Attic24

Knitty Business

A month or so ago, Little Lady came home from school with a book she'd chosen from the school library. It was called "Made By Me" by Jane Bull, an author we already know and love. She was very excited by this book and spent day after day reading it cover to cover. She took it to bed with her. She made notes from it. And finally she declared that she really, really, really wanted to learn to knit. More than anything in the whole wide world, she wished to knit.

Truthfully I was not too keen on the idea of attempting to assist her with knitting. Knitting is quite a long way out of my creative comfort zone. I'm not very experienced with the sticks. Hooks yes. But sticks? Uh-uh. Well that's to say that I can knit, and indeed I used to knit a lot as a teenager. I used to knit myself gloves and jumpers and although I cannot quite believe it now, I once knit a cardigan for myself with a cable running up the front. A cable!!! Me doing cabley things with knit sticks, it seems incredible!

Now as well as knitting, this book also covers embroidery and sewing and has some really sweet projects in it.

The sewing pages are a true delight :: beautifully presented and very inspiring.

I loved almost every one of the sewing ideas and would have been thrilled if LL had chosen one of them to have a go at. In fact I even tried to persuade her in this direction by buying her a small bundle of coloured felt squares from a local shop. I enthused a lot about the pretty things she could sew for herself. But to no avail. It was knitting that she had really, really, really set her heart on.

Her desire to learn and her wonderful enthusiasm won me over in the end, and I made her a promise that I would help her learn to knit.

I managed to find some small childs knitting needles in a local shop, and we were all set. We would start out making a small knitted purse, just like the ones on page fifty six. The book has some very good step by step instructions and photographs to explain it all, and without too much trouble we learnt to cast on. When it came to the business of actually knitting I found that amazingly I still remembered how to do it. So between the book and myself, Little Lady was taught the basics. She is a fast learner, and before long she was confident enough to do it without my help.

We spent a truly fabulous morning together :: it was half term holiday and J had taken the boys out for the day leaving us girls at home to do girly yarny stuff together. I was working on The Secret Project (no word yet on when I'll be able to ta-dah that with you, am still waiting for News), and Little Lady was fulfilling her Greatest Wish. I wish you could have seen her, heard her, witnessed the pure joy as her little bit of knitting grew and grew. She kept saying over and over that she couldn't belieeeeeeeeeeeeeeve she was Actually Knitting. I was completely thrilled for her. And I was perilously close to tears...you know how some moments in life seem to become unexpectedly MonuMENtal, even though in essence they are so little? This was one of those big little moments.

Little Lady and her knitting were inseparable for a while. She did it last thing at night and first thing in the morning. She took it with her everywhere and she worked row after row of pretty good knitty. I hoicked back a dropped stitch from time to time, and sorted out some mysterious extra stitches that appeared, but mostly she just managed to do it without help and I felt so proud of her!

Over the past month or so, she worked steadily away at it and we kept on measuring as it grew. It began to get very exciting as she neared the end. Then on Saturday afternoon, she sat on the sofa and declared she would knit four more rows and then it would be Ready To Stitch.

The stitching up of the purse was fun, and she did most of it herself. She stitched on a button, then made a little "finger crochet chain" to form the button loop, then whhhoooooooped with delight when she realised she'd finally finished!!

It was FAB!!!

The little purse is well loved and well used, it's been much showed-off and much admired. And it's the perfect size for holding her lip gloss. Cool.

So that's the story of how Little Lady learnt to knit age six and three quarters.

She's already started her next project (a little blue owl, a present for Daddy to brighten up his work desk).

One FO and a WiP already on the go, that's my girl ♥

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 Edited to add :: a note from Little Lady............

a big thank you for all of your lovley comments, and i realy apreasheat all your lovely thauts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOP TIP!be confident about your work and it turns out lovley,i am really exited about my owl

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Childish Things

I've been enjoying a spot of Mail Order shopping. You know how it is. You get an idea in your head that there's a little something you simply must search for. You go to Ebay. You search. You find. You watch. You get way too over excited. You bid. You wait and watch some more. Bid again. Wait and watch. Mounting excitement. More waiting and watching. And then YES yesssssssssss!!! You win the bid!!!! Punch the air! Run to friends house and tell her you won the bid! It's too exciting for words!!!!!

Bet you cannot WAIT to see what I bought, what got me so over excited. Shall I tell you? The post title perhaps gives it away. Yes my lovelies, I bought Children.

Do you wish to see my new Mail Order Children?

Here they are then.................

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww five girls, aren't they adorable??

They are of cousre Playmobil, and I have a slight obsession going on over all things Playmobil. Specifically the Female variety of Playmobil actually, oh and animals too. I'm not too fussed over the Manly Playmobil, no, it's the sweet little pretty little feminine toys that really melt my heart.

I just lovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelovelove these girls!!

I bought them from a cute ebay seller called "Littlebricks", they sell little bits of lego and Playmobil in case you ever have need of such things.

Aren't they just delightful?

Yes. Well. It didn't end there. I carried on searching, couldn't help myself. Kept looking. Kept finding. The Little People became involved in my searching activities and they got caught up in my Playmobil obsession. I got egged on from the sidelines, I had to be very strong and very selective cos we could have spent rather a lot of money on all manner of Playmobil items. I had to turn down the Veterinary Surgery. Ditto the Farm Set. But I simply could not let go of The Playmobil Lady And Little Girl With Bike. I went through days of watching/waiting/bidding anxiety. Placed my winning bid with a mere twenty five seconds to spare. And this is what became mine for a mere £3.21..............

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! The cutest little collection of coloured plastic that you ever did see became mine! The basket of veggies!!! the sweet bunch of flowers! The market bag contaning a bottle and a fish!! And a scruffy little Playmobil dog! Too much. I just love them too much. I fear I am very abnormal. I am a child trapped inside a grown up body.

So, I now own my very own Playmobil, and much as I had to instruct the LP about the Mummy Marbles, I had to lay down the same law about the Mummy Plastic People. Only it did NOT sink in. The Playmobil lasted on my mantel for less than a day, then mysteriously went walk about. Little Lady of course................

............she whisked the girls/lady/dog up to her bedroom and introduced them to the world of caravanning. And I didn't have the heart to whisk them back again because it all looked so good.

Here we can see inside the caravan, isn't it super? The food is mainly from her collection of Sylvanian Family toys (the bread courtesy of the Watermilll Bakery), and the little wooden table and chairs actually belonged to me, they were part of a dolls house set that I had more than 30 years ago.

Sweeet, sweet, sweet.

The teeny tiny cutlery in the basket there also miraculously survived from my childhood dolls house, which is quite incredible really. The food is a mixture of Playmobil and Sylvanian.

This caravan was top of Little Lady's wish list for Christmas 2009 and has been fabulous, providing endless hours of imaginative play.

Talking of caravans, we went to visit Connievan at the weekend to check that she had come through the winter with no mishaps. There is a small issue with the water heater and a broken door handle, but other than that she is fine and dandy. I took down all the curtains and brought them home ready for a bit of a revamp in the near future. I am incredibly excited about ordering fabric and trim and getting busy with some serious prettifying.

My world maybe childish and abnormal, but boy am I happy in it ♥

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Hearts and Twigs

Awwwwwwww teeny tiny little hooky hearts, so cute you gotta love 'em! I've made dozens of these hearts in the past week or so, I think I've developed a slight addiction to be honest. The thing is that they are so quick and easy to make, it's near impossible to make just a few. You start out with just a few but before you know it you've made a small stack, then a handful, then a whole heap. They multiply in front of your very eyes.

They are very dinky look...I made mine using Rowan handknit cotton DK and a 4mm hook, and they came out measuring about 4cm across and 4.5cm from top to bottom. So cute, did I say that already?? That they are sooooooooooooo unbelievably cute??! Gosh I wish I didn't have such wrinkly palms, they are most definitely not cute. Ok, moving swiftly on.......

........I've had a play with little crochet hearts a few times in the past...you may remember this one from way back last year? I did like that little pattern (original source can be found here), but it was actually fairly complex for such a small thing. Anyhow, jigetty-jig, a short while ago I was enjoying a fabulously inspiring browse through the Attic24 Inspired group pool on Flickr, when I came across this lovely creation by Meme Rose. Ahhhhhhh how sweet!! A combination of  the Japanese Flower motif and some cutesy little itty-bitty hearts, I really loved the simplicity of the idea, and those hearts, oh I really had a huge immediate crush on those hearts!

So off I trotted to find out more at Meme Rose blog, and discovered a lovely happy place where lots of happy hooky happens. Just my kind of place, I felt right at home. And wonderful news, the little heart pattern was waiting there look!! Hooray!!! I started straight away on the pattern, I couldn't wait to get a feel for it and to see how the heart shape would work out. Then I did what I often do with patterns and had a play with it. Tweaked it a little, altered the shape slightly, made the pointy end a little more defined.

I chatted via email with Mrs Meme Rose and let her know that I was twiddling with her itsy-bitsy heart pattern and that I really hoped she didn't mind my twiddlesome ways. She said she didn't mind at all. I asked if it would be ok to write up the pattern of my twiddled version of her hearts and share it with you here, and she said that was also ok, so we are all ok, ok? Meme Rose's heart pattern provided me with an excellent starting point, and I am very grateful to her for allowing me to do my thing and share it with you.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cutesy, dinky, sweet little teeny-tiny itsy-bitsy hooky hearts!!! In lots of beautiful colours!! Yippeeeee, they make me so happy!

I think you'll agree that these little hearts could be used for all manner of decorative endeavours. I just LOVE the way that Meme Rose used them to make vertical hanging decs (have already begun working my own take on that idea, more soon...). But they could be used for all sorts couldn't they?

And as you might expect, as soon as I started making these last week I had a gem of an idea brewing in the Tangled RicRac mess that is my Creative Mind.

I knew exactly what I was going to do with a pretty heap of teeny tiny hearts.

And my idea involved Twigs.

Some of you may well recall that I have a bit of a thing about crafting with twigs. Remember The Twig Project, AKA The Damned Hardest Project Ever Invented???

What the devil is it about bare twigs that I find so irresistible? I don't think I shall ever know. But one day last week I found myself pushing Little B through the park in has pushchair looking for suitable Twiggy Material for this idea of mine.

This idea that would combine bare twigs with hooky hearts.

Want to see how it turned out?

Ok then, lets have an impromptu little Ta-dah moment shall we?

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

A twiggy heart tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was it what you expected? Do you like my idea??

I have to confess I just ADORE it. Loveit, loveit loveit. I had a very, very happy time on Friday setting it all up...I cleared off the rather disgracefully messy mantel (lots of rubbish and misc. objects), cleaned it (the dust on there was erm...exceptional) and rearranged it all. Then my jug of twigs was placed bang in the centre and on went the hooky hearts. I can't tell you what fun it was, although really it doesn't take much to keep me happy.

Interestingly, once the idea for this little creative twiggy project had materialised in my mind a week or two ago, I then came across several similar twiggy ideas on the internet. Not hearts mind you, but crochet leaves....you can have a look here and here, both lovely aren't they? It's such a simple idea but so quick, easy and very effective.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, sweet. Yummy. So easy to make too, a very simple pattern.

Think you'd like the pattern?? Think you'd like to churn out your own stack/pile/heap of dinky hearts and hang them around the place?

Why of course you can have it....I've already skipped one step ahead of you and it's a-done and a-dusted. Just for you, my lovelies, the heart pattern is all yours. Usual place in my left hand sidebar, the pattern is called "Teeny Tiny Hearts".

Go on! Go make some. I know you'll love'em.

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Delights of the Day

Delight #1 :: the colour of the sky.

It's been a gloriously sunny day here today, still very cold though  but cold is good, cos cold means I get to wear my scarf. Big smiley face.

Delight #2 :: my window crystals making rainbows on the carpet.

Little B was fascinated by them, he spent ages trying to pick them up (aawwww)

Delight #3 :: a jug of very pretty daffies on the mantle.

These lovely flowers were £2 from the supermarket, they are heavily scented and smell beautiful.

Delight #4 :: grape hyacinths in flower.

Remember the broken jug I planted with muscari bulbs? They are now in bloom on the windowsill, the flowers are very delicate and sweet and endearing, I love them.

Delight #5 :: mini party rings.

Discovering these in the supermarket today, I couldn't resist buying them as a treat for the Little People. Do biscuits come any cuter than these do you think?

Delight #6 :: Girly buns.

I made these yesterday and enjoyed one this afternoon with a cup of tea. I think I will sprinkle edible "disco glitter" on every item I bake from now on.

Delight #7 :: playing with Little B.

Taking it in turns to do "round and round the garden" with each other, it was a truly magic little moment of my day.

Delight #8 :: admiring my teeny hooky hearts.

These are the product of yesterdays knit-and-natter at the cafe. I've got a pretty springtime project in mind which I'll be sharing next week along with the heart pattern.

Delight #9 :: Little B enjoying a bookish moment.

I walked in the room to find LB sitting quietly in his very own corner where he keeps his books. There's a small antique footstool there which he perches on when he wants to look at his books,  it's always very lovely to witness.

Delight #10 :: ice cold rose wine.

I enjoyed a sneaky little tot of wine in the kitchen whilst I prepared dinner (warm chicken and noodle salad).

Delight #11 :: watching the moon rise.

A beautiful, bright full moon in the sky tonight, rising up over the hills and town.

Delight #12 :: cosy fireside evening.

A clear sky and a chill in the air, it's a nippy cold night tonight. Came down just now from putting Little B to bed and sorting out laundry to find that J had lit the fire. Lovely! Am about to go and make toast and jam and mugs of warm milk for the Little People and settle myself down for a cosy evening.

I've enjoyed a beautifully simple, ordinary, delightful day today. I feel so blessed and I am truly thankful for all that I have. Hope you also found some little delights in your day to make your heart glad ♥

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Japanese Flower Scarf :: Ta-dah!

Looking at the above picture I suddenly feel quite sad! Sad because that beautiful pale blue flower in progress there was the very last flower I made...I was at that delicious point where I was about to witness a WiP becoming a FO. That's a Work-in-Progress becoming a Finished Object. Delicious yes, but sad too :: awwwwwww no more flowers to make!! The most delectable of projects is over and done with, boohoo!!! I can see now why many of these scarves have gone on to become large wraps or blankets. The urge to keep making more and more flowers is quite hard to resist. I am already planning my next flower scarf in a light weight yarn of some sorts for spring/summer wear.

Anyhow, gosh, there I go, off on quite a ramble in my very first paragraph, I do apologise! What I should be saying is Hello, and Welcome to my Japanese Flower Scarf Ta-dah!!!!!! Very glad to have you here to share this with me, I am unbelievably excited about this particular ta-dah moment.

I have totally LOVED working on this project (can you tell?!). It's been a wonderful experience and everything about it has been wowsy. If you've not already seen it, you can read my post here which details the beginning of this project including yarn info and links to the inspiration, pattern etc.

The yarn (Debbie Bliss "Andes") has proven a total dream to work with, I can't rate it highly enough. Everyone who has seen me working this scarf has involuntarily reached out to touch and stroke the yarn, it's absolutely beautiful and completely irresistible. You can't look at it without wanting to touch it.

I used 9 colours/skeins in total and as you can see I only have a teeny handful left. I was working the colours totally at random and joining-on-the-go, so I did have to pay very careful attention to the placement of them. I managed pretty well I think, spacing them all out fairly evenly and using roughly the same amount of each colour throughout.

The above photo was taken before I blocked the scarf out. The flowers did end up a little bit scrunched, with curly-up petals and tight middles and although they probably would have been fine just as they were, I knew that blocking would improve them a lot.

I get asked a lot of questions about the process of blocking actually. Is it necessary? Does it work? How do I do it? Do I block individual motifs/shapes or block the finished article? The answers vary, depending on the yarn used (you can only block natural fibres), the type of project and the size of the project. Generally speaking, if I'm making something that employs the join-as-you-go method, it's not actually possible to block individual motifs/shapes and often I won't bother to block the finished article either. But sometimes I finish making something and it looks so disappointingly wobbly/scrunched/dreadful that I know it will have to go through the blocking treatment. But believe me, it is SO worth the effort and the extra day's wait for the finished article.

My blocking method is very simple and involves a towel, some pins, a spray bottle (this kind of thing), and the attic floor. I pin directly through the towel and into the carpet as you can see above. Starting in the middle, working outwards to the edge. Gently stretching and easing the crochet into shape. With this scarf, I started pinning outwards from the middle flowers, then pinned every petal around the edge. Once the edge was pinned thoroughly though, I found I could remove all the pins in the middle, I only needed them to start out. Tepid water in the mister, and a generous spray all over. The article needs to be evenly wet but not drenched. Then you stand back and force yourself to leave well alone for at least 24hours, and believe me, that last bit's not at all easy! But it does need to be completely, thoroughly dry before you remove the pins.

Then comes a  most magical moment.

I've removed all the pins, and there it lays, all dry and perfectly shaped and stretched and taught.

 I really want to scoop it up and check out it's perfectly beautiful new drape and shape, yet at the same time I am happy to sit and admire it all laid out.

I hold my breath.

I ease a little bit of it up off the towel.

It sits all taut and shaped and stretched in my hand.

And I think phhheewwwweeeee, the blocking has worked as I knew it would, it's safe to lift up the rest.

I breathe out.

And inwardly my heart is singing and I'm thinking "It's finished! I did it! It's finished!! And I LOVE it!!!!"

Magical.

With this scarf, I spent rather a long time prancing about with it in front of the mirror before I decided to lay it out again and photograph it. It's not often I create wearable hooky and it was quite an experience! I mean, I do always kind of "wear" my blankets about my shoulders when I've first finished them, but the Trying On Of The Scarf was extra special.

So.

You know what's coming, right?

Are you ready?

Ready for the reveal??

Here

it

is

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

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh isn't it just????????? Just????? Well, just deeeeelightful!!!!! In every way.

I am of course totally thrilled with it.

Worked in four long rows, I made 46 flowers altogether.

It's quite a substantial and generous wrap.

It's soft and drapey and luxurious and colourful and joyous. Warm too, oh my goodness me, it is soooooooo warm. The alpaca/silk combo makes this an exceptional bit of heat-retaining kit to wear around ones neck.

The colours are such a success I think. The soft/rich/subtle/vibrant mixture is very appealing.

It was in fact incredibly hard to take pictures of the scarf on myself by myself. I wanted to show you the scale of this beauty, how generous it is, how long and wrappable and easy to wear it is. I teetered on a small wooden childs chair to catch my reflection in the bathroom cabinet in order to show you. Not terribly successful, but hoping you get the gist.

I can't tell you how incredible it feels to walk out and about wearing this creation of mine :: in the few days that I've been wearing it, it's given me such a lot of pleasure already. SO HAPPY!!!

And then when I'm not wearing it, I have the pleasure of seeing it hanging around in the hallway looking all casual and at home.

I only took a few pics outside in the back yard and most of them were rubbish (I tried to hang the scarf on the washing line which didn't work out). But this turned out to be my favourite picture of all, I just love it for it's simplicity.

Sigh. So lovely, if I do say so myself.

By the way, I really hope you don't find my enthusiasm too gushy or braggy, I certainly don't mean it to be. I just get a tremendous kick out of creating and sharing, such fun!

Anyhow....I think I may have finally run out of steam here, so I will end with my usual Riveting Facts....

Pattern :: taken from the Japnese book "Motif Book Vol 4".

Yarn :: Debbie Bliss Andes, a DK weight baby alpaca/mulberry silk mix

Flowers :: 46, each measuring approx 10cm across

Measures :: 143 cm along the long side, 105cm along the shorter side, and 36cm width

Balls :: 9 x 50g in 9 different colours

Weight :: 400g

Cost :: £53.55 and so so so worth it.

Time :: started mid January, finished early March.

Photo :: sitting in the Big Chair, casually wrapped

Scarf :: soft and gorgeous and luxurious and blissful and...(I could go on and on here)

Me :: happy and happy and happy and.................happy!

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ps I know many of you have been inspired by these flowers and have embarked on your own wraps/scarfs/throws/blankets, it's been really incredible seeing so many pop up all over the world in recent weeks. If you'd like to share yours with everyone I'd be so happy :: please leave a blog/flickr link for us to go see! Thank you! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Delayed Ta-Dah-ing

I've been sat in the Big Chair quite a lot this afternoon. I swung it around to the right so that we (Little B and Me) could sit and look out the window. It's one of our many daily rituals. We love to sit and watch the comings and goings in our street. I hope people don't start to think we are being nosey. Actually our street is very, very quiet during the day with only a handful of our neighbours going about their business. But come the early evening after school, it's all happening out there. Balls flying, kids running, it's a continuous stream of entertainment for a one year old.

Do you know, I sat with Little B this afternoon just after lunch and I fell asleep. Sitting up. Just like that. One minute awake, the next minute jolting awake after being asleep for goodness only knows how long. It can't have been long as Little B was still sat there with me and he doesn't generally sit still for very long. But it made me aware of how tired I must be, I must've been simply overwhelmed by the need to sleep. Mostly I don't seem to feel the tiredness to be honest, I kind of have an inbuilt springyness which keeps me bounding about no matter what. But today I felt it. I think that despite the early nights, I am just worn by the early starts and the full-on nature of caring for a small child. The hour or two prior to The Sleep, I had been crawling around on all fours playing chase/hide and seek. I had been dancing (quite vigorously) to Nellie The Elephant. I had been zooming cars up and down the hallway. I had been tickling/raspberry blowing/jigging/singing. Building/stacking/tidying/sorting.

Anyhow............what I'm trying to say in a very roundabout way is that I'm tired, too tired to write my flower scarf ta-dah as I was hoping to do, I'm sorry for the delay. I've managed to upload the pics though, oh my, it's going to be quite some Ta-dah when it happens. I've been wearing it today you know, it's been nothing short of Heavenly.

One more thing before I tumble in to bed.....over in my right hand sidebar, I've managed to put together a list of Ta-dah Moments. I thought it would be useful to have the links to my Finished Projects available as I'm often asked where this info can be found. Hope it's helpful.

All being well, I'll be ta-dah-ing tomorrow then, I am really excited. Mega excited even.

See you then xx

Sunday Snippets

:: Crocuses on my desk (yes, yes, totally LOVING flowers on my very own desk) ::

:: Little Man's scrumptious weekend baking (yes, of course I sampled one) ::

:: Little B, sitting himself on the coffee table to watch television (yes, he climbs)  ::

:: Darning in the last ends on my Japanese Flower Scarf (yes, I did say LAST ends) ::

:: Taking a moment to admire my pins (yes, that is a rather congested pin cushion) ::

:: Using the pins to block out my Flower Scarf (yes yes yes YES it's finished!) ::

:: Loving an early bedtime (yes, am about to hotfoot it there now, 9 pm) ::

Hope you enjoyed some happy little snippets in your day ♥

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Attic24 Blanket Fest

Well hello my lovely Peeps, and welcome to  the Attic24 Blanket Fest. No particular reason for this little celebration of blankety, hooky goodness today, I'm doing it Just Because.

Just because when I was photographing my sweet flower granny blanket back in January it was a  glorious bright sunny day and I got carried away with wanting to photograph things. And a heap of blankets seemed as good a thing as any to point my camera at. You can tell by the above picture that Little B and I had a lot of fun that morning. We both literally dived in to the pile and rolled around in it. It was marvelous!

I didn't even know off the top of my head how many blankets there were altogether, I had to line them up and count them. Eleven. Well I never. That's quite a lot of blankets/yarn/hooky time wouldn't you say? Achieved across the space of three years and five months, I started making my very first blanket in September 2007. Funny to think that it was pre-blog back then, it's hard to remember a time when I made things without writing about them too. Just me, sat at home in front of the computer teaching myself to make a Granny Square. Getting it and getting so excited that I was getting it. Deciding instantly that my first project would be a Big One, a granny square blanket. No scarves or hats or coasters for me, no,  I knew straight away that I would be a Maker Of Blankets.

I was lucky at the time in that although I wasn't blogging about the experience, I did have some fabulous friends to share it with (Sarah, Donna, Fiona ♥ forever my hooky buddies). We used to get together on alternate Monday nights, drink tea, eat cake, chatter and crochet. It was the beginning of a life changing experience for me, and honestly I do not say that lightly.

Anyhoooooo.....this isn't meant to be a long winded retrospective. What I really want to do here is to bring all my blankets together in one big visual swoop, with a simple link back into my bloggy archives where they each received their Ta-dah moment. For reference. And for fun.

Here we go then......enjoy!

Blanket # 1 :: Granny Square  :: Ta-dah moment February 2008 (pre-blog)

Blanket # 2 :: Ripple :: Ta-dah moment August 2008

Blanket # 3 :: Hexagon :: Ta-dah moment December 2008

Blanket # 4 :: Summer Garden Square :: Ta-dah moment May 2009

Blanket # 5 :: BB :: Ta-dah moment August 2009

Blanket # 6 :: Baby Ripple :: Ta-dah moment September 2009

Blanket # 7 :: Baby Granny Square :: Ta-dah moment November 2009

Blanket # 8 :: Baby zigzag :: Ta-dah moment March 2010

Blanket # 9 :: Baby Vintage Stripe :: Ta-dah moment (sort of) May 2010

Blanket # 10 :: Granny Stripe :: Ta-dah moment July 2010

Blanket # 11 :: Sweet Flower Granny :: Ta-dah moment January 2011

I love each and every one of my blankets with such passion.

Seeing them altogether makes me feel quite overwhelmingly giddy with pride, excitement, memories, love. They are VERY well loved my blankets and very well used too by the whole family. Every single one of them is put through it's paces on a daily basis.

They make one beeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuutiful pile..................

...........although Little B thought they looked better once he had toppled them over.

Finally then....

....for your viewing pleasure....

....a mosaic of Blankety Delight....

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

Thank you so much for sharing my Blanket Fest with me, it's been a huge bundle of fun.

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Edited to add :: ♥ thank you ♥ so much for all your wonderful warm comments, my heart is soaring reading through them!

I wanted to add a note about learning to crochet for those of you who might be inspired to give it a try. Best way to learn the very basics (ie how to hold hook and yarn and how to control your tension) is to find someone who can sit with your for half an hour and get you started. Its soooo much easier to get this initial bit of learning from a real life person if at all possible. Failing that, I know many of you have found YouTube helpful for this too. Once you can make a chain, there are many resources available to help you learn the basic stitches...I bought myself a small book ("Learn to Crochet" by Sally Harding) and worked through every stitch in turn until I was confident I'd got it. I then moved to the internet to find a basic granny square pattern (this one is very good, but please note it's written in US terms as opposed to English terms, there is a difference!) Hope this is of some help xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Trees and Triangles

My memory really must be very bad indeed cos I honestly thought I had shared this with you a few weeks ago. But it turns out that no I didn't, I just imagined that I did. Dear oh dear, I do apologise. So thank you very much to those of you who gently reminded me you hadn't in fact seen inside the map-package (mentioned in this post), cos you are in for a treat.

Isn't Internet Shopping so easy these days? And such a huge temptation too! I partake in a lot of  Virtual Shopping, lots of browsing and oooohing and ahhhing but on the whole I try very hard to keep my actual purchasing to a minimum. We have quite a strict Financial Control Manager here at number 24 you know.  If I come across something that I really, really, really think I want/need/desire, I tend to step away from the computer, sleep on it a few days, then re-visit and test out the level of Genuine Wanties for whatever it is. I am very rarely an instantaneous buyer. Is this bonkers? Anyone else do this?

This is what happened with this particular purchase. I came across it by happy accident as I was searching for something entirely different at the time. I was on Flickr, looking for bunting inspiration. Which I found (more of that in a bit), and that then led me onwards to a new blog which happened to showcase some amazing artwork. Clickety click and I arrived at an Etsy shop where the aforementioned amazing artwork is for sale. Ooooooo, the wanties kicked in immediately. I really wanted/needed/desired this artwork in a BiG way. So I walked away from the computer, slept on it a few days, chatted to husband/friends about it, tried to gauge if these particular wanties were strong enough to give in to. Back to the computer screen, clickety-click and YeS, that overwhelming heart lurch and I was certain I had to go for it. It helped that the FC Manager had provisionally given this potential purchase The Nod.

Good-o, clickety-click then and it's done. And so I waited. I waited and waited. The Little People waited with me, for they found it incredible that a package would be arriving from the Upside-down side of the world and they were very excited at the prospect. It takes quite a few days for a package to travel from Australia to the UK, so we continued to wait, and one morning it finally arrived.

As you can see from the above picture, it arrived beautifully wrapped. We were (all three of us) very impressed by the map wrap, not to mention the delightful little paper crane. So thoughtful! So clever!

So do you want to see inside the Mappage?

Want to see what got my heart a-skipping?

OK, here it is...........................................

.........this is the sweet little card that accompanied my purchase................

.....and this is the purchase itself. What do you think? Isn't it just beeeeeaaaaauuuutiful???

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh deep sigh. I L♥VE it so much.

It's a print taken from an original artwork called "Backyard with Stars" by the super talented Loretta Grayson. What a creative whizz Rett is! Her crochet work is hugely inspiring, but it's her artwork that really blows me away. I was fascinated to read this post with step by step pictures showing how each artwork is created. It made me love my little print so much more once I got a feel for it's creation. So clever.

The colours in Rett's work are incredibly close to my own instinctive colour palette don't you think? You can see how beautifully it fits in around here...it's right at home in the Attic I can tell you.

I love seeing it propped up there on the mantel, but I do intend to have it framed soon so that I can hang it on the wall.

So if you'd like to see more of Rett's work, do pop along to her Etsy shop and be prepared for The Wanties to strike.

Anyhow, cute little Trees aside, lets talk Triangles now shall we?

The above photo shows Loretta's fabulous crochet work :: this amazing bunting is what caught my eye in the first place over in Flickrville.

You see, I decided to finally take down my Advent Star Garland in the New Year and it left behind it a big wide open empty gap. Even the Little People commented on how empty it looked without the garland there, and we decided between us that the space was in desperate need of Something Else to fill it. Triangle bunting, I thought, and off I went to Flickrville to search out some inspiration.

So I had in mind to make some crochet granny bunting (ie triangles worked in the round with holes in, as opposed to triangles worked in rows without holes)...lots of patterns around and about in Blogland for this sort of thing.

The pattern that I fell in love with is to be found on Alice's blog Crochet with Raymond. What a gem of a blog this is, do go and have a rootle around at Alice's place if you don't already know it, it's a true delight. Her granny bunting is sooooooo pretty (that's her picture above) :: the dinky little picot edging and sweet little pointy bit at the bottom really captured my heart.

She's written up a super pattern for her bunting and it is all yours for free if you should want it...go here to find it.

I started working on my own bunting way back in early January, turning to my trusty stash of Rowan Handknit cotton. I switched down to a 3.5mm hook, and have to say am very happy with the results. I've not blocked them yet so they look a little bit wibbly and roundy still, but they are very sweet indeed.

I'm making mine very slightly different to Alice's original pattern in that I'm making the picot edging round in a different colour to the last granny round and also working an extra row along the top of the triangle.

I reckon I'm going to need twenty triangles in total to fill my very wide archway......only done four so far. Cos I got sidetracked by the Japanese Flower Scarf (almost finished!!!!!!!!), and then that in turn got tossed aside for a wee while when I needed to steam ahead with the Secret Project (very finished!!!!!!!).

More of Scarves and Secrets coming soon I promise. Although do feel free to (gently) remind me if I forget to remember to show you. You know, if I imagine that I did but in reality forget completely. Thank you. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

New-Old Furniture

I walk past the above shop window two or three times a week on my way through to the top end of our town. It's fondly called a shop of "Collectables", a very eclectic and ever changing collection of second hand items ranging from large pieces of furniture down to small items of bric-a-brac. I don't often go into this shop because as you can see it is chockablock full of stuff and impossible to enter with a pushchair. But I can never resist pressing my nose up against the window and scrutinising the contents which change almost daily as things get bought and sold.

On this particular day a month or so ago, I was on the opposite side of the road when that flash of gorgeous greeny-blue caught my eye. I was pulled towards it, powerless to resist. I saw it was an old painted chest of drawers and although I wasn't actually in need of a chest of drawers, I just had this  feeling that they were meant to be mine. So I bobbed in to take a closer look although of course I knew in my heart that they already belonged to me. The colour alone had swung it instantly.

Two days later, a white van arrived at number 24, and I became the ecstatic owner of a new-old chest of drawers...yaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!

I absolutely love-love-love this bit of new-old furniture! It's made of old pine, painted in the most gorgeous colour (my Ultimate Favourite Colour of All Time) which I now very poshly call "Tiffany Blue". I love the shape of the feet, don't you?? Darling!!

Because I made this purchase on complete impulse and purely due to the colour-love thing, it was actually a bit of a shock to find quite a substantial piece of furniture arriving in our narrow hallway. For a while we didn't quite know where to put it or what to do with it. At first I thought it might sit at the back of our dining room and provide a home for the rather large gathering of art and craft supplies that belong to the Little People. But then J had the rather ace idea of using it to accommodate our television screen/media centre thingy (which is actually a computer as opposed to a proper television). That way it would elevate the screen, crucially making it out of bounds for Little Hands. The drawers could then be used to house dvd's, remote controls, keyboard/mousey and various other bits and bobbles which relate to the tv/computer set up.

So there it sits now, doing a Very Useful Job and adding a beautiful dash of desirable Tiffany Blue to the alcove there. I do need to re-paint the handles at some stage as the metallic purple doesn't quite do it for me....I'm thinking of making each one a different colour. Of course!

Weekend before last, we also took possession of another piece of furniture, this time in the form of an old writing desk. It's been in J's family for a long while but was no longer wanted, so we did the decent thing and adopted it. I'm not actually a fan of dark wood furniture, or precious furniture that needs to be preserved and treated nicely (I definitely prefer the shabby, worn look that can take some neglect), but this desk is very charming indeed. The fact that it immediately became MY desk has really made me very happy, I hadn't realised how much I missed having a desk-of-my-very-own until this sweet little thing arrived.

So I now have myself a very cosy little corner at the back of the dining room where I can sit and write, and it's also lovely to be able to lay things out and not have to clear them away again before each meal. My wonderful chair is at the back there too and I love sitting here in the evening time...it makes for a wonderful end-of-day hooky spot when I don't want to be in front of the TV.

 

I treated myself to this cute little pink table lamp from Ikea  too, the bright LED spotlight is perfect for illuminating the hooky work at night.

My muscari (grape hyacinths) are growing away beautifully on the windowsill behind My Desk look, the first tight little flower buds are just appearing. And the "green face" propped up behind my paperweights is a picture Little Lady drew me ages ago, it's a picture of Me apparently, with very glamorous looking eyelashes. My eyelashes in real life are disappointingly short and sparse but I try not to dwell on that particular short coming.

Right-oh, time to bob off now and get a few jobs done while Little B sleeps...be back again soon!

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