idea of how the full piece looks.

The 2 I made in the summer sold for £25.00 each so made a good contribution to our chatiry fund. This one has been made to order so will be going to take up residence in a new home soon.

Hilda the Hippo

I was going to make a pink rabbit but fell in love with the hippo so made her instead. Another make from Edwards Menagerie, this is a great book with simple animal patterns great for beginners too.

That is a great thing about these animals, the main body parts are he same for most of the animals, it’s the head, ears and tails that are the defining features. You can start with a certain animal in mind and then change your mind as many times as you like while making the body, arms and legs. I applaude the author, Kerry Lord, for this simple idea.

I have named her Hilda, for some reason I think it suits her. I have used some of the lovely cotton yarn that was kindly donated to our Yarnbombing from Best of Crochet and the good news is I think I will have enough of leftovers from the other colours to make another one but in my favouite………. stripes! The plan is to make a collection of these gorgeous creatures for this years project, I just need to come up with a unique way of displaying them.

Any ideas?