Well we are now at the end of week 2 of our lockdown in the UK and it seems our new life is starting to become the norm. We have our new little routine in the day, which we don’t always keep to, but it’s there if we need it. It seems to mainly consist of snack and meal times. My two are still eating me out of house and home! I can’t keep up with them! It’s like they have hollow legs! They definitely seem to have settled into lockdown life now. My daughter has taken the whole thing in her stride. She’s quite happy bimbling around the house and garden most days. Bless her.

We are very lucky that we have quite a long drive which is on a bit of hill. So push along tractor & car races, seem to be a daily occurrence now. The other day I even managed to do a little crocheting while I was standing there. Not easy when you are catching them at the end of the race, but it was manageable. (Thank goodness for pockets!) I did have a very odd look from my husband though, but he knows me well enough that if there’s a chance to crochet, then I will take it.

We’ve had a good sort out of all our playmobil and what’s the best way to do this, set up your very own playmobil island!! Hee hee! I’m not just a big kid, honest!! I even found a place for my cuppa! Whoops!! Can you spot it!

I’m trying to fit in a range of activities throughout the day, but the best ones that I love are the crafting or cooking afternoons. You can’t beat a spot of sticking and glueing. And the kids love painting too. The baking on the other hand, always has the added bonus of being able to demolish the end product with deep satisfaction. As my son, well both of them really, love baking, I reckon we could make something most days.

Now I seem to becoming a little bit obsessed with sourdough bread. I used to make it quite a bit when we we’re in our old house. It was my go to bread recipe. So for those of you who don’t know, sourdough is only made with 3 ingredients – strong bread flour, water & some sourdough starter. Now it’s the sourdough starter that makes it special. The starter, otherwise known as the mother, is basically a pot with fermented dough, in which you take some out each time you use it and then feed it again and let it sit out to bubble up. It’s an alive mixture, so instead of needing dried yeast, it gets its yeast from the surrounding air.

You know it’s happy, when it bubbles up the jar! These are the bubbles that I have been obsessing over for the last week or so. So when it properly starting bubbling, I was really chuffed. Especially when this happened- it went nuts!!

Whoops!!

Sourdough bread has many benefits. The main benefit for me is the lack of sugar. It only has naturally occurring sugar from the flour and obviously if you use brown flour then it’s a win win all round. Ok, so science bit coming up. The reason it is so special is that the dough is fermented from the naturally occurring yeast and lactobacilli that’s present. The lactobacilli is the reason why it lasts so much longer than a normal loaf. (Well, I say last longer, but to be honest, it goes in a matter of minutes in our house!!) The lactobacilli creates lactic acid, which helps it to keep for longer and also gives it that sour kind of flavour.

Now for some reason my little starter was not playing ball and I had 2 rather awful failed attempts. I think it was just having a bad few days. Now I nurtured this little starter for a good week or so and have finally cracked it!! Phew! I think my husband thinks I am going mad and yes I may have taken it upstairs with us when we went to bed. But in my defence it was warmer up there! It needed warmth!!

Funny, well anyways, here’s my first successful loaf. Nom nom!! There’s some great recipes on the Internet for sourdough, so if anyone is struggling to buy dried yeast or bread for that matter, then this is your answer. I’ve used the yachtchefs method of cooking mine. You can find him on Instagram. It’s well worth a go and very satisfying when it works!!

Anyways, on to the crocheting…

So this is my little Easter Egg called Egglebert. Even though he is the same size as an egg, don’t underestimate him as he has a wicked boing on him. He can boing around a room for ages. He literally doesn’t stop all day. He’s hard to catch, but once you have, he will snuggle into the palm of your hand and keep you safe. So if you would like to make this strong little egg, then here’s his pattern.

Egglebert is my first little pattern for the beautiful yarn from Abby over at Luxury Yarns. I will also be sharing a baby comforter pattern next week too. I subscribe to Abby’s Ōil Yarns Club every couple of months, which provides me with a magical parcel arriving on my door step filled with the delights of yarny heaven and essential oils every few months!!!

It’s definitely something I look forward to!! Here’s the link.

https://luxuryyarns.co.uk/oilyarns-club/

So for this little egg I have used a 3mm hook with about 30g of double knit yarn. You will also need some scissors, blunt ended needle, toy stuffing a small bit of black yarn for your face and finally some white yarn hit the hair. I think he’s hiding for someone to find him.

Stitches –

Slip Stitch (ss) – This is where there is no height to the stitch. It’s usually used to join rounds. So insert the hook into the front of the stitch you are joining to. This is usually the first stitch you made in that round/row. So yarn over hook and pull through that first stitch then also through the loop on your hook.

Chain stitch (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the loop. Insert your hook through the loop and grab the working yarn (long piece) and pull through the loop. Hold the tail and the working yarn and pull so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Double Crochet Decrease (2dctog) – This is where you crochet two stitches together to decrease the amount of stitches in the round. So insert the hook through the front of the first stitch only (the front V) and then insert again through the front of the second stitch (the front V). Now yarn over your hook and pull it back through both stitches, so you will then have 2 loops on your hook. Yarn over your hook again and pull through both loops. And there is your 2dctog. (Basically 2 double crochet stitches crocheted together.)

Ok so here we go…

Body –

1 – Make a magic ring, ch1, then work 6dc into the ring. Then pull the tail tight. (6)

2 – *2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (12)

3 – *1dc, then 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (18)

4 – *2dc, then 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (24)

5 – *3dc, then 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (30) 

6 – 8 (3 rounds) Work 1dc in each stitch. (30)

9 – *4dc, then 2dc into each stitch.* Work ** 6 times. (36)

10 – 11 (2 rounds) Work 1dc in each stitch. (36)

12 – *4dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 6 times. (30)

13 – *8dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (27)

14 – *7dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (24)

15 – *6dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (21)

16 – *5dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (18)

17 – Work 1dc in each stitch. (18)
This is a good time to stuff your body.

18 – *4dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (15)

19 – Work 1dc in each stitch. (15)

20 – *3dc, then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (12)

21 – *2dc then 2dctog.* Work ** 3 times. (9)

22 – Finally work 1dc in each stitch. (9) Then slip stitch into next stitch and sew up the hole and fasten off. Don’t forget to sew in your end.

Hair – use your white/cream yarn

Now for that lovely hair.

Attach your yarn with a slip stitch, by inserting your hook through one of the top stitches and pull through.

You can make a little slip knot here to pull through which will make it even more secure. Now make a chain stitch.

Then *chain 10.

Then join this chain of stitches with a slip stitch into another stitch.

Repeat ** this process till you have as much hair as you would like.

When you have enough hair just simply slip stitch into the nearest stitch and the cut your yarn and pull through the tail and fasten off. Sew in yarn ends. 

Face – Use your black yarn and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

For the eyes. Attach by knotting one end and threading it through a gap in between a stitch at the back of the body. This will hide the end. Now pull the needle through where you would like the eye to be.

I tend to sew over 1 or 2 stitches to make the eye and sew over this stitch about 3 times.

Then move across and complete the next eye in the same way, checking that both eyes are in the correct place on the body. You can add eyebrows in the same way as the eyes, but with one stitch. I love the simpleness of the eyebrows. They can make such a difference to a face!!

For the mouth. Pull the yarn through where you would like the mouth to start then thread back through where you want the mouth to finish. Now here’s the tricky part. You now need to anchor the mouth in the middle to make it a smile.

So simply push the yarn back up in the middle of the mouth by one stitch lower, go over the top of the mouth, then back through the same stitch.

This will give you the smile. Again, simple, but effective.

And there you have it, one little Egglebert.

As always, if there are any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to ask. Can’t wait to see all of your creations. Don’t forget to share them. You can use the hash tag #egglebert

Thanks ever so much for following me.

Now, as with all my patterns, they are all here for you to enjoy. And in exchange for these patterns, I would be very grateful if you could give, however little, a donation to our chosen charity Child Bereavement UK. This is an incredible Charity, that was been close to our hearts for a few years now. I cannot imagine how important the work they do is to the families that help. So if you can, however small, donate to the charity, in exchange for my pattern, then I would be so grateful. Thank you. Here’s the link to the Just Giving Page

Wishing you all health and happiness in these scary times.

Stay Safe Everyone!!!

Happy hooking.

🌈Xx

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)