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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