It has been a busy summer for me, transforming the Summer house into my Photo Studio!
The thought of rehoming the contents of my summerhouse come shed, was daunting. I had to rejig the loft and the garage, it wasn't a simple job lol!
But once it was cleared I set to work with the makeover. With lots of help from my lovely family all pitching in with a paint brush, my summerhouse became my studio! I am so pleased with the result and loving my new space :-)
The first day in my new studio I set about photographing my new designs for the ever growing Owl pattern collection in Kerry's Owl Nursery :-)
Kerry's Owl Blanket HERE
Kerry's Owl Basket and Owlets Bunting HERE
Kerry's Owl pillow Pattern HERE
Kerry's Owl Bunting Pattern HERE
I hope you have all had a great summer too and have all managed to get your feet up with some wonderful crochet :-)
To see all of my patterns click HERE
Lots of love Kerry xx
I love playing with color and today I am looking for some inspiration.
Color inspiration is everywhere and a trip into the countryside can be a great resource.
Last weekend was glorious! So we headed off to one of our favorite spots. Kingston Lacy is a country mansion in Dorset, England surrounded by beautiful gardens and parkland.
Upon arriving, a corrugated mint colored caravan greets us at the entrance with chalk boards on the doors telling us what flowers and plants to look out for during our trek around the woodland, including a saddleback pig in the kitchen garden!
We bypassed the grand house and headed straight for the gardens. Wouldn't this make a fabulous crochet retreat with cream teas and crochet lessons on the lawn!
We headed down the steps across vast the lawns...
through the thatched gate...
and along the winding path between the grassy banks of sunshine yellow daffodils...
Sweet fresh primroses and other woodland flowers popped up from the grass along the way.
around every bend was something magical and enchanting....
We came across a little den made from fallen branches and I stopped to imagine the happy excitement on the faces of the children that might have come here before...
along the path we went, stopping to take a photo of the rhododendrons in gorgeous shades of scarlet red ..
A busy bee foraging for nectar appeared as I stooped down to get a close up shot of this pretty white Snowdrop ... I love it when spring turns to summer, when everything is so fresh and green and nature is beginning to wake from a long winter of hibernation.
Magnolia trees in full bloom stole the show with their twiggy branches covered in hundreds of perfectly formed white, star shaped flowers, tinged with the palest shade of pink.
Cascading camellias branches, baring the weight of fresh blooms hung heavily along our path...
and just look at this beauty! I stood and stared and thought about how I could incorporate these colors into my next crochet design, aren't they just lovely.
This was my favorite of all the camellias, the shape and color, just perfect. I thought this would make a lovely crochet flower and couldn't wait to get my hooks out when I got home...
Here is my version of the beautiful camellia flower I made later on that day, after many attempts, and trying different yarns and colors, I settled on a lovely light worsted cotton yarn. You can find the pattern too HERE
Our journey continued to the Japanese garden, with it's ornamental grasses standing tall...
the miniature magnolias, casting their delicate white petals to the ground like carpet of confetti around a bride on her wedding day.
Pink is one of my favorite colors and as we reached the open parkland we were met with a stunning display of the most beautiful purple pink Rhododendrons.
We carried on along the winding path and my attention was drawn to these crazy 'up side down' trees with their legs in the air!!! I know, I know, it's just the regrowth at the bottom. Quite bizarre!
As we were nearing the end of our walk I was beginning to think that perhaps we weren't going to see the saddleback pig, but...
there he was! Happily munching his way through the shrubbery, apparently the pigs are brought here to help clear the ground for the fresh summer planting.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed seeing my photos as much as I have enjoyed sharing them with you, and I have brought a little sunshine and color into your day! Thank you for taking the time to visit me :-)
Lots of love, Kerry xxx
The Sunny Rainbow Blanket Pattern and photo tutorial is absolutely FREE!!!
This bright Sunny blanket is so thick and springy it can double up as a baby playmat too!
It works up very quickly using the two strand method with light worsted weight yarn (UK DK). The only stitches you need to know are a chain stitch, Slip stitch, Double crochet (UK Treble).
It's simply bursting with sunshine in beautiful primary shades making it a great teaching aid for your baby, taking him/her through the whole rainbow color spectrum.
A happy sun shines from the center and is finished off with a delightful sun ray border.
I have used Stylecraft Dk for this blanket / Playmat but other yarns may be used too. It is a great stash buster blanket for using up all those left over bits of yarn!
To get this pattern, receive helpful 'How to crochet' tutorials, discount codes and interesting Blog posts and be the first to see my new pattern designs, subscribe to my monthly newsletter below!
Leaving you with one last beaming smile from the Sunny Rainbow Blanket! Have a great day and I hope you enjoy the pattern :-) lots of love,
Kerry xxx
To see more of my patterns click here!
The sunny rainbow blanket pattern has been copyrighted by Kerry Jayne Designs. You may not copy sell or redistribute the crochet pattern, the photos are also copyright. You may share my post, but please keep my name and the link to my website attached.
You may sell the blankets / playmats that you make from my crochet pattern but please give me credit for the pattern by including a link back to my pattern.
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Hello fellow crocheters!
Thank you for coming to visit me here at Kerry Jayne Designs and reading my very first blog post!!!
Let me tell you a little about me. My name is Kerry and I am happily married with three lovely grownup children and we live in a beautiful coastal town in Dorset England.
I absolutely love to crochet and designing crochet patterns is not only my passion but now my job too :-) I hope you will enjoy browsing around my happy and colourful crochet world, where I hope to bring you lots of interesting posts and fun crochet tutorials :-) Here
To start, I would like to share a little about how I design a crochet pattern. There is an enormous amount of work that goes into producing a crochet pattern, such as the design plan, sketches, choosing yarn and colour combinations, sizing, prototypes, photographing, making a gazillion notes and finally writing up and testing the pattern.
But it all begins with an idea...
THE IDEA
An idea will ping into my head at the strangest of times, in the shower, out shopping, or sometimes in the middle of the night when I cant sleep, and then I'm up, quietly grappling around in the dark for a pen (trying not to disturb sleeping beauty lying next to me). I make a quick note in case I forget my idea in the morning.
That used to happen a lot and was so frustrating when I woke up and remembered I had a brilliant idea but had no idea what it was! Now, I try to keep a pen with me and make a quick note or draw a sketch right there and then where ever it may be. The design for 'Kerry's Owl blanket' here started on the back of a till receipt!
MAKING A SKETCH
As soon as I can, I like to draw out the design and colour it in. I have a lovely selection of coloured pencils and paints that I use and I try to match them up to the yarn colours that I have in mind for the design model. The photo above shows the beginning of the Owl House Clock pattern Here
CHOOSING THE COLOURS, YARNS AND ACCESSORIES
If you have have come across my designs before you will know that I have my favorite colours :-) I look at many yarns, yarn weights, colours and textures and enjoy experimenting to see how they feel. I have developed my own Kerry Jayne Designs trade mark style.
I look at the palette and spend a long time selecting the colours and tones that I love and that would work well for my design. Needless to say my house is full of yarn! Before I was lucky enough to acquire the spare room, it was falling out of every cupboard! My house gave a massive sigh of relief when I moved it all into the new craft room! This shot of my craft room below was taken the day after I moved into it, its the only time it has ever been tidy, Lol!
If I need buttons or yarn for my design, I often won't wait for samples to come through the post but dash off to one of my favorite little yarn shops out in the country side, it's called 'Not just Wool' and it isn't either!
It's a family run shop, run by a lovely lady and her Mum. They have a fabulous selection of wool and stock a huge colour range of Stylecaft Special which I love to use in many of my blanket designs. They also have a great selection of buttons too from good old vintage style to bright, quirky children's buttons! I always buy more than I need and often come home with ideas for my next design. It's such a quaint and happy little place nestled in the 'Courtyard' amongst other crafty shops. A real higgledy piggledy little treasure trove filled from top to bottom with yarn, ribbons, buttons etc, with knitted bunting and other cute crafty makes hanging from the rafters. I find it all rather charming, a great trip out, you get to feel and touch everything and that's really important to me.
MAKING UP A SAMPLE
I like to make a sample, trying different hook sizes until I get the right density and drape that I need for the design.
As a general rule I start with the hook size recommended for the yarn I am using and that is usually indicated on the yarn label, I will do a tutorial on how to read a yarn label later.
The stitch pattern chosen for a design will affect the feel and look of a piece, different textures are produced by using different stitch patterns, but that's for a later blog too :-)
If I want my design to be looser with more drape for instance, say it is a slouch hat, I may try a larger hook size until I get just the right amount of 'slouch'. Or if the design requires a really tight dense fabric for something such as a crochet basket, then I will try a smaller hook size to achieve the right amount of stiffness that is required for the basket to stand up.
MAKING UP THE DESIGN
Once I am happy with my sample piece, I can work out my gauge or tension by counting how many stitches and how many rows would be required for the design.
A blanket design is fairly straight forward and I usually include the 'multiple number' in the pattern, so that the blanket may be made to any size. A fitted garment is more complicated, I like to include many sizes ranging from newborn to adult. Some of my hat patterns here include 8 sizes and that takes quite a bit of working out and lots of prototypes!!
APPROVAL
My family and friends are my critic's and I value their opinions enormously, sometimes they love a design and sometimes they don't, but that's ok, as I appreciate their honest opinion, I have plenty of designs that didn't quite make it to the finish!
My family are also my models and help me a lot by constantly trying on and testing out sizes. I really appreciate their patience for this too. Especially when they are on their way out of the house for the day and have just done their hair into a nice bun and I pounce on them and say.. "Could you just try this crochet hat on before you go?". There is a lot of eye rolling in my house! Who'd be the child of a crochet designer, lol, It's such a hard life!
SMILE PLEASE
Once I am happy with everything, I write up the pattern from my mountain of notes and I photograph the design. I really do love this part. I like to include a beautiful, colourful photo tutorial with most of my patterns, especially in my blanket patterns Here , so during the making up part, I photograph every step as I go.
When I learnt to crochet (some forty years ago), some 'written only' patterns were very complicated and difficult to understand.
I find that it is so much easier to have someone 'with you' showing you what to do as you go along, and that is exactly what I try to do in my crochet patterns, I break it down into small steps, with close up photos to show exactly where to place your hook and change your colours.
I am certainly no expert photographer but I could write a whole chapter on it, not about the technical stuff that relates to the camera but about everything else that goes with creating a nice photo, like setting the scene, photo props, light sources, etc.
I find photographing a blanket indoors is fairly easy, providing there is enough natural light, but photographing a hat on a model outside in a public place, waiting for people to pass, waiting for a dry day with the right amount of light, can be much more tricky, Lol! But that's a whole new story...
Well, that's just a little bit about me and my pattern design process, I hope you have enjoyed reading my first blog and I haven't bored you to tears! lol!
I look forward to bringing you more crochet articles and perhaps a few non crochet related articles too :-)
Have a lovely day and I hope you get some time to put your feet up with a little crochet :-)
Kerry xxx