As summer clutches its hand to its forehead (a touch melodramatically, in my opinion) and breathes its last, it must be time for the annual phenomenon that is the…

A quick overview, in case you’re new around here. For roughly a fortnight each year, the Stylecraft Blogtour Tour Bus trundles its way across the country – nay, the world – stopping for a day at the home of each of the Stylecraft Blogstars. Each of us produces a knitting and/or crochet pattern for the occasion, which we offer free for at least the duration of the tour. The bus is packed with yarn because there’s a giveaway every single day of the tour, allowing you the chance to win all the yarn to make that day’s pattern. Am I making sense?

I know it’s early, but… Wait! What’s that noise? Oh my goodness, it’s the tour bus, here already! Wa-hey!

Inside, you’ll find all the beautiful designs from the tour so far. There’s been Helen’s waistcoat, Anne and Michelle’s stacking hexagon baskets, Sandra’s baby blanket, Lucia’s Christmas cushion, Polly Plum’s wall hanging, Helen’s infinity scarf and cowl, and Emma’s toy bear and bag.

All of these lovelies use a brand new yarn from Stylecraft, namely Bellisima, (grown-up sibling of the recently-released Bambino range of baby yarns). Like Bambino, Bellisima is a DK-weight acrylic yarn with a high twist that gives excellent stitch definition. It’s also extremely soft. I couldn’t decide whether to knit or to crochet, let alone what to design. And then inspiration struck, because I really needed a new peg bag. As for the knitting versus crochet, well let’s have both! Here’s the crocheted version:-

And here’s the knitted version:-

I made them reasonably large, because is it just me or do most manufacturers of peg-holders assume that both your family and your laundry pile is tiny? Both patterns will be free for at least the duration of the blog tour, after which I’ll take a long hard look at my bank balance and figure out whether I need to charge for them.

The crochet pattern is here.

The knitting pattern is here.

So, shall we have a yarny giveaway?

For 24 hours only, you could win an ‘Autumn Leaves’ pack of Bellisima, containing all five yarn shades in the picture below. This is enough yarn to make the knitted and the crocheted peg bags, should you so desire.

If you’d like to enter the giveaway, you can do so by clicking…

…HERE!

The contest will be open from 10.00 (GMT) on 6th October until 10.00 (GMT) on 7th October, after which the winner will be selected at random, and notified about their prize.

Meanwhile, the Blogtour bus is getting ready to trundle off to the home of Catherine. I can’t wait to see what she’s designed! And there’ll be another giveaway tomorrow, on her blog.

 

Happy yarnery, people.

Phil x