Baby Blue.

This week I completed a baby blanket as a commission for a friend.  She chose this lovely blanket made from a hexagon motif with a flower centre.  As the baby is a boy, we decided to make it in blue and cream yarn. 

 

 

The motif starts with a cream flower that is them built up into a hexagon shape with the blue yarn. 

 

 

 

The hexagons are joined into strip using a slip stitch seam and half hexagon on alternate strips to create a straight edge on the long side. Then the strips were joined to make the blanket and three rows of double crochet in alternating colours made up the border.

 

The finished blanket has a warm, thick feel and although it has a flower, it is still suitable for a boy.

I am ready for my close up...

I had a fab time this week at The Sewing Sanctuary in Thornton.  I went along to their Product Photography workshop to get some top tips on taking photos of my items.  It was very informative and I got to take a few photos while I was there.  Emily, who ran the workshop, was really helpful and showed us all sorts of little things that really make a difference to how you showcase your products.

Here are a few of the photos I took on the night ( though not my products!).

Working outdoors...Baby Blanket

The beautiful summer weather has come at last and my crochet has moved out of doors.  I love out door living and when the weather is nice we spend a lot of time outside in the garden.  Our little patio doesn't get much sun so it had to be warm to sit there but on hot days it is a beautiful, shady place to sit and crochet.

This weekend I started making a baby blanket.  A friend has asked me to make a blanket to give as a gift and that got me thinking about gender neutral baby wear.  These days, most people seem to know what gender their baby will be and it certainly makes planning for it much easier but some couples still choose not to know and making baby items in pastel shades of green and lemon can be a bit tedious.

I have had a couple of balls of Hayfield's Baby Changes colour phase yearn in my stash for a while, one in pink and one in blue.  This is a space died, variegated yarn that goes from the palest shade to a vibrant colour and back again and comes in 100g ball.  I decided to make a small blanket that used the pink and blue yarn combined with a white baby DK and chose the old favourite granny square motif. as usual I kept notes of the work and the yarn so I can remember how I did it.

The motifs had a white centre, then two round of colour finished with a round of white, 10 in each colour.  The changes yarn meant that each square had a different shade of the colour. 


Arranged so that the colour changes rippled across the blanket, the squares were joined with a dc seam.  I like to use this in blankets because it gives a nice checked effect and provided a strong seam.

The changing weather drove me inside at this point and this is still a work in progress.  Next stage is to give it a treble border with a band each of pink, blue and white.  the finished blanket will be small, car seat size but could easily be made bigger by adding more squares.

The finished effect will be of a lightweight, soft covering ideal for summer use in bright summer colours. 

Ideal for a boy or girl!

This week has been all about afternoon tea.  I have been making tea cosies and coasters in lovely summery colours.  The tea cosy is decorated with leaves and flowers inspired by the summery weather and the flowers in the garden.  The large flowers on the side are like the clematis flowers which are just opening in my garden.  The coasters are made in complimentary colours.

The tea cosy is made up with a double strand of double knitting yarn to make it nice and thick to keep your tea warm.  I make tea cosies from the top down in the round, like making a beanie hat, splitting it into two halves for the  holes of the handles and then joining again at the bottom.  This avoids a bulky seam that can spoil the look. The decoration is sewn on afterwards and there is a ring on the top,  a plastic ring crocheted over with yarn.

 

So excited!  My Etsy shop is now open!  Click here to take a look at what I have got to offer. And check out my Facebook page www.facebook.com/KatesDesignAndCraft or follow me on Twitter @KateNisbet

Inspired by our 'nearly' summer...

Funny what can inspire a new design.  This week I was inspired by a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, a random purchase from Ebay and some yarn bought months ago because the colours reminded me of a summer garden.  The result was the Camellia Tote Bag.
 

 

 

The random purchase from Ebay were some unbleached cotton tote bags, which I intended to embellish with crocheted flowers but when they arrived they weren't sturdy enough for this.  But as only £1 each I was sure I could find a use for them and  I thought that they would be ideal for a lining to a crochet tote bag.

 

During the lovely Bank Holiday weekend, I was  wandering in the garden and admiring the camellia tree, about the only thing in flower, when I remembered a cushion I had made sometime ago embellished with camellia type flowers.  Finding yarn in summer colours in my stash completed the inspiration process and as the rain came down on Monday I got to work. 

 

The camellia flower in the centre was surrounded by a large granny square in these lovely summer colours.  The straps are green, pink and cream and are embellished with little lilac flowers where they join the bag.

 

 

 

 

 

The outer layer and straps were hand sewn to the lining.  There is something very soothing about hand sewing, sitting at the table with the radio on.

 



 



For Sale...

I have been looking into selling some of my products but not really sure of the best way to go about it.

To begin with I need to know what will sell. Finishing a baby afghan for a friend made me think about baby gifts and after scouring through books and patterns for inspiration, came up with a simple baby bib design and matching bootees as the perfect gift for a new born.

 
 

 

 

 

The yarn is a cotton/acrylic mix making it soft absorbent and most importantly washable.  The bib fasten with buttons and is adjustable.  The two colour ways shown here are for a boy and a girl but I intend to make it a number of different colours.

 

 

The second product is a vintage style flower corsage.  Made of soft cotton yearns, these lovely items have a painted wooden button at the centre and a brooch pin on the back.

 

 

 

 

Both will be wrapped in tissue and gift boxed.

 

So now I need to decide the best way to sell them :)