Easter Crochet

Although made last year I thought they were just right for posting just before Easter this year.

Afghan in Greens

I've been workng on this one for months.  It is made from oddments, some soft but some more corse.  It will make a warm lap blanket over the top of clothes.  Maybe for someone sitting watching TV or going out in a wheelchair?

Unfortunately the photo is a wee blurd.  I may take it again and re-post it.

This one has not turned out as good as I was expecting.  I think the colour coordination is not quite right, or the combinations for each patterned square is not balanced well.

Bag from 1980's Big Ben Wool

Cutsie Bags 3

I have progressed on to bags with shoulder straps now, and I really like this one.  I love the colour combinations and the button from my collection of old buttons.

This one below, was a bit of a mistake, as I did not do enough chains for the strap, but carried on anyway.  It can be put over the shoulder as a short bag.  So someone may buy it from our stall.

Cutsie Bags 2

This is another selection of my new

Cutsie Bags.

I like this one particularly because of the range of colours. I wanted to do one with Chakra colours like a rainbow.

This one uses a lilac colour which may not show up as well as I would like. I only just had enough wool to finish of the handles.

 All these bags are made either from oddments or other unwanted wools.

Cutsie Bags

I was recently involved in the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield. My Art & Craft department exhibited some artwork and crafted goods. We were able to sell the crafted items, which brought in some money for the department. While there I saw some lovely knitted and crocheted hand bags. It got me to thinkin' and I came away with some ideas. We had a couple of knitted hats that were made some time ago and had never sold, so I decided to UpCycle them into bags.

I crocheted one from scratch.  I made it in a round shape like a hat then put handles on it. 

I wondered what it would be like if instead of working from a round, I worked from a chain and worked around that.  The result was this one below.  I went on to crochet some more which will be in my next posting.

These I call 'Cutsie Bags'

Aqua Afghan

This is a continuous granny square. I used arran wool, which is a bit corse, but looks nice and will keep someone's knees warm. Just the right size for wheelchair travel, or as a lap blanket. This method of crochet of continously crochetting around the square if not as effective as my usual little squares stitched together. It is quicker to produce, but does not lay flat unless on the carpet, like in the above photo. It is my first one in this style and I am thinking about trying it again and aiming to reduce the rippled effect. It looks quite good here though and will be great as a warmer. It is awaiting a buyer in our Art & Craft department. Sorry if anyone reading this is interested as up to now we do not have online selling. If however, you are interested, you could leave me a comment.

Crochet Blanket 4

The buyer of my brown afghan has reported that they are enjoying it. She was going to give it as a gift, but has decided to keep it. Her husband does not understand. I can just see her in front of the TV on a cold winter's evening. Wrapped up nice and snug. I bet he even asks to join her! Maybe she'll be back for another.

Crocheted Blanket 4 - Afghan in Browns

This Afghan has been made from oddments of knitting yarns in varieties of brown. 100 squares and approximately 100 hours. I like the contrast of shades. It is big enough to use as a lap blanket or a small throw on the back of a settee.


Wow. This blanket has just sold for our Art & Craft Stall. The buyer will be paying £12.00 at the end of the week. I know if you go by the hours worked it is a grose underpayment, but you can't charge high prices; people won't buy. I'm glad it's going to someone who appreciates how long it took and the work that went into it.

Crocheted Blanket 3 - Alias: Pansy Afghan

The finished article, and very nice too, if I do say so myself. It's bold, it's colourful and I made it. Brag brag brag!!!

Approximately 100 hours of hand crochet work over 4 weeks in my own, so called 'spare time', 81 crocheted squares and measures roughly 115cm (45") square.



And here it is; draped over the sofa.

I like this Afghan so much I don't want to part with it! I have a friend who likes pansies and I wonder whether she might like it as a gift. Although her colour scheme is more neutral and light. So I might have a go at making another one with the pansy theme, but in her colours: Neutral with a splash of Red maybe?

Anyway, I think I will be asking more money for our stall on this one compared to the others. We'll see.

Can you see the pansy effect?

Crocheted Blanket 3 - Alias: Pansy Afghan

I have discovered that the blankets I am crocheting are known as Afghan's. Not sure, but think this refers to knee or lap blankets, or small throws. Anyone with more knowledge on this; please comment.


Two weeks down the line and I have nearly finished crocheting all the squares for my Pansy Afghan. As I said before, I decided to do different coloured squares, because the red pansies were looking too Christmassie. Here are some pictures of the colours I am using.





I have crocheted 17 squares in each colour. I will have 4 squares left over, of which I intend to make a Tea Cosy with some plain black or maybe striped in all the colours on the reverse side. I will post the results.

Crocheted Blanket 3

With my next blanket I want to give the impression of Pansies. The main colours I have chosen are Black for the background and the black of the Pansy. Yellow for the central area; Red for the coloured part and green to represent leaves. These have all come from the oddments bins.

First I designed my pattern using AutoShapes in Word 2003. Once I had copied, pasted, rotated and flipped my shapes to achieve the effect of a crocheted square, I used another AutoShape as a border & background and grouped them together. I was then ready to play about with the colouring of the shapes to produce the impression of a pansy.

Although it is not a clear image of a Pansy, if you don't look too closely it is kinda like one.

I enjoyed routing about in the wool bins, even tidying up some of the unravelled balls.

I made one complete square so I could test my pattern. Then I decided to make all the yellow centres, and instead of cutting the thread, I kept them together. This saved time in constantly picking up the scissors and meant I did not loose any.



They made a pleasant daisy like chain, which has given me some ideas for future projects.

I am still at the stage of making the centres and will keep you posted.

Crocheted Blanket 2

Here's my 2nd crocheted blanket.


Blues and lilacs were chosen for this peice of work. It took me longer, as I started from scratch. It is also bigger and I did not have as much spare time to devote to it. Once again it was bought by one of our ladies before reaching the stall. I made the mistake of taking it into the art department one day to do some work with the group and it was spotted! After which I was nagged into submission to complete quickly.

Crocheted Blanket 1

Here is my 1st crocheted blanket, made from oddments of wool, crocheted together with some bought-in wool to give it continuity. This blanket was started by my predecessor so the colour scheme and tension were already decided. My task was to continue in the same style. Some of the pieces were more round than square so I had to give them corners. I also needed to choose more wool to complement what I had. I enjoyed making this and have already started my next one.

My blanket sold before going to our stall, as one of the ladies in our Art & Craft group bought it as a present for a friend.

Crocheted Bag

I asked for some wool that had been difficult to make into anything. I was given this lovely Aqua coloured Paton's Big Ben Knitting wool. I think it is a left over from the 1980's; at least that's all I was getting from searching the net. I crocheted it into this handy drawstring bag and added a few flower sequins, which are just barley visible in the flesh. I used a size 7mm crochet hook and made the pattern up as I went along. I am in the process of knitting a pink one with some chunky wool I bought from The Bridge End Centre last year. With the second one I am trying to write down the pattern. I might post it at a later date. It only took me one day to make up, though it was Bank Holiday Monday and I was up at 7am. I managed to nearly complete the pink one the same day, but ran out of steam.