Little Easter Bunnies

The Easter Holidays (early I know) are nearly upon us,
fancy giving something other than chocolate?

Have a look at my web site for some inspiration.
If you e-mail me your order at info@my-baboo.co.uk I'll give you free postage!

Lynne

SPECIAL EASTER OFFER

Get organised for Easter and knit these adorable Bunny Egg Cosies, usual price £12.95 but now £10 till the end of April 2010 (p&p £2.00)

There is enough wool to knit four cosies, either two red and two blue or two red and two pink.

click HERE to buy!

K.I.Y

Knit Your Own!

I have updated my web site with some more knitting kits which I wasn't even aware were missing!

I have been neglecting my web site over the past few months so really need to get back into the swing of updating it regularly.

Why not get organised for Easter now by knitting your own Easter Bunny Egg Cosies or Baby Bunnies - much less fattening than chocolate eggs, longer lasting and all my packaging is 100% recyclable!

I have also sent off an order of sheep, baby bottle holders and sheep tea cosies to a new stockist in Edinburgh - The Cats Miaou, located on Elm Street. They have lots of interesting things so pop in for a browse if you are passing.

I'm off to sew faces onto 60 more sheep, no rest for the wicked as they say.

Who do you think you are?

Family trees are becoming more and more popular. I am the last of the Mactaggarts in my line, although I am now Seaton by marriage. We have quite a few historical names in the generations immediately above us such as Wallace, Stewart and Brodie - it would be interesting to see where the branches of my Family Tree stretch to, but that is a project for another day.

I get asked often where 'My Baboo' comes from. Its a simple answer so here is the story.

A few years ago I knitted a little bunny for my sister. Our friend Tracey saw it and wanted one. T also happens to be the manager of Homer in Aberfeldy and before I knew it my little bunnies were hopping of their shelves.


When I started selling the handbags I had made I used a different company name which was more relative to handbags. However this just didn't suit a wee bunny. So My Baboo became the name of my bunnies (and chickens and sheep) - here's how:

My first name is Lynne. In the cartoon Charlie Brown there is a little boy called Linus, and my sis used to call me that (and still does). Linus is the object of Charlie Browns sisters affections, and she calls Linus her 'Sweet Baboo'. My Baboo Bunny had a nice ring to it, and has ultimately ended up being my company name.

The picture above is of two Baboo Bunnies that Rene knitted from my pattern. She and her bunnies live in South Africa, where the mountains are currently dusted with snow - hence the scarves. She has knitted them from bamboo and cotton - and I love how they have turned out.

What I like even more is that in her correspondence she doesn't refer to them as bunnies, but as 'Baboo's'. So that's what they are - Baboos - sweet.

I'm off to the Edinburgh Festival West End Fair on Sunday for a weeks trading - Arch 11. I studied, worked and lived in Edinburgh for nearly 15 years so it will be nice to spend a week there, catching up with friends and hopefully meeting some new ones and reliving a little bit of my history.

Hope to see you there.

Lynne

A Wedding Bag for Kirsty

The Finished Bag

Last year at the Country Living Fair I met Brenda who enthused about my Cup Cake Tea Cosies. She mentioned her daughter Kirsty was getting married in 2009 and that her wedding cake was being made up of lots of little fairy cakes. Brenda asked if I would consider making a wedding bag for Kirsty with a Fairy cake on the front, of course I said yes.

The Happy Couple - look at those fab shoes!

Brenda contacted me in February this year and confirmed that Kirsty wanted me to make her a handbag for her wedding. She sent me a picture of Kirsty from the waist down with her dress and amazing red shoes on and a picture of one of the Butterfly cakes she was going to use as the wedding cake, sitting in a little red polka dot cake case.

I could see right away this wasn't to be a traditional white wedding so after some discussion about colours I set to work.

Kirsty

Once I had the bag made - which was the easy part - I spent a while trying to create a knitted fairy cake - the kind with the 'butterfly' wings, which was not as easy as it looks! A cup cake is simple - put a cherry on top and every one knows instantly what it is to be. Kirstys cakes had butter icing so I knitted a tube and layered it to look like it had been squeezed out of an icing bag. The little butterfly wings were simple enough as was the cake case. I finished it of with lots of little clear glass beads to represent a dusting of icing sugar, and the polka dots to the case were red sequins.

I then put a brooch clasp on the back so that Kirsty could take it off the bag as she wanted to be able to use the handbag after the wedding - although I think the cake is sightly abstract so wouldn't look too out of place as a daytime brooch.

Kirsty also bought some of my Bunnies as favours and made them all little handbags from some of the material she had left over from her bunting then put Thank you notes in them - so sweet and such a good idea.I really enjoyed making the handbag, even more so because it was for Kirstys wedding. It's so nice to think I have been part of such a special day.

I often make on-off handbags (look out for a bag for Tracey soon) as commissions, they are such good fun to make as it's nice to deviate from my main range. And when the bag is made, you know there wont be another like it. Being the designer and maker allows me to offer this service, something you wont find on the high street.

We are off up to Findhorn tomorrow for the Easter break - back on Wednesday. Hope you enjoy the Easter weekend!

Do It Youself

Here is a picture of 'Wussell Wabbit' by Pennie from Horam, East Sussex knitted last week from a My Baboo Baby Bunny Knitting Kit. I love the way she has him sitting.

I put together some kits last year and they have proved very popular so I am going to expand my range, and have two new kits to launch at the end of the month.

I've also been busy with a few other new designs and am just waiting for some decent weather and light so I can photograph them properly (or as best as I can). I mentioned many posts ago about my Sheep tea and coffee cosies. I have made lots, but they sold before I had the chance to take any photographs. So now I have two sitting looking up at me ready for some action - come back soon for some pics.

I received some beautiful 4ply Shetland wool from my husbands great aunt who has just celebrated her 65th wedding anniversary! She was having a clear out and though of me - so kind. The wool is beautiful shades of light green, grey and a dark blue. I'm racking my brains what to make with it but I think it will be probably be a garment for myself.

Having Scotland's Trade Fair at the end of this month has really made me focus on my business. It's good to feel sort of organised so early on in the year. Here's hoping the orders roll in.....

Bunny Boiler

I often get asked if I boil all my knitting to felt it. I don't as I find that its the agitation of the items in the washing machine that cause it to felt and not the temperature. It has been trial and error, and some colours of yarn seem to felt more severely than others. I don't use any detergent either as I have found that it makes no difference other than give my products a more pleasing smell (and it also makes me slightly more environmentally responsible)

When I was designing my knitting kits a friend was the guinea pig for knitting up the patterns and felting the items she had made. I quickly realised that there is no real exact science on felting your work and I decided to alter the patterns so that they are not felted. I would hate for somebody to waste all of their good work by putting it in the machine resulting in a gnarled little knot of wool that is supposed to be a bunny, heart or bag.

I will keep on felting my bunnies as I know exactly how long to wash them for to get the finish I want. They look comical when they come out of the machine as their little arms are raised in horror after being spun at 2000rpm! A quick stretch and they soon take shape, just a bit of trimming to do and the faces to sew on and they will be finished.

If only they would breed like rabbits to save me some time!

Here comes the sun...

We managed to have a barbeque today - yipee! The sun shone long enough for us to expose our legs and put on our shades. There's nothing more relaxing than sitting with friends with a glass of wine (or Mojito cocktail or three) , with the kids entertaining each other and the sausages sizzling. It also gave me the opportunity to get a bit of feedback from The Girls on a couple of new designs I have been working on - all good so watch this space.

Above is a pic of a Baboo bunny, sheep and egg cosy that I posted to my friend Fi yesterday. We haven't seen each other for years and have recently been reunited through a friend getting married. Fi and I went to uni together over 15 years ago. Sitting in our architecture studio at the Edinburgh College of Art, 5 am watching the sun rise over the castle as we frantically tried to finish off models or drawings - did we ever think I would end up knitting sheep? If I was honest with myself at the time then probably the answer would have been 'yes'.

I also posted an order to my new stockist in Edinburgh - the Laurel Gallery on St Stephens Street in Stockbridge. Eleanor has recently opened the gallery having traded in Scottish Art on the Internet for a number of years. I met her at a small fair I attended which wasn't particularly great for any of the exhibitors due to the lack of customers, but it just goes to show you never know who will be looking at your work and what it may lead to. So good luck to Eleanor with her new venture.

I am now drastically low on stock, which is a great opportunity for me to try out some new designs - and make a few more sheep!