Thursday 8 November 2012

Crochet - Mobile phone case

My sister uses a sock to protect her phone when in her handbag.  I don't mean a funky little case affectionately called a sock.  Oh no, she uses an actual sock.

After a fair bit of mocking, I decided it was time to make her a proper case.  She provided the button and chose the colour and in an afternoon, I had whipped up a cute little case:

This is it all buttoned up:


And open:


This was made with a chain of 30 and then rows of half treble (uk)/ half double (us) until I reached the right height.

Slip stitch to sew it all up and then I used treble (uk)/ double (us)  to make the flap.

A quick chain with dc to hold the button and hey presto, shiny new mobile phone case. 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Crochet - UK vs US terms

So, I am based in the UK, but I learnt to crochet from my mum without knowing the names of the stitches I was doing.

Having picked it up again recently, a lot of my first projects were with the help of youtube tutorials - fabulous for beginners by the way and well worth checking out if you get stuck on a stitch or pattern.

Well, this in itself caused an issue, as I'm sure other crocheters out there have discovered.  Online access to patterns is fantastic, but some will be using UK terms and others US.

I came across this handy little table to convert to what you know, and thought it was worth sharing :


Monday 5 November 2012

Cooking - Tartine alla pizzaiola

This is a fabulous little starter from 'The Silver Spoon', which is a fabulous Italian recipe book which I received from an awesome Redditor in the Arbitary day exchange earlier in the year. 

It is simple but effective, like so many great Italian dishes.  I have made this several times, because it is tasty, always received well and can be mostly made ahead leaving more time with guests and more time to concentrate on creating tasty mains and desserts. 

This is just tomatoes, spring onion and olives chopped  and put in a bowl with some parsley, salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. This can sit for a while and is all the upfront prep required!

When you are ready for your starters, toast some white bread and use a cookie cutter to cut a round - you could use some sliced ciabatta or any other bread that takes your fancy. 

butter the bread lightly, top with the tomato, olive mix and top that with a slice of mozzarella.  Sprinkle the whole thing with a little oregano and hey presto - tasty tasty.  

I can even get my Husband to eat and enjoy this and he hates olives and fresh tomatoes, so it's got to be worth a try!







Sunday 4 November 2012

Crochet - Mini Christmas Stocking tree decoration

I have recently rekindled my interest in crochet and wanted to share some of my creations.  That is where the blog comes in.  But why limit it to just crochet?  I love all things crafty and cooking related so why not combine them all in one little blog.

My most recent crochet project was a very little one.  Whilst away last week, my sister in law mentioned she is building up a small collection of decorations for her Christmas tree.  She wants each decoration to mean something rather than bulk buying 30 of the same bauble, which is a lovely idea and a great way to end up with a unique Christmas tree.

My contribution to this is a Christmas stocking ornament.  Super quick and easy to make, but effective.

This is the finished item:



This is really easy to make.  It is made as one red piece and then sewn together.

Row 1 is a chain of 30
Row 2 is a row of double crochet (single crochet in US terms) into the chain
Rows 3-5 are rows of dc (sc US)

Tie that off, then start Row 5 on the 6th stitch in and dc 18 finishing on the 6th stitch from the other end.
I did another 6-8 rows of this, then folded the piece in half and used slip stitches to sew it together, but you could sew it up with a needle instead. Turning inside out at this point creates the rounded toe effect all on it's own!

I then added the white and did 3 rounds of dc on the top - I did this with the stocking inside out, so the nice side shows when folded down.

A quick chain with one more row of dc stitches makes the little loop, which is then sewn on and ready to hag on the tree... but not until December!