Welcome to Week 1 of the new ‘Postcards with Love‘ blanket crochet-along – a blanket which I’ve designed exclusively for King Cole. 😄💙
The full pattern and video tutorials are available free over on the King Cole website (link below) but I’m also doing my own weekly blog posts and videos to celebrate all things postcards and share a little inspiration and crochet chit chat each week to enhance our crochet along experience together… so that’s what this blog post is all about. Scroll down for lots of photos and enjoy! 💙
FREE PATTERN IS HERE: https://www.kingcole.com/cal-postcards-with-love/
And many thanks to Iris from Een Mooi Gebaar who has translated the pattern into Dutch: https://eenmooigebaar.nl
So here’s my first ‘postcard’ video… this week featuring ‘Westward Ho!’ in North Devon which I visited with the family back in April. Maybe get yourself a cup of tea or coffee while you sit back and have a watch… I hope you enjoy it! 😁
It’s also that time of year again when nominating for the British Knitting and Crochet Awards 2022 is open!! I’m always uncomfortable asking, but it’s a way to get a little recognition for my design work and it’s all down to the public votes! Last year I was nominated in two categories which was truly wonderful (thanks to so many of you)… I’m extremely grateful to anyone who thinks they might like to nominate me again in two categories: ‘Most iconic crochet designer’ and ‘Social media superstar’. It feels strange asking people to nominate me for categories with those names but hey ho – I truly appreciate it!! 🤩😁 THANK YOU!! 💙🥰
VOTE HERE: https://www.letsknit.co.uk/awards
It’s been wonderful to think about postcards and I’ve sent a few in the post as well as received a few in recent weeks which has brought a smile to my face each time. I must mention a really good organisation called ‘Postcrossing‘ which allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from random people all around the world. My Dad has done this for many years and really loves it… do have a look:
I’ve also designed some of my own postcards based on this blanket using RedBubble and you can order them here if you’re interested:
BUY A POSTCARD: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Coastal-Crochet/shop
In Week 1 we crochet the very centre of our blankets and it features sunshine and flowers!
“When writing a postcard it may be those sunny days we want to share with loved ones through the pictures we choose, and then the words we write are a little like sending someone flowers. Postcards with love…”
Here you can see my King Cole ‘Cottonsoft’ and ‘Big Value’ versions together. The Cottonsoft is on the right… I absolutely love how King Cole have colours going across their yarn ranges. It made designing this blanket using either cotton or acrylic very easy! 🙂
And in Week 1 we also crochet a couple of ‘postcards’ with a fabulous beach hut… I really want to encourage you to make this blanket as personal to you as you wish. You could add lots of beach huts, just one or two or none at all… it really is entirely up to you!
“With so many different postcards to choose from, the postcards that we send are all so very personal! We begin by choosing a beautiful picture to show what we want to share…. Maybe it’s a stunning landscape, a pretty painted scene or something funny. And then do we squeeze as much writing as we can on the back to share our thoughts and adventures or do we simply write a few words? Anything goes… and as we begin to crochet our postcards, these will all be personal too. We start with a simple beach scene. We can leave it plain and simple or add a beach hut. It’s entirely up to you as we crochet our first postcard!”
And oh how I’ve enjoyed seeking out some gorgeous Beach Huts on recent travels in the UK. My blanket came along with me when I realised there would be some good photo opportunities!
Here are a couple of Beach huts at Westward Ho! in North Devon. I couldn’t have wished for a better combination of colours in those beach huts to perfectly compliment my blanket! 😄
And here are Beach huts in Bournemouth in Dorset which we visited back in February… also beautifully colour coordinated! We really enjoyed some winter sunshine. 😄
Westward Ho! was a perfect place to send a postcard from… and there was a lovely selection to choose from in a local shop:
We did some body boarding in the sea with endless sands at low tide…
The beach further south provided a beautiful backdrop for my blanket with really wonderful rock formations…
By the time we headed back the tide had come in and the sands had disappeared!
We went to the visitor centre at the north end of the beach which was absolutely wonderful. Just look at the view from one of the windows. It looks just like a painting in this photo, but a photo it is, and the view really was so rich in reality… 😍
I learned lots about the local area and also bought a few beautiful art based postcards too.
This one is from an artist called Clare Willcocks and I love it so much. It’s simply called ‘Sand and Sea’… www.clarewillcocks.co.uk
Posting my own postcards in the town was a fabulous moment. The postbox even had a crocheted topper…😄
So there’s a Postcard from Westward Ho! I hope you enjoy crocheting your own postcards and maybe you’ll even send an actual postcard to someone this week.
Happy Crocheting Everyone! 😄💙
