Chicks

Its been a lovely busy week here at the studio. I've been working on the latest project for Craftseller magazine which I can't tell you about yet sorry. I can say when I had finished one of the little critters and put him in my palm I fell instantly in love, hes just so cute that I couldn't quite believe it.

Thats the thing I love about crochet, it can always surprise. The design of the pattern takes a lot of methodical thinking and working the maths out. I don't mind this, I'm a big maths geek and I can spend days working out the best way to transfer the design into 3d crochet form. The best bit though is when you get everything hooked up and sewn together and you meet your new creation. No matter how long I spent at the design side I still get a surprise when that new little critter has arrived and its really cute.

I love my job :)

On to magazines.

Its a lovely thud on the floor that can only mean one thing - Mr postman has delivered a magazine


I wasn't expecting my chicks to make the cover of craftseller so that can as a lovely surprise. So much so that I completely forgot I'd done two projects for this months Craftseller.

I was flipping through when I  came to this photo. I remember looking at it and thinking it was nice and quite like a bag I had made recently. I went on reading and enjoying my cup of tea not thinking anything more about it. It was an embarrassing amount of time later when I released it actually was my work.
I guess it just goes to show how busy I am at the moment - that or I'm going mad.

I did notice this at the back though.

In the coming next month section is a little sneaky peek at my spring cushion looking very pretty.

So that's two magazines with my work on the cover this month. A lot of the other craft magazines are also showing pictures of my work as they contain reviews of the crochet book I contributed to with photos of my dolls.

I had a moment in the newsagent, pointing at magazines saying "I'm in that one, I'm in that one, I'm in that one..." like the big child that I am. Its a bit of a change from three years ago when I was just starting to really think about writing patterns and I'd be in the newsagents clutching crochet magazines hoping one day they would print my work.

Its actually only just 18 months since I got my first email with my first magazine commission  a bunny and chick for Lets Knit Easter magazine.

I must have done a good job cause they asked me to do another project for this years Easter special.

 This is my first cot mobile. Its made up of bunny's and chicks, Easter eggs and hearts. I absolutely loved making this and have plans to make more. Each little Ami project takes a short amount of time so its a project that will build quickly. I really wanted this spiral look and so the construction is a little fiddly but totally worth it. This is one of the patterns I'll be adding to the tutorial list when I get my act together.

Finally I am going to be really busy for the next months. With the help of a great friend I am going to be building a new website. I will be re launching all my older patterns and there will be lots of new one. There will be more tutorials and instructions. Its a shed load of work but it'll be worth it. First pattern of the hook is Jane the snail. I've re made her in three different colour ways sorry these photos aren't very good bad lighting but they give you an idea.

The Jane the snail pattern is available as an instant download from my etsy shop here

Well that's it for this week but I'll keep you posting on how we are getting along and I'll be blogging as I go.

Now its time for handmade monday

Happy crocheting