Category Archives: Competitions

Keep Calm and Crochet On U.K’s 4th Blog Anniversary Celebration | January 2018

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Giveaways, Magazine by

Blog-Anniversary

Four years… Keep Calm and Crochet On U.K is 4 years old today! I simply can’t believe it! 

I swear someone has put time on fast forward! I only started blogging last week surely…but I suppose realistically so much has happened in that time, both personally and professionally, that it must be four years (four years!).

My life is a bit of a juggling act with work, a home, a husband, two young girls and my designing but one of the things that helps keep me grounded is that Wednesday is blog post day! I never realised I would enjoy blogging quite as much as I do until I really got into it and I have to say it has opened up opportunities that I’d never imagined. One of the highlights definitely being when I got invited as a ‘guest blogger’ to London for the Knitting and Stitching Show and got my very own press badge!

Blogging for me is a way to connect with like-minded people (I’m not really near any other crocheters that I can talk crochet to all the time – booooo) and it’s a wonderful feeling that I have a space where I can regularly share my experiences or ideas to people that (hopefully) want to  hear about it.

I don’t say it often enough but I just really want to say that I appreciate the time you each take to visit my blog and especially when you leave me comments and feedback. I was so worried that the only person reading would be my mum (hey mum!) when I first started, so it’s so nice to know that there are people out their reading and that you seem to join me in my love for all things crochet! I’d also like to thank you to those of you that have shared my blog your friends and family too.

And because you, my lovely constant readers, are so wonderfully supportive I wanted to run a great series of giveaways for you with some fabulous prizes donated by lots of wonderful companies and people I worked with last year. Soooooooo…

LET’S CELEBRATE MY 4TH BLOG ANNIVERSARY WITH 4 WEEKS OF GIVEAWAYS!

Week 1 is sponsored by two of the wonderful magazine’s I have had the pleasure to work with; one of the prizes will be given away in this blog post today and another one on Saturday (so make sure you pop back then too).

To start the proceedings we have LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine who have generously donated the three most recent copies of the magazine for one lucky reader.

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If you are not not familiar with LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine it’s a magazine that comes with needles, hook and yarn for the knitting and crochet patterns inside of the magazine. They also have great articles, competitions and tips.  In these particular issues, up for grabs, there’s some of my favourite designs; including Bruno the Bear and Santa, Superhero girl and bracelets, and the latest issue featuring Princess Jessica and the love tokens. 

I know you will love this magazine if you’ve not tried it before and I’m super happy to be able to offer THREE ISSUES as our first giveaway prize! 

Here’s how you can enter:

To enter, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me why you’d like to win the prize – simples!

To gain a sneaky extra entry, head on over to my KCACOUK Facebook page, leave a comment under the post about this contest and ‘like’ the page (if you haven’t already). And to gain another extra entry, why not pop over to @KCACOUK on Instagram, become a follower, and leave a comment under the post about this competition.

The contest is open from RIGHT NOW until midday (UK-time) on Wednesday 7th February 2018. The winner will be selected using a random number generator and I will need to be supplied with a full postal name and address to send out the prize. If efforts to contact the winner remain unsuccessful after a week, an alternative winner will be randomly selected.

This giveaway is open to residents of the United Kingdom only.  However other prizes in this giveaway will be available internationally.

I would like to thank LGC Knitting & Crochet Magazine again for their generosity in sponsoring my 4 year Blog Anniversary. 

Don’t forget to pop back on Saturday for another prize giveaway!

Until next time; keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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And the winners are…The Spring Knitting & Stitching Show 2018

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Days Out, Outings, Yarn Show by

Is everyone ready! We have have ourselves some winners…but first I’d like to say thank you to everyone that submitted an entry, I really enjoyed reading your reasons why you’d like to attend and / or who you’d like to go to the show with.  And we also have to say a big THANK YOU to lovely people from the Knitting and Stitching Show for providing the ticket prizes. 

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So without further ado the winners are…

  1. Samantha Wormleighton
  2. Libby
  3. Posydog1
  4. Peter B
  5. Cheryl Gardner

Congratulations my lovelies! I’ll be in touch today to request your contact details so that the tickets can be posted out to you. 

And to everyone else sorry if you didn’t win this time but there’ll be more giveaways and special offers for you coming soon (if fact later today!)

And don’t forget the special discount for tickets still applies. Just quote KEEPCALM18 and you can save £2 on advance adult ticket price (or £1 for concessions)  which makes the tickets £11.50 instead of £13.50/£12.50).  You can buy tickets here or call 0844 581 1319.

I’d like to say a big thank you again to the shows organisers for offering this special deal to my lovely KCACO.UK readers! 

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Win tickets to The Spring Knitting & Stitching Show 2018

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Outings, Sale / Special Offer, Yarn Show by

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It’s giveaway city here at KCACO.UK headquarters! Next week I’ve got my big blog birthday giveaway starting and this week I’ve got FIVE pairs of tickets, kindly donated by the lovely organisers of the Knitting and Stitching show, to giveaway to KCACO.UK readers!!!

The Knitting & Stitching Shows are the UK’s biggest textile art, craft and design events and the Spring show opens its doors to thousands of crafters at Olympia London on 1st – 4th March 2018.

Shopping for fabric

© The Knitting and Stitching Show

From crochet to needle felting, embroidery to dressmaking,  there are over 200 workshops and free demonstrations hosted by expert tutors, covering every textile craft imaginable. Whether you’re a complete beginner, an expert or somewhere in between, there is something for everyone, and with nine workshop classrooms, it’s the biggest Spring show programme ever.

Jo Smith Crochet a Mandala Wrap

© The Knitting and Stitching Show – Jo Smith’s Crochet a Mandala Wrap

You can read all about my visit last year to the Ally Pally here (it’s a bit of a long post so make a cuppa first) – but in a nutshell it was really, really fab and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to make the show at Olympia London (sad times) so I’ll be living vicariously through everyone else that attends…and of course if there’s any beautiful hand-dyed yarn that you want to send my way…

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© The Knitting and Stitching Show

Any hoo, if you want to go straight to the details on how to win tickets scroll to the bottom of this page, if you’ve got a few more minutes I just want to tell you about another couple of things that’s happening at the Spring show…

Campaign-for-Creativity-website-logo.jpgHave you heard about the campaign for creativity? It’s the aim to provide more and better opportunities at school for children to be creative and to think creatively, there’s a petition you can sign here, but the The Spring Knitting & Stitching Show are hosting a wall of embroidered signatures as a visual representation of the Creativity Petition. They are asking crafters to get creative and send your stitched signature (this can be crocheted, embroidered, knitted, cross-stitched, the more creative the better) to be added to their wall of signatures. Alternatively if you are attending you can bring your stitched signature to the show yourself. To find out where to send signatures to see the link here and don’t forget to share your crafty creations on social media and encourage others to get involved by using the #campaignforcreativity

Also this year the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show are hosting an all crocheted and knitted afternoon tea competition in partnership with Betty Blythe Vintage Tea Rooms. They are challenging visitors to crochet or knit any item you would find in a traditional English tea room, think knitted scones and jam, crocheted Prosecco flutes, cucumber sandwiches, tea sets and more. 

Knitted tea room

© The Knitting and Stitching Show

You can use a pattern or design your piece yourself. To find out more about the competition see the full details here.

Right let’s get on to how you can win tickets to the show shall we!

Giveaway

The tickets are for redeemable any day except Saturday 3rd March  for the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at the Olympia London which runs from 1st – 4th March 2018.

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is to leave a comment on the bottom of this blog post about why you’d like to go to the show.  The competition closes on Tuesday, January 30th at 5pm (GMT) with the winners being announced later that evening here on the blog. Good Luck Everyone!

Special Discount

But if you want your ticket’s RIGHT NOW I’ve also got a special discount for you! Just quote KEEPCALM18 and you can save £2 on advance adult ticket price (or £1 for concessions)  which makes the tickets £11.50 instead of £13.50/£12.50).  You can buy tickets here or call 0844 581 1319.

I’d like to say a big thank you again to the shows organisers for offering this special deal to my lovely KCACO.UK readers! 

Until next time; keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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Amigurumipatterns.net | Design Contest

Posted in Amigurumi, Competitions, Crochet, Tah-Dah by

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The annual design contest at Amigurumipatterns.net is now on and this year’s theme is “Fantasy Creatures”.  Fascinating fairies, unique unicorns, dramatic dragons, mesmerising mermaids and all sorts of weird and wonderful characters from all corners of the imagination are competing to see who’s the most magical of them all!  

I was so inspired by the concept of creating a fantasy creature (or three) that I decided to take part for the first time. So without further ado allow me to introduce to you Gnorman the Gnome, Wheelan O’Wool the Leprechaun and Gene the Genie.

Meet Gnorman the Gnome. Gnorman is a sweet little fellow with a gentle disposition who lives in a simple hillside dwelling deep in the woods. His favourite pastime is tending to his beloved mushroom garden where he cultivates scarlet capped toadstools loved by his fairy folk friends 🍄. 

There’s something in the constitution of a gnome that enjoys getting their little hands dirty. Gnorman loves nothing more than tramping around in his forest dell collecting little treasures 🍁

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Next we have Wheelan O’Wool the Leprechaun. Whelan is a feisty little fellow and not one to shy away from partaking in a little mischief! He spends his time mending the shoes of the fairy folk and hiding his earnings in a big pot at the end of the rainbow. He’s quick, smart and has magical powers to vanish into thin air – but if he’s caught he will grant you three wishes.

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Whelan is well known for his love of Irish Poitín and his Celi dances that can last for days

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And finally we have Gene the Genie, my third and final entry to the design contest. When his lamp is rubbed he appears in a cloud of smoke with the power to grant all your wildest yarn wishes and dreams.

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Want your ends weaving in, or your hooks to be found? Your wish is his command! When not on duty he can be found whiling away the Arabian Nights sipping Harem Delight cocktails at the Moroccan Desert Oasis bar. Has a fondness for camels 🐫 .

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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 of your time to vote for them.

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HOW TO VOTE:

  • Go to Amigurumipatterns.net
  • Click the heart-button of TEN of your favourite characters; quick link vote for Gnorman the Gnome here, vote for Wheelan O’Wool the Leprechan here and vote for Gene the Genie here.
  • 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 is open until 10th December 2017 and the three designs with the highest amount of votes will be announced the winners of this contest.

There are seriously so many amazing designs from inventive and skilled amigurumists taking part from all over the world in this competition! And I’d like to wish all designers taking part the best of luck!

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

 

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P.S. And for those of you that have asked about the patterns for Gnorman, Whelan and Gene I’ll be releasing them after the competition has finished xx

Hook and a Book | Christmas Box Giveaway

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Getting Crafty, Giveaways by

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**GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED**

I know it’s November but let’s face it we are going to have to talk about Christmas sooner or later aren’t we…what is it now something like 40 days to go (eek)? Are you perhaps looking for a unique crafty gift for someone? Or  a present for someone to give to you? Well I might just have an idea of something you’ll like.

Do you remember Hook and a Book which I reviewed back in September? Well I was contacted by the lovely owner Maddy recently as she wanted to tell me all about the special one of a kind Christmas box that they are selling this year. AND she wants to give one of these exciting boxes away to one lucky KCACO.UK reader!!

Hook-and-A-Book

The mammoth Hook and a Box Christmas box includes a hard-backed book (a surprise, of course), 3 Christmas patterns, 5 crochet hooks and 7 balls of yarn!! Wow now that’s what I call a great gift!  The most important bit about this box however is that Hook and a Book are donating £5 from each box sale to Beanstalk UK. Beanstalk UK is a fabulous charity which provides one-to-one support for young children who are struggling to read.
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If you want to run off and order yourself a box now here’s the link: hookandabook.co.uk/its_christmas but if you fancy having a go at winning yourself a box then keep reading!
Right my lovelies I’m going to make it incredibly easy for you to enter to win a Christmas box. All you have to do is leave me a comment on this blog post saying why you’d like to win the box.   
To gain some brownie points why not pop over and give a nice ‘like’ to the kind people from Hook and a Book for donating a lovely giveaway prize. The link to their Facebook page is here.

The giveaway begins RIGHT NOW

and is open WORLDWIDE!!

The giveaway closes on Wednesday 22 November at 12.00noon, UK time. At the end of the giveaway I’ll contact the person for their address which I’ll pass on to Hook and a Book so that they can send out the prize. Please keep an eye out for the winners name release as if I can’t get hold of the winner I’ll sadly have to pick out another name. The winners box will be shipped out week commencing 27 November so in plenty of time for Christmas.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

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

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And the winners are…The Knitting & Stitching Show 2017

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Giveaways by

Winners

Is everyone ready! We have have ourselves some winners…but first I’d like to say thank you to everyone that submitted an entry, I really enjoyed reading your reasons why you’d like to attend and / or who you’d like to go to the show with.  And we also have to say a big THANK YOU to lovely people from the Knitting and Stitching Show for providing the ticket prizes. 

K&S_LOGO General

So without further ado the winners, picked via this random name picker tool, are…

  1. Elisabeth (Isis) Plutt
  2. Miranda Shelley
  3. Helen Robinson
  4. Martina Kocourkova

and the ticket winner from Instagram is…

  1. Nannabess14

Congratulations my lovelies! I’ll be in touch today to request your contact details so that the tickets can be posted out to you. 

And to everyone else sorry if you didn’t win this time but there’ll be more giveaways and special offers for you coming soon.  And don’t forget the special discount for tickets still applies. Just quote KEEPCALM17 and you can save £2.50 on advance adult ticket price (or £1 for concessions)  which makes the tickets £12 instead of £14.50/£13).  You can buy tickets here or call 0844 581 1319.

Until next time! Keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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Win tickets to The Knitting & Stitching Show 2017

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Days Out, Giveaways, Inspiration, Outings, Sale / Special Offer, Yarn by

K&S_LOGO General

In just under two week’s time, the Knitting & Stitching Show opens in London and I’ve got FIVE pairs of tickets, kindly donated by the lovely organisers of the show, to giveaway to KCACO.UK readers!!! I’m giving away FOUR tickets here on the blog and for those of you on Instagram I’m giving away ONE ticket over there. 

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© The Knitting and Stitching Show

I’m extremely excited about this show as it’s going to be my first time going to the Ally Pally (otherwise known as the iconic Alexandra Palace). And the Autumn show is set to be the biggest textile event in the UK! With hundreds of workshops, demonstrations, interactive features, professionally curated galleries, as well as 300 exhibitors selling specialist craft supplies. As a veritable celebration of textile crafts it’s a paradise for makers! I can’t wait!!! 

Colourful yarn

© The Knitting and Stitching Show

This, ladies and gents, is a huge huge show! You can spend a day re-stocking your yarn stash, learning to knit, getting help in the crochet clinics, having a go at a sewing demos, mastering the art of tailoring and so much more. There has never been a better excuse to get involved in craft!  Seriously just take a look at the full list of workshops here. I want to do them all!

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© The Knitting and Stitching Show

The Knitting & Stitching Show London takes place from 11th-15th October and the tickets are redeemable any day except Saturday.  

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© The Knitting and Stitching Show

Giveaway

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is to leave a comment on the bottom of blog post about why you’d like to go to the show.  The competition closes this Wednesday 4 October 5pm (GMT) with the winner being announced Wednesday 4 October that evening here on the blog. And make sure to check out my Instagram feed for the chance to another pair of tickets. Good Luck Everyone!

Special Discount

But if you want your ticket’s RIGHT NOW I’ve also got a special discount for you! Just quote KEEPCALM17 and you can save £2.50 on advance adult ticket price (or £1 for concessions)  which makes the tickets £12 instead of £14.50/£13).  You can buy tickets here or call 0844 581 1319.

I’d like to say a big thank you again to the shows organisers for offering this special deal to my lovely KCACO.UK readers! 

Until next time; keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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LGC Toymaker of the Year competition

Posted in Amigurumi, Competitions, Crochet, Magazine by

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Love making toys? Want to be crowned the ultimate toymaking champion? 

The annual Let’s Get Crafting Toymaker of the Year competition is back and better than ever! Whether you’ve made hundreds of toys, or never tried before, all skill levels are welcome. Now is your time to shine! Knit or crochet ANY toy you like. It can be your own design, a pattern from a book. It can be any shape or size and can be used with materials of your choice. 

This years competition is in partnership with King Cole yarn and there is the chance to win incredible prizes and be published in Issue 97 of Let’s Get Crafting magazine (on sale 14th December 2017).

The deadline to enter is 9 October 2017. Head on over to the LGC website now for the full details. Good luck everyone!

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

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HodgePodge Pillow Showdown 2015 – The Results | River Rose Pattern Release

Posted in Afghan Square, Competitions, Crochet, Pattern Release, Sale / Special Offer by

And so the results are IN!! And the winner of the Pillow Showdown is the most lovely Michelle at From Home with her awesome Classic Lace Bolster Pattern! Huge congratulations to her on her awesome winning design!

I join the line up of the other fabulous runners up and I can now reveal who’s great designs were who’s!

So did you guess which one was mine?  I’ll give you a clue…

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Yes my design was the River Rose Pillow!

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I had great fun designing this cushion and I am really proud of the way it turned out in the end. I think it is probably one of my favourite designs to date.

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At 20 x 20 inches it’s a nice big size to squish into and it looks fab in other colours (which my lovely testers proved!).

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And now for the exciting news….DISCOUNT PRICES!!! All the patterns featured in the competition are now available at a discount on Ravelry including mine!

The River Rose Pillow Cover has 50% discount on Ravelry right now for 1 week! Just £1.75 / $2.70. The River Rose Pillow Cover in now available for purchase from the pattern platforms below:

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Fabulous designer discounts:

Happy Hooking everyone!

http://keepcalmandcrochetonuk.com/

HodgePodge Pillow Showdown 2015 | #‎HPShowdown2‬

Posted in Competitions, Crochet by

Woo hoo this is my 100th blog post and rather fittingly I have an exiting subject to share with you all this evening. I am delighted to say that I was recently invited to take part in the second round of HodgePodge Crochet’s newest showdown competition (you can read all about the 1st showdown here).  Six designers were given the challenge of designing a brand new ‘cushion’ (or pillow as folks in the US like to call them) pattern.  The cushion itself could be any size, any shape, any stitch and with any yarn…

So do you want to see what everyone came up with?  Well I’ll show you but I can’t tell you which one is mine…you have to vote for your favourite (see below for the rules).

Design 1:

Design 2:

Design 3:

Design 4:

Design 5:

Design 6:

Rules of the Competition:

  1. A Pinterest board has been created where all 6 Showdown Designs are pinned: https://www.pinterest.com/TanyaNaser/hodgepodge-crochet-showdown/
  2. A “vote” consists of either “liking” or “repining” a pin, or both. You CAN cast two votes for the same design, and they will all be tallied at the end, but voting for two different designs just cancels out each of your votes, so its recommended to keep your vote to one design only. (You can repin whatever additional designs you like after the competition is done.)
  3. It doesn’t matter where you repin them to, use whatever board you like.
  4. Voting runs from NOW, until Saturday, August 8th, 2015 at 7.00am GMT / midnight PST.
  5. The Winner will be announced Sunday, August 9th sometime in the PM GMT / AM PST

All designs will be available for purchase on Ravelry on Sunday, August 9th

http://keepcalmandcrochetonuk.com/