A little birdie told me…

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Spring has finally made it to England! The flowers are blossoming, the shoots are sprouting and the birds are singing. It’s warm enough to take your crafting outside and enjoy all that natural light.

To celebrate, the LoveCrafts team want to give you a peak at another amazing book we’ve just finished with the crafty team at Mollie Makes. It’s fun and classy, just like our smash hit Mollie Makes: Christmas last year, but it has a decidedly feathered theme.

Mollie Makes: Feathered Friends is full of wonderful winged projects for you and your home. Make a birdie makeup brush roll to keep your beauty products tidy or penguin pillow cover to add character to your sofa. There are so many sewing, knitting, crochet and felting projects you won’t know where to start. Get ready to take flight with your crafting!

We’re running an exclusive pre-publication offer with The Mollie Makes team for Mollie-Makes: Feathered Friends, publishing June 6th. To get more details, visit Mollie Makes and sign up to their newsletter, as the exclusive offer code will be revealed in today’s newsletter!

 

Guest Blogger: Vicky Eames

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There’s a buzz in the office. Everyone’s talking about Knit Your Own Moustache, our fantastic new title for May. We’ve had a great time trying on the moustaches, wigs and other fun disguises, and I’m even thinking about taking up a night job as a detective – I just have to knit and crochet myself a few more disguises! To celebrate this great book, we’ve asked author Vicky Eames (a.k.a. Wife of Brian) to tell us a bit about writing it:

So I’ve written a book. An actual book that real people can buy in proper shops. Wowzers. This is something I’ve wanted to do ever since I was wee, and now I have realised a dream. To be fair, I’d never imagined it would be a book about knitted facial hair, but these surprises are certainly the joy of life!

In all seriousness, I have loved making Knit Your Own Moustache. I am very proud of the end result, and the process has been a great experience.

There’s a slight clue in the title, but in case you haven’t spotted it, the book is about knitting moustaches and patterns thereof. But it is not this alone, oh no – it is in fact a selection of patterns to knit and crochet your own variety of disguises. What this basically meant for me was that for the duration of my designing and writing it, I had an excuse to wear ridiculous things most of the time. Hurrah. I’ve been knitting beards and moustaches for a few years now for my shop Wife of Brian, so I’m reasonably familiar with the world of daft. As a result, I’m always open to a bit more silly and at times I really did get carried away creating for this book! I talked to a lot of people, looked at loads of pictures, sketched plenty of ideas and, best of all, wore a plethora of silly hats, wigs and masks to work out what I, my friends, and hopefully some real people, would most enjoy in this pattern book.

Once I’d come up with a few ideas I then had the fun of making them a reality. One thing I love about knitting and crochet is that if you can imagine something, there is a way to make it. The fun part is figuring out how! In the old days I used to be a mathematician (of sorts) and so sometimes I like to be very systematic about how I go about things. Hence, for some of my designs, the graph paper came out and I employed a lot of logic before I even picked up any wool. For others the kooky lady took control and I just made it up as I went along! But everywhere I went I took the latest project and my notes – thank goodness I didn’t lose that notebook!

I have quite an unusual job, working in theatre. Thankfully this means that I work with creative and quirky people who generally don’t bat an eyelid if I smuggle some wool backstage. And I had to do a lot of that to squeeze everything in. (Thank you for your patience, Team Theatre.) As is always the nature of things in my work, the deadlines would always fall during particularly busy periods so any free minute was filled with knitting and I know I sent in a lot of my text amongst the (very) wee hours of the morning. But when you’re enjoying your work, whatever it may be, you don’t resent that. Well, not much. All I can say is, if I sound a bit bonkers in the book (and now, in fact), I can only blame it on a lack of sleep rather than an innate madness …

My publishers and everyone working on this book have been all sorts of brilliant. One thing I have especially loved is the freedom and trust I have been shown and the amount of involvement I have had. We had a great day in the wilds of Dalston taking pretty pictures of my silly things on the faces of a few of my brave friends. Everyone that was there that day got involved with ideas and although it was a long and exhausting day we had a lot of fun. You’ll see in the book how great the photos look and what a daft time we had.

Anyway, I now have in my hand an actual copy of Knit Your Own Moustache. It even has a barcode so it must be real. I am absolutely delighted with it and every minute of theatre/woolly multi-tasking was definitely worth it. If you happen across a copy, I welcome you madly to my bonkers knitty world. Happy moustache-ing, all.

You can learn more about Vicky and her quirky world of woolly disguises at www.wifeofbrian.com. Make sure to grab your copy, available from May!

Knitting Is…

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Being just down from the Victoria & Albert Museum we’re all swept up in Bowie fever, and we’re hoping you’ll be swept away too! We’re giving you the chance to win a copy of Knitted Icons so you can knit your own Bowie (details below!).

The David Bowie is collection is a celebration of the most influential performer of the 1970′s. And if you visit you’ll see a bit of LoveCrafts at the end:

Yes, there on the right is a knitted David Bowie!

To win a copy of Knitted Icons, with David Bowie and over 20 other celebrities, just tweet us your favourite Bowie song!

Knitting Masterclass Winners Announced!

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Thank you to everyone who got involved and entered our Knitting Masterclass competition. It was an exciting prize pack, with a pair of Knit Pro Karbonz needles, a copy of the book and a year’s subscription to The Knitter. But only 2 lucky crafters could win!

So, without further adieu, the winners are:

Thelma P. & Shirley B!

Congratulations! You’ll be receiving an email from Margarita to arrange sending you your prizes.

Wool House

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Finally made it to Wool House last weekend. There were so many amazing uses of British wool, and we all received  a keyring to remind us to support British wool.  Thank you to Campaign for Wool for putting on this fun and woolly event!

 

 

Guest Blogger: Juliet Bernard

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At LoveCrafts we are lucky to have so many creative, crafty writers around us. This week we’ve asked Juliet Bernard, editor of Knitting Masterclass, to write a little about her experience with knitting. She’s also given you a free pattern to help you take on that scary knitting technique, steeking!

I have been a knitter for more years than I care to remember and yet only last week I learned something new about my craft when a lady I was on a course with shared a technique that has advanced my short row shaping immensely. I think that is why I am so addicted to knitting. It is a craft of the highest pedigree, that reaches back hundreds of years. Wonderful skills have been passed down through generations. When you look at some of the samples in the Victoria and Albert Museum from the 12th century, they are recognisably knitting as we would know it. And there is always something new to learn.

For many years I was a bit embarrassed about being a knitter. Friends would tease me until I found myself referring to my latest project as ‘just my knitting’. But today I feel completely different about it and I am really proud of what I knit. Two things have made this possible. First, the Internet, with sites like Ravelry, has given all of us the opportunity to ‘be’ with like-minded people and not to feel such an oddity. Being a knitter can be a little isolating so to have contact with people that understand what an achievement it is to knit your first lace scarf or cut a steek in a Fair Isle cardigan you’ve just knitted. The encouragement I have been given has helped me to be brave. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen if you have to frog some work or you drop a few stitches!

Secondly, through the generosity of other knitters I am continually able and encouraged to improve my skills. Without them I would not be able to have such pride in my craft. A job well done is intensely satisfying which is why I’m so keen that each of us pass our skills on to the next generation.  It’s almost our duty to make sure knitting stays as much a part of our culture tomorrow as it was in the 12th Century. The Knitter’s Knitting Masterclass is a way to pass more advanced skills on to a wider audience and editing it was a real privilege.  Trying to choose the masterclasses that would give knitters the broadest range of skills to bring a real ‘wow’ to their knitting was quite a responsibility. But I feel we have created a book that has helped me to have more pride in my knitting and to have a better appreciating of how skilful knitters all over the world are.

Inspired to take the next step in your knitting? Steeking is a great technique when you are knitting patterns, but it can be scary, because you cut your finished knitting! Learn how to steek fear-free using Juliet’s free Scandinavian Mug Cozy pattern.

 

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