Start as I mean to go on…….

On January 12, 2014 By agrarianartisan3 Comments

Wow! Almost 2 weeks into 2014 already.

I resolved to do more knitting this year and I think I have started well.

I have been knitting cowls. Why? Well I am organising a coach trip to Wonderwool Wales in April and I thought it would be nice to design something to help occupy the time during the 3 hour journey. For some reason I decided on a cowl, but it has to be something that you can knit without having to refer to the pattern too much (not recommended whilst the coach is in motion, it could induce travel sickness in some, me included!).

It took me 3 attempts before I came up with a design I thought would suit. The first 2 cowls were lovely but just did not fit the ‘coach’ criteria. The third is perfect but I need to test it further. So I have knitted 3 cowls already and I am halfway into my fourth.

These are the two I ‘rejected’:

They may be rejects for the coach but I love them, and I have published them. You can find them on Ravelry.

I have also spent a bit of my time teaching myself to spin yarn…….but it will be quite a while before I share my spinning adventures!

Happy knitting xx

Seasons greetings!

On December 23, 2013 By agrarianartisan3 Comments

I am sure everyone has been very busy preparing for the Christmas time holiday. But if any of you are still keen to squeeze in one last make before it’s too late here are a few ideas.

If you fancy one last minute decoration make hop over to Kerry’s blog to get the pattern for this:

On Kerry’s blog here:

Crochet Tutorial – Christmas Snowflake/Star

Make a curvy star for decoration or as a coaster

On the blog here:

Curvy Star Hexagon

Make a few small lavender sachets

Pattern on Ravelry here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-crochet-sachet

And some very quick knitted fingerless mitts

Pattern on Ravelry here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-peasy-fingerless-mitts-3

But don’t forget to find some time to put your feet up and just relax!

Seasons greetings and Happy New Year to all my readers xxxxx

A good week

On November 30, 2013 By agrarianartisan4 Comments

This has been a good week for me, lots of really lovely things have happened and it had made me very cheery! So I thought I would share a couple of them with you.

First the lovely Amanda Perkins wrote a blog about me – yes all about me! It was a huge surprise and she said some lovely things, which left me blushing. If you don’t already know about Amanda you should find out now. She, her husband Phil and daughter Daisy are the family team behind The Natural Dye Studio. They hand dye the most gorgeous luxury yarns in North Devon using historical dyes and environmentally friendly methods. Find the website here: http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/
Amanda is also a very talented crochet designer and I have had the privilege to work with her for a few years now – she is a joy to work with. She crochets like the wind and produces the most exquisite blankets in next to no time (ok maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but she certainly crochets them a lot faster than anyone else I know). You can find her pattern and books on the website or on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/amanda-perkins
And her blog here: http://amandascrochetblog.blogspot.co.uk/

The second good thing I want to share is a publication I received yesterday. It is my ‘contributor’ copy of a new bookazine by Tailor Made Publications (the publishing house of Inside Crochet). It is called ’The Knitting Collection’ and comprises 47 different designs, from small home projects to beautiful fashion items. My contribution is a one-skein shawlette, yes a new knitting design from me:

Co-incidentally (or maybe not) it is made with a skein of The Natural Dye Studio’s Angelus 4 ply yarn, which fabulous to work with and so soft.

I really enjoyed reading The Knitting Collection yesterday evening. It has a lovely array of designs in it, the layout and photography is good and there are very few adverts. Altogether, in my opinion, a quality publication and well worth the £9.99 cover price. I don’t submit my designs to magazines often, as I prefer to work to my own timetable, but I am proud to part of this one.

Finally, today I am starting block 16 of my Bohemian Rhapsody wrap. It has 18 blocks, so I am getting close to finishing…. my excitement level is growing, so much that I am thinking of bringing the completion deadline forward. I’ll just see how the hooking goes this weekend……………………

Happy Knitting and Crocheting xxx

The postman rarely knocks twice……..

On October 19, 2013 By agrarianartisan1 Comment

This week I received 2 parcels, one expected but bigger than I thought and one totally unexpected.

I’ll start with the unexpected………..
I had rather a large pile of mail waiting when I returned from my long weekend knitting retreat, but I chose to ignore it for a while. I needed to unpack (mainly to dig out the yarn and other goodies I received on my knitting retreat!) and wanted to catch up on emails. It was quite some time before I tackled the post.

My husband had left it in a neat pile (he’s good at neat and tidy!) with smallest mail on top, largest underneath. So it was bank statement, bill, magazine, junk….and right at the bottom a large envelope marked ‘do not bend’. At first I thought it was this month’s instalment of pure silk mini skeins from Willow Knits (http://www.willowknits.com/), after all most large envelopes and parcels entering this house contain some sort of yarn ……… but no, bending would do no harm to yarn. Intrigued I pulled it open as quickly as I could and found a lovely letter from Ann, a lady who I met at one of my crochet workshops earlier this year and I now count as one of my yarny friends. She spins and knits, and claims to be a crochet novice but is very accomplished. She had joined in The Hexagon Project 2013 (http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/agrarian-artisan-designs/2521297/1-25) and made a beautiful blanket. Her letter explained that I had ‘won’ a prize for the mostly hexagon project but this was code words for the enclosure – a set of 7 handmade cards, one for each hexagon design I gave to everyone who had joined in. They had (mostly!) a hexagon theme with a short description on the back. They are beautifully made and cherished – it will be hard to give them away as their usual purpose commands! I was so touched and can’t thank Ann enough for such a lovely present.

The second parcel came from the USA. I had won a ball of yarn in a blog contest this summer and Laura had sent the parcel through with what she described as ‘a few little extras’. So I was expecting a small package that would fit through the letterbox. But the postman rang the bell carrying a larger parcel than I expected………. a few little extras is quite a lot to me – 3 more balls of yarn and an ergonomic crochet hook. Is that little? I think not!

So I now have 4 balls of yarn from the USA, none of which is available here in the UK, so is quite a treat for me. Mohair, alpaca, super bulky wool and some ‘fur’ yan, quite a lovely mix which I think Laura spent some time putting together. Thank you so much, Laura.

So far I have a few little gems of ideas of what I will make with it, some of the yarns remind me of Christmas……… so watch this space!

Laura is a lovely and talented designer, you can find her blog here:
http://happyclappycrochet.com/

Happy knitting and crocheting xx

Rainbows……….

On September 25, 2013September 25, 2013 By agrarianartisan5 Comments

I have been playing with colour a lot in recent months. It was all sparked off by Bohemian Rhapsody, that design just made me want to explore colour more. And I have been studiously sticking to my plan of making one block of Bohemian Rhapsody every 2 weeks. I have now completed 11 – only another 7 to go.

Inspired, I bought 2 packs of The Natural Dye Studio’s Dazzle HT in rainbow colours when I visited Wonderwool Wales. Most of one pack became a subtle colour exploration with the Wild Diamonds Wrap:

And I am now working on something with the remaining 6 colours which may take a while, so I won’t share that with you yet.

But my most recent colour work has now been revealed. It is a cowl made with a complete rainbow of The Natural Dye Studio’s Godiva HT, which is the most lusciously soft single merino yarn. You can find the yarn here: http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/godiva-ht-4-plyfingering-yarn-356-c.asp

What made this colour work most special was that the yarn was a present, totally unexpected and very welcome. I was feeling a little low and Amanda sensed I needed cheering up, so she sent me a pack in the post! I can’t tell you how wonderful a gift it was – 10 mini skeins of the complete rainbow, it came at just the right time and really raised my spirits. I can’t thank Amanda enough. So, of course, it had to be made into something beautiful. This is the result:

You can’t tell from the photo just how soft this yarn is. But you can tell it gives good stitch definition and it blocks well; my uneven knitting now looks quite passable!

It is now written as a pattern and can be found in my Ravelry, Craftsy and Etsy web stores.

All this colour work has really boosted my creativity, and yet another colour project is on my hook right now! So there will be a few more colourful reveals in the not too distant future.

Happy knitting and crocheting xxx

An Anniversary…..

On August 23, 2013August 27, 2013 By agrarianartisanLeave a comment

An Anniversary

In my last blog, I mentioned the special date of 27th August being the 1st anniversary of my Ravelry forum. I can now disclose the 2 designs made for that anniversary.

The Anniversary Sharf (knitting):

And the Simple Circles Scarf/Wrap (crochet):

If you are a member of Raverly, join my forum on there (Agrarian Artisan Designs), establish a project linked to one of the 2 designs above and tag it properly before 1st September 2013, I will gift the pattern to you via Ravelry….and then you can join in the fun, knitting or crocheting with other like minded folk 🙂

Happy knitting and crocheting xx

Curvy Star Hexagon

On July 2, 2013December 7, 2013 By agrarianartisan6 Comments

I talked about my hexagon project yesterday and I’ve been pondering ever since. Maybe you won’t understand my love of hexagons…or will you? So I thought I would share another small hexagon design with you just to see if it whet’s your appetite! Please do tell me what you think of it.

As I made it I was thinking of a star but, as so often happens when I get a hook in my hand, it took on a life of its own – and this little curvy star was born.

Do you like it? Subconsciously I must have thought of the blanket I want to make, which I want to be ‘open’ but snug, because I think it is perfect for what I want in that blanket and that’s what I will make with it. It is 3 rounds and really not too difficult to make if you can crochet in the round. Here’s the pattern:

This is written in English crochet terms and uses standard abbreviations.

st = stitch

ss = slip stitch

sp = space

dc = double crochet

tr = treble

htr = half treble

dtr = double treble.

I used a 5mm hook (US H/8) and some aran weight yarn, but you can use any yarn as long as you use a suitable hook.

Foundation – make 6 ch and join into a ring with a ss

Round 1 – 3 ch (counts as 1 tr), 1 tr, 1 ch, (2 tr, 1 ch) 5 times, join to 3^rd ch from start of round with a ss

Round 2 – ss into gap between first 2 tr from last round (if you are changing colour join your new colour here), into this gap crochet (3 ch (counts as 1 tr), 1 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr, [into next 1 ch-sp, crochet 1 dc, into the gap between next 2 tr from last round crochet (2 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr)] five times, into next 1 ch-sp, crochet 1 dc, join to 3^rd ch from start of round with a ss

Round 3 – ss into top of 3 ch from start of last round (if you are changing colour join your new colour here), [(1 htr, 1 tr, 2 dtr, 1, tr, 1 htr) in 1 ch-sp, ss into 2^nd tr along, ss into next tr along] five times, (1 htr, 1 tr, 2 dtr, 1, tr, 1 htr) all in 1 ch-sp, ss into 2^nd tr along, ss to first ss to complete the round. Break yarn and fasten off.

If you want to join the motifs together, join between the 2 dtr at the tip of each curve on the last round.

For those who like charts, here’s one for you (this uses standard symbols)But please note this is copyright – do not repost/pin this or you will be in breach of that copyright:

Now for the legal stuff – I designed this today, it’s all my own work and is copyright. Please feel free to make as many as you like, but not for commercial purposes, and please credit me with the design. Thank you!

I am human (yes, I am!) so I am perfectly capable of making mistakes! So if you spot any errors in the pattern please just tell me and I’ll correct it.

Happy knitting and crocheting

PS For those who are interested, I use Stitchworks software to chart.

The Hexagon Project 2013

On July 1, 2013July 4, 2013 By agrarianartisanLeave a comment

Hot news – I have just published Motif no 4 from the Hexagon Project 2013

Do you want to know more about it? Well here goes………

What is the hexagon project? A collection of 7 hexagon motif designs (afghan designs)published from April to October. On 1st April the first design was published, the other 6 are published at monthly intervals. So today design number 4 was published.

Why hexagons? I have a thing about hexagons, there is something more organic about them compared to squares and I love the way they sit together.

Where are the patterns? They are published on Ravelry.com So look under my designs there. Here’s a link http://www.ravelry.com/designers/agrarian-artisan

Are they free? Only to ‘hexagon club’ members. The first design was free for the month of April and people were invited to join the club to receive the next designs free.

How do you become a member? All it takes is a few simple steps.

1. Join my forum on Ravelry, Agrarian Artisan Designs. Here’s a link: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/agrarian-artisan-designs

2. Establish a project on Ravelry for your hexagons

3. Tag the project 2013hexagon

4. Link the project to one of the The Hexagon Project 2013 designs.

If you are a member on the day I publish each design, then you will receive that design.

Are they easy to make? The motifs are suitable for those fairly new to crochet who can crochet in the round, there are no complex stitches used.

Can I get help? Of course! There is a discussion group on my forum on Ravelry and everyone in the club shares progress and questions there. And of course you can always ask me!

There’ll be more on the project as I publish the next designs, meanwhile here’s some photos of the first 4 hexagons.

Happy knitting and crocheting

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