Edward’s Menagerie – Ina the Stork

Funny-looking birds and cute handmade toys are pretty much two of my main jams, which is why I specifically learnt to crochet to make Toft’s Sophia the Flamingo.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my flamingo post, I was lucky enough to get the Edward’s Menagerie: Birds book for Christmas, and I only managed to wait until Boxing Day to jump onto Wool Warehouse and order yarn for my next bird.

Rather than get ahead of myself (something I’m kind of known for doing), I sensibly decided to stick with Level 1 birds, which use more basic crochet skills. There are so many beautiful patterns even just in that section, but I decided to make Ina the stork; I loved the contrast of her white feathers with her super bright orange legs. And look how she turned out!

As far as yarn was concerned I needed something fairly inexpensive with vibrant colourways, and Cascade 220 Sport looked just right. When it arrived the colours were fantastic and I found it easy to work with. That said, despite having absolutely no problems with the skein of white yarn, the orange came apart and got nightmarishly tangled, so if you do use this yarn – be careful! In the end I had to just gradually unravel the whole thing and roll it back up into balls.

As with the previous bird, the pattern was really easy to follow. The only thing I had trouble with (which you can’t really see here) was the tail, through my fault rather than the pattern – I still just haven’t quite nailed splitting rounds, but hopefully I’ll work it out next time!

Also, I think I might have slightly overstuffed the head and body, as she looks a tiny bit bloated. But otherwise, I’m really pleased with the result – especially the hilariously bright, wiggly legs, for which I used learnt a new technique to crochet a tiny fourth claw.

I’m taking a little break from crochet now to work on some knitting projects, though I did already order the yarn to make a bright yellow canary. When I’ve made a couple more, I’ll definitely be posting a full review of the book itself – so keep an eye out.

I’ll leave you with a final picture of adorable Ina. Let me know if you decide to give any of the Toft patterns a try!

Edward’s Menagerie – Sophia the Flamingo

Back in the autumn, you might remember I posted about my sudden determination to learn to crochet as a result of this mad little project by Toft Alpaca Shop.

Well, after a few months on and off crocheting (mixed in with my misguided attempt to knit an advent garland, but that’s a stressful story better left untold) I finally sat down and finished the Sophia the Flamingo kit – and I’m so pleased with how she turned out!

As a beginner to crochet, having only messed about with granny squares as I mentioned in my previous post, starting with a project like this was a little risky; after all, I was going from a few shaky squares straight up to shaping my very own bright pink, lanky toy bird.

With Toft, though, I needn’t have worried. The instructions were really clear, and they referred me over to the shop’s brilliant instructional videos on their YouTube channel for help when I got stuck. The videos were extremely helpful, and I found myself using them a lot to make sure I got things right.

I did stumble across a few issues, though. Being a crochet newbie my tension was awful at the beginning, meaning the head and body turned out smaller (and the neck shorter) than they should have been, and the first leg ended up with a teeny tiny foot. Luckily, after these parts I realised I needed to loosen things up a little. I also really struggled with counting the stitches when working with the black yarn, leading to a few pretty wonky toes!

Ultimately, though, I’m delighted with the finished project and am really pleased I decided to order the kit. It has everything you need, Toft’s Alpaca yarn is beautiful and bright, and it all comes wrapped up in a lovely drawstring canvas bag (which makes a great project bag).

Oh, and this is just the beginning for me and Edward’s Menagerie – my boyfriend picked up on all my (repeated) hints during December and fixed me up with the full book of patterns for Christmas. I’ll post a proper review on the book when I’ve made a few more birds, but it seems great so far!

Thanks, Toft, for inspiring me to pick up a new craft – and for giving me the means to fill my apartment with silly birds.

Crochet for beginners

The other day I found myself cooing over the patterns and kits over at Toft Alpaca Shop for the thousandth time, and this totally mad crochet flamingo finally tipped me over the edge. I had to have it. And I suddenly thought – why not just learn how to crochet? So, I did!

I already had a crochet blanket kit that I picked up at last year’s Handmade Fair, so I had everything I needed to get started when I had an afternoon to myself. Unfortunately, two hours in and four tries later, it seemed the kit wasn’t quite right for beginners – and I was ready to launch my crochet hook out the window.

Luckily, a little Googling the next day turned up this brilliant tutorial for simple granny squares on the blog Little Tin Bird. Heather, the blogger behind the site, explains every single step carefully with some extremely helpful pictures.

I had the right yarn and hook to give it a go, so I sucked it up and gave it another try!

With this pattern, I practiced chain stitch, treble stitch and slip stitch. After how much I’d struggled with the other pattern, I can’t tell you how happy this tiny, pretty wonky pink square made me feel.

I also learnt how to change my yarn colour.

And, just like that, I had my very first granny square!

It’s uneven, lumpy and a little sad looking in places, but I don’t care – I’m so delighted with how it’s turned out, and can’t get over the simplicity and helpfulness of the walkthrough on Little Tin Bird. If you’re thinking of giving crochet a go, it’s a fantastic place to start – I definitely recommend it!

Next, I think I’m going to make a bunch more squares to practice each technique. It’s so fun to be learning something new, and while I’ve a habit of trying to run before I can walk I really want to slow down and get my head around the basics.

If you have any beginners’ crochet patterns you’d recommend, let me know. I’d love to give them a try!