single crochet – Daily Fiber

The first fiber arts workshop I will teach this year takes place in October. I selected crochet in the round because minimal skills are needed to make basic shapes. There are no long chains to work into, no need to turn the work and it is easy to keep track of the number of stitches in each round by using one marker. I am so excited about the patterns I have found in researching for this workshop!

May I present Princess Pigtail and Knight Greyling of Corkshire?

This adorable characters can be crocheted in less than an hour and require only a small amount of yarn. For the princess, I used a wine cork as the filler. The knight is filled with a tall thread spool.

Both patterns are available free. The knight is by LucyRavenscar http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.com/2010/02/cork-and-crochet-knights-ninjas-and.html

The princess is by Tarkheena Crafts: http://tarkheenacrafts.blogspot.com/2014/04/crochet-pattern-princess-fleurette-of.html

Have fun making these little figures!

My family is passionate about birds. We feed them, we offer them water, we count them (once a year). My husband photographs them. Over and over. I suppose we would be called bird-watchers, or, if we were in GB, twitchers. To encourage our local birds, we try to keep our yard wild enough to make them comfortable. After noticing a robin stealing fibers of twine from my garden stakes to add to his nest, I thought, that’s it! I’ll start an Air BnB for the birds.

No question about what material to choose. Natural twine or jute seems to have curb appeal for these bird brains. I decided to use crochet to make this object.

The instructions are simple, which is fortunate, because the jute was challenging to work with. Chain three stitches, and form a ring by slip stitching the last chain to first. Single crochet inside the ring ten times. Next row, chain two, single crochet two stitches , then make two sc in the next stitch, continue this pattern around back to the beginning. Slip stitch last and first stitches together. Repeat this row until the base of the nest measures between 3 and 6 inches in width. It will look something like this:

Next, single crochet in each stitch all the way around, slipping stitch and chaining two stitches at the end of each round. Stop when the sides are 3 inches tall.

**My nest ended up 4 inches wide by 2 and 1/2 inches tall**

Where to put it? I’m told that real estate is all about location. For the birds, that means not too low, not too high, not too visible, not where the cats prowl. Fortunately, we have a row of yew trees in our side yard.