Cacti Spikes

emma-varnam-cacti-rico

When I started designing the projects for my book; Crocheted Succulents: Cacti and Succulent Projects to Make"". I scouted around my local yarn store for the perfect yarn. It was a happy accident that I came across a new ‘tinsel’ yarn by Rico.

emma-varnam-crocheted-succulents

The minute I picked it up I knew how brilliant it would look attached to a yarn crochet base. It was one of those moments when you rush home and almost immediately reach for the crochet hook, just to see if you instincts are right.

emma-varnam-crocheted-succulents

I had so much fun looking at text books on real cacti and succulents and then see if I could replicate the look in yarn. In fact many of you have started sending my photos of your stealth plants, sat amongst your real houseplants. Not many people can spot the difference.

Making these small amigurumi plants can be a brilliant way of using up your yarn stash. But it can be rather frustrating if you come to the end of your ball and only need a few more metres. Like many other crocheters, I am thrilled that Rico have started making really small balls of yarn in Dk cotton – Ricorumi. Each ball is 25g and the colours are vibrant and perfect for the flowers in my book.

emma-varnam-crocheted-succulents

When it comes to creating the spikes on the cacti, you will be interested to know that the Rico Bubble yarn is really easy to work with. The Cardon Grande Cactus in my book uses a yellow and is crocheted along the ridges of a ribbed length of crochet.

If you want to see me demonstrating the technique. You can pop over to this video tutorial and see how utterly easy it is.

Having collected quite a few colours of Rico Bubble, I fully intend to make some washing up scrubbies both for home and for gifts. They would be perfect for a simple stocking present.

I suppose the moral of the tale, is when you see an unual yarn on the shelves of your yarn shop, don’t dismiss it out of hand. It might just be the spark of creative inspiration you are looking for.

emma-varnam-crocheted-succulents

Rico gifted me some Bubble yarn and Ricorumi – however I have bought many balls of their yarn for the creating and making of Crocheted Succulents and will be happy to do so again.

3 thoughts on “Cacti Spikes”

  1. monique blaive

    hello, in the book, petites plantes à crocheter, I think there is an error for “crassuole rupestre” in the French version.
    thank you for checking and keeping me informed
    the book is great
    friendly

  2. Maryse ROUSSANGE

    Bonjour, j’aime beaucoup le livre sur les plantes, bravo, j’en ai réalisé plusieurs mais je butte sur la page 40. Je vais essayer, je pense que c’est l’inverse, mais sur toutes les mailles, je ne sais pas ? Merci pour votre imagination.

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