4KCBWDAY2 Knitting & Crochet Blog Week – Day 2 – A Mascot Project

‘Your task today is to either think of or research a project that embodies that your house/animal.’

After much deliberation I have chosen my Honey Gold Button Cowl as my mascot project. 

Not an easy decision but one which encompasses a true journey, as well as signifying the yellow and black colours from my House of Bee (see yesterday's post)!

Since moving to Cornwall I have become a great advocate of cowls. 

They are far more practical than a regular scarf for a walk on a windy beach (inspired by our local Perranporth beach!), and equally as useful for saving money at home on a chilly day; wrapping your neck in a little luxury soon makes you feel much warmer and is infinitely cheaper in the long run than turning the central heating up.

Cowls with a fastening have a couple of advantages over the pull-on type:

1. They can be worn in different ways; always a bonus to ring the changes
2. They don’t mess up your hair; a windy beach manages that supremely without assistance.

This particular button cowl is my own design which originated from treating myself to a delicious skein of chunky cream Mirasol Sulka wool/alpaca/silk blend yarn from a Hejhog sale.

As usual I had no idea what I would use it for, but I knew the yarn would let me know. As I caressed the skein, a vision of a cosy little neck wrap burrowed into my brain. I browsed through my well-used stitch dictionaries and decided on Tassel Stitch – a textured pattern with the interest of a cabled effect but none of the extra-needle palaver.

I knitted the cowl, jotting down stitch and row counts along the way, and added a simple crochet buttonhole edging, ending up with 3cm of yarn to sew in! Absolutely nothing wasted. I finished the cowl off with a couple of large organic mother-of-pearl buttons purchased from Etsy seller Overspill. Perfect!

The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop as an instant download pattern or a kit with the Mirasol Sulka yarn.

I realised that the chunky baby alpaca yarn that I had hand-dyed was identical in metreage and weight. I had dyed a semi-solid Honey Gold as per the Pantone season colours, which I knew would compliment the pattern without drowning out the stitch texture. I knitted up the cowl and finished it off with handmade buttons in perfectly co-ordinating colours from Etsy seller PixiesDesign.

The button cowl is available to buy in my Etsy shop as a one-off, or you can purchase the chunky baby alpaca in a different colourway to use with the pattern. 
If you don’t see a colour that you like, let me know and I will hand-dye your own version for you at no extra cost!

4KCBWDAY1 Knitting & Crochet Blog Week – Day 1 – The House Cup

‘The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest.’

This is the only choice for me! I always like to have a selection of projects on the go, partly because I can’t resist starting new yarns and partly so that I have a fit-for-purpose project available at all times. That’s my excuse anyway.

I absolutely hate finding myself waiting somewhere without a project to hand – what a waste of valuable crafting time! I have way too little planned crafting time available so squeezing in a few more minutes here and there not only soothes my soul but also increases my creative productivity. There are 3 basic project types:

The Fly-By: A mini project that can be grabbed & remorselessly stuffed into a bag on my way out, it can be paused & resumed in seconds with minimal fuss. This type of project tends to be a small crochet item that doesn’t require a pattern once started such as motifs, washcloths, hairbands, etc. It’s the bite-size treat that’s perfect for beach trips and waiting rooms.

The Staple Diet: Something requiring larger amounts of fairly plain work, to make use of longer chunks of time where taking an extra minute or two to finish off a row/round is perfectly acceptable, although still easily transported. It can be crochet or knitting (mainly on circular needles), such as a scarf, mitts, hat, sock, etc. This little beauty is great for longer car journeys (passenger only!), knitting/crochet club, and film night.

The Mothership: Complex and/or large projects requiring attention, space, or more time to complete each row/round. These are the evening-only, after-the-kids-have-gone-to-bed, no-film, quiet-I’m-counting types of project, including that amazing lace shawl or your favourite cosy blanket project. It’s the serious one that eats time on a quiet night in, when the other half is on the laptop or at band practise.

I used to use a plastic supermarket bag per project, it was free and I was recycling. 

More recently I’ve been treating myself to little project bags now and again, such as this one handmade by Etsy seller BijouxBoutique. It’s another piece of creativity in my life, and I’m helping out another crafter at the same time.

Sneaky preview..

.. of the latest colourway of my laceweight merino silk sparkle yarn - Stormy Skies. 

Dramatic!

Available soon..

4th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week!

Yes, it's that time again...

I took part in 2010, it may be time to do so again!

Finally... 2013 knitting!

Well it's taken 4 months, but I've finally started some knitting again! I seem to have been in a very long crochet phase - I blame it on my starting to go to knitting club...

Anyway here it is - a sock in progress, using the lovely Buffy sock yarn from Juno Fibre Arts, purchased at the KnitExpo way back in November 2010.

I'm using Wendy's Toe-Up sock pattern on a 2.5mm circular needle with a little rib added to the upper foot for a snug fit whilst maintaining the mindless knitting factor.

Hopefully they won't take too long!

African Flower Crochet Bunting!

I've just finished my first ever length of crochet bunting!

I made the African Flower motifs without the white edging from this pattern:

http://www.craftpassion.com/2011/04/crochet-african-flower-paperweight-granny.html

I chose 2 shades of pink & 2 shades of green of Patons 4ply cotton yarn, and made 12 flowers, each using a different combination of the shades.

I've just crocheted them onto a long chain of peach cotton with a loop at each end and then pressed each flower. I love it!

And the winner is..

The Handmade Crafts UK giveaway that I sponsored for February is now ended, and the winner is Kate from Katy Kookaburra!

Kate has chosen the gorgeous Seafoam pure cashmere laceweight yarn as her prize.

I hope we get to see the finished item too!





Kate makes and sells a variety of lovely handmade homewares in her Etsy shop including these beautiful silk pillowcases.

Have a browse and see what you can find.

Congratulations on your prize Kate!

Perran Yarn giveaway!

Only 24 hours left to get your free entry in to win you choice of one skein of Perran Yarn!

The giveaway is hosted by Handmade Crafts UK, with a different prize each month. Worth keeping an eye on.

Get your entry in now!

Project Sneak Peek

Meet Eggburt!

Meet Eggburt! A cute little chick who leads a double life as a snap-shut coin purse with strap, containing a creme egg for Easter. 

Crochet pattern available shortly, just as soon as I've typed it up.   :)

Spectacular Sunrise

Amazing sunrise this morning!

Craft4Crafters show

Yesterday I had an adventure with my eldest daughter. We went by train to the Westpoint Arena at Exeter to spend a day at the Craft4Crafters show!

It was a long but fabulous day, which resulted in some great new stash enhancement for my bead collection. I feel lots more crochet necklaces will be appearing soon!

My daughters also benefitted as we invested in a set of Majestix stamps, pegs, and ink pads from Card-IO. 

They're being well used already, so I'm sure we'll be adding more sets to the collection.

Happy Birthday Hub!

It's my hubby's birthday today. I think everyone should be allowed to have their birthday off, if it falls on a  work day. My hub had to work, but we've had a lovely family party this evening.

It's difficult knowing what gifts to get so soon after Christmas. Hub is an F1 racing fanatic, and whilst I can't yet afford to buy him tickets for Silverstone (one day!) I wanted to get him an F1-inspired surprise.

Etsy came up trumps as usual. There are various F1-themed gifts on there from UK selllers; here are some of my favourites.

This is what I bought my hub.

It's an ashtray or coin tidy with carbon fiber centre, made using a 4th gear ratio from the gearbox of a 700+ bhp Honda F1 racecar driven by Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello!

It came in a black gift box with a card explaining it's history. Hub loves it, and it's a great talking point.



The Etsy shop is LedonGifts, based in Manchester.

They also sell clocks, cufflinks, keyrings, and lots of other items made from F1 car parts. 

I love this clock:





My other favourite F1-inspired gift on Etsy is from Sam Osborne.

She has created this poster with a fabulous quote from Mario Andretti.

I'd love to get this on a coffee mug Sam!

Textile beads anyone?

Sam over at Textile Delights has a fab giveaway on her blog at the moment.

Just comment, follow and link to it for a chance of winning a set of her fab new handmade textile beads!

January Sale

As is traditional at this time of year, I'm having a huge sale over at my Etsy shop. All items are priced £10 or under and you'll find some massive discounts.

This gorgeous short scarf is crocheted using fine pure silk yarn and threaded with silk ribbons then edged with mother of pearl chips.

Perfect for weddings, parties, or would make a fabulous Valentine gift!

This is a one-off item originally priced at £29, but now on offer at just £10!

Feels like Spring already!

Film addict

I'm not much of a film addict usually. This year seems to be different!

Already my family & I have seen The Hobbit and Life of Pi, both of which were thoroughly entertaining and very well made.

You see I only now feel compelled to pay cinema prices to see films in 3D; the technology (not to mention the glasses!) has improved tremendously in recent years, and the results are stomach-churningly stunning.

It all began with Avatar last year, which really made me hang onto my armrests when the riders dived down from the floating mountains!

Watching the trailers at the last 2 films, we decided we may need to move into our local cinema... On the To-Watch list next is Jack the Giant Slayer (must see this as it's based on a Cornish fairy tale!), Oz, and Epic for a start...

Going with the Valentine theme

There may be a few of this type of necklaces appearing in my Etsy shop soon...

Back to the dye pot!

In the run-up to Christmas every spare moment was filled with craft fairs and preparation for them. My trusty dye pot sat forlornly on the shelf, and I was itching to get back to it!

Now that we're firmly in 2013, I have time to replenish my hand-dyed Perran Yarn stocks. Only a small amount of time, but regular. Here's the first lot for this year.

I've gone for more of the deliciously soft chunky baby alpaca. It soaks up the colour beautifully, so what better shade to go for than Teal Temptation!

The only downside that I've found is that this is an incredibly difficult shade to photograph accurately! 

I've learned quite a lot about GIMP from the last few hours spent playing around with hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast settings.

This yarn also looks fabulous when knitted or crocheted; for example just 1 skein of it makes my Tassel Stitch Button Cowl pattern. 

If you prefer something different but not sure what, take a look at the many options here on Ravelry!

Perfect pastels

A while back (ahem, October actually!) I started a crochet project. I knew it would take a while.

The wait was worthwhile though.

The gorgeous pastel wrap is now complete, and available to buy in my Etsy shop. It looks great with jeans, and would be equally fabulous for a spring wedding!

One of those accessories that becomes a firm favourite, and gets worn everywhere.

It's a true one-off, as I can no longer get this yarn and I came up with the design myself using a pattern from my stitch directory.

The yarn deserves a little discussion. It's a hand-dyed cotton/rayon blend, hand-dyed in the U.S. and purchased before I started dyeing my own.

This yarn radiates with the most fabulous sheen, and drapes beautifully. The pastel pink/lilac/blue colourway is perfect for spring and summer.

I've made another of my button brooches as the fastener. It has a button at the front for decoration, but also another at the back so you can use it as a brooch pin to fasten the wrap in whatever arrangement you like.

Now if I really get my act together I'll write up the pattern too!