Bunny love

As you might have guessed I love bunnies and since I've been writting patterns I've done quite a lot of bunny patterns. I can't help it they are so cute and great fun to design.

My first ever design commission was for a bunny

This is Suzie bunny for last Easters lets knit magazine.

One of the first patterns I ever wrote for my etsy shop was love bunny.

I discontinued this pattern a while ago as I have come up with better designs since but I think I need to go back and look at this pattern to update it and re-release it.

 Then there is the bunny omnipoms. Tony above is one of my favorite ever makes.

 Cooper the sleepy omnipom in his bunny suit,

 Sid, friend of Tony with his fear of bugs.

 Bubblebun was the first of the fat friends, a set of patterns that have been very popular. Bubblebun when on to star in Craftseller and love crochet magazine and she will be the first of my amigurumi kits I'm building.

 This little bunny is a free pattern that is still available for anyone who want to make him its on the blog over here.

 Green sweater bunny. Hes one of my faves, I just love the bright green of his sweater. He still has friends waiting to be made to finish his pattern set but at the moment hes quite lonely.

 The woodland critters for Craftseller magazine just had to have a bunny in them :)

 Love Crochet magazine commissioned a little boy and girl bunny for their magazine and I was happy to help.

 For this year Easter project for Let knit magazine they wanted an Easter themed cot mobile and of course it had to have lots of little bunnies on it.

 Then there was my big book project for DK. They wanted a long eared stripy bunny and that what I gave them, even if they did have to cheer him up :)

Finally there is Lucy bunny

This is Lucy and Lucy bunny who was named after her. I make no excuses this is the most girly bunny I have every made. She has a frilly skirt on, patchwork fabric ears and lots of flowers and bows.

In my head when I came up with this design there was an image of a little girl in her wellies out for a walk with her bunny toy, holding it by the ear as they splashed in puddles together. It was an image that always made me happy and brought back memories of when I was a girl and would walk for miles over the countryside.

When you send of a design to publishers you have no control over how they will go about photographing them. I have always loved every photo of my work I've seen published so I'm happy to leave them to it, but in the back of my head I just really wanted to see that little girl holding Lucy bunny by the ear.

Well a few minutes ago there was a big thud from the hall that means only one thing - a magazine.

I didn't know I would be in this months Inside crochet magazine it seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago I sent the designs off to them but there was Lucy bunny on the front

I'm not sure if this magazine is out in the shops yet but it won't be long if it isn't .

It has Lucy bunny and also my crochet earrings patterns in it plus its chock full of so much crochet loveliness its defiantly worth a buy.

It made my day when I looked inside and saw this :)

Fairy and food

This week I have finished all my magazine work for the latest set of deadlines so I got to relax a bit and work on my own stuff.

One of the things I really want to do is a tutorial on how to make different types of hair for amigurumi dolls. I'm hoping if i get this done in time it will be my entry in the deramores blog awards. Also quite a few of my upcoming magazine patterns have different hair types and I thought it would be nice to have a area here people can use as a reference to make it easier to make them.

The first part of this is making some new dolls to give hair styles to. The first of these is my spring fairy

This little doll is made from Rico design baby cotton soft DK which comes in a super range of candy pastel shades and is lovely and soft so its really nice to work with for amigurumi. The pattern will be available from my etsy shop later today.
 Next I'm going to work on a pair of doll, a bride and groom. This will be a good opportunity to show boy hair and I think I'll do an up-do for the bride.

Also this week I've had a break from crochet and got some time to hang out with friends. One of my favorite things is cooking for my friends. I love planning what I will cook, pouring over yummy images of food on pinterest and imagining myself as the perfect domestic goddess.

Sorry for the poor pic (he's a camera dodger) this is my gorgeous friend Richard who is helping me build my website. I thought he was in need of a treat so I cooked us a slow roast pork in Chinese spice with noodles and stir fry veg. It was lovely but I think could have done with a bit more fire.

 For pudding I attempted to make profiteroles for the first time.

They turned our ok, but I think that was more by luck and a great recipe from the hairy bikers, than by my baking skills. They are quite a bit bigger than they should have been and I only got 12 out of the mix. Filling them was another bundle of fun as I couldn't find the right nozzles for the right piping bag so was having to make do with a bad fit. Also there is no way of knowing when they were full. I was stood there squeezing for what seem ages. In the end I had to cut one in half to see if it was full. I got the knack in the end eventually and they were great fum to make.

The best part of making these (other than the eating) was piling them up and adorning them with the rich chocolate sauce. The worst part was having to wait till tea time to eat them.

They when down very well and hopefully will be enough of a bribe to keep Richard working on the website.

Just had to add this photo. This is Cal one of my cats and this is her "stop crocheting NOW and play with me look".

Right well I'm itching to get started on my new dolls so I'll leave now and have a quick hop over to handmade Monday before I get hooking away :)

Craftseller cushion

Its been one of my busiest weeks in the studio. My hands are aching from the amount of crochet I've had to do this week. I sent of three amigurumi to Love crochet on Monday and have then spent most of the week working on two projects for Craftseller.

I showed you this little sneak peek of my craftseller project on Monday I have since somehow managed to completed the 72 flower motifs needed finish the projects. This pattern has been a bit of a departure for me but I've really enjoyed it. I can't wait to show it off but it'll be a couple of months before its printed so I'll just have to.

On Craftseller project I can show off is my cushion that in this months Craftseller out in the shops on Friday or if you subcribe you may be lucky enough to have it already.

 This cushion is made out of flower motifs again and is sew together. This is the first cushion pattern I've made and I'm really chuffed with it. Craftseller asked for these colours and I think they look lovely. My mum is waiting impatiently for them to sent me the worked cushion back as she wants it for her bedroom.

A good tip with the cushion inserts. I found them to be quite expensive but BHS had some cushion this size in the sale and they were only £3. I bought a few as I love the shape and plan to make more cushion patterns. Its worth shopping around for a good bargain like this.

As my hands were complaining I took a break from crocheting this afternoon and took some updated photos of my past amigurumis for my upcoming website.

Before - My dress up dolls with white background

After - With blue background

Its a working process but I like the background and I think they are looking a lot better. What do you think?

That it for this week I'm off over to check out handmade Monday why don't you join me x

Amigurumis for sale

I have found myself with a bit of a hoard of amigurumis that I've made for patterns for magazines and my own work.

I've decided to have a little sale to clear some space and raise some penny's to invest in a new yarn range.

All the details are over on my facebook page

Up for sale are all the amis in the above photos which include some of my magazine amis

If you want to offer a home to these or any of my other amigurumis drop me a line via my facebook page or email me on lizduttons@live.com x