Crochet Now

In my previous post I mentioned the brand new crochet magazine coming out - Crochet Now- well the first issue is in shops now!!

In it you will find pages of treasures. It contains patterns for everything from garments to toys, and of course my gorgeous Chevron cushion cover, 100 pages of pure delight.

I'm really taken with the Boho Chic mosaic scarf by Jennifer Pionk and big top blanket by Ashley Cramp AKA lazydaisyjones. There are also few adorable baby projects such as booties, little dress, bunny toy and even a rattle, which is just perfect as two of my friends are expecting babies and I seriously need to get making.

Image credit: Practical Publishing
 

 Image credit: Practical Publishing
 

 Image credit: Practical Publishing 

There are also few good articles in the mag and a fantastic column on the last page by the super lovely Lynne Rowe from The Wool Nest. Lynne is going to encourage you every month to get creative with your yarn left overs by providing a lovely pattern to use up your yarn oddments, this month the pattern is for very useful nesting bowls.

Lynne, along with Fay Dashper-Hughes of Ma Dashper, have just started a new podcast called The Crochet Circle, the first episode is out now and it is a really enjoyable listen, actually it has encouraged me to take a closer look at my, ever expanding, yarn stash and actually tackle reducing it, I know! The horror!! But more on that in next post.

And if all of that wasn't enough there are also very useful news bites, yarn and yarn shop reviews, crochet workshop lists and tutorial on crochet cables and how to ready crochet charts and so much more, oh and included with the issue are three crochet hooks as a free gift. Honestly, this is truly a great mag and I'm not just saying that because of my pattern is featured in it, in fact it is a great honour to have one of my designs in such a great publication. Oh and if you turn to page 97 there's a little preview of what will be in next issue and one of those designs is mine, but I won't tell you which one yet :D

But let's talk about my chevron cushion......
It is a beauty! Made using tapestry crochet, a technique I absolutely adore, it produces beautifully firm fabric. I have again chosen Rowan Kid Classic in gentle colours, I love this yarn and just can't help crocheting or knitting with it, but of course any worsted yarn will be great to use for this cushion. If you haven't ever attempted tapestry crochet, don't worry, a full tutorial is included with the pattern, perfect for beginners.
Give tapestry crochet a go, it is such a fantastic technique I'm sure you will love it!

                                                             Image credit: Practical Publishing 

Happy crocheting,

Anna x

For the love of Brietta

I'm still on clouds nine after Brietta cowl got the front page treatment in Let's Crochet mag, which is a preview issue of brand new crochet magazine called Crochet Now. The mag is available together with Knit Now magazine. 

 As Let’s Crochet is a preview issue it contains carefully selected crochet designs that were previously featured in other magazines, Brietta was first featured in issue 65 of Simply Homemade magazine, which is just fab and jam packed with everything from cooking to card making. 

Brietta is a very eye catching cowl (if I may say so myself). The almond stitch gives you the perfect opportunity to play with colour, I have chosen hues of blue and turquoise, starting with the darkest and ending with lightest, the interruptions of cream colour in-between the almonds defines them beautifully. I have used one of my all-time favourite yarns for this cowl – Rowan Kid Classic, the Kid Mohair content of this yarn gives the cowl a lovely halo, not to mention the fantastic colour range the yarn comes in. 

You can really let your colour imagination let loose when crocheting this cowl. Choose your favourite combination or stick with subtly changing colours. I really like these Kid Classic combinations:

Of course you can use any worsted weight yarn for Biretta. At the moment I’m crocheting it with Louisa Harding’s Amitola Grande in Amelia sh. 527 and Rowan Kid Classic in Drought sh. 876. It is looking pretty amazing. Amitola is a gorgeous self-striping yarn, but the colour changes are not long enough to last for a full rows of almonds, at first I thought I might cut full colour lengths and use them as needed, but as I started to crochet I realised I really liked the two different colours in each almond.  

Let’s Crochet is available together with Knit Now Issue 58 – on sale now in newsagents, crafts stores and supermarkets. For more info or to order a copy visit: http://www.knitnowmag.co.uk/item/527-issue-58-on-sale-now

Happy Crocheting 

Anna x

Yarniness

Over the past two weeks I've visited two great yarn festivals: Unravel and Knit & Stitch Show Olympia.

Both are quite different shows with something else to offer. Unravel is definitely yarn only orientated while at Knit & Stitch show all craft lovers will find something for them, from sewing, knitting, card making and much more.

It was my first time to Unravel so I really didn't know what to expect, and boy what a treat it was! The festival lasts three days and is held in Farnham Maltings, spared over three floor, with little rooms going off main halls ending with The Long Kiln Gallery at top of the building. It felt a bit like being Alice in Wonderland, with every room holding different adventures.

  

Every room was packed full with the most delicious hand dyed yarns, a true visual treat. I was absolutely amazed at the quality and luxury of the yarns on offer, the most stunning colours in silks, wools, cashmeres and so much more all from indie yarn dyers, and of course all complemented by  the beautiful designs on show. 

 The Little Grey Sheep Stall 

The sparkly delight from Spin City

My favourite yarns were from Natalia Steward whose lace weight gradient silk yarns were just made for shawls, and Whistlebare-NorthumberlandFinest Yarns who produce hand dyed mohair and Wensleydale yarn from their Angora Goats and Wensleydale Sheep. Their yarns are all dyed using natural sources such as vegetables and come in 3 weights: 4ply, DK and Aran, all of them are just lush and begging to be knitted.

 Whistlebare-NorthumberlandFinest Yarns

 Faux taxidermy knitted fun from Sincerely Louise

Of course not only ready to buy yarn was on offer, there was also stalls with ceramics, felting, machine knitting, textile, even a charming stall with gorgeous wicker baskets. Lots of workshops and talks such as shawls/shapes by the fab Veera Valimaki and Bavarian Twisted Stitch with Fiona Morris. I was particularly sad to miss ‘The Making of The Vintage Shetland Project’ with Susan Crowford and film screening of ‘Yarn’, they were both on Saturday and I was there on Friday. 

And if all that wasn’t enough you were treated to the colour festival that are Amanda Perkins' blankets. Displayed in The Long Kiln Gallery, they were truly a visual delight.

 Amanda Perkins' gorgeous blankets

After all this crafty goodness you were welcome to grab a coffee and join ‘cast on, pass on’ bunting making in the foyer with the Surrey Knitting and Crochet Group.

In comparison The Knit & Stitch Show Olympia is very different, purely because the building has no character or old charming history, but the show itself offers delights for all craft addicts. Sewing addicts would find the festival a dream come true, there was everything from patch working to garment sewing. My most favourite stall was by Sew La Di-Da Vintage who makes stunning vintage patterns. Not only that, but there were great stalls with knitting and crochet accessories such as needles, stitch markers, you know the cute stuff, especially buttons from Kate Holliday which I’m addicted to! To be honest whatever craft you are into you will find something there for you.

As at Unravel there was lots of workshops on offer from jewellery making to felting. Also absolutely adorable hubs with drop-in knit sessions held by LoveKnitting and Toft. And an exhibition of dresses from National Fashion Textile Competition.

Both show offer something different and both are great, but what I liked the most is that both had displays of amazing knitted items.

                                        My girlies and I at Knit & Stitch Show Olympia :)



Anna xx

Operation: Wedding

Some of you know that Dave and I are getting married in 2017, we are planning the wedding for somewhere in June or July, yes, I know we still haven't set the exact date!

We will not have a big lavish wedding as this is just not who we are. It will be more of a fun, homemade knees up. Our venue is already planned and kinda booked, the next step is obviously setting the date and as soon as that is done the true planning can truly begin.

With time flying by at alarming speed we both decided that the operation wedding should begin now.
starting with.... diet.....The horrible and most dreaded word in the dictionary.
The other day we were looking at pictures of when we first met and boy was there so much less of us.Of course we both know we put on weight not being able to fit into cloths is kinda a big give away.
It's just living in our happy little (or ever expanding) bauble is so easy to forget or in fact not pay any attention to the pinching trousers, the extra roll of fat around our bellies or for me the lovely dresses in my wardrobe, that just look at me sadly because I haven't been able to wear them for quite a while now.

I have recently overheard a conversation on the train between two women which still plays on my mind. They were discussing their friend who went through a divorce recently and who had 'let herself go' since then. Then I was discussing this conversation with someone else who remarked how easy it is to 'let yourself go'.... I hate that expression, to me it symbolises that we are judged only on appearance, that the way we present ourselves is the most important aspect about us. It does not matter who we are, what we have achieved, all that matters is whether we have a muffin top and remembered to put lipstick on.

We all have our usual self, the face we recognise when we look in the mirror. The way we do/or not do our make up, the way we dress, the way we wear our hair, the weight we are most comfortable at - all this factors add up to create the comfortable us, but then situation in life sometime shake the equilibrium and throw us of balance or puts us on a completely different level.

Some of these situations are wonderful and happy, like finding the one and in your contentment you put on few pounds or you rather play with your kids than spend time grooming, maybe you went through a long overdue divorce or just found the happy place in your life, where you know you don't need to impress anyone and can just totally be yourself. You might stop wearing make up, get back to your natural hair colour, wear clothes that are so comfortable no matter how baggy they are, then the face that stares at you in the mirror changes a bit, but it's a wiser, happier face and as long as you love that face then no one should care why you've stopped wearing mascara.

Some situations in life are difficult and heart breaking, they question who we are and throw completely different prospective on life. When my mum passed away 12 years ago, for months my personal grooming routine was non existent, hell it was so down on my list of priorities I would have needed a search party to find it and suddenly I hated the face that stared back at me in the mirror. I didn't hate it because I had a unibrow, no, I hated it because I wasn't strong enough to cope with my grief. I was trying to find myself, a way of dealing with the pain and a way of facing my whole life without my mum in it, which is still the scariest prospect of all. Eventually with help I found my way out of this dark tunnel and stopped hating the face that was in the mirror.

Maybe the events in our life are so overwhelming, whether they are happy or sad, that the way we look is just completely unimportant and might never be important again.
Whatever the reasons are for us looking different from our usual self it should never be judged as 'letting ourselves go', maybe it's just a beginning of new us.

Well, David and I just want to get back to the slimmer versions of us. Last night we have joined Weight Watchers and I'm planning on documenting our journey in hope that it might motivate us to stick to the diet. Once a month I shall post about our progress, fingers crossed :)

We are both so ecstatic to be starting a new diet ;)

Anna x