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Sample Projects
Meet the Author
Hey there, can you introduce yourself?
I have been obsessed by crochet & colour my whole life, my ambition is to produce innovative designs which will excite and inspire my readers to pick up a hook and play .
I make blankets as they give me a big canvas to experiment with colour and shape.
I spent 12 years running The Natural Dye Studio my independent hand dyeing yarn business, I started designing crochet patterns as pattern support for the yarn, over the course of time the yarn became support for the patterns. So in 2015 I closed the yarn business to concentrate on being a full time crochet author.
I live in a small village, perched high on a sea cliff on Exmoor, Devon, UK, living in such a amazingly beautiful place inspires and influences a lot of my work.
Tell us a bit about the book?
The book contains 8 crochet blanket patterns for babies, toddlers or as lap blankets. The designs focus on colour and shape rather than texture and technique. The patterns contain illustrated step-by-step charts and colour and size variations providing a further eighty four designs to choose from.
The book contains information on techniques used, colour, sewing in ends and much more. The blanket designs are made using the basic stitches to create simple, crochet motifs, that fit together like jigsaw pieces.
Each blanket pattern is written in UK and US terms and has a motif chart, they also contain colour key's and placement charts, and takes the reader step by step through the entire construction process.
What was the inspiration behind it?
The book started off as a book of circle blanket designs inspired by Exmoor, but after watching my grandson Bert trying to pick the shapes off one of the blankets I decided to divide the finished circles blankets into 2 piles and write 2 books instead. This one for Bert and the second one will be Moorland Crochet Blankets and will be published later this year.
Which is your favourite project?
That's an impossible question to answer as I love them all for different reasons, so I'm unable to pick one.
What is your craft space like?
My flat is very small so I don't actually have a craft space, all my yarn is kept in our spare room and I write on the lounge floor with the laptop on my coffee table while the blankets are made on the sofa with the tv on as a background noise.
Have you always been creative?
Yes :-)
When did you first start crafting?
I don't remember as I've always made some kind of craft.
My granny taught me to crochet at a very young age, maybe 4 or 5. When my mother died I found she had kept a cross stitch sampler in her bedside cabinet that I had made when I was 6 at primary school.
Who are your crafty heroes?
Kaffe Fasset is my craft hero.
My favourite authors are Tolkien and Terry Pratchet, I love fairy story's and mythology. I also read a lot of non fiction history books and murder mysteries.
Where do you find inspiration?
I don't look, inspiration is all around me, my designs normally have several different inspiration elements. The one I'm working on at the moment is inspired by aboriginal art and the short fat lighthouses that you find on the devon coast, also contrasting and traditional lighthouse colours.
What's next for you?
Moorland Crochet Blankets which is the second book of my circle blankets designs.
A big motif project later on in the year incorporating a CAL and club, culminating in a crochet motif book.
And a second baby blanket book for my new grand baby due to be born in 9 weeks time.
Publisher's Description
Eight gloriously modern, stunningly vibrant, crochet blankets for babies, toddlers & your own inner child.The blanket designs focus on colour and shape rather than texture and technique. This stunning book contains illustrated step-by-step charts to creating eight vibrant blankets, with colour and size variations providing a further eighty four designs to choose from. The book contains information on techniques used, colour, sewing in ends and much more. The blanket designs are made using the basic stitches to create simple, crochet motifs, that fit together like jigsaw pieces.Each blanket pattern is written in UK and US terms and has a motif chart, they also contain colour key's and placement charts, and takes the reader step by step through the entire construction process.