Rebecca and Bithiah

Hello all,

I am proud to say that Inside Crochet have published 2 more of my patterns. I have created 2 animal called Rebecca and Bithiah. The patterns started last year just before Christmas, I made the mistake from the year before of knitting large gifts for each of my friends and family. My gifts ranged from gloves to socks.......the issue at the time was that I kept forgetting that I needed to make each thing twice. I decided that I wanted to create something smaller and quicker to make. This is where I decided to make an army of animals for each person. I decided to make each of my friends an animal which I thought represented them and name it after them. 

The fox is named after my sister Rebecca or Beccy. Beccy has been there a lot for me and helped me through the good and bad times. She has always supported me no matter what. She is also the mother of my nephew Ben (the one I created Benjamin's Bunting for). My sister liked items with fox designs on it and I thought it would be appropriate to make her own. 

Bithiah is someone who I went to university with. She is extremely lively and a joy to be around. Bithiah helped me through my degree and has been a great friend ever since I met her. We lived together in halls and now we meet every week for hula hooping practice. As she is such a lively character it made me think a squirrel would really suit her.

I enjoyed using Drops Safran yarn as the colours are extremely vibrant and comfortable to work with. I like the range and also the price makes the project extremely affordable. It was a pleasure to create and I hope to share some more of my makes at a later date. 

Another yarn that I have been enjoying is West Yorkshire Spinner Rum Paradise. It is multicoloured but so bright and cheerful. I am working on some designs with them!!!

I am looking forward to going to wool@j13 over the next weekend. I have signed up to a broomstick crochet workshop and have a good look at all of the yarn there. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope you can join me!!!!! 

Well lets get back to it!!!

until next time

Happy crafting

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Tunisian Cushion

Hello all,

I'm back from my break and now I'm knitting up a storm :)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the latest issue of Inside crochet had been released and had arrived at my front door. Inside it contained my latest Tunisian Crochet Pattern  'Geo Cushion'. This project started months ago.

I was travelling to Reading to visit my sister and look one of my usual detours to Yarnfest. This is a lovely shop in an area called Hermitage and stocks a lot of gorgeous yarn. Another reason that a visit is necessary is for the opportunity to meet Ozzy the dog. Ozzy guided me to the yarn I just had to have. This was quite early in the year but summer was on my mind and I found that West Yorkshire Spinners had a gorgeous selection of colours. The way the shelf was stacked had the green and pink together and I loved the combination. It made me think of a watermelon and I knew I had to buy this yarn for something.................I was not heavily influenced by Ozzy's puppy eyes!!!!!!!!


Once back home I began to plot my pattern. I wanted something that would challenge me and develop a new skill. This is when I went to You Tube for Knitspiration. I came across an American crocheter (cannot think who it was) who had made a Super Mario blanket using colour work in Tunisian crochet. Using the different colours seemed to be similar to how a knitter does Intarsia Knitting. The video did guide me to twist the yarn at each colour change to ensure there are no holes. 


With this in mind I decided to look back at an old patchwork book I had for a design idea. The one I selected was a star design. To sew this up it would involve 12 square which was a triangle that was half one colour and half another. If you look carefully at the patter you may see how these square would be put together. I actually did a tension square (I know !!!) to work out the sizing of my work. I had a spare cushion that was in desperate need of dressing and from there the pattern was created.

I emailed my idea to Claire from Inside Crochet and the design and it was a Tunisian cushion which happened to match the theme for an issue of the magazine. I really enjoyed this project and hope to use this technique again for a later design. 

I went to Guthrie and Ghani's Knit Night on Thursday and really enjoyed it. I love the atmosphere of the shop and how relaxed knit night is there. It was a nice place to focus on my latest design involving Tunisian Crochet in the round. Lauren stocks Rico and now Milla Mia yarn in a vast range of colours. There are also a number of different weight yarn available too. I have found much knitpiration here previously as this is where I brought the yarn from Benjamin's Bunting and Nice and Cosy. The next Knit night is on 30th July and well worth a visit :)

Right.........back to work 

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Benjamin's Bunting

Hello all,

I hope you are all well. I have been knitting and crocheting like mad lately. I am proud to announce that Inside Crochet have once again published one of my patterns.

This piece is called Benjamin's bunting. The idea came about as my sister was pregnant with my nephew and said that she hoped her child would love dinosaurs. I am unsure if she wanted her child to turn out like Ross from friends but I thought it would be an interesting hobby for him to pursue. I didn't know what to make her for so I offered to make a baby blanket. She found a knitted design that she liked and I decided that I would like to create one that was crocheted. I found it quicker to create patches and I had to create the dinosaurs to add to the piece. Once I had completed the blanket my sister was thrilled.

I then thought that since I had the crochet dinosaurs, I would be able to adapt the design to make a bunting. The original idea for the bunting was that it was blue, yellow and red. I contacted Claire from Inside Crochet who loved the creation and suggested to use greens instead. I felt that this was a great idea as it was more soothing. 

To get the yarn required I visited the lovely Guthrie and Ghani in Birmingham where there was all the colours I needed in the Rico yarn. This shop is great for inspiration and I would recommend anyone to visit and also do any workshops there. 

One issue I had with the design was that the dinosaurs tended to curl. I contacted Claire for advice and she suggested doing a slip stitch to reduce this. This was the best advice that I had and found this to solve the issue. 

I completed the design and it was around this time that my nephew was born and his name is Benjamin. The ironic thing was the day I sent off the project to the magazine was the day that Benjamin arrived safely into the world. I wanted to dedicate this project to him so hence the name. The biggest challenge was keeping the project a secret from my sister as I wanted it to be a surprise. Now the magazine is released, and available in all good shops, I was able to show her and she was honored. The photo for this blog has been kindly provided by Inside Crochet

To this day, this is my favorite published piece and I hope it can bring much joy to others. 

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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