...Sale - lasts 'til Monday, so don't rush the Turkey!

...so did you see Karolyn's cards?

 I know, I know, you saw already...well maybe you didn't, but we had Karolyn Loncon of Paper Therapy blog guest designing with us recently. I 'met' Karolyn online back in 2010 when she captured my attention with her crisp, clean style. Everything she makes looks so fresh to me, it's a style I admire and would love to capture myself. Karolyn is one of my favourite blogland folks, I'm a great lurker on her blog, she has terrific style, the sort of lady whose arm I'd be twisting to help me decorate my home, if she lived a bit closer... I adore this navy and coral floral card - and if you click on the card image you can go to Karolyn's blog post and read about how she created this beauty.

These were some of the wms products used on Karolyn's cards:

This Christmas card made me swoon, LOVE how Karolyn floats the snowflakes in behind the vellum there... click the image to see Karolyn's blog posts for these cards. Aren't these beautiful!

... Simple shawl for Fall/Autumn

Been knocking up this little shawl in the car, while I'm waiting for folks to come out of school, dentist, badminton... etc.  I can't always get good phone coverage to catch up with emails etc and frankly I can't even be bothered to try stamping in the car....

Pleased with this, it's crocheted in a Stylecraft yarn - Life DK in the Denim shade, they have it here at Love Knitting - must confess that I have yet to purchase from Love Knitting so I have no clue what the store is like to shop with, but they seem to have it at a good price at the mo.

I used three 100g balls of yarn and began by making a chain of 60 stitched plus 4 extra. the stitch is Shell Mesh stitch and that requires a chain in multiples of 12, plus 4 extra stitches. I crocheted the entire of the 3 balls of yarn, joining with a knot as necessary and my shawl ended up 72 inches long by 16 inches wide. I seem to crochet with a fairly loose tension, and I liked how drapey that makes the shawl feel. The yarn is quite soft, but has a 25% wool content so some folks (my little dude) might find that a little itchy, but I find it quite cozy. I liked the denim shade because I live in jeans, it's not too dressy-uppy. There's not much place in my lifestyle for cashmere I'm afraid... It's also well within my price range, the shawl working out at around £6.00 to make.

To make the shawl, I just crocheted back and forth doing the shell mesh stitch - there is a slight pattern to that stitch, you make a shell on alternate rows in alternate places and in between there is a chain row. It's really simple once you start, but if you like the look of this, do check out this video - this lady seems to be doing the exact stitch that I used.

Hope that tickles!