
Emma Varnam's Blog
3,532 FOLLOWERS
For nearly ten years I have had a successful crochet and knitting design career. I enjoy balancing my daily need to be creative with sharing my experiences and inspiration on this blog. I have designed both knitting and crochet designs for magazines including; Knitting Magazine, Debbie Bliss Magazine, Let's Get Crafting, Simply Crochet, Inside Crochet and Crochet Now.
Emma Varnam's Blog
2M ago
If I was well organised. Or indeed if I learnt from years of last minute organising I would start my Christmas making in August. But I don’t. In fact the conflict is clear in my head. I want to hang on to the last warm sunny summer days and I don’t feel inclined to start ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
4M ago
If you find my son under a pile of yarn – I can only apologise. During the summer the imminent realisation that my ‘little baby’ was about to leave for college was not a subtle, but rather a clanging symbol of….’Oh no!!!! I need to make him something’. Essentially I am not nesting… but de-nesting ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
7M ago
Some projects fly by. Do you find that? I become so engrossed in seeing it develop and grow that almost don’t notice how many squares I have crocheted. This was so true of the Tutti Frutti Blanket. It was the colour combinations that really ticked my boxes. I think I started it at the end ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
7M ago
It has been a very challenging spring/early summer weather wise. I follow quite a few gardeners and flower growers on social media and they are all despairing of the damp dark days and the marauding slugs. How disheartening it must be to see whole crops disappear to a silvery mush. Then there must be the worry of how you can sustain a living if this is your livelihood. I say this, in sympathy and as a prompt to see the flower losses in our garden in proportion.
In the last few years I have enjoyed my adventures growing dahlias. This year I don’t think we will get much joy. I have used Strulc ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
9M ago
As part of the launch of my 10,000 Crocheted Hats, I have made contact with the US yarn company; Jimmy Beans Wool. It has been a wonderful experience. I have made one of the hats from the book in their Madelinetosh DK, which is a fabulous hand dyed yarn. Firstly I have really enjoyed learning about their history. Originally the founder Laura and her husband Doug set up their shop, which sold both coffee and yarn… and then the yarn took over. Their company has expanded and they are now based in Reno, Nevada – sort of near San Francisco. Whilst I have never been there, looking at their yarn shop ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
9M ago
I have a lovely new book to share with you – but first a confession. I am sorry but I am completely rubbish when it comes to telling you about new books. I will tell you why. I work away in secret for months. The exciting part is the making and the creating. Some close friends occasionally get ‘behind the scenes’ photos sent to them…..’What is that Emma?’ … ‘It’s a Gerbera… can you not tell?’ That sort of thing. But it all has to be in secret.
Then begins the pattern writing….arghhhhhhhhhhhhh! So if I have been a good girl, I will have made very detailed notes. The height of well behaved cro ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
10M ago
Recently I was asked by a fellow crafter what my favourite crochet and knitting stitch is. Now if you are interested, for knitting, moss stitch is thing of textural beauty. But it is a labour of love. For crochet my usual answer is .. a shell edging. I love it with a passion. You are lucky that it does not appear on every item edge. It is so pretty and so simple. (We will get into the technicalities and the uses later). However in the past year I have been designing more. The new book 10,000 Crocheted Hats has by necessity required me to be more adventurous in my stitch choice and I have begu ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
11M ago
I know for a fact that the garden and colour fashion has invaded my making. I don’t know when… but probably two years ago when I fell in love with the Café au Lait dahlia. Then last year everyone in gardening was going hoopla about a new Cosmos colour – Apricotta. We didn’t grow it in our garden. But I was tempted.
Just looking it up now… and I promised I haven’t checked beforehand. Do you know what the pantone colour of 2024 is? Peach Fuzz! Now that is scary. Well there you go. We cannot avoid it. The garden and probably blush tones in fashion have been invading my little grey cells. Peachy ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
11M ago
We are making a few changes in the garden, including digging a new flower bed which has extended pretty much into the centre of the lawn. Risky dramatic business – not really. But I have been thinking about this project for about 18 months.
What I have discovered – pulling up turf and digging over the soil, is my oh my how full of clay our garden is. It is no surprise that our grass lawn is pretty much a moss lawn. There is very little drainage. Nowhere for the North West wet weather to go.
Long ago I have put aside the plant desires of the warmer south-west. My folks can grow completely di ..read more
Emma Varnam's Blog
1y ago
It all starts with left-overs. There is a nice contained discipline in thinking – what would be fun to make out of this? I know that I can’t be the only person to see the beauty of making something out of what is left. Then there is the middle of the night, crashingly early morning creative planning. Compelled by a little nugget of an idea I tiptoe towards my yarn stash and with the subtlety of a baby elephant start extracting balls of yarn and some needles or a hook, ‘to have a quick go’. These are special moments.
This time it is the left-over aran yarn I have accumulated from my last book ..read more