Hobbii Yarn and Magazine Giveaway!

EDITED: Giveaway now closed! Congratulations Heather Reeve who’s name was selected at random as the winner!

I can’t believe this year marks 7 years of blogging like how did that happen? I wanted to do a bit of a giveaway to celebrate my blogiversary…. it was in January … so it’s a wee bit late, but I still wanted to do a little giveaway to say a big thank you to everyone that has supported me here and on social media.

I’m going to do a giveaway here on the blog, another one on Facebook and another on Instagram so there will be several places you can win a prize!

The prize ties in with one of the latest patterns, The Parisian Plait Wrap, I created from Issue 68 of Crochet Now magazine (read the blog post here).

What you can win:

So up for grabs here on the blog is a copy of Crochet Now magazine (Issue 68) AND a Hobbii’s Cotton Kings Twirl, in Peach Danubrite, so you’ll have everything you need (apart from a hook) to make your very own Parisian Plait wrap.

Then I’ve got two more copies of the magazine, one to giveaway on my Facebook page and one on my Instagram. And as well as all the great patterns that are in the magazine this issue has two extra supplements of patterns, so there’s loads of fun things to choose from to make!

Here’s how you can enter:

To enter for the big blog prize, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what’s your favourite things to crochet in Spring – to gain an extra entry maybe you might like to sign up to my newsletter.

Then hop over to my Facebook page and my Instagram for the instructions on how you can win the prize there – really easy ways to enter!

The contest is open from RIGHT NOW until Thursday 20 May 2020. 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 WORLDWIDE!

Thank you all my blog readers and social followers for your wonderful support and encouragement!

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

3Dec2019

The most wonderful time of the year…Christmas at The Crochet Sanctuary

Posted in Crochet, Days Out, Dear Ewe, Designing, Inspiration, Life, Outings, Yarn by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

When I was asked if I might like to do another workshop at The Crochet Sanctuary, and this time the Christmas one, I may have squealed a little bit in my head! Christmas is my MOSTEST favourite time of the year and I was delighted to be given the opportunity to come up with a fun festive design.

If you’ve not heard about The Crochet Sanctuary before it’s a crochet retreat set in the beautiful Cranage Hall in Crewe. The hosts of the sanctuary, Lisa and Lynda-Rose, always plan an amazing weekend for their guests and it’s usually extra special at Christmas – and this time it was no different!

On this occasion we were a nice cosy group of about 20 weekenders (to be joined by roughly 5 more day guests on the Saturday). The room we were in, as always, was arranged with a circle of comfy chairs covered in crochet blankets and cushions to make ourselves at home.

Excitingly this weekend myself, with my Dear Ewe hat on, and fellow small business owner Mrs G Makes had a pop up shop in the room, and Amanda from Craftopia had a pop up shop in her van!

It was really nice for me to let people see the Dear Ewe products up close as I think it’s a totally different experience from seeing them just on your computer screen. And it gave me a chance to try out my new stall display format as Dear Ewe is hopefully going on the road in 2020 to some yarn shows near you….

We started off the afternoon with a really fun ice-breaker to get to know each other with us having to confess a time when we’d been naughty. Santa presided over us and checked his list to see if he agreed that we’d been naughty or nice! Apparently I was naughty – I’m sure that can’t be right!? And then we were all given a present…if you are Instagram you need to check out this video to see our reactions!

Inside the parcel was our very own Scheepjes Whirligig which was just unbelievable! I’ve been drooling (like so many others I’m sure) over these since they were released earlier this year. These decadent gigantic yarn cakes (1000m / 450g) are a super soft blend of alpaca and virgin wool and have gorgeous long repeats. Mine is the pink to plum version which is a pale pink that transitions to rich plums and deep purples. It was definitely love at first sight!

We were given two patterns to choose from, either the Scheepjes Valyria Shawl by Johanna Lindahl or the new Nolkag Wrap pattern designed especially for the weekend. I chose the Nolkag Wrap which is just a deliciously mindful pattern with a pretty cabled texture. I enjoyed working on the pattern, and with the yarn which just glides through your fingers, so much that I found it really hard to put it down the whole weekend!

But a gal’s got to eat so we hooked until 7pm then it was time for a three course meal in the restaurant (which was delicious) and then we went back up to the room for more crochet and chatting.

I was a bit more sensible this time and was in bed for 11pm (not the usual wee hours of the morning) and before I knew it it was time for a buffet style breakfast then back up to the room for our next project which was completely awesome! We were given everything we needed to make giant baubles! I still need to finish mine so I’ll have to share a photo when I’m finished.

Next it was Christmas dinner for lunch and with all of us feeling full and maybe a tad sleepy it was time for me to do my workshop! Lisa and Lynda had let me decide what I was going to do for my workshop, and when I’d suggested a stocking design they thought that was great – I think everyone was thinking it was going to be another amigurumi!

I came up with the Starlight Stocking design which I think would make a great addition to those handmade decorations you bring out year after year.

My chosen yarn for the stocking was the new Scheepjes Chunky Monkey yarn, which is becoming a fast new favourite of mine, so soft, combined with Scheepjes Catona and Scheepjes Lizzy (for a bit of bling). You can just see them hanging in situ below on one of the gorgeous Cranage Estate fireplaces!

As always it was great fun watching everyone get stuck into making the stockings (I don’t usually get to see that part!), we had a break for the evening meal until 7pm-ish (when the day people left us) for another scrumptious three course meal in the restaurant, then it was back up to the room again to continue with the stockings.

As always much belly laughter was had (you pinocchio nose people know who you are!)…then it was time for bed again, the weekend really does seem to just fly by so quickly!

Sunday until 3pm (when the Sanctuary finishes) is normally when we have time to finished off our projects but Lynda and Lisa had another fun project in store! We got to have a go at making our own custom shawl kilt pin and I got to use a glue gun for the first time. I now kind of want to glue aallll the things because I REALLY enjoyed using the gun. I chose some festive felt balls and bells to adorn my kilt pin to match my Nolkag Wrap.

After that it was wonderful to see that nearly everyone wanted to finish off their stockings…and some did get them finished or nearly finished over the weekend. Everyone did such an amazing job with them!

And some more stockings modelled with the gorgeously decorated fireplace!

I’m a bit addicted to attending The Crochet Sanctuary days / weekends they have throughout the year. It’s always such fun and I get to just talk crochet till I’m fit to burst which is especially refreshing because no one’s eyes start to glaze over – they are just as enthused as me!

It was a thoroughly wonderful weekend, which I knew it would be, that I was lucky enough to share with the most wonderful group of people! Just a lovely occasion to catch up with old friends and make some new ones!

If you are looking for a weekend of yarn, crochet, relaxation and just pure wonderfulness then the The Crochet Sanctuary is definitely the place for you. As testament the weekend dates for 2020 have already completely sold out – but you can still book the remaining few day dates that are left here.

I’m going back for a day visit again in February as a guest which I’m already looking forward to! How many more sleeps is that….

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

27Sep2018

Pattern Release & Giveway| Relaxing Ralph Cat Amigurumi

Posted in Amigurumi, Crochet, For Adult, For Baby, For Child, Independent Design, Pattern Release, Sale / Special Offer, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Woo hooooo! I’m really excited to say that my Relaxing Ralph pattern, that I designed for the Crochet Sanctuary (read about that here), is now finally LIVE!

I’m chuffed to bits be able to finally release him into the wild because I really love how he turned out! I seriously just want to climb into his hammock with him and have a little snooze – don’t you?

If you have ever watched a cat sleeping you’ll know that they sleep like they don’t have a care in the world. Now you can take a leaf out of the life of a cat and relax like Ralph!

The pattern is 5 pages long and it’s written, as usual, in both UK and US terms. It was nice to see the folks at the crochet sanctuary who were both intermediate and beginners to amigurumi enjoying the pattern. Though if you are a beginner and would like to give this pattern a go you might want to familiarise yourself with working in rounds in the amigurumi style before you start.

Pattern Links 🎉

The Relaxing Ralph pattern is now available in my pattern stores on both Ravelry and on Lovecrochet.com – however if you’d like to be in with a chance to win a copy then keep reading…

Exclusive Giveaway 🎉

🚫 GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED – CONGRATULATIONS TO

Catsmom6 & CrochetRoxx 🚫

If you’d like to be entered into the giveaway to win a copy of Relaxing Ralph simply head on over to Ravelry and/or LoveCrochet.com and add it to your favourites. Please then comment below this post with either your Ravelry username or email address for your chance to win a copy.

Your Ravelry username and email address will only be used to send you your prize, if you enter the information onto a comment it is understood that you are granting me your permission for me to use your information as advised.

Bonus Entry: Re-pin any of the images above. Copy & paste the URL of your re-pin in the blog comments below.

TWO winners will be randomly chosen on Tuesday 2 October 2018 evening around 7pm GMT

Finally I hope you will share any Relaxing Ralph project’s, on social media or as a Ravelry or LoveCrochet.com project, to be in with a chance to win a different pattern of mine if you are featured in my monthly newsletter.

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

20Sep2018

Another fabulous weekend at The Crochet Sanctuary…

Posted in Crochet, Days Out, Dear Ewe, Designing, Inspiration, Life, Outings, Yarn by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

What an amazing weekend I’ve just had at The Crochet Sanctuary!! It’s going to be hard to try and explain what a refreshing, relaxing and just downright fun time I had, but I’ll give it a go!

You may remember that in February Mr. KCACO-UK bought me a day pass to The Crochet Sanctuary at the beautiful Cranage Hall in Crewe (which you can read about here). It was whilst I was there that the lovely Lisa and Lynda-Rose did me the very great honour of asking me if I’d like to host a workshop. I was delighted to be asked and of course I said YES please!

I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really have many crocheting friends that live close to me – or they are more dabblers in crochet rather than a self proclaimed addict like me. The majority of my crochet buddies I’ve only met virtually via social media so the opportunity to meet up with other creative folks that share my passion for crochet – and love to talk about it as much as I do is absolutely wonderful!

I would describe myself as a bit of an introverted extrovert if there is such a thing. There are times where I feel a little awkward in social situations, but I also really love to chat once I get to know people. I love how the crochet sanctuary always makes me feel so welcome and straight away they seem to put everyone at there ease.

On this occasion we were a nice cosy group of about 15 people and our room was a circle of comfy chairs covered in crochet blankets and cushions where we could make ourselves at home. There was also a spinning wheel of sweets (yes really!), prosecco, water, tea/coffee or locally produced cordial to drink, snacks galore and of course lots and lots of lovely yarn!

We started off with a really fun ice-breaker to get to know each other which included being sorted by a talking Harry Potteresque sorting hat (I was Ravenclaw!). And waiting for us on our seats was a giant goodie bag full of our first project.

We were given a complete Mabel the giant amigurumi Bunny by Wool Couture which I was very excited about. This was my first time making an mega large ami and the pure merino yarn was just soooooo squishy! The colour chosen for us was ‘mink’ which is what the original Mabel was made of and away we started hooking…

We hooked until 7pm then it was time for a three course meal down in the restaurant (which was delicious) and then we went back up to the room for more crochet and chatting…and I may have just stayed up until 1am!! Time seriously just flew by! But everyone could have a lie in the next day until 9am (which when you think I usually get up at 6am – or earlier with my two early-bird girls was heavenly).

After a scrummy buffet style breakfast it was back up to the room for our next project and we were joined by some more people that had a day pass. This time our Lisa and Lynda had designed hot-water bottle covers for us to make. There were two different applique designs to choose from, either butterflies or stars, and we were also given a hot-water bottle and all the yarn we would need. I was pleased to see the Scheepjes Softfun Denim (which you may remember I used for the Stitch Story CAL) and some Scheepjes Catona (which is some of my favourite yarn to use) and by lunchtime I’d hooked up one completed panel of my hot-water bottle. Then it was off for another delicious two course lunch (we were so well fed the whole weekend!)

Then it was time to get ready for my workshop…squeak!!! I was rather nervous but I’d taken along some of my favourite designs to talk about including the Leafy Boughs Shawl (on top) some crochet blankets I’d made for Simply Crochet magazine, the Stitch Story CAL blankets and various amigurumi…

I also chatted a bit about Dear Ewe and our products which had it’s up close and personal debut that weekend with folks attending the sanctuary…

And then I introduced the design we were going to be working on for the rest of the afternoon. Lisa and Lynda let me decide what I was going to do for my workshop, though they did suggest they’d maybe like to see an amigurumi. I thought long and hard about what I was going to do when I happened upon this photo…it was a serendipitous moment where the photo just seemed to encapsulate perfectly what I wanted for The Crochet Sanctuary. Something fun and something to convey how the sanctuary made me feel – just completely relaxed!

From that inspiration I came up with the design for Relaxing Ralph (pattern release coming soon), complete with optional hammock (and stand made by my lovely Dad).

My chosen yarn for Ralph was Scheepjes Stonewashed XL combined with normal Stonewashed DK and some trusty Catona. It was super fun to watch everyone begin their cats – and a relatively new experience for me to be present when someone actually makes one of my patterns.

The rest of the afternoon until 6pm-ish (when the day people left us_ was taken up with making our kitties, then we all had a little rest before meeting for another scrumptious three course meal in the restaurant at 7pm.

Then for those that wanted to we all went back up to the room to do some more crocheting, and there was wine and gin (and soft drinks) shared around and oh my word just such belly laughter! Such a fabulous evening where something will just never be referred to in the same way ever again! Then before I knew it, it was 11.30pm and I really needed to sleep!

Sunday until 3pm (when the Sanctuary finishes) was given over for time to finished off our projects (and of course another delicious breakfast and lunch). It was wonderful that nearly everyone wanted to finish off their cats and before I knew it Ralph was joined by Regina Phalangi, Hilda, Jasper, Cinnamon, Heather, Reba, Gary, Julian and Gordon! We couldn’t resist a little photo shoot with all the cats…

Everyone did such an AMAZING job with their cats! And before I knew it the cats were getting up to all sorts of mischief! Sliding down banisters…

and checking out the cat local population!

And then there was just time for a fabulous group photo on the steps before packing up our belongs to go home (with some many goodies in our bags!).

All in all a thoroughly wonderful weekend which I was lucky enough to share with the most wonderful group of people!

If you are looking for a weekend of yarn, crochet, relaxation and just pure wonderfulness then the The Crochet Sanctuary is definitely the place for you. As testament to that the dates for 2018 are all now sold out and the dates for 2019 are selling out fast – but you can book on the remaining dates here.

I have to say I’m totally getting addicted to these weekends and may have just booked on a few more myself for this year – I’m looking forward to my next day visit in November.

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

23Feb2018

My visit to The Crochet Sanctuary

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

Sooo today I want to tell you about the wonderful weekend I had at The Crochet Sanctuary What’s this I hear you cry! What on earth is a Crochet Sanctuary? Is it a sacred place for humans to crochet all day long? Well yes – that’s EXACTLY what it is. The Crochet Sanctuary is a place for like minded people to congregate in a state of pure relaxation and enjoy crochet aplenty.

You may remember that the lovely Mr. KCACO-UK bought me a day pass last year as a treat for a weekend in February. So last weekend hooks in hand and in a wild state of anticipation I made my way to the beautiful Cranage Hall in Crewe.

The Crochet Sanctuary is the brainchild of the very lovely Lisa from The Wee House of Crochet and Lynda-Rose of Lyndas Craftroom. It runs from Friday evening at 5pm until Sunday afternoon with day passes, like mine, on a Saturday from 10am until 6pm. All snacks, drinks and lunch are included along with unlimited yarn (!!!), and there is also workshops and guest designers. Too much awesomeness right?!?

Anyway back to my day…I got to the sanctuary and I was shown the way into a side room (with crochet bunting adorning the door) and once inside I was initially rather taken a back to find a room full of people all ready and eager to crochet. I don’t know why I was so surprised, that is after all what the day was about, but it was just a completely new crochet scenario I suppose as I usually crochet alone (boo hoo).

I think there was about 25 of us in total and as the day was about to start I quickly made myself at home on a sofa that, like all the other chairs in the room, were made up with crochet blankets and comfy cushions. We were encouraged to bring slippers before hand which I thought was lovely and many people did.

We went straight into our first workshop, which was to choose a wonderful TOFT Edwards Menagerie amigurumi kit, and then it was hooks a-go-go. I didn’t really mind what animal I ended up with, though I thought it would be nice to make something I haven’t already made (Hippo and Parrot), and in the end I ended up with the extremely cute Simon the Sheep.

So the rest of the morning was taken up with working on our respective amigurumi projects – or if that wasn’t something you were really interested in there was yarn and other pattern books available so you could work on something different.

There were breaks for tea and coffee and snacks and lemonade / pink lemonade to quench our thirst and a fabulous pick and mix cart full of sweets of which we could help ourselves too. Our hosts really had tried to think of everything to make us happy and then some!

We were all given a gift of an electronic row counter and the cutest gummy bear stitch marker to use on our projects. This unfortunately I promptly lost whilst I was there, it certainly didn’t make it home with me – it’s quite possibly down the sofa I was sitting on if anyone wants to check.

I so so enjoyed chatting with everyone around me – it’s so refreshing to speak to people who don’t glaze over when you are talking about crochet or yarn and enjoy talking about it as much as you. And then it was 1pm and lunchtime! The morning went sooooooo fast!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch and then it was back to a new workshop with the lovely Coastal Crochet who I’d been looking forward to meet. We went back into the room which had been transformed by a most wonderful display of pebbles and yarn as Eleanora brought a bit of the seaside with her – and she’d also created a playlist to accompany the afternoon with seaside themed songs.

Our workshop was to crochet around pebbles which I have had ago at before and enjoyed and as I have a bit of a pebble obsession was really pleased to try again. Eleanora had created five exclusive patterns for the workshop, and much to my delight, we were working with Scheepjes Catona which is one of my favourite yarns to work with.

I made two of the most delightful pebble cosies (is that I thing – can I claim that?) and they are now adorning my desk at home and work as paperweights.

There was a little bit of time left after that for chatting and working on whatever project we wanted to and then before I knew it (and way before I was ready to leave even though my time was up) Mr. KCACO-UK was outside ready to take me home.

Goodbye’s were said to all and with a goodie bag from the lovely Lisa and Lynda-Rose in hand I had to bid The Crochet Sanctuary a fond farewell. All in all a thoroughly wonderful day which I was lucky enough to share with the most wonderful group of people!

Just in case you were wondering what happened to Simon the Sheep – I finished him off when I got home and he turned out SUPER cute!

So if you are looking for a weekend of yarn, crochet, relaxation and just pure wonderfulness I can heartily recommend a visit to The Crochet Sanctuary. All the new dates for 2018 have now been added to the website here.

AND now I’m going to share my ultra exciting news!! If you’ve ever fancied finding out a bit more about the person behind these blog posts well now you can. The September Crochet Sanctuary 2018 will feature a workshop by ME! That’s right, I’m stepping into my presenting (crocheted?) shoes to deliver an interactive workshop with a brand new crochet design made especially for the day. And I for one cannot wait wait to go back to The Crochet Sanctuary.

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

22Nov2017

Winner | Hook and a Book Giveaway

Posted in Crochet, Giveaways by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So we need a winner don’t we for the Hook and a Book Christmas Box giveaway. Many thanks to everyone that entered, I loved reading your comments as to why you wanted to win or who you wanted to give / share the box with. Sadly it’s not possible for you all to win and I had to pick someone… To do this I used a really fun wheel of fortune type name picker which Little G had great fun clicking to spin, we spun away and the winner appeared!

AND THE WINNER IS...

Congratulation Kim Harvey-Nash!!! I’m going to pass your email address on to the lovely people from Hook and a Book so that she can send you your fabulous prize!

Big thank you to Hook and a Book for donating this prize for KCACO.UK readers and my commiserations to those of you who didn’t win – but there’ll be more giveaways here on this blog in future.

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

15Nov2017

Hook and a Book | Christmas Box Giveaway

Posted in Competitions, Crochet, Getting Crafty, Giveaways by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

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!!

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.

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

12Apr2017

Spring, Spring, Spring! And Giveaway winners!

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

Any fans of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers will be completely forgiven for breaking out into uproarious song after reading the title of my post. It’s my lovely mum’s most favourite movie so the show tunes have become ingrained from childhood!

This weekend we definitely enjoyed ‘Ma Nature’s yearly miracle’ as we went on a visit to Tatton Park, an historic estate in Cheshire. And OH but the sun was glorious and the sky was so blue, the birds were a-twitterin’ and blossoms…well they were just so blossomy!!!

I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it was to get outside and enjoy some good weather after quite a grey March – and to walk about with no coat on either; just delightful!

It was an absolute pleasure slowly walking round the gardens with all my family (as my mum and Dad came too), talking and taking in and appreciating the scenery.

I even spotted a bit of crochet in one of the farmers huts…though I might question the realism of the colour palette of the bottom blanket for the olden days – hot pink yarn?!!

Then whilst hubby played with the girls on the play-park my parents and I wandered over to look at the house. Inside, amongst lots of other things, they had what seemed to be a little embroidery showcase. There was no denying the talent of the artists that had created some of the pieces – they were just stunning! I took a picture of my favourite work because I just thought it was so beautiful (silly me though I forgot to look for the name of the artist) I just love the colours, the composition of the piece…just everything about it!

The highlight of the day for everyone though was Tatton Park’s lambing week…

By some sort of wizardry they had synchronised their ewes to lamb within a 10 day period and there were so many of the little cuties bouncing about ‘waggin’ tails, rubbin’ noses’. Although we didn’t see any lambs actually being born, we saw some that had just been born! Little G asked lots of interesting questions…and was thoroughly intrigued by the whole thing.

By the end of the day we’d walked over 8.4km (about 5.5 miles) round the gardens and house, enjoyed some eating alfesco with the first picnic of the year and all went home with happy hearts! So glad that Spring is finally here!

And before I forget there are some giveaway winners to announce aren’t there! Just to remind you, I set a little competition so some lovely people could win some pattern prizes (details in this post). Was the winner you? Did you get the answer right?

Well the answer to my clue was my Daisy Chain Flourish blanket…

but some of you answered that it was my Daisy Chain afghan square which was kind of right too – so I’ve tumbled you all into a random.org and the winners of a pattern of their choice are:

Patricia Giles
Trisha Smith
Nicola
Yolande Timkoe
Kirsty

Congratulations folks! Please can you get in touch with me so you can claim your prize!

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

26Jan2017

The Adventures of Little Adam | Part 3

Posted in Adventures of Little Adam, Amigurumi, Crochet, Holidays by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So I thought it was about time that we caught up with that lovable travelling amigurumi – Little Adam to see where he’s been lately. Previously his adventures took him to Greece (B) and Dubai (C)! This post finds him jetting off to Rhodes (D), the largest of Greece’s Dodecanese islands with a pit stop in Lanzarote (E), one of the Canary islands off the coast of West Africa!

Just look at that map! He’s becoming a proper globe trotting doll!

First off we were treated to the obligatory holiday ‘this is the view from my balcony shot’…

And then…well you’ll never guess who Little Adam met on his holiday in Rhodes?! Little Dad! What are the chances of that happening 😀

It seems whilst on holiday the pair befriended a local donkey and enjoyed the sunset on the beach…

It was not long after this the pair parted and Little Adam flew off to his next destination of Lanzarote…where he climbed a volcano!

I hope you’ve enjoyed Little Adam’s travels as much as I have! Wonder where he’ll turn up next – maybe near you!

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

3Nov2016

Autumn Days

Posted in Blogging, Days Out, Family, For Baby, For Child, Life, Outings by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

I love this time of year! I like the fact that it’s time to get out the hats, scarves and gloves. It’s time for comfort food, bonfires, conkers, Halloween and the red, orange, greens and golds of autumn leaves.

I know some people find Halloween offensive but I have always viewed it as a bit of harmless fun where children can dress up, play games and enjoy themselves. It’s believed that Halloween actually comes from the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest season, and as we slip and trip into the misery, coldness and ice that is winter (you might guess I’m not a fan!) why shouldn’t we have a bit of fun I say!

Little G absolutely loves Halloween it’s probably her most favourite day (after her birthday) and she pretty much talks about it all year round asking how many days until the next one is (this usually starts the day after the last one has ended). For her Halloween is totally about dressing up and playing jokes. As it’s been half term week here the children have been off school so there have been plenty of places to visit which offer Halloween / Autumn activities.

We took a trip to Moseley Old Hall with my mum and dad to do some pumpkin carving which was good and messy. The excellent thing about pumpkin carving is the innards being transformed into warming pumpkin soup served with crusty garlic bread (yummmm).

Children were encouraged to dress up and the house and woods were great fun for exploring. They have a really awesome tree house in the woods and Little G enjoyed building some dens out of logs, rope and stones with her grandparents.

It was the best sort of Autumn day, a bit chilly but dry with a bright blue sky and crunchy leaves underfoot. I think we all enjoyed a walk in the crisp air to blow the cobwebs away!

Another day we went with some family friends to a trick or treat village where Little G was a cute cat and Little Miss an adorable pumpkin.

The hat pattern is the Pumpkin-Top Earflap Hat by Kimberlie Goodnough. I’ve made it a few times now, it’s such a fun hat to make, quick to hook up and just perfect for Halloween / Autumn. I did change the pattern slightly; I didn’t add the ear-flaps on this occasion and just added a scalloped trim to finish it off.

The yarn I used was Stylecraft Special Aran in Spice and Meadow which are just perfect pumpkin colours.

So now Halloween has passed it’s on wards to bonfire night! I need to finish off some new winter hat designs for my girls before the weekend so I’d better get on with it as hats unfortunately (as much as it would be amazing if they did) don’t crochet themselves!

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