A busy few months

It’s a lovely morning and the sun is streaming through my window, I feel really happy to be sitting at my lap top composing this blog post. It has been a while but I’ve been keeping up with you all via my Instagram and Facebook page so I have been around.

I’ve started to feel a bit nervous when I think about blogging especially if it’s been a while but this morning I have a spring in my step and the words are flowing onto my screen. Lot’s of lovely things have been happenning since I last did a post which I must share with you.

Our Spring Crochet Afternoon was such a lovely occassion everyone had a really good time. Carole my friend and business partner spend weeks if not months worrying that our next event won’t be as good as the last but it was. We are now having the same worries about our Summer event which is on the 24th June, but we are already fully booked and have reserved places for our Autumn and Christmas Event, so hopefully we are doing something right.

The project for the Spring event was lovely and we found the perfect box to pack everthing into, the patterns were for a bottle cosy, flowers, picture frame, Easter basket, and little crochet eggs.

I’ve been working on the Summer project for the past two months and after 3 if not 4 false starts and having to go back to the drawing board I’m now happy with the project and have made lots of lovely samples.

As well as the Afternoon Tea Workshops that are held quarterly. I have also carried on with my smaller Sweetpeafamily crochet lessons and workshops that I run from home. These have become less frequent but I have just released some July dates which have filled up quickly.

One of the reasons I have been neglecting my blog has been my increased attention to my Instagram account, it’s hard to make time for everything.

 

I have really enjoyed taking photographs and perfecting my images and use of flat lays and this attention has paid off. It has been lovely to see my following and engagement grow and it’s not all about numbers I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing my own personal progression and it’s been lovely to see my gallery improve.

In early Spring Lovecrochet made contact with me through my Instagram account to ask if I would like to join their Flock. This was very unexpected and very exciting and of course I said yes but didn’t really understand what the Flock was. After a little bit of a google search I was even more flattered, The Flock is a blogger ambassador programme built to recognise hard-working, talented bloggers or Instagrammers bringing them together to share ideas, collaborate on projects and review the latest products.

Since working with Lovecrochet I have had the opportunity to work with lots of lovely yarn from the Paintbox collection which I hadn’t tried before and this in turn has inspired me to start pattern writing.

I have worked in collaboration with Kate Housden from  Posy + Petals to recreate her adorable woodland creature illustrations. With Kate’s permission I have brought them to life using a crochet technique called amigurumi and I am delighted with how they have turned out.

Kate is not only  a very talented illustrator she is also an amazing stoty teller and has a notebook full of little  Posy + Petal tales which I hope one day will be published.

Meet Posy and Petal, two tiny bears who live in a tree house in the tallest oak in Little Dot Wood. Posy is the big sister and is very calm and sensible, Petal however is a little mischievous and gets herself into all kinds of scrapes. The two sisters love to pick flowers to make midsummer floral crowns. If you carry on past the tree house and keep walking you will stumble across a tiny orchard of apple, pear, plum and apricot trees with secret messages carved into old tree trunks, tumbledown greenhouses full of seedlings waiting to be transferred to the vegetable patch and wheelbarrows perfect for transporting tired ones home after a busy day. There is a tiny stream for dipping tiny toes, fire pits for late night marshmallow toasting, hopscotch and chalk drawings almost washed away by rainy showers and many half built dens and hide aways from days gone by. This is where Posy and Petal meet their friends Maple and Clover and have fun dipping their tiny toes into the cool stream whilst nibbling some sweet fruit from the nearby orchard…………………..I’m sure you would love to hear more of these equisite stories.

I’ve written simple crochet patterns for Posy, Petal, Clover and Maple. The pattern for Clover is a free PDF download available here at  Lovecrochet.

The pattern for the four woodland creatures has just been released and is available here. 

Lovecrochet have helped me create a perfect colour palette using Paintbox Cotton DK which is available as a Posy + Petal Yarn Pack which is so exciting and will complement the crochet patterns perfectly, you can find it here 

As well as working with Lovecrochet I’ve also had the opportunity to work with some beautiful yarns from WoolandtheGang A few weeks ago Woolandthegang launched a new yarn called Tina Tape and I was lucky enough to have a sample of the yarn prelaunch. I took the yarn on holiday with me and had a little play in the sunshine. I started a lacey shawl/scarf – it’s so lovely and cool to work with, a cross between linen and silk.

I’ve also started a holiday bag using the yarn in peach and grey, I can’t wait to finish it.

                    

As well as good things happenning we have had the terrible bombing in Manchester which has left us realing after such a shocking atrocity. A local women started a campaign called #aheart4mcr and asked for donations of hand crafted hearts to show our solidarity and love for the victims and our City. I made a little collection of hearts to support the campaign and my Monday night Crochet Club also joined in. The responce to Beths idea was incredible, hearts started to pour in from all over the world. On Monday Beth and her family decorated Manchester with over 18,000 hearts and people were asked to take a heart away with them. It has brought a little sunshine during this very sad time.

Gosh I feel as though I’ve caught up with lots of my news and it’s been lovely to share it with you. I hope you all have a little bit of sunshine today and I hope to be back soon.

talk soon

Sue x