August catch up

Already its the 2nd week of September and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write a new blog post. I have a slice of cake (black forest yum), a piping hot cup of tea and my two kittys sitting either side of me like bookends to keep me warm so I'm all set to type away.

I'll start with work and its been a very, very busy month. I'm working on Christmas projects for various magazines at the mo. Crocheting up some lovely things that'll be able to share with you in a few months.

On to what I can tell you about...

This months see the release of the new Love crochet magazine and for the third time in a row I was asked to design their cover project. They wanted a puppy.

The last puppy we've had in the family was my sisters dog rusty

He a grown dog now but when he was younger he was a bundle of energy with massive paws, floppy ears, a big brown nose and an ever wagging tail. I knew I wanted to base my puppy pattern on Rusty and the main focus being the huge paws, big ears and nose. I wanted my puppy to have an eye patch - 'cause I think they are cute and I was going to give him a huge rubber bone because I thought he would like to play with it and I really wanted to have a go at writing a pattern for one.

Here the sketch I sent off. This one of the first drawings I've done that I liked, it felt like I was able to get what was in my head onto the paper for the first time.

Then it came to deciding on yarn. I had a pile of rich reddish Rowan yarn that I'd bought for a fox project that I'd hope to send to inside crochet magazine but till then just hadn't had the time to make.

It was the perfect colour for my puppy and because this cotton handknit yarn it quite thick and has no stretch to it at all it means that I would be able to make the ears stand up on their own so they would be positionable.

A bit of crochet and maths later and this was the result.

This was the picture I took before I sent him off to Love crochet magazine....

and here he is as the cover star of the magazine :)

I'm really happy with him. I think he looks lovely, I love his big paws and that nose xxx

I also had a cunning plan that when he came home from his little trip to the magazine I could give the puppy toy to my sister as her Christmas present. Clever right :) Well no, that was not to be because my editors loved him so much they decided to give him away to one lucky reader of the magazine. I think there is still time to enter too all you have to do is go over to their facebook page which is here and suggest a name for him (or her).

Talking about facebook pages if you don't follow me already the facebook page for amigurumi barmy is here. I've just done a give away myself that went really well and I now have over 4000 followers which is just wow. Thank you all who followed and I will be doing another giveaway very soon xxx

Up next is Craftseller magazine and can I have a mini fanfare for my second cover of the month

My patterned owls made it to the cover :) This is my 5th Craftseller cover in just over a year. I really can't believe it and I'm super chuffed.

This is how they started life in my sketch book (I forgot they wanted two with sleepy eyes when I did the sketch whoops).

This was a really simple design and didn't take long. I like that as it mean I know that its going to be super simple for everyone else to follow the pattern and sure enough within days of the magazine going on sale I'd seen loads that had been made and posted on Craftsellers facebook page and various crochet forums.

It really makes me happy when I see people using my patterns and making my amigurumis. If anyone ever whats to send me a pic of what you've made you can drop me an email at lizwardcrochet@mail.com if I get enough I'll set up a gallery on here and pinterest.

Craftseller wasn't done with me this month though they wanted another set of patterns and when I got the email I was so, so, so excited....

They wanted Red riding hood and the big bad wolf.

Now as a designer I have a list of things I really, really want to make some day and right at the top of that list in big shiny sparkly letters is my favorite nursery story red riding hood.
 I have wanted to make it for so long so that when Craftseller asked me to make it for them I was skipping with joy.

My not so great sketch. I had to design patterns for Red and the wolf, a picnic basket and flowers, toadstool and a tree. Yes a tree :)

I loved every second of this project, I was in a happy bubble from start to finish. I think this might be why my BIG BAD wolf actually looks very cheerful and friendly.

ok here it is finished ...

Don't you just love it. Look at my tree!!! and the cute little toadstools, wolfies big paws <3 and Red cape xxx

I can honestly say hand on heart this is the best pattern I have ever written. Go now and get a copy of Craftseller magazine while its still in the shops because if you love amigurumi and crochet you need to have a go at making these, you'll have so much fun xxx

Wait there's more... When I was making Reds cape I thought it would be pretty easy to scale it up to little people size for dressing up and general larking around in the woods :) So I've done it. Its nearly finished and it will be a free pattern on the craftseller website very, very soon.

Ok that's all for now. I'll tell you about my redecorating next time and there is some very exciting news coming up of a brand spanking  new crochet magazine that out on the 17th of September.