Merry Christmas everyone!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful day with your nearest & dearest wherever you may be x

So here it is.. my mystery free pattern gift to you all a musical notes hat.. one size fits most.. it measures approx 22inches around and is long enough to cover most of your ears :)

I have uploaded it to Ravelry and you can instantly download it FREE on Ravelry HERE 

I hope you like it & I'd love to see your versions of it if you make one.

Merry Christmas

Fiona

x

It's Christmas Eve already?!

 YAY! Christmas tomorrow!  It'll be a white one too for a nice change as we've still plenty of snow :)

I have a free pattern Christmas present for you all. I can't post about what it is until tomorrow.. as the one I made hasn't been opened by it's recipient just yet!

But I can say It's a quick and easy knit in DK, has a touch of crochet & embroidery on it & is something to keep you warm for your New Year celebrations perhaps?! I can say no more.. can you guess what it'll be?

So I'd like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas tomorrow  & do pop back when you next get a chance to download your free pattern

Fi
xoxox

We have snow!

I took this photo yesterday of our beach completely covered in a white blanket of snow & emailed it to BBC points west news when I got home.. I had to record the news as we were putting the children to bed but afterwards when they were all asleep I was very excited to see it on the telly as Richard Angwin (the weather man) used it during his forecast! YAY!

Did I mention i'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan?!

I’ve not mentioned this before but I’m a major fan of Harry Potter :D and absolutely loving that our eldest is enjoying our reading our way through all the Harry Potter books at bedtime.. We’re on #3 at the moment ‘The Prisioner of Azkaban’. F already has his own Harry Potter wand and is hoping santa is going to bring some Harry Potter Lego if he’s good.


I was looking for something to put into G’s and F’s Christmas stockings and came across this wonderful free golden snitch pattern by Raynor Gellatly.. which I just couldn’t resist making!

To stop possible fights over whose was whose or F trying to claim G’s in addition to his own I chose the only colour F is not so keen on for G’s.. luckily she doesn’t have any aversion to pink :D

I made a change to the method of knitting the spheres.. I knitted them in the round with a long circular & magic loop method; stuffing as I neared the top of the ball so I could avoid having to sew any seams up & I used Emily Ockers circular cast on method for a really tight/neat circular cast on. The only tricky bit was knitting the last k2tog row as I’d stuffed the spheres to their utmost to make them very firm!

They took me less than two evenings and I just couldn’t resist sharing them.. lets hope F & G like their little extra stocking surprises & my thanks go to J.K.Rowling for creating the wonderful Harry Potter Universe and all the Characters therein.

Remember this hat?

This week I finished mapping out the rest of the sizes! It's currently being tested by a few crocheters in real life and on ravelry. In fact i'm short some testers for some of the sizes so if you're on ravelry & fancy signing up to test a particular size then pop over here to see more details & sign up. You must add it as a project to your ravelry notebook & upload a digital photo of your finished hat by November 14th. Use any 4ply from your stash you fancy & all testers get to keep the pattern for free!

The sizes I've worked out are for 0-3m, 3-6m, 6-12m, 1-2y, 3-4y, 5-6yrs.

UPDATE - Finished pattern now in my ravelry store - click here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-cloche-hat-with-tassel-flower

Sneak preview! Christmas Baby Toy

Stuck for ideas for a quick gift to knit for Christmas presents? Well here's a little preview of my next pattern.. It is really easy & quick to make. If you're a fast knitter you'll have it finished in 1 evening but if you're not so fast like me it may take you 1.5! xox

UPDATE :- Now available in my ravelry store - click here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christmas-tree-ornament--ring-toy

Right! A bit more about what i've been up to...

As I confessed in my last post I have re-discovered my love of knitting :) This has been enjoyably costly as I then found I needed new knitting needles.. 

How come you always need the knitting needle you don't yet have to make a project? 
I'm sure that doesn't happen to just me?! Anyway a long search (via internet) ensued to find my all time favourite knitting needle/s.. I have purchased Swallow Casein Pearl ones, wooden ones... Britany birch from the fantastic Life craft & fun Tazmanian Oak needles by Art Viva, colourful aluminium metal ones by Susan Bates to name just a few. Even though my collection has expanded exponentially.. even today I had to order some double pointed needles for the 1st of my Christmas patterns as yet again I didn't have the size I needed! I now can't wait for them to arrive. Don't you just love getting lovely craft parcels in the post? ;) 

So what do you think my favourite needles are out of everything I've bought? I'm actually still undecided as they all have their pro's and cons.. which I might go into detail on in another post if anyone is interested. For the moment I'm loving my new needle stash & finding it not only inspiring but a pure joy to look at when I'm knitting away!

Well with all my new needles what exactly have I been designing & knitting?

The answer... Blanket squares... and LOTS of them!

The first half of my blanket squares project is finished and all the patterns have been uploaded to my Ravelry pattern store. It is a complete capital A-Z alphabet mapped out to make blanket squares in 3 sizes...

• 6x6inches/15x15cms in Aran (worsted weight)


• 5x5inches/12.5x12.5cms in DK (sport weight)


• 4x4inches/10x10cms in 4Ply (fingering weight).

This alphabet is the start of a whole pictorial alphabet series & it's the motifs i'm working on next. A few are done already.. A for apple, B for ball & C for car... but there's plenty more to come!

There's also a quick to knit Christmas toy coming shortly.. I'm knitting up the one to photograph for the pattern front cover right now! All i'll say at the moment is it can be done flat or in the round, you need red and green yarn of either 4ply/dk/or aran, it'll take you just over an evening to make  & it'll be easy!

So what have you got on your needles; be they crochet or knitting at the moment?

Fi x

If you're on Ravelry pop over and take a peek.... I've been busy!

Just a quickie as DH needs the computer so time is short.. I just wanted to share some photos of the new patterns I've finished. There's not enough time to load all of them tonight so here's 2 as a start & yes you see correctly... they are KNITTED!  I have at last re-found my love of knitting and there's plenty more in the pipeline...




Sorry to post and run. That's all i've time for right now but if you are on ravelry pop by to see the rest. Oh and i've started a Ravelry group too if you want to join & chat x

Still busy typing the monkey hat pattern but..

...here's a sneaky look at the next hat just finished and in the typing queue!

It is light weight for the summer.. in 4ply (fingering weight) cotton yarn. With a re-moveable chin strap & you can place the tassel flower where ever you wish on the adjustible hat band.. which can also be used as a fancy headband on it's own without the hat if you want!





UPDATE - hat pattern now finished and avilable in my ravelry shop - click here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-cloche-hat-with-tassel-flower

NEW! Pattern now finished

Well.. the pattern is finally finished and has been uploaded to Ravelry here so you can purchase & get immediate download. Typing and the proof reading just takes me forever... maybe one day i'll be a little faster ;)

The swing into spring coat pattern costs $5.50 If you would like to purchase one just click here and you will be directed to the ravelry shopping basket to make your purchase & receive your instant pattern download.

I'm already working on the next patterns... my usual model was not co-operating this morning...

so I persuaded her elder brother to pose for me...

What do you think he wanted as a reward? To Play Star Wars Lego on our Wii & be naked! The joys of being 3 & 3/4's :) So that was our deal... I was able to take some better photos and he... well I didn't take any photos of him playing afterwards.. I'll leave that to your imagination!

Swing into Spring fluffy coat update..

I'm busy typing up the pattern but just couldn't resist sharing a photo from my 1st go at a proper photo shoot with our youngest modelling the coat :) & I now take my hat off to professional photographers! Phew.. getting just a few good shots was no easy task but also a lot of fun too! I plan to have the pattern uploaded to Ravelry for sale in the next week priced at $5.50.. So if you would like to know as soon as it goes live either leave a comment below or message me through Ravelry & i'll let you know as soon as it is available!

Fiona

x

UPDATE - pattern now finished and available - click here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swing-into-spring

Helloooo & Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful time. Here in the Kelly household we're having a relaxed Easter... staying put at home & just spending time together...

I'm back into my designing & crocheting and going by the last few weeks I've definitely got my crochet mojo back! So I'm delighted to tell you all that I have some new patterns on the go.. the first of which is almost finished. It is a swing style coat (that will fit up to 12 months) in snuggly soft Wendy/Peter Pan Velvet Touch aran weight yarn (see photo above). Of course I just had to try it on Grace as soon as I had a chance & I think she really likes it :)

The coat also has a removable hood and the option of making some crocheted daisy flower motifs to decorate it with... It took me 16 variations of crocheted daisies until I was finally happy!



I've a few more of the daisies to crochet, stitch on & hopefully I'll be able to get Grace to model the completely finished daisy decorated coat... with & without the hood if she's willing! Then as soon as I've finished typing up the PDF pattern I will upload it for sale on Ravelry... so watch this space!

Fi

x