Double the fun!!!

Hello all, 

I have completed my piggies order. The patterns are from one of my favorite knitting designers called Anna Hrachovec. Her quirky designs are so fun to make up and absolutely adorable. This pattern was from her first book called Mochimochiland. The second piggy has a mighty fine Mohawk going on. It was a great pattern as it was worked in rib stitch and then turned inside out. The little piggies have been sent to their new home and they have been well received :-)

I have started to work on a design for a cushion. I have returned to Tunisian crochet and I am working with West Yorkshire Spinners Yarn. I have found a basket weave stitch which I think would make an interesting design. I quite like the textures created. I will post a picture when I have a completed sample. 

I am approaching my 30's and have decided to make a list of things that I would like to do. This list includes things like a pottery course and a life drawing class......One item is attempt to break a world record. I haven't got to far into researching something that fits my talents (such as eating a lot of food) However, on Facebook I have found a knitting related one I  could join in with. Occ Barton On Humber are a group that create shoe boxes full of lovely things to send to different countries. One thing they are requesting are for knitters to knit teddy bear hand puppets. They are hoping to have the record for having the longest number of knitted bears in a line. This is a way I could tick this item off my list. If you are also interested, check out their Facebook page for more details.

Right, back to it :-)

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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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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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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Tunisian Lamp Shade

Hello all,

I am excited to announce that Inside Crochet have published my latest Tunisian crochet pattern. I really enjoyed designing this piece and I think it  would make any room look amazing. 

The lamp shade cover came a bit of an accident really. I am easily influenced by internet companies postage policies. Around the time, my sister wanted a pair of hand knitted gloves. However, in order for me to get the yarn I would have had to pay £3 postage. Oh no !!!! I was not having that!!!!! The way around this was to turn my £4 order into a £25 one. I have no idea why this seemed to make more sense to spend more money than settle for the postage. I looked for the most random thing to increase the price of my order and came across the Rico lampshade......of course into the basket it went. Once it arrived I had no idea what to do with it. 

I am really into my Tunisian crochet at the minute and I wanted to move beyond a Tunisian Simple Stitch. I looked through a few stitchonaries and found this lovely lace stitch. It is a 2 line repeat and involves decreasing and passing a yarn over to maintain the same number of stitches on each row. I think the main trick to this pattern is making sure that you count the number of stitches after each row to make sure you have not lost any. The pattern allowed me to use the luscious West Yorkshire Spinner yarn that I had been saving. From there the project was created and published by Inside Crochet. 

To feed my Tunisian addiction I will be going to a Tunisian crochet workshop with the lovely Denise on Saturday the 6th June at Stitch Solihull. By the end, I will hopefully be able to do the same stitch on Tunisian crochet on each side of my work (exciting stuff!!!!!)

I need a cup of tea and a calm down from all of the exciting things that have been going on. 

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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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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Hobbycraft show and Christmas Jumper part 3

Hello all,

It is again a busy week for the merry land of Knit's Not Perfect. I have spent the first part of the week creating more Christmas decorations in preparation for the craft fairs. I have now designed three different decorations. The first being mini stocking, the second was a snowman and the final was a snowflake. For these projects I used Patron 100% wool which just added a more festive feel. 

I then had the opportunity to begin my Christmas jumper :) The new batch of yarn arrived. It is Drops, which is a blend of alpaca and wool so is nice and thick. I did my tension square and found that I need to use a 5mm needle as opposed to a 4.5mm or my jumper would have been tiny. I decided to start with the sleeve as I have two of them to make and I can get bored if I do two one after the other. I found the pattern to be simple and it worked well. I have adapted it by adding an extra row after each increase row to ensure that it is long enough. I would recommend Sue Stratford's book to anyone looking to make their first jumper. 

I did a craft fair in Bedworth on Saturday and it went very well. I took along some of my older projects and books that I wanted to get rid of. I found that this town did appreciate the products made out of natural fibres. Key rings, phone cases and the Christmas decorations went down well so I will have to make more up to replenish my next fair (which is on Sunday 17th)

On Sunday I went to the Hobbycraft show at the NEC. This was the first time that I attended a show like this. I was prepared slightly as I remembered to pack a bag to put my goodies in. Just as a warning the car park was £10 (ouch). There was a great range of stalls on the day including many papercraft and beading ones. However, I had to make sure that I stayed focused or I could have spent all of my money, very quickly. All the usual magazine publishers were there so I picked up a great number of older Knitting and Crochet magazines and the current ones at a reduced cost. I had three favourite stalls there. The one begin good old TOFT, the second Bulldog Krafts and the final Hobzy

TOFT's stall was beautiful, they had all of the amigurumi animals suspended from the ceiling which made the stall stand out from other. There was a great range of products and I was able to check out their new wool. TOFT is a company that sells luxury yarns that are made from natural fibres and are not dyed. They firstly began with Alpaca yarn (As they are an Alpaca farm, well worth a visit if there is a tour). They have now broadened the range by selling yarn made with 100% blue face Leicester wool, which is very yummy. For more details look at their website www.toftalpacashop.co.uk

Bulldog Krafts was a company that I had not heard of until I went the show. They sell bamboo needles, hooks and Tunisian crochet hooks at a reasonable price. I was able to buy 9 Tunisian crochet hooks for only £10 which I thought was a bargain. they also sell lovely 100% cotton yarn in beautiful colours. The yarn is a good quality and you get a great length out of each skein. John was the man I spoke to there and he seemed very friendly and genuine. His partner (who is the keen knitter) is also lovely and approachable. You are able to buy nice kits from their website. I am tempted with the baby blanket kit as I have a family member who will be in need of it soon. Please check out their Facebook page and website www.bulldogkrafts.co.uk

The final find of the day is a website called Hobzy (www.hobzy.com) This is a website where you can sell your own products online. Unlike other sites, they do not charge you to upload your items but will only take payment once you sell it. I was informed on the day that this is 15%. It is a website intended to help smaller business sell their products so I may give it a go. 

I have three orders to work on this week. This Friday is Knit Night at Esquire's Coffee Shop in Coventry. Here is great as you can watch great acts such as comedians, singers and poets for free whilst knitting :) The group runs 7pm - 9pm and any skill level is welcome. Please remeber to bring your own yarn and needles as these are not provided on the day. On Sunday I will be at Ashby St Ledger's Village Hall for a craft fair. It runs from 2pm-5pm and it should be great. I will be there with my friend from Kazam jewellery so come on down if your free. check out my Facebook page for more details. 

That's all for now

Happy crafting

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