Friday 23 June 2017

Marsh Violet Crochet Blanket

Phew!!!!!!!
I've been offline all week due to all the computers in the house refusing to be connected to the internet.
I had intended to publish this pattern on Tuesday, in fact it should of been published a long time ago, but its the most un-photogenic blanket in the world and I've taken hundreds of photo's trying to get some good ones. I'm still not completely happy with these photo's, but they will have to do for now :-)

So without further ado here is Marsh Violet


Marsh Violet was inspired by the colours of the Marsh Violets that grow on Exmoor.


YARN & COLOUR
You will need 
550 gms of 4 ply fingering yarn.
The blanket is made using a collection of violet, lilac, pale magenta and pale copper colours. 
I have used 15 hand dyed colours  in total, the colours don’t need to be from the dye lot, so its the perfect blanket to use leftover  oddments from your stash
You can use any 4 ply yarns of the same or similar meterage, Alternatively if you would prefer to buy yarn I recommend the following yarns - Drops Alpaca, John Arbon Textiles Knit by Numbers 4 ply, Fyberspates Scrumptious & Vivacious 4 ply/fingering. Knit Picks Palette, Cascade 220 Fingering, King Cole Merino Blend.


YOU WILL ALSO NEED
Crochet hook in size 3 mm, or size needed for your tension.
A tapestry needle for sewing in ends.

SIZE 
The blanket measures approx. 46 x 40 inches.

Marsh Violet can also be made as a shawl, the pattern includes weights and measurements.


The pattern contains detailed colour and yarn recommendations 
Written and charted Motif instructions in US and UK terms. 
Step by step construction charts 
Full coloured layout charts. 
Colour & size variation charts.

You can find the pattern here....
and ETSY

Happy Crocheting
Love Amanda

Friday 16 June 2017

Deramores Shop & Blanket Kits

I'm really excited to tell you that the lovely people at Deramores have given me the chance to have a designer shop on their site.
At the moment its in the early stages of being built, but eventually my shop will contain lots of patterns, kits and yarn packs,
This means you will now be able to buy kits for a lot of my blankets,

I normally use several different yarn brands in a single blanket as I like how the different textures work together, so I have selected a variety of different yarns for the kits and yarn packs.
I know a lot of people struggle to find the right colours, so being able to buy a collection of the recommended yarns and colours is a perfect solution.


To find my shop simply click on the photo above which will take you to Deramores and then search for "Amanda Perkins"
You can also get to my shop via the Deramores logo in the sidebars of my blog.

The first blanket kit available is Kissing Circles, the kit contains a collection of colours from King Cole, Rico, Rowan and Debbie Bliss, all at a very reasonable price. :-)







Wednesday 14 June 2017

Shocked & Delighted - British Knitting & Crochet Awards

I was wandering around Facebook, catching up with the news feed and came across several of my crochet designer friends posting about being nominated for awards in the British Knitting & Crochet Awards. So I clicked the link to vote for my friends.

Towards the bottom of the page there is a category for Favourite Crochet Book, I was very shocked & delighted to find my book Rainbow Crocheted Blankets has been nominated :-)
I've never been nominated for a prize before, so I feel very honoured and proud to be recognised, its all very exciting.

So if you have a copy of the book and like it, I'd love it if you could vote for me.
If you take the time to vote, you are automatically put into a prize draw.

You can find all the details HERE


If you don't already have a copy of the book you can find signed copies of the UK version in my Etsy shop - HERE

Monday 5 June 2017

Getting back to normal

Its been such a long time since my last blog post, life is finally getting back to normal after our big move.
So I thought I'd give you a quick run down of whats been happening before I start regularly blogging again.

April 2017
We spent almost the whole of April packing and moving books to the new house, I spent my weekends in the new garden trying to tame the jungle before we moved in.
You might recognise the old NDS dye baths which have started a new life in the garden, firstly as weeding buckets, then used for bonfire containers and soon to be used for planting veggies


May 2017
We moved on the first of May


Since then we have been working hard to turn our new house into a home.
I am so happy its the first place we've lived in since 2010 when we lost our house that I truly feel is home, it needs completely redecorating, the owners are self employed and are so busy they didn't have the time to decorate, but that's ok because we can make it ours.


Phil has been decorating, he's almost finished the lounge, only another 7 rooms + 2 staircases/landings to do :-)


My favourite room is on the top floor, its not really a room more of a large area on the landing, its become my library and the view from the windows are stunning, The light is beautiful and I spend quite a lot of time surrounded by my books gazing at the garden.
The view from my studio isn't bad either.

My passion is the garden, I spend every spare moment I can enjoying the challenge of making it beautiful. The view from the top terrace is phenomenal, I can see the mountains of South Wales across the Bristol Channel and on a clear day you can even see wind farms up in the hills behind Swansea.


But don't worry I have been crocheting too, I've managed to finish 3 blanket wip's, now all 3 are ready to have their patterns written and be published.


The first one is Zigzag, I'm working on the pattern at the moment, the even better news is that I am working with Deramores to produce a kit.


The second two are Cote de Lynmouth and Marsh Violet, but lots more about them later.