Yarndale 2015 - Thank you speech

This post is very, very long and reads a bit like a oscar winning speech, I have so many people to thank for making ,my first solo show a success.
I was very mental, hysterical and stressed, throughout the whole experience, but it was amazing and I loved every minute of it.
So much so I am already planning next year's show in my head, I made a lot of mistakes, but I now have a whole year to plan and get it right next time.

      

 So here goes.....

Firstly and most importantly I would like to thank...

1 - The whole Yarndale team for creating and putting on such an amazing show, for all their hard work, dedication and thoughtfulness.

2- Lucy - Attic24 For being the creative force behind the crochet element of Yarndale.
Lucy has helped create the only show that I know of with a crochet focus, she attracts crocheter's from all over the world, which means crochet designers like myself have the chance to showcase our work.
She also organises beautiful instillations, that decorate the show and the town of Skipton, made up with crochet donations from crocheters all over the world, this year it was flowers, that were sale in aid of Alzheimers Society charity.
I was told the flowers came from 23 different countries, the work that goes on behind the scenes must be immense.
I was lucky enough to have a couple of chats with Lucy and although I burbled verbal diarrhoea at her, she understood and kindly approved my idea's for my next year's show.

3 - Joy - The Knitting Goddess, who supported and enabled me to get to the show in the first place, without Joy I wouldn't of made the show at all.
Joy launched our joint Colour Wheel project, which hopefully will run for a long time, we have lots and lots of future plan's in the pipeline, I think she sold out of the very first sets of colour wheel mini skeins on the first day, which hopefully is a sign of good things to come.

4 - John and Juliet - John Arbon textiles (+ Frankie - Franks Knits & Emily - Viola Viola )
My very close friends and neighbours who became my temporary carers, who gave me some where to stay, ensured I ate properly and generally supported me through out the whole experience.

5 - I started off my Yarndale trip on Wednesday with an overnight visit to my very good friends Jeni - Fyberspates and Andy - Chester Wool
Jeni and I  did some serious brainstorming and came up with some very exciting plans to work together next year.

6 - Valerie - Agraian Artisan
My lovely, lovely friend, who helps me write all my patterns, I wouldn't be a designer without her, I went to visit her on the Thursday and we finally had the chance to chat in peace  and quiet.

7 - All my woolly friends that I only ever see at shows, I've missed seeing them this year, because I haven't been at any of the summer shows so it was lovely to catch up.
Firstly Jon & Roy - Easyknits and Linda and Andrea - Tall Yarns
Plus Jonathon & Sarah - Purlescence, Erica - Debonnaire, and so many more who will have to forgive me for not mentioning.
Plus my neighbours John & Claire - Natural Born Dyers & Marie Wallin who put up with my excess of blankets and hysteria.

8 - My fellow designer's - Janie Crow, Rachel Coopey, and Ann Kingstone, who also had to put up with my hysteria and answered my questions, thank you for your time and advice.

9 - Emma - The Little Grey Sheep, who became one of my new yarn enabler's, Emma gave me such an amazing collection of yarn to play with that I couldn't wait to use it, so immediately started designing on the stand.

And finally my amazing customers, who forgave the fact that I'd sold out of patterns by lunchtime on the first day, ran me out of 500 postcards and accepted me stickering them with my Ravelry shop address for the remainder of the show.
Especial "Thanks" go to Denise, who suffered my panic & my hysteria when I realised I hadn't taken my epilepsy & high blood pressure tablets on Sunday & for always being a loyal and supportive friend & customer.
And Gina who has been a loyal supporter who has been a loyal customer and friend from the very beginning of my NDS days

The end :-)

VAT promotion

Ever since the new digital VAT regulations came in at the beginning of the year all my UK customers have had to pay VAT on my patterns, normally they wouldn't be charged VAT as they live in the same country as me.
However because the platforms I sell on are based in the US, they have to charge VAT on all European sales.

I feel its very unfair on my UK customers, and have been trying to think of a way to make it a little bit fairer.
So I've done a little bit of research and I've discovered I can run a Etsy promotion, so I've set one up to run until then end of the month (Sept 2015)
When you buy one of my patterns on Etsy you will receive a coupon that gives you 20% off your next pattern.

Incidentally all of my customers will receive the coupon code, so if you live outside Europe and don't have to pay VAT you will still get the coupon, which means you will still get the 20% discount off subsequent patterns.

I'm a bit confused about how the Etsy coupons work, I think you will be able to use the coupon on all subsequent purchases.
So I'm going to be cheeky and ask if you could buy a pattern to test to see if  you will get subsequent discounts.
As a special incentive here is the coupon code, so you can take advantage of the discount on your first purchase - VAT2015
After your purchase you should receive a e-mail giving you the code, please can you let me know if you receive it :-)
If the code works I'll set up a new promotion which will last until the end of the year.

You can find my Etsy shop - HERE
And some of my patterns to tempt you......... :-)

    

      

The Knitting Goddess & Yarndale

This time next week I will be setting up my stand at Yarndale.
You would not believe the behind the scenes chaos and hoops I have had to jump through to get there.
Everything is beginning to fall in place and excitement is setting in and fingers crossed I will see you next weekend :-)))
Along with my family I have 2 people who have made it all possible.
The first is my lovely Valerie - Agrarian Artisan, she has always been my head cheerleader and has believed in me and talked me through numerous traumatic day's.
The second is Joy, the lovely and amazing Knitting Goddess, this blog post is about her :-)

I have known Joy for years and for almost all of them she has been one of my indie dyer competitors.
I remember first discovering her on eBay back in the day when I didn't realise competitors could be friends, but didn't actually meet her in person until 2009 when we both had stands at the disastrous wet first Ravelry day in Coventry.
We instantly became friends, because not only were we both indie dyers, but we also shared a slightly wicked sense of humour.
Since then when ever we have met at shows we have always done lots of laughing.

So fast forward 6 years to this spring when I closed NDS.
Joy kindly sent me some of her yarn to use in my last 2 book blanket's, as I wanted them to contain yarn from my indie dyer friends as a thank you for all their support and love over the years.
She sent me some Britsock, after playing with it for a while I realised it was the perfect replacement for some of my NDS yarns and so I asked if I could name her as one of my new yarn recommendations, to which she said yes :-)
Then I very cheekily asked if she could dye some colour wheels that I could use as examples for my book.
Joy took the colour wheel idea and ran with it, she was so keen to help that she spent a whole day dyeing mini skeins, I fairly certain she told me she'd dyed about 96 colours that day!!

Since then we have been discussing and planning on ways we could collaborate on a colour wheel project.
Yarndale will mark the beginning of our project.
Joy has been dyeing colour wheels and will have sets available to buy on her stand, they will be available in her on-line shop when she gets back from Yarndale.

And I have been editing and revamping some of my patterns for her to use for kits and to sell at Yarndale.
In fact she was so keen that she made her own version of my Iris scarf design, which she will have on her stand at the show.
She will also have my Rita blanket, I have spent the last week re-writing the pattern, who knows how she is going to fit it in, you will need to go and see her to find out :-)
Her stand number is 158

       

Incidentally you can find the new Rita pattern HERE in my Ravelry shop.

We have lots more plans for the colour wheel project later on in the year, including (fingers crossed) a set of colour wheel cushions and a blanket design using the motifs I designed for the Love Crochet CAL.
Plus I have a couple more of her yarns I want to use as yarn replacements, so far I have only swatched them, but am hoping that her 4 ply Silk and Merino will be a good substitute for a couple of scarf/garment patterns and her 4 ply British wool & Alpaca will work as a back up to Britsock.

Winter Blanket Warmer - Buy one get one free.

Good morning from a glorious sunny Exmoor

Even though its September already it feel like the summer has just started, stupid summer, its 3 months late!!

Anyway before the sun started shining I thought we all needed something to cheer us up due to the manky summer weather and I have been planning a pattern promotion for a couple of weeks.
I thought it would be nice to concentrate on my blankets because the autumn and winter are the perfect blanket making time, even if you don't finish the blanket you have will have winter wip to work on that will keep your knees warm while its cold outside.

The promotion is a very simple "Buy one, get one free"
So from now until the end of September 2015 all you have to do is buy one of my blanket patterns, and I will send you any pattern of your choice for free.
For each pattern you buy I will send you a second free one, so if you buy 2 you get 2 free patterns and so on....


You might like a second blanket pattern.

Or you might like to make one of my scarf designs

Or how about snuggly Anna, which is the perfect winter cardi/coat, or elegant Dulcie

 
Just reply to me via your order confirmation or Paypal receipt telling me which pattern you would like.
You can buy your pattern from either my RAVELRY SHOP
Or my - ETSY SHOP

If you would like to make you blanket as a kind of CAL, please join my Facebook page, where I will be available for encouragement and to answer and questions and will be able to help with any problems.

Homemade - Do you? Don't you?

Over the weekend I had a very interesting comment on one of my posts on my private Facebook account.

My post was about a conversation I had had with a lady I met in the village, which went like this.....

Q - what do you do?
A - I'm a free lance designer
Q - what do you design?
A - crochet blankets
Q - do you sell the blankets?
A - no, I sell the patterns
Q - what you mean you actually design the blankets yourself!!
A - (in my head) - REALLY!!!!! 😖

There were a few more comments and then I added....

I've also had customers at shows asking "did you make that?" and when I say yes, they're really shocked and surprised
I'm not sure who they thought had actually made it, maybe I should ask next time....

My friend and neighbour Caroline (who runs a lovely B & B in Lynton, if you are coming to visit Lynton make sure to check her out at Lee House :-) commented that it might have something to do with people being removed from creating due to being able to buy everything they need cheaply.
I realise it doesn't apply to knitters and crocheters, but maybe it does, hence this post/comment/question.

I've always assumed everyone made home-made things, I guess due to the fact its something I grew up with and have done my whole life.
My mother and aunt have/had always made all their clothes, as a child I can remember shop bought clothes being a luxury and being allowed to buy a pair of trousers from an actual shop as a birthday treat was something really exciting.
My granny knitted and crocheted and made everything including carpets for her house, my granddad was an upholsterer, had an attic room full of bolts of fabric and owned about 5 or 6 sewing machines, he also had an allotment.
My grandparents brought up three children during the war years and so homemade was part of life.
My dad built several of his own boats, including his first yacht.
There was home grown fruit and veg, birthday cakes, jam and chutney and home made wine etc etc etc
My parents weren't destitute, its just the way it was and it meant they could take me on camping trips around Europe every year and spend my summers sailing.

I've always assumed everyone of my age had a home made life, Caroline's comment made me step back and reassess my assumption and to think about the people who didn't and don't.
I'm beginning to understand that being able to do homemade is something really special now and this is the reason behind all the really popular sewing, cake making, gardening, crafty tv programmes, I've always struggled to understand why they are so popular, surely everyone knows how to make a dress, grow new potato's and bake a cake?
I had several childhood friends whose mothers didn't own sewing machines or knit/crochet or make their own jam and I guess these are the people whose children a generation later have no idea how to do home made, but are eager to learn and make for their own children.

So just I'm just wondering.......... did you? do you do home made?
Or have you had to learn the skills as an adult because there was no one to teach you as a child?

Yarndale 2015 & panic

Good morning world from a gloomy damp Exmoor.

I feel really sorry for the tourists, especially the campers, but they did have sun for a few hours yesterday afternoon so its not all bad :-)

YARNDALE 2015 is a month away.

Thanks to Attic 24, (Lucy is one of the original organisers and attracts crocheters from all over the globe) Yarndale has become the only UK yarn show that focuses on crochet.
There will be all the normal suspects :-) - indie dyers, spinners, knitting designers, yarn brands, shops etc etc, but there wll also be a lot of crochet designers and crochet related stands.

It will be a momentous show for me as its going to my first show as a full time designer, not only is it my first show as a designer, but its also the first show that I will be flying solo and I'm beginning to panic.
I have no idea what to expect, what am I going to sell? is anyone going to know who I am? will anybody come and see me? will I be busy? or will I spend the whole show sitting in a corner quietly crocheting? and will the Beast behave and manage to get me to Yorkshire without any problems in the first place?
I really don't know the answer to any of these questions.

I've done yarn shows with NDS for about 10 years, but my designs have always just been pattern support for the yarn, over the years the NDS stand had developed into a very professional looking stand.
Its going to be difficult for me to produce a comparable crochet stand.
For one thing I won't be able to take all the grids as they are too long for the Beast and I don't want to hire a trailer, even though the Beast is built for towing the last 2 times I hired a trailer it had a big tantrum and broke down.
I might manage to persuade John Arbon to squeeze a couple of them into his van, but only enough to hang 2 or 3 blankets.

Secondly I don't have much of a product to sell.
So far I have a box of crochet hooks and a box of "Madder Triangles" that I discovered hidden away in the cellar, I thought the book had sold out, but it turns out that there are still a few left.
I will also have some Knit by Numbers DK, which is yarn support for Kissing Kaffe and Harlequin.
And I'm planning on raiding my stash for what's left of my NDS yarn as I can't really use it in my designs any more due to it being discontinued.

The only thing I am certain about is which blankets to take......

 Harelquin, Kissing Kaffe and Kaleidoscope for the 3 side walls.

Cornucopia for the table 

& maybe one or two blankets from "Madder Triangles" to cover up the rest of the table.

I need to stop dithering and panicking and just get on with it before I run out of time :-)
Wish me luck!

Harlequin

My second blog post is about Harlequin.
Which is the blanket I decided to make to see how quickly I could make a blanket.
The blanket took me 3 weeks to make from a pile of skeins to published pattern ...phew...
I have already blogged about the first week of Harlequin, so here are week's 2 and 3.

Week 2
I spent the whole week crocheting like a mad woman and being good and sewing in my ends as I went :-)
I finished making the blanket on Thursday (or it may have been Wednesday)

    

    

And week 3
I wrote the pattern, took the photo's and published the pattern yesterday :-)
You can find it on Ravelry HERE
And on Etsy HERE

Summer CAL - Part 2 & 3

Oooops - I was trying to blog at the beginning of each week, but I have slipped a bit.
So there will be 2 blog posts this morning to explain why I have been a bad blogger.

This one is about the Love Crochet Summer CAL

Since the last time I blogged the Summer CAL took over the whole of my life.
I was completely obsessed, spending all my waking time in the CAL Facebook group encouraging and answering questions and as there are nearly 2000 ladies crocheting along it meant an awful lot of questions and encouraging, plus all the e-mails and private messages.
I made the decision to step away, as I have a book to write and other patterns to publish.
So I un-joined the group, but am still trying to check in every day to see how every one is doing and "like" all your beautiful projects.
I'm quite sad about leaving the CAL group as I have always been involved with my customers and like to be able to help in anyway that I can.
And even sadder at the fact that I didn't even say goodbye, but saying good bye would of generated far too many comments and answers that I would struggle to keep up with.
I hope the nearly 2000 ladies will forgive me :-)

Incidentally one of the questions I have noticed while lurking is coming up time and time again, it is "What colour border should be used to join the squares together?"
The answer is there isn't one, the squares should be joined to each other, so the colours flow.
However if you have already started joining with a colour please don't worry, its your blanket and is adding a border makes you happy then its perfectly fine :-)

Since I last blogged 4 more square patterns have been published on the Love Crochet Blog
And here they are.....

 Violet

 Lilac

 Barbie

Fuschia

Happy Crocheting

love Amanda

How to read my patterns

This blog post is especially for some of the ladies on the Love Crochet CAL Facebook Group
I have chatted to many ladies at wool shows over the years, many have said they can't follow crochet patterns, so this post is also for them.
Although hopefully it will be of some use to everyone :-)

I've just started to use a very specific format for my patterns, I write them long hand, instead of abbreviating them into long lines of symbols and numbers, so they can seem a bit long winded and basic for the experienced crocheters who have been using patterns all their crochet lifes.
The reason I write them long hand is because sadly crochet has always been thought of as something you do with your left over scraps of yarn from knitting projects and that granny squares are the only motif out there.
However things are changing, there are some fabulous crochet designers and so more and more new crocheters are learning the basics from YouTube and crochet workshops are popping up in shops all over the place.
This has lead to a huge number of newbies, many of whom struggle to read the traditionally written patterns. I want to encourage them to have the confidence to explore the world of crochet.

My patterns are written as logical as I can make them, so here is my explanation.
I am using the Sky motif from the Love Crochet Summer CAL as an example, you can find the pattern HERE
I normally start of with a photo of a finished motif, so you can see what your finished motif should look like.
I used to include step by step photo's of each round and am in 2 minds as to whether I need to start including the photos again, if you would like to see me using them again, please let me know :-)

 
Then I add a chart of the motif pattern, which can be a bit scary, but the chart is just a drawing of the motif. Each stitch has its own symbol and I always include a key, plus the American translation for crocheters who are used to reading American term patterns.
I normally use the colours of the finished motif, which should make it easy to compare it with the photo.

Then comes the written pattern.
I write the pattern for one side of each round, always starting in the corner and working across to the next corner.
So for a square you need to crochet the pattern four times, a hexagon six times and a triangle three times, until you reach the beginning corner.
Each round starts with set of chain stitches, which are the equivalent height of the stitch it is replacing.
For example an htr (hdc) stitch is 2 chain, the 2 chain is only used for the first side of the motif, the remaining sides first stitches are all crocheted with the actual stitch.
I always crochet into the gaps between the stitches, rather than the stitches themselves, I've always done it as it is the way I was taught to crochet.
 
Below is the Sky motif chart with round 4 coloured blue, I have shaded the starting side of the pattern so you can see what the written instruction refer to.
And below the chart it is the written instructions for round 4, this should help you understand how the pattern works

Round 4

Join into 2 ch corner space from round 3, 

*2 ch (counts as 1 htr), 1 htr, 3 ch, miss 3 gaps between sts

In next gap - 1 htr,

in next gap - 1 tr

In next gap - 1 htr, 2 ch, miss 1 space

in next 2 ch space, 1 dc, 1 ch, 1 dc, 2 ch, miss 1 space

In next gap - 1 htr,

in next gap - 1 tr

In next gap - 1 htr, 3 ch,  miss 3 spaces

in next 2 ch corner space - 2 htr, 2 ch*

Repeat * to * 3 more times.

Join to the top of the starting 2 ch with a sl st. 

Break yarn and fasten off.

Incidentally I've edited the pattern slightly from the original to change some of the "spaces" to read "gaps", as I'm still developing the format.

Since this pattern was written I have decided to use the word gap for the space between 2 stitches and the word space for spaces made with chain stitches.

And finally each of my patterns has a layout chart, some have key's to help you understand which motif should go where.

However the Love Crochet Summer CAL charts are actual photographs of the motifs, which should be easily recognisable.

Below is the small version of Layout 1

I hope this blog post helps those who are struggling and explains the format to those who are used to the traditional format.

Love Crochet Summer CAL charts

Second blog post of today :-)

This post is especially for all the lovely ladies who are taking part in the Love Crochet Summer CAL
(Facebook group - HERE)
You can find the yarn packs HERE, but you will need to hurry before they sell out - again.....:-)

There has been much confusion and discussing about the 3 layout's especially layout 1, so I thought I'd post the layout charts here, so you can choose one and be ready and waiting for more information when the first motif pattern is published tomorrow on Love Crochet's blog.

Layout 1 - small, it takes 1 pack of yarn 

(Approx 30 x 30 inches)

Layout 1 - medium, the original layout 2 which takes 2 packs of yarn 

(Approx 45 x 45 inches)

Layout 1 - the biggest, which also takes 2 packs of yarn

 (Approx 55 x 55 inches)

 

Layout 2 - 1 pack of yarn 

(Approx 40 x 40 inches)

 

Layout 3 - 1 pack of yarn 

(Approx 40 x 45 inches)

Harlequin wip

I will be selling John Arbon Textiles "Knit by Numbers DK" on my stand at Yarndale and if I don't have a blanket that uses KBN then its slightly pointless having the yarn.
The blanket is called Harlequin, because of the shape of the motif, also because anyone who knows John will know that he has a few Harlequin type similarities.

Yarndale is only about 9 weeks away, so my blanket needs to be made super quick and I have decided to document its progress and making.
So this is last week's progress .......

Day 1 - Wednesday 29th of July  
I went to see the lovely Juliet and stole 12 skeins of her and John's Knit by Numbers.

    

Wednesday afternoon and night - I wound 2 balls and crocheted 110 round 1's.

Day 2 - Thursday 30th July 
I wound another 2 balls and organised the round 1's into colours and crocheted all 110 round 2's

Day 3 - Friday 31st of July  
I wound another 5 balls and organised the round 2's into colours and crocheted 55 round 3 & 4's

      

Day 4 and 5 - Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd of August

I didn't really do much at all, because I actually allowed myself to enjoy the weekend.
On Saturday morning we went to Lynton farmers market at the town hall, then in the evening we went to watch the raft race at Lynmouth and spent Saturday night dancing in the moonlight till midnight in the wet grass at the Beggars Roost Inn, behaving like 50 year old teenagers with our friends.
Yesterday morning I walked up Hollerday Hill with Juliet and spent the afternoon with Phil reading our books in the beautiful sunny beer garden at Hunters Inn.

But I did manage to wind the last 3 balls and crochet another 32 round 3 & 4's.

So now onto week 2, lets see where I am before next weekend, as we will be going to a wedding on the edge of the moor and do lots more behaving like 50 year old teenagers, I don't envisage much crochet happening :-)