Attic24

Blogtober 2024 :: Day 3

Blogtober Day 3 :: Thursday

I was wide awake and up suuuper-early this morning (like 4 am kind of early) when it was still very dark outside, and actually it was quite a nice feeling. It's rare I am ever up before J, so I felt like I had stolen some secret alone time when everyone else was still sleeping. Time to sit in the quiet of the house for a little while with a hot cup of tea, fussing the kitty because she is always very needy for attention first thing in the morning. At 5 am we swapped over, J coming down to the kitchen to make his first coffee of the day, and me yawning and sneaking back up to a still-warm bed to grab an extra hour of zzzzzz. Going back to bed felt like an indulgence somehow, and yet when I woke up for the second time it was only 6am.

We are still heading out to walk at 7am each morning, although it doesn't always happen if we sleep in or if it's absolutely pouring with rain. This morning was especially beautiful, a clear, crisp sky with the mist still sitting over the damp fields and the sun just about to rise.

The above photo was taken at 7.45 as we were returning home along the canal, such a happy part of my day despite the ridiculous early start and double wake up. I love the energy I get from an early morning jaunt, and the beautiful connection to nature, the weather, the seasons...there is something wonderful about being out and about and breathing in the start of a new day while many people are still tucked up in bed.

Some other things that made me happy today included a cup of good, sun-drenched frothy coffee....

....and the colour of the sky as I walked home from doing the food shop. That shade of blue made my heart sing, so beautiful and infintely nicer than our usual dull shade of grey.

This afternoon was a bit of a muddle, I felt tired and really could have done with a nap but with one thing and another it just wasn't happening. Little Lady is poorly and was home from work today, and I've found that it doesn't seem to matter how old the offspring are, it's still a worry when they are unwell. I couldn't seem to settle to anything, although I did have a play with my blankets which is always an immediate source of feel-good.

Little Lady made herself a nest on the sofa as she sat eating a bowl of soup and watching a film, and I found myself folding and tidying up around her as my substantial collection of comfort blankets were in wild disarray. We are avalanching here, piles of colourful crochet stripes and squares cascading all over the furniture. I really should pack some of them away but it's impossible to choose which ones and it feels so cruel to relegate them to a dark cupboard!

I was going to buy myself some fresh flowers today, but as my colourful chrysanths are still looking good (after eleven days), I decided that they can stay a little longer. I had a bit of a tidy up around the dining table this afternoon, it's all a bit chaotic and messy in my makeshift work space. I came across the above basket stuffed with scappy yarn balls and honestly the colours made me so bloomin' happy. I think there are a few Sungold leftovers in there as well as the remnants of a new colour palette idea that I was playing with in the spring (the easter-egg influence).

These colours aren't lined up for anything at the moment, but I do feel there might be a very pretty blanket idea sitting right there on my table. However....I must not get distracted as I have my canal boat design to work on next and I am ridiculously excited about it.

Now then, do tell me what you do with your crochet blankets, do you fold them? Stack them? Drape them over the furniture? Store them away in a basket or cupboard until you might need them? Rotate them according to the season? I'd love to know your thoughts on blanket storage and appreciation, please do chat to me about it!

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Blogtober 2024 :: Day 2

Blogtober day 2 :: Wednesday

Before I begin with today's blurble, I just wanted to say a really big, squishy (((thank you))) for all your beautiful comments on yesterday's first Blogtober installment. What a joy it's been to read them all (they come through to me via email so I make sure never to miss any). I LOVE that we can have a little chat and it's so nice for me to find out where in the world you are and read about your days - that connection we have is precious and I value it very much.

I was admiring the October page on my calendar this morning, it's hanging on my wall right next to my yarn shelf. I have an enduring love of calendars, especially artist-designed ones with great seasonal images, and this one is a beauty. The colourful paintings are by Vanessa Bowman whos work often follows a seasonal theme and her annual calendars are really lovely.

I've had a day out of the house today as my lovely friend Christine drove over from Winwick to visit. After a spot of brunch and coffee at a very nice café in town, we decided to drive out and take a walk at Bolton Abbey. I think walking in the countryside is such a nice way to spend time with friends, it's the perfect mix of relaxation and energy expenditure. Christine and I generally get together once a month for a day of yarny chat and I really appreciate having somebody to talk to who has the same kind of focus as me in terms of designing, creating, writing and nurturing an online community.

Bolton Abbey is lovely and quiet during the week days and we had a slow, ambling circular stroll along the riverside, around the Abbey, over the bridge and back through the woodland. Beautiful views, abundant greenery and good company, it was a lovely way for us to spend time catching up with news and chatting through ideas.

 And at the end of the walk, the café was waiting for us and it was warm enough to sit outside which made me very happy. I don't often drink coffee in the afternoons, but we were sharing a really indulgent slab of chocolate brownie and somehow in my mind that just had to have a frothy coffee to hold its hand. It was the decaff version, so hopefully all will be well tonight when I need to sleep!

I got home around 4pm, just in time to chat to Little B who was home from school and getting ready to head out to work. Yes, you read that right, my fourteen year old has landed himself a job....and for some reason I am seriously struggling to process this fact. He set off today for his first shift working in the kitchen of a lovely local pub, and well, he is growing up so fast and going out to WORK and my Mummy self is feeling weirdly emotional about the whole affair. Sigh. I am proud of my Little Peeps though, all three of them have worked from the age of 14 and I do believe it's very good experience for them.

Unusually today, J was also out at work (he usually works from home, but had to go into the office today) so there was a short period of time (precisely 85 minutes) where I was suddenly and unexpectedly all alone in the house. Hubby at work, two offspring at work, and the eldest boy-child at the gym, wow, the house was DeAdLy quiet and it was all a bit odd. I sat for a while and luxuriated in the total peace and quiet, then Miss Tilly came to join me for a little while before I needed to get up and start cooking some dinner. It was a really lovely little quiet pause in my day.

Something that wasn't quite so lovely was the fact that I came downstairs this morning to discover that Miss Tilly had puked on my beloved Flowerpress blanket, oooooo, the outrage!! Harrumph!! Luckily, when I was still in the very early design stages with this blanket I did a series of wash/dry tests with my ReCreate samples (I always do this with any new yarns, just to be sure that future blankets will be durable and machine washable) and it passed with flying colours. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the blanket really improves after a little jaunt in the washing machine cycle, it's very pleasing indeed.

The ReCreate yarn contains 30% recycled wool, and when it's washed it blooms beautifully - you might be able to see from the photo above that the fibres of the yarn are now slightly fluffed up and very soft looking, making the blanket feel much more cosy and blankety. The softness is the main thing, this really isn't a scratchy, itchy woolly yarn at all, not at all, it feels more like a lovely soft cotton. Currently I've got it spread out on Little Lady's bedroom floor (she has the most available floor space) - I spread it out slightly damp straight from the wash and after 24 hours natural flat drying I know it will look and feel dreamy.

Anyhow, I thought it was worth mentioning, for those of you who are making the Flowerpress blanket or who might be considering using Stylecraft ReCreate yarn in the future, it really is a wonderful fibre and I would highly recommend you putting the finished blanket into the wash and flat drying/blocking if you have the floor space. 

A happy end to the day, and Miss Tilly has been forgiven. I hope you've had a lovely day too, and I'll be back to chat to you again tomorrow ..

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Blogtober 2024 :: Day 1

Blogtober day 1 :: Tuesday

Hellooooo.....! Happy first day of a new month, and also the start of another year of Blogtober. I first took part in Blogtober in 2021, and this will be my third year of "daily blogs throughout October" (I skipped 2022 because I was away in France teaching a crochet retreat in October that year). I'm not sure how popular it still is to do this kind of thing, especially nowadays when slow, silent, non-filmy online content is becoming quite rare. I'm still a massive fan of slow, thoughtful, chatty words and images and I also love the challenge of creating posts for you every day which follow along with the organic and genuine twists and turns of daily life. It's quite a hard thing to commit to (especially as I'm going to be away from home at least twice this month) but I'm here for it and I'm thankful to those of you who always drop in to read and chat back to me in the comments section.

As usual there are no plans in place for this challenge, but I do want to share my recent Morrocco trip with you so some of the days in early October will be given over to that. Other than that, I shall be winging it and taking you along for the virtual ride, so here's hoping it's going to be a lovely kind of a month!

We seem to be well and truly into the Autumn season all of a sudden and we've had a cold couple of days with heavy grey skies and much rain. I can feel myself wanting to hibernate already, and find I'm putting off my daily walks when the rain is tipping down.

I did just about manage to dodge the showers today and enjoyed my slow walk along the canal - this wall of Boston Ivy puts on a spectacular show every Autumn and it's just starting to change from green to red. I love watching the gradual but inevitable creep of the seasons, it's one of the real pleasures of living in the UK, despite the rain.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary at the weekend, J and me. We met in September 1993 (31 years ago) and 8 years after that (23 years ago) we got married. We don't usually do anything much to mark this occasion but on Sunday we did take the three offspring out to the city and treated us all to a very lovely lunch followed by a few cocktails. It's quite rare for us to have all three kiddos together these days as my big boy-child is very independent and it's quite hard to pin him down for things that involve specific times and practical arrangements. I think the offer of food and drinks was enough to bring him on board and we really did have a lovely day all together. No photos to show you of any of that mind you, as for once I left my phone in my bag and didn't take a single picture.

This past week has been deliciously slow and steady and for that I am grateful. I think slow and steady days are highly underrated, they bring a gentle rythmn and peacefulness which keeps me grounded in the present.

Since I settled back into home life after my recent trip to Morocco, I've enjoyed some gentle social time this past week. I met up with a very good friend for morning coffee and a long overdue catch up....

....and a gorgeous morning with my yarn tribe which involved some slow crochet, lots of chatter and a very pretty bowl of breakfast. I know that some viola flowers are edible, and after much soul searching I did eat the one sitting in my yoghurt but felt dreadfully guilty afterwards. Flower guilt, who knew?

Canal boats are still taking up a lot of space in my Creative Mind, and I am just about to start work on a new blanket design inspired by the colours and decorative details of the boats I see on my walks. I've got a fabulous collection of inspiration photographs that I've collected over the past year and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the crochet design work.

However, before I can properly let myself loose with new creativity, I'm desprately trying to get the tutorial for my recent Flowerpress blanket finished for you. During the past week I did get the square tutorial made and published, even though Typepad has been driving me absolutely round the twist with frustration. It's really misbehaving at the moment and not uploading photos properly, so I've had to dig deep for lots of pateience, and hoping that my attempt at daily blogging won't be sabbotaged by the technical blogging gremlins.

I've kept the written pattern in place and added the full photo tutorial right after it so that you can choose which one to use. Sometimes it's easy enough to follow a written pattern, but the extra photos can be very useful for guidance and clarification.

https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/flowerpress-blanket.html

I'm now in the process of finishing up the square joining tutorial and the border instructions (insert praying hands and all other positive emojis here, pleeeease Typepad) as I'm keen to get everything done and online for you so that I'm free to move onto the next thing (the canal boats are calling).

It would be lovely to hear back from you if you've time to write a comment. I'd love to hear about your day-to-day comings and goings and the things that are keeping you grounded, and I'll chat to you again tomorrow...xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

And Now Autumn

All the Monday feels here today as I'm home from my amazing trip to Morocco and slowly picking back up with normal life once again. I can't say I missed the domestic day-to-day business of tidying, sorting, cleaning, laundry-ing, shopping, cooking, parenting etc etc while I was away, but it's good to be home and back to it all the same.

Morocco was absolutely mind blowing...wOw, what a country!! The whole week was pretty full on, very hot, very busy, unbelievably inspiring, a weeny bit crazy and just way more intense than I could ever have imagined. I'm still processing the whole experience but it really was wonderful and I loved my time there. As you'd expect, I took a lot (a lot-a-lot) of photos and it's going to take me some time to go through them all and order them into a visual story to share with you.

I flew back on Thursday night after a fair bit of travel and airport delays, so by the time I'd made the train journey north from Gatwick to Yorkshire on Friday I was pretty pooped. It was lovely to be home again though, the family made me feel cherished and I know I was very much missed after my ten days away. The kitty on the other hand did not make me feel cherished at all, she was soooo cross with me for being away for so long and gave me the widest of wide berths for two whole days straight. She literally sulked, turned her back on me and refused to let me touch her, it was hilarious! You'll be pleased to hear that I'm no longer an outcast and she is back to shadowing me around the house, so order has been restored.

I have half unpacked my giant pink suitcase and was thrilled to find that the lovely big bowl I bought home with me had survived the journey. Isn't it a beauty? It's a heavy, chunky earthenware bowl, handmade and hand painted by the artisans of Safi (the Moroccan pottery capital) on the Atlantic coast. 

The shopping possibilities in Morocco are out of this world if you value hand crafted things, but the overwhelm and sheer volume of stuff on offer is quite extreme. You'll see what I mean when I share some of my photos with you - I was content to absorb it all through my eyes and take some careful photographs for memory, without the need to bring much of it home with me. Aside from my gorgeous bowl, I bought three other things......

....two sweet little beaded necklaces and a small pot of saffron. I could have gone crazy and bought so much more, it was all so beautiful and appealing and wantable! But I generally tend to only buy one or two very small things on each trip I make, just small souvenirs to keep and treasure. 

I spent the weekend catching up with myself, easing back into domestic life and coming to terms with the change in season.

Yesterday was the Autumn Equinox, so that's it, summer is over for another year and now we are in a new season. J and I went for a walk along the canal and through the woodland and it was green and damp and cool - all the things that Morocco was not - and I felt a rush of appreciation for this little patch of North Yorkshire that I call home.

Nature is already changing her colours for the season and when I went outside to the back street this morning I spotted these gorgeous leaves growing in one of my neglected back yard pots. This is a self seeded wild flower (we call it herb robert, it's part of the geranium family) and I've got plenty of it. I picked three stems and brought them inside.....

....they look very sweet in these little pots, the first little bit of seasonal decorating I've done on my mantel since Christmas. Yes, Christmas. This year has been a very strange one for me and I realise looking back over the past nine months that I haven't been myself at all, and have felt quite lost for much of 2024.

Take this bunch of flowers on my table for example......I bought them for myself on Saturday, a cheap £3 bunch from the supermarket and oh my, they are bringing me SO much happiness!! But they did make me realise that I cannot remember the last time I bought myself flowers, (and this has been a long standing weekly habit of mine) - another sign that I have been in quite a low place in my soul for a while. In fact, I just looked back at my photo archives and the last jug of flowers that I photographed was 10th April...five months ago. What??!!! 

I'm not going to dwell on all this, but please do know that I am really feeling good at the moment, with good energy and a happy soul, and my creativity is simmering and bubbling again, so all is well with me it seems. 

I rested quite a bit at the weekend, I've been sleeping very well lately but travelling does tend to make me extra weary. Sofa time with an abundance of blankets (we should think up a good collective noun for crochet blankets - a cuddle of blankets?) and some peppermint tea...note the absence of the kitty, she was still giving me the huff treatment at this point.

I managed one row of knitting yesterday (just the one) but I took a photo to show you the colours. Aren't they lush? I'm knitting a pair of socks using this stunning yarn which I bought from a little yarn shop in Leeds in the springtime. It struck me how similar the colours are in the sock yarn and the Flowerpress blanket, they're in perfect harmony with each other. At the time I bought the sock yarn I had just finished making the 16 Flowerpress flowers, so I was obviously deeply in that soft colour zone, matching my projects without even realising.

The yarn (if you are interested) is a German brand called Schoppel, and this is their popular Crazy Zauberball range. There are fifty colourways to choose from, and it's called "crazy" because the colour changes are quite random in each ball so that no two socks will ever be the same (no matching pairs). You can find it online, Wool Warehouse have a good stock of the colours so you can swoon a little at all the colourful possibilities......! My colourway is number 2355 : "gartenparty"

Speaking of Wool Warehouse, they have Flowerpress blanket kits back in stock after the super speedy first sell out and they continue to be shipped out all over the world. Even after 10+ years I still have to pinch myself at the reality of my wonderful partnership with WW, I am so thankful I get to work with them and do this creative crochet thing for you. Feeling very grateful for my life right now.

I'll be finishing up the Flowerpress photo tutorial in the next few days, so hopefully that'll be ready to publish online on Wednesday for you. If you are currently immersed in the pleasure of these squares and this delicious yarn, I hope it's giving you all the good feels? And if you are waiting for the photos to help you along the way, thank you so much for being patient while I zoomed off to Morocco....you're in for a treat with this sweet pattern. It's such a joy.

Thanks as always for visiting and keeping up with my stories, I am very happy to still be here after all these years.

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Flowerpress Love

Good morning my lovelies, I hope all is well in your little patch of the world? I'm sat here this morning in a large, comfy white bed (I'm in a hotel) with a cup of peppermint tea and my laptop, thinking how wonderful it is that we can access the world wide web so easily these days and stay connected. I have to tell you I've felt so happy to be back here in the Attic this week and to thank you all for the loveliest comments you've written to me here and also on my Facebook page. I have soaked them all in and feel very lucky to have your positive energy boosting my own, so thank you, thank you. We walk a two-way street here in Blogland, don't we? I give you my words and images and creative ideas, and then your words of encouragement and support come back to me in return, it's a true blessing in my life and I am so very thankful for our online community.

So, I am currently in a hotel at Gatwick airport as later this afternoon I'll be flying out to Marrakech to teach my final crochet retreat of the year with Stitchtopia Holidays. As I'll be away until the end of next week, I really wanted to chat to you before I go, to update you on a few things to do with the recent launch of my new Flowerpress Blanket.

The first thing to say is WOW - and THANK YOU !! It seems you all fell in love with this blanket and the yarn kits completely sold out yesterday, you caught us all a bit by surprise! The team at Wool Warehouse have been their usual wonderful, efficient, hard working selves and many of you will be receiving your yarn packs in time for the weekend. If you missed out, I'm told there is more stock on its way from the Stylecraft mill, and that if you add your email address to the waiting list (there is a notification box on the Flowerpress shop listing), then you'll know as soon as they are ready to order.

Secondly, I have an IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN.....

If you've purchased your yarn pack from Wool Warehouse (thank you, thank you if you did), there is a 12 page printed pattern included. Unfortunately, due to my brain not really being fully co-operative of late, I discovered (just after it went to print) that there were a few errors in the printed pattern. I am really, really sorry! So what I have done is to add the amendments very clearly (in bold red type) to the pattern written here on my blog so that you can reference that and know it is correct. 

You can find the pattern in my left hand sidebar, it's listed alphabetically, so comes under "F" for Flowerpress, or click the following link >

FLOWERPRESS PATTERN (with correct amendments :))

Also to let you know that there is a full photo tutorial coming (plus the joining and border instructions), I just didn't quite have time to complete it before needing to pack and prepare for my Morocco trip. So if you are a visual person, or a new crocheter and need the photos to help, I promise they will be coming once I'm back in the Attic. 

For those of you starting out very soon on your own Flowerpress journey, I am curious to know if you will make each of the sixteen squares one by one, or if you might be tempted to make all the flowers first like I did?

Maybe you might make Square 1 first to get the measure of the pattern and make sure your tension/sizing is working out, and then begin hooking up your flowers? I can highly recommend making all your flowers in one go, simply because the visual joy and sense of satisfaction is a real delight....it's FUN, and I really think you'd enjoy it.

Even after round 2, the colours are already looking good....

....and after round 4, well, you will have sixteen blooms all ready for the press.

Once all the flowers were done, I then added rounds 5 and 6 (the Champagne squaring-off rounds) to them all at the same time. I happened to be away from home for a few days when I was doing this, so I was able to take the Champagne ball of yarn and a little pile of flowers in a project bag and crochet them when I was out and about (train journeys, a hotel bed, café lunches with friends). It made for a beautifully portable project and I so enjoyed this part of the making process.

When your flowers are set on their blotting paper, you'll then have 10 more coloured rounds to complete for each square, and I can tell you that these easy rounds crochet up very quickly. You will of course need to make time to darn in your ends (I know you'll listen to my voice and hear what I'm saying - darn-your-ends-!!). Mostly I darned my ends after each colour change because that's a habit I developed a long time ago, but sometimes I would finish a whole square with the ends hanging and darn them all in before moving onto the next square.

Now then, I have some additional creative thoughts to share with you, and I felt like this couldn't wait, just in case it might spark some ideas for you. 

When I was first thinking about using Stylecraft ReCreate yarn at the very start of this year, I started out thinking I might like to use it to make another large square blanket following the Yuletide pattern. So my very first sample was actually the circle shown above which is the Yuletide Mandala pattern. Looking at this image now, I'm finding that my fingers are itching (honestly, they are twitching as I type) to actually make another Yuletide square in these pretty vintage shades, because I think it would look absolutely wonderful and I LOVED making that large, therapeutic square so much.

I thought it would be interesting to share this with you as I always think it's good to ponder on ideas and share creative thoughts - I may even carry this through and make a start on a large ReCreate square when I get home from this trip - if I do, then I will certainly share my colour order as I go along. You never know, this might be floating your boat in the same way that my fingers are itching and twitching?!

Something else that I want to share with you today is the possibility of making the Flowerpress design using our beloved and familiar Stylecraft Special DK. I've read a number of comments on Facebook during the past week from those of you who are either allergic to wool and can't use ReCReate DK, or else you have a stash of SSDK yarn already that you really wish to use up, or you simply prefer SSDK to any other yarn.

There was one comment on Facebook, and I'm really sorry I can't remember the name of the lady who wrote it, but I would like to say that this was her idea (if you know who it was, please leave me a comment so I can give credit). She said that the Flowerpress colours really reminded her of the Hydrangea blanket, because of course they both have the same inspiration behind them - dried flowers! Of course!!

Yesterday I went to revisit the Hydrangea colours and as I could instantly see the similarities to the Flowerpress palette, it occurred to me that the Hydrangea yarn kit could be used to make the Flowerpress blanket.

Shall we take a proper look at the colours and I can share my thoughts?

In the above photo, the top row of pegs is the SSDK Hydrangea palette (15 colours), the bottom row of pegs is the ReCreate Flowerpress palette (10 colours). I managed to match them up with ease - a few differences but the overall feel of the SSDK palette works a treat.

So for an SSDK substitution, I would match them using the photo above, from left to right as follows :

Champagne = SSDK Mushroom (see notes below on this shade)

Blush = SSDK Vintage Pink

Rose = SSDK Pale Rose

Sky = SSDK Duck Egg

Teal = SSDK Cypress

Pistachio = SSDK Pistachio

Avocado = SSDK Meadow

Dijon = SSDK Camel

Cherry = SSDK Raspberry

Grape = SSDK Grape

The one colour I thought might possibly need a tweak is the Mushroom. I think if you you were being picky, then Parchment or A Hint of Silver might work better for the neutral to surround the flowers and edge/join the squares. 

The other thing to mention is about yarn quantities. Obviously I haven't had the chance to sample SSDK with this pattern yet so I'm not able to give any accurate information on hook size or tension/gauge, or yarn quantities. Although these two yarns are both DK weights and both 100g balls, the meterage does differ, so you would need to keep that in mind.

ReCreate DK has 350 metres per ball, whereas SSDK only has 295 metres per ball.

It means you might possibly need an extra ball of Mushroom (or whichever neutral colour you choose) and you'd have to assess quantities for the border too, maybe only working single rows for each colour if your yarn is running short?

I know this all sounds a bit vague, but at this stage I just wanted to help those of you who were thinking of going down the SSDK route. There has been quite a bit of discussion in the Facebook groups, so I felt it would be helpful to give you this information to help, and then leave it to you if you want to stash dive or purchase the Hydrangea kit. Incidentally, you will of course have 5 extra shades in the hydrangea kit and could easily add those into your squares and border rounds (although personally I'd leave out the Parma Violet, to let the Mushroom really do its job as the one neutral) - the colours are all very compatible with each other and you can't really go too far wrong using this alternative palette I don't think.

I hope this blog post has been helpful and inspiring (hmmm, the lure of a large square is positively ShOuTinG in my brain now). Do let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or suggestions, or requests, or just let me know your own creative plans. I always really enjoy reading your comments and never miss a single one (two way street, remember?)

Sending lots of love and light and colour and creative vibes to you....have fun!

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🌸FLOWERPRESS YARN KIT

🌸HYDRANGEA YARN KIT

🌸FLOWERPRESS PATTERN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowerpress Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Good morning! If you want to go and grab a Flowerpress yarn pack, here is the link to Wool Warehouse >>

🌸FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK 🌸

Please do read on if you'd like to find out more about the blanket design and the inspiration behind it....

I've been crocheting blankets for seventeen years now, and the excitement of a new project is still just as high as it was all those years ago when I was a hooking newbie. Seeing my big baggy yarn bag bulging with beautiful new yarn colours awaiting the start of their journey is one of the great loves of my life, it really makes me unbelievably happy.

Today I want to tell you about this bag of yarn and share the inspiration behind my latest blanket, so lets start with some intel about the yarn itself, because as you've probably already guessed, this isn't my usual premium acrylic choice, but it is a very yummy yarn made by Stylecraft.

This yarn is called ReCreate DK which launched with twelve shades in 2021, with four additional shades added in March of this year to make 16 in total. Aside from the very pretty colours, Stylecraft ReCreate is a blended yarn that is made entirely from recycled fibres....yes, yes, this is a 100% recycled yarn!!!!

The composition of the yarn is 40% wool, 30% acrylic and 30% polyester. The wool and acrylic are recovered from garments that would have otherwise gone to landfill and the polyester component comes from recycled bottles which are shredded and then spun into yarn. How a-maaaay-zing is that??!!

Stylecraft says :

" We are dedicated to adding yarns to our collections that have less of an impact on the environment, so we only work with expert spinners. The company that makes ReCreate for us work to the Global Recycled Standard, which monitors the entire production cycle from collection to reclamation and finally production to make sure the materials used are traceable and are recycled to a very high standard and no chemicals that are harmful to the environment are used "

Here are some of my thoughts about this yarn :

• The 100g balls are wound in a neat donut shape (making them very easy to centre-pull and work from) and as you can see, the yarn contains some pretty multi-coloured flecks which give a subtle tweedy look.
• The very matt appearance gives a look and feel of soft cotton or washed linen - in fact everyone who has seen me working on this blanket in real life has been very surprised when I've told them this isn't cotton. If you've struggled crocheting with cotton before (it can be quite hard going on the hands as it has no stretch) then you will definitely be glad of the natural bounce in this yarn which makes it so, so nice to crochet with.
• The wool content makes for a warm fibre when it is crocheted up, even though the crochet feels airy and light weight.
• The yarn is quite fine for a DK weight, so you will need to be mindful of your guage if using it for the first time and experiment with hook sizes - I dropped down half a milimetre from my usual DK hook size.
• The finished crochet washes well in the machine at 30 degrees and can take a cool spin in the tumble drier. In fact I think the appearnace and feel improves after a wash as the wool fibres bloom slightly making the crochet feel much softer.

All in all, I think this is a truly wonderful and innovative yarn which has really pleased me endlessly as I've been working with it! It's soft, light, and warm, and altogether extremely likeable and charming with it's tweedy flecks and slightly muted, vintage appearance.

I've put together this very pretty colour palette using ten of the ReCreate DK colours and I think they look amazing together.

From left to right, the colours are as follows :

🌸Teal 🌸Avocado 🌸 Pistachio 🌸 Sky 🌸Champagne 🌸Dijon 🌸 Rose 🌸 Blush 🌸 Cherry 🌸 Grape

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

FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK*

*the yarn pack contains a 12 page full colour A4 printed pattern

When I chose these ten colours and began to have a play with them back in the springtime, I was still at the stage of wondering what sort of blanket to make. I definitely wanted to crochet squares, but at that early stage the blanket didn't really have an identity or a theme. I just knew that I LOVED the colours and the yarn, and that I wanted to make a very pretty, vintagey style blanket with a slightly sun-faded look and feel to it.

It was actually my lovely daughter who happened to mention that the colours reminded her of dried flowers, and from that moment onwards I couldn't stop thinking about the small, old fashioned wooden flower press I used to have as a child, with squares of corrugated cardboard and blotting paper stacked between two wooden squares, and silver wing nuts to tighten it all up...do you remember those??? I AdOrEd pressing flowers as a child and used to do it with my Mum a lot - we made many pressed flower pictures and cards to gift to relatives when I was young, gathering flowers from the garden and the hedgerows in Dorset where I grew up.

In the above photo you can see some old postcards of mine - I dug them out of my very full box-of-lovely-cards as the colours and pressed flowers captured everything I had been reminiscing about (postcards from Ikea, circa 1999)

I also want to share something very special with you, the above journal which belonged to my Mum and was recently discovered in a big bag of her belongings that were left to me when she died.

This is my Mum's gardening journal from over twenty years ago, where she wrote about her love of flowers and creating a garden from scratch. The photo is of the small cottage where she lived with her partner for thirty years (my parents were divorced when I was a teenager so I never lived here but I visited often). She wrote...

"I take immense pleasure from my garden and gardening activities. The amount I spend in both my time and my finances I consider to be of enormous value".

She really did love her flower garden!

There are more pages where she has written about her own childhood and the gardens she had helped to nurture over the years, but can you see the pressed flowers and petals she glued to the pages? Oh, my heart.....so precious......the sight of them really did send me right back to my young childhood self. When I found these pages I had already started crocheting the flowers for my new blanket, so this unexpected connection to the past suddenly seemed very poignant somehow.

Flowers are naturally at the heart of the Flowerpress blanket, and I designed them before I really had an idea of how to make them into squares, or how the blanket was actually going to look overall. I had a lot of fun with the colours, they really made me happy (above photo taken at the end of April - springtime flowers blooming).

If you are thinking about giving this blanket a go, then I can really recommend working all the flowers first - it means you get the slightly more fiddlesome bits done and dusted, but also, you get the joy of playing with them too - haha - I'm serious about this!! It's so much fun seeing these cute blooms grow and fly off the hook!

↑↑ And then the flowers are placed on their blotting paper squares, ready to go into the press....well that's how I began to think about this blanket in my mind. A bit fanciful maybe, but that's honestly how my Creative Mind works. The story spins itself around the stitches and the colours....

...and just like that a beautiful sqaure is made. There is nothing complicated about the Flowerpress pattern, and like all my designs I use simple stitches with a therapeutic, easy rythmn to the rounds. Once you've made your inner square (the blotting paper rounds) you can enjoy some easy trebles to build out the larger square.

This is a fast make, with 16 rounds in each square coming together very easily. And only 16 squares to make in total before the joining and the border....it's a really, really satisfying blanket to work on I promise.

I've been making this blanket very quietly and gently since the spring, keeping it to myself and using it to soothe the rough edges of the difficult days, and honestly I don't know what I would have done without it. I believe the soft colours and sweet vintage feel of them together took me on some sort of nostalgic journey and brought forth some wonderful memories in the process. It's been such a pleasure!

The final round of each square is a narrow round of double crochet worked in this delicious off-white shade....

....it adds an element of graphic detail as well as an easy final round which forms the base of the joining seams.

The squares are seamed with long rows of slip stitches on the reverse side (no join-as-you-go this time), and I've given a full explanation of this process in the printed pattern which comes in the yarn packs, as well as in the photo tutorial.

I decided to go with a lovely wide stripy border to finish off....because the squares are full of detail and lots of colour changes, I wanted something calming and soft to frame everything and add a gentle finishing touch. The wide, stripy border works beautifully to do this, and then.....

....a pretty scallopped edge to finish it all off.

The finished Flowerpress blanket measures 120 cm square which is the same size as the Fireside blanket I made two years ago. The two blankets look so lovely together, and it struck me a few days ago that I've now made an Autumn/Winter blanket (the Fireside) and a Spring/Summer blanket (the Flowerpress) - one rich, earthy and snuggly, and the other soft, light and airy.

4 ft square blankets are a lovely size - they make good lap blankets, or throws to go over the back of a chair. I also love to fold them in half into a triangle and wear them around my shoulders like an oversized shawl when I'm sitting to read in the evenings - the ReCreate yarn feels lovely next to the skin, not at all woolly/itchy, even thought he 30% wool content makes it beautifully warm.

↑↑ The kitty.....well.....what can I say??! She has adored this blanket right from the very start and often when I was making the squares, she would sit herself down on one if it was on the table, it's like she just couldn't help herself. I took the above photo of her one day - the blanket was still in progress (I was working on the border at the time) and it was folded up on the sofa waiting for me to choose a colour for the next round. Almost as soon as she saw me place it down she was sitting upon it, and not long after I found her in full snooze mode.

During the past month, you'll be pleased to hear that we've given the Flowerpress blanket a thorough testing and it has passed with flying colours.

And now, I do think it's high time we had a better look at the finished article, so you can see how lovely the squares look, and the beautiful wide border too.

I used seven colours to make the wide border and I love the gentleness of it.

The scalloped edge is an echo of the rounded flower petals at the centre of each square, and I knew quite early on that this would be a great edging for the Flowerpress blanket. It adds such a pretty finishing touch, and I'm super happy with how it all came together.

When I'm designing a square blanket, I find that I can fairly easily visualise how it's going to look because my Creative Mind has had a lot of practice. So much of the making time is spent crocheting the individual squares, so I need to have real faith in the way that it will all come together because I only get to know for sure right at the end once all the squares are made and then joined.

With the Fowerpress blanket, I loved the individual squares so much when I was making them and really hoped that once they were all joined together that they would look as good in real life as I had imagined them.

Would you like to see?

I think we should take a look................

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

I am delighted to tell you that the finished blanket is even more lovely than I imagined it in my mind, and as a designer, this is such an amazing revelation (and a huge relief if I'm honest). It's the moment of truth, and comes at the end of many, many hours, days, weeks and months of work.

I adore the Flowerpress blanket, it has such a gentle feel about it, and for me personally, it connects me to the past with some lovely memories from my childhood. It's been an absolute pleasure to make, and I hope maybe you might feel inspired to crochet your own Flowerpress and enjoy the soothing colour therapy.

Talking of colour therapy, while I've been making the Flowerpress squares I have of course been using my big baggy yarn bag to carry everything around. This bag is still going strong after sixteen years of constant use (you can find the pattern and read about it on my blog ((HERE))

I took the above photo yesterday to share with you - can you see how amazingly similar the Flowerpress colours are to my yarn bag? Made sixteen years apart with two completely different yarns, but my signature colour palette has obviously not changed one bit!!!

So there we have it - the story of the Flowerpress Blanket......I really hope you've enjoyed the visuals and an insight into my design process.

I want to talk to you now about the Flowerpress pattern which I'm really proud of because honestly, it's a challenge to design an original crochet square that is easy enough for beginners to have a go with. A lot of large crochet squares end up being complicated things, and as you know, I like to keep things simple so that there's an element of relaxation and joy in the making process.

If you like the look of the Flowerpress blanket and buy a yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a 12 page full colour printed pattern included with the yarn.

I am also publishing the Flowerpress pattern for FREE here on my blog, for those of you who wish to support your local yarn shops and buy yarn from a bricks and mortar store. I also think that this pattern would make a great stash-buster project to use up yarn you already have. Please keep in mind that the guage will be different if you use a differnt type of yarn (ie Stylecraft Special DK) but I think it would be a fun creative adventure if you wanted to use yarn you already have and choose your own colours.

At this time, the free Flowerpress SQUARE pattern is available here on my blog, written for you as a traditional pattern. There is a full photo tutorial coming, but it isn't quite ready to share with you just yet, and I'm so sorry that I have had to take my time with it. I've had a lot of difficulty concentrating lately, and it is only me here doing all the things (well my lovely hubby does help by making my charts for me), so I do hope you'll understand. I shall of course let you know as soon as it is ready and published.

If you are eager to get going with yarn you already have, then you can find the Flowerpress pattern on my blog in the left hand sidebar in the long alphabetical list.....or click on the following link :

🌸FREE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN 🌸

Well I think that's about all the Flowerpress blankety chat for now, I hope you've enjoyed a peek behind the scenes into my creative process and have enjoyed seeing my blanket journey take shape.

Thank you as ever for your enthusiasm and support of my work, it really does mean the world. THANK YOU!!!

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Here are a few useful links >>

♥ FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK (includes a 12 page full colour printed pattern)

♥ FREE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN

 

PS, a few additional things to add, after reading all the comments on my Facebook page...

• Stylecraft ReCreate yarn contains 30% wool, and some of you have mentioned that you are allergic to wool. At this time, I don't have colours put together in Stylecraft Special DK (premium acrylic) to match the ReCreate colours, but of course you are free to do this yourself if you wish.
• Some of you have also said that you would prefer to make a striped blanket, and I'm sorry that I haven't got a stripe order to give you right now. The guage of ReCreate is different to Special DK so I'm not happy giving out instructions to make a striped blanket until I've worked samples myself and am confident with how the size and yardage will work with ReCreate DK. Again, of course you can do this yourself if you wish, and at some time in the future I may well work on this for you, but not just at the moment.
• I know many of you rely on my photo-heavy tutorials to help you with the patterns and I'm so sorry that I haven't had time to complete the tutorial for you today. As soon as it's ready, I will of course let you know.

 

 

Summers End

September.....such a fabulously new-page, fresh-start kind of a month, don't you think? I'm pretty sure that for many of us, September will always have a new-year feel to it, possibly more than January does. It's that distinct back to school vibe, all those memories of new shoes, fresh stationery and timetabled routines from childhood which also extends for so many years (decades) into parenting life. Like many of you, I am still embedded in the school system with Little B just starting into year 10 (four more years of school education still to go), so September still really does mean fresh starts (and new shoes) and a return to routine here in the Attic household. 

The Autumn Equinox is two weeks away and I find myself mentally preparing for the end of summer, although really I spent much of August trying to ready myself for the upcoming change in season. It's been a month where I've tried to squeeze every last drip of summer out of my days, making the most of the daylight hours and spending as much time outdoors as possible.

Getting out and about into the countryside has felt really, really good, and J and I have been on some lovely long walks in the Yorkshire Dales this summer.

We've also made the most of local, mud-free footpaths (summer has been quite wet here in the North) and have walked many times at Bolton Abbey, up on the beautiful heather moorland, along the canal tow paths and round our local woodland.

Some evenings, the late summer light has been so atmospheric and evocative that I've found myself pulling on shoes and heading out to walk so that I can soak the last of the day into my soul. In the above photo, it's around 8.30pm and I'm climbing up a steep grassy field close to home because the colours in the sky made it impossible for me to stay indoors. A beautiful shiny half moon....

....and the most breath taking golden purple light as the sun sets, oh, this light and these colours!! I wonder how on earth can there be so many people sat indoors in front of their televisions on evenings like this?? I think I do have a mild obsession with light (and colour of course), actually it's probably not a mild thing at all, more a deep passion which is so much a part of who I am and how I see the world.

After a busy April-July period where I was away from home quite a lot and dealing with various personal stresses and worries, most of August was spent at home in the slow lane. Waking up slowly, gentle morning routines, lazy afternoons, days spent pottering and pootling, resting and recharging. I know that I am exceptionally lucky that I get to stay at home and adopt a "holiday" routine with Little B during the school holidays, and I do really have a deep gratitude for the freedom in my days.

As I've often said here, I truly believe that an appreciation for the sweetness of simple, everyday life is the key to happiness. Embracing gentle routine, searching out joyful snippets in each day, really paying attention to the visual details of everyday life, and forming a practice of daily gratitude and mindfulness all have a huge impact on wellbeing. Because I have a thriving creative mind, I always feel compelled to photograph a lot of these details and snippets of joy in my days, and so I preserve the evidence of my own mindful practices.

During the past four months when my mental health has been on shaky ground, I totally lost the desire to share my observations here. I was still taking photographs (thousands of them) but I just couldn't bring myself to share them and talk about them. I thought about it so often - many, many times each day I thought about blogging, about sitting myself down and creating something to share, but there never seemed to be enough creative energy to see it through. My soul felt sad and I've had real life worries taking over my thoughts. I knew I would find my way back at some point because my creativity was still ticking over, but I have needed to wait for the sadness and worry to ease. 

During these strange months I've been holding on tightly to my well developed routines, keeping myself walking on familiar pathways, doing familiar, comforting things. And slowly, slowly, slowly, I have begun to see glimmers of my happy mood re-surfacing. I don't think I can really tell you about all the things that piled up inside my mind, all the insecurities and worries and fears.

It had a lot to do with health matters, mostly J who had a scare back in April that shook us up quite badly and we are still dealing with the aftermath. He doesn't read my blog, but he is an intensely private person and I know he would not be happy with me for talking about him online, so I shall say no more. But I think looking back I can see how that event set me off on a rickety and unwelcome downward spiral of sorts, and while I was managing to stay strong and supportive and optimistic on the outside, my inner self was in a terrible muddle.

Anyhow.....my goodness......I am rambling, and I don't want to drag myself (or you) any further down this road really. 

So...let's get back to giving you a brief rundown of where I've been and what has been occupying my time during the past four months.

As I mentioned, I've been away from home quite a bit this year, travelling both in the UK and abroad which has been really lovely. Me and my big pink suitcase (often packed full of yarn) have taken many journeys together and despite the British railways being incredibly difficult this summer (cancellations, delays, strikes etc etc), I've enjoyed the distraction of being on the move.

I think I mentioned in my last blog post back in April that I'd been away teaching a short 4 day retreat at Bagden Hall in West Yorkshire? I continue to really LOVE working with the Stitchtopia team and it's such a privilege to be able to share my passion for colour and crochet with such lovely people while at the same time feeling like I'm on holiday!

After the April retreat, I did two more retreats teaching the same project at Bagden Hall (with two more fabulous visits to Stylecraft as well) in May and June. If you are interested in my UK retreats with Stitchtopia, I'll be repeating them again next year (same place, same itinerary) - you can find out more information online ((here)).

At the end of May during the Spring Bank half term week, I was able to persuade J and Little B to take a trip to my beloved Saltburn-by-the-Sea. We rented a cute apartment in an old Victorian building and spent a few days walking and beachcombing and generally enjoying the relaxation of this quiet little coastal place. 

In June I worked on a new crochet design for my first overseas retreat of the year.....in beautiful Portugal. I've been to Faro a few times in the past and loved it, but this time I was going to see both Porto and Lisbon and I was really looking forward to it. Designing and preparing a project for a crochet retreat is quite a big task and at times a little stressful. I source the yarn, create and pack the kits, sample and design a suitable project (which includes colour teaching elements), lesson plan and pattern write. So by the time I come to the retreat I have already lived and breathed the project quite intensively (it's always a one hundred and ten percent affair for me when I design something new) and am buzzing with the fact that I then get to pass on all my knowledge and passion for creative colourwork to a wonderful group of enthusiastic crocheters.

The icing on the cake is the trip itself - oh my goodness - I cannot express how WONDEFUL it is to visit places that contain so much visual inspiration and character, it fills my cup to overflowing. Portugal was just incredible and I took hundreds of photos while I was there. Stitchtopia retreats are very well organised, with three days spent in a "workshop" type setting working on the crochet project, and the other days spent on organised excursions - we get to see and experience a lot. Historical tours, cultural tours, boat trips, gardens, museums, cathedrals, palaces, wine tasting, sight seeing....it's all so bloomin' lovely!

Next week I'm away again, teaching the same colourwork project with a new group. This time I'm going to Morocco, so I'm anticipating that it will be another very memorable trip.

I came back from Portugal in early July, and after a week at home catching up with myself, I was away again down to Dorset. It's a fairly long journey by train (7 hours) but as I mentioned earlier I do like train travel and I was looking forward to spending time with Lady B and planting my feet on my home turf/shingle for a little while. It was really good to be back "home" and although it was only a 3 night stay, I did manage to make it into a mini holiday of sorts. I was looking through my Dorset photos earlier and saw the harbour and beach, brightly coloured market stalls, bunches of flowers, coffee and cake...it was a good visit all in all, if a bit on the short side.

Of course my main reason for going to Dorset is always to visit my Dad who is deteriorating quite rapidly but still hanging on in there. My brother and I had a necessary (but pretty awful) online meeting earlier in the summer with the "frailty team" who visit my Dad's care home each week and look after the very fragile residents. My Dad is fading rapidly, and for anyone who has been in this position with a poorly parent will know that it's not easy when you start to reach the end of life decision making.

Anyhow...life goes on, and I do my best to just cope with the reality of where I am at on this journey as a daughter. I've found myself thinking back over my childhood a great deal of late, trying to sort out the complexity of emotions. Facing up to the fact that in the near future I will have both of my parents gone has hit me quite hard. I realised that I still carry an awful lot of baggage that I didn't deal with when my mum died suddenly seven years ago, and in small, quiet ways I've been trying to unload some of the hurt and anger that still sits very heavily on my heart. My childhood was tricky, and my relationship with my parents even trickier, it's been a lot to think about.

When I came home from Dorset I felt mildly unwell, kind of exhausted and just down hearted in my soul. I spent days in some sort of mental and emotional recovery, giving myself permission to just rest, take naps and be kind to myself. I think it was the right thing to do and looking back at photos from the end of July, they are full of cosy home moments, walks in nature, cups of coffee and knitting (a pair of socks on the go, my train travel project)

At the very end of July, we took a proper holiday which was a real treat. It was the three of us as the older two offspring are both working and have each had their own summer holidays abroad with friends this year. We booked very late, a spur of the moment decision, and took ourselves away to the sunny island of Corfu in Greece for a week. It was bloomin' hot, and we spent the week being lazy, napping, reading, swimming, sleeping and eating yummy food. Wonderful, and very much appreciated I can tell you. It made me realise how important holidays are, and that even though I've been away from home on many lovely trips this year, most of them have had work or heavy emotions attached to them. Our week in Greece was blessedly free of those things, it was relaxed, easy and very restorative, just what J and I both needed at the time.

So I think we are almost caught up at last and I've been writing this blog post for most of the day on and off. Do you know, I have sorted and filed over two thousand photos from the past four months and there is so, so much I would like to show you. At the moment I'm not entirely sure how to go about it but I'll give it some thought in the next few weeks.

Now for something exciting - some BLANKET news! Back in the spring I started work on a new blanket design and it has been nothing but pure pleasure right from the start. Some blankets are a badly behaved challenge, most spend a good period in the naughty corner, a few even get thrown in the bin and re-started. But this latest one has been like a very pretty, quietly spoken, mild mannered child and hasn't caused me one jot of bother. It's a miracle really, because my concentration levels and attention span have been seriously lacking, so it almost feels as if this blanket has quietly made itself.

I'm looking forward to telling you all about it, and of course sharing the inspiration and design with you. It has a nostalgic floral theme and is called "Flowerpress" - ahhhh, it's sooooo pretty!

I hope that you'll forgive me being very last minute with telling you about my new blanket, I think you can probably tell after reading this blog post that I've not really been feeling myself and have been weirdly unsure about my creative endeavours this year. Anyhow....there we have it. There will be a free pattern of course, and a full photo tutorial - my usual over-the-top-ness to hold your hand through the making process. Tuesday 10th September is the official "launch day" for Flowerpress yarn kits ....which I know is very soon....the day after tomorrow in fact. 

If I get time tomorrow I'll come here and show you some more blanket photos, I think maybe we could all use some happy floral vibes?! Until then, thank you so, so much for reading and sticking with me on this crazy life journey in all its wobbly ups and downs, I am really grateful, and also very glad that my bloggy voice has come back. ((thank you)) for being here x

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A Small Wave...

....a small, teeny-tiny, tentative wave from me hiding here in the Attic....

....and a huge, heart felt apology too. I'm sorry to have been in hiding for so long, it's been a strange ol' time of late. I generally don't feel like a blogger/creator needs to apologise for being absent, but in this case I do really feel like I owe you a sorry. I should not have stayed away for so long and it's not been my intention to worry you.

I don't really know how to articulate what's been occurring with me, it's been sort of a snowball of emotions and fears and personal struggles and honestly I've not been in the brightest of places the past few months. But I don't want to bring all that anxiety here to my beloved Attic space, which is somehow what kept me away for so long.

I am turning a corner I hope, the lightness beginning to peek through again. It's been a bumpy ride!

Anyhow....thank you so much for calling in, do leave me a note and tell me how you've been? I'm off on my travels tomorrow, off to teach my fourth crochet retreat of the year and I'm excited for it.

I shall chat to you some more once I'm back in a week, thank you for always showing up for me here, I do so appreciate you all,

With much love from me to you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Out and About

Mid April, and the season is balanced with one foot  leaping into spring, and the other (booted) foot still planted firmly in winter. I am absolutely loving these lengthening days though, especially since the clocks went forward into BST at the end of March and we have light evenings back again. All these extra hours of daylight are making me really happy and it goes a long way towards balancing out the high levels of rain and very cold winter temperatures that we're still putting up with.

This morning it was zero degrees when we set out to walk, a gorgeously still and quiet morning with a hard frost dancing over the landscape. It's Springfrost time, and the gentle muted colours keep reminding me of last year's blanket...colour really does have the amazing ability to evoke memories and emotions, don't you think?

I huffed my way up these wooden steps this morning, climbing through the trees all the way up without stopping. It's a great workout and my heart is always dancing a fast jig when I reach the top, reminding me that I'm alive and reasonably fit and well. Good health is pretty high up on my list of priorities these days, and not something I take for granted.

Yesterday morning was also freezing, but honestly I'm not complaining - the clear skies were very welcome and the sun definitely more than made up for the cold. Ahh, sunny-sun......do please stay for a while.

Doesn't the Blackthorn blossom look stunning? It's so pretty and always blooms abundantly, I don't think I've ever met a half hearted blackthorn hedge. The delicate little flowers erupt in an exuberant cloud and I really love it for that. More is more when it comes to flowers, always.

So I was away from home over the weekend, spending three nights in the wilds of West Yorkshire on a crochet retreat. It was my first Stitchtopia retreat of 2024 (I'm doing five in total this year) and after a busy week preparing for it I was really looking forward to meeting everyone and sharing the new project I'd designed.

The country house hotel where we stayed was lovely, quite old fashioned but in a way that immediately welcomed you in and made you feel relaxed and at ease. These retreats are a pleasure to do, mainly because I get to meet and spend time with the loveliest ladies. In the above photo to the right of the magnolia tree, that's the huge window of the "Blue Room" where we spent two days hooking and chatting away. I designed a really pretty wreath with some new flower and leaf designs, and it was loads of fun to see my design brought to life. I'm keeping my photos offline for the time being as I'll be teaching the same retreat again in May and June* and don't want to spoil the surprise for those who are coming along then.

To round out the retreat, we had a visit to Stylecraft at their historic mill building on Monday morning. We were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour giving a fantastic insight into the history and workings of the mill as well as getting to see the design studio and learning about the creative development of their yarns and patterns. 

Of course I'm no stranger to the workings of Stylecraft and have been to the mill many times over the years, but it was such a great experience being a part of this very enthusiastic group of crocheters.....the excitement was real!

Enjoying cake and yarn on a Monday morning....I think we all felt very happy with life at that point in time.

*June 2024 - a little note to say that due to an unexpected cancellation, there is now one place available on my Yorkshire retreat in June (Mon 3rd- Thurs 6th) if you fancy it, details are ((here))

I've spent the past couple of days recharging my batteries after the retreat. I love teaching, but I do find the very full days of socializing take a lot out of me (I am a very introverted person used to spending a lot of time in my own company).

I've enjoyed being out and about in sunny Atticland (blue skies! sunshine!), pottering around, catching up with errands, food  shopping and generally recalibrating after being away.

I took myself out for coffee yesterday morning. It felt like a luxury to sit in the quiet of this café where it was just me on my own for a while, basking in the sun and sipping my chocolate dusted frothy cap. Bliss.

At the start of last week before I got mad busy preparing for the retreat, J and I went out onto the countryside for a walk. It's funny that I had totally forgotten about it until today when I was looking through my photos to see what April was looking like so far. Thank goodness for the Me that always takes photographs every single day, I am grateful for these images that capture and preserve my days, weeks, months and years when my memory is not up to the job.

As you can see, it was very, very grey and damp out there with low cloud swirling just above our heads as we walked across the windswept moorland.

 We saw lots of frogs out and about, they seemed very at home in the damp wet grass minding their own business, or in pairs getting happy with each other ('tis the season!)

This circular walk is just under five miles I think, and during the whole time we were out we only saw one other person (a runner), a fair few grouse and a whole lot of frogs - it was incredibly peaceful even though in all honesty it felt a little bit bleak at times.

This is a walk I love to do in late summer when the purple heather is in flower, but there is a quiet beauty at this time of year which I can appreciate.

As we were walking the last mile, the weather rapidly changed and the clouds lifted and shifted to allow the sun to peek through. What a difference it made to the the landscape, it was like seeing an old sepia photo translated into full colour. Beautiful.

I really love a country walk for blowing the cobwebs away, it always leaves me feeling energised and full of gratitude for our open landscapes and public footpaths. We are very lucky indeed.

Thank you by the way, for all the lovely comments you wrote on my last post, I do so love to read them and hear a little bit about your days and also to find out what you enjoy about your visits here to the Attic. Often I think my posts are verging on the mundane, and yet I do really enjoy creating them for you (and for me to read back and remember things too) so I keep going. Photos stack up and then the words flow around them, it's a rhythm that is very familiar to me now after sixteen years of cultivating it.

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ps. in case you were wondering, I've not forgotten about Amsterdam.....I'll be working on sharing my trip soon before it fades into the rearview. 

pps. there is one single place now available on my Portugal retreat this summer following a cancellation....want to come with me?? Details ((here)) 

ppps. canal boats are still on my mind, they have taken up permanent residence. More on that soon x

 

 

Easter 2024

HeLLOoOoOooooo to you all out there in the world!!! I thought I would pop in for a quick catch up in amongst me being a mad busy thing as I prepare for my first retreat of the year this weekend. We're fully back to work and school this week after the Easter holidays - schools here in North Yorkshire had the Easter weekend in the middle of the two week break and it's honestly been the loveliest time for my little family. We've had the usual mixed bag of weather which included some glorious spring days and some hideously wild, wet and stormy ones too, so we've been out and about whenever we could but also enjoyed our quiet stay-home days too.

As I'm short on time today, I'll try and keep my word count to a reasonable digit, but I do hope you enjoy the visuals. I absolutely LOVE taking photos of everyday life, it's my most favourite type of blog content to create and also to enjoy on other peoples blogs (although there are so few active bloggers left these days).

Eastertide twenty-twenty-four....here are twenty snaps to tell the tale......

1. Laaaaaaambs!!! I'm sure there've been lambs around for a while already, but these were the first ones we saw in the fields close to home. Cute, playful little things they were too.

2. Sunday stroll. This is a walk we do when the fields and footpaths are still too muddy and wet, it's a 4.5 mile circular route which passes through a couple of small villages, then all the way back to town along the canal tow path.

3. Canal boats. Quite a number of people have suggested to me that I should design a blanket inspired by my daily walks along the canal. Of course this creative seed has now been sown and you may or may not be interested to know that it is taking root and sprouting leaves. I've spent the past four months building up a photo gallery of the boats I've walked past and the colours and decorative details are really making me feel the joy. It's not a done deal yet, but I'm beginning to form an idea of how this blanket might look and it's a distinct possibility for the 2025 CAL. Do let me know what you think of this idea by the way, I'm always open to hearing your thoughts. You can look ((here)) if you want to see a little of what's inside my Creative Mind!)

4. The Blobby Tree (!).....well, that's what I call this tree, I've no idea exactly what these blobs are but it tickles me every winter when we walk this way. They are tangled, dense balls of twiggy stems which I think are a parasitic growth (like Mistletoe, but these aren't mistletoe I don't think)

5. Naughty Pancakes. Not mine I might add, no, I've been on a health kick aside from a small daily ration of mini eggs and some Easter biscuit therapy. This plate was in front of Little B, and was an Easter Holiday breakfast treat at the pancake café in town. Triple chocolate American Pancakes, down the hatch in record time and one very happy Little B.

6. Bees and Blossom. My neighbours cherry tree was spectacular this year and I enjoyed it very much in the few weeks while it bloomed. On sunny days it was a buzz with bees which is such a happy sound, easy to miss if you are rushing past but lovely when you happen to slow down and catch it.

7. My hill view. Always a daily delight,  I love the way it connects me to the landscape and the seasons (and the weather).

8. My yarn tribe. We had a lovely get together at Coopers on Good Friday - coffee, crochet and some upbeat chatter, you just can't beat it. I finally finished my Blooming Sungold cushion cover, but it needs some gentle blocking and then the two sides joining together, so it's currently still in the WiP pile until after my retreat.

9. Easter celebrations......one of my favourites of the whole year. I'm not religious, but I do enjoy celebrating the return of the light and the start of spring. This sweet little lamb was a Craftpod project some years ago and I adore it.

10. The Mantel Twigs....how many years old now? I've no idea, but well over a decade (they were in situ in 2011, most likely earlier than that). They have seen many years of Easter and Christmas decorating and even though they are nothing fancy I just love them.

11. Chocolate eggs. I bought the Little People one medium sized boxed egg each this year, and then decided to pretend that I'm still the Mother of Little-Little People and bought a whole load of these egg hunt foil wrapped eggs. No actual egg hunt for us now of course, but it was lovely to have a little stash of egglets to offer as an after dinner treat. The giant Little People approved.

12. Seasonal Colour Inspiration. I pulled together this basket of yarn as I was contemplating colours for a future project, and then realised that I was being heavily influenced by the Eggs. The colour palette wasn't quite right in the end and has been shelved, but it's undeniably pretty.

13. Double daffs. These were on my table over Easter and I really enjoyed watching them slowly open and unfold. Gorgeous things.

14. Wild garlic. I was all intent on going to forage some from the woodland myself, but my good friend has it growing in her abundant woodsy garden and gifted me a generous bag. The scent....oh, how I wish you could smell it!

15. Wild Garlic soup....yummmmmmmmmmmm!! I made it as you would a basic leek and potato soup, wilting in the wild garlic right at the end to keep the green colour and the fresh flavour. It was wonderful, truly a taste of springtime.

16. Pub life. I'm not a big drinker, but I do enjoy going to our local pubs every so often for a few drinks with J and meeting friends. We have some really lovely local places to drink all within ten minutes walk - in the above photo we are settled into the Narrowboat on Easter Saturday around 5pm, waiting for friends to come and join us. The drink is mine and J's current favourite, it's a Belgian cherry kriek beer served in a lovely half pint glass. Delicious.

17. Easter Sunday walk. We went early to Bolton Abbey to beat the crowds, a gentle stroll up and down the woodland paths, over bridges and along the river bank.

18. Resting.... in the gentle warmth of the sun on this log, wondering as I always do about the quirky history of the money trees at Bolton Abbey. I was waiting for J who'd had to run back to pick up his hat which he left on the bench, what a treat to have hats off and feel warmed by the sun.

19. Slow travel. Oh, how I love love love a bit of slow travel!!! Last week we took a little holiday, travelling from the east coast across the north sea to the continent. We've taken this journey before (I think this was our seventh time) so we knew what to expect, but the excitement of large ship travel and also a night away in a hotel was real.

20. Holiday memories....just the loveliest things to have swimming around in my brain! As you can see, our trip last week was to Amsterdam, and it was fabulous and fun and I hope you're going to be OK about me showing you some visuals next week because I'd really like to share what I saw and how we spent our short time there.

Well, it's been really lovely chatting to you - I hope you all had a great Easter and that April is shaping up to be wonderful wherever you are in the world. Tell me something you're excited for this month, I'd love to know.....

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EDIT >> Thank you so much to Alison for the intel on the blobby tree! Apparently called "Witches Brooms" (which I LOVE), it's a deformity which creates "a dense mass of shoots  growing from a single point, with the resulting structure resembling a broom or birds nest" . So now the blobby tree is renamed the witches tree..