New Year, New Start

Hello all,

A bit delayed but Happy New Year to you all. Christmas was wonderful as the family came over and their knitted gifts were much appreciated. 

I had been quite busy before Christmas to make up the 7 gifts for my family.I made my brother and brother in law gloves and I also made my sister a fantastic pair of gloves. I found the pattern for free on Ravelry. The pattern was made by Crystal Baer and they are titled Alice's Queen of Hearts Gloves. They were based on a deck of cards and one was mainly red and the other was black. They were fun to make and I felt the pattern worked extremely well. I would recommend this design. 

My sister and sister in law were knitted chunky slipper socks using a Toft pattern. The yarn used was Rico Creative Bonbon Super Chunky Multi yarn which was gorgeous and colourful which went down well. I brought it from Guthrie and Ghani and I would recommend the yarn for any chunky project. My nephew also loved his T-Rex which was made from a Toft pattern. He chased the family around the house and roared in our faces many times......... 

As you may recall, I hunted down all of the Shaun the Sheep sculptures around London and Bristol. As my father joined me on my adventure, I thought he deserved a permanent reminder of the fun we had so I knitted him a Shaun the Sheep to treasure....I'm not quite sure he saw it that way.......

I have had a request to knit a Pig with a Wig!!!!! I had previously made this item for my cousin and I have been requested to knit up 2 more. I enjoyed making it previously and it the pattern is from a knitting designer I love called Anna Hrachovec. She has released a number of knitted book under the Mochimochi series. The designs are quirky and sweet and I have admired them for years. So to have the opportunity to make an item from her pattern is amazing. check out her website for more on Anna and her patterns. I will post them when I have finished working on the items.

Right I am off to continue to making up these little piggies,,,,eeekkkkk

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Car dealerships and Holiday yarn shopping

Hello all,

I can confirm that an acceptable place to crochet is in a car dealership. I had my car serviced and whilst I was waiting I whipped out my Toft T-Rex project. Unbeknown to me, I was in the presences of fellow crocheter, Tinkyblink. She is also a Tunisian crochet fan and we lovely yarn shops in the area. The time passed quickly as we shared projects and exchanged Ravelry page details. There were also a few other people who were intrigued with what I was working on. All in all, a car dealership is an acceptable place knit. hhhmmmm where to try next.....

With this extra time of working on my project, I completed my T-Rex project ready for Christmas. I sadly did not find the missing leg so had to make another one.........(grumble grumble). The pattern was straight forward to follow and I am please with the result. I would recommend this pattern if you would like to make a cute dinosaur.

I have been away on holiday and found some lovely knitting shops in the area. I have been to Periwinkle in Ilfracombe, which is not only a knitting shop but a cafe as well. There was a delicious range of home-made cakes and speciality teas and coffees. What I also loved was that there were knitting magazines to browse whilst having a brew. There was a range of yarn  to explore and sweet knitting accessories. I brought myself a hand mirror which has pictures of wool on the back. This is a place worth visiting if you are in the area, I recommend the bakewell cake. 

On the way back from holiday we stopped in Tiverton and I popped into the Tiverton Bead and Wool shop. Downstairs they have an extensive range of beads, however, upstairs there was a whole floor of yarn. They stocked the beautiful West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn and drops yarn. The yarn was affordable and there was a good range of colours. I felt a bit of inspiration and brought some yarn for the next project. 

I am going to get back to gloves that I am knitting for another Christmas present but before I go, you may wish to have a look in this month's Inside Crochet for my latest pattern..........I will talk about it more in the next blog.

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah :) 

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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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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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Tunisian Mitts

Hello All,

I can finally take a breath as I have completed all of my Christmas knitting. I am looking forward to the open day at TOFT alpaca on the 20th December and I hope to see you all there. If you are a little behind with your knitting and need a place to go with lovely cakes, I suggest that you go to TOFT's knit night. At the moment it is on every Thursday 4pm-8pm to provide you with time to catch up with your festive projects.

The Christmas stocking bunting is on my fire place ready for Santa. Maybe as there are so many mini stockings I will get loads of gifts this year. I feel this was one of the cleverest schemes that I have hatched muhahaha. ......... Unless I have been naughty which means there will be a lot of coal for my fire place........


The final project that was published in Inside Crochet was Tunisian Mittens. This was a good challenge that I had set myself as I used a special way of crocheting. I have used this technique before and it involves a long crochet hook. With standard crochet you would work with one stitch at a time. However, with tunisian crochet you have a front pass where you pick up stitches on the hook, this means there could be 20 stitches plus on the hook at one time!!!!. You then work a back pass where you remove these stitches so you are back to one on the hook. You never need to turn the work and the stitches can mimic knitting stitches. There are not many books out there to provide guidance on this technique but I recommend a workshop with City Knit's In Birmingham. The courses there are a reasonable price, the tutor Kate was lovely and extremely knowledgeable and it is a good excuse to visit the lovely shop in the gorgeous area of Bournville. 


As I am a beginner at tunisian crochet, I wanted a project that did not require increases or decreases. I have learnt three stitches which were a standard, knit stitch and purl stitch and wanted a project to combine them together. This is where is the mitten was created. I used the wonderful Erika Knight's yarn. I love the texture and colours and feel this really added the the project. I also wanted to use different colours which is again another skill. I really enjoyed making this project and I hope that you do too. I feel that if you are new to tunisian crochet, this is a good place to start. 

I have added a couple of new patterns to my Raverly page so please check it out. There is not a crochet mug cosy and a knitted Christmas gift bag.

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Christmas is around the corner

Hello all,

I seem to have lost the month of November due to my rapid Christmas knitting for family. I love having a skill which means that I can provide truly unique gifts for my family members. I often look to Ravelry for knitspiration and find projects that suits everyone perfectly. Last year I was able to find a pattern for a toy Starship Enterprise and made that up for my dad as he was a Star Trek fan. He loved it and it is proudly hung on the Christmas tree.

You'll be happy to know that I have almost completed all of the required items and I can start focusing on designing and knitting for myself again :) I am really into cable knitting at the moment. I love the effects that can be achieved using this technique and I am hoping to be the proud owner of some new fingerless mittens soon as mine are pretty done for.

I will be displaying my handmade Christmas bunting in my home in preparation for the big day. Inspiration came in the middle of summer (bit odd but there we go). I started to thing about my holiday projects and dreaming about advent calendars. I thought about how I would love to have bigger chocolates each day as opposed to the tiny ones found in the shop brought ones and the only way around this would be to make my own advent calender. I didn't have a stocking as a child and I felt to make it up to myself I would make 24 mini ones as a bunting. 

I found the gorgeous Milla Mia yarn and a beautiful bunting was born. The pattern was in last months Inside Crochet and I really like this piece. I will be putting it up very soon........I don't want to wait for 12 days before Christmas 

I hope all of your festive projects are going well. I will be going to TOFT's open day on the 20th December with the family. It looks great as there are many demonstrations and also the opportunity to halter walk alpaca's (how exciting). The Cornflower Cafe is also amazing and well worth a visit too. I am hoping to be there with a lovely cream tea or a salted caramel cake..............perhaps by that point I wont care and I'll have both. 

Right...back to these mittens!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah

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Edward's Menagerie

Hello all, 

I don't know about you but I love it when a new great crochet or knitting book is released. Not so long ago Toft Alpaca released their amigurumi book full of adorable animals. If you are unfamiliar with the term it basically means a crocheted toy. They are great as you can get patterns of anything from zebras to Minions.........I know as I have made many. Some of my original amigurumi patterns can be seen in my Ravelry shop. 

I love the story behind the creation of 'Edward's Menagerie' and all of the patterns in the book itself. The designs originated from when Kerry Lord was pregnant with her son (Edward) and this is when she first picked up a crochet hook. From this point she made up the patterns of the lovely animals and they have finally been published in this adorable book. I have been really looking forward to this and was fortunate enough to attend the magnificent book launch....which included a piñata full of knitting goodies :) 

I love this book as it provides clear instructions for all the techniques needed to make the animals from the book. The patterns are also divided into varying levels of difficulty which is great for beginners and more advance crocheters. I love the shapes of the animals and they are sooo hug-able. Another special touch is that all of the animals have their own names and a back story. If you have never picked up a hook before or have been crocheting for years I would recommend this book! 

The one animal I had to make from this book was an alpaca called Seamus. The pattern was easy to follow and I loved that the book also includes sewing up instructions as these are often left out or extremely vague. I quickly made him up and I am chuffed with the results. If you love Seamus as much as I do and you would like a copy of the book, check out Toft's website. 

If you need additional guidance on how to crochet or would like some tuition onto how to make the animals, Toft runs many workshops to provide brilliant hints and tips. These are well worth attending.

I have a few more animals that I would like to make from this book and I will post the results when I have completed them.

I am back from my holidays and I happy to say that I was in much need of my holiday socks as in the evenings it was freezing!!!!!! However, I have a seen a lot of knitspiration and I will hopefully be working on more of my own original patterns soon. 

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Hyacinth Cowl

Hello all,

Just to let you know that another holiday project has been completed :) and my holiday socks have been blocked perfectly. 

I attended a workshop at Toft Alpaca and it was brilliant. I was intrigued to master the hyacinth stitch as they had a pattern for a beautiful cowl. The workshop was ran by the lovely Caroline who is a great teacher. The workshop was relaxed and delicious cake was provided. The pattern suggests to use fine yarn but I wanted to treat myself and I splashed out on extra fine yarn so the cowl would be really soft. i would recommend anyone to attend a workshop held by Toft. Not only are you surrounded by beautiful alpacas but you are also provided a high quality session with teachers who know what they are talking about. 

 The stitch comprises of 6 rows that are repeated. The pattern contained a p5tog which I had never came across. This proved difficult until I learn the trick of slipping 4 stitches purlwise, purl the last stitch and then pass the 4 slipped stitches over. This made the project build up much quicker. 

The pattern also contains a row where you wrap the yarn three times before you knit. This is where I went wrong many times and had to begin my project once again. I learnt the magic of a 'life line' which is when you thread a piece of yarn through the stitches of a row where you can pull the work back to if needed. This gave me the confidence to persist and finish my lovely soft cowl. 

This is now another piece to take on holiday and I think I have now hit the limit of what I can make before I go. I have decided whilst on holiday to take a break from designing and to make a couple of animals from the new Edward's Menagerie book. I am a big fan of these designs and I already have the yarn sitting in my stash. 

I am plotting out where the yarn shops are whilst I am away on holiday. I will be in the Hastings and Rye area so if you have any recommendations please do let me know :)

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Holiday socks

Hello all,

I love summer holidays! Enjoying the sun and wearing all your favourite summer accessories. However, when I go away with my family it is never in the summer. Cost is always a factor and so our holidays tend to be towards the end of September. Not only do we go when it's colder...but we also like to stay in a freezing cold caravan. However, there is a positive spin to it all....it makes the time leading up to the break brilliant for a knitter. 

Most people going on holiday will shop for new clothes or accessories. I on the other hand find lovely things that I would like to make. I have a long list of things and I hope my poor hands can endure then endless projects I want to knit. 

I am happy to announce that my freezing feet will not suffer in the caravan as I have knitted a new pair of socks. The gorgeous yarn was from West Yorkshire Spinners and it is the in the Country Bird range. My particular socks are 'pheasant' as apparently the colours seen are similar to this bird. The magical yarn stripes itself creating a great false fair isle effect. I used a basic pattern provided from Rachel Coopey at a brilliant sock workshop I attended at Guthrie and Ghani. I have booked myself onto their knitting in colours in the round workshop which I am really excitted about by the way. 

It was not all plain sailing. I completed the first sock and noticed I was 2 stitches short. After I had grafted the end........disaster struck!!!!! I could see the 2 dropped stitches quite early on in the piece. This brought much sadness as I had to frog (unpick) my work back to this point to repair. Most knitters have second sock syndrome. In this case...........I had third sock syndrome.

I worked on these socks at the Toft knit night and at another knitting group I attend called Sip and Stitch. This is on a Saturday 11am-1pm at Stitch Solihull. This is a gorgeous shop which is even open on a Sunday!!!!!!. It stocks high quality yarn and knitting supplies. Check out their website for more details and look at the workshops too. I am hoping to go to a more advance Tunisian crochet workshop soon. Eventually I had made my beautiful socks. I now need to meet with my sister to find a new set of pyjamas that will match them. 

As it will only be slightly colder it's too soon to wear my Super Moss stitch cowl...................maybe I need to make another cowl before my holiday. Now I did attend that hyacinth cowl workshop at Toft and I do have the luxurious extra fine yarn to make it up with. Check out the end result next time. 

Until then

Happy crafting

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Nice and Cosy Tea Set

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay between posts but I have had a lot going on in my day job. I have also had a couple more commissions accepted so look out for them soon :)

The weather is beginning to get colder so it will soon be time to pull out the Super Moss Stitch Cowl (which by the way the pattern is available for free on http://www.ravelry.com/designers/sarah-reed). However, until that point, I will have to make do with many a cup of tea to keep me warm. This is where the inspiration for my latest pattern came from. The pattern Nice and Cosy is available now in the latest Inside Crochet Magazine. 

I attended a knit night at the wonderful Toft Alpaca shop and got some much needed 'Knitspiraton'. There was a lady who was making a piece which contained a crochet stitch called a basket weave. This is a gorgeous textured stitch which involves working in front and behind a treble stitch. I loved it so much I kept it in mind until I found a suitable project.

I love the colours of autumn and felt that the sumptuous mustard colour was something that I wanted to work with. I popped along to the wonderful Guthrie and Ghani and found a lovely brand of yarn from Navia. It is 100% wool and is brilliant at holding textured stitches and it is from here the idea of the 'Nice and Cosy' set was born.

Keeping on this theme of being snugly and warm, I have began my second pair of knitted socks ready for my caravan holiday. It is only now at this point I have realised that the weather may be pretty cold by then, so I lovely warm pair of socks are much needed. However, I am hoping to attack many yarn shops in the local area for more ideas of future designs. 

I also had the opportunity to attend a great workshop at Toft to learn the hyacinth stitch. The pattern involves a repeat of 6 rows over 180 stitches so I do not have a lot to show at the minute but keep tuned for an update soon.

 It is a little sad to think that Summer is over in the knitters' world as we now begin to plot and make Christmas presents. Well.....if the shops can sell mince pies now, I feel it is more than acceptable to pull out my festive needles to make my pressies (oh yes I do own a pair)

Well until next time

Happy crafting :)

Sarah Reed

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My Sockcess Story

Hello all,

I am proud to say that I have created my first pair of socks :) This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time but never found the knitspiration required. It is also considered to technically quite challenging. This is an essential project as I am fed up of my husband nagging me for putting my cold feet on him. If I had a lovely cosy pair of socks I felt that this would put an end to this argument once and for all. 

My knitspiration came in the form of a lovely ball of yarn from York. Whilst away in February, I went to a great knitting shop called Ramshamble. I love this shop as it has a great variety of yarns and most of them are natural fibres. My eyes fell upon a beautiful yarn from the Yorkshire Spinners. This was from a range called Signature and it is magical. Not only is it a lovely combination of wool and nylon, it is self patterning. This means that when you knit it the wool colour will change certain points to make the sock stripey. It is so soft and perfect for that lovely pair of socks that I crave. 

With this magical yarn, I finally got to work on my marriage saving socks. In order to create them, you need to use double pointed needles. Although it looks like a medieval torture device, I can assure you that it is not. It is a method of knitting where you need to use four needles as opposed to two. This means you knit a tube shape and reduces the amount of sewing needed at the end :)

When working on a sock, you tend to start at the top, also known as a cuff. This is usually started with a rib stitch for elasticity which is followed by a stocking stick. You will work to the desired length and then need to create a heel flap. This is achieved by working some of the stitches at the back of the sock so that a length for the heel is created. In order to make the part of the sock that is along your foot, you need to pick up stitches from the heel flap so that you are able to knit on the double pointed needles once again. The tube shape is continued until you get the foot length required and then sewn at the end. Looking back at this written instruction, it looks confusing but if you have practised each element in a different pattern, I can assure you it isn't :)

One difficulty I found with a self patterning yarn is that you need to ensure that your second sock is started in the same place in the pattern as the first. If this is not achieved the pattern and colour order on both socks would be different. Some people don't mind this but I do !!!!!!!!! After four attempts, I got this right. I no longer freeze my husband, I now have nice toasty warm feet. 

On Thursday I will be heading to TOFT for their knit night. It runs 4pm-8pm every other Thursday :) I love going here as its a cosy environment full of knitspiration and a lovely gang of knitters attend. I also love it as there is tea and cake a plenty. If you are in the area, I strongly recommend that you go. All skill levels are welcome.Check out www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk for more and details and the great range of workshops they have.

 Toft also have a great open day on Easter Monday running 10am-4pm, this is soo much fun as you can see the studio, sign up for mini workshops and go on a tour of the farm to see all of the lovely alpaca :). This is well worth a visit if you are free. 

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Mother's Day

Hello to you all,

I hope you had a great mother's day, I know I did. the rabbit and cat were kind enough to send a card to their mother......my husband. I had a meal with my mum and nanny, which was lovely. 

As a knitter I will try and make my own gifts for special occasions.  Do not assume that any gift is impossible as I have knitted gifts from hats to a mini starship enterprise for my dad. As it was Mother's Day, I wanted to stay on the more sane end of the spectrum. 

My mum has always liked frilly scarves and this is something that you are able to knit. You can by a special yarn where the texture is similar to netting. It is straight forward to work with as you purely need to knit rows to get the desired affect. It is fiddly as you have to twist the yarn as you go. This got to be quite frustrating and I had to give my work a good telling off on a couple of occasions. 

Of course when you are making a scarf you need to ensure it is long enough. This is where you need a live model to wear it to determine how much length is required. At present there are no other females in my house, apart from my cat and rabbit, so the only option I had was for my husband to try it out for me. I think he looked great and I may consider knitting him one up for his birthday.......however, he did not seem to agree :s

Once I had made a scarf my Mum, I made one for my Nanny. Both scarves were greatly received and I would recommend anyone to make these up as quick gifts.

I am proud to announce that my latest pattern has been printed by Inside Crochet. The inspiration for the mug cosy came about at the Toft Knit Night that I regularly attend. There was a lady who crocheted in the front and back of a treble post and I loved the affect this gave. This creates a rib type affect and this made me think that this was a great idea for creating stems for flowers. From here my pattern was created! This goes to show that going to a knit night can give you inspiration :) The latest issue of Inside Crochet is out in the shops now. 

Next time I will share my sockccess story :)



Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Final Part of The Christmas Jumper

Hello Everyone, 

What a busy time it has been! I did my last two craft fairs of the year, which was great fun. I need to seriously replenish my stock in preparation for next year. However, before I do that I need to knit up my jumper and a baby blanket.



It took a lot of time but I am proud to announce that my jumper is completed and ready for Christmas. For my first ever jumper, I think it doesn't look too bad. The pattern was from Sue Stratford's Christmas jumper book and the pattern was easy to follow and really tested my skills. This is the first project where I did a tension square. I practiced my intarsia, which was fine until I managed to knot the wool repeatedly :s. I also practiced weaving the wool into my work so it was tidier on the back. I also finally learnt how to ptbl. I avoided it for years but I finally watched you tube and now get it :). I like the technique suggested for M1 which involves wrapping the yarn round. I found this much easier to work with and will use this method in the future. I also learnt the importance of reading instructions before jumping ahead. I had to do the bottom of my jumper twice as the first time I did a 1 x 1 rib instead of a 2 x 2 gggrrrr. I had to adapt the pattern as I found the arm lengths too short. I decided that each time I increased I would add an extra row to ensure it is long enough. I am happy with the project and I am sure it will bring much festive joy.

I attended the Knit Night held at TOFT. It was a good evening as we all gathered to try and completed Christmas Projects. At the time I was working on my jumper but I did learn two new stitches. As I had learnt how to ptbl, I was able to learn how to do a twisted rib stitch. This looks lovely and I can't wait to incorporate it into a project. I also learnt about crocheting into the front and back of the post to create a stitch equivalent to the knitted basket weave. It was a great evening and I would recommend attending a knit night if you get the chance. You also have to check out their huge mugs. They are great as they come with a knitting pattern on it :) 

My Christmas knits are completed and wrapped and I hope everyone enjoys them. I will be able to post what I made after the big day. One project that I can post is the one I made for my mum.....as she has already opened her present. This was the first time that I had used the yarn specifically for scarves. It looks complicated but once you get your head around it, it's quite easy to use. I liked the project as progress could be seen quickly. I hope my mum enjoys it as I was happy with the end product.

I also began the mission of tidying my yarn stash. I had been avoiding it so long as I had needles, mixed with wool and mixed with crochet hooks :s. After two hours, I was able to untangle it all. One of my New Years resolution is to keep the draw tidy. 

I have had 3 great knitting gifts. The first was a knitting mug from my school friend Becky (many thanks). I use this every morning for breakfast :). I also have a new knitting mug for work. This was given to me by Secret Santa, thank you by the way Frankie :) The final gift was a Knitting Loom. I have read a lot about these and wanted to get hold of one. A colleague at work gave it to me and I was really chuffed. Amy (my colleague) said that she had seen someone create a rug. This sounds great and If I can get large enough yarn, I like to give this a try. 

You have been updated with my adventures. I will shortly begin work on the blanket for my sister. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.....and if I  do not post between Christmas and New Year, have a safe and Happy New Year :)

Thanks all and happy holidays :)

Knit's Not Perfect 

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