Piping a Giant Rose

Oh my, when Bug said she wanted a giant flower cake with a bee on it my heart was happy because I had in mind just what I would do.  Something like this:

Which looked super impressive, but when it comes down to it, is quite simple.

However, when I showed her the picture (and it's always a good idea to check first with Bug, her needs and wants are VERY specific) she hated that and explained she wanted a giant flower with a bee on it.  OK I thought, I've seen tutorials online for piping a rose, I just need to do that with a really big nozzle.

Yes.  A really big one.

I had the bright idea that I could bake a hemispheric cake and use that as the base.  Then piping would be child's play, right?  Happily I could actually practise this one on the cake tin.  It didn't turn out too bad! One of my friends gave me the great tip of adding a spoonful of cream of tartar to the butter icing and this really helped give the tips a sharp edge and stiffened up the mixture enough to hold the shape. So when it came to the actual cake, I just did a crumb layer of icing and then went ahead.  The icing is coloured yellow, then I put a red stripe of icing inside the piping bag on the narrow side of the teardrop nozzle to give the petals a dark edge.

If I did it again, I would stop halfway and cool the icing down again before contiuing.  you can see where it all started to go pearshaped, but of course I was doing this the night before the party so didn't have time to be sensible.

I would post a recipe for the cake, but I won't because actually it was rank.  My first attempt at a lemon cake and it was horrible.  Luckily for me kids only want to eat the icing in any case.   I used butter icing with added cream of tartar and of course I added maple syrup as I always do!  The cake to icing ratio is rather outrageous in this case.  Don't look at the cake in this picture.  As I said, it was rank.

And the bee?  A good old cake pop.

There's a million tutorials out there for how to make cake pops so I won't add to the deluge. I used chocolate courgette cake for the filling and white chocolate coloured with yellow colouring for the coating.  I find it best to freeze the pops and coat them straight from the freezer in very small batches.  That way the chocolate hardens almost straight away and you can do another layer. However I will say that an upturned egg box weighted down with marbles makes a good holder for them.

Crochet: Roses and leaves

The Bean wanted some flowers to go on her flip-flops!  Whoop whoop crochet to the rescue, that's right another excuse to learn something new.

Flower (altered slightly from the pattern here):
chain 41
Row 1: (dc, 2 sc, 2 dc) in 4th chain from hook; *sc 1, skip 2 sc, (2 dc, 2 sc, 2 dc) in next sc* repeat to end.
Ch 1, turn
Row 2: sl st into first dc space. Ch 3, 6 dc in same dc space. *sc in next sc space, 7 dc in next dc space* repeat to end.
Fasten off
Curl up and sew together.

Leaf (pattern taken from here):
ch 10
dc into 3rd chain from hook. htr 1, tr 1, htr 1, dc 1, hdc 1, sc 2.
Picot (to turn and begin again along the other side of the foundation chain)
sc 2, hdc 2, dc 1, htr 1, dc 1, sc 1.
Fasten off and thread into the first chain to round off the leaf (it will be obvious what I mean when you are there).

This is my first experience of a picot.  Nice to turn a corner and apparently you use them to edge things.  Not sure I'd totally be in to the bobbly edge.
The leaves are ace, I could do a lot more of them should the need arise.  Not too enamoured with the roses though, they use a disproportionately large amount of yarn.

Crochet: Beegu

As I have probably mentioned before, Bug's favourite colour is yellow.  Yellow yellow yellow.  She'd happily wear top to toe yellow day and night if she could. Perhaps not surprisingly she hit upon Beegu as a favourite book character some time ago. She's read the book numerous times and even dressed as Beegu for World Book Day last year (yellow tights on the head, anyone?).  She's been asking for a soft Beegu for a while so I thought, what the hey I will give it a go.

So here it is, my first big project in crochet and my first original pattern.

I'm still not totally happy with it, the muzzle in particular I think would have been better had it been a single piece with the head, but I need to do a lot more fiddling about to learn how to make more complex 3D shapes.  What I am proud of, is the appearance of this Beegu on Alexis Deacon's blog! Even more than that, the Bug is totally in love with her (I'm assured Beegu is female, which did surprise me for some reason). Also Little My is desperate for a blue version, and now we have Alexis Deacon's permission, I need to get some blue yarn and start on 'Boogle'.

So here's the pattern.  US crochet terms as that is how I learned, and unexpectedly even when I learned the UK ones, I thought the US ones were more logical so I'm sticking with them.  I haven't read too many patterns so to explain: when I say magic circle 6 I mean a magic circle of 6 single chain stitches; when I say repeat 6 I mean repeat the bit between the *s 6 times; the numbers in the brackets are how many stitches you have at the end of that row.  Everything is worked in a spiral, so don't start a new row, just use a marker like a tiny bit of other colour yarn so you don't actually have to keep counting!

Also, I weighted the feet, ears and bottom, so that she sits nicely.  You can buy some polybeads that work well for this purpose (NB not polystyrene, but the polypropylene I assume.  If you search for weighted blanket filling you'll find the right ones).  I sewed some little cotton pockets for them and then just put them in the relevant parts.  Mostly I kept the stuffing to a minimum, just stuffing the head and muzzle full, so that Beegu is nice and cuddly and floppy. I used plain black eyes with a little circle of white round them.  These were simple magic circles of 6.

Body

magic circle 6

Row 1: 2 sc in each sc (12)

Row 2: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (18)

Row 3: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (24)

Row 4: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (30)

Row 5: *sc 4, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (36)

Row 6: *sc 5, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (42)

Row 7: *sc 6, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (48)

Row 8: *sc 7, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (54)

Row 9: *sc 8, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (60)

Row 10: *sc 9, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (66)

Row 11: *sc 10, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (72)

Row 12: *sc 11, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (78)

Row 13 - 37 (25 rows): sc 78

Row 38: *sc 11, dec 1* repeat 6 (72)

Row 39 - 41 (3 rows): sc 72

Row 42: *sc 10, dec 1* repeat 6 (66)

Row 43 - 45 (3 rows): sc 66

Row 46: *sc 9, dec 1* repeat 6 (60)

Row 47 - 49 (3 rows): sc 60

Row 50: *sc 8, dec 1* repeat 6 (54)

Row 51: sc 54
Row 52: *sc 7, dec 1* repeat 6 (48)
Row 53: sc 48

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing on the head.

Head - note that at some point when making the head you need to attach the eyes, and stuff it!
(ed - for an improved pattern for head+muzzle please see Boogle-Jinni)

magic circle 6

Row 1: 2 sc in each sc (12)

Row 2: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (18)

Row 3: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (24)

Row 4: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (30)

Row 5: *sc 4, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (36)

Row 6: *sc 5, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (42)

Row 7: *sc 6, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (48)

Row 8: *sc 7, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (54)

Row 9: *sc 8, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (60)

Row 10: *sc 9, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (66)

Row 11: *sc 10, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (72)

Row 12: *sc 11, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (78)

Row 13 - 27 (15 rows): sc 78

Row 28: *sc 11, dec 1* repeat 6 (72)

Row 29: *sc 10, dec 1* repeat 6 (66)

Row 30: *sc 9, dec 1* repeat 6 (60)

Row 31: *sc 8, dec 1* repeat 6 (54)

Row 32: *sc 7, dec 1* repeat 6 (48)

break somewhere around here to attach eyes and stuff almost to the top

Row 33: *sc 6, dec 1* repeat 6 (42)

Row 34: *sc 5, dec 1* repeat 6 (36)

Row 35: *sc 4, dec 1* repeat 6 (30)

Row 36: *sc 3, dec 1* repeat 6 (24)

finish stuffing

Row 37: *sc 2, dec 1* repeat 6 (18)

Row 38: *sc 1, dec 1* repeat 6 (12)

Row 39: dec 1, repeat 6 (6)

Fasten off.

Muzzle - this is the bit I wasn't too happy with.  I wish this had actually been a part of the head shape.

magic circle 5

Row 1: 2 sc in each sc (10)

Row 2: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 5 (15)

Row 3: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 5 (20)

Row 4: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 5 (25)

Row 5: *sc 4, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 5 (30)

Row 6: sc 12, *sc 5, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3 (33)

Row 7: sc 12, *sc 6, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3 (36)

Row 8: sc 12, *sc 7, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3 (39)

Row 9: sc 12, *sc 8, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3 (42)

Row 10: sc 12, *sc 9, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3 (45)

Row 11 - 13 (3 rows): sc 45

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing on to the head.

Legs (make 2!) - this is a confusing pattern to read.  If you keep in mind that you are making a sole of a foot to start with, starting with a chain then working along one side and then back again to form an oval shape, it might make more sense!

ch 6

Row 1: sc in 2nd chain from hook. sc 3, 3 sc in last sc

then turn and the following is in the same foundation chain stitches:

sc 3, 4 sc in the first sc (14 stitches in oval)

Row 2: {sc 4, *2 sc in next sc* repeat 3} repeat 2 (20)

Row 3: {sc 4, *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3} repeat 2 (26)

Row 4: {sc 4, *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3} repeat 2 (32)

Row 5: {sc 4, *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 3} repeat 2 (38)

Row 6 - 9 (4 rows): sc 38

Row 10: sc 4, *sc 3, dec 1* repeat 3, sc 19 (35)

Row 11: sc 4, *sc 2, dec 1* repeat 3, sc 19 (32)

Row 12: sc 4, *sc 1, dec 1* repeat 3, sc 19 (29)

Row 13: sc 3, dec 1, sc 1, dec 1, sc 1, dec 1, sc 18 (26)

Row 14 - 34 (20 rows): sc 26

Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing on to the body.

Arms (make 2!)

Magic circle 7

Row 1: 2 sc in each sc (14)

Row 2: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 7 (21)

Row 3 - 23 (30 rows): sc 21

Fasten off, leaving a long tail to sew on to body

Ears (make 2!)

magic circle 6

Row 1: 2 sc in each sc (12)

Row 2: sc 12

Row 3: *sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (18)

Row 4: sc 18

Row 5: *sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (24)

Row 6: sc 24

Row 7: *sc 3, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 (30)

Row 8: sc 30

Row 9: *sc 3, dec 1* repeat 6 (24)

Row 10 - 13 (4 rows): sc 24

Row 14: *sc 2, dec 1* repeat 6 (18)

Row 15 - 135 (120 rows): sc 18

Fasten off, leaving a long tail to sew on to head.

Phew! Put in the weights and stuff, then sew it all together and voila!

Crochet

Oh me oh my, I need to get back on the blogging bandwagon.
I decided not too long ago that crochet was a life skill I did not possess and that perhaps I should do something about it.  A friend of mine made some gorgeous scarves for her girls that I really envied, and the final tipping point was another friend suggesting we set up a stitch and bitch group for crochet, so I had to learn.

I got a few books out of the library, and taught myself.  It is really not that hard when you have a good book to show you how to do it.  I heartily recommend The Crochet Answer Book by Edie Eckman.  All your questions answered (well almost, I didn't find out how to make a htr from her, but I knew enough by that stage to take a wild guess) and lots of nice pictures to show you exactly what she means.

Speaking of wild guesses I must say the best best thing about crochet is that it is very forgiving.  If you lose your place or end up with too many or too few stitches at the end of a row, never fear you can bodge it up and it still looks OK!  Much easier than knitting where discovering a dropped stitch 5 rows down the line is soul-suckingly painful.

So that was it, I was hooked.  Pardon the pun it is rubbish.  I'm not a fan of granny squares I haven't made one yet and so far have no intention.  I got another rather hilariously covered book from the library, but so far haven't tried anything from it.  I think I just loved the title and cover, it still makes me laugh.

I cannot ever imagine creating or wearing the item on the cover.

So more my style is amigurumi.

I got this great starter book by Ana Paula Rimoli and whipped up a couple of the things inside in next to no time.  I liked her stuff, but there were a couple of niggles in it.  Since making her teddy hot air balloon I came across a nice tutorial online for how to prevent your stripes having a noticeable join in them, and also for some reason Ana never uses a magic circle which is strange. However, armed with the knowledge Ana gave me I started work on my great project, a crochet Beegu.