Have you been following this year’s Stylecraft Blog Tour? Yesterday, designer/author Sue Pinner showed us her marvellous Spinning Top crochet blanket pattern. Six new shades have been added to the aran and the chunky Stylecraft Special acrylic ranges, and the fine fibrous folk at Stylecraft have mixed these up with some of the existing shades to make a couple of different ten-ball colour packs that they'll be selling for a while. Over the summer, they kindly gave a few of us yarniacs a pack to Continue Reading
The Mandala Picture: A Free Knitting Pattern
Another free pattern? Really? Well, yes. Aeons ago, I designed and knitted this large piece of craziness:- I wanted to play with the idea of the mandala, subvert the medium a wee bit, so I knitted a picture of a mandala. The idea of writing up this monster as a pattern was then filed away in Volume XII of the Great To-Do List in the bottom left corner of my brain**, between ‘learn to speak Finnish’ and ‘organize my sock drawer’. But then a nudging comment on a recent post prompted me to Continue Reading
Free Colourful Cowl Pattern!
OK, would you like the free pattern for this fairisle cowl that I designed? You would? Well there's a link to the pattern near the bottom of this post. Enjoy! It's a fairly generous one size, that would fit an adult or teen. The version in the pictures was made using all 16 shades of Stylecraft Batik, but of course you could use fewer colours, or indeed a different DK/light-worsted yarn entirely. The cowl is worked in the round, so although you'll have a fair few ends to weave in, there's Continue Reading
The Moo-Cowl Pattern. AKA Simon The Cowl.
Before we knuckle down to the knitting, allow me to remind you that the absurdly overgenerous Wool And The Gang (WATG) giveaway touted in my previous post is still very much w-i-d-e open for business. Can I just say how much I've loved reading your warm, witty, woolly comments on that thread? Do pop over and enter (but only if you fancy a stonk-load of soft, fluffsome, chunky, Peruvian, pure wool in shades of your choice – no pressure). Oh and whilst you’re entering, I’d be most eternally Continue Reading
You Know That Thing I Said? It Might Not QUITE Be True…
The Stylecraft Blog Tour seems to have got off to a decent start, with plenty of colourful patterns and daily chances to win a whole hairy heap of yarn. For those who asked a few posts ago, may I just say YES, the competition is indeed open worldwide. Hurrah! Today, it's the turn of Crafternoon Treats. Tomorrow (Tuesday) it's the turn of this very blog, so there'll be another free pattern and another chance to win a limited edition pack of yarn right here. So set your alarm clock for Continue Reading
Knitted Mandala Picture… Finished!
(YES, THE SIGNED ARNE AND CARLOS GIVEAWAY IS COMING, NEXT POST!) Right now, my grin would make even the Cheshire cat look surly. I've finished the ****ing, ********ing, ******************************ing knitted mandala picture! Wa-hey! You know what? I gave up on the gold embroidery, because although it was lovely and glittery close-up, it just looked messy when viewed from across the room. So I unpicked it. But that meant that I'd, er, finished the mandala. At last. It's come a long Continue Reading