Beaker Button Blog

It was Yarn Shop Day today, and in true Spitfire Knitters fashion I decided that we'd celebrate by yarn bombing my car.  Let's face it, that particular yarn bomb has just been begging to happen.  So, for those of you who are also that way inclined I've complied a little photographic guide for covering your car with woolly stuff. You will need: One car with plenty of space around it. This is Katy Best by the way. A whole pile of woolly stuff to play with Scissors, string and coffee.  Well, fancy fruit tea for me... A big pile of blankets Willing helpers/minions (not that I have delusions of grandeur or anything)   First: Cover the back of the car with the blankets.  We tied ours on  Then: Using some of your woolly stuff arm knit nets to drape over the front and top of the car More draping and blanket tying At this point it's useful to press gang more minions.  Coffee and cake helps persuade t...

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...

I've designed a pattern which requires a crochet cord to run through the top (it's a bag and it'll be available as soon as it's tested).  Anyway, I looked at I-cords for crochet, and found some really good websites with very clear tutorials like June Gilbanks video (here) .  However, the I-cord wouldn't work for me as you have to take your stitches of the needle, which was proving problematic with the yarn I was using.  So I came up with this instead.  It's highly probable that someone else has thought of it first, but I haven't seen it yet so I thought I'd share it with you.  It's really fast, much faster than a knitted I-cord, and doesn't require you to take any stitches off the hook.  I've only taken photos of the complicated bit. Start with a foundation chain the desired length of the finished cord.  Double crochet (single crochet if your using U.S. terms) into each chain.  Make three double crochet into the end chain so you go round th...

There was sun today.  You know, the big shiny round thing in the sky that used to come out and brighten the world.  Well it came out today and I decided to make the most of it.  I wanted sea and Mum and Alex are always up for going to the beach so we picked a bit of coast on the map between Milford-on-Sea and Lymington called Keyhaven and headed out with a picnic.  It was a beautiful drive down through the New Forest with ponies, buzzards and trees to look at. As we drove through Milford-on-Sea I spotted an English Heritage sign and we worked out that it must refer to Hurst Castle.  Hurst was originally one of Henry the Eighth's castles.  It sits at the end of a spit of land which you have to walk along to get to it. Hurst Castle and the light house Keyhaven nature reserve seems to be popular with all sorts of people.  We saw kite surfers, walkers with and without dogs and people like us on day trips.  Mum decided to stay in the car and ...