Happily Hooked Magazine | Chevron Spectrum Wrap

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

Happy New Year folks!! Hope you got to have a bit of a restmas during the holiday period filled with yarn and crochet! I’m bringing in the Hooky New Year with a brand new pattern, the Chevron Spectrum Wrap, which is available now in Happily Hooked Magazine (Issue 94).

I have to confess to being a bit of a sucker for a rainbow in yarn! I’ve been itching to use the Scheepjes Whirl, called Jumping Jelly (shade 759), for ages because it’s such a such a beautiful rainbow gradient cake!

Whirls are one of my favourite yarns, because the transition on the colours is just awesome, but if you aren’t familiar with them, they are a 60% Cotton, 40% Acrylic 4ply (fingering weight) yarn that comes in a 220g (1000 metres) cake.

Scheepjes Whirl come in 39 scrumptious colour ways and is made from a beautifully soft cotton-acrylic blend which are perfect for lightweight projects such as shawls. I’ve made about 4 or 5 wraps and shawls using a whirl, in the past, and there will certainly be more in the future!

I’ve found that a 3.25mm hook (US size D/3) works best with this yarn and then the only other thing you might find useful are a couple of stitch markers to add to the start and end of each row to help you keep track of stitches.

I teamed up the Jumping Jelly Whirl with a with a Scheepjes Whirlette in Chewy (shade 865). Whirlette are 100g (455m) solid colour balls designed to compliment Whirl colours, but as they are the same 4ply (fingering weight) yarn, they are perfect for extending Whirl designs, or mixing and matching as I have with the contrast grey.

The resulting Chevron Spectrum Wrap is a lovely bold and bright wrap that will cheer you up in the gloomiest weather! This delightful chevron wrap is perfect for combining solid and gradient yarn for an overall fun zig zag ombre effect. The finished wrap is definitely one of my favourite recent makes – and I’m excited to see what colour combinations you come up with!

🌈 SAVE CHEVRON SPECTRUM WRAP ON RAVELRY 🌈

Rather excitingly you can see Chilly Billy on the front cover of issue 94 (Bold and Bright). Happily Hooked & Pattern Pack Pro Are TWO monthly US digital magazine assembled by makers for makers and you can find out more details about it on the Happily Hooked Magazine website.

With it being a US publication patterns are written using US crochet terminology – if you are not sure how that differs you may find my post British vs. American Crochet Terms: What’s the difference? of use.

I hope you’ll share your photos with me on social media (facebook, twitter or instagram) or as a project on Ravelry – I love to see what you make! And finally you may wish to make sure you are signed up to blog (below) and / or my mailing list to get a reminder when new blog posts, discounts or new pattern releases are available.

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

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28Dec2021

Happily Hooked Magazine | Chilly Billy Bear

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

Wow time is moving fast it seems and I’ve not even had chance to tell you about the December 2021 issue of Happily Hooked Magazine (Issue 93) yet! As you may have gathered, it’s out now with lots of winter themed crochet projects for you to enjoy – and I’ve got a brand new design in this issue, allow me to introduce the Chilly Billy Bear!

There are lots of things that inspire my designs usually and Billy Bear actually came about from when I was buying some more amigurumi eyes from Etsy (CelloExpressBags). I happened to see they sold some little amigurumi / doll glasses . I obviously needed them in my life, even though I didn’t have a particular project to use them for at the time, but they were so cute I just couldn’t resist!

Then when I saw that Happily Hooked Magazine were putting together a winter themed issue the idea for Chilly Billy Bear came about – and he seemed the perfect character to be wearing my little glasses.

Chilly Billy is the paw-fect companion for any winter adventures! Dressed up warm with his cute bobble hat and his detachable scarf and coat – he’s easily customisable to match any winter pals.

I used some of my favourite Ricorumi DK (100% Cotton); [57.5 meters] / 25 grams); in Nougat (2 x 056), Red (2 x 028), Blue (1 x 032), White (1 x 001) and Saffron (1 x 063). I love Ricorumi DK for amigurumi as it comes in the cute little balls in loads of different colours so I can usually find the shades that I’m looking for.

🐻 SAVE CHILLY BILLY BEAR ON RAVELRY 🐻

Rather excitingly you can see Chilly Billy on the front cover of issue 93 (It’s Cold Outside). Happily Hooked & Pattern Pack Pro Are TWO monthly US digital magazine assembled by makers for makers and you can find out more details about it on the Happily Hooked Magazine website.

© Happily Hooked Magazine – December 2021

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

18Sep2020

20% Discount | Pattern Release: Pretty Pastel Pandas

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Independent Design, Pattern Release by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Recently my godmother contacted me to see if I could make her a couple of amigurumis for twin grandbabies due in November. She specified that she’d like one blue and one pink but that everything else would be up to me. So I started thinking about twins, and what animals quite commonly have twins, and that led me to pandas…

Meet the pretty pastel panda twins Ping and Pei, a cute pair of cuddly keepsakes that are sure to be a firm favourite with children and grown-ups.

I wanted these pandas to be a little different from the traditional black and white versions which is why I made them in pastel colours. I thought the colour scheme would work well with pink and blue, and lent themselves to a wee baby nursery colour scheme.

❤️ SAVE PRETTY PASTEL PANDAS ON RAVELRY ❤️

Of course the pattern would work in other colours too, you could substitute the pink and blue for yellow or mint maybe if you were looking for more unisex colours, or if a baby’s gender was going to be a surprise. Of course the pattern would also work with some lovely primary brights too – I’d like to see that!

❤️ SAVE PRETTY PASTEL PANDAS ON LOVECRAFTS ❤️

I used Paintbox Cotton DK, which is 100% cotton that is available in a huge palette of 56 colours. I used 1 ball of Champagne White (403), 1 ball of Blush Pink (454) and 1 ball of , 1 ball of Slate Grey (406). You can use 1 ball of the white for both pandas and the grey you only need for the features so there’s loads left over.

It was my first time using Paintbox Cotton DK, and I really liked it as a cotton for amigurumi’s. It’s very affordable at £2.50 ($3.22) per ball; that’s for 50g, and the fact it comes in so many colours is a huge plus. Of course the other thing about making things in cotton is that it’s durable, but its not stiff like other cottons I’ve used, it’s quite soft and pliable.

❤️ SAVE PRETTY PASTEL PANDAS ON ETSY ❤️

Ping and Pei are fun amigurumi to make, with just a few simple techniques you can easily bring these pretty pastel pals to life.

Do you fancy 20% off the pattern price? Just enter the coupon code: PANDA on either Ravelry or Etsy until the 30th September 2020 to save.

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

26Aug2020

20% Discount | Pattern Release: Back to School Bear

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Independent Design, Pattern Release by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

As you know, one of the things I’ve pledged myself to work on this year is to get more organised with the release of some of the patterns that I can now offer as ‘independent patterns’.

I talked a bit about what this refers to in this post here, but basically it means me sorting out the patterns, that were once only available in magazines, and make them available for you to enjoy via your favourite pattern download sites.

It’s a big ole list that I’m trying to work through, but I actually had an occasion to re-make one of my old patterns recently. So it was a bit of a serendipitous moment for which pattern I was going to sort out this month.

❤️ SAVE BACK TO SCHOOL BEAR ON RAVELRY ❤️

You may remember that Back to School Bear appeared in Happily Hooked Magazine way way back in August 2017, I can’t believe it was 3 years ago! But there we have it, it really was about time this little guy was made available! And it’s that time of year that many of us are thinking about the start of a new school term – I know I’ve been sorting out school uniforms today.

❤️ SAVE BACK TO SCHOOL BEAR ON LOVECRAFTS ❤️

On the original version of Back to School Bear I used Stylecraft Special Double Knit, but for the remake I used stash yarn. I used Ricorumi DK in Silver Grey (058), White (001), Black (060), Red (028), Blue (032), Saffron (063) and Pistachio (047). You need 2 balls of the main bear colour and just 1 ball for all the primary colours and the bears snout.

I actually really enjoyed remaking this little guy. It’s my youngest daughter’s last day at her Nursery school this week, and it’s also the end of an era as it’s the nursery her sister attended, and I’ve no more children now that will be going to that nursery.

I wanted to make a little keepsake gift that she could give as a gift on her last day, and this little bear just seemed like a cute idea, as he’ll be gifted with a little wooden sign I’d bought saying how fun Nursery was.

❤️ SAVE BACK TO SCHOOL BEAR ON ETSY ❤️

I think Back to School Bear would make a great keepsake gift to get kids excited about their grand return to the classroom. Or even as a mascot for college or university students. He could also be a fun end of term teacher gift too!

Do you fancy 20% off the pattern price? Just enter the coupon code: SCHOOL on either Ravelry or Etsy until the 15 September to save.

As I mentioned before, there’s still quite a few patterns I need to work through, but I’m not going to do them in any particular order – so just watch this space for new releases!

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

24Jun2020

New Crochet Pattern | Deramores Teddy Bear

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, Deramores Designer Shop, Designing, Pattern Release, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

I’m ‘beary’ delighted today to tell you I’ve got a new un-bear-ably cute pattern available now in my Deramores store. Here’s a little self ‘pawtrait’ of my Teddy Bear design.

It’s always such a joy to create a teddy bear design because they are just such enduring appealing toys! I had many much-loved teddy’s, some of which I still have, and have cherished over the years – as I bet a lot of us have! I know my mum still has her teddy from when she was born, as does my brother! I definitely stem from a family of teddy bear lovers!

And I love the idea of this little guy being created and becoming someone a child turns to for a cuddle and to perhaps become a keepsake to remind them of childhood as they grow up!

But our love affair with teddies doesn’t have to end with the early years of our lives – I think this little fellow is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face!

The teddy bear pattern comes with a cute red bow that can be sewn on as a bow tie or sewn on in front of the ear for a feminine look.

For my Teddy Bear I used Deramores Studio DK which I love; it’s wonderfully soft acrylic yarn which has been developed with anti-pilling technology – making it perfect for toys.

The Teddy Bear design is available as either a single pattern, for £1 / $1.25 (a real bear-gain!) in my Designer Shop, or as a kit with everything you need (pattern, yarn, stuffing and eyes) to make the Teddy Bear.

❤️ SAVE DERAMORES BEAR ON RAVELRY ❤️

If you were looking for more cute animal projects to hook up there are bunny’s, dogs, cats, donkey’s and horses all available in my Deramores Designer Shop

You should prob-bear-ly go and download the Teddy Bear right now!

As always if you hook up the Teddy Bear I hope you’ll tag kcaco.uk and Deramores on Instagram or share your projects in my Facebook group as I love to see your finished work!

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