All About Crochet!

There's a new crochet magazine in the UK. Yay! I've felt there is a market for a new crochet magazine for a while now. We have so many knitting magazines but we only had one crochet magazines.

Simply Crochet is published by the same company that publishes The Knitter, Simply Knitting and Mollie Makes. As it shares a similarity in name I was expecting it to look similar to Simply Knitting but it's much more like Mollie Makes. It's modern and fresh. The projects seem to be mainly aimed at beginners and intermediate crocheters and there are some garments, accessories and home furnishings. My favourite designs in this issue is teh gorgeous blanket on the cover designed by Amanda Perkins and a beautiful beaded lace cardigan designed by Nicki Trench. 

There's an amigurumi pattern and an article on 'what is amigurumi' plus a feature on amigurumi designer Stephanie Lau.

The magazine also has in depth and clear tutorial pages which are perfect for crochet beginners or those who need a refresher. I'm looking forward to becoming a regular reader of this magazine and to see what future issues will reveal. I'm also hoping to have some patterns published by Simply Crochet but I haven't actually submitted any designs yet as I've been too busy but it's on my to do list.

Pop down to your local newsagent and pick up a copy today. 

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Talking about crochet, I've got 2 new crochet designs to kick off the new year. The first design is a beautiful little waist coat. The waterfall shape of this design, which is named after Becky Falls on Dartmoor, is popular and flattering. It's easy to customise Becky Falls.

This waist coat starts at the centre back and half the bck and one front is worked with a gap left for the armholes then the other side is worked in the other direction from the centre back.

A big thank you to Leni (aka The Fluffy Viking) for crocheting this garment last winter. She did a great job as always.

Thank you to Artesano for providing the Manos del Uruguay Serena used in this design. Becky Falls was originally commissioned for an online crochet publication and was due to be published last spring but the design was never published so I withdrew it so I could self-publish it. I hope you all like it. It's a fairly easy garment to work and the stitch pattern is fairly easy to get into too. Perfect to make now so it'll be ready to wear over long sleeved tops in the spring or t-shirts or vest tops in the summer. The Manos Serena is gorgeous (as all the Manos yarns are). It's a cotton/alpaca blend and between a 4ply and dk weight. It's very lightweight and soft to work with.

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Earlier this week, the Aliona crochet sweater was published. This design was first published on an online crochet website but there were a few problems with this publication so I withdrew my permission for them to sell this pattern so I could self-publish it. 

Aliona is a lovely, lacy sweater worked in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran which is a lovely soft yarn to work with. This is a warm sweater perfect for layering over long-sleeved t-shirts for winter. 

A big thank you to Debbie Bliss for providing the yarn. In fact, they sent me the parcel twice and I got to keep the extra so there may be more Cashmerino Aran designs soon.

 Alion has as imple shape and is worked in two pieces. The stitches for the sleeves are added to the front and back at the underarm and after the garment has been sewn up the big collar is worked. This pattern is suitable for intermediate crocheters.

Another big thank you to Leni (aka The Fluffy Viking) who crocheted this garment too.

Aren't the photos gorgeous? The talented Kat Goldin is the photographer and she's also a talented crochet designer. Kat has photographed 4 designs for me recently and I'm very happy with her photos and I'm hoping she'll be photographing more of my designs in the future. Thank you too to Kat's lovely model (although I'm sorry I don't know her name but she did a great job).

A big thank you to Joanne Scrace who tech-edited both these patterns. The Aliona top was a bit of a challenge to tech edit and I really appreciate all of Joanne's hard work and help in getting these two patterns in shape for publication. 

Do you crochet? If so what's on your hook right now? Tell me in the comments below.  I'm just about to start a new crochet design for a new publication. I'm just waiting for the yarn to arrive. I haven't crocheted in a while so I'm looking forward to getting my hooks out again.