IKEA Mammut Kid's Furniture Plus Free Crochet Basket Pattern

Rectification of my last post:

As you can read in the comments of my last post I dated my little side table incorrectly. My reader’s information greatly helped my further research which learned me it belongs to the IKEA Mammut product line for children which was created in 1993 by Allan Östgaard and Morten Kjelstrup.

What puzzles me is that the IKEA website tells me the furniture is made of plastic to keep it light weight. Now my little table consists of a thick plate of MDF and hollow metal legs. It’s very heavy and does not make you think of a four year old at all. A teenager’s (Seventies) bed side table seemed more likely. Not defending my initial assumption though, I’m just trying to understand how I was mislead.

The question remains when the product material was changed and what value being the original version could add to my possession. I’d love to hear from you if you know.

Other than that it’s fun to find out the little plastic stool I use in my yard to do bike repairs on is a family member of my ‘night table’.

I read the Mammut line was inspired by cartoon drawings and the stool clearly expresses that. It reminds me of the drawing style of The Smurfs though that must not be necessarily the designers’ source.

Thinking about the Smurfs I remembered the felted basket I created years ago. I could see Smurfette carrying it. This would look great in a little girl's bedroom too!

For fun I add a basic description of the crochet pattern.

You need feltable yarn. When you want to felt crochet can be fairly loose. I used a 4.0 mm (US G) hook. When you don’t want to felt use a smaller hook than yarn would normally take so it becomes tight.

Bottom: flat round in sc, row 1: 6 st. row 2: double to 12. row 3 double to 24, then increase 6 each row. In total 11 rows.

Side: 9 rows of dc + 1 row sc.

Ruffled edge: 3 dc in each stitch.

Handle: cast on 6 dc in sc row just under the ruffle (inside). Make as long as you like and stitch to the other side.

Finish: Machine wash hot and tumble dry. Dry with cloth or rags inside to form shape. Sew edges of handle band together with a support inside. I used a twisted plastic covered copper cord. Flowers are pinned on. I still had them lying around. Flower patters can be found all over the web.

My Dress Dummy II And A Free Scarf Pattern

I still had to show you a better picture of my dress dummy.

Now before I give you the secrets of this lovely scarf let me tell you how I fixed the foot of the dummy. Well very simple: with a cast out old floor fan foot and an aluminium rod, probably a curtain rod. Stuck the rod in the foot and placed the dummy over it (she has a hole underneath, rod sticks through the whole body). Done!

The scarf is crocheted in a bow or net stitch consisting of 5 chains per bow, but you can vary that number as long as it's uneven. The stitch is most commonly used for triangular shawls or net bags, so I thought I'd do something different.

For this scarf I used the small batch of mohair yarn I bought at the Queen's Day Market in 2005. I used a hook number 3,5 (mm) or D (US). With ten bows per row I got a width of about 20 cm or 7.85''. But you can make this design in any gauge you like, make a swatch if you want to measure out the width exactly. The beads are plastic with large holes. A present from a friend who emptied her attic when she moved abroad.

ch: chain stitch

sc: single crochet

Ch 40 (or any number devidable by 4) + 5. Make a sc in ch 37 (so skipping 3 from the beginning point). * Ch 5, sc in the next 4th st. Repeat from * till end of row. * Turn the work, ch 5, sc under the middle ch of the previous bow. Repeat from *. Make as long as you like. Crochet one row with 3 ch (only first bow is still 5) instead of 5 to make a straight edge. Cast off and work in loose ends.

Fringes: thread 10 (or equal to the number of bows in each row) beads on your yarn. Start to work from the sc of the last row, * ch 10, pull up one bead, ch 1 around it, ch 10, sc in the next sc. Repeat from *. End in (not under, to keep it better in place) middle ch of the 5 ch bow). Repeat on other side. Note that you're working from the upside down here and your ending is in ch number 40 of your starting chain.

The non-crafty among you can purchase the scarf in my Etsy shop.

Yarn Leftovers - Free Coaster/Flower Crochet Pattern

Don't throw away your yarn scraps as the previous owner of this lot did! Though maybe the (presumably a) lady gave up her (knitting) hobby altogether as she threw out her cable needle as well, I think it's more likely she just forgot that was still in the plastic bag too that I picked up from the curb about two months ago.

Search the internet and you will find lots of free patterns for flowers, coasters, appliques and such. Tiny projects to use up your leftovers or otherwise keep them for little accents in larger projects.

In the first picture I can't even show all the yarn I found because I've used up some of it already. I made this set of reusable face scrubbies from one of the larger balls of cotton yarn that came with it. This set is currently for sale in my Etsy shop. You can make your own and save money on cotton pads by crocheting flat rounds of dc with a trim in any fantasy stitch you like.

If you don't want to look further here's a crochet pattern for a flat flower shaped round that I like a lot and takes only a few grams of yarn each. The design is not my own, but I translated it in English from a crochet book I had as a child and is at least forty years old. These two are part of a set with a larger variation for sale in my Etsy shop.

You can use them as coasters in a thicker cotton yarn, but thin cotton thread will make great appliques. Or, done in seasonal colours or sparkly shiny material even hang them in your Christmas tree! Weave a ribbon through if you like (imagine that here) and starch if necessary.

My abbreviations (in universal terminology; BE readers pls look up conversion charts USA>>BE):

ch - chain stitch (Dutch: losse)

ss - slip stitch (Dutch: halve vaste)

sc - single crochet (Dutch: vaste)

dc - double crochet (Dutch: stokje)

Start: 6 ch, close as a ring with a ss.

Row 1: 2 ch, 23 dc under the starting ch, close with a ss in the 2nd ch of the beginning of this row.

Tip: Find it difficult to fit 23 dc in? Make about 6 at a time then pull them back tightly between thumb an index finger, make the next 6 and repeat.

Row 2: 4 ch, 1 dc in the closing ss of the previous row; 1 ch. *skip 2 st; in the next st: 1 dc, 2 ch, 1 dc; 1 ch*. Repeat 7x from *to*. Close row with a ss in 2nd ch (of 4) of the start.

Row 3: 2 ch; 1 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc under the 2 ch of the previous row; 1 sc under the 1 ch. *2 dc, 2 ch, 2 dc as before; 1 sc as before*. Repeat 7x from *to*. Close row with a ss in 2nd ch (of 2) of the start.

Row 4: No build up with ch as before; directly 3 dc, 1 ch, 3 dc under the 2 ch of the previous row; 1 sc to the left and right of the sc of the previous row. Repeat 8x and close with a ss in the first st of the row. Bind off or crochet a loop if you want to hang it up, then bind off.