Pattern of the week - Week 3

Week 3's pattern is my Myrtle Crochet Scarf

Myrtle is another one of my circle designs, Myrtle is named after the Myrtleberries which grow on the moor and are locally known as Whortleberries, but they are also sometimes called blueberries or bilberries (there's a awful lot of berries in this sentence :-)
Its all a bit confusing as to which berry is which, but I can tell you that myrtleberry/whortleberry jam is delicious :-)

My Myrtle is in wild berry colours made with lots of different 4 ply yarns, so it is a perfect stash buster/scrap project.

The code is Myrtleweek3 and you can find the pattern HERE in my Ravelry store

Incidentally if you fancy a trip to Exmoor to search for the berries, you can stay at Myrtleberry Lodge in the East Lyn gorge. The setting is amazing on the banks of the river and only a short walk from the famous Watersmeet.
You can find out all the information and photo's HERE

Stargazer

Tah Dah!!!!!

I've published my Stargazer crochet blanket pattern :-)
If you follow me on Instagram or my FB page you will have been able to watch its progress from the very first few motifs in November to the finished blanket last week.

     

Stargazer is the follow on sister blanket to Zodiac, I started designing Zodiac about 18 months ago

Zodiac was designed for the 2015 NDS crochet blanket club.
The design took nearly 6 months to work out, as not only did I have to get the stars in roughly the right layout and position I also was restricted to exact quantities of yarn.
The club blanket the previous year (2014) was Kaleidoscope, I allowed myself full artist license and used whatever colour I felt like in whatever quantity, but it became a major headache dyeing and re-winding the yarn.
Poor Phil spent weeks rewinding 20 or 30 or 50 gm skeins for Kaleidoscope, so to save him another winding nightmare it was essential I designed Zodiac so it used full 100 gm skeins of colours in the NDS range.
As you can imagine the Zodiac maths was a nightmare.
Although I'm really happy with the finished Zodiac as I made it I became more and more frustrated that I couldn't tweak the colours and design  as I crocheted.
So I promised myself that when I had finished the book and Zodiac club I would allow myself to remake the blanket allowing myself the freedom to do what I wanted.

The result is Stargazer

The star theme and constellation layout for both blankets is inspired by the fact that Exmoor is one of the first International Dark Sky Reserves.

I have recently realised that a lot of my blankets have inspired by stars, amongst others Twinkle, twinkle and Supernova.

    

So I've decided to work on an Exmoor Stars book to be self published sometime this year or maybe next. 

All the projects will be based on stars and the night sky that can be seen on the moor.

Stargazer is the first and I've already stared work on the second Sagittarius A.

Sagittarius A already has its own Instagram hash tag so if you want to follow its progress you can find it HERE

I'll leave you with a couple more Stargazer photo's.

If you want to buy it you can find Stargazer HERE on Ravelry, incidentally if you add the Zodiac to your basket you will receive it for free as a special introductory offer that lasts from now until the end of January.

Rita - Pattern of the week & pattern shops

Good morning from a cold, windy, grey Exmoor.

I've just set up my £2 pattern of the week to help brighten your day.
This week its Rita.
I've decided to use a code so it becomes a special treat for all my followers, friends and fans, as you can see from the photo below Rita's code is Ritaweek2.
Just go to my Ravelry store, add Rita to your basket, add the code at checkout and Rita will be yours for £2.
http://www.ravelry.com/designers/amanda-perkins

   

I've been doing a bit of pattern shop analysis this week and have noticed some very interesting trends,
Etsy sales are down by quite a big percentage, Ravelry sales are up and so are Love Knitting, so sales are actually up rather than down :-)
I've closed my Craftsy pattern shop as sales have dropped and Craftsy don't deal with the Vat.
But would like more information before I decide what to do with Etsy.

So I'd really love to hear from you as to where you buy your crochet/knitting patterns and why.
Please comment on this post, hopefully it will give me a little more insight

love Amanda

2016 Pattern of the week

One of the first things on my "To do" list is to edit my entire back catalogue of patterns.
I need to edit out all the references to NDS and edit in new yarn recommendations, a lot of the patterns also need updating.
I have 69 individual patterns so its going to take a very long time.......

As I want to celebrate 2016 as much as possible I have decided to run a "Pattern of the week" promotion for the whole of 2016.
Each week one of my patterns will be reduced to £2 in my Ravelry store.
I'm planning on featuring the latest updated patterns one by one as I finish them.
If you have already bought one of my patterns via Ravelry you will be sent the new updated version automatically when its been published.
You don't have to do anything to get the discount except add the pattern to your shopping cart and press checkout :-)

This week's pattern is Lily, which is the blanket I designed in honour of my mother a couple of years after her death.
I edited the pattern just before Christmas, so Ravelry users should have already been sent the updated pattern.
Lily's £2 promotion will run until midnight on Monday the 12th of January 2016.
You can find Lily in my Ravelry store -  HERE

Happy 2016 & good riddance to 2015

Good morning 2016, I'm so glad you are here, I've been waiting for you for so long and stupidly happy that the 2015 adventure is over at last....

2015 was a difficult roller-coaster year.
It started with our announcement that we were closing NDS.
We were so busy, Daisy and I spent 4 months struggling to keep up with demand for the last NDS skeins from retail and wholesale customers.
Both of us were emotionally and physically drained and didn't have the time to appreciate why and what we were doing.
The last dye bath and update were heartbreaking. I loved my business and had grown it from a a couple of skeins on ebay to 30 kg last update.
Although you can't see it in this photo I was crying so much I could hardly see what I was doing.

It had looked after me and my family in times of need and defined me as a person for so long it was difficult to imagine life without it.
I felt like I was discarding a precious friend and still haven't really had the time to comprehend what I have done.
And then it was all over, we'd cleaned the last dye stain, packed the last package, painted the floor, handed the keys back and walked away.

I started my new life as a designer with no idea what to do next, I knew I had to finish the book, but that was all.
I stumbled about doing anything that came my way, I felt naked without NDS behind me and thought no one would know who I was, so that I would need to start building my career from scratch.
My first major project was the Love Crochet Summer CAL, which was a massive learning curve, I really enjoyed the designing bit, and there seem to be lots of lovely Summer CAL blankets appearing, so even though there were a few Facebook hiccups it seems that most of the lovely CAL members enjoyed making the blanket.

Getting to Yarndale became a massive mountain I didn't think I could overcome.
Without NDS I struggled to find the funds to print patterns and buy the fuel to get there.
But The Knitting Goddess came to my rescue, she was my knight in shining armour and I am eternally grateful.
I still didn't have enough patterns and had sold out by lunchtime of the first day, so next time I will make sure I take enough for everyone.

And then 3 weeks ago I finished the book!
I woke up the next morning smiling, feeling proud I had actually finished and a little bit sad it was all over.
I've taken 2 whole weeks off work over Christmas and even though 2015 had one parting shot to throw at me in the shape of flu I'm ready to tackle the world!

Years ending in 6 have always been good to us.
In 1986 we got married, bought our first house, had our first baby.
In 1996 Phil had a massive promotion we moved back to the country, although I did develop epilepsy, but in hindsight it was no where near as bad as it could of been.
In 2006 NDS moved to its own premises and started to grow into a proper business, we also had the best holiday I can remember, we drove the Zoom through Europe over the Alps on a adventure, ending up on our 20th wedding anniversary sitting in a posh harbour side cafe in St Tropez eating Soupe de Poisson and drinking Cote de Provence.

So 2016 is going to be a good year
I've already got lots of very exciting projects and collaborations in the pipeline.
In February I'll be exhibiting my blankets in a gallery setting at Unravel, which is one of my big ambitions.
Some time in the early spring Landscape magazine are running a feature about me and my blankets.
And the book will be launched at Yarndale in September.
I'm also planning on building a new website and selling some of my blankets, I'm not sure if they will sell as they will be expensive, but you never know..... :-)
We are also thinking about having a party to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, we didn't celebrate our 25th due to NDS and other commitments, so we are owed a celebration, 30 years is an achievement we are very proud of.

And who knows what else, but I'm really excited to find out.......

YAY!!! YAY!!! - The final end

YAY!!!! YAY!!!!!

I've finally finished writing my book.
Its taken me 27 months in total and I have been through an emotional hell and back again just to get it finished by the deadline.
I closed NDS, I worked 7 day's a week for the past 6 months and spent the whole of the last 2 hot sunny summer's under a blanket on my sofa sewing in ends.
You would not believe how happy and relieved I am, I wrote the final words yesterday and haven't stopped happy dancing yet :-)
I'm really proud of what I have achieved and its now in the hands of my publishers to turn it into something amazing and beautiful :-)
Its called "Rainbow Crocheted Blankets" and will hopefully be launched at the Yarndale show next September.

I want you to celebrate with me so I have just started my second Ravelry special pattern discount code.
Its a "Buy one get one free offer" Just add 2 of my crochet patterns to your Ravelry shopping cart, add the code and you will get one for free :-)
The offer runs from now until Christmas Day and the code is.... Thefinalend
You can find my Ravelry pattern store HERE

And look I've even had the time to make lots of pretty promotional photo's to add to Instagram :-)
(And linked all the photo's to their individual pattern pages in the store)

 

Love Amanda - off to do some more happy dancing :-)

Celebration discount & Stargazer wip

Good morning from a gloomy grey Exmoor

Which might not sound like a good morning, but yesterday I finished writing all the crochet patterns for my book - YAY!!
Two years work is nearly finished, just the writing to do, its all in my head and lots and lots of notes, so all being well I will finish the whole book by my deadline next week :-)
As a celebration, plus its Christmas I've decided to run a couple of discounts for the patterns in my Ravelry shop, the first one is live now and the second will start next week.

The first one is a special offer discount code for my RAVELRY SHOP for all four of my self published patterns that I have published during 2015.
You will be able to buy them all together at the special price of £10 (normal price £14.50).
You will need to put all four patterns in your shopping cart and use the following code at the checkout
2015collection

The patterns are as follows....

 Cornucopia Crochet Blanket

Harlequin Crochet Blanket

Zodiac Crochet Blanket

Belladonna Crochet Scarf

And while I'm here I thought I'd share my latest wip photo's.
I like to document my wip's, as it helps me remember when and how I made them, it also helps safeguard against copying, (I know that sounds a bit extreme, but sadly it happens far too often)

So here is Stargazer - the follow up to my Zodiac blanket, there will be lots more about it when I have finished and published the pattern.

I started in November just after Zodiac was published.

I had a false start, sadly the beautiful dark sea green silk was too speckled and made the blanket look dirty, so I frogged the whole thing just after the second photo and started all over again.

The photo's above are my progress over the past few weeks.

And this is what it looks like this morning, I have finished the constellations and about to start work on the border :-)

Have a lovely weekend
Happy crocheting
love Amanda

Belladonna Crochet Scarf

Tah Dah......
Finally a blog post, I'm getting very close to finishing writing my book and so normal service will be resumed in the very near future :-)

In the meantime here is my promised post about my new Belladonna Scarf, made and designed for The LITTLE GREY SHEEP

The Little Grey Sheep is based on Well Manor Farm in Hampshire, their aim is to conserve the countryside by farming as traditionally as possible.
Their flock of Gotland and Shetland sheep produce a stunning range of wool yarns, which are spun in Devon and then dyed by Emma on the farm.

Belladonna was designed to showcase their stunning collection of colours, when I visited their stand at Yarndale I was overawed by the depth and range of colour, I wanted all of them, so I designed a snuggly colourful warm winter scarf, that would use a collection of warm snuggly colours.
Belladonna is 4 squares wide x 30 squares long and has 4 tassels at each end, that you can see in the photo below.
It measures 66 x 9 inches/167 x 24 cm's (excluding tassels).

The sheep photographs are of Bilbo, who is a Gotland ram who is daddy to some of the sheep who kindly donate their fleeces to make the stunning wool yarn that was used to make Belladonna.
They were all taken by Emma of The Little Grey Sheep.
As you can see Bilbo makes rather a stylish model.
I've named the scarf Belladonna as its the name of Bilbo Baggins's mother and its nice to keep it in the family.
It's all very hobbitish :-)

The scarf needs 15 x 20 gm skeins (300 gms/approx. 860m) of The Little Grey Sheep British Stein Fine Wool® 4ply (Shetland/Gotland/Merino wool)
There will be kits available in the very near futue on The Little Grey Sheep's website which you can find here - THE LITTLE GREY SHEEP

You can find the pattern on Ravelry - HERE
And on Etsy - HERE 

 

Zodiac published

I've talked about this blanket for so long, if you go back through this blog you can find several previous Zodiac posts
And today is the day I finally publish it - YAY!!!
You can find it on Etsy - HERE
And Ravelry - HERE

I designed the Zodiac for a NDS blanket club about 18 months ago.
It took 6 months to design as the layout was so complex, I had to work out how the Zodiac constellations would fit together in the right order and then calculate yarn quantities and colours so NDS could dye 16 full skeins of yarn.
It doesn't sound like much but it was weeks and weeks of maths tweaking colours here and there to make sure they were used evenly.

So here it is.....

Exmoor is a designated international dark sky reserve; the reserves are classified as public or private areas that possess an exceptional quality of starry nights.
The layout of the Zodiac constellations were a perfect illustration of the stars you might see on a moorland dark night.
The blanket contains all 12 constellations in the right placement order, however they may seem backwards, but this is due to the earth revolving in an anti-clockwise direction.

The two motif patterns are both fairly simple, they only the basic stitch's, they are only a couple of steps more advanced from the traditional granny square.
The pattern includes step by step layout charts, and a colour key for each constellation , all of this hopefully should make it reasonably simple for you to follow.

Love Amanda

P.S - The photo's are a little bit dark, one day I will manage to get some perfect blanket photos.....sigh....

Behind the scenes

I'm sorry I'm a bit absent at the moment.
I've realised that I only have 8 weeks until my book deadline and am working away behind the scenes colouring in charts, writing patterns and trying to finish the last blanket.
It seems like its all very last minute, but I wanted it to be perfect so have spent the last 6 month's refining my pattern format and deciding how I was going to explain colour and alternative yarns.
The patterns are kind of under control, even though I still have about 14 layout charts to finish (originally there were 30!)
But I still haven't started writing the other bits, as I'm still working on it in my head.

The last blanket is almost finished, I spent the whole weekend crocheting like a mad woman and I'm now working on the last border of motifs.
Here are a few wip photo's that don't give too much away :-)

     

I will be publishing the Zodiac blanket pattern next week, so there will be a big blog post and still have the Little Grey Sheep scarf to finish before Christmas, so will be blogging about that too.
But apart from these 2 posts I don't have anything else planned.
BUT I have big plans for the blog in the new year, lots of pages to add, posts to write and maybe even a new website.

Wish me luck
Love amanda

VAT's & price rises

A bit of a monday morning rant.....

About a year ago, someone on Ravelry discovered that there were new digital sales European VAT tax laws/rules planned to come into effect on January 2015 and luckily for all involved told the community.
The VAT people claimed that everyone who would be affected should have been notified, however no one knew anything about it.
The rules are incoherent, contradict other rules/laws and absolutely ridiculous, they are supposed to force the big international companies like Amazon stop evading European VAT, but they apply to all businesses world wide that sell digital downloads to customers in Europe regardless of how big or small the business is.
I could write a very long essay trying to explain all the details, but it would be very boring for you to read and even if you managed to read to the end, you would be far more confused you were before you started!

The main result is that  knitting & crochet designers have had to increase their pdf patterns prices.
Designers have 3 options on how to deal with VAT
1 - Absorb the cost of the VAT and keep the pattern price the same, which means a big drop in income for the designer.
2 - Raise the pattern prices to cover VAT, this means the price goes up for everyone.
3 - Leave the pattern prices as they are, and charge VAT on the European sales.
Whichever option the designer chooses is unfair on themselves or their customers.
Sadly I rely on pattern sales to pay the bills and so can't afford a drop in income, so I have chosen option 3, it means the prices have risen for my European customers, but stays the same for all my international customers. Its unfair if you live in Europe, but at least some of my customers don't suffer.

The reason why I have written this blog post is to answer a thread on Ravelry
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/patterns/3294295/1-25
It was started by customer's who weren't happy about the price rises, the thread has become very heated so I have chosen not to join in.

What I'm trying to say to you is "Please don't blame the designer's, its out of our control, if you want to have a rant, get in touch with your MP, MEP, VAT office, the IRS or anyone in power who you think will listen"

Phew......
Now I've come to the end of my small rant about a big thing I'm going to leave you with a happy picture, to brighten your week :-)
Its my new Belladonna scarf, photographed on the wild and windy moor yesterday.

Cornucopia & Skein Queen Kits

When we decided to close NDS my main worry was where my yarn was going to come from.
So I decided I needed to start collecting a NDS free stash.
My very first purchase was a bright yellow skein of Selkino from Skein Queen at Unravel in February.
It was one of my favourite yarn bases and I fell in love with the colour as soon as I saw it, however the colour was completely out of place with my NDS stash, so obviously I needed a couple more skeins of equal colour intensity to go with it, so I bought some more SQ colours to keep it company :-)
And started crocheting.....

The result was Cornucopia, which was a experiment to see if I could use subtle and intense colour in the same design.
Halfway through I realised that I had chosen fruity colours, so I named it after the mythical horn of plenty which is overflowing with fruit and flowers.

I'm really pleased with the way the blanket turned out, its one of those blankets that is better seen in real life and was hugely popular at Yarndale.

While I was away swanning about in Yorkshire Debbie was busily working away behind the scenes dyeing a collection of colours for a Cornucopia kit.
And here its is - Cornucopia Yarn Bundle
She's done an amazing job, the colours are stunning and the yarn is divine and I'm slightly jealous of the people who buy the kits as I won't be able to use them to make blanket all over again with Debbie's colours.....

But as my mother would say "onwards and upwards" I have new designs and colours to use and should be content that you will be enjoying mine and Debbie's work.