Free Crochet Mother’s Day Card

Posted in Crochet, Free Patterns, Getting Crafty, Pattern Release by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

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!

Butterfly-Card — © Intermediate Publishing – Issue 81 / February 2019

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:

10g x Lemonade (403) – Yellow (A)
10g x Fresia (519) – Pink (B)
10g x Cherry (513) – Dark Pink (C)
10g x Kiwi (205) – Bright Green (D)
10g x Apple Granny (513) – Green (E)

Hook: 2.5 mm (US size C/2)

Notions and Accessories: 21 x 15cm embossed card, PVA glue (or glue gun), washi tape or sellotape

Tension: Tension is not critical for this project

Measurements:

Small Butterfly 2.3cm (0.8in)
Medium Butterfly 3.3cm (1.3in)
Large Butterfly 4cm (1.6in)

Small Butterfly | Make 2.

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 on Instagram (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

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14Feb2019

Simply Crochet 81 | Hook to Hook Challenge

Posted in Crochet, Designing, Getting Crafty, Magazine, Pattern Release by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

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 the Simply 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 of Simply Crochet Magazine for 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

18Apr2018

Allcrochetpatterns.net | Granny Square Design Contest

Posted in Afghan Square, Competitions, Crochet, Tah-Dah by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

The granny square is one of the most iconic designs in crochet and I adore that it can be interpreted in unlimited ways! If you’ve seen my groovyghan and various other designs then you’ll already know I’m a big fan of all things ‘granny square’ and love creating new fun designs. So when I saw that Allcrochetpatterns.net was holding a granny square design contest I knew I had to give it a go to design something new.

I’m really loving Scheepjes Catona Yarn at the moment and am amassing quite a colour selection so I picked out some lovely bright rainbow colours and after a bit of yarn play came up with the Floral Illusion Granny Square.

And the story behind the name…well the flower part seemed to develop quite organically as I started playing with the yarn – so I just went with it. The illusion part came as I noticed when I was photographing the square that the centre of the block had a kind of 3-D hologram that was a really cool effect.

And now the voting to the competition is OPEN! If you happen to like my little designs could you please spare me a few moments I hope you might vote for the Floral Illusions block. Your vote counts, and that’s why there’s a special Voters Prize! By voting you will be entered in the raffle to win 100 Epic yarn balls by Yarn and Colors!

HOW TO VOTE:

Go to the voting page on Allcrochetpatterns.net
Click the heart-button of TEN of your granny squares
Enter your name and email address in the pop-up screen to submit your vote.
Please note: multiple votings by one person will be removed.

Voting will take place from April 16 till April 23 and the three designs with the highest amount of votes will be announced the winners of this contest and a selection of participants will be contacted to contribute to a book project, gathering 100 granny square designs.

There are seriously so many amazing designs from inventive designers and I’ve voted for my favourites – good luck to all designers taking part!

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

3Dec2017

Beaded Bauble | Pattern Pack Pro

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

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, when you make a purchase through these links I do receive a small commission – thank you so much for supporting my blog! 💗

Have you heard of the Pattern Pack Pro (PPP)? Well the lovely people behind Happily Hooked magazine created the PPP, back in 2014, as a collation of themed patterns for crochet enthusiasts.

The December issue of PPP is all about ornaments. You know I have a plan to one day just have a Christmas tree full of crocheted ornaments and there’s some real beauties in this round up.

And I’ve got a brand new pattern as part of the collection! Christmas is definitely my favourite time of the year and I love setting up my tree. I wanted to create a bauble which would really set off any Christmas tree and with it’s beaded detail I think these baubles certainly do.

Why not let these strikingly Christmas baubles transform your decorations this season with a bit of bling (because who doesn’t like a bit of sparkle right?!).

You could create lots of them for a truly eye catching look!

I love how they look when hung up on the tree – with twinkly lights the beads really sparkle!

Each bauble is made from 15g of Scheepjes Catona using a 2.75mm (US size C) crochet hook so if you were using the larger 50g balls then you could make two! And the pattern comes will full instructions on how to crochet using beads.

I’m a little obsessed with making these little beaded baubles – no guessing what everyone is getting from me for Christmas! And although I’ve stuck with the traditional green and red there are so many different variations that you can come up with – my next one is going to be gold with gold beads!

As well as my new pattern the Ornament Issue also features the following patterns:

Nordmann Tree Stockings by Debbie Richardson
Santa Cube Ornament by Maxine Velasco
Ornament Trio by Sweet N’ Cute Creations
Snowman Ornament by Diana Moore
Upcycling Christmas Ball by Eléna Leprêtre
Celtic Weave Ornaments by Alexandra Richards ELK

If you fancy subscribing to the Pattern Pack Pro then just hop on over to the Happily Hooked Magazine website where you can also get the current issue of the Pattern Pack Pro for December 2017! You can also add the PPP to your 💗 Favourites and Ravelry Queue here or my bauble here.

As always I hope you will share your finished robot’s on your favourite social media sites: Ravelry, LoveCrochet.com, Facebook page or Facebook group, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram as I love to see your finished work! And if you are featured in my newsletter, as the customer spotlight, you could win a pattern of your choice!

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