Attic24

Coast Ripple blanket :: ta-dah!

In the seven years that I've been crocheting, I've made three adult sized ripple blankets and two baby sized ripple blankets, oh and one ripple cushion too. I absolutely love the Neat Ripple pattern, it makes for an extremely soothing and pleasurable crochet experience, with a gentle rhythm and just the right amount of counting (even I can count to four, although admittedly it sometimes goes a bit wrong if wine is involved). And the resulting blankets are amazingly lovely to look at, with those rising and falling waves of glorious colour and a pleasing lack of holes.

I've made eye-wateringly expensive cashmere/merino ripples and I've made happy-smiley cheap acrylic ripples and both sorts have always turned out beautifully. The cashmere ones make the most delicious, luxurious winter snugglers (they are extremely warm and soft) and the acrylic ones can happily accompany the family on camping trips, picnics and beach barbecues (they are extremely forgiving). All my handmade blankets are incredibly well used by the whole family, which is probably why I love making them so much.

So this is the story of my latest ripple creation which I have named the Coast blanket. I selected the colours and purchased the yarn well over a year ago, and those fifteen balls sat patiently waiting for me to gather them up and make the idea become a reality. This blanket is inspired by my childhood home in Dorset, and the colours represent the beautiful coastline that I know so well and love with all my heart. I wanted the colours to remind me of the ever changing blues of sea and sky, the rich greens of the grassy clifftops, the golden yellows of the sandy cliffs and beaches and the greys and soft browns of smooth pebbles and silvery driftwood. These are the colours of my childhood, and of the many, many happy summer holidays of my adulthood.

Selecting these fifteen colours was easy-peasy. Oh so simple! I knew exactly how I wanted these ripples to work, and exactly the mood I was trying to create. I wanted to look at the colours and feel both energised and relaxed (my feelings when I'm beside the sea). I wanted the colours to transport me up over those sunny, grassy clifftops, down onto the pebbly beach, dip my toes in the blues of the sea and then lay me flat on my back to gaze at the summer sky. I wanted to look at those colours and be able to hear the sound of the waves and the seagulls squawking overhead and feel the fresh, salty sea breeze on my skin.

It sounds a bit fanciful perhaps, to try and ask all that to come from fifteen balls of reasonably priced acrylic yarn....but do you know what? I really think that I made it happen with these colours. I captured the essence of my coastal memories and translated them into a very pleasing colour palette.

So here they are, the Attic24 Coast Colours....

Top row, left to right ♥ Meadow ♥ Camel ♥ Parchment ♥ Silver ♥ Grey ♥

Middle row, left to right  ♥ Aspen ♥ Turquoise ♥ Petrol ♥ Teal ♥ Khaki ♥

Bottom row, left to right  ♥ Sherbet ♥ Cloud ♥ Aster ♥ Bluebell ♥ Denim ♥

This yarn is Stylecraft Special DK which is a 100% acrylic yarn in generous 100g balls. Now let me tell you, this is acrylic yarn of exceptional quality, and it is not in any way scratchy, plasticky or sticky. It is smooth, soft and warm, which are three very good blankety qualities if you ask me. For us hookers, it is a dream to work with. It doesn't split, it slips rather silkily on and off the hook and the colours, well....the colours are pretty hard to beat. And best of all, it is absolutely, completely, heart-skippingly cheap to buy. What's not to love?! In my bag above, there are my fifteen x 100g balls of yarn, and this is enough to make a single bed sized blanket (110 cm x 180 cm)

I began working these ripples at Easter, appropriately enough whilst I was on holiday in Dorset. These first fifteen rows are infused with salty seaside memories, and give you a good idea of how the palette of colours works up into a very pleasing set of ripply stripes.

As per usual, I chose to work my colours in a random order, playing with the blues (sea and sky), greens (grass), yellows (sand) and greys (pebbles), ordering them into a rhythmic story of the coast.

Blues and greens, turquoises and aquas are my true soul colours, the colours that sing the happiest song to me. I absolutely adore them, and have been drawn to them consistently for all of my artistic life. Greys, yellows and browns however, well they don't sit quite so well with me. And yet this palette really needed those colours to balance out the blues. They provide warmth and relief, shelter from the cold if you like. And actually, the Stylecraft greys are rather beautiful, especially this Silver grey which reminds me of the pebbles on Eype Beach....

And so I really began to enjoy the journey this blanket was taking me on, as I immersed myself in the colours and cherished the many happy memories that began to drift in as I worked.

As you know, I always suffer with withdrawal symptoms when I return from the coast. But after our Easter holiday this year, working on my coast blanket allowed me a very gentle re-entry back into my land-locked life in Yorkshire.

I confess I became more than a little addicted to working these ripples, they made me really, really, really happy!

I just couldn't get enough of those colours.....

....and I worked on my blanket at every opportunity.

Towards the end (which was sometime in late June) I began to feel a sadness creep in. I realised that I simply didn't want this creative journey to end.

But end it did, and after 84 beautiful ripplesome stripes, I embarked on a simple border to finish the whole thing off.

Borders are bitter sweet things really, don't you think? In some ways they can feel like the biggest chore, and yet in other ways they are also insanely satisfying. The border says "this blanket is complete", and is like a final closure on all those minutes and hours that you spent working the rows, all those hundredss upon hundredss of stitches.

The thing with my crochet blankets is that they are most definitely made to be used. Yes, they do become colourful, decorative accessories in our home, but they are useful objects too. It's been the most fun watching this blanket become instantly integrated into our family life. To see it used for it's true blankety purpose, both at home and recently whilst we were on holiday, makes me very happy indeed.

The Little People seem to love this particular creation, and I wonder if it's because they also get the seaside memory-inducing thing from it? Probably not, but hey ho. Maybe it's simply because it is different to the rest of my blankets in that it's not a riot of multi-coloured hues for once. Being heavily loaded with blue does make it appeal to boys too I guess, and it could easily pass the test for a Man Blanket. But for me, it is most definitely, without doubt a Coast blanket.

Shall I spread it out for you to see now?

Ok........................................

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

There it is, in all it's ripply glory, showing off it's Coastal credentials.

Oh my, I love it so much. It is so so so much like my vision when I chose those balls of yarn 18 months ago, I feel a weeny bit proud I think.

So you can see how the random colours work here....the idea when working "random" is to create a harmonious whole, which is possibly harder than it looks. I try to vary the way I put the colours together, whilst making sure that nothing is too harsh or repetitive. As in most things, I am generally aiming for balance and harmony when I work colours randomly.

I also had to make sure that this blanket could indeed be made out of the 15 balls of yarn, so the number of stripes and the number of colour repeats is actually very carefully worked out, but in a randomised way, if that makes sense! For example, the border colours have to be selected in advance to make sure that there is enough of those left after the ripples have been made.

Now then, I hope that you won't mind indulging me whilst I bombard you with a series of photographs? You see, I had this idea that I would love more than anything to take my completed blanket on holiday with me, revisiting the seasidey places that had so inspired it's creation. So it came down to Dorset with us in July and I had a ridiculous amount of fun pratting about doing little amateur photo shoots here, there and everywhere, haaha! I can laugh at myself really, I am such a nutter sometimes!!!!!!

At Eype beach....

....and in the garden at Lady B's. Well I was actually using the blanket to wrap myself up in here as it was evening time and slightly chilly in the shade and....

....wine o'clock to be more precise!! I adore this photo, the way the ripples are right there inside my wine glass!!! Perfect.

Here I am, at it again early one sunny morning, striding out along the promenade at West Bay with my blanket and my camera....

....it was the most glorious morning, around about 8.30am, with a slight sea breeze as you can see.

But I loved the way the blues of the sea so clearly matched the blues in my blanket, the sandy shore too. Isn't colour great?!!

I took Blanket down onto the beach, draped it artily down the steps, but it was a bit too shady here to get the colours to look right.

And here is Blanket with me looking down on it from above...I like this picture cos you can get the measure of the whole rhythm going on with the colours and the ripples. It's quite mesmerising, don't you think?

I am with Little lady here on this morning, the boys refused to have anything to do with me and stayed in the car, they think I am really pretty odd I fear.

There were a few people dog walking at this time in the morning, giving me some odd sidewards looks, but I didn't care. I was in the moment!

I just love this last photo so much. Just wonderful, such lovely memories.

While I was up on the promenade doing my thing, Little Lady was down on the beach doing her thing. She made a pebble fish while I was pratting about with Blanket, she was so proud of it too.

Eventually I packed the blanket into my bag and went down onto the beach to join her. I had rolled up the remains of my yarn into neat little balls and had fun giving them their own little photo shoot.....

 

....I like this photo very much, I think it might make a nice postcard actually?

Now I wonder......would any of you like to make your very own Coast blanket? Would you like to hook up some beautiful ripples to remind you of happy holidays and salty sea breezes? I have been very busy during the past few weeks working on a full pattern and tutorial for making this blanket, including a step-by-step working of the edging. So if you've ever wanted to know how to Fill In that Ripply Edge, I can help you with that.

♥ You can find the blanket pattern/tutorial right here on my blog, I've called it RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW.

♥ I thought it would also be useful to list the exact colour sequence I used to make my Coast blanket, for those of you who prefer someone else to do the Random Thinking! Remember that each stripe is made up of two crochet rows.....

1.Denim	22. Parchment	43. Teal	64. Aster
2. Aspen	23. Turquoise	44. Aster	65. Cloud
3. Petrol	24. Petrol	45. Denim	66. Meadow
4. Silver	25. Meadow	46. Meadow	67. Parchment
5. Cloud	26. Camel	47. Khaki	68. Khaki
6. Meadow	27. Khaki	48. Silver	69. Camel
7. Parchment	28. Aspen	49. Sherbet	70. Grey
8. Camel	29. Sherbet	50. Turquoise	71. Bluebell
9. Khaki	30. Aster	51. Bluebell	72. Denim
10. Grey	31. Grey	52. Teal	73. Turquoise
11. Teal	32. Parchment	53. Aspen	74. Aspen
12. Aster	33. Khaki	54. Camel	75. Silver
13. Turquoise	34. Petrol	55. Parchment	76. Meadow
14. Sherbet	35. Bluebell	56. Cloud	77. Teal
15. Bluebell	36. Turquoise	57. Aster	78. Sherbet
16. Grey	37. Sherbet	58. Grey	79. Bluebell
17. Denim	38. Meadow	59. Petrol	80. Khaki
18. Teal	39. Camel	60. Silver	81. Camel
19. Bluebell	40. Silver	61. Sherbet	82. Parchment
20. Cloud	41. Cloud	62. Aspen	83. Cloud
21. Silver	42. Aspen	63. Teal	84. Denim

Border colours

1. Denim (tr’s worked along the sides only, to match the first and last colour stripes)

2. Petrol (dc’s worked on the sides, and ripple in-fill worked along top and bottom)

3. Aster (dc’s worked all round)

♥ I am also continuing to work with the fantastic team at Wool Warehouse, they are such lovely people and it's pure pleasure working with them I have to say. Now that I have my cosy on-line shop inside their warehouse, I am thrilled to announce that my Coast Yarn Pack is ready and waiting on the shelves and can be shipped out all around the world!!!!! Gosh, that makes me SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!

♥  You can go grab a Coast Yarn Pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse (HERE), and I very much hope you will love working those colours as much as I have. The pack contains 15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK (100% acrylic), in the colours shown above. And as a special extra ((thank you)), each pack will also contain a full colour printed pattern for making the Coast Ripple, which I hope you'll find useful. All the information you need to make the blanket is still provided for free on my blog (HERE), but there is something lovely about having a printed version to tuck into your project bag, don't you think?

This photo was taken by Little Lady, and I have to say I look pretty happy with blue sky overhead, my ripple in hand and the sea at my back. This blanket has created a whole lot of happiness!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

2013 :: Year End Review :: crochet

Summer Bunting

Colour Play

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

Granny Bunting for Yarndale

Pleasures

#1 ♥ sorting out my yarn bag to take to knit n natter on Friday morning and finding a handful of beach treasure sat in the bottom under all the yarn....happy holiday memories.

#2 ♥ knit n natter at the café on Friday was so enjoyable, it was lovely to get together with good friends and to meet some new yarny ladies too. The knit and crochet cakes in the basket are part of a a yarn bomb we're working on for Yarndale, in case you were wondering!

#3 ♥ my back yard is thriving in all the rain we've had lately, it looks lush and green, if a bit drippy. Can you see my passion flower merrily growing along the washing line?

#4 ♥ a new tea towel which I bought to hang on the kitchen door rather than to wipe wet things with. I just love the sentiment as well as that beautiful duck egg blue colour. From Freya Art on Etsy.

#5 ♥ Finishing my third Yarndale banner and loving the look of it. I made white Moogly crochet letters stitched onto rainbow granny squares, using Stylecraft Special DK yarn. Oh, and I got new crocs too, half price in the summer sale :)

#6 ♥ new handmade soap from one of my favourite local shops in town, it really does smell Fragrant and Totally Luscious.

#7 ♥  today I had lots of work to do on my laptop and the Little People have been super good occupying themselves and playing games together. They rearranged the furniture and built two "blanket camper vans" which made me so happy to see!

#8 ♥ playing with my ripple blankets and taking some new photos. I think, there might be a Ta-dah moment coming very, very soon for that gorgeous Coast blanket....tomorrow could be the day!!

#9 ♥ taking a pile of clean laundry up to the Attic and spotting a beautiful rainbow arcing over the town.

#10 ♥ sky gazing, always a pleasure of mine. It's been stormy here today and cold too, I really, really hope that summer comes back to play for just a little bit longer.

xx

I'm really enjoying these gentle summer days spent at home with the Little People, a satisfying balance of work and play, of idleness and busy-ness. Friends call by, we go out to run errands, but mostly we are happy just being here, enjoying life's little pleasures.

xx

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

2013 :: Year End Review :: crochet

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

Granny Bunting for Yarndale

Open Studio :: June 2013

Yarnoholics Paradise

Yesterday I found myself walking into a bit of a yarnoholics paradise. I had been invited to Texere Yarns which is a Yorkshire textile mill and shop in Bradford. I love old mill buildings, they have such character and charm with their huge proportions and beautiful rustic interiors. I loved the old, wonky wooden floors, the rough stone walls, the giant windows which flooded the place with light and the smell...oh the smell!! It smelt a bit like an old school combined with the unmistakable sent of yarn, sort of comforting and nostalgic and a little bit spine-tingling!

I'd never been to Texere before, but I'm told that just recently it has undergone something of a transformation. Part of the ground floor has been turned into a hugely inspiring mill shop, with an incredible selection of yarns to peruse and purchase. They stock a large range of branded yarns, including Texere's very own brand, gosh I went a bit giddy walking up and down in there!

This is the brand new picnic room where you can sit a while and have something to drink and nibble, chat with friends, ponder over your yarny purchases and browse through patterns. I had been invited yesterday as it was the official opening of the picnic area, and many visitors had travelled especially to come and indulge in a little bit of yarny retail therapy and meet me for a friendly chat. I managed to overcome my nerves and it was hugely enjoyable actually. I was talking about my blogging journey, about my crochet projects, about Yarndale, and generally answering questions about those sorts of things. I talked a lot, I hope I didn't waffle too much! It was such fun to meet readers of my blog, a truly lovely bunch of fellow yarnoholics :)

Afterwards, I had another little wander round the yarn shelves and have to tell you I fell head over heels in love with this carpet yarn. Just LOOK at the CoLoUrS!!!!! This is traditional Axminster Rug yarn, described as "a classic 80% wool and 20% nylon carpet yarn of exceptional quality in a wide range of colours ideal for rug making and general crafts"

Oh. My. Gosh. My head began to spin and I think I may have possibly squealed out loud as I began to imagine all kinds of things I could do with this yarn......I could make a small granny square rug for the studio! I could make a long, stripy runner for my hallway! I could hook those hard wearing colours into something amazing for the floors in my life!! So many exciting possibilities....which will just have to hang fire until the Autumn. But yes, I am excited, it's always good to have something new and colour-filled bubbling away on the creative back burner.

The folks at Texere yarns are lovely, and made me feel instantly at home. They are passionate about what they do and offer a very warm welcome to yarn lovers. This is not a conventional shop though so if you are ever planning a visit you need to check on their opening hours. It's well worth bobbing in if you are ever jaunting around Yorkshire, in fact I can't wait to go back myself and have a really good nosey around.

ps, Texere Yarns will be exhibiting at Yarndale again this year for those of you who are visiting in September....pop by and say hello and tell them I sent you for a yarn-fix!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Half Way

2013 :: Year End Review :: crochet

Colour Play

Rainbow Raindrops Cushion :: Ta-dah!

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!

Felt Minecraft

At the beginning of the week, Little Lady asked me if I could help her make a felt toy. These days I don't attempt to instigate creativity with the Little People, although every so often I will make a suggestion for drawing/colouring/hama beads etc if they are kicking around bored and restless. I tend to wait until they are keen enough to suggest something themselves and then I try hard to accommodate any requests that are forthcoming re creative activity. Even if deep down my immediate response is "Not-on-your-nelly" I try and suppress whatever negativity sits there within myself (oh the mess, this is so not the right time, lets wait till the weekend, I'm too busy, it's too complicated, it won't work, go find something else to do etc etc), and beam out a "Yes-lets-do-it!!" response. I was actually pretty delighted with the request to stitch a felt toy. We have felt. And I love stitching. I was happy to make time to help out. We went straight to the laptop and I started to search for pretty, cute toy patterns that we might attempt to make. I got a wee bit giddy at the sheer volume of cute little felt creations out there, oh the possibilities! So much fun!

But Little Lady had her own ideas, and to put it bluntly, she completely poo-pooed my own cutesome suggestions in favour of her own thing. She told me that she wanted more than anything to stitch a felt Enderman. Ohhhhhhhh-kaaaaaaaayyyyyy...............E-n-d-e-r-m-a-n. I spelt it out and googled it to see what she was on about and felt ridiculously disappointed. It is all black! And it really is more than a teensy bit weird!! For those of you who don't know what an Enderman is, it's a character from the popular Minecraft game. And for those of you who don't know what Minecraft is, you can find a reasonable explanation here. Needless to say, I live with three enthusiastic Little Minecrafters here at number 24.

So let me show you what an Enderman looks like.....go here to see. Although I was initially doubtful about this project, the very good thing about recreating Minecraft characters is that they are made up of squares/blocks, so the construction is reassuringly simple. We found what we were looking for here (just in case you ever have a burning need to make yourself an Enderman)

We had to go shopping for black felt as surprise-surprise my felt box contains only rainbow colours. But the Trip To Purchase Supplies became an excitement in itself, and the Little People loved going to the stack of felt squares, and then the huge rack of cotton threads to pick out what was needed,  it was joyful!

Once all the pattern pieces were cut, I taught Little Lady how to start off, and how to make neat little whip stitches. She is a fast learner and took to it straight away.

For the eyes, I decided not to attempt stitching them, but to use the magical ingredient Vilene Bondaweb instead. It's an easy to use iron-on adhesive for fabric and is totally amazing. I've used it such a lot in my 25+ years of stitching and can highly recommend it.

It didn't take Little Lady long to make her Enderman head and she was soon whizzing away with her black seams with no help from me whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Little B had started to feel left out and was keeping on and on (and on) to make his own felt toy. He wanted to make a Creeper he said, a green Creeper please Mummy. Yes, another Minecraft character of course. So we took a second trip to the shop and I gave Little B 55 pence to buy a small sheet of creeper-green felt. He helped me cut out the square pieces and again we used Bondaweb to attach the black facial features.

To be honest I thought the stitching was going to be a nightmare as he was so insistant that he do it himself. But I found that so long as I guided him with where to put the needle for each stitch, he could managed perfectly well.....

....he really did good! It was a bit intense and his attention span and ability to sit still was pretty short (he is only four mind you), but I found that he had his own rhythm. He would do maybe five concentrated minutes of stitching, then he would literally jump up and race around the room to let off steam. He would come back to start again sometime later when he was ready, and gradually over the course of the day we made good progress.

Little Lady however was the total opposite and her concentration and staying power was impressive. She sat for many hours in the Big Chair and stitched and stitched and stitched. All day she stitched.

By bedtime she had made and stuffed one head, one body, two arms and two legs. That's an awful lot of stitches!

The next morning I helped her to stitch the body parts together.....

....then she set about making a grass block accessory for her Enderman.

With quite a bit of help, Little B eventually finished his Creeper head on the second day and he is soooo pleased with it. We've yet to make the body and legs but honestly I don't think he's too bothered about that now, he just seems to love that he stitched something and is ridiculously proud of it.

And Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!! Here is Little Lady's Enderman, complete with grass block! It is strangely endearing (in all it's blackness), and best of all she absolutely loves it.

It has been everywhere with her, carted around in a rucksack if we go out, and tucked up in bed with her at night. It's been a really happy, creative project for us, and I am now waiting patiently (but hopefully) to see if she asks to make something else. I'm secretly wishing for something a bit cuter and more colourful to follow, but am trying not to influence her. Well not too much anyhow, but I love the look of this Super-Cute book, and I might possibly be onto a winner with this felt guinea pig ornament......

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Raindrops

Michaelmas Daisies

Mini Ripple Doll Blanket :: Ta-dah!

I Wrote a List

I was out in my back yard early this morning as usual, mug of coffee in hand, pottering around chatting to my flowers. I enjoy coming out here so much, it's such a tidgey little space with zero privacy (actually below zero privacy), but I love what I have managed to do with it this year. Quite simply, it provides me with a nice place to sit and ponder, to drink a mug of coffee, to hang out my laundry (when it's not peeing down with rain like it is right now), and to grow some brightly coloured flowers and a few edible herbs. And that's pretty much all I want really.

So I was sitting with my coffee trying to practice a little bit of Mindfulness, but my mind was not co-operating this morning. I felt unsettled and jittery, unable to just "be still". My thoughts were all over the place, leaping about like fleas, jumping from one thing to another, then back to the first thing again, then off on a completely random tangent altogether. It was maddening. And so for the first time in a veeeeeeeery long time, I was hit with the idea of writing A List. Yes! I shall write A List and note down all those thought-fleas that keep leaping about and making me feel all jittery and panicky. I shall round them all up and number them and make some sort of order out of it all and hope that it'll a) make me feel better and b) force me to actually get some important stuff done.

I know list writing is such a simple concept, but it is not something I am used to doing. I know lots of habitual list writers, and it always seems to me to be a very good way to proceed through life's busy days. I think I just forget that there is another way to go about things other than the unstructured, spontaneous, slightly chaotic way that seems to be the norm for me. And I can see the supreme usefulness of list writing when time is short and deadlines loom and a serious number of things begin to stack and teeter on my mental shelves.

So I did indeed make a list, it has 11 items on it (excluding caravan things), most of which are Work To-do's. It surprises me on a daily basis that I have become this working Mum. I still think of myself as a SAHM (stay at home mum) but I'm actually now kind of a WSAHM (working stay at home mum). These summer holidays are teaching me a lot about balancing my days (I'm deliberately choosing to use the word Balance instead of Juggle right now, it sounds calmer!), dividing the waking hours between the following ::

1. Mummy/parenting time ::  we have been doing a lot of crafting, stitching and baking together, but sometimes all I need to do to fulfill my role is just Be There for cuddles and attention-giving. We have watched films, looked at books, chatted. I am also needed at very regular intervals to provide food and snack material, this seems to be a big part of summer holiday parenting I've found.

2. Work time :: I am incredibly busy at the moment, with various bits of Attic24 work. I am writing (blog content, crochet patterns, magazine column), designing kits, preparing for various forthcoming events. I'm going to be giving a talk on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holymoly, yes it's true! I shall be at Texere Yarns in Bradford, placing myself in front of 50+ visitors, chatting about stuff, I can hardly believe it, but there you go. If you are oop north and fancy coming along, you will be very welcome...I think the first session is fully booked now, but the second session (1-2pm) still has spaces.

I'm crazy busy with Yarndale stuff, we are just finalising the brochure copy ready to go to the printers this week, and I am ploughing ahead with my yarn bombing plans. If you offered to help me with yarn bombing (either via Facebook or Ravelry) thank you very much, it's number 6 on my list and I'll be in touch very soon. The Mandala's are now all in, catalogued and stored ready for their big reveal in September. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who contributed, all 1,182 of you from 49 different countries around the world (wowsers, this project has been incredible!). You can see every single mandala online now (Yarndale Pinterest), which I am very proud of as it's been a humongous amount of work for me to achieve that.

Ahhhh, my gorgeous coastal ripple blanket, it's been fully integrated into our household now as you can see and is being used for daily sofa snuggling. I need to apologise for the Ta-dah being so late and all, I know many of you are getting impatient waiting for it and I am sorry. I had meant to have it all ready for Monday, but then had to prioritise my Yarndale work cos the deadline at the printers was looming and I couldn't change that. The kiddies too needed my time this week, we've been stitching up a storm here (making felt toys, I'll show you the results in a day or two). I had to give them my time and attention with that really, they were so keen (Little Lady and Little B) so we've been on numerous trips to the shops to purchase felt and thread and have really had fun making stuff. Anyhoooo, any time now, after I've published this post, I will get cracking with finishing up the tutorial I am writing (for edging a ripple blanket) and I will try hard to get that out to you as soon as I can. It's high on my list, I'm on it!!

3. Housewifery time :: this is probably the smallest segment of my balancing act, some days it's ludicrously small actually. But certain things do need to get done even during holiday time, namely the menu planning, food shopping, meal providing and the endless loads of laundry. I fling the vacuum cleaner around the floors every so often, empty the bins, load and unload the dishwasher, swish and swipe around the bathroom and perform some basic tidying of well used surfaces.

I've also been doing some essential and time consuming jobs of late, namely purchasing lots of new school uniform, getting feet measured and buying new school shoes, taking the Little Peeps to get pictures taken in order to get all of our passports renewed and a first passport for Little B. All these things eat into the days like you wouldn't believe.

4. Me time :: Thinking about it, I can't recall an awful lot of dedicated me-time this holiday so far, although yes there has been some. I've loved socialising with friends, pootling through Blogland (some lovely summery tales, beautiful holiday photos and great writing/reading out there) and magazine reading in odd snatches of available time.

I wish I had more time to crochet though, I miss my self-indulgent hooky time very much. All my crochet right now is Yarndale related and as much as I still love doing these things, it's not quite the same. I miss my blanket making. I have a tonne of ideas for other stuff. I need to write another list to catalogue the pile of Future Projects teetering inside my creative mind, there are rather a lot of them pinging in at the moment.

Right........now I've got all that off my chest I feel very much better, thanks ever so much for reading. On with the ripple tutorial.........................

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Working Saturday

Bluebells, Buttercups and Buffers

Crocheting Daffodils

Speedy September

Provence :: to market

To Market

Today we went to market and we bought a bag of baby plum tomatoes....

.....a huge bunch of fresh green coriander (a treat for the piggies, it's their absolute favourite thing to nibble).....

.....six incredibly juicy, sweet nectarines....

....and a punnet of sun ripened English strawberries.

It's been a while since I went to market but today I needed carrots for the dinner I had planned so off we went. I did buy carrots, but it was the juicy sweet fruits that really made me drool. Oh those nectarines! I couldn't resist them (six for £1) and we tucked into them as soon as we got home. They were utterly, drippingly delicious, tasting totally of summer time. The strawberries too, so sweet and juicy (we ate the whole lot after dinner).

I always feel really happy when I've been to the market and come home with a collection of brown paper bags full of fresh produce, it's one of the many, many reasons I love this little town I call home. Market towns are ace!

Which reminds me......it must be nearly dAhLiA time, yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Making me Happy

Tales from Connievan :: Summer Loving

Friday Blurble

Dorset Summer 2014 :: Visiting

Five Daily Happies

:: Happy #1 :: my back yard ::

Daily pleasure guaranteed in this teeny tiny little outside space of mine. I potter around out here many times a day, deadheading, watering, inspecting, and sometimes just sitting peacefully and breathing it all in. And by the way, I've decided not to paint the wall after all. Next year I want to grow lush leafy things up against it, I want it to become a wall of living greenery.

Things are really growing like billio out here, like really thriving and not just merely surviving! Little B's pumpkin is going great guns and this week I noticed that I have actual strawberries on my strawberry plants, so I'm very happy about that.

:: Happy #2 :: elevenses ::

I wonder if this is a particularly English thing or whether it's worldwide, do you know of "elevenses"? I really love this little ritual when I make time to sit a while in the late morning and enjoy something sweet to eat with a hot drink. This week I baked banana bread (this recipe) which makes rather a fantastic 11 o'clock treat.

I drink a good few mugs of fresh coffee each morning, but I especially enjoy the one that washes down the sweet treat at 11 o'clock.

:: Happy #3 :: flowers ::

Flowers always make me happy, but never more so than when I'm snipping them from my own pots. The snipping isn't a daily thing actually....

....but enjoying them indoors certainly is. Such simple pleasure, and a source of daily happiness for me.

:: Happy #4 :: crochet ::

Of course, I have to mention my daily fix of hooky feel-good!

Weirdly I've not been crocheting much of late, but a few days ago I got out my jolly bag of colourful chunky yarn and immersed myself in those gorgeously squishy rows (I'm making background stripes for my YARNDALE letters). It felt really good to be back with it again after an unplanned break.

:: Happy #5 :: sky gazing ::

I blame my Dad entirely for this habit as it was him who taught me the wonders of sky gazing when I was a small child. When I was growing up we had many books about the night sky and I used to know a lot about stars and the constellations. Clouds too, my Dad has some serious books on clouds. Today the clouds have been especially lovely, all puffy, fluffy and white, and I've spent rather a lot of time watching them breeze across the sky.

We had a terrific storm here yesterday afternoon, torrential rain, thunder, lightening, the works. A few hours later after the storm had blown out of town we were left with a most incredible evening sky and the whole house was lit up in a glorious glow of pink.

♥

I hope you are enjoying your days too and finding plenty of happy things to make you smile...

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!

Crocheting Daffodils

Creative Swapping

Artisan Bread

May Rose Wreath :: Ta-dah!

Super Smartie Cookies

Gosh, I absolutely love smarties. The combination of brightly coloured exterior and sweet chocolate interior is just confectionery perfection in my mind. The smarties on the above plate are not real smarties though, they are the sort that you scoop up from the supermarket pick'n'mix and pour into  a paper bag to be weighed. You get considerably more sweets for your money this way. Plus, it's possible to do a little bit of careful scooping in order to eliminate any brown ones from your colour mix. I know. I am that crazy oddball stood in the sweetie aisle taking a weirdly long time to scoop and colour-sort the sweets.

So I actually didn't buy these for myself, although I have sampled a few. I bought them yesterday when I was planning today :: a whole day looking after not only my Little People, but my neighbour's two girls as well, with heavy rain forecast. I hatched a cookie-making plan to combat the weather. And not just any old cookies, but Super Smartie Cookies no less, designed to keep the Littlies both entertained on a grey wet day and fed all in one swoop.

This morning I made up a simple shortbread recipe, as follows ::

Into a bowl put 30g caster sugar, 60g soft butter, 90g plain flour.

Rub the mixture together with your fingertips, as if you are making a crumble topping. It starts out crumbly but gradually the whole lot should come together to form a soft, smooth cookie dough.

Now if you only have one or two Little Peeps in residence you could happily let them have a go at making the dough themselves, it's a weeny bit messy but not that bad. However, to simplify things here today I decided to get it all ready in advance, weighing the dough and dividing it into five equal portions ready for my five eager bakers.

After lunch, I announced it was Cookie Making time, which caused shrieks of excitement and a mad rush to the kitchen. No no no, not in the kitchen, sit down at the table and I'll bring everything to you! Preparation is key with small children. Give each child their ball of cookie dough on a small square of baking parchment, and instruct them to use their hands and get busy walloping. Bang BANG! Wallop that cookie into shape!! They absolutely loved it, laughing hysterically whilst bashing with the palms of their hands to get that ball of dough flattened in double quick time. The cookie wants to be about 5mm thick I'd say, but the exact thickness isn't critcal.

Give each child their own pot of smarties to avoid fisty-cuffs. Equal amounts and equal colours in each pot.....

....and watch them do their thing. It's a delight, truly, I love to watch this kind of concentrated creativity.

When the cookies have been suitably smartied, all you need to do is pop the sheets of baking parchment onto a baking tray and slide the whole lot straight into the oven :: 180 degrees, for 20 minutes. The cookies should be just turning a very light golden brown around the edges.

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!! The smarties stay perfectly smartie-ish, embedded in the shortbread and keeping their colour beautifully.

By the way, the green "T" is Little Man's, he refused to go down the multicoloured route, tut tut, the little rebel.

The cookies do have to cool a bit before you can let the Little Peeps loose on them, the chocolate inside the smarties is very hot when it first comes out of the oven.

These were a great success, both the making of them and the subsequent devouring of them. The shortbread was really yummy (I was allowed to taste a weeny crumb), and the size of these cookies means that Little People feel like they've been given a pretty massive, super-sweet treat. Which of course they have, the lucky things.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Cheese Scones

Artisan Bread

Granny Bunting for Yarndale

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!

Settling Down

Here in the Attic we've spent this past week settling down and easing back into life at home. We've all been through the inevitable adjustment period that follows every holiday away, and I've noticed that each of us have dealt with it by gravitating to the things that we left behind/missed whilst we were on hols. It's interesting for me to look at these pictures and see what things I immediately chose to reconnect with at home, and to see that (shock-horror) this did not include any crochet!!! WHat the *&%@??!! I seem to be in a strange non-crochet phase right now, in part due to the fact that the only projects I have on the go are various Yarndale yarn bombing projects and I can't seem to get myself fully engaged with them just at the moment. However, my head suddenly seems to be FULL of ideas, they keep on arriving at the most unexpected of moments, popping in like brightly coloured bubbles, PING! I hope to be able to release some of them soonish before they begin to drive me crazy and stop me from sleeping. Oh, and whilst we're talking crochet, just to let you know that I'm working hard behind the scenes finishing up a full tute for edging a ripple blanket, and as soon as that is done and dusted I'll be ready to reveal my beloved coastal ripple blanket (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem very very very very excited for that!)

One of the very first things I did when I got home last week was check on my back yard pots. In fact, it was about 11pm on the night that we landed home when I suddenly thought CriKey, I do really hope everything has survived a week with no water!!!! I dashed outside in the dark and discovered that everything was on the verge of death, with some serious wilting happening left, right and centre. I spent the next 2o minutes throwing watering cans of water over everything and praying that it would all be ok....and by the following morning pretty much everything had perked up nicely. Phew. My pots are looking great actually, those flowers bring me such a lot of daily happiness :)

I snipped some stems to put on the table, do you know what, I don't think our table has been without flowers a-top of the mandala centre-piece since early May, isn't that a lovely thought?

There are now enough geraniums in flower for me to snip some stems without feeling guilty, so I did just that...snip, snip, snip, snip snip. I've got 5 different varieties/colours happening.....

.....a symphony of summer reds and pinks!

I put the jug beside my bed, does anyone else give themselves bedside flowers? You really should give it a go, the pleasure of waking up to the sight of a few colourful blooms just inches from your nose is really worth it.

When we holiday in Dorset, our bed there is supremely comfortable, it has a deep divan base and a newish mattress and a light but cosy feather duvet. But there is nothing nicer than the comfort of your own bed, is there? I love my bed, so very much, more than I think is completely normal actually.

Looking at the above photo, I think to myself I really, really must hang that beautiful framed print on the wall, it should be on the wall above my bed, not propped up there beside my bed on top of my books! I bought the print last Autumn after stumbling across it on Facebook and falling in love with the quirky style and delightful stitchiness of it. Would you like to take a closer look?

OK, here you go................................

...isn't it wonderful? Rosie Made A Thing is the name of the shop, and Rosie herself is an utter delight. Like me, she is a creative Mum to three Little People, and her work is unique and beautiful. I lover her writing style too, she has a very funny way with words and her Facebook page often has me laughing out loud. You can find the above print in Rosie's Etsy shop, along with some other real gems (by the way, Rosie has variations on the above image, with either 3, 4, 5 or 6 family members in the bed, so be sure to order the one that fits your own brood!)

Whilst settling down at home this week I have enjoyed being back in my own dinky little kitchen space. I have baked (fruity flapjacks and oaty cookies) as a little bit of home baked goodness is often very much appreciated by the Little People during school holidays. I've got some browning bananas to see to in a day or two (I love this recipe), which is perfect fodder for that "I'm staaaaaaaaaaaaarving" thing that my kiddos do without fail every day at 4pm.

I confess that it's not been so easy to ease back into cooking meals, in fact I've found that cooking up a nutritious family meal from scratch every day has felt like a real chore this past week. I loved the beach barbecues and easy no-cook salad meals we ate whilst on holiday! However,  I have thrown myself back into the kitchen, even trying out some new recipes - this chorizo and spinach paella was a great success, although the hair-raising cost of the saffron made me weep a little.

One of the loveliest things about coming home from holiday is getting back together with good friends. It's a hard thing to capture in photographic form if you don't wish to include the actual Friends in person, but the above image says it pretty well I think. This is me, sat at the kitchen table of my friend at number 18 late yesterday afternoon, enjoying a glass of chilled white wine. Tracy (my studio buddy) was also there as she lives close by, and often the three of us can be found drinking, chatting, crocheting and roaring with laughter on a weekend afternoon before we each get down to the business of cooking dinner for our families. Good friends are worth their weight in gold, and I am blessed to have them so close by.

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★...more little snippets from the Attic...★

The Starflower Mandala

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

2013 :: Year End Review :: crochet

Mandala Love

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

A Sunday Outing

We hadn't planned it, but today on the spur of the moment we decided to head out for Sunday Lunch. It's the end of J's holiday and he is back to work tomorrow, so we took ourselves out into the glorious Yorkshire Dales to one of J's most favourite pubs, the New Inn at Appletreewick. It's a very traditional country pub, old, down to earth, cosy and informal. The views of the surrounding countryside are breathtaking. As soon as you step inside you are enveloped by the combined scents of wood smoke and furniture polish, which is one of the most comforting and nostalgic smells for me and instantly reminded me of the old farmhouse where my grandparents used to live.

We placed our food order at the bar, then settled down in a cosy corner to relax with our drinks. In winter there is always a roaring open fire in the grate in this corner, but today it was light and airy and gave us beautiful views across the valley. Very strangely, when Little B took off his hat, there was a large lump of pink modelling clay sat on his head, honestly, there are no end of surprises with that child! So I took it and divided it into three small balls, giving each Little Person a piece and instructing them to model something amazing whilst waiting for lunch to arrive. Little Lady made a beautiful rising sun, Little Man made a comical alien, and Little B made a very cute snail. I can highly recommend carrying a lump or two of modelling clay in your bag/pocket/hat when going on Sunday outings with small children, I have never known them so quietly occupied and well behaved :)

Lunch was scrummy, we each had filled baguettes, with some extra portions of chunky handcut chips to share. Incredibly delicious they were too.

We drove the scenic way home, across the top of Barden Fell, pulling the car into the layby at the top of the hill  and taking a short stroll along the track.

I was surprised to see that the heather was already beginning to flower as I always think of heather-time as being in September.

It looks like it is only just starting to bloom....

....but already looking glorious.

This is such a terrifically beautiful place to spend a weeny slice of time, the views never fail to lift my spirits and chase away whatever worries or stresses are lingering at the back of my mind.

We had come prepared, and after a short walk along the track we settled down on some rocks to view the view and partake in some post-lunch refreshment. J and I had our  Travel Mugs full of fresh coffee, and I'd packed some oaty cookies which Little B and I baked this morning.

I think it's fair to say that I fell in love with my patch of Yorkshire all over again and that my longing for the coast of Dorset has finally subsided. I really do love where we live. Very, very much.

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★...more little snippets from the Attic...★

Cosy

Whitby in Winter

Cosy

Water and Sky

Around Malham

Autumn Half Term