School craft stall

Well the school fete happens every year in September. It is a fun day, and I always enjoy making a box of goodies to donate. It is one of the main fundraisers and has a real carnival atmosphere.

I have learnt that little things that sell for a few dollars seem to turnover so much quicker than larger items with a lot of work.

In previous years I have made boxes of kitchen items, teacosies, crochet kitchen towels and potholders. This year I thought I would try something different.

So I have come up with a range of purse or pocket items. This includes a sunglasses case, and a small makeup case and a phone cosy. This one has a nice cluster stitch on the front and I do like the texture this gives. It also provides a bit of extra padding.

I am also trying to destash the piles of odds and ends in the cupboard so made a few random cases out of odds and ends. I experimented with a basket weave pattern which turned out well. I created a butterfly catch and a flower catch to do the falp closed. A nice old button would be just as good though.

Blokes are always hard to make things for so I had a go at making these out of camo yarn. I made the purse a bit smaller and voila it is a business card holder. I had some old army buttons in my button jar and I think they finish it off nicely.

I have a few more to do and will then cellophane them up for the school fete which is on next weekend. I also have a collection of baby bits and bobs and obligatory kitchen items to donate. The other fun bit is making some toffee and gingerbread men.

I haven't written the patterns up properly, but if I can find a tester or two I might as they were fun little projects to do. I reckon they would be good for Christmas gifts as well.

Thanks for looking!

(c) copyright crochetroo 2007, ideas or images not to be reproduced.

Tasmanian Tiger Crochet Square

Rugalugs square number 9 is the Tasmanian Tiger which can also be used as a kitty cat, or a tiger and other feline friends depending on the use of colour.

This is the 9th square in my rugalugs series. I decided I needed a cat, so the Tasmanian Tiger was the perfect critter to choose. The story of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine is a sad one as they were declared extinct in 1986. The Tasmanian tiger was a marsupial dog with a pouch like a wombat, a head like a dog, and stripes and tail like a tiger. So it was never really a cat at all! The same way as the Koala was never a bear.

The last known thylacine was captured in 1933 and died in 1936. Their demise was accompanied by European settlement and the introduction of sheep to Australia. As a carnivorous animal they were captured and killed by the farmers. The government at the time placed a bounty on the slaughter of the thylacine. They became rare and in the early 1900s were purchased by zoos around the world. The last one died in the Hobart Zoo on the 7th of September 1936. The 7th of September is now marked as 'Threatened Species Day'.

The story of the thylacine is a message to us all in conservation and protection of native species. It demonstrates how far we have come in less than 100 years in terms of environmental awareness, and how awful we have been in the past in respecting the world around us. I cant fathom what the heck the early settlers were thinking? I read somewhere it was about the sheep, as the tigers used to kill them. Such a tragedy that the farmers had such little appreciation for the special creatures we had here. We took the kids to Tasmania a few years back and had a great time trying to see a tiger as we drove around. It is such stunning state to visit, but sadly no tigers.

Domestic cats can be a bit of an environmental nuisance as they kill our birds and wildlife. The feral cat is also quite destructive on the environment, and the native critters at risk as they compete against the introduced species.

I came up with a tail end. The boys call this (rather crudely) his date hole. You can turn the tail around and add a bow for effect. The real tiger had a stripey tail and you can get this effect in variegated yarn. I have done it plain as this photographs much better fro my blog.

And this is little Tasmanian Tiger Kitty.

I designed this square in 2 sizes with the potential to be adapted into a kitty cat as well as a tiger.

The tigers look great on stuff for little boys and I have been making a few hats with tigers on the front. One day when I have finished designing all of these squares I might get round to making an afghan out of them all. At the moment I am enjoying the fun of making little projects with little kids in mind. Our daughters boyfriend is a mad Tigers supporter. She has crossed the floor from Queensland to New South Wales now which is quite risky behaviour!

Tiger Teams always have good colours though. The yellow gold and black is pretty stunning!

My next rugalugs is a Baramundi Fish. So far it looks terrific and I will share it with you soon.

Thanks for looking!

(c) copyright crochetroo 2007. Do not copy or imitate as this is bad karma and your chooks will turn into emus and kick your dunny down!

Cute fruit

Some of you will be familiar with the Beaut Fruit Platter. This has been one of more popular pattern sets. As well as tweaking this one, (there was something a bit strange with the lemon) I have been working on a second set. The second set has been in the making for about the last 8 months. I cant believe it has taken me all year to get to this point!



This little lot of fruit goodness I have decided to call Cute Fruit. While it has been in production for a while now and I have just about finished the write up of the patterns. The family are a bit tired of the half finished bowl sitting around the house for so long! I started it before Christmas when these fruits were available so I could have real fruit models.

I am really pleased at how it is looking though and gives the fruit enthusiast some more crochet fruit to add to the bowl.



Cute Fruit included all the yummy things we get here in our summer which is at Christmas time.

Kiwi Fruit. I just love these little guys. I slice them up and put on the top of the pavlova. Yummo. My sister in law is a kiwi and her mum makes the most delicious Kiwi and Apple Amber pudding. So scrumptious with loads of ice cream.

Next came the avocado. There are a lot of avocado farms in Queensland and we have a plentiful supply of these babies. My brother in law has a farm in the Maleny area and has avocados growing down the back of his property. I enjoy them in a salad, avocado and chicken on a turkish bread or used in mexican dip. I didn't have any real good avocado coloured yarn, but the look is good. This one is pretty easy to work up as it is basically a pear, and then I halved it and added the seed. I wouldn't leave a real cut kiwi or avocado on the fruit bowl, but they are pretty boring until you cut them open. I cant remember either avocados or kiwi fruit when I was growing up, but they are very abundant here now. I have always thought that avocados are an acquired taste.


Then there is the grapes. These are a bit tedious to make but look great in amongst the other fruits. I chose to do seedless white sultana grapes, but purple or black would look pretty cool as well. There are lots of grapes grown here, hence our fabulous wine industry. South Australia is probably the grape centre of Australia.



By this stage the bowl was looking very green and brown, and I felt I needed some colour. Nothing better than stone fruit to liven the kitchen up!

So I created peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines. Most of our stone fruit here comes from the Granite Belt west around the Stanthorpe area. Some comes from Victoria. This time of year there isn't much about, but come the warmer months the shops have plenty to choose from. I am hoping that our recent drought doesn't limit supply too much. The shapes are all fairly similar, it is really a matter of size and colour choice. These were a lot of fun to make and I found lots of stone fruit colours in my stash.

Finally, the other little treat we get in summer are cherries. I remember as a kid going cherry picking in Victoria. Most of our cherries come from down south where the humidity is less and the soil and climate conducive to cherry growing. I did notice earlier this week that US cherries are in the store. The US fruit always seems a bigger to the ones grown here. I don't know if that is because they export the best, or whether they are a different variety.

So now I have a full bowl and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I like the different shapes and colours.

Once the patterns have had a final test I will be listing them as a group on etsy.

Thanks for looking!

(c)crochetroo 2007 please do not copy my photos. Direct links welcome.

Rainbow Lorikeets

This is a picture of a rainbow lorikeet feeding on my deck. We leave wild bird seed out and they don't miss a trick. They visit in large numbers and are spectacular in colour. These fellows are so bloody noisy though! They squabble and fight and leave poop everywhere. But gee they are a stunning creature. I have been working on these guys for a while, trying to recreate a lorikeet in crochet. Getting the body shape and the look was the challenge. I used a bit of creative licence and tried to cutesy them up a bit.






The Rainbow Lorikeet is a small parrot and native to Australia. Colours to try when making rainbow lorikeets include yellows, greens, orange, blue and reds. They have red beaks and red eyes. I can't get red eyes here so had to do with yellow. I think they look a bit evil with the red eyes any way. Sort of like the demon lorikeet.


Surprisingly enough this colourful bird can be hard sometimes to pick out in its natural habitat. They are a small bird generally 11 to 12 inches long, weighing 120 to 140 grams on average females are generally a bit smaller and adolescents have duller markings They are said to live over 20 years in the wild. These guys make a heck of a racket from "screeching" in flight to "chatting" during feeding.

Rainbow lorikeets are found all over the north-east of Australia. Their habitat ranges from forests of all sorts (heathlands, open forests, rainforest) coastal or inland, to any area including urban areas that have suitable trees - and of course my deck.







They are normally found in flocks and make a heck of a racket at feeding time. “move over will ya mate so I can have some seed as well?" "crikey mate I was after that bit". We try and imagine what they are saying, as they a a bit like a noisy family at dinner time.


I have attempted to achieve the look of the rainbow lorikeet without getting too complicated with the pattern. I am amazed at how tame they are as I can walk right up photograph them. This guy was a bit of a poser.

I never get tired of watching these birds. They have a sanctuary here where the birds flock in the thousands at feed time. Quite a spectacle. Interestingly though they have pest status in some areas and aren't real popular with the farmers. Somehow the little blighters found their way to Perth University and were released into the wild in the 60s. The numbers have grown to pest status. They have also made it to New Zealand. A flock of these birds can strip an orchard bare in no time. I believe there are also rainbow lorikeets in the Eastern Coast of the US.

The crochet pattern of the rainbow lorikeet is the latest in my Australian Native Birds series. I did enjoy this one as the colours were so much fun. Thank you to my wonderful testers, the patterns are available on my etsy store. Thanks for looking.

(c) crochetroo. Please do not copy my photos or ideas. I don't like to watermark as it is ugly. Links to this page are fine.