Little Lion Pattern Swap

Welcome to the LucyRavenscar/Louie's Loops pattern swap - two patterns for the price of one, and they're both free!

Louie has come up with this cute little Lion pin pattern, which will look adorable on your coat or bag, or sew a hair clip onto it and stick it in your hair!

Crocheted Leroy The Lion Pin Pattern

 

Materials:

Lion Brand Cotton/Lily Sugar’n Cream
/Lion Brand Cotton-Ease
(basically any 100% cotton works)
-Crochet Hook-Size G6 4.00mm
-Needle to sew in ends with

Abbreviations:

-SL.ST = Slip Stitch
-SC = Single Crochet
-HDC = Half Double Crochet
-Ch = Chain
-Rnd = Round

Body:

Rnd 1: Ch 2, sc 6 in 2nd ch from hook. Don’t turn (6)
Rnd 2: Sc 2 in each st. (12)
Rnd 3: Sc 1 in first, 2 in next, repeat 6 times. (18)
Change to Brown
Rnd 4: In back stitches only, hdc 2 in first st, sl.st in next, repeat 6 times. (27)
Cut, tie off and sew in the remaining yarn.

Tail:

In beige, create a slip knot and pull it through the back connection between Rnd’s 3 and 4. Ch 7.
Rnd 5: Starting in the 2nd ch from hook, sl.st 1 in each ch. (6)
Cut, pull through and tie off, sewing in the remaining yarn.

Embroider on a face with black yarn before you sew on a pin (if you do sew on a pin)

You can buy Louie's cool patterns on Etsy or Ravelry. He also has loads more free patterns on his blog, where you'll soon find my pattern for Boris the Tiny Lion (named by my kids after Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, because they think he's funny!) 

Lionheart Project and Pattern Exchange

 

Well, it's been a while since the Olympics and Paralympics ended, but alongside the inspiring athletes there was some extra inspiration for crocheters. The Cultural Olympiad ran alongside the sporting one, and the Lionheart Project was an amazing example of extreme crocheting. The artist, Shauna Richardson, spent the last two years crocheting freeform 'skins' for three giant lions, which represent Richard the Lionheart's crest of three lions. They've been touring parts of England in an enormous glass case (they're currently at Twycross Zoo) and spent the summer in London at the Natural History Museum. A friend of mine went up to London before the Olympics started and saw them making their way to the Museum:

At the start of the summer, when all the excitement of the Olympics was just about to begin, I was contacted by Louie of Louie's Loops, a crocheter who makes cool and geeky patterns, like Batman gauntlets and an adorable fox hat and scarf combo. He thought it would be fun to do a free pattern swap, where we both come up with fun little patterns and post them on each other's blogs. Of course, the first thing that came to mind was the giant lions that I'd been hearing about, so I set about making a tiny lion amigurumi.

I came up with Boris, the tiny lion, and he came with me and my kids to London, so we could see the giant versions. They are massive, very impressive in real life, and it's easy to see the amount of work in them. I love all the different shapes the artist made as she was creating them.

We (and Boris) also checked out some more famous lions in London, in Trafalgar Square.

At the same time Louis was working on his own lion project, a super-cute mini lion motif that you can turn into a brooch or hairclip, or sew onto whatever you like. Come back tomorrow and I'll post his pattern, and Louie will put up the pattern for Boris on his blog. See you then!

Dalek Amigurumi Pattern - Free!

I'm a long time fan of Doctor Who - I started watching Jon Pertwee in the 1970s when I was very little, and I've loved it ever since, old series and new. The Daleks are a brilliant creation, scary and iconic, and I just had to crochet them. I made three a few years back, two for swaps and one for a present, but I never made any for myself. With the new season of Doctor Who just starting (and with the first episode featuring a selection of different types of Daleks) I knew I had to make them again.

I tweaked my original pattern a bit and came up with a design I'm really happy with. It's quite fiddly to make, but it has most of the essential details. I've made a classic grey and black Dalek from the 1970s and a bronze and gold one from the new series. However fearsome the real Daleks are, when they're reduced to 7 inches tall and made of yarn, they're suddenly much more cute and cuddly, and fun to play with. One of mine found a wig I'd made for something else and decided he'd look good in it. I can't decide if he looks like Boris Johnson or if it's one of Captain Kirk's!

The pattern is free - make as many Daleks as you like for yourself, friends or family, but please don't sell them. You can download the PDF from Craftster or Ravelry

Woolly Monkeys

I've been working on all sorts of things over the summer, but not getting many of them finished. Now the children are back at school I'm finally getting on top of everything again, so I'll probably do several posts in quick succession.

 

I started on these monkeys a few months ago, trying to refine a design I came up with back in 2009 (Fuzzy Monkey). I made that with a fuzzy yarn that isn't always easy to get hold of, so I wanted to make the design workable in both smooth and fuzzy, mohair style yarns. For the smooth ones I used a nice yarn that had a bit of texture and a mix of colours to give a bit of extra interest (James C Brett Marble), and I found a nice variegated mohair yarn for the fuzzy ones (King Cole Luxury Mohair).

I tried to keep the design nice and simple, without any detail in the faces. I experimented with embroidered features but it just didn't work. With no particular expression you can imagine they are looking however you want - sometimes they look cheeky, or confident, or friendly, or sometimes a little sad.

Woolly Monkeys are a real species of monkey, but my Woolly Monkeys are a lot more bright, and the stripy tails are just for fun. They are made out of wool (or acrylic that looks woolly!) though, so it seemed a good name.

The pattern is available to buy from my Etsy shop  or on Ravelry.