magazine

Magazines go Crochet Crazy

Back in the autumn I noticed that many high street shops had started using knitwear and crochet as inspiration. The Granny Square is very much ‘in’. Well this month Country Homes and Interiors Magazine has nearly three pages of yarn love. So lovely.

They also have an article which shows you how to up-cycle old jumpers into household items.

I honestly really enjoyed this issue and just kept turning the page, ‘Ohh, I like that’. I especially liked the feature which Selina Lake has styled called Cottage Cosy.

I hadn’t realised that she had styled the pages and then she tweeted about it… and it all made sense. Lots of painted furniture, Liberty prints, Burleigh crockery. If you don’t know about Selina’s work, please do pop over to her blog, she has a new book out very soon Pretty Pastel Style, which might just have to be a sneaky purchase.

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Campervan Love continues…

Without a doubt, my Campervan Doorstop is my most popular pattern. Both the magazine, Inside Crochet, who commissioned the work and my blog get requests for a copy of the pattern. I have yet to republish it. But what is really delightful is that people send me photos of their campervans once they have finished them.

In the New Year, Hayley contacted me with photos of her royal blue campervan of love. How gorgeous. What I really like is that she has adapted the pattern to give it extra detail. Check out those windscreen wipers and the bootilicious bumper! How cool. Thank you Hayley!

Getting photos like this give me enormous joy. So much so that I have rustled up a new doorstop which I hope you will be able to enjoy in a couple of months. I’ll keep you posted.

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Edwardian Lady Scarf – Inside Crochet Issue 37

Happy New Year! How gorgeous is this photo? The model looks like the enchanting Audrey Tautou walking on the banks of the Seine – sultry – chic and wearing my scarf! My copy of Inside Crochet arrived on Christmas Eve and it was a lovely early pressie. I think the photos in this issue are amongst my favourite images of my designs.

I did wear this scarf on Sunday with a new black cardigan I had received at Christmas. I am afraid I didn’t quite embody the Gallic Chic of this gorgeous model..but in my head I was strutting my stuff along the Left Bank.

When I can, I try to give you a little background to where the ideas spring from for various commissions. This design has been knocking around in my head  for a while. Last year I was really inspired by the embroidered dresses which appeared on the catwalk. I think ironically this image was captured in Autumn 2011 at the Paris Shows. It was the same image which prompted me to make my Flori T. I am a huge fan of botanical prints, but if I am honest I think there was something wedged in my brain from my childhood. If you grew up in the 80’s then you cannot forget that there was a decade of fascination with the book ‘The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady’. The nature notes of Edwardian school teacher Edith Holden were posthumously published in 1977 and became a best seller, with ever increasing merchandise spin-offs. There was even a period when you could get tissues printed with her watercolour illustrations.

As a young girl I was delighted by the watercolours in this book and those of Beatrix Potter. Thinking about the design for this scarf I reached for a book which I knew I had kept since childhood. I knew it had a number of flower images which I had gazed at as a child.

When I opened the book for the first time in two decades, I discovered something which I was completely forgotten. It was like the young girl had caught up with my older self. Isn’t it funny that sometimes we forgot who was inside us all the time. Now I can remember taking my gift voucher and very deliberately choosing this book as my prize, but until researching for this scarf design, it was something that had laid very dormant in my memory.

So these are the images which I was look for:

Here they are in crochet form:

Flower embellishments may not be your thing. But you could use part of this design to decorate a hair-clip or even as a corsage. I wanted to lift the design by adding a touch of sparkle with beads and sequins. It is easy to over-do these things, but just a little added sparkle does add a little glamour to the piece. A technique I really like is combining the matt look of the wool in the main part of the scarf with a 4ply cotton edge, which has a silky sheen. The  contrast of those two textures is very pleasing and seems to give the scarf a better drape.

If you get a chance to check out the new issue of Inside Crochet it is well worth a look. I will try to do my top picks of patterns later in the week. The combination of Claire Montgomerie’s styling and the photography of Britt Spring is really chic.

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Christmas Decorating

I was watching Kirstie’s Vintage Home tonight and she said mentioned that when you have children, they love plastic and trinkets and you can’t impose good taste on your children. That made me smile. When it comes to Christmas this is especially true in our house. I just love these red berries, and had them last year as well, so the fun felt garland is matched with a pot of berries.

I also wanted to get hold of some fun pom poms and tinsel in the kitchen. Not very co-ordinated but lots of fun.The best fun is the Christmas Tree – Little B let loose. Baubles grouped together – a line of birds, different colours. It is his. Every year since he was born we have bought a bauble to add to the tree. Then using a permanent marker added the year to the base. So hopefully he will have full set of Christmas decorations for his tree when he leaves home. I look at decorated trees in magazines and think ‘My, my, our tree doesn’t look like that!’ But nothing compares to the love and giggles of a child decorated tree. I certainly couldn’t alter any bauble positions now. My interfering would be noticed and that would not be good. But you know something, I don’t want to.

 

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Currently Loving – Astrid Weigel

Well finally we have got a bit festive in our house and managed to sort out a tree, bring down the decorations from the loft and spend a festive few hours decorating. I have been saving up a a little purchase I made in autumn, from the  Great Northern Contermporary Craft Fair.

I was delighted to come across the enchanting stall of Astrid Weigel. I fell in love with her graphic prints, and treated myself to this table runner, destined for the kitchen table.

I was even more delighted to find that she was featured in Homes and Antiques Magazine December issue. If you get a chance do pop over to her website.

So little salt bunny pot has pride of place on the runner, with a festive star coaster. (Mrs J thinks it looks like a poinsettia flower, brilliant!).

I also bought this rather fine stag very cheaply which I thought would make a nice graphic match.  This is where the taste and style ends in the decorations.

Tomorrow I will share with you the hilarious on-set of kitsch, random and penguin infused decorating … well Christmas is about sharing and love, and boy there is much love for penguins in our house.

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Patterns with a life of their own

I like making things. I like giving things. I really like it when I see something I have made and then given, being used or worn. That is the nicest feeling. This year I have made quite a few things for wonderful ladies in my life. The Brioche Cowl, the New Day Cowl and the Swishy Scarf are a few and perhaps the most lovely experience is to spot one of those friends sporting their gift, knowing they didn’t expect to see me. That is the best part.

One of the added bonuses of having the blog is that I occasionally get sent a photo of something someone has made using my pattern. Obviously you can view these on Ravelry, but it is even more special when someone take the time to share. So I am especially proud to see this wonderful bunny made by Jules using my Millicent Rabbit pattern. Isn’t she darling? Pop over to her blog here, which has some wonderful stitching.

Recently I have also really enjoyed wearing things which have returned from the Magazine photo shoots. It is like having a surprise garment that suddenly appears in your wardrobe. Even more of a surprise, as I tend to make them at least one season out of kilter. It was a chilly weekend here in Blightly so I rummaged in my sample store and picked out snuggly Snow Queen, which is in December’s issue of Knitting Magazine. Lovely warm and cosy. Obviously this is not a glamourous photo, but I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the best compliment my friends pay me is not to realise that I made something myself. If you are a knitter, then you know the ultimate compliment is to hear these words, ‘Where did you get that jumper, I want one?’…. you reply, ‘I MADE IT! mitts off cheeky!’ – best feeling in the knitting world…then the guilt gnaws away and you give in and give them your finished article – Better to give than to receive.

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Crafty Christmas Canes

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to provide a childrens craft activity for a Christmas Fair, You know the kind of thing, so something easy to maintain and totally absorbing, so that Mummy and Daddy can enjoy other stalls. I turned to the Prima Christmas Makes Magazine, which has lots of lovely ideas in it.

Their Candy Cane Mice are so lovely.

But I decided to simplify the process for the en-masse situation which craft fairs tend to be. I abandoned felt and just created a few templates for little ones to colour in using some card I had in stock.They had plenty of fun with stickers and felt-tips. I think if you were at home glitter would be brilliant.

We just taped the candy canes to the back, and my little crafters went away happy with their impromptu Christmas decorations.

Little B and I might do quite a few in that gap between school breaking up and Christmas. Put on the carols and lets have some festive fun!

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Tis the season to ~ Shimmer

Without making this sound too ‘thought through’ I have found it more and more helpful to think about design commissions ahead of the season beginning with the idea ‘What would I like to wear….?’ The wonderful people at Inside Crochet have published my Shimmer Sweater in their December issue. Basically the idea for the sweater was inspired by those 50’s Hollywood stars who look so chic in a neat little tank with Capri pants and flats. I wanted to make something that would be pretty enough and warm for a festive party with a long maxi skirt or over some cute skinny-fit trousers for a family get together.  Looking around the skirt I had in mind is something like these which I spotted in Zara. Beautiful and practical with handy pockets!

Shimmer uses Debbie Bliss Party Angel, which has the merest hint of golden flecks, not ‘Brassy’, just a little bit of sparkle. The soft mohair makes this textured crochet soft and not too stiff that you would find it uncomfortable to wear. The edge openwork, is intended just to break up the waistband and give the whole piece a special feel. I think the model looks gorgeous in this image. Claire has given the look a funky edge with those turquoise beads and heavy chain.

As always the photography of Britt Spring gorgeous. Plus if you get hold of a copy, there are some ‘Oh-so-cute’ Christmas decorations by my friend Tracy Todhunter, and the magazine has a new matt cover, which I love.

Tis the season to ~ Shimmer Read More »