My blog is moving....

Hello,

My new website is now live and I am moving my blog there.  If you follow on this site please now bookmark, www.alicraftsdesigns.co.uk for all future updates. Thank you.

On my new site you can now buy all my patterns in PDF format online.  I will also be adding You tube videos and free patterns as soon as I can.

Alison
x

News Update

Good Morning

Lovely bright frosty morning this morning.

This week my daughter gave me her partworks  Crochet collection to finish!! hmm to start really….. she only had 3 squares started, so that has been this weeks work to try to get it up to date, unfortunately there are 71 issues so far, I have managed to get 32 squares finished. It makes a change for me to follow someone else instructions, I am enjoying making them. It gives me an opportunity to see how other people write their instructions and to try different yarns, I don’t like the acrylic yarn that has come with the instructions as much as Stylecraft’s Special DK.

Stylecraft is so much softer.

Website news

We have been very busy building a new website and organising a shop to sell downloads.

I hope that this will be ready soon. I was very surprised at how many designs I have actually done, all of them need to be added to the new products pages.

Oh joy, that is my job and I am so slow at adding things. I have to check and double check and I still get it wrong…….  🙁

New Doll

Wisteria, a new doll is now ready for selling these are the colours that I have used for her.

Emperor, Wisteria, Soft Peach, Mocha and Lime, these colours are available in my wool store Wool to Your Door

Stylecraft Special Double Knitting is £1.70 a ball

Her pattern is available for sale as a PDF Pattern on Etsy and costs £2.40


New Blanket

Update on my new blanket it has been slow progress. So far I have 4 panels finished, the last panel has taken a while to do because I have worked from a chart.

This needed to be entered into a graph so that you will be able to follow the pattern. Another process for me to learn.

I think that I may do 6 panels, the next one I plan to start today, because Phil is out this evening.

Pattern editing awaits, I must not procrastinate any longer, I could stop here blogging it is much easier.

Happy crocheting

Ali xxx

Wool to your door

Hello,

I just wanted to do a little post about my online shop, Wool to your door.  When I first posted about it I didn't have all the products added yet which I have now done. I have added Stylecraft special DK, classique cotton and many other yarns.  I have also added hooks and yarn packs.  In addition to this, I have a number of sale items listed.

We currently have FREE delivery on all UK orders over £20.  I am looking into international postage costs so that will be coming soon.  Please email if you would like me to send internationally and I will get back to you with a price.

All wool is stored in a pet free, smoke free house and away from direct sun light.

Hurrah

A lovely bright but frosty day here today.

Firstly I have had a really productive week this week on my works in progress  (WIP)

Beading

I have worked a bauble kit that I have had for some time bought from Spellbound Beads and finished the tea light cover for this year. My design..

As well as designing some tiny baubles for my classes and workshops...

Christmas Tree

This is still a WIP, and I still have glue everywhere, on the plus side most of the pieces of card are covered with fabric, I only need to glue them together.  ohhh gluuuuuue.
I used to make boxes years ago and never used any glue at all. The fabric was always stretched and laced around the card shapes, then the card shapes were sewn together.

Crochet

I am making more of the flowery shape just to see how many can be worked from the 5 balls that I have chosen to use. Colours used in no particular order at all.
It is Three Bears Yarns called Affection which is a cotton 4ply yarn in 50gram balls.

New website

Finally I have been taking photographs of my stock of yarn from Stylecraft and adding them to the shop on my new website Wool to your door, more colours are being added daily.

This seems a never ending job because there are over 60 colours.

I use Stylecraft because of the colour range for my dolls and toys. It is 100% acrylic, washable, comes in 100gram balls and is lovely and soft to use.

Abbie

Holly

Persephonie

I hope that you are all keeping warm and well

Take care in this frosty weather

Ali xxx

Finally back on track

Good morning

I hope that you are all well on this miserable day, pouring with rain, dark and cold here in the north again.

I really feel much better this week, back in to doing things at last, here are a few of my projects at the moment...

Bright blanket

The blanket I started to work on at the NEC show is finished, it is the bright blanket pattern using different colours.

I have also started to make a piece of beading for this years tea light design, the pattern has been done for some time and the ladies in my class have been working on them so that they will be done for Christmas, I have not made a sample one for a few years.

Caught up on my knitted squares from Simply Stylish knitting as well, working the continental way of knitting has really speeded up my knitting progress and now I like to do these small squares, not sure yet wether I would prefer knitting to crochet as knitting still seems slow to me.  Sorry to any knitters out there......

I have also started a Christmas tree kit from Pinflair which I bought a few years ago, I have not had time to start it until this week.

So far so good... I have not made too much mess yet, I am not very good with glue, it gets everywhere. This is the first time I have used bookbinding glue and it seems to be very easy to use, and a lot less messy.

Last night I started on a new design, it started out as  a doll and has ended up as a square, the doll is shelved, oh dear I thought that the brains were back in gear, perhaps not quite.

Finally not crochet related but I went to my local WI yesterday and enjoyed the talk very much. 

Pat had designed and made beaded flags and flowers from over 30 countries.  

Just amazing !!!

She was also selling these lovely trees and flowers in tiny pots for charity

Oh dear just look at the time it is almost 10am, I have a pile of ironing to do before I can do any fun stuff,

keep warm and crochet !!!!

Ali xxx

Another week gone !!!

Hi

I can't believe another week has flown by since I last wrote the blog.

The roofers are still here and it looks like an industrial landscape with all the scaffolding.

I have not been doing much crocheting, just making lots of tea, easy you would think, but I don't drink tea or coffee, so I don't have the skills for tea making. they keep asking for more so it can't be too bad.

I have been working on a small sample of crochet using a lovely yarn.

It is called Cosy Soft Prints by Ella Rae, it has a 25% content of wool and is beautifully soft.

I have been using a combination of UK half trebles and slip stitches with a 5.00 hook and I love how it is making patterns. It costs about £5.95 for a 100gram ball, I think I will have to see if I can find some more.

Looks like it might be time for more tea making.

Before I go last week I asked if anyone would like to try my new blanket to test the pattern and I only had one lady ask 

Please contact me by email ali.crafts@ntlworld.com if you are interested.

Thank you...

Happy days

Alison

Stockton and Fireworks

Hi

Another lovely morning here in Stockton, we really have had the most amazing summer this year in the UK.
Our garden is still full of flowers, I hope that it stays the same for the next week.

The yellow dahlia is the size of a dinner plate.

We are having more work done on the house, Phil and I have been here for over 33 years, so I guess that things don't last forever. This time its the soffits and gutters and a new automatic garage door.

We really need the garage door I can't open it now it is too heavy. I need to get in there to sort out the things I still have left to sort.... The story of my life too much stuff and not enough room.....

I will be adding a new patten to my shops on Etsy and Ravelry today. It is called Firework shawl.

I was wondering if anyone would like to try my Stockton Squares Blanket it is ready for testing, so it might not be perfect, I will send a copy to the first 5 people to email me on ali.crafts@ntlworld.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you...

Happy crocheting...

Alison xxx

Stylecraft Yarn Sales

Good Morning

Well its been another busy week here in Stockton, the instructions for the new Stockton Blanket are nearly ready to go to be tested. I have decided to sell a pack of yarn the same as for Bright blanket , six balls and your choice of colours with either free pattern for Bright Blanket or free pattern for the new blanket. I will keep you posted when the new one is ready to go.

I have also promised Phil that I will clear out some of the overstocked yarns I have stored everywhere here at home.
So I have an Ebay shop for that purpose it is ali.crafts22.16 click here to see what is available. 

Once they are gone they will be gone, thank you for looking.

I have Stylecraft Vision, and Special Aran and will be adding more as soon as I can, so keep checking the store to see if there has been any new stock added.

I have been looking for some inspiration for a Tatting workshop that I am doing in January for a local lace guild and found this book among all the others in my library!!!  its just the spare bedroom.

I keep all kinds of books there from tatting, Hardanger, knitting, embroidery, scrapbooking, card making, patchwork  and lace to name just a few subjects, all my crochet books are on shelves downstairs. 

I am afraid I love craft books and can't bear to part with any, I tried a while ago and found that they were selling for coppers and it was not worth trying.

I think that it was because I used to work in the library in Stockton that I am really addicted to books.

The book is called The Country Diary book of Crafts by Annette Mitchell

Guild Publishing, London., it was published in 1985.

The patterns include knitting, crochet, cross stitch and more. Here are some of the crochet patterns  from the book. I love how the fashions change for jumpers, but the shawls and children's dresses could still be used today. This book can still be found second hand on Amazon.

I am going to add some more wool to the shop, I hope that you all have a super week..

Happy days

Alison xxx

Another Holiday

Hi

Beautiful morning this morning, I hope that you are having  a good day as well.

Last week was my Daughters birthday, we spent from Monday to Friday at Center Parcs, Whinfell Forest, it was a lovely week, the weather was fine and our Grandchildren really enjoyed themselves.We did lots of walking and visited the play park and soft play, George like catching Pokemon on his phone and Oliver loves the play areas.

I was working on the next blanket, during our holiday, now I have to type up the instructions and make another one to test them.

I have almost used 6 x 100grams of Stylecraft Double Knitting yarn
available in packs from my Etsy shop for your choice of colours, select that option and let me know which you would like.

The packs for the bright blanket will be enough yarn for this one.

Each pack cost £12 + VAT which includes postage and packing.
If you want to buy a pack ready to start this one please let me know which colours you would like.

I hope to have the pattern ready soon...

Don't forget Thursday is the Day for the next Square in the Blanket we started in March and also another flower pattern...

I will have to go and get one designed.

Hope you are having a lovely day..

Happy Crocheting.

Alison xxx

Catching up and bead weaving

Good morning,

Well, it is for the moment the sun was shining this morning.

My bead weaving workshop at Cleveland Lace Guild seemed to go very well last Saturday.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my mobile phone so could not take any photos, I have been to that group for some time teaching all sorts of things, crochet flowers, hardanger embroidery, hairpin crochet to name a few.

The next one is in January next year and is to be tatting,
I think that this one will be a challenge because it takes a while for most people to understand how the stitch is made.

My crochet work this week has been to catch up with Fridas Flowers,
the Stylecraft CAL, before todays final part is issued, I made it, I just have 2 pieces to add, they are ready to join so that tonight I will be able to start the borders.

I may not be able to get my blog done next week because we are getting a new bathroom and downstairs toilet, it may depend on when they need the electricity turning off. So please bear with me I will write one when I can.

My jobs for today are ironing yuk.......  and sorting out 2 of my craft drawers.

I guess I will find lots of things that I have filed away and forgotten about.

I am also being at home incase I have to pick up my Grandson from his school trip they are going to the beach and he does not like the sand.

And finally I might get a bit more of the garden pulled out if it doesn't rain later.



I hope you all have a lovely day

Ali xxx

CAL July

Good morning the 5th part of my CAL for July is now ready

You can click here to go to my website  for the PDF

I hope you enjoy this square

Ali xxx

Books, Garden and Wool

Hurrah !!!

Not late this week, I have been busy today getting the bookkeeping up to date, I really like to get it sent in as soon as possible, unfortunately I don't like doing it.
I don't have a lot to do just sales and classes, but there is too much expenditure on wool, but you can never have enough can you.

I always seem to run out of the colour that is needed, I have had to place an order with Stylecraft this week because I sold the last of the black Classique cotton on Wednesday.

For those of you who don't know me, I stock all of Stylecraft Special Double knitting yarn and Classique cotton as well as a small supply of 4ply cotton from Patons.

If you ever you need some yarn, please email me at ali.crafts@ntlworld.com and I can send an invoice for you to pay.

The Special dk is £1.70 a ball with £2.80 postage for up to 9 balls or free postage for 10 balls or more.

Enough of the boring stuff....

Phil and I have been busy working on the garden for the last few weeks it was very overgrown so we have removed some shrubs and bushes, basically to start again.

 Sorry about the bad pictures but I think that it is raining so I took them through the window, guess what the window cleaner has just been this morning as well.


I am working on 2 shawls at the moment, both the same pattern with 2 different yarns, one is brightly coloured Stylecraft Special and the other pale pink 4 ply cotton

Oh my its nearly 2.00, I've not eaten any lunch yet, I think I better go and find something, I thought I was hungry.

See you again next week

Ali xxx

Free Crochet Flower for June

Free Flower for June

Hi I am sorry that I forgot to add the free flower pattern for June, I think my head must be in the clouds. I think I need to sun to shine, we have had a miserable week here in the North East of England. It has been dark and very cold..... Brrrr.......

I have added it to the free flower page on my website,

please click on the link below to go directly to the free pattern pages.


http://www.alicraftsdesigns.co.uk/free-patterns/


Happy crocheting
Alison xxx 

Part 4 Crochet Along

Good Morning

For those of you who were waiting for the blog yesterday I am sorry that I did not get one done, I had a pretty busy day.

Today is the day for part 4  of my crochet along  for June.
I think I have added rather a lot to this month because the finish month will now be January.

I promise that this is the last month of the little fiddly squares.

Here is the link to my website www.alicraftsdesigns.co.uk
If you prefer Ravelry Click Here

Good Luck with this one and I would love to hear how you are getting on.

I have created a Pinterest page of any pictures that I get for the CAL

https://uk.pinterest.com/alicrafts22/crochet-cal-alicraftsdesigns-2016/

There are some lovely colours, if you don't mind me using your pictures please send them to me so that I can add them as soon as I can, thank you..

I went to visit my Aunt who is in a care home in Knaresborough this week and found this crochet blanket on her bed, I don't know where it is from but I thought that the colours really brightened up her room.

I love the idea and might work on something like that later on in the year, if only to use up some of my oddments of yarn.

I have also been working on some gift and shopping bags this week 

The pattern will be available soon...    I hope !!!!  I've been very lax at writing up any new patterns and have had a month off designing crochet.

I have even managed to go back to designing some bead weaving I have not done any of that for ages. 

I must go now, I am doing an extra workshop for my ladies today, they will be here soon.

Happy crocheting 

Ali xxx