Crochet - Baby Blanket

A couple i work with are expecting their first child in August.  They know they are expecting a boy, which made choosing colours easier.  

I wanted to do a little blanket, but wanted it to be a bit more interesting than just a normal granny square blanket. 

So, I made one big granny sqaure for the centre and surrounded it with little ones each with a different pattern - no two patterned squares on this blanket are the same. 

I then found a lovely little pattern for an owl applique and made two of these for the middle.  

Here's hoping they like it!

The cute little owl pattern can be found here

Crochet Minecraft creeper iPhone sock

So, hubby has a new mobile for work, but wanted something to keep it from getting scratched in his pocket.

He is a fan of Minecraft so I thought I would try to make a creeper style cover.

This started with a trip to buy some yarn.  I wanted something that wasn't just one shade of green to try to emulate the pixelated effect - this was much harder than anticipated, so I settled for the best I could find.

I couldn't see that there was a pattern for this, so made it up as I went.

The cover is made as one rectangle of single crochet.  Mine was 27 stitches across and i just kept going until it was tall enough.

One it was done, I used black yarn to sew around the stitches to form the creeper face.

All that was left then, was for the cover to be sewn up et voila:

Not bad for an afternoon's work and Hubby was pretty pleased with the end result.

Crochet - American Flag blanket

One of my best friends moved into her own place in November.  I wanted to make her something to mark the occasion...but what?

I decided a blanket would be a good idea as she mentioned her flat wasn't always the warmest.  She loves all things American so I thought I would try to make it look like the flag.

I had a look online for some inspiration and decided to make it in squares.  With a little help from my Husband we worked out the right dimensions and it all seemed to work pretty well.  It did mean we were one star short, but you can't have everything!

This is the completed blanket:

It is made up of 234 granny squares.  Each square measures about 10cm x 10cm making the blanket approximately 180 x 130cm. In total it has 98 red squares, 87 white squares and 49 blue and white squares.

It took just under 2 months to complete.  I did it line by line, sewing as I went.  I think sewing the whole thing at the end would have been pretty horrendous, but doing it line by line was ok and it meant you could really see how much progress you had made.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the end result and my friend loved it!

Cooking - Jaffa Cakes!

So my Husband LOVES jaffa cakes.  I had never even considered that it might be possible to make them. 

This is the link to the recipe, courtesy of Marcus Wareing: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/jaffa-cakes-recipe

He is obviously a very accomplished chef and his jaffas look really pretty.  Mine... not so much. 

I used a cupcake pan to bake the 'cakes'.  The recipe calls for a mini muffin tin, but I think it would have been difficult getting them out of something deeper. 

It was a bit difficult to tell when they were done, as you don't need them to colour so when we took them out they looked really pale. 

Once the cakes have cooled the recipe calls for the cakes to be sliced in half, a little of the middle scooped out and filled with a teaspoon of marmalade.  This was way harder than it sounds.  I managed to break the first cake just trying to slice it.  I enlisted my Husband to cut the rest open as he is more patient than I am, and patience was definitely the key as they rest were halved relatively neatly. 

Scooping wasn't an option. Instead we just put a bit of marmalade on one half and sandwiched them together.  We substituted the marmalade too and used a shred-less variety. 

The last step was a little easier.  Melting chocolate and coating them.  Messy though.

This is what my finished Jaffas looked like:

They might not look as good as the picture on the original recipe, but they tasted amazing!  We will definitely be making them again, maybe after I have invested in a mini muffin tin.

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. 

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 :

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!