Arg it be a Treasure Hunt!

I was one of those lucky children who got to take part in an Easter hunt for eggs at home, where the bounty was lots of chocolate sweets and small toys and it all came together over the Easter holidays from school. So when I heard about the Etsy St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt I reverted to being ten years old and couldn't wait to take part.

The wonderful Sarah from Sarah Mai Designs has been putting together a bounty worthy of even the most avid treasure hunters out there, composed of pieces designed and created by the Etsy Ireland Team. There are 4 treasures to be claimed  by the 19th of March and they are broken down like this:

1st Place - Treasure Hunter Pirate King: 8 beautifully hand crafted items

2nd Place  - Treasure Hunter Terror of the High Seas: 5 beautifully hand crafted items

3rd Place - Treasure Hunter Buccaneer : 3 beautifully hand crafted items and finally

4th Place - Treasure Hunter Swashbuckler :  1 beautifully hand crafted item.

Whats that I hear you cry? " How do I enter?" Well for details of  this Hunt all you have to do is click this link for the Etsy Ireland Blog and on the 17th of March click on the St. Patricks Day treasure hunt button on the right hand side.

Now me hearties are ye ready? We all know that the best bounty goes to the early risers and the questions will be posted early!!!

So get your swords, pirate costumes and pirate speak to the ready.

Let the Hunt Begin!!



P. S.

Also I have added this little gem to the bounty too!

Updates

Well it has been a frantic month over here with all things medical now under control, I think it is about time for a blog post.

First things first - cowls....cowls.....cowls.

I have not forgotten my pledge for posting 2 cowls a month but with everything taking me by surprise over the last few weeks, this blog has been left on the wayside. I will be uploading a few patterns to Ravelry over the next few weeks none of which are ready to post so on that note I'm sorry guys :(

Second things second - Spinning!!!

To take my mind off things, I started to spin with Ashford Merino and Silk roving that has been taunting me in TIK for some time now. Lots of help was giving to me by Sheknitupthatball to start me off and after many questions (many, many questions) and shared techniques later I was spinning away and surprisingly I love it. I think this has a lot to do with the roving, its easy to spin and it is my favourite colour. When I am at home I still take out the spindle and for me that is amazing. I often get something into my head and loose interest quickly but spinning has finally gripped me. I'm trying to spin for at least 5 minutes a day and it really is starting to build up nicely. I find it really relaxing and it is starting to become my guilty pleasure. Now if only I can figure out how to stop spinning and finish a piece....that's my next goal.

And last things last - Stitch markers

I have been waiting on a delivery for AGES, it finally came at the end of Feburary but by then everything else was falling to pieces and I had no time to make anything let alone knit. So I sat down over the last ten days, finished some knitting and finally finished some markers. You can find these guys in my Etsy shop. I hope you like them.

And yes as its Monday - Happy Bunday everyone and here is a gratuitous picture of my bun buns.

Grrrrrrrrrrrowl Cowl

Well hello there knitty friends, I know its been a while since I posted anything and I am a whole 1 day ahead of schedule but here goes.......,

In keeping with my new years resolution with cowl pattern releases let me introduce you to my first cowl pattern for February....the Growl Cowl:

(picture by jewelandarlin)

This is a textured wrapped cowl made from 2 lovely skins of Mirasol's Kutama, 50% Wool, 50% Alpaca squishy goodness. This is an extremely warm cowl for a loved one and with that cold weather front setting in this is a perfect weekend knit. If you ask me this is the perfect Valentines gift for him,I bet even Bear Grylls would be jealous!!!

The best part is that this pattern is absolutely free and is currently one of the in house patterns at This Is Knit and you can also find the pattern over here.

I hope you like it, Enjoy!!!
Nadia

Idyllic Irish Knits - Maleficent

I know you have all been biting your nails waiting for these pictures to go live (I joke, I joke) but finally I do have some nice pictures of the FO's I designed for Idyllic Irish Knits. There is one I am really fond of and I find very hard to say goodbye too (I may even swipe the test knit for myself) and that one could only be .... Maleficent.

I have to say I love the texture, the weight and the pure elegance of this knit. I also handmade the wire wrapped feather shawl pin which I think really adds something to this piece. She can be worn as a shawl, wrap, scarf or cowl and is a mighty 87 inches long!

All of the accessories in the Enchanted Collection (some you will see soon, others will take a little bit longer) are based around my favourite fairytales from the Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll and Hans Christian Anderson. As always there is a bit of Disney influence (I am an 80's child after all) but I tried mostly to make  for people I know would wear these pieces. 

I hope you like what you see and what is to come. I enjoyed every last minute of it

Idyllic Irish Knits - Sneak Peak

January has been a very busy month over here and with less than a week to go before the new etsy shop is up and running properly, I thought it was about time to give you guys a sneak peak into one of our Eventide accessories. I could draw this out....but I think a short and sweet post is what is needed.

*Drum roll ........please..........................*

Ladies and gentlefolk, let me introduce to you .......Storm  .....

Storm is a very adaptable cowl / wrap and I love the colour way and textures I finally ended up with. This can be worn so many ways to give a dramatic or eye catching cowl or a warm and snuggle friendly wrap. As this is one of the pieces for the etsy shop the pattern will  not be available until the end of season. Yes I am going to make you wait until next week for the full pictures but I might just add a few treats here on the blog a  little later on.

Cowl #2 - Noni

Well as I said January was going to be a busy month over here and without delay can I introduce you to Noni:

Noni was designed for my sister Fiona who happens to be called Noni in our house and I thought it fitting to name the cowl after her. One of the great things about this cowl is that it is just so versatile. I love garments that you put time in to making that you can wear just about anywhere. Throw them in your bag and they are ready to go. Noni can be worn as a cowl (long or short), a snood, a wrap to the side or front and with the beaded inserted ties can be pulled into a top like this:

In fact there are so many ways I will post a few photos at the end of this blog post. One of the other amazing things about this cowl is that it is incredibly soft. Yip this is no ordinary cowl, she is made from 1 skein of Malabrigo Rios and one skein of Debbie Bliss Party Angel so it really is like wrapping yourself in pure luxury. The other great thing is that both yarns have many colorways that you could make this unique to you.

One other point I would like to discuss in this post is shawl pins. Now I know that many of you will laugh at this but I have just found these magnetic nova steel pins that are in This is Knit (please don't laugh I really didn't realise they were magnetic) Just look how pretty this leaf design is:

and best of all no holes in your knitting, FANTASTIC! Ok now I am going to bombard you with pictures of my cowl. It is currently being uploaded to Ravelry as we speak.

Aint she a beaut!

New Year - New Pattern

First of all a very happy new year to you all, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I have been very busy working away with my little elves so that 2012 could be a fresh start to all things related to T. Bunny Knits. There have been a few changes and some hard work going on, so I hope you all enjoy things to come

In December I decided that 2012 for me was going to be the year of the cowl. Yes that's right the cowl. Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that the cowl has not gotten the recognition it deserves over the years, so every month here at T. Bunny Knits there will be at least one cowl pattern from myself. Now January being the bleak month it is, I have decided that  there will be 2 cowl pattern releases along with some other accessories over the month. So without further delay I give you the first cowl pattern of 2012:

Ruby 

Ruby is an emergency winter knit for those surprise post xmas birthdays or when the weather catches you off guard and your standing at train platforms and bus stops trying to keep warm. Knitted on 15mm needles and 3 skeins of Polaris, if you grab your yarn on the way home Ruby is ready for you to go to work with the next day. Constructed from garter stitch with seed stitch details its a fast knit but will keep you interested. You can find ruby to download here.

Now another change here at T. Bunny Knits, is that for some of my pattern releases I have allowed some fellow knitters to sell the finished garments from my patterns and these can be found over on the T. Bunny Knits etsy shop here.

And finally.....over on the T. Bunny etsy shop you will also find some of my stitch markers like the ones pictured below. If you keep an eye out over the coming months you may even see a few more surprises!.

Christmas Craft Bags

I realise it is the 24th of November but I needed to get a start on my Christmas crafts. I am knitting or crafting a lot of presents this year (as requested) so I need to get ahead on my wrapping too! This whole idea came to me while doing the mundane shopping trip to Tesco. Then I spied these plain red bags for 30 cent each  (also on a 3 for 2 offer!!) and my craft-sense started tingling.

Materials:

• Plain bags from Tesco or craft store
• Some xmas decorations (I got my snowflakes 8 for 2 euro in the euro shop)
• Some glue
• Xmas stamps (I got mine in the Art & Hobby shop for 2 euro)
• Ink pad
• Glitter

The first thing I did was to fix my snowflake on to the center of the bag using some glue like so.


Then I stamped on the  xmas stamps and decorated with some glitter. Its easy simple fast and I have lots of tissue paper to make the bags even prettier :)  I also think its a great idea to keep kids entertained for an afternoon. Here is my snowflake bag and I'm off to make some more.