Easter Egg Decorating

This Easter holidays I helped run a craft workshop for children with our local creative group the Neotists. The children made nests from found twigs and materials and painted and decorated Easter eggs. It was great fun and if you are at a loss for activities for your children this Easter weekend, then it is so simple, so here are some tips to give it a go!

To make the nests, we used very bendy green twigs - willow is a perfect choice. We started with three twigs arranged in six pronged 'star' and bound them in the centre with string or yarn. Then we proceeded to weave twigs, grass, straw and yarn in and out of this formation from the centre out. Now time to fill the nest.

We used polystyrene eggs, but you could just as easily use hard boiled hens eggs. Some of the younger children simply painted their eggs in bright colours, which looked fab. But we also laid out pretty floral paper napkins, leaves and foliage so some children could stick these on. If you want to play with decoupaging your eggs, simply water down some PVA glue slightly, then paint a layer of this onto your egg.

Now lay on the leaves, petals or paper napkins (make sure you take off the second, bottom layer of tissue from the napkin first to make it easier to stick down) then apply more glue over the top.

Some of the children cut out some of the motifs from the napkins first to create patterns, however you can cover the whole egg in one napkin, trimming off the excess as you go. You could also use coloured tissue paper to cut out shapes, or other decorative papers, but the thinner the paper the better as it will adhere much more easily.

This was all great fun, but if you want a slightly less messy activity this Easter, there is also always my cute knitting egg cosy pattern which you can find free here!

Happy Easter!

Heart Fair Isle pattern

I am sure I say this every year, but we don't really 'do' Valentine's day in our house and if cards or presents do get exchanged, they are often handmade. This is my offering this year to my two loved ones. I quickly whipped up a little heart Fair Isle pattern on some graph paper last night and set it into some card this morning. Simple! It didn't take long at all, in fact, I have drawn up the chart, so you could even knock one up today if you forgot to buy a card this year! And if this doesn't take your fancy, I also have a free heart pattern here.

Happy Valentine's day!

Reloved Magazine

This Summer, I made the difficult decision to leave my role as editor of Inside Crochet to spend more time with my daughter before she started school this September and so far it is proving to be the right choice. I am not only enjoying spending more quality time with my family but I also have the opportunity to contribute to other publications. One I have recently had some work published in is Reloved. It is a magazine devoted to upcyling and slow living, so of course its ethos is one I am very interested in at the moment, as I am both trying to encompass a slower lifestyle while at the same time trying to do up my new home on a budget and ensure that my daughter has a lot of craft and making in her life.

Image by Lucy Williams, Make up Nicki Henbrey, Styling Claire Montgomerie

I have had a feature in each of the last two issues. The series focuses on upcycling old sweaters, something I have been passionate about since my degree and MA in textiles. Reworking old clothes is a great way to extend your wardrobe on a shoe string, but in the first feature, I also give some ideas for other interior and accessories projects you can create with some felted knitting and a bit of embellishment, including these pictures.

Image by Lucy Williams,  Styling Claire Montgomerie

I had a fabulous old sweater, possibly from the fifties of sixties, which was sent to the charity shop because it had been felted in the wash. As its lucky new owner, I made not only a stylish hot water bottle cover from it, but also some cute cuffs and still had some lovely cabled fabric left over, which I need to decide what to do with! If you are careful with your knits and don't have any felted pieces to utilise, I also give my tips for successful fulling.

Image by Lucy Williams

In the second issue (out now!) there is an interview with me and I look at how to unravel old jumpers to utilise the yarn in new ways, creating a cute beanie from an old wool and mohair sweater. This way of upcycling is not new - people have been ripping back old knits for the yarn as long as we have been knitting. WWII was probably the last time the practice was performed in earnest due to the wool shortage cause by the war, but it is just as relevant now, with fast fashion filling our landfill sites at an alarming rate. I love the idea of a handmade wardrobe which is lovingly repaired and reworked with the seasons and fashions. I do love high street shopping, but I am much more thoughtful about my purchases these days and now I have more time on my hands, I am hoping to hone my sewing skills to match my knit and crochet ones to create more and more beautiful items for my family which will last a whole lot longer than some of the cheaply made items available in the shops contemporarily. If you feel the same, go pick up a copy of the magazine, it is full of great inspiration from wonderful designers like Annie Sloan, Kate Beavis and Charis Williams.

image by Lucy Williams, Styling Claire Montgomerie

Image Kirsten Mavric, Make up Nicki Henbrey

Happy Easter

I am aware that I was getting into a blogging swing but March has been so busy that I haven't had a chance to post much. It was this time last year that illness saw the beginning of my longest break from the site. In a strange coincidence, exactly a year to the week, at the beginning of this month I was again undergoing surgery, related to the ongoing problems from last year, and I am currently having a little time 'off' work to recuperate. (I use the inverted commas as part of my problem is that I am never fully 'off' and have been trying not to answer too many emails or do too much work related knit and crochet!)


Anyway, I have been spending my 'free' time quite constructively, by finishing off a lot of non-work related projects, mainly baby themed for the baby boom that seems to be occurring presently! (More on that in a later post).
So do not fear, I don't plan to disappear again for any length of time. For now, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter and remind you of a cute, simple, free knitting pattern for chick and rabbit egg cosies that I posted at Easter a few years ago. The images come from an Easter knitting class I ran showing some beginners how to make them. As usual, I love the quirky interpretations of the simple design that create distinctive personalities with only a few stitches and notions.

I have plenty planned for after the Easter break, including a new set of how to crochet tutorials and a post about some dolly beauties - the feet you can see below belong to them - who I was crocheting for over a year on and off and recently finally finished (sound the triumphant trumpeters!!)
Keep an eye out for all of that and more coming soon and in the meantime have a very lovely, relaxing Easter - don't eat too much chocolate!

Happy Tenth Birthday

It is a very special day today. One of my beautiful nephews (I have four, all equally as gorgeous!) has a momentous birthday. Today he turns ten. It is extra momentous to me as it made me realise that it is ten years since I was commissioned to write my first book, Easy Baby Knits. How do I know this? Because little Finley, who is not so little today, was a beautiful baby model for it. Only six months old at the time of the photoshoot and with the brightest smile you have ever seen. All the people at the shoot commented on what a happy baby he was and said that the old adage 'Never Work with Children...' definitely didn't apply to him! Hence, there is quite a lot of him in the book!
Anyway, in a lovely coincidence, nine years after it was finally released in 2007, Easy Baby Knits has just excitingly been reprinted with a fresh new cover. And guess who the new cover model is? My gorgeous Finley. Happy Birthday beautiful boy and thank you my lovely for being the smiliest model I ever did see.

Baby Shower

Last weekend I had the pleasure of bringing the knit into a beautiful baby shower for one of my oldest and best friends. It reminded me that I never posted about this gorgeous, summery baby shower of another childhood friend and as the weather is so bloomin' cold at the moment, it is the perfect time to draw a little warmth from the sunshine in these pictures!
My beautiful sister made the amazing cakes and threw the party to surprise her best friend, Dominique. One of the things I so loved about bringing this blanket together is that for the first time since I have been making baby shower blankets the baby's dad also knit a square. He knit as a child, and as dad to four boys (the bump is the fourth!) getting back into it is a great example to set. Knitting and crochet are categorically not reserved just for women, but some of the comments I get these days seem to suggest that a lot of folk now believe that is true, so anything that goes against that stereotype is fabulous. Anyway, before I get too high on my horse, I have to say that I love how this blanket turned out.

The colours chosen were bright, so I made some floral granny squares to make use of the gorgeous shades. The squares were also all really different sizes, so I decided to work a crochet granny edge around each of the squares - both knit and crochet - to make it easier to join them and I love the final effect! Gorgeous Rocco - the babe born shortly after this shower - is now one (look how behind I am at this posting lark!) and hopefully still using his beautiful blankie.

2015

As you can see if you read my post Healing Crafts, it has been a bit of an odd year healthwise for me, but I have still managed to squeeze in quite a bit, workwise! Here are some highlights, in order that the pictures appear.

This year marked ten years of freelancing and the event which reminded me of this was the Loop tenth birthday celebrations. I was the first Loopette and it was an honour for Susan to ask me to contribute to the book Loops 10 which she published to mark the occasion. I designed the Sweetie Pie Capelet and I will do a proper post to talk more about it all very soon.

One of my favourite and most 'liked' patterns of 2015, Ava boxy sweater from Inside Crochet 62. (My first task for 2016 is to get all my patterns updated in my Ravelry and Love Knitting shops!)

My littlun now fits into most of the patterns I made for my books Knitting for Children and Crochet for Children, so she wore them a lot this year, which made me very proud, as she just loves them, and a lot of them I made when I was pregnant with her, so it has been a long wait to use them! Here is one of our favourite projects - the Mouse Mitts from Knitting for Children.

I also discovered my first book, Easy Baby Knits is being reissued early 2016! More about that soon.

Nymph is a crochet pattern I designed for Yarn Stories, a UK based yarn company spinning yarns in the UK,  a fact that makes me love their yarn even more!

Last year I worked on my first book in quite a few years and I have to say I love the way it has turned out. Not seen a hard copy yet but I shall let you know as soon as it arrives! It is a modern crochet book for beginners inspired by Scandi style. (It's just so me!)

I  really enjoyed the people I have met and classes I taught at City Lit last year - this is from the first ever Giant Knits class that I have taught which was great fun! Next up are knitting and then crochet classes for improvers over the next couple of months - check out the details here.

Last up are two more of the projects I designed for Inside Crochet - the cute little Apple amigurumi and a versatile daisy chain necklace/garland.

I also went to Yarndale for the first time, which was fabulous! I am definitely going again this year - will I see you there?

Here's hoping 2016 is as productive with less of the negative side. I am starting the year off having to fix a hole in my hallway ceiling from a leak, but am trying to remain positive and look after myself - lots of calming knitting and crochet for all the new babies coming to friends and family this year are keeping me stress-free so far!

Happy 2016 everyone.
Images by Kristen Perers, Lucy Williams, Claire Montgomerie, Cico Publishing, Yarn Stories, Parragon Books, Claire Montgomerie, Kirsten Mavric.

A New Look

So, you may have noticed that the blog is beginning to change...what do you think of my brand spanking new logo? It was designed for me by a very good friend who blogs over at The Bungaloo, where she has previewed the logos, too. She is a designer with a great eye, quirky style and is a genius with fonts, while she knows me well, so I knew I wanted to work with her on it. She came up with this beauty - I love the linear quality and the use of yarn within the text, while the colours are just so me. Hopefully we shall be working together more on the look of the blog and other, larger projects next year, so stay tuned!

healing crafts

Apologies in advance for the length of this post, but I have finally had to make the admission to myself (which you may have already gathered yourself from my previous sporadic posting!) that I am a blogger of very good intentions but a lack of time to actually dedicate to posting! I don’t want to make excuses, but since my last post, added to all the regular work and life stuff, there have been other reasons for my lack of presence.

Looking back at my last post, all the way back in March, it feels like such a short time ago, but in that few months so much has changed for us. I don’t usually talk about personal things on this blog. I try to keep to the yarny stuff. I find that comes more easily to me. But recently there seem to be a lot of stories on the web about craft as a powerful healer and I have found crafting (and talking) has helped me through a hard time this year.

Recently I had a lovely chat with the gorgeous sisters behind the yarn company Millamia, which is experiencing its own transitional year in many ways and it made me think once more about my experiences this year and was the motivation for writing them down here. When I wrote that last post in March I was in the middle of writing a new book (due out next year) and I was making a soft, pretty granny blanket for it using the gorgeously squishy Millamia Aran weight.  When I began making the blanket it was a daily reminder of the impending exciting, positive changes I had to look forward to this year. I enjoyed working on that blanket so much, the yarn is a pleasure to work with and the colours are so calming. As anyone who follows me on Pinterest or Instagram will know, the greyscale and pop of warm ochre is one of my all time favourite colourways!

In the week following that last March post, two things happened – I got very ill and we moved home. Not just to a new house, but a new county. I have always lived in and around London, but this confirmed big city gal has overcome her vertigo and moved (slightly) north! Away from friends and family for a new adventure. Despite my initial worries, I am finding that I enjoy the slower pace of life, the serenity of the surrounding countryside and the large network of families who surround us. The most joyous thing is seeing my daughter play in our street with her new friends, which she never did in the city.

The blanket, meanwhile, became something different – it was a symbol of the hopefulness I had felt before that fateful week and a soothing project I needed to work through to help myself heal. I needed to finish that project before anything else. It needed ‘closure’. As I worked, I posted a picture on Instagram, my little reach out to the world. I mused about how many different, conflicting emotions could be captured in a project, entwined in the rhythmical knotting of one long piece of thread. I thought I was being cryptic enough to protect my own privacy, but a good friend insisted that we meet to talk. I was moved to tears. The healing had begun. I am now looking forward to hopefully having that blanket returned to me once the book is published as a tangible reminder of all I have been through this year, in the hope I will never forget the myriad of important emotions I experienced. Much like a Crochet Mood Blanket, it is more powerful than even a diary from the time could have been, when I couldn’t phrase all the things I needed to say, pick out the important stuff from all the thoughts rushing through my head.

I know that the way I have used crafting in my life to work through problems is not unique. I have heard many similar stories to mine over my years working with yarn, especially when I worked in Loop. Our ancestors knew all about yarn, crafts and their healing, commemorative properties, about the love that can be shared through one piece of fabric. I have discovered, from my own experiences teaching textiles, that groups of people crafting talk about things they would not usually share with strangers, a phenomenon that I have read people have utilised in therapeutic ways. I feel almost like an online crafting, creative community has also aided my own healing and I want to say thank you to all the people who have generously shared their own stories directly with me, or indirectly through sharing with the Internet at large. You have been a great help.

Normal service will continue shortly. Hopefully with a new-look blog and a rejuvenated approach. In my time away I have been planning more tutorials, free patterns and content that I hope you will find useful. I am now starting the process of teaching my little one to knit, which I shall also share here to aid you with teaching your own little ones. I am hoping she will enjoy it and use it as a tool for relaxation, creativity, healing – whatever she wishes. Perhaps she will even think fondly of the craft as a link to me, in the way that I feel I have a link to my own mother, and even my great grandmother and the generations further back that I have no knowledge of who passed down these skills. These are the things I love about yarn crafts. The things I am endlessly interested in. I hope you are too. I will never tire of talking about them, and want to encourage this talking, crafting and perhaps even healing.

lush, plush hooks

p-LUSH hook in action

Belinda Harris-Reid and Rachel Vowles are the two very driven women behind the upcoming p-LUSH fibre festival and they recently very kindly sent me a rather red p-LUSH hook to play with. The hooks  are being sold in aid of Target Ovarian Cancer , the chosen charity of the festival. The p-LUSH festival will be held on the 27th and 28th of March 2015 in the Ricoh Arena, Coventry and looks to be a rather different sort of fibre fair. Focussing not only on fibre but also craft, design, art, upcycling and even the biggest alpaca event in Europe - there will be hundreds of alpacas roaming around to admire! There are also some rather wonderful looking workshops to sign up for. I fancy making the alpaca birds, while if you haven't tried Tunisian Crochet before, the talented Helen Jordan should be your ultimate guide.

I first heard about the festival, the hooks and the Target ovarian Cancer appeal through Rachel. She is a brilliant technical craft editor - you can find out more about her work in a great interview with Emma Varnam.

Rachel and I have worked together on a myriad of publishing projects now, but we mainly collaborate on Inside Crochet (in fact there is a very lovely interview with her in the current issue 63). She also has an amazing story to share about her own encounter with ovarian cancer, you can read more about her astonishing tale on the p-LUSH blog here. Please do take the time to read this post, as Rachel is doing the 50s Challenge - trying to tell at least 50 people about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer (which she outlines in the post) as only 3% of women feel they can confidently name a symptom. I was shocked by the fact that many women get repeatedly misdiagnosed with IBS as the symptoms are so similar.

Anyway, onto the hooks! I might have mentioned before that I am not a lover of wooden crochet hooks, and so my heart did sink a little when I picked it up, as I wasn't sure I would like using these. Usually, I find that wood grips my yarn and loops too tightly, making it a pain for me to crochet. However, the hooks are made of beechwood, which is then painted red, and this shiny surface was a smooth joy to hook with. 
Another gripe with wooden hooks is usually that the hook is usually not 'hooked' enough, making it hard to grab the yarn, and getting caught when coming through the stitches. The hook on the p-LUSH hooks, I am pleased to report, is very well defined and crisp, meaning that my stitches were flying off the hook! Luckily the girls sent me a 4mm hook because, as we all know, you can never have enough 4mm hooks and I will definitely be using this one again! 

p-lush. Lush

The range of notions does not stop at hooks - if you are a knitter, they are also selling knitting needles in the same pretty red painted beechwood and £2 from every purchase goes to the ovarian cancer charity. If you do buy a hook or some needles, p-LUSH is asking that you then head to social media and post a picture of them in use with the lushplush and plushbritish hashtags to spread the word. Even if you don't knit or crochet, you can also donate by visiting Rachel's Just Giving page - find the link on the p-LUSH blog.

i heart you...

Ok, so I am not really that big on Valentines day. 
I don't usually buy the old man anything as I am a little cynical about the commercial side of it, but when I have presented him with a token of my affection on the 14th February, it has got to be handmade, no overpriced stuff from the shops. 
And it is usually heart shaped. 
There have been many gifted items in assorted shapes and sizes over the years, received with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but all stored fondly since nonetheless.
So, this is my favourite, simple heart pattern, which I find sits satisfyingly in the hand as a stress reliever or comforter. Alternatively it can be made easily into a charm or keyring or other form of decoration. 
The best thing about it is that if you forgot to buy your loved ones something, you can knock this up in no time this morning before they wake up! Go on, you know you want to! 

Materials
Use any scraps of yarn with corresponding needle size. 
Small amount of toy stuffing.
Yarn needle.

Exact tension not essential but ensure you knit tightly to conceal the stuffing.

With 4mm hook, cast on 3 sts

Row 1: Purl

Row 2: Inc, knit to last st, inc – 5sts.

Rep last two rows until there are 15 sts.

Work 4 rows straight in stocking stitch on these 15sts.

Next row: k2tog, k5, CO 1 stitch, k5, k2tog.

Next row: P4, p2tog, turn leaving rem sts unworked.

Next row: k2tog, k1, k2tog.

Next row: Purl

Cast off

Rejoin yarn to rem sts and complete to match first side.

Make another piece the same.

Sew the two pieces together. Leave a small hole to stuff, then sew up the rem hole.

Lots of love!

catchup

To elaborate a little on the last post, last year I was very honoured and extremely excited to be asked to judge two separate awards. The first was the UKHKA Knitted Textiles Awards 2013. The Knitted Textiles Awards are always my favourite place to head at the Stitch and Knit show, so as you can imagine I was totally chuffed (and more than a little nervous) to be asked to be a judge. The standards were really high and I wished that everyone could have won something, so it was actually much harder than I imagined. I thought that the graduate winner, Judith Watson, was fabulous. Her mixed media pieces were incredibly original and interesting, concentrating on Aran fabric and traditional rug techniques, as well as some Swiss darning, which was one of my favourite techniques on my own degree.

Another of the winners was Katie Jones, a designer whose work I greatly admire. I love her aesthetic and her commitment to the handwork in the craft she employs. Her K2TOG line is a way in which she gets round the perennial problem we knitted textiles designers share - how to make our highly skilled and time consuming work affordable - while also adhering to a low waste policy. She upcycles old knitwear and produces beautifully unique pieces in her own inimitable style. Luckily for Inside Crochet, we have an exclusive jacket design of Katie's appearing in the 50th issue, pictured above, out at the end of the month. 
It was also a great show generally - especially as I managed to escape relatively unscathed purchase-wise (apart from my usual fabric splurge at The Eternal Maker). I loved the TOFT stand, Kerry has produced a fab menagerie of crocheted toys which are simply adorable (top). The whole range is available here, or you can buy kits to make individual animals from their gorgeous yarns.

Picture of Katie Jones' Couture Jacket from Inside Crochet by Britt Spring

Knitting Baby Shower

As I am putting up a post on repairing a granny square inspired by the blanket we made at my sister's baby shower, here is a reposting of said baby shower from 2010 - the baby is now 3 years old!

Gemma is a beautiful, blooming mother-to-be; she is eight months pregnant and has not knitted since she was a child, like most of the ladies at Gemma's baby shower at the weekend. I turned up at Gemma's with a bag full of vintage needles and crochet hooks, pretty, baby friendly yarn in mummy-friendly colours and a whole stack of vintage china and afternoon tea.

 The sandwiches were elegant fingers with fillings such as delicious smoked salmon and the cakes were buttered scones with cream, a victoria sponge and chocolate fairy cakes.
We also had a big pitcher of Pimms and lemonade, as we had wanted to make use of the stunning garden. However, after a perfectly pleasant month, Saturday was a wash out, as bank holidays in May often are! Nevermind, it did not deter the spirits of the makers and you really don't need the sunshine to enjoy fully the merits of a glass of Pimms!!

With bellies full and festivities begun, I proceeded to re-teach all these lovely ladies how to knit and crochet small squares with the aim of beginning a baby blanket for the cot of Gemma's new addition. She does not yet know the sex of the baby, so we chose a rainbow of colours to create a pretty patchwork piece which will look stunning in the baby's nursery.

 After a busy hour of knitting, the first square was proudly completed by our auntie Susie (below) and after that they came thick and fast. By the end of the afternoon, we had fourteen squares completed, with the faster knitters finding time to finish two. We also left some yarn with some of the makers to take to people who could not make it, so I am anticipating a few more colourful bits of knitting and crochet to arrive in the post over the next few days. When all the squares are complete, I will sew them all together beautifully and post them back to Gemma in blanket form in time for the new arrival. Good luck with the birth in July, Gemma, I will hurry with the finishing so you have it in time!