FEATURE: HOOKSTER HAVEN
We’ve never spent so much time behind closed doors as we are now, and crafting for our homes is providing comfort for so many in these challenging times
Our homes have been our absolute world these last few months, and some of us have found that added time has sparked creativity, inspiring crafty projects. Read on to discover what our homebody hooksters have been up to, and hopefully be inspired to make your own versions at home.
HATTIE’S COLOURFUL KEEPSAKES
My girls and I have painted rainbow pebbles to say a huge ‘thank you’ the NHS and all the other frontline workers, which we’re displaying in the front garden. We’re also quite into tie- dye too. It has become a very colourful house!
Getting crafty is an excellent way to unwind and feel like you’re achieving something at the same time: it is the perfect activity to create a sense of wellbeing. My patterns for the Togetherness Mandala and Square and Pretty Petals Mandala are available for free. I hope they will bring a touch of happy to your home and make you smile.
We’re spending so much time in our garden. My Happy Flower & Dreamcatcher pattern (available on www.thepetalshed.uk) is perfect as a coaster for your garden table.
They also look lovely made into a garland.
My ultimate ‘lockdown recommendation’ though is a blanket. There is something magical about choosing colours, ordering yarn (or making a dent in your stash), starting and watching it grow. Feeling like you’ve achieved something at the end and as you use and enjoy it is the best. When it comes to crafting, a sense of accomplishment is important – especially now.
EMMA’S LOCKDOWN LANTERNS
I love seeing how the crochet community have been keeping it all together at this time with their hooky creations. I have had a lot of ideas that have been bubbling under the surface. The other day I woke up and immediately started to crochet a lantern for no particular reason other than it just needed to happen! And several hours, (and cups of tea) later it was finished!
Lantern patterns are super-simple and can be worked around any hoop size – an old tapestry hoop is perfect. Any yarn can be used so it is a great stash buster too. Mine looks lovely in my bedroom. [ Turn to page 65 for the pattern.]
I’ve also just finished a baby blanket using 20 balls of Ricorumi that I call ‘the Lockdown Blanket’. My daughter and I have been trying our hand at freestyle embroidery and punch needle and we are loving it! I’ll always look back at these pieces and remember this time in which we were all in it together.
“In times of stress people gravitate to their happy and safe place”
HANNAH’S BLISSFUL BLANKETS
In times of stress I think people always gravitate to their happy and safe place. For lots of people, including me, this is craft. Crafting has always been important for my wellbeing and now it is even more so. When there are lots of things you can’t control, it’s comforting to find something that you can.
I’ve been sharing as many patterns as possible on my blog for the crochet community, and have had so many messages
from people saying that they are crocheting at the moment to help them through it all.
I’m full of crochet design ideas right now! Blankets are the perfect way to pass the time for me. I would encourage everyone to learn a new stitch and use up some of your stash to make a blanket that you can get lost in creating, and then admire for years to come as a reflection of this time. I always look back at projects and remember what else I was doing when I made them. It might be being pregnant, or a hot summer, or a house move, or travelling: everything I make has a memory and a story for me – and this particular time in lockdown will certainly be one to remember.
SARAH JANE’S CUTE COUCH POTATOES AND SWIRLY SQUARES
It helps to have something to aim for no matter how small. To remind me of this I’ve made an amigurumi Couch Potato to keep me motivated. I’ve been sharing crochet patterns online – such as a rainbow to make for a window, and a larger project: the Swirly Squares Blanket . Blankets are the perfect lockdown project.
A lot of what I make I can often remember what was happening at the time, how I was feeling or even what I might have been listening to or watching on TV. I like that crochet provokes memories. My Swirly Squares Blanket will of course remind me of my life during lockdown.
KATE’S POSITIVE PANTS
One of the first things I crocheted when it looked as though lockdown was imminent was a teeny, tiny pair of ‘Positive Pants’ – completely useless and of no practical help whatsoever but, having had a very stressful day working out what we were going to have to do in the weeks to come, it allowed me to pass a couple of hours, with nothing else in my head but just some yarn and a hook.
Yarn rainbows are the perfect project for our windows and to let frontline staff know we are thinking of them – including my daughter, who works for the NHS. I spent a lovely evening putting together a simple pattern. Rainbows became rainbows hearts and then rainbow bunting. All of the free patterns can be found on my blog page for everyone to enjoy and make for their own windows.
I am not normally a bright colour person so it completely took me by surprise how much I loved working with such a bright palette and in years to come they will definitely take me right back to this time.
At the back of my mind I have often thought about filming short crochet tutorials and so my new lockdown project has been exactly that: I now have my very own YouTube channel. It’s been a giant learning curve, with much to still be learnt, but it’s a start!
We hope you’ve been inspired by our hooksters to create extra- comforting crochet for a happy home – be sure to check out their Instagram feeds and websites to find out how to create these pieces for yourself.
Written by Joanne Baird
Find our hooksters here:
Hattie: www.thepetalshed.uk @petalshed
Emma: www.emmaleith.co.uk @Emmaleithatelier
Hannah: www.hanjancrochet.com @hanjanecrochet
Sarah-Jane: www. oanddot.blogspot.com @ o_and_dot
Kate: www.justpootling.blogspot.co.uk www.youtube.com/c/kateeastwood @just_pootling