Attic24

Winter Robin

When I was pondering over what sort of creature would be nestling at the bottom of my Winter wreath, my very first idea was to make it a robin. Here in the UK, this little bird (the European Robin) is a common sight in gardens, parks and hedgerows and although we have them here all year round they do seem to be especially noticeable in winter.

These charming little birds are often seen on Christmas cards too, a tradition dating back to the Victorian era. When early Christmas cards were produced in the mid-18th Century, they were delivered by postmen wearing bright red coats. These postmen became known as 'robins' or 'redbreasts', and so the bird on the Christmas card was representing the postman who delivered it. So basically, robins are strongly associated with Winter time here and it seemed perfectly right to include one on my winter wreath. Plus, I'm thinking that a bright flash of orangey red might look pretty stunning in amongst the swathes of cool blues and greens (!)

Once I'd set my heart on making a robin, I began to toss about a few vague ideas for  designing my own crochet version. I thought about it for approximately 1.3 minutes before giving up and diving straight into the world-wide-web to see if someone else had already done all the hard work for me. It didn't take me long to find exactly what I was looking for. I chose to bypass the overly round, cutesy, cartoony type robins and opted instead for this very lovely, modest little chap. Isn't he wonderful? This very, very clever pattern is designed by Clare Trowbridge who sells her patterns via her online shop named Little Conkers.

It's not often I purchase crochet patterns, but I have to say I was very impressed with the ease of it all. I bobbed along to Little Conkers on Etsy, paid with paypal and the pattern miraculously appeared as a fantastic, detailed PDF that I could either save to my computer or print out. I am very impressed by the marvels of technology and the world-wide-web, these things seem like a bit of magic to me.

Now about the pattern.....it is beautifully written but it's not what I would describe as Easy. It takes concentration, counting, determination. And a stitch marker. You work in  amigurumi spiral rounds, incorporating the "tapestry technique" to switch colours as you go. Clare explains this technique very well, but it is still quite a tricksy thing to get right. You really do have to concentrate and count like fury, not only the pattern stitches (dc increases and decreases) but also the number of white/red stitches you are required to make in each round. I think I made more than a few mistakes as my colour change is very wobbly, but considering this was my first attempt at anything like this I don't think I did too badly.

Aside from the clever colour changing, the genius of this design is in the construction...oh it is soooooo clever! You see, you make the robin in two neat sections, cleverly grafting him together with a nifty invisible seam. The bottom section is his very round tummy and red breast, and the top section starts with the head, then goes on to incorporate the back, wings and tail. A weeny beak is crocheted and stitched on, and then beady eyes added (Clare stitched her eyes, but I used 6mm Safety Eyes which I always like to use for this sort of critter-making).

Once all the crochet is complete and the eyes and beak have been attached, it's just a case of adding a little stuffing and neatly stitching the two robin halves together.

You end up with a very sweet and plump little bird nestling in the palm of your hand. I used DK weight yarns with a 3,5mm hook to make the crochet nice and dense, and my robin measures about 9cm from the tip of his beak to the tip of his tail.

My robin also has much character as you can see, with a slightly off-centre beak and a determined upward right wing. He likes to wave to passers by, and no matter what I do his wing refuses to come down.

Clare describes her robin as "tubby" and "plump", whereas my little chap is very portly indeed, verging on the obese. I think he ate way too many worms.

But oh, I do love him! He is currently attempting to nest-build in the daffodils as his forever home amongst the fern leaves isn't quite ready yet. I have (of course) already perched his ample backside in amongst the aforementioned fern leaves just to check the anticipated colour flash  of his red/orange tummy, and I can confirm that he looks very scrummy.

I can also tell you that my Winter Wreath is nearing completion - I've got some snowy pine cones to show you (they turned out really well), and the most darling purple hellebore flowers that I designed this afternoon as the snowflakes came flurrying down here in the Attic. Lots to share - I can feel the itchy tingly excitement of a Ta-dah moment not too far away....ooooooooooooooooh!

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ps do go and check out Little Conkers designs on Etsy and Ravelry, Clare has lots of patterns for cutesome things x

x

 

The Big Comic Relief Crafternoon

Those of you who who've been peeking in through my Attic window for a while may remember these dinky little crochet blankets I made for the "Red Nose Day Dollies" as part of a fund-raising initiative for UK charity Comic Relief. Do you remember them? I crocheted one using little squares, and one using mini ripples. I loved making them and the dolls proved to be a ginormous success when they were auctioned on eBay, with all monies going to help those in need. Comic Relief is a tremendously popular charity here in the UK (rightly so), raising millions of ££'s each year which is used to "tackle the root causes of poverty and social injustice in the UK and across the world".

Fast forward two years and 2015 sees the launch of The Big Comic Relief Crafternoon. It's an exciting concept dreamed up by Emma of Silverpebble, and put into action by the team at Mollie Makes. So what exactly is The Big Comic Relief Crafternoon? Weeeelllll.....it's two things actually.

Number one - it is a super-duper 132-page magazine featuring fifty handmade projects by talented crafters and designers from around the globe.

And number two - it is an invite to you (yes, you!). We would like you to gather together your friends for a fun and creative "Crafternoon" where you all get to make some lovely little handmade items, with the aim of then organising yourself a craft fair to be held on March 13th (Red Nose Day) so that you can sell your wondrous creative makes raising even more money for Comic Relief (and breeeeeeathe). That was a very long-winded sentence, but I hope you get the gist of it. In a nutshell - Make something funny/pretty/cute and sell it, then donate the proceeds to Comic Relief. Genius idea eh?

The magazine is chocka-block full of wonderful things to make, aimed at anyone who might have just an inkling of a creative itch. The two adorable felt guinea pigs above (named Ron and Audrey) are so utterly cute that they very quickly became stars of the social media scene in recent weeks. I can tell that you might already be considering the possibility of creating your very own Ron and Audrey and yes, the pattern and full instructions (created by the super-talented Jodie Carelton) will be in the magazine.

My contribution was not comical or cute really, but rather something pretty and hooky.

I designed this little Spring Posy brooch to cheer up a dull old woolly cardy or a boring old coat lapel. I don't often wear brooches but I love seeing them adorning other people and so was inspired to create my own pretty little pin-on something. I've actually worn this Spring Posy a lot since I made it, I genuinely enjoy looking down and seeing it sat on me! The projects in the magazine come with step by step photo-tutorials (my favourite kind of pattern writing) so I do hope you will be inspired to grab a copy and have a go at making yourself something lovely.

So here is the lowdown of the Big Comic Relief Crafternoon Magazine.....

• It goes on sale in Sainsbury's and online via iTunes/Google Play on 29th January (that's this coming Thursday).
• It costs £7.99 with a generous £5 going straight to Comic Relief to support their wonderful projects in the UK and Africa.
• Inside the pages there are OODLES of gorgeous tutorials from lovely crafters such as Dottie Angel, Flossie Teacakes, Jodie Carleton, Lynda Lewis from the Great British Sewing Bee, Oh No Rachio. And me.
• There is also a guide to running your own craft fair so you can make an entire troupe of felt guinea pigs/nursery full of Spring Posy brooches and sell them to make more crafty cash for Comic Relief.

As with all fund-raising efforts for Very Good Causes, it helps enormously if lots and lots and lots of people join in. It goes without saying that I would LOVE it if you could help spread the word, there is much crafty jollity going on over on Facebook and Twitter if you'd like to have a peek and share with your creative buddies.

Happy crafting my lovelies!

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ps, Emma Mitchell who is the creative force behind the whole Crafternoon idea wrote a great blog post about it here.

pps, if you a hold crafty event or run workshops/creative crafternoons to raise money for Comic Relief, there is an easy donations page set up for you to transfer your Crafty Cash, find it here. The target is set at £1000, lets see if we can make it happen!

 

 

 

 

Slow Progress

Oh, this past week has felt so long and slow! My days have been full of people and stuff and commitments and to-do-lists and yet it feels like only a scant few things have actually been achieved. Sometimes life is like that I suppose. I guess the trick is to have faith and keep going even when progress on pretty much everything feels ridiculously snail-like.

I am making gentle progress with my winter wreath, and this is one thing where I am enjoying the slowness. It's such an enjoyable process, a journey, and really I'm in no rush at all. A leaf here, a handful of teeny-tiny balls there and gradually it all begins to come together.

I did that thing a few evenings ago where I tipped out everything I have made during the past few weeks and had a little play. Arranging and pinning, getting a feel for how well my winter wreath ideas are forming in reality. The verdict? Absolutely heart-stoppingly lovely, oh this is going to be such a pretty wreath! I've still some things to make - snowy white pine cones, a couple of hellebore flowers and maybe a few snowdrops too. Oh, and a flurry of snowflakes to gently finish it all off. A baby robin hatched a few days ago, I'll introduce him to you as soon as I manage to take some photographs. He's a real cutie :)

I've been crocheting some granny squares this week as well, a contribution to a community project being organised by Lisa over on Instagram. A number of us are joining our hooky hearts and hands to make a colourful blanket in memory of Vanessa. The blanket will eventually be auctioned on Ebay to raise funds for Vanessa’s family’s chosen charity {the Mental Health Foundation}.  I am enjoying the familiar, meditative process of making these squares, they have provided a simple bit of easy hooky time for me during this busy week which I have appreciated.

I am still plodding away with my studio, although it is frustratingly slow progress in this little room. On Thursday I managed to finish off all the decorating, hooray! It's been a bit stop and start with this due to having so many other things pulling at my child-free hours, but now it's finished and I am thrilled. Oh, that gentle, warm, summery, sky-blue colour is delicious!! I've now got three white walls plus one wall of glorious blueness, I can't wait to show you.

As you can see, there is still much to sort out. Yikes. I went there this afternoon with J (and the Little People), I needed J and his power tools to make my big storage shelves safe with the old uneven floorboards and wonky walls. When all was done I dispatched the family homewards and pootled around on my own for an hour, cleaning up the floor and dragging furniture about. I'm really, really looking forward to finding a place for everything and making this lovely little room properly mine. Slowly but surely I am getting there.

Life on the home front has been quiet and cosy this week, no worries about slow progress here. Spring will arrive soon enough and I'm  formulating some plans to shake the house up a bit then. But not yet. It's January and I declare it's perfectly acceptable to just be.

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Midwinter

:: icy cold walks to school ::

:: double layers of crochet blankety goodness on the bed ::

:: wearing warm woolly layers and drinking mugs of steaming hot coffee ::

:: Glimpses of the wintry landscape as I walk to and fro from the studio ::

:: the sharp, clear chatter of birds sitting up above ::

:: fresh green shoots on the mantel (yay!) ::

:: a mid afternoon break from the computer to re-fuel with coffee and cake ::

:: my beautiful attic view wearing it's white winter coat ::

❅

Ahhh January - you are quite a tough month but if I try hard enough I can indeed find some beautiful little snippets of goodness each day. By reminding myself to open my eyes wide and take notice of the little things that make me feel glad, there is a lot of pleasure to be found during this cold midwinter time.

The cosy warmth of home, the blankets and the woolly layers. A great cup of coffee in a favourite mug, early bedtimes snuggled up with a hot water bottle and a book. The fresh crispness of the icy cold air we breathe, the stunning frozen landscape visible through windows and trees. Chattery, cheerful bird song and bright green shoots.

January, you aren't my bestest month, but I am at least starting to quite like you.

❅

Winter Wreath :: the beginning

I have to tell you that I'm getting a huge amount of satisfaction creating my Winter Wreath accompanied by this super wintry weather. The view from my attic window this morning is just perfection! We had light snow falling for much of the weekend, and although there's only a few scant icy patches remaining here in town, the surrounding hills are still dressed in wintry white. It's rather lovely being cosied up indoors working away on my little bits of pale-coloured crochet to match the landscape.

I thought it would be fun to share progress on my Winter Wreath with you as I love it when other artists and designers share their creative processes and wish it happened more often. It's like a glimpse behind-the-scenes, a little peek into the way the Creative Mind works, which is quite a fun thing to share I think.

I can already quite clearly see this wreath in my minds eye, yes, I can picture exactly how I would like it to look. Of course there is still quite a sizable element of surprise involved in this sort of creation as there are so many little pieces that all need to come together to make the whole.

I drew up a quick sketch in my notebook - this is not something I usually do, but I've decided to make this wreath very slightly different to the previous ones and wanted to test the idea out on paper first. I've decided to keep the top third of the wreath much less cluttered than the rest, creating a deep blue sky with falling snowflakes. The foliage will smother the bottom two thirds, with a robin/bird/mouse/critter of some description nestling in the centre (I'm favouring a robin at the moment)

With this idea in mind, I worked my stripy wreath cover to create land and sky. I worked random stripes of double crochet (32 stitches across), with some lovely even blue stripes which will eventually provide a backdrop to some delicate crochet snowflakes.

I enjoy the process of creating the striped base on which to add my crochet decorations, it's rather satisfying work and comes together surprisingly quickly. As with all my wreaths, I'm using a 35cm polystyrene half round ring. You can buy these rings in many different sizes, and I've often thought about making some small 15cm ones as a quick-fix solution to my wreath addiction (would be lovely for Valentines Day - I can picture hearts and roses in reds and pinks?!)

Anyhow.....back to my Winter Wreath...........

......I use tail ends left dangling after each colour change to stitch up the seam around the centre back of the wreath, it's a neat way to pull it all together.

There! Can you see the effect of the sky and the land? Can you picture little snowflakes softly falling onto pale, frosty winter foliage? Can you see it?

As with all the wreaths I've made so far, I'm using a mixture of soft merino yarns to crochet up the leaves, flowers, berries and foliage. These are all odds and ends from my stash, some left over from my Bower Bird workshops last year and some that've been sat on my studio shelves for a while - I'm resisting the temptation to buy any new yarn for this project, although I am missing some soft green shades that I'd love to include. I've a mixture here of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, Drops Superfine Merino DK and Drops Baby Merino 4ply. I'm mostly using a 3.5mm hook.

As you can see - this past week I've been concentrating on leaf production. I've been hooking up these simple leaf shapes using the May Rose leaf pattern (on my blog HERE). I am really enjoying these pale, delicate shades, very different for me colour-wise but they are whispering cold, frosty icy things to me and I'm confident that the overall effect of these colours combined with just a little bit of white, silver and sparkle will be wonderful.

I showed you a few of these fern leaves last week, I absolutely love the way they've turned out. I've written up the pattern (find it HERE), they're made using simple chains and and slip stitches. They are quite fiddly as they are small (I used a 3mm hook) but the results are worth it. I'm not sure what you would use them for if you're not on a wreath making journey - possibly an addition to a crochet flower corsage/brooch (they remind me of the ferns that often go with roses to make traditional wedding button holes!)

This is my current leaf collection - I've still got plenty more to make. This week I'm going to try making some seedheads with tiny glass beads added - I'm quite excited about that prospect!

As with my other wreaths, I really love to combine crochet and yarn with some added decorative extras. During the past few months I've been collecting together some winter-inspired bits and bobs....

....what do you think? I've loved collecting these things together (can you tell, I've been on a bit of a mission?!)

The silver and pearl twigs on the right were Christmas decorations snapped up very cheaply in the supermarket in December. The glittery pompoms, cute little snowflake buttons and diamante pins were found on Amazon. I bought some little packets of pearl beads and sequins from a local shop, but my best find were these.....

..... I found these beautiful wire and bead stems in Boyes (a general we-sell-everything type shop here in the UK). They caught my eye as I was on the way to the till as they were in this funny bit of the haberdashery section dedicated to bridal stuff - you know, little ribbon bows, fake flowers, lace etc. and were only 99p each. I think these are maybe used as bridal hair accessories? Or little floral table displays for weddings? Who knows....but I do know that they will look wonderful added to my Winter Wreath.

I did a bit of searching about on Amazon to see what else I could find, just in case you feel inspired to follow in my wintry footsteps......

Pearl Bead Spray

Berry Pick

 

Jewel Twig Spray

 

Diamante Pins

 

Snowflake Buttons (these are really pretty in real life!)

 

Glitter Pompoms

I think I've possibly gone a bit overboard with the bling (it's quite addictive collecting it all up!), I'll have to have a play and see how it comes together once I've made more of the crochet pieces. I'm not very good at the less-is-more approach, which you may have guessed already ;)

Now before I toddle off, I would like to share a couple more beautiful crochet wreaths that have inspired me recently....

The one above is really wonderful, it's made by a very talented lady called Angela. Now Angela is blogless (I keep trying to twist her arm with that, she takes the most beautiful photographs and would take to blogging like a duck to water), but you can follow her inspiring projects and photos over on Flickr.  I really love the pinecones  - I've not tried them myself yet, but there is a free pattern for them here.

And this gorgeous wreath was created by Liz who shared on my Facebook page, isn't it lovely? She told me that the colours are inspired by early morning winter skies.

You can find more inspiring winter ideas in this post.

Right then....off I toddle, back to my wintry making and daydreaming. These cold, quiet, January days are proving to be rather wonderful.

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ps the Fern Leaf Pattern (with step-by-step photos) has now been added to the list in my sidebar, find it HERE. Happy leafy hooking!x

 

 

 

 

It's All White

 

Unlike many British homes who had a magical fall of snow just after Christmas, the white stuff completely missed us in December. Not so this week - we have had flakes! Not a lot it has to be said, but just enough to generate some lovely wintry excitement. Isn't it magical when snow falls unexpectedly during the night? We woke on Wednesday morning not realising for quite some time that it has snowed whilst we slept, and the excitement here when we made The Discovery was magical.

Our walk to school was so pretty, the snow was soft and powdery and not deep enough to cause any walking problems. So we padded happily along in our wellies and the Little People did their very best to scrape up enough snow to make a few very teeny snowballs.

Little Lady managed to construct the smallest snowman I have ever seen, he was only about 20cm tall and sat on our front wall looking rather forlorn and sorry for himself. Poor thing. I wondered briefly whether I should crochet him a miniature woolly scarf to cheer up his icy little body, but truthfully he wasn't around for long enough as everything melted within a day.

This afternoon we had another white flurry, it looked promising this time with big fat flakes falling steadily from the heavens.

I started to feel that flutter of childish excitement begin, and even entertained thoughts about sledging and the such like....

....but within an hour it had all come to an abrupt halt, it was most disappointing. The sun came out and chased away the wispy snow clouds, and by the time I was off on the school run only the hills told the story of snowfall. It was as if it never happened here in town.

This week has been all white in my studio too as I've spent every day painting the walls. And myself. I've been frequently wondering why people have been looking at me strangely, only to discover a while later that I've had great streaks of white paint in my hair and my face covered in splatters. No wonder Little B's teacher couldn't keep a straight face when talking to me yesterday.

I am nearly there though, I've made terrific progress this week. All the white painting has now been finished (it took three coats to cover the grey walls), and I am just waiting for a tin of special paint to be delivered so that I can decorate the fireplace wall in CoLoUr.......ooooo I can't wait!!! I'm hoping that by the end of next week I'll have pretty much everything ship shape in my studio, I am very, very (very-VERY-very) excited!

Happy Weekend to you all - stay cosy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

January Thoughts

Here we are, two weeks into the New Year and rather predictably I've found myself thinking a lot about my routines and habits and how I can make the best use of the hours, days and weeks that stretch ahead. It struck me just now that this is most certainly a January Ritual for me (and many thousands of other people all over the globe no doubt) and a quick delve into last year's archives proves the point rather nicely.

Yet again, I am trying to make a few small changes to my daily routine with the hope that I might begin to feel a tad more organised this year. Life with young children is constantly changing and shifting as each stage comes and goes, and I am enjoying the small progressions as the Little People grow and become slightly bigger and ever so slightly less needy. The biggest difference for me this year stems from the fact that Little B is now in school - those six child-free hours still feel like a huge luxury and I need to feel like I am not wasting them. I've lots of plans, ideas and projects for this year that I'm beginning to rally into some sort of order, but for the rest of January I shall mainly be concentrating on my studio.

I packed up my studio at the start of the year, taking the opportunity to have a bit of a clear out at the same time. Believe it or not, I threw out six big bags of rubbish and as you can see there is still a small mountain of stuff remaining. Mind you, a lot of that pile in the photo above is furniture (two tables and nine chairs! Nine!!), and a great deal of it is yarn (no surprises there then, and no, I'm not going to count it either). At the weekend, everything was moved out of my lovely studio room and transferred.......

.....to the equally lovely room next door :)

This is a much smaller room, but a good size for one yarn-crazy hooker to hang out in. The larger room is all set to become a fabulous, relaxing lounge-style extension of the downstairs cafe, and I'm delighted to be making a fresh start in this cosy little space.

I've spent the past two days with step ladders and a tin of white paint, using muscles that have been dormant for some time (oh, how I ache!). The grey colour was not really for me, I prefer light and bright as a backdrop to my very colourful clobber so plain white is just right. It's slow going because there isn't much room with all my stuff piled in and I'm having to shimmy around the walls bit by bit, but I'm getting there slowly but surely. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll be all settled in and enjoying not only a new room to work in, but a brand new routine too - more on that later, and yes, I'll give you a complete room tour once everything comes together too.

Another change this year is that I'm no longer writing a monthly column for Simply Crochet magazine. Last year I wrote thirteen columns and designed three patterns and I felt a need to have a bit of a break from those strict monthly deadlines. I've been genuinely surprised by the response to my decision, I'm so sorry to those of you who have expressed disappointment (the current issue 27 is the first one without an Attic24 contribution). I'm also hoping that I won't be gone for good from this magazine which I continue to enjoy very much as a subscriber. I'll keep you posted.

In amongst the paint and furniture shifting, the thinking and planning, I am still immersing myself in the joy of creative crochet. I'm happily working away on my Winter Wreath - these fern type leaves appeared in my Creative Mind at lunch time and then came off my hook this afternoon at knit n natter, just like that. I confess I'm stupidly in love with them. I've been taking lots of photos of my wreath in progress, I'll try and pull it all together to share with you before the end of the week.

Well I hope your thoughts and plans and routines are coming together nicely this month and that you've started 2015 with a spring in your step....doesn't it feel good to be stepping out at the beginning again, with so much time stretching ahead? I do quite like January for that.

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Valentine Sweet Heart

Hello! I thought it would be nice to share a colourful bit of crochet with you today, something bright and cheerful and a just a teensy bit unnecessary. I mean, I'm fairly sure there is no real pressing need for you to drop everything and make a decorative little hangy thing, but then again, it might be just the ticket for these dull, grey January days. I am all for a pretty little bit of creativity that brings happiness and colour to a small corner of the room, this sort of crochet is good for the soul.

I designed this project for Simply Crochet magazine last year as a celebration for Valentines Day, and I've had it hanging in my studio ever since. It's a very simple little project but a joyful one - the idea for it came to me in a flash one morning and I hooked it up in a whizz of excitement - the simplicity of it pleased me very much!

I used yarns that I already had sat on my shelves for this project, but this is a fabulous stash buster as you only need the smallest scraps of left overs. You can mix any colours that tickle your fancy (I've gone for five candy-brights, with two shades of green for the leaves). Any sort of yarn will do, it doesn't have to be cotton. Thickness wise, I think slightly finer yarns work best for small decorative projects. I've used Drops Muskat (a mercerised cotton) with a 3mm hook. If you're using something like Stylecraft Special DK, try dropping to a 3.5mm hook to make the flowers nice and neat.

You will need 18 x 10mm buttons and some sewing thread for stitching the buttons to the flowers.

As you can see from the above picture, you'll also need 4 x 12" pipe cleaners to form the heart shaped base (this is a true DIY project), so raid your kids craft drawer, or find them online {Amazon}. The colour of the pipe cleaners doesn't really matter - I used green and brown ones as a kind of a nod to twiggy things, but they should be pretty much invisible by the time you've smothered them in flowers.

And lastly, you will need sticky glue - I used a hot glue gun for speed and ease, but strong white glue would work (PVA) or you could always stitch the flowers around the pipe cleaner shape if that suits you better.

You will need to make 18 flowers in total, and 12 leaves.

I'm writing in UK crochet terms.

FLOWERS (make 18)

:: Round 1 :: Chain 2, 6 dc in 2nd chain from hook, slip stitch to first dc [6 stitches].

:: Round 2 :: in each stitch, work the following :: (slip stitch, chain 2, 1 tr, chain 2, slip stitch), making 6 petals in total. Fasten off and darn in ends.

LEAVES (make 12)

:: First side :: Chain 6, 1 dc in 2nd chain from hook, 1 htr in next chain, 2 htr in next chain, 1 htr in next chain, 1 dc in next chain.

Chain 2, slip stitch in 2nd chain from hook (picot point made)

:: Second side :: Work on the opposite side of the foundation chain in remaining loops to mirror the first side as follows :: (1 dc in next stitch, 1 htr in next stitch, 2 htr in next stitch, 1 htr in next stitch, 1 dc in next stitch). Slip stitch into loop at end of foundation chain. Fasten off, leaving a 20cm tail end to use for stitching the leaves to the flowers.

Making the heart shape out of pipe cleaners is reasonably straight forward, I didn't take any photos of this in progress but I'll talk you through it as best as I can.

Take 2 pipe cleaners and lay them side by side. Twist one pipe cleaner around the other to form a double-stranded length. Repeat this with the other two pipe cleaners so that you have two double-stranded lengths.

Put your two lengths together and twist tightly together at the bottom to form the bottom point of your heart, Now bend both lengths outwards and shape the pipe cleaners into a symmetrical heart shape. Twist the top ends together tightly to form the inner point of the heart. You might need to perform a little bit of light bending to make your heart shape sit flat. It does eventually work out even if it seems very wobbly at the start, just keep going, gently bending it until you're happy with the shape.

Now make up the flowers and leaves - first job is to stitch a little button in the centre of each flower using sewing thread.

Now take your flowers and place them around your heart shape until you are happy with the colour arrangement. There should be a flower sitting neatly at each point of the heart, with eight flowers spaced evenly around each side.

You need to stitch your leaves in place now, using the tail end of green yarn that you left at the end of each leaf. First, stitch two leaves to the underside of the two flowers sitting at the heart points. Then stitch the remaining 8 leaves on the underside of every alternate flower around, making sure the leaves point outwards.

Before you glue the flowers in place, attach a loop of yarn to the top of your heart for hanging.

Using the image above as a guide, stick your flowers to your pipe cleaner heart using a hot glue gun or strong fabric/craft glue. Start by attaching flowers at the two points of the heart (with double leaves pointing downwards), then work your way evenly from the bottom upwards, alternating non-leaf flowers with leaf-flowers (leaves pointing outwards).

And that's it - simples! Now all you need to do is find somewhere to hang your floral heart so that it can deliver maximum pleasure and joy.

Awww, I do think it looks rather sweet, not just for Valentines Day but for all year round.  A little celebration of Hooky Love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Those of you who have a Yarndale Calendar will be enjoying this colourful heart image for the twenty eight days of February this year, a bright spot in a grey month.

I hope you enjoy this project - go and dig into your scraps and you'll be hooking up some sweet little flowers and leaves in no time. Have fun!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Winter Wreath Inspiration

Firstly, do forgive me while I dance a little jig and shout a big, loud Hooorrraaayyyyyy!!!!! We have internet again, and I am back in the happy land of Blog!!!!!!! Very, very happy to be back in the Attic, I missed it terribly during the week. I've been sat here this morning uploading photos (with a big smile on my face) and am looking forward to settling down now with a chocolate-dusted coffee to have a chat about making wreaths.

Oh, how I LOVE my crochet wreaths!! I love and adore them, they are chockablock full of many happy, creative memories that celebrate special times of year. As decorative items, they pack a big punch when hung simply on a plain coloured wall, which is a good reason to love them. But for me, the real charm of a crochet wreath lies in the hours and hours of quiet, creative time that is spent on the making process.

I wrote a blog post back in November 2013 where I photographed the three wreaths I've made together, there are also links to the ta-dah posts for each wreath. I wrote at length about the making process when I shared my Autumn Wreath (here), it is a big undertaking in many ways and you do need a certain determination to see the whole idea through to reality. But the wreath making journey is very special I think, and I'm really, really enjoying being at the start of a new one as we begin a New Year.

I've had an idea to make a Winter Wreath for more than a year - I find there is rather a long gap between Christmas and Easter when something pretty is needed to celebrate the cold season. In fact I did begin this journey in November 2013 but didn't get very far back then (about a dozen stripes of the wreath base), and it feels good to pick it back up again at exactly the right (freezing) time of year.

Whenever I've mentioned making a Winter Wreath to anyone recently, they have immediately assumed I would be making something in greens and reds - evergreens, holly, ivy, berries, that sort of thing.

Funny, but despite my natural addiction to bright colour, my idea of a Winter wreath is almost colourless. I think of a cold, frosty day, of muted greens, frosty whites and the delicate dried brown of winter stems....

....and I think of bare branches and ice-blue skies.

I think of icicles, snowflakes and frost.

This is winter to me - there is colour to be found, but it is restrained, cool, subtle. Interestingly, I walked past a little florist yesterday and was bowled over by the bright pinks and purples of winter cyclamen and the vivid orange of winter cherry pot plants, and I briefly wondered whether I was making a mistake with my cool, pale, frosty winter palette. Maybe I should change my ideas and make this wreath more colourful? I thought about it as I walked home, but by the time I walked in the door I knew that I had already got it right and there was no need to change.

I'm sticking to my usual making method though, no changes there. I've got a 35cm polystyrene ring which is known as a "half round wreath ring" (rounded on the front, flat on the back). I'm working up a striped crochet base to fit, making rows of double crochet in the above wintry colours (this is Drops superfine merino DK). I like the colours actually - I don't love them, but I do like them. I have a very clear mental image of how I'd like my finished Winter wreath to look, and these cool, understated colours will be perfect.

I thought it might be fun to share some images with you that I've had tucked away in my Inspiration Files for a year or so. It's good to gather visual inspiration as you embark on a new creative project, to consolidate your ideas and feed your creative mind.

Let it Snow Winter Wreath

A simple minty green base with white flowers and snowballs.

Crocheted winter wreath by Fly the Coop Crafts blog

A sweet mix of wintry crochet motifs - snowballs, snowflakes, snowmen and love birds.

Wintertime Wreath by Clare of Summerhouse by the Sea blog

I LOVE Clare's crochet wreath! I love the mix of colours and I also really love the addition of weeny bits of sparkle and bling (pearls and glass beads etc). Like me, Clare has made several wreaths to celebrate the different seasons and her method is very clever - she keeps the same crocheted wreath ring and pins all her decorations in place so that they can easily be changed as the seasons change. Isn't that clever?

 

Snowflake Wreath by Red Heart Yarns

I like this wreath for the colour palette more than the yarn balls - the pale blue, white, grey and neautral colours have inspired my own choices.

Crochet Wreath by Val's Corner blog

The simplicity of this idea really appeals to me, and I like the contrast of the colours against white.

Winter Rosy Wool Wreath by Ellen's Creative Passage blog

Lovely felted wool roses made from old sweaters, with super-pretty glittery snowflakes added.

Woodland Winter Wreath by Sew Home Grown

This gave me some ideas for adding in frosty pinecones (I will crochet mine) and possibly some silver/pearl twiggy bits too. I like the idea of combining a bit of faux floristry with crochet!

Winter Wonderland Wreath by The Stoneybrook House blog

Ok, so no crochet or yarn here, but I like the pearly berries and the overall icy, frosty sparkle mixed in with greenery.

Winter Willow Wreath by Centsational Girl blog

Cool, frosty twigs and a beautifully restrained colour palette. Love the bright blue colour pops amongst the frosty whites, and the glittery pine cones.

Winter Pinecone Wreath by How to Nest for Less blog

I love the blue berries in this wreath, but also the white/silver foliage sprigs.

Crochet Winter Wreath by Helen

Awwww! Love the cutesome little robins! I'm thinking about adding a robin to my own Winter Wreath, or possibly a little mouse....

Cool Winter Wreath by Greeting The Seaaons on Etsy

Simple but beautiful colours and design.

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Did you like those???? Do you feel inspired to create your own Winter Wreath? I'll share my progress with my own creation here on my blog during the next week or so - I've already finished the stripe base and am currently on leaf production - happy days!

More soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

A Quick Hello

Helloooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ohnmygoodness, I have so missed being here this week!

I'm having some very frustrating problems with no internet connection so I have had to do cold turkey without the world wide web at my fingertips, I can't tell you how much I've missed it. I'm connecting now via J's mobile phone as our broadband is still playing sillybuggers. So I can't write a proper post, but wanted to bob by and say a quick hello and let you know that I'm hoping to be back here next week.

I move my studio this weekend so I'll be painting the walls next week then getting the huge mountain of furniture and yarn sorted out. But I need to show you how I'm getting on with my winter wreath!! I need to chat about crochet snowflakes and the such like!!! I need to show you the WHITE yarn (with silver sparkles) that I bought for the snowflake making!!!! Lots to chat about. Fingers crossed, I'll be fully operational in the Attic very soon.

Lots of lovexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx