I know I've been writing a lot about Autumn on my blog just lately, and it's not something that was planned in any way. In fact I very rarely plan any of my blog posts, they just kind of fall in and out of my mind and out into my laptop as and when stuff happens. So all this feel-good Autumn stuff has come as quite a surprise as it's a bit of a novelty for me to feel so giddy and inspired by this particular season. I've been spending as much time outdoors as the weather has allowed during the past month, and as a result my October photo-file is chockablock full of outdoorsy Autumn images. Indoors it's a similar story and I've got little stashes of leaves, berries, conkers, pine cones and acorns all over the place, emptied out of my pockets after so many walks and foraging expeditions. Autumn has most definitely arrived here in the Attic.
The idea of making an Autumn Garland has been in my mind for quite a long time, pretty much every since I made my Autumn Wreath I guess. It's a little bit kind of school-kid nature-table-ish to celebrate the seasons by having bits of nature on display, and I was one of those children who absolutely adored adding stuff to the nature table in school. So making a seasonal garland has made me feel pretty excited and nostalgic, and I've loved having all the Autumn ideas, colours and inspirations filling my mind.
I mentioned this long beech hedge to you the other day, it gave me the inspiration for the first leaves I made for my garland. I began making them back in September, a few here and there when I was at the cafe or sat quietly at my table and needing something simple and therapeutic to occupy my hands and mind.
I love the very simple, leafy shape of beech leaves, they are kind of how you imagine a child would draw a leaf. I love the colours too.......ho ho, YES, even the brown!!!! Actually, I prefer to call it copper rather than brown which makes it a most lovely Autumn colour in my mind and not the stuff of mud or decay. I love the delicious, zesty lime green and the rich mustard and golden shades too. But most of all I really love seeing all these colours together - a lively palette of Autumness.
I started making these leaves all in one colour at first, but quickly realised that combining two colours was a way better idea. There is very rarely just one colour in an Autumn leaf after all.
They are super quick and easy to make, and you can find a tutorial for them all ready and waiting for you. If you are looking in my list of patterns, I've named this tutorial "Autumn Leaves and Acorns", as there are three different patterns all in one place.
My Beech leaves measure 6cm long (including the stem), crocheted with a 4mm hook.
I used up oddments of Stylecraft Special DK to make my Autumn Garland, and I think the colours are just perfect.
Ah, this photo makes me want to shout "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!" for some bizarre reason. Maybe it's because the leaves somehow give the impression that they are spinning in a flurry of a breeze, or maybe it's because I am really not normal and quite honestly my mind works in very childish ways a lot of the time.
But don't you just love to see leaves all pretty and arranged in a pattern? There is so much of that over on Instagram, it makes me want to hyperventilate just a little bit.
Next up in my leaf-making journey was the good ol' English Oak leaf. There are quite a few crochet patterns already out there for oak leaves, but I couldn't find any that were the exact right size and shape for my liking. So I had a go at designing my own, and crikey, what an infuriating business that was. I lost count of how many leaves landed in the bin, but I tell you, I am determined when it comes to things like this and I wasn't going to admit defeat. I kept at it, and eventually I ended up with an oak leaf that was simple to make and I really liked the look of.
Similar to the beech leaf, I decided to use two colours for my oak leaves although they would look just as good made in single colours. They measure 9cm long including the stem, worked on a 4mm hook.
Where there are oak leaves, there also need to be acorns. I love love love these little things, both in real life and my crochet versions too. There is something very inspiring about them, the idea that these little seeds have the potential to turn into huge great big beautiful trees {"mighty oaks from little acorns grow"}.
In terms of making them with a hook and yarn, they are a teensy bit on the fiddlesome side, but not so much that it would put you off as they are blinkin' quick to make. Just when you might get fed up of counting, you've finished, and I do quite like that.
Same as for the beech leaves, I've made tutorials for oak leaves and acorns too, they are all in the same place....
🍁AUTUMN LEAVES & ACORNS PATTERN
Now I wasn't going to make any berries for my garland, it was originally going to be all about the leaves. But once the acorns snook in, somehow there just had to be some berries too. These are teensy-tiny little things, would you like to know how to make them?
Chain 3, making sure that the very first chain (the slip knot on your hook) is pulled a little loose.
Then you make a 6-tr bobble, as follows :
*Yarn over, insert hook into the 1st chain, yarn over, pull a loop back through, yarn over and pull through two loops*
Repeat between ** 6 times in total until you have 7 loops on your hook....
....then yarn over and pull through all 7 loops. Chain 1 to hold the shape. To finish, you need to work a slip stitch in the same chain that you kept sticking your hook in to make the bobble (shown by my needle) - this will make your flat crochet bobble form into a little ball. Fasten off.
Thread both your tail ends onto a darning needle and darn back and forth a few times through the centre of the bobble to form a tight, neat little berry shape. Easy!!
I whipped up a handful of berries in minutes, so satisfying, and a lovely little pop of colour too.
There is one more leaf that I made for my garland, and that was a Sycamore leaf. I found this fantastic little pattern by Happy Berry Crochet - it' actually called a maple leaf but to me this looks like our British Sycamore. Laura's pattern was very well written, although if you are in the UK you do need to keep a close check on your stitch heights as there is a lot of movement between dc's, htr's, tr's, dtr's and tr-tr's which need translating from the US pattern terms.
I forgot to photograph my own leaves, but I made four of them in total for my garland. They measure 11cm including the stem, worked on a 4mm hook.
So.....this is my fireplace, in case you aren't familiar with it. It's quite big and chunky and dark looking, and over the years that we've lived at number 24 we've grown very fond of its old fashioned brick and wood look. If you called in to see me yesterday, then you will have already seen how I changed it up for Autumn, but that was before the addition of the garland.
I made up my garland yesterday, so it's still very new and rather lovely to see it actually hanging in situ. As I mentioned at the start of this post, I actually began making some of these leaves back in September. I'd been popping them into a little bag and had no idea how many I had or whether I would have enough, but as it turned out I only needed to add a couple things and take away a couple things, and it was pretty much perfect.
Awww, don't they look lovely?
I just love this picture, it makes me so happy to see all those beautiful colours playing together.
Shall we see how this all comes together to make a garland?
First of all, I used a piece of yarn to measure out the finished length I wanted my garland to be (160 cm). Then I marked the centre point, laid the yarn out on the floor and began placing my leaves, acorns and berries along the length of the yarn, arranging and rearranging all the bits until I was happy with how it looked.
I decided to use a dark brown yarn to crochet my garland together so that it wouldn't stand out too much against the dark wood of my fireplace. Start out by crocheting a chain of 12 then slip stitch into the 1st chain to form a little hanging loop. After that, I crocheted 10 chains in between each thing that I was attaching - this is variable depending on how far apart you want your bits and bobs to hang, but whatever you decide, keep it consistent along the length of the garland.
To attach something, hold it in front of your working yarn, insert your hook into the top of it from from to back, then yarn over and make a slip stitch, keeping your tension quite tight.
Repeat this process, chaining 10 (or however many you've decided), then use a slip stitch to attach your leaves.
Sometimes I attached a single leaf and sometimes I grouped them in pairs.
When you are attaching two things together (ie two leaves or a leaf and an acorn), simply hold them in place together and push your hook through both stems/stalks at the same time, then slip stitch through all layers.
With the berries, I decided to stitch them to the chain using a length of green yarn rather than trying to slip stitch into the top of them as they are so small.
Crocheting all the bits together happened surprisingly quickly once I'd laid everything out and faffed around with the order of it all.
As you can see, my garland is quite full on - this seems to be my thing as my wreaths are just the same. I could have made less and spread everything out more, but personally I do like the fullness and exuberance of it.
Shall we have a look at the full thing?
Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh I do love it!
I thought it might be useful to list everything I made, just to give you an idea of quantities in case you are pondering on making one of your very own.
Remember my garland is quite long, measuring 160cm to fit across my wide fireplace, but you could make a much smaller one to hang anywhere.
🍁 4 Maples leaves 🍁 12 Oak leaves 🍁 6 Acorns 🍁 16 Beech leaves 🍁
🍁 8 Single berries 🍁 4 Berry clusters 🍁
The berry clusters were made using 3 little berries stitched onto a Triple Leaf - you can find the triple leaf pattern in this post (scroll down half way).
A couple of practical things to mention about the business of hanging and displaying garlands....
Firstly, the hanging bit. I use these very brilliant little clear plastic stick-on hooks which are very strong but can be easily removed if and when you need to. They are called "decoration clips" and are made by the Command brand in the UK. They really are brilliant - you can find them in WHSmiths, or on Amazon and I can highly recommend them.
The other thing I felt would be really sweet to use with my garland are these dinky little battery powered lights. They are so delicate - tiny little warm white LED lights strung on a thin copper wire with a very small battery bit at the end. I bought mine as a pack of two from Amazon {Copper Wire Lights}, and Little Lady has run off with the other set and draped it around the mirror in her bedroom. I really love them when they are all lit up and glowing at night, but because the cooper wire is thin they look absolutely fine when they are switched off during the day too.
As is often the case with long, thin crochet makes, my Autumn Garland has been really hard to photograph. I took some photos of it in sections - the above picture shows the right hand side.....
...this is the middle section.....
....and this is the left side.
And this is the garland in it's entirety.......ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, it's not a delicate, refined decoration this one. Nope. It's full on Autumn, loud and proud.
But oh, how I love the look of it! It's very cosy and in keeping with the season and I adore the little lights shining in amongst the leaves.
I'm glad that I'll have this in place for the next month or so, before the C word creeps upon us. It cheers me up no end, walking into this room and feasting my eyes on all the colourful Autumnal decoration.
I'd love it if you felt inspired to make your own garland, or maybe a leafy wreath might be calling to you? The patterns are all ready and waiting for you over in my left hand side bar, or use the following link....
🍁AUTUMN LEAVES & ACORNS PATTERN🍁
Happy hooky!!!!!!!!!!!!
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For anyone looking for the maple leaf design, the blog has been taken down but still exists on the Wayback Machine : https://web.archive.org/web/20150414070916/http://happyberrycrochet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/how-to-crochet-maple-leaf.html
Posted by: Deathsgrandaughter | August 22, 2023 at 07:25 AM
You are so talented and so generous. This is wonderful and gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing. I am so glad to have found you.
Posted by: Mairhe Mac | August 13, 2023 at 07:50 PM
I'm enjoying making this garland, but the maple leaf pattern link is broken. How can I get the pattern for it?
Posted by: Hilary | March 20, 2023 at 10:12 PM
I know it is not Autumn but I am 100% making this project ASAP. I just LOVE it!
Posted by: Sara | February 21, 2023 at 01:55 AM
Gracias. Un placer ver tu gran labor.Linda vida Saludos desde Colombia 🇨🇴💟
Posted by: [email protected] | November 11, 2022 at 12:04 PM
Hi. Your garland is gorgeous! All my daughters now live in homes with fireplaces and I’d love to make each of them one. However … we live in Canada, so a Maple Leaf is a must in the garland, and I don’t see the pattern you used. I tried the link to Happy Berry Day but the blog has been taken down. Is there any chance of getting a copy of the Maple Leaf 🍁 f pattern that you used?
Posted by: Beth | September 17, 2021 at 06:13 PM
Thanks so much for sharing your knitting crochet project it's absolutely beautiful
Posted by: Martha Houston | January 16, 2021 at 08:59 PM
Hello there!! Love this and I’m getting ready to make one of my own!! How did you make the little leaves for the berries themselves?
Posted by: Abbey | November 09, 2020 at 02:38 AM
Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful!
Posted by: Nancy Robinson | September 23, 2020 at 05:00 PM
Hi Lucy! I know this is old, but I thought I'd try...do you have a list of the colors you used for this garland and the pumpkins? I want to place an order for the right colors and for an afghan kit. I live in the US. Thanks!
Posted by: Aimee | October 17, 2019 at 12:36 AM
This post was many years ago so I am not sure I will get a response. When making the garland you said to measure out a piece of yarn that is 160cm or 63 inches but if you do that and then crochet all the leaves to it the sizes reduces significantly. Wouldn't you need to start out with a piece of yarn triple or more the size you need so as you work it up it will become the size you need? This point confuses me. Please help!
Posted by: Lori Daly | August 22, 2019 at 07:33 PM
Can I get the patterns of all your leaves. What a lovely winter scene.
Posted by: Patriciaroberts | April 10, 2019 at 12:44 PM
Fabulous - am going to have a go, your instructions look lovely and clear unlike some patterns. I have loads of bits of autumnal coloured Stylecraft DK I can use.
Posted by: Gilly | October 26, 2018 at 10:41 AM
hi - just to let you know I have featured your work in my blog
see
https://julzcrafts.com/2017/11/25/a-couple-of-free-xmas-knitting-and-crochet-patterns-you-might-like/
I hope this is OK with you - julz
Posted by: julie barnett | November 25, 2017 at 10:44 PM
Thank you so much Lucy
I juste love it !
Laurence
Posted by: Laurence Mulot | November 23, 2017 at 07:39 PM
Just so beautiful and makes one feel good.
Posted by: Line | November 19, 2017 at 05:53 PM
Hello Lucy,
I love all your leaves and berries and seeing them all in a pile made me think just how beautiful they would be attached to the blanket as if the wind had swept them across, lying in a heap some of them. I love the autumn colours and i think that seeing all your lovely leaves and berries makes me want to get 2 of the packs so that i can make a larger blanket and also give me enough to make my autumn happen and stay just that wee while longer. Thank you for getting excited to share these beautiful colours with us.
crafty hugs
norah
Posted by: Norah McPhee | November 16, 2017 at 02:05 PM
Oh, my word. This project is sheer perfection. Just stunning. I want to come over to your place and join you on your sofa under your beautiful blankets. Then just have a coffee with conversation while gazing at that cozy scene you have created......your photos are excellent. Thank you for sharing your craft and patterns. You are such a generous person. Happy Fall!
Posted by: Kelliinkc | November 11, 2017 at 01:44 PM
Knocked it out of the park again! (A baseball reference.) Thanks for sharing your love of life through crochet!
Posted by: Laurel Ryan | November 07, 2017 at 11:44 PM
This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing it and for making the instructions so clear. X
Posted by: Kerry Lucas | November 07, 2017 at 07:43 AM
This fall garland is brilliant and my absolute favorite of anything you've done. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Mary H | November 06, 2017 at 11:31 PM
SO adorable and inspiring! Many, many thanks, Lucy.
Posted by: Beth in Maryland | November 06, 2017 at 09:46 PM
That is so lovely! I love the acorns :)
Posted by: Elisa | November 06, 2017 at 08:27 PM
Oh Lucy as usual
You did it again.. I don't look as often on here but I know you will have something beautiful on the go. I'm sooo jealous of your talent even the sock knitting ( yet to do that😉) I have two polystyrene circles and these would be fab on them. Congratulations on your awards too your amazing. Can't believe B is 7 I remember seeing a pic of you pregnant with him!!! Take care and warm hugs would not have taken up crochet if not for you xx
Posted by: Jill farrell | November 06, 2017 at 07:57 PM
It's just gorgeous, in all it's exuberant, autumnal glory. Entwining the little fairy lights was a brilliant touch. I love it.
I have a real hankering to make a string of crocheted vintage fairy lights at the moment, something like this....
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/christmas-lights-6
I mean, what a brilliant way to use up teeny tiny yarn scraps in acrylic DK.... Talk me out of it, please Lucy, I don't have the time! x
Posted by: Gillian Roe | November 06, 2017 at 06:39 PM