A little Jelly Bean!

My apologies for my distinct lack of blogging for the last few months. Everything is a bit up in the air at the moment the biggest news being that we're having another baby!

This is our newest little addition due to arrive 30th August 2011!

We also found out at out 20 week scan that we are expecting a little boy this time. Eek, what do I do with one of those! Haha only joking it, just hope he likes being doused in pink which seems radiate from every corner of our house as our girls grow older and get decisively more girly everyday!

The news also means that I will be on maternity leave from 18th July and so am hoping to use it to try and get more patterns on the go (once it all settles down).

This is also my perfect excuse to start knitting some baby clothes, which is completely alien to me, but I'm loving the gorgeous little shawl collar cardigan on Ravelry. I have a feeling my baby may be in some wonky shaped cardigans for the first few months of his life.

Raynor x

Jelly Bum Panda

Why hello there!

I've popped on to let you all know about the new Jelly Bum panda pattern, it's he adorable! As usually he is available from my website or from my etsy shop.

My apologies to everyone who has been in contact asking when I was be releasing a new pattern. My fingers have been itching for months to try and get more patterns out, I've just been so busy with work/uni which are definitely pattern stoppers, much to my disappointment.

I've been off on holiday this week for the first time in 3 months so I've had a chance to catch up with things, the the new pattern out and even get started on a new pattern. I am catching the bull by the horns this time as I won't get another break until Christmas time. Once I get the new pattern out I'll try and get some new dress up patterns available too.

I hope your all doing well and enjoying your knitting, I love the change in the seasons when it feels good to be knitting cosy stuff again, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

I'll be back soon with updates on the latest pattern under construction.

Raynor x

Favors and Facebook

Hey everyone,
It's been ages since my last post, so thought I would pop back for a wee update. Whenever I send out my pattern I always ask people to send me pictures or upload them somewhere like ravelry or the flickr group, because I really do love to see what people make with the patterns. I also love the little stories that accompany each little animal that has been made and you guys always seem to personalise them so well. I little while back I recieved an email from a lovely lady called Christine, she had sent me a photo of 80 Jelly Bum finger puppets she had created as favors for her daughters wedding guests. I thought that was such a fantastic idea, very personalised and unique. Here is a photos of them altogether, also note the adorable little bride and groom at the front.

I was also informed that some of these little guys even have there own facebook profile! So it got me thinking that Jelly Bums needed its own facebook group, and at long last I have eventually set one up, so please feel free to join and ask questions and photos etc. Also if anyone has one of these little finger puppets as a facebook friend then add them i'd love to see there profile.

To join the Jelly Bums Facebook group click here

Raynor x

Jelly Bum Kangaroo

Ok I'm just going to slip quietly through the door here, since I should be ashamed at myself for neglecting this little blog!

My apologies for disappearing, it seems my knitting life is back on track after my little stint on work placement for uni. It seems to be hotting up here in Scotland (Read as: the temperatures are now just above freezing!) but all I want to do is knit, knit, knit. Seems that it's the perfect way to procrastinate when I should really be writing that 3000 word essay.

Over the last while I've been mulling away with this pattern until I had perfected it, so I'm proud to introduce to you the Jelly Bum Kangaroo. I've been informed by the lovely Australian Faye that the toys should be referred to as 'she' as male kangaroos do not have pouches (ashamedly showing my ignorance by calling it a 'he') which would make sense since they are for the little Joeys after all.

As usual available from all the usual etsy and website locations. I hope you all like him and want to knit them up for your little joeys.

For the next few pattern I'm going to concentrate on a few more clothing patterns for the toys so I'll be doing a boy theme and a girl theme still deciding what I'll go with for them though but have a few sketches down. So keep an eye out for them.

Love, hugs and thanks for your patience

Raynor x

Jelly Bum Squirrel

First of all I want to thank you all for being so patient with me during my huge absence from posting. I have been around juts lurking in the background really as I've not had much time over the last few months only to send patterns and answer my emails. I hadn't lost the knitting bug just that i barely had any time to dedicate to my family etc with all my uni stuff going on and so something had to give. I came of on holiday juts before Christmas and picked up my needles as soon as. It felt like being reacquainted with a long lost friend!

So now that i have a little time to myself I've been creating again and this time I get to announce the arrival of the Jelly Bum Squirrel. Naturally with me being a redhead he had to be a red squirrel. Adorable as ever I really enjoyed knitting him up since he was my first project in as many months. So if you want to knit him up as always he is available from my Etsy shop and website.

In other knitting news I have went and purchased a little drop spindle, and some nice Shetland tops. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I'm planning to start hand spinning some yarn for myself. The whole reason behind this was that I'm starting up a new little venture called Little Hobos. These will be little toys knit by myself in my own hand spun wool. You never know I might even give dyeing the wool a bash as well. So if you would like to keep updated with that new venture you can follow my progress at http://www.littlehobos.blogspot.com/.

OK I'm off for now, I'm still knitting away so please check back for any updates and I'll see you all on the other side in 2010!

Happy new year all

Raynor x

Jelly Bums Bat

Hey all, I can't believe its getting into autumn of the year already! As promised in the last post I'm concentrating on the holiday season, so I've added a little Halloween bat to the Jelly Bum gang. You can't really see it in the photo but his wings have a nice little ridge detail and little points to the bottom rather than just a straight edge. I love how they eventually turned out after many trial and error test knits. I can see these little guys being knit with the dangly legs and hanging upside down as a little Halloween display, how adorable.

As you probably know I usually keep the next pattern a secret, however I have promised to make a turkey for all those knitters out there who like to celebrate Thanksgiving, or even those who would like a like little Xmas turkey. I might try and squeeze a little Halloween dress up costume or two in before then.

In other knitting news some of you may have seen that I was featured in 'Let's Knit' inspiration station this month, which is very exciting. I was quite pleased my photography skills lived up to publishing standards!

In the non-knitting news It's been really hectic here recently as I try to settle into the routine of being at university and meeting lots of new people, lots of fun though. The girlies are also still settling into nursery but taking to it quite well, independent little madams, making me feel rather redundant now.

OK I'll be off for now, and as usual will be back with any updates, in the meantime feel free to get in tough if you have any questions or queries I'm always happy to hear form my fellow toy knitters.

Happy knitting

Raynor x

Jelly Bums Meerkat

Happy September everyone, can you even believe it's got this far into the year already?

Just popping on to formally introduce the Jelly Bums meerkat pattern, even though he has been available for a while now, I though it would be rather rude not to give him a shout out like the others. If your in the UK you may know where my inspiration has come from for this little fellow. If not then I'll let you know my inspiration was from a little meerkat by the name of Aleksandr Orlov who is founder of Comparethemeerkat.com , and face of the TV ad campaign for Compare the Market.com Try not to get the two confused it get Aleksandr very cross! He is an adorable little Meerkat who has the catchphrase 'simples'. I'm even thinking of making a little smoking jacket outfit complete with cravat to accompany him, a little bit of Hugh Hefner style for the Jelly Bums, don't worry I won't accompany it with any buxom blonde dress up.

My thoughts at the moment are turning to the holiday seasons, first Halloween so perhaps a few spooky outfits and then thanksgiving and Christmas, so will definitely try and get some more themed outfits and perhaps animals out by then.

Also it is 1st anniversary of the very first Jelly Bum pattern being released on 23rd September so I'm hoping to perhaps have some sort of special celebration for that, so keep your eyes peeled.

Happy Knitting

Raynor x

More dress up

It seems the Jelly Bums have been raiding the dress up box again! This time we're in the kitchen with the chef dress up. There was a suggestion on the Ravlery group posts to make a little mitt to go with the outfit so I tried it out and it looks adorable. I hope you all like it, I think he looks great on the pig, but the outfit will fit any of the Jelly Bum animals made with the animal or big foot legs. The outfit comes with instructions to make the jacket, trousers, scarf, hat and oven mitt.

I'm starting work on a little girly baker outfit now, still in the process of designing the apron as I have a few idea of how I would like it to look.

I just thought I'd write a little bit about the ballerina costume that is also available from the etsy shop or from the website. It has been available for a while now but I completely forgot to blog about it. The costume comes with instructions to make the body suit, tutu, wrap top and pumps. If you have knit up any of the animals for a little girl they will love this dress up outfit, it's perfect for those who loves things sugary sweet and pink, pink, pink!

In other non knitting news, I apologies for being such a slacker with the blog recently it seems that my husband is just a big distraction when he is on holiday from work, and I've got nothing done over the past few weeks. That rolled in with the fact we have been trying to the girls settled into a nursery (first day on Monday, oh no) and I'm starting university in 8 days, eek!
I'll keep you all updated with how things are going with any new designs and hope to get my fingers working on a new animal pattern soon.
Happy weekend knitting everyone
Raynor x

Quick knits

Hi everyone,
I hope you all having a lovely weekend. The weather has been lovely in Dundee today, makes a nice change from the rain and thunderstorms we've had for the past few weeks. It's been great to have the girls running around in the garden whilst I'm getting on with a few more designs.

My darling husband had informed me today that he seen the magazine I was speaking about in my previous post on sale yesterday so I guess it ok to post about it now.



This is the very first pattern I have ever made for a printed publication. It's called cute couple and is was for a magazine called Let's get crafting! issue 15 Quick Knits. It was extremely interesting to see how the whole process works, and I'm very pleased with the end results.
I really enjoyed working on this project and would love to do more magazine work so if there are any magazine editors out there reading then I'd love to hear from you.
The magazine is aimed at crafters who would like to have a taster of different crafts and so the issue come with four balls of 35g yarn in blue, pink, orange and green, plus a pair of 4mm needles. Perfect if your a beginner knitter and loads of other really quick and easy projects in the magazine too. I've been looking through all the articles drooling over the gorgeous yarns they have featured, and trying to resit logging onto all the great adverts for knitting shops.
I've added the pattern to the ravelry library so if you knit this little pair up please add them to your ravelry projects I'd love to see everyone finished toys.
Happy knitting everyone
Raynor x

Playing dress up

Hey all,
I've been slacking lately with the blog, as I've been busy making more of my lists! This time I've created a huge list of dress up clothes for the animals to wear. I've already released the superhero and supergirl costumes.





I'm currently working on a ballerina which is almost compete, just needing photographs and the pattern checked over. I'm really excited about knitting these up as I love the idea that child can play dress up with the animals or they can be giving as a themed gift.

Also if your a Raveller I've started up a new Jelly Bums Group so please feel free to come and join by clicking here. It will be great to have one place to answer questions and get feedback from everyone and also to make any announcements.

I 've had a really good week so far as I've just received a copy of my first ever non-self published pattern! I don't know if I can say to much about it yet as the publication won't be released for a few more days yet so I'll let you all know once it's all official.

So I'll probably be back in a few days with the new ballerina pattern so please pop back. I hope you have a lovely weekend everyone, relax, knit and enjoy life.
Raynor x