August in a nutshell

Posted in Afghan Square, Afghan Square Challenge 2014, Crochet, Family, In A Nutshell, Pattern Release by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Well August has been a bit of a strange month where unfortunately not a lot of crochet happened after the first two weeks as I broke two fingers on my left hand. The doctors have said 6 weeks to heal and 3 weeks on I feel that they are beginning to – but I have yet to really pick up a hook! I hold my yarn tension between my little finger and ring finger on my left hand (do you?) and those just happen to be the ones I have broken – and because my methodology is so ingrained I can’t seem to adapt, so I am resting up for awhile instead!

Luckily to take my mind off things we had a family holiday to look forward to (I know I am lucky to have another one!) this time in the beautiful New Forest. We were blessed with good weather and thoroughly enjoyed our week there; though it was strange to have cows, donkey’s and ponies just wandering around the camp-site right next to us – like right next to us!

Crochet wise I did manage to release one pattern; a new crochet square for August for my personal mini challenge to design a new afghan square each month. Introducing Octagon Garden which is available now on Ravelry and Craftsy.

I’ve had some lovely feedback from people saying how much they liked this square which is always fabulous to receive.

The perfect square for the 8th month the Octagon Garden Afghan Square is a great stash buster! I had some fun using different colours to create different looks but the colour combinations are virtually endless! The ‘Octagon Garden Afghan Square’ pattern is not only the perfect square to add to a multi square themed Afghan or for a cushion. but it could be used for scarves, bags or pot-holders too!

I know squares for June and July are still missing…I’m working on it! Just need my fingers to heal! But I do have a pattern release and a pattern with testers at the moment so it’s not all quiet on the crochet front! So watch this space…

Have a month of happy hooking!

8Aug2014

July in a Nutshell

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Family, In A Nutshell by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

And there goes July! Another summer month over! But what’s been nice is that for once England has been blessed with uncommonly good weather!

We spend the last days of June and the beginning of July in France on our family holiday which was just fantastic. The camp-site was amazing with a great onsite indoor and outdoor pool with water-slides (which Little G loved!). We got to see a lot of the sites around Brittany, went on a boat trip, a miniature train and Little G even rode a miniature pony! It was just lovely spending time together as a family. We spent a couple of days at the beach… and I’m not trying to make you jealous but look!!

Though whilst on the beach I came across a really strange phenomenon; an escargatoire (I googled it) which basically means a collection of snails – and what a collection! I thought it was kind of beautiful.

It was nice to see that crochet was present in Brittany; on the top of the little shops many had these adorable little crochet pelmets! I swear I can find crochet anywhere!

It really was a wonderful holiday! We were all a little sad to leave; though there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed!

It was too hot to crochet on holiday so I didn’t actually pick up a hook the whole time I was there which was strange and I was itching to pick up a hook when I came back. So on my return I had some fun working on an amigurumi test for Gerald Giraffe which I blogged about here. I also released my own free amigurumi pattern the ‘teeny tiny daschund’ which I blogged about here. The rest of the month was taken up working on a sort of big something new (all will be revealed at a later date!).

One thing I have to confess to is that I am completely behind my schedule with my personal mini Afghan square challenge to design 1 new afghan square per month. Well I have designed the squares for each month I am just behind in getting them tested! I need to catch up on that – but the weather has been so nice; it’s a shame to waste it sitting inside on the computer!

That said I’m off to try and spend a bit of time writing up some overdue patterns for testing so watch this space!

Have a happy month of hooking!

8Jul2014

May & June in a Nutshell

Posted in Family, In A Nutshell, Outings, Patterns by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Gosh May and June over and done with so fast that I missed posting about it! This year just seems to be zooming past so quickly The best bit of May for me was a family camping trip where we tried out our new tent as a test for our real holiday at the end of June. The weather was glorious and Little G absolutely loved sleeping in the tent in her special sleeping pod.

Crochet wise May was very busy too. Made three hats (of which I didn’t get photos for – doh!) finished of a special order for a girly version of my chunky caterpillar cocoon and I designed and released my Butterfly Dreams Car Seat & Swaddle Blanket to go with it. I also released Michael Monkey Puppet and one of my favourite Afghan square’s that I have designed the ‘Jolly Clown’ square.

June, June what a wonderful month – although we had a LOT of rain in June we have also enjoyed some sunshine! We’ve had some nice family days out to craft shows, park events and local festivals which has been fun.

Crochet wise day one of June was super exciting as I was featured in Too Yarn Cute Magazine ‘Just for Guys’ magazine again this time with my ‘Making Track’s Men’s Hat & Scarf Set’. Mr. KCACO-UK had asked me to make him a scarf and it’s one of those things that I just hadn’t got round to making (my bad!). The ‘Making Tracks’ scarf (and later matching hat) was so named as my husband is a keen mountain biker and the pattern is supposed to resemble tire tracks. My husband was so pleased to receive something designed specifically with him in mind that I wished I had made it sooner!

The rest of the month was taken up with making the Spot the Giraffe Blanket for baby Thomas and getting ready for my holiday to France! I’ll do a post about that soon!

Have a happy month of hooking!

7Jun2014

Amazing Grapghan Prize

Posted in Blanket, Crochet, Family, Life by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So the postman brought us a exciting package today all the way from Maine, USA!!! It was my prize from a competition I had the good fortune to win run by the most fabulous Open Skye Creations who, almost other wonderful crafted creations does the most wonderful graphghans.

My prize was a custom made graphghan which I decided I wanted to gift to my daughter. As she has an unusual name I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have something personalised especially for her. April, the friendly owner and guru of all things graphghan, and I chatted about different options and finally settled on a simple cat design (one of Little G’s favourite animals) for the blanket in plain colours (so it would match anywhere) and of course with her name on top (in her favourite colour)! It’s an amazing blanket and Little G absolutely loves it and her ‘special kitty blanket’ is getting lots of use for downtime snuggling on the sofa and for playing hide and seek!

HodgePodge Crochet did a blog spotlight on how April makes the graphghans but as a generally nosy person I wanted to know more! So I thought I would ask her a few questions!

Heather: Why are you called Open Skye Creations?

April: April in Latin means ‘to open’ and the reason I started my business is because a good friend of mine named Skye encouraged me to so. Hence ‘Open’ and ‘Skye’. But then I knew I wasn’t just going to crochet, I do all sorts of crafts, so to be versatile I went with creations!

Heather: I know you as a graphghan expert but how did you get into making graphghans?

April: I remember when I was seven, my childhood wasn’t great – but my great grandma was there for me and she taught me how to crochet to handle it all. She was the first person I ever saw making a graphghan. She used old school graphing paper and was making an ocean scene with a dolphin for a little girl. I immediately wanted to have my own. To which she replied – not until you learn the basics. It took me four years! Four years of learning how to crochet before I was allowed to try to make a graphghan – and when I did try to make one, it was terrible! I never finished it and I gave up in frustration. Then when I was a senior in high school I tried again. It worked! And I was hooked. But I wasn’t savvy enough to take pictures or post them on facebook. That happened after my son was born and I had nothing to do but play with him and crochet all day! So I guess you could say that I’ve always loved graphghans.

Heather: I just look at a graphghan and think it would take a hundred years for me to make something like that – how long does it take you on average to make a small graphghan blanket?

April: To put it simply on a graph that is 100 stitches wide, I can do a row every 2-3 minutes (with a bunch of colour changes). I average about 20 rows an hour and can finish a blanket in one sitting if I have nothing else going on. Unfortunately we always have stuff going on! Even so I can finish a blanket within a week.

Heather: Where do you get your inspirations from for your graphghans? Or is usually through customer requests that the ‘image’ is formed?

April: I stalk people! In a nice way! Take the graphghan that you have. I take a mix of what I know you want and then I add some flare. I make it unique so that even others that have the same graph would have something completely unique. To find out what they like I ask questions that are inappropriate or intrusive for a stranger to ask but I do it. It gives me a sense of who the blanket it for – and it works! I love getting to do what I do. Every graphghan I make has a little bit of skill and a whole lot of love. When I’m crocheting I only think good thoughts, putting hopes and positive thoughts in the front of my mind because I believe in karma. I believe that what you put out into the world comes back to you. And I only want good things out there!

Heather: Thank you so much for answering my questions! What’s the best advice you can offer someone that wants to try a graphghan?

April: The best advice I could possibly give someone who wants to make a graphghan is to not give up. Seriously- it doesn’t matter if it takes you a year to finish your first one just have a go! And if you need help I make myself available to anyone wanting to learn; you can send me an email, facebook message, fill out the contact form on my website, snail mail me or whatever. I am open to answering any question – and there are NO stupid questions when it comes to crochet!!

It was great to learn more about April and Open Skye Creations and if you want to have a go at graphghan’s then check out Open Skye Creations website where there are lots of free graphs to try!

25May2014

Happiness is a wonderful family day out

Posted in Family, Life, Outings by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

We’d decided with it being Bank Holiday weekend that we should have a family day out together and as today was the better weather forecast off we set to Wollaton Hall and Park in Nottinghamshire. I have very fond memories of the Hall as it was somewhere my parents used to take my brother and I regularly as children so it was great to take Little G there today.

Wollaton Hall

The Tudor Hall was originally built in 1588 and has been a small natural history museum since the 1920’s. On a fine day it’s great to go and have a look at the exhibits and then walk round the gardens.

and it appears that yarn follows me everywhere! We came across this yarn bomb on a park bench in the gardens! It was knitted not crochet but equally as awesome in my book – I just love the different pastel colour stripes.

As well as the Hall and Gardens we also took a little walk in the deer park. The deer are completely wild but don’t seem to mind all the nosy humans as long as they are nice and quiet and don’t get to close – even so they allowed us to get pretty close!

We were blessed with good weather (the clouds passed mid afternoon and we actually saw sun!) and Little G was as good as gold; a perfect Princess of May!

Wonderful, happy day!

17Apr2014

Getting a bit crafty with string eggs

Posted in Family, Getting Crafty, Life by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So as it’s nearly Easter I swear that string eggs are everywhere! As they look so cool I thought Little G and I would have a go at making some as the one thing I do have a lot of is spare yarn lying around.

If you want to have a go at making them here’s what you will need:

PVA kids glue
A saucer or a bowl to put the glue into
Wool or String
Scissors
Small Balloons (or water balloons)
Some treats (in wrappers)
Apron (it does get messy!)
A tray to put your string eggs on to dry

1. Make sure you have an area you don’t mind getting messy and I would suggest aprons for anyone involved!

2. Stuff your treats inside the deflated balloon and then blow up to the size you want your string eggs. The treats I had brought were like chocolate coins so it turned into a fiddle-fest to get them inside so I would definitely suggest roundish treats!

It’s only natural that not all the chocolate will make it inside the balloons if you are working with small children…

3. Next put your glue into the bowl, you will need quite a bit as you need to soak the string or wool thoroughly.

4. Then start to wind your gluey string or wool around one of your balloons; this bit gets extremely sticky and there is likely to be glue splash! You don’t have to wrap your eggs too neatly; cross the yarn in lots of different directions to make an interesting ‘cage’. You will need to wrap the balloons enough so that your treats won’t fall out.

5. Once you have finished wrapping your balloons you will need to set them aside on a tray to dry; we left ours for a couple of days…

6. Check to see if the yarn feels hard and if it does pop your balloon. You may need to snip the balloon a bit to release the treats this can be a bit tricky. Once the treats are free you can then pull out the balloon bits leaving the chocolate behind and that’s it, place on a shelf and admire!

I really love them! I have now added them to my Eastery looking shelves ready for Easter weekend! Hope you all enjoy a lovely holiday with your family x

27Feb2014

Lake District and a Lumpy Head!

Posted in Family, Life, Outings by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So last weekend was my brother’s birthday and he decided that it would be nice if all the family could go away somewhere to celebrate. Unfortunately Mr. KCACOUK had to work so it was just me and Little G along with my mum, dad, brother and his girlfriend that set off in convoy up to The Lake District.

The Lake District, if you are not familiar, is England’s largest National Park and is home to Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. It’s really is a beautiful place with stunning scenery.

These photos were taken at one of the places we visited called Tarn Hows. It’s a big stretch of water which we walked the 1¾ miles around in at times rather inclement weather! Poor Little G was carried around at least half though as it was a bit far for her little legs. However she did enjoy the opening and shutting the gates for us all.

On Saturday morning it was time to pack up and move to another B&B near Ulverston but not before me and a low ceiling had abit of a falling out. I walked smack bang into it and hit my head very hard indeed to which I have not yet fully recovered (though a trip to Accident & Emergency on Monday morning has given me a general ‘all clear)’. Unfortunately the rest of the holiday after that was a bit of a blur as my head was full of cotton wool and aching terribly, but my family rallied round so Little G had a very good time!

End Note: This week I’ve been taking things slowly as my head still hurts but hopefully I am on the mend!