NatCroMo 2016, March 19: Amanda Perkins

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The Crochet Express National Crochet Month Blog Tour

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Welcome to Crochetville’s fourth annual National Crochet Month (NatCroMo) blog tour, taking place each day of March 2016. Join us as we take a virtual tour on our passenger steam train, The Crochet Express, visiting crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies, and offer some fun giveaways.

Today’s Posts: Michelle Ferguson | Ellen Gormley | Amanda Perkins | Fiber Circle | Daily Giveaway

Want to Chat about the Tour?

Part of the fun of taking a passenger steam train trip is talking with your fellow passengers. This year, we’re providing two locations where our passengers can get to know each other. We’d love to hear about your favorite things you’ve discovered on the tour and see photos of your current crochet projects. You’re invited to join us daily for virtual cocktails/appetizers and dinner. (We’ll be sharing links to some fabulous recipes!)

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Amanda Perkins, Amanda’s Crochet Blankets

Crochetville is very proud to have designer Amanda Perkins with us today as one of the featured designers on our 2016 Designer Blog Tour in honor of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo).

About Amanda:

I spend most of my waking life with a hook in my hand and a head full of designs. I design crochet blankets, as I like to experiment with colour and shape. My aim is to produce new and innovative designs that excite and inspire you.

Tell us about your favorite travel destination.

Whereever my car takes me, however I am particularly fond of the Provence in the south of France, as I spent quite a few of my teenage summers there.

Tell us about a “dream” travel location that you’d like to visit one day.

I’m English and have only been to America once and that was a business trip to TNNA in Ohio, so only have experience of airports and the convention centre. We watch a lot of American TV and movies in the UK, so its feels like I know it well. However, I’d love to drive across America going from coast to coast on an adventure to see it and experience it in real life.

Do you visit yarn stores when traveling? If so, tell us about one of your favorite finds.

Not really, but I used to visit a lot of stores when I had my yarn dyeing business. It’s difficult to pick one in particular, so I’m going to say my local spinning mill, which is the John Arbon Textile mill; its 30 miles away so I do have to travel.

Packing: Tell us about any crochet clothing or accessories you pack when traveling. Do you have any really cool packing tips to share?

I normally take my favourite crochet coat/cardigan Anna, that I designed several years ago.

My packing tip is to take as few clothes as possible so I have more room for yarn.

Tell us about any crochet projects you take with you when traveling: How many projects do you take? How do you decide which ones to take?

I design with motifs using as many colours as possible, so I take a few balls of colours I like and a bag full of odds and ends and left over yarns, to experiment and play with. Sometimes I take the motifs of the project I am working on, but as I make blankets I don’t normally take the full project.

Do you have any stories or anything else travel-related that you’d like to share with our blog tour readers?

My fondest yarn/travel related memory is staying in a guest house in St. Tropez, in the South of France on my 20th wedding anniversary. I couldn’t sleep and so as not to wake my husband up I lay in bed knitting in the dark. I wish I could have said crochet, but I find it impossible to crochet in the dark

Visit Amanda’s Site: NatCroMo Specials

I will be running a “Buy one, get one free” promotion in my Ravelry store.

The code will be posted on my blog, so my readers can take full advantage of it.

A Few of Amanda’s Designs:

Kissing Circles & Kaffe Crochet Blankets, £3.50

My Kissing Circles design was an experiment to see if I could make a blanket that was just made of circles and nothing else.

Kissing Kaffe is a variation of Kissing Circles and is inspired by the colours that Kaffe Fassett uses in some of his work; I love the combination of orange and pink together.

Both the blankets have been created from the same design however Kaffe is bigger and has a different colour scheme.

Kaleidoscope Crochet Blanket, £3.50

I challenged myself to make a crochet kaleidoscope and this is the result.

Stargazer Crochet Blanket, £3.50

Stargazer is based around the layout of the Zodiac and the first blanket of my Exmoor Stars series.

I live on Exmoor which is a designated international dark sky reserve; the reserves are classified as public or private areas that possess an exceptional quality of starry nights.

The layout of the Zodiac constellations were a perfect illustration of the stars you might see on a moorland dark night.