Attic24

Getting Ready

I worked my way through five whole loads of laundry yesterday. I felt like I did not stop all day. Not sure how it happened but I just I got waaayy behind with it all last week, and my laundry basket was completely overflowing. But it's all done now, well thats to say it's all clean and dry and is now sitting in a huge mountainous pile waiting to be sorted and put away. Oh, and some will be packed into a bag this morning ready for our five day jolly-holiday to the coast *squeeeeeeeeaaaaal*

I spent a little time yesterday packing up a small box with Connievan Kit ready to take with us :: things we had forgotten on the last trip, things we discovered would be Very Useful for Connievan to have and some new purchases too (I got my new pink polkadot kettle a few days ago yippeee!)

Can I show you a few recent bits n bobs that I'm very excited about?? These are a few little things I picked up on Saturday when I took a happy jaunt to a vintage fair. A vintage First Aid tin found it's way to me and I am so happy to have it. It's perfect for Connievan, don't you think?

I also couldn't resist these french inspired tins, they're reproduction ones so are all nice and shiny clean inside.

But my bestest and most heart-skippy find was these little vintage painted coat hangers. Do you know, when I first saw them I really honestly thought my heart would come flying out of my mouth, I was sooo beside myself with falling in complete love with them.

Aren't they adorable?? I LOVE the truly vintage colours, the way they are worn and a little paint chipped, and the fact that one of them has a little name written on the back. So sweet. And only 50p each, I nearly passed out with happiness when they became mine-all-mine for £2.50.

They'll be perfect to hang in Connievans wardrobe cupboard, I'm planning on crocheting some little flowers and hearts (stuffed with lavender) to hang on them, and every time I think of this Pending Project I get to feeling sooo giddy! Such fun!

This delightful heart was not a Vintage Purchase, but a gift for Connievan. How wonderful it is to have friends who are brimful of kindness and thoughtfulness and do such sweet things like buying our caravan a present, wrapping it in brown paper and string and posting it through the letterbox. I just love that I can take this heart with me today and hang it up and feel at home-sweet-home, yet be on holiday at the same time. Perfect.

Have a wonderful week everyone, see you when we get back :o)

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Granny Stripe Blanket :: the beginning

Hello my lovelies, great to be here in the Attic :: truthfully I should not be tucked up nattering in the Attic at all, should be attending to the business of making clean the piles of dirty laundry and packing/preparing for our trip away in Connievan tomorrow (woooooooohooooooo, four nights away by the coast!!!!)

However..........before I leave to go jollying off on my giddy-trip to the seaside, I really, really desperately want to have a quick chat about Acrylic yarn and granny stripe goings on. Cos I need to share, and you need to know, right? It will NOT WAIT, right??

OK.....above yarn is my squishy big balls of Stylecraft Special DK :: 100% Acrylic :: working on a 4mm hook. Cost was £1.60 per ball in my LYS. Bloomin bargainous.

As requested, here are the colours I've got nestling in the bag....

Top row, left to right
1422 :: aspen
1065 :: meadow
1316 :: spring green

2nd row
1003 :: aster
1019 :: cloud blue
1068 :: turquoise

3rd row ::
1188 :: lavender
1034 :: sherbet
1432 :: wisteria

4th row ::
1061 :: plum
1084 :: magenta
1390 :: clematis

5th row ::
1132 :: shrimp
1083 :: pomegranate
1241 :: fondant

6th row ::
1246 :: lipstick
1081 :: saffron

7th row ::
Little B’s stripy arm, just before he grabbed the saffron yarn!!

 

I'm liking this yarn. I'm v surprised that I'm liking this yarn. And I'm v happy about the surprise and the liking. It's lovely to hook with, smooth, soft. A little squeaky at certain times when hands are hot, but I can forgive it that little fault. {Little B, sat on lap, smashing his little hand down onto the keyboard, naughty Little B}jhgvgfcgfvvbc   m,

So I started on my granny stripe blanket a few evenings ago, sat on my bed, hooking that first looooong foundation chain (239 long, double bed width or thereabouts) Its not a very nice way to begin a blanket really, is it? Wiggling about with that long chain, counting like mad, being oh-so-careful to get The Count right. Cos for this particular pattern, The Count is CrItIcAl, it HAS to be a multiple of three. No more, no less.

Then after the chaining comes the tricksy first row (a row of double crochet), working those stitches carefully into each and every chain, hoping, hoping, hoping for the umpteenth time that The Count is right, that there will be no cussing, hissy fitting and frogging in the second row. I say a little prayer to the Hooky Angels to make sure I have The Correct Count. Perleeeeeeease make it right.

On to the second row.....praying like mad the whole time that it works out right. Praying right till the very end, cos only when one reaches the last few stitches does one know if The Count was right or wrong.

What do you reckon, did I get it right first time?

The answer is NO, I did not. I was one stitch short. But I could not bring myself to re-do it, so I kind of forced an extra stitch to materialise at the very end, working into the extreme end of the turn of the foundation chain, if you get that.

The third row is a happy, delicious, skippy breeze compared to the first two, cos The Count is over and the Easy Hooky can begin. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Zoomin up that row making cute little treble clusters, nothing can stop me now, I'm doing it, loving it, cannot stop!

Row after row, sooooo easy, soooooo happy, sooooooo stripy, sooooooo good!!

 

This is really rocking my boat my friends, I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be embarking on this blanket for Connievan, delighting in a new and successful pattern, loving new yarn, new colours. Its ACE!!!!!

I am hoping that some of you will be granny-striping along with me, will you?? Will you give it a go?? Shall we have a HAL?? (that's a Hook-A-Long in case you were wondering).

As I said earlier, I'm away next week, and haven't the time today to make a proper picture-saturated tutorial, but what I am going to try and do is to write the pattern out for you. In case like me you are desperate to get started.

So, what I humbly suggest is that you make a tester first, to get the measure of the pattern before you go cussing into that looooong blankety foundation chain.

I'm writing this in UK terms ok, so first row is double crochet, then after that we switch to treble crochet. For US peeps, work your first row in sc, then switch to dc.

Multiples of three then, lets say for the tester chain 20 to begin (starting chain must be a multiple of 3, plus an extra 2)

Row 1 ::

work 1dc in 2nd chain from hook. Continue working dc's into each chain till the end. You should have worked 19 stitches in total. Turn the work.

Row 2 ::

Chain 3, then work 1tr into first stitch. *Skip 2 stitches, then work 3tr's (I call this a "tr cluster") into next stitch*. Repeat between ** 4 more times, skip 2 stitches, then work 2tr's into last stitch on row.

You should have a row that begins and ends with 2tr's, and has 5 tr clusters in between. Turn.

Row 3 ::

You'll be working out of the spaces between the tr clusters of the previous row.

Chain 3, then work 3tr's into 1st space between clusters of previous row. Work 5 more tr clusters into the spaces of the previous row. And then to finish the row, work 1 tr into the top stitch of the ch3 made at start of previous row. Fasten off.

Row 4 :: Tie in your new colour...knot the two yarns tightly together, leaving ends to darn in after.

To begin, insert hook through the very first space of the previous row (between the last tr and the previous tr cluster). Draw the new yarn colour through to the front, ch 3, then 1 tr in same space.

Work 1 tr cluster into each of the next 5 spaces, then work 2tr's into the final space. Turn.

Row 5 ::

chain 3, work 1tr cluster in each of the next 6 spaces. To finish the row, work 1 tr into the top stitch of the ch3 made at start of previous row. Fasten off.

Repeat rows 4 and 5, working two rows for each colour.

I really hope you can understand this as I've written it, as soon as I'm able I'll do one of my usual tutorials with lots of pics for those of you who like the visuals, but hoping for now that this will get you started.

Remember when you start out on a blanket, your foundation chain needs to be a multiple of 3, plus an extra 2. Remember also not to make your foundation chain too tight :: try to chain loosely if poss, or switch to a hook a size bigger.

Right-oh...happy hooking my lovelies, I must go do some laundry now. See you when I'm back from my caravan love-in!!!

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Thursday

Hello my lovelies, how are you?? Hope your Thursday's been good? I've just been pootling around down here tidying a few things away, attempting to straighten our downstairs living space out a little. Tell me, how does everything manage to get so ridiculously messy so ridiculously quickly?? This house is in such a messy mess, it's quite impossible to keep on top of it at the moment. But do you know what??  I am NOT allowing myself to be dragged down by it, even though this volume of neverending messy mess could easily become quite draggy. I refuse to be dragged. I do what I can, when I can, I trip over things quite a lot, I lose things quite a lot, we live amongst messy piles. But hey, it's not so bad. We have fresh flowers over there in the corner by the window look and they are absolutely deeeeeeelicious.

These are scented stocks bought for a few pounds from the supermarket over a week ago and they are still going strong. I find the scent of them totally captivating and nostalgic. As I was tidying a bit ago, I bent over to pick up two felt tip pens, a stray sock, a muslin cloth, a rattle, a magazine and a barbie shoe, and the scent reached me in a great big beautiful waft of deliciousness. It was so lovely! I stuck my nose right into those blooms and felt light as a feather. Not a single bit of draggy-ness within my body when I breathed in that summer scent.

I am so busy at the moment. Busy busy busy.

Home-school-supermarket-home-cafe-shops-home-school-home, that was today's schedule.

I'm still milk tankering with Little B every 3 hours during the day, wherever we happen to be. He gets fed in cafe's a lot as I sit and natter to friends and drink coffee, but he doesn't seem to mind bless him. Plus this week we're now attempting to fit in two messy spoon meals a day in between the milk tankering. Oh the delights of introducing a baby to pureed foods, it's a fabulous learning curve and I do enjoy it enormously. Today we did butternut squash and apple, and it was a huge success, such fun sitting on the floor in the kitchen doing mmmmmmmm things together.

Not sure why I'm telling you all this, I hadn't meant to talk baby things to you.....what I actually meant to say was LOOK, I finished my round cushion, ta-dah!! Little B made it feel at home earlier by spewing up some pureed apple onto the side of it.

 

Part of my home-school-supermarket-home-cafe-shops-home-school-home schedule today involved an exciting magazine purchase :: Easy Living magazine (June issue) has a free Cath Kidston tote bag which is rather lovely (thanks Ange for the tip off!). It also comes with the CK summer catalogue and 15% off CK purchases until 15th June, in case you're interested. I've been dribbling over this double spread of desirable picnicky/camping things, thinking that Connievan would LOVE some of this prettiness. Floral melamine and spotty tin, very necessary Caravan Kit me thinks. So that's it, I've decided, right here, right now. I'm going to splurge. Yes, I really am!! Not often I splurge on Kit, and Yippety-yay I am majorly excited at the prospect (never ordered online from CK before ever-ever). Wonder what the Hubby will say? I've already told him just now that we'll Have To Have this kettle for Connievan, I think he's pretty happy to indulge me because he knows very well that this is the Stuff Of My Dreams. He's a good man for sure.

Ahhhhhhh lookie there's a picture of my bed! When I catch sight of my bed I just kind of involuntarily sigh with pleasure ((aaahhhhhhhhhhhh)). I love my bed sooooo much. Love climbing in to bed at the end of a busy busy busy day.

Which is precisely where I'm off to Right Now, to rest my weary head.

Night night all xxxxxxxxxxxx

Weekend Review

Right now I'm sitting here writing (wednesday 8pm ish) and I can hear the rain pouring down outside. And it's cold too. It really does feel chilly and very un May like today, which is quite a shock to the system given the delicious weekend we had. Oh the weather in our patch was divine at the weekend! It was so lovely and warm, well no actually it wasn't warm it was hot. Yes, for the very first time this year we had some serious heat from the sun and it was glorious.

We spent the weekend in the midst of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, only about half an hours drive from home, yet it felt like we were very much further away. You can see in the above picture where we stayed :: a picturesque little campsite nestled down in the bottom of the dale, surrounded by big grassy green hills.

 

We spent the weekend away in our little caravan, oh oh oh the JOY!!!! There she is look, our home-from-home, tucked neatly into a grassy corner. The above photo was taken by J early on Sunday morning when he took the Little People climbing up the Big Hill behind the campsite. Yours truly had to stay behind drinking coffee and reading while Little B had his nap. I know, such hardship.

Did I tell you we finally named our caravan? In the end we went with J's suggestion and named her Connie (J was surprisingly very chuffed about this fact). The Little Peeps call her the Connievan, which I think is rather sweet.

We arrived at the campsite around 6pm Friday evening. Such a beeauutiful evening, warm and glowing and green and golden.

A picnic tea of crusty bread and dips, sweet little cherry tomatoes, scotch eggs, crisps, strawberries. Ice cold beer in the glow of the early evening sun. Lean back in the chair, stretch out ones legs, wiggle bare toes in the cool green grass, and reeelax. This is the weekend, and it promises to be good.

Saturday was a heat-soaked lazy day, the best sort of camping day with nothing whatsoever on the agenda other than soaking up the warmth and enjoying the day.

We walked down to the river for a mess about and it was a real delight. We paddled about, searching under rocks for fish, the sort of fish that both J and I remember searching for in the rivers of our respective childhoods. Funny how nostalgic a little fish can become, and how excited they still made us both feel. Paddle paddle, splash, splash then back to the Connievan for ice cream.

I managed to fit in a little bit of outdoor camping hooky on Saturday and it was hugely enjoyable. I sat in my turquoise chair with a glass of cold wine and made a couple more squares for my cotton cushion. All the time I was hooking I had to control the urge to leap about with excitement as the colours of the yarn looked so amazingly beautiful in the sunshine. I took lots of photos similar to the one above, oh dear me, I did get myself into quite a giddy spin over my al fresco hooky time!

I'll be making 16 squares in total for the front of this cushion, and I'm really, really, really loving how it's coming together. I'm getting me some serious thrills working with this yarn!

And just while we're talking yarn things and caravanny things, let me show you my latest purchase.................

 ...........oh dear yes we have another yarn stash in the Attic. To be more precise, it's a big bag of Stylecraft Special DK, 100% acrylic, destined to become the Granny Stripe Caravan Blankie.

Am pretty happy with what I've got, seventeen colours in total, a few of them it has to be said are borderline garish, but I think all in all it's going to work out great. Once I get going with it, I promise I'll write up a tutorial/pattern for the Granny Stripe, I'd love to have some company on my stripy grannified journey if anyone fancies joining me.

Oh yayaaayyyyy for Happy Yarn-infested Days :o)

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Granny Stripes

As you have no doubt gathered by now, my Creative Mind is a very busy busy busy place, it buzzes day and night with creative ideas. It's very messy and chaotic within my Creative Mind (much like my home) which can make it impossible for ideas to break free and come out into the real world. Ooodles of projects are stuck up there, waiting for their time to come. Having a CM like this is simultaneously amazing and frustrating. So much I could do!! So many many ideas!! But how to find the time??

Sometimes though, an idea comes to me as if from nowhere, like a surprise gift being delivered. It won't be anything I've been pondering on or mulling over, it won't be anything I've recently seen, it won't have been sitting in a tangle alongside all the other ideas up there in my CM. No, it'll be something completely unexpected and new. It's quite wonderful when this happens, as it did a few evenings ago.

Yes, a few evenings ago I randomly got to thinking about Granny Stripes. There I was, sitting quietly giving Little B his bedtime feed and I suddenly had this overwhelming vision of a Granny Stripe blanket. Do you know what I mean?? A blanket formed out of little clusters of treble crochet similar in construction to traditional granny squares, excepting the clusters would be worked in rows instead of in the round. So after putting Little B to bed, I immediately ran to get my hook and yarn, I couldn't get to it fast enough. I just HAD to try and make me some Granny Stripes. I thought briefly about searching the www for a pattern but nah, let's just get on with hook and yarn and see if I can work it out for myself. Can't be too hard surely??

Picture above shows my first three attempts. You can fairly see the frustration I experienced as I tried to work out how to begin and end each row without it going all wibbly. But by the third try I think I pretty much had it.

I then wanted to see how it worked in multiple colours (run downstairs to the Scary Cupboard chockablock full of stuff and locate leftover itty bits of Kool Kotton). Above picture shows me playing with it some more, trying out different spacings of the clusters (too far apart in the top pic, just right in the second pic where I omitted the chain spacings). Yes, I think by the time I'd made this fifth sample, it was looking OK. Neatish at the edges, cluster spacing just right. Pheww.

Ok, time to have a little search on Flickr to see if anyone else was doing this sort of thing. It suddenly seemed to me that this pattern will make a Most Excellent blanket, so why was no one else making Granny Stripe Blankies?? I eventually found this lovely blankie oh joy!! Thank heavens I'm not the only mad one thinking of this idea, and it IS do-able then and yes yes, I can see huuuuuuuuge potential for playing with colour here in an easygoing no nonsense way. Up and down, up and down, easy row upon easy row of colourful stripy grannyfied lovliness!!

Searched some more and found this aahhhh, look what happens when you work two rows of the same colour, it goes a little bit zigzaggy!! ooo I LIKE that even more, lets have a little play.....

 

.....what do you think??? Can you picture it all expanded and big and blankety?? Oh I can, I really can, and I think it'll be fanTAbulous. Now then, just need to think about what yarn to use (this is going to be for the Caravan) and I'll be away with it, whipping myself up into a frenzy of Granny Stripes. Can hardly wait :o)

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P.S. Once I get going with this properly I'll write out a tutorial, I'm still tweaking it slightly but am pretty much there with it now I think (thanks to you lovely peeps over at Ravelry for feedback and info on this pattern) xx

PPS check out this Flickr group for more Vintage Stripe lovliness xx

Delights of the day

:: walking along this little pathway under all the gorgeous pink blossom ::

:: a lovely unexpected gift from a friend making me smile ::

:: Little B, slowly learning to use his hands and squealing with excitement ::

:: a teensy bit of hooky sofa time squeezed into a busy day ::

 

:: delighted with these squares, squealing with excitement alongside Little B ::

Hope you've all had a delightful day, and a happy weekend ahead xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yarn Talk

I've been a hooker (!) for two and a half years now, and I still feel like a complete novice a lot of the time especially when it comes to yarn matters. My study in art/textiles mainly focused on fabric and stitch, so when I taught myself to crochet I also had to learn about all things yarn related. I remember standing in a teeny tiny little craft/yarn shop attempting to buy yarn for the first time and being faced with a whole wall of the stuff, it was quite an overwhelming experience. I immediately realised that crochet would be a most excellent way for me to indulge my passion for colour and it was the Colour Thing that I went for first and foremost (of course). I didn't care a jot about fibre content or yarn thickness, I was only interested in the colour playing possibilities. 

The very first yarn I bought to make my very first blanket was a mercerised cotton. It was labelled as a DK weight, and the lady in the shop advised me on which size crochet hook I should be using. I bought a dozen different colours and off I went scooting giddily into my first colourful hooky adventure.

When that blanket was finished I immediately began to plan my next one (the Ripple) and it was only then that I started to think about yarns in terms of their fibre content as well as the colours available. I went to a local yarn shop new to me (I had moved house/area by this time) and I fondled. I spent a long touchy-feely time with every single yarn on the shop shelves :: I pulled them all down one by one and I squished them and I rubbed my face against them and I scrutinsied the labels to learn about fibre content. I still had a huge desire for Good Colours, but I also began to think more about the importance of softness, of snuggleability (is that a word?).

All the yarns I've used so far in my Hooky career have been natural yarns and I can honestly say I've loved them all. From cotton to pure wool to cashmere/merino, they've all been beautiful to work with and have made me some gorgeous blankies. However, just recently I've begun to look for alternatives to the luxurious "designer" yarns that I've become accustomed to, wondering if there might be other types of yarn out there that deliver good colour and snuggleability (that has to be a word) without breaking the bank. Blanket-making yarns that feel good and look good but which are also cost effective.

First up for trial was the yarn in the above picture, called Kool Kotton. I wasn't honestly too sure about buying Kotton that begins with a K, but heyho, I overcame that and went ahead and ordered twelve colours to try out. This isn't pure cotton yarn, but a 50/50 mix of cotton/acrylic, and at £1.30 per 50g ball, it's very economical indeed.

Ordering from the internet has it's advantages and disadvantages. Main advantage is that you get the delicious experience of receiving yarn through the post, like a gift sent from a very special friend. Main disadvantages are that you have to hang around by the front door each day waiting for the yarn-gift to arrive, and that the colours are often badly represented on ones computer screen. I was a tad disappointed with the Kool Kotton kolours when they arrived, they weren't nearly as bright as I'd expected them to be. Quite chalky/muted in fact.

But it's surprisingly nice to work with and becomes soft and drapey when worked up. I decided to make a small cot blanket using the Vintage Vertical Stripe pattern (excellent tutorial for this can be found on the Bella Dia blog here). This is a fast stripe to work cos you hook in the gaps between the stitches :: I found it quite therapeutic zooming up and down in stripy rows using all one stitch cos my mind could wander off a little and the hooking didn't suffer too much when my brain was temporarily elsewhere.

So here's the almost-finished result :: not quite a Ta-dah moment as I still need to work a border around the long sides. I'm also planning on backing it with some soft fleecy fabric to make quite a substantial cot coverlet/quilty type thing.

What do you think of the colours?? I worked them completely at random and despite the chalkiness I do quite like them all together. It seems strange not not to see any orange/yellow brightness in there though, I think a teensy bit of orange or yellow always brings life and zing to a colour scheme and I miss it here.

I used the same yarn to make a cushion cover, I do quite like the results but again I miss the sunshine colours. Not had chance to make this up into a cushion yet either, I kind of got sidetracked by the arrival of the caravan.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh now thats SOOOooooo much better isn't it?????? We have Sunshine in the bag again, yaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my latest yarn experiment, ordered over the internet and very much more successful in terms of colour selection this time...isn't it scrummy? Mmmm mmmm, very delicious indeedy.

This yarn is 100% cotton, priced at £1.50 per 50g ball and is called Rico Creative Cotton. I ordered from first4yarns  who were lovely, I can't recommend them enough.

top row, left to right ::
76 tangerine
74 orange
05 red
13 fuchsia

2nd row
63 light yellow
73 watermelon
11 cardinal
39 royal

3rd row
44 light pistachio
41 pistachio
46 emerald
47 petrol

4th row
45 mint
30 aqua
36 turquoise

 

Its listed as an aran weight yarn which is normally worked on a 5mm hook, but here I'm using a 4mm to give a slightly firmer finish. It's a lovely soft yarn, quite frustratingly splitty it has to be said, but oh-me-oh-my the colours are so damn gorgeous that I am prepared to overlook the splittiness. Oh the colours!!!!!! They make my heart sing tra-lee-lah :o) !!!!!!!

I'm making a cushion cover to start with, I did these first two squares last night and seriously I was hopping from foot to foot and squealing to myself with delight when I saw how beautifully the colours are working together. Very very very exciting stuff for the likes of me. I've also invented a new way of joining-as-you-go by edging the squares in dc (worked between the stitches), I'm really pleased with it actually, I can't wait to see how it begins to look as I add more squares.

So depending on how the cushion cover turns out, I may well use this yarn to make a blanket with. I'm still contemplating acrylic but my heart is quite captivated by this cotton yarn. I think I might be falling for it in a big way. Ooooh Creative Cotton *Mwah*

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Edited to add :: Just a little note about Ravelry...many of you yarn-lovers will already know this, but for those of you who don't, Ravelry is a rather amazing "knit and crochet community". You need to join up to become a member (which is very easy to do) and you can then access all manner of yarn info, patterns, discussions etc and join any number of groups to "chat" about what tickles your fancy. Attic24 has it's own little group going on over at Ravelry, and its FAB!! It's called  "we love Lucy" and you are all more than welcome to come and join. There are over 700 members in the group now and we do a lot of chit-chat over there about crochet and the such like, it's a lot of fun. Just thought it was worth a mention xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Me again....(Thurs aft)....the lovely ladies at First4yarns have been inundated with your orders for the Rico cotton and have sold out!!!! I'm told that they've ordered a load more from their suppliers so it should be back in stock next week if you were wanting it, hope this helps xxx

Caravan Love

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww just L:O:O:K at that cutesome little caravan, doesn't she look sweet sitting quietly in the early morning sun dappled shade??

We had a lovely, lovely time at the weekend, it was a hugely exciting trip for us, our very first outing with our new girl. She did us proud. So well behaved! So warm and cosy and homely! Everything was OK with her, everything worked, nothing went wrong. Pheww, a little quiet sigh of relief there. It was indescribably exciting to pitch up at the caravan site on Saturday afternoon and know that for the next 24 hours this little 14ft x 7ft space would be our home, I was like a Big Kid with a much longed for new toy. Can't tell you how much I enjoyed pottering around inside, trying everything out, getting aquainted, opening  and closing doors, opening and closing the curtains, switching the lights on and off, finding places for all our bits and pieces in the many little cupboards, making up the back-end bed for the Little People to play on, putting the kettle on to make tea, ahhh it was all so much fun! 

The site we stayed on was very grown up, very orderly and well kept. No other children to be found, it was a site full of posh looking modern caravans with big awnings and people of a Certain Age sitting inside watching television. It wasn't quite "us" (think we would be happier in a farmers field) but it was undoubtedly a beautiful site, and we really enjoyed our stay there. Well truthfully I think we would've enjoyed staying absolutely anywhere because the fun was definitely to be found within our four little walls.

On Saturday Little Man was still working his way through the tale-end of his illness (a throaty achey virsusy type thingy) and was also in the process of passing it on to his sister, so we were a little limited with what we could do. We did try a walk in the woods on Saturday evening,  but truthfully neither of the Little People were well enough to go far. They both simply wanted to stay inside the caravan snuggled up in our camping blankets which suited  me just fine. After all, we've walked through Strid Wood dozens of times, but this weekend was all about Caravan Love.

Night time in our cosy little van was great, despite Little Lady waking me up at 1am feeling poorly and with a high temperature (note :: must purchase and make up a little first aid tin for the van). J and I made up our bed at the front of the van, and it was oh so super cosy! He had insisted that we take easy and practical sleeping bags, but I had double-insisted (with authority) that no-no-no we needed an egyption cotton fitted sheet, plumpety-plump goose feather pillows with my lovely designers guild stripy pillowcases on and a duvet. A proper bed for a good nights sleep, none of that annoying zippity stuffy sleeping bag business for us any more. The Little People however seem to get a huge thrill out of sleeping bags, so they were very happy to snuggle down top-to-toe in the bed at the back of the van. And what about Little B?? Well he has his very own baby sleeping bag and went to sleep very happily on the fold out bunk above the Little People, sleeping soundly till 6am.

My favourite part of any camping trip is without a doubt the very first early morning bit. The bit of the day when you first wake with the rising sun, stick your head out of the door/window and take a huge, long, deep, heavenly breathe of Fresh Air. Oh I LOVE that little moment of the day sooooo much! Its a close call though cos my second favouritist part of any camping trip follows closely behind when I'm sitting snuggled up in duvet/blankets with a mug of steaming hot tea in my hands :: absolute bliss.

Early on Sunday morning, I really, really, totally loved those two bits of the day, they filled my heart with joy. But as the day happened to be gorgeous with clear blue skies and sunshine, we didn't sit around in the van for long...as soon as my tea was drunk and Little B fed, I upped and dressed and out for a walk with Little Man.

These photos that I'm showing you were all taken on our early Sunday morning walk, at about 7am or thereabouts. It was absolutely beautiful. B:E:A:U:tiful. The countryside here in North Yorkshire is looking so lush and green now, the trees beginning to wear their fresh new spring green leafy coats. We walked and talked, talked and walked and then headed back for breakfast....

...orange juice and a cafetiere of fresh coffee, with croissants warmed up in the little van oven. Due to the huge messiness of Little People + croissants, we took the van table outside and ate breakfast al fresco, it was lovely! A little chilly perhaps, but lovely all the same.

So that was our first happy trip away in our caravan, and what a success it was.

I have to tell you it's been amazing to read all your comments on my last post, to find you all as excited as I am about this caravan of ours. You've made the whole experience so much more thrilling for me, you've amplified my own feelings and made me unbelievably giddy with excitement (well I can quite easily get giddy on my own, but as I say, you have added to it all a gazillion times over). I was pondering on it over the weekend, pondering the thrill of starting out on a new adventure, building new layers of Family Memories. So precious! So amazingly good to know that we will hopefully be creating some top notch Childhood Memories for our Little People in the coming weeks, months and years. I don't possess any childhood memories of the camping or caravanning variety (although I have so often wished that I did), but it's not too late for me either, I'm pretty damn sure I can still memory-make at the ripe old age of forty one :o)

And then of course there's the other dimension to owning a caravan of this sort :: the Makeover Potential. I dream about our caravan most nights, dream of how she will look once I begin to prettify her up a little. My dreams are multicoloured and hippety-hop-happy I can tell you! It's going to be a gradual process though. For the time being we are keeping our caravan in a storage place about ten miles away which makes getting to her a little more tricksy than if she were parked right outside the front door. And then there's the daily restrictions I have of the babyish kind.....but I will do what I can when I can and I know I'll get there in the end.

Am doing some yarny pondering at the moment too, looking into which yarn will make the best and most practical van blankies....thinking I'll probably step away from my usual (expensive) natural yarns and go for *gasp*shock*horror* an acrylic yarn....ho-dee-ho, how about that then??!! I've been email-chatting with the lovely Helen who I discovered is the lady behind the snailtrail granny blankets, and she tells me she uses Hayfield Bonus for a lot of her blankies. I'm also looking at Stylecraft Special DK which I've found in a local shop. Will most certainly keep you posted on Van Blankie goings on.

And finally, two more things..... firstly I created a little inspirational caravan gallery over at Flickr which you can find here, please feel free to let  me know if you find any more inspiring images on your travels in cyberspace. And secondly, we are still debating a name for our New Girl...so far Little Lady is asking for Flower or Daisy, Little Man has suggested Bob, and J suggested Connie (good lord YES he blew me away when he came up with a name, I was fully expecting him to laugh me into next week over The Naming Of The Van)

Right-oh, I really must go now, I've got Little Lady home from school today and she is pulling at me asking to go ice the buns we baked this morning.....

See you all soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Stuff Of My Dreams

I treated myself to a new book last week after seeing some of the pages reproduced in Coast magazine. I've always had a major passion for any type of thing that can be prettified and turned into a cute little homey hideaway, you know, sheds, summerhouses, beach huts, caravans, camper vans and the such like. Have never owned any of these things mind you (excepting a very small shed full of spiders and dirty underused garden tools), but ooooohhhh I've certainly dreamed long and hard about these sorts of places. I just love-love-love the whole idea of creating a Cosy Happy Place in which one can while away some hours and be surrounded by cosy cuteness. Comfy seats, cushions, blankets, dinky little curtains hanging at dinky little windows etc. And if this Cosy Happy Place happens to be on wheels and can take one away on holiday too, then woohoo so much the better. Yes, this is the Stuff Of My Dreams.

This book really is visually very lovely indeed. The blurb on the back tells you that the book contains "forty stylish caravans of all vintages from across the world. Packed with inspirational photography. Exploring how people refurbish and customise their caravans. A visual voyage into the unexpectedly stylish world of modern caravanning". 

Ooooo Ok, so quite a quirky but very trendy-cool subject then. Cos it's all about style and vintage and being cool, obviously.

But you see, personally I'm not too fussed about the Vintage Credentials or about being Cool or Trendy or Stylish. No, just show me Interior Prettiness please. I want to see dinky curtains and brightly coloured melamine plates......

........pretty tins and lovely cutlery, and oh oh yes some bunting too, and if there could possibly be a blanket or two I would certainly be jigetty-jigging with the pleasure of it all.

 

Ah yes yes yes!!!! Page twenty and I see a crochet GRAnNy BlanKet and I'm oh so happy, doing a jigetty-jig!!!!

Aren't these images just adorable? Heart-skippingly lovely and sweet and the stuff that my Cosy Happy Place dreams are made of. For sure.

Would you like to know more about the delightful vintage caravan on these pages??

 

Here she is....she is called Constance, and is owned by a very nice lady called Lucy (haha, no not me, although I wish). Now Constance is no stranger to me as it happens, I have come across her before in fact, over in Flickrville.

Yes, I have drooooooled over the above image of Constance's interior more times than I can remember.

 

I have swooned over that blanket. And the cushions. Curtains too.

Oh and the bunting, the floor, the Greengate tins, the spotty tray. Yes I have swooned, admired, desired and been inspired by Constance for a long time now. She is the Stuff Of My Dreams.

I emailed Constance's owner last week and told her how much I was in love with her caravan, how the Granny Square blanket made me go weak at the knees. I asked her pretty-please could I share these pictures with you all, cos I wanted to show you the Stuff Of My Dreams. And she very kindly said that Yes I could most certainly bring Constance to Attic24 to show you all.

But that's not all.

No, there's more.

As well as the lovely Constance, Lucy also has a fleet of amazingly adorable VW camper vans that she hires out through her company Snailtrail. Oh my friends, you are going to LOVE these campers so much....take a look at some of the interiors....

 

First up we have Betty, doesn't she have the most beautiful interior?

 

This is Elsie......oh her blankie is so so so yummy in all it's grannified squariness!

 

And this is Flo...oooooooo spots and dots and great big granny squares and mugs of tea with jammy croissants!!!

How FAbUlOus!!!! 

How beautiful and fun and inspiring and heart-skippy these pictures are!!!!!!!

OK, I shall stop exclaiming now, shall calm myself down and talk in a normal voice.

Now then....as you may or may not have guessed by now, this post does in fact have something more behind it other than me just hyperventilating over other peoples caravan/camper interiors.

I shall not beat about the bush....shall tell you without further ado that on the 1st of May we made a New Purchase for our little family here at number 24. Rather a big New Purchase.

Yes, we bought ourselves a Caravan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just an ordinary type of English caravan you understand, nothing cool or trendy or vintage.

But she is ours, all ours, and we are so so so so so so so so excited here at number 24!!!!!!!!!!

She's 18 years old and has been lovingly used by two families (brother and sister) and is now about to become the Stuff Of My Dreams. 

You see at the moment she looks quite ordinary, a little shabby, a little tired.

 

Inside she has some rather dubious carpet and quite a lot of dusky pink and beige going on.

 

But in my Minds Eye I have already given her an Attic24 makeover, I can see her so clearly!! (remember The Chair, remember how clever my Minds Eye is??!) She is going to be made to look beautiful, colourful, cosy, happy, heart-skippy. Yes, I can assure you I've got it all worked out already. Can't wait to get started.

We're taking her out tomorrow, we are spending our first night caravanning at a local site in the woods near Bolton Abbey. I hope it's going to be the first of many, many happy days (and nights) spent holidaying with her, I really do.

Excited??

Ohhhhhhhhhh YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Bobbing By

Hello my lovelies!! Just Bobbing By to wave and say a very quick hello to you all, and to thank you all for continuing to check in on me day after day to see if I'm about. I really appreciate your visits and I am really sorry to have been gone for so long. 

I am absolutely fine and well, all is pretty good here at number24 these days. Well, we do have some horrid germs lurking about right now :: the above feet belong to Little Man who is currently lounging around amongst my blankies feeling sorry for himself. Truth be told he is very rarely ill, but when he does become unwell he tends to do it in style and his temperature soars almost off the scale. I've learnt over the years not to become demented with nervous panic when this happens and to be very on-the-ball with regular paracetamol and nurofen. So we are doing OK today, pottering about, baking (my way of dealing with Sky High Temperature Induced Stress), and hoping the germs will clear off very soon.

And here is Little B, as he looks right this very minute (1.30pm) :: I'm sitting at the dining table typing on my laptop and he is sleeping soundly a few feet away in his little cosy hooky nest. He's 17 weeks old now, and oh-so-cute, really he is an absolute treasure. So smiley, so happy, so so so baby-ish and scrumptious. Edible almost, you know?? Yumyumyum.

Between all three of my Little People I am kept very very busy. My mothering starts each day around 5am when Little B stirs and fifteen long hours later at 8pm it draws to a close as I tuck the Little People up in bed. I then have about an hour to myself before I too begin to yawn and think about heading bedwards. Full days. Happy days. Busy days. Love my job, but goodness me the hours are rather long.

I am still managing to find a little time to hook most days and have some new things to show you very soon. Been trying out some new yarns which has been fun.

We also have some VERY exciting news here at Attic24, a New Purchase no less. Quite a big New Purchase. Oh my, can't wait to show you!!!! Pictures and The Story coming very soon too.

So you see I am still here, still getting excited about tulips, the light on the hills, the length of the days, a new book, new socks, and of course the New Purchase. Huuuuge excitements over the New Purchase, it's seriously heart-skippy stuff for sure.

Hoping to try very hard to find some way of making Blogtime a more regular part of my days.....sure I can shoehorn it in to the day somehow, surely it must be possible???? Somehow????

Wishing you all a happy-happy day, grasp it with both hands and enjoy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx