Perfect weather for knitting lambswool!

Sorry for the extremely long break, I have been terrible with blogging, and also with all other social media! There have been a few changes this year which have led to my textiles taking a bit of a back seat. I will still be creating new products and fabrics but my collection will be smaller this year and I will attending less fairs. I am currently working on new designs and yesterday I actually knitted up the first piece for my new collection. Below are some sneak peeks of my new work, I hope to have everything complete before it gets chilly.

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I always seem to wait until it is really warm before I knit up lambswool so just imagine it’s chilly out when looking at my fabric 🙂 I hope to be better with blogging over the next few months and will keep everyone updated with whats going on. Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer so far and is enjoying the hot weather.

Festival of Crafts

On Sunday I was demonstrating machine knitting at Festival of Crafts at the Farnham Maltings. It was a really fun day meeting some lovely new customers, some friends and one of my wonderful stockists Claire from Two DucksDSC_0137

 

It was great to let kids have a go on my old faithful domestic brother knit machine, they seemed very impressed by the punch cards, and some didn’t want to leave 🙂

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As it was my first craft fair of the festive season I had my Christmas decorations on display and they were very well received with a Rudolph heading off to a new home. My next show opens on 17th November so I better get on with knitting!
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Not long until Christmas…

The days are getting shorter, and the nights chillier it must mean Autumn is here and the count down to Christmas begins! This is one of my favourite times of year, I love a crisp autumnal morning and it means I can start digging out my woolly jumpers and wear thick cosy tights. It also means Christmas is just round the corner which means it’s my busiest time of year. so much to do and the days are starting to fly by! I have so many christmas decorations to make for all my Christmas markets and shows, and also many a circle scarf to knit ready for those chilly winter days. I have 3 Christmas decorations this year, 2 reindeer and 1 gingerbread man, they will each cost £12. A perfect addition to your tree this Christmas 🙂 They will be in my online shop very soon!

 

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I hope you like this years decorations, i had lots of fun making them 😀

Dog cushions

I have always loved doing commissions, however I don’t think I have been vocal enough about it 🙂 I have done quite a few commissions over the years, from fabric for a dressing table stool, to a reindeer hat and scarf set for a toddler. It’s fun being able to branch off from my current collection, to try and make something unique and one off. With this in mind I have opened my commission book to dog cushion commissions! Get your favourite breed on a cushion, any breed is welcome (however some breeds work better as a silhouette than others).


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My current dog collection includes corgi, collie, scottie and greyhound. So you can commission any other breed 🙂 Each cushion costs £55 and you can approve the design before it is actually made in to the cushion, plus choose which colours you want 🙂

If you are interested in having your own furry friend silhouette cushion just contact me: info@victorialogan.co.uk with a picture of the breed and what colours you want for the final cushion.

I look forward to hearing from all you dog lovers!

 

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So the exhibition elements:REFINED opened 10 days ago and I have only just sat down to write this post, shame on me… I had lots of fun helping set up the exhibition at the end of April and got to meet lots of lovely guild members. It took all day to get everything ready and I had to leave before it was complete but luckily got down on Saturday 3rd May to the private view and got some photos 🙂

Here are some photos of the set up and of the final exhibition. You can see the exhibition in Milford until the end of May then it will head to Dorking in June. 

The set up

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Exhibition up and running 🙂 ImageImageImageImageImage

 

 

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In January I joined the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen, I was very excited to be part of a group of such talented people. I was looking forward to taking part in exhibitions with them, meeting other local crafters and getting to develop my business through the support and advice that these other crafters could give. I didn’t realise that within 2 weeks of joining I would be applying for a major 8 month exhibition and that I would have my work actually selected for it. However that is what happened, and I’m very excited to say that the exhibition opens next week! It starts off in Milford, Surrey and will spend a month there in the Surrey Guilds gallery, then it will travel around Surrey spending a month in different galleries across the county. You are all invited to attend, and have a look at all the amazing talent there is here in Surrey 🙂

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Oh, the exhibition will feature my 2 circle scarves, Linnhe and Resipole. These scarves feel amazing so I really encourage you to pop along to the exhibition if you are in the area, as photos of my work do not portray how soft my products are 😀

 

Hope to see you somewhere in Surrey soon!

Easter Weekend

It’s back to work after a lovely long weekend relaxing and eating loads of chocolate! I decided to take the weekend off as i haven’t had a proper break since Christmas, and it was definitely the right decision. So this Easter weekend I slept in, ate far too much, drank many glasses of wine and got to enjoy the lovely weather (well apart from the wash out that was Easter Sunday…) On Monday, my other half and I decided to explore Surrey a bit, we finally got a car last weekend (we had to go up to Scotland to collect it and drive all the way back on the Sunday, a tiring weekend but so worth it, it’s great to have the freedom of a car 😀 ) so we decided we would go somewhere and walk our Corgi. We looked up many walks and decided we would go to Box Hill (I really wanted to go mainly because of Jane Austen’s Emma) it was a great decision, the weather was gorgeous and the countryside glorious. There were loads of people around, something I am not used to yet coming from Scotland, where the countryside is big enough that you don’t have to see anyone if you don’t want to 😛 However this didn’t spoil the day, we just went along less explored paths and I managed to get some lovely images of colour and pattern in the English countryside 🙂 below are some of my photos, feeling inspired now!

 

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After all that fresh air and relaxation I’m back in my studio and raring to go 😀 I have a few ideas in the works and will keep you all updated on the progress 😀 I’m off to make some brooches now. Have a fab week!

Cushions!

I have been working on a couple of cushion designs recently (and have a few more in the pipeline!). One of the most challenging designs was a new ‘British Best Friends’ cushion. I had asked on facebook for  British breed recommendations so I could add a new dog breed to the collection. The greyhound came out on top so I set about working on the design (and researching if it really was a British Breed). The original design worked pretty well in theory, when i knitted it up it looked good, but when I felted it I had really mini greyhounds. So I then went back to the original design and increased the size of it. Whilst knitting I thought the neck looked a bit long, after felting I realised the neck was really long and I had my very own giraffe dog in fabric form. So back to the drawing board yet again! I finally got a design with an in proportion neck, and large enough so they looked like impressive dogs 🙂 and this is the completed cushion:

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Do you like it? It costs £55 and is in my online shop now 🙂

I also worked on a new larger cushion design. I plan on keeping my dog cushions 40×40 cm but for my other designs I’m taking the size up a bit. My newest design is 60×60 cm and is so comfy and cuddly, I think i might keep one for myself. The design of this cushion was a bit more straight forward than the greyhound cushion. I will have this for sale in a couple of months, it will be around £80-100, there is a lot of yarn in it! This cushion is inspired by the Scottish highland landscape.

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Moidart cushion 60×60 cm

In the next few weeks I hope to do a wee tutorial about inserting zips into knitted and felted cushions. Knitting is really stretchy so putting zips in can be a pain. I have also been doing some upholstery with my fabric and hope to show you the final results soon (you can see the start of one chair in the greyhound cushion picture, just waiting on the braid to put round the edge!) 

Until next time!

Women in Making 2014

I have been busy the past two weeks working on new products and and fabric design. I have a couple more designs to complete then I can put together my catalogue for the winter, can’t wait to show off all my new products to customers and stockists 😀 In between doing all that I entered a competition, Triumph’s Women in Making, I have a chance to win £10000 to use for my business, exciting right?, however I need lots of votes to get anywhere near that prize. I would love it if anyone could vote for me, it would only take a minute and you can vote via facebook or twitter (or both if you like 🙂 ). It would be amazing to win such a huge prize, I could really improve and expand my business, spread dog cushion love worldwide 😀 and create multiple colour combinations of all my products. The possibilities are endless. So if you have time (or would like to) click this link and vote for me: https://campaign.triumph.com/uk/profiles/victoria-logan 

 

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Tutorial – Easter Felt Bunny Brooch

Tutorial time! It has been a while since I did a tutorial, but as it is now spring and Easter is on its way I thought I would show you how to make your own felt bunny brooch 🙂 First of all you need to gather your materials. I’m using my own knitted felt, but you can use craft felt, or even felt an old wool jumper and use that, upcycle winter garments for spring accessories. You also need a thick thread for stitching the brooch together, choose something bright and cheerful, something that stands out from the fabric you have chosen. You will need pins, a thick embroiderers needle, scissors, toy stuffing, card and a pen or pencil. Lastly to help attach the brooch you will need a brooch back. You can get these easily from craft or art material shops. Image Firstly draw your template on the card, make it as big or small as you like, just remember it has to be pinned to your chest, or bag, so you don’t want it to be so big it won’t stay stable. My template measures approx 9×7 cm (if you would like the template I used just comment below and I can send it to you) Image Then cut out your template (remember use paper scissors not fabric ones to cut the card!) and pin it to the right side of the felt. Make sure you have two layers of felt to pin the template to, with the insides facing in. Image Image Then cut round your template. Once you have cut it out make sure sure the edges are neat so when you sew them together they don’t look ragged and uneven. Image Image Pin the two pieces of fabric together with right sides out, wrong sides in. Then you can start stitching the brooch together. Using blanket stitch, the photos below show you have to do blanket stitch, and you can also follow this link to a short video showing you how to do this stitch. I started my stitching at the bottom of the head so any messiness caused when completing the stitching could be easily hidden. Image Image Image Image The blanket stitch should be evenly spaced and with even tension to create a neat binding edge like the one pictured below. This will keep the fabric together and stop the stuffing coming out. Image Work your way around the bunny head as neatly as possible. Before you reach where you started your stitching stop to leave a small opening, this is where you will insert the stuffing. You can insert the stuffing into the ears with your fingers, but if it’s too tight use a knitting needle or chopstick, something long and pointy to push the stuffing into the top of the ears. Image Image Once stuffed you can now continue to sew up the open edge of the brooch so you are left with something like the image below. Image The next step is to sew on the face.  I used some basic stitches to create my bunny face, the french knot for the eyes and then some running stitches for the nose and mouth. You can also decorate the ears, or make the face more elaborate, just play around with it, it’s your brooch! Image The last step is to sew on the brooch back. You can use the same thread you sewed the brooch together with, or use a simple sewing thread. Just make sure it’s the right way up, sitting far enough up the brooch that it will sit evenly and that your sewing is secure. Image You now have your very own Felt Bunny Brooch! I’m going to put mine on a bag to bring a bit of spring joy everywhere I go 🙂 Image