As with last week’s project, the inspiration came from Pinterest: Little birds. They looked cute and adorable and easy to make. They sure are! All you need is some scrap cotton yarn, eyes (I order them here: Little Crochet Bear), a tiny bit of orange felt and batting. And then you can easily make a whole flock of birds! To welcome spring, which is right around the corner.

For the free pattern, just follow the link behind Pinterest.

They go very nicely with the bottles from last week.

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I did get some crochet done in the past week but today I want to show you my bottles. Since I used yarn, it still counts for a project although no needles or hooks were involved. I saw a couple of those on Pinterest and thought I might give it a try. Especally since I had a lot of small bottles left over after New Year’s Eve (Fentiman’s Tonic Water).

What you need:

- Small bottles, cleaned thoroughly and dried
- Glue
- Yarn (cotton yarn for 3.5  - 4.0 crochet hooks turned out to be perfect)

Smear glue generously onto the bottle and then slowly start winding the yarn around it. Start at the top, this makes it easier when you get to the point where the bottle gets wider. The other way round does not work. I had to learn the hard way.

Tadaaaaa!

The hole collection looks really nice on my window sill. Very springy.

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I saw a crochet owl in Pinterest and loved it. There are enormous amounts of cotton yarn lying around here so I picked some of it up and made two owls:

So what to do with them? Guess they would make a nice brooch though they are really big. I found two magnets when cleaning up my craft room today, maybe I will glue them to the owls and use the owls as magnets for my fridge?

You want to see my craft room? Here is a shot with before and after. Finally I can go in there again without stepping on anything. Only took me 5 hours. For 6 square metres. Well, I have a lot of craft supplies!

So before…

… and after. I did not even through away much. Just a question of arrangement. And now it is going to stay like this. Clean and organized.

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The hats keep on coming. Sorry about that but there are a lot of things going on right now and making hats relaxes me like nothing else (well, maybe making a scarf is also quite relaxing…) so please bear with me a bit longer. The situation will change, I promise!

This is a kid’s hat. Luckily my dolls have pretty small heads so I was able to take a decent picture.

So, who’s that guy? I am sure you recognize him.

I especially like the hair. It almost feels real. Bit creepy but cool at the same time. When you are looking for almost real hair, buy “Märchenwolle”. I took a batch and simply attached it to the hat with a couple of stitches.

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Back to knitting! After a long while. Honestly, my arms started to hurt after a 3-hour stint of knitting on the couch. Due to all the crochet, other muscles seem to have been used. Ouch!

The hat is crochet. Made with beautiful yarn from Lamana. Single crochet , with a bit of hdc stitches for the rim. And of course with the flower, which I add to every hat I make (so far).

The scarf is knit, as already mentioned with a simple pearl-pattern (2 knit, 2 purl, alternate every two rows). It is a loop scarf, knit in the round.

Detail of the pattern:

The set is warm and comfy, non-scratchy. The only problem is that the yarn is a bit fuzzy and my black winter coat is covered in yellow fibres. It looks as if I had a fat ginger cat that likes to sleep on my coat!

Also, in the beginning my husband used to say in a whiney voice: “Maja, where are you?”, an hommage to the animated series “Die Biene Maja” and the male protagonist Willy. Ok, so I look like a bee. I am sure the queen bee of crochet in my household!

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Not exactly.

Those are partyhats for cats.

What? Yes, partyhats for cats.

A friend of mine specifically asked me for them. I used some cotton yarns I had lying around, with no specific pattern. I started from the rim and then went up, decreasing along till there were only a couple of stitches were left. The pompom consists of a couple of single stitches into the last stitch.

I added the long strings so my friends could were the hats as well since I knew that the cats might have served just as a shady argument to make those hats. And boy, I was so right! Another friend told me that the two girls wore the hats more often than the cats!

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My new addiction is Pinterest. Have you already tried it? It is awesome since you can organize interesting things visually. If you save them to your booksmarks list, you tend to forget them. Especially for crafts Pinterest is heaven. Or hell. Because there are so many awesome things on it that you sometimes do not know where to click first. At the moment it is still invite only but feel free to get in touch with me, I can send you an invite.

I cam across some crochet baskets and gave it a try this week. It is really easy to make them. Only single stitch. The important thing is that your gauge is really tight. This makes the basket stiff and it holds its shape nicely. Since I did not have any suitable chunky yarn, I took 2 strands of cheap acrylic. Et voilà!

The rim is simply folded. Which ist not necessary but still, it adds stability and looks neat.

Close-up of the crochet.

This basket is quickly made and if you make lining, this makes a nice bread-basket for example.

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My last article! Week 52. My project is officially over. My yarn stash officially not a tiny bit smaller. Oh no, it is the same size than last year. But hey, that’s ok. I can totally live with a huge yarn stash!

Last item of my project is a crochet panda bear I made for my brother. It is quite small, I did not even stuff the arms and legs.

Finally I was able to take pictures with a proper camera, I stole it from my husband.

The project was fun. I learned a lot. And I made so many items I did not post here since I did not want to bore my handfull of readers to death. I guess I made 50 hats alone this year…

So first day of 2012. Which will be a super-exciting year for me! And hopefully a happy and prosperous year for the rest of you. I would like to keep on crocheting as much as before, try out some more complicated patterns and start writing my own patterns as well. I guess if I made it through this project (and believe me, I never thought that I would make it!), I can do this as well.

Thank you for following me through my projects! Thank you for coming. And see you soon!

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Phew, it is over. Well almost. One more day tomorrow then I can finally stop eating those big amounts of yummy food I am constantly offered. At least until New Years’s Eve.

Here is a hat I made for my mum. Made with soft Merino, 100%. The flower can be taken off and used as a brooch.

For my little sister I made a muffin and since she made ones with pink frosting a couple of times this year, I used pink yarn.

And a crochet bag for my mother-in-law. She somehow came across the black bag I made during summer through a Google search and asked me for it. This time the bag even features a magnet snap so it can be closed properly. Instead of forcing my sewing machine to deal with the thick bag, I hand-sewed the lining into the bag. Hope it stays there!

After making so much for other people during the past weeks, I am now knitting some things for me. Yeah, knitting! After I started knitting again after months of crochet, I got a sore shoulder. Muscle ache from knitting!

I would have loved to make more but the past weeks had been pretty hectic and I could not fit in more. Next year I will definitely plan and buy and make my gifts in September.

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What? Next week it’s Christmas? Noooooooo! I have not a single present ready yet. This will be a very interesting week then.

Here I present a little turtle I made as a little good-bye present. The only problem is that the turtle’s head is a bit too heavy so it tends to fall over.

Made with Catania yarn and a 2,5 hook, after a pattern from the great magazine I mentioned a couple of times already: Crochet Gift List.

If I ever make a turtle again, I will fill its body or the hind legs with dry beans so it does not tip over that easily.

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