Jelly Bums Cow

How now brown cow, look what I've eventually got around to finishing!


 
Finally managed to get things sorted out with the light box and managed to get a new one which was luckily delivered very quickly. I hope this little fellow was worth the wait.
In knitting news this week, I was so touched to learn that a lovely lady named Kate had purchased her pattern to knit for her friends newly adopted son who was making a long trip from Kazakhstan. His birth name means 'leader of the snow leopards' so she was going to knit him up a white Jelly Bum tiger and give it to him for him to cuddle on his long journey home. It never ceases to amaze me how kind-hearted some people can be, and I hope little Bekbaris is now settling into his lovely new home with his little snow leopard.
Things will be a bit hectic in out house this next week as my little princesses celebrate their birthdays. Evie will turn 2 on Monday and Lois will have her first birthday on the following Sunday, oh how time flies. I will be attempting to make a cake for Evies birthday but we'll see how that goes as my baking skills are a little rusty!
I will try and get started on the next pattern during middle of next week so hopefully I will be back on track again with getting the patterns out more regularly. Ok I'm off to purchase some baking ingredients, do you think guests would mind eating knitted cupcakes if it all goes pear-shaped?
♥ Raynor

Look what the cat dragged in!

Hello there everyone,
Apologies for my long unexplained absence. things got a bit hectic here for a few weeks and the knitting had to be put on hold for a while. Firstly I've had the 18th pattern completed to be photographed for over a month now, however I tried to purchase a light box to help with the pattern photography and it basically never arrived, so I've been waiting a long time to get my refund and will then be looking for a replacement.
Also had my interview to go back to university in September and I've got in, yippee!!! I'm so happy there was only 12 places left out of 70 interviews. As I said before I'll still be trying to create the patterns when I'm back there it juts may be a little slower, plus I'll always be selling and be on hand to help when anyone needs me.
I'm hoping things will resume to normal over the next fortnight once I get my new light box and the excitement of the little ones birthdays are out of the way. Can you believe my little babies are going to be one and two?!! They grow so fast.
Anyways enough of my rabbiting on, hope your all having fun knitting the patterns. Remember to keep posting your finished toys on the Jelly Bums flickr group and/or Ravelry, I'm loving the pictures that are being posted so keep up the good work everyone.
♥ Raynor

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

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

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

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

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

Free Patterns: Waistcoat & Baseball Cap

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed at home, but the Jelly Bum piggy got new clothes, and the big bad wolf got none!

Today I come bearing freebies!

So to go with the 'Three little pigs' theme I made a pattern for a little waistcoat and baseball cap so they can be made in all different colours so each pig can be dressed different.

They will also fit on any other of the Jelly Bum patterns so feel free to accessorise your toys. Just as a note the waistcoat will probably be too large to fit the finger puppet bodies, however the hat will still fit.

The pattern is available as a PDF download by clicking here.

I hope you you enjoy the patterns, I will work on some more clothes patterns for the animals in the future as they look adorable with little outfits on. Perhaps I could go with some dress up themes. Remember and add your photos to the flickr group if you make the waistcoat or the baseball cap.

Today I'm going to start on the leg pattern for stuffed toy, but I've decided to give two different options so it may take me a few days to get them up. So pop back soon and see the results.

♥ Raynor

Jelly Bums Wolf

Whose afraid of the big bad wolf?

Well this latest pattern took a little long than expected to get released, after getting off to a flying start, general life got in the way and he had to be put on the back burner for a few days.

This pattern was made as a request from a customer of mine who used my pattern for her shamanic work, it's great when people tell me their purpose for knitting the patterns.

I also had a lovely lady write to me a few weeks back letting me know that she uses the animals to illustrate her own homemade stories for her grandchildren, which I thought was a fantastic idea, to get a kids imagination flowing. So along those line I thought perhaps this wolf could be used alongside the Jelly Bums pig pattern to make little toys or finger puppets to go with 'The three little pigs' children's story. I'll add a little free pattern to the blog this week to help 'accessorise' the story a little.

Another request I've had from a few people lately is about legs for stuffed toys. The toys sort of just took on a look of their own when I started creating the jelly bums and the flat bottom of the toy just seemed to have its own unique 'look'. However I'll work on a little leg pattern for the toys this week and I'll pop it on the blog for free so it's accessible to everyone who has previously purchased a pattern.

So with my little blog patterns on my 'to do' list this week, the next pattern won't be available until the start of February. So please come back again and see what goodies the Jelly Bums have in store over the next few weeks.

♥ Raynor

Jelly Bums Fox

Here is the newest little member of the Jelly Bum posse and the pattern is now available from my blog and Etsy shops. I love his colour, but the original yarn colour doesn't show too well in the photo. I must have a natural affinity to foxes as I'm a redhead too.

I'm getting really frustrated with taking photos for the animals as they are often finished and waiting to be photographed, but I'm having to wait until certain times of day to get the perfect lighting, I really need to find a good light box kit.

Right, enough of my moaning! One thing that has made me a very happy bunny is the fact that Julie Williams from Little Cotton Rabbits has linked to here from her blog. Julie is an amazingly talented knitter with a huge following plus she has fantastic writing skills, the combination makes her blog so lovable. It's an great honour to be mentioned on the blog so I wanted to say a huge thank you to Julie. If you haven't ventured over to see her amazing little bunnies (amongst other animals and cupcakes) then take a peek, you'll be sure to get hooked on her latest cotton creations. Also a big hello to anyone who arrived here from the little cotton rabbits site, I'm glad you came.
I've already started another new pattern which was requested from one of my Etsy customers, and I really needed to start it while I still had the design in my head. It should be available by next week, so keep your peepers open for any updates.
♥ Raynor