Attic24

I'm a BusyBusyBusy Bee!

Preparations for Yarndale have been taking up much of my creative time lately, but I've really enjoyed being busy and keeping myself focused.

I managed to work out a way to neatly crochet my Starflower Mandalas onto plastic hoops to make these lovely decorations. I used 45cm child's hula hoops (I found them on Amazon) and I absolutely love the way they turned out....

...they look like colourful snowflakes! I was careful when I darned in all my ends so that they look equally good on both sides - I'm planning on hanging them from the ceiling so that they spin and twirl above everyone's heads (I can picture it, can you?)

But this past week they've been hanging on the wall in the studio looking very pretty indeed. The yarn in the basket there is the same that I used to make the starflowers, it's the BEST cotton I've ever used, really lovely to work with. Its Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK, which I can highly recommend for decorative crochet work.

Blogland is such a wonderful, generous, sharing kind of a place and I was absolutely thrilled when the lovely Hannapat of Cosmos and Cotton blog offered to make me a starflower for Yarndale. She used some very pretty summery shades of Drops Paris cotton, it's always so interesting seeing how others choose their colours!

In addition, one of Hannapat's blog readers also picked up on the idea of making a giant mandala for Yarndale....

...this one came Carol from who writes Smile at the Flowers blog, another big beauty (the mandala, not Carol!)

I stretched both these ones tightly across big 70cm hula hoops, they really do look fab. I've got one more beautiful mandala that I'm working on hooping up this week, made by Jacquie (Bunny Mummy blog). So all together I'll have six for my aerial display....can't wait to see how they look.

I've been fitting in crochet-time for Yarndale whenever possible during these past few months, it's amazing how quickly the weeks and months fly by. On Sunday it was beautifully mild and sunny here in my patch so I set up an outdoor workspace for myself in the back yard....

...and worked for many hours through the morning to complete another woolly sign (my fifth).

Work continued through to Monday down at the studio....

....I managed to somehow stitch on letters and eat some delicious soup whilst also carrying out some social media work for Yarndale, it was a full-on working kind of a  day!

Tomorrow (Wednesday), I'll begin to install all the colourful crochet in the local park ready for Yarndale weekend, I sincerely hope it stops pelting down with rain. Fingers crossed.

Alongside all the work I've been doing for Yarndale, I've also been working hard on other projects. I've been finishing up a brand new ripple blanket worked with a beautiful new yarn pack, I am really excited to very soon show you this latest ripple in all it's pretty, colourful glory. It's a real beauty, kind of soft and pretty but bright and cheery all at the same time. That's it up above look - it's called the "Cottage Blanket" as the inspiration behind the colour palette is an English cottage garden. Think of mellow terracotta and old stone, fragrant herbs and pretty summer flowers....sweet peas, lavender, clematis and roses. Delightful!

Awwwwww just look at this sweet couple, aren't they just so cute and woolly?! These are the Yarndale sheep, Betty and Bert, and they are the cover stars of our 2015 Yarndale calendar. Yes! A Calendar no less!! I worked hard at the end of the summer holidays with my good friend Carole (also a Yarndale team member) and together we styled and photographed a shed load of images in her beautiful house and garden. We took almost 300 pictures, and after a great deal of ummming and aaahhhing, we decided on the final 12......

....we very much hope that you like what we created?!

There are some Yarndale woolly images mixed in with a dash of Carole-style (rustic, with vintage inspired colours) and a smattering of Attic24-style (colourful hooky of course!). The calendars will be on sale at Yarndale this weekend, then will go into the Yarndale online shop sometime in October. We will happily ship them worldwide....hoping they get to travel across the globe bringing a little bit of woolly happiness into many homes during 2015.

I've recently started thinking about a new blanket design for the Autumn/Winter using a gloriously rich, warm, spicy palette of colours, oh-my-goodness, the thought of it makes me just want to leap up and down with excited anticipation! I'm calling this one the "Cosy Blanket", cos that's what these colours say to me. The colours are inspired by the Autumn Season - leaves and berries, Autumn flowers and harvest time.....yum!

In mid October I'll be heading down to London to the Knit and Stitch show at Alexandra Palace, to hang out with Stylecraft Yarns there. If you fancy coming along to say hello and see what I'm up to, I'll be there hooking and chatting during Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th October.

SO....I'll be very full on with Yarndale now until next week.

I've got a park to yarnbomb.

I've got a Knit & Natter Lounge to set up.

We've got 6,212 bunting triangles to hang as well as 1, 182 mandala wheels to display.

We've got 180 exhibitors to welcome, and then more than 6,000 visitors to entertain.......wish us luck!

See you soon!

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ps...almost forgot to mention!!!...If you are coming to Skipton for Yarndale, you are welcome to pop in and visit the studio!!

My studio buddy Tracy will be there to welcome visitors, and I'll even try and tidy my desk for you :)

Our creative knit n natter session is open to anyone who wishes to join in with some yarn and chat, Friday 9.30-11.30ish at Coopers Cafe Bar (5 mins walk up the road from the train station).

Open Studio times (first floor above Coopers Cafe Bar) as follows ::

Friday 1-4 ♦ Saturday 9-4 ♦ Sunday 12-4

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

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

The Starflower Mandala

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

Mandala Love

 

Recently

I just spent an hour uploading a load of photos to tell you all about how busy I am right now and the work I've been busy doing. It was all very busy! Colourful, and crochet laden, but work, work, work. I looked at the photos and honestly didn't really feel like writing the words, so instead I've spent another half an hour uploading random happy-pics from the past week or so. Snaps of ordinary life that have happened in between the mountains of work.

♥ A family walk on a grey Sunday around the reservoir, with geese flying over.

♥ The view from the Attic, with a delicious little patch of mellow sunlight creeping in.

♥ My back yard as seen from my bedroom window.

♥ The first bunch of dahlias from the market (yaaay, dahlias are back!!!)

♥ Sunday baking.

♥ Sitting in my back yard, working for hours on my Yarndale yarn signs. Hours.

♥ Blue sky overhead, the sound of early Sunday morning church bells and the jackdaws chattering to each other on the rooftops.

♥ A posy of flowers from my pots....

♥....now beside my bed making me happy morning and night.

So Yarndale happens this coming weekend, and I am mad-mental busy preparing for it. If I get chance to add some words to my busy-busy crochet photo post I will do that tomorrow and share. If not, I shall see a good many of you at Yarndale I hope, and the rest of you will hear from me next week when it is all done and dusted. Soon, my life will settle again. Soon.

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Out the Back

Often when I walk up or down my back street and catch sight of the flowers on top of my wall, it literally makes my heart leap with happiness. I swear it's a physical thing, a jolt of pure pleasure that flutters my heart then lands softly in the pit of my stomach.

My pots of cheap and cheerful summer annuals are really looking great I have to say. I've had those plastic green planters for many years, since before Little Man was born (so more than 12 years) and they have just about held it together this year although are broken and badly cracked in places. I've decided that next year it'll be time to replace them with some more big terracotta pots to go with the five already there. Those are old too, but still going good, they look better as they age.

I pottered about out the back here today, hanging out all the freshly washed shirts to dry, then deadheading my flowers and sweeping up a bit.

These straggly marigolds are still flowering well, their hardiness really surprises me and makes me happy. Those of you who've been visiting for a while may remember me planting the seeds into an old metal colander (two years ago), they just seem to survive and keep going year after year.

I re-potted Little B's pumpkin vine today too, I've been meaning to do it for weeks. I didn't have any spare pots so I've planted it straight into a full bag of compost (with drainage holes spiked all around the base) which I hope will do the trick. We love watching this vine grow and Little B is so proud of it. I don't expect it'll produce any pumpkins (we were too late planting it I think), but really that's beside the point. Watching the growth of those huge leaves is enough of a pleasure.

Just recently I confess I've been suffering from a little bit of Garden Envy. You know how it is when you kind of wish that you had something more out the back? Something bigger, greener, more room, better views, that kind of thing. We've been visiting friends and relatives lately who have houses with proper gardens, sitting out amidst their greenery and taking in their pleasant open vistas, admiring their carefully tended lawns, flower beds, trees and shrubs. Wishing just a little bit that we had a vegetable plot, some decking, a lawn, a summer house, a view.

And then I come home and reconnect with my teeny back yard and fall in love with it all over again, with the ease of it (just a watering can and a little bit of deadheading), and the cosy simplicity of it. I must keep remembering how lucky I am to have this modest back yard (we once lived in a second floor flat with no outside space at all), and to appreciate all the pleasure that it gives us.

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

Geranium Love

Five Daily Happies

Autumn Colour

Monday Moments

♥ Four Things ♥

Four things that have made me happy this week...

Thing # 1 :: in my back yard (and in my mouth, and in my tummy!)

:: four ripe strawberries, mmmmmmmmmmm! Oh my, the taste, the pleasure!! Indescribably sweet and juicy and we grew them! It was a weeny bit ridiculous to be so excited by four small fruits, but Little B and I just couldn't help ourselves ::

Thing # 2 :: in the front garden

:: A foggy early morning made such a spectacle out of these spiders webs, we were all entranced by them, their beauty, their unexpectedness. And they almost made us late for school too. I don't know - being so happily distracted by dewy webs is almost as bonkers as the Four Fruits Excitement ::

Thing # 3 :: through the Attic window

:: such gentle early Autumn late summer views through my window this week. It's been foggy and hazy and gently warm, with a sweet end of day pink glow and then big harvest moon rising ::

Thing #4 :: on my bed

:: Big Blanket is back in residence after a summer of folded waiting. I love this blanket so much and even though I know it's return means that Summer is ending, I am still really, really happy to have it back on the bed again. I would love to crochet a super-light summer sort of a blanket that can happily reside on the bed in the warmer months, but not sure what yarn fibre or weight would do. Any suggestions would be welcome ::

♥

Hoping you are all enjoying a happy week, full of life's little unexpected pleasures. I'd just like to say thank you for all your kind and supportive words here of late as I work my way through my changing days, I appreciate your friendship and empathy very much. Thank you xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

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

Open Studio :: June 2013

Juggling Act

To Market

Not There Yet

I am drifting gently through my Adjustment Phase, allowing myself to go with the flow and trying not to be too impatient when things don't feel quite right. I am finding that after weeks and weeks of hustle and bustle on the home front, I am finding the quiet and solitude surprisingly tricky to feel at ease with.

I have experienced periods of my life where I have lived in quite a solitary way and yet I have very rarely suffered from loneliness. I guess it just comes down to what you get used to. This morning I had a list of tasks that I knew I had to come home and attend to. In my mind, I was quite looking forward to coming home, putting the coffee machine on and sitting quietly at my desk to write emails and catch up on a bit of admin without any interruptions.

And yet whilst walking homewards I suddenly realised that I wasn't ready to face an empty house. So I went with the flow and took the long walk home from the market by way of a little diversion. A short scenic detour along the canal, through a bit of dappled woodland, behind the castle and along the leafy green lane....

....emerging at the top of this hill with it's pretty view. It's been a gorgeous day, mild and sunshiney, with the unmistakable whiff of early Autumn in the air.

When I got home I made fresh coffee, then grabbed a plastic bowl and went up the street to pick blackberries. I didn't pick many, just the ones that were hanging low over the pavement, enough to put with a tangy green apple.

Yes, I bought one solitary Bramley Apple from the market today, enough to add to the blackberries to make a simple fruit stew. Ooooo-mmmmm, it was so delicious! We ate it after dinner tonight, warm from the pan and a beautifully deep purple colour, spilling over a lump of vanilla ice cream.

Late morning and I had finished most of my computer work, so off to the studio I went. I am so so so lucky to have this room to go to, I appreciate it more than I am able to put into words.

I worked on one of my giant mandala-dream catcher decorations for Yarndale.  After many false starts (and bad words interspersed with caffeine), I think I've finally worked out a neat way to crochet this thing around the plastic hoop. If it works, I'll be happy. And I'll share my method with you, cos you never know when you might wish to create a giant dream catcher of your very own.

I'm hoping that by next week I might find the pattern of my days comes a little more naturally, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not there yet, but almost.

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Summer's End

Today these new black shoes were on Little B's feet and he started school age 4 years and 8 months. It's been a funny old day for sure. We had both been looking forward to it very much, him so excited to be starting out on his new journey and me dreaming of some long overdue time by myself.

The reality was very different to what I had expected. Not for Little B, no, no, he was just great. He bounded into the classroom full of happy confidence, he couldn't wait to get his hands on all that Fun Stuff. When I left him he was dressed up as Superman, chatting to his friend from nursery whilst waiting for his turn on the computer. I wandered slowly back along the canal, then spent about fifteen minutes aimlessly pottering about in and out of rooms photographing odd things. The house was full of deafening silence, so I put the radio on and made coffee. Sat in the big chair. And do you know what? For the first time in aaaaaaaaaaages, I felt lonely.

I drank my coffee and sat quietly working on a bit of blanket edging (the edge of the edge!). Crochet never, ever fails to calm my soul and rest my mind. But I decided that what I really needed was to go out. Out the house.....

....and down across the wet grassy slope of the park. Summer is gently drawing to an end and the first signs of Autumn were right there at my feet.

Sigh. I am really, really, really not ready to let Summer go just yet. Not until October I don't think. September is classed as Late Summer in my personal seasonal book.

I called at the supermarket for a few supplies and picked up a bunch of cheap n cheerful English Asters to take to the studio. Gosh, I've missed my studio very much, it was lovely to be back there today, pottering about, tidying up and knowing that I am at the beginning of a New Phase. From tomorrow, I'll have six child-free hours a day at my disposal and I am truly thankful that I have rather a lot of work on at the moment to neatly fill those hours. People keep asking me "what will you do with all the extra time now that Little B is at school?" And I reply simply that I shall work of course. I will go to my studio each day and work. Crochet, write, play with yarn. It feels unbelievably good to be able to say that, words cannot describe how good it makes me feel to know that I have such wonderful things to fill my daytime hours with. But crikey, I really did miss my Little People today, like really missed all three of them rather embarrassingly badly.

Another question I got asked a lot today was "did you have a Good Summer Holiday?" I answered without hesitation Yes, we did. It was a lovely summer, thank you. Just the right balance of everything and nothing, of leisure and laziness, of home and away. I think about the trips away that we've had this year and hope that the Little People enjoyed them as much as I did. We had a wonderful week in Dorset at the start, followed by some long, slow weeks idling about at home.

We had a  family outing to the quirky little local cinema here in town to see a film that I cannot for the life of me remember now. Errrrrrrr (desperately racking brain for the answer....nope, nothing, a complete blank. Ok, give in, asking J....) yes, that's it, it was "How to Train Your Dragon 2", Little B's first ever cinema experience. He fidgeted a lot, on and off my lap, big yawns (huuuge yawns actually) even though it was the middle of the afternoon, but I think he enjoyed it.

The days we spent at home were pretty good I think, it's hard to remember every detail now but the overall impression is one of happy laziness.

Aside from the sewing and the baking, I didn't attempt to interfere with their activity choices. They played outside quite a bit, and they sat at the table on the odd occasion to draw or colour or snip up bits of paper. They made paper aeroplanes and Little B went through half a reel of selotape sticking random bits of paper together.

Some of the time they gamed too, Minecraft mainly, and some Lego and racing games. Oh, and Little Big Planet. I didn't mind it really, didn't feel the need to limit it as they kind of did that for themselves. The gaming/screen time never seemed to be all consuming, and I am glad about that.

We went out and about when we needed to, to get food, new shoes, school uniform, Birthday presents. This was Little Lady and I, out in the park one evening, counting up how many lamp posts line the pathway (I am master planning my yarn bomb strategy for Yarndale, there are Thirty One lamp posts that need yarning).

Summer evening light, how very much I love it. I wish Summer lasted a whole lot longer, it's already getting dark way too soon for my liking.

So our Summer holiday this year was pretty chilled, lazy even. I spent ridiculous amounts of time wearing pyjamas, I know this fact as I seem to be wearing them in so many of the photos! Photos of me baking, picking flowers, drinking coffee, crocheting, cuddling my children. All in my pj's. Thinking I am a bit of a slattern!

I just found this picture of Little B's snuggly toy that he takes to bed each night, he's had it since he was a wee babe. We named him Pengy Quin after a penguin character in a children's tv programme, and he is very well loved I can tell you. It made me happy to come across Pengy Quin one day, all wrapped up in Little B's favourite crochet items (round cushion and Vintage Stripe blanket, both made out of James Brett Kool Cotton, now replaced with a similar yarn called Cotton-On). Four years since I made that little pram blanket, when Little B was still a baby, and he remains very attached to it.

The final week of our summer holiday was spent with Connievan, and what a fantastic week it was too. It was a truly gorgeous family holiday, the sort where everything just kind of went right and stacks of happy memories were made.

We went back to one of our favourite places, to the beautiful coastline of Northumberland. I had worried that we might miss the comforts of the cottage that we usually stay in when we're in this neck of the woods, but truthfully, the caravan provided us with such simple, cosy, comfortable accommodation that we didn't miss the cottage at all. True, we didn't have sea views from the caravan (we were a mile inland) but we made up for that by spending most of our days beside the sea.

It was just fabulous. I took a huge number of sea-drenched photos, it was exceedingly picturesque you know. I'd like to share them here, if you don't mind coming along with me and strolling along the shoreline? I'll show you my Sea Treasure! And my new favourite beach! We will picnic and walk and paddle and beach comb and sky gaze! We will visit castles and flower gardens, and endless sandy shores.......until then, thanks as always for stopping by..........

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

Autumn Wreath :: Ta-dah!

Coast Ripple blanket :: ta-dah!

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!