The last day of 2017 and what a year it has been. If you’d have told me last year that I would have a blog of my very own, then I would have thought you were bonkers!! But yet here I am writing and thinking about all that has gone on this year. I would never have dreamt that I would have had the courage to set a blog up, let alone write one. It would have been a dream, but not a reality!! I once heard that you can dream about castles in the sky, but sometimes you need to make your own key to get there. Well my dream is to teach others how to crochet and to create beautiful crocheted things for their loved ones. So I’m guessing my key is PipsRainbow.

Before my beautiful children, I was a primary school teacher and I loved my job. I loved that feeling of being able to help 30 little children to achieve their full potential in that precious year that they were in your charge. Every child was different, every child had their own abilities and attributes, but they also had their worries and their challanges. As a teacher it was my job to find those challenges and worries and turn them into positives and possibilities. I wonder what they are all doing now with their lives. Sometimes, one will pop up when you are least expecting them to and will fill you in on their life since school!! Definitely makes me feel my age though!! Haha!! I finished teaching and became a mummy 6 years ago. I do miss the classroom and the children and all the staff, but love that I can channel my teaching in a different direction now.

I told an old work colleague a while ago about my blog and all she said was ‘Once a teacher, always a teacher.’ I think she might be right. So many people ask me why I don’t sell my crocheted creatures on the internet and at craft fayres, but I just want to teach crocheting. There’s nothing else to it really. Design, teach and create. (Designing is definitely one of the fun parts.) Maybe it’s because it’s a bit of an addiction and when you are that passionate about something you just want to share it with the world!! Well PipsRainbow is definitely my key to my castle in the sky! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I know my daughter loves it and hopefully in time, my son will too. I have loved creating projects and sharing the patterns with you all, in the past few months. It feels like I’ve been writing on here for ages, but my first post was only 4 months ago!! Crazy!! Feels like forever.

I first seriously thought about PipsRainbow at easter this year. We were on holiday with family and by the journey home I had decided that I had to put my money where my mouth was. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted and how you went about getting it. But I got there in the end. I then realised that I needed to actually put something on the blog before I could make it public. It was hilarious how long it took me at first, as now I can real them off a bit quicker. Hopefully over time, patterns will be tweaked and perfected and tutorials will be seriously easy to follow. I hope you all find them useful. Can’t wait to share all my new projects in 2018.

I have soooooo many ideas in my head about new projects, I could burst!! I hope that 2018 will bring some of these ideas to life!! There’s definitely a lot of members to the PipsRainbow family yet to be created!! One thing that I have promised my daughter, is a fairy house. Now that is a necessity for 2018. Ekk – but I had better finish my hubby’s scarf (which was supposed to be his Christmas present) before I do anything else!! Other projects consist of a delicate summer shawl, womens and kids versions of my snuggly slipper socks and definitely a few creatures and fairies. My daughter has ordered cuddle toys of the seriously squidgey nature, so that’s a definite necessity too!! Oooo and I’d also like to do some stitch tutorials on here for you, so you can refer to them as and when you need to. Thinking about a stitch library with photos. Ok I think that might be enough with the 2018 wish list. Luckily my son isn’t really talking yet, but I can imagine when he can, there might be orders of a different nature coming my way!!

Well here are my 2017 creations. It’s a mixture of my design and creations and patterns from books and magazines!! The class of 2017!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it. The class of 2017. Can’t quite believe how much I have made this year and I think I’ve missed quite a few off too!! Amazing when you put it altogether. I wonder what I will get up to next year. Ekk, getting excited already!! Just watching fantastical beasts – think I may have just found my next crochet project!!

Well here’s to a wonderfully magical 2018 with  a serious amount of crocheting and rainbow creation!! It’s going to be fun, I just know it!!

Happy hooking in 2018 everyone.

🌈Xx