Beaker Button Blog

Rainbow neck pillow www.beakerbutton.co.uk   ©Jen Best 2017 Patterns are for personal use only. We are happy for you to sell things you make from them but please credit Beaker Button. Abbreviations Kfb - knit into the front and back of the stitch, one stitch increased.   P2tog - purl 2 together (insert the needle in the next 2 stitches as if to purl, purl the two together) pm -   place marker sm -   slip marker sts - stitches  [....] repeat section as directed Tension: 20 sts x 24 rows over 10cm x 10cm square in stocking stitch using 4.5mm needles, 5 x 50m dk Beaker Button mini skeins (or similar dk yarn), yarn needle for sewing up, 2 stitch markers, 125g of stuffing. This pattern is knitted in the flat but is easier to work with circular needles.  Finished neck pillow measures about 30cm across from farthest points and 23cm from top to bottom. It is 11cm across. This can change depending on how firmly you stuff it. Co...

This is a quick post to say that I'm putting the blog on hold for a couple of weeks while I work on the new website. It's going to be all singing and dancing, the new site, so it'll be worth the effort.  I've posted I below for those of you following the Alphabet blanket pattern and will continue with J very shortly.  Thanks for your patience. this weeks chart My unblocked I

Some of you will know that Beaker Button has hosted two fabulous Felted Fairies workshops with Erica from Arts, Rush and Cane .  As this week is an F week I thought I'd share a little about the felting fairies experience. First I want to make clear this is not a felting tutorial.  It's merely me showing off our fairies. Erica is a brilliant teacher.  She has a knack for making you feel like things are going well, even when she's telling you what you've done wrong.  The fairies we've made are needle felted, and what's great about the class is that you learn several techniques which can be used for all sorts of felting projects.  Erica makes fantastic kits for felting your own fairies as well.  They're £14 and have everything you need including needles and foam.  We have 3 in stock at the moment.  Have a look below at the models for them. Your chart for this week is at the bottom of the blog.  Full instructions are here. We start with th...

This week has been a challenging, although interesting week.  I was pondering what to write today and it suddenly hit me the one of the nicer things about this week has been the singing.  I sing all the time, usually to myself or inadvertently to others if I happen to have an ear worm (for those of you who don't know there is a great description of ear worms here , although there are a lot of adverts on the page).   This week however I was reminded of the power of group singing.  On Tuesday night I had to go to a Wake, for a folky friend.  We spent the evening singing, with some hurried catching up with other friends in between songs.  Although the occasion was sad the hall was filled with the sound of our voices, all singing harmonies.  The sheer noise level was incredible, but with everyone singing together it was also beautiful and joyous and uplifting.  Pearl, who's wake it was, would have loved it. The whole evening felt like a fitting t...

I get asked a lot why the shop name is Beaker Button, so I thought I'd tell you all here.  Some of you will already know that I have a degree in archaeology.  When I was a child my Dad used to tell my brother and I stories about history and prehistory and I have very strong memories of the Beaker people (nothing to do with The Muppets!)  I also spent nearly 10 years working at Stonehenge and the Beaker people are thought to have built at least one of the phases of Stonehenge.  So who are the Beaker people I hear you ask? In my Dad's version they were a prehistoric people, named for the particular pottery beakers they made, who came to England and duffed up the local Neolithic population.  They built burial mounds, took over ancient monuments and generally lived it up until the next lot (the Celts) came over and duffed them up. Archaeologists, however, think they were a lot more peaceful and that Beaker people integrated well with the local population, helping ...

 Yesterday we took Short Round to Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.  If you haven't been I'd highly recommend it.  It's full of very well presented stuff, from old tools to childhood toys to pristine vehicles.  The history is brilliantly presented, with boards and audio tours.  They run a lot of events as well, which is why we were there yesterday.  The Legomania event has been running for a few years now.  Last year Short Round had one of his models on display (so proud!).  This year we got to make one of the panels in a giant picture of Lightening McQueen, and had a fascinating look around the hundreds of Lego models.  Short Round got to make a mini figure.  We got to spend time with my Mum, brother, sister in law and their kids too, which was lovely. The higlight of my day though had to be the Womble puppets and the knitted jumpers on the footballers in the penny arcade! I've added some photos to give you a flavour of our day. ...

As many of you know this week Beaker Button has been at Make It, Stitch It at Farnborough.  We had a stonkingly good time, and met some fantastic new button addicts.  It means that I haven't had time to prepare anything for today's blog, so I'm going to cheat. I've wanted to share this for a while.  Last time I showed you what the Tuesday Group did was a couple of years ago. For those of you who don't know, the Tuesday Group are a small group of ladies with learning disabilities who have taken to peg looms like ducks to water.  They brighten my Tuesday with gossip and laughter, and are frequently challenging me with what they want to make.  Between us we always manage to get their ideas to work.  Here are a few of the latest makes. The cheating part is the free coupon at the end of the post, for  one of my patterns on Ravelry here Jo with her owl Beryl's bracelet Karen with her owl Jo with her horse Beryl with her bear ...

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...

As some of you know I belong to a yarn bombing group called the Spitfire Knitters.  Mainly we make things and hang them round the town of Andover for people to take home.  We're up to no good again next weekend so I thought I'd share some yarn bombs from the past and give you a really easy heart pattern I've written for your own yarn bombing use.  If you'd like a PDF download you can find it on Ravelry here Really Easy Garter Stitch Heart www.beakerbutton.co.uk   ©Jen Best 2015 I used Adriafil Knitcol double knit for this star, and 3.5m needles. He came out about 10cm across.  You will also need some stuffing, a small length ribbon and a yarn needle for sewing up. Make 2 Cast on 3 Knit Kfb, kfb, K1 Knit Kfb, knit to last 2 sts, kfb, K1 Repeat last 2 rows until you have 25 sts. Knit 6 rows K2tog tbl, knit to last 2 sts, K2tog Knit K2tog tbl, knit to last 2 sts, K2tog  Repeat last row K2...

I'm writing a new book; my third.  This one is a knitting pattern book with 10 designs, all of which feature Dorset buttons.  I plan to have the first draft finished at the end of this year, which means getting the patterns written and samples made up in at least 2 sizes.  There will also be a lot of pattern testing to be done (and if you're interested in pattern testing for this book please get in touch).  I've nearly completed the first design, a cable hooded cardigan in Malabrigo Rio Jupiter.      I was feeling great about this design.  The pattern is working out well.  The yarn is knitting up as I'd envisioned.  The cable sits well where I want it and I've taught myself how to knit a border along the side.  All was going swimmingly until I hit the button holes.  Normally I'm good at button holes but this time I could not get them to look how I wanted.  Pattern writers block hit big style.  After strugg...