Attic24

Autumn View

I keep wondering if after so many years of not liking Autumn all that much, I might've changed a little in recent years? I know that I don't dread it in the same way I used to, and I also admit that I have become rather fond of certain Autumnal aspects. The morning skies in November can be pretty spectacular, and despite the rapidly shortening days I find myself entranced by the Autumn light.

It's been a mild Autumn here in my patch, and here we are in mid November and still no sign of frost. I am glad, cos I'm always sad when the cheerful nasturtiums and geraniums come to a cold, frosty end. No frost, but bloomin' 'eck it's been cold! My hat and wrist warmers are out of the storage bag to keep me cosy for another year and I've enjoyed the comfort of wearing those familiar, well worn things.

The colours of Autumn are undoubtedly one of the season's highlights for me, and I gather them in as I go about my day to day pottering. Some days it's just a visual gathering, but often I feel compelled to pick up fallen leaves and bring their glorious colour home to my table.

Now that the Summer is over, the Little People have returned to indoor play and much of it still takes place around our table. There is a rolling programme of activity, a sort of a table-top dance that takes place each day as crafting, homework, paperwork, crochet, reading, socialising and mealtimes all take their turn about the table. During this past week we have had domino runs, card tricks, loom bands, colouring books, writing, drawing and Hama beads. Oh, I do love love love the Hama bead thing when it is in full swing here, it really makes me happy to see all three of my Little Peeps engaged in this simple act of creativity. Little Lady is the most prolific at the moment, she made me this really cute fox after spotting it on Pinterest. Little B made the coloured mat for Foxie to sit on, and this little table still-life makes me smile every day :)

On Friday evening we conducted The First Lighting Of The Fire, it always feels like a celebration when the first fire of the Autumn season is lit. After dinner I sat right in front of it with my cosy crochet until I got too a tad too hot and sweaty and had to retreat!

I went for a walk yesterday morning, a short solo stroll through the local woods to take in the Autumn views. The rest of the family stayed home, I was surprised that even Little B declined the offer to go for a walk in the woods, although he did waver ever so slightly. No matter, I was happy enough to set out by myself and enjoyed the mild weather, the fresh air and the soft shafts of sunlight.

Much of the leaf colour has already been and gone in the woodland, I was a bit late to see it this year.

Our slow cooker is being used for many of our meals at the moment as we get back into the season of warming curries, wholesome stews and hearty soups. I've got a few slow cooker recipe books, but this one is my absolute favourite and it has never failed to deliver great tasting, easy recipes that work every time. This morning I made the minestrone soup which cooked slowly all day, and we ate it this evening with a generous helping of grated cheese on top and some warm cheese and tomato flat bread to dip in. It was absolutely yummy and was wolfed down appreciatively by all five of us (Little B made me smile by pronouncing it "IncREDibly delicious"!)

I have to tell you, I am thrilled that my little thyme plant has thrived this year in the back yard. Being able to step out the back door and pluck a few fresh stems to add to my cooking this morning made me absurdly happy. I don't have a great track record with thyme (I've dealt with many a deceased plant in my time) so I am willing this one to come safely through the winter and carry on providing me with it's aromatic leaves. C'mon little plant, you can make it!

Ahh Hama beads again, I told you I do love it when these make a come back in the Attic. Yesterday I found myself drawn into Little Lady's ongoing Pinterest search for appealing designs and fell head over heels with this little Russian folk doll....

....yes, all my own work (cold, Autumn afternoons are just made for gentle activities like this). I am rather pleased with her although I find myself a teensy bit bothered by the holes all over her face, poor love.

And finally - the view from my eyes down into my lap this morning as I granted myself a little bit of cosy hooky time on the sofa. My Home Poncho is often on my person now we're into the cold months of the year, it's colour, warmth and comfort is absolutely wonderful.

Here's wishing you all a heap load of happy views, both inside and out.

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Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 2

This Cosy blanket is proving to be one huge, big, happy pleasure ride for me, delivering exactly the right amount of relaxation, comfort and joy as I grow these delicious rows of colour. Thank you so, so much for your wonderful response to my Crochet-a-long idea, I am honestly thrilled that so many of you are going to be joining me with your own creations. It makes me incredibly happy to imagine all of us around the world making our rows of treble stitches together, creating beautiful blankets for our homes and loved ones. That collective hooky feel-good is just wonderful to imagine, isn't it?

Thank you so much for telling me of your own hooky plans too, I really love to read how you are planning your own blankets. I know many of you are choosing to play alongside me using the same cosy colours, and I'm excited to tell you that the more the blanket grows, the more the colours are singing, you're going to love it. I am also delighted to hear that many of you are diving into your stash and creating your very own cosy palette, which is wonderful. Many of you are using the cosy stripe pattern, while some of you are using the cosy colours but with the neat ripple pattern (would love to see that!). I am really excited to see the collective cosy blankets unfold in all their colourful glory.

So hopefully those of you who have jumped in and made a start have managed OK? I've picked up on a few minor troubles with stitch counts and tension/size, but mostly I think this pattern is easy enough not to cause too much scratching of heads and raised eyebrows. The tension issue is interesting....obviously this is not a garment and the tension is not critical in terms of fit or style, but at the same time it's helpful to know that 1500g yarn will indeed produce the blanket. On the tutorial page I've advised folks to check the measurements after working row 1. You are aiming to produce roughly 120cm width, so if after row 1 you have ended up with a lot more than that, you know you will probably run out of yarn! You can either stick with it and use more yarn, or reduce your starting chain (keep to multiples of 3) to make it roughly the correct width. I'll leave that up to you :)

I was working Part 2 of my own blanket during Half Term when I was down in Dorset. It proved to be a blessed thing indeed, given that for much my time away I was battling with a huge amount of nervous tension and anxiety combined with long hours sitting with my Mum. I sat beside her in front of her beautiful wood burning stove, drinking endless cups of tea in floral bone china mugs, talking gently and hooking. Sometimes not talking at all, but just sitting, thinking, working my hands in that familiar rhythm to ease away the tension. Mum loved the colours, they are perhaps a little bright for her, but I think she enjoyed their cheerfulness and appreciated the Autumnal thing.

When I had completed part 2 (30 stripes) I laid the blanket out on the decking in the back garden of my Dad's house and thought : WOW. I really, really love these colours, and I really, really love the effect of this stripe. I love the series of little arches/holes created in rows 3, 7, 11 etc, they please me enormously and remind me of the famous Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorskhire Dales!

So here are the colours for Part 2, working from the bottom upwards. I'm going to start numbering them in terms of stripes now so we can count/keep track more easily.

16. Khaki

17. Petrol

18. Copper

19. Lime

20. Camel

21. Spice

22. Claret

23. Magenta

24. Grape

25. Violet

26. Denim

27. Meadow

28. Gold

29. Pale Rose

30. Raspberry

Here are some links ::

♥ Cosy Cal Part 1

♥ Cosy Stripe Pattern

♥ Cosy yarn pack

♥ Cosy CAL thread on Ravelry

Wishing you a glorious week of happy hooky, I'll be back with Part 3 next Sunday 16th November.

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ps just a gentle reminder that this is a relaxed, casual Crochet-a-long, so please don't feel pressured about being behind or catching up or starting late. Work at your own pace and enjoy the whole experience as it fits in with your life and other projects etc, this is all about cosy pleasure remember :)xxxxx

 

 

Cosy Blanket CAL : Part 1

Those of you who've been visiting me in the Attic over the years will be very familiar with my blanket obsession. When I first picked up a crochet hook in the Summer of '07 and taught myself what to do with that metal stick, I knew without doubt that my very first project would be a blanket. No question about it, I was always going to be a Maker of Blankets. Seven years and a good many projects later, and nothing much has changed, which is kind of comforting really. And I guess that's a big part of the appeal for me - the comfort of crocheting a blanket over a length of time is just so addictively lovely! You can lose yourself in those therapeutic rows of colour, snuggling under them as your blanket grows, and at the end of it all there is a beautiful object that carries on delivering comfort for many more years.

Towards the end of August I decided to plan a special blanket journey that would take me from Autumn to Winter, something to look forward to after the hectic Summer months preparing for Yarndale. I was craving an easy blanket that would deliver a maximum amount of hooky pleasure with very little brain power. Something simple, relaxing and soothing. I actually set about choosing some colours before I settled on the pattern, and this part of the decision making came together remarkably quickly. I could already visualise what I was after you see - something warm, rich and cosy which would cheer my soul as the Autumn season closed in.

As you know I absolutely adore playing with colour, and coming up with gorgeous colour schemes floats my creative boat almost as much as the crochet does. I look at the above colours, and my heart sings with pleasure! They look so scrumptious!

Following on from my previous two blankets (the Coast and the Cottage ripples), I chose 15 colours of Stylecraft Special DK for this Autumn-inspired blanket. These colours give me exactly the feelings I was after as we head away from my beloved Summer - they are happy, vibrant, rich and warm.....perfectly cheery for the cold months of the year.

The colours were inspired by my memories of Autumn, by the things that I associate with the natural world at this time of year. Leaves, berries and flowers - nature's Autumnal rainbow if you like. I made the above sample to test out the rainbowy credentials of the colours, to see how they would look when placed in a very considered order. I absolutely love the way this looks, and honestly for a while I was very tempted just to stick with this tried and tested stripe order. I dithered over making a "Cosy Rainbow" blanket, but in the end I know myself well, and I know that by repeating the same colour sequence I would get a teensy bit bored after a while.

But that doesn't mean to say that I can't play with the rainbow idea for a bit, does it?

A few weeks ago, I happened across an amazing artist called Philippa Stanton, who works with natural finds to create the most incredible still life images. She regularly photographs her "pickings" (leaves, berries, flowers, moss, twigs etc) on an old table in her home in Brighton and shares her images on her blog { 5ftinf }. Her work is utterly captivating and inspiring, and I instantly felt a strong connection as we appear to both own the same rainbow-tinted glasses! Do go and feast your eyes on Philippa's colourful work, I'm sure it will make you smile (a lot).

I know she inspired me enormously, as I found myself one glorious Autumn day last month gathering my own colourful bits and pieces of nature to feed my creative soul. I think I must have been colour-hungry that day, because I spent all morning playing with this little lot, gobbling up the gorgeous colours and immersing myself in a 5ftinf-style rainbow photo-fest........

oh, the joy!!!!!!!! The absolute joy of playing with bits of nature, just for the sheer pleasure of it! I was trying to see if I could create the real-life natural version of my Cosy Rainbow.....

.....and yes, I pretty much think I managed it. I had imagined these things in my mind when I put the colours together back in August, and it was unbelievably lovely to see that the reality did in fact match the memory.

I imagined Autumn leaves, chinese lanterns, beech nuts and shiny chestnuts....

....glowing red and orange berries, sycamore seeds and that particular type of limey green and golden yellow that appears in the leaves at the end of the Summer....

.....and I thought about hydrangeas and those beautiful purply-blues....

....and the way that magenta and pink is still very much a part of the floral world in Autumn.

That day back in October that I spent making colourful photographs was infused with deep happiness, at a time when actually things weren't feeling so good. The whole experience uplifted my spirits, it really did.

I started making my new Cosy blanket in the middle of October, but I had this idea that I would love more than anything to go back to the business of sharing my journey here on my blog. Making the Coast and Cottage blankets earlier this year taught me that I am much happier doing the sharing thing, than doing the secretive thing. It suits me much, much better to be able to talk about what I'm making at the time I'm making it. So I've decided to do just that - to share the journey. It means there will still be a happy Ta-dah moment at the end, but you will be able to follow the blanket as it progresses and grows.

I also thought it might be fun to casually invite you to crochet a long with me, if any of you would like to? I say casual, because this CAL (which stands for "Crochet-a-long", in case you often wondered but didn't like to ask) will flow gently as we head through November and December, and possibly into January depending on how distracted I become by a) a Winter Wreath idea shouting for attention and b) a desire to crochet some Christmas decorations next month.

Do you like the pattern I'm using? it uses just one crochet stitch -  Treble Crochet (Double Crochet in the US). It's an incredibly simple but very effective mixed stripe using two rows of crochet for each colour. The simplicity of it (very little counting or pattern reading!) makes it a hugely enjoyable project where you can just get lost in the joy of the colour.

The rows grow satisfyingly quickly, and the simple mix of stitches creates a beautiful surface texture. The rows do look quite "bumpy" and textured here, but I'm thinking it'll probably stretch out and relax a bit more as the blanket grows and there is more weight to it.

I came up with this pattern as a way of providing myself with a super-relaxing, low-brain-power project, but also as a way of encouraging Newbie Hookers to think about having a go at making a blanket. I know that often new crocheters are daunted by the prospect of embarking on a big project, fearing that they might not be able to ever finish, or that they simply might find it too hard. I've made this stripe as easy as I know how, whilst still making it look a little different and new. And I promise you, it really is easy (just trebles!). I've written up the pattern (it's called the Cosy Stripe) with a full step-by-step tutorial to guide you through each row.

You can use whatever yarn and colours tickle your fancy for the cosy stripe, just so long as they make you feel warm and happy. This blanket would make a great stash-buster if you've got lots of odds and ends of colours that would look good hooked into random stripes.

There aren't any rules with this Crochet-a-long, it's going to be ridiculously casual, excepting that I am making a promise to open my Attic window and show you my blanket progress every Sunday throughout November and December (and possibly January, depending on how far I get this side of New Year). I'm using 15 Cosy Colours of Stylecraft Special DK (on a 4mm hook) for my blanket, worked in a random order as that is what makes me tick. You are very welcome to follow along with me as I'll be sharing my exact colour sequence each week as I work my own blanket, but that's only if you wish to. The whole point of this CAL is that it gets us all snuggling under some happy colourful rows, which in my opinion has to be a good thing :) The colours that you choose have to be right for you, they have to make you feel happy!

Each week when I share my progress, I'll show you the part of the blanket I've just made. The image above shows the very beginning of the blanket working from the bottom (Petrol) row up to the top (Violet) row, as follows :

1. Petrol (foundation chain and rows 1 & 2)

2. Meadow (rows 3 & 4)

3. Camel (rows 5 & 6)

4. Gold (rows 7 & 8)

5. Claret (rows 9 & 10)

6. Copper (rows 11 & 12)

7. Lime (rows 13 & 14)

8. Khaki (rows 15 & 16)

9. Grape (rows 17 & 18)

10. Magenta (rows 19 & 20)

11. Pale Rose (rows 21 & 22)

12. Spice (rows 23 & 24)

13. Raspberry (rows 25 & 26)

14. Denim (rows 27 & 28)

15. Violet rows (rows 29 & 30)

In case it's helpful - here is how I "do" random colours for my blankets. I use yarn pegs to help me order the colours first, playing with the pegs and working out 15 rows/colours at a time. When I'm happy with how the pegs look all lined up, I use snips of yarn selotaped to a bit of paper to act as a "colour pattern". I keep this with my crochet hook, then I always have a clear guide to working up the next set of stripes. It also means that when I head out to the café/pub with my hooky, I only have to grab 3 or 4 balls to pop into my bag rather than cart the whole lot out and about.

I would love to hear if you're going to join me making your very own Cosy blanket - what colours are you going to go for I wonder, will you stash-bust or choose your own collection of cosy colours? I really hope you'll love working the pattern as much as I do, it really is fab.

Here are some info links ::

♥ Cosy Stripe Pattern ♥ Cosy CAL thread on Ravelry ♥ Cosy yarn pack ♥

Remember I'll be sharing the Cosy CAL every Sunday, so Part 2 will be this coming Sunday 9th November. I've created a CAL category so that all posts relating to this blanket journey will be tagged to make it easier if you are coming in part way through and want to get to the beginning. You don't need to sign up, or make promises to join in this CAL, just jump in and have fun, take it at your own pace, but don't forget to tell me how you're getting on!

Happy Cosy Hooking!

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Café and Colour

This morning after the school run I spent a delicious hour at the little café where I have my studio. It's just the loveliest place to sit in a pool of Autumn sunshine, drink a very, very good coffee and listen to the banter of the beautiful ladies who work there. I sat and let it all happen around me, the chat and laughter, the baking and cooking, the familiar sounds and smells of the coffee making rituals, the customers coming and going with snippets of conversation. I just love it, I love café life so much. It's warm and friendly, comforting and welcoming.

I sat and sipped my latté and pondered over my week. I thought about the many decisions I've been making, about the ticks on my lengthy to-do list that've been happening slowly but surely, about the very many things still shouting for my attention. Emails. Invoices. Project specs. Blog posts. And then I went up to my studio and played with colour and lost myself for a while in it's pleasures.

I've got a lot of writing to do for Yarndale during the next week or so, a series of blog posts to tell the story of the festival this year. I've made a start tonight with the first post, you can read about it over on the Yarndale blog if you like. I've also got a surprise to share with you all re the Mandalas, something I've been working on during the past month with J which I hope will be ready by the weekend. I really hope you're going to like it.

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EDIT :: The Yarndale posts mentioned above will be written by me during this next week, but will appear on the Yarndale blog. That way those who wish to read them can do so, and those who don't wish to read them don't have to bother. Now please can we STOP arguing?

 

Floral Delight

Autumn here this year is proving to be right up my street, and I am seriously loving these mellow, sunshiny days that still have a very slight tinge of summer to them. I bought myself some new socks yesterday, but much of the time I am still going sock-less, which really makes me feel oddly carefree and still very vaguely summerish. And yet it's November, and I can still manage to wear my red mary janes with no sockage! Happy days.

My back yard pots are beginning their sleepy descent towards hibernation now, but I just had to show you what my alive-not-dead clematis is up to......look! Look, look!! The buds are popping open one after another and I have a whole load of beautiful blooms to gaze at as I trundle in and out of the back door. I am so, so happy about the unexpected rising from the dead of this brave plant! I attempted to identify the flower this morning, and I think possibly it might be this one : Madame Julia Correvon. What do you think? Any knowledgable clematis lovers out there who can confirm? Anyhow, it really doesn't matter what her name is, but I just love that she is flowering at long last.

As I mentioned, the rest of the pots are looking green but sleepy. We've had some very cold nights just recently and now that we're in November I know that Jack Frost will be paying a visit very soon.

It means that gathering a small posy of flowers for the table is even more special than usual, as it may well be the last for this year.

I can never get enough of these intense bold colours, I really love them a lot. The reds, oranges, pinks and purples with a splash of yellow thrown in just sings Summer to me.

I've been thinking today about all the little back yard posies I've shared on my blog over the years, and how they always make me so happy.

Having a small jug or jar of homegrown blooms on the table really is one of life's true pleasures.

And yes, as you can see we're smack bang in the middle of a rekindled Hama bead obsession here at number 24. In her search on the www for cute little Kawaii designs to translate into Hama bead form, Little Lady has this very day discovered Pinterest. She has been genuinely thrilled to suddenly find all this amazing inspiration at her finger tips, and I know exactly how she feels. And I can also see a whole load of cute plastic animals and foodstuffs in my immediate future, awaiting my assistance at the ironing board. I've already melted a pencil (with personality), a cupcake and a pony. Could be worse I suppose, it beats ironing shirts.

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Pumpkin Love

When we were down in Dorset last week driving back and forth to my Mum's cottage, we drove past a small farm house selling pumpkins. Each day there would be three or four beautiful orange pumpkins of varying size placed on the wall in front of the house, with an "honesty box" and a hand written sign pricing them at £2.50.

I spent many hours sat with my Mum last week whilst J took the Little People out and about. When we got back one afternoon the Little Peeps made me close my eyes as I went into the kitchen (I honestly had no idea what was going on), then there was this big Ta-daaaaaaah!! and this amazing pumpkin was revealed. It was such a sweet thing for them to do to cheer me up, as they know how much I love carving our annual halloween pumpkin.

Because of the way the pumpkin had come to me this year, I wanted to do something a bit special with it. I hopped onto Pinterest and began drinking in all sorts of ghoulish ideas for spooky pumpkin lanterns. Nothing quite grabbed me until I came across this Night Owl. The design came from a website called "Zombie Pumpkins" (yes, really) and I managed to fairly easily print the design and trace it onto the front of my gorgeous Dorset Pumpkin. 

On Friday afternoon, The Little People were off getting dressed and made up ready for a Halloween Party, so I was given full, peaceful permission to Do The Pumpkin. I used an ice cream scoop to carve out the pumpkin flesh, then a small sharp kitchen knife to carefully cut out the shapes. Finally, I used a lino cutting tool to carve some extra patterns, and I tell you I was one happy, satisfied, Halloween Mummy!

I was absolutely chuffed to bits with how it turned out and couldn't wait for it to get dark so that I could light up the candles inside.

Everyone who came to our door trick or treating that evening loved it, and even took photos of it. It's definitely my best halloween pumpkin to date, and the Little People were suitably impressed by my carving skillz.

I was left with 600g of scooped out pumpkin innards, so on Saturday I decided to have a go at baking a pumpkin pie.

I don't think any of us here in the Attic have ever eaten pumpkin pie before, so it was a bit of a gamble really, but I did want to give it a go. I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food website, then set about doing pastry stuff and making my spiced pumpkin filling. It took an age to do.....and the result? I have to confess that none of us really liked it! I mean, it was oh-kay, the spice flavours were really quite strong (I might've put too much ginger in) and I thought it was going to be much sweeter. But anyhow, we all really tried to like it, and bless the LP, they didn't want to tell me they didn't like it until they saw me screw my face up then they were able to breathe out and admit they didn't much care for it either. Oh well, you can't win'em all. Pumpkin soup next year then.

I've had pumpkins on my mind all weekend, thinking about how much I loved doing the carving and how I would really like to have a go at making more pumpkin lanterns. The above pages are cut out of an old Country Living magazine and have stuck in my mind (they're about 6 years old I think), I just loved the simplicity of making these sort of seasonal decorations for the home.

Last week I also came across these beauties on Facebook, which has certainly fuelled my carving-craving! Aren't they beautiful? They were designed and carved by a super talented artist called Amy Swann, who is perhaps better known for her incredible wedding cakes.

And then today, I found these wonderful designs on a US website giving ideas for things to do to celebrate Fall. I mean Autumn. Autumn-Fall.

So can you guess what I did this morning? Yeah, course you can, I am nothing if not predictable.....

....I got out my nifty little lino cutter, ready for an hour of peaceful gouging. I bought my cutter from a local shop but they are easy to come by online (on Amazon UK here)

I wanted to do another pumpkin, but in the days after Halloween there was not a pumpkin to be found. So I had to settle for a short, squat little Butternut Squash. I chopped it's top off then set about getting rid of the innards. I can definitely recommend the ice cream scoop method, it works a treat.

I hollowed out the lid too, but in the end I discarded it and made a candle pot instead of a full candle lantern.

I didn't bother to draw the design, just waded straight in with an idea to create some stems and leaves and maybe a birdie. I didn't really faff too much, just went with the flow....

....and produced something rather pleasing and very rustic shall we say. But oh the pleasure! I was sat in my little back yard with a cup of coffee, scraping and cutting and piercing to my hearts content.

The instant results were very gratifying, and I immediately put my carved butternut lantern to good use on the table.

Oh, cute!

This little project has really pleased me today and delivered a welcome dose of happy. I know the lantern won't last long, but that just makes it more special. It's of the moment, and I like that.

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Opening the Window

Hellooooo! I'm flinging open the Attic window and breathing in the sharp, damp scent of a beautiful Autumn day here in my patch. Blue sky and sunshine, a light haziness over the hills, it's pretty perfect for the start of November and I am glad.

We are at the end of half term week here, it's been a much needed break for the Little People who've had a busy start to the school year. We were down in Dorset for six days last week, returning home on Thursday night.

Although it wasn't quite the rest and recuperation I had been longing for, it was still lovely to be back on familiar home-turf. The weather was a complete mixed bag, but we were blessed with a short but fantastic warm, sunshiny spell at the beginning of the week, and oh it did feel good! J and I sat with a coffee at the end of the pier whilst the Little Peeps whizzed round on their scooters, and the warmth of the sun on my face felt absolutely amazing. It was the end of October, and I was wearing a T-shirt! I just couldn't get over that, but it really was lovely.

We hadn't planned to be in Dorset at this time, actually we had planned and booked a completely different family holiday which at the last moment we decided to cancel. Heading down to Dorset to spend time helping my Mum was more important, and although it ended up being a very tough week for me emotionally, I feel sure in my heart that it was all for the good.

I am now taking one day at a time, and quietly hoping that maybe, just maybe we are finally turning a corner. Maybe next week will be better than this week. I really, really hope this will be so, and that gradually I can begin to let go of the constant worry. I would like to say a huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone of you who have taken the time to write to me and offer comforting words. Surprisingly for a wordy individual like me, I find I am not able to articulate my own feelings very well here. But the support and friendship I receive through my blog really is amazing and humbling and I hope you all know how very grateful I am for it.

It has also done me a lot of good to be away from my computer and to spend quality time with my family, I really needed to do that. However, despite me saying that I would be taking some much needed time away from my blog for a week, it seems that some of you have had plenty to say whilst I've been gone. Crikey. Coming back to my in-box full of wordy-words has been a bit of a shock! However, as promised, a week has passed and now I am back here in the Attic and it is time for us to talk and clear the air. 

As I have always said, I really do value all the comments that you write in response to my posts and I always, without fail take time to read each and every one, even when there are literally hundreds. It is the comments, the dialogue, the sharing of words that makes blogging so special and I absolutely LOVE being a part of this vibrant, creative, friendly online community.

In recent weeks there have been a number of issues raised within the comments here on my blog to do with the content and direction of Attic24, all of which I have read and digested. When I am ready to do so, I will make an attempt to write about these things as I really want to make sure my blog continues to give me (and you) as much pleasure as it has done over the past six and a half years.

Today, I want to chat about Yarndale and the Mandalas, as after catching up with the comments that have arrived whilst I've been away from my blog, I realise that certain things need to be voiced and made clear.

You can read the story about the beginnings of Yarndale here. Seven of us made up the original Yarndale team, which was formally established as a limited company in July 2012. We set out to organise a small yarn festival in our local market town, and seven of us committed our time, energy, enthusiasm and vision to get Yarndale up and running. It was a big risk, and as there were considerable up-front expenses we all had to make an initial investment with no guarantee of any return. We had no idea at the time if Yarndale was going to be a roaring success or a disastrous failure. But we SO wanted it to be a success, we really did, and each of us put in a considerable amount of effort to make it happen.

We wanted to create something new and exciting for our local community, which would also give us an opportunity to invite lots of fellow yarn lovers from all over the country to share the creative fun with us. But lets be clear here....although Yarndale does benefit the local community enormously and gives an awful lot to the town, Yarndale is not registered or run as a charity.

I've included the above picture for you to see the venue where Yarndale is held, isn't it amazing? It's a very, very busy Auction Mart that is filled with thousands of animals for most weeks of the year. It's a big building, as you can see, rustic and very basic, but with good natural light and hundreds of pens which we are able to transform into miniature shop fronts for our exhibitors. If you have not visited, I would like you to try and picture it.....

....this year we had 180 exhibitors. One Hundred and Eighty. It has come a long way from our original vision, in that we only ever hoped for 70 exhibitors at best when we first set out to create this "festival of yarn and creativity". The sheer size of the festival means that it provides a truly amazing weekend for our visitors. It also gives 180 talented small businesses a venue to display and sell their yarny goods, as well as their incredible passion and knowledge for their craft. It is soooo inspiring!

But maybe you can try and imagine what it takes to actually make this festival happen? It is without doubt, a very big undertaking. At the start of this year (2014), two of the original directors of Yarndale Ltd stepped down, leaving five of us (including me) to organise and run the show this year. In order to run this kind of sizeable event succesfully, safely and legally, Yarndale is operated as a  limited company, with each director taking a dividend once the bills and taxes have been paid and all the accounts have been settled. But really, the honest truth of it is that the five of us do give a lot of our time and energy throughout the whole year to make Yarndale a success, for both the exhibitors and the visitors who attend the festival. We really do earn that dividend and we are so proud of Yarndale's success! I know it gives me a tremendous feeling of achievement and sense of purpose, knowing that I am helping to do this wonderful thing for the yarn-loving community.

One of the things that I have loved about our vision for Yarndale from the very start is the creative element. To me, this is what it is all about - it's a celebration of creativity! I have absolutely loved everything about the Mandala Project this year, it has given me a lot of pleasure to be the "curator" of such an amazing visual display. I wish to make it clear that the Mandala Project was completely my idea right from the start. The whole mandala project was not something that the Yarndale team dreamed up and the others really had no involvement with it, other than to help me hang (and take down) the 1,182 pieces of crochet.

So why did I do it? It was a vision you see, a creative vision fuelled by my obsession with crochet and colour, my love of the blogging community and the way in which we are all connected by a love of yarn, no matter where in the world we live. It was also a response to the frequent requests I received from people who could not attend Yarndale personally but still felt that they wished to be a part of this "festival of creativity". And finally, I admit there was a selfish need to bring a healthy dose of crochet to the type of  yarn festival that is traditionally dominated by knitting. I want to make Yarndale more about crochet! Lets celebrate the hooky! Lets show everyone how totally amazing crochet is and what fantastic things we can do when we all work together!!

All these things led me to dream up a simple idea to celebrate the talent within the crochet community in the form of a magnificent visual display. The fact that so many of you chose to join in with my vision, to help me create something exciting, unique (and big!), has been utterly wonderful. I have wanted to write about this for weeks, but it has been really unexpectedly hard for me to find the words, to explain what this has meant to me, how it has made me feel. It has been very, very emotional. Emotional mandalas, it sounds ridiculous, but that really is the way it is for me. I am so very often ruled by my heart it seems.

I was (and still am) incredibly excited about what we all collectively managed to achieve here, it really is completely awesome, in every sense of the word. The Mandala Project has become it's own entity, and as the curator I now have the responsibility of deciding what happens next. I see the mandalas as an ongoing project, and in recent weeks have been investigating ways in which they can go on to have a wonderful life beyond Yarndale. I was hoping to have something definite to share with you about my ideas for that, but nothing has been decided just yet. I just know that I want to try and share this amazing display with many more people, to find a way to exhibit the mandalas at different venues perhaps. I am open to suggestions, do please let me know if you have any ideas?!

Each of us within the Yarndale team have particular jobs that we take responsibility for. For example, it seemed natural for me to take on the writing as I do like to do the wordy thing! So during the course of the year I write the press releases, the magazine articles, the Yarndale brochure and website, as well as attempting to keep active across all social media. With most of the work happening in the run up to the event, once it's all over there is a real need for all of the Yarndale team to take a well earned breather, me included. However, I do appreciate that many of you have been waiting for me to write about the weekend and to share pictures, especially those of you who so generously made and sent mandalas. In normal circumstances, I would have taken a few weeks break and then done some full and glorious write-ups about Yarndale, just as I did last year (see here, here and here). But this October has not been normal for me I'm afraid, and I can only apologise that I've not been up to the job. I am so sorry if you have felt upset by the lack of feedback from me here on my blog. 

I also understand from a few of the comments left here on my blog this week, that some of you have felt misled by the lack of information regarding the set up of Yarndale, and by the fact that you mistakenly assumed you were making and contributing mandalas for charity. No, Yarndale is not a charity, and with hindsight I should have made this crystal clear when I first got all giddy about the mandala project back in May. I promise you hand on heart that it was never my intention to mislead any of you, and I am truly sorry if my naivety has caused upset. I am who I am, just a mum of three kids juggling a busy life, writing a blog, crocheting in cafés, helping to organise a yarn festival in my local town. Every so often, of course I make mistakes, there is no manual for the sort of thing I do, and it is a steep learning curve for sure. I bumble along in my own over-excited way, wearing rainbow-tinted spectacles, not really thinking of the consequences before jumping in with my red mary janes to have fun with crochet and yarn.

I totally understand if some of you no longer wish to have your mandalas included in this ongoing project, as one or two of you have voiced this in comments this week. If you wish to have your mandala returned, of course I am more than happy to do this. All you need to do is to email me and we can sort it out.

attic24@hotmail.co.uk.

As ever, Ireally do appreciate every ounce of support and enthusiasm you offer me here through my blog, it means the world to me. I am looking forward to writing and sharing more about Yarndale in the coming weeks,  as well as getting back to sharing my usual colourful, day to day stuff here on my blog. I am hopeful that November will be very much easier all round than October was. Ever hopeful, that's me.

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EDIT TO ADD ::

1. Pleeeeeeeeeeease can we keep comments friendly and civil, no bad words or nastiness please or I will have to step in and start moderating.

2. I will be working with the Yarndale team to create an "About" page for our website which will give factual information about the set up. We should have done this in the very beginning and it was an oversight, thanks to those of you who have pointed that out.

3. Thank you for all your words of kindness and support, and thanks for the well written and constructive criticism xxxxxxxxxxxx