Attic24

Little Pleasures #2

Little Pleasure #1 :: cooking dinner yesterday and suddenly becoming aware of the late afternoon glow. Rushing up two flights of stairs to the attic to be greeted with the most amazing sky ::

Cost :: £0.00 :: utterly fabulous ::

Little Pleasure #2 :: visiting with good friends this week in our old home place. Wandering around the city and enjoying Street Life at it's most vibrant and colourful ::

Cost :: £0.00 :: such a wonderful few days, enjoying the company and hospitality of lovely people ::

Little Pleasure #3 :: taking a moment in the day to chat and hold hands with my Girl, she delights me every single day, as do my fabulous Boys ::

Cost :: £0.00 :: love love love LOVVVVVVVVVVVVe my family with all my heart, they deliver pleasure by the bucket load ::

♥ wishing you all a fabulous day full of happiness and pleasure with the ones you love ♥

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Little Pleasures

Little Pleasure #1 :: splashing out on a punnet of rather expensive out-of-season strawberries ::

Cost :: £2.50 :: utterly delicious and worth every penny ::

Little Pleasure #2 :: treating myself to a new face cloth when I was away at the weekend ::

Cost :: £4.99 :: love, love, love it, as I love pretty much all Pip Studio stuff ::

Little Pleasure #3 :: two bunches of daffodils bought from the market ::

Cost :: £2 :: the tightly closed buds are now opening and the colour is glorious ::

Little Pleasure #4 :: finding this thrifty top in Oxfam on Friday ::

Cost :: £3.95 :: the colours of these stripes make me deliriously happy ::

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When I first started reading blogs almost four years ago, it was more often than not the small details of other people's lives that I found endlessly fascinating. I just could not get enough of it. I found the simple snapshots of ordinary days and ordinary things incredibly intriguing and inspiring to see. The Little Pleasures of life. Something baked, thrifted, purchased, remembered, crafted, found, loved, appreciated.

Observing how other people chose to celebrate, remember and document these small pleasures through their blogs really inspired me at a time when my life felt very adrift and unsettled. It helped me to re-focus, to zoom in and discover enormous happiness in the Little Things of my own everyday life. That level of appreciation firmly stuck with me and now I cannot imagine living my life any other way. 

A few strawberries, a bunch of inexpensive seasonal blooms, a pretty little bit of fabric (with pom-pom trim!) and a thrifted garment. This week's Little Pleasures, and I feel so lucky to have them!! Yes, I am one happy Mumma!!

Wishing you a week full to the brim of happiness and delight!

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Lakeland in Winter

 

I've been away for the weekend, escaping off to the Cumbrian Lake Disrtict with two good friends for a couple days of Girly Stuff.

As you can see, it was cold! Snow was falling as we set off, but we didn't mind too much. We had gentle persuits in mind :: meandering around shops, idling in tea rooms, some gentle strolling perhaps, nothing that would be scuppered by a little fallen snow.

I had a magical time. Lovely towns, stunning scenery, memorable food, a wonderful night's sleep. A hearty breakfast, more stunning scenery, pretty villages, delightful shops, historical places, welcoming tea rooms. Great company, lots of laughter and chatter. Time to unwind and recharge my batteries. Time to be me. Much needed, much appreciated. I've returned home feeling refreshed and glad to be back to my full-on family life :: nothing like time away to make one appreciate what one has. I feel very blessed.

We're on half term holiday now so the Little People are home from School and J is home for the week too. The weather continues to be bleak and wintery with bittely cold winds and snowy showers. We are cosy indoors today, playing, baking, hooking, reading, generally taking it easy. I'm so glad to be home with my family, I do love them so.

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Tuesday Catch-up

Hello!! Just bobbing in very briefly to send out a wave of {{{Love & Thanks}}} to you all for continuing to visit with me in the Attic. Its such fun to read all you have to say in response to all that I have to say, it's quite the wonderful experience.

I've not been well this past week, just a snotty head cold, but enough to make me droop and wilt and lose the bounce in my step. We are also into week three of Little B having the same poorliness so on top of the germs we are both a bit sleep deprived too. Been trying not to feel sorry for myself, but there have been times in the past few days when I've just wanted to sit down and wail like a baby. Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! Make me better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me Sleeeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't want to cook/wash/change nappies/walk to school!!!!!! Wahhhhwaaaahhhhwaahhhhhh!!!!!! Yes I've been a bit whingey I have to admit.

Feeling a teensy weensy little better today, despite the 4am start, so here's hoping those pesky germs are packing their bags ready to ship out very soon.

Still been managing a little hooky time though. Of course. A flower here, a flower there and slowly but surely I am getting closer to being able to wrap and drape and stride out with them slung about my shoulders. I have to say I was/am blown away by your enthusiasm for this project, wow! The comments on my last post were just super. I've seen lots of new Japanese Flowers already appearing in Blogland this week, you can see some of them in the Attic24 Inspired Flickr group, please do go take a look if you get a mo.

A dash of bright colour has come into the Attic this week to perk things up a bit....my favourite Pretty Potted Primulas (PPP's) are in season again,  yippppeeeeee!!! Cripes they are so cheap to buy in the supermarkets at this time of year :: 59p for the above beauty. Fifty Nine pence!!!!!!!!!! Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Something else new here too, just over to the left of the PPP sitting in the alcove beside the fireplace. It was delivered on Sunday and I've been in raptures over it ever since. Been ages since any new furniture came into number 24. Well it's new to us any road, I think the popular term these days is "Pre Loved". Yes this piece of delightful furniture was pre-loved by someone else and is now the Object Of My Desire. I'll show you more of it when I can take some better pictures, when the rain stops raining down and the sun decides to come out of hiding. It happens to be painted in my Ultimate Favourite Colour of All Time.  Would be interested to know what you'd call this colour, it's actually slightly greener than the above picture. Aqua? Turquoise? Whatever it's name, it is beautiful. Heart skippy without doubt.

And on that happy note I shall love you and leave you for now....got lots and lots of fun things to share with you, my Potential Blog Posts are stacking up! Some new art work, a new crochet book, two other little hooky projects I'm working on at present, a recipe....will try and find time to write more when I am not feeling so droopsy.

Right-o, I really am off now. Off to drink hot lemon and honey, it's my bedtime, see you all soon xx

Edited to add :: Wednesday :: the sun is shining and I'm feeling  a lot better, thank you so much for all your well wishes! I am also THRILLED to hear from you about "Tiffany Blue", yes yes, this is the EXAct colour!!!!! Fancy my Ulitmate Favourite Colour of All Time being so darn posh, I never knew!!!!!

 

 

Japanese Flower Scarf

Today I'm going to share my current hooky love affair with you, but before we launch into all that I just had to show you these beautiful tulips....gorgeous aren't they? They were tightly closed when I first put them in water on Saturday and literally within a few hours the petals had started to unfurl.

Now then, did you spot the soft focus crochet behind the button jug up there? Just lately I've found it easier to do my hooky at the table rather than on the sofa  so I've had the extra pleasure of working right alongside the tulips. The two go together beautifully, it's a double pleasure. And I'm all for finding and enjoying life's little pleasures, as you well know. As a matter of fact I've been having a terrific time with my latest crochet project, I absolutely adore the beginning of a new project, especially when I find myself falling head long in love with it right from the word go. Not all my crochet projects happen this way. Quite often I remain uncertain of my feelings for a good long while and sometimes it's not till right at the end that I really get to fall in love. But not so this project. This project was kind of like CA-POW! Instantaneous L:O:V:E.

So do you want to know what exactly I'm going on about?? Let me tell you the story.........

It all started with the yarn and it really was love at first sight. This is Debbie Bliss "Andes" which is a very luxurious blend of baby alpaca and mulberry silk. I came across it last autumn in my local yarn shop, the hanks were all piled into a basket inviting you to pick them up and stroke them, and really truthfully, therein lies it's charm. It's the softest, most snugglesome yarn I've ever come across. Its unbelievably soft and it feels amazing to have it next to your skin.

And then there're the colours. They are just b-e-a-utiful. Kind of intense but soft, rich but subtle, bright but gentle at the same time. The yarn has an incredible lustre which makes the colours seem to glow in real life, the above photo maybe doesn't do it justice. I chose nine colours in total, surprising myself by including that neutral colour in the centre (I know! Neutral!! Me choosing neutral and actually loving it!!) So....this is a link to my LYS where I purchased the yarn, and these are the colours, going from left to right ::

08 ruby  15  fuschia 07 coral  06 gold  05 camel  10  apple  09 sage  12 denim  11 tea green

So I met the yarn in October last year, but could not at the time justify the expense of it and sadly had to walk away. But I could not get it out of my head. It became the Stuff of My Dreams. I really, really, reeeeeeeeeeally wanted it. Badly. A few months passed. Christmas came and went and still I dreamt of getting my hands on that gorgeous Andes.

30th December and I decided that I could stand it no longer and I was going to Go And Get It No Matter What. So off I trotted to my LYS and I had a heart skippy time scooping up those hanks and Making Them Mine.

In my mind I had already formulated a loose plan for my Andes :: I  imagined it worked up into something breathtaking to drape around my neck and shoulders. A scarf perhaps? A wrap? Shawl? Stole? Something generous in proportions, something utterly scrummy to drape about my person. I searched. I searched and searched for a suitable pattern/idea/snippet of inspiration. I put the word out on my Ravelry group and we discussed various ideas and options, but nothing truly seemed worthy of my beloved Andes.

Several weeks passed by and still I was waiting and wishing for inspiration to present itself. Then two weeks ago I received a comment on my blog with a possible pattern suggestion {Bernadette, I will be forever grateful}. This is where it took me.............................

..........to France, to this beautiful blog and then onwards to a wonderful, stunning creation made by a very talented French lady.

Wow!!! Oh WOWOWOWOWWWWW!!! I was totally and utterly smitten, love at first sight (again). It seemed that it was indeed the pattern of my dreams. Now my comprehension of French is a little bit sketchy, but I did manage to fathom that the original pattern came from a Japanese crochet book, and oh boy, I know all about the temptations found in those amazing little books. I eagerly followed all the links on arbrealaine's blog, discovering a written (French) pattern, plus a copy of the original Japanese diagram-pattern. There were also lots and lots of "ici" links taking me to lots of other wonderful french Blogettes who had all given this pattern a go. Take a look at this one.....

The above picture is the same pattern, but this time made by a super-talented French lady called Marie. You can see more on her blog L'atelier de Marie. Beautiful isn't it?? If you've got a spare moment, do go take a look at Marie's other crochet projects, she's made some very inspirational granny-square garments which I love.

Well as you can imagine, I was in quite a giddy lather by this point, I was soooo excited by what I'd found and couldn't wait to start. I used the diagram pattern found here and gave it a whirl with Stylecraft yarn to try it out.

I was so so so so happy with the way it turned out! And I figured that if the flower looked this good in the Stylecraft, then it would be simply amAzing in the Andes.

Now as I said, the pattern is out there in French Blogland and I guess you and I are at liberty to use it if we wish. However, I felt that I would rather have a copy of the actual real pattern, plus I knew as soon as I saw the front cover of the book that it would be a good'n to have. I went to my favourite Etsy seller Pomadour24 and of course the book was there....it's called "Motif Book Vol 4". And truly, it's gorgeous. Scrummy. Yummy-scrummy.

There's the Flower Scarf/Stole/Wrap thingy look....

....it seems odd seeing it in neutrals! I'm not sure if I would've been so tempted by it had I not seen it transformed with the use of colour {French Crochet Ladies, I will be forever grateful for your colour inspiration}

The Debbie Bliss Andes is a DK weight yarn which would normally be worked on a 4mm hook. However, it's quite a fine yarn and after a few little experiments with it I decided to switch down to  a 3mm hook for this project. The resulting flowers are still a satisfying size mind you, and they are surprisingly easy and speedy to work up. They are really great to make.

They are also joined-as-you-go (yiippppeeeeeee!!!) so no fiddlesome joining procedures to endure. This really is turning out to be the perfect project you know. Blissful yarn, stunning pattern, easy making process, and (hopefully) an amazing end product. What's not to love?!

So this is where I'm up to with it at the moment...the scarf/stole/wrap thingy is a trapezium shape (well J tells me that's the word, blame him if it's wrong), four flowers deep. I'll be working out to the sides on the above picture until I get to the length I want  :: the original design doesn't seem very long so I'll just keep going until it looks right or I run out of yarn. Hopefully not the latter.

Right-o, I need to go drink tea and smoosh my scarf/stole/wrap thingy before I go to bed, so I shall love you and leave you for now.

Well done for getting to the end of such a long-winded load of blurb, gawd, I do go on a bit don't I? Hope I didn't bore you too much. Thank you. Mwah. xxxxxxxxxxx

Edited to add :: After a great deal of discussion and debate re the tricksy issues of Copyright, I'm really sorry to say that I can't share this flower pattern with you or make a turorial for it either. I have to respect the law, the book publishers and the talented Japanese designer. Catherine, who published the pattern and French translation on her blog has also arrived at the same conclusion and felt it necessary to remove her post which I linked to above. I'm sure you all understand. Of course, it is still available in the beautiful book! I'm also working on a tutorial to aid the deciphering of the Japanese style charts/diagrams with the hope of helping those that feel phased by them. More coming soon xx

 

 

February 2011

Wouldn't it be fabulous if you could put your nose close to your computer screen and take a deep long sniff of the above picture??? Well I suppose you could sniff your screen if you wanted to but sadly you wouldn't be able to actually inhale the amazing scent. That is my little personal luxury and it really is amazing, take my word for it.

Actually, I don't need to go anywhere near these flowers to get a whiff of them, their scent fills the whole room. Open the door, walk in, breathe in, ahhhh happy, happy, happy! I don't think I would ever go without hyacinths now, I will have them in my life year after year after year for as long as I live. I know lots of you feel the same and I've been enjoying yours too here and here and here...marvellous little things aren't they?? I usually pick mine up from the supermarket, a pot of three bulbs for £2 or so, and they never fail to deliver. Wonderful.

Anyhow, hyacinths aside, lets talk monthly things shall we? January has been and gone, and already I'm loving that it's February. Cos February contains hearts and pancakes, both of which I am quite potty about. My calendar pages for February are lovely...hearts and lovey-dovey things....

....and pretty utilitarian things. Smashing. Gosh I would love a utility room. Seriously I would. I don't do an awful lot of ironing, but I love the idea of having somewhere pretty and orderly and purposeful to do it in (I actually iron on my bed, which is far from ideal). I'm really looking forward to getting my laundry flapping outside on the line again too, it seems like an age since I last pegged out. As you probably know I am not a very good housekeeper, my methods are very sporadic and slapdash. But I do take a pleasure in getting our clothes clean and dry and I love folding and stacking clean laundry, especially when it's been line dried outdoors. I do a lot of sniffing when I fold and stack laundry. I use eco products to clean our clothes and as they're not overly scented they leave the fabric smelling clean and natural. Mmmmm laundry sniffing :: another one of my secret little pleasures revealed!

February so far has been veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery breezy and very changeable here in my patch. Scudding clouds, gusty winds, at times incredibly wet and stormy, at other times surprisingly sunny and lovely. I took the above photo from the attic window on 1st february around 4pm in the afternoon. The light and colours of the landscape were so lovely that day, very soft and pretty for wintertime I thought.

February is still very much a winter month, and indoor activities are firmly on the agenda. Lots of baking, indoor games, cosy fireside pursuits and reading. The Little People both requested some new reading matter last week and so we treated them to their very own Amazon order. They were SO excited about the idea of having their very own books sent to them through the post, the anticipation was huge. It was very sweet. The parcel arrived yesterday morning, and it was a delight watching them open it together (hooozah, no squabbling over it either which was a minor miracle!) I would love to boast about them being avid little readers, but truthfully neither of them really are. So yes, it was wonderful yesterday to observe them curled up on the sofas amongst crochet cushions and blankies, noses in their books and seemingly enjoying the experience.

Postal delights all round yesterday cos there was also a sturdy flat package that arrived for me, all the way from the other side of the world. The excitement of the Little People over their package was quite huge, but mine was even Huge-er I can tell you!! My purchase came beautifully wrapped in an old map of Australia secured with blue and white string and a paper crane.....oh my, the LP were mega impressed by the paper crane, they could not believe their little eyes. I'm afraid you will have to wait to see what was contained inside the mappage, I'm saving that for another post. It'll be worth the wait I promise.

I've also been occupied with reading these past few days, curled up with blankets and busying myself inside the pages of my favourite magazines. I've had fun! Just had to share the above image with you, gosh my heart went whhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee when I turned onto that page!! It shows the interior of a shop (a strong candidate for The Shop Of My Dreams) called Home Sweet Home, absolutely wonderful. I would love to go there some day, I think I'd make myself right at home beside that fabulous rack of ribbons and refuse to leave.

My blankets are receiving a lot of use and appreciation at the moment, stormy February weather is just made for snuggling. I wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU for all your wonderful comments about my sweet flower granny, I've had a fantastic time reading them all (and yes I promise you I read every single word of every comment, I really do). You are so generous with your words, I appreciate it very very much, thank you.

I have already gleefully moved on to my next project, oh yes. Already flying with it and having an amazing hooky time with myself. I wound my new alpaca/silk yarn into balls just over a week ago and have been busy with it ever since, I am so excited to show you what I'm doing.......

......there look, a sneaky peek before I go, more coming very soon I promise.

And on that warm and woolly note, I shall love you and leave you for now, I'm off to light the fire, make a cup of tea and settle down for a spot of Sunday afternoon hooky. Bliss.

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Sweet Flower Granny Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Hello my lovelies, thanks as always for taking time to call in and see me, so happy to have you here. As you can see, we're ta-dah-ing today and I am so happy, it feels to me like this moment has been such a long time coming it really does. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's spanned across the turn of the year, you know? It makes it seem so long ago when I think about it starting way back Last Year. July to be precise, so six months ago. Half a year to make a modest size blanket, talk about slow progress.

The thing with this sweet little blanket is that it did in fact turn out to be very fiddlesome and time consuming. The centres of each square are made up of small picot flowers with little loopy leaves worked into the back of them. Darning in the ends was a 'mare. So many ends! Fiddle faff fiddle!

This was where I was up to at the end of August. When I first started out with this blanket I  intended doing all the squares the same size. But in the early stages when I was kind of making up the middles first before adding the extra rounds, I got a glimpse of small-next-to-big and immediately liked the look of it. So this is how it ended up, it was all very organic/unplanned really.

Slowly, slowly, the blanket began to grow. Through September......

 
....and on into October. I fiddle-faffed with the sweet little flowers. I cussed the ends. I fretted over my random colour choices which often seemed very iffy. Yet despite these irritations, I began to love this little blanket more and more as it grew.

November saw me put a real spurt into it and I think this is when I really fell in love with it. I found myself doing less cussing and fiddle-faffing and more ooohing and ahhhhing. I began to enjoy the quirky colour combos that were happening. And I had this feeling that the bigger it grew, the better it would be.

The sweet flowers pretty much hibernated throughout December as I pushed them aside to make way for snowflakes and stars and the such like. But once Christmas was over, I couldn't wait to get stuck in again. Truthfully, I was already mentally stacking up my future projects and I wanted this little blanket done and dusted to make way for new things.

Coming to the end of a blanket in the depths of winter has distinct advantages. I really loved sitting by the fireside with this pretty heap draped over me, hooking myself into a state of warm, cosy bliss. When the above photo was taken a few weeks ago, I remember I only had ten more squares left to make.  I was visualising The Edge in my immediate future, and oh my, I was soooooo looking forward to being on The Edge of this blanket! No more itty bitty flowers! no more fiddly-faffy ends to darn!! just row upon row of stripy, hooky happiness!!

The above photo was taken in very early January, when all the squares were finally complete. Little Lady and I counted them :: 82 small squares, 12 big squares, 94 altogether.

I was pleased with the way the squares had worked out, although I found it quite "busy" to look at. But I also knew that I would be adding quite a deep border around the squares, and that the border would probably help to balance it out. Well that was my hope anyhow.

The Edge is worked in granny rows, working two rows of each colour to match with the Granny Stripe. For the first time I tried out a method for a "crinkle free Granny Square border" and it worked amazingly well, I can definitely recommend it. Gosh i really did enjoy working round The Edge of this blanket, it was like the granny stripe all over again. So soothing and easy and rhythmic compared to those pesky sweet flower squares!

The Edge-of-the-edge ( AKA the pink pointy bits) is the same as the Granny Stripe. It's an easy little picot/scallop thingy, as follows..

First work a row of UK double crochet. Then with the right side facing, and in the BACK LOOPS only **work 3 slip stitches, then in the next stitch work the following :: (dc, ch 2, dc)**

Repeat between **
Remember when I say dc, this is UK terms (hook into stitch, yarn over, hook back through stitch (2 loops on hook), yarn over, draw through 2 loops). Tis very easy and very effective I think.

So this is how the border ended up :: seven double rows of granny clusters. One row of UK trebles, one row of UK double crochet, one row of UK trebles, then finally a row of UK double crochet followed by the Pink Pointy Bits.

Gosh I've had  a job photographing this blanket, I took oodles of pics over a number of days trying very hard to capture the true colours. Not easy given the appauling weather and low light levels in my patch of late, but I think I got pretty close in the end.

Ahhh this is my favourite photo of all I think. The blanket looks so, so, so......well, so beautifully blankety in this picture! So drapey and sure of it's blankety goodness!

Oh how I love making blankets (can you tell?!) I love every single part of the process.

I love the planning, the yarn-buying, the beginning, the middle, the end-of-the-middle, the edge, the edge-of-the-edge and finally the completion.

The Completion could possibly be my favourite part, although oooo I do like the beginning of the middle, yes. And the edge-of-the-edge of course.

But when the last stitch comes off the hook and the last thread is darned in and Completion is declared, well that moment is hard to beat.

It is bright this blanket, yes it is. 22 different colours of Stylecraft Special DK in total, all chosen at random as I went along.

It's quite a full-on kind of a blanket.

Remember that I made it to go in our caravan, so I wanted it to be fun and frivolous and happy and holidayish.

Which I do think it is.

Anyhoooooooooooooo, I am rambling. So I shall stop myself right there and proceed forthwith with the Ta-dah.........................................................................................................................

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

In all it's glory, there it is.

My sweet flower granny blanket.

It was a fun journey, but truthfully I was more than happy to reach The Completion stage with this one. For a smallish blanket, it was a lot of work.

But oh-oh-oh, just look how pretty it is!! And look how well it sits next to the Stripe!

Awwwww these two blankets were made for each other and they really do look beautiful together, don't they? I can't wait for the Spring to come so that Connievan can be swung out of her winter sleep and prettified with these two hooky lovelies.

So :: you know the score by now....it's time to talk Riveting Facts!

Yarn :: 22 colours of Stylecraft Special DK, worked on a 4mm hook.

Measures :: 110 x 150 cm (actually I've lost my tape measure, but it's roughly the same dimensions as the G-stripe)

Squares :: 94 (12 big and 82 small)

Balls :: approx 10 x 100g

Weight :: 960g

Cost :: bargainous

Photo :: my usual sofa/blanket self portrait

Blanket :: scrumdiddlyumptious

Me :: happy, yaaaayyyy ☺

You :: wonderful, thank you ♥

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