Attic24

Baby Bunting :: Ta-dah!

I can't tell you how happy I am to be sharing this project with you as it has simmered on my back burner for such an embarrassingly long time. I've lost count of the number of times it's been on my to-do list over the past few years, but anyhoooooo, it is here now and I'm super happy about it!

I created this bunting pattern quite a few years ago for Simply Crochet magazine (it appeared in issue 19; 2014). The original design was made of 12 triangles all in shades of blue - you can read more about it on my blog by clicking on the following link : ATTIC24 SUMMER BLUES BUNTING

I then went on to make an all pink version with the idea that they would make lovely gifts to decorate a baby's nursery or a child's bedroom. You can buy both blue and pink bunting kits in my shop at Wool Warehouse - each kit contains 4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, 13 cute little blue/pink spotty buttons and a printed pattern.

♥ BLUE BUNTING KIT ♥ 

♥ PINK BUNTING KIT ♥

I wonder if any of you recognise the colours above? This is yarn left over after I made my cupcake blanket in the Spring of 2016, aren't they pretty? I remember at the time that it was Easter and I decided that these colours would work really well made up into some pretty Spring/Easter bunting for my fireplace which was looking a tad bare.

I made fifteen triangles so that the bunting would easily fit across my fireplace mantel....

....I think it measures around 190 cm in total.

I loved it the moment it was hung in place, and it has been hanging there ever since. I've made some additional seasonal garlands for my fireplace in the last few years so it does get changed around a little according to the time of year. I have my Autumn Garland and Winter Balls (oh yeah, I do love my balls!), but there is something so upbeat about seeing a cute string of decorative bunting and I really look forward to bringing it out every Spring/Summer.

If you make as many blankets as I do, you will know how quickly the stash bag fills up. After each blankety creation I'll have fifteen part-balls of yarn left over - sometimes it's not a lot in terms of quantity, but other times there can be around 25g of each colour left. The above bag contains 30 colours of  Stylecraft Special DK  left over from making the Sweet Pea and Dune blankets. As soon as I'd gathered all these colours together I knew that I would be making good use of them. They make me feel reaaaaaally happy, they just shout SUMMER to me, all breezy and floral,  light, warm and pretty.

I began making these bunting triangles whilst I was away in France last month. I wanted an easy, portable project that could be tucked into my rucksack, something that I could easily sit and crochet whilst chatting and socialising. This quick and easy pattern was perfect, and I really, really enjoyed diving into my bag of yarn scraps and picking out some fairly random (but very pretty) colour combinations. 

Each bunting triangle is made up of four rounds, and I used a different colour for each round. I found the easiest way to manage the colour selections was to work one round at a time. So I made fifteen round-1 triangles all in different colours, then began adding the second round to each triangle, choosing a new colour every time. Then all the round 3's,  and finally all the edging rounds. You can see in the above photo that I've selected colours to crochet up the final edging rounds, making sure that each triangle was edged in a different colour, and no two triangles were the same. Good chocolate and coffee helps a lot with colour-making decisions, it's a well known fact.

The above stack shows the fifteen edging rounds arranged in a pretty pastel rainbow order...impossibly pretty! Hmm....I've just had a thought that maybe you might like me to list these colours of SSDK for you? OK.....brain engaged......I'll give it my best shot! From the top.....

Powder Pink : Clematis : Pale Rose : Blush : Camel : Pistachio : Lincoln : Sage : Duck Egg : Cloud Blue : Lavender : Violet : Plum : Pomegranate : Magenta.

I think I nailed it.

I had a little play with my triangles and decided on the above order for my bunting string, resisting the urge to try and be too controlling. I just tried to evenly balance them (eg. placing stronger colours at the ends and in the centre, making sure the pinks/green/blues were evenly distributed etc) and I'm very happy with the random look.

As you can see, each triangle is pretty cute and small, hence the "Baby Bunting" name I settled on. Each triangle measures around 12 cm across the top edge after it's been lightly steam blocked.

I chose three different colours to create the connecting band which joins the triangles together.

Joining the triangles couldn't be easier. There is no spacing between them so the first joining row is simply a continuous row of double crochet which moves from one triangle to the next without any chains or spacing needed. 

The second row is Half Treble, and the final third row is double crochet to finish.

I've explained it all in the tutorial, which you can find in the sidebar of my blog, or click on the following link to find it :

♥ BABY BUNTING TUTORIAL ♥

If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you will know how much I love buttons and I often use them to add a little bit of extra decoration to my crochet projects. To my mind, bunting and buttons is a match made in heaven and I absolutely knew that by making the connecting band three rows wide it would give me enough space to indulge in some button happiness! 

After having a chat with my wonderful friends at Wool Warehouse about my Button Needs, we put together some small packs of very cute little buttons that are perfect additions for all sorts of crochet projects. I created two different button packs, each containing 16 little buttons (8 colours, 2 of each). The above photo shows the "pastel" set.....

....and this one up above is the "Brights" set. I love them soooo much! Each set of 16 buttons costs £1.50 (crikey, I just typed in £150, that would have given you a shock!!!).

Ahh, you can see in the photo above that a few years ago I made some Baby Bunting using leftovers from my Summer Harmony blanket (using the Original yarn pack of 17 colours). I'm embarrassed to say that I never got around to joining them and they are still sat in a pile...oh dear. I shall have to remedy that - those little buttons go really well with the stronger shades of Stylecraft Special DK don't you think? I'll put direct links to the button packs just down below for you, if you like buttons as much as I do, maybe they might make you happy?!

♥ PASTEL buttons (16 x buttons - 8 pastel colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ BRIGHT buttons (16 x buttons - 8 bright colours, 2 of each colour)

You can see how perfect the buttons look when they are stitched to the bunting, I just love love love them!

It's such a wonderful feeling to turn a Work-in-Progress into a Finished Object, and I felt truly delighted when I stitched the very last button on to my Baby Bunting. It had taken me a whole day to create the photo tutorial so it felt like a lot of work to get to that end point, but in reality, this is a very easy and quick project to pull together. Honestly, it is!

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

Super cute Baby Bunting, perfect for bringing a dose of happy cheer to any situation or occasion.

I am so enjoying this new version on my mantel right now as the colours are a bit more summery than the previous Cupcake-coloured bunting which was more springlike. 

I keep coming into the room and forgetting that I've recently faffed my mantel. It makes me feel all giddy when I see it looking so pretty and summery, especially as we've been having the most un-summery weather this week.

So pretty.....I honestly love it.

I just wanted to tell you about these fabulous little hanging clips that I use on my mantel, they are made by Command and called "Decorating Clips" and I can highly recommend them. They are strong and stick easily to wood or any smooth surface, but don't do any damage if you want to take them off again. Being transparent and pretty small, they work extremely well for hanging bunting or fairy lights, you can find them on Amazon {{HERE}}.

So I think I've told you everything you need to know about my crochet bunting, and I would be thrilled to hear if you have a go at making your own. It's a lovely summer project - tuck a few little balls of yarn into your bag with a crochet hook and don't go anywhere without it - you never know when you might be able to sit and work a few soothing rounds.

Here are some links that might be helpful ::

  ♥ BABY BUNTING TUTORIAL ♥

♥ Pastel buttons (16 x buttons - 8 pastel colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ Bright buttons (16 x buttons - 8 bright colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ Pink Bunting Pack (4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, plus 13 spotty pink buttons and printed pattern)

♥ Blue Bunting Pack (4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, plus 13 spotty blue buttons and printed pattern)

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Happy bunting-making!

xoxo

 

 

 

 

♥ Three Things ♥

♥ Three things that have made me feel heart skippy happy today.... ♥

♥ Thing # 1 :: on my table ♥

Peonies.

♥ Five gloriously beautiful stems of pink peonies in my favourite pink button jug on my table. These flowers are such a treat, they are quite expensive for supermarket blooms but I find them irresistible at this time of year. They promise to deliver in spades as their petals oh-so-slowly begin to unfold in the warmth of home. I am beyond delighted to have them on my table and keep stopping to admire them this way and that. Such beauties.

♥ Thing # 2 :: also on my table ♥

Colourful crochet stripes.

♥ Despite sharing my fairly substantial hooky to-do list with you yesterday, it appears that I needed to add just one more thing. I am at that stage with all my projects where I need to either sit and count/concentrate (heel turn on a sock, working the handle on my basket) or photograph while I hook (granny bag, Yarndale project), so I needed something simple that I could take to the cafe for knit and natter. Despite the very strong urge, I decided for the sixty-seventh time this month to resist starting another blanket and instead I have started to make some new yarn bomb bits for Yarndale - lamp post covers to be exact. It's certainly made me happy today, these rainbow brights are a real tonic on a grey, drizzly-damp summers day.

♥ Thing # 3 :: in my memory ♥

A walk in the wood, with wildlife sightings.

♥ A quick jaunt into the woods this afternoon before the school run, to breath in the scent of damp earth and bathe in the lush, green, oxygenated air. We spent a while beside the dam pond, and were rewarded with some amazing wildlife - a pair of kingfishers darting in and out of the water and most incredibly a terrapin sunbathing on a log (yes, a real, live actual terrapin!!!!). Using the super-zoom on my camera I managed to get the above blurry shot when the kingfisher settled on the same log as the terrapin. A-mazing. We had heard the tale about terrapins living in this pond, but it was the first time we'd ever seen one for ourselves, honestly, unexpected nature-things always blow my mind just a little. 

Hoping all's well with you and that your day has contained some heart-skippy happy things too...

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Summer Crochet To-Do List

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my lovely friend Christine who traveled on the train from Winwick to Atticland. We try and get together once a month, mainly for the absolute fun of it but also I guess this would be the closest either of us get to spending time with a " work colleague". Being self employed and working in a solitary way for the most part always feels one hundred percent the right thing for me as I am a natural introvert. But I am also a Libran who craves balance and I do enjoy socialising in small doses. I'm very lucky that I get to spend time with like minded souls at my twice weekly creative get-togethers at Coopers Cafe (which is where I have my studio), as well as regular meet ups with other blogging and yarny friends.

When Christine and I get together, we generally talk a lot about our respective projects - what we are currently working on, as well as our ideas and plans for future crochet/knit designs and commissions. It's like an informal mentoring session if you like, and one thing that Christine is always very good at is inspiring me to try and be more organised. She helps me unravel the jumble of thoughts and ideas that always feel like they are stuck in a tangled mess inside my Creative Mind, encouraging me to write things down and make proper, realistic to-do lists for myself. It's like having my own personal time management guru/life coach, she is so good at it! I always end the day feeling very much lighter after she helps me do a crochet "brain dump" onto paper, and the feeling of relief afterwards always amazes me. 

So last night I sat and wrote out a whole big mega-list of the crochet projects I want to complete through the remainder of June, then July, August and September. And as is quite often the case, I felt like I wanted to share some of it with you as I thought you might enjoy an insight into what's happening in my creative life right now.

Top of my list this week is to create the tutorial and share the pattern for my Baby Bunting. I've been meaning to do this for such a long time (four years, seriously. Cripes, how's that for a procrastination gold star?!), so today I made it happen. 

I spent a good number of hours taking all the step-by-step photographs this morning, and I'm aiming to have it all pulled together and published over the weekend. I'm so HAPPY that I'm finally on the home stretch with this, as I know so many of you have been waiting very patiently.

Late this afternoon I decided to conduct a little bit of seasonal Mantel Faffery as I wanted to photograph  the bunting in situ to show you how it looks when it's hung. I packed away the bits of creative Spring and ventured into the Cupboard of Doom to find some summery bits and bobs. I had totally forgotten about these little cotton jar covers which I made last year as part of my monthly "Making the Seasons" project - you can find pattern details and read more about them ((here)). Instead of putting candles inside, I put flowers and feathers in and I love how they look - instant summer vibes right there!

The canvas on the right is by Annabel Burton and the greetings card next to it is from a painting by Natalie Rymer.

I've got the most beautiful scented candle burning on my mantel at the moment - the Ginger and Lime fragrance is so fresh and zingy and just the kind of scent that makes me feel uplifted and happy. It was a gift from Lady B, purchased with great ceremony from the very posh and expensive "The Home" inside Salts Mill. Gosh that place is full of very beautiful but scary expensive merchandise, and I am a bit in awe of having such a costly candle on my very humble mantel. It really does smell divine though.

I found my little daisy cross stitch in the cupboard (awwwwww, I do love this little make!) - you can read more about that ((here)). And for those of you who's eyes have been drawn to the super-cute little pencil house - that was made by the very talented Emma Verner Designs. Do go and take a  look at her work, it really is beautiful and very unique.

Hmmm.......I seem to have gotten a bit side tracked with my mantel, sorry!!! I'll show you more of the bunting when I write up  a little bit of a post for it once the pattern's ready to go.

Next on my list (next week hopefully), I am desperate to get back to my Granny Bag which I started at the beginning of last month. I've got all the squares made and the handles completed (yes, yes, this bag will have stripy crochet handles!!!) and I am really excited to carry on with this creative journey. The squares now need joining and I want to photograph the process to form part of a big granny bag tutorial, so I'll need to set time aside for that. I'll be lining this bag too, so I need to search for some suitable fabric - this isn't an easy project to pull together as there are lots of different stages which all need to be documented with photographs, but it's just the kind of thing that I love to do. It means I'll eventually be able to share a full pattern and tutorial with you, I hope you're going to love it as much as I am.

This week I've also been working on my felted basket project - this is another thing which has been simmering on the back burner for quite a while. Currently I'm on version 3.0, and have just frogged back five huge rounds as the shaping wasn't quite right. It's slow going, but I'll be getting this ready in time for Yarndale so there's still a little bit of time and space to work through the design niggles. 

I ordered some of these lobster swivel clasps which arrived yesterday and I absolutely love the coppery colour. I've got a little decorative crochet project in mind which needs one of these - it'll be my contribution to this year's Yarndale brochure (I always create a small crochet pattern for the brochure each year). I'm looking forward to getting it out of my Creative Mind and into reality, it's going to be something fun and colourful  :)

Talking of Yarndale, very high on my to-do list is to finalise this year's Creative Community project. Remember last year we collected a kaleidoscope of butterflies? This year is going to be a little bit different and I've still got a bit of work to do on the design aspect of the project. We're working with an amazing and very deserving charity, and I'm really looking forward to sharing it with everyone. 

There are other things on my list - believe it or not, it's now time for me to start creating the palette and design for my next CAL blanket which will launch in November. Working with yarn companies means that everything has to happen waaaaaaaay in advance, and so I need to apply myself to that in a gentle, ongoing way so that important colour decisions aren't rushed. I already know what my source of colour inspiration is going to be and I am very very very excited about it..........kind of weak at the knees excited!!!!! But that's not for you to know just yet, it's my personal little secret for now. Eeeeeeppppp!!!!!

And there endeth my fairly substantial list of summer crochet projects - I feel really happy about everything on my creative plate right now and my days are just the right kind of busy.

Do tell me what you're making at the moment, and whether you make creative to-do lists for yourself? I'd love to hear what's floating your boat right now.

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Golden Meadow

This light and golden time of year has me completely under it's spell and I feel like I can't possibly get enough of it. These early summer days are just so abundantly beautiful and make me very happy. It's just never, ever enough.

Last week I had my Dad and Lady B visiting from Dorset, and we had a lot of fun being tourists with them in our own patch. We took the train to Salts Mill to see Hockney's "Arrival of Spring" which was magical. We walked at Bolton Abbey, had brunch in one of our favourite places, wandered around Skipton market, pootled through local woodland and riverside meadows and drove along summery lanes through the Yorkshire Dales. It was really lovely, but mildly exhausting. Of course, school stuff and household stuff still had to happen alongside touristy activity and I also cooked us all an evening meal every day except for one (hello, very welcome and delicious curry delivered to the door!). It surprised me the difference it made cooking for seven people instead of our usual five, I felt like there was so much chopping and stirring in my life.

One golden evening last week I was hit with the annual pull to go and walk in the buttercup meadow. These seasonal rituals are so strong and I find it almost impossible to resist when they call. Little B and Lady B came with me, a short five minute jaunt up to the park and through the wooden gate into the meadow. It was utterly glorious, the perfect summer evening full of gentle warmth, low golden sunlight and long slanting shadows. Little B and Lady B spent an aaaaage searching for four leaf clovers (it always seem to be a thing we do when out with Lady B), while I pranced about with my camera swooning over the beauty of it all. 

The fairground was there in the background, setting up in the park ready for the towns' annual Gala at the weekend. It all felt very summery indeed, and hugely nostalgic and emotional somehow. I'm always so greedy for Summer to be way longer than it actually is. It's almost like I'm on the verge of a mild anxiety attack every time I happen to get a whiff of what date it is and realise we are so, so close to the summer solstice already and as such, these delicious mid-summer days are numbered. Wahhh!!!!! I am aiming to squeeze every last drop out of this summer, no matter what the weather throws I want to be out there drinking it in. Next up......elderflower cordial season, yippee for that little highly anticipated seasonal jaunt!

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ps, I've gotten a bit behind with my blogging, but will try and catch up this week if I can - I need to take you to Amsterdam and France, get your passports ready?! x

 

 

 

 

 

I Have Been....

I have been....really enjoying my daily walks to and from school along the canal tow path.

I have been....loving the look of utter delight on Little B's face when we stop on the way home from school to get an ice cream from the tug boat. The best kind of Friday treat.

I have been....loving these early summer evenings, walking around my neighbourhood soaking in the views.

I have been....knitting socks using this delicious "Seascape" yarn by West Yorkshire Spinners. You can read more about this fabulous new yarn ((here)).

I have been....indulging in a new-to-me snack which I can't get enough of - why have I only just discovered these things??! Rice cakes covered in dark chocolate and topped with little bits of dried fruit (orange in this case, but the raspberry ones are my absolute favourites). Yum yum yum yum yum.

I have been....taking a break from my laptop and relaxing with my favourite summer edition magazines. Gloriously outdoorsy and colourful, a visual breath of fresh air.

I have been....dreaming about visiting the coast this summer, I am seriously craving  a sea fix.

I have been....lolling about in the Big Chair, day dreaming, reading and enjoying the warmth of the kitty on my lap when she decides to settle a while. I do adore this cushion, even though it's a bit saggy and baggy now after so much use.

I have been....inhaling the distinctive sweet/spicy scent of Sweet Williams in a jug on my table.

I have been....soaking in the brilliance of these floral colours.

I have been....enjoying a few rare and precious lie-ins and waking to the sight of fresh flowers beside my bed.

I have been....on a ship!

I have been....pootling along the canals of Amsterdam and absolutely love love loving it!

♥

In short.....I've been enjoying  a little bit of a relaxing break and it has felt so good.

Last week was half term and I made a real effort to detach from my laptop and social media and be truly present in the moment. The Little People have all enjoyed the down time too, and all three of them have been very content to please themselves for the most part. I enjoyed some precious quiet time spent in my own little day-dreamy world and some wonderful family time too. We took a trip across the North Sea to spend a day in Amsterdam (I'll share more of that very soon, it was fun!), but aside from that our week was super-slow and spent close to home.

It has been absolutely lovely, all of it, but I'm glad to be back.....more soon.

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Green and Light

Twice this week I've had evening dates with Little B. At seven o'clock on the dot he comes to get me and no matter what I'm doing (crochet, knitting, social media-ing, blogging, laundry folding etc etc, the usual stuff that fills my evenings) I am not allowed to dally. Come on, come on Mummy, it's time to go! So of course I drop everything, grab a bottle of water and off we go, out into the beautiful early evening of our neighbourhood. We've created an hour long walking route this week which is uniquely ours and it's just so lovely. We start out along the canal, pass under the old mill bridge and follow the narrow footpath around the bottom of the castle. Entering into the woods by the bottom gate where the Huntress stands, the scent is overwhelming, oh my, I feel almost faint with emotion when I take that first deep breath in. Wild garlic and all the verdant growth, it's so fresh and light and green, green, green. We follow the path through the woods almost as far as the pond, then take the steep stepped pathway up, up, up into the trees which is something we've never done before (we are usually walking the opposite direction and coming down those steps). It's a huff-puff climb, but fun to go from the bottom of the woods to the top in mere minutes. Sunshine and shadows, laughter and chatter, it's just so precious, every single nano-second of it.

Just before Christmas, Little B (then aged 8 and three quarters) abruptly decided he was too old to hold my hand as we walked to school (well, walking anywhere actually). And once he decided on this he absolutely refused to go back on it. Sometimes I would catch him reaching for my hand without thinking, then a flash of remembrance and he would snatch it away super-quick. I understood it, but still, there was a persistent stab of sadness when I thought about the change and felt the loss. This week since I've been home from France he has started holding my hand again, and oh my heart feels like it wants to break free and fly up into the wide blue yonder. I haven't said anything to him about it, have allowed him to silently reach for me without the need to remark on it. It really has been the sweetest, most heart expanding experience. You hear the phrase "pulling on your heart strings" and never has this felt more true for me, I swear I can feel it happening.

 The weather has been delicious this week, truly May at it's best and I want to soak it all in and store up all the feels. My emotions are running high at the moment - I recognise it, and think it's in part due to this time of year. I'm not over analysing it, just holding myself together and allowing the days to pass gently, knowing that all is as it should be. 

Anyhow - Little B and I have so enjoyed our walks together this week, hand in hand, non stop chatter, it's an hour out of my day that feels like the greatest gift. I am so grateful......thank you for sharing it with me.

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Just Like Old Times

Helloooooooo!!! It's so lovely to be back in the Attic - as you may know I was away in France last week teaching the second of my two crochet retreats with Stitchtopia Craft Holidays.

I had a wonderful time and am really looking forward to going through alllllll my photos and creating a full blog post to share the details of the retreats with you. It was such a great experience and I absolutely loved spending time in France, it was extremely relaxing and uplifting. By the way, I've had a good number of messages on Instagram and Facebook asking for more details about my crochet retreats - you can visit the Stitchtopia website and sign up for their mailing list, or email them directly and ask to be kept in the loop about what I'll be doing next year. I've agreed to teach a further two weeks next year although at the moment I don't know when or where. It's very exciting and I am already thinking about what projects I'd like to create especially for these very special retreats.

Before I left I wrote up a short post to share with you while I was gone but unfortunately my scheduling timer thingy on Typepad didn't work (grrrr) and the post disappeared into the ether never to be seen again. I don't think you missed out too much (asparagus and ice cream and crochet squares amongst other miscellaneous observations), but even so, I was cross that it didn't work out. Still - I'm back again now, adjusting to life on the domestic home front after being gloriously un-domestic all of last week.

As is often the case after I've been away from home it's taking a while for things to settle. I've felt tired and discombobulated the past few days, and with J working away from home I've felt a tad lonesome too. This morning after dropping Little B at school I decided to walk through the park and visit the farm shop, partly for the fresh air and exercise, partly because I needed to buy something for dinner and partly because I just wasn't ready to go home.

I noticed that the elderflowers are still quite a way away from bloom-time (they were already in flower in France) but if the weather remains warm and sunny then I expect they will be ready to pick in a few weeks time.

I enjoyed the farm shop, it was a quiet time to visit and I took my time selecting produce and choosing something yummy for dinner (ingredients for a Greek salad and a simple Tabbouleh salad, with some sliced ham from the deli counter). I also picked up a latte and what d'you know, a little bit of something sweet fell into my basket from the bakery section too...no idea how that happened.

On my way back through the park I took a seat at my favourite picnic table near the cherry trees and enjoyed my sunshiny morning coffee and pastry very much. So good! It felt like early summer, everything so green and bright and the sun gorgeously warm on my face.

My shopping bag was on the bench next to me as I sat and drank my coffee and I just loved the sight of my farm shop purchases nestled all together. It reminded me of the early days of my blog when I used to share the results of my little shopping trips from time to time - this post was the third post I ever wrote back in March 2008, sharing the contents of my bag after a weekly jaunt through town. 

Tomatoes, asparagus and flat leaf parlsey to feed the family.

Tulips and chocolate to feed my soul.

This chocolate it soooo hard to resist and I've been enjoying it for several years since the farm shop started selling it. It's made by a little company based in York (Choc Affair) and is the most heavenly chocolate you can imagine. The flavours are incredible and as you would expect I am mostly drawn to the Summery ones....Lime and Sea Salt is my absolute fave, but my goodness the Raspberry and Rose is like summer melting in your mouth. A beautiful treat and one I never feel guilty about indulging in. I am worth it!

These tulips were in a bucket at the till and were half price, so of course I found myself picking them up and tucking them in my bag. Pretty irresistible wouldn't you say?

I chose my rainbow striped jug to go with these flamboyant blooms, oh my heart....such a b-e-a-u-tiful sight on my table today!!!

Love love love. LOVE them!

Something else that came home in my bag was a few springs of cow parsley. This stuff grows rampant along the edge of the trees at the top of the park and every year I like to bring a little bit home. I can't have it indoors as the smell is pretty disgusting but I love to have it on my back yard table.

When I came home from my walk it was around 10am and delightfully warm so I set up my outdoor table ready for a few hours of al fresco coffee/chocolate/planner-time/hooky delight. 

I just adore cow parsley and it's one of the many (many, many) reasons that May is my favourite month. It grows in great abundance around here so I don't feel bad about bringing a little bit of it home - those teensy flowers deserve to be observed and enjoyed in detail, they are just a delight.

So...........yarny goings on are currently revolving around my bag of scraps and I couldn't be happier. This colour palette is just so unbelievably pretty and perfect for this time of year, like Spring rolling into early Summer. It's light and fresh, airy and warm and I absolutely adore it. There are thirty colours in total (although a few colours are pretty much all used up now), left overs from the making of my Sweet Pea and Dune blankets. 

Last week while I was away in France I began making some Baby Bunting triangles. I wanted an easy project that could be hooked up whilst chatting and drinking fizzy rosé wine (haha, how very decadent!), and these were perfect. 

I designed this pattern in 2014 for Simply Crochet magazine, and over the years I've made quite a few versions of it (the original version was all in blues). It's a really lovely little pattern (if I do say so myself), three simple rounds of trebles, then a little decorative edging to finish. 

I'm planning on creating a tutorial for the bunting as I've been asked for the pattern a lot over the years and had always meant to find time to share it. Aren't the colours scrumptious? 

So today I finished making fifteen triangles and they are ready to be joined along the top with 3 rows of crochet and finished with some buttons.

I'll try and make time to photograph the step by step tutorial during the next week or so, all being well. I know many of you who have been making blankets along with me will have a stash of left over yarn just like mine, and might perhaps enjoy a little bit of a decorative project.

I've not forgotten about my granny bag either - remember me showing you the beginnings of my squares a few weeks ago? 

I've got enough now (I made 36, although I only need 32, I got a bit carried away), and similar to the bunting I'll be photographing my progress as I join them and create my bag so that I can make a tutorial for you. I am so excited about both of these projects, it feels just like old times when I used to get so caught up in my creative ideas and little decorative makes.

I am currently fighting the ridiculously strong urge to start making another blanket (the addiction is real) and these small projects are helping a lot. Must. Stay. Focused.

What blanket?!

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Planner Peace

I first discovered planning in the spring of 2015 when a search for some stickers led me to a whole online community of people who quite honestly seemed to be completely planner crazy. It was like tumbling down the most gloriously colourful, fun-filled rabbit hole you could imagine, with a whole group of new online friends encouraging me to keep on tumbling. I found the enticing world of Erin Condren Life Planners and also the very lovely Rachel who was just starting her own business {EllieBethDesignsUK} designing and making planner stickers. It opened up a fabulous new hobby for me and I've been using Erin Condren Life Planners and EllieBeth stickers ever since. You can read more about the start of my planner journey (here)

As much as I've loved having and using a yearly EC planner, one of the things that didn't work so well for me was it's size. ECLP's are big hefty things, not really portable pop-in-your-bag objects at all. I also found that there wasn't quite enough space each week for me to make notes - I much prefer to make a weekly to-do list rather than a daily one, and there was only a narrow strip outside of the daily columns for me to do this. Combine that with the high cost of an ECLP ($55, plus $20 shipping, plus a rather unpleasantly large customs fee wacked on top) and for the first time in 3 years I didn't rush to order myself one for January 2019. It was odd starting the new year without a planner, and although I had intended to buy myself some sort of a diary I never got round to it and I really did begin to miss it. I've been making lists on scraps of paper, scribbling stuff on the family calendar and feeling rather chaotic without my weekly planning routine. 

In early April I happened to read something about Personal Planner and decided to take another look. I already knew about Personal Planners as I bought one for Little Lady to use in 2016 alongside me and my Life Planner. They are smaller than EC planners in that they are a standard A5 size (well they come in 5 different sizes but the A5 is the classic size). The thing that persuaded me to try it was a brand new choice of layouts which I'll talk more about in a little bit.

Personal Planners are made in Sweden and mine took just over a week from ordering to landing in my hands here in the UK. There is a flat cost of £22.90 for a classic A5 size planner, and this includes FREE worldwide delivery which I think is brilliant.

I was soooooooooooooooo excited to unpack it and see what the cover looked like as I chose the custom option and uploaded one of my favourite hooky photos to create my front cover......... ↑↑↑

I love it so much!!!! 

One of the great things about PP is that you can choose your starting month - they run for 12 months  but you can begin with any month of the year. So mine is running from April 2019 - March 2020 and I'm really happy with that.

The cover of a PP is printed on thick glossy card, with an overlay of slightly opaque plastic to protect it. You can upload your own photo or choose from a range of designs or plain colours. There is an elastic closure to hold it all together and the whole thing feels beautifully neat and compact. I have to say I really like the size of it and already it feels like it'll be a good fit for me on a daily basis.

At the start of each month there is a calendar spread ↑↑ which I find super useful to give an overview of what's going on each month. 

I write in birthdays, appointments, meetings and holidays - anything which has a fixed date. For me, this is a functional, practical calendar and I don't bother to prettify it or worry too much about how it looks. I just get the info in there so that I can see what's going on, and where I'm supposed to be!

Now shall we talk about the all important Page Layout? I think this is the thing which really determines whether a planner will work in the long term and it's a very personal choice. PP now has 8 different layouts to choose from, with three of them being new this year. It was these new layouts which combine a diary on one side with a blank/lined page opposite that really grabbed my attention......

.....see??? This ↑↑ just seemed perfect for me.

I have enough space in the diary side to put in birthdays, meetings, school stuff, appointments etc and the opposite side can then accommodate my rather sprawling weekly to-do lists and notes. You get to choose whether to keep the pages blank, or have lines, squares or dot grid.

Along the bottom, these are called "modules" and PP offers 20 options for these module spaces which include things like to-do lists, menu plan, quotes, notes, colouring, fitness etc. As you can see, I chose the meal planner, the weekly motivational quote and the little colouring option which I absolutely love! 

At the end of each week when I sit down to think about my week ahead (usually Sunday afternoon or evening) I take a little time to indulge in some simple colouring therapy....it's just the nicest thing to do!

Planners are pretty personal things and I don't always feel comfortable about sharing them with anyone. I've bravely put this week up for you ↑↑ although I've blanked out a few names to keep privacy. You can see that I still like to use my stickers but I don't worry too much about the aesthetics of it to be honest. I just need to be able to see what's happening on each day of the week (the left side) and keep a track of what work and errands I need to do each week (the right side).

These pages are unbelievably good at keeping me grounded and helping me to focus on what needs doing. As I work by myself for the most part and my days are pretty fluid, I can so very easily become distracted and get behind with things - although I value the freedom of my days I don't like to feel too out of control or chaotic if I can help it. 

Each Personal Planner comes with a fun sheet of stickers, although having been a planning girl for three years now, I have a fair sized collection of sticky things already. There is a section at the back of the planner ↑↑ which has 20 extra notes pages and you can choose to keep them plain or have them lined, dot grid etc. You can even choose colouring or Sudoku for these back pages if you so wish....it's all good fun!

I've got the same set of pens that I've had for maybe four years now and they are still completely brilliant. I adore them - the colours are gorgeous, they write beautifully and they have a very fine 0.3mm tip which is just perfect for those dinky little colouring in things. Priorities and all that......haha! You can find them on Amazon (here), I can highly recommend them.

Now we can't talk about planners without talking about stickers, the two things go hand in hand in the most beautiful way. I am mainly a functional planner so the stickers I use the most are colourful box type ones. The ones above are quarter boxes and I also like half boxes too which are twice the height so have more writing room. I also use some headers ("To Do" being the most used) and a few little round icons every so often (coffee cups and yarn balls mainly - the stuff that makes up my daily life!).

I confess though, it's blinkin' hard to resist the lure of the decorative stickers, and although I try and sit on my hands when Rachel releases her new collections, it's really difficult to stay away. Want to see my latest splurge????

Take a look at these beauts................

These are from a collection called "The Sea is Calling", aren't they beautiful?

The colours and shell/beach theme match delightfully with my Dune blanket colours, and it won't surprise you to know that Rachel is also a crocheter and we do email back and forth and chat about colours and design ideas etc. It's always a lovely surprise when we find ourselves in creative sync with each other!

Rachel gave me another lovely surprise this week when she told me that she's set up a special discount code especially for Attic24 readers, isn't that great? You can receive 10% off any EllieBethDesigns order, not just right now but each and every time you need a sticker fix in the future. There is no underlying reason for this other than the fact that Rachel is a super lovely person and values her online planner buddies. All you need to do is apply the code ATTIC24LOVE at the checkout, or click on the following rainbow link and the 10% discount will automatically be applied at the checkout for you......

ATTIC24LOVE 10% DISCOUNT

So that's about all my planner and stickerish news wrapped up for now, I hope you've enjoyed peeking into my pages and seeing my efforts at keeping myself together. I always seem to have a lot of balls to juggle and using a planner definitely reduces the stress factor and helps to minimise the daily chaos to a certain extent. I will always be very forgetful and very much on the ditsy side, but I can't change that (and I wouldn't want to) - planning just helps keep me on track in so many little but important ways.

Over the years I've often read the phrase "finding Planner Peace" which refers to the way in which it takes time (often years) to find what works for each individual and what makes planning a personal success. There are dozens of planners out there to choose from, all different shapes, sizes, construction, layouts and functions and one size definitely does not fit all.

I'm so very happy with my Personal Planner - the size and layout, the choice of starting month, the price, the overall great quality and slightly quirky little design options makes it a winner for me. I think I may just have found Planner Peace with this one.

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ps just to reassure you this isn't a sponsored post....I bought my planner and stickers as an ordinary customer and they weren't gifted or sponsored.

pps if you are looking for some online planner buddies, I can really recommend the EllieBethDesigns Facebook group. It's super friendly and welcoming, whether you are already a planner addict or if you are looking for advice on how to get started, it's a lovely place to share and be inspired xx

 

 

 

May Bank Holiday

We had such a lovely long weekend of it here, celebrating the start of May with three days of leisure and pleasure. May is my absolute most favourite month of the whole year, I just adore the abundance of it - so much daylight and greenery and fresh blooming things. Love love love love love all of it.

We walked at Bolton Abbey on Saturday to take in the bluebells. They are early this year because of the unseasonable warmth we had in February and are already just tipping past their prime.....

....still looking gorgeous though, carpeting the woodland floor with a gentle haze of sunny blue. 

We walked along the side of the river Wharfe....

.....admiring the stunning wildlife (this is a Mandarin Duck, we often see them on this stretch of the river).

Several duck families were also paddling up stream, the teensy little ducklings looking impossibly fluffy and small as they danced about on the wide surface of the river.

We sat a while here on the low rocks while Little B leaped about and did boyish things, exploring and poking and the such like. It was such a lovely thing to see him so happy in his own little world, singing some crazy ditty to himself as he hopped around on the rocks.

Green, green and more green, the woodlands honestly take my breath way at this time of year and I don't think I will ever not be wowed by it. Wild garlic in abundance (not quite in flower just yet, but almost) and the freshest zingy green beech leaves newly unfurled in the treetops.

It was the very definition of the word f-r-e-s-h and the scent was intoxicating. Damp earth and wild garlic, sunshine and oxygen. Beautiful in every way.

The May Bank Holiday weekend here in Atticland is always joyful and boat filled as the town celebrates the historic canal with it's annual Waterway Festival.

Boats start arriving and mooring up during the week before....

....and the canal becomes a busy, festive hub of activity. Each year there is a theme (this year is was the 1960's) and it's all very jolly indeed.

The abundance of bunting always makes my heart leap, I just love the bright colours and the festival atmosphere it creates.

Early on Sunday morning, J and I took a walk along the tow path to take it all in. Little B was at a sleep over with a school friend and the Teens were still tucked up in their beds so it was just the two of us, and I did miss my Little Peeps I have to say. I have many layers of memories of doing this very thing (have just re-read this post, when the Big Teen was still a Littl'n' and only six years old), and although I relish seeing my offspring grow into beautiful, independent, strong young people, I do miss their Little Days sometimes.

As usual, the boats were looking glorious.

I love to take in the decorative details, and have a real fondness for the old fashioned painted enamel "barge ware" which is traditional decoration for canal boats.

The folk art floral style and bright colours are very inspiring.......

....I'd love to translate this into crochet one day, maybe a folksy floral something-something with roses and daisies and stripes and pompoms.....(Creative Mind is whizzing now!)

Its easy to forget that these boats are homes to people and animals....

....and that they aren't just there for show.

There is something so appealing about this type of lifestyle, although for me personally I would much prefer to keep my tootsies planted on terra firma. I do adore the cosiness and the prettiness of canal boats though.

Oh look! I can spot a crochet blanket at a hundred paces and immediately zoomed in on this beauty casually draped over the bow of the boat. Doesn't it look so at home?

This was my favourite boat of all, all Loved Up and decked out in 1960's style finery. There was yarn too.....

.....colourful crochet flowers, pom poms, hearts and birds, what a visual delight!

Back on the home front and there was yarn and colour here too......of course there was!

You might remember me telling you last week that I've started on a stash-bust project using yarn left over from the Sweet Pea and Dune blankets? Well on Sunday I tipped out the bag of circles that I've been making and began to turn them slowly, one by one, into squares. 

I'm using an old pattern of mine from years ago (seriously, years and years!) the Summer Garden Granny Square. 

I created this pattern a whole decade ago and used it to make a couple of wool blankets (a big one here and a small one here). It's been lovely to re-visit it, and I'm really enjoying the freedom of working these little squares just for pleasure and without much of a plan. 

However, over the weekend I decided that these squares won't become another blanket because they are shouting GRANNY SQUARE BAG to me very loudly, and I just can't ignore that type of creative shouting. The idea has been so loud in my mind that I dreamt about the exact granny square bag on Monday night, I kid you not. So now that my Creative Mind has seen the bag image (with some delightful decorative details)  I simply must make it a reality. I am ridiculously excited by it all, and I can't wait to share more of this with you as it unfolds.

On Monday morning, with no work or school we decided to leave the car at home and set out to walk around our neighbourhood. It was a grey, overcast day but nevertheless it felt so good to stride out and climb up high to take in the views over this lovely little rural market town that we call home. It delights me that we can see the actual Attic from the top of the hill, and see our home sitting in it's friendly terraced street amidst the rolling green countryside. 

Coming into the woods from the high hill, we enter along the top pathway. It's oh-so-green, beautiful in it's airy lushness. 

Isn't May such a delight? I can't get enough of it, the bright colour is almost overwhelming in the woodland after so many months of drab brown.

Ah, here is the Stalking Horse, quietly standing in place, awesome in it's willowy stillness. 

There aren't a huge number of bluebells in these woods, just a  few here and there - they make me so happy. 

Another week or so and this huge bank of wild garlic will be in full flower, it's a beautiful sight I can tell you.

We came out of the woods via the bottom gate and as we were close to the edge of town we decided on the spur of the moment to go and have coffee. We chose a cafe close to the canal, a lovely little place where you can sit in a pretty courtyard outside when the weather is decent enough. The Waterway festival was in full swing and as we sat to drink our cappuccino's (banana milkshake for a delighted Little B) we were entertained by a full-force marching bagpipe band. It was glorious! Such a rich, full sound, and not your average Monday morning soundtrack that's for sure.

Little B was ecstatic at the prospect of so much naughty, edible festival temptation. He swayed dramatically between wanting freshly cooked crepes, candyfloss or fresh donuts, and in the end the donuts won. They came on a paper plate, hot and fluffy, smothered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream......his face was a picture, and it reminded me of our Bruges trip last year and the whole waffle experience....such good memories.

Monday afternoon and I decided to bake a cake. I think Little B's sweet cravings had rubbed off on me and all I could think about was the taste of an old fashioned Victoria Sponge. I had a bit of trouble with my cake tins as some of the cake mixture managed to leak out through the removable bottoms somehow, making the layers a little on the flat side. No matter though, as this cake wasn't made for show it was made for eating, and goodness me it went down well! Despite it's flatness it tasted very good indeed and the whole family agreed that I should bake cakes more often.

I hope that you are all doing OK and enjoying the ebb of flow of your days whatever season you are in. I'm enjoying my days very much, I love May, I really do. It's all good.

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Dune Blanket Colourwash

I'm really happy to be sharing another little bit of my Dune blanket journey with you today, thank you ever so much for your patience if you've been waiting for this. After the huge success of the Sweet Pea blanket where I created two versions of the same blanket (a random stripe and a colourwash stripe), it seemed to me like this is something I could do for all stripe blankets going forward. I won't always have the time or the inclination to make both full size versions myself, but hopefully I can give you enough of an idea for you to decide if a colourwash blanket is floating your creative hooky boat.

Personally, I think I will always prefer the energy of a random stripe order but there is something about the subtle shades of the Dune palette that is just calling out to be arranged in a gentle wash of harmonious colour. 

You can find the Dune yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...

DUNE YARN PACK

1. Planned Random colour order

A few weeks ago when I shared the story of my Dune blanket, I showed you oodles of stripy photos. This blanket of mine (shown above) is made up of fifteen colours ordered in what I like to call a "planned random" way. I do spend a lot of time arranging the colour order using my trusty yarn pegs to achieve a pleasing balance - it's not quite as random as it first appears!

2. Repeating colour order

A second way to play with the palette involves arrange the fifteen colours in a pleasing, considered order and then repeating them. The order might be based on light-to-dark properties, rainbow colour wheel properties, or a little of both. The general idea is to order the colours to create a soft blend or gradient, a subtle sweep from bottom to top. The above image shows how I arranged the fifteen Dune colours to create this soft blend for those of you who wanted to make a blanket in this way. 

As it's still early days, I haven't seen many blankets being shared just yet, but the above photo beautifully illustrates how the Repeating colour order works. Helen is making her Dune blanket a king size width, so has made remarkably good progress with two full repeats.

3. Colourwash colour order

This is similar to the repeating order in that the colours are carefully arranged to create a harmonious, blended effect. The difference here is that the wash runs through the whole length of the blanket. The above photo shows my Colourwash Sweet Pea which gives you a good idea of the colourwash idea in action - it's a gorgeous way to really showcase the colour palette and makes a very striking blanket.

I spent a fair while messing with the colours to come up with a really great colourwash sequence for the Dune blanket. I generally start out with my pegs, then crochet up a narrow sampler to test it all out, making changes as I go. I had to alter the order of the paler colours towards the top end to stop very similar colours pooling together (Parma Violet, Mushroom and Silver needed to be kept separate) but I am so in love (BIG love love love) with the final result. It's just so darn pretty and airy and peaceful and lovely on the eyes! It's very beachy I think - water, grasses, sand, shells and sky. Delicious!

J helped me make the above graphic representation - it's not quite the same as being able to see yarny stripes, but I hope it gives you a clear idea of how the colours will work. The wider bands of each colour are made up of three stripes, with two single stripes positioned above and below - the single stripes interlock with the colours either side to create the wash effect.

The above photo will get you started, then you can follow the colour chart we've made for you which lists all 100 stripes for the Dune colourwash.

To start out, use Storm Blue yarn and make your foundation chain and dc row using a bigger hook.

Then switch down a hook size and work stripes 1 & 2 (rows 2-5).

Stripe 3 (rows 6 & 7) is worked in Sage.

Stripe 4 (rows 8 & 9) is worked in Storm Blue.

Stripe 5 (rows 10 & 11) is worked in Sage.

Stripe 6 (rows 12 & 13) is worked in Storm Blue

Stripes 7, 8 & 9 (rows 14 - 19) is worked in Sage - this is your wide triple band of colour.

Continue working your stripes (2 rows for each stripe) following the order listed below.

Does this make sense? Hope so!

Here is the chart for you -

I created a PDF file for the above colour order which you can download and print out so that you can keep it in your yarn bag and use it as a work sheet. Click on the link below to open the file >>

DOWNLOAD DUNE COLOURWASH STRIPE ORDER

Remember that when you reach the end of stripe 100 (which is Cloud Blue) you'll need to work one last row to straighten out your top edge - you can find this info included in the Seashell Pattern, the link is below.

Do let me know if you're going to try the Dune colourwash, I'd love to see! You can always share photos with me on Instagram (tag your posts #duneblanket so I can find them), on my Facebook page or in the "Hooked on Attic24" Facebook group which you are welcome to join.

Here are some links you might need :

♥ DUNE YARN PACK (including printed pattern)

♥ DUNE BLANKET : INTRODUCTION

♥ SEASHELL PATTERN

♥ DUNE BLANKET : EDGING TUTORIAL

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HAPPY HOOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x