Crochet Now Magazine | Tulio the Toucan

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Magazine, Pattern Release, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Have you picked up the latest issue of Crochet Now magazine? The new colourful issue hit the shelves on 12 April and I’ve got a brand new pattern featured inside. See that cute little toucan on the front cover, well that’s my Tulio.

Nature is a constant source of inspiration for my designs and, although I’ve been designing for awhile now, a toucan was on my (long) list of creatures I wanted to try and crochet.

Birds are such a wonderful subjects to recreate in yarn as they often have such wonderful colouring. They also lend themselves so well to a bit of creative licence; I love rainbows too so the combination of the rainbow beak makes me feel very happy.

Now you may notice, if you have the magazine, that there is a picture reference to the right side and wrong side of crochet, unfortunately there was a ‘layout error’ and the images were swapped, picture 1 is the wrong side and picture 2 is the right side and it should have been the right way around.

I know a couple of people contacted me asking about it and, don’t worry you haven’t been crocheting wrong, it was just a little mix up and the magazine has passed on their apologies for any confusion.

I really enjoyed leafing through my copy of Issue 27 as it’s is such a lovely bright edition! Along with Tulio the Toucan there’s tons of fabulous patterns, inspiration, offers, giveaways and interesting articles to read – and this issue also comes with a super fun fun addition to your crochet kit; a sparkly unicorn hook gauge.

Crochet Now magazine is available in major supermarkets and newsagents across the UK. If you hook up Tulio the Toucan be sure to share your photos with me on social media (facebook, twitter or instagram) – I love to see what your finished projects!

Until next time folks! Happy hooking, keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

18Apr2018

Allcrochetpatterns.net | Granny Square Design Contest

Posted in Afghan Square, Competitions, Crochet, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

The granny square is one of the most iconic designs in crochet and I adore that it can be interpreted in unlimited ways! If you’ve seen my groovyghan and various other designs then you’ll already know I’m a big fan of all things ‘granny square’ and love creating new fun designs. So when I saw that Allcrochetpatterns.net was holding a granny square design contest I knew I had to give it a go to design something new.

I’m really loving Scheepjes Catona Yarn at the moment and am amassing quite a colour selection so I picked out some lovely bright rainbow colours and after a bit of yarn play came up with the Floral Illusion Granny Square.

And the story behind the name…well the flower part seemed to develop quite organically as I started playing with the yarn – so I just went with it. The illusion part came as I noticed when I was photographing the square that the centre of the block had a kind of 3-D hologram that was a really cool effect.

And now the voting to the competition is OPEN! If you happen to like my little designs could you please spare me a few moments I hope you might vote for the Floral Illusions block. Your vote counts, and that’s why there’s a special Voters Prize! By voting you will be entered in the raffle to win 100 Epic yarn balls by Yarn and Colors!

HOW TO VOTE:

Go to the voting page on Allcrochetpatterns.net
Click the heart-button of TEN of your granny squares
Enter your name and email address in the pop-up screen to submit your vote.
Please note: multiple votings by one person will be removed.

Voting will take place from April 16 till April 23 and the three designs with the highest amount of votes will be announced the winners of this contest and a selection of participants will be contacted to contribute to a book project, gathering 100 granny square designs.

There are seriously so many amazing designs from inventive designers and I’ve voted for my favourites – good luck to all designers taking part!

Until next time folks! Happy hooking, keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

11Apr2018

LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine | Cento the Party Pup and Peaches Wardrobe

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Magazine, Pattern Release, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Massive congratulations to LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine on their 100th issue that went on sale 5 April! I was honoured to help commemorate issue 100 of by creating the little Party Pup featured as this month’s cover star.

Let’s Get Crafting held a competition for the dogs name and the end result was Cento? Pronounced ‘chento’, the name means 100 in Italian, I thought it was a great name for the little guy.

Donning his favourite hat and crocheted balloons, which with a little bit of wire help, float in the air. This colourful pattern would make a great birthday gift for your friends and loved ones simply by personalising the number you add to the balloons.

And the most exciting news – Let’s Get Crafting are giving everyone a present by making him available ontopcrochetpatterns.com for free! So quick go get your copy..

This month I also got to visit with an old friend, Peaches the doll, who came to me on a shopping trip for some new clothes…

She picked up shoes, a handbag, a dress, a skirt, two tops and some dungarees! Boy can that girl shop!

I really had great fun designing a new wardrobe full of clothes for her. As well as these two patterns the magazine is filled with competitions, articles and an awesome knitted chameleon pattern (I need to learn to knit shapes!).

The magazine also comes with a free special yarn kit with eight lovely bright party colours and;

3mm hook & 3mm needles
47 exclusive patterns
Plus… your 68 page magazine

LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine is available in major supermarkets and newsagents across the UK. If you hook up either Cento the Party Dog or Peaches Wardrobe be sure to share your photos with me on social media (facebook, twitter or instagram) – I love to see what you make! So why not hop to it and get your copy of the magazine now!

Until next time folks! Happy hooking, keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

5Apr2018

Leafy Boughs Shawl CAL| All Finished!

Posted in Crochet, crochet-along, Inspiration, Magazine, Pattern Release, Sale / Special Offer, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

All good things come to an end at some point and so it happens that with the arrival of April that the March Happily Hooked Magazine crochet-along, with my Leafy Boughs Shawl, is now OVER. I have been left completely flabbergasted all the shawls that have been made, the amazing colourways, the fact that people made more than one in the time frame – just amazing!

So we couldn’t come to the end of an amazing CAL without having a little showcase of some of the amazing shawls that have been made – get ready for a feast of inspiration for your eyeballs!

All of them were amazing but I did have a couple of favourites; this one by Corrie really drew my eye because it’s just so gorgeous. She used Scheepjes Whirl in Tasty Nom Nom, a colourway which I adore, and I think the pattern works so well in the mixture of rich pinks and purples.

This one by Laura, using some indie dyed yarn from Etsy, also came out beautifully – move over pastels! I love these rich spring colours.

This version of the Leafy Bough’s shawl by HHM editor Emily is so lovely, I love the variegated blues and greens and I also love that the staff of HHM join in the crochet-alongs with their members – how wonderful is that!

And this one by Lee, Assistant Editor of HHM, is just stunning too isn’t it!! Lee used Katia Spring rainbow which is a yarn I’ve never tried before but one I’m certainly going to look out for.

And finally how amazing is this backdrop! Spring in the Yucatan apparently and wow what a place to be crocheting! And Lynne’s shawl is a perfect compliment to the backdrop, her shawl in variegated blues and purples is just stunning too.

And here is a little collage of some more of the wonderful shawls people have made, thanks so much to; Amy, Ann, Anne-Mary, Carole, Charlene, Christena, Coco-Lee, Corrie, Debra, Emily, Geneva, Jackie, Karen, Kim, Laura, Linda, Lynne, Missy, Naomi, Nicki, Nora, Pamela, Patrice and Sara for sharing your finished works with me.

Happily Hooked magazine run a new CAL every new issue of the magazine. If that’s something you think you might be interested in you can SAVE over 50% on your first year when you start a digital subscription through my link:yearly subscription. Or if you aren’t quite ready for a yearly subscription why not try the monthly subscription.

Well until next time, happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx