Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about being invited to collaborate with a favourite knitwear designeer? We confess, we have!

The luscious Sarah Hatton, who used to design exclusively for Rowan and has since branched out independently, is definitely a favourite in the Simply Knitting office. So when we heard about her latest venture we were virtually cross-eyed with envy.

If you have some acrylic yarn in your stash that’s in desperate need of a project, you can help yourself while helping homeless cats! In a bid to occupy their feline residents this summer Battersea Dogs & Cats Home are asking UK knitters to make knitted mice and send them in. Summer is an enormously busy season for the Home’s catteries, what with litters of kittens being born and fewer people looking to adopt due to holiday plans.

The charity is even supplying free knitting patterns for three different cat toy designs: Captain-Cat Battler (a fearless feisty mouse with an eye-patch designed by Lauren O’Farrell of Stitch London), the ultra sweet Mischievous Mice and a pattern for Woolly Wands, which the cats apparently enjoy just as much as the woolly rodents.

We love a wedding, so when the crafty dames over at The Making Spot suggested a virtual street party to celebrate the Royal Wedding we were all up for it. We're the last stop in the party, so if you want to see the start, visit The Making Spot. We've designed a bunting table runner that looks colourful but is easy enough for even fairly new knitters to make – there isn't even any casting on or casting off to do!

All the blogs involved in the party are giving out a letter. Collect them all, combine them to make a word and then visit The Making Spot to tell them the word and be in with a chance of winning a prize. Of course, you'll need our letter to finish. OUR LETTER IS 'E'.

In celebration of today being yet another bank holiday and the impending Royal Wedding (What do you mean ‘What royal wedding?’ Where have you beeeen?) Collins & Brown are inviting readers of SimplyKnitting.co.uk to download a free pattern to knit an adorable corgi.

An excerpt from Collins & Brown’s bestselling book Best in Show: Knit Your Own Dog by Jo Osborne and Sally Muir, this dog is famously associated with the British Royal Family, making this the perfect companion to knit while watching the Royal Wedding this Friday.

With our heads filled with Easter excitement, we’ve fallen in love with this knitting pattern by Anna Hrachovec for Tiny Baby Bunnies.

Each one is small enough to sit on a two-pence coin, with dinky ears, dot eyes and a teeny cotton tail.

If you’re feeling more ambitious, Anna suggests using thicker yarn than the sock yarn she’s create the mini ones from, and scale the project up to make a bigger rabbit.

The pattern is free at the Mochimochi Land website and the small versions will take just moments to create. Knit one for each of your friends or a whole handful! We can even picture them hanging from shrubs and little trees as kooky Easter decorations.

Pics provided by Anna – thank you

At Simply Knitting we love any excuse to knit, bake and eat cakes, which is why we’re so excited about Breast Cancer Care’s Strawberry Tea campaign.

Celebrating the best of the British summer, the charity invites you and your friends to get together for garden parties, bake sales, picnics or just a cuppa and raise money to aid the 50,000 people who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.

All the best tea parties involve wearing your best, and that includes covering your tea pot with a fabulous cosy! As luck would have it, our sister mag The Knitter have published a free pattern for a delectable Florence tea cosy (picture left) designed by the talented Libby Tomey. All they ask is that you make a donation to Breast Cancer Care as a thank you.

As promsed, here's the second pattern in our tea cosy set. If you're a knitter rather than a crocheter, get stuck into the pattern blow and raise some money for Marie Curie Cancer Care either by simply donating to the charity, raffling off your tea cosy or getting sponsored to knit it.

KNITTED TEA COSY

This pattern will fit tall or round pots
alike – adjust it to suit or design your
own pattern!

SIDES (WORK 2 ALIKE)

Cast on 55 sts using 4mm needles.
Work 10 rows of moss st as folls:
Row 1 (RS) K1, *P1, K1; rep from * to end.

The Coats Crafts website is currently sporting a new free Rowan knitting pattern to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

This smart tank top for men is right on trend with a Union Jack motif in Kiss, Navy and Snow Rowan Pure Wool DK.

We love the bold design and the hint of vintage style – the perfect outfit for patriotic street parties, summer barbecues and any other occasion when you want to stand out from the crowd!

Download the full pattern at http://www.coatscrafts.co.uk/Knitting/Projects/union_jack_slipover.htm

We were overwhelmed by the sheer number of beautiful, humorous and imaginative tea cosies made by Simply Knitting readers for our Marie Curie Cancer Care campaign.

We just came across this nifty Wrist Warmer Pattern Generator at www.knittingnewscast.com

All you need to do is type in your wrist measurement, gauge, desired length and needle size and voila, up pops a knitting pattern!

Gotta love the ingenuity, and it's sooo easy to use!

It’s an American site, mind you, so do watch out for differences in terminology and needle sizes…