Full time

This week I've been working full time as a crochet designer. I've only had one day at Duttons and the rest of the time I'm been in my crochet cave.

I've taken on a lot of work. My white board is full, I'm surrounded by yarn and half finished pieces. Its been fun and its given me a taste of what it would be like to give up my day job and commit to being a full time crochet designer.

 The cats have loved having me home more. Although Cal wasn't too happy when this lovely delivery of Yarn from wool warehouse turned up and she was told she couldn't play in the bag.

 They have done everything possible to try and distract me from work and have a new game where they both try and get as close to me as possible and then be super cute and distracting, Cassi likes to lick my hands (does anyone else have a cat that does this?) its sweet but a right pain while I'm trying to work. Cal just wants to be under everything, my blanket, my work board, note book, sketch book and laptop are all fair game as far as she is concerned.

 Even now as I type they are both by the laptop trying to get my attention on them and not my work.

Sometimes I just have to give up and wait till they fall asleep and as there is lots of soft yarn around to flop into this doesn't take long.

Other than the cats I haven't had much other company. Every morning I take myself a walk to get some fresh air and set me up for the day. Its peaceful the leaves are quickly changing colours and Autumn is defiantly here. I like listening to the birds and trying to spot other wildlife. I saw a fox one day and wished it a cheery Good morning as it when on its way.

I need to take my camera one morning as the woods have changed so much since spring when I took this

It has been so lovely to do what I love all week but I have been a bit of a hermit and I'll need to not make a habit out of that.

I never thought there would come a day when crochet could become my full time job but it may well be that that time is coming soon.

Now onto Love crochet magazine.
 The new magazine hit the shops last week and you'll find two patterns of mine in this issue.

My penguins all wrapped up in their cosy scarfs are the cover starts of this issue but you might notice my grey kittens in the corner too.

These picture are from love crochet magazine and I love how it looks like its snowing :)

Update - Pattern for the penguins is now available here 

The first idea I had about these guys was for the colours, I'd been told I couldn't use black and at the time the commission came in I was working on a shopping bag for me (as with all projects for me this still hasn't been finished).

I really liked the way these colours worked together in this random stripe and thought they would work well for the penguins.

This is the original sketch at this point they were going to be dressed differently but they looked better when they matched. I love hoe the finished duo look really fun and cosy, they turned out well.

This is my 4th cover for Love crochet magazine in a row and its such an honor yet again.

I'll tell you more about the kittens when I get my copy of the mag and can show you some better picture.

I'll leave you with some exciting news. This December I will be running an advent calender of free Christmas patterns on the blog. Every day of December there will be a new exclusive pattern by me available to download here.
 Its quite a task I've but I'm really enjoying the challenge and I'm getting some really lovely patterns together for you. Stay tuned they'll be more news soon.

Time for handmade monday, pop over and join in the fun
 

Omnipom giveaway

Do you remember these guys?

Or how about this guy?

Or Tony?

When I first started to crochet these dolls were some of my first creations. We called them the Omnipoms and I had lots of plans to write children's books about their adventures.

Crochet design and pattern writing has overtaken my dreams of writing children's book but I couldn't leave these guys behind.
 Every year I get asked to make some for special presents and I when I get a cute idea I make an odd one to add to the gallery. I have been asked many times to write a pattern but I never got chance.

Then a few months ago I was contacted by Suncather craft eyes. They had seem my work and wanted to send me some eyes so I could use them in a design and then we'd have a nice giveaway. I got sent some amazing glow in the dark eyes and new right away this was the time to finally write the Omnipom pattern

I had a rare 3 day weekend with no Duttons or crochet work on so I settled down with my cats for a Omnipom filled weekend and these are the results...

 BOO, did I scare you. Its a crocheted BOO with a little tiny cute skull and a mini pumpkin.

 The omnipoms needed a friend so I gave them a cat made with more suncatcher glow in the dark eyes :)

 This is Trick she a light orange omnipom with a grey moon eye patch and a ghostly cuddle toy. Se has glow in the dark eyes too.

 This is Treat, he has a pumpkin eye patch and is holding the BOO sign with its skull.

Here they all are together. Don't you think they look cute?

Now here the good news I have written the pattern up and you can get it right here in my etsy shop. If you use coupon code GIVEAWAY1 you'll get 25% off and you'll also get a discount code for suncatcher eyes

If you don't have an etsy account and you want to get hold of any of my patterns just drop me a line at lizwardcrochet@mail.com

The even better news is you can enter the giveaway to win one of the actual doll and 10 runners up will get a copy of the patterns and a voucher for some eyes from suncatchers eyes store.

To enter click on this link like my facebook page and add your comment to the giveaway post. You also get an extra entry if you share the post, if you follow my blog and comment here.

Last bit of good news I will be typing up more omnipom patterns over the next few days and there will be some new dolls available to buy in my etsy shop soon xxx