Purple Day

Purple day was the 26th of march. purple day is to bring awareness and support for those suffering with epilepsy. 

                                                                                                                   

My best friend's son is only 2 and he has epilepsy and so this is cause close to my heart. Because I love crochet almost as much as I love my friends son (but not quite) I decided to design a pattern of a purple rabbit and all profits from the sale of this rabbit will be donated to young epilepsy charity.

the pattern is available from my ETSY shop  

The pattern is a PDF download and permission is given to sell and rabbits you make from this pattern but not to copy or share the actual pattern.

I knew what I wanted to rabbit to look like and so designing the pattern was quite straight forward. The colour obviously had to be purple and I thought the grey added softness to the rabbit. One of the things I love to do to these types of designs is to add a pompom tail.

I used style craft wool because I wanted to keep the cost down for the person who will be making the rabbit. I wanted the pattern to be affordable and more accessible for the average crocheter.  I think my next step will be to put the pattern into US terms and all my patterns are in UK terms. I hope this will be an easy process and I am aiming to do it for all my designs.

It is a fairly easy pattern and if you happen to purchase it feel free to let me know how you got on with it and of course send me pictures of your rabbits.

Free heart pattern

Free pattern time!!

There are a lot of heart patterns out there so I thought I'd add to the collection and give a way this free heart pattern. it is a 3d heart and you can do many ting with them. I've made a heart garland, used them for gift wrapping instead of using a bow I attached a heart.

To make these hearts  I used a 2.5mm hook and cotton yarn. if you use a bigger hook and different yarn of course the size and the shape of the heart will be different.


UK crochet terms

dc - double crochet
dec - decrease stitch
ss - slip stitch


Start by 6dc in to a magic circle.
2dc in each stitch
dc all the way around twice

fasten off and made one more

hold both side by side and join with one dc stitch then dc all the way around both circles making them into one round.

5dc, dec, 10dc, dec, 5dc
4dc, dec, 9dc, dec, 5dc,
4dc, dec, 8dc, 4dc,

at this point I added a little stuffing and then every couple of rows added more and remember to completely stuff it before you close the hole in the last rounds.

4dc, dec, 7dc, dec, 3dc,
3dc, dec, 6dc, dec, 3dc,
3dc, dec, 5dc, dec, 2dc,
2dc, dec, 4dc, dec, 2dc,
stuff more
2dc, dec, 3dc, dec, 1dc
1dc, dec, ss

Leave a long strand to finish off the heart with an embroidery needle.

If you have a hole where the two parts joined at the beginning then use the needle to close this hole now.


Have fun heart making. Feel free to let me know how your hearts have turned out or if you have trouble with any part of the pattern.

playing catchup

Hello readers, crocheters and fellow yarn addicts,

Last week I put my back out and wasn't able to do much work and not being able to crochet was quite stressful. I kept listing the things in my head that I wanted to crochet new projects to start and working projects to finish. Being a pattern designer I am often thinking of new projects and the time it takes to go from thinking of the new idea to putting the pattern up for sale is a lot longer than I ever thought. sometimes ..we actually a lot of the time I think of projects that are just out of reach. Or do I just need the courage to reach that bit further.




While I was unable to work I did mange to crochet a boys cowl for my best friends son. I do like using him as a new product tester. it came out quite well and I even managed to find some acorn buttons in my stash of buttons. It came up so well my son wants me to make one for him. (just another excuse to go to the wool shop really). I used Debbie bliss Aran for this cowl but for my sons one I am going to try a Debbie bliss chunky. using a new type of stitch I like how the pattern came out. The main reason I made this was because my friends son couldn't wear a scarf because he would pull on it and strangle himself, but we couldn't let him get a chilly neck, it did get me thinking of how many other mums have this problem with their babies.


This week while I'm trying to play catch up I will also be issuing a free pattern. now we all like one of those!! it will be for a rainbow heart garland.

Busy busy patterns

HELLO


It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Hook Geek studio. I have been finishing my crochet a long blanket, Which I highly recommend doing by the way. it is a project you can easily do alone or with other people, you can pick it up and put it down at your leisure.

for more information check out hoophaberdashery for classes or Hannah Davis for the designer.







We have also been busy designing two new patterns a frog and a sweet little mouse. The frog (Frederic) is all ready to be typed up. He even comes with instructions for a top hat and a bow tie. This is a fairly easy pattern to follow but like most of my patterns I suggest you have some knowledge of crocheting in the amigurumi style. This style is an easy process of increasing and decreasing and has a pattern that is written in basic terms.

This particular frog has stripy legs and I've used the method of changing colours where I continue the thread on the inside of the leg. so instead of fastening off each time I finish the last stich of the round off with the next colour and just leave the other thread there until I need it two rounds later. this way you can just pick up and drop each thread as you need them. it is a quick and easy method and once you get into the rhythm you never use a different method.

The mouse pattern (Dotty) will be available  nearer the end of the week as I'm yet to design a little jacket for. upon doing my research I found that not many characters have clothes. A lot have capes and things which is great for me to be able to bring a different style of clothing to the characters I make and hopefully you too. This little muse is quite special to me because I used mohair and DK together to create her. which has left her very soft and fury. not quite suitable for little babies but I wouldn't give her to a baby any due to her glass eyes.  I'm thinking my next pattern will also be made of the mohair and DK combination because I like doing it so much and it has such a great effect at the end. I know this means she works out to be a little more expensive to make but it is so worth it in the end.

During these last couple of weeks we've also tried out hand at making crowns for children. My children have grown and are not quite little enough for these crowns so gauging the size has been hard and I have had to borrow the heads of friends children.  Plus my children seen to have massive heads so getting an average size crown is difficult in my house. Never the less I think I have managed a couple of styles and techniques. One crown I was quite proud of would not keep its shape as well as I hoped so I ended up straying it with a glue and water mix and this worked quite well. so well in fact I have a huge crown in mind for my next task.

My next step is to get typing these patterns up. they will be available via Etsy and Revelry.