A Teeny Tiny Crochet Break

teeny tiny

We have a baby! 

She came five weeks early but is doing really well. 

So I am going to have a break from crocheting for a little while, because as you know crocheting takes two hands and this little poppet is definitely going to be taking up at least one of mine for the foreseeable future.

hands full

A Special Craft Fair

Two weeks to go until my next Craft Fair, and this one is particularly dear to me because it is the ever-so-local, ever-so-lovely Articulate Fair.

This is my fave fair of the year because their is such a lovely vibe.

Customers get wrapped up warm to come and browse the stalls for beautiful high quality arts and crafts Christmas gifts. Residents of Oldfield Park or Moorfields are bound to bump into a few friendly faces as lots of the beautiful things for sale are made and sold by local people from throughout the neighbourhood.

Come along...

For more info visit The Bath Chronicle's website or UKCraftfairs.com

On a personal note, this fair is special to me because it is put on by my community craft club that I absolutely love being a part of throughout the year. Plus, I have just moved house to just around the corner, making me more of a local member than ever before, and Articulate thrives from its wonderful community feel as like-minded crafters come together from the same neighbourhood. But it is also important to me because this time last year I did the Articulate craft fair, and it was the first time I had ever attempted to sell my own hand-made goods, and it was so exciting that from that day forth The Flower Mill was born!

Hope to see you there!

Crocheted Broccoli

My very close friend recently bought a toy broccoli from Ikea.

This soon turned into a bit of a thing when she began to take pictures of 'Brocolli''s visits to tourist destinations and uploading them onto Facebook.

So for her 30th Birthday I decided to attempt something I had never attempted before - crocheting a vegetable!

I made her a miniature version of her beloved a vegy-pal. 

Here he is. 

An ever so slightly bonkers birthday prezzy for my ever so slightly bonkers (but then who isn't?!) and truly lovely friend...

I would give you a free pattern, just in case you have the urge to crochet some greens, but I'm afraid I completely made it up as I went along.

I worked the stalk in the round (light green) and the cloud-like part (dark green) was an amalgamation of pop-corn stitch and trebble crochet decreasing into the stalk at the end. I sewed on some little beads for eyes and stitched a couple of simple stitches of black cotton to make the mouth and tada!

One cute little broccoli, crocheted with love! 

New business cards

When you are out and about selling your goods it is essential that you have some publicity with you at all times to hand out your contact details at the flick of a wrist. This is how I get most of my stalls at new fairs - people like what they see, they ask for my card, then they email me about their own school fairs or craft events inviting me to get involved. So when it comes to business cards its worth paying a little money to get them just the way you like them.

I have recently updated my business cards. After many hours of thought and design, this is the new and improved end product.

I'm especially pleased that these cards have a business email address on them! This is my new email account especially for The Flower Mill, which I hope you'll agree gives an extra professional feel. I can't wait to start giving them out at craft fairs across the South West.

Specifications

• Shop: Zazzle
• Size: Business, 3.5" x 2.0",
• Quantity: 100 pack 
• Price: £17.95
• Paper Type: White, 99.20lb white card stock for added quality/strength.
• Design: Grunge floral custom. Dark blue.

A sunshiney crochet picnic

My friend Lucy is a whiz with a camera and one sunshiney day she invited me along to a crochet picnic in Parade Gardens. Situated in our beautiful home town, Bath, we sneaked in through a side gate with an oversized key (that are entrusted to a few privileged local residents) and had the most beautiful day watching the world go by, by the weir. Here are the pics that prove it...

Joined by these feathery fellas

Curioser and curioser

Craft on the grass

Crocheting some hair slides for sale via The Flower Mill

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...

Sunbathers by the bandstand

Me... in my element

Crocheting the day away

Some of my brooches for sale via The Flower Mill

Me and my hooks!

The perfect refreshing snack (after all I am pregnant and it is hot!)

My first ever crocheted project, a kindle cover that I made last summer

All of these pics are courtesy of Bath-based photographer Lucy, of Dot &Lucy Photography.

Out of this world

I've wanted to crochet some naughty little monsters to put on my stall for quite a while.

My husband helped me to design these little fellas. He loves the mathamatical side of my crocheting hobby.

It is kind of an amigurumi egg and a crocheted flower crocheted together as one shape. I crocheted a straight forward circle and dot for an eye on each monster.

Here are the end results...

Photographed by Lucy & Dot Photography

Crocheted Roses

Learning something new

Today I taught myself how to crochet a rose. I wanted to make some to add as a detail on my baby headbands.

The Pattern

I looked at a lot of different free rose patterns on Crochet Pattern Central  and then I adapted the patterns to suit my needs. I like thinks to look neat and delicate, but I need them to be fairly quick to crochet so that I can sell my crocheted accessories for a reasonable price that is affordable to the customer without having taken me houra of unpaid labour. The pattern I settled with is a variation on this one.