“The Start of Something New!” Plus, Skittles the Puppy Balloon Animal!

Hello lovelies...or should I say ‘Yarnies’ <3

I’m Reneé! I thought I would pop by and introduce myself to you. You may have seen me around, particularly on the Yarnish Community Facebook group. I’m the one with the (un)healthy relationship with emojis and exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You’re probably wondering why I’m here: "yeah so? Why are you on Yarnish’s blog???"

Welllllll, that’s because this blog will be my home for a little while.  Mrs. Nicole Yarnish asked me to come on down and play around, so to speak. I’ll be taking over and injecting a bit of ‘shiny-ness’ into the blog.

The amazing Emma was previously looking after the blog as well as the Yarnish Design Team. But as you may know, our Design Team is getting much bigger (and we are all like little baby chicks constantly needing our Mother Hen hehehe). So, Emma will be focusing on the ins-and-outs of the Design Team while I take care of the blog.

If you don’t know what a blog is, it’s actually short for ‘web log’ (which I did not know until today!) It’s an extremely handy tool where individuals and small businesses can write and share information as well as talk about topics which are of interest, kind of like a VERY public online journal! Things are displayed in reverse chronological order, so the most current stuff will be shown first.

As a creative, I love blogs. I find them to be a window into a small business' heart. Through blogging, you can see the inner workings of any small business, get to know those behind the scenes and learn about their products, up close and personal. And that’s what I’m hoping to achieve with this blog, to facilitate the truly amazing Yarnish brand and to help it extend its vocal range outside the Facebook world.

So, who am I? Well, you know my name but where do I come from?

A few years ago, I established my brand ‘Shinygurumi’. The name stems from my absolutely compulsive love of Pokémon (you know, the extraordinary role-playing video game featuring a 10-year old child leaving home on an epic quest to ‘become the very best, like no one ever was’ Pokémon Master, which then exploded to a mix-media franchise featuring card games, anime, books, accessories, home décor, music, blockbuster films, mobile phone apps and more…yup, that ‘Pokémon’). The name ‘Shinygurumi’ also stems from ‘Amigurumi’, the Japanese art of ‘knitting or crocheting small creatures’.

I guess you could say that amigurumi is my specialty (if there is such a thing as having a specialty in ‘crochet’). As proof of my love of amigurumi, you can check out my social media here.

Now comes the tale of how I met the ladies behind Yarnish.

I first met the beautiful Shelby of Yarnish. Shelby is such a sweetheart, and suuuuper patient! I dragged my husband and 7month old bub to the Quilt and Craft Fair in Sydney on the 23^rd of June 2019. Without a doubt, this is the day that will go down in history as ‘The Day Reneé fell in love with Yarnish’.

As yarn is my ‘thing’, I saw the gorgeous Yarnish stand at the fair and it’s like everything else in the world fell away! I thrusted bub to my husband (gently, of course), and battled the crowd to reach the counter!

Yarn, yarn everywhere!!!!

“Hello, I’m Renee and I love yarn! I want to make a dragon! Do you have yarn for a dragon? Here’s a photo of the dragon I want to make!” Poor Shelby must have thought I was nuts... Shelby, if you read this, I’m sorry (but not sorry) for being super crazy!

Shelby and I chatted for a bit. We exchanged social media contacts and parted ways. Of course, I went back three or four more times throughout the day just to suss out the yarn... you know, in case I missed anything the previous times I was there.

That night, I had a notification that Yarnish was following me on Instagram! I was super flattered! Then, I received an even more flattering message from Mrs. Yarnish asking if I would like to crochet a special edition Celeste the Unicorn, featuring Shinygurumi colours – Celeste is an adorable pattern by Katt Wade, you can find it here and the special edition kit here!

I travelled out to the gorgeous rural property in Mulgoa to properly meet Shelby and the amazing Mrs. Yarnish, Nicole, herself (a celebrity in my eyes!) I was in awe of the breathtaking location, and the whole set-up of Yarnish. I think its safe to say we hit if off straight away! We exchanged so many ideas, but that’s all a bit ‘hush hush’ for now.

And the rest, they say, is history. So that’s how I got to be here: sitting in my living room, writing for the Yarnish Blog.

What’s a new beginning without some balloons!

If you are familiar with my shiny creations, you may have seen my little balloon pup around. If you haven’t, then you’re in for a treat!

Meet Skittles, the little balloon puppy! (◠‿◠✿) - appropriately named by Shelby!

Your very own crochet balloon friend!

Allergic to latex? Or suffer the childhood trauma of hugging a balloon puppy so tight that it burst into a million pieces?

No need to worry anymore! This little one will be super soft to cuddle and will survive even the strongest of bear hugs!

Nicole and I thought that Balloon Puppy would be perfect to celebrate the friendship between Yarnish and Shinygurumi <3

Kits and Patterns are now available here.

Thanks for sticking around and reading my first ever blog post for Yarnish! I hope you enjoy what I do!

Say ‘hi’ below in the comments and introduce yourself! I’d love to meet you ｡^‿^｡

Bye for now and happy yarning <= see what I did there hehehe  ฅ(*°ω°*ฅ)

 xxx

Reneé

(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡