The plant that can’t die – a crocheted cactus

     My sister can’t keep a plant alive – she really can’t. Somehow, she’s even managed to kill a cactus, letting it shrivel up because she forgot to water it. Well, I decided that for Christmas I would get her something she really couldn’t kill – I would make her a cactus from yarn!

     I have to say, I’m actually really happy with how this little project came out. Usually I feel ‘meh’ about the things I make but I think this one turned out well.

     I started with the cacti, finding a suitable green yarn (harder than you’d think!), and crocheting squares in a ribbed pattern.

     By the way, I learned to crochet from just watching YouTube videos and paying attention to how to do things for certain projects – didn’t, however, pay any attention to any of the terms so I swear, I know how to crochet – I just can’t explain anything about it!

     Anyway, I crocheted squares, sewed the ends together to make tubes, sewed the tops closed, stuffed them with pillow stuffing and then sewed the bottoms closed. I wasn’t working from any measurements, just eyeing it as I went.

     I did know though that I wanted three different heights because I thought a small, medium and large cactus would look nice sitting in a pot together.

     For the flowers, I rummaged through my stash for pink yarn and used the only ones I had. They’re completely different types of yarn but that’s okay for me – I’m not too fussy.

     I crocheted some very simple flowers to pop on the tops of the cacti but they looked a bit too simple so that’s when the second layer of the flowers came in. I crocheted smaller ones to add on top, or in the case of one of them, just made a circle to pop on – I think I get away with it not having distinct petals!

     I attached the two flowers together with some yellow thread which I then used to make a rough yellow centre for the flowers. I think it helps bring it together and actually make it look like a flower.

     Oh yes, I did attached the flowers before I stuffed the cacti but if you stuff the cacti first, you can always hot glue the flowers on.

     Now, turns out finding the pot was the hardest part of this craft – seriously, several of the garden stores I checked (well, had my mom check), didn’t have any of these simple pots! Eventually I found one though and it only cost a few euro. To get the plants sitting at the right height in the pot, I added some pillow stuffing to the bottom. Then, as I knew I would be adding the stones in and didn’t want them sinking down the sides and to the bottom, I placed a sheet of crepe paper into the pot over the stuffing and hot glued it all around the edges so that the little stones can’t seep down. The hot glue got a little messy at times and you can still see it in parts but it really was invaluable for this project!

     With the hot glue edge done, I stuck the cacti into the pot, using more hot glue, and even used some hot glue to stick the cacti together so that they wouldn’t lean too far from each other. You can see the hot glue if you look for it but only really if you’re up close.

     With that done, it was time to add the stones. I had two jars of these and I used about one and a half. I actually don’t know why I had these because I didn’t pick them up – they were just there, in my craft room. I think they came from a store called Meadows and Byrne and cost €2 a jar. Well, I’m sure that you can find stones in garden stores or places like that. Or you could use beads if you’re stuck – or head to the beach and get some stones.

     To finish off my cactus, I tied a large bow around the pot but I forgot to photograph that.

     All in all, this isn’t a very difficult thing to make – as long as you know how to crochet and have a hot glue gun. Well, I’m sure other people could do this without a hot glue gun. I couldn’t. But I’m sure it’s possible.