Picking Up Stitches — Knitting, crochet, cross stitch and more - the wonderful world of working with wool

Easter Bunnies

February 3, 2023 by Annie Leave a Comment

Easter Bunnies – what’s not to love! This year I decided that they definitely deserved an Easter garland all of their own. After all, Easter is only a hop and skip away!

I discovered that I had lots of pastel colours in my yarn stash. So I soon hooked a series of pretty little Easter bunnies with cute white bobtails. (Also, I’ve just taken delivery of a lovely colour pack of Stylecraft DK yarn in beautiful spring colours from Lincoln Wool Pack, so I feel a few more of these Easter Bunnies will be appearing around my house soon!)

The rabbits are each worked in one piece, apart from the tail, starting with the body, followed by the head and finishing with the ears. The little tails are sewn on at the end.

Although the little rabbits would look perfectly fine and dandy on their own, I thought little flowers would make the garland perfect.

I had so many flowers to choose from – remember my Springtime wreath (this is one of the crochet projects I teach, by the way)? Would any of these fit the bill?

Or maybe one of these, that I made years ago to grace the picture at the top of my website?

In the end, I came up with new one! Each flower is worked in two colours – so quick to make.

I chose to have a rabbit each end and a flower in between each pair.

Eastern bunnies and flowers laid out in order

Then they were all crocheted together with a little loop at each end of the string – a perfect garland of Easter Bunnies ready to hang up.

And once I’d finished the Easter bunnies, I realised that they’d go perfectly with a string of bunting I made before. My carrots and peas bunting! Do you remember that?

The pattern for that one is here.

Or you can read about the background to this bunting here

Don’t forget that if you live in Thanet, I teach classes for beginners, and the Easter Bunnies will be added to my list of crochet projects to choose from (I also teach at Broadstairs Adult Education College – see Kent Adult Education site for details about current classes). The pattern will be available on Ravelry soon, so keep an eye out there! I’ll hop along now!!!

December is here!

December 1, 2022 by Annie Leave a Comment

December Crochet Xmas tree garland with crochet hook

December rolls around again! Time for some new crocheted decorations, methinks!!!

Of course, the old favourites are back – Santa, the reindeer, the little Xmas dogs and cats. But this year I’ve added a few more – and they were a great success at the craft fair in Broadstairs that I took part in last week, so I hope you’ll like them too.

For this December, the decorations include a couple of new garlands, and a neon-bright version of the fairy lights, plus more cards too!

Crocheted Christmas Garlands

Here is the Christmas Tree Garland – sweet little trees topped with buttons!

December Xmas tree garland with 5 button-topped crocheted trees on a black string

And our good old reindeer is making his debut on the Reindeer Garland – three reindeer and two cute little red baubles that reminded me of Rudolph’s red nose!

crocheted garland featuring reindeer and red baubles

Here’s the neon-bright fairy lights with the tree garland – they definitely get themselves noticed!

neon-bright crocheted fairy-light garland with Christmas tree crocheted garland

Crocheted Christmas Decorations

The decorations for our December tree haven’t been forgotten either!

The mice are back again, but this time, they have joined the church choir and have sweet little white ruffs!

Little crocheted mice with choirboy ruff collars.

I’ve added a traditional poinsettia too – well, poinsettias scream Christmas, don’t they?!

crocheted Christmas poinsettia decoration

New cards for December

There are a few more Christmas card designs to choose from this December too! All feature detachable decorations.

As well as the traditional holly and mistletoe, there are also little Christmas trees, which match the garland.

Xmas cards with crocheted tree decorations attached.

And no Christmas is complete without the Xmas wreath and some brightly wrapped parcels, so they’ve made an appearance too! Which do you like best?

Xmas cards with detachable crocheted wreath and present decorations

I’m going to put the pattern up for the little mice soon, so keep a look out on my instagram for news!

New crochet courses coming…

And in other exciting news – From 2023, I’m going to be teaching some crochet courses at the Broadstairs Adult Education College here in Thanet (that’s the region of the county of Kent, where I live). If you’re in the area, please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to learn and if possible I’ll add in a course. And if you’d prefer a solo lesson and you live in the Thanet area check out details of lessons here. I also offer Zoom lessons if you live further away!

Crocheted plantpots

May 20, 2022 by Annie Leave a Comment

Crocheted plantpots at the ready!

‘Crocheted plantpots?’ I hear you asking. ‘Is that what you’ve been busy with recently? I realise that I’ve not posted here for some time now, but I have indeed been VERY busy. When not teaching in person and on Zoom I’ve been working on my new allotment… (Don’t forget, if you’d like a crochet or knitting lesson, see here, face-to-face in Thanet, and on Zoom anywhere).

The tiny, overgrown, weed-infested plot became mine a few months ago. I’d waited a year for one to become free. Here’s how the plot looked when I took it over. Quite a daunting prospect!

So to work!

Every spare moment recently I’ve been digging, weeding, raking, more weeding! I needed lots of advice from allotment neighbours and websites, like this one – the National Allotment Society.

It’s been backbreaking work, but at least on rainy days, I found time to pick up my crochet hook. The allotment was still on my mind, so I came up with these sweet, crocheted plantpots to sit on top of my bamboo canes. Here’s one with a (real) little marigold plant I grew at home.

They were used to mark my rows of potatoes, and brightened up the allotment before the veg started growing.

Sunflowers and beetroot join the crocheted plantpots

The plantpots looked so cheerful that I decided to design some other toppers! And here are the next couple – sunflowers and beetroot.

(And now I really do have sunflowers and beetroot planted on the plot too.) I crocheted the toppers in acrylic yarn to make them stand up to the weather and lightly stuffed them with polyester filling. Each has a hole in the bottom, so it fits over the top of the cane. I then simply tied the topper place with garden twine.

My toppers have so far been drawing admiring glances from my fellow allotmenteers.

The allotment takes shape

I’ve now cleared half of my allotment.

I’ve actually planted potatoes, broad and French beans, beetroot, sunflowers, Swiss chard and runner beans. (Can you spot the cane toppers in the background?). I have tomatoes, kale and broccoli waiting at home in the cold frame. So hopefully soon, it’ll be my veg attracting compliments too!