Free Pattern Release: Heart Shaped Bunting

Hello! Today I am really pleased to be releasing my pattern for Heart Shaped Bunting - and the best thing for all you crochet fans out there? It's FREE!

Heart Shaped Bunting

I wrote this pattern in the summer of 2017 as an exclusive for Crate Crochet's subscription box. Crate Crochet are based in Australia and they deliver mystery boxes through your letterbox with a pattern and the yarn you need to make the item featured as well as a few other goodies - it's a wonderful idea! I have collaborated with Carmela at Crate Crochet on 3 occassions now and I have found it very rewarding, not only because of the coverage it gives me as a designer but due to the lovely, welcoming Facebook Group which she has formed. I love being involved in this project!

bunting hanging in the garden

So, after this period as an exclusive Crate Crochet design I can now release the pattern into the wild and have decided to make it a free pattern as a first Friday in September treat! Today my eldest son, Niall, helped me update my YouTube video with the tutorial for the back back loop stitch. We filmed this together back in October but the lighting was poor and Niall now has a better camera and microphone so I was keen to reshoot it. Today's video was fun to make - my parents' dog is in it, his head on the table in front of me, just out of focus! You can find it here.

My favourite platform for buying and selling patterns is Ravelry.com and this is where you can download the pattern for FREE: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heart-shaped-bunting

close up!

I hope you enjoy following thi pattern! If you do, please share your creations on social media, particularly Instagram where you can add the hashtag #mrsdaftspaniel for me to see and for the chance to be featured in my Insta gallery!

Marta xx

Crochet charts - a helpful bonus included with some of my patterns

Hello, last week I was hard at work on a new design for Crate Crochet in Australia. I was beginning to get very frustrated with my stitch counts and the exact positioning of some of my stitches when I decided to step away from the yarn and turn to pencil and paper to try and draw my idea in chart form. This was a real eureka moment for me because I was finally able to see the exact placement of the stitches and every single stitch was accounted for.

I need to keep this particular project under wraps for now but it did lead me to have a think about adding charts as a helpful bonus in some of my patterns. Looking through my published patterns I chose 2 that could quickly and easily be turned into chart form and set to work!

The first is this Simple Flower pattern that I had already produced a photo tutorial for. The addition of the chart will make it really easy for other people to understand how the pattern works. This pattern is available as a free pdf download on Ravelry, you will find it here.

Secondly, I looked to one of my very first designs, my Zig Zag Scarf. It turned out that this pattern neeeded more than just a chart, it needed a lot of TLC! I can't believe how much my pattern writing and layout style have changed in 3 and a half years! So, I drew out the chart and then fixed the formatting and layout - it really did look so clunky and alien to me! Another thing I managed to do with this pattern is translate it into US terms - it's always useful to cover both if I can. I then used the scanner at my local library to scan my drawn charts into the computer and from there added them to the documents.

The Zig Zag Scarf pattern is available for £3.60 to download from Ravelry here. Please do let me know if you follow either of these patterns, I love to see how different people interpret my designs!

My Lark's Knot Scarf pattern is almost ready for publishing and it will have a chart too. Thanks also for your patience waiting for my Lavender Cardigan design - it is still stuck at the photo editing stage - nearly there, I want it to be perfect! Not long now ...

Marta xx