Beaker Button Blog

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

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...

 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. ...

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.

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...

It was my Mum's birthday today, so yesterday Short Round, Mum and I headed to Baiter Point in Poole for a picnic and a wander on the beach.  We're borrowing a friend's dog at the moment so she came too.  The sea and sky were very stormy so I managed to take some nice shots of the sea, and birds and shells.  I'd like to turn the shell photo into a felt picture. This is also the last post for our mini KAL, with instructions on how to put it together.  You've probably guessed from the post title that it's a mobile.   You will need two metal hangers, 75cm ribbon and duct tape .  The pattern and instructions are below.  If you'd like a PDF of the whole pattern including instructions for the mobile it's on Ravelry here Sleepy Sheep www.beakerbutton.co.uk   ©Jen Best 2015        I used Petlake Alpaca double knit for sleepy’s body and 3.5mm straight needles.  I used blac...

We went to my brothers for dinner on Saturday, which was lovely.  I was tasked with bringing a pudding, so while Short Round and I were shopping in Waitrose Saturday morning I spent a goodly amount of time searching through their delicious looking puddings for something without milk in (Short Round can't do cows milk, it makes him incredibly snotty).  Of course, everything, absolutely everything, has milk in so I resorted to an old favourite that my Mum makes.  She calls it Zebra Pudding.  I substituted normal natural yogurt for Goats milk yogurt (2 large tubs) and muscovado sugar for plain soft brown sugar (2 tablespoons full).  I like runny honey in mine as well (about 3 tablespoons). To make it you pour the yogurt into a shallow dish or tray, swirl in the honey and sprinkle the sugar over the top.  Leave it in the fridge for about half an hour (it will keep longer if you want it to) and all the sugar sort of dissolves leaving stripes and swirls, hence th...

I've got lurgy today. I haven't felt this unwell for years so it's a bit of a cheat post this week.  I've been rearranging the shop so I have a working and dyeing area. Somewhere to design and write my third book (knitting patterns this time, with Dorset buttons of course), to dye yarn including our new Mini Skein club , and to build my button kit wholesale empire. So here's the cheat bit. I haven't had time to write up the granny square pattern I'd planned for this post. This is a fingerless mittens pattern I wrote a little while ago instead. It can be downloaded as a PDF from Ravelry here . Stripy Knitcol Mitts Abbreviations below Tension: 5cm x 5cm square = 9 sts x 13 rows in stocking stitch, Size 4m needles or appropriate size to achieve the correct tension, yarn needle for sewing up. 50g Knitcol or similar DK weight yarn. 1 size fits most. Left glove Cast on 34 sts Row 1: *K 2, P 2* repeat last 2 sts, K2 Row 2: *P 2, K 2* repeat to last 2 s...

I'm making my first New Years resolution early this year.  I feel very much that I neglect my blog, and having been told by several people that they do actually read it (Hi Y'all) I've been examining why I don't write more.  I went through all the usual excuses, like lack of time, too much to do etc. and decided that they were all bumpkin.  What is really going on is that I've got no interest in it.  So to combat this apathy I'm making it a seasonally themed blog with a new entry every week.  There will be patterns, including knitting, crochet, button and lots of other crafty stuff, recipes, poems, stories, in fact anything I can include within the seasonal theme.  Starting with winter obviously.  So Happy New Year everyone and hope you enjoy this weeks free hat pattern.  I've included a free PDF download for this hat on the Beaker Button Designs Ravelry page here . Remember Me Hat www.beakerbutton.co.uk  ©Jen Best 2014   ...