Sweetpea Dreaming

Hello.......... Seeing as it's been so cold lately I thought it was the perfect time to share this project with you.  I made this hot water bottle cover as a crafty secret santa make.

First up I selected some yarns, in pretty sweet pea hues, the only info I had about the recipient was that they liked pinks and blues and vintage things, so I thought a granny chic hot water bottle would be just the thing.

The only problem was I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I decided to just to make it up as I went, first up I made six plain granny squares for the back of the hot water bottle.

 Then I made six of these pretty, summer garden granny squares, in sweet pea tones which I

surrounded with blue sky for the front. I used Lucy over at attic24 pattern for the squares which you can find 'here' 

I've secretly been wanting to make a blanket from these squares, using these sweet pea tones for a few years now, so this was a good compromise, as I really can't be starting yet another blanket.

I then stitched the two panels, using the seamless method.

Then I  came to the part where I had no plan, so winging it, I decided to join the two sides with double crochet.

Once that was done it was onto neck, for which I first double crocheted along the top of both sides stopping just before the neck, before working rounds of half trebles, up the neck of the hot water bottle, as you can see I place a stitch marker at the start of each round so I could keep track of where I was.

(Sorry about the lighting in some of the photo's you can tell it was during the darkest days of December that I made this.)

So I just kept adding rounds of half trebles (uk terms) until I'd covered the neck.

I then added three buttons along the bottom of the inside of the back of the cover, the great thing about crochet is no button holes !!! as they simply button up through one of the spaces.

Nearly there I just had to sew in the dreaded ends

and add a cute little ribbon to the neck.

Ta-Dah

 One 'oh so cosy' hot water bottle

Here's a pic of the back too.

I do hope the recipient likes it.

Happy Crafting

Clare xxx