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.

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...

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...

This week my boys and I went on a little adventure.  It started when I was checking my Twitter feed as I was lying in the bath (like you do) and I spotted a post about the Lovejoy comet that's passing Earth at the moment.  Being a bit of a night sky freak (bet you didn't know that about me did you?) I sloshed out of the bath, threw on some clothes, rounded up the boys and headed out to Vernham Dean with my camera and tripod.  Vernham is the nearest place I could think of with dark enough skies.  We didn't manage to see the comet but I did get a nice shot of the Plough.  On the way home to hot chocolate I was thinking about my blog and what I wanted to do this week and I came up with the idea of making a night time mobile with stars, a moon and sheep (to help you sleep obviously).  This weeks free pattern is for a star.  He's called Twinkle (I wanted to call him Burt but I was told it wasn't appropriate) and he's waiting for you below.  Once all th...