Scissors for a friend

16 March 201417 March 2014 Aisha

Scissorsm flower and card My friend Gilli, who rebooted my crochet, is having a BIIIIIG birthday – one with a 0 on the end – so I have made this little gift from my flowers and leaves. I’ve blocked the flower (using the steam method developed by Lucy at Attic24) and I think it makes a difference. The card was bought at Yarndale with just this birthday in mind but I didn’t plan how well the flower and card would go together. Once again, I have used baby nail scissors; these are from Boots and I think they are prettier than the Tommee Tippee ones. They are also flat whereas the Tommee Tippee scissors are curved. Gilli is flying to the USA soon and will be able to take these on the plane for non-stop crochet.

My Mother taught me that it is unlucky to give scissors or knives; you may cut the relationship. Instead, the scissors must be purchased by the recipient so Gilli bought her birthday gift for 20p.

Little leaves

20 February 201428 February 2014 Aisha

I’m really pleased with myself because I’ve worked out how to make these little leaves to go with my little flowers. I looke crochet leaves and flowers d at a couple of online patterns to get an idea of how they might go but in the end worked them out for myself. The leaves are made from a silky yarn called Sirdar Flirt which is 80% bamboo viscose and 20% wool; I found an odd ball in the remnant bin of a local shop. I’m liking this yarn not only because it feels smooth because the leaves lie flat whereas I suspect that the flowers will benefit from blocking.

Scissor keeper

9 February 20141 March 2014 Aisha

scissor keepsr Because the ‘first flower’ was made from scrap yarn it doesn’t fit with the rest of the project so I turned it into a scissor keeper to try and stop my scissors getting lost at the bottom of the bag. These scissors, by the way, are Tommy Tippee baby nail scissors which are ideal for air travel because the blades are blunt-ended and less than 6cm long. They also very cheap (£1.50 at ASDA) and widely available so it’s not a great loss if an over-zealous official confiscates them. I’ve flown several times with these scissors in my hand luggage and they have gone through security screening without any problems.

The first flower

5 February 20149 March 2014 Aisha

I have a project in mind that will require some crochet flowers (using up leftover yarn from the well-travelled blanket).In this month’s Simply Crochet magazine for a throw with five-petalled flowers inside squares so I worked the flower part of the pattern using some scrap yarn and it came out like this! I am so delighted! I like it so much that I have attached it to my scissors in the hope that it will stop them falling to the bottom of the yarn bin.To make the flower, I had to learn a new technique – the ‘magic ring‘. I love the way that the ring pulls closed completely so that there is no hole in the middle of the flower.