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.

Crochet Cat Inspiration

We have been donated oodles of yarn for the yarn bombing this year so a huge thanks to all our patients for their support. From the stashes that have been brought in these two felines have been created.
The inspiration came from a pattern bought on Etsy, I loved the mixture of knitting and crochet on the original pattern but sadly my execution was less satisfactory so I ended up adapting the knitted parts for crochet.

The pink pussy cat was first off the hook and was such a pleasure I just couldn’t resist making another.

Unfortunately I was not able to find the pattern again as Etsy is displaying ‘pattern not available’ but the link is below just in case. It is possible that our internet that is playing up this evening and you may be able to access the pattern if you want to make your own kitties at some point.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/59420476/crazy-cat-crochet-knitting-pattern

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.

 

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?

 

 

Charity Yarn Bombing – Part 3

This is the final instalment.

This was another of my favourites, I was so happy that I actually won the bid for it so we can keep it up at the surgery.

The wooden tree was made by a friend using a photo frame as inspiration. It stands 5ft tall made from MDF and stained with wood stain. I am currently making more leaves so it will look fuller, then the plan is to decorate it with snowflakes for Christmas.

Not sure if you can make this out but it is a real nest that we were given, it had been abandoned so no little birdies were dislodged from their home we promise. Debs made a little crochet bird to sit in the nest which was given a new home in our floal garland adorned tree.

 These were balls from a childs ball pool that we covered with yarn to hang like colourful woolly fruits.

 A pair of gnomes donated by Dean’s Garden Centre were yarn bombed and graced the front garden with their crochet flowers.

Then we had our safari theme, ok I know a koala does not really fit this theme but he is so cute we had to include him.

The colourful purple snake slithering along the branch. A little boy won the bid for him and when he collected his prize we were trying to help him choose a name. We were all suggesting names that would rhyme with snake like Syd, Sammy and Cyril, good names we thought. But no, “Bob” said the little chap, tied Bob around his waist and off he went. One very happy little man and a snake called BOB!

This colourful parrot was a great hit with all our visitors but sadly he was not available for bids, although his maker did offer for eggs to be laid and nurtured for baby parrots.

Cheeky monkey swinging on a crochet vine, his mate was sitting behind the parrot awaiting his turn on the vine swing.

Below all the activity on high there was an animal picnic going on.

Bunting and birds were hung and strung all around the building giving life to all the themes.

I have to finish by saying a final thank you to all of you who helped us achieve a display that in the end was more than we could have hoped. Both the Hospice and the Hospital are extremely grateful for the funds that we have all raised. And the patients too have continued to show their appreciation.

Thank you.

So here ends our Charity Yarn Bombing story………………….until next year!

Charity Yarn Bombing – Part 2

The seaside scene was really spectacular but I found it was the hardest to photograph because of the size. To give it some perspective the stretch of railing that it s dressing is 4 metres long. To get the whole thing into view it lacked detail so I will have to ask you to use your imagination a bit. I really regret not taking more close-up shots.

I had to wear a wrist support for a week after making two thirds of the sea blanket and was extremely grateful to Debs for taking over and finishing it. She made the wonderful pennant and ball bunting and the magical giant jellyfish too.

Sorry that the light doesn’t show up on the lighthouse but it really does work, honestly, the top lifts off and you just have to press down on the bulb and hey presto, it lights up! With a bulb top and bottom it gave off a good amount of light and drew lots of comments.

There was a family of whales swimming above the tiny fishes amongst the seaweed on the far side. In the centre were more fish,  jellyfish and a knitted submarine. The octopuses occupied the near side of our woolly sea blanket. As you can see some of the creatures were stitched into place and others were 3d and hung from the top giving the whole scene a life-like appearance.

At the back of the surgery the pond scene worked so well despite a last minute hitch about getting the cover made! We were very grateful to the local builders who we managed to rope into doing it for us just a week before the event.

We had little creatures nestling in the undergrowth.

And a tea cosy disguised as a fishing gnome.

Just around the corner from the pond was the little grotto.

Imogen finally got her wings thanks to Rosemary and she sat primly on her swing overlooking the scene below that was full of taodstools, mushrooms and gnomes.

At the front of the pond scene was this amazing tree that was full of little birds. It has found a new home as a window prop in a local shop in town.

The pond was home to a little family of ducks that swam amongst the groups of water lillies sent by my lovely Mama H.

And caterpillar was very good and did not nibble into our plants.

There will be one last post to show you that last of the photos including our safari corner with snakes, monkeys and friends.

Charity Yarn Bombing – Part 1

At last, some photos of the event to share with you. I have to start with a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your support and contributions, all of which were put to very good use and helped to make our little event a huge success. The displays were manned over the August bank holiday weekend when we had the majority of our visitors. All the items were given a number and visitors could place a bid to buy whatever took their fancy in a sealed box.

A couple of weeks before the opening we started to stir local folk and patients curiosity when the tree on the roadside was wrapped in a clourful blanket. Patient’s would come into reception and ask “is the tree poorly’? There is a bus stop opposite and we would giggle as we watched people waiting for a bus chatter and point inquisitively.

I will break the photos down into a few posts so they are not too long starting with the floral delights and the bunting. We had lots of floral garlands and bunting around the grounds and building, it added a wonderful festive air to the whole event.

We used many of the flowers we were sent to create these flower panels to hang from the hand rail at the front of the surgery.

A friend made the gorgeous pink potted flower, if fact she made 5 of them and another friend knitted little butterflies and bees to decorate them. They were dotted around the  garden and I have to say they looked amazing.

The Happy Flowers from the pattern on Attic 24 worked their colourful charm in flower troughs with the leafy trellis on the walls at either side with bees and ladybirds nestling in the leaves.

Next I will show you the seaside scene so come back soon!