Attic24

A Little Break

Hello!!!

Life has been busy and I can't believe that two weeks have passed by since the butterflies made their kaleidoscopic appearance here in the Attic. Last week we were away on a family holiday, and this week has pretty much been  spent recovering from the aforementioned holiday! Not in a bad way mind you (if you don't count the laundry mountain), more a like a slow acclimatization to being back home after a hot, hot week in a foreign land. We had a wonderful holiday and although I've uploaded a collection of photos to share with you, my mind isn't in quite the right place for me to articulate the experience just yet.

I'm also in the middle of yet more laundry and packing as I go away again in the morning, so time is running away with me a bit. I'm heading down to Dorset for a short break, it's a solo trip by train for me this year for various reasons (broken car, teenagers etc) but I'm very much looking forward to a bit of sea air and some breathing space. It's a whole year since we buried my Mum's ashes, and I need to be where my heart is pulling me for a short while.

I'll be back here in the Attic next week - I hope you are enjoying your days..

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Crochet Butterflies

Following on from my last post, there has been a fair bit of colourful fluttering here in the Attic as I've been in the grips of a butterfly obsession. I often find that once I get started with a decorative idea (mandalas are a very good example) I am absolutely, completely one hundred and ten percent in with both feet. I spend many, many hours/days/weeks searching for inspiration online and working through my own design ideas and colour combinations until I can evict the obsession out of my system for a while. Butterflies are my current hooky passion and there is in fact a very good reason for this which I'll explain in a bit. 

I made the above half dozen butterflies using patterns and inspiration from two of my favourite books by Lesley Stanfield :

{100 Flowers to knit and crochet} and {75 birds, butterflies & beautiful beasties to knit and crochet}

I love these patterns because they are based on real butterfly species, so even though I found them to be a challenge the end results were really worth the brain effort. The small tortoisehell butterfly (2nd from the right in the above photo) was my first attempt at creating my own butterfly. It's a bit cobbled together as I didn't write anything down and the wings aren't entirely symmetrical. But I absolutely loved the creative process and it inspired me to keep going with my ideas and also to have a good look online to see what other crochet designers had come up with in the way of butterflies.

What I found is that unlike the patterns in Lesley's book, pretty much every crochet butterfly pattern I found online was a very stylised version of the real thing. Decorative butterfly shapes are easy to visualise I guess, and I found it fascinating to see how different designs used different methods to create the wing shapes.

I thought you might like to see some of my favourite designs.......

1. Bountiful Butterflies by Marken of The Hat and I. 

2. Butterflies for Remembrance by Sharon of Cottonpod.

3. Simple butterfly by Re-made by Sam

4. Butterflies by Planet Penny

The first two are single-layer butterflies which are worked in rounds.

The second two are double-layer butterflies which are worked as a flowery circle then folded in half.

The double layer method is very clever and super-easy for beginners to have a go at. Worked in three simple rounds of treble crochet stitches, they come together quickly with very little concentration required.

When the circle is folded in half it creates the four wings - clever eh?

This type of design produces quite large butterflies - the above one was made using Ricorumi and a 3.5mm hook, and the finished butterfly measures 8cm across.

These butterflies are very stylised, so a bit like a child's drawing of a butterfly rather than a direct observation of a real life critter.

Personally, I much prefer the slightly more realistic look of the single layer designs. I like the shapes of the wings in both of these {Pink butterfly} and {green butterfly} and the neatness of them appeals to me more than the sprawling double layer ones. I'd say that both of these designs are simple enough for beginners to have a go at, particularly as both patterns have some photos to help.

Following on from my play around with these patterns, I felt even more inspired to create my own. I wanted something smallish and neat that could either be pinned as a brooch or used for decorative projects (wreaths, bunting etc). I based my wing shape on the smaller butterflies that flit around the meadows and hilltops here, using two colours for a bit of added decorative potential.

I love designing, so so much! It gives me a real buzz to visualise something, then work it over and over and over again until all the tweaks and alterations end up producing something lovely to look at and simple to re-create.

Ta-dah!!! I'm pretty happy with my butterfly!

I used Ricorumi cotton yarn and a 4mm hook to make this one, and it measures around 5.5cm across.

If you think you might like to crochet up your own collection of butterflies, I've written up the pattern and created a full step-by-step photo tutorial too. They are a weeny bit fiddly because of the small size, but I've tried to make the pattern as simple as possible.

🦋ATTIC24 BUTTERFLY PATTERN🦋

Did you know that the collective noun for butterflies is a kaleidoscope? Isn't that just a lovely word for them? Ever since I found that out I have smiled to myself every time I've thought about it or written it.  

I mentioned at the start of this post that there was a reason behind my current butterfly mania, and I know some of you on social media have quite rightly guessed that they are connected to my work with *Yarndale. Every year I co-ordinate a large scale Creative Community project for the yarn festival that I help to organise in September. You may remember the Creative Hearts from last year which raised money for mental health charity Mind? 

This year we want to gather together a kaleidoscope of yarny butterflies in colourful celebration of our fantastic worldwide crochet community (oh, and knitters as well - there are butterfly knitting patterns out there). We will be supporting a small local charity called Pioneer Projects which uses the creative arts to help those living with dementia. All the info about the Yarndale Creative Community project (including the postal address) is over on the Yarndale website.

I hope that you might feel inspired to join in with the *Yarndale butterfly project - a couple of butterflies are quick and easy to make and pop in the post, and they will be so very much appreciated. I've also got an idea brewing for some butterfly bunting, so I think it's safe to say that I'm not giving up the butterfly making mania anytime soon. They are just far too tempting to step away from right now.

🦋YARNDALE BUTTERFLY PROJECT🦋

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*Yarndale is an annual yarn festival held in North Yorkshire, and I am one of the organisers. We are passionate about celebrating our creative yarn community and I'm proud of my involvement with Yarndale. In the interests of clarity, disclosure and honesty and all that, I do need to mention that Yarndale is a for-profit organisation, and you can find out more about it here.

x

ps aren't butterflies just amazingly beautiful creatures?!!!

pps I still can't get over the kaleidoscope word thing. Love that.

 

 

 

 

Making the Seasons :: July

I've just spent a happy time looking all the way through my Making the Seasons posts right from the very beginning. I have really loved seeing my creative makes subtly change as they've moved through the seasons, and am excited to share this latest installment with you. Working on a monthly seasonal making project with my lovely friend Gillian is so much fun! I do find it quite a challenge to come up with something new and exciting each month, but it's the best type of challenge. I find that I can't really think about it too far in advance either as I tend to work best when I'm feeling totally spontaneous and just a wee bit pushed for time. 

I decided earlier in the week that my July Making The Seasons post would be all about butterflies. We have a buddleia (butterfly) bush growing at the front of our house, and after some dramatic self-pruning last year (it snapped!), this year it's grown back healthy and strong and is absolutely smothered in flowers. It reaches to just below our bay window which means that we get a terrific aerial view of all the winged critters arriving at their favourite flower-restaurant. 

So far this year I haven't seen many different species (I'm going to be taking part in the Big Butterfly Count once we head into August) - mainly Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Large and Small Whites. No Red Admirals or Painted Ladies yet, but I'm hopeful that I might get to see some before the summer is out.

I absolutely adore butterflies, and have done ever since being a small child. Does anyone remember the Brooke Bond picture cards that came inside packets of tea in the 1970's? There were a whole host of different subjects to collect (J remembers collecting dinosaur cards) and I was an avid collector of the butterfly cards. I so clearly remember having the exact book pictured above, although I've no idea what happened to it.  

I bought this one from eBay a few years ago, partly for the nostalgia gig, but also because I love the butterfly illustrations so much....

....there are 50 in total, with interesting educational facts given on each page. I love this book and even though I only paid £3 for it, it feels very precious to me. I wonder who it once belonged to? Who collected and glued in all the little cards? Who cared for it and kept it in such good condition for the past forty years? I wish I knew.

This is my modern day guide to the butterflies of the British Isles, bought after a trip down to Dorset when I saw so many species that I couldn't identify. I really, really wanted to have that knowledge tucked away inside my brain so that I could pass it on to the Little People, or at the very least have a nifty chart or book so that I could find out. Well now I do have the nifty chart, I just need to remember to take it with me when we go to likely butterfly-ish places.

So back to Making the Seasons. In the interests of complete honesty and disclosure, I have to tell you that I ordered up some very pretty edible butterfly cake toppers (these ones, aren't they lovely?) with the idea that I would bake and decorate some beautiful and highly photogenic butterfly buns as part of my seasonal July project. And......it didn't happen in time, not just yet. I do still intend to do some butterfly-inspired baking with Little B and I shall be sure to show you the results, but for now, my butterfly offerings are going to be inedible and made of yarn.

Do any of you have the above books by Lesley Stanfield? They are absolutely brilliant and I can highly recommend them if you like creating decorative bits of nature. I find the patterns a bit on the tricky side to decipher, but with the combination of written pattern, graphic chart and photos it's usually possible to fudge it enough to make a passable go of it.

Earlier in the week I set myself up at the dining table for a creative butterfly-making session, all giddy at the prospect of getting to play with my colourful cotton yarns. On the right hand side the yarn is Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK (50g balls) and on the left are the dinky little Ricorumi balls (25g) that I bought for mandala making. Frothy chocolate dusted coffee and I was ready to hook up a whole swarm of pretty winged critters.

Drank the coffee whilst browsing through the books, trying to decide which butterfly to attempt first. The patterns made my head swim, so I popped outside for a bit of a breather and when I came back in, a new ball of fluff had been added to the pile. Cheeky little kitty.

My first attempt was a Large White butterfly which looked gorgeous in the book. The designer had managed to create the look of veins running up the wings by very cleverly using double-treble front and back post stitches (uh-huh, dtr post stitches). This was not at all easy to execute and I got into a right old mess with it. I kept getting muddled up with the wrong side and right side, and the front and the back post business just got the better of me. I made one (rubbish) wing and am sorry to tell you that it flew right off my hook and straight into the bin...whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Onto the next try.................

Second attempt was the yellow Brimstone, and I managed a bit better with this one. I liked it because there was no turning (all the stitches were made in a long line into a foundation chain) so there was no confusion with trying to work out wrong side and right side. Some of the stitches were seriously tall though (quadruple-trebles) which made the wings look a bit holey and loopy but I like the overall shape of them.

On the same page as the Brimstone was a Golden Haristreak which I decided to make using blue yarn instead. This one was made in two parts which were then stitched together and my brain quite liked the way this one was designed. I could see the logic in the shaping and how to make each wing, and I crocheted it up with no problem.

I decided to add a little bit of decorative stitching around the outer edge of the wings - it occurred to me that butterfly wings are just crying out for little itty bits of decorative stitching. You could really go to town making them look as pretty as possible with all sorts of embroidery stitches.

So one abandoned wing in the bin and two butterflies complete (and actually looking like butterflies) and I was on a roll.

I need to make more! 

A quick flick through the book again - oooooo I LOVE the Peacock butterfly, but that's a knitted pattern and so not within my capabilities at all. Hmmm.....what about the Camberwell Beauty? That looks pretty and I like the shape of the wings very much. Lets give it a go!

This was another pattern where you had to work each wing in turn, making short rows back and forth using different stitch heights to shape the wings. A little picot to add some detail on the wing edge - very nice.

Second upper wing now, a mirror image of the first.....

.....wait a minute that doesn't look right, what happened there? The second wing is upsidedown? OK, no worries, I'll just pull it out and start the second wing again.

NOooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! The second time I tried, I ended up with exactly the same upsidedown issue, so I'm sorry but wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, into the bin it flies. There will be no Camberwell Beauty in my swarm.

What's next?

A Red Admiral, yes I think I can do this.

Yay!!!! It has four wings that look like wings should!

I had to fudge the black crochet edging quite a bit, making it up more than reading the pattern, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

When I looked on my nifty butterfly identification chart, I saw that the crochet version wasn't quite as accurate as it should be. Red Admirals have white patterning on their wings which make them very distinctive, so I decided to add a little bit of white stitching.

There, that's better - the white detail made all the difference. I love my Red Admiral!

Three butterflies on my table, and a day or two goes by. I sit myself down for another making session and decide to attempt an Orange Tip this time.....

Similar to the second butterfly I made, this one starts out as one line of stitches and I like this method. 

It didn't take me very long at all to make this lovely butterfly, and I was amazed at how real it looked. I saw a few orange tip butterflies a few weeks back when we were walking up in the Yorkshire Dales, and had remembered how vivid those little  flashes of orange and black are in real life.

I felt really inspired by this little butterfly, so decided to be brave and attempt something of my own from scratch.

I chose to make a Small Tortoiseshell as this is one of my best favourite butterflies and the ones we see most often fluttering around our butterfly bush. I used my nifty guide to learn the shape of the wings, and set to work. This was crochet on the fly and I didn't write a single thing down - I worked fast and concentrated hard, trying my best to create those symmetrical and beautifully shaped wings. After a lot of effort, I made something that actually looked really rather butterflyish, and I felt elated!

One of the reasons I wanted to try creating the Small Tortoiseshell was because of the patterns on the wings which I love so much. This was quite fiddly to do, but I worked the stitching slowly and methodically, one wing at a time until it was finished.....

.....ta-dah!!!!!!!!! An Attic24 original Small Tortoiseshell, which will most likely remain an original one of a kind. I can't think that I would ever want to try and do that again to be honest, it really was a bit of a labour of love.

The last butterfly I made was in two shades of blue, inspired by the Holly Blue male on my chart. This is another pattern designed by me, and this time I did make some notes as I was crocheting and shaping the wings. I still need to tweak it a little more, but I'm going to try and write the pattern up if I can. I fancy it would make a lovely little brooch and it would really make me happy to be able to make butterfly brooches in a whole rainbow of colours.

 So there you have it - the results of my butterfly making week. It's not a lot to show for what feels like a massive amount of expended brain power, but oh I do SO love them!!

I had a think about what I might like to actually do with these butterflies of mine - a mobile perhaps? A set of brooches? Stitch them to a summer wreath, or make a butterfly mandala?

I haven't had quite enough time to give the end result much thought to be honest, as it's been very blankety around here during the past week. 

But what I have really enjoyed doing is having a play with them, gosh, I had the MOST fun with this today! I often think that faffing and photographing handmade things is as much fun (if not more so) than the actual making process. I took a lot of photos - loads and loads of them - so here are just a few....

Ahhh........so lovely. Butterflies are incredibly joyful aren't they? The sight of them always makes me happy.

I have an idea that I'd like to create some sort of a picture with my crochet butterflies, kind of a nod to the rather old fashioned Victorian collectors displays found in natural history museums and old houses. I'll have a look for a suitable frame next time I'm out and about. I'm rather weirdly excited about this idea.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been up to this week with my hook and yarn - there may very well be more yarny butterfly business coming next week, I really want to work out that pattern to share with you.

In the meantime, I want to show you images from my virtual collection of Totally Inspirational butterfly-inspired art....

This is the incredible work of paper artist Kate Kato who works under the name "Kasasagi Designs". Kate makes delicate and very life like insects and plants using a combination of stitching and paper sculpting. The detail in her work is astounding and I love to see her beautiful compositions pop up on Instagram. I love all her work but her butterflies are especially appealing.

This is another crush of mine - the work of crochet artist Kate Jenkins. Yes, these insects are all crocheted!

I would love love love to see these crochet and embellished butterflies in real life, to really examine all their intricate detail right up close....but for now I'm just quietly swooning over the amazingness of them.

And lastly, I just stumbled across these beauties a few days ago on Pinterest whilst on a search for yarny butterfly inspiration. Aren't they gorgeous? These are also crocheted, but on a very different scale to the ones above - they are huge!

This Small Tortoiseshell butterfly isn't small at all and measures 28 x 20 cm.  I am completely smitten by it. Designed and made by Dutch designer MieksCreaties, you can actually buy the patterns to make all the different butterflies .....oh I am so so tempted! I really hate deciphering crochet patterns, but these crazy-beautiful things are calling my name. 

I think that's about all I've got to say about crochet butterflies for now - my mind is already wandering ahead to August and wondering what seasonal delights will ignite my creativity next month. Funny thing - I just typed moth instead of month, I think I've got winged insects on the brain!

Please do pop over and say hello to Gillian - her July Making the Seasons post is delicious and is making my mouth water! 

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Summer Ripple Blankets :: A Double Ta-dah!

Hellooooo!! Thank you so much for joining me here in the Attic as I leap about celebrating the fact that my first ever bloggy-blanket has reached the grand old age of  t e n. I do enjoy pondering on these milestones, especially when I've been feeling quite nostalgic and retrospective of late. It's possible that all this examining of memories is entirely hormone-driven, but nevertheless I'm enjoying my frequent trips down memory lane and the lengthy spells of reminiscing that come over me these days.

I passed by my ten year blog birthday back in March, but there is something about celebrating an actual physical thing that makes it more tangible somehow. The blanket in question was the second ever blanket I crocheted (the first was a granny square blanket), and the first ever blanket I shared on my blog back in the summer of 2008. It holds a special place in my heart as it was my first attempt at reading and interpreting a written pattern, which I have to say I found ridiculously hard (I still do to be honest). I found myself struggling my way through this ripple pattern, discovering that it didn't really make much sense to me the way it was written, which in turn inspired me to re-work it for my brain to understand it a bit better.

And so began my journey into the realms of designing and creating my own patterns, born out of necessity when I realised I hated the mental struggle and frustration that came with trying to work out other people's patterns. By sharing all this on my blog, I quickly realised that I wasn't alone with the pattern-struggle, and that there were many of you out there who were newbie hookers sat on your lonesome like me, trying to work things out and desperately needing more guidance. We folks are Visual Learners, and it's pictures with plain English sentences that we need, not a whole jumble of abbreviated patterny gobbledegook! I've spent the past ten years creating patterns written in long-winded sentences with oodles of pictures, in the hope that I might inspire someone to make something marvelous when they might otherwise have given up. I wanted to create the next best thing to having me sit right next to you, helping you along as you learn the ways of the hook, which is the very thing I craved when I was starting out. I really want EVERYONE to experience the joy of making blankets, it's that simple.

When I was starting to think about writing this post I went delving through my photo archives to find pictures of my first ever ripple blanket in the making.....yes, I know.....yet another nostalgia trip, but an entirely necessary one. I know I've often said before how crochet blankets are such terrific Guardians of Memories, and this is so, so true. I can look at the above photo and remember so much about the time, even though it was ten years ago. I remember that I was sat up in the Attic widow seat on a warm summer's evening after the Little People (then aged 4 and 5) were tucked up asleep in bed. I remember it was a Tuesday evening because I could hear the sound of the church bells ringing, and I was so happy and content sitting quietly working my ripple stitches.

Another vivid memory caught up in the stitches of this blanket, this time a Dorset holiday picnic one. I remember how baking hot it was as I sat and crocheted with a sea view while the Little People ran themselves ragged in the early afternoon. I remember that I was crocheting the penultimate stripe of my blanket, and I had that slightly sinking feeling that I just didn't want the blanket to end. I felt like I could ripple along forever and never tire of it. I feel like that about all my blankets (possibly not the fiddlesome Sweet Flower Granny blanket which drove me wild with it's faffiness, I was really happy when that came to an end). 

As I still have this blanket and still use it for the best kind of snuggling (well it does contain cashmere), all those happy summer memories stay wrapped around me. I remember the time in my life when I was Mum to two small Little People, and this is precious indeed when the aforementioned Little People are actually rather large and teenage shaped now.

Over the years, I've been asked so many times about the yarn I used for this blanket. I made it without an inkling that anybody might wish to know the colours I crocheted with so I kept no record, wrote nothing down. I remember the brand of the rather expensive yarn that I had chosen - it was Rowan Cashsoft DK with an odd ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, both of which have now been discontinued. I used 11 colours in my original ripple blanket, a rather odd mix of soft, pale summery shades mixed with a few bright zingy ones which bring it all to life. 

In the years following the making of my first ripple blanket, it has continued to be seen  through the archives of my blog, and through the pages of Pinterest and Flickr (does anyone still use Flickr? I was an avid user at one time, in the days before Instagram and Pinterest existed). During this time, the one thing I've been asked over and over again is about the colours I used.

"I want to make a blanket just like the one you made, please can you help me choose the colours?"

There is not a lot that I enjoy more than a creative colour challenge, so earlier this year, back in the depths of winter, I pondered on the idea of re-creating the original ripple colour palette using alternative yarns, in celebration of a whole decade of blanket making. It was slightly tricky as I only had the above photo to go by - the original blanket has faded quite a bit since I first made it, so when I was choosing my new colours I tried to stay true to the original look.....

......and this is what I came up with.

I initially put together the yarn on the right, which is my blankety-favourite Stylecraft Special DK. I stayed true to the original and only picked out 11 colours, which meant that four of them were doubled up to make 15 x 100g balls in total. 

The yarn on the left is King Cole Cottonsoft DK which is a yarn I've wanted to try using for a long time. I have a good friend who makes almost all her blankets using this yarn, so I've been able to see and feel the crochet fabric it produces first hand. It is sooooooo lovely! It's a soft, pure cotton yarn and the only thing that had put me off using it in the past was the more limited choice of colours compared to the Stylecraft yarn I've become used to. However, for this particular blanket project the colours happened to be pretty perfect, so I made the decision to give it a try.

I'll list out the colours for you, please do forgive the sideways photos! I don't know why but Typepad has refused to let me turn them the right way round, so I've had no choice but to show them to you sideways. I've listed the colours according to the way you are seeing the photo though, so as not to confuse you!

15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK (11 shades)

Left column, top to bottom :

 ♥ Wisteria x 1 ♥ Blush x 2 ♥ Spice x 1 ♥ Pomegranate x 1 ♥

Middle column, top to bottom :

♥ Duck Egg x 2 ♥ Cloud Blue x 1 ♥ Storm Blue x 1 ♥ Sage x 1 ♥

Right column, top to bottom :

♥ Clematis x 2 ♥ Lavender x 1 ♥ Pistachio x 2 ♥

15 x 100g balls of King Cole Cottonsoft DK (11 shades)

Left column, top to bottom :

 ♥ Lavender x 1 ♥ Apricot x 2 ♥ Orange x 1 ♥ Coral x 1 ♥

Middle column, top to bottom :

♥ Violet x 1 ♥ Cloud x 1 ♥ Mint x 2 ♥ Sky x 1 ♥

Right column , top to bottom :

♥ Rose Petal x 2 ♥ Apple x 1 ♥ Sage x 2 ♥

Lets look at these colours again - what do you make of them? I absolutely ADORE them, they are everything that makes my summer-loving heart happy. They are bright and soft, zingy and harmonious, just the essence of pure summer to me. I look at them and think of slightly sun-faded deckchair stripes, fizzy sherbet sweets and fruity ice cream. They are beach and childhood and summer and home to me. They are carefree days and sunshine, picnics and relaxation, everything happy,  joyful and nostalgic that I feel in my heart when I think of Summers past.  Quite simply - they make me happy right down to my toes.

I began with the Stylecraft blanket first as that kept me cosily inside my comfort zone when it came to playing with the colours. For various reasons I wasn't able to re-create the original blanket with the colours in the exact same order, but I really wanted to keep it as close as possible. I wanted it to have the same feel but not necessarily be an exact replica. I started out in late February, hot on the heels of the Woodland Ripple which was lovely actually - making this very summery blanket in the depths of winter was such a tonic!

The Neat Ripple pattern is probably one of the most addictive patterns I've ever come across. There is something about the gentle, repetitive counting and the soothing rhythm that totally sucks you in and makes it almost impossible to put it down. Just one more row.......

.....one more row, oh but I really want to see how this next colour looks so maybe just one more......! Yes, it really is like that. If you've ever crocheted a ripple blanket (and if not, why ever haven't you?) I'm sure you know what I'm on about. It's pure creative therapy, top notch, grade A feel-good. 

Crocheting in winter has some lovely perks, that's for sure. Sitting next to an open fire whilst warming your toes and hooking a few rows is one of my greatest cold weather pleasures. As is snuggling up in bed on a Sunday morning with a few ripples to keep you company whilst you sip your morning coffee and contemplate the day ahead. 

And as with every single ripple blanket I've made over the years, I never want it to end. Luckily for me, as soon as I'd finished the Stylecraft Summer ripple blanket, I was able to move straight onto the Cottonsoft version. A never ending, joyful journey of mountains and valleys, riding those ripples of colour. Happy, happy, happy me!!!

By the time I was ready to begin the Cottonsoft blanket it was mid May, and crochet activity was no longer by the fireside or snuggled in bed (well actually, yes I did still crochet in bed, just with less snuggly layers). 

The weather had heated up considerably and crochet became an al fresco activity for me as we jaunted through the heat of an early summer.

I continued to be obsessed with making these ripples, falling more in love with the colours and the idea of capturing the memories of a (for once) hot summer in these stitches. I crocheted at Coopers Cafe twice a week when we had our knit and natter sessions......

....and I crocheted in the pub with friends. Rippling with a gin and tonic to hand is absolutely heavenly and reaches very high on my personal pleasure-o-meter.

I crocheted at my studio table.....

....and I crocheted at my dining table.

I hooked and rippled and immersed myself completely in these glorious summer colours.

I have to say that crocheting with cotton yarn in the heat of the summer that we are having has been a complete revelation. This yarn was absolutely made with summer sunshine in mind and feels really wonderful in your hands no matter how warm the weather. This isn't a shiny, slippery type of cotton yarn, but it is exceptionally soft and smooth which makes it a joy to work with. I found that my hands never felt sweaty or "squeaky" when I was hooking with it, even when I felt ever so hot in my skin. 

When I decided to use cotton yarn to make a blanket, I had no idea that we were heading for one of our hottest summers on record. Now I'm not somebody who ditches the crochet in warm weather, no way, it's not possible because I'm an obsessive crochet addict and need to feed my addiction every single day of the year. But I really do feel like I hit the jackpot when I picked this yarn to work with during this particular summer. It has been so, so nice! Just lovely in every way. 

It's not at all easy to describe the qualities of how a yarn feels and looks, I'm just now finding that out. But maybe a few pictures can help to show you what I'm talking about. For those of you who have used Stylecraft Special for making blankets, you will know very well how soft and warm it feels. It's not a fluffy yarn really, and yet compared to the Cottonsoft it certainly looks and feels more fluffy and fibre-y. You can see in the above photo that the Cottonsoft is a smooth, slightly silky looking yarn (not to be confused with shiny, it's not shiny). What you can't see from the photo is how it feels - it is so, so soft! It doesn't feel slippery or silky when you touch it, it just feels unbelievably soft. But oh, it's silky to crochet with! It slips and glides on the hook like a dream and I love love love it for that. But best of all....just like the Stylecraft yarn, the Cottonsoft is NON SPLITTY - a very, very important thing for us crocheters. Splitty yarn is an absolute no-go for me, honestly, life is too short for that nonsense.

Lets try and get a closer look....

Stylecraft Special DK on the left and King Cole Cottonsoft DK on the right.

Both of these yarns are truly lovely to to work with, and make absolutely gorgeous blankets.  

Making two blankets together (well one after the other, but I think of them as being together) has been a lot of work in terms of hours that I've spent with a hook in my hand. Hear me complaining? Not ever!!!! It's been so much fun playing with the summery colours and now that they are finished I get to experience the pleasure of using the blankets for years to come. They will forever remind me of the Summer of '18 when our weather was fabulous and so much sunny time was spent enjoying the outdoors. I've got picnic plans for these blankets (I've already enjoyed an outdoor snooze tucked up under the Cottonsoft ripple) and will be taking them to Dorset with me a little later on this Summer, for the pure pleasure of being able to see them with a summery coastal backdrop.

As you would expect for any sort of celebratory ta-dah type event, I have taken a shed load of photos. Heaps of them. I'm now pondering over how to show them to you without giving you Blanket Blindness. 

Are you ready for this?

Lets start with the Stylecraft Special Summer Ripple.........

.......ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you enjoy that ripple feast?

Do you love the way the colours dance together? Aren't they beautiful?!

As you know, I've already written a full tutorial to help you get to grips with the Neat Ripple pattern, as well as a separate tutorial which explains how to turn the ripple pattern into an actual blanket (which includes instructions for filling in the rippled edges and working the border). Here are the links for those >>

NEAT RIPPLE STITCH PATTERN

RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

What I also want to remind you of is the hook size, blanket size and tension stuff - all this is explained in the blanket know-how tute, but as this was written for Stylecraft yarn it's important to write it again because the Cottonsoft Blanket is different to the Stylecraft blanket.

STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK SUMMER RIPPLE

YARN PACK at WOOL WAREHOUSE (includes full colour printed pattern)

Finished blanket size : 120cm x 180cm (single bed size)

Hook size : recommended size is 4 mm for Stylecraft yarn.

You can go up or down depending on  personal tension. I'm a tight crocheter so I used a 5 mm hook to create the starting foundation chain (to keep it from pulling too tight and making a rainbow!), then switched to a 4.5 mm for the ripples. I would highly recommend using a bigger hook size to make the foundation chain.

Starting chain (a multiple of 14, plus 3) : chain 213

Number of stripes : 84.

Make the first and last stripe the same colour so that you can easily follow my border instructions.

Here is the stripe order I used. If you buy a Summer Ripple yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a full colour printed pattern which includes this info.

SUMMER RIPPLE (STYLECRAFT) STRIPE ORDER
1. storm blue	31. pistachio	61. pomegranate
2. duck egg	32. blush	62. clematis
3. clematis	33. clematis	63. wisteria
4. pomegranate	34. pomegranate	64. spice
5. blush	35. sage	65. lavender
6. lavender	36. duck egg	66. storm blue
7. pistachio	37. pistachio	67. cloud blue
8. cloud blue	38. clematis	68. clematis
9. sage	39. cloud blue	69. pisatchio
10. wisteria	40. blush	70. sage
11. spice	41. wisteria	71. duck egg
12. blush	42. spice	72. lavender
13. lavender	43. pistachio	73. blush
14. clematis	44. duck egg	74. spice
15. pistachio	45. storm blue	75. wisteria
16. duck egg	46. wisteria	76. duck egg
17. cloud blue	47. blush	77. sage
18. storm blue	48. pistachio	78. pistachio
19. pistachio	49. lavender	79. duck egg
20. blush	50. clematis	80. clematis
21. duck egg	51. pomegranate	81. pomegranate
22. clematis	52. lavender	82. blush
23. wisteria	53. blush	83. duck egg
24. pomegranate	54. spice	84. storm blue
25. spice	55. sage
26. pistachio	56. pistachio
27. sage	57. cloud blue	Border
28. cloud blue	58. blush	1. Storm Blue
29. clematis	59. duck egg	2. Pistachio
30. duck egg	60. wisteria	3. Blush

 

So now I'm thinking that you might like to see some more of the the Cottonsoft blanket?

Ok.......more blankety gorgeousness coming up...........

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would dearly love you to be able to put your hand into your screen and give this blanket a  good squish. It feels delicious! It's cool and soft to the touch and has a beautiful drapey weightiness to it which makes it feel cosy when it's wrapped around you.  I've made cotton blankets before (my famous hexagon blanket was made using Rowan Handknit cotton DK, and my first ever granny square blanket was made using a mercerised cotton) but they've felt very, very heavy and I've ended up using them as furniture throws rather than snuggle blankets. The Cottonsoft blanket feels different, and it has occurred to me recently that this yarn would be absolutely perfect for making baby blankets. 

So here is the information stuff for you - a reminder of the pattern links ::

NEAT RIPPLE STITCH PATTERN

RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

....and the important sizing info for the Cottonsoft yarn.......

KING COLE COTTONSOFT DK SUMMER RIPPLE

YARN PACK at WOOL WAREHOUSE (includes full colour printed pattern)

Finished blanket size : 120cm x 170cm (single bed size, very slightly smaller than the Stylecraft version)

Hook size : recommended size is 3.5 mm for the Cottonsoft yarn.

You can go up or down depending on  personal tension. I'm a tight crocheter so I used a 4.5 mm hook to create the starting foundation chain (to keep it from pulling too tight and making a rainbow!), then switched to a 4mm for the ripples. I would highly recommend using a bigger hook size to make the foundation chain.

PLEASE NOTE !! The Cottonsoft yarn handles very differently to the Stylecraft yarn, and needs a smaller hook size to stop the whole thing becoming too flopsy. Just half a millimetre in hook size can make a huge difference to the finished size and feel of your crochet. Also - even with changing down a hook size, the Cottonosoft yarn still works up bigger than Stylecraft, yes, it's true!! So the starting chain and the number of stripes is reduced accordingly.

Starting chain (a multiple of 14, plus 3) : chain 199

Number of stripes : 73.

Make the first and last stripe the same colour so that you can easily follow my border instructions.

Here is the stripe order I used. If you buy a Summer Ripple yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a full colour printed pattern which includes this info.

SUMMER RIPPLE (COTTONSOFT) STRIPE ORDER
1. cloud	31. mint	61. sage
2. mint	32. sage	62. mint
3. rose petal	33. rose petal	63. apricot
4. coral	34.v iolet	64. coral
5. apricot	35. sky	65. rose petal
6. sage	36. lavender	66. mint
7. sky	37. orange	67. apple
8. apple	38. apricot	68. apricot
9. lavender	39. sage	69. violet
10. apricot	40. mint	70. sage
11. orange	41. cloud	71. orange
12. rose petal	42. lavender	72. apricot
13. violet	43. apricot	73. cloud
14. sage	44. coral
15. mint	45. violet
16. sky	46. sky	Border
17. rose petal	47. apple	1. cloud
18. lavender	48. rose petal	2. mint
19. coral	49. sage	3. rose petal
20. orange	50. orange
21. sage	51. apricot
22. apple	52. mint
23. cloud	53. lavender
24. rose petal	54. sage
25. mint	55. rose petal
26. apple	56. sky
27. apricot	57. apricot
28. rose petal	58. mint
29. coral	59. rose petal
30. apple	60. violet

I hope you've enjoyed sharing this double blanket journey of mine, it feels as if it's been quite epic in my mind, but probably that's just me feeling aaaaaaaaaaall the emotions about it all. I am so unbelievably grateful for the way that crochet found me at a time in my life (almost eleven years ago) when I so desperately needed it. It has honestly changed me in ways that I never even dreamed of.

I will always be a maker of blankets, and I am absolutely fine with that. I love all sorts of different types of crochet (I've got something fun to show you tomorrow!), but blanket making is my true pleasure, my obsession, my absolute passion. It feeds my creativity in a way that I can't imagine living without.

And best of all,  I love to be able to share it with the world at large - ten years on and I am still as in love with blogging as ever. I get such a buzz out of sharing my creative endeavours and belonging to this wonderful, nurturing community of ours. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey, I appreciate you more than I can say.

Here are the links all in one place for you >>

♥ NEAT RIPPLE PATTERN

♥ RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

♥ STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK SUMMER YARN PACK

♥ KING COLE COTTONSOFT DK SUMMER YARN PACK

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Summer Snippets {one}

☀ It's the start of the long six week summer break here, and just as I did last year I thought it'd be nice to share some little snippets of life as we pootle gently through our days. I woke up late this morning completely disorientated, not knowing what day of the week it was or what on earth I was supposed to be doing. It was a blissful feeling when my brain finally woke up and I realised I could take my time and nothing much was needed of me for a while. I adore this feeling so much! It's relief mixed with an overwhelming sense of calm. All is well, it's the summer holidays and we will be operating on a completely different schedule for the foreseeable. Yippeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

☀ Summer holidays for me generally means a lot of juggling. As with most mums of school age children, I'm used to multi-tasking and mixing my parenting with work commitments, and this summer holds a fair amount of both for me. I'm cracking on with lots of Yarndale stuff, working on the content for the printed brochure as well as the big Creative Community project that I organise each year. I designed and made these little "treasure bowls" last week as a project for the Yarndale brochure - they are made from pure wool which means I can put them into the washing machine and felt them.......so much fun! I'll show you more in a separate post as I've got another felting project on the go right now too. 

☀ Luckily for us our allotment is only a couple of minutes walk from our back door so we are easily able to nip up most days and check on our small but precious crops. These are my minuscule, super-dwarf beans which I am so in love with - they are ever so cute! Despite their diminutive size they are starting to deliver us some delicious beans and I couldn't be happier. it's like having a row of really well behaved little children all performing over and above what is expected of them. Gold star award for the teensy bean plants, top of the class.

☀ The sweet peas aren't producing a whole lot of flowers to be honest, and look a bit on the spindly side. I have a feeling I forgot to pinch out the growing tips at the seedling stage, so the plants never bushed out like I expected them to. Ah well, I'm happy to be picking small posies each week which are scented to perfection, even if there isn't the abundance I was hoping for.

☀ Our small tenty green house is working out really well and keeping our plants nicely protected from the winds that whip across our sloping hillside plot. We've got cucumbers, tomatoes and chilies growing in here and I love seeing how well they are doing.

☀ This was yesterday's harvest, gathered with a great deal of happy enthusiasm by myself and Little B. We had to carry out a fair bit of adventurous hacking to get to the teensy raspberries through the riot of brambles in the overgrown soft fruit bed. It was rather painful and our haul was a little on the small side, but still, the excitement was unrelentingly high. I let Little B eat the raspberries with some greek yoghurt and honey and he said they were super-yummy. And check out my cucumbers, how good do they look?! So proud of my veggie babies.

☀ I'm working on the printed patterns for my new Summer Ripple blankets this week, which is quite hard going. Taking step-by-step photographs as I create the borders and writing up the patterns isn't nearly as enjoyable as the hooky itself which has been hugely pleasurable. But I'm making good progress and hope that everything will be ready to go by the end of this week. Maybe even Thursday.

And in other news, I know I am late to this particular party but I've just discovered frozen smoothie packs at the supermarket. Wow, they are brilliant! They nestle in the freezer between the massive selection of lollies and ice creams and the bags of ice cubes, so you have to kind of know to go and look there for them. There isn't a huge choice in Morrisons, but the above concoction was made from a Red Smoothie pack (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and mango), blended with a dollop of greek yoghurt and some milk. Yum yum yum, sooooooooo good. The Little People are ecstatic that I'm willingly offering to make these for them without thee need for begging or nagging on their part. 

We've had this multi purpose blender for almost a year now (it's a NutriPro 1200) and it's fantastic for general blitzing jobs in the kitchen (making breadcrumbs, chopping nuts, blitzing soup, making curry paste, hummus, dips etc) but I've never been bothered to make smoothies with it. However, it really is the bees knees when it comes to blending chunks of frozen stuff, I've been very impressed. 

☀ The curious mixture above came out of the Green Smoothie pack and consists of frozen kale, banana and mango. And in case you're wondering what that bitty sawdusty stuff is, well, that's lemongrass. Took me a while to actually read the packet and work out why everything was covered in sawdust. I divided the pack up into individual bags so that I can easily make up one smoothie at a time (that isn't all kale and no fruit)  - it gets mixed with apple juice and water to produce this.........

.....mmmmmmmmmm. It looks a bit overly health conscious, but actually tastes delicious. Little B couldn't be persuaded though, he took one slurp and said it made his tummy hurt and could he please stick to the pink one. Guess I'll be the one drinking the kale smoothies then.

☀ A photo of our Big Chair, just because I love it so. It's an oversized chair-and-a-half that we inherited from J's parents who were throwing it out and it fits an adult and willing small child quite nicely for film watching and snuggling. I change the blankets over regularly as they get a lot of wear and tear on this chair, and I'm really enjoying the bright pop of colour that the Sunny Granny Stripe is delivering right now. In case you were wondering about the cushion, that's the Water Lily cushion I made last year using Stylecraft Batik yarn (see here for yarn and pattern details). It's grown on me considerably since I first made it, and I do appreciate the more subtle colouring set against the exuberance of all my blankets.

☀ The Big Chair is where I sit when I can't sleep and come downstairs in the very early hours of the morning. I'm generally a good sound sleeper, but due (I suspect) to my hormones, I'm having some very disrupted nights just lately. I wake at 3am feeling as if someone lit a fire under me, and then find it almost impossible to get back to sleep again. I feel anxious and a little panicky, with a racing heartbeat and a mind that refuses to switch down a gear. I've learnt not to struggle with this any more, and instead of tossing and turning I get up quietly, come downstairs, make a cup of tea, sit quietly with the cat and read or crochet a little until the rest of the household wakes up. I was surprised when I got up yesterday morning to see that it was still dark at 4am. So I switched on my my fairy lights and lit some candles, and waited for the sun to wake up. It was so peaceful as I yawned my way through those darkened early hours of the day.

☀ Little B - so very, very happy to be on his summer break home from school. His happiness radiated out of him today as he loafed about listening to music, playing with his lego and watching insane cartoons on Netflix. He played outside too, kicking a ball around with his friends on the street and riding his bike up and down and up and down. The start of the summer holidays always feels so light and joyful, with endless days stretching ahead to be enjoyed and filled with good things. Oh, I'm hopeful for many Good Things. Always hopeful, that's me.

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Summer Plodding

✿ a walk to the farm shop on my own one morning last week, just because I didn't feel like going home. I bought a bar of my favourite chocolate and a take away milky coffee, then walked back through the park to my favourite bench to sit in the sun and consume the aforementioned refreshments.  It was a small window of relaxation in my busy week that I would probably have forgotten about if I hadn't just come across the above photo of my bench view. These are the same cherry trees that I photographed in this post back in May - in fact if you look at the 2nd to last photo in that post you'll see my favourite bench right there under the trees.

✿ pegging out the laundry and having a little tussle with the clematis. It's flowering beautifully this year whilst attempting to grow it's way along my washing line. I've decided to leave it be and peg around it as best as I can.

✿ A Sunday morning walk along the river - this is Linton Falls looking incredibly dry and depleted (you can see this same spot in my November post when the river was in full flow). 

✿ the heatwave continues here in he UK, with temperatures reaching 29°C (this is around 84°F which I know isn't at all hot for many of you in other parts of the world, but it is for us Brits!). I love the hot weather (love love love it) but it sure looks like hard work for those wearing a woolly fleece.

✿ plodding along the riverside, listening to the banter going back and forth between J and Little B. It was just the three of us on this Sunday morning as the two Teens were both off doing other things.

✿ a little bit wowed by this enormous tree fungus, it was as big as a stack of dinner plates. Somehow I always associate fungus with the Autumn season, but this summer-loving one was seriously impressive.

✿ love love loving a continuous succession of summer posies in various jugs and bottles on my table. Sweet peas, cosmos, lavender and lady's mantle looking unbelievably pretty. I've got sweet peas growing at the allotment and in a large pot in the back yard too - I can't say they are really producing an abundance of flowers just yet, but there are enough for me to pick small posies every week. I've got a little bottle of flowers beside my bed at the moment too, which makes me so happy.

✿ a family jaunt out on Saturday to the RHS gardens near Harrogate where it was all very beautiful, sunshiny and refined. In complete contrast to the calm, serene surroundings our youngest child decided to behave like a wild thing.  

✿ luckily there are parts of the gardens that are very suitable for wild-child behaviour, thank goodness for the open grassy slopes (roly-polys galore) and the woodland play areas (cue much wild running). I think all that restrained behaviour on the terrace at Betty's tearoom (not to mention the sugary drink and cookie that was consumed on said terrace) simply needed an outlet. It was simultaneously worrying and inspiring watching that child deal with his excess energy.

✿ the last time we came to HC was many years ago when I was carrying Little B inside my tummy and it was Autumn time then. The gardens are an absolute delight in the height of summer, I was on visual overload for a while.

✿ I adored this wild flower meadow planted next to the kitchen garden, it was humming with bees and was such a feast for the eyes and the soul.

✿ there was so much about the gardens that I enjoyed - the alpine house, the kitchen garden, the ginomrous terracota pots overflowing with summer flowers, the willow sculptures....it was all very, very lovely. I wish I'd taken more photos, especially of the kitchen garden which was totally inspirational and made me wish for more time and energy to give to our allotment plot.

✿ J and I have been walking in the countryside every chance we get and I have so enjoyed being out and about making the most of the weather and the summer season. On Sunday all three of our offspring happened to be busy with friends so we took ourselves off to Bolton Abbey and walked the whole length and breadth of the estate. From Barden Bridge at one end down to the Abbey at the other end, crossing back and forth over the three river bridges in a big loop. I think it was around 7 or 8 miles in total and was such a lovely walk.

✿ at the start of this week we had our first proper downpour of rain in almost two months. A muggy grey day of low cloud and light drizzle, followed by heavy rainfall in the evening. The air smelt amazing and was the very definition of the word petrichor. It was just the most calming and relaxing thing to be sat quietly in bed with the window wide open, listening to the sound of the rain falling.

✿ keeping up the watering regime at the allotment has been a struggle in this dry hot weather but we are plodding on with it. Our small number of crops are hanging on in there, some doing better than others. The spinach gave up early on and bolted, but we have high hopes for cucumbers and tomatoes which are looking very promising growing in the shelter of a small plastic tenty-type greenhouse thingy. I planted a row of dwarf beans and they are the smallest bean plants I have ever seen, barely reaching above my ankles. However, they are producing flowers and beans..........and yesterday I harvested the grand total of nine beans which was very exciting in a rather small, modest way. We ate them for dinner, sharing them out two each which was a bit of a joke but the Little People made the appropriate enthusiastic noises to keep me happy. Bless 'em. In case you were wondering, I added shop-bought sugar snap peas to the 2-bean offering so it wasn't quite as desperate as it sounds. 

✿ been playing with sweet peas this week, arranging them, faffing with them, photographing them and just plain enjoying their colourful beauty, like you do. 

✿ I really want to have a go at designing a crochet sweet pea flower so that I can make some to twine around a Summer wreath.  They are very three-dimensional flowers so I've found it hard in the past to look at photos of them and work out how the petal construction might work. But having the real thing to look at makes it very much easier, and the colours are really inspiring me and my summer loving heart. 

✿ not homegrown potatoes, but the mint is growing exuberantly in one of my many back yard pots. Yesterday's dinner offering was the nine allotment green beans (with added sugar snap peas), salmon filet marinated in olive oil/lemon/honey/garlic then pan fried, and baby new potatoes tossed in butter and fresh mint. It was light, tasty and utterly summery. I hope the Little People look back on their childhood family meals and remember how blinkin' good they were. I cook from scratch with fresh ingredients most nights, and having the five of us all sit down at the table to eat our evening meal together is one of the true highlights of my day. I may be totally rubbish at housework in general, but I do always try my bestest to do a good job with the food thing.

✿ a little bit of after dinner hooky in the back yard, crocheting the last run of ripples on this gorgeous summer cotton blanket. I think I've only got around 6 stripes left to make, then it's onto the border. I'm so looking forward to telling you more about the yarn (which I've totally fallen in love with) and the two summer blankets that I've been steadily plodding away with since February. Not long to wait now.....I'm really pretty flipping excited to share, it drives me a bit bonkers to keep things under wraps for any length of time. I'll be feeling a whole load better once this is all out there, I can't wait!!!

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The Heat of Summer

In the heat of the Summer, J and I are making time to walk up and down the hot, dry hills and dales. It takes a certain amount of determination to take on a 7 mile hike in hot summer temperatures, climbing dusty tracks up steep, steep hills for the pleasure of a sweeping view. But we have absolutely loved the walks we've done in recent weeks - the weather has been stunning and I've so enjoyed spending this time outdoors stretching my muscles and soaking in all this sunshine we are being blessed with.

The above photo was taken a couple weeks ago as we climbed high above the picturesque village of Kettlewell. Gosh, it was a long steep climb and it was hot, hot, hot on this gorgeous summer morning.

We stopped beside the river to eat a picnic lunch and rest our weary feet and I was so glad to sit down for a while. When we walk in the Dales we are usually following  a circular route - sometimes we manage to complete the walk before we flop down and have something to eat, but often we like to pack a simple picnic and eat along the way. I do love the actual walking bit of a hike, but I enjoy our picnics with a scenic view the most. When I say our picnics are simple, they really are just that, but I love them so much! We buy individual pork pies from a local shop (either the farm shop or the butcher, so they are very, very good and freshly made pork pies), then take along a punnet of cherry tomatoes to go with the pie. Some fresh fruit (on this walk it was a bag of cherries from the farm shop) and some good dark chocolate. In winter we have a flask of coffee too, but summer walking just requires bottles of cold water. You may not know, but Skipton is rather famous for it's quality pork pies and we even have an award winning "celebrated pork pie establishment" in town (Stanforths) which has used the same recipe for more than 80 years. There - true local pie facts from the Attic!!

The rivers and reservoirs are very very low at the moment here in North Yorkshire as we've had very little rain during the past couple of months. But despite the lack of water the countryside is still looking green and beautiful which I'm grateful for. 

As well as the hill walking, the hot summer weather has drawn us to the riverside on a few occasions just recently. We've parked the car at Bolton Abbey and settled ourselves into some comfy camping chairs in the dappled shade of a tree for a few hours. When we are out and about during a school day we are constantly aware of the clock, so these peaceful riverside visits do have a time limit imposed on them. They give us just a couple of slow afternoon hours to sit, relax, daydream, read, crochet, ponder and chat before the school run calls us back into our parental routine. But oh, these hours do feel precious!

I'm working hard on my summer ripple blankets at the moment (yes, that's blanketS - there are two of them). I'm hoping that all being well with the good folks that produce the yarny balls, there will be new Summery yarn packs coming at the end of this month. Working on two blankets at once has meant a lot of crochet time over the past few months, but you will not in any way hear me complaining about that. I fall more deeply in love with crochet every day, and it's ability to be portable, sociable and all round fit-in-able makes it the perfect hand made package in my opinion. Add to that the fact that it has grade A therapeutic properties and you get a beautiful handmade blanket at the end of all that creative feel-good, well, it's just all-round amazing.

In total contrast to quiet riverside moments and parental routine, on Friday I hopped on a train and took myself off to Manchester for twenty four hours of not being a parent. It was an absolutely brilliant trip and I loved every minute of it. Manchester was my student city and I lived, studied and worked there for eight years in the late 80's and early 90's. It's where J and I met, and although it's changed a lot over the years, it's still a very exciting, vibrant and energetic city to experience for a short while. My Friday jaunt consisted of a fabulous lunch here, brilliant browsing here and here and afternoon tea and cake in a beautiful little cafe whose name I can't remember. The highlight of the day was an early evening ride in a lift up to the 23rd floor where we were treated to a window seat and bubbles in Cloud23 bar. I felt so far removed from my normal everyday self as I sat laughing and chatting in this luxurious setting, it was completely fabulous! The whole trip was made extra special by the  gorgeous friends I was spending time with - Christine and Emma, you are both wonderful, and I loved every second of our Manchester jaunt.

Back home from the city on Saturday, and this hot summer weather shows no signs of slowing down. I am love love loving it, honestly, I was made for weather like this. The sunshine, heat and blue skies energise me and make me happy in a way that cloudy grey just cannot do. I'm such a happy summer-loving bunny at the moment! I continue to tend to my back yard pots, watering them every day and enjoying the flowers and greenery very very much. I'm waiting patiently for my sweet peas and jasmine to flower, and my weeny yellow courgette babies to grow to an edible size. All is well in my little outdoor space (currently draped with laundry blowing in the breeze), and I am so grateful for the ease of it.

Back to the business of summer crochet, and here we have a small rainbow circle of pure happiness. This is all Little B's work, and I shall resist the temptation to squeal loudly in a fit of motherly pride. He doesn't crochet a lot, but every so often he seems to hit a period of complete and utter boredom, then sees me happily content with my hook and wants a slice of yarny pleasure for himself. He's a fast learner with a mathematical brain, so once we'd established the general idea of using  increases to create a circle, he was away with the idea and needed very little assistance from me. He is currently asking to be taught the ripple, so we shall see what that brings forth.  

I am enjoying the almost daily pleasure of pegging, un-pegging, folding and stacking sun-dried laundry from my back yard washing lines. The pile of whites always feels especially pleasing somehow after a stint of direct sunshine noticeably brightens up their whiteness. The Little People aren't so fond of the crispness of their air-dried clothes (they prefer the softness brought about by the tumble drier), but me? I'm super-happy with it all. Nothing beats the smell of sun dried cotton and if I had the inclination (and maybe a maid) I would wash my bedding every single day just so I could experience the joy of sleeping in freshly laundered, sun-kissed egyptian cotton every night.

It's so often the little things that make me happy, and these days I am full of gratitude for the simple fact of being able to turn on a tap and have great tasting, clean fresh cold water to drink on these hot days. I have to tell you that growing up in Dorset I really disliked the taste of the tap water (it's very, very chalky), and that Yorkshire tap water honestly tastes delicious to me. I've taken to using a 700ml drinking vessel which I love cos it's so easy to add handfuls of ice and slices of stuff without trying to squidge it all through the top of a bottle. My current favourite water additions are cucumber and lime slices with a few sprigs of fresh mint. Lots of ice. Give it a good shake so the mint bruises and releases it's cooling flavour and drink, drink, drink. I figure that if I drink at least two of these a day then I'm doing OK at staying reasonably hydrated.

Yesterday was a slow, delicious kind of a day, a day for pootling and pottering and leaving the car parked at the curb. After dropping Little B at school, J and I walked a few miles around the neighbourhood and through the woodland, taking the high paths through the trees that we wouldn't usually walk with the Little People. We stopped off in town for a quick coffee (outdoor seating, it felt just like being on the continent) before heading to the market, baker and supermarket. We've stopped taking the car for a weekly supermarket shopping trip, trying out the idea of shopping locally on foot as part of our daily routine. We've been trying to use the market more (a whole paper bag of cherries for £1!), the butcher, baker and of course the farm shop. 

We decided on the spur of the moment to take our lunch up to the park to eat, and afterwards to spend a few hours relaxing there. I had my crochet ripples (of course) and J was reading some news articles on his phone. We chatted about this and that, and after a while I found myself almost powerless to keep my eyes open. So I gave in and lay down on the blanket, drifting gently into the most delicious and unexpected afternoon snooze imaginable. It was so utterly peaceful and just what I didn't know I desperately needed. I didn't sleep for long, maybe 20 minutes or so, but I woke up feeling refreshed and full of summer joy. I've been fighting off a light summer cold as well as hayfever the past week or so, and I think I just needed that extra bit of shut eye. Later on, I was thinking back to the afternoon and the extra sleep I'd had, and I felt so grateful for the freedom of my days. I appreciate my freedom more than I'm able to put into words.

On the whole, these hot summer days have been pretty cloudless, but occasionally there is a gathering of wispy, feathery-light cirrus clouds overhead. These are definitely warm weather clouds and I just love the way they look against the blue of the summer sky.

Although we've passed the Summer Solstice and our days are now getting shorter (sob), they still feel pretty long and gloriously light-filled. We head to the allotment in the evenings to water the plants, when the sun is slanting low and everything is warm and mellow. 

I picked my first sweet pea flowers from the plot at the weekend, yipppeeeee!!!! It was a modest little bunch but I know that the more you pick, the more will grow so I'm hopeful for more sweet bunches as the summer goes on. The scent of them blew me away, they smell absolutely incredible. Even J was impressed and he normally can't stand smelly flowers. I've got them in a jug on my table with some lavender and cosmos and they look so pretty and full of summer vibes. 

I wonder if this post seems rather long and rambly to you, I feel as if I've waffled quite a bit haha! Needless to say, this hasn't been a planned post by any means, it's simply a collection of photos that capture the way my days are slowly unfolding at this time of year, and the rather random train of thoughts that surface as I look at them. I hope you've enjoyed your visit, I do so love chatting to you all!

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Making the Seasons :: June

As you have no doubt gathered by now I absolutely love having fresh flowers in the house and always try to have a jug of something pretty and floral on my dining table. Mostly the flowers I have indoors are cheap and cheerful seasonal market flowers, but at this time of year I prefer to have small home-grown posies in a jug, or even just a few tiny stems in an old glass ink bottle. Being able to go into my back yard and snip blooms to bring to the table is one of my all time favourite pleasures, gosh it makes me almost delirious with happiness to be able to do this simple thing.

This past week I've been enjoying a beautiful bunch of flowers bought very cheaply from the supermarket, although these aren't your typical supermarket offerings. I was thrilled (like almost peeing my pants excited) when I spotted a bucket of flower bunches labelled "Summer Growers Choice", or something like that (I knew I should have written it down, I just can't remember if these were the exact words, but you get the drift I hope?!). Each bunch was slightly different and contained a mixture of single stems, a real English cottage-style mixture which made me giddy with delight. I mean, just LOOOK at that delicious stem of pink snapdragons, isn't it ravishing?!!! 

But it was the daisy-like stems of Feverfew which really captured my heart. My Mum used to grow these all over the place, in the garden and at her allotment plot and I loved that she would have them in her cottage, spilling out of jugs and vases. Some people think that Feverfew is a weed as it freely self seeds and grows in the most unlikely of places. But it's actually a herb and has medicinal properties, although neither of those things matter much to me to be honest. Weed or herb, I don't particularly mind, I just love the old fashioned simplicity of this flower and the fact that it reminds me of Dorset and childhood.

Last week I'd been pondering on what I might like to make for the June edition of Making the Seasons, and knew it had to be something floral. Summer months are just overwhelmingly flowery in my mind, they really are. Inspired by the flowers on my table, I thought I might like to try stitching some daisies. Not just any old stitching, but that irresistible placement of weeny little crosses that has me so in it's grips at the moment.

I wanted my cross stitch to be small and simple - 2 shades of green, plus white and yellow.

A little square of pale grey 14 count aida and a dinky little 3 inch embroidery hoop.

Creating a design for such a small hoop is harder than it seems, and it feels like every single cross has to be very carefully considered and placed. However, I happen to LOVE this kind of design challenge and it didn't take me all that long to create a daisy design on my laptop that pleased me.

So do you see my lovely printed cross stitch chart??? I made that chart All By Myself!!!!!!!! Yes, I did indeed!!!! Well, with  a little bit of help from my other half. 

You see, my very, very, very talented and clever husbundo can write computer programs to do pretty much anything that tickles your fancy. So a few months ago when I casually told him that I might like to have a go at designing some cross stitch patterns, he offered to whip me up an app for my laptop. See how casual I made that sound?! In truth it took us a couple weeks to work on it together, and through trial and error with me figuring out what I needed as we went along we came up with a really fantastic and very workable cross stitch design app for me to play with.

I can select my thread colours to create a colour palette on my screen, then I'm able to click away on the little grid to fill each square with colour. It's soooooooo good!! 

Once I had my chart printed out I couldn't wait to get started on the stitching. As you can see, this is cross stitch on a very small scale so it didn't take long at all to stitch the stem and leaves.....

....and then start work on the flowers. As I stitched, I realised that I wanted to change one of the flowers (the little one on the right in the above photo, as it has no yellow centre showing and looked a bit forlorn). So I took my very sharp little scissors and hacked out the flower stitches completely (far harder to remove crosses than it is to frog crochet let me tell you), then went back to my computer, altered the chart and re-stitched...

.....ahhhhh, that's better!! So so so sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how proud I am of this dinky little design, it just pleases me so so much!

J's app also allows me to save these nifty stitch charts to my computer, so that I can then share them here on my blog if I want to.

I don't know if anyone is remotely interested in stitching themselves a tiny little daisy cross stitch, but if the idea grabs you then please feel free to use my chart :) If you want to print it out, you'll need to right click on the image, select copy image, then paste it into a word document to print.

You need 2 shades of green, plus white and a rich mustardy yellow. I used 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread when I made my cross stitches. And 14 count aida fabric, but I think I already said that.

The actual design (stitched on Aida 14) measures 5cm / 2 inches square. Find the centre of your fabric and start stitching from the centre of the design (which is marked on the chart). I think that's about it - cross stitch is pretty straight forward really.

This whole thing has been beyond exciting for me, and has opened up a delicious new part of my very greedy Creative Mind which is always on the look out for new things. Oh, the possibilities!!

Endless, exciting, thrilling possibilities for creating pretty seasonal designs to stitch with joy.

I can hardly contain myself.

The small scale of this 3 inch hoop is just delightful, and I really want to make more. More and more and more. For Summer, for Autumn, for every season throughout the year and everything nature inspired that makes me happy. I am thinking of little cross stitch strawberries now, or maybe some wispy summer grasses.........oh my heart!

I've popped my hoop on my mantel along with the feverfew daisies which found their way into my old glass ink bottle. I might eventually create a little bit of a display on the wall somewhere, if the stitched hoops start to grow and multiply and happen to become a collection.

So that's June for you, all joyful and stitchy and making my summer loving heart sing. I'm already wondering what July might be about, I never quite know what little seasonal thing will take a hold of my heart and bring forth a surge of creative inspiration. 

I hope you enjoy sharing in my seasonal inspirations and creative makes - you can find all previous months tagged in the {Making the Seasons} category. I love sharing my monthly making adventure with my bloggy friend Gillian - I've not seen her June project yet but I do know what it is and I am squeeeeeing with excitement waiting for her big reveal. We chat back and forth about our ideas and thoughts for each month, and it amazes me how different our individual styles are, but how similar our projects often turn out to be. This month we are especially in tune with each other......do go and see over on her blog Tales from a Happy House.

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Attic24 Crochet Banner :: Ta-dah!

Back in March I had an idea to crochet myself an Attic24 banner, partly for useful reasons (to hang up at Yarndale when I'm there in the knit n natter lounge), and partly to feed my creative urges (what's not to love about a pile of colourful squares?) At the time I started out with this project I could already see the finished thing very clearly inside my Creative Mind, so I was really excited to see if I could bring my idea to life.

I set out crocheting up a whole pile of 3-round solid granny squares using up oddments of scrap yarn left over from other projects. It only takes around 6g of yarn (I'm using Stylecraft Special DK) to make one square so it's a really fantastic stash buster if you fancy making a cushion, or maybe even a whole blanket.   

There is a tutorial for making/joining these squares already on my blog if you wish to give them a go....

♥ SOLID GRANNY SQUARE TUTORIAL ♥

As well as making squares in every single colour possible, I also made a collection of blue squares. I concentrated on the deeper, darker shades of blue as I needed them to act as a strong background for my white lettering. The banner was still very abstract at this stage, and I had to keep focused on the bigger picture as I sat and made square after square after square. 

By the end of April I had enough squares to begin stitching them together, turning all those little individual bits of crochet into something beautiful and colourful. I really, really loved seeing the banner begin to take shape, it made me happy to witness the essence of my creative idea gently become a reality.

Lots of people have asked me about my colour choices for this banner, and how I went about putting them all together. I can tell you that I put the border squares together very randomly indeed and gave very little thought as to what colours were going next to each other, or how it was all balancing out. As I was using up odd scraps of yarn, it really was a delightfully spontaneous process - I don't even know how many different colours are in this banner, but I do know that I love the outcome of all that randomness!

Around the middle of May I'd finished stitching all the squares together, but needed a little breather while I pondered on what sort of border to create. It's often a very good idea to take a step back from a project if you are pondering on a design decision, so I did just that. 

A couple of weeks later when I was ready to pick this project up again, I knew straight away what I wanted to do for the border. I decided to keep it simple and graphic, alternating shades of blue (rows of treble crochet) with shades of pink/purple (thinner rows of double crochet) to create a subtle striped effect. 

I know not everyone likes crocheting borders (the rows are pretty lengthy and time consuming) but I adore them. I love the gentle rhythm that unfolds as you work those long, even rows of little stitches, and I love the bubbling-up excitement as the Ta-dah moment slowly comes into view. It's quite addictive, and I know I will never be one of those people who has loads of WiPs on the go, as I get such a kick out of finishing things!

I thought at first that I would make the border quite wide, but when it came down to it the squares didn't need all that much holding together. The banner is quite long and thin, (or wide and short if you like) so I tried to keep the border in proportion. I think Tilly agrees with me, she is showing me her Approval Eyes here I'm sure. 

This is  a very SHoUtY creation so the border was always going to be overshadowed by the squares, and that's exactly as it should be.

Now at this point, there is nothing Banner-ish about this bit of crochet. In fact, it's all looking and feeling rather blankety wouldn't you say?

A Banner needs to say something, make an announcement, and for that we need some lettering.......

Ah, there we go - Attic24 has landed!!

I made the crochet lettering quite early on and you can read more about how I did it in my previous Banner blog post.

The letters were made following a Times New Roman font, and measure around 20 cm tall.

I used an iron-on adhesive web with the idea that I could gently iron the letters to bond them to the crochet background so that they would stay put while I stitched.

However, this plan simply didn't work out. Not. At. All.

Obviously you need to be super-careful with irons and acrylic yarn and you absolutely cannot blast the crochet with heat or pressure without doing irrevocable damage to the crochet. So I couldn't get the letters to stick at all as I wasn't able to apply enough heat or pressure to melt the bonding adhesive.

Ah well.....lets get the job done the old fashioned way.....

....with a good ol' bit of big-stitch basting. Success!

One thing the Bondaweb did do well was make the letters beautifully flat and perfectly shaped, so it wasn't all a complete waste of time and money.

I used white yarn and worked  a neat row of back stitch around the outer edge of each letter. It was tedious in the extreme and took aaaaages to do. Stitching on the letters was my least favourite part of the whole thing and I can't say that I enjoyed it all that much, but I was so so happy that my name isn't something ridiculously long and wordy! 

The finished effect is lovely though, and I'm really pleased with the neatness of the lettering and the effective white-against-blue colour choice. 

And this is the finished thing, in all it's colourful glory - ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It measures  62 cm  x 138 cm and has 144 squares. Lots of colours (sorry no exact colour info) and I think it's pretty scrumptious to look at. 

However, as lovely as this all is, it's STILL not a banner!!!! Ha!!! I realised very late in the day (when it was all supposedly finished and I was photographing the above Ta-dah) that I needed to come up with a nifty way of hanging the whole thing. Banners need to be displayed, obviously, and they therefore require a satisfactory hanging method.

My solution was to add on some extra rows to the top long edge of the border which I then folded over and stitched to create a channel. Then sent J off to the DIY store to purchase me a length of pine stick, cut it to length and pushed it into place.

And here.......finally................is my finished banner..........

ta-ta-ta-ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautifully modeled by my happy little sidekick, who accompanied me to the park at 9am on Sunday morning so that I could prance about taking photos of my banner in the wild.

He didn't complain once, but then his time and holding-up services didn't come for free. Oh no, I had to pay up. This cost me a cold drink and a piece of flapjack from the cafe, followed by a long stint at the pump track so that he could practice on his new bicycle. But it was worth it - I was able to sit on the grass in the morning sunshine crocheting up some ripples whilst he rode his bike round and round, so I wasn't too put out by paying up the required fee. And you get to see my banner in a suitably vertical position, with sweet Little Boy knees on display too. 

So that's the banner all done and dusted, folded up for a while now until it gets to come out to play for real at Yarndale in September. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in situ bringing some much needed colourful cheer to the grey concrete of the rustic auction mart. It's a cheerful thing, this banner of mine. No doubt about it.

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Feels like Summer

The past few weeks have felt like a dream, a tantalising taste of exactly what Summer should look and feel like as our days continue to roll out all warm, bright and full of sunshine. I have been like a flower, constantly turning my face up to the sun, drinking in the clear blue skies and feeling a deep down gratitude for this season of light and warmth.

The effort I put into sorting out my back yard at the end of May is making me so happy now as we jig along through June. Truthfully it wasn't a huge effort, although it somehow felt like it was in the weeks I spent procrastinating over tackling it. All it took was a couple of afternoons emptying out all my pots of old soil and dead plants, re-filling with fresh compost and planting some cheap and cheerful supermarket annuals to bring an instant hit of colour. J also helped me clear some broken garden furniture and a heap of miscellaneous outdoor debris (plenty of rotten and broken things) so that our outdoor space suddenly feels very much tidier and bigger somehow, even though it's still teeny tiny. We need some new seating, and I am hankering after a small painted wooden storage shed, but for now we are making do.

My flowers aren't really established enough just yet to provide me with much in the way of pickings for indoors, but that didn't stop me.  

I snipped a few small stems....

....and thoroughly enjoyed having my first little back yard posy sitting in a small jug on the dining table. This to me is a sure sign of summer and I absolutely love it.

I've used my backyard a lot during the past few weeks, it provides me with a weeny bit of peaceful solitude at times when the house just feels rather noisy and chaotic with children, television, constant comings and goings. I enjoy it most in the early mornings when I can quietly sneak out through the kitchen door without anyone knowing where I am for a short while. 

I've been crocheting outdoors a fair bit of late, turning my outdoor table into a little bit of a working space. I've been experimenting with crochet using non-machine wash pure wools that felt beautifully when the crochet is popped into the washing machine. I'll show you more of my experiments very soon - it's very exciting I can tell you! 

We walked up to the farm shop at the weekend, a slow stroll for J and I with Little B zooming around us on his bike. I couldn't resist this pretty summery chocolate from Yorkshire based company  Choc Affair, oh you just have to know that the taste was something else - so, so good!

Cherries came home in our bag too, one of our favourite summer fruits and always a delight when they are in season. 

I've been working in my studio, even though the weather has constantly called me to be outside instead. I've got a lot on at the moment with various deadlines fast approaching, so I very much appreciate having my studio to go to as it puts my mind firmly in get-on-with-it mode. Ooooo, I had a super-exciting meeting on Monday with a very lovely lady who traveled especially to see me. I can't tell you anything about it just yet, but lets just say I was squeeeeeing inwardly (and maybe a little bit outwardly too, it was unavoidable) at the ideas and possibilities she put forward. I am keeping digits crossed.

I've got a jug of sweet williams on my studio table this week, they make me sneeze a bit but I can't resist their charming colours and old-fashioned nostalgic looks. 

June brings forth the elderflowers, and my goodness this is a bumper year for these frothy white flowers. They are growing in abundance in my neighbourhood, the trees laden down with so many flowers in full bloom.

We went out at the beginning of last week to gather in some floral booty, Little B and I snipping and gathering and getting dusted with fragrant pollen. 

I shared my elderflower cordial recipe a few years ago (here it is, if you wish to see how to make it), and this year we picked enough flowers to make 3 batches. I've frozen quite a bit of it in small plastic bottles, but we all love to drink it so it doesn't tend to last long. J and I have discovered the delights of an ice cold gin and tonic with an added dash of elderflower cordial, oh, you need to try it, trust me, it is absolutely sublime on a sunny late afternoon.

Bubble blowing - I'm not sure what to say about this except for how lovely it is. All of it. The excitement never fades for me where big, blowy bubbles are concerned, they just make me insanely happy.

My hill view is wearing it's beautiful green summer outfit, and the cold, brown days seem far behind us. We've had rain this week for the first time since the start of the month, so the countryside is looking (and smelling) especially fresh.

Quite often I will find a reason to walk down to the supermarket in the evenings, to purchase something completely random that absolutely cannot wait until the morning. I like the feeling of being out and about in the evenings whilst it's still light, it gives me a brief feeling of freedom to escape the house at unexpected times. I like when the days feel longer than normal. I like it a lot.

Work at the allotment continues, I wish I had some better pictures to share with you. My sweet peas are doing well, and so far the beans and spinach seem to be surviving the mollusks. We've seen some enormous frogs hopping about on our plot, so I hope their bellies are full of slugs! I was late putting the sweet peas into the ground (nothing new there) and now feel desperate for them to grow big and tall and flower at warp speed. I absolutely cannot WAIT for the flowers! 

J and I did a shortish walk at Bolton Abbey on Monday, stopping a while on the beach opposite the abbey ruins to eat a picnic lunch. It was peaceful and quiet, and unusually I missed the Little People on that day. Mondays are usually all about relishing our child-free hours together, but there was something about being on that beach that tugged at my heart strings and made me wish for the kidlets to be there. Not that the Teens would want to do that sort of thing nowadays, but I remember them so vividly enjoying this place in years gone by. 

Another evening stroll on a still, warm day - I think it was Sunday evening. I had an urge to walk in the woods as it had rained earlier in the day and I fancied a bit of "Shinrin-yoku" would be a good thing before bed.

I had the pleasure of both Little B and Little Lady with me on this walk.....

...chattering loudly as we walked in the cool damp woodland. It did indeed smell gorgeous, just as I hoped it would.

By the time we returned home it was 9pm and the sun was well on it's way down, shining low and golden through the trees and reminding me for the zillionth time how much I adore the feel of summer. I hope you are loving these mid-year days and finding lots of little things to make you feel happy.

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