Attic24

Making the Seasons :: January

There's no getting away from it - these early months of the year can be pretty hard going and honestly, I do find them a struggle. We've had soooooooooooooo many endless grey wet days in January, but nevertheless I am rejoicing every time I notice the lengthening days (coming out of Little B's swimming lessons and there is Still Daylight at 4.45!!). I've been in and out of my Making Winter book many times already this month, there is something so uplifting about Emma's photos that I always find inspiration in those beautiful pages.

During the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about my mood and general lack of zest as I come to terms with my anemia (again), trying every day to find joy in the little things and feel positive about this period of enforced slowness. Oh, I am so slooooooww at the moment!! I am simply not able to take myself out of Plod Mode as my body doesn't have enough oxygen for me to accelerate at all. And of course I live in a town with hilly streets, with the Attic being at the top end of a very long climb upwards, so the slow plodding is particularly noticeable as I walk homewards at the end of each day.

However..........I am very conscious of keeping a sunny outlook and I'm trying to adjust my thoughts and expectations to keep pace with my body so that I don't end up frustrated and low. I think I'm doing OK. I've spent the past few weeks tucked up at home for the most part, keeping myself warm and cosy and not trying to do too much. As you know, I love walking and enjoy being in the countryside very much, so it's felt odd to me that I've simply not wanted to venture out at all. 

But on Monday afternoon the sun unexpectedly made an appearance after yet another morning of rain and for the first time in ages I suddenly felt inspired to go out and walk in the woods. Yay for sunshine on a grey Winter's day!! J is home with me on a Monday so after lunch we jumped in the car and went for a short walk at Bolton Abbey.

There isn't a lot of colour in the woodland at the moment (which makes me LOVE my Woodland blanket more than ever with  it's colourful Autumn memories!), but I was overjoyed to see some greenery poking up through the earth. These are very early bluebell shoots, and the sight of them made me shriek with excitement ever so slightly (sorry J). 

I wanted to stand and soak in all that pale winter sunlight, absorb it into my very soul. We've seen the sun so rarely this month, so when it has made an appearance it's been beautiful.

I know you must be wondering what on earth this has all got to do with being creative and celebrating the seasons......well it's this :: I find that when I'm out walking amongst nature, my mind often spins into creative overdrive. I had some of the most FABuLous ideas for future projects on Monday whilst I was strolling slowly along those grey stone pathways through the bare trees. It was really energising, and made me so happy! I came home and scribbled my ideas down, drew little sketches of how I imagined things might look, and generally felt full of creative buzz. Sometimes I think it's enough just to feel alive with creative energy and make a few plans, even if you don't have the time or desire to actually physically make anything right this minute. Yes, I think that creative thoughts are a very good thing to have in January.

In Emma's Making Winter book, one of the things she suggests is keeping a nature diary - little sketches and notes to record things seen on a walk. I love this idea, although in reality I would tend to use my camera to capture and record things here on my blog rather than attempt it with a pen. Mind you, I do often feel like scooping up handfuls of moss to bring home and study, oh the moss is looking fabulous at the moment, so full of itself in all this wet weather! I love moss so much, but I imagine it'd be a devil to sketch.

I did see a whole tree full of catkins in the woods on Monday, but was too busy trying to breathe and move my wooden legs to stop and capture it with my camera. They were spectacular though. Catkins and pussy willow are those bits of nature which happen in winter but bring the promise of Spring, and I love them for that. My mum loved them too and I remember that we often had little jars of them in the house at this time of year when I was growing up.

I've popped a little jar of pussy willow on my mantel, foraged from the supermarket rather than the woodland, but I'm OK with that. If I venture out to the woods again soon, I might try and find some catkins to bring home, or maybe a sprig of berries would be nice too. 

Do you remember my first "Making the Seasons" post back in November, when we had a chat about Craftpod? I really love these little seasonal boxes, and was delighted with my Winter Craftpod which arrived last month. There are two craft projects in the Winter box (you can see the contents here), but I was most drawn to the embroidery. The simplicity of Jo's Winterberry design is absolutely spot on for this time of year, and I've been looking forward to the challenge of it. I found a little nook of quiet time at the weekend to sit in the light of the bay window and make a start. 

Oh this photo did make me laugh, I love how it looks as if she's reading the instructions! Typical of Tilly to be so front and centre of everything too. 

This is delicate, precision stitching using just one or two strands of embroidery thread and a fine needle, so you really do need good light to work by. 

I found the low, late afternoon light wasn't quite enough at the weekend so I wasn't able to finish my berries, but I'm really pleased with what I've done so far. The berries are pretty small and use weeeny stitches so you do need to focus and pay attention to the precise ins and outs of the needle. I just love this sort of quiet, rhythmic creativity - the sound of the needle and thread pulling in and out of the taught fabric is incredibly soothing.

My berries look a little messy, but I love the way the raised satin stitch makes them so tactile and bobbly. I'll show you when I've completed it - I can't wait to see it on my (currently rather bare) Winter mantel next to my jar of pussy willow and possible future foraged catkins.

And in other Creative news, I couldn't help myself a few weeks ago and indulged in a real jolt of Spring colour to chase away the Winter blahs, oh it was fun! A quick little bit of decorative hooky to lift the spirits and and deliver a dose of colour therapy.......I'll show you what I made with these colours very soon, it needs it's very own blog post!

✿ All my Making the Seasons posts have their own category so you can find them easily - {Making the Seasons}

✿ I'm loving that Gillian is also joining me with a spot of seasonal creativity each month- you can find her January post {here}

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Woodland Blanket CAL :: Part 4

Good morning Woodlanders! I wonder how you are all doing and how your week has been? I really hope you've been enjoying your growing blanket and swooning just a little bit over the colours and the way those curvy ripples make them dance and play together. 

As I sit quietly working my own ripples I keep having flashbacks to the many Woodland walks I took with J and the Little People in the Autumn. It's just so lovely to be able to crochet with these colours and have a heap load of gorgeous visual memories flooding into my stitches.

That's one of the many things I love about making blankets - they become full of memories, treasured guardians of time and place. The rhythm of life is echoed in all those colours, all those rows and stitches, all that soft, warm, cosy yarn. Precious indeed, and I hope your own Woodland blankets are catching all sorts of happy memories as you make your way through the ripples.

I'm sorry I've not been about so much on social media this past week, I've not been feeling so good and have been struggling with my days a bit. Nothing major, just the on-going problem I have with my low iron levels and anemia, gosh it really is a drag I have to say. I've been back to the doctor, more blood tests, more hefty iron supplements to take, so hoping that gradually over the next three months I should start to feel my energy return. 

I'm going to share with you a few Woodland-inspired creations that have caught my eye lately....

Lynne has impressed me with her knitted version of the Woodland Ripple, isn't it fabulous? This is the traditional Old Shale stitch, and it honestly blows my mind a little to think of anyone taking on a knitted blanket project!

Hils has designed her very own square which she is calling  the "'Harmonious Summer Garden' as they're a mix of both!". I love how she has combined two of my patterns with beautiful results, and the colours look so bright and cheerful in these squares.

Lou's gorgeous Woodland Harmony blanket immediately caught my eye -  this is the lighter end of the blanket at it's half way point and I can't wait to see those rich reds and coppery orange tones come into play. 

Doron shared her "hexagonal colour map" with us on Facebook, and I just gasped with pleasure when I saw it. She created a hexagonal design on her computer to illustrate how a  colourwash would work using the Woodland colour palette, and I absolutely love the look of it. Very inspirational.

Nina has made fabulous progress on her Woodland Rainbow blanket which is looking very beautiful indeed. There's something insanely pleasing about the Woodland colours arranged in their "rainbow" order don't you think? Take a look at this......

The lovely Judy continues to wow us with regular updates on the giant Woodland mandala throw she's making. She says "it’s loosely based on the RedHeart Circular Fall Mandala Throw", although she is very cleverly adapting the pattern and improvising by adding her own stitches too. 

I'm really loving seeing everyone's blankets in progress, it makes me incredibly happy, and I just want to say (again) that I hope you are enjoying your journey at whatever pace you are able to go at. Whether you are just starting out or at the half way point, whether you've had it plain sailing or have ripped out and re-started, I really wish for happiness in your ripples and a true feeling of pleasure as you create something wonderful. 

So here we are looking ahead to part four, and we are just tipping over the half way point. Last week we said good bye to the deeper colours of the Woodland (Copper, Cypress and Grey) and this week we get to welcome in four new colours, which is soooooooooooooooooooo exciting! I've been gazing longingly at these colours sitting prettily in my yarn bag (they are Pistachio, Lincoln, Storm Blue and Silver) and really looking forward to them appearing in the Woodland blanket, like way more than is probably normal. Oh, that soft Lincoln green is just such a delicious colour!!

It really felt like a bit of a celebration when I started to see the lightness of the Woodland appearing - it was like taking a long hike through the woods where you spend all your time following the pathways and watching your step, then suddenly you reach a point where you stop and gaze up instead of down, and all that light and air is right there to breathe in.

That feeling of lightness in the treetops is just so welcome after kicking through the leaves at ground level for the past three weeks!

 

During the next few weeks you will begin to see the gradual shift of the colours and the subtle movement from dark to light. I can't wait to show you. 

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT YARN QUANTITIES

I've picked up on Facebook that some of you are concerned about how your yarn quantities are holding up and whether you will have enough yarn to create the border. The easiest way to check is to weigh your yarn using digital kitchen scales.

There will be 7 stripes of each colour in the Woodland blanket.

Each one of my stripes is using approximately 11 g of yarn.

That means that at the end of the blanket, I'll have roughly 23g left of each colour, which is enough for the border.

If you find that your stripes are using more than 11g of yarn, you may not have enough left of any one colour to complete a border round. I would urge you this week to try and weigh your yarn and make a decision on how it's working out for you. Take the colours that have already been finished with (shown above :: Grey, Cypress and Tomato) and weigh them. If you are concerned, you can take action in Part 4 so all is not lost!

If you have a look below, you can see the colours that are used in Part 4. You will most definitely need Lime for the border (the colour of your foundation and row 1), so you could miss out stripe 56 if you wished, to give you some extra Lime.

You will need two other colours for the border - I've not made my border yet (I'm in the CAL with you all, and still working my stripes, honestly, crazy but true!!), so have a play and see what colours you think you'd like to see in your edging. 

Maybe Lime, Spice and Gold? Lime, Mustard and Pistachio? Lime, Lincoln and Silver? Lime, Storm and Lincoln?

You can pretty easily leave Lime and two other colours out of Part 4 without disrupting the flow of the colour story - so you might consider doing this anyways if your blanket seems to be growing into an extra long work of art!! It should be measuring around 90cm after part 3, although remember the stripes do stretch a little as the blanket grows and becomes heavier, so this is only a guide.

I hope this makes sense - I'm happy to chat over in the Attic24 Moorland and More facebook group about the border colours, and I'll do my best to help if anyone is having doubts about what to do.

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WOODLAND BLANKET CAL PART 4

So your last stripe from Part 3 should be Spice - that was stripe number 54.

Here is the colour info for Part 4 of the "Woodland Colour Story" : stripes 55-72, working from the bottom upwards.

Remember each stripe is worked in two rows, so 18 stripes = 36 rows of crochet.

*Please note - stripes written in *red text* are additional stripes to be worked only if you have 2 yarn packs and are making a double bed size blanket. If you have one yarn pack, please ignore the red!

55. Tomato

56. Lime

57. Gold

58. Pistachio

59. Spice

60. Meadow

*Mustard* (optional for large size)

61. Gold 

62. Mocha

63. Pistachio (ooooooo!!!)

64. Spice

65. Mustard

66. Lincoln (yippeeeee!!!)

67. Silver (yayyy!!!)

*Mocha* (optional for large size)

68. Lime

69. Storm (woohoo!!!)

70. Lincoln

71. Spice

72. Pistachio

*Duck Egg* (optional for large size)

Kay in the Facebook group has shared her Random colour stripe blanket with us, and I think it looks amazing. I hope that if you're following this colour order that you're enjoying the results.

Part 4 of the "Random Colours" Woodland Blanket is illustrated above (follow the pegs from the bottom to the top)

55. Lime

56. Cypress

57. Duck Egg

58.  Pistachio

59. Grey

60. Tomato

61. Gold 

62. Meadow

63. Cypress

64. Copper

65. Storm Blue

66. Duck Egg

67. Mustard

68. Grey

69. Silver 

70. Lime 

71. Tomato

72. Spice

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Part 5 (stripes 73-90) will be here on Friday 2nd February - here are the links you might need this week.... 

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WOODLAND BLANKET YARN PACK (currently out of stock until the end of January, due to a shortage of some of the colours at the Stylecraft mill - the tomato and pistachio are on their way!!)

WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : introduction

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : Q&A

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 1

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 2

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 3

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Have a gorgeous stripe-filled week my lovelies!

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Woodland Blanket CAL :: Part 3

Helllloooooo and good morning to all my lovely fellow Woodland Wanderers!!! How've you all been doing? I've been busy doing admin and accounts this week which has been necessary but really rather taxing (literally!) and time consuming. I've been so glad of the gentle light relief that these ripples bring to the end of my busy days, and I can't tell you how much I look forward to my quiet hooky time. Sometimes I sit by the fire and crochet in the evenings and sometimes I find myself craving the comfort of my bed - either way, I generally manage one or two stripes a day, with extra rows happening at my twice weekly knit and natters, and at weekends if there's time.

I know we are all busy people and it's not always easy to find guilt-free "me time" to indulge in a hobby day to day. It's really, really important to me that you love your Woodland journey, so please don't feel pressured by what other folk are achieving. It's important to go at your own pace, even if some weeks you only manage a little pootle in those woodland leaves. Yes, this is a CAL, but there are no rules written anywhere that say you have to keep to my schedule. 

Remember that there'll be a "catch up" week on Friday 16th Feb which will give us a little breather between finishing the stripes and starting the edging. You can use that week to crochet more stripes, or to darn in your ends or simply to wrap yourself up in your colourful stripes and enjoy the wonderful crochet that you've made.

BLANKET LENGTH

I've had a few questions about what length the blanket should measure after parts 1 and 2 have been completed, so thought I'd give you that info in case you want to check your tension/size. The stripes are worked in 6 parts, so as a rough guide, each part should measure around 30cm / 1 ft as we're aiming for an 180cm / 6ft long blanket. It won't matter too much if you're a few cm over or under, but hopefully that gives you an idea.

Each week I spend a lot of hours on social media, answering questions, reading your posts and following along with general CAL progress and it's SO much fun to watch your blankets grow! I feel really proud somehow, and often quite emotional too, it's the most fantastic shared journey and I love being a part of it very much. This week I'm going to share some more photos with you, showing you some versions of the Woodland Ripple that are using different colour palettes.......

Amelia has designed her very own Autumn colour palette, adding in some darker and lighter shades of brown to the rich greens, golds and orangey-copper tones.

Vicky is working a repeating colour pattern using very pretty summery shades of greens, blues and purples.

Jan is taking a wander by the sea, gathering pebbles and driftwood as she goes....

.....and Angie is using her trademark brights to make a really cheery and happy looking blanket.

Hazel has been inspired by the new doggie accessories she bought as she prepares to welcome a new puppy into her home - how exciting!

Jane has chosen a truly scrumptious palette of colours that she's named "Woodland Surprise".....

.....and Charlotte's "Fairy Woodland" ripple blanket has a gorgeous vintage look to it which works beautifully.

Liz is using the Hydrangea colour pack to make her ripple, which looks fabulous.

Stephanie is using Stylecraft Batik yarn for her woodland ripple, and I really love the way the lightly dappled yarn colours look as they ripple up and down together. It reminds me of dappled woodland sunlight!

Louise has created this stunning colour palette which makes me think of Autumn and Spring all at once! I'm amazed how well those soft pastels work in with the brighter Autumnal shades, it's incredibly harmonious to look at, don't you think?

I really love to see the sparks of creativity fly as people take my pattern and ideas and make it their own - inspiration is a wonderful, wonderful thing indeed. 

Here in Atticland, I've had a bit of a plodding sort of a week which has felt incredibly long for some reason - some weeks are just like that aren't they? You arrive at Tuesday and are convinced it must surely be Thursday already. I do happen to like Tuesday afternoons though, as it's a day when I get to sit in the cafe for a couple of hours with my yarny friends and hook myself into a happy state of contentment. There are a few ladies in the group making blankets along with me at the moment so I'm in good company - I get to look around the table and spot a cosy stripe well under way, a moorland blanket just beginning, a hydrangea stripe looking fabulous worked in lovely bright colours, and of course my own Woodland Ripples meandering along rather nicely. 

By the time you've completed Part 3 of the Woodland blanket, you will have reached half way and your blanket should be looking and feeling delightfully blankety. I know I've really appreciated having those ripples tucked over my lap this week as it's been frrrreeeeeeezing cold with snow and sleet and endless hours of blustery rain. That's one of the things I really love about making striped blankets - you get to use them even before they are complete!

So this is how your blanket will be looking after part 3 has been added - fifty four stripes of ripply gorgeousness! The richness of these Autumnal colours have been making me really happy this week, they are warm and cosy and really do remind me of the many woodland walks I took towards the end of last year.

Once you reach the half way point at the end of part 3, you will be saying goodbye to three of the deeper woodland colours. Cheerio Cypress, Copper and Grey, it's been fun kicking through your leaves, but soon we will be starting to look ahead to the sunlit tree tops and some of the lighter shades of the Autumn woodland.

You will have crocheted 7 stripes each of Cypress, Copper and Grey once you've completed part 3 this week and it's a good time to check how your yarn quantities are holding out. I'm using approx. 11 g of yarn per stripe, which makes 77g of yarn used in total. If you weigh the yarn you have left after working up 7 stripes, then you should have around 23g left (although it does vary quite a bit between colours). 

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL PART 3

So your last stripe from Part 2 should be Lime - that was stripe number 36.

Here is the colour info for Part 3 of the "Woodland Colour Story" : stripes 37-54, working from the bottom upwards.

Remember each stripe is worked in two rows, so 18 stripes = 36 rows of crochet.

*Please note - stripes written in *red text* are additional stripes to be worked only if you have 2 yarn packs and are making a double bed size blanket. If you have one yarn pack, please ignore the red!

37. Grey

38. Gold

39. Lime

40. Spice

41. Copper

42. Grey

43. Mocha

44. Tomato

*Meadow* (optional for large size)

45. Cypress

46. Grey

47. Mustard

48. Mocha

49. Copper

*Gold* (optional for large size)

50. Meadow

51. Mocha

52. Grey

53. Meadow

54. Spice

A little note about the above photo - I accidentally made an extra stripe before remembering to stop and take the photo!! Haha, just keeping it real my friends!! So please do ignore that little sneaky tomato stripe up there at the top, unless of course you wish to get a teensy head start on Part 4 :)

I know quite a few of you have opted to follow my "Random Colour Order" for your own blanket, and the above photo shows parts 1 and 2 crocheted by Kay. I thought it would be useful to show how the 15 Woodland colours dance along when they are all mixed together - I think the cool blues look amazing mixed in with the warmth of the rest.

If you are following the Random Colour Stripe, the info for part 3 is below........

Part 3 of the "Random Colours" Woodland Blanket (follow the pegs from the bottom to the top)

37. Mustard

38. Pistachio

39. Spice

40. Copper

41. Mocha

42. Cypress

43. Duck Egg 

44. Grey

45. Lincoln

46. Mustard

47. Spice

48. Meadow

49. Silver

50. Lincoln

51. Storm Blue 

52. Mocha 

53. Copper

54. Gold

I wanted to add a note to those of you who have two yarn packs and are making larger blankets - I'll be giving you an additional 15 random stripes at the end of part 6 rather than adding them in as we go along. That way, you can choose if you want to add an extra 30 cm / 1 ft to the length of your blanket or keep it a little shorter.

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Part 4 (stripes 55-72) will be here on Friday 26th January - here are the links you might need this week.... 

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WOODLAND BLANKET YARN PACK (currently out of stock until the end of January, due to a shortage of Tomato yarn at the Stylecraft mill)

WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : introduction

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : Q&A

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 1

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 2

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Wishing you a rippletastic week with your hook and Woodland yarn!

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Floral Weekend Bag :: Ta-dah!

You might remember me mentioning at the end of last year that I'd made myself a new Weekend Bag? Well yesterday I finally got around to stitching on the magnetic closure so now that my bag is no longer a W.i.P., I thought I'd show it to you and give you some details. This was a very spontaneous project - I turned up at knit and natter one Friday morning with nothing to do, so decided to pull some yarn off my shelf and start making a bag right there and then.  Because......well, why not? A quick, colourful, satisfying project to fill a gap and scratch that creative itch! 

I chose 12 shades of Stylecraft Special Chunky yarn to make this bag, and the colours were chosen at speed with very little deliberation. They came together in such a flurry, quite literally a few minutes to gather them on my table, a teensy amount of rejection and replacement and there you have it - a happy, spontaneous colour palette which is very much Me. 

Here are the twelve colours of Stytlecraft Special Chunky I used in my Floral Weekend Bag ::

Top row, left to right ::

✿ Lavender ✿ Cloud Blue ✿ Aster ✿ Storm Blue ✿ Sage ✿ Pistachio ✿

Bottom row, left to right ::

✿ Pale Rose ✿ Plum ✿ Raspberry ✿ Pomegranate ✿ Spice ✿ Gold ✿ 

I decided to work single-row stripes for this bag, choosing the order of the colours as I went along. At the cafe I managed to follow my Weekend Bag pattern by accessing my blog on my mobile phone, and by the end of the morning I'd completed the oval base and a few rows of the sides.

Once you start working up the sides it's simply a case of whizzing through those half-treble rounds until the bag shape is complete. Using a 5 mm hook with chunky yarn makes for some speedy hooky, and by lunchtime the following day I'd finished making the body of my bag with just the strap and decorative bits still to make. 

I absolutely adore how the colours work together in narrow, single row stripes, the whole thing is so cheerful looking and happy in it's extreme stripy-ness!

If you are familiar with my Weekend Bag, you'll know that the original design was decorated on the front flap with a chunky layered flower. With this new bag, I decided to use some scraps of DK weight yarn and a 4 mm hook to make up some small flowers and leaves - I imagined a little posy of flowers in cheerful colours to go with the stripes.....

....and that's exactly what I made.

The larger flowers are my Teeny Tiny flowers, with a little bit of extra embroidery added to the centres.

✿ Teeny Tiny Flower Pattern ✿ 

The pattern for the leaves is as follows :

✿ Small Leaves ✿

Ch 7; starting in 2nd ch from hook, work (dc; htr; tr; tr; htr; dc); ch 2; sl st in 2nd ch from hook to make a picot point.

Now work the second side of the leaf in the single loops of the foundation chain, mirroring the stitches made for the first side of the leaf, as follows :

(dc; htr; tr; tr; htr; dc); sl st into base of beginning dc to close round. Fasten off and darn in end.

I also made four little "micro flowers" which came out soooooo cute!

✿ Micro Flowers ✿

Chain 5, then make a sl st into the first chain. 

*Chain 4, then make a sl st into the very first chain*

Repeat between ** three more times until you have five chain-loop petals. Fasten off, leaving a tail end for darning.

Just to explain, after each ch-4, you always go back to the very first chain to make your sl st, so in other words, that very first chain will become like a central ring.

These little flowers are quite loopy when you've finished as the petals are just made up of chain loops. So when you darn in your tail end, use your needle and yarn to close up the central ring and close any obvious holes in the petals.

I then used yellow yarn to make some simple embroidery stitches in the centre just to add a little bit of detail.

You can see from the above picture that I crocheted the front flap in Sage (I chose a colour that I thought would look good as a background for my flowers), and Cloud Blue for the strap. And just in case it might be useful, here is the colour order for my cheerful stripes :

Foundation chain and round 1 : Aster.

Base stripes (the increase rounds) : Sage : Cloud Blue : Pale Rose : Lavender : Raspberry

Side Stripes (25 stripes in total) : Gold : Pistachio : Storm Blue : Plum : Spice : Sage : Lavender : Pomegranate : Pale Rose : Gold : Cloud Blue : Pistachio : Aster : Raspberry : Spice : Lavender : Plum : Pomegranate : Gold : Pistachio : Sage : Pale Rose : Raspberry : Aster : Cloud Blue. 

Front Flap : Sage

Edging and Strap : Cloud Blue

I took the above picture to show you how well the Weekend Bag holds it's shape - using chunky yarn and a 5 mm hook makes quite a dense crochet fabric which means the bag will stay firm with only very small holes between the stitches. It will stretch a little over time, but this is a fairly robust bag that will work well for everyday use.

I am so pleased with the way the flowers and leaves look against that lovely Sage green colour - it's just the right amount of pretty. 

Shall I show you how it all looks? 

There you go..........one finished Floral Weekend Bag.........Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really do love my new bag so much, it cheers me up no end when I see those stripes and flowers dancing together. Oh, and the colours too. I reeeeeeeeeeeally adore the colours. It occurred to me while I was making my bag that the colours seemed quite familiar, but it was only a few days ago that I realised why..........

...........they are almost identical to the colours I chose when I crocheted up my stripy planner cover (more about my planner in this blog post).

The stripes in the top bit of crochet are the ones I worked for my planner and were made using Drops Karisma which is a pure wool DK. But the blend of colours I chose for the Floral Weekend bag turned out freakily similar without me even realising it. 

I guess you could describe these colours as "Lucy's Default Mode" - and now my Creative Mind is whirling and I'm wondering whether there might be the start of a blanket idea right there. Stripes and florals, in those cheery shades.....

mmmmmmmm.....

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WEEKEND BAG DETAILS

✿ Design - Weekend Bag Ta-dah post

✿ Pattern - Weekend Bag Pattern and tutorial

✿ Yarn - you will need approx. 400g of chunky yarn to make one of these bags, using a 5mm hook. 

✿ Size - the finished bag measures approximately 26cm x 28cm (not including the handle)

✿ Weekend Bag chunky yarn packs can be found in my shop at Wool Warehouse. These contain 8 x 100g balls of chunky yarn, a magnetic closure and a full printed pattern. There should be enough yarn in each kit to make two bags.

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Woodland Blanket CAL :: Part 2

Good morning my lovelies, and how has your week been? Mine has been a bit of a slog to be honest as I'm still struggling to beat off the germs, but I'm not complaining (well not all that much) and am looking forward to being free of the little blighters very soon. I had to take some time away from my desk to concentrate on the house and the Little People earlier in the week, so it's been great to finally have time to catch up on all your comments and the huuuuuuge amount of excited activity all over Blogland, Facebook and Instagram. Gosh, what a lot of Woodland excitement there is flying around the world right now!! It honestly makes me want to jump for joy when I see so many happy stripes of Autumnal colour popping up here, there and everywhere, and to feel all the shared happiness and creativity streaming in from all over the world. Isn't it amazing that we can all feel connected in this way? The friendliness of the hooky community and the sense of belonging that it creates is absolutely priceless, and I couldn't imagine my life without it.

I really hope that if you set out on the Woodland Walk with me last week, that you've enjoyed the start of your journey. Have you found your footing on those meandering pathways? I hope that you're all doing OK and that any initial struggles that might've come as you got to grips with the pattern haven't caused you too much angst. I hate to think of any of you struggling, as I do know how frustrating it can be. If it's any consolation, I made a good many mistakes in my own first rows - they weren't anything major and were mainly down to not counting/concentrating properly (eg making 6 spaced out trebles in the valley when there is only supposed to be 5, or mysteriously adding in an extra dc in the FLO row), but it doesn't take long for it all to settle down I promise you. You'll soon be counting 6, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 5 in your sleep and whizzing along those ripples!! 

I know many of you have been over to Facebook and joined the "Attic24 Moorland and More" group (over 4,000 members now!) and there has been a huge amount of posting in the group this past week. I've been so, so  humbled to see  a great deal of kindness and a true feeling of community in the group. Huge thanks to anyone who has taken the trouble to help those who have needed it, offering words of advice, support, wisdom, encouragement and humour, it is just fantastic. Thanks also go to the fabulous admin and moderators who look after the group, I think I mentioned before that this isn't a group set up or run by me, so I am extra grateful to those who've made it such a lovely place to be xxxx 

I wanted to share a couple of photos which might be of help if you are struggling a little to keep everything on track. The above photo is Michelle's glorious random stripe woodland blanket in progress - you can see that she is using stitch markers placed every 17th stitch (these mark out one complete pattern repeat), and I know many of you have been encouraged to try using stitch markers (or safety pins / paper clips) and found it super-helpful.  

Along similar lines is the idea of using waste yarn to make Life Lines, as shown above with Phyllis' blanket. Similar to the stitch markers, the life lines run up through the 17th stitch to mark out the pattern repeats. These can be left in place and carried up through the rows as you work, making it a bit quicker and less intrusive than using stitch markers. 

I've been reminded this week of one of my best-favourite painters and her take on the Autumn Woodland landscape - I LOVE this painting by my friend Janet Bell and am lucky enough to have a framed print of it on my wall. It's one of my daily pleasures - I sit at the dining table and drink my morning coffee with my eyes feasting on all that dancing colour and light. Just glorious in every way.

I'd like to share some more colourful Autumn yarny goodness with you now, oh you can never have too much visual lovliness in my opinion! Thank you to everyone who has shared with me on my Facebook page - today I want to show you the Woodland colours worked up in different ways and using a whole variety of different patterns...........

Tracey decided to use my original Neat Ripple pattern, arranging the colours in a really beautiful "Woodland Rainbow" order.

Sharon is also making Woodland Rainbows using the Granny Stripe pattern. The simplicity of this design is just sublime, it's soooo restful to look at don't you think?

Xenia is making herself a super-squidgey blanket which she calls the "chunky hydrangea with woodland colours". She replaced the greys with warm neutrals and is using double strands of DK weight yarn worked with an 8mm hook. The pattern is my Hydrangea Stripe.

Carolyn is also using the Hydrangea Stripe for her Woodland blanket, and is creating a gorgeous colourwash effect with the woodland colours.

Marion has gone for the Cosy Stripe pattern using the woodland colours worked up in her own random order. Don't the colours look happy all jaunting along together?

B Kae is taking a Moorland-Woodland approach. She's using the Neat Wave pattern to play with those glorious Autumn shades with great success - I love the way the waves make the colours dance together like a swirl of Autumn leaves.

Michelle has absolutely wowed me with her unique pattern which I've discovered is actually my Hydrangea stripe that she staggered to make interlocking shells...isn't that amazing? She explained it to me, and I am dying to try it out!

"On each alternate row of starting with a full flower I ch 2 then (2 tr; ch 2; 2 tr) in the dc from the previous row and then end on a dc in the last tr from previous row. 
When starting a row with half a flower I ch 3 and then 1 tr in the same stitch, then dc in between the space of the 2 tr of the flower then work a full flower stitch in the next dc and so on, ending with 2 tr on the last dc from previous row. 
I have found that I need to knot the threads together at the end of each row when joining a new colour otherwise the edge doesn’t stay straight!"

Absolutely fabulous, and I love the mirrored colourwash colour order too.

Sheryl calls this her "Woodland rainbow zig zag puff stitch" which I love the look of - it's not a pattern I've seen before but the way it nestles the colours together is really beautiful. 

Cheryl has designed this pattern herself, it's a simple mixed-stripe combining straight treble rows with granny stripe, v-stitch and puff stitch rows. I'm really looking forward to seeing this grow, the texture of the different stripes is gorgeous.

Well what more can we say about Karen's Woodland Summer Harmony blanket, except for WOW!!!!!!! I know this blanket has really inspired a huge amount of love and admiration over on Facebook, and rightly so as it is simply stunning. Karen used the Woodland yarn pack, with the addition of Mushroom and Camel to make 17 colours in total. She explains how she did it.....

"I laid out Lucy's colours in the colour wash order they appear in the joining round of the Summer Harmony, then did the same with the Autumn pack plus camel and mushroom, then followed the pattern exactly exchanging the colours. At first some of the squares had colour combinations you would probably never choose but I stuck at it and as each round was added they looked better, and once it's all together it looks marvelous. If I did it again I might not choose mushroom as I think it's a little pale, but it was the best I had in my stash and it reminded me of the weird colour autumn skies go just before sunset starts".

Bravo Karen, this really is a grand Woodland Ta-dah moment!

And.......back into the Attic again....here I am, indulging in some bedtime hooky therapy. It's not often I get to sit in bed in the mornings to do this, but I can tell you that Sunday mornings are made especially blissful if they contain a little bit of Woodland Wandering. I love to sit in bed at night and work a couple of stripes, it's honestly the perfect way to end an often hectic, full-on day. The rhythm of these gently curving ripples is extremely soothing and I often find that by the end of the row I'm hooking along with my eyes half closed as it sends me into a bit of a meditative trance!

If you're just starting out with part 1, or maybe you haven't started at all just yet, please don't worry, this isn't a race to the finishing line. I really want you to feel happy going at your own pace and enjoying your own personal journey, no matter how long it takes - the pattern and colour info will be waiting for you when you are ready for it. Remember that a leisurely stroll is often more pleasurable than an energetic hike!

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL PART 2

So your last stripe from Part 1 should be Meadow - that was stripe number 18.

And here is the colour information for Part 2 : stripes 19-36, working from the bottom upwards.

Remember each stripe is worked in two rows, so 18 stripes = 36 rows of crochet.

*Please note - stripes written in *red text* are additional stripes to be worked only if you have 2 yarn packs and are making a double bed size blanket. If you have one yarn pack, please ignore the red!

19. Tomato

20. Mocha

*Grey* (optional for large size)

21. Mustard

22. Copper

23. Cypress

24. Meadow

25. Copper

*Spice* (optional for large size)

26. Gold

27. Grey

28. Tomato

29. Lime

30. Cypress

31. Mocha

32. Copper

33. Mustard

34. Tomato

35. Cypress

36. Lime

*Copper* (optional for large size)

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 Here is the colour info for Part 2 of the "Random Colours" Woodland Blanket.

19. Lime 

20. Lincoln

21. Grey

22. Mocha

23. Copper

24. Spice

25. Mustard

26. Pistachio

27. Duck Egg

28. Meadow

29. Silver

30. Cypress

31. Gold

32. Tomato

33. Meadow

34. Storm 

35. Lime

36. Silver

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Some links you might need - Part 3 (stripes 37-54) will be here on Friday 19th January.

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WOODLAND BLANKET YARN PACK (currently out of stock until the end of January, due to a shortage of Tomato yarn at the Stylecraft mill)

WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : introduction

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : Q&A

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 1

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Happy Woodland Wandering! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

A Family Jaunt to London Town

January here in the Attic always comes with a feeling of celebration combined with a large dose of personal emotion as we celebrate Little B's birthday at the beginning of the month. Although to be fair, I think I'm the only member of the family who goes through the whole emotional bit, but that's OK - I'm over the trauma of his birth and can manage to process all the vivid flashbacks internally, so it's all good. He is now eight years old would you believe, and I still so clearly remember the posts I wrote to announce my pregnancy in 2009, and his unexpectedly early arrival in 2010.

This year, in a spontaneous fit of lets-just-do-it, I booked us train tickets to London for his birthday. This was to be a first time visit for Little B, and the excitement was understandably pretty much through the roof and up into the wide blue yonder. It was an early start as our train departed at 6.55 am but we were all very giddy as I'd miraculously managed to secure us cheap First Class travel - woo-hoo!!!! It was a first for me as well, as in all my forty nine years on planet Earth I've never ever traveled First Class, not ever. Oh, it was fan-tAS-tic! I won't bore you with how many cups of free coffee I was served without leaving my seat (well, it was three if you must know, and in proper china cups!) or what free food we ate (pain au chocolat anyone? with yoghurt and fruit and juice and biscuits to the side?), or how much extra room we had to stretch out (oh the luxury), or how many other people there were in the carriage (only 2 besides us, so quiet and peaceful in the Upper Class Accommodation). Its safe to say that all those little things  added up to one terrific start to the day and made the three hour journey whizz by in a flash. 

We arrived in the Big Smoke just before 10 am, and following Little B's unwavering request we journeyed straight to the Natural History Museum. It's been many years since I've visited this incredible museum, and although it's changed quite  lot over the years, it's still an amazing place to take children.

Little B wanted to go directly to see the dinosaur exhibits, but after that we just kind of wandered around and looked at things in a meandering, random fashion. The huge Blue Whale skeleton that hangs in the central Hintze Hall is just mind blowing, and was my most favourite bit by far.

I spent lots of time ooohing and aaaahing at the intricacies of the building as we meandered through the rooms, the decorative details are absolutely stunning. I usually feel very stifled being in old historic buildings (they give me a bit of Historical Claustrophobia), but not so the Natural History Museum. I loved it in there. 

Coming out of the museum in the early afternoon we asked Little B where he wanted to go next. It's not like we had really planned anything for our day (typical of us, just winging it the whole way), so we just let him decide...and he fixed on Buckingham Palace. O-kay, yes, we can do that, no problem! J decided that we should walk the distance and with hindsight I have mixed feelings about that idea. It's not a short stroll by any means and it was flippin' freezing, but on the up side we did get to walk all the way to Sloane Square to take in Harrods before heading on through the poshness of Belgravia.

Little B was a weeny bit disappointed by Buckingham Palace ("it's just a big grey building!") but we did enjoy using my camera to zoom in and watch the very smart guard carry out his back and forth marching. 

After all the walking we were in need of refreshment (it suddenly seemed a long time since the pain au chocolat). So we did our usual family thing and completely disregarded the frigid weather, eating a shivery picnic lunch huddled on a bench in St James Park. Boy, was it cold! Even the pigeons looked frozen.

After lunch we walked onwards through the park to take in the landmarks of Westminster. Little B voiced further disappointment as the famous Big Ben clock tower is currently undergoing refurbishment and is all covered up. Ah well, never mind, lets hop on the Underground and go somewhere warm! Over to you Little B - where to next? Hamleys, please!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Hamleys, it's a giant toy shop on Regent Street in central London, arranged over five floors with escalators and everything. It's full on, loud, in your face and overwhelming, but children do seem to like the over the topness of it. We went straight up to the Lego department where Little B wandered around in a trance, and I photographed all the lifesized royal lego sculptures (the Queen was looking a little dusty I noticed, but impressive nevertheless). We bought a small lego red London bus to bring home as a souvenir of our trip, and a pencil with a little golden model of Big Ben on the end. 

After the toy shop experience I noticed that we were all flagging a bit and the 5.30 am start to the day was catching up with us all of a sudden. So I took charge and suggested we use the Underground to take us to Covent Garden where our number one priority would be to find a cafe for a warm sit down and a hot chocolate. Covent Garden was as bustling and atmospheric as ever, I never tire of it's quirky charms. I took the Little People to one of my favourite nooks (Neals Yard) and I wished it hadn't been so cold so that we could have sat there and loitered a bit, but it did look beautiful glowing in the gloom of a late Winter afternoon. We wandered around the old part of Covent Garden, taking in the street entertainment (some of which was worryingly bizarre I have to say) before settling into a cosy cafe for warmth and refreshment.

It was such a long, full day from start to finish (we got home around 9.30pm), but I think the Little People enjoyed it all. Little B really loved the whole experience of travelling on the Underground (he gets super excited by escalators, bless him) and actually I think the travel in general was exciting for him. It's a good thing to venture out of ones normal day to day environment every once in a while don't you think? We  don't travel much as a family but I'd like to try and make a few more trips to different places this year, to give the Little People a bit of a wider view on life.

And in other news, Little B has one hand knit sock!! Just the one singular rainbow creation for now, but I'm so chuffed that it fits like a dream and he is really, really pleased with it too. I cast on the second sock yesterday, so in amongst everything else I'll try and find time to get that knitted up for him, especially as the weather has turned very cold here again this week and woolly rainbow socks are just the thing to keep toes cosy.

On the way home from London on Saturday evening I came down hard and fast with the cold that swept through the three Little Peeps during the Christmas holidays. I could feel it descending on me in Covent Garden, and by the time we were half way back up the country I was fighting a temperature and feeling like poop. So I've had a bit of a shabby week, packing away Christmas, trying to restore the house to some sort of mild order and preparing for the return to school, all on shaky legs with a hacking cough and a head stuffed with snot.

My Woodland blanket has been such a bright spot though, and I've absolutely LOVED seeing so many of you starting out on the journey with me this week. I've not been on my computer much since the weekend so I'm a bit behind with Facebook (which moves at the speed of light when everyone's excited!), so apologies if I've missed questions or queries whilst I've been fighting the germs off. I'm hoping to catch up a bit before Part 2 this coming Friday, and wanted to thank you again for your company on this blanket journey.

Thank you, you are the best xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woodland Blanket CAL :: Part 1

Good morning to you all, and welcome to what I hope will be a very happy, creative and inspirational Woodland Walk that we're about to set off on together. I absolutely love the beginning of a new blanket journey, it fills me with so much optimism and happiness! Thank you as always, for choosing to keep me company - I really hope you enjoy this colour story as it unfolds during the next couple of months.

Of course, my own personal Woodland journey started a good while ago now as I began obsessing about these colours way back at the start of Autumn. Once I got the idea of making a blanket inspired by my walks in Autumn woodland, I couldn't think of anything else. I took every opportunity to walk amongst the trees during October and November, taking endless photos and coming home with my pockets full of woodland treasure. I filled my Creative Mind to the brim with Autumnal colours, I just couldn't help myself.

My final choice of colours for the Woodland blanket came together pretty easily - I was able to look to the colours of nature and gather inspiration to create a harmonious colour palette which described not only what I saw on my walks, but also something of the way I felt as I looked up through the treetops. I wanted the colours to feel light and airy, but also cosy and warm too. I wanted to describe the meandering gravel pathways, the dry stone walls, and the peeps of blue sky. But most of all I wanted the colours to capture the essence of all those glorious Autumn leaves - the rich coppery browns, the bright oranges, mustards and golds and the zesty, leafy greens greens. I wanted the colours to whirl together and create something really joyful and uplifting.

These are the fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK which make up the  Woodland palette ::

Top row, left to right...

❧ copper ❧ tomato ❧ spice ❧ gold ❧ mustard ❧ lime ❧ meadow ❧

Bottom row, left to right...

❧ pistachio ❧ lincoln ❧ cypress ❧ mocha ❧ grey ❧ silver ❧ duck egg ❧ storm ❧

The pattern I'm using for my woodland blanket is a soft, undulating ripple with little peep holes which remind me of sunlight shining down through the tree tops. This is a crochet version of a traditional Shetland knitting pattern know as "Old Shale" (sometimes called Feather and Fan). It's a lovely pattern to work with simple stitches and a soothing, repetitive rhythm to the rows. I've created a full, picture-heavy tutorial for the Woodland Ripple, with lots of guidance to help beginner hookers.

You can find the pattern in the usual place over in the left hand sidebar, in my list of patterns and tutorials.

🍂WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN🍂

The tutorial will guide you through making a small tension sample so that you can get a feel of how the pattern works, but more importantly so that you can assess your tension and decide on the right hook size to achieve the size needed. Please, please do take the time to do this (you can use yarn from your Woodland yarn pack as it's only a small bit of additional crochet), as the correct sizing is important if you don't want to run out of yarn.

Those of you who came along with me on my jaunt over the heather Moorlands last year will be familiar with the way I like to use colour to tell a "visual story". It excites me to play with colour in this way, and I really hope you enjoy the design I've created to capture the feeling of taking a wander in the woods. The shift of colours in the Woodland blanket is beautifully subtle - there are 105 stripes all together (7 of each colour) which takes you from the  meandering woodland pathways, up through the leafy branches of the trees to the Autumn sky above. I hope you love this colour story as much as I do.

In addition to the colour story, I'm also going to give you the option to create a blanket which works the ripple stripes in a random order. Similar to the visual story, the random colours will be worked up in 105 stripes (7 of each colour), but you can crochet less stripes if you wish eg if you are making a smaller blanket, or if you are following a different stripe pattern.

If you are using the Woodland yarn pack, you will need to make sure you make a note of the colour names before you whip the paper bands off the balls. I have always used my home made yarn pegs as a way of noting and playing with the Stylecraft Special colours......

.....but you could simply make a list of the colours on a piece of paper and stick/tie little snips of yarn to it for reference like Ange has done with hers. 

Lorraine wound her yarn onto cute little cardboard tags ......

....and Ange used jumbo lolly sticks to wind her yarn around.

Mary shared this picture with me on Facebook, isn't her book beautiful? She made herself a small scrap book using images from my Woodland blog posts, with a page to record the yarn colours. Mary said "it will bring colour to the dark and gloom of winter here in Lancashire", and I totally agree - it's a lovely keepsake to remember this creative journey too.

So......back to the business of preparing for your Woodland blanket.

As mentioned earlier, I would urge you to take a little bit of time making a small tension sample (shown above) so that you can measure it and make sure you are using the right hook size to suit your tension. All is explained in the Woodland Ripple tutorial. You can use this sample to work out your starting chain - I've given a whole list of starting chains options in my Woodland Ripple tutorial to help you create the width you want.

My Woodland blanket will measure 4ft x 6ft (120 cm x 180 cm), and there is enough yarn in one yarn pack to create this single bed sized blanket.

If you wish to make a double/king size blanket, you will need 2 yarn packs.

There is no other way around it - striped blanket always start with a whole load of counting and a wiggly thin line of crochet. Working stitches into a foundation chain does take some practice for newbie hookers, so my best advice would be to take your time and be patient. You may find it easier to go up a whole mm in hook size just to create your foundation chain - that way you won't be fighting to wiggle your hook into the chain quite as much.

The first row of the pattern is a whole length of double crochet. This will need to be accurately counted, so make sure you have a bit of peace to do this - using stitch markers at regular intervals can be a life saver if you get unexpectedly interrupted in your furious counting!

Once you've got the first few stripes under your belt, the hooky bliss will descend very quickly. This is a beautifully rhythmic pattern to work - yes there is counting (all ripple patterns involve counting) but it's not hard to get those numbers gently humming inside your head as you go. In my tutorial, I've given some tips on counting the stitches for this pattern and how to keep yourself on track with the repeats - I promise you it very soon becomes something you don't need to think about all that much, but do give yourself time for it to become familiar. 

I know many of you from all around the world will be joining me on this blanket journey, even those in the southern hemisphere where it's probably not really blanket-snuggling weather. Here in the UK it's the perfect time of year to be sat under a pile of colourful, yarny stripes, and as the weeks pass and your blanket grows, I know you're going to love having those cosy woodland inspired ripples sitting in your lap.

Often times I'm crocheting at the cafe with my friends or sat by the fireside in the evenings, but I do so love love love a bit of snuggly sofa hooky. As you can see, I'm not the only one who appreciates the blanket explosion on the sofa!

I'm going to list the first set of colours for you in just a moment, but first I'd just like to reassure you that all CAL posts will remain on my blog so you can dip into them whenever you need. Please don't worry if you miss a week or fall behind with your hooky, you can go at your own pace and you certainly won't be alone. Here is a rundown of the CAL schedule :

Friday 5th January - part 1 - working  a tension sample, choosing the right hook size, stripes 1-18.

Friday 12th January - Part 2 - stripes 19 -36

Friday 19th January - Part 3 - stripes 37 - 54

Friday 26th January - Part 4 - stripes 55 - 72

Friday 2nd February - Part 5 - stripes 73 - 90

Friday 9th February - Part 6 - stripes 911 - 105

Friday 16th February - Catch up week (darn in those ends!!)

Friday 23rd February - Part 7 - the edging and a grand Ta-dah!

Here is the colour info for "Part 1 of the "colour story" Woodland Blanket.

Foundation chain/row 1. Lime (note : this first dc row will eventually form part of the edging, so if you really dislike this colour then feel free to choose another)

1. Cypress (rows 2 & 3)

2. Meadow (rows 4 & 5)

3. Mustard (rows 6 & 7)

4. Tomato (rows 8 & 9)

5. Spice (rows 10 & 11)

6. Copper (rows 12 & 13)

7. Grey (rows 14 & 15)

8. Gold (rows 16 & 17)

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Tomato (for double bed size blankets)

9. Cypress (rows 18 & 19)

10. Meadow (rows 20 & 21)

11. Tomato (rows 22 & 33)

12. Spice (rows 24 & 25)

13. Lime (rows 26 & 27)

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Cypress (for double bed size blankets)

14. Mocha (rows 28 & 29)

15. Copper (rows 30 & 32)

16. Grey (rows 32 & 33)

17. Cypress (rows 34& 35)

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Lime (for double bed size blankets)

18. Meadow (rows 36 & 37)

If you would prefer to work your colours in a random stripe order (rather than follow the colour story), then I'm happy to help with that too. I'll give you 18 stripes each week with the colours spread evenly throughout, so feel free to stop whenever you reach the length you're happy with. 

Here is the colour info for Part 1 of the "Random Colours" Woodland Blanket.

1. Lime (foundation chain and row 1)

2. Cypress (rows 2 & 3)

3. Meadow (rows 4 & 5)

4. Mustard (rows 6 & 7)

5. Tomato (rows 8 & 9)

6. Spice (rows 10 & 11)

7.Mocha (rows 12 & 13)

8. Duck Egg (rows 14 & 15)

9. Storm 16 & 17)

10. Copper (rows 18 & 19)

12. Gold (rows 20 & 21)

12. Pistcahio (rows 22 & 33)

13. Grey (rows 24 & 25)

14. Lincoln (rows 26 & 27)

15. Silver (rows 28 & 29)

16. Storm (rows 30 & 32)

17. Tomato (rows 32 & 33)

18. Gold (rows 34& 35)

I am wishing you a wonderful, happy start on your Woodland Walk, I hope your heart sings with joy as you immerse yourself in these curvy rows!!

Part 2 of the Woodland CAL will be here on my blog on Friday 12th. In the meantime, remember you can share photos with me over on my Attic24 Facebook page, and you can also join the "Attic24 Moorland and More" Facebook group where you can post if you need guidance or if you'd just like to chat/share with other Woodlanders. 

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WOODLAND BLANKET YARN PACK

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : introduction

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : Q&A

WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN

 

 

 

 

Delicious December Days

It's hard to believe that Christmas only happened a little over a week ago as it already seems so far behind us, but I suppose it was last year now wasn't it?! We had a truly lovely Christmas Day with a super early pre-six-o'clock start thanks to Little B who woke up absolutely radiating with excited energy. The early morning unfolded leisurely and with much happiness, gosh it's always such a relief when the present unwrapping has finished up and there is gratitude all round. The Teen and Little Lady had both chosen their (rather grown up) gifts this year but I did still do my best to give them some small surprises as well. I mean, I don't think you can ever be too old to hang a stocking up on the fireplace, can you?

We had some beautiful weather on Christmas morning, so after a late breakfast we decided to head out for a short walk through the woods.

It felt so good to be out breathing in lungfuls of fresh air.....

.....whilst making frequent stops to inhale chocolate. It had to be done - the satsumas just weren't doing it for me this year I'm afraid.

I really love the above photo so much, it's been such a long time since we had the pleasure of The Teen coming with us on a walk. Just lovely it was.

As in previous years it was just the five of us at home for Christmas, so dinner was the usual casual affair. I forgot to buy party poppers and festive napkins, but I did remember the crackers so that's something. It surprised me that The Teen had the most to say about the type of crackers I should buy ("Mum, can we have proper crackers this year with decent stuff inside instead of those stupid wind up toys that you race with?"). So I went for "Childish Traditional" which included classic cracker gifts like a fortune telling fish, a spinning top, a plastic hair comb and a fake mustache. It was all good, traditional nostalgic fun.

In recent years we've settled on the tradition of having a chocolate yule log to follow the overflowing plates of roast dinner on Christmas Day. I'm delighted by this as there is minimal effort required on my part - all I have to do is remember to purchase the aforementioned log, top it with plastic wildlife and a little snowy tree and voila! Thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Little B asked me to show you this photograph as it was his main focus for much of Christmas day. He asks for Lego every year but this is the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" set he's received. Oh my word, I've totally fallen in love with baby Lego Groot, unbelievably cute in every way. Currently he is lost in the Galaxy of the Untidy House, but I'm hopeful he will find his way back to us soon.

We've had  an extensive amount of cosy hours spent at home this holiday, day after day of candlelit idling, and a serious amount of sofa loafing. It's been relaxing, warm, cosy and therapeutic. We've had germs to contend with as all three Little People have been hit with a really horrid cold that is doing the rounds, so it's been a blessing that our holiday has had very little in the way of plans or expectations. They've needed the down time that's for sure. 

The end of December brought us a very mixed bag of weather, and although we've been content to stay indoors for the most part, it's always good to head out and breathe in the cold winter air from time to time.

We went on a short, freezing cold walk at Bolton Abbey one afternoon last week, arriving back at the little cafe rather cold and in need of refreshment. Cappuccinos and hot chocolates all round, with a side of toasted tea cake and all warmth was restored. When we came out of the cafe it was just after 4pm, with the moon already rising above the bare tree tops. It was very atmospheric and utterly wintry I thought. 

During the past few weeks we've enjoyed a lot of fireside relaxation, and I've so appreciated it. Often times we don't really need the physical warmth of an open fire, but the lure of the visual and emotional comfort is hard to resist. My mantle is lit with a mixture of candles and lights, oh I do so love my Christmas light-ups things! I bought these two years ago (bell jar scenes and snowflake arches) and they look so pretty all lit up at night. It's not like me to go with all-white Christmas decorations, but I made an exception for these as they really are lovely.

I think Tilly has had mixed feelings about having the whole family around for days on end. Sometimes she gives off this distinct back-off vibe (see above) which very clearly says "for goodness sake, can't you see I need my space?" And then other times she is near desperate for attention and closeness. But it's always on her terms and we've learnt to read her pretty well in the eighteen months that she's been living with us. She's not an easy kitty to interact with, but we do so love her. 

Friday of last week brought us a snow day, and it was beautiful while it lasted. The flakes fell for half a day, giving us an inch or so of snow on the ground - it wasn't really enough to play in, but the Little People still took to the street and flung themselves around in it, throwing snowballs and larking about with neighbourhood friends.

As it was a Friday morning, I was off to my weekly get together with my yarny friends down at Coopers cafe. I so look forward to this every week and it would take more than a bit of white stuff to keep me away. On my way there, I couldn't resist taking a quick detour up to the top of the park to take in the wintry scene, oh I do love to see a bit of snowy woodland, it's all kind of magical and Narnia-ish don't you think?!

Heading down the hill and into the warmth of the cafe was just the loveliest thing, and spending a few hours hooking and chatting with friends  while the snow continued to fall outside was the absolute definition of cosy. It's almost four years now since the start of my studio adventure at Coopers, and our twice-weekly "Creative Coopers" social groups continue to thrive. It's one of the best things to feel that sense of belonging and friendship that comes when like-minded creative people get together to share and inspire. I value it very, very much and it makes me so happy to have that regular social connection in my life. 

When I arrived at Coopers on Friday, I realised that with all the snowy excitement I'd totally forgotten to bring any crochet with me! No worries there though, as my studio shelves are bulging with yarn and creative possibilities and all I had to do was pick out some colours and get started on something new. For a little while now I've had in my mind to make myself a new Weekend Bag as I've been using my Heatwave Weekend bag constantly for the past year or so and it was starting to look a little worn.

I chose 12 colours of Stylecraft Special chunky and decided to change it up slightly by making one-row stripes instead of the original two-row stripes. It all happened very fast - I think it took me about 3 minutes to choose the colours (I literally just pulled my favourites down off the shelf one by one until the whole lot looked happy together), then found my Weekend Bag pattern on my phone so that I could get started straight away. I have to say it was really great to be able to follow my own tutorial haha!!!

Anyhow, I finished the bag the following day (yes, that fast) and I'll be able to show you next week once I've take some photos.

On a creative roll, I cast on a new pair of socks on New Years Eve and have spent some very enjoyable time during the past few days sat at the table knitting by candlelight. These socks are for Little B who has been pleading for them for many months now. He chose the yarn himself, adamant that he wanted rainbow stripes for his size 1.5 feet, so who am I to argue? This delicious looking sock yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, part of their very popular cocktail range. The colourway is called Rum Paradise and is absolutely gorgeous :)

I've put the socks to one side for now though as I immerse myself in all things Woodland. As many of you will know, my Woodland Blanket Crochet-A-Long begins on Friday, so I'm very busy working on the tutorial and getting everything ready for this wonderful journey to begin.........eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, I'm so excited!!!!!!!

For those of you who might have missed all the Woodland excitement, you can read all about my forthcoming blanket plans in this post. There is still time to gather in your yarn and join me if you wish - Woodland Wandering is sooooo good for the soul at this time of year, these colours really do lift the spirits when all is dreary and grey outside. 

Before I hop off and get back to my pattern writing, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! Next week I'll be putting together my "Year End Review" posts to share with you which is something I always look forward to. 

But in the meantime, I'll be back here in the Attic on Friday to give you everything you need to get started with the Woodland Blanket................can't wait!!!!!! 

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