Guest Blogger Week 98 ~ Rose Cottage Crafts

I would like to say a huge welcome

to Christine

from Rose Cottage Crafts

I am a crochet designer, maker and tutor 

living and working as Rose Cottage Crafts in rural West Yorkshire, UK. 

I have a lovely husband, 3 young daughters, 3 hens and 2 kittens 

and we all live on an old farm growing our own fruit and vegetables. 

I started crocheting and knitting as a child 30 years ago, 

but never managed to finish an item until I was pregnant with my first child nine years ago. 

Since then I have been totally addicted to crochet!

(photo by Todd and Moore photography)

I started Rose Cottage Crafts by making crochet items such as scarves, brooches 

and amigurumi toys for friends and then expanded from there. 

In 2011 I started selling crocheted items at local craft fairs and then opened a Folksy

 and an Esty shop to start selling online. 

I’m really proud that I recently had my 100th sale on Etsy 

and have sold worldwide including United States, South America and Australia! 

However, last year I started to move away from selling finished crochet items 

as I was finding it very hard to make an income from it. 

I decided to focus on designing crochet patterns instead. 

I enjoy the challenge of coming up with new designs, more than following other peoples’ patterns. 

I have been lucky enough to design for some great UK magazines including Inside Crochet 

and Let’s Get Crafting Knitting and Crochet. 

My patterns have also been featured in several bookazines published my Let’s Knit in 2013. 

You can see some of these designs on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com/designers/christine-harvey). 

  

(Photo copyright Aceville Publications)

(Photo copyright Aceville Publications)

I am really proud of my crochet flowerpot pattern 

that I designed originally for Inside Crochet magazine in Spring 2012. 

This pattern is now available to download from my website (www.rosecottagecrafts.com). 

This photograph is of 18 flowerpots that I sold to Cath Kidston to decorate their Exeter store. 

I really need to get some more of my patterns into my website, Ravelry and Etsy stores!

As Rose Cottage Crafts I have tried to revamp crochet and make it more contemporary. 

I prefer to use cotton rather than wool and love bright colours. 

More recently I have been concentrating on Crochet kits 

and developed three: a ‘Crochet your Own - Rose Brooch’ kit; 

‘Crochet your Own – Christmas Pudding’ kit; 

and ‘Crochet your Own – Stripey Teddy Bear’ kit. 

I launched them at the first Yarndale festival (yarndale.co.uk) in Skipton in September 2013 

and they have been very popular. 

I now sell them in a lovely shop in Leeds called Our Handmade Collective (www.ourhandmadecollective.co.uk), 

which is a group of 45 local makers all selling their creations together.

I also ran a series of Autumn workshops teaching people to crochet. 

These were great fun and as I am a qualified teacher I really enjoy seeing people learning a new skill 

and enjoying their new-found talent.

In the future I want to spend more time designing crochet patterns and a wider range of kits. 

My biggest dream is to one day to publish a book of all of my designs. 

I’ve been really inspired by knitwear designer Kate Davies 

who self-published her ‘Colours of Shetland’ book, which is stunning (http://katedaviesdesigns.com/designs/colours-of-shetland-2/).

You can find Christine at:

Website/blog 

Etsy 

Ravelry

Facebook

Twitter 

Pinterest 

 I hope you will all join me in thanking Christine

I love the flower pillows!

I hope you'll all check out Christine's sites and check out her other fantastic work!