Attic24

Autumn Moments {two}

🍁 Tis the season for scented candles to come into their own, and I am burning through these little tins of smelly wax like nobody's business. I just love walking into a room and having a hint of something sweet, spicy and fragrant greeting my nose, it's homely and comforting and this particular Cinnamon & Orange fragrance mingles beautifully with the vague scent of wood smoke from the fire. Next on my list to buy and burn is "Christmas Spice", it's a red wax and smells delicious - not especially Christmassy really, but just a lovely warm fragrance for this cold time of year.

🍁 Last week it was half term for us here, and we had such a lovely, slow, restful break from work and shcool. The Little People were a joy to have around and seemed happy with being home. At the start of the holidays we walked through the park to the farm shop - this seems to be our Thing-To-Do-in-the-Holidays and manages to be just the right amount of outdoor activity combined with indoor indulgence. It's a lovely short walk at all times of the year (around a 20 minute stroll each way), with the promise of farm shop goodness at the midway point. We had coffee and cake in the café, purchased some fresh bakery bread, locally grown tenderstem broccoli and a scrumptious chicken, ham and leek pie for our dinner before slowly ambling home again. Next time I'm there I'll try and take some photographs inside the farm shop to show you as I'm sure you'd love it. It's that kind of photogenic place. 

🍁 I am love love loving my hand knit socks on my feet right now, they are just so incredibly comforting to wear. I love the feel of them when my feet are cosied inside my boots (when it's not raining and there is no sogginess) and I love the absolute warmth of them (I wear them with crocs when I'm in the house, even though I'm quite sure I look like a weirdo).. But most of all, I love the look of them. It gives me such a huge amount of pleasure to look down and see these gorgeous colours at the end of my legs and know that I knitted all those teensy stitches myself. And cables too, I am ridiculously proud of my cable socks (cable sock details in this post). 

🍁 I've been admiring the slowly changing colours of this long beech hedge for the past few weeks now, it seems to change a little every time I walk past. Soon it will be entirely made up of coppery brown leaves and the green and gold will be a thing of the past. I love the bright green May version of this hedge the best, but October colours aren't half bad.

🍁 Talking of October colours, this beautiful old brick wall caught my eye a few days ago with it's smattering of vibrant foliage. The wall runs along the back of a small car park behind the local council offices and I guess probably goes unnoticed by the majority of workers who park right next to it. 

🍁 As well as being the season for scented candles, it's also the time when the slow cooker comes out of it's summer slumber. We've had some delicious slow cooker soups just recently, and some fabulously tasty curries too. The above ingredients (chili, ginger, garlic, onion, lime) were the makings of a fresh, zesty "Citrus Prawn Curry" which has become a firm family favourite. 

🍁 I know I've said this may times, but I am so very grateful for the handful of local walks we are able to do right from our door without the need to get in the car. Walking through the park to the farm shop is one, and walking along the side of the canal into the woods is another. We pottered along here one day last week during a brief dry spell amidst many days of intermittent rain and drizzle, and it was so good just to be out of the house and surrounded by leafyness. The Little People have embraced our walking suggestions this holiday with something close to enthusiasm, and every time I have danced a private little jig of happiness inside my head.

🍁 What is this?? Can this possibly be...................b l u e sky?????? Yes indeed!! This was yesterday, a day of Autumn brilliance when the sun shone down and the sky was all kinds of perfect. We took ourselves out into the Yorkshire Dales to amble along the riverside and it was completely glorious. I took a shed load of photographs (the afternoon light and the colours and the overall atmosphere was sublime), way too many to cram in here so I'll show you them in another post entitled "Riverside Wanderings" or some such thing. For now, just know that the blue colour of the sky was lush and very much appreciated by myself. Incidentally, the above chimney is actually on the back of our house - it's not our main chimney but an old disused one that perches on the extended bit of roof above the bathroom. Kind of crazy to know it's up there.

🍁 Little B finished colouring his pumpkin after working on it for five days straight. He was so proud, and quite rightly so - his attention to detail was impressive and I loved hearing him explain to me all the many intricacies of his colour choices. We carefully cut it out and I'm going to ceremoniously laminate it for him so that we can hang it in the window. He's now working on a dragon.

🍁 During the past few weeks, J has taken to regularly going out on an evening walk with the Little People. He has a job which involves concentrated hours sat at a desk doing complex things with computers, so he decided that he would benefit from taking a little more physical exercise. He has an app on his phone which counts his daily steps, with an aim to making it to 8,000 per day for good health (which is around 4 miles). I whole heartedly endorsed this idea as a) I want him to live to a ripe old age with me and b) the Little People came home from these evening walks all rosy cheeked and oh-so-ready to settle down towards bedtime. One evening last week I decided to go with them, even though Little B moaned and said he wanted it to be Just Dad, the little tyke. It was surprisingly lovely to be out walking in the chilly dark, and the church bells were ringing their hearts out as they do every Tuesday evening when it's bell ringing practice (you can see/listen on YouTube if you fancy, it is pretty impressive and we can hear it all the way in the Attic).  

🍁It's been back to school for us today, the return to routine and the start of a long eight-week stint now until we break for the Christmas holidays. Can you believe that in eight weeks it'll be Christmas Day??? That thought has just caused a judder to run all the way down my spine.  

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Ginger Spiced Leaf Biscuits

We did some baking yesterday, Little B and I. I found myself (not for the first time) completely inspired by a little square photo I recently came across on Instagram. I'm kicking myself now as I didn't make a note of who the photo belonged to, and it was one of those beautifully styled, magazine-worthy photos that I am a sucker for. However, the lovely lady who took the beautiful photo did happen to mention where she found the recipe, and lo and behold it was an issue of Country Living UK magazine from two years ago. Ah-ha, I thought, I have a pile of magazines that is surely more than two years old, so off I went to dig it out. It was from November 2015 if you have a similar two-year old pile of magazines, an Autumn classic.

The recipe was simple (sugar, butter, golden syrup, flour, bicarb and ginger), so I pootled into the interweb to search for some suitable leaf shaped cutters. Plenty to be found on Amazon, so I went for a full set of 7 shapes as I have a feeling that leaf biscuits will definitely be a Favourite Thing in our household. One thing to mention about the general purchasing of biscuit cutters is to check the dimensions carefully. The cutters in the tin I bought were smaller than I anticipated, and although I was initially a bit disappointed when they arrived, they actually made the cutest little perfectly sized biscuits. 

Baking with children is loads of fun and really adds a certain element of glee to the whole proceedings. Little B is a full-force child and goes at everything with enthusiasm and energy, so it was easy to get caught up with his genuine delight in weighing out ingredients and mixing them all together. 

The mixture starts out quite dry and crumbly (there is a LOT of flour, great clouds of it in fact), and for a while it feels like it isn't going to work out.

We found it best to roll up sleeves (or in Little B's case, to remove clothes altogether) and get stuck in with your hands. You need to persuade the crumbs to turn into a workable cookie dough, and the warmth from hands does this brilliantly. 

The quantity of ingredients (which I'll give you at the end of this post) makes a lot of dough. We ended up halving it and shaping into two balls before putting it into the fridge to chill. Yes, you do need to allow time for the dough to go cold before you can get going with the rolling pin, so if you are baking with Little People you may want to prepare them in advance for the  pause in activity. 

We made the dough in the late morning, and made the biscuits in the mid afternoon. We took everything out of the kitchen and onto the dining table so that we had plenty of room to work, spreading out a length of greaseproof paper so that we could easily roll out the dough. 

Using cookie cutters is such fun! So pleasing to create those little shapes, then adding the details with a metal skewer. Little B absolutely loved doing it and I had to resist the urge to fight him off and do it all myself. 

We used half of the dough and made around 36 leaves in total which spread across two baking trays. The other half of the dough is still in the fridge and I think we shall make gingerbread men with it today.

I couldn't wait to see how the leaves would turn out, and luckily the baking time is very short. The recipe suggested 8-10 minutes, and I settled on 8.5 minutes with my hot oven. The secret is to take them out when they have just turned a very light golden colour (they will be darker on the underside) and still quite soft as they harden when they cool. I much prefer soft, slightly chewy gingerbread as opposed to the rock hard, brittle version. 

I was so delighted that the markings we made looked even better once the biscuits were baked - oh, so very leafy and pleasing to look at! Now I did ponder on trying to style my photo in the manner of the swoony images we see all the time on Instagram. I would need a co-ordinating cloth (made of linen probably), some real autumn leaves and maybe a little jar of autumn foliage and berries. Possibly an earthenware mug of tea. Maybe a candle. 

In the end, I found I just could. Not. Be. Bothered. I desperately wanted to eat the biscuits and I had eager children to ward off too. So I'm afraid the above photo is the best I could do. Incidentally, isn't the original magazine page photo rather lovely?

So I can tell you that these biscuits are visually very, very pleasing to look at. They are seasonal and cute and photogenic.

Taste wise??? Well, the Little People think they are amaaaaaaaaaazing. They seriously went mad for these little treats and I had to step in and limit their scoffing. My verdict - lovely gingeryness without being too overpowering, nice soft texture but possibly a teensy bit on the dry side. However............

.........when dunked into a fresh mug of hot milky coffee, oh-my-goodness, these little leafy morsels are transformed. Coffee-soaked ginger biscuits are absolutely the bees knees. 

I allowed Little Lady to give it a try (she likes the taste of coffee) and she agreed with me that the coffee soaking really turned these biscuits into a very, very yummy treat.

If you fancy giving these biscuits a go, you can click on the above photo and it should pop up in a new window so that you can read it a little better. If I was making the biscuits again, I would simply halve the quantities.

Country Living Magazine remains one of my all time favourites, and I so look forward to it's seasonal inspiration every month. It's a real delight, and a treat that I've been enjoying for almost twenty years now. Delicious. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Autumn Afternoon

After a week of very dubious grey, wet weather when often it felt like we were existing in perpetual twilight, today felt like the most blessed gift. All day long we were treated to the bluest of skies filled with bright, energising sunlight and it was so so so so good. Oh, SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I realise I'm pretty obsessed with light, and crave it almost as much as I crave colour. This seems to be an all year round thing, but I am aware that my obsession ratchets up a notch at this time of year as we approach the end of British Summer Time. On Sunday our clocks go back, and our hours of daylight shrink for a while - I'm counting down the days until Winter Solstice (7 weeks and 6 days) when I shall be celebrating the shortest day. I'll be lighting all the candles and illuminating all the strings of fairy lights and rejoicing in the fact that our days will be lengthening again little by little.

Anyhow, gosh sorry, I had in no way meant to go on (and on) about the light, but I had meant to expand on how utterly glorious it was out there this afternoon. We walked at Bolton Abbey, taking a long circular route all through the woodland on both sides of the river. The Little People were in fine fettle and despite the crowds (it's half term here, and there's always a very popular Halloween Trail at Bolton Abbey) we enjoyed a fabulous few hours tramping along the woodland pathways. 

My eyes were overjoyed by the Autumnal colours, and I feel hugely inspired for all the creative possibilities that these colours promise to deliver in the coming months. My next blanket is called "Woodland" and I'll be able to tell you more about that and show you my chosen colour palette in a couple of weeks.....I am beyond excited, to the point where I am obsessing about it. No bad thing I guess, as a lot of my obsessing does happen internally and doesn't really interrupt normal daily life too much. You might walk past me in the street and have no idea that my head is totally filled with leaves and acorns.

Talking of acorns, I've not forgotten I promised you a tutorial for my crochet oak leaves and acorns, I'm hoping (if the light stays good) to photograph that tomorrow.

At the end of our walk, we sat outside one of my favourite cafes (second to last photo above, it's the Strid Wood Tea Rooms) in the sunshine and enjoyed a most delicious late afternoon treat. There were tall, chilled glasses of pink strawberry milkshake and a caramel and marshmallow "Spider's Nest" for the Little People, and a cappuccino and a shared slice of the most fantabulous Toffee Apple Cake for J and I. The cake was incredible, and I can't stop thinking about it. I've been searching online to try and find a recipe, but I can't find anything that looks quite like what we had. I will have to make sure we head back there again very soon so I can conduct some more extensive research rather than simply inhaling the aforementioned cake whilst mmmm-MmMMmm-nomnom-ing. Sounds like a plan.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Crochet Pumpkin Patch

Isn't inspiration a most fabulous thing??? I like to hope that you come to visit me here in the Attic for a little bit of feel good combined with a dose of creative inspiration, and it's just the same for me. Well, obviously I need to look outside of my Attic window to find my own sources of inspirational feel good, but you know what I mean. I absolutely love love love to feel that buzz of excitement when I stumble upon something that sets my Creative Mind flying into a whirl of possibilities. It's like channeling the most positive creative vibrations through my eyes, via my heart and brain, and finally out through my hands. And that feeling that I'm almost powerless to resist the thing that is calling to me? Oh, I love that feeling sooooo much. It's overwhelming sometimes, but always completely amazing.

During this past week it's been pumpkins that have been calling to me, specifically those of the hooky variety. First of all my lovely friend Gillian made my heart skip a beat with her delicious crochet pumpkins. Then I saw on Instagram that my friend Sandra was knitting herself some pumpkins. And then..........well I think fate stepped in because by chance I happened to read that the peeps at Crochet Now magazine had created a whole Pinterest board dedicated to The Crochet Pumpkin, so I took it as a sign that I needed to jump on board.

I spent ages following links and taking myself all over the interweb on a bit of a pumpkin trail. In the end, I settled on a very sweet little pattern written by the supremely talented June Gilbank over at Planet June. The main reason I love June's pumpkin is that it's worked in rows as opposed to an amigurumi style spiral, which makes it a little easier to keep track of (it's the half term holidays here, so concentrating on anything requiring counting is near impossible in the chaos of this house). So yeah, no stitch markers needed as this little pumpkin is worked in short rows to make a two dimensional piece which is then stitched up afterwards. The delightful pumpkiny ridges are created by working in the back loops of the stitches, and the simplicity of this pattern has pleased me no end. 

You can find the pattern for free over on June's website, which incidentally is like an Aladdins cave of crochet patterns, so do have a browse.

{PlanetJune FREE PUMPKIN PATTERN}

I've really, really enjoyed sitting at my dining table during the past few days working away with my hook and yarn, whilst the family has been around. Little B has shown lots of interest in my making process, offering all sorts of advice and encouragement along the way. He's given me colour tips, has helped me with the stuffing process, and has excelled at assisting with the gathering of props for styling and photographing purposes. We searched online and found the most amazing printable pumpkin colouring sheet and so we both happily sat side by side each doing our own thing, discussing colour combinations and the such like. He is such a sweet boy.

This was the first pumpkin to fly off my 4 mm hook - as you can see it's quite dinky, measuring about 7cm across. Oh, it was love at first sight! And as is often the way with these things, as soon as this pumpkin was finished I immediately started making another. One is never, ever enough where pumpkins are concerned.

My second pumpkin was made by using two strands of DK weight yarn (Stylecraft Special Dk in Spice and Tomato) and a 6 mm hook. I love the way this one turned out, with the subtle mix of colours and the more squishy, chunky look of it. It measures 10 cm across.

Inspired by the success of the two-stranded approach I made a third pumpkin, this time combining Lincoln Green with Silver to look like the beautiful bluey/grey pumpkins that I saw in the supermarket last week.      

And then before I knew it, a fourth pumpkin sprouted in the hooky pumpkin patch - a soft pink colour this time (Vintage Peach yarn). I've never seen a pink pumpkin in real life (and I really wish that I had) - I've no idea if we even have them growing here in the UK  although I do know they exist and are grown in the US.

All this thinking about pumpkins and looking at oodles of photographs of them online prompted me to go forth with Little B yesterday and see what I could find in the local supermarket. Of course there are huuuuge stacks of orange ones ready for Halloween, and even a few white "Ghost" pumpkins and those beautiful blue/grey ones I mentioned. We also found a variety of much smaller squash in season too, and at £1 each I felt justified in buying a few to bring home to act as real life inspiration. They are so beautiful! I adore the markings on them and they inspired me to have a go at creating some striped pumpkins to add to my growing pumpkin patch.

I made a yellow and orange one (Saffron and Spice yarn).....

.....and absolutely fell head over heels in love with this little cutie as soon as it was off my hook. 

I photographed a little mini tutorial this morning to show you how I added the stripes, just in case you are finding yourself fidgeting in your seat and itching to go hook up a stripy little number for yourself.

Before attempting the stripes, please could I suggest that you hop over to Planet June and have a go at making an ordinary one-colour pumpkin to make yourself familiar with the pattern? As the pattern belongs to June, it's not right for me to use it on my blog so I'm going to assume that you've already made one and know pretty much how the pattern works, ok?

So first choose your colours - you will begin with your main colour (I'm using Saffron yellow here), adding stripes in a contrasting colour (I'm using Cypress green).

Make your foundation chain, then work Row 1 until you have 1 stitch remaining. You'll be changing colours during the working of this last stitch in the row. See the above picture? This is the first part of a dc stitch (insert hook, yarn over, pull a loop back through the stitch, two loops on hook). Now instead of yarning over in yellow, leave the yellow yarn attached to the crochet and use your hook to pick up the green.... 

....drawing the green yarn through both loops on your hook. Chain 1, and turn your work.

(please remember that you leave the yellow yarn attached, don't snip it off!)

This is now the Right Side of your pumpkin. All green stripes are worked with the Right Side facing.

Insert your hook into the Back Loop of the very first stitch and work 1 dc.....

....then work 1 dc in the back loops of each stitch across the row (15 in total). Fasten off the green. Please note that your yellow yarn ball should still be attached over on the right hand side. Don't worry about darning in any ends - you can leave them be (oh deep joy!) as they will simply end up inside the pumpkin with the stuffing.

You will now be picking back up with Row 2 of June's pattern using the yellow yarn. So don't turn the work as the yellow yarn is already attached on the right hand side. Look towards the back of the first green stitch and you should spot a little yellow loop - see where my needle is in the above picture? Put your hook into this loop and pull the yellow yarn through to the front. Chain 1.

Remember this is now Row 2 of June's pattern - Back loops only, work your way across.....

....15 stitches in total. Chain 1 and turn.

Follow June's pattern for Row 3, stopping when you have 1 stitch remaining. 

Just as you did before, work the first part of the last dc (insert hook, yarn over, pull a loop back through the stitch), then make your last yarn-over using the green yarn. Leave the yellow yarn hanging and still attached to the ball, then continue in green. Chain 1 and turn.

Work 1 dc in back loops of each stitch across 15 in total. Fasten off the green.

This is what you should have - yellow stripes worked as two rows (rows 2 and 3 of June's pattern), and the green rows worked as 1 row of dc. All stitches worked in Back Loops Only (BLO)

Each time you change back to yellow, you will need to pull the yellow yarn through that little loop on the reverse of the work, chain 1, then follow June's pattern for 2 rows.

As you work your rows, you'll begin to see the clever ridges forming.....

....you'll work 13 green stripes in total, ending with a green dc stripe row. When you fasten off this last row, leave a long tail end for stitching. You can also snip off the main colour yarn now, leaving a long tail end for stitching.

In June's pattern she suggests joining the last row to the foundation row by crocheting a row of slip stitches. I found it easier (and neater) to simply stitch this seam with a needle, picking up the outer loops of the green row and the single loops of the foundation row.

You should end up with a stripy cuff, with lots of dangly green ends which will now need to be tucked up neatly inside. Thread your yellow tail end onto a needle....

....and work a neat running stitch around the very top edge of your crochet. Go all the way around until you get back to where you started, then pull the yarn very tight to gather up the hole.

You won't be able to close the hole completely, but the gap should be small enough to allow a few extra stitches to pull it closed. This is the bottom of your pumpkin.

Now get stuffing! Don't make your pumpkin rock hard - keep the shape quite squidgy and soft.

Repeat the running stitch process around the top edge, pulling the yarn tight to draw in the crochet and close the hole.

This is what you should end up with - a really super-cute little pumpkin that just needs a few finishing touches. Don't worry too much about the finish at the top of the pumkin where you stitched it closed as this will be covered by the stalk.

I followed June's pattern for the stalk - it's a weeny but fiddly but the more you make, the easier it gets. 

I also decided to make a simple little twizzle to add a bit of greenery - this is very easy to do, simply make a short chain (around 10 or 12) then work 3 dc in each chain. The whole thing will curl and curve but you'll need to twist it tightly around and give it a little tug to pull it onto shape.

Once the stalk and twizzly bit are stitched in place, the pumpkin goes from super-cute to adorable.

It is so adorable in fact that you may well find you still have a pressing need to produce some stripy brothers and sisters to keep it company....

.....oh those stripes!!!!!!!!!!!!! Swooooooon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So after two days spent crocheting I have eight plump little beauties. I am SO in love with them, the sight of them makes me go weak at the knees.

It occurred to me as I was making my pumpkins that the colours go together really very beautifully. So I thought I would create a colour palette with my pegs to show you all the colours  of Stylecraft Special DK that I used.....

❧ Khaki ❧ Walnut ❧ Mocha ❧ Vintage Peach ❧ Tomato ❧ Spice ❧ Gold ❧

❧ Saffron ❧ Buttermilk ❧ Pistachio ❧ Meadow ❧ Cypress ❧ Lincoln ❧ Silver ❧

And here are the Stylecraft Special DK colours I used for each pumpkin : ❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧ (how cute is that little leaf symbol!)

1. Vintage Peach (pumpkin) : Silver (stalk) Pistachio (twizzle) : Meadow (leaf)
2. Lincoln/Silver (pumpkin) : Mocha (stalk) : Meadow (twizzle)
3. Buttermilk (main colour) : Gold (stripes) : Cypress (stalk)
4. Saffron (main colour) : Cypress (stripes) : Lincoln (stalk) : Meadow (twizzle)
5. Spice (pumpkin) : Walnut (stalk) : Meadow (twizzle)
6. Spice/Tomato (pumpkin) : Walnut (stalk)
7. Saffron (main colour) : Spice (stripes) : Meadow (stalk) : Pistachio (twizzle)
8. Spice (main colour) : Lime (stripes) : Khaki (stalk)

As is often the case with these kind of seasonal crochet projects (remember my Autumn Wreath?), they are insanely photogenic and I get a huge amount of pleasure arranging them and photographing them. Over and over and over. I spent a good portion of today jigging around in the light of my bay window, faffing with my pumpkins and taking pictures of them....it's been a lot of fun and very, very satisfyingly creative.

I decided after breakfast that I really needed some leaves to accompany my pumpkin-faffery, to use as props and to add as an extra little bit of a decorative accent to my photographs. So I persuaded Little B to get dressed and come on a jaunt to the park with me to gather suitably pretty and colourful leaves. Gosh, we found some whoppers!! These leaves were absolutely ginormous, bigger than a seven year olds head! I think they're from a London Plane tree?

We found some really pretty leaves, and I couldn't wait to get back home and start playing.......

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

I think you'll agree, this is creative faffing at it's best!

Love love love love love this photo, times a gazillion. 

So I think I've gotten the whole pumpkin making thing out of my system for now, and I'm so pleased with the results. You may be wondering what I intend to do with eight crochet pumpkins.....well I'm going to add them to my mantel display, which is currently still a work in progress. I've not yet finished my Autumn garland, although I have purchased some smashing little fairy lights for it. I'm hoping to get the garland made in the next week, along with the patterns for the oak leaf, acorn and beech leaf. I really want to have my Autumn mantel looking all gorgeous before November arrives.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing all this pumpkiny goodness with me today, I've had a load of fun sharing, that's for sure. Before I go, I thought you might appreciate seeing some of the images that I gathered in my search for pumpkin colour inspiration.......................feast you eyes.......... ❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧❧

WOW!!!!! How about that?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Extraordinary natural beauty.

x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧x❧







 

 

Stylecraft Blog Tour 2017

 

Hello my lovelies, and a very warm welcome to the Attic24 installment of the Stylecraft Blog Tour 2017!! This has been an exciting thing for me as it's the first Blog Tour I've ever been involved with (and I think this must be the 3rd year now). The idea is that each of the sixteen Stylecraft Blogstars takes a turn to host the tour for a day, designing a knit or crochet project that uses a chosen collection of Stylecraft yarns.

We are about half way through the tour, and my goodness there have been some amazing designs so far. It's been brilliant to see the diversity and creativity from each individual designer, and every project is truly unique. Very, very inspiring indeed. You can find patterns and blogs already out there from the following Blogstars :

♥ Emma Varnam ♥ Every Trick on the Hook ♥ Crochet Between Worlds ♥

♥ Cherry Heart ♥ Annaboo's House ♥ Lucia's Fig Tree ♥ Zooty Owl ♥

Tomorrow, it'll be the turn of Phil at The Twisted Yarn. So much yarny goodness to inspire!

The yarny focus for the 2017 Blog Tour is Stylecraft Batik  which had four new colours added this year, bringing the total to 20. As well as the existing Batik yarn, this summer Stylecraft introduced us to a new addition called Batik Elements which comes in 8 different colourways. Batik is really beautiful to work with - it's a mixed fibre double knit yarn (80% acrylic / 20% wool) and the thing I like the most about it is it's bounce. Oh, it's so deliciously springy and plump when it's worked up into stitches! I'm sure there's a technical yarny term for the springy bounce, but no matter, I'm sure you can get what I mean. The other things I love about it are it's softness and warmth - due to the wool content it feels warmer against the skin than Special DK, yet it's very soft too. 

So - these are the eight Elements ::

Top row, left to right  ♥ Krypton ♥ Bismuth ♥ Mercury  ♥Platinum ♥

Bottom row, left to right ♥ Iron ♥ Sulphur ♥ Copper ♥ Phosphorus ♥

As you can see, Stylecraft Elements is a variegated yarn, with each ball containing a blend of compatible shades. If you follow {this link} you can see how the Elements look when they are knitted up, and this gives you the best overall feel for all the colours in each ball. Now in all honesty I'm really not a fan of variegated yarn for crochet as I much prefer the look of clean, clear, solid colours. I find variegated yarn a bit "visually messy" which makes my Creative Mind do a little shudder of disapproval. This is my personal opinion mind you, and I know many designers who love that there are so many colours to go at all in one single ball. 

For the Blog Tour, Stylecraft created four yarn collections for us to choose from. Each collection contains one shade of Batik Elements (4 balls) and six shades of Batik DK ( 1 ball of each), making 10 x 50g balls in total.

I really struggled making my choice as truthfully none of them immediately made me swoon. Many of the colours are quite dark and moody, and quite different to the kind of happy-bright colours I would instinctively be drawn to. I pondered on it for quite a while before finally settling on the cool blues and greens of Lagoon. 

The Lagoon Yarn Pack contains 4 x Batik Elements Krypton, and 1 each of Batik Indigo, Teal, Sage, Storm, Lupin and Silver. 

The first thing I did was wind up some yarn pegs so that I could have a play, but also to give me easy reference to the colour names for my designing and pattern writing. 

The next thing I did was to wind off some of the Krypton Elements yarn onto a wide piece of card so that I could see the individual colours that make up this variegated yarn more clearly.

And then finally, I popped the ten balls of yarn into my chunky bag and waited for inspiration to come.

I waited.

And waited some more.

Yarndale came and went, and still the yarn sat in my bag waiting patiently. 

Finally, when I least expected it, an image of my Blooming Flower cushion popped into my mind, and I felt the first real buzz of creative excitement. I could picture a cushion looking really rather lovely, blooming in watery shades of blue and green.

It's always fun revisiting an old pattern as you can pretty much get stuck straight in with the making without any need to mess about with the design. The making process is all about how to use the colours rather than the mathematics of the stitches, and that makes me happy. 

I made the original Blooming Flower cushion six years ago now, and it really is a fab pattern. It's extremely satisfying to watch as those petals form, radiating the colours out from the centre and inviting you to stroke your hands back and forth over the  texture of the crochet. 

 

I can't say that I fell in love with these colours, although I really did try. I just found the busy-ness of it all a little to much for my brain, even though I ordered the colours in a way that made sense to me (dark to light, then back to dark). I guess I'm used to feeling a true passionate love affair with my crochet colours/projects, and this one felt like a really nice casual friendship.

I worked on this cushion quite a bit at Coopers Cafe, and I was surprised how much everyone else seemed to like it  - I think my friends would have told me the truth if they thought it was rubbish! So I took their word for it and kept going, hoping for the best.

About half way through making the cushion front, I found myself fixating on the centre of the blooming flower - there was quite a big hole there which had begun to bother me. I decided to find a button to stitch over the hole to cover it up and spent ages online looking for a large decorative button which matched the Lagoon colours. When I didn't manage to find anything suitable, I hit on the idea of making my own crochet button. 

I bought a couple of cheap 25 mm plastic buttons from a local shop and set about crocheting a little jacket for them....

It was ever so easy....

....and the finished yarny button just delighted me with it's simplicity and perfectness for the job....

.....ta-dah!!! (well, just a small little buttony ta-dah for now).

I made a second button for the back side of the cushion, which as you can see I made using just the Krypton yarn. I did contemplate changing colours and making stripes, but in the end I decided to take advantage of the variegated yarn and keep it simple.

The contrast between the busy, textured front and the simple, smooth back pleases me, although I'm really not sure about all that Krypton. It's taken on a bit of a camouflage look which doesn't really do it for me.

Incidentally, when I'd finished crocheting both these circles they were quite unshapely and didn't sit at all flat. This is definitely a pattern that needs blocking. So I very gently steamed them with a cool iron to ease up the tension and re-shape the circles until they lay beautifully flat. 

I would love to know what you think about the look of this yarn, do share your thoughts! Do you like variegated yarn? Do you like the mixed-colour effect? Or are you like me and prefer your colours simple, solid and separate?

Size wise, I bought a 40 cm cushion pad which was ridiculously fat and pouffy, but from previous experience I know how much these pads quickly flatten with use. So I made my cushion cover measure around 32 cm which gives a nice snug fit right now, and it won't get too baggy and saggy once the cushion inner settles down with use.

See what I mean about the pouffy-ness? It's possibly the plumpest cushion pad I've ever encountered!

So before I set about stuffing all this padding inside my crochet, I used a long darning needle and some white yarn, and made a couple of stitches at the very centre of the cushion pad. I stitched right through the whole thing, from one side to the other, pulling the yarn tight and knotting it securely so that it made an indentation in the centre of the cushion, a bit like a belly button. I've no idea why I like the idea of giving the cushion a belly button so much, but it really did make me chuckle to myself. It doesn't take much to please me, obviously.

Crocheting the front and back pieces together couldn't be easier. I just put the two pieces with right sides facing outwards, and worked slip stitches all around the edge, putting my hook through the inner/back loops of each outer round. 

Slip Stitching creates a really neat seam, with an almost invisible row of stitches. You just need to be mindful of your tension and keep it fairly loose (I went up a hook size to help with this), or else the seam will pucker and pull the circle out of shape.

So shall we take a little look at the finished cushion?

This is the reverse camouflage Krypton side....

.....and this is the beautiful Blooming front side.........Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can see that I attached the crochet buttons in the same belly-button fashion as I did for the cushion pad so that the centre of the cushion is pulled inwards on both sides. I love this effect so much! 

Whilst I was working on the final rounds of my cushion in the cafe on Friday, one of my friends remarked that the colours reminded her of a Monet water lily painting. I knew immediately that she was right as I remember falling in love with Monet's water lily paintings when I visited Paris in my student days, and for a while having a huuuge poster on my bedroom wall.

I searched out one of Monet's famous lily pond paintings with the bridge (shown above) and the colours are astoundingly close to those of the Krypton yarn - amazing eh?

So I've named this cushion the Water Lily, as both the colours and the blooming floral aspect seemed very appropriate. 

I've created a free pattern for the Water Lily Cushion that you can download and print....

♥ WATER LILY CUSHION PATTERN ♥

And remember that if you need more visual help with working the Blooming Flower pattern, there is a full tutorial on my blog with lots of pictures to help {Blooming Flower Tutorial}

Before I go, I'd like to tell you that Stylecraft are running a *competition where you can win one yarn pack every day of the Blog Tour. If you'd like to be in with a chance to win the yarn to make my Water Lily Cushion, you have 24 hours to enter - the competition runs from 10 am today (Monday 23rd) until 10 am tomorrow. ((*Competition now closed))

♥ THE WINNER OF THE LAGOON YARN PACK IS VERONIQUE GEORGE from BELGIUM ♥

 You can keep up to date with all the Blog Tour comings and goings over on the Stylecraft Facebook page.

If you want to buy the yarn to make my Water Lily Cushion, I used 2 x Batik Elements Krypton, and 1 each of Indigo, Teal, Sage, Storm, Lupin and Silver.

I hope you've enjoyed an insight into the makings of my cushion as part of the Blog Tour this year.....don't forget to go see what Phil has in store for you tomorrow over at The Twisted Yarn blog......happy blog trails!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Moments {one}

🍁 So far this Autumn the weather has been mild and I've been overjoyed to still feel some last little wisps of Summer lingering. I've been trying to spend as much time outdoors as I can, especially on days when the sun is shining and the sky is that utterly uplifting shade of blue. On mornings when I don't particularly need to be anywhere I've been extending my school run by not going straight home afterwards - so instead of walking up the hill I carry on along the canal, then right along through the park and up to the farm shop on the edge of town. The extra exercise and fresh air has been a real tonic, and I've absolutely LOVED feeling the gentle warmth of the sun of my face.

🍁 Sitting on my favourite bench in the park on my return walk back from the farm shop, taking in the trees, the blue sky and the feel of the sun on my face (did I mention how much I love the feel of that? The sun? On my face? Makes me sooo happy). I don't tend to linger long in the farm shop as it's one of those places where absolutely every single thing is gorgeous/delicious/pretty/desirable/displayed to perfection and one can end up spending a small fortune. So instead of browsing, I head straight to the counter where there is freshly squeezed fruit juice for sale, drink up one of the small samples to see how good it tastes, then ignore the healthy juice and order up a latte instead. My treat is to sit a weeny while on the bench with the above view whilst sipping my coffee, with the sun on my....yeah...you know how I feel about that.

🍁 My hill view is quite brown now that we are into Autumn - a lot of the colouring on the hillside comes from great swathes of bracken and this plant is only green for a few short months of the year, from late May to late August. I still love this view though, no matter how brown it gets, and delight in seeing it waiting for me every morning at the end of my street before I descend down the hill to the canal.

🍁 Oh, we lit our first fire of the season, something so very Autumnal it makes me fidget with indecision. On one hand, it's one of my most favourite things to look forward to in Autumn, but on the other hand I try and put it off as long as possible, because the Lighting Of The Fire surely means that temperatures are dropping, the days are shortening and the weather is worsening. Bitter sweet, for sure. For the record, our first fire this year was on Monday 9th October which is earlier than usual. I wasn't going to give in (wailing about it being too early) but in the end I completely caved in to J's wishes for it. But since then, it hasn't been cold enough for the fire really, so it's only been lit twice I think. 

🍁 We walk pass this wall on our way to school, and the colour of the leaves just knocks my socks off.  Pretty much every day, Little B picks some of the fallen leaves up from the pavement and presents them to me, knowing I can't resist them. They go into my pocket, then get emptied out onto the dining table at home where they sit and darken and dry to a crisp. 

🍁 I have been using one of my Weekend Bags all year, alternating between the different colourways. The one I'm wearing at the moment is called "Heatwave" and although this is wishful thinking on my part and makes me think wistfully of late summer warmth, the colours are very suitably Autumnal I'd say. I'm still also wearing my beloved Fly London boots, although they desperately need replacing as they leak in water now and make my hand knit socks all soggy. Buy New Boots - it's on my To-Do list.

🍁 So much colourful leafy goodness lying around the place at the moment, so much to catch my eye and stop me in my tracks, which happens many, many times a day. Sometimes I capture an image with my camera, sometimes I stoop and gather into my pocket to bring home, and sometimes I just stand and stare and think how beautiful it all is. Mother Nature, she sure is a clever so-and-so. 

🍁 The above photo was taken at the end of a walk in the woods on Monday, a day when the UK turned a very strange colour indeed. I took lots (and lots and lots) of Autumnal woodland photos which I'm saving to share another day - oh, the leafy colours are spectacular at the moment.

🍁 The storm gusted through here on Monday night and the strong winds blew a whole tree down at the allotment, causing it to crash right across our plot. I reported this disaster to J (I'd popped up to the plot to pick rose hips for my Autumnal mantel display, more on that later) and he and Little B  set out to carry out some emergency tree dismantling work. They came home with rosy red cheeks, cold hands, and a flower pot full of the last of the tomatoes which they rescued from under the fallen tree.  

🍁 I got inspired by the season to treat myself to some new washi tape for my planner pages, I just could not resist. The acorns and the trees called out to me, and they in turn somehow made the owls, umbrellas and the pretty folksy blue tape fall into my virtual online shopping basket. If you feel similarly tempted, do go and visit the lovely Dominika over on Etsy and see what gorgeousness she has in her shop....oh cripes, I've just spotted the mushroom tape.....I must resist the cute mushrooms.....

🍁 I've been catching up with my favourite magazines and loving the utter beauty of the seasonal pages. Everything looks so warm and cosy and homely and snug in Autumnal Magazine Wonderland, it's very inspiring. I'm currently crocheting an Autumn Garland for my fireplace, and changing out the summery look on my mantel to make it more in keeping with Autumn - I've got lots to show you! Hang on, I'll go grab a photo so you can see what I've been up to................

🍁.............there! What do you think? After many frustrating failures, I finally managed to design and make a very satisfactory looking two-colour oak leaf. I'm so so pleased about that, such a happy feeling when I finally nailed that tricky shape. I made acorns too.....I can't wait to show you more next week, I'm making some tutorials for these oaks leaves and acorns as well as a little beech leaf I've been making too. 

🍁 The light this week has been magical, especially in the mornings when we set out to walk to school. Half Past Eight and the sun is only just rising above the hill at this time of year, all misty and golden and just breathtaking. There is much to enjoy about Autumn - it's not my best favourite season, but I warm to it more and more as the years pass.

 •*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.••*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•´¨`

I so enjoyed writing my "Summer Moments" posts this year, that I thought I'd like to continue on into Autumn. I hope you enjoy them too, and that you are finding many moments in your own days to make you stop, smile and feel glad. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

British Knitting and Crochet Awards 2017

Helloooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First off, before I launch into tales of the Big City and all sorts of exciting awardy type things, I'd like to say a massive big squishy thank you for all your Birthday wishes after my last post - {{ t h a n k ~y o u }} so much, you really are a beautifully kind bunch. 

So yeah....last Thursday it was indeed my birthday and instead of staying put at home and lolling about doing Birthday-ish things, I hopped on a train and journeyed three hours south to London. I wasn't alone (although I do rather enjoy traveling solo), as I had my friend Emma with me who is part of the Yarndale team. We arrived in London at lunch time, meeting up with the lovely Christine (Winwick Mum), and another fab friend Fiona who owns the most gorgeous yarn shop in Harrogate (Yarn Etc). Are you beginning to realise that there is a very definite yarn connection going on??

Our destination was the historic Alexandra Palace which sits high on a hill to the north of the City. It is such a beautiful and very grand building and I wish I had taken more photographs to share with you. But really I was waaaaay too excited to do much with my camera as we were visiting the famous Knitting and Stitching Show.

It was so much fun for me to be there as a foot-loose-and-fancy-free visitor, with no hidden agenda and nothing to do except ooh and ahh and take it all in. It was really lovely to see so many people we knew and to have time to chat and catch up (the Stylecraft stand looked exceptionally inspiring, you can see a video of it here). The event feels so very different to Yarndale (there is carpet!) and it's all very sleek and rather well pulled together, but I somehow felt it didn't have nearly as much friendly character.

I did very badly on the photo front, I'm so sorry! Truthfully, we arrived quite late in the afternoon and I spent most of my time chatting and not really pointing my camera about the place. Ho-hum......I can show you a photo of one of my favourite exhibitors though......

This gorgeous collection of handmade yarny goodness is the work of Prilly Lewis - this is the first time I've seen her work and I  completely fell in love with it. Prilly uses British lambswool, combining knitting and crochet which is then felted to create a stunning range of accessories. You can see lots more of her work on Instagram. I especially loved the mittens - the bobbly crochet parts were soooooo tactile! 

You may have guessed from the title of this post (which is pretty non-cryptic) that we weren't just gadding about at Ally Pally chatting and stroking all manner of yarny things. We were there in fact for a very good reason as we'd been invited to attend the award ceremony for the annual British Knitting and Crochet Awards. You might remember I wrote about the awards last year? It's a wonderful feeling to attend something that feels really rather grand and so far removed from one's every day life. Again, I wish I had taken photos to show you - the room is quite posh (think high ceilings, huge windows, painted murals, round tables set with white cloths, waiters circulating with trays of fizz), and the atmosphere is buzzing! The best thing about the award ceremony is getting to mingle (and by mingle, I mean chat and lark about) with so many other talented, dedicated yarny folk. My friends from Wool Warehouse and Stylecraft were there, as well as lots of other bloggers, designers, yarn shop owners and yarn makers from right across the industry. 

The voting for these awards is a big affair and is all down to the support of the general knitty/hooky public. This year the votes were opened out Worldwide for the first time, with around 15,000 votes in total, which was a fantastic result. Let’s Knit editor, Sarah Neal, said  “These awards are an opportunity for the nation’s knitters and crocheters to honour their favourite brands, and they’ve done so in their thousands. That’s such a fantastic accolade for all the winners and runners-up and true recognition for all their hard work.” 

So I wonder if some of you may have voted back in the summer? I'd like to say a massive big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote for me, I appreciate it so very much.

I am really chuffed to tell you that I won first place in three categories (Favourite Crochet Blog, Favourite Crochet Designer and Best Ready-to-Make kits), came 2nd place in a fourth category (Best Website for my shop with WoolWarehouse), and Yarndale also won first place for Best Knitting Event......................................................................w o w!

Gosh, I confess I may have conducted a little bit of private happy dancing when those results came in just before Yarndale. As an added surprise, I also got presented with a bottle of champagne for being one of four nominees to win three 1st place awards, it was almost too much to take in. I had pink cheeks! I did air-kisses with Stuart Hillard who was the guest speaker and presenter!! Ahh.....such a whirl of over excitement and feel good :)

You can see  the results of all the categories by clicking here >> 2017 Award results.

With the award ceremony being in the evening, it wasn't possible for me to travel to London and back in a day. Such a shame that I had no other choice but to camp out with Christine in a rather swish hotel for the night....oh, the sacrifice....and on my birthday too.....

The hotel staff treated me rather nicely mind you, and totally surprised me with this scrummy chocolate cake complete with birthday candle, how lovely was that? I can confirm that chocolate cake does indeed taste rather yummy washed down with a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

The day after the awards, Christine and I weren't due to leave the Big City until 1 pm. So after much laughing and chatting and a lovely breakfast, we decided to set out on foot and explore a little. Our hotel was  a stones throw from Kings Cross St Pancras train station, so we decided to walk along the Regents Canal a little way to visit Camden Lock and market.

I'd last been to Camden market in my early twenties so only had vague memories of it, but I remembered it being quirky and pretty atomospheric.

I know it shouldn't, but central London always surprises me with how very, very, very busy it is at all times of the day and night. It's a loud cacophony of sights and sounds, with so many crowds of people, and endless streams of traffic. All. the. time. It's relentless, and it kind of takes it out of you after a bit.

But there is no denying the energy that buzzes around these streets.....

.....it's vibrant and youthful and really unlike anything I've ever seen anywhere else.

It is uniquely London.

Christine and I wandered about the market for a while, then found a lovely little coffee shack that made me the best latte - gosh I do so appreciate a great morning coffee, such a pleasure. We lingered by the side of the canal with our hot milky drinks, watching the comings and goings of people and boats before setting out on the return walk back.

It was interesting walking along the canal side...

...it felt kind of familiar and yet different all at once. The narrow boats looked pretty much the same as the ones I'm used to seeing here on the Leeds-Liverpool canal in Yorkshire, but the very urban surroundings made it feel very different. 

I do like the energy that buzzes in the air when you visit a large city, there is always such a huge amount of visual stimulation to absorb. But I don't quite have the stamina for city life any more, and find myself searching almost subconciously for a bit of visual peace and quiet. My eyes and brain need green space now to feel at ease, and that's pretty hard to find in the midst of the city. 

I spent exactly twenty four hours in London, and although I had a really fabulous time I was also very much looking forward to coming home again. Incidentally, I really do love the ceiling at Kings Cross train station, it's mesmerising to look at as you stand and wait for departure.

Train travel has it's pleasures too, and I enjoyed whizzing along the tracks with my hook and cool shades of yarn. This is something I'm working on as part of the Stylecraft Blog Tour this year, well it's happening now actually. The tour started yesterday and there are sixteen days of fabulous and inspiring designs, free patterns and giveaways for you to enjoy. Day one began yesterday with Emma Varnham, and today was the turn of Polly Plum - do go and pay them a visit, and you'll find out from Polly where to go on Wednesday. It'll be my turn at the start of next week (Monday I think it is, I'm a bit disorganised, no surprises there then).

Righty-o.....my bed is calling and I fear I've been waffling. Thank you for visiting with me, for reading my witterings and for casting your votes and for your lovely encouraging words always.

I so appreciate you all.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Time by the Sea

On Friday, after two and a half hours of frantic emergency housework (in preparation for my in-laws coming to stay) followed by one and a half hours of gentle driving, J and I arrived at the sea. This was a trip that had been booked and planned many months ago, a trip concocted by me in the midst of a very weary and busy summer period when I was feeling very much in need of a break. Just the knowledge of having these few days waiting patiently for me on the other side of Yarndale has been wonderful, sometimes I think the mere anticipation can be almost as good as the actual thing itself.

This trip was pretty much a repeat of the few days we spent away at this time last year - I've just looked back through my bloggy archives but sadly it seems like I just didn't get around to telling you about it last year. No matter, like I say, the two weekends were very similar.  This was to be a precious child-free time for J and I to spend together, a few days beside the sea in gentle recognition of our wedding anniversary at the very end of September (16 years this year), and my birthday which comes in mid October (tomorrow in fact, and that'll be 49 years for me on this planet). Around this time of year I always experience a driving desire to be beside the sea, maybe you might remember a few of our past October trips to Robin Hoods Bay (here and here)? The pull is so strong that I feel almost powerless to resist it, and luckily for me, J knows my ways well by now and is happy to let me have my way.

So last year and this, we went to the North East coast and stayed in a quirky little hotel in Saltburn-by-the-Sea. The hotel is perched high up on the cliff side (you can just see it on the left of the photo above), with uninterrupted sea views which made my heart speed up a notch.

Arriving up there on the side of the cliff and taking in the familiar sea view made me feel all kinds of happy. I felt like I was breathing out properly and able to relax for the first time in ages. Precious indeed. 

We'd decided before we arrived that we would do a short walk on Friday afternoon before settling ourselves into the hotel. I just couldn't wait to stride out along the cliffs - coastal walking is my very best favourite kind of walking. So after pottering a little way along the sea front, we quickly began to climb up and up....

....to join the Cleveland Way coastal path. The Cleveland Way is one of the Uk's National Trails and is 109 miles in length. I would dearly love to walk the entire trail one day (it's on my personal bucket list), but I am more than happy to enjoy little snippets of it whenever I get the chance. 

This walk was just a short 4.5 mile circular route -  a couple miles along the coast, then back inland a little way to return to Saltburn. It was windy on Friday, and the sound of the waves below us was noisy and joyful. I absolutely love love love to have the sound of the sea filling my ears, it makes me so happy.

I had read about this sculpture before we did the walk, but coming across it in real life was still unexpected somehow. It was larger than I thought it would be (around 5 ft tall) and managed to look so at home and so out of place at the same time.

This steel "charm bracelet" was designed and made by artist Richard Farrington around twenty years ago, and I love it very much. The dangling charms (which tell stories of local folklore) clank gently in the wind and the whole thing is just so simple and uncomplicated. There is a wooden bench close by, so it makes for a sweet place to stop and take a breather and ponder the delights of all things coastal. 

The return part of the walk involves a steep climb up a blinkin' great hillock, with a trig point on the top where you can collapse and gasp noisily for the breath that has left your body during the assent. Climbing steep hills is exhilarating, no doubt about it, and I do quite enjoy the challenge to my poor weary, out of shape body. 

Returning down to the flatness of sea level was rather lovely after all that exertion.

We took a stroll out along the old pier as the sea pounded onto the shore beneath our feet.

The sea at Saltburn is ever so wavy, and as a result it's a place where surfers come to well, to surf. I am fascinated by people who choose to do this kind of thing for fun, honestly, I am in awe. You couldn't pay me enough to throw myself into all that cold, frothing water, it just would never, ever happen. I truly adore being by the sea, and occasionally I can be convinced to ride on top of it in a boat, but I am most definitely not someone who enjoys being inside the stuff. I might paddle my toes on warm sunny days, but full body immersion?? Nope, never. And on a completely different note, aren't those beach huts beautiful? Bright stripy colours - just exactly my thing. 

 After our walk, I tucked my camera away and put myself thoroughly in the moment. We had a wonderful time, J and I. We enjoyed good food followed by a few cheeky cocktails in a local bar with a view right out over the sea. When it got dark and the tiredness set in, we took ourselves slowly back up to our hotel (oh so many steps!) to loaf about and indulge in being away from home and in a hotel no less. We don't get to experience hotels all that often, so it feels like quite a luxury really. We were able to open our window wide and listen to the sound of the sea below, which pleased me hugely. 

The following day (Saturday), following an almighty Full English breakfast, we set out to walk a little more of the Cleveland Way. This time we were a bit further down the coast, starting out at one of my most favourite little coastal places - Staithes. 

I've written about this village before, and I absolutely love it here. It's very charming and atmospheric, a rustic, ancient jumble of higgledy-piggledy cottages which tumble down the steep hillside to the sea.

Walking down through the little lanes is an absolute delight, and I am entranced each and every time I visit. There is just something about Staithes which draws me in and makes me not want to leave. We didn't stay as long as I'd have liked here, as J was keen to get walking - I could have spent hours just pottering around taking photos and soaking it all in...but that'll wait for another time....

We were soon climbing back up again and leaving Staithes behind (can you see the dog in the window? Aww!) By golly, the roads and paths along this coastline are seriously steep, and it takes much physical effort to get yourself up 'em. I was huffing and puffing like a steam train....

....but the sea views from high up on the cliffs are spectacular and so worth the effort.

After a few miles we came to another favourite little place - Runswick Bay. As with Staithes,  I've written about this place before when we visited two years ago, and it was really lovely to be back. The walking route we were following didn't need us to descend the mega-steep road down to sea level, but at this point I suddenly really needed a pee, and possibly a hot frothy coffee too. So I twisted J's arm and we set about tackling the half mile descent - can you see in the above photo, the pavement on the right is so steep that it's been made into steps? Yeah, hold that thought while we go and pootle around at the bottom.......

....it's so lovely down at Runswick Bay, even on a very grey October day when the clouds decided to let loose the rain they'd been carrying over our heads all morning. 

Lucky for us, there is a very cute little cafe right down at the edge of the beach, and we managed to squeeze into the corner by the window to enjoy a really surprisingly good coffee with a sea view while we waited for the rain to ease up. 

Now, remember that thought I asked you to hold, the one that contained the half-a-mile of steeply stepped pavement? HALF A MILE!!! It's a shed-load of steps, way more than any person should have to cope with on a drizzly Saturday morning with a belly full of hotel breakfast and frothy coffee. But.......we made it back up to the top, heart pounding, legs screaming and really the entirety of my body feeling on the brink of collapse. Ahh.....you gotta love coastal walking, so pleasurable, so relaxing!! Haha!!

After Runswick Bay, the route began to curve inland away from the sea, and much of the walking was around very green, lush farmland.

At one point we rounded a bend in the track only to come face to face with a whole herd of dairy cows slowly ambling their way back to the farm for milking. There was no way I could make myself walk through the herd (I admit I am a little fearful of these hefty big farm animals in large numbers), so we opted to stand at a respectful distance and allow them to pass through.

Annnndddddd......twenty minutes and a gazillion milk-filled cows later, the path was finally clear for us to carry on our walk.

The last part of the walk was through a really lovely little bit of woodland - ooodles of trees growing very close together made it very shady and very green beneath the canopy. It was ever so tranquil and quiet, and when we stood still and listened carefully we could hear the actual sound of leaves dropping to the ground, how cool is that?

Although the trees are still looking pretty green, Autumn has definitely arrived here in Yorkshire.

I think this whole walk was around 7 or 8 miles in total and I loved every bit of it (with the exception of being breathed on at very close quarters by a huge nosy cow). Even the rather grueling climbs were exhilarating and although we arrived back at the car feeling completely exhausted, it was at least a sound, satisfied kind of exhaustion that I felt right down inside my soul. So so good.

Back at the hotel, and we had some time to just relax before dinner. Complete relaxation isn't something easily achieved during the day at home when you have children, so it does feel more than a little bit special when the opportunity presents itself. The very idea of just kicking off my boots and flopping out on the bed for the pure pleasure of just being horizontal for a while seemed suddenly very decadent and luxurious. Oh, the joy!

Our hotel room had these huuuuuuge floor to ceiling windows, the above photo only show the top half of them.  I spent a while just laid on my back on the comfy bed, watching the clouds shift across the sky. It was so soothing, enjoying such a simple thing, with no interruptions and nobody requesting anything of me. It was almost as if time stood still for a while. J made us a cup of and we sat on the bed eating crumbly digestive biscuits and insanely good truffle chocolates, and all was so very happy in my little world right then.

After a bit I noticed the light had quite dramatically changed, so I dashed outside to take in the view.....

It was around 6pm, in that short passage of time where day is closing and evening just beginning.

The landscape looked so beautiful and rather dramatic with those deep dark rain clouds still overhead from earlier and the low slanting early evening sun making everything glow golden.

Our evening was rather blissful - a very delicious meal in the hotel restaurant, which was a big airy conservatory filled with plants and twinkling fairy lights. Then a long soak in a hot, deep bubble bath before climbing into bed to watch a film. I could hardly keep my eyes open, what with all the fresh sea air and exercise from the day, combined with the food, wine and then the scented bubble bath, gosh I struggled to stay awake beyond 9pm. But it was the best kind of feeling, one of total relaxation and a deep kind of happiness and gratitude.

We enjoyed two nights away, which in reality is only forty eight hours but it was plenty enough to really feel the benefits of a complete break from routine. On Sunday morning we had breakfast early, then set out to walk to the the giant charm bracelet on the cliffs again - sounds funny to say that doesn't it?! It was fabulous to take in those huge gulps of fresh sea air before we had to turn our back on the coast and set off back to our inland home.

Such a wonderful forty eight hours, and still very fresh in my memory (and my leg muscles) too.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Celebrating Yarndale 2017

It's just short of two weeks since Yarndale 2017 took place and I feel like I am finally emerging from the energy crash that typically floors me for a while afterwards. I sat and sifted through all my photographs yesterday, thinking about how truly amazing Yarndale is, and how proud I am to be involved with such a fabulous event. 

As I'm one of the five folks who make up the Yarndale team, my journey generally begins in January. It takes pretty much nine months of the year to create our two-day festival at the end of September, then another month or so afterwards to wrap it all up and put it to bed. Then we take a well earned break until the following January when we start all over again.

One of my favourite jobs is designing and making our mascott sheep which we photograph to use for our postcards and sometimes a little advertising in magazines. I work on this at the start of the year with my friend Carole who is another one of the Yarndale team - she and I both share a love of colour and have very creative souls (Carole is also an exhibitor, we both have quite busy creative lives outside of Yarndale).

As you can see from the above picture, the sheep we make are quite large, measuring around 90cm x 120cm. We draw the shape out on a piece of paper to give us an idea of the scale we are working to, then between us we make up the various body/head/leg pieces  over a couple months usually. Once all the yarny work is complete, we get a wooden shape cut out at our local builders merchant so that we have a solid template to stretch our woolly fabric around.

Over the years since Yarndale started in 2013, we've created a rather gorgeous and eclectic flock of woolly sheep which have become very well loved by our visitors. 

Our famous canvas sheep bags are hugely popular and usually sell out very quickly each year. We had some extra printed this year so if you would like to gift yourself a gorgeous Granny Sheep bag, we have a small number left in the Yarndale online shop.

Much of what I do to prepare for Yarndale is on the creative side, although I am responsible for the social media too. If you have been on the Yarndale Facebook page or Instagram then that's usually my voice you are reading. I also tend to get called on if any general writing is needed - magazine articles, interviews and press releases, plus the content for the brochure, that kind of thing.

But without a doubt, it's the creative projects which really get me excited each and every year. For me personally, I feel this is the essence of Yarndale - it's a celebration of yarn, creativity and community and nothing says it better than the colourful decorative elements we bring together for the festival. 

I started making these giant Mandala Hoops back in 2014, originally just for my own personal amusement before I quickly realised that they would make perfect decorations for Yarndale. I've managed to make a couple of new hoops each year to add to my collection, and have also LOVED that a few of you have made and sent your own mandala hoops to add to mine (I can't tell you how happy this has made me). If you want to read a little more about how I attach my mandalas to the hoops, you can find the blog post here.

This is my latest hoop, finished just a week before Yarndale. I used the pattern that I designed for Simply Crochet (more details in this blog post), and I loved how different it looked compared to the soft pastel colours of the original.

I had eleven hoops in total this year, which I strung up under the trees at the front of the Auction Mart - they really did look very eye catching. For next year, I'm planning on making a whole lot of smaller ones - I've already got a bunch of these 30cm metal rings and am so excited about trying out some new mandala designs. I was gifted some beautiful cotton yarn by the fabulous Dutch brand Yarn and Colors which will be perfect - the Must Have Minis are the most cutesome little 10g balls which come in 100 different colours (yes, one Hundred!), check them out at Wool Warehouse, and please do not blame me if you accidentally order yourself some.

Can you see in the above picture that it looks like a yarny river is flowing under my mandalas?? This fabulous creation was made last year by a group of local ladies, to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Leeds/Liverpool canal which runs through Skipton. It measures 15 metres long and is absolutely beautiful.....

....we were thrilled to have it on display at Yarndale again this year, and even more thrilled that it was joined by a remarkable knitted flower meadow........

.....wow!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that just beautiful?? Inspired by nature and wildlife, the meadow was made from over 250 individual pieces of  knitting, crochet, appliqué and sewing. It was created by the same local knitting group who created the canal, with participants ranging in age from 4 to 94. This is such a fantastic example of how wonderful our community is when it comes together to celebrate the joy of creating with yarn.  

The details in some of the pieces were so inspiring.....just look at that little felted snail leaving it's silvery trail behind it !!

We were also really chuffed to see the return of the famous Thirsk Yarnbombers to Yarndale after their creations were enjoyed so much by all our visitors last year.

They installed some fabulous knitting and crochet over the wooden bollards..... 

....which celebrated all things "Yorkshire".....

....and certainly brought about a lot of smiles during Yarndale weekend.

And so we come to the Creative Community project which I organise every year - it's my biggest undertaking for Yarndale, and something which I absolutely love doing. I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone who joined in with this year's Creative Hearts project, it was just soooooo beautiful to see all the hearts come together and was such a powerful representation of how talented, passionate and friendly the crochet and knitting community is. It was a real creative celebration, and it means a huge amount to me to be able to do something like this - I couldn't be more proud of our global crochet community.

All in all, we received around 520 hearts for our display - I'm afraid I lost track of the final count as quite a few parcels arrived right at the last minute, but do you know, they came from 21 countries around the world, isn't that something? 

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've taken photographs of every single individual heart, and I'll be starting work next week on creating some beautiful displays on Pinterest. In the meantime, here are a few images showing some of my favourites......

We decided this year to keep the Creative Hearts display intact and not to sell the hearts at Yarndale. We had our lovely friend Sheila (creator of the Flowers for Memories display two years ago) looking after the hearts during the weekend, and I'm thrilled to announce that through kind and generous donations from our visitors, we managed to raise.............

❤£1227.46❤ for the mental Health charity Mind.

Thank you so very much to everyone who contributed, it means a lot to us to support this worthwhile charity. The hearts are now tucked up safely at Yarndale HQ for a little while, and in the New Year we will start working with our local Mind representatives to see if we can display them or offer them for sale to raise even more money. I'll certainly keep you updated on the ongoing story.

From hearts to circles, well one very big, gigantic circle actually. I couldn't chat about our creative crochet community without sharing this incredible piece of work with you. We were thrilled to be able to have this beautiful 14 foot giant mandala on display at Yarndale this year, it really is the most breathtaking piece of crochet I think I've ever seen. It was created by a lady called Hester (@tessafterall on Instagram) as a result of the 365 #zenmandalaproject - the challenge was to crochet one round of a mandala every day for a whole year, which Hester successfully did throughout 2016. 

I found this image on Google (I'm so sorry I haven't been able to find the source so don't know who this lovely Yarndale visitor is, or who took the photo). I wanted to show you the scale of Hester's awesome Mandala, it just blows my mind looking at it and thinking about all the multiple thousands of stitches and hooky hours that are sitting right there. Hester was super-lovely and very humble with regards to her mandala awesomeness - it was really wonderful to welcome her to Yarndale and for our visitors to be able to chat with her.

Oh, there is always so much happening at Yarndale, way too much to mention really, and this year more than ever before we really did have some fabulous things going on. The above photo just captures the spirit of Yarndale perfectly, I love it! We had a return visit from Skipton's Giant Swaledales - these are huge walking puppets created from papier mache, wire and fabric, with a human inside acting out the voice of the sheep...baaaaaaaaaaa!! You can see this sheep is trying out a blanket - this was in the new social area of the festival where among other things (including the fabulous Yarn Doctors) we had a bit of a blanket making session going on, it was fab!

 Blankets for the Homeless  (or BFTH for short) collects knit or crochet 6" squares which are stitched together by a team of volunteers to make colourful blankets for people in need of a little warmth and comfort. Jayne Roper, founder of BFTH, came to Yarndale this year to host a blanket making drop-in where visitors could pull up a chair and join in with knitting/hooking a 6 inch square. It was a fabulous success, and so lovely to think that a little time spent crocheting or knitting with others can help make a difference. 

And so we come to my own little patch of Yarndale where I spend pretty much all my time during the weekend. Yarndale is a hugely busy festival (we had a record 8,500 visitors this year and just short of 200 exhibitors) and during the course of the two days it is very full on. We usually notice a tiny little lull towards the end of each afternoon but other than that there is barely time to eat or go take a pee throughout the day, it really is that busy. But I do enjoy it so much, it's overwhelming and emotional and joyful and happy and intense, and oh, just incredibly wonderful. It makes me feel so grateful, so inspired, so full of admiration for the enthusiastic Yarn Tribe we belong to. I get to meet so many gorgeous people from all over the world who travel to experience Yarndale and perhaps a little bit to see me too. This year, more than in other years, we did notice an increase in our foreign visitors - when I say from "all over the world" I really do mean it! I met lots of really lovely ladies (and gents) from Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Israel.....yes, honestly! 

So I get to chat and chat and chat! And of course listen and encourage and celebrate and laugh - it's a full on social whirl. It makes me realise that all these words that I sit and tap away at my laptop each week, all these thoughts and feelings and ideas and images that I share do indeed reach out and touch people far and wide. During Yarndale weekend, I get the real life version of my blog comments in three dimensional full colour, it's as if the whole thing quite literally springs to life in front of my very eyes. It's very humbling, and a rather marvelous experience for someone like me who leads a pretty quiet, quirky life.

I am beyond grateful that I am not on my own in this little patch of Yarndale - that very first year in 2013 when I was on my own was almost too much for me to handle by myself. These days I call in the troops! I just love having the Wool Warehouse team with me at Yarndale, they are the loveliest, friendliest bunch and work so hard during the weekend.

Thank you to every single one of you who took the time to come and say hello, I can't tell you how much I appreciated it and enjoyed meeting you all. And thank you also to everyone who was inspired by my blankets and took the decision to start out on a new colourful hooky journey. ThAnK YoU, so much, it makes me happy right down to my toes.

Of course, it wasn't just blankets and yarn and excitable people that filled my little auction ring, no, no! There were socks too, lots and lots and lots of socks! Just look at them all!! This is Christine's famous "Yarndale Sockline" which was so successful this year that we ran out of space to hang them. 

This was the third year that Christine organised the sockline for Yarndale, and it is just such a lovely feel-good thing. Knitters were invited to make a pair of socks which will be gifted to those in need of a little bit of woolly comfort and love.

Chrsitine says "...in our world where the media likes to focus on what's going wrong, we need to remember that some things are going right. I like to think that when I tell you that the pair of socks that you knitted has gone to, say, a homeless hostel or a children's hospice, you will smile, your heart will smile and that moment of connection will send love and positivity out into a world that needs all the love it can get." Isn't that just something special?

If you would like to know more about this year's sockline including the Grand Total of Socks Recieved, hop over to Christine's blog for a read.

For me, Yarndale weekend is so many things. It is the culmination of almost a year of planning, creating and working. It is a celebration, a gathering of like-minded souls, a joyful, yarn filled festival full of talent, passion, excitement, friendship, creativity and inspiration. It is a time when we all feel that we Belong to something absolutely, crazy-wonderful.

I took the above picture at 9.30am on Saturday morning, in that surreal window of time when everything is poised and ready to go, and we are just waiting for the doors to open. It's like the lull before the whirlwind! Our exhibitors work so hard to transform their bare concrete and metal pens into beautiful, enticing little showcases and shopfronts, they really do us proud. Sadly, I don't get much of a chance to look around - that's one thing I would love to change about my own Yarndale experience.

I did manage to have a quick squizzy early on Sunday morning, and so had a few photos on my camera, if you'd like to see what caught my eye?

There is such a huge range of beautiful things to see, squish, stroke and admire. Yarndale is very, very much more than simply a yarn show. 

There are some fabulous little Yarndale 2017 videos made by a few of our visitors over on YouTube, so if you couldn't visit and would like to get a feel for what this year was like, do go and have a look.....they are wonderful to watch...

♥ Sian's video

♥ Carie's video

♥ Cathrinskey's video

I also wanted to share the above images which I came across on Instagram - I think they are absolutely wonderful. Lisa is a textile artist and her eye for detail (and photography) is incredible. She described her experience of Yarndale as "a game of 2 halves...the natural neutrals and the bright Zappy colours"

 

So that's Yarndale over for another year - the fifth festival and what a success it was. Last week we received the news that Yarndale came 1st in the "Best Knitting Event" category of the British Knitting and Crochet Awards 2017, for the second year running. We are so proud of what we've created, and the feel-good that it brings to our visitors, exhibitors, and of course the lovely little rural market town in which we live. 

Thank you ever so much for reading, I hope I haven't been too long winded and that you've enjoyed a little bit of a peek behind the scenes. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps I'll keep you updated on the Creatve Hearts - I'm hoping to have all the image galleries ready to publish next week.

pps in the interest of full disclosure and transparency, I need to mention that Yarndale is a for-profit organisation and I am one of the five organisers. You can read more about the festival over on the website www.yarndale.co.uk

 

Bobbing By

Hellooooooooooooo!

I'm bobbing by to let you know I am here quietly pottering about in the Attic, I hadn't meant to be gone so long. I'm still in the midst of my post-Yarndale recovery period, I'm not bouncing back quite as quickly as usual I'm afraid. I've been feeling myself teetering on the edge of a vague kind of unwellness - so far I'm managing to fight the germs off I think, it' just the rather all consuming tiredness of body and brain that is the problem. I can tell you that my heart is very happy though (Yarndale was amaaaaaaazing), and I'm taking care of myself as best as I can. Quiet time at home, gentle walks out and about, a little bit of watery-coloured hooky, snuggly weekends and early nights.

I've got lots to share and chat about.....I'll be back soon I promise xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx