Sunday 15 February 2009

Jelly Bums Raccoon


Hi everyone, I've bounded on hear very excited today to show the latest Jelly Bum pattern. I think to date this must be the finished I adore the most out of them all, although I'm torn between him and the lion.
This little fellow was inspired by my (almost!) 2 year old daughter. A few weeks ago she started to go through a peculiar phase when eating her meals. She would often take her juice beaker and start pouring it all over her food and then eating it, especially with things like bread. It reminded me of a nature program I had seen on raccoons who also carry out this 'dousing' behaviour with their food. So I started to call her a little raccoon and though I should whip up a little pattern in honour of her animalistic ways!

I've had a pretty rough week as I've developed some sort of cold and chest infection combo, leaving me feeling extremely tired, however I really need to start getting a move on with making more patterns.
I think I may have mentioned it a few posts back about wanting to go back to university to become a midwife, and after a long long 7 month wait I eventually got word of an interview for 23rd February. So hopefully if everything goes according to plan then I'll be back at university by September. So I'm hoping to reach my target of 50 patterns by September otherwise the time frame in which they will be released will slow considerably. I'll take it month by month but I'm hoping to make real progress.
Just thought I would mention that if I am returning to university then I will still be selling the patterns and I will still be around to answer all your questions and queries.
As usual I'll be back hopefully within the week to show of the latest pattern.
Happy knitting everyone
♥ Raynor

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Jelly Bums Tiger


 
Hello everyone, just popping in to debut the newest Jelly Bum member, he's a cute little tiger.
After many attempts to get his stripes right I eventually managed to get them just how I pictured. He's now available to buy as a single pattern and in any of the pattern deals.
Thank you all for your kind emails congratulating me on my first Etsy year, your words mean so much and to know that when I write these little messages that I'm not just talking to myself in cyber space.
I've seen a few new pictures of the new leg patterns on Ravelry and the Jelly Bum Flickr group, and they look fantastic, so I'm glad you all like them. So remember if your knitting them, take photos and pop them on the Flickr group so I can see what everyone's creating.
I just realised the last few days that I'm slowing sown a lot more with the pattern creating again so it's all system go here. Tomorrow I'll be back on the ball getting started with the next pattern, I'm still in the process of perfecting the design. This time the pattern will be a little bit more unusual as there are very few patterns out there for this animal, so pop back soon to see what the needles have been stitching.
♥ Raynor

Monday 9 February 2009

1st Etsy-versary

Hey everyone,
Thank you all for all your lovely emails regarding the new leg patterns, I'm glad you all liked them, and hope they are keeping your needle clicking away creating for for all the kiddies and the adults who are just kiddies at heart!.
So today is the first 'birthday' of my etsy shop, and it's all gone so quickly. I've learned so much from running my little online shop and it has been a saviour for me whilst being a stay at home mum and allowing me a little bit of creative freedom to break the monotony. I love creating the little animals, but most of all I love getting to know the people who knit them, I've met some truly amazing people through starting up Jelly Bums so I wanted to thank each and everyone of you out there have supported me in some way, through buying patterns or even just a kind comment it's all greatly appreciated.
I wanted to have a little special give-back to all my customers, so for the whole of the 9th February I will be giving a 20% discount on all orders I get from my Etsy and Blog shops. So simply purchase the patterns from either shop and I will refund the discount to your paypal (unfortunately there is no discount options on etsy).
I will keep the discount open until 8am GMT so that gives everyone outside the UK the chance to buy during the 9th.
Thanks so much for dropping in and I'll be back in a fews days to show off the latest pattern I'm starting on tomorrow.
Happy knitting
♥ Raynor

Friday 6 February 2009

Patterns updated- Legs

Hi everyone, thank you all for being so patient with me while I got all the revised patterns sent out to my customers. I think I've managed to get everyone, however if you haven't received you copies yet just pop me an email and I'll send them on.

It took me a bit longer than expected as my computer went AWOL on Wednesday. It kept overheating and crashing, so I couldn't get on for longer than a few minutes at a time, but it's all better now so I'm back on track.
I thought I'd show some photos of how the new legs look and explain a little bit about them.


This little lamb is modelling the 'animal' legs, these legs are designed to give a similar look to how the animals natural legs would look. They are stuffed and should be used with the newly added oval body pattern. The toys will measure roughly 6.5" -7.5" tall with these legs added.


The lion is modelling the dangly legs. These legs have been designed to use with the original 'flat bottom' body, the idea is that it can be used as a shelf toy with it's body on the shelf and its legs dangling over the edge. Only the foot part is stuffed and the leg is an i-cord. With these legs the finished toys measure approx. 7"-8" tall.


This cheeky little monkey is showing off the big foot leg pattern. I had loads of requests for this type of foot and I love how it turned out. The leg is fully stuffed, however unlike the animal leg it gives a more classic plushie look to the toy. This leg type should be used with the oval body pattern. The finished toys will measure approx. 6.5"-7.5" tall when these legs are added.

I'm really pleased with how these little patterns are evolving due to customer feedback. There are options for 6 different types of animal to be created from a single pattern so hopefully it should be enough to keep your needles clicking for a while.

I'll be back on Monday with a special anniversary post, so check back to see what offers I have.
Happy knitting
♥ Raynor

Sunday 1 February 2009

Missing in action

Well I spent all day making up a new toy to demonstrate how the new legs pattern will look, and I'm just finishing up stuffing and seaming today. however I might be missing for a few days while I re-organise my pattern layout.
I was originally going to make the leg patterns a free download, however I realised that I would have to generalise it for all the animals, which becomes a bit trickier when we have to bodies with intarsia or fair-isle patterns. So I'm going to add the leg patterns to the original pattern, and then email out the revised patterns to everyone who has already purchased the patterns. This may take me a few days to work my way through my previous orders, hence why I won't be around for a bit.
I'll try and get everything organised as quickly as possible, but it means the next animal pattern will be put on hold for a bit.
I'll put up a post with a picture of the leg patterns soon so you can see how they look.
In the mean time happy knitting.
♥ Raynor