Sometimes I struggle to figure out what kind of gift to give friends for special occasions. Now that I am an active crafter my ability to find something special that might also be interesting has improved.
Here's a birthday gift I recently gave Karen to ensure she would never run out of fruit to look at:
All the fruit is crocheted and not knitted; why you might ask? Because crocheting is more conducive to making spherical shapes than knitting. A single crochet stitch is used almost exclusively to make amigurumi, a Japanese crocheting technique, used to create small toys.
I followed a free pattern for the banana, and added the little dark brown marks a banana gets when it matures, and the red delicious apple with its brown stem and green leaf attached. The rest of the fruit bowl was made up/designed on my own. Under the grapes is a lemon with the tiny bumps on each end. The orange was a simple sphere with an embroidered stem (hidden). The kiwi was enjoyable to make because it needed to be a bit fuzzy, so the yarn was really important. Luckily I had some perfect leftover from another project. But it was the grape vine that was the most fun of all. There are approximately 30-40 single grapes strung together with a knitted I-cord. I estimate it took me about 8 hours to make them.
So there it is, a bowl of fruit that won't go bad and remain perfect except for a bit of dust. Finally there's the Japanese bowl purchased specifically to hold the fruit, the most valuable part of the gift.
Here's a birthday gift I recently gave Karen to ensure she would never run out of fruit to look at:
.jpg) |
| Amirugumi Fruit Bowl |
All the fruit is crocheted and not knitted; why you might ask? Because crocheting is more conducive to making spherical shapes than knitting. A single crochet stitch is used almost exclusively to make amigurumi, a Japanese crocheting technique, used to create small toys.
I followed a free pattern for the banana, and added the little dark brown marks a banana gets when it matures, and the red delicious apple with its brown stem and green leaf attached. The rest of the fruit bowl was made up/designed on my own. Under the grapes is a lemon with the tiny bumps on each end. The orange was a simple sphere with an embroidered stem (hidden). The kiwi was enjoyable to make because it needed to be a bit fuzzy, so the yarn was really important. Luckily I had some perfect leftover from another project. But it was the grape vine that was the most fun of all. There are approximately 30-40 single grapes strung together with a knitted I-cord. I estimate it took me about 8 hours to make them.
So there it is, a bowl of fruit that won't go bad and remain perfect except for a bit of dust. Finally there's the Japanese bowl purchased specifically to hold the fruit, the most valuable part of the gift.
Comments
Post a Comment