Ricorumi Loving and On & Off the Hoop!

Off the hook!

We've received some lovely new products from Ricorumi, we now have their Furry Furry print, as well as an expanded Furry Furry colour collection, and I just knew I had to get something on my hook!

I've wanted to make this bag for a while, I do love making bags, and I couldn't wait to see what the furry furry + paper would look like, well, I think it looks awesome. The bag is Summer Raffia Clutch Bag (Ravelry link) by Anna Ushakova.

We are a bit low on Paper, and I haven't entirely decided if we're restocking or not, but I do think the Breeze + Furry Furry would make great bags, or if you wanted something lighter, pair with the linen.

If you'd like to make this bag, you'll need 2 ball of Paper, or one skein of Breeze, and 2 balls of Furry Furry (Furry Furry is held double for extra fuz!)

Ricorumi have also released a new book, Chingus, (Chingu is Korean for friend). The book contains 19 accessories to brighten up your day, and perfect for hanging off bags! I've started the flower from the book but haven't got too far yet (yeah, urm, I've made a stalk...)

Also new in store from Ricorumi is their Spring CAL box. This colourful set includes 35 balls of yarn and comes in a beautiful box! It features 7 creative designs centred around the cheerful theme “Birthday Party,” perfect for making fun and festive crochet projects. These patterns are being released one by one starting March 6th, so far 6 have been released (just one to go!):

Lovie the Axolotl

Penny the Unicorn Cupcake Girl

Bertie the Birthday Duckling

Rainbow Birthday Cake

Toby the dancing Toucan

Pixie the Birthday Party Planner

See the patterns here.

On the hoop

I started Backyard Geckos by Jessica Long, ahem, a while back and it had been some what ignored for some time. So this week, with a desire to try our Cottonwood Creations Floss Organizer that arrived last week, I got stitching.

I think one reason it was somewhat abandoned was because I wasn't enjoying stitching with 6 strands of floss for the flowers, I generally like stitching with 2, and 6 feels like a lot, to me, and quite heavy for the fine fabric.

Of course there is no floss police, so I've decided to continue on with 3 strands instead, and have replaced the rest of the loop blanket stitch flowers with woven wheels (because I love woven wheels, more than looped blanket flowers!)

The flowers popping out of the fabric and coming to life is looking SO pretty, I know it won't take me much longer now to finish this one off. I also want to get one of our new Cinnamon Stitching kits on the hoop, the two crazy Ostriches, but I won't let myself until the Geckos are done!

I've been carrying around my embroidery in the Caterpillar Double pocket project bag. I ordered a few of these in with the previous order so I could try it out, and I really love it. The clear pocket is great for seeing which project you have in there, you can fit up to a 7 inch hoop, and I use the front pocket to keep my scissors and other tools in, a purple pen, cross stich ruler etc..

I got some more with the latest order and these are now back in stock!

'Off' the hoop

Well, not exactly off the hoop, as it's being displayed in one! But my Wandering Peaks cross stitch is complete! A lovely and very relaxing design from Caterpillar Cross Stitch. I stitched in a 7 inch hoop but decided to display the design in a 6 inch hoop! As I mentioned on a previous newsletter, I was saving the suns rays till last, and it was lovely to see them appear one by one.

Caterpillar have also brought out a new design, Coastal Peaks so I couldn't resist bringing that in, as well as new to us Birthday Botanicals. I've had my eye on this one for a while, and I feel like stitching some of the flowers on a crochet vest. Take a look at this design, Cross Stitch Vest (Ravelry link) by Sara Dudek. I'm just debating what colour I want to make this, and should hopefully start in a week or so.

Chocolate Bunny

My Chocolate Bunny from Kiriki is all stitched up, and has joined the family of dolls we have displayed! I really loved stitching the egg sampler, and then seeing her all come together, such a cutie!

I think the next one I'll stitch will be the Lama, there's some really fun stitching on that one and I've had my eye on it for a while.

There's lots of doll designs to choose from, if you're still new ish to stitching, take a look at Level 1's & 2's, otherwise dive in to which ever doll speaks to you the most!