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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Lounge Around Socks

Hello all

As you are all aware I have the curse of the freezing cold feet. I do love a pair of socks to chill out it and to keep my toes toasty. 

I felt that I had understood the basics of knitting socks that I wanted to challenge myself further. I had never crocheted a sock until I created this pattern. I very quickly found that the knitted and crocheted sock rules differed. For a start, with a knitted sock you tend to need to use smaller needles. If a smaller hook is used, the sock would become so tight that you cannot get it over your ankle!............which I sadly discovered by experience when I managed to cut the circulation from my foot. The only solution seemed to be to use a much larger hook size than recommended with the yarn. 

When crocheting, the pattern forms a spiral which was apparent in the yarn that I used. I absolutely love West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn and wanted to make a pair of socks in the bull finch colour. The way to compensate for this was to make the first sock starting with the hook on the inside and then have the hook on the outside for the second sock. That way the decreases and the stripes were on opposite sides so that they looked like a pair. 

I love the pattern as it combines working in the rounds with working straight which makes it really interesting. Hopefully, it will avoid second sock syndrome. 

The socks are really comfy and I was chuffed with the end result. I want to thank Inside Crochet for publishing the pattern in their latest magazine. 

I am truly in the knitting festive spirit. I have ordered some of my family members yarn and began the Christmas projects. Hopefully I can get them all dome before the big day :s

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Chunky Cable Slippers

Hello All,

I have returned from my holiday in the caravan and I can confirm that it was freezing at night. I was extremely grateful for my holiday socks but still felt that I needed something more for my little toes.

I had some wool in my stash that I should have used a long time ago to treat myself with but I never got around to using it. I decided that now was the time to treat myself.....and my poor freezing toes. 

One of the reasons for putting off this project was that it involved using cable knitting. This is creating a 3D pattern that you often see in aran knitting and it creates a lovely effect. This involves slipping some stitches onto a cable needle and placing them at either the front or back of the work. You then continue to knit a few stitches from origianl needle and then knit the stitches from the cable needle to create a raised effect. The pattern used was from Toft alpaca so check out their website if you would like to purchase a copy :)

The pattern was challenging as this was a new skill to me but I was pleased with the results. I have also learnt that by holding the stitches on the cable needle to the front of the work it makes the cable turn to the left whereas if the stitches are at the back it makes the cable turn to the right. 

I have used chunky yarn which means that my slippers are extra thick and my toes are lovely and warm. I have enjoyed doing a cable pattern so much that I have booked myself onto a course with Knit Nottingham. 

I have started work on another animal so I will show you all when it is completed :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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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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