Autumn and the hunt for the missing leg

Hello all,

The weather appears to be changing quite quickly and I am currently............. freezing!!!!!!!! For a knitter, the change in season is great as it brings back more motivation to make woolly goods. I have completed my Christmas project for my sister.......with a lot of yarn left over, so I will need to think what other present I can create with yummy chunky yarn.

I have also finally completed my West Yorkshire Spinner's Mallard socks :) They are fabulous and really warm. I like the colour combinations and I feel they may come on holiday with me to the caravan. I have successfully recovered from the second sock syndrome and back to good health. I am now on my next project. 

Work has started on my nephew's dinosaur using the TOFT pattern. All was going well until I lost a leg that I had made..........I suppose there is a slight possibility it walked off (I guess more accurately hopped off as it is only one leg). The hunt to find it has began but it could be anywhere between Birmingham and Reading. If you do happen to find an orange crocheted leg about.....please tell it to come home!!!!!!

There are a lot of lovely knitted accessories coming out in the shops. Whilst with my sister, we found some sweet knitted jumpers for the nephew and gorgeous chunky cardigans for us in Primark. I am at the point where I am considering popping the heating on at home but I am trying to resist the urge...........until the real autumn arrives.

The holiday planning is going well. I am  trying to locate the local yarn shops near Bideford. (Please do share any recommendations) I have found a knitting cafe called 'Periwinkle' which I would love to pop in. Not only does it sell beautiful yarn but it also has tea and cakes. This sounds like a knitters dream to me and a must do on the holiday list. 

I am also still on my quest to find other socially acceptable place to knit. So far I have found on a train and a cricket ground. Tomorrow, my car needs to be serviced and I intent to be making my dinosaur in the waiting room. This is a new knitting territory for me and I hope it is well received. 

I am still fundrasing for Birmingham Children's Hospital after spotting all of the Big and Little Hoot owls. I am happy to say I have reached my target and I want to thank everyone who has been able to sponsor me. If you are able to help this great cause my page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015

Right....back to the dinosaur and the hunt for the missing leg.....

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Second sock syndrome.......

Hi all,

I have successfully completed the Big and Little Hoot for Birmingham Children's hospital. The project was set up by Wild in Art. It was great fun and it was a brilliant way to explore the city. All 211 owls have now been spotted and I now have more time to knit again :) I am still collecting sponsors so if you are able to help in anyway that would be much appreciated. My page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015.

My knitting buddy Becky and I felt we wanted a new venue to knit at. We looked into acceptable places to knit and found that a cricket ground is the place to be. We booked our tickets and went to watch an exciting match.....however, it was not meant to be. I arrived just after 1pm and the rain began to fall. We stuck it out for 5 hours but after that, we gave up and the match was called off. Despite the rain we continued to knit our current makes. I have finally finished Christmas present number 2 for my sister. It involved a TOFT pattern and some very chunky yarn. I also picked up the Mallard sock and got most the way to completing the first sock.

The next day I persevered and completed the first sock. I have began the second sock but I am now suffering from the terrible aliment of 'Second Sock Syndrome'. I am working on the cuff and I am struggling to complete it. I feel that they way to recover from this terrible syndrome is to put on a great movie and knit to the end. I am hoping to complete it over the weekend.

I have my next project lined up, which is of course a Christmas present for my nephew. He seems to have befriended his toy T-Rex. My nephew has such a strong bond with this creature, that he now feeds it and gives it his dummy. I felt it would be nice for the dinosaur to have a little friend and TOFT have some lovely dinosaurs patterns to make up. I haven't crocheted a toy for a while and I am looking forward to working on this.

The family are plotting their holiday to Bideford and I am currently trying to spot where all of the fabulous yarn shops are. If you have any suggestions, please do share :)

I have noticed that Age UK are starting to promote the Big Knit project. This involves knitting little hats to place on Innocent smoothies. For every smoothie that is sold wearing a hat, 25p is donated to age UK. Look online for more details on how you can get involved. 

Right!!!!!! I will not be beaten by this sock!!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Shaun Spotting

Hello all,

I have been taking a break from Knitting and decided to do the second thing I enjoy, which are Art Trails. These trails involves finding sculptures around different towns. 

This year alone I have completed a Baron Trail in Salisbury and I am currently completing the Big Hoot in Birmingham. For the Big Hoot I am aiming to see all 211 Big and Little Hoot owls for Birmingham children's Hospital. I have currently spotted 95 of them and will hope to see the others within the next 2 weeks. If you are able to sponsor me,my just giving page is www.justgiving.com/sarah-reed2015 and I am raising money fro a great cause. 

Over the last weekend I went to Bristol and saw all of the lovely Shaun the Sheep sculptures. Bristol is a beautiful place and the trails lead you to all of the amazing sites such as the harbor, heritage sites and around the town. 

There were 70 to see and I managed to squeeze them all in 3 days!!!. I am now trying to recover from aching feet.......although I have agree to go yoga tonight....wish me luck. Knittingwise there are two beautiful Shauns. One is totally crocheted in St Nicholas Market and the other is a Knitted Style one in St Peter's church. The crocheted one, 'Woolly Wonderland', has individual crocheted motifs all over it. The other one called 'Knit-Wit' is painted in a knitting style which contains different knitted stitches...so see how many you can recognize. 

Intermediate Media have sponsored a Shaun which is near the harbor. Intermedate media create magazines including Knit Today and their creation is called 'Shaun Bean'. I really enjoyed this trail so it is worth a visit if you can make it before 31st August. However, if you cannot make it they can all be seen together at Cribbs Causeway 12th-20th September and in Covent Garden 24th-27th September. 

I have completed my first Christmas project and currently working on the second one.......hopefully I will actually finish them all on time!!! My poor mallard sock is sitting on the side but I will pick it up more towards the autumn. 

Right back to work

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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Fibre East and Owl hunting

Hello all, 

I have just managed to sit down and write this blog as I have been busy out and about. I love Art Sculpture trails and Birmingham has set one up called the Big Hoot. 89 Large and 122 smaller owls have been released in Birmingham and I intend to find all of these owls. By doing this I am raising money for Birmingham's Children's Hospital. This is a great cause and if you are able to spread the word of my work or even donate I would appreciate it https://www.justgiving.com/Sarah-Reed2015/

I had a wonderful day yesterday with my knitting companion Becky. We went over to Fibre East for the first time. It was lovely and there was a lot of sumptuous yarn to enjoy. Thread of Life was there and I was able to pick up another double ended Tunisian Crochet hook. There was also a lovely book stall selling older craft books. I managed to find one with Tricot crochet....which appears to be Tunisian crochet. A stall sold Drop's yarn and I could not resist buying some. Overall a great day with some good finds.

In true knitter's fashion Becky and I found a pub nearby called the Woolpack. Yes I found the irony hilarious. Here we had a lovely lunch and admired all of our purchases. 

On Thursday I am going to Guthrie and Ghani's knit night. It runs 6.30pm - 7.30pm and the company is great there. If you are free, it's worth going along to. 

I am working on a West Yorkshire Spinner's sock in Mallard and I have started a Christmas stocking for my nephew.......I need to finish at least one project as I can't have 2 on the go :S.......perhaps I will get to work on this now..........

Until next time 

Happy Crafting 

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Toft's Charity Project

Hello all,

You'll be happy to know that I have caught up with my projects again. I have also sent samples to Inside Crochet for a commission. They will hopefully make an appearance in the nect few months. It's all exciting :)

My latest make is a project to raise money for charity. I am a massive fan of Toft Alpaca and they are currently creating a crochet jungle. The charities that will benefit are Noah's Ark Hospices Charity and Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity. donations for these great causes are made by buying a #crochetjungle monkey pack. This pack includes material and the pattern to make your own monkey for family and friends. I have made my mischievous monkey and I will donate him to Toft so he can tour starting at the Knitting and Stitching show in March. 

If you wish to donate anything you can there is a just giving page. Check it out and help them reach their target https://www.justgiving.com/crochetjungle/

The Monkey pattern is a fun make and is quite quick. I really liked making the hands and feet as this was a new technique. This is something that I would like to incorporate in my future projects. 

This weekend I am heading to Unravel in Fareham for a browse. It looks to be full of amazing exhibitors so I will hopefully find much knitspiration there for future design projects. I will let you know what it is like so you can plan to go next time. 

I am in need of tea, biscuit and  my next project.

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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I'm back!!!!

Hello all,

I seem to have lost track of time :s I hope you are all well. I am in the process of relocating to Birmingham to move nearer to some lovely yarn shops. I am having to face the reality of how huge my yarn stash is. I need a bit of a clear out but it is so difficult to do. Once I am in my new property I will have a whole room to fill with yarn goodness.

I am still in love with West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn. I recently visited my sister in Reading and went along to a lovely shop called Yarnfest. It is in Thatcham and filled with good quality yarn...including my favourite West Yorkshire Spinner's. There are other yarns such as Debbie Bliss, Noro and Louise Harding. There is also a cute dog which will help you with your yarn shopping. Yarnfest also run a variety of workshops that look amazing to attend. I will be sure to try and tie in a visit there whenever I visit my sister. Check out the shops website for more http://www.yarnfest.co.uk/

I have a couple more magazines commissions on the way (one includes the yarn I brought from Yarnfest) and I have also had a couple of patterns reprinted in a German magazine called Hakeln which is exciting :)

Toft are currently raising money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. They are making a crochet jungle which will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching show in March. I am helping towards this project but if you are able to make some leaves or buy a monkey kit where a donate would be made to these brilliant causes, that would be much appreciated.  please check out their website for more information. 

 http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/Article_News_crochetjungle.aspx

Well I need to get back to typing up my patterns :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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