Kaleidoscope Crochet Club

I thought I would write a blog post about my new crochet club for next year (2014)
I mentioned it in yesterday's NDS mailing list mail, but I know not everyone is on the mailing list.

I've been thinking about running a blanket club for over a year, but due to publishing books and dyeing wool I haven't had much brain space to work on a design.
But since publishing Madder Triangles a couple of weeks ago I've been thinking and playing with a design for a blanket club for next year.

Its a secret design, you won't see it until its finished, which will be December 2014, so you have a long time to wait. Members will see it layer by layer, as new layers will be built each month.

I can show you a couple of early sketches that ended up in the discard pile long ago.

The design has come a very long way since then, these 2 designs look quite sane, the finished design is totally mental :-) Here is a tiny sliver of the actual design, as you can see there are spots and a lot of colours.

Here's a little bit of info to tempt you with, which you can find on the site 

"What is a Kaleidoscope? Described by the Ancient Greeks as the 'observation of beautiful forms' the kaleidoscope is a cylinder of mirrors, with colourful loose objects in it, that reflect in the mirrors creating an astounding spectrum of colour in a symmetrical form.  

So what is the Kaleidoscope Blanket Club about? This is a club which will run for the whole of 2014, starting in the January and finishing in the December. 
At the end of the year you will have a spectacular and unique blanket, with a design based on a pattern created by a kaleidoscope, measuring approximately 60" (150cm) square consisting of 666 motifs. 
The design will grow from the centre out in the same manner that a kaleidoscope pattern does, utilising one simple triangle motif."

And you can find the rest of the information page HERE 

And HERE are all the sign up options.

I'm hopeing to get members to post in my Ravelry group DESIRABLE CROCHET MOTIFS, so they can share experiences and wip's.

Madder Triangles is Finally Published!

This a long photo heavy post and if you want to find out where to buy the book you will need to make it all the way to the bottom of this post :-)

Drum roll please.......

Madder Triangles was published on Monday night, so far the reception has been amazing.
The plan was to publish the PDf and use the funds to pay for the printed version and we are already half way to our target number of 300 copies. if it keeps going like this we will be able to print lots more.

Madder Triangles is unlike any other crochet book, rather than containing lots of crochet stitches and complicated patterns it focuses on colour and surface design.
I have designed a really simple triangle crochet motif, because I wanted beginners to be able to use the book.

If you can make a grenny square you should be able to make my triangle without too much trouble.
4 of the designs use this motif and there are 4 variations of the motif that make the other 4 designs.
The variations are simply taking a few stitches away for the main triangle.

The book is written in 2 sections, the first half contains all the info needed to use the book and the motif patterns.
The second section contains the designs, each design has its own information as to what you will need, yarn, hook etc etc And colour photo's and "crochet by numbers" charts and key's.

So onto the designs, these are some of my favourite photo's

KALEIDASCOPE

Lecchi Blanket 

Plankton Scarf  

RIPPLE 

The Rising Sun 

Isabella Scarf 

SPIRAL

Spyro Blanket 

Firefly Wrap 

WINGS

Icarus Shawl 

Serefina Shawl 

You can buy it on the NDS website.

Either as a PDF

or Pre-order for the print copy

I will be adding all 8 of the single patterns in time for tomorrow nights update.

Or you can buy it as a PDF on Ravelry

Some of the patterns are available as singles, I will be adding the rest today.

Spyro Crochet Blanket

We are off to Blacklands in a couple of hours to do the second photoshoot.
At the moment the sun is shining, but its high tide, so we have to wait a couple of hours until the tide has gone down a bit and the rocks are exposed.
I'm really hoping it looks like this, with a bit more sea and less rocks.

Spyro is the second blanket from my new book, it was named after a character in a computer game that my children played during their childhood of the same name.
Spyro was a small blue dragon who had to run around a very colourful kingdom collecting gems.
I remember watching Spyro run around in circles a lot. 
I've blogged about it several times and twittered my progress day by day in the very early stages..
This is how it started.

I wanted to take it to the Handerbeit trade show in Germany in March, so I raced time to get it to the stage below.

And here it is finished.

I've just added the pattern to Ravelry HERE

And I've added the kit to the site HERE

Lecchi done

My Madder Triangles book is so close to being finished.
I just have a few more photo's to take and it will be ready to be publish.

The photo below won't be in the book, but I'm thinking about developing the idea and doing something similar for the cover

If you want to see more photo's you can find them in my NDS Facebook group - I've been posting them all week.

Its been a long hard process putting this book together, but for once in my life I have loved writing crochet patterns.
Thats because this is a crochet book with a difference, its about design and colour rather than crochet techniques and as you may have gathered by now my whole life is about colour and I've spent a very long time on Photoshop colouring in triangles :-)

I'm not going to do a press release blog post yet, as its not quite finished and I want you to be able to have the chance to buy it, rather than telling you how fab it is then making you wait.

BUT I have published my Lecchi crochet blanket as a single PDF on Ravelry, the pattern has already been published in Simply Crochet, so I feel I won't be giving too much away.

The new Lecchi pattern is completely re-written in what I hope to be a very user friendly format, its crochet by number's :-)
It also has some lovely new photo's, taken at Blacklands, a beach just outside Lynmouth and a short walk for my house.

You can find the new updated Lecchi pattern on Ravelry - HERE
And we have a Lecchi Kit in the website shop - HERE