Hand Made Gifts

I love giving and receiving handmade gifts, a lot of thought and love goes into them which makes them that extra bit special.

I always try to make something small for everyone I give gifts to as a compliment to their store bought gift, this week was Mr. Pea's Mums turn, in the past I have made her amigurumi bunnies, she loves bunnies so it's a win. This year I figured I should present her with something different.

I had a look through Pinterest for some inspiration and kept coming across jam jars with tea light candles in or potted with flowers, each style adorned with cute crocheted jackets. 

How could I resist such a fun project? I couldn't of course!

All I had to get from the shops was a large Kilner jar and a house plant, I managed to get both items in Wilkinson (or Wilko, not sure what to call it these days). The plant I got was a Bromeliead, makes for a good house plant apparently, it's big pretty flower was the main selling point for me.

For the jar jacket I already had some balls of Rico essential cotton from my last Deramores splurge, I chose pink and red, I originally made one in green but found out Pea's mum hates green with a burning passion, so I had to decide again, I figured pink and red would be a good choice as the Bromeliead had a red flower! I made it just the right size to fit into the lines on the jar where I guessed a jam label could go, Pea's mum makes jam, a crochet jam label jacket seemed a fitting choice.

It's so easy to make, there are loads of different stitches which can be used to make the jacket, I decided to use the shell stitch as I love how it looks when 2 colours are used, the stitch is pretty basic so it was a nice easy make!

Crochet Jar Cover

Shell stitch for anyone who landed here in the hopes of finding the pattern:

Chain desired amount, shell stitch is worked in multiples of  6 + 1

1st Row: 1sc in 2nd chain from hook, *skip 2 chains, dc 5 times in next chain, skip 2 chains, 1sc in next chain* Repeat from * to * if you are changing colour for the next row do this in the last part of the last sc in the chain.

2nd Row: Chain 3 and turn, dc 2 times in the stitch in the chain 3, *skip 2 stitches, sc in next stitch (which will be in the middle of your shell beneath), skip 2 stitches, dc 5 times in next stitch* Repeat from * to * when you get to the end dc 3 into last stitch instead of 6.

3rd Row: Chain, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat 1st row from * to * continue to alternate between rows 1 and 2 to desired length.