Kirstie returns to our TV's on Tuesday 2nd November for the third series of Channel 4's popular "Kirsties Handmade Home".
It was great to be invited to teach Kirstie to crochet in this the first programme.
So way back last December while Kirstie was in the midst of filming her 'Kirsties Homemade Christmas' shows, Sally and I adorned a top room at the Paradise Pub in Kensal Green, [fab gastro pub] to look like my studio. In practise that meant re-creating yarn covering and hanging from every conceivable corner, surface and crevice. This we did with great aplomb the final effect is not dissimilar to Miss Havisham in a creative frenzy. [So obviously felt immediately more at home.]
The programme project is a crochet box or container, made in inexpensive and readily available string.The stitch is basic double crochet and we cover, holding the hook, [Kirstie is left handed] and the yarn, making a slip knot, making a chain, and double crochet stitch. Turning chains and a little technique as we go and finally fastening off!
Much chat, coffee, delightful gossiping and witty banter is enjoyed along the way, as one can imagine, and the segment is soon 'wrapped,' as the 'twittering' Ms Allsop, [and I mean that in its most current vernacular form], rushes off to bedeck Christmas trees in Oxford Street and leaves us to untangle our hooks and hanks!
Kirstie is creative and dextrous and skilfully mastered the basics of crochet.
The finished project she made is a small box or container, made of five squares of double crochet, finished with an edge of contrast colour. A perfect and practical house gift, to fill with stylish little kitchen aids, a teacloth, scourer, wooden spoon, candles etc, a house plant, or make a shallow tray for the bathroom for sponges, soaps, and oils as a relaxing gift for the house-moving weary.
Experiment with all sorts of fibres, yarns and fabrics- that's the beauty of crochet, so versatile, you can crochet with almost any continuous thread!
Watch this space for more ideas...and check out Kirstie's at
Have been waiting for the weather to turn to be able to justify wearing these mittens at long last! However with utility prices soaring fear will be wearing them a lot more! 
