Tiny Crochet Heart Pattern by The Party Artisan

I like instant craft gratification, so small projects like these pretty little crochet hearts from The Party Artisan fit the bill nicely.

They are made using a magic loop and double and triple crochet stitches (US terminology).

Of course, it's still very early days for my crocheting.  My attempt.  Oh dear!

With small patterns like this though, I haven't invested too much time.  A larger project that doesn't look great would be much harder to shrug off!

If you would like to have a go, the free pattern can be found here on The Party Artisan website.

Knitted Bobble Sheep Pillow Pattern from The Purl Bee

I love this sheep from The Purl Bee.

Perhaps one for the more advanced knitter, it involves a five stitch garter bobble, which I have to admit I'd never heard of, and working using double pointed needles.

Thankfully, the excellent instructions include a link to the bobble stitch tutorial, as well as a link to buy the materials.

This is going on my list of things to knit when I'm a bit more advanced.  If you would like to have a go at knitting this, you will find the pattern here on The Purl Bee's website.

Free Firearm Cross Stitch Pattern from Club-point-de-croix.com

Ok, so this isn't my usual style to say the least.

I don't like guns, however, there is nothing my other half likes better than getting up at ridiculous o'clock on a Saturday morning to go and shoot holes in defenceless pieces of paper.

This is for his birthday.

The full pattern is a collection of firearms and can be downloaded free from the Club-point-de-croix website here.

You will need to sign up to download this pattern.  The site works on a points system.  You are given a certain number when you sign up, and can earn more by referring friends and uploading photos of your work.

If you don't speak any French, there is an English version of the site, but this doesn't seem to be maintained at the same standard as  the French one.

Knitting Tutorials from Knitting Help

As my last post featured crochet video tutorials, I thought it fitting that this time I should share my favourite knitting site.

I've been using Knitting Help since I took the craft up again a couple of years ago.

The site has videos covering pretty much everything you could need, from casting on and increasing and decreasing to knitting fair isle.  It also features both English and Continental versions of each technique.

I find it an invaluable tool for learning new techniques and reminding myself how to do things I haven't tried for a while.

Take a look!

Crochet Tutorials by Crochet Geek

This week, I have been trying to crochet.

I really want to learn, but my natural ability to turn any piece of yarn into an impossible knot has won through.

I'm using Teresa of Crochet Geek's brilliant video collection on YouTube.  It takes the viewer through all of the basic stitches, for both left and right handers, and on to much more advanced projects.

Here is just one of her Simple Crochet videos.





The rest of the Simple Crochet series can be found here on the Crochet Geek YouTube channel.

Easter Chick Cross Stitch Pattern from Cosmicsheep

This Easter cross stitch pattern is the first free design of mine to appear just on my new site cosmicsheep.

It's also my first attempt to provide a pdf to download!  

I hope you enjoy stitching these little chicks.  I suspect they will appear again in future charts.

To download a PDF of this chart or save it as an image  click here

Twine Heart Tutorial by Ashley Bore on The Twinery

Here is another project to add to my growing 'to try' list.  A twine heart by Ashley Bore from This Heartmade Life, made for The Twinery's website.

It's made by hammering nails into wood around a template to make the shape of your choice, then winding yarn or twine around the nails in whatever way you think looks best.

Although this heart looks great, I think I'm going to keep looking at shape ideas, although I do have a pretty good idea where I'd hang it.

If you fancy having a go at this, you can find the full tutorial here on The Twinery website.