February Newsletter

Hello crochet friends. What happened to February? The first months of the year used to feel interminable. The long drag of Winter moving so slowly into Spring.

But I don’t think we’ve even had a winter this year. Apart from a couple of stormy days which blew a few tiles off the roof and some biblical rain which flooded certain parts of the country, we’ve got off lightly. I’ve only had to wear my padded winter coat twice so far, and I haven’t had my gloves on at all. That’s unheard of!

Sunny and mild might feel good for the old bones, but let’s not be complacent. The bigger picture of climate change is something else to be concerned about.

Anyway, back to February. And crochet!

The Beach Walk Blanket

Of course this was how the month began, with the Beach Walk Blanket. My last blog post told you all about it – the new version of the old favourite, the updated colour palette, the Yarn Packs for sale. It’s all there to read.

The response has been great and makes me feel very happy that I did it. The Beach Walk Blanket means so much to me, and it certainly deserved a revamp.

Knitting (or not)

If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that there are two very special deliveries for our family, due in April. My son and daughter in law are about to become first time parents to twins. Very long awaited – and like buses, you wait ages for one, and then two come along! It’s so exciting, as we get ready to welcome two little girls.

Once upon a time, BC (before crochet) I was a knitter. I haven’t knitted for a long while, but back in the day I’ve done Fair Isle and Aran jumpers, plus loads of baby and child items for my family.

“So, between crochet projects I’ll whip up a couple of cute little cardigans”, I thought.

I thought wrong.

Maybe it was the yarn. Beautiful 4 ply Drops Baby Alpaca Silk which I’d had for years and never used. Lovely feel, but it felt finer even than 4 ply. Would it keep the babies cosy enough?

Maybe it was the colour. It was grey – school jersey grey. On trend for babies these days I know, but it did seem rather dull. I had even bought some matching little sleepsuits, (which I do like in the grey shades, I have to say).

Oh those tiny clothes. It makes it all very real. It’s been nearly ten years since our granddaughter was born, the last baby in the family, and holding the little sleepsuit brings it all back.

Maybe it was the pattern. I chose one on Etsy, and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s well written and simple, so I absolutely can’t fault the designer, but I can fault me. I mean, I can remember knitting something like that for my nephew when I was my granddaughter’s age, for goodness sake!

I could follow this pattern well enough, but my head just couldn’t get out of crochet mode, and my hands just did not want to hold knitting needles.

So the grey cardigan which was more than half finished, is now no more than a ball of rewound yarn!

And I’ve picked up my hook again, looked out some DK yarn and I’m going to whip up a couple of CROCHET cardigans this time! Wish me luck – I’ll maybe have something to show next month!

My You Tube Channel

My YouTube channel is HERE if you’re interested.

A big change for February is that I’ve decided to set all the videos on my channel to PUBLIC , meaning that they can be accessed by anyone.

Before this, I had some general videos for public viewing on the main page, but all the Playlists of pattern video tutorials were set as UNLISTED. This meant they were only accessible via a link published in the pattern.

So why change? Well, first I have to say that I’m doing it as a temporary experiment. Just in case it adversely affects my pattern sales.

Like all crochet designers, I invest a lot of my time on the patterns and videos.

Let’s say that in the weeks that I’m working on a pattern, I can spend many hours a day at the computer screen, the iPad screen and even my phone screen – all three at once usually.

The work is pretty intense, because I set myself publication deadlines that I feel duty bound to meet.

And then I do most of my own proof reading, with a lot of help from a very good friend who has a keen eye for spotting mistakes.

I believe that my patterns are worth the few pounds they cost (the price of a couple of coffees). So if the public videos result in some people thinking they can put a blanket together from the videos only, to save paying for a pattern, then I will have to think about putting them behind the wall again.

But for the moment, they are available for all to view. The reason I’ve chosen to do that is because there is a lot of information in them that I hope will be helpful to everyone, especially beginners to crochet.

And maybe, if someone likes the videos for a certain pattern, it might encourage them to go ahead and buy the pattern. That would be good!

The Cloud Cover Blanket

In my January Newsletter, I mentioned my new design, the Cloud Cover Blanket, and the fact that I was going to write up a pattern for it. I hadn’t initially intended to write one, but changed my mind in response to requests from my lovely followers on Instagram and Facebook.

It became my new project once the Beach Walk was finished, and has been my full time job for the last few weeks. Last night I put the finishing touches to the pattern and videos. Yay!

I’ll do a proper blog post all about it in a day or two, so I won’t say much about it here, but I will be publishing it in my Etsy and Ravelry shops VERY SOON.

Other February News….

EDINBURGH DAY TRIP

We live on the opposite side of the Forth estuary from Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh and it’s less than an hour by car over the bridge, although we usually just hop on the bus which passes the end of our farm road, and it takes us right into the city centre.

We try to get over every month or two, mainly to see art exhibitions and meet up with friends for lunch.

This time we were lucky. It was the most glorious day, far too warm for early February, but we weren’t complaining.

After that, a stroll along Princes Street Gardens past the Scott Monument with banks of crocuses in front, to meet our friends for lunch near Calton Hill.

Edinburgh is allegedly one of the most popular cities in the world to visit, and we are lucky to live so near.

Nearer to home, this amazing weather meant we had some glorious beach walks too. The high tide had been crazy during the storms at the beginning of the month, but it’s been placid and peaceful lately.

The sky is getting lighter in the evening, the morning birdsong has started and the spring bulbs are well through. Spring is on the way!

And lastly, we ended the the month with an extra day of course, a Leap Year Day. My dear husband took that literally, and tried to leap over a small wall on his way to collect our car from the local garage. He landed on his head of course, and caused great alarm when he walked into the garage with blood dripping down his face and arm, asking for something to mop it up. The manager thought he’d been mugged!

Before you ask, he’s OK. No concussion, just a cut on his eyebrow and a magnificent black eye! (No photo of it here, although I did take one to send to the family!!) And probably a bit of a bruised ego, poor thing.

Coming next month…..

is the all new version of the Shandon Blanket. I can’t wait to start work on it, especially as it’s in the new Yarnsmiths Pebble Haze yarn which I haven’t tried yet.

A lovely big bag arrived from Wool Warehouse last week and it was so tempting to launch right in, but I was strict with myself and put it away until the Cloud Cover pattern was finished. More on that later…..

And now let’s wait and see what else March will bring our way. No more black eyes, hopefully!

Happy crocheting,

Marion x