Christmas shoot

Just popping in to show you some images from the Christmas shoot I styled for Inside Crochet magazine. This is possibly my favourite shoot I have ever styled. Hope you like it!
All projects available in issue 96, out now!









All images by Kirsten Mavric, Hair and Make up by Nicki Henbrey.

Free Christmas Star Pattern!

In the Christmassy spirit of Advent, today I have written up a little pattern to share with you, using the very lovely Paintbox Yarns Simply DK. It is a very quick and simple pattern but includes a spike stitch and both working in the round and straight so I will knock up some accompanying tutorials for you as soon as I can. I will also publish a PDF version on Lovecrochet.com very soon.
I hope you enjoy making it, please do share your pictures of your own stars, can't wait to see which palette you choose!
 

Materials

Paintbox Yarns Simply DK 100% acrylic, 100g/276m/302yds 

Yarn A: Neon Pink, 156 x 1 ball

Yarn B: Buttercup Yellow, 122, x 1 ball

Yarn C: Rich Mauve, 144 x 1 ball

Yarn D: Rose Red, 113 x 1 ball

Yarn E: Washed Teal, 132 x 1 ball

Yarn F: Lime Green, 128 x 1 ball

4mm hook

Yarn needle

Toy Stuffing.

Tension

Exact tension is not essential.

Pattern Notes

Centre of the star is worked in the round. Points of the star are worked one by one on Round 6, but are worked back and forth, breaking the yarn after every point and rejoining the yarn to Round 5 to begin the next point.

Special Stitches

Cluster (cl): [yoh, insert in st, draw lp through] twice, 5 lps on hook, yoh and draw through all 5lps.

Method

Star (make two)

With 4mm hook and Yarn A make an adjustable ring. 

Rnd 1: 6dc in adjustable ring, pull tightly to close ring, sl st to first dc to close rnd – 6dc.

Fasten off Yarn A, join Yarn B to any st around with a sl st.

Rnd 2: 2ch, yoh, insert hook in same st, draw lp through, yoh and draw through all lps on hook, 1ch, (cl, 1ch) in each rem dc around, join rnd with sl st – 6 cl and 6 ch-sps.

Fasten off Yarn B, join Yarn C to any 1ch-sp around with a sl st.

Rnd 3: 2ch (counts as 1htr), 2htr in same ch-sp, 1ch, (3htr, 1ch) in each rem ch-sp around – 18htr, 6ch-sps.

Fasten off Yarn C, join Yarn D to first htr of any 3htr group with a sl st.

Rnd 4: 1dc in same st and in each of next 2 htr, insert hook down into cl from Row 2, yoh, draw loop through st and up to the height of current rnd, yoh and draw through 2lps on hook, spike made, *1dc in each of next 3 htr, spike stitch; rep from * 5 times in total, join rnd with sl st – 18dc and 6 spike sts.

Fasten off Yarn D, join Yarn E to any st around with a sl st.

Rnd 5: 1dc in each st around – 24dc.

Fasten off Yarn E, join Yarn F to any st around with a sl st.

Round 6 will be making the star points one by one as follows:

Star point:

Row 1: 1dc in this and each of next 4 sts, turn – 5dc.

Row 2: 1ch (does not count as st), 1dc in each st across – 5dc.

Row 3: 1ch (does not count as st), dc2tog, 1dc, dc2tog – 3dc.

Row 4: 1ch (does not count as st), 1dc in each st across – 3dc.

Row 5: 1ch (does not count as st), dc3tog – 3dc.

Fasten off yarn.

With RSF, rejoin yarn to same st of Rnd 5 that the last dc of Point One’s Row 1 is worked into, so this stitch of Rnd 5 will be worked into twice. Now work next point and each following point from Row 1 in the same way as the last, starting each following point in the last dc of the previous point’s Row 1.

6 points in total.

Finishing

Block pieces lightly to shape. Place two star pieces together with wrong sides facing.

Rejoin Yarn F to the top of any point and work evenly around the whole star in dc, working each dc through both layers of the star to join them. Before you reach the end of the round, stuff the star lightly to desired shape, then complete the round and join with a sl st to the first dc. Make 15ch, then sl st back down into bottom of the chain to make a hanging loop.

Hang on your tree and admire!

 

Christmas Crochet Photoshoot

Sweater by Rhian Drinkwater, Image Kirsten Mavric, Hair and Make Up Nicki Henbrey, Decorations Pipii

As it is the first of December tomorrow, we can officially get Christmassy! So I thought I would share some images from the current issue of Inside Crochet, as I styled a rather festive photoshoot this month. The gorgeous shots are by by Kirsten Mavric, including some of a wreath and decorations that I designed for the issue.

Cardigan by Ruth Maddock, Image Kirsten Mavric,  Decorations www.pipii.co.uk

Wreath by me, Image Kirsten Mavric

Mini Wreaths by me, Image Kirsten Mavric, Decorations www.pipii.co.uk

Image Kirsten Mavric

Gloves Tracey Todhunter, Image Kirsten Mavric

Image Kirsten Mavric, Decorations Pipii

Hat by Rhian Drinkwater, Image Kirsten Mavric, Hair and Make Up Nicki Henbrey,

new issue: inside crochet 59

Issue 59 of Inside Crochet dropped onto my doormat this morning and it is looking gorgeous, even if the thought of Christmas is making me a little nervous...! 

There are some beautiful patterns inside this month, so make sure you grab a copy. I especially love the pictures of the beaded collar by Jo Bodley, which we shot in front of an amazing old headboard to get that pretty backdrop. And the pattern I must start hooking right now is Sarah Reed's adorable mini stocking bunting. I am going to make mine into an advent calendar for the littlun and put in notes and treats for each day leading up to Christmas. Most will probably be filled with activities for the day like "making mince pies", "put up the tree!" or "time to feed the Christmas cake!" I love the idea of creating an heirloom decoration that she will always remember as central to those comforting family festivities and not bound only by chocolate or Christmas excesses. Must go find some yarn...

Images all by the lovely Britt Spring.

Merry Christmas!

As the festive season approaches, some pictures of my tree. Child friendly fake fir with bright, retro decorations and topped by a lovely pattern from Inside Crochet issue 36 by Phyllis Serbes.

 Love my glass robot baubles given to me some years ago by the lovely Susan from Loop yarn shop.

 Retro mushrooms and chiming owls make my fake fir somehow more real...

 ...while I also have quite a few personalised baubles given by dear friends. What have you got on your tree?

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

baby crocheted loveliness

Firstly, a very happy new year to you all, hope you had a wonderful festive period. I wanted to quickly share with you all a thoughtful gift received beautifully wrapped for my little girl's first Christmas.

Emma Varnam, a very talented designer who I have met through Inside Crochet magazine kindly sent it to us and it has been very useful already, as well as being a very pretty accessory which has received countless compliments from strangers as she is proudly pushed around town in it!

I don't think Emma has written the pattern up yet, so head over to her blog and pester her to do so!!

Merry Knitmas!

I thought this was appropriate for the present weather!! Have a lovely Christmas and build lots of happy snowmen!

merry christmas!

...and a happy new year to all. Taking a break to knit something for myself for a change - back to normal in 2010, see you then. x

drink. shop. do.

There is a lovely pop up shop on the Cally road in Kings Cross which you all must visit if you get a chance. It is only open for three weeks in December and next weekend is the last, so get down there quick smart!

I came across Drink, shop, do when Kirstie and Coralie asked me to do some workshops there. It is a collaboration of two school friends with different interests and backgrounds, producing an ecclectic yet harmonious mix of design and activities within the shop.

Sugary sweets in old fashioned jars are placed beside contemporary jewellery by local designers and the well stocked cocktail bar sits comfortably in the main room packed with members of a knitting class or crafty workshop. The concept is to sell unique, beautifully made products, both by artisan makers and crafts people alongside vintage and secondhand finds from flea markets and antique stalls, while entertaining, feeding and watering the customers. From the subtle, welcoming waft of mulled wine as you enter to the flickering candles and colourful wall art, the shop is a haven of calm informality and relaxed creativity. The glut of juxtapositions seem to work very well within this space, making it very inviting and I can see it working extremely well in the long term, which is exactly what the girls hope to do in the new year.

As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the lovely folk I met there, more of which you can see over at my workshop blog very soon and I also succumbed to the temptation to buy.

I bought this beautifully tactile rabbit necklace from me me me. Regular readers and lovers of my mr rabbit toy will know I cannot resist anything rabbit and this particular necklace really reminds me of one of my favourite stories; Watership Down, especially the 1978 animation. The weight and subtle shape is so beguiling, I just cannot wait to wear it!

My other favourite item from the shop is a beautifully kitsch nude tapestry (who'd have thought these existed!) embroidered in a fabulous seventies muted colourway. Coralie dragged this back from a flea market in France after falling for it as much as I did. I just wish I had the wall space for it...

new/old patterns

Recently I have been trying to tidy up my life. I have far too many things on the go at once to be disorganised, but unfortunately I am. Very. So, I suddenly realised that the exclusive copyright to a few patterns I submitted to some magazines has been finished for a while, meaning I can self publish them.

This is a great practice the magazines are trying to do to help out knit designers, as the compensation in relation to the time put in to this sort of work is generally rather poor. So, I have been busily sorting out layouts for new patterns to sell on Ravelry and have posted two up there today; Violet hat and a Christmas stocking, which you may recall in different guises from earlier posts. The whole process is really rather exciting to me, however, the next step is to get ordered enough to sell them over my own website, too.

(Wow, this pattern seems really incongruous in the middle of a summer heatwave, but I guess if you are well prepared person, now is the time to knit for Christmas...

I'm definitely not that organised!)

happy new year!

A very happy new year to all! I had a lovely relaxed Christmas, and even managed to finish the shrugs the evening before the wedding last weekend, and they looked gorgeous. Photos to follow, and hopefully a pattern will be available shortly after that. Until then, here is a photo of the ribbon name tags I sewed into each shrug - would you believe I didn't have a chance to try out my new sewing machine until now? I think it has felt unloved for the past two months, but now i know how to embroider letters, I feel sure I shall be using it all the time....I hope!

merry christmas everybody!

and a happy new year.....

a vintage year

I came across this very festive issue of stitchcraft and had to share it with you, it is the holiday season, after all! dontcha just love vintage patterns....?

deck the halls...

Its starting to feel very festive around and about with the frosty weather and my Christmas tree going up. I couldn't wait to decorate it with the intricately cut paper decoration designed by Rob Ryan which Selvedge sent out as their birthday invite. Unfortunately I couldn't attend, but the invite is so lovely, I had to use it on the tree, along with the glass robots, sparkly baubles and my own handmade angel. Ah, bring on the mulled wine and mince pies....

christmas is coming....

Christmas started very early for me this year, as I was knitting a fairisle stocking in June, ready for this month's issue of Let's Knit. Then again, I don't really need an excuse to get into the holiday spirit, but hopefully this pattern will get everbody else in the mood - I think I will be knitting myself one in extra, extra large so Father Christmas can fit all my lovely pressies in!