Attic24

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 5

It's been another happy, colourful week here and life on the Cosy Blanket front has been.....well, cosy! I've been working on my blanket mostly at home this week, sometimes managing to find little snippets of time during the day but mostly I work on it in the evenings once my Mummy-duties are all finished. These easy rows make for a perfect evening wind-down activity, although I do find that the soothing rhythm of them makes me very sleepy!

So how are you all getting along? Are you enjoying your blanket journey? It's been wonderful to catch up with all the blankets growing here, there and everywhere, such a pleasure to see. Here are a few that caught my eye during this past week.....

♥ Bea ♥

♥ Hildur ♥

♥ Martina ♥

♥ Kathryn ♥

♥ Clare ♥ (some lovely twinkly sparkles happening in Clare's blanket)

♥ Shelagh ♥ (LOVE this idea...Shelagh has converted the basic Cosy pattern into a square design, how fab is that?!)

And here is my own blanket with seventy five stripes, it's looking very definitely blankety now. I even managed to have a very teensy little nap on the sofa under it yesterday afternoon when I was feeling a bit under the weather.

I've measured my blanket after 5 x 15 stripes and mine is measuring 135cm. My plan is to make another set of 15 stripes to take us to 90 stripes in total (Part 6) then I'll see how much yarn I've got left. If I think there is enough, I may then add in a few more rows before working an edging, I'll be able to let you know next week. 

Some thoughts about yarn quantities and tension....

I've weighed my balls today (on my digital kitchen scales) and have 42g left of each colour, which tells me that each stripe is taking approx 11-12g of yarn. This is a good way of keeping a track of  yarn progress to see how it's holding out with a large project...if your tension is loose, you will be using more yarn for each stripe than I am. As you come towards the end of your blanket you'll need to be sure you've got enough yarn to finish - you may find that after 75 stripes you are happy with the length and can miss out part 6. It's advisable for you to use your own judgement here, and making less stripes is perfectly ok! You will still be able to follow the edging instructions which I'll design and write up once I'm happy with the length of my own blanket, the number of stripes can vary and the edging will still work out.

If you are following along with my random colour order, here is part 5 for you (stripes 61 - 75), working from the bottom upwards as follows ::

61. Spice

62. Camel

63. Lime

64. Violet

65. Magenta

66. Copper

67. Gold.

68. Meadow

69. Petrol

70. Raspberry

71. Claret

72. Khaki

73. Denim

74. Pale Rose

75. Grape

Here are some links ::

♥ Cosy Cal Part 1

♥ Cosy Cal Part 2

♥ Cosy Cal Part 3

♥ Cosy Cal Part 4

♥ Cosy Stripe Pattern

♥ Cosy yarn pack

♥ Cosy CAL thread on Ravelry

Wishing you a super-cosy week, I'll be back with Part 6 on Sunday 7th December.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

This Week...

♥ this week I have loved the familiar scent of woodsmoke in the cold air.

♥ this week it has mostly been very foggy, grey and damp here, but I have loved the sudden little snatches of pale sunlight.

♥ this week I took a train journey and relished the twenty five minutes of rolling views, crochet and thinking time. I LOVE crocheting on trains!

♥ this week I visited Salts Mill for the pleasure of great surroundings, great company, great conversation, great coffee, and hot crumpets toasted to perfection and served with butter and Tiptree jam.

♥ this week I thought about doing some Christmas shopping in Saltaire, but ended up wandering these beautiful little cobbled streets instead. It was a good choice.

♥ this week I enjoyed my crochet time in the café with friends, and loved the surprise of unexpected visitors to our creative group (I look a bit lonely in this photo, but only cos I arrived early!)

♥ this week our town switched on the Christmas Lights and I took Little B and Little Lady to join in the celebrations. It was crowded and jolly, and the all-white lights look stunning. I love this town very much.

♥ this week I enjoyed every moment of observing my hyacinths as they grow and prepare to bloom. Not long now!

♥ this week I lit candles every day to combat the gloom, the scent of this Spiced Ginger and Lemon Thyme candle is amaaaazing.

♥ this week I continued to pick up fallen leaves, bringing them home and marvelling at their colourful perfection.

♥ this week I joined the Little People in their growing excitement for the start of Advent. I've got my own advent calendar this year, I'm ridiculously excited to start this off on Monday. And it's mine, all mine!

♥ Hoping you've all had a great week, full of pleasure and happy little snippets!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Cowl-neck Poncho

Do you remember my Home Poncho from last winter? Well here I am again embarking on another poncho making journey following a pattern from this months Simply Crochet magazine (issue 25).  The Cowl-neck Poncho is a design by Simone Francis, and although I still have an irrational fear of written crochet patterns, I managed to get over it and jumped right in to give it a go. It was the bright colours that immediately caught my eye on the page, but also I do have a bit of a soft spot for crochet ponchos. I know they are a bit daft and not everyone's cup of tea but I really do like them. More to the point, I really enjoy being wrapped up in warm woolly layers during our cold winter months, and this chunky wool poncho promises to be a cosy little number.

Simone's pattern uses Drops Nepal, an aran weight wool/alpaca mix which comes in 50g balls and 31 lush shades (you can see all the colours on the drops website here). She uses "light beige" as her main colour, but I've chosen "light grey green" for mine. I also decided on a slightly different approach for the colour mix too - I've gone for mostly cool shades of blue and green with a few hot colours thrown in for good measure.

Now lets chat about the pattern. After my first look through, I simply sighed, closed the pages and put all poncho-making thoughts out of my mind. As is often the case, the start of this pattern read like absolute gibberish to me. 1FPTr? 1BPTr? What are these letters supposed to mean? It seemed way beyond my basic crochet skills.

The next day, I had another look and when nothing obvious sprang to mind I decided to use Google. I discovered that FPTr = Front Post Treble, and BPTr = Back Post Treble. I knew this was some sort of a rib stitch, but how to make my hook do these complicated rib-like things? The answer my lovelies, came to me via You Tube. I found an excellent video of a very nice sounding American lady performing Front Post Doubles (US terms here) and Back Post Doubles. I watched the video three times, then decided it maybe wasn't quite so tricky after all.

I won't even begin to explain how to make this rib pattern, you just need to go to the video and all will be shown to you in clear, visual detail. But I can tell you it is much easier than you would first assume, and it produces a really deliciously squidgy, bouncy, stretchy bit of crochet which looks and feels more like knitting. It's marvelous! I LOVE crochet rib!!!

So back to the colours. I've got this lovely Light Grey Green as my main colour, it looks quite grey here in the photos but in real life it's a lovely, soft greyish duck-egg blue colour. After much deliberation with my other colour choices, I decided to leave out the Dark Grey Green (middle row, second from right) and the Olive Mix (bottom row, far right).

I've also decided against giving my poncho a tassel fringe, which means I am able to increase my colourful rows. I'll have to see how it grows, but at the moment I'm aiming for roughly 22 granny rows (the original pattern has 16), with a couple of rows for some sort of an edging.

I've got my main colour (Light Grey Green) plus ten other colours....

Pistachio : Denim Blue : Royal Blue : Forget-Me-Not : Medium Blue

Grey/Purple : Purple Mix : Cerise : Orange Mix : Deep Red

I've arranged them into a pleasing stripe order and I'm now keeping my fingers crossed that it's going to turn out ok.

The yarn is good to work with, it's a fairly robust aran weight yarn worked on a 7 mm for the cowl (although I used 6.5 as I didn't have a 7 mm) and then a 6mm for the main body of the poncho. It's not mega-soft (it is quite woolly!) but I keep trying the cowl on to make sure I can cope with it near my skin and it feels very warm and pretty ok around my neck.

I'm really sorry about these poor photos, but by the time I came home from school this afternoon the light was fading fast. But I wanted to give you an idea of how it's coming along....

....I'm enjoying this woolly hooky very much and it makes a great portable project to take out and about in my bag now that my Cosy blanket is quite a size.

It's not often that I have two projects on the go at the same time, I'm rather enjoying the variety. It's the Spice of Life and all that...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Life in the Slow Lane

Life in the Attic feels wonderfully slooooow for me at the moment, and I am absolutely loving it. I am spending a lot of time at home during the week days, enjoying my own quiet company and the luxury of time spent doing simple, pleasurable domestic things.

I am back to baking bread again after some time without it, and the whole process is just as comforting as I remember it (this is an incredible no-knead, slow-rise Artisan type bread, the recipe is on my blog here).

I've been enjoying time spent in the kitchen making soup, experimenting with different recipes and trying them out on the Little People each week to see which ones work for us all. Interestingly, I prefer chunky soups whereas the rest of the family prefer smooth soups, so I've been bending to their preference and using my whizzing stick.

I made leek and potato soup this morning (Delia's recipe) which I ate for lunch with a couple slices of freshly baked bread. I thought it was really yummy, but when I fed it to the Little People this evening (with thick slices of cheese on toast to dunk in) they weren't so keen. Little B positively hated it (his screwed up face was a picture!) and they've jointly put in a request for a simple tomato soup next time. Ok then, I get the message. So far they have loved minestrone and also the sweet potato/tomato/red pepper one I made last week, so I conclude that tomato based flavours are the way to go.

Our weekend was exceptionally slow and relaxed, spent mainly at home with a couple of short trips out to run errands. I took the opportunity yesterday to do a little more Hama-beading (pattern here), these little plastic beads really do delight me!

Little Lady decided to get out this 500 piece jigsaw on Saturday evening, we've a small but well loved collection of jigsaws that see the light of day from time to time, mostly in the winter months. We've had this one (The Corner Shop) for a number of years and although we've completed it lots of times it really is a good one.

We all ended up joining in to complete it yesterday, it got quite competitive towards the end! I like 500 piece jigsaws because they fit neatly onto an A1 size piece of card/mountboard (with all the pieces spread out around the edge) meaning the whole thing can easily be moved when we want to use the table for meals. And this size jigsaw is easily do-able in a day or two, which makes it less prone to disaster. I'm a bit excited cos I've got this hidden away ready for the Christmas holidays..... I know, I'm a bit of a jigsaw nutter on the quiet, I used to do them all the time when I was a child.

Little B's latest obsession is good ol' fashioned dominoes. For a four year old he is remarkably quick and sharp minded and loves anything to do with numbers, it's been a real pleasure to take him on! We played loads of games over the weekend, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with J and Little Lady joining in. I managed to lose a remarkable number of times, why is that? Are there tactics to master when playing dominoes, any secrets that I should know about?

And guess what? Still no frost here!!!! This Autumn has been very mild, and after a very wet, damp grey week the sunshine finally returned this weekend. Little Lady and I ventured out of the house to visit the supermarket late yesterday afternoon and the light was so beautiful. That's our two shadows there on the canal bank, it was a short but sweet trip (to buy hot chocolate powder and crumpets!)

A scented candle and a sweet little Autumn posy on my table today. I picked a couple dried hydrangea flowers from my neighbour's front garden and added in some sprigs of rosemary and some dried berries. The little blue jug is new, well that's to say it's new to me. I found it at the collectors centre last week, it was only £3 as it has a small chip, but I loved it as soon as I saw it.

I have been entranced by the skies lately, most especially in the mornings. These pink clouds greeted me when I opened the curtains just before breakfast....

....and this was our walk to school this morning.

I've not been at the studio much, but today I spent some lovely hours sitting in my favourite chair in a glorious patch of warm sunlight. I was working on this.....

....a bit of nifty ribbing no less! Yes, something new on my 6.5 mm hook, pop by tomorrow and I'll show you what I'm up to........

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 4

Morning Cosy Hooksters! Hoping you've all had a fabulous week and that you've been enjoying your cosy stripes as much as I have. It's been cold here in North Yorkshire this past week and now that my blanket is a fairly decent size, I must say I've really been appreciating it's warmth as it sits across my lap. Working these rows of colour has given me a true feeling of contentment this week, both at home and at my creative café sessions with friends.

Much of my crochet time this week has taken place right in front of the fire, which has been a huge source of pleasure. A little bit of fireside blanket-making on a cold Autumn afternoon has to be one my most favourite things, it just feels so right! As you probably know, our living space here at number 24 is one large room which runs the whole length of the house from front to back. It means that in the evenings and at weekends, the whole family is here in one room each doing our own thing. Right now for example (Sunday morning), I am sat at my desk by the back window, Little Lady is at the dining table working on a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, Little B is playing on the Play Station and J is sat in the Big Chair by the front bay window reading the paper. In the evenings, I take up position by the fireside with my crochet, and the rest of the family continue to do their own things around me. It's family living and I love the cosiness of us all being together.

During these damp, very grey November days, I've truly loved the colours of my cosy blanket very, very much. The more I work with these colours and get to know the ways in which they play and sing together, the more pleasurable it becomes. I love the warmth of this palette, my yarn bag does honestly seem to glow sometimes!

I've also continued to LOVE keeping up with the CAL progress on Ravelry, Facebook and Instagram (Yes, Instagram, look at me doing Modern Day Things with my mobile phone!), and thought you might like to see some of the fabulous cosy blankets that have caught my eye this week....

♥ Elin ♥

♥ Alison ♥

♥ ElleL ♥

♥ Ingrid ♥

♥ Jane ♥

♥ Judy ♥

♥ Kathryn ♥

♥ Maggie ♥

♥ Mari ♥

♥ Marjolein ♥

♥ Selma ♥

♥ SnafflesMummy ♥

♥ Katherine ♥

♥ Sarah ♥ (I LOVE this - it's the same Cosy Pack colours but worked as a rainbow stripe)

SO much glorious colour inspiration, it makes me really happy to see this simple pattern being used as a way of exploring colour combinations, it's just brilliant. Please keep sharing your photos, either on Facebook, Ravelry or Instagram (please can you tag your blankety Instagram photos with #cosycal so I can find them!)

The weather here this past week has been dull and grey and it's been quite tough taking photos with such low light levels. But I've done my best, and oh I did have a bit of fun with my camera! I cleared a space on the living room floor in front of the fire, teetered on the edge of the coffee table and gave  myself a bit of a stripe fest! The stripes do of course run horizontally, but I couldn't resist the effect of photographing them running vertically - this picture reminded me instantly of the Dutch tulip fields that I was rather obsessed with last year.

This is what my cosy blanket looks like with sixty stripes of colour, I am really happy with how it's turning out. So if you are following along with my random colour order, here is part 4 for you (stripes 46- 60)...

Working from the bottom upwards, as follows :

46. Meadow

47. Camel

48. Denim

49. Claret

50. Spice

51. Lime

52. Magenta

53. Pale Rose

54. Gold

55. Khaki

56. Copper

57. Violet

58. Petrol

59. Grape

60. Raspberry

Here are some links ::

♥ Cosy Cal Part 1

♥ Cosy Cal Part 2

♥ Cosy Cal Part 3

♥ Cosy Stripe Pattern

♥ Cosy yarn pack

♥ Cosy CAL thread on Ravelry

Have fun with your yarn and hook this week my lovelies, I'll be back here with Part 5 on Sunday 30th November.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Shortbread Little People

One of things I've been appreciating since Little B started school is the opportunity to bake. And by that I mean the whole idea of baking On My Own. In the pre-school days we used to regularly bake together in the afternoons, in that shortish gap between lunch and the school run. I loved and treasured those times and have some very, very happy Mum-n-Little-B baking memories, but at the same time I do love the sort of baking that I get to do now. I love the gentleness of it, the radio playing, the warmth of the oven, just me and my thoughts and something sweet about to happen. Minimal mess. Creativity.

During the past few weeks I've pretty much worked my way through my familiar baking repertoire : iced buns, oaty cookies, lemon drizzle cake, banana bread, fruity flapjacks. All things that are loved by the whole family and make super-duper after school treats, puddings and weekend snacks.

And then one damp, grey day last week I had a mad craving for shortbread, the sort of craving that sent me scurrying to the kitchen in double quick time to check the Plain Flour situation. Shortbread is so very simple to make, using just three ingredients, but in order to bake on a whim the three ingredients have to always be present in the house. Thankfully there was just enough flour, and so shortbread biscuit making commenced.

I use a very simple formula for shortbread biscuits, and the thing to remember is 1:2:3.

That's 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts plain flour.

So for example, if you want to make up a big batch of biscuits, you would use 60g sugar, 120g butter and 180g plain flour.

And if you wish to make a small plate of dinky little Shortbread People, you would only need half the quantity, so 30g caster sugar, 60g butter, 90g plain flour will do nicely.

The method is a breeze. Put all ingredients into a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the whole lot comes together into a soft dough. By the way, the butter needs to be soft for this to work, so either use spreadable butter from a tub (my preference), or a lump of butter at room temperature.
Roll the dough out to 0.5cm thick. Or alternatively, work in small batches and simply use the palms of your hands to flatten out the dough (this is my preference as for some reason I really don't like using a rolling pin).

Now you will need a cookie cutter of your choice - hearts, stars or fluted circles work well, but occasionally it's rather nice to have a bit of fun with the shapes. I have the cutest little gingerbread boy cutter in my drawer, he measures just 6cm tall. I cut out the shapes and arranged them on a non stick baking sheet, then did a weeny bit of decorating before they hit the oven. Two holes for eyes (I used a small skewer for this), then some sugar sprinkles pressed gently into the tummy. I have coloured dots and red hearts in my drawer for just such an occasion.

Bake at 150 C for 20mins, they should come out crisp and very lightly golden. Sprinkle them with sugar whilst still hot then leave to cool on a wire rack.

These really hit the spot with an afternoon cuppa, although they were only a scant mouthful which kind of made me wish for a Mummy sized shortbread biscuit. But the Little People absolutely loved the Shortbread Little People when they came home from school, they really couldn't believe I'd made them all by myself. I felt a weeny bit proud of my biscuity achievments!

We had them for pudding for a few days too, eaten with a dollop of really yummy white chocolate and raspberry ice cream. The merciless decapitating and chomping of biscuity body parts caused much sniggering amongst my Little People, which was to be fully expected.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps ooooooooooooo look, I've just found biscuit cutters to recreate a whole family, who knew?!!

pps oh my goodness, I've just had a real laugh to myself, remembering Little Man's boy biscuits from four years ago!!!!!!!!!! Snigger!!!!!!!!!!

 

Loving...

Loving....the sound of the wind in the pine trees.

There are a dozen very tall pine trees going down the hill which we walk past every day, and I just love to stand underneath them and tune into the sound of their branches. On super-windy days, I can hear their noise all the way here in the Attic. It's oddly comforting and touches a very distant but familiar nostalgic childhood memory which I can't quite place.

Loving...the collection of pine cones I gathered in the Summer from the aforementioned tall trees which have sparked a creative idea this week.

I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited about it and can't wait to give it a go, but am waiting for supplies to arrive in the post. Tomorrow maybe the postman will bring me an envelope and I can get busy (fingers and toes crossed!)

Loving...swooshing through piles of freshly fallen cherry tree leaves on the school run.

They are almost all down now, just a few left on the branches waving like colourful flags. The colours of them are sensational and perfectly Autumnal, all glowing ambers, yellows, oranges and reds.

Loving... cosy fireside crochet.

Oh how I'm LOViNg this!!!! I sat beside the fire on Sunday afternoon and worked a few rows on my Cosy Stripe blanket, such a beautiful aspect to these cold November days spent hunkering down at home.

Loving...the very last few blooms from my back yard, for I feel sure there really won't be any more now.

I snipped just four beautiful flowers this morning, not quite a posy but they look perfect on my bathroom windowsill in an old glass bottle.

Loving...the start of Hyacinth Season - YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot tell you how happy I am each year when the first pots of hyacinth bulbs appear in the supermarket mid November. It's become something of a personal tradition of mine (every year since 2008), when the first pot comes home and my old Cornishware bowls are pressed into action.

Loving...the anticipation!

Oh, the waiting for these buds to grow and bloom is so, so sweet! I've gone for pink flowers to start the season off, I just cannot wait for that colour and that scent.

Loving...the setting sun.

Our days are so short now in November that we get to see the setting sun on the walk home from school at 3.40pm. It lights up the boats and bounces across the water making everything glow. In general, I find the low light levels, heavy clouds and long hours of darkness a bit hard going at this time of year, so I really appreciate the sunlight when we get it.

Hoping you're all having a good week and finding some simple things to lift your spirits and brighten your days. Stay happy!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 3

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 2

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 1

The Here and Now

Autumn View

Hama Beads for Mums

I confess that lately I've become a teensy bit addicted to the art of placing small plastic beads onto a white plastic board. I went through a brief spell of guilt regarding the sheer amount of time I've been spending either placing the plastic beads on the board or surfing the net looking for suitable designs for the plastic beads. But it didn't last long (the guilt, that is), and I soon got over it. I figure that if something as simple as Hama beading is giving me this much pleasure then I should be celebrating it, not feeling guilty.

The thing is, I got innocently caught up in Little Lady's rekindled Hama bead phase (now over it seems, as quickly as it began) and I followed her sweet footsteps into the depths of Pinterest. Oh yes, you can see where this is going, can't you? Much to my delight, I discovered that all manner of Tapestry Designs can quite happily be translated into plastic bead format, resulting in a wealth of design possibility aimed squarely at ladies of my age. And so I give you Hama Beads for Mums - a little nudge into this simple, creative, feel-good hobby. The above pixelated image is from a Cath Kidston book I believe, possibly the "Stitch! " one, although I'm not 100% sure about this as I found the image on Google.

I translated the little flower motif into bead form using a small square board, then adapted it slightly and made myself a little heart.

Ta-dah!!! This provided such a perfect diversion from the business of Doing The Housework, I was most pleased with the outcome. It also enabled me to get out the ironing board and iron, thus convincing myself that I really had done some housework after all. Well, I did go on to iron a few shirts afterwards, so it kind of worked as motivation in the end. Kind of.

Yesterday was a stay-home Sunday and I managed to spend much of my time flitting between leisurely pursuits of my choice (oh happy day!). The Hama beads called to me once more, especially as I had just taken delivery of a  Large Square Board. I wanted to try out another Cath Kidston design which had caught my beady eye on Pinterest (source here). Fortunately for me, we've amassed a fair stash of Hama beads over the past 7 years, so once I had the large board at my disposal, it was Hama-Beads-a-go-go!

Just as with a needlepoint design, the secret here is to establish a middle line, then work the design outwards from the centre.

It's insanely satisfying watching the pixelated flowers come to life....

....and the more you do, the more satisfaction there is.

I worked on my masterpiece solidly for an hour or so whilst my Little Peeps were busy playing with friends, then off to the ironing board I trotted....

.....it didn't go smoothly. I failed to get the iron hot enough the first time round and ended up with more than half the beads scattering themselves across the ironing board when I lifted up the ironing paper. It was one of those moments where I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or spit out a stream of cuss words. In the end I simply stood patiently at the ironing board and spent the next 20 minutes painstakingly putting every single bead back and trying again. Second time round I only lost a corner which was fairly easy to fix. Then third time lucky and it all went well. Phew.

This is my ironed plastic masterpiece, and I honestly love it. I love it! It measures 14cm square and looks very much better when viewed from a distance so that the pixelated image springs to life. I've got it propped up on my shelves at the moment along with  my collection of jugs, but that's only because Little B has stolen the lump of Blutack from my desk drawer. I do rather like to stick decorative things about the house in unexpected places, just for the pure pleasure of coming across them during the course of the day. I think I might put this one up on the bathroom wall when the blutack materialises, the colours will look lovely in there.

I wonder how many of you have Hama beads in the house (they're also called Perler beads)? They have very therapeutic properties you know. I've been asked about the ones I use, they're the "Midi beads" (as opposed to Maxi or Mini), you can buy them in packets of single colours, or in tubs of mixed colours . You then only need a suitable Pegboard and some sort of ironing paper (I use ordinary baking paper as I've lost the official sheet of hama bead paper), and away you go. Oh....I almost forgot....just in case you might need some sort of reference point, I've created a Hama Bead inspiration board on Pinterest, you know, because I thought it might be useful. Not because I'm obsessed or anything. Ooooo, have you seen the little Russian Dolls? And the birds?

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 3

Do you know what, I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was that yipppeeeeeee today is Sunday and I get to write my CAL post. I didn't exactly spring out of bed, but nevertheless, here I am at 8am sharing part three of this delicious Cosy crochet-a-long.

Last week I was mainly working my rows in sociable company as my blanket went with me to cafés and a good few times to my friend's kitchen table. This is a really great blanket to take out and about when you know there will be a fair bit of nattering going on as these rows are very forgiving when only half a brain is engaged in creating them. The pleasant lack of counting and the simplicity of the stitches means that you can have a really good chinwag without fear of messing up.

At Coopers Café Bar where I have my studio, we hold two social sessions a week - Tuesday afternoon 1-3pm and Friday morning 9-11am. There are currently four of us working on blankets so I get to Crochet-a-long in real life as well as on t'internet which is absolutely fantastic. I can confirm that working on these rows of rich, happy colour whilst chomping hot buttered crumpets (with homemade lemon curd) and slurping a mighty fine latté and at the same time chatting and laughing with creative friends is pretty hard to beat for complete all-round feel-good.

By the time you start working up part 3 (stripes 31-45), you will begin to have a very cosy little lap blanket draped over your knees as you work. It's very snugly and already delivering a great deal of blankety pleasure. As the blanket grows and is being carted around in my bag quite a lot of the time, the rows are starting to ease and stretch slightly but the surface texture is still wonderfully pleasing. I thought I'd get out my tape measure and give you a little progress report on my own hooky - I'm working to 120cm width and after part 3 (45 stripes) my blanket is measuring 80cm. I'm thinking this could well be the half way point and there will definitely be three more installments (making 90 stripes), but I might possibly add a few more depending on how far the yarn stretches and what the blanket looks and feels like when I arrive at this point.

One of the loveliest things about doing this as a CAL is that I get to see and feel the shared joy as so many of us work on our stripes around the world. I've been love love lovin' the pictures that you've shared on Facebook and Ravelry this past week, thank you SO MUCH for keeping me company on this happy journey. Shall we take a look at some Cosy Blankets in progress?

>>

This lovely blanket was beautifully photographed with Autumn trees in the background {Diane in North Carolina}.

Here we have not none but two cosy blankets taking shape at the same time - I've LOVED seeing how these colours look when rippled {Creations2Love}

Anna sent in this picture of her sat in a cosy bookshop working on her blanket {Anna in Maryland}

This is Beth crocheting whilst at work 35,000 feet above the Grand Canyon!!!

A beautiful cosy blanket in the making using a lovely, soft palette of colours {Elin}

Such a lovely contrast to my own colour selection, Selma's cosy blanket is taking shape in pale neutrals to match her decor {Eclectic Home Life}

This has really pleased me too - the cosy stripe looking super-pretty worked up using the summery Cottage colours {Estelle in New York}

WOW, those colours are singing a happy song! These are the colours I used for my granny stripe blanket in 2010, they look stunning worked up in the new cosy stripe {Iris in The Netherlands}

And look at this  - Coastal colours have taken a cosy turn too! {Lynne in Australia}

This is how my cosy blanket is looking after 45 stripes, it is making me so happy :)

The colours seem to glow and dance, it really is looking stunning I have to say.

Right - if you are following along with my colours, here is part 3 for you (stripes 31-45)

Working from the bottom upwards, as follows...

31. Spice

32. Camel

33. Meadow

34. Petrol

35. Magenta

36. Grape

37. Pale Rose

38. Khaki

39. Lime

40. Denim

41. Claret

42. Gold

43. Copper

44. Raspberry

45. Violet

Here are some links ::

♥ Cosy Cal Part 1

♥ Cosy Cal Part 2

♥ Cosy Stripe Pattern

♥ Cosy yarn pack

♥ Cosy CAL thread on Ravelry

Wishing you a cosy week my friends, I'll be back with Part 4 next Sunday 23rd November.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

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

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 2

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 1

Autumn View

Pumpkin Love

Woodland Walk

I took a short stroll just me and myself on Sunday morning, to enjoy the simple pleasure of walking and breathing in some damp woodland air.

I've lived here for seven years now, and still find it hard to believe that I can take this walk whenever I fancy it. I feel so lucky when I remember this fact.

It only takes ten minutes to reach the woodland from my door. Along the road, up the hill, past the chickens, along the lane, then down round the corner and I am there.

I walk slowly, ambling, gently scuffing my boots in drifts of leaves, looking out for patches of glorious Autumn colour to feed my soul.

And then through the wooden gate and into the woodland, the familiar scent of damp earth and leaves, the beautiful shafts of soft golden sunlight filtering through the trees.

Not many leaves left now, they are nearly all on the ground. But it means that the daylight shines through the canopy and the blue sky overhead looks wonderful.

I am not alone in the woodland, there are plenty of people (and dogs) doing the the exact same thing as me and enjoying a Sunday morning stroll. And yet it is still incredibly peaceful, still and quiet.

I linger a while beside the pond, drinking in the reflections and briefly wondering what the rest of the clan is up to back at home. I wish for just a very, very, very short while that they were with me, but truthfully I am enjoying the time alone.

I am drawn to the sound of rushing water and take a short detour to take in the waterfall. I just love to stand and stare at that weird and wonderful point where the still water tumbles over the edge, it's absolutely mesmerising!

It's almost lunch time and I decide it's time to head back towards town and treat myself to a fresh hot pasty from the bakers.

As I wander back along the footpath I smile when I spot Leo (the little pleasure boat) chugging up the beck carrying half a dozen passengers. Little B and I took a ride on that boat last Spring (when he was 3 years old) and the memory springs into my mind as if it were yesterday. Happy days.

I enjoyed taking these photographs whilst out on my walk, it's lovely to look at the pictures a few days later and remember the experience. I always carry my trusty little Point and Shoot Camera in my bag so that I can record the things that make me stop in my tracks wherever I go. Vistas and views, foliage and flowers, all in full, glorious colour. I think I'm rather liking this Autumn.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx