I had a bowl of hot soup for lunch on Wednesday. It was "Moreish Mexican Chilli Bean" soup and was delicious, mmmmm. I would like to tell you that it's a terrific homemade recipe that I knocked up, but I would be fibbing. I don't really do homemade soups, I just cannot face all that chopping and prepping. So I go with the Opening The Carton approach.
There. Hot soup that taste's (almost) like homemade in a couple of minutes flat. After lunch whilst I was in the kitchen tidying away, I was hit with an idea. It came visually flying into my mind, whoooosh (which is happening a lot these days, love love loving all the Creative Vibes I'm getting!)
So instead of flattening the carton and slinging it in the bin, I rinsed it out, measured it, double checked the measurements, then set to work hooking up a jacket to wrap around it. I used exactly the same method as I did for the tuna tins, only of course I made many more stripes. I had a huge amount of fun playing with the colours, working the stripes through a sort of earth~grass~sky~clouds type of idea.
But as lovely and delicious as the stripes were, I had something else to add.
A flower. A simple circle, with a stem and two leaves. A few buttons for extra detail.
I stitched the shapes to the stripes using ordinary sewing cotton and tiny stitches so that they were invisible. I stitched the stem first, then the leaves, then the flower on top. Afterwards, when everything was attached in place, I used the Rowan cotton yarn and a darning needle to add a bit of chunky decorative stitching on top. Little straight stitches radiating out from the flower, and a line of backstitch running up the centre of each leaf.
I love decorative stitching. Whenever I do it, I always tell myself I should do more of it (I thought this when I stitched my Jolly Festive bunting letters)
There you go, there it is with all the stitching finished.
So. Can you see where this is going?
You know this is a wrap for my empty soup carton. And you know if you took note of the post title that this is going to have something to do with herbs, right?
Fresh Parsley to be precise. I'd love to hear how you buy fresh herbs in other parts of the world? Here in the UK, we have a choice. We can either buy a pre-packed cut bunch of them, or we can buy fresh living herbs growing in a pot, like the parsley in the picture above.
I like the idea of living herbs, but truthfully they are very flopsy, leggy little plantlets in an insubstantial plastic square pot. They flop and droop and look all sad if you take the plastic wrapper off. So my idea was to make a pretty container for them to stand in. Something tall enough to hide and support the thin leggy stems.
And the soup carton happened to be the perfect size and shape. Absolutely perrrrrfect.
Before I could slip the parsely pot inside it's new home, I took some scissors and trimmed the rim of the pot off. It was just a smidge too big to fit with the rim left on. It was easy to cut as the plastic is very thin indeed. I was all prepared to do battle with the scissors, but no need.
So shall we have a little ta-dah moment now?
Ok.
Here it comes...............
Ta-DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One crochet herb pot. Complete with insect life. Aww I couldn't resist adding the little bee button, I've had him sat in my button box for such a long time with no real hope for his future. The bee came as part of a mixed pack of small insect buttons which I bought (along with quite a few others) many years ago. They're called "Dress It Up" buttons and there are hundreds of designs to choose from. Easy to find them online if you like this sort of thing (which I really do)....see here for bees and other critters.
I'm really, really happy with my herb pot. Like ridiculously happy with it.
I love it cos it turned out just the way I had in mind, and it does the job so beautifully. And I love it cos it's sparked off yet another idea............
........I'm thinking about a long, rectangular stripy cushion with a whole row of appliqué crochet flowers. Kind of like Caroline's paper flowers but in crochet form. A flower garden cushion. Oooooooooo how exciting!!!
Buzz buzz buzz. So many ideas buzzing in! Where on earth are they coming from? I could really do with a bit of a let up now so that I can settle back down with my ripple.
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ps :: about the soup carton. You don't have to use a soup carton. It could be any sort of carton with the right dimensions. In the UK, we have almost identical sized cartons for many of our liquid products including fresh fruit juice and long life milk. I know this cos I went round the supermarket with Little Man's animal ruler to measure all the cartons I could find. Yeah I know.
x
Edit to add :: the yarn I used here is Rowan Handknit Cotton dk. It's a lovely, soft cotton yarn in beautiful colours, and I love it for decorative projects because it holds it's shape so well. It produces a soft but slightly stiff material, unlike the Rico Creative cotton which produces a soft but floppy material, if that makes sense. I've also gone down to a 3.5mm hook instead of the usual 4mm to make the stitches nice and tight. Rowan yarn is quite expensive at around £3.60 for a 50g ball. But I adore working with it and will always have a basket of it in my cupboard. I sometimes look on ebay to buy up odd balls of discontinued colours which are often much cheaper. I would be interested to know what cotton yarns are available in the US which might compare? x
This looks brilliant. I am wondering how you came up with the idea. Thanks for sharing. Herb pot is looking healthy.
Posted by: Maria | October 27, 2019 at 02:37 PM
Is there a pattern instruction for the herb pot ? It's a super idea.
Posted by: Sue Christou | January 20, 2015 at 09:15 PM
Herb pot fantastic.
Posted by: Drusilla | January 11, 2014 at 06:54 PM
merveilleuse idée :)) j'adore !!
Posted by: Benedicte | November 10, 2013 at 10:58 AM
Dobrý nápad, zdravím z České republiky!!!
Posted by: Lucie Karasová | November 09, 2013 at 09:18 PM
Oh Yes very inspired Love it! Dxx
Posted by: CraftyDawn | July 12, 2013 at 08:29 AM
ab fab! so lovely and summery!
ps can you give us overseas people an addy for the yarnbombing so that we can send you our triangles, otherwise the post takes ages sometimes and they wont get there in time? cheers krissie @everyday things
Posted by: everyday things | July 12, 2013 at 04:32 AM
I absolutely love your crochet projects, they are all oh so pretty and inspiring. I honestly think you should write a book, with your talent and detail for instructions, it would be a smash hit!!
I love your yarn color selections and the details you add to make your projects pop. I love the bee button on this, it adds just the right whimsy!
Posted by: Joanne | July 11, 2013 at 04:27 PM
Oh how I needed that! It is SPECTACULAR!!
Posted by: Elaine | July 11, 2013 at 03:53 PM
You are so completely gifted and talented....your blog is... aaaahhhhmazing!!!!
Posted by: Michaelle Causley | March 24, 2013 at 04:33 PM
Habitually admired your website. Looking ahead to new things in your website! A lot of thanks for your nice sharing.
Posted by: Herbal Incense | March 14, 2013 at 06:29 PM
I just made one of these!! Love it! Used a milk carton. Thank you for sharing xx xx xx
Posted by: Mary Wright | February 17, 2013 at 10:39 PM
So cute, thanks for sharing
Posted by: Sarah | January 12, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Anyone out there know an equivalent to Rico creative cotton in New Zealand? I like the look this yarn gives- less fluff.
Posted by: Lisa | June 20, 2012 at 11:35 PM
Have you tried Elann.com ? They are based in Canada. I've used their "Sonata". Very nice colors as well :)
Posted by: Diane | February 24, 2012 at 06:35 PM
omgoodness i always have these soups i'm so going to make some of these, thank you so much for sharing x
Posted by: deanne | February 17, 2012 at 11:04 PM
You asked about cotton yarn in the U.S. ... I like to use Peaches & Creme...
Posted by: Angela Duvall | February 13, 2012 at 07:13 PM
Hello how are you? Good idea, I love for my cactus. What a beautiful blog you have and beautiful fabrics. I love your blankets to Roxy soon
Posted by: Roxy | February 08, 2012 at 02:11 PM
hi lucy i love the carton jacket and the flower is brilliant,is there any chance you could do a tutorial for us beginners please,i am very slowly picking up crochet with the help of your tutorials and pictures.
thank you
Angie
Posted by: angie | February 06, 2012 at 06:25 PM
Wonderful!!
Posted by: Veronica | February 04, 2012 at 09:24 PM
Lindo! Parabéns!
Posted by: Ielda Jesus | February 04, 2012 at 02:12 AM
Great job!
Hugs
Posted by: Sônia Maria | February 03, 2012 at 09:37 PM
Recycling can be such colourful fun!!
Posted by: Heike | February 02, 2012 at 04:51 PM
Great idea! Unfortunately here in Spain we can only buy ready cut herbs from the market, none in the supermarkets, but some of the garden centres sell little pots of growing herbs. I will have to adapt a bit to the sizes but its do-able. Thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by: Julia Nunn | February 01, 2012 at 11:26 AM
vedry cute and I love the bee, I am like that I have a ton of buttons and don't use them very often but I have started to add them to my projects. In the US I like to use Egyptian cotton yarn it is soft and sturdy and has a lot fo bright colors. But my fav yarn shop went out of business so I have to find it online. I also like Omega Cotton :) great idea about putting the herbs in this container.
Posted by: DaCraftyLady | February 01, 2012 at 04:20 AM