Beaker Button Blog

We went to Unravel this Sunday and had such a good time I thought I'd write about it this week.  I save all year for Unravel.  I put £1 in my money box every time I take over £100 in the shop.  That way I have stash growing funds without having to feel guilty.  I went with Kay and met up with Mum, Debbie, Mandy and her friend.  Kay and I spent the day together, meeting up with the others for lunch and a well earned hot chocolate in the afternoon.  Our first sweep revealed some gorgeous yarns, beautiful fibres and an intriguing rug hooking kit.  Both Kay and I decided not to spend on the first run round. Sunday is a nice day to go as it's not so busy.  I had time to talk to the very nice people who supply Beaker Button with Soak (the perfect stuff for washing your hand knits, delicates, holiday clothes, Dorset button jewellery, blocking.... the list is endless), and I now have a bottle of Flatter to try. Flatter is for spray blocking (if you have...

I've been doing lots of knitting patterns in the blog so far, so this time I thought I'd give you all a button pattern.  I've just launched the first Beaker Button mini skein club, which is going great guns, and this pattern is perfect for one of my mini skeins. The button pattern I've given you is called Simple Yarrell Pendant and a link to the PDF can be found under the photo. Simple yarrell pendant Click here for the PDF last months mini skeins I also thought you'd like to see some of the yarn bombing hearts I told you about last week, in case you missed them on FaceBook.  These were left on the bridge in Andover for people to take away.  They all had little notes saying Happy valentines.

Right.  I realise it's been awhile.  I've been designing, going to shows and writing a book.  So this blog post is a shameless plug for said book. It's called......................(that was a drum roll in case you missed it) Dorset Buttons with a Twist.          Ta Da! For more information on the book have a look here It has 10 designs inspired by button brooches made in the 1930s and 1940s.  Each design is a piece of wearable art.  There is a brooch, hair grip, scarf ring, bracelet, shawl pin, pendant, key ring and a button.  I've posted photos below of each project.  It's available as an instantly downloadable PDF for £9  here   (Beaker Button's Etsy shop). I'm also running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to do a print run.  There are some great rewards on offer so if you'd like a hard copy or you simply want to support us (and thank you so much) have a look here (kickstarter page). Button ey...

I've been meaning to post this tutorial for a while, and this morning as I was lazing in bed I thought 'Ah ha, I could post that Ring tutorial for Mother's Day!'  So here it is.  Plus I get to use it as a blatant plug for our spankingly brand new button yarn, hand painted in my kitchen!   P.S. we have rings on our website if you can't find any ;-)  Thank you to Noelle for modelling the finished ring.   Flower button ring tutorial. Materials 1 brass ring about 1.5cm across, approximately 2m of Beaker Button hand painted button yarn , blunt ended needle, scissors. Materials There are four stages to making a Dorset Button on a ring.  Casting, Slicking, Laying and Rounding.  Change the amount of petals by varying the amount of spokes.  Remember that you must have an even number of spokes. Casting Have a length of yarn approximately 2m long. Tie the yarn round the ring in a single knot, leavin...