Fibre 4 Fibres giveaway preview 2

Time to share this week's gorgeous prize that you could win if you buy a virtual raffle ticket or two in this Sunday's Fibre 4 Fibres giveaway in aid of Myositis UK.

The prize includes two balls of West Yorkshire Spinner Signature 4ply yarn in their special Christmas colourway, Robin, and a complementary shade Cayenne Pepper. There will be plenty of yarn to knit at least two pairs of socks here, or you could make some accessories like a hat or mittens. To go with the yarn there is a pattern for a pair of socks designed by Winwick Mum. I've sewn another 3 metre length of Nordic style bunting that you can hang in your home. There's a very cute notions case sewn by my friend Michele from ThreeBagsFull, some stitch markers from Fripperies and Bibelots and a DIY holly decorations kit. It all looks so Christmassy in the photo, I'd quite like to keep it for myself! 

Are you tempted to enter? Here's what you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 15th December, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my Just Giving page here and buy your virtual raffle ticket by donating £1 or more. £1 gets you 1 ticket, £2 gets you 2 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box that shares your details with me so that I can contact you if you're the winner and also put 'Robin' in the comments so I know which raffle you've entered. This lovely prize would be the perfect treat for you over the festive season so I hope you enter! Good luck and thanks for your support. xxx

December days

December seems to be whizzing past at an alarming rate. My December has been taken over by hospital appointments and treatment which I really hope is going to start to get things under control. Fingers and toes crossed! Here's a snapshot of my month so far. I hope the coming days will be merry and bright for you! xxx

*** Helping a Twitter friend to crochet a Granny Square via WhatsApp photos and videos! ***

*** Flo snuggling into her furry donut! ***

*** Enjoying my yarn Advent calendar swap organised by Lay Family yarn on Instagram ***

*** A day in hospital getting a new immunosuppressant infusion ***

*** Enjoying candlelight in the late afternoon and evenings ***

*** Celebrating my birthday with a mince pie! ***

Fibre 4 Fibres giveaway preview

A few people have been in touch with me to say that they don't use Instagram or Facebook but would still like the opportunity to be able to take part in my weekly fundraising raffles for Myositis UK. So I've decided to share each prize before the raffle opens so you're able to decide if you'd like to enter. 

This week, I have a real treat for you as Sophie from Pixie Yarns has very generously donated a special 12 Days of Christmas micro Advent calendar, with each skein of yarn being a popular Pixie Yarns colourway. I treated myself to one of Sophie's calendars last year and made a gorgeous linen stitch scarf with the yarn. As well as the calendar, there's a 3 metre length of Nordic-style festive bunting to bring some Christmas cheer to your home and a couple of Christmassy stitch markers.

Are you tempted to enter? Here's what you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 8th December, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my Just Giving page here and buy your virtual raffle ticket by donating £1 or more. £1 gets you 1 ticket, £2 gets you 2 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box that shares your details with me so that I can contact you if you're the winner and also put '12 Days' in the comments so I know which raffle you've entered. This 12 Days calendar is the perfect treat for you over the festive season so I hope you enter! Good luck and thanks for your support. xxx

Gifting

I love to receive homemade gifts don't you? They are made with love and care and someone has spent time creating something especially for you. When I'm making gifts for people, I try to think of what they would really like as I want it to be just right. As I've got quite a lot of time on my hands at the moment, time wasn't an issue in getting things done in time. I can still remember knitting a sock for Mr JK right up to Christmas Eve one year! Actually, thinking about it, I'm not even sure if I got it finished in time! 

I've made a couple of scarves for friends. The first has been crocheted using a pattern by Lucy over at Attic24. This pattern was created for a special Comic Relief edition of Mollie Makes some years ago but the pattern is very similar to a free one on the Stylecraft website for a Dr Who scarf if you'd like to make your own. I used oddments of Stylecraft Special DK yarn, mostly leftover from my Sweet Pea blanket. I love the texture that the pattern creates. I added lots of fringe and it's very tactile. I just want to keep pulling my fingers through it! And it gave me great satisfaction to sew on a 'josiekitten' label!

As well as crocheting a scarf, I've been busy at the sewing maching. I made a fleecy leopard print scarf for a leopard-loving friend and I backed it with some leftover minky fabric, so it's as soft as you like! I think she will love it! Excuse the colours in the last photo, taken in artificial light. It's a bit shorter than I would have liked, but I was limited by the amount of fleece I had. 

The sewing machine has been kept busy making bunting too. There's something a little bit nostalgic about bunting, I think and I love to see it hanging up. The great thing about bunting is that it can be brought out year after year too, so it's a wonderful reminder of great friendships.

  

Speaking of bunting, I helped a friend to sew some bunting for another friend's dog cage! We've made it reversible with Christmas fabric on one side and bright patterns on the other so it can be up all year round. The next project is to make bunting for some guinea pigs! Seriously! I promise to share photos when it's done!  I'll be back tomorrow to share this Sunday's raffle prize for my Fibres 4 Fibres fundraiser. xxx

Introducing Fibre 4 Fibres

Hello!! I'm so excited to be able to share with you my latest fundraising idea. Last year I had my Great Yarn Giveaway and managed to raise more than £8000 for the British Heart Foundation in memory of my lovely Mr JK. I'm going to be raising much needed funds for Myositis UK. This small charity is very important to me as I've been diagnosed with this rare autoimmune disease and it has really turned my life upside down. From being a fit and active person who had completed a half marathon and had plans for much more, I am now only able to walk with crutches, can't climb inclines or stairs, have difficulty swallowing and constantly suffer with muscle pain and exhaustion. Money raised helps to fund vital research into diagnosis and treatment. Can I beat £8000? It would be amazing if I was able to. As well as donating £1 from each of my pattern sales on Ravelry and through Stylecraft, I'm planning to hold a whole year of yarny giveaways! What's different this time is that each giveaway will only run for one day! Each Sunday, I'll be posting about the giveaway on Instagram and Facebook and then there will be a link to my Just Giving page where you can enter. A donation of £1 gets you one entry into the raffle, £5 gets you 5 tickets, £10 gets you 10 - it's nice and simple. But you will have to be in it to win it! If you don't already follow me on Instagram, there's a link in the side bar. So please tell all your friends! I will post the prizes anywhere! (Well perhaps not to the moon!) I've already had offers of donations and will also be giving away some of the extremely lovely skeins of yarn in my stash, as well as making some prizes too. The fun starts tomorrow so I hope you'll join me on my Fibre 4 Fibres journey! xxx

Another Good Striations cushion

Mr JK always teased me when a new cushion appeared on the sofa, but in my view, there's always room for another one! For me, there is something cosy and inviting about a well-cushioned sofa - I want to go and snuggle on it and make myself nice and comfortable. So I was more than happy to try out another version of my Good Striations pattern using two colours of Stylecraft Dream Catcher yarn. Dream Catcher is a DK yarn made of 90% premium acrylic and 10% wool. It comes in yarn cakes which are gradient dyed in a whole range of beautiful colours. The yarn is incredibly soft and has a slight haze which makes it very cosy. There are 10 colours in the range and I chose two - Chinook and Apache - for the cushion. The beauty of using a gradient yarn in this pattern is that there are very few ends to weave in as the colours change gradually. You can see how the cushion front progressed ...

I love how Flo is feigning complete disinterest in the last photo! But don't be fooled, the yarn passed the 'Flo squishability test' with flying colours! 

For the cushion backs, I decided to do narrow 2-row stripes of each colour, again minimising the ends, (Can you tell that I don't like weaving in ends very much?!) and finishing with a ribbed section to provide a bit of stretch on the edge.

I then mattress- stitched the cushion together under Flo's supervision before putting a lovely plump cushion inner inside it. 

There are lots of beautiful colours in the range to choose from. As long as you pick yarns that have different colours, I think it will turn out just fine. It's fun watching the pattern pop as the different colours interplay. Which colours do you like? From the top right, going clockwise we have Arapaho, Blackfoot, Comanche, Cinnamon Roses, Tree of Life, Rainbow Dreams, Cheyenne and Ocean Deep in the centre. 

If you're interested in knitting your own cushion using Dream Catcher, you can buy the pattern from my Ravelry store here. £1 from each pattern sale will be donated to Myositis UK. For this cushion, I followed the blanket stripe pattern rather than the cushion stripe pattern and cast on 95 stitches for a finished cushion size of approximately 50cm square. You can also buy the pattern as a gorgeous colour booklet from Stylecraft stockists, including Woolwarehouse. I have to admit to being a tiny bit excited when I spotted it on their website! 

Do you remember my Great Yarn Giveaway that I held last year to raise money for the British Heart Foundation? Pop back tomorrow for some exciting news! xxx

Good Striations News!

Good morning! I've popped in just to share some very exciting news with you! Stylecraft are now exclusively distributing printed copies of my Good Striations blanket and cushion pattern. I've been sent a few copies and they have done a fantastic job. It's an 8 page colour booklet and looks so professional that I have to pinch myself that it's my design. £1 from each pattern sale will still be donated to Myositis UK to help raise funds to research this incurable muscle disease. You should be able to buy a copy from your local Stylecraft stockist so please ask them to order some in! Of course, it's still available to download from Ravelry here. So far I've raised almost £200 and I have big plans for other fundraising. Watch this space! xxx