Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x
This is the yarn I'll be using for my Bower Bird workshop, I've been kept very busy prepping for it this week (the first one is this coming Saturday). Part of the workshop will involve looking at putting colours together, so I'm aiming to create a yarny colour wheel to act as an inspiring starting point. I've been using my fabulous yarn winder (it's been smoking!) to create lots and lots of neat little yarn cakes, and the repetitive winding has been weirdly satisfying if a bit time consuming.
Thing #2 :: slung about my person ::
I finished my poncho yesterday, oh boy, I am so in love with this thing. The edging was finished on Monday, then yesterday I made a sweet little dangly tie thing to thread through the neck edge as a final finishing touch. I'm wearing it right now as I sit writing at my drafty desk, and it feels absolutely amaaaaaaaazing. All that's left to do now is to steam-block the edging, it needs some soft stretching and steaming to open it all out and persuade it to sit flat and pretty. I am very, very excited to show you, but need it to PleAse StOp RaiNiNg so that I can take some good photos. Murky wet grey is no good for photos, it really isn't.
Thing #3 :: on my feet ::
Possibly the most exciting thing of all, I got new boots this week. Not any old boots either. Not brown or black, but the most delicious shade of RED. I have wanted red boots forever and ever, and much as when I got my red mary janes, these boots have sent me into a spin of ridiculous happiness this week. I love them so so much, they make me feel like I could walk a thousand smiley miles. And they match my upcycled coat perfectly. Deep sigh....so happy. I've got red boots!!!!!!!
ps I know you're gonna ask....the boots are by Fly London, and I snaffled them up as they were in the sale. They are here on Amazon.
pps don't you just love a mossy cobbled street? This is my back street, right outside my back gate. The cobbles are over one hundred years old, isn't that something?
It seems that I have managed to fill my week with rather a lot of yarny colour play, and I have really enjoyed myself. I think it must be my natural defense against the weather which has been multiple shades of wet, dismal grey. I'm edging very close to completing my poncho (yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) and I've had many requests lately for yarn details and colour info for this project. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, and the picture above is the original colour selection I made when I started out with my Interlocking Colour ripple blanket back in Autumn 2011.
I've used the leftovers from this collection for my poncho, with a couple of extras added in. However, when I tried to gather together updated colour info to share, I was shocked to find that out of the 18 shades I used, only 5 are still available. That means a whopping thirteen shades have been discontinued! I've tried hard to work out replacements, but frankly some of my best most favourite colours in this yarn (oh that turquoise blue!) have simply been removed which makes me very sad. Naughty Debbie Bliss!
I've been pondering a lot about yarn and colour palettes recently and my mind has been filled with all manner of delightful yarn infested thoughts. When I put together the colours for my ripple blanket, I wrote a post trying to explain a little bit about how I choose my colours for a project (you can read about it here). It is such an interesting subject and I get asked over and over again about my colour choosing strategies.
Oooooooo, look at all that yummy, scrummy yarny colour! Do you remember this? These were the colours I chose to make the Granny Stripe blanket for Connievan in the Spring of 2010. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK,* 17 colours chosen especially to deliver Happiness. I had Happy Caravan thoughts in mind when I picked out these colours :: lazy, Summer afternoons, leisurely picnics, cool green grass, stripy deckchairs, strings of bunting, colouring books and crochet, wild flower meadows. I went to my Happy Place when I chose them, and even now they give me a huuuuuuge rush of pleasure.
Over the years that I've been working with the Stylecraft yarn, I've come to really like it a lot. I was very sceptical at first as I wasn't at all sure that I would be able to get along with an acrylic yarn. I had scratchy, squeaky, plasticky concerns, but right from the start it totally surprised me. It is soft and very easy to work with. It doesn't split and it hooks up beautifully. It makes fantastic, warm, soft, snugly blankets and the 100g balls are deliciously squidgy and generous. It's an all round amazing budget yarn, beautifully suited to blanket making.
Did you know that there are currently 55 shades of Stylecraft Special? Yes, fifty five! So my happy little collection of 17 shades is actually only a third of the total available.
One of the things I've been quietly working on during the past year is a fresh new range of colour collections. I've been experimenting with colours that are waaaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone. Mocha and copper and grey and camel! Yeah, I KNOW! Bet you never thought you'd see me embracing NEUTRALS did you, not in a month of Sundays!
But I am learning to open my creative mind, experimenting with all sorts of new and wonderful ways to combine colours that isn't necessarily based on instinct and emotion (which is my usual approach). I am very used to working with colour and have been doing it for all of my adult life. When I left school at 18, I went to art college for a year, and colour theory formed a big part of my training there. I then went on to take a degree course, studying textiles and embroidery for three years. Of course, none of this had anything to do with yarn (I am a late comer to the delights of yarn shops), but colour, yes most definitely. My textile work has always, always been all about the colour. And so it continues with yarn....
I've been at my studio this week, winding up a storm with my trusty yarn winder (oh how I love using that thing!), turning out some delicious yarn cakes to play with.
The rain poured down outside, and inside I immersed myself completely in the joy of colour. Lots and lots and lots of yarny colour. There are 36 shades above (all Stylecraft Special DK), including the 17 colours that have become know as "Attic24 colours"*.....
....here they are look, awwwww my heart just flip-flopped at the sight of them! Such happy sunshiny Summer loveliness in that bowl!
Now look at this...............
....ooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! What do you think?? Do you like it? Or is it a bit odd? Do you see two shades of GrEy? And do you see the pale, pale apricot and the BrOwN lurking in there? This was just me having a bit of playtime, and I can tell you that I didn't labour over this selection in any way shape or form. I just picked them very quickly and plopped them into the bowl, an experiment to see if I could bring myself to actually like a collection that contained grey, brown and apricot.
This was more of a considered choice, a collection of warm hues. Girly colours if you like.
And then onto the cool side, a bowl of ocean blues and grassy greens.
Hmmmmmm, not at all sure about this selection. I kind of like it, but it is maybe a bit pastely to really rock my boat. I picked out the softer colours of Stylecraft, thinking in my mind of delicate spring flowers, fluttery blossom and pale sunshiny mornings.
Ahhh, that's better, back to familiar Lucy colours, these are definitely my soul colours :o)
This colour palette of mine has become very well known since my granny stripe blanket was born. I see these colours around such a lot in Blogland, Facebook and on Pinterest, repeated and enjoyed, bringing colourful yarny happiness to so many. It really does make me very, very happy to see.
I'm really looking forward to working some new colour ideas though, it's very exciting stuff for a colour addict like me. Happy sigh.....I love colour and yarn. So, so much.
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ps. you can find my original Attic24 Stylecraft colour pack at Deramores*. There is currently 10% off all Stylecraft yarn there until 8th Feb. Enter the coupon code STYLE10.
*{sponsored link}
EDIT TO ADD :: re the colour pack of 17 colours....these are generous 100g balls and easily enough to make a single bed size blanket (approx 110 x 180cm). For a single bed ripple blanket, I used a 4mm hook and chained 213 to start (that's 210+3). You would need two packs to make a huge kingsize blanket. Hope that helps!xx
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