Something very different for me today! I’m usually the interviewer but this time I’m the interviewee! I had the opportunity to speak to the lovely Kate Heppell from The Crochet Society.
If you haven’t heard of the Crochet Society before it’s a little bit of crochet luxury delivered direct to your door. Every box from Crochet Society is full of a mystery mix of high-value yarn, crochet goodies and highly collectable extras, chosen by an expert design team to inspire new ideas.
I’ve had the pleasure of designing several different projects for the boxes over the years, and it was lovely to have the opportunity to chat about designing, the crochet community, what we are binge watching and more!
The whole chat is 32 minutes long, so the perfect length to enjoy a cuppa and maybe sneak in a few stitches whilst you listen along.
The easiest way to listen to the podcast is via a podcast app on your phone or tablet. The podcast is listed on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and Google Podcasts, so if you use any of those apps you should be able to find it by searching for Crochet Society. You can also listen via the link on the Crochet Society blog.
Although it’s slightly cringeworthy listening to your own voice back I did enjoy chatting to Kate for the podcast, and I want to thank her and the team for offering me the opportunity to step out of my usual comfort zone!
Crochet Society boxes are available by subscription via the website, and past boxes are available, if there are, from Craftstash (whilst stocks remain).
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
Please note that some of the links in my blog are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you purchase via these links, but the price you pay is not affected. You can read more about my affiliate links here.
I had the pleasure of actually meeting Catherine at the end of last year, when I was a guest, and she was the guest designer at The Crochet Sanctuary. You will have no doubt come across her work, as I did, on social media and in magazines – she really has an eye for design using colour work and tapestry crochet.
I was delighted to have a go at her methods of tapestry crochet as we worked on her Winter Flora Cushion as our Crochet Sanctuary crochet workshop project. I thoroughly enjoyed making the cushion, and the tapestry stitch technique, so I wanted to find out a bit more about her designing processes and about her in general. Here’s what we chatted about…
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi Heather! Thanks for inviting me for this interview. It was great to meet you in November at the Crochet Sanctuary and chat all things “crochet designing” with you!
I’m a crochet designer from just outside London, in the UK. I live with my husband and two daughters. As you mentioned, I specialise in tapestry crochet. I absolutely love designing blankets with this technique although I’ve also produced a number of cushion and accessory designs too.
Yes, I’ve always loved crafts. I dabbled in lots of things as a child and my friends were really arty too so we inspired each other and were always making things. I took pottery classes for a few years, which I loved, and also tried lots of other arts and crafts like Fimo, calligraphy, quilling, painting, stamping, cross stitch… I don’t actually think I was particularly yarny as a child though, although I did learn the basics of how to knit.
How did you become a crochet designer? Do you do it full time?
I guess I fell into it a bit by chance really. I started crocheting when my youngest daughter was a toddler, mainly making blankets (with plenty of mistakes in them!). One day, I saw a tapestry crochet scarf online and I absolutely loved the look of it. I’d never seen that kind of crochet before. I thought it would be fabulous to make a blanket with lots of different tapestry crochet patterns on it. And so I came up with the Geo Georgie Blanket. It got a really great response from the crochet community on Instagram, which encouraged me to keep going with more designs and things just spiralled upwards from there.
Sadly, I don’t do it full-time, although I wish I could! I mainly fit it in during my evenings and weekends, and the odd lunchtime crochet break too!
You really seem to enjoy colourwork and tapestry crochet – what is it about that style of crochet that you love?
I love patterns and spot them all over the place. I find it really exciting recreating these patterns in crochet, and tapestry crochet is the perfect technique for this. I especially love taking a motif, like a square or hexagon, with a colour work pattern on it and repeating it over a large blanket to create an even more striking pattern.
Can you tell us about where you draw your inspiration from?
Some is from nature – I really like leaves and flowers – and some is more abstract like pure geometric patterns. I see a lot of inspiration on textile items or even ceramic tiles, that I then love to try recreating with crochet.
What does your design process look like? Do you sketch things out first, or do you just like to grab a hook and start?
I always sketch first. I use a lot of squared paper as I find this is essential when coming up with a tapestry crochet design. I usually draw out a design on squared paper first and then work up a test swatch or motif from that. Mostly, it turns out a bit different to how I expected once I’ve worked it up in crochet, so I make a few tweaks and try again until I’m happy with it.
Sometimes, I plunge straight into making the project and write it all up at the end. However, recently I’ve been getting much better at making notes and starting to write it up as I go along. That saves a lot of time at the end!
Do you have a favourite creation that you’ve designed?
That’s a tough one! Can I pick two?
My personal favourite is my Clarissa Blanket. Both the colours and the pattern are so me. This was a design that I just couldn’t help but make!
However, in terms of getting me started and known as a designer, then I have to say my Midnight Diamond Blanket. This is by far my most popular pattern and I’m so grateful for the wonderful response it’s had and continues to receive.
How do you fit everything in that you want to? Are you strict with yourself and your time or is it a struggle to juggle?
I never fit in everything that I’d like to! But I just do my best to do as much as I can and never miss an opportunity to work a bit more on a project. I make a lot of lists – I find that helps a lot – and I try not to be too hard on myself at not being able to do everything I want to straight away.
What advice or top tips would you suggest for anyone new to colourwork or tapestry crochet?
I’d say that it’s really not as hard as it looks. Watch or read a tutorial first, to get a feel for it. There are lots out there but I have a video tutorial on YouTube or a step-by-step guide on my blog that are both good places to start. Then just dive in with a pattern. I outlined a few relatively simple ones to start with in a blog post if anyone needs some inspiration.
Once you’ve got the hang of it, if you’d like to design your own, then all you need is some squared paper and colouring pencils and away you go!
What can we expect to see from Catherine Crochets in 2023?
This year, I’ve decided to focus on blankets as I love them and they are also my most popular patterns. I’m working on a new floral design at the moment using hexagons, which I’m really excited about.
I’m also hoping to create a tapestry crochet course with a series of patterns of increasing complexity, each introducing a new skill or aspect. That will be quite a big project for me of course, but I’m hoping to start work on it later this spring.
And just for fun if you could have a superpower what would you choose?
I’ve always loved the idea of the time turner that Hermione uses in the Harry Potter books. It would be great to have the power to turn back time so that I could fit more crochet into each day!
I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Catherine for taking time to chat to me. I’ve really enjoyed getting a better understanding of her life and designing process and hope you have too.
If you enjoyed this interview you can catch up on all the other designer chats and discussions with other people in the fiber industry. And if there’s any other people you’d like to maybe see featured here on the blog, let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do.
Make sure you are signed up to blog (below) and / or my mailing list to get a reminder when new blog posts like this one, discounts or new pattern releases are available.
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
Please note that some of the links in my blog are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you purchase via these links, but the price you pay is not affected. You can read more about my affiliate links here.
I’m super excited about my next designer interview because I had the pleasure of actually meeting her in October 2021 at The Crochet Sanctuary.
I’ve been following the lovely Esme, aka Red Sparrow Crochet, for awhile, and you will have no doubt have come across her work on social media and in magazines if you are a crochet fan – she’s become kind of synonymous with mosaic crochet.
In fact she has recently written a book titled ‘Mosaic Crochet Workshop’ – which she very kindly signed [my copy] for me when I met her (squee!), and I wanted to find out a bit more about that, about her in general, how she does it all, and her inspiration and designing process.
Here’s what we chatted about…
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Well, after many years of living all over the place- London, Brighton, Madrid- I’ve settled back in my beloved Suffolk in the east of England with my family: one Other Half, two teenagers and of course the world’s grumpiest cat Hank Deluxe. I love Suffolk, it’s so wild and rural, it suits my introverted nature very well!
I work full time as a freelance crochet designer, as an editor for Scheepjes’ YARN Bookazines, and spend any free time hanging out with the kids, playing Scrabble and Risk, walking, cooking lots of exciting vegetarian food, reading…
How did you discover crochet?
Funny story: I actually saw a woman on the beach crocheting and it was one of those wow moments! She was sitting on a deckchair, hooking away, surrounded by loads of kids but so at ease with herself, so calm amidst the sandcastles and tantrums. My kids were very small at that point and I was craving a new skill, having put away my sewing machine due to inquisitive little fingers (my son was one of those danger kids, always found the trouble!). My lovely friend’s mum, Eileen, taught me the basic crochet stitches at playgroup and that was it. I was smitten. Terrible at it but smitten.
How did you become a crochet designer? Do you do it full time? And why is your handle Red Sparrow Crochet?
As is probably the path with many designers, I never intended to become a full time designer, it just built and evolved. I was an English teacher by trade first! I started with selling my designs at craft fairs- I’m the co-founder of an artisan-maker craft collective called The March Hare Collective so I had a ‘natural outlet’ for my work. After a few years of selling finished items (mostly throws and cushions, no surprise there!) I mustered up my courage and asked the lovely editor Claire Montgomerie if she might be interested in my work for Inside Crochet magazine. To my utter shock she said yes, and it was the start of many years designing for Inside Crochet, Simply Crochet, Mollie Makes and Scheepjes. I now mainly self publish my patterns but occasionally take on a magazine design commission if there’s time.
Oh, and the Red Sparrow thing is quite obscure, but the publishing house for Charles Bukowski’s work was called Black Sparrow Press. I’m a big Bukowski fan and I loved the publisher’s name. I have always felt like a little bird, pecking around with bits of fabric and yarn, it seemed suitable. And I was going through a real red obsession at the time!
You have kind of become ‘known’ now for mosaic crochet, what is it about that style of crochet that you love?
It totally makes sense to me, I need pattern and geometric order in my life! I saw a design by Red Heart using the inset crochet technique a few years ago and immediately fell in love with the brilliant yet simple way to draw shapes with yarn!
Where do generally find your creative inspiration?
Oh everywhere, I love seeing shapes in nature, architecture, pavements, anywhere and everywhere! Sometimes I’ll see a gorgeous pattern in my mind before I go to sleep, and even in my dreams too. I then have to try and memorise it till the next day as I’m not organised enough to have a notepad by my bed. My brain likes thinking about patterns while I’m trying to get some rest I think!
What does your design process look like? Do you sketch things out first, or do you just like to grab a hook and start?
Charts, it’s all about the charts. I use Stitch Fiddle (which is a fantastic online tool) to create them as I can set them to the same gauge as the work will appear and choose colours very specifically too. I like to work in a very limited but very specific palette. I currently have 437 charts on the go, many of them will stay as rough ideas which may or may not lead onto finished designs.
Do you have a favourite creation that you’ve designed?
I suppose my first ever mosaic throw design, Diamond Heart, will always be something I’m really proud of. I self-published it, not knowing of course what people would make of it. It’s been a huge seller, unbelievably popular, it blows me away knowing there are countless versions of it around the world. That’s just crazy! But it gave me the confidence to push myself forwards and literally dedicate myself to designing using the inset version of mosaic crochet non-stop. Which leads perfectly onto your next question…!
How did you end up writing a book on mosaic crochet?
So, a few years ago, Ame Verso who is Publishing Director at David and Charles Publishers got in touch and basically told me I needed to write a book of mosaic crochet designs! She’d seen my designs online and must have seen some potential! Once I’d got over the surprise of being approached, I talked to her for a bit, it actually took me two years to agree, but finally I DID agree and Mosaic Crochet Workshop came to life.
Ame and I were supposed to meet for the contract signing but that was in March 2020 and we all know what happened next. So I signed the contract remotely, and spent lockdowns writing the book, doing the day job and homeschooling my son. It’s a bit of a blur now, but suffice to say I’m incredibly proud of the book, the publishers were astonishing in their support and encouragement. All the photography was done under very difficult lockdown conditions, yet the team did an incredible job- the book is more than I ever dreamt it would be. It’s very beautiful and I’m thrilled it’s been so well received.
How do you fit everything in that you want to? Are you strict with yourself and your time or is it a struggle to juggle?
I’m a bit manic, I’m very very organised and disciplined with my work time. It’s not all swanning around all day having lots of coffee breaks and playing with fluffy yarn! I work very hard, I’m extremely focused. I start at 8 in the morning and during busy times will finish at 9-10pm. All creatives will know this (I am sure you know only too well, Heather!) but you can’t switch creativity on and off like a tap. Once you’re on a roll there’s no stopping you is there? So, yes feed the kids, do the housework etc etc but the design work will be waiting to be tackled even if it’s late into the evening.
What advice or top tips would you suggest for anyone new to mosaic crochet?
Oh gosh, just enjoy it and don’t tell yourself it’s too hard to try! I get so many messages from people saying they thought they wouldn’t be able to get to grips with the technique as it looks so complicated… they then try it and are so thrilled they can do it!! If you can make a chain, a dc and a tr (UK terms) then you can follow any of my mosaic patterns! In fact, I give a short step by step tutorial at the start of the book- once you have made the small swatch, you can take on any project. It’s perfect- it looks far more impressive than it actually is! My kind of crochet 🙂
What can we expect from Red Sparrow crochet in 2022?
Oh what a question!! Haha I don’t know is the honest answer! I’ll be editing the Scheepjes’ YARN Bookazines as usual, but am weighing up what to focus on this year. There’ll more than likely be some self-published designs (what with the 437 charts and all that)… and I am toying with the idea of Mosaic Crochet Workshop: The Sequel too!! Let’s see!
If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs—such as food and water—were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?
A sheep (can I have an alpaca too so the sheep doesn’t get lonely??) and a sharp knife. That sounds terrifying for the poor sheep, but don’t worry I’m veggie! I’d like to get into spinning wool, and whittling hooks and knitting needles with the knife. I can’t knit for toffee but can just about cast on, so maybe I can figure it out?? Or I’ll just revert to crochet where I’m more comfortable!
Thanks so much for chatting with me, Heather! It’s a pleasure and an honour to share my crochet ramblings with you.
I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Esme for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer these questions. I’ve really enjoyed getting a better understanding of her life and designing process and hope you have too.
And if there’s any other designers you’d like to maybe see featured here on the blog, let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do!
Make sure you are signed up to blog (below) and / or my mailing list to get a reminder when new blog posts like this one, discounts or new pattern releases are available.
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
Please note that some of the links in my blog are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you purchase via these links, but the price you pay is not affected. You can read more about my affiliate links here.
There is less than two weeks to go until Mother’s Day here in the UK and, as many of us haven’t been able to see our mums in recent months, it got me thinking about how nice it would be to pop something handmade in the post this year!
You may or may not remember that back in February 2019 I took part in the Simply Crochet magazine ‘Hook to Hook Challenge.’ This was a fun mini competition between two designers to come up with a unique pattern for a Mother’s Day Card using the same yarn – my design was the ‘Wings of Love’.
The rights of the pattern have now returned to me and I thought I would share the design here on the blog in case you would like to create your own crochet Mother’s Day card this year.
Mother’s Day in the UK this year is Sunday 14 March and in the US it’s Sunday 9 May so hopefully I’m giving you plenty of time to hook up your own cards, but as the butterfly motifs are small they really don’t take long to hook up!
Pattern
The pattern below is written in UK crochet terminology.
Yarn: Scheepjes Catona (100% Mercerised Cotton) 10g/25m) I used the following colours for my new card:
Rnd 1: Using Yarn A / C, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts
Rnd 2: (Ch2, 2htr in the same st, ch2, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2 sts, ((ch1, 2dc in the same st, ch1, sl st to the same st)) sl st in the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.
Using Yarn B thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.
Medium Butterfly | Make 2.
Rnd 1: Using Yarn B / A, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts
Rnd 2: (Ch2, 2htr in the same st, ch2, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2 sts, ((ch3, 3tr in the same st, ch3, sl st to the same st)) sl st in the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.
Using Yarn C thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.
Large Butterfly | Make 2.
Rnd 1: Using Yarn C / B, make a magic loop, 6dc into the ring, sl st to the top of the first dc to join. 6sts
Rnd 2: (Ch3, 2tr in the same st, ch3, sl st to the same st) sl st into the next st, repeat ( ) once, sl st into the next 2sts, ((ch4, 3dtr in the same st, ch4, sl st to the same st,)) sl st into the next 2sts, repeat (( )) once. Fasten off and weave in ends.
Using Yarn A thread a small section of yarn through the middle loop and tie in a knot between the two larger wings, snip off ends to form antennae.
Embroidering on Card
Your blank greeting card should be made of a fairly heavy, sturdy cardstock. You’ll be handling this card a great deal as you stitch, so you need something that will withstand bending without tearing.
Sketch your design, of grass and heart, onto the card lightly with a pencil.
Then using a sharp needle punch the holes (about 0.4cm / 0.157 inch apart) along the lines.
Rub out your pencil marks before you start stitching
Using Yarn D embroider the grass onto the card, then repeat with Yarn E for the heart, use a bit of washi tape or sellotape to secure into place
Finishing
Leaving a space at the top of the card for any message with PVA glue add the butterfly motifs around the card.
Thank you for crocheting along with me – I can’t wait to see the cards you make. Please tag me @KCACO.UK onInstagram (or use hashtag #kcacouk) as I always love to see your makes. You can also share your projects photos by linking them on your favourite social media sites: Ravelry, Facebook page or Facebook group and Pinterest if you aren’t on Instagram.
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
Please note that some of the links in my blog are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you purchase via these links, but the price you pay is not affected. You can read more about my affiliate links here.
I’m dead excited about my next designer interview because I had the pleasure of actually meeting her recently at The Crochet Sanctuary – and if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my fan girl moment in my stories. It’s the lovely Rosina aka Zeens and Roger !!!
I’ve been following Rosina since I was told about her vlogcasts on Youtube. Her down to earth, say it like it is, podcast episodes are amongst my favourite podcasts to listen to and watch.
You will have also no doubt, if you are a crochet fan, have seen her awesome Instagram feed and come across some of her lovely designs in magazines like Inside Crochet. She has also, more recently, branched out (pun intended) into hook whittling in her new collaboration Kirk and Roger creating some beautiful handmade hooks.
With
so much going on I wanted to find out a bit more about Rosina, how she does it
all, her inspiration and her designing process. Here’s what we chatted about…
Tell us a little bit about yourself…
I grew up in Southampton but I’ve spent half my life in Devon. I moved to Exeter in the late 90’s to study Art History at uni and never left. For the last ten years I’ve lived in an old town just outside of Exeter. It’s sandwiched between the countryside and the coast. I love it! I’ve worked at a cinema (I still love the smell of popcorn), in social housing (I was rubbish at it) and in HR (interesting stuff). I still dream about working at the cinema even though it was nearly twenty years ago.
How did you discover crochet?
Let’s not count the failed attempts as a child. Instead, I think I can really only say that it was a year after I had my first baby, so nearly 9 years ago. It’s probably a familiar story amongst crafters. Something about starting a family kick started the creativity again (after years of not doing anything crafty). My baby boy received handmade blankets from my family and I wanted in on the action! I started to crochet because I wanted my children to have things I’d made for them. I bought a beginners book and found a YouTube video that I liked and began to make a very long and very uneven chain.
I don’t remember a time that didn’t have me going “off pattern”. However, the first thing I properly designed was a little granny owl decoration. It was the first time I’d written out a pattern anyway. That was around four/five years ago. I remember fretting that I’d never get another idea again. But the wondrous thing about being a crochet addict is that you always want more! The more you do it, the more ideas you get.
In the autumn of 2016 I sent out a few emails to magazines offering my ideas. I was thrilled that one of my ideas was accepted by Inside Crochet (my favourite crochet mag). It was such a buzz and a huge confidence booster!
Where do you generally find your creative inspiration?
I honestly don’t have a clue half the time. Colour is a biggy as I expect it is for everyone. I’m inspired by what my peers/friends are doing too, I think we’re all influenced by the same trends and it’s fascinating to see how we all interpret them differently. My favourite ideas are often the ones that pop in my head from nowhere. But it might be a holiday, pretty wrapping paper or a bonkers conversation and all of a sudden you’re presented with an image of a thing that you have to make and you have to make it NOW!
What does your design process look like?Do you sketch things out first, or do you just like to grab a hook and go?
It’s haphazard! I don’t have a particular routine but I do like to make sketches. The starting point might be the pretty wrapping paper but it might also be a crochet stitch I’ve never seen before. If I fall in love with it I have to use it in something. Or I might lust after some special yarn I’ve seen, which has to be turned into a shawl or blanket.
Do you have a favourite creation that you’ve designed?
I often end up hating the designs I’ve come up with and can’t wait to see the back of them! (I probably spend way too much time with the frog/rework process to have any love left). It’s not always true though, I do have pieces I’m very proud of. My C2C projects make me happy. All the yarn tangling of Havana Nights was worth it in the end! At the moment my favourites are two shawls, Release the Hounds and Hinterland, mostly for their simplicity. Sometimes simple is best!
I’d seen other crocheters explore the idea and fancied having a hook for myself. I asked my friend, Paul to make one for me as his hobby is woodwork. He showed me how to make them and also suggested selling them. It’s quite addictive but I break a lot of sticks trying to make the perfect hook (and I get blisters!). I really should leave the hook making to him and I’ll stick to crochet! Kirk & Roger is a small sideline for us both, it’s fun and no pressure. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed working with someone else. We’re a good team!
What made you decide to start your own podcast?
The number one reason was because my friends in real life reeaalllly weren’t interested in hearing me blather on about crochet all the time. I get way too excited about yarn, patterns, design work etc and you can see eyes begin to glaze over. I thought it’d be a nice outlet for me to find like-minded people to engage with. For me it’s easier than blogging; I just sit down and hit record. I’m more of a talker than a writer.
How do you fit everything in that you want to? Are you strict with yourself and your time or is it a struggle to juggle?
I don’t fit everything in. Not by a long shot. I’m a world class procrastinator and am not strict on myself at all. I reckon I could double my output if I only learned how to be more disciplined. It can be very tricky to stay motivated when you work from home. I force myself to sit at the computer and write those patterns! It’s much easier when working to a deadline for a magazine, there’s an end goal… But I’ll still leave it to the last minute.
What advice would you have for any budding crochet designer, small business owner or podcaster who might like to follow in your footsteps?
Just do it. Start today. If you want to do it, just give it a go! I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I can confirm that there is never a right time. None of what I do ever looks as good as the next person’s, there is always someone out there who does it way better. But I love it, so I do it anyway. I’ve definitely improved since I hit publish on that first episode, but I am always working towards getting better.
Tomorrow you step outside and find a lottery ticket that ends up winning £100 million. What would you do?
Buy a house big enough to have a craft room. Pay someone to write up my patterns and pay another person to sew in ends. I’d also like to have a yarn and craft shop, supporting local makers and creatives. Oh, and it would be amazing to go to all the yarn shops, all over the world. I want to see what’s out there.
I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank Rosina again for taking time to answer these questions. I’ve really enjoyed getting a better understanding of what’s involved with in her designing process and hope you have too!
If you are a fan of Simply Crochet magazine then you are probably familiar with their ‘Hook to Hook Challenges’ where two designers compete to come up with a unique pattern, to a given brief, using the same yarn. I always love seeing these challenges as the results are always so different! So I was super excited to be asked to be one of the challengers for Issue 81. And this is what I came up with…
The theme for this challenge was ‘Mother’s Day Card’ and I was given five 10g mini balls of Scheepjes Catona and some card with which to design some motifs suitable to create a card to give on that special day.
I actually came up with a few different ideas for card designs but in the end I settled on creating some butterfly motifs. I love butterflies, I just think they are wondrous creatures and always delight in seeing them so it was fun to come up with some small designs in keeping with my card idea.
I also decided to add an extra handmade twist of embroidering with the yarn directly onto the card. That was really fun to do and it produced exactly the effect I was looking for with the card.
As it was my mum that taught me how to crochet this Mother’s Day card would just be perfect for her!
I did laugh when I saw that my competitor was none other than Eleonora from Coastal Crochet! You may remember that I’ve met her a couple of times and interviewed her here on the blog too (read that here). It’s so fun to be up against someone I know and I certainly wouldn’t mind if she won. I love Eleonora’s cat and floral motif card – it certainly is purrrfect for Mother’s day too!
One of the fun bits of the Hook to Hook Challenge is that YOU can vote for your favourite of the two designs on theSimply Crochet Instagram page. To vote, simply double tap and comment on the design you prefer, and one lucky reader will win all the yarn that you need to make the project.
A winner will be announced on Wednesday 20th February 2019 at 1pm (GMT) on the Simply Crochet Instagram page,the competition is open to UK entrants only and T&C’s will apply.
So please, go check out the challenge, vote, and then I hope you’ll pop to the shops to pick up your copy ofSimply Crochet Magazinefor both Mother’s Day card patterns so you can have a go at making them yourself!
Until next time folks! Happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx
I umm’d and ahh’d about doing an end of year review but I decided that I quite like looking back at the year in this way.
2017 for me was the year I had my tenth wedding anniversary and when I watched my youngest daughter take her first wobbly steps, when she finally said ‘Mama’ for the first time (and then never stopped saying it) and when my eldest daughter won first prize in a talent show that she’d entered herself into – so much pride for my family this year!
And 2017 has been quite a crochet year for me! Not only did I immortalise myself in crochet when I reviewed the Edwards Doll Emporium book but it’s the year where I made the very scary choice of trying to see how far I could really go on my crochet design journey. And it turned out to be further than I ever thought it would be! I got to work with some fabulous magazines both in the UK and the US and I’ve had the chance to collaborate with some awesome people and companies.
Sometimes I have to remind myself (and pinch myself) that it’s only since January this year that I started working with Let’s Get Crafting magazine as I’ve had such fun collaborating with them now for several fun designs.
I can’t even try to explain to you the overwhelming joy I felt when my first ever design with them appeared on the front cover – I’d never even contemplated the fact that it was a possibility. And what made it really great was the folks of the magazine saved the surprise so I didn’t know about until issue 88 was released.
Using set yarns amounts, colours and hooks for each project has really developed the way I look at things as a designer. I would have never thought it but I’ve found that I really quite enjoy the challenge of ‘making it work’ under, what others might see as, these types of constraint.
And I love how bright and colourful all the designs have been. I thought I’d do a little collage of all my makes that have featured in Let’s Get Crafting issues from January to December 2017 (Issues 88 to 97).
And I also got to work with Simply Crochet Magazine twice this year and, as you will remember from my last post, I got to have the Crochet Edits supplement all to myself – again there really are no words to describe how it felt to see that for the first time.
and I also managed to crochet some things from other peoples patterns…
and designed a few more things…
And entered a design competition – (and I’m working on getting these patterns tested behind the scenes for folks that asked about them)…
And in a nutshell, that was 2017! It does makes my heart happy to see all my crochet projects together. But blooming heck! When you add it all together it seems like sooooo much! I’ve just worked out that I completed 68 projects altogether in 2017 which is a bit crazy… I go to work, I have a social life and I enjoy time with my family, I’m not actually sure how I’ve fitted all that in?!
But’s it time to look forward to 2018 – and I AM really looking forward to 2018! I’ve already got some exciting things in store AND in a couple of weeks I’m going to be holding a BIG giveaway to celebrate the fact that I’ve been blogging for FOUR whole years now.
AND there are going to be some AMAZING prizes in the giveaway kindly donated by lots of the lovely people who I’ve worked with in 2017 including:
A set of ‘Big, Bold, Loud and Proud Mega Hooks’ fromWulla Yarns
Winners choice of 2017Hook and a Book Subscription box (excludes Dec Mega Box)
Plus a specially curated ‘Beat the January Blues’ Yarny Goodie Box from ME!
It’s going to awesome!!! It’s all starting from 31 January (which is my blog’s birthday) so make sure you are subscribed (if you aren’t already) so you don’t miss any of the details.
Until next time, keep calm and crochet on my friends x
And 
I can’t even try to explain to you the overwhelming joy I felt when my first ever design with them appeared on the front cover – I’d never even contemplated the fact that it was a possibility. 
