Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 81

 And just like that, it's Friday again! The weeks are whizzing by, aren't they? It's time for another super prize in my Fibre4Fibres fundraising. This week's prize includes a Penguins in Pullovers drawstring bag, zipped purse, mug, tin and 6 stitch markers, which have been donated by the wonderful Emma Ball. Emma has also donated a set of Sheep in Sweaters colourwork cards. There are 10 balls of Baa Ram Ewe wool which is perfect for colourwork, donated by Rain of the Roses, and an Instagram friend Melinda has donated two balls of Texere Troon Tweed yarn and a lavender sachet. There is a ball of New Lanark Mills DK yarn in a rich purple shade too. Emma from Seren Yarns has donated another beautiful knitted shawl. The lovely folk at Cakehead are donating a box of brownies or cakes of the winner's choice; they are absolutely delicious and I have sent quite a few boxes to friends now (they do an excellent vegan and gluten-free box) so I think you will love them too. Please note that the brownies can only be sent within the UK, so if the winner is from overseas, they will win the prize apart from the brownies and I will pick another winner who will win the brownie box. To go with the edible treats, there are some teabags donated by Yorkshire Tea. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. The giveaway is open worldwide - I will post the prize anywhere! This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 31st October, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Last week, the total raised passed £22,000 which is just amazing. Thank you and stay safe! xxx

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Morning! Can't quite believe that Friday has come round again so soon! There is a definite nip in the air today and this week's raffle prize has an autumnal feel to it. The prize includes a copy of the book 'A Good Yarn' which has been donated by my lovely Instagram friend Ann, who is BusyPottering. Another Instagram friend, Hannah, has donated 5 squishy balls of Deramores Studio DK yarn, Shannon from Blue Fern Yarns has donated a ball of Boo sock yarn (80% sw merino and 20% bamboo) in the colourway 'Pumpkin Patch', Diss Wool and Craft shop has donated a skein of Araucania Ranco yarn and an anonymous donor has given a skein of Old Maiden Aunt sw merino/cashmere/nylon yarn in the colourway 'Midnight Owl'. There are a couple of skeins from my stash too - a skein of Miss Babs DK yarn and a skein of The Good Shepherd 100% merino yarn. Emma from Seren Yarn has donated a beautiful shawl, crocheted in the most beautiful shades of autumn. Proby, who runs Witchwood Fibres, is donating a pair of scrappy socks, custom fit for the winner's feet! Lastly, a 4mm crochet hook and a 'Cosy' banner to stitch complete the prize. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. The giveaway is open worldwide - I will post the prize anywhere! This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 24th October, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. This week the total should pass £22,000! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

 

CraftWorld awards 2021

Hello there! Thank you for popping by today. I have a little favour to ask of you please. Someone alerted me to the CraftWorld Awards 2021 as apparently there is a category for charity work. Obviously I can't nominate myself, but I would be absolutely over the moon if you would consider nominating me for my Fibre 4 Fibres fundraising. I never imagined when I started back in the autumn of 2019 by donating the proceeds from my Good Striations blanket that I would get close to raising more than £20,000 for Myositis UK. I think that my initial target was £1000 and I thought that was being optimistic! I have really enjoyed sorting out prizes for the weekly raffles. I approached lots of small businesses with requests for prizes and have been overwhelmed by people's generosity. The yarny world is full of lovely folk. I have also managed to reduce the size of my stash quite considerably and also bought bits and pieces to add into each prize to make it as special as possible for the person winning it. It has given me something so positive to focus on throughout lockdown. I am also grateful to you, my supporters, many of whom have donated each week. Thank you so, so much! 

To make a nomination, you have to create an account on the CraftWorld website here and once you've done that, you can make your nomination. There are other categories that you can nominate people for too. You can find the nomination form here. I think that nominations close in early November so don't hang about! It would be wonderful to see Myositis UK get some publicity too - I had never heard of myositis before I was diagnosed with it, but it's had such a huge impact on my life, so I'm thrilled that through my fundraising, you are helping to fund research into this horrible, incurable disease. Lots of love to you. xxx

 

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I'm super-excited about this week's colourful prize. It's just what's needed as the days start to get shorter and the dark evenings take over. My lovely friend Lucy from Attic24 has crocheted a gorgeous rainbow mandala and has very kindly agreed to part with it and donate it to my fundraising. You can read about the mandala and see some more photos on Lucy's blog post today. Also included in the prize are 12 balls of Stylecraft Classique Cotton so you can crochet your own rainbow mandala, as well as 2 metal hoops to attach them to. An Instagram friend Lynn who is Silvery Paws, paints the most charming little Tree Peeps. If you're a follower of Attic24, you may have seen them as part of Lucy's seasonal mantelpiece decorations. Lynn has kindly donated a special little Crochet Tree Peeps. I have also included one of the Little Box of Crochet boxes that Lucy designed a colourful mug cosy for. The box was mine and it has been opened, but all the contents are new and unused. There is a copy of the book 'Mindful Crochet' which contains some beautiful patterns. Last but not least, there is a Stylecraft tote bag and keyring, donated by Stylecraft. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize. There really are some incredibly lovely people in the woolly world, aren't there?

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. The giveaway is open worldwide - I will post the prize anywhere! This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 17th October, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Let's see how much money we can raise this week! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

PS If you don't already follow my fundraising page on Instagram, please do come and find me and say hello! It's called 'Fibre4Fibres'; I came up with the name as I was using yarn fibres to help people with the muscle disease myositis, and muscle has fibres too! 

The Fruit Garden Crochet Blanket by Jane Crowfoot - a giveaway

Photo copyright Jane Crowfoot

Photo copyright Jane Crowfoot

Photo copyright Jane Crowfoot

Photo copyright Jane Crowfoot

My lovely friend Jane Crowfoot has recently released a book which contains the pattern for The Fruit Garden blanket. While the pattern is still available as a free download from Stylecraft, this book is an absolute feast for the eyes. Not only does it include the pattern, but there are also crochet charts for all the motifs as well as testimonials from crocheters who have made Janie's blanket and lots more information about what inspired Janie and how she actually designed the blanket. There is also a new colourway for the blanket. There are lots of beautiful images that Janie has had special permission to use from The William Morris Society. The V&A and The National Museums of Scotland. Looking through the book makes me want to find out more about the work of William and May Morris. It is fascinating to see how Janie has used their work to design such a beautiful blanket. 

Janie has very generously gifted me two copies of her book - one for me to keep and another to give away. Thank you Janie. So if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a copy of The Fruit Garden, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me which of the four colourways is your favourite. The giveaway will run until the end of October so there's lots of time to enter. Please leave a way for me to get in touch with you - an Instagram or Ravelry name would be perfect - in case you are the winner. The giveaway is open to everyone as I'm happy to post the prize worldwide. I look forward to seeing which colourway is the most popular! xxx

Softie Top Down Jumper

Do you remember these jumpers? I knitted them last year using a new chunky yarn from Stylecraft called Softie. The top one I made for myself and my friend Julia liked it so much that I also knitted a much smaller one for her. Both jumpers received a lot of 'likes' on social media, and the lovely people at Stylecraft suggested that it might be nice to turn my design into a pattern for everyone to knit. I don't have the skill or knowledge to scale up my pattern for multiple sizes - it's a completely different kettle of fish to sock designs - so it was a great relief that Stylecraft offered to turn my scribbles into a proper pattern. This pattern is now available to download for free from the Stylecraft website. If you are interested in knitting your own version, you can find the pattern here. 

I much prefer knitting things in the round as there's very little finishing to be done once you've done the knitting. I hate sewing things up and have even had a jumper sitting in pieces for around two years before I got round to sewing it together! Another advantage is that you can try the garment on as you are knitting it by either adding another cable or putting your stitches onto waste yarn. This means you can check how it's fitting and add more length to the body or sleeves for example, or perhaps add a couple more decreases if you think it's too loose. 

The version of the jumper that is being shown on social media uses some of the new colours that have just been released. Softie is a chunky yarn which is 80% premium acrylic and 20% wool. It really is soft and as soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted to knit a jumper with a deep neck to snuggle inside. The yarn is quite lofty and light to wear and feels very cosy. There are now 10 colours in the range. The photo below shows the original colours; starting top right and going clockwise, we have Cream, Zest, Oats, Peony, Fig and Rosehip in the centre.

This photo shows the new additions to the range; from the top going down we have Coral, Fern, Indigo and Raspberry.

Photo copyright Stylecraft Yarns

Photo copyright Stylecraft Yarns

I'm delighted to tell you that this pattern is going to be the October project in the Stylecraft Makealong group over on Facebook. You can join the group here. If you've not knitted something in the round before, don't panic! There will be plenty of people there to help you out and you may learn some new techniques too, as the pattern involves some short row shaping around the neck, and some increases and decreases. I know that Stylecraft are making some videos to show you these skills. It's always easier when you see something being demonstrated I think. I'm going to be joining in too, and I'm going to be using a mix of the old and new colours - Coral, Raspberry, Fig and Rosehip. That's the combination used in the sample knitted for the official photos. If you'd like to join in with the makealong, it begins this Thursday, October 14th. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there! xxx

 

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I have been looking in my planner and counted the number of weeks until Christmas to work out how many giveaways I still have left. And it's 10! I'm pretty sure that my last giveaway will be on Sunday 12th of December as the following Sunday will be the Sunday before Christmas and the postal system will be crazy! So there are some pretty bumper prizes to make sure that I use up all the donations (and reduce my own stash to something a bit more manageable!) and this week's prize is no exception. The prize includes a set of Knit Pro Nova Cubics deluxe interchangeable needles donated by Knit Pro. There is a copy of Add One Stitch Knitting which has been donated by Search Press. My Instagram friend Ann (Busy Pottering) has donated a pretty drawstring project bag and dpn case and there is yarn galore. My Stylecraft Blogstar friend Janie Crow has donated an assortment of Stylecraft yarns, there is a ball of vegan yarn which feels incredibly soft and silky which has been donated by Tribe Yarns, some miniskeins donated by Gilly Makes, a skein of Crafternoon Treats yarn donated by Elephyn Rose on Instagram and a skein of Madder about Wool yarn donated by Ruth Loves to Knit on Instagram. There is a cute Snoopy progress keeper donated by Hannah Daisy Crochet and last but not least, a note pad and sticker. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated a prize.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 10th October, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your email address with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Last week the total went over £21,000 which is just amazing! Thank you and stay safe! xxx

 

Creating Cat Faces

Last Sunday I took part in a wonderful online workshop which was organised by Crafty Monkies. I follow Crafty Monkies on Instagram and saw the class posted in their feed. I was immediately drawn to the cat faces so full of character and wanted to find out more. The tutor was Melissa Averinos; she is an artist living on Cape Cod. The workshop started with some drawing of cat faces, where we experimented with different shapes of heads, ears and eyes. After that we moved onto fabric and Melissa showed us just how easy it is to change the mood of a cat simply by changing things like the mouth and eyebrows. (I know that cats don't really have eyebrows, but we weren't creating 'real life' cats!) Have a look at these picture to see what I mean...

*** sad cat ***

*** happy cat ***

*** angry cat ***

During the 3 hour workshop, Melissa showed us examples of her own cat faces and talked about ways of sewing the fabrics onto the background. I'm looking forward to having more of a play around and making some little cat pictures or perhaps cushion covers. You can never have too many cushions!! That's what I used to tell Mr JK anyway! It's best to stick with fabric that's not too busy - I think they're called blenders in the quilting world. I have a bag full of scraps to delve into  - I knew it was going to be worth keeping them! 

I'm going to take a look at other workshops that Crafty Monkies are running and see if anything else catches my eye. Have you done any online crafting workshops? Let me know if you have, I'm always on the look out for something new to try. xxx