this month

Sorry I've been so quiet. Needless to say I've been very busy, mainly with magazine work but also with a little pet project of my own I'll be telling you about later.

So first the magazine round up and this month there are quite a few.

I missed last moths Craftseller so I'll tell you about that one first.

This commission was for two wintery cats.

I really wanted the Christmas jumper look. The zig zag pattern wasn't what I'd planned but happened by accident and I really liked the look so stuck with it. I've also used a new stitch in these to create the ribbing on the jumper and the hand band. I'm really happy with how these turned out they look great pals in this photo from the magazine :)

So on to this months Craftseller and this time they were sticking with the winter theme and asked for a native fisherman and penguin friend.

I like the sketch I did for this one and I was really pleased that I was able to get the finished design as close to the sketch as possible.

Here they are before they when off on their adventures. There was some debate as to the finished colour of the fish they wanted, so in the end I made lots and let my editors decide but as you can see from the finished photo from the magazine they just used them all.

I really want to know where they get all the lovely little props they use, I love this little sledge.

This is quite a simple amigurumi design but I've added some embroidery work on the braid to really give it that native feel. I think he's a real cute one and his chubby penguin friend is never short of a fish or two by the looks of him :)

Right where to next..

Your handmade home magazine has re-printed the trio of Christmas characters I made last year for Craftseller magazine so if you didn't get your hands on them last year you have another chance in this fantastic magazine full of many different crafts for Christmas.

Next up I've had some more patterns re-printed in some wonderful bookzines made by the people behind Inside Crochet magazine.

There are loads of pattern in these lovely books I'll just give you a quick photo round up of some of my designs you'll find in them.

 needlework set

 wash mitts

t

 beaded crochet earrings

 Ice creams

 Lucy bunny

 Squirrel

Walter the whale :)





Last up you may have notice in the photo of the book-zines that I've included the next issue of #Crochet magazine.



I did a few new designs for this issue and first up is a selection of kilt pin animals.

This was a really fun project to work on and they turned out great. My favorite is the fish, I just love the air bubbles that join him back to the kilt pin, its just too cute :)

finally another small project from #Crochet magazine is these Crochet buttons

These were completely addictive to make and while I was only asked for three buttons I couldn't help myself and gave them six to choose from.

I'll post up the patterns for the two they didn't pick when I get a spare bit of time.

Right that's its. sorry for being quite for ages and then rushing through this months magazine projects but I really am short of time this month. As well as having lots of design work on I've been creating 24 brand new wintery and Christmas patterns for a free pattern advent calender that will be here on the blog from the first of december.

Every day till Christmas I'll be posting up a new free pattern for all sorts of Christmas crochet goodies to celebrate the festive season.

So don't miss out. if you don't already follow my blog you can click on the Follow button at the top left hand side of this page (just under the owls) or you can like my facebook page and I'll keep you all up dated there

Better late than never

As the new issue of Craftseller magazine hits the shops today, I realized I'm behind in my blog posts and haven't written about my projects in the previous issue, better late than never here it goes.

My first project in this issue was a sun hat for a small child. I didn't send a sketch in for this one. My editors had asked for a big floppy hat with a big flower and I figured everyone would know what that was going to look like without my silly sketching skills.

 We went with a classic cream hat and a big trendy coral flower and doesn't it look smashing
.
 My biggest problem with this design was getting the size right, I didn't have a small child to hand who's head I could measure to hand. I sent a shout out on facebook and my lovely friends with children thankfully they answered my call. I them blew up a balloon to the average circumference size and used that as a basis to work from. Its all about finding creative solutions to silly problems, that's the life of a designer.

I think the great thing about this pattern is as you are making it you'll soon get the hang of how the increases work so you'll be able to add in a few more increase rows if you want to make it bigger.

I love how this pretty hat turned out, its not as quick to make as some of my smaller amigurumi projects but its a really nice, simple and relaxing make. Being an easy make I was able to leave my crochet cave and do a bit of crocheting on the bus on the way to my friends house and finished the main part of it while watching Wayne's world and trying to catch up with my friend (crochet and conversation isn't always compatible).

The next projects was a amigurumi picnic. I got a big long list of food to crochet, a cake, sandwich, macaroons, and a load of fruit.

This was the approved sketch and I think the finished foody items turned out really close to this sketch.

 There was a lot to get my head round in this design as there are a lot of different shapes to play . The biggest challenge was working out how to make a triangular shape while working in the round. This wasn't something I had ever attempted before so I had to start from scratch and work out the maths. In the end it turned out to be quite simple and I'm happy with how the pattern came out.

The other challenge with this pattern was just getting my head round the concept that I'm crocheting food. I know I can be a bit childish but I couldn't stop myself from sharing with the world on twitter that I was crocheting cheese :)

I do love this sandwich but gosh I was hungry all the time I was making it, I was even dreaming about food while making this set.

This was my reward for finishing this project a scrummy bacon sandwich with brown sauce and a lovely cup of Yorkshire tea, yum x

This project was so huge that they couldn't fit it all in the magazine so the macaroons when onto the Craftseller website as a free patterns available here

If you missed out on the magazine back copy's are available from Craftseller.com but this macaroon pattern will be available for free indefinably on the above link.

Right that's me relative caught up. I'll have my post about the newest Craftseller coming soon but if you take a look at the top photo you might get a sneaky peek at my alley cats xxx