Chardonnay's mythical cousin: Chablis the Unicorn!

After a period of harassment from children of friends, family and fans, I would like to introduce Chablis the Unicorn. 

This is a simple mod to Chardonnay the Pony- so any of you who have the book can add her to your TO DO lists. 

I have used: 

Cream for the body and head (approx 35g)

Silver hooves swapping to cream for remainder of legs (15g)

Silver mane and tail which can be made a bit longer if desired (approx 10g)

Next. Look up Douglas the Highland Bull and crochet one of his horns but working your dc sts into the back loops only.  This will give you a ridged textured fabric surface which I think befits a magical unicorn horn. I worked the horn in a tiny scrap of oatmeal. 

Enjoy! 

A bright holiday wardrobe pattern modification for your #edsanimals

Our NEW super cute 25g mini-balls of coloured yarn have been sitting on the corner of my desk for a few weeks now, and have proved pretty inspiring.  

For the first time TOFT will be introducing bright coloured yarn into its range to accommodate the bright orange, yellow, blue and greens needed in my latest bird collection (book now on pre-order).  At the moment we have yellow, orange and pink available to purchase and the blue and two greens will arrive on a couple of weeks. 

It was only ever going to be a matter of time before I had some fun with these brights and the classic Edward's Menagerie standard form. So here we have it: simple pattern modifications to give your #edsanimals a T-shirt or shorts. 

Shorts

I selected Austin the Rhino and used my favourite colour to give him a fetching pair of swim shorts. 

Starting in your shorts colour work the standard body up to the start of Rnd 14 where you colour change to your animal's colour. 

Work your bottom legs as normal in your animal's colour and change to your shorts colour at the start of Rnd 14. 

T- shirt 

Here's Piotr the Polarbear and our NEW orange. Start your standard body as normal in your selected animal's colour and colour change to your t-shirt colour at the start of Rnd 16. 

Work your two top legs as normal until colour changing to your t-shirt colour at Rnd 14. 

You'd just need one 25g ball of our NEW yarn to add your shorts or t-shirt to your animal (and still have plenty left for a beak or two!). 

Looking forward to seeing your pictures- I have already had an elephant with a pink T-shirt request from Edward so I had better get back to my crochet! 

Kerry 

Here come the birds...

I'm thrilled to share the front cover of my new book Edward's Menagerie: Birds.

Although a tad more advanced than my original Edward's Menagerie book, these patterns draw on exactly the same techniques and introduce a few new ones. 

Edward's Menagerie: Birds is NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER. Official publication date 17th September 2015, but we will get the book out to you as soon as it arrives with us here in the Studio.

Of course I couldn't stop with just 40 projects, so if you Purchase Edward's Menagerie: Birds direct from TOFT you will receive ten exclusive extra .pdf patterns (to be dispatched to you by email 1st June 2015 along with our technique videos and the launch of our new coloured yarn range).

"Be prepared for forty fine-feathered friends to fly off your hook and put their feet up on your coffee table. Kerry Lord’s Edward’s Menagerie was a runaway success and now she’s back with Birds.

You’ll be happy as a lark as your crochet your way through this colourful collection of birds, including a bashful Flamingo, romance-writing Owl and a politically incorrect Pheasant. Read all about these kooky characters, their adorations and aversions, daydreams and delusions, then crochet them for everyone you know.

Each bird can be crocheted in four different sizes making over 160 different pattern possibilities – so pick your first project and get started! The patterns use basic stitches, are grouped by difficulty and include step-by-step technical guides for beginners, so there’s no excuse to chicken out.

These loveable birds are quick to make using a supersoft yarn in a sophisticated colour palette, and will become your best friends as their larger-than-life personalities and easy-to-use techniques get their claws into you. "

This book includes patterns for:
Celine the Dove
Dora the Wood Pigeon
Ernest the Canary
Henry the Raven
Vince the Blue-footed Booby
Alan the Magpie
Ina the Stork
Duke the Mallard
Ethel the Kiwi
Dave the Seagull
Sophia the Flamingo
Huck the Pelican
Hazel the Hen
Barney the Owl
Elizabeth the Dodo
Mateo the Cock of the Rock
Emily the Vulture
Florian the Ostrich
Ross the Turkey
Kevin the Cassowary
Tricia the Silkie Chicken
Abraham the Bald Eagle
Kit the Rooster
Margot the Swan
Elvis the Cockatoo
Scott the Woodpecker
Gianni the Lovebird
Meghan the Toucan
Robin the Robin
Gareth the Puffin
Rohit the Peacock
Caesar the Emperor Penguin
Enid the Long-eared Owl
Jack the Macaw
Petra the Pockhopper Penguin
Ben the Kingfisher
Anik the Snowy Owl
Gilbert the Pheasant
Oscar the Penguin

The ten .pdf bonus patterns (exclusive to buying this book from TOFT are):

Camille the Canadian Goose
Julian the Doctor Bird
Bastian the Hummingbird
Agnes the Heron
Nor the Rhinoceros Hornbill
Jacob the Hoopoe
Cooper the Kookabura
Lee the Secretary Bird
Putu the Bali Bird of Paradise
Zara the Lorikeet

Meet my Menagerie: Timmy the Jack Russell

Timmy is the kind of dog that fearlessly leaps into a dark caves. 

Here at Toft we lost our Jack Russell, Ace, in 2012 at a grand old age. Like Timmy he was an adventure dog who took himself off to wherever he fancied that day. The fifth time you had to apologise for him going through the cat flap and eating the neighbour's cat food it was reasonably easy to get angry with him, but he has high spirits and was a loving pet. 

Timmy is the only dog in Edward's Menagerie. Why?  I'll let you into a bit of a secret- there are a few other dog breeds out there, but they have been made as special gifts for my nearest and dearest. Every now and again it's an indulgent pleasure of mine to just whip an animal up without writing down the pattern. So they remain one of a kind characters like their owners. 

The 'meet my menagerie' campaign is a 50 day countdown to the official launch of my Edward's Menagerie book.  The Edward's Menagerie paperback can be ordered HERE.

Meet my Menagerie: 50 days of #edsanimals

Over the next 50 days I am going to introduce you to Edward's Menagerie.  This #50daysofcrochet campaign will start to uncover the characters that are now so much more than crochet patterns.

Each animal has had a name since September 2013, and now each animal also has a personality, vocation and back-story.

Many of you have already made many of the patterns from Edward's Menagerie, and I hope you'll be amused to read the way I perceive that animal's persona. I would of course like to add my disclaimer that the characters are all fictional.

The new Edward's Menagerie paperback contains full paragraph descriptions of each and every animal pattern.  I will be giving you a taste of their personalities.

If I pull this off I will have written an eye-watering amount of original content in just over a month.  Wish me luck.

Fifty animals in Edward's Menagerie: introducing the last ten to join.

I remember thinking back in late September 2012 that perhaps having crocheted ten animals was 'a bit much'. Then when I stood on our Ally Pally tradestand in October 2013 I was quite overwhelmed by what thirty animals look like collectively.

 If I'm completely honest I am quite intimidated by the thought of having to see a giant pile of the now fifty animals in the Edward's Menagerie collection next time we build a tradestand! 

In that time it's not just the menagerie and my crochet skills that have grown and developed. I now have a running, chattering, boisterous toddler making it ever harder to find time to crochet (not that I'm complaining!). 

The latest ten animals to have their eyes sewn on are the ten bonus patterns available as a .pdf when you place a pre-order for the NEW paperback. 

Susan the Badger

Erica the Camel

Sheila the Kangaroo

Logan the Moose

Donna the Reindeer

Harriet the Sloth

Andre the Lemur

Zack the Skunk

Mae the Snowleopard

Frank the Armadillo

As the original animals now all have fully fledged characters, these too will reveal their occupations, hobbies and habits through a #50daysofcrochet campaign coming soon. 

I have been startled and thrilled by the numbers of you that have already pre-ordered the book. I know you'll fall further in love with Edward's Menagerie when it finally lands here at Toft and we get it straight out to your doormats and coffee tables. 

  

There's no hiding now: Edward's Menagerie is being published inpaperback

Well, the cat's out of the bag. Edward's Menagerie had been officially published by David and Charles and is up for pre-order on Amazon (and with us of course). 

That said, if you order it direct from TOFT then I've thrown in a bonus .pdf with a further ten additional patterns including a lindyhopping lemur... seriously. 

Pre-order here £15.99: 

I can't really believe that I've crocheted fifty original animals. Fifty. That's a lot of amigurumi and the double crochet stitch. Please don't ask me how I found the time to do this with a baby- I quite frankly have no idea. 

Over the next couple of months you're about to see a pretty special social media campaign. Here at the Toft office we have grown to become very fond of the characters from Edward's Menagerie. With the help of my very enthusiastic colleagues I've prepared something that I hope will entertain and amuse you all. 

Watch this space. 

Right now I feel like this 👆

The creation of Edward's Menagerie has been a real pleasure, and the best is yet to come once I see all your animals!  #edsanimals 

But for now it's time to catch up on some sleep. 

Back up and writing again, but with a few changes for a New Year.

It looks like 2013 is going to be another one of those years where it's all change again and TOFT undergoes a growth spurt. Already in the few weeks of this new year we have rebranded the company to a much shorter, sharper TOFT.

In line with this (and the ever- expanding number of social media channels we are now managing) this blog will become Kerry Lord's words and thoughts from behind the scenes.

It may sometimes be about alpacas, occasionally about knitting, perhaps about being a new working mum, but most often it is likely to be vary varied and all about life at the helm of the TOFT empire.

Kerry

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