Hello & welcome to Renate Kirkpatrick’s Freeform Crochet~Knit~Fibre Designs.
Explore the many pages where you’ll find useful & inspiring information to help with your crochet journey: Freeform Crochet, Crochet Tips & Tricks, My Published Books, & more.
Please take a moment to check out my Shop where you’ll find my freeform & other crochet pieces: Hats & Headwear, Scarves & Shawls, Handbags, Tea Cosies, Patterns & E-books, & other great stuff.
The Gallery pages are for your enjoyment; you’ll find works that have sold, been donated or given away & happily residing somewhere in the world where I hope they continue to give pleasure & joy.
I’m still in process of revamping my site. There’s still so much to learn so, please bare with me as I figure out rebuilding pages & configuring my new shop to make it better & better. Thanks everyone, for your support so far!!!
Due to being rather time poor, I don’t usually take on custom orders, mainly to avoid disappoint when expectations can’t be met.
But then, I met a lovely lady at Knitfest. She was very enthusiastic about my work & asked if I’d create an Aussie Floral Tea Cosy for her. I decided to take on the challenge & I’m very happy with the result.
The Tea Cosy body crocheted with double thread hand spun yarn & embellished with wet felted & crocheted flowers & leaves.
This time last week I was madly packing for the Maleny Knitest; fretting about not forgetting anything &, hoping upon hope, that the wet & windy weather would clear & be kind for the weekend ahead.
Fortunately, I didn’t forget a thing. Sadly, the rain persisted for most of the 2 days. However, this didn’t deter the thousands of visitors that came through the doors. So, a big Thank You to everyone, from near & far, who braved the elements; & to everyone who came & said hello. It was lovely catching with old friends & meeting so many new ladies & gents.
Maleny Knitfest is getting bigger each year confirming that all the hard work the organisers & volunteers put in is worth their ongoing effort.
There were lots of new trade stalls with tempting yarns & fibres & I must admit I couldn’t resist bringing home bundles of lovely yarns & fibres to play with.
Another big Thank You to all the ladies who attended my 6 flowers workshop. I trust you all enjoyed yourselves & that I inspired & increased your crochet repertoire somewhat.
The last Thank You must go to the lovely Robyn Bailey, my trusty trade stall off-sider, I say it, again & again; I couldn’t have done it without you… You’re a Gem!!!
Congratulations to Deb Niotaris & Jill Henderson, the raffle winners, of the 2 Crochet books I donated I hope the books give each of you many hours of happy crochet time.
I’m so very late with this post, but better late than never, or so I’m told… Many of you have asked me about my Alice Springs Beanie festival 2019 entries – did I even enter?
To explain… The past couple of months have been super busy with getting my online shop up & running which has taken more time than anticipated. All my for sale crochet & freeform crochet items have been transferred to rensfibreart.com My Etsy shop will only be carry patterns now. I feel this is the right move. What with Etsy now aggressively pushing free shipping, something I’m not able to do; the integration of PayPal into Etsy direct payments; not to mention a whole string of other changes that adversely affect many sellers. Please take a moment to checkout my new shop & let me know what you think… I’m open to all feedback, so don’t be shy.
Now… getting back to Alice Springs Beanie festival entries, yes I did enter: one Beanie & one Tea cosy & here is a link to all the 2019 winners
The Theme this year was ‘Head full of Tunes’
If Colour was music, this would be a symphony’
‘The Song of the Sea.’
I’m 5 yrs old & walking along the beach with my dad. I’m carrying a little bucket for collecting shells. Dad takes one of the shells & puts it to my ear,
“Can you hear that?” he asked
“Yes, what is it?”
“It’s the Song of the Sea”
I thought it was magic & still do.
Songs of the Sea. Tea Cosy
So, there you go… I’m still re-organising from last week’s Maleny Knitfest & will post about that soon as well…
Hi everyone…The Maleny Knitfest 2019 is almost here; 2 fabulous days of fibre Fun for everyone. Sat, 6th July & Sun, 7th July.
The theme this year is Australiana. As in previous years, Knitfest is shaping up to be a fabulous weekend of gorgeous fibre fun, with workshops, exhibits, trade stalls, competitions & much more… so there’ll be something for everyone.
Check out & book your worksop here, I’m sure you’ll find one to interest you; workshops are filling fast so, to avoid disappointment, don’t leave it too long. If you’d like to know more about this year’s presenters, you can see them here.
For those who enjoy a little challenge, why not give the competitions a go: individuals, groups & businesses can all enter… check out the categories here. It’s only $5 per entry & you can enter as many times as you like… This year there’s even a socks category… Yes, socks…
I will have a trade stall again this year, selling my freeform pieces, my books & patterns & presenting the following workshop:
Title: Crochet Flowers with a Difference. Sunday 7th July 2019, morning session (10am to 12 noon)
About the Workshop: An introduction to crochet flowers worked a little differently. Fun & practical motifs to enhance & decorate your projects: beanies, hats, scarves, thongs & shoes, headbands : turn them into brooches, garlands & lanyards: or anything your imagination can conjure up. The worksop includes 6 patterns, each a little different from the other. Patterns are in both written & graph (chart) form. You can make as many flowers as time allows.
Requirements:
it’s essential that participants have good basic crochet skills
bring along your own collection of hooks & a large-eyed darning needle
I will supply 6 patterns to choose from
I will supply some basic, plain coloured 8ply yarn, however, please feel free to bring along your own favourite colours & yarn
I’ve been getting quite a few queries lately about Working Crochet in the Round. Rather than continually answering each individual question, I decided to put together this basic instruction sheet for Working Crochet in the Round. Understanding the basic formulas for keeping your work flat & avoiding your crochet work from going astray is important so, I trust the instruction sheet is helpful.
The 2 most common questions:
1)Why is my work cupping? – this usually means there are not enough increases
2) Why is my work wavy? – this usually means there are too many increases
Working in the round is a little different from working on rows. To keep your work flat you must evenly increase every round & this varies when working circles or squares. I’ve given both written instructions & charts to help you better understand.
Explore the many pages where you’ll find useful & inspiring information to help with your crochet journey: Freeform Crochet, Crochet Tips & Tricks, My Published Books, & more.
Please take a moment to check out my Shop where you’ll find my freeform & other crochet pieces: Hats & Headwear, Scarves & Shawls, Handbags, Tea Cosies, Patterns & E-books, & other great stuff.
The Gallery pages are for your enjoyment; you’ll find works that have sold, been donated or given away & happily residing somewhere in the world where I hope they continue to give pleasure & joy.
I’m still in process of revamping my site. There’s still so much to learn so, please bare with me as I figure out rebuilding pages & configuring my new shop to make it better & better. Thanks everyone, for your support so far!!!
