The Big Tea Cosy 2017

The Big Tea Cosy 2017 The Big Tea Cosy helps to raise vital money and awareness for Breast Cancer Haven, a charity that provides free emotional, physical and practical support to anyone affected by breast cancer, from its centres across the UK. Love Knitting are helping to support this national fundraising campaign which will take place 1 – 7 February 2017 by providing all of us with knitting patterns, yarn etc to make some gorgeous knitted tea cosies ready for the event. They asked me if I would design a tea cosy knitting pattern specially for this event, I was totally honored to do this for Haven. Knowing that all proceeds for the knitting pattern will go towards this charity really touches my heart strings (and yours too hopefully).  De Fleurs Tea Cosy by Feminine Touch Designs

Browse my Pattern Now

To help this fundraising campaign, 10% from sales of any of my mug and tea pot cosy's will be donated to Breast Cancer Haven too.  The mug cosy's especially will make lovely last minute stocking stuffers, great little Christmas gifts.

Pre Christmas 2016 Give Away

I'm getting all geared up for Christmas, knitting chunky hats for my on-line stores, ordering yarn for knitting kits and making felt Christmas decorations for my local yarn shop. I wanted to find a way that I could get you, my blog followers involved in my Christmas get readiness. I thought that starting November off with a Giveaway might get you in the mood, especially if I could incorporate a festive coloured yarn in to the gift.  Here it is, my easy knit sock knitting kit in a festive scarlet red ! WoW!

The kit is suitable for an experienced knitter, as I don't explain any of the basics, assuming that the knitter knows how to cast on and off, knit and purl, can do short row shaping and decreases. What I do explain in the instruction is how to position your work on the double pointed needles, simple sock construction, when to do the short row shaping and decreases and why and of course the finishing Kitchener stitch. I wrote the instructions after only knitting a few pair of socks myself so I put my learning experience in to the instructions, including colour photographs along the way too. 

You could knit the socks ready for Christmas day, wear them yourself or gift them to a friend or family member or put them out for Father Christmas (I'm sure he would love these!). If you can't knit then wrap the kit up in Christmas wrap and put them under the tree x.

The Giveaway

Just answer the questions below for your chance to win one of these kits. The giveaway is only open for a week.

http://www.thefemininetouchdesigns.co.uk/thefemininetouchshop/prod_4951417-Easy-Knit-Walking-socks-knitting-kit.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My trip to YarnDale 2016

It was my 2nd trip to YarnDale in Skipton yesterday and I just want to say how awesome it was. I can totally recommend it anyone visiting the UK or even people living in the UK, come venture to the Dales! 




It was held in the Cattle Auction Mart in the lovely town of Skipton on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales (a really picturesque part of the UK). Only 40 miles away from my little village Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield so really a yarny event I couldn't miss!

They move all the cattle out of the mart for the weekend and then the woolly people set up stalls in all of the pens. Knit and Natter sessions as well as workshops are also catered for.  Of course the woolly people couldn't resist doing a little bit of yarn bombing with colourful woolly bunting outside and in. 

And then once inside the auction mart there was stall upon stall of gorgeous yarn, un dyed, dyed, hand spun, ready for spinning, gorgeous stunning colours, soft and luscious textures, ah I was in heaven.  The stall holders were only too happy to show us how to do things, so we learnt some new tricks, spinning and lucetting.  

We even made some woolly friends along the way.

 This Alpaca was a little star x 

Apparently we could only take photos after we had given him a BIG hug!

Lovely Sunday out in the Dales! 

Cables for the Home are trending now!

Cosy comfy cables are in trend, in gorgeous scrumptious colours or in neutral ecru cream , they truly bring your room to life. Look at my collection !

What do you think? dying to try your hand at cabling? or just want to buy one ready made? Either way you are on to a winner. 

I have ready made cable cushions available in my on-line shop, some in my range of un-dyed yarn , the British Blue Faced Leicester Aran yarn and others in a variety of colours. I am happy to knit any of my cable designs up in any colour you need to match your decor.  Just contact me here.

Want to give cabling a go yourself?  I have a knitting kit available, where you don't have to worry about finding the correct yarn as its already been chosen for you! 

Cable Cushion Knit Kit

and I also have a free knitting pattern, so you can use up some of your stash (like I did). 

free pattern

Hope you like cabling as much I do! Let me know won't you. Would love to know how you use cabling in your home. 

Want to learn how to knit socks?

http://www.thefemininetouchdesigns.co.uk/thefemininetouchshop/prod_4951417-Easy-Knit-Walking-socks-knitting-kit.html

Back in March I spent a few weeks on and off working on my 1st pair of socks and quickly  moved on to my 2nd pair!  For a few weeks I was totally addicted to socks and knitted a few pairs, one plain navy blue pair for payment for some joinery work, one stripy pair for a friend and a lovely snugly woolly pair for my cold feet (once the sun goes in they are instantly cold, brrrr). I always have a pair of socks on the go, stashed away in the glove compartment in the motor home so I can knit on my travels. 

Because I have just started to knit socks I thought I would turn my learning experience in to a selling point and create a sock knitting kit for the novice sock knitter, someone that likes knitting like me, has quite a bit of experience but has never tried knitting on double pointed needles, never mind tried all the techniques associated with sock knitting. 

Here's a snapshot of some of the techniques covered in full in my instructions.

Come along and try out the kit, its only £11 plus postage and that includes full instructions, 2 skeins of Aran yarn (approx 70 grams per skein) and the double pointed needles too. Some lovely colours to choose from. Great for you or buy for a friend. 

Baa Baa Brew used in one of my latest Knit Kits

Brighouse a town just 9 miles away from where I live has been a brewing; brewing lovely Bluefaced Leicester wool into some wonderful muted colour's.


What's more interesting is that Elaine of Baa Baa Brighouse has named the brews after an area of their town. 

Woodhouse, Thornhills, Rastrick, Hove Edge, Clifton and Brookfoot

They sell the Baa Baa Brew yarn in full 100 gram skeins and also a gift box of each of the colours in 25gram skeins.

I came across their yarn at my local yarn shop 'The Yorkshire Makery' on yarn shop day. I just had to have a gift box! 

And what did I do with those mini skeins? Well I incorporated one of them with some of the luxury yarns I now sell, the beautifully soft Baby Alpaca yarn. I worked up the finished piece using a slip stitch technique I absolutely love doing. Once you get your head round the technique and understand the charts then its a really easy knit. 

The finished result is this gorgeous 'Sprig' beanie hat. So luscious and soft for this winter. 

Its available for you knitters in kit form so you can knit your own. In the kit you get 100 grams Baby Alpaca DK. 25 grams of the Baa Baa Brew in your colour choice and full instructions. Obviously if you get stuck you can always come back to me, here or via email - thefemininet@aol.co.uk

Elaine from Baa Baa Brighouse is rather chuffed that I have used her yarn in this way. I think she plans to take a few kits herself to YarnDale this year. Maybe you will see her (and my knitting kit) there. Let me know if you do.

New Branding for The Feminine Touch Designs

Hopefully you will have noticed that I have a new banner to my blog. Yeh! Over the last year, my product range has expanded. I have gone from just selling my uniquely designed finished knitting accessories to selling the knitting patterns themselves. Then 6 months ago I started collaborating with my local yarn shop and had the opportunity to sell knitting needles & tools. The best move I made though was to put all those qualities together in the form of 'Knit Kits' just before last Christmas. It was the best thing for 'The Feminine Touch Designs'.

My new banner incorporates my new logo, one of my unique designs, knitted in the most feminine colour there is, with a pretty little feminine flower drawn on. It's a design I played with over a number of weeks and one I'm totally happy with for now. The words on my banner encapsulate what's available in my on-line shops today. Totally different to what is was 12 months ago.

It took me a while to realise that I needed to re-look at my branding , rehash the words I use to describe what I do / sell on my web site and on-line stores.

I had wanted to sell some luxury yarns (so soft and luscious. gorgeous to work with) in my local yarn shop and needed some product tags to attach to the skeins.

I wanted something clean and sharp that worked alongside the soft creamy yarns. I immediately thought of the logo design I had played with before and decided that to incorporate that with some pretty black writing explaining what I do NOW would be perfect.


I knew then, that if I created these product tags then basically I had to change my whole branding, my web site and blog, all my social media places, my packaging and promotional material. Everything now needed to gel together. Everything needed to communicate my brand. This was important to my business as a whole. Would show my potential customers that I was serious about my business and what I was offering.

The time was right too and I was just about to launch some new knitting kits with the luxury yarns.

So this week I launched some of the new kits with lovely pretty packaging which shows off the kits really well. It took me a little brainstorming to determine what I wanted the packaging to look like and even longer to find it, lol. I needed the boxes to be white, clean, sharp and sturdy to match the product tags. I wanted a clear cut out front, ideally flower shaped (which I found) to match the flower in my logo and I wanted pretty red and white ribbon.

 

I surprised myself by photographing the kits on a red cable background, a total change from the normal white background that I normally use, but I thought it was more consistent with my new brand now.

At the moment I'm feeling so proud of my new look x

Do you have a consistent brand to your business ? 
How did you go about creating it? 
What does your brand tell potential customers about your business? 
How does it make you feel about your business? 

Let me know in the comments below. Would love to know.

The start of my addiction to knitting socks

I finished my 1st pair of knitted socks last week! so pleased. 

It took me possibly 2 months each week at knitting group persevering with the 1st sock. The tiny DPN's that drove me mad, the thin yarn that I kept splitting and my inability to see the stitches correctly because I had chosen a dark purple to knit with didn't put me off but these things certainly slowed me down. Just before I finished the sock off I tried it on to see what the fit was like and I was amazed how it felt, fitted so snugly, felt so warm and cozy. Within a couple of days I had finished the second one, so I now have a pair!

I've been told because they are wool I can wear them more often than my shop bought socks before I wash them and that's what I've done, in fact I have them on now. 

It's taken me a week on and off knitting to finish my 2nd pair (said I think I was addicted). This time I picked a lovely lace sock pattern called "Hector" from the sock pattern book A knitted sock society. I had some Rowan Fine Art sock yarn  in my stash that just filled the bill. These knitted up really quickly, maybe because my love of lace knitting got me quickly up the leg of the sock or because I now knew the structure of the sock, knew how to create the heel flap, turn the heel and even the dreaded kitchener stitch to finish the sock didn't worry me. 

I can see more socks coming off my needles in the next few weeks , maybe a few new designs too. 

Free Pattern - Cable Lap Blanket

A stunning lap blanket 32” wide and 42” long, great for snuggling into. Knit with 2 x 400 gram balls of StyleCrafts Aran with Wool (worked double throughout). A lovely knit, easy wash blanket. Pattern can easily be adapted to make the blanket wider or longer. To widen, just increase the number of stitches in amounts of 30. To lengthen, just increase the number of pattern repeats (48 rows) you knit for the middle blanket section.

You can now buy this lap blanket, hand knit specially for you in your choice of colour.

Cable Lap Blanket £85 plus postage

NEW ! *** Buy the kit and knit your own lap blanket for £30 plus postage ***

Instructions

Cast on 96 stitches on 10 mm needles (35mm long), work with 2 strands of yarn.

Each row starts and ends with 6 knitted stitches. The cable pattern is 24 stitches wide and there is again 6 knitted stitches between each cable pattern [6 knits +24 pattern + 6 knits +24 pattern +6 knits +24 pattern + 6 knits].

The written instructions below are for all 96 stitches across the row. The charts just show the 24 pattern stitches. Use whichever instructions you feel comfortable with.

It’s imperative you keep track of what row you are on. I keep a note in a notebook AND move a “post it note ” down the page.

Start of blanket

Row 1: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 2: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 3: (K6, k6, p4, c4b, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 4: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 5: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 6: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 7: (K6, k2, c4f, p4, c4b, p4, c4b, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 8: (K6, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4) 3 times, k6

Chart for start of blanket

[Right side (RS) reads from right to left as you knit it, whereas the Wrong side (WS) reads from left to right. Row 1 starts on the RS. Each row starts with 6 knitted stitches and there are 6 knitted stitches between each pattern repeat of 24 stitches.]

Middle of blanket, repeat all 48 rows 3 times.

Row 1: (K6, k4, c4f, t4r, t4l, c4b, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 2: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 3: (K6, k6, c4b, p4, c4f, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 4: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 5: (K6, k4, c4b, t4l, t4r, c4f, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 6: (K6, k4, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 7: (K6, k2, t4r, k2, p2, c4b, p2, k2, t4l, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 8: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 9: (K6, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 10: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 12: (K6, k4, t4r, p2, c4b, p2, t4l, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 12: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 13: (K6, k2, t4r, p2, t4r, t4l, p2, t4l, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 14: (K6, k2, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 15: (K6, t4r, p2, c4b, p4, c4f, p2, t4l) 3 times, k6

Row 16: (K6, p2, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p2) 3 times, K6

Row 17: (K6, k2, p2, t4r, k2, p4, k2, t4l, p2, k2) 3 times, K6

Row 18: (K6, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 19: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 20: (K6, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 21: (K6, k2, p2, k2, t4r, p4, t4l, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 22: (K6, p2, k2, p4, k8, p4, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 23: (K6, c4f, t4r, p8, t4l, c4b) 3 times, k6

Row 24: (K6, k2, p4, k12, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 25: (K6, k2, c4f, p12, c4b, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 26: (K6, k2, p4, k12, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 27: (K6, k6, p12, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 28: (K6, k2, p4, k12, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 29: (K6, k2, c4f, p12, c4b, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 30: (K6, k2, p4, k12, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 31: (K6, t4r, c4f, p8, c4b, t4l) 3 times, k6

Row 32: (K6, p2, k2, p4, k8, p4, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 33: (K6, k2, p2, k2, t4l, p4, t4r, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 34: (K6, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 35: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 36: (K6, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 37: (K6, k2, p2, t4l, k2, p4, k2, t4r, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 38: (K6, p2, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p2) 3 times, k6

Row 39: (K6, c4f, p2, t4l, p4, t4r, p2, c4b) 3 times, k6

Row 40: (K6, k2, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 41: (K6, k2, c4f, p2, t4l, t4r, p2, c4b, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 42: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 43: (K6, k4, t4l, p2, c4b, p2, t4r, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 44: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 45: (K6, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p2, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 46: (K6, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p4, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 47: (K6, k2, c4f, k2, p2, c4b, p2, k2, c4b, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 48: (K6, k4, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, k4) 3 times, k6

Chart for middle of blanket

[Right side (RS) reads from right to left as you knit it, whereas the Wrong side (WS) reads from left to right. Row 1 starts on the RS. Each row starts with 6 knitted stitches and there are 6 knitted stitches between each pattern repeat of 24 stitches.]

Did you know ! Cables for the home are TRENDING NOW!

End of blanket

Row 1: (K6, k4, c4f, t4r, t4l, c4b, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 2: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 3: (K6, k6, c4b, p4, c4f, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 4: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 5: (K6, k4, t4r, t4l, t4r, t4l, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 6: (K6, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4) 3 times, k6

Row 7: (K6, k2, c4b, p4, c4b, p4, c4f, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 8: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 9: (K6, k6, p4, k4, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 10: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Row 11: (K6, k6, p4, c4b, p4, k6) 3 times, k6

Row 12: (K6, k2, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k2) 3 times, k6

Bind off.

Chart for end of blanket

[Right side (RS) reads from right to left as you knit it, whereas the Wrong side (WS) reads from left to right. Row 1 starts on the RS. Each row starts with 6 knitted stitches and there are 6 knitted stitches between each pattern repeat of 24 stitches.]

Knitting Tips for my new market

I started developing knitting kits a few months ago, my own unique knitting patterns alongside Stylecraft yarns. 

All packaged up, ready to send out immediately. I was amazed at the response over the Christmas period and beyond (yes they are selling well , now into January). 

I came to the conclusion that my target market is shifting slightly; away from those that love receiving well knitted, high quality knitted items from me, to those that want to reproduce those very same items or who want to give others the chance to recreate them. 

On Facebook ,you might have seen me change direction too, as knitting tips and exciting free patterns flow into my activity feed, I pass these on with a quick share, so my followers can learn and improve their knitting skills and can pass the knowledge on too. 

A friend of mine, said how much she enjoyed these tips that I was passing on and could I write some myself, she especially wanted some information on seaming.

 Well , yes of course I could but........... I think there is so much high quality information out there on the Internet that it seemed a shame to be wasting my valuable creative time re-writing something that had been written before. 

Yes , if I develop a new technique, a new way of doing something, then you will be the first to know!

In the meantime, why don't you take a look at my "knitting tips" page. This page I keep bookmarked so I can keep coming back to it. It's where I keep links to all the useful information I come across. It covers both knitting and designing. So take a peek, bookmark it yourself if you find it useful. 

And, here are some tips from Craftsy, a really useful 18 page document full of all those knitting stitches you need to know (just click on the photo above to get your free download).