I am not very good at keeping house plants, or garden plants for that matter, alive. I love the look of them and feel so accomplished when I have done some gardening and everything looks admit that making sure they are watered enough does at times get on top of me, especially when it gets really hot as my back yard becomes a real suntrap.
The thought of making some house plants that would need no taking care of really appealed to me and I set about seeing if I could come up with a range of patterns for the different types. Sorting out the different shades of greens was the easy bit along with using google to see what designs other crochet designers were coming up with. Boy, what a stunning range of designs the internet found! Feeling inspired I decided to make first the ball cactus where I was incorporating the rib technique I had used when making my crochet socks. It was so easy to do and with gathering at the top and bottom my first cactus appeared. It was developed further by doing a smaller version and attaching it to make a double ball and also by using a fluffy yarn along the ridges to give the impressions of spikes.
Feeling inspired I set out to make some that were based on a spiral design and also one where I made a rugby ball shape that was then pushed in and twisted to give ridges that were slightly twisted. I also had to do a typical desert type cactus that had "arms" and a cute face of course had to be added.
The finishing touch was to crochet the soil that was to go inside a terracotta pot and glued in firmly to stop it coming out. The pots have been hand painted, initially in an acrylic metallic colour but I am now venturing into doing different colours and adding trim and hand painted designs. The opportunities as they say are endless.
I have loved making my cacti. It really is a good way of using up scraps of yarn and one plant that I am guaranteed not to kill!
