Heart teddy

This week I'm off Duttons and have a full week of crochet ahead of me. I'm gonna be setting up my own website and part of this is doing new photo shoots with my amigurumi so they look lovely on the website.

When I first started writing amigurumi pattern nearly 2 years ago this little teddy was the first pattern I put in my esty shop.

I still have this little bear, he sits on my bookcase but I thought I'd have a go making him again anyway. I soon found ways the pattern could be improved. I changed the feet so they had bigger pads that would support a fabric patch and changed the face, using bigger eyes and a felt muzzle patch. Other than that he's just the same.

What do you think?

 This photo is taken with a the soft filter on my new camera. I like the vintage look it gives. The fabric on the ears and feet has little strawberry's on it so I used another strawberry fabric (which I maybe should have ironed... whoops) for the back drop of the shot.

 I really like this camera affect that adds a boarder around the bear. It really draws you into the bear and makes the red heart pop. I think I'll be using this affect more and more.

 No camera effects on these two. One with heart and one without.

Finally a photo without the heart and with the boarder. This is my favourite photo:)

In other news I was asked via my etsy shop if I would make one of my chunky money amigurumis for a lady who couldn't crochet. I am always happy yo do this so the requested monkey with an additional eye patch (I don't ask questions, you want a monkey with an eye patch you got it) was lovingly made and posted off.

Today I got this lovely message from Natasha who commissioned him

"Thank you so much for making the monkey.
Myself and my fiancé collect handmade monkeys which we have created for important moments in our life( they then travel the world with us) the little monkey you made was to celebrate our wedding next month( hence the colour) and the patch was because 2 weeks ago my fiancé was rushed into hospital with an abscess on his brain that very nearly killed him, he pulled through but his sight was affected so he has to wear a patch until it recovers. I gave him the monkey yesterday and he loves him- he's now joined our 5 other monkeys and will be off on his travels with us soon.Thank you again. Have left you feedback "

How lovely is that.
 Its wonderful to think that one of my silly creations will be a treasured part of their family :)

Natasha and her hubby are going to send me some pics of the (nameless at the mo) monkey with his new friends so I share them with you all when.

Now its handmade Monday time which means cup of tea and a blog hop :)

What a hoot

A few months ago I was lucky enough to get my first magazine cover.

 These owls have been really popular. I have had some wonderful feedback and seen some lovely pictures of your makes. I will be adding a "Your makes" gallery to the blog soon so if you have made anything for any of my patterns send me a photo via amigurumi barmys facebook page and I'll add your photo to the gallery.
 I have had a lot of people saying how much the like the owls but they can't crochet. Thankfully quite a few people have been inspired to learn to crochet but I know this isn't the option for everyone. I have had a bit of spare time this week so I've putting together some sets of 3 owls. These will be for sale in my etsy shop for a limited time.

 These sets will include 1 big, 1 medium and 1 small owl. Each with hand embroidered felt eyes. These are sold as collectible dolls and are not toys for small children.
 Set one teal, red and yellow

 Set 2 pink, blue and lilac

Set 3 green, bright blue and pale blue.

I won't be making many of these sets so if you want one you need to grab them while you can.

I also had time to make one for myself

I'm just in time for handmade Monday to I'll go add my linky now :)

Crochet dolls

Yesterday I posted off a set of dolls for a magazine project. I was very sad to see them go as one of them is, I think, the cutest doll I've made yet. So cute that I kept picking him out of my work bag just to look at and hold. It'll be a couple of months till you get to see him in print but when you do I hope you agree with me.

Anyhoo. With that in mind I have been inspired start a major project and write lots of patterns for diffrent dolls.

I have a good base pattern that I created for the trick or treat dolls.

With adaptation this should work for a range of cute dolls. I'm going to experiment with different ways of doing hair and clothing too and if works out I'll put some tutorials up on the blog so you can follow my progress.

I'm gonna try and keep the blog updated more often as I work on this project so you'll all be able to join in the fun.

I have also started a pinterst board for inspiration. Anyone who wants to add to board, message me your email and I'll send you an invite :)

So what should I make first Girl or boy?

Craftseller geisha girls

Now the magazine has hit the shops I can finally share with you one of my favourite projects to date.

These Geisha girls were a project from craftseller magazine and as soon as I got the email I knew they were gonna be great fun to create.

They wanted 6 geisha girls- very pretty with lots of detail. This was the first sketch I did, but before this sketch there was a lot of working out to be done. I had to get 6 girls with 3 different hair colours, 3 different styles, 6 different symbols, 6 dress colours and 6 contrast colours and not clash or double up on any colour combination. I have a wonderful graph that I worked it all out on but at the mo I can't find a picture of it. It would probably look like gibberish to anyone else anyway.

The pattern was the next part it needed to be simple enough to not put off anyone new to crochet off and fun (I had to repeat it 6 times after all). With a bit of playing around with the maths I had a pattern that fit the bill.

 The first one I made was ginger like me. This photo shows the original wig that was changed so it would come down more on the face so they looked more cute

The second picture shows the positioning of the obi at the back of the dress.

 Here they are all together. The best part of making these girls is being able to go to town the detail in the hair and on the dress. I used buttons, embroidery, felt, ribbons, beads, sequins and even an old earring. It was one of these great stash raiding party's where you get to use all those things you been saving "just in case" :)

It had been hinted that these were for the cover of Craftseller but I didn't know for sure till my mum called me very excited when her subscription copy arrived. I get a very proud feeling seeing these girls in the magazine. They were a lovely project and I hope they inspire others to pick up a hook and get crocheting. Me I'll be baking the Chelsea buns in this issue as they look yummy and I may even get my knitting needles out and have a go at Tracy Todhunters knitted shawl or I might just try and crochet some shawls and cover ups as this good weather can't last forever.

I've missed a few weeks but I'm linking in with handmade Monday over at handmade harbour. Why not head over there too :)

Magazine work

The week seem to have flown by since my last blog post. The weather has been lovely and crocheting and warm days do not go together well.

I do have some things to share I've had a few more patterns published in magazine.

 This photo won't turn the right way round no matter what I do.

First up in last month copy of Inside crochet magazine I had two patterns, My lovely Walter the whale and my cotton wash mitts.

 This magazine will still be available on back order if you want to get hold of it.

 Next up in the third of the new look Craftseller are a pattern you haven't seen from me before. These little amigurumi dogs are a fun if a bit fiddly pattern and can be made in any colour to match your family pet or for custom orders.

 These dogs are based on our old family dog Judy and a Dalmatian and a pug.

 I love to see my work in magazines and one of the great things about it is seeing how the professionals photo my work. They have really made these dogs come alive. This double page spread from Inside crochet below is one of my favourite of my work.

 Not amigurumi but these patterns for  a heart bag charm and oak necklace use the same stitches. I really enjoy making beautiful crochet jewellery and seeing these photos in print  really inspire me to get a hook in my hand and make more.

In other news I have a new love in my life. After 2 years it was finally time for a mobile upgrade. My is the samsung galaxy mega, it is a big one, more a tablet than a phone but its fab. I can not totally run the business on the go so hopefully you won't have to wait a month for my next update :)

Happy crocheting everyone x

Lazy weekend

I don't have a lot to show for this weeks work. This is mostly because the jobs I have been doing have been typing up patterns and drawing up plans for upcoming projects rather than making lovely thing but also I've because had a very silly injury so I can't crochet.

On Thursday I had a lazy day of slow cooking in preparation for dinner at my friends new flat on Friday. I don't normally get a chance to cook something truly yummy for myself and a slow cook day when the house is full of wonderful smells is always a joy.
 A few weeks ago I'd seen them make pulled pork and bean hash on sunday brunch and now seem the perfect time to give it a go.

I didn't do the pork the way they said as I already have a recipe for slow cooked pork, so I used that. The pork is smothered with garlic, ginger and chili before going in for a slow cook. I have somehow in the move lost my pestle and mortar and my micro plane grater, so there was only one thing for it I had to chop everything by hand. This was quite enjoyable even if it did take some time. The smells alone were worth it but at the end of lots of chopping my arm way aching a bit. On with the beans and more chopping of more garlic, chili, ginger and onion, now my arms getting really tired.

Work on the food done I settled down to a lazy day crocheting. I started work on a granny square blanket

Cal helping :) This is a project just for me and so I'm happy for it to be a bit of a labour of love but my hand wasn't and I didn't get far with it.

Waking up for a day at the day job on Friday, my arm was very stiff and sore. It was going to stop me though as I had an evening out and yummy food to enjoy after work.

What a lovely night it was too. I managed to persuade Richard to open one of the cheap bottles of champers he got when he work at sainsburys, we listened to real music on vinyl records, enjoyed the food and had a good old natter :)


Unfortunately, I think all that heavy lifting of a wine glass was the straw that broke the camels back as far as my arm was concreted. By Saturday morning it was complety gone. I started some crochet work but it just hurt too much.

I have had to give myself the weekend off. This isn't really a hardship as I have no pressing deadlines but I do like to stay ahead when I have the chance.

I've read 2 books and have just started on my 3rd. I've had lots of kitty cuddles, cause obviously the warm kitty body's are soothing on my arm and I've finally got to spend some time in the garden in the sunshine :)

Its been lovely but I'm itching to get my hooks out and get cracking with the new crochet projects. Hopefully I'll have more to show you next week but for now I'm heading over to handmade monday for a catch up on what the other crafty bloggers have been up too :)

Craftseller owls

A while ago I posted this pic on my facebook age asking you to guess what I was making.

 Well no one guessed right but you ave me some great ideas of things to make next.

So I can reveal that I was making a family of rainbow owls for a commission for craftseller magazine.
Owls are everywhere in crochet at the moment so I really wanted mine to stand out by being very simple, easy to make but stunning and cute.

As usual with me its all about the eyes.

The rest was pretty easy as I was making a foot for a turtle and I realised it was perfect for the larger owls too. I bit of jiggery pokery with the pattern to make some ears and this is what we have.

 My finished owls before the were posted to craftseller HQ

But then didn't I get a wonderful shock when I finally saw the magazine :)

 Look that's my little owls on the cover. THE COVER!!!!!!!!! my fist ever cover I'm so excited. Don't they look lovely. I keep making excuses to go into newsagents just to see it on the stand :)

If you not to get your hands on this magazine and the owl pattern it'll be in the shops in the UK all month. If you are outside the UK its available as a digital download just check out the craftseller website :)

Now its time to head over to handmade monday to catch up with my fellow craft bloggers