Today's Happening

Remembrance

There's only a couple weeks until Remembrance, with Remembrance day on Wednesday 11th November and Remembrance Sunday on the 8th. As it may be harder to buy poppies this year with Coronavirus, you could make some instead to commemorate the lives lost. Today, I thought I would take you through a few different ways to make poppies.

Crochet

 To make a crocheted poppy, you need:

• Double knit yarn
• An appropriate sized crochet hook - the looser your tension, the thinner the hook. I will be using 3.5mm
• Scissors
• A sewing up needle
• A black button

If you are already an experienced crocheter, click here to find the instructions in short, where you can also find the instructions for knitted poppies and Christmas decorations.

To start, create a slip knot. Below are some photos to show you how to do that. For a written explanation, click here.

Then, do a chain by wrapping the yarn around the hook once and pulling this loop through the original stitch. Do this three times.

After that, you need to attach the two ends of the chain together to create a circle. To do this, insert your hook into the beginning of the chain, wrap the yarn around the hook once and pull this loop through both stitches, leaving just one loop on the hook. This stitch is known as a slip stitch.

Doing this should create a ring with a small hole, a bit like a tiny doughnut. For the next stage, you will need to start by putting your hook through the centre of this ring. Next, wrap the yarn around the hook once and pull this through just the ring, not the other stitch. You should be left with two stitches. After that, wrap the yarn around the hook again and pull this through all the stitches. This whole process is called a double crochet.

Do ten more of these into your ring, then do a slip stitch to attach your last to your first. This should create a circle that looks a little like this.

**************************************************************************************************
Then, chain two. This should make the ball look like it is hanging with string, a bit like a Christmas bauble (it is never too early to think Christmas!).

For the next stitch, you will need to wrap the yarn around the hook before going into your first stitch, wrapping the yarn around the hook again, pulling through one stitch, wrapping again, pulling through two, wrapping once more and pulling through two stitches, leaving only one on your hook. Now, this may sound very complicated but in reality, it is a lot easier than it seems. Here are some photos to help break down the steps.

This process is called a treble crochet. Do two in each stitch for four stitches. Then, do two chains and a slip stitch in the bottom of the last stitch. 

Well done - you have crocheted your first petal! This is what it should look like.

Now, repeat from the line of *s to here two more times to create two more petals. Once you have done that, cut off the yarn leaving about 10cm and thread this through your final stitch to tighten. It should look something like this

Finally, sew in the ends and add a black button to the middle. 

Plastic

For this you will need:

• A milk bottle
• Scissors
• Acrylic paint in green, black (optional) and one other colour of your choice
• A felt tip or biro
• Stapler or glue

To start, get rid of the plastic label and cut off the top and base of the milk bottle, as you will not be needing any of these. The bottle should look something like this.

Then, cut a straight, vertical line in the tube to make it more like a rectangle.

On this circle, draw and cut out one circle and two leaves. If you wish, you could cut a few small triangles around the edge of the circle.

Then, paint your poppy and leaves. I chose to make my first poppy black to represent how people of colour were treated in the World Wars and my second poppy multicoloured to represent a range of groups. Finally, once it has dried, staple or glue your leaves to your poppy. If you wish, you could also give your poppy a centre using a circle of black paint or a painted bottle lid.

The Poppy Appeal

Whilst making poppies is a great way to remember, it is important to help the modern day Poppy Appeal as well if possible. The Poppy Appeal, led by the Royal British Legion, supports war veterans both financially and socially. With COVID-19, it is now more important than ever to look after people's mental health and wellbeing, as lockdown has made it that bit harder for people in this situation to reach out when they need to. So, if you can, please do donate to the Royal British Legion by clicking here. This link allows you to donate a monthly amount or make a one-off payment.

That's all from me - happy crafting!
Caiti