African flower pot-holders

I'm not entirely sure how to spell "pot-holder". I've seen it as "pot holder", "pot-holder" and "potholder". Anyway, I've made some of those circular things you handle hot pots and pans with. :)

This project was partly to help with stash busting and partly because I genuinely need new potholders and crochet ones will be pretty and quick to make.

I started to follow a pattern for an African flower granny mandala potholder but I thought it might come out too holey. I didn’t want to risk burns, so instead I did solid treble crochet (UK) circles to surround the African flower rather than treble clusters. I had to do a bit of frogging before I got it to lie flat, but I got there after a couple of tries.

I finished off the second pot-holder yesterday. I only did African flowers on the front, so the backs are just concentric circles of pink, white and blue. For some reason, one potholder fitted together perfectly, the other needed a bit of fudging because though I was sure I’d done the increasing the same, it seemed to have far more stitches. Anyway, they’re fine for my own use and worked great when removing the pizzas from the oven yesterday. :) I joined the two circles with double crochet (UK) and then did a final round of Crab Stitch to give a nice firm edge.

I may make this pattern again, but there are some other pretty ones I want to try first.

Slow but steady progress

I am making a Fatty Lumpkin pony, one of Heidi Bears' delightful African flower animals. I finished all the motifs and I'm now busy joining them all together.

It's a slow process, but I'm getting there. Doing the join-as-you-go has involved quite a few mistakes and some muttered curses, but it does create a neat finish and it means that the joining is accomplished as you crochet the final round of the motifs. Ideally I would have liked to make a hippo first. Hippos are blobby in shape and they therefore look a bit easier than a Fatty Lumpkin, but due to starting a new part-time job I didn't have time to make the creatures for Christmas presents and the eldest grandchild (who is getting the pony) has her birthday first.

The only consolation is that the hippo should seem easy once I've mastered the pony!

So far I have put together Fatty's bottom and hind legs.

The crochet is resting on some books I've been using for work teaching a GCSE English re-sit class and a couple of modules on a foundation degree.

Lots of African Flowers

After 2013 being the Year of Blankets, I intend to stick to smaller items this year, namely items for me to wear, bags and toys. As soon as I saw the cute Happypotamus and Fatty Lumpkin Pony designed by Heidi Bears, I knew I had to buy the pattern and make them.

And then 2013 turned into the Year of the Blankets. :)

However, finally all those projects are completed and I have therefore spent the past few days making African Flower motifs whenever I got a spare moment. So far I have 10 hexagons. Still quite a few motifs to go and then the real fun begins when I try to put them all together, but Heidi Bears pattern is very clear with lots of photos, so it should be OK.

Here is a motif in progress. I'm using acrylic double knitting and a 3.50 mm hook. I tend to crochet rather tightly, so I'm hoping these will keep the stuffing in OK.

And here is a pile of colourful hexagons.

I'll post again when I have a finished pony.