Crochet-a-long blanket workshops

Ever since Caroline had the idea to run a 6 week crochet-a-long blanket workshop with our new Rowan Yarn we have been inundated with requests to repeat the workshop!

One group even insisted on a follow up 6 week workshop wanting to learn 6 new designs

Here are the results from the first workshop using the beautiful Rowan Aran Yarn

We then went on to use the Rowan Worsted for a brighter mix of colours

Watch this space for a new workshop with yet another of our fabulous yarns being featured...

The Mollie Makes Handmade Awards 2014

We are excited to share with you that Mollie Makes has launched the inaugural Mollie Makes Handmade Awards to discover and celebrate the most exciting new UK designers in the handmade community, who are turning their hobbies into careers.

More and more creatives are turning their backs on their previous lifestyle to make their passion a career. Mollie Makes, the UK’s number one contemporary handmade title, is launching its first ever awards to celebrate these modern-day designers, and help others turn their hobby into a business. The Mollie Makes Handmade Awards are about discovering, celebrating and showcasing the work of some of the best designers in this growing handmade community.

More people are crafting than ever before.

● 71% of British females said they had taken part in a craft activity in the previous year.

● There are now 17.4 million women taking part in these activities, up 11 % on 2011.

● Of the 7.1 million British women who have tried a new craft in the last 12 months, 41% of them were aged under 35.*

● And increasing numbers of designer makers are looking to make money from their handmade products.*

Some of the most popular crafts are: Knitting (7.2m), Card making (5.8m), Home décor sewing (4.8m), Paper crafting(4.7m), Jewellery making (2.9m).

Katherine Raderecht, Head of Lifestyle at Future, says: “Contemporary handmade crafting is a thriving scene and Mollie Makes is at its centre. As more and more young people are getting involved – and using their creative talent and skills to start businesses and social enterprises we wanted the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards to celebrate their achievements. And we’re so pleased to have a stellar array of judges and involvement from John Lewis, Etsy, the Guardian, Crafty Fox Market, Sew Over It and Lisa Levis London.”

Prizes on offer include a day with Etsy getting business advice on everything from digital marketing to setting up an Etsy store,mentoring sessions with Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It and designer Lisa Levis, £500 prize money and coverage in Mollie Makes. All entrants will receive a free Etsy store listing, for their first 20 products, and 30% off Moo business cards.

The five categories in the awards are:

● The Youth Award

● The Start Up Award

● The Established Business Award

● The Social Enterprise Award

● The Creative Idea Award

The judging panel consists of:

● Matt Doris – Leader of Etsy’s International Community Programmes team

● Vanessa Bowerman – Buyer, Haberdashery, Crafts & Fabrics, John Lewis

● Kate Carter – Life and Style Editor for The Guardian

● Emma Jones – Founder of Enterprise Nation, business expert and author

● Sinead Koehler – Founder of Crafty Fox Market

● Lisa Comfort – Owner of Sew Over It

● Lisa Levis – Designer/Creative Director

The judging panel will be chaired by Lara Watson, Editor of Mollie Makes.

Lara adds: “Since Mollie Makes launched three years ago it has established itself as the number one choice for this new generation of designers. Mollie is at the heart of this flourishing community, reaching over 300,000 creative individuals, and showcasing the best designers and makers. We are so excited to discover the next generation of design talent through the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards.”

Competition entries close on May 25. The winners will be decided at an event on 11 June at the Proud Archivist in London.

To enter the Mollie Makes Handmade Awards click here.  

Good Luck!

A butterfly bright girl's bedroom!

Baby Isaac is growing up fast and will soon be out of his moses basket so it was time for a mass bed shuffle in the Nurton household.

We decided to invest in bunk beds for the girls - but cleverly these beds will operate as two single beds until they are old enough to use them as bunks as they are still a tad young to be climbing up steep ladders for bedtime.

Nanna and Grandpa offered to take the girls to the play park to give us the time we needed to get through this little lot...

...so we set to work - thank goodness for power tools!

Several hours later the beds were all ready for two very excited little girls who immediately leapt in to test them out! 

The quilt on the left hand bed was a christening present made by our wonderful patchwork tutor, Sue Morse, and the quilt on the right hand bed was the one I made on Sue's 10 week beginners course a few years ago. 

The rug, wallpaper and bed cover set are all from Laura Ashley 

and the beds are from Childrens Bed World.

Of course you have to leave the finishing touches to the little people!

night night!

Grab a beautiful bargain at The Vanilla Squirrel!

we just spotted that The Vanilla Squirrel are having a sale on absolutely everything in their Etsy Shop

If you haven't had a look at this gorgeous blog you are missing out!

Vanilla Squirrel - Kokeshi art dolls

These cute dolls have a little been embellished with a few items from Butterfly Bright!

The cutest Vanilla Squirrel Easter bunny

Enjoy!

Yarn Shop Day at Butterfly Bright - Saturday 3rd May 2014

On Saturday 3rd May yarn shops across the UK will be celebrating Yarn Shop Day and here at Butterfly Bright we have lots planned!

The event, the first of its kind, is supported by the industry and with extensive media coverage from Lets Knit, Lets get Crafting, CraftBusiness, Homemaker and Crafts Beautiful magazine, its set to be a great day.

Here at Butterfly Bright we are delighted to be hosting a Rowan Professional Finishing workshop with the wonderful Avril Best (please click on the link for more information and booking).

We will also be holding drop in knitting and crochet demonstrations:

10.30-11am Free 'crochet Granny Squares' demonstration with Caroline
11.15-11.45am Free 'knitting in the round' demonstration with Caroline

We also have a huge number of special offers for one day only:
Enjoy a 15% discount on ROWAN yarn all day

Grab a bargain with end of bolt fabrics reduced by 40%
Treat yourself with a 20% reduction on all fabrics including new ranges.

FREE Prize draws
You will be entered into the YARN PRIZE DRAW with any purchase of yarn on 3rd May - the prize is a goody bag of 6 balls of Stylecraft yarn, a pair of knitting needles, a crochet hook as well as a stylish canvas shopper.

We will also be having a FABRIC PRIZE DRAW. You will be entered into this prize draw with any purchase of fabric on the 3rd may. This prize consists of 4 fat quarters from this new range from Michael Miller.

So why not pop in for a browse or stop for a cuppa and a cupcake and enjoy the free demonstrations!

Patchwork & Quilting for Beginners

In the three years we have been open our most popular workshop has been the 10 week course "patchwork and quilting for beginners".

It was the first workshop I took part in and I was soon hooked once I realised the secret to lining up all those corners. I have made several quilts for my children and they love using them in the house and in the garden I find they add a splash of colour where ever they are put!

 Sue Morse is our amazingly talented tutor - just look at the beautiful quilt she made for my son's christening present

Here are just a few of the lovely quilts that customers have made over the years - so many of them have gone on to make more and more intricate and beautiful quilts and we love seeing the projects that customers manage to complete after starting with this basic beginners workshop.

In may 2014 we start a fresh course so if you are interested in starting a new hobby please call us on 01935 817303 or email handmade@butterflybright.com

You can also book online on our main website.

Knitted new born baby hat

We have a monthly column in the Sherborne Times magazine and Caroline has yet again come up with a beautiful knitting pattern this time for a new born baby hat

As my new born is both a boy and not really new born any more we had to use dolly for a spot of modelling!

Here is the pattern:

Cotton Mix Baby Hat

Duo Plus by Adriafil, is a sumptuous blend of cotton and wool (50/50) it knits up to a double knitting weight. It is perfect for spring and summer babies that still need a little protection from the cold. This hat is knitted for a newborn size.

 You will need

1 ball of Duo Plus
1 pair of 3.25mm needles (UK 10)
1 pair of 4mm needles (UK 8)
a tapestry needle for sewing up
1 small button for embellishment

 
Cast on 63 stitches using the 3.25mm needles

Rows 1 – 15

(K1, P1) repeat to end of row
This will create the moss stitch band

Change to 4mm needles and commence stocking stitch (knit one row, purl one row) until piece measures approximately 13cm (5 inches) ending with a purl row.

Begin decreasing for the crown.
Row 1, (k6, k2tog) repeat to end (55 stitches)
Row 2, Purl all stitches (all wrong side rows)
Row 3, (k4, k2tog) repeat to last stitch, k1 (46)
Row 5, (k3, k2tog) repeat to last stitch, k1 (37)
Row 7, (k2, k2tog) repeat to last stitch, k1 (28)
Row 9, (k1, k2tog) repeat to last stitch, k1 (19)
Row 11, (k2tog) to last stitch, k1 (10)
Row 12 (p2tog) to end (5)

Cut yarn leaving a long enough tail to sew up, using the tapestry needle thread through the
remaining 5 stitches and pull up tight. Turn the hat inside out and sew up the side seam, remember to reverse your seam when you get to the moss stitch section.

Embellish to your taste, here we added a crochet flower and button to finish the hat off.

Do send us a picture if you make one!

Daisy's first sewing machine project!

Daisy is 4 and a half.

Sometimes my heart sinks when she asks to do painting (other mums will understand the mess involved!) so when she finally asked to do some sewing she didn't have to ask twice!

I let her choose some fabric from my stash, pink is a firm favourite in her book so these two were an easy choice. A classic pale pink gingham from Makower fabrics and a bright a cheery heart print from Riley Blake's Sweetcakes collection.

We practiced a bit of maths with the cutting out and then the 'boring' ironing bit where we attached the interfacing for added strength.

The trapezoid was a new shape for Daisy to learn and finally the sewing.

It was Caroline who gave me the idea to get Daisy to press the peddle whilst I steered and she loved helping with this although it did make her hand tired!

It was slightly chaotic to do this during the day time with ,my two year old also trying to 'help' and my 3 month old baby threatening to end our creative session with the occasional grumble, but we ploughed on and the finished result was a delight for Daisy to behold!

Let me know if you spot the 'deliberate' mistake, this comes from trying to sew surrounded by tiny folk!

If you'd like to try this for yourself you can find the pattern and instructions on this blog called Make it & Love it

Crochet Easter Eggs

Recipe for Crochet Eggs

Ingredients
Rowan Cotton Glace in a choice of spring shades, we chose Ecru (725), Shell (845) and Shoot (814)
3mm crochet hook
Some polyfil toy stuffing
Tapestry needle


Method
Ch3 and sl st to join in a ring
Round 1 – 5dc in ring
Round 2 – 2dc in each stitch (10dc)
Round 3 – (2dc in next st, dc in next st) repeat 5 times (15dc)
Round 4 – (2dc in next st, 1dc in next 2 st) repeat 5 times (20dc)
Round 5 – (2dc in next st, 1dc in next 3 st) repeat 5 times (25dc)
Rounds 6 – 9 1dc in each st (25dc)
Round 10 – (dc dec*, dc in next 3 st) repeat 5 times (20dc)
Round 11 – dc in each st round (20dc)
Round 12 – (dc dec, dc in next 2 st) repeat 5 times (15dc)
Round 13 – dc in each st round (15dc)
Round 14 – Stuff the egg. (dc dec, dc in next st) repeat 5 times (10dc)
Round 15 – (dc dec) repeat 5 times. Thread yarn through the remaining 5 stitches, pull the yarn
through the top of the egg to finish off.
You can also add a matching ribbon to hang the egg on your easter branch.

*dc dec – insert hook in 1st stitch, yarn over, pull up loop, insert loop in next stitch, yarn over, pull
up loop, yarn over, pull through three loops on hook.

The Sherborne Artisan Market - April 2014

We held the first Sherborne Artisan Market for 2014 last weekend and it was a beautiful day to showcase all of the amazingly talented stall holders.

You can see a full gallery of pictures from the day on the main Sherborne Artisan market website but here are a few of my favourite ones!

We have three more markets in 2014

Saturday 12th July
Saturday 11th October
and
Sunday 7th December - which is the same day as the Festive Shopping day in Sherborne!