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An update - crochet blankets

Crochet, craft, blanket, attic24, yarn, wool, cosy

Crochet critters

Our latest creations

A selection of goodies all for sale in our Etsy shop. 
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

A selection of goodies all for sale in our Etsy shop.
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

Freebie Friday: Competition - Win a TBC necklace!

To celebrate the upcoming Jubilee, we are giving away one of our new bunting necklaces.

You could be the proud owner of the below beauty in time for next week’s festivities..

To win this necklace, all you have to do is suggest what you’d like to see us to make next!

You can send us a comment below this post or Tweet us or send a message on Facebook to enter.

The best suggestion will be picked over the weekend and the winner will be sent details on how to claim their prize!

We will then try our best to put together the suggested creation!

Good luck everyone!

Terms and conditions:

More than one entry is permitted. The winner will need to have an Etsy account although no payment will need to be made. Entrants must be in the UK to win the necklace. Closing Date for Entries: Weds 30th May 2012

Thrifty Thursday - Treasure Baskets and some new things in the pipeline…

We’re steering in a slightly different direction for this week’s Thrifty Thursday and in some parts a more personal one. Today’s post will be focussed on the small people. Yes, kiddies!

The purple bird became a mother last year for the first time and has sadly “sniff,” just returned to the rather boring world of work. When she was enjoying her lovely, all too short maternity leave, her Thursday afternoons were spent at the local Treasure Baskets group.

Treasure Baskets is for babies who can sit up but aren’t quite at the crawling stage. The groups, in our experience, usually last just under an hour and are held weekly.

Each session involves a bunch of babies sitting on the floor, with their parent behind them, and some baskets full of treasures infront. The baskets do not have your typical baby toys in, quite the opposite, but that doesn’t matter when you’re 6 months old! Inside the baskets are wonderful objects with exciting shapes and textures, and some that make funny noises.

More information on Treasure Baskets can be found on the links at the bottom of the post

Sadly the group is now finished but it was great fun watching all the babies (sometimes literally) dive into the baskets and exploring all the items inside them.

As the little chick enjoyed it so much, purple bird decided to make her own treasure basket for home. At first she was a bit stuck for ideas, but after a bit of a search online and remembering what sort of things were in the baskets at the group, the ideas soon started flowing!

The finished article looks like this:

The little chick’s treasure basket contains:

Scourer, old mobile phone, bells, body mop, honey stirrer, natural sponge, toothbrush, plastic tub with couscous inside (sealed with lots of sellotape!)

The basket cost next to nothing to put together as nearly all the items included were pilfered from around the home. So you can be very thrifty and not have to spend any money at all but still create a trove of wonder for your little one!

Whilst we’re on the subject of kids, we’ve been thinking up some new ideas for things we could sell in our Etsy shop, that you could buy for your youngsters.

Here’s what we’ve come up with so far…

- Baby headbands - see picture below.

- Young children’s crochet jewellery  - no metal used at all, all cotton yarn and buttons, so completely washable!

- Toys - soft animals, balls and cubes for babies.

- Playroom bunting.

The little chick in her pretty flower headband!

We’d love to hear what you think about our ideas, and also if you have made a treasure basket for your baby, what did it include?

More information on Treasure Baskets:

About - Little Acorns site

About - NetMums site

How to make a treasure basket

More ideas and some safety tips *please read!*

A Natural High - Woolly Wednesday

Our Cotton Yarn Addition…
As you know we birds get a real buzz from anything colourful but there is something extra special about this dyed 100% Cotton which has had us emptying out our bank accounts in a quest to obtain every available shade! We must be addicted!
Like most crochet newbies do, we started out using acrylic yarns as they are so much cheaper than anything else and available in a lot of varieties of thickness, colour and texture. However, once we progressed and became more adept in the ways of the crochet hook, we ventured into the sacred realm of natural fibres!
Yarns with a wool content or other natural fibre content are a lot more costly, some more than others, so we had to be careful only to buy a specific yarn for a particular project, rather than splashing out on the full range. We found this to be a little limiting to our creativity as we love to experiment.
One day we found a great supply of this Patons 100% Cotton yarn in both DK and 4-ply weights at www.rucraft.co.uk  and remembered that we had read about this kind of yarn a lot on Lucy’s (Attic 24) blog when we were starting out. She talks about using Rowan Handknit cotton for her projects and I am sure this is the ubercotton of cottons but when we looked at it pound for pound, the Patons stuff is pretty much half the price so we let our wallets do the talking!

Colourful cotton we can’t keep away from!
Cotton is a lot less fluffy than any yarn we have used before. It tangles less, splits less and the finished item really shows the stitches well, making the stitch pattern a big part of the creation. Because the stitches are so clear to see we agreed that we wish we’d splashed out on some sooner when we were learning as it would have made life easier!

See how clearly you can see these crocodile stitches 
we are learning.
Cotton yarn is washable so great for any children’s products. Because it does not tend to fray or shed easily it is also brilliant for creating jewellery and presses beautifully flat with an iron. There is not much this cotton can’t do. 

The bright range of colours are great for kids, 
and it is fully washable too!
What can I say? We are seriously addicted! You can see from these pictures that our supply is growing. We may have to start dealing soon to fund our habit! Half of the circle below is DK weight and of course, we had to match it with the same colours in 4-ply for teeny tiny stitches! Find out more about yarn weights here.

A rainbow of cotton in both DK and 4-ply
I think the limit for cotton is that when it comes to warm, cosy clothing or a cuddly teddy bear, there is nothing to beat soft, fuzzy wool. Therein lies the contradiction!
There are products in our Etsy shop which use 100% cotton yarn and we are experimenting with it a lot at the moment to tie it in with our jewellery making as it works so well in this way so pop back from time to time and see what’s on offer. We would also love to see if any of you get bitten with the cotton yarn bug and what you create with it. Send us links here or tag us on facebook or instagram.

An update - crochet blankets

Crochet, craft, blanket, attic24, yarn, wool, cosy

Crochet critters

Our latest creations

New items for sale in our online shop
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

New items for sale in our online shop
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

A selection of goodies all for sale in our Etsy shop. 
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

A selection of goodies all for sale in our Etsy shop.
www.etsy.com/shop/twobirdscraft

Freebie Friday: Competition - Win a TBC necklace!

To celebrate the upcoming Jubilee, we are giving away one of our new bunting necklaces.

You could be the proud owner of the below beauty in time for next week’s festivities..

To win this necklace, all you have to do is suggest what you’d like to see us to make next!

You can send us a comment below this post or Tweet us or send a message on Facebook to enter.

The best suggestion will be picked over the weekend and the winner will be sent details on how to claim their prize!

We will then try our best to put together the suggested creation!

Good luck everyone!

Terms and conditions:

More than one entry is permitted. The winner will need to have an Etsy account although no payment will need to be made. Entrants must be in the UK to win the necklace. Closing Date for Entries: Weds 30th May 2012

Thrifty Thursday - Treasure Baskets and some new things in the pipeline…

We’re steering in a slightly different direction for this week’s Thrifty Thursday and in some parts a more personal one. Today’s post will be focussed on the small people. Yes, kiddies!

The purple bird became a mother last year for the first time and has sadly “sniff,” just returned to the rather boring world of work. When she was enjoying her lovely, all too short maternity leave, her Thursday afternoons were spent at the local Treasure Baskets group.

Treasure Baskets is for babies who can sit up but aren’t quite at the crawling stage. The groups, in our experience, usually last just under an hour and are held weekly.

Each session involves a bunch of babies sitting on the floor, with their parent behind them, and some baskets full of treasures infront. The baskets do not have your typical baby toys in, quite the opposite, but that doesn’t matter when you’re 6 months old! Inside the baskets are wonderful objects with exciting shapes and textures, and some that make funny noises.

More information on Treasure Baskets can be found on the links at the bottom of the post

Sadly the group is now finished but it was great fun watching all the babies (sometimes literally) dive into the baskets and exploring all the items inside them.

As the little chick enjoyed it so much, purple bird decided to make her own treasure basket for home. At first she was a bit stuck for ideas, but after a bit of a search online and remembering what sort of things were in the baskets at the group, the ideas soon started flowing!

The finished article looks like this:

The little chick’s treasure basket contains:

Scourer, old mobile phone, bells, body mop, honey stirrer, natural sponge, toothbrush, plastic tub with couscous inside (sealed with lots of sellotape!)

The basket cost next to nothing to put together as nearly all the items included were pilfered from around the home. So you can be very thrifty and not have to spend any money at all but still create a trove of wonder for your little one!

Whilst we’re on the subject of kids, we’ve been thinking up some new ideas for things we could sell in our Etsy shop, that you could buy for your youngsters.

Here’s what we’ve come up with so far…

- Baby headbands - see picture below.

- Young children’s crochet jewellery  - no metal used at all, all cotton yarn and buttons, so completely washable!

- Toys - soft animals, balls and cubes for babies.

- Playroom bunting.

The little chick in her pretty flower headband!

We’d love to hear what you think about our ideas, and also if you have made a treasure basket for your baby, what did it include?

More information on Treasure Baskets:

About - Little Acorns site

About - NetMums site

How to make a treasure basket

More ideas and some safety tips *please read!*

A Natural High - Woolly Wednesday

Our Cotton Yarn Addition…
As you know we birds get a real buzz from anything colourful but there is something extra special about this dyed 100% Cotton which has had us emptying out our bank accounts in a quest to obtain every available shade! We must be addicted!
Like most crochet newbies do, we started out using acrylic yarns as they are so much cheaper than anything else and available in a lot of varieties of thickness, colour and texture. However, once we progressed and became more adept in the ways of the crochet hook, we ventured into the sacred realm of natural fibres!
Yarns with a wool content or other natural fibre content are a lot more costly, some more than others, so we had to be careful only to buy a specific yarn for a particular project, rather than splashing out on the full range. We found this to be a little limiting to our creativity as we love to experiment.
One day we found a great supply of this Patons 100% Cotton yarn in both DK and 4-ply weights at www.rucraft.co.uk  and remembered that we had read about this kind of yarn a lot on Lucy’s (Attic 24) blog when we were starting out. She talks about using Rowan Handknit cotton for her projects and I am sure this is the ubercotton of cottons but when we looked at it pound for pound, the Patons stuff is pretty much half the price so we let our wallets do the talking!

Colourful cotton we can’t keep away from!
Cotton is a lot less fluffy than any yarn we have used before. It tangles less, splits less and the finished item really shows the stitches well, making the stitch pattern a big part of the creation. Because the stitches are so clear to see we agreed that we wish we’d splashed out on some sooner when we were learning as it would have made life easier!

See how clearly you can see these crocodile stitches 
we are learning.
Cotton yarn is washable so great for any children’s products. Because it does not tend to fray or shed easily it is also brilliant for creating jewellery and presses beautifully flat with an iron. There is not much this cotton can’t do. 

The bright range of colours are great for kids, 
and it is fully washable too!
What can I say? We are seriously addicted! You can see from these pictures that our supply is growing. We may have to start dealing soon to fund our habit! Half of the circle below is DK weight and of course, we had to match it with the same colours in 4-ply for teeny tiny stitches! Find out more about yarn weights here.

A rainbow of cotton in both DK and 4-ply
I think the limit for cotton is that when it comes to warm, cosy clothing or a cuddly teddy bear, there is nothing to beat soft, fuzzy wool. Therein lies the contradiction!
There are products in our Etsy shop which use 100% cotton yarn and we are experimenting with it a lot at the moment to tie it in with our jewellery making as it works so well in this way so pop back from time to time and see what’s on offer. We would also love to see if any of you get bitten with the cotton yarn bug and what you create with it. Send us links here or tag us on facebook or instagram.
Freebie Friday: Competition - Win a TBC necklace!
Thrifty Thursday - Treasure Baskets and some new things in the pipeline…
A Natural High - Woolly Wednesday
Tutorial Tuesday: Jewellery for beginners - Earrings

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Two crafty birds who love anything cute, kitsch or colourful!

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