Love frog

I hope you all had a love Christmas and a very happy new year.

Here in York its been very dramatic as boxing day saw some of the worst flooding the city has seen since the new flood defenses were put in.

Both The Foss and the Ouse that run through the center of York broke their banks and the flood barrier had to be raised to prevent electrical fault. Hundreds of homes and business in and around York have been flooded and many other homes we cut off by the water and people were stuck in their homes. Most people lost power, phone and internet connections.

I was lucky I don't live near the rivers and my home was fine. I had a few days without phone and internet but that wasn't any real hardship. We've been doing all we can to help the people who were affected by the flood. There is a donations page and I'll be donating the profit from any of my pattern sales in my etsy shop so if you want to go and have a look you can find it here.

One of the worst things is that it has people are still staying away from York because they think the floods are still affecting the city. All the little independent shops in the town center are open and they are suffering because the press is encouraging people to stay away. We need tourist and visitors in York city center. All of the shops are open, all of the car parks and roads in are open. We are lovely people come and visit and say hello.

In other more crochet related news I have started working for a new magazine. Lets get crafting. This is a fab magazine that has knitting and crochet. I've come on board as the new amigurumi designer. The mag comes with 6 balls of yarn, a crochet hook and knitting needle so you can start making something straight away.

You can spot my first design on the left hand side of the cover.

 Esmeralda frog :) It makes me really happy when I get asked to make something I've been waiting to make for ages and thats just what happened with this frog. I've talked before about having far too many ideas than I have time to make things. I've had in mind a amphibians and reptiles pattern set for a while and had a working idea of how I was going to make the frog. When LGC asked for a valentines frog I got my ideas book out and used my planned frog to make up the basics of Esmeralda.

I couldn't just make a frog though it had to have a pink bow on it head and a huge pink heart. I don't think it'd be one of my designs if it didn't have a bow or bow tie. I'm all about the cute :)

If you are on Ravelry you can find the project page for Esmeralda frog here so if you make one you can add your photo. I know quite a lot of people have already made her and I've loved seeing all the pics. You can share them on my facebook page here aswell if you like.

Well that all for today but there is lots coming up in 2016, I've already got some fantastic commissions that I'm working on for some great magazines. I'll be doing some fun video tutorials for amigurumi. There will also be some kits coming into my etsy shop so you can buy the pattern and everything you need to make it for yourself or as a gift, so no more shopping around for the right size toy eyes.

Its going to be an exciting year. Happy crocheting love from Liz xxx