Attic24

Making the Seasons :: July

I've just spent a happy time looking all the way through my Making the Seasons posts right from the very beginning. I have really loved seeing my creative makes subtly change as they've moved through the seasons, and am excited to share this latest installment with you. Working on a monthly seasonal making project with my lovely friend Gillian is so much fun! I do find it quite a challenge to come up with something new and exciting each month, but it's the best type of challenge. I find that I can't really think about it too far in advance either as I tend to work best when I'm feeling totally spontaneous and just a wee bit pushed for time. 

I decided earlier in the week that my July Making The Seasons post would be all about butterflies. We have a buddleia (butterfly) bush growing at the front of our house, and after some dramatic self-pruning last year (it snapped!), this year it's grown back healthy and strong and is absolutely smothered in flowers. It reaches to just below our bay window which means that we get a terrific aerial view of all the winged critters arriving at their favourite flower-restaurant. 

So far this year I haven't seen many different species (I'm going to be taking part in the Big Butterfly Count once we head into August) - mainly Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Large and Small Whites. No Red Admirals or Painted Ladies yet, but I'm hopeful that I might get to see some before the summer is out.

I absolutely adore butterflies, and have done ever since being a small child. Does anyone remember the Brooke Bond picture cards that came inside packets of tea in the 1970's? There were a whole host of different subjects to collect (J remembers collecting dinosaur cards) and I was an avid collector of the butterfly cards. I so clearly remember having the exact book pictured above, although I've no idea what happened to it.  

I bought this one from eBay a few years ago, partly for the nostalgia gig, but also because I love the butterfly illustrations so much....

....there are 50 in total, with interesting educational facts given on each page. I love this book and even though I only paid £3 for it, it feels very precious to me. I wonder who it once belonged to? Who collected and glued in all the little cards? Who cared for it and kept it in such good condition for the past forty years? I wish I knew.

This is my modern day guide to the butterflies of the British Isles, bought after a trip down to Dorset when I saw so many species that I couldn't identify. I really, really wanted to have that knowledge tucked away inside my brain so that I could pass it on to the Little People, or at the very least have a nifty chart or book so that I could find out. Well now I do have the nifty chart, I just need to remember to take it with me when we go to likely butterfly-ish places.

So back to Making the Seasons. In the interests of complete honesty and disclosure, I have to tell you that I ordered up some very pretty edible butterfly cake toppers (these ones, aren't they lovely?) with the idea that I would bake and decorate some beautiful and highly photogenic butterfly buns as part of my seasonal July project. And......it didn't happen in time, not just yet. I do still intend to do some butterfly-inspired baking with Little B and I shall be sure to show you the results, but for now, my butterfly offerings are going to be inedible and made of yarn.

Do any of you have the above books by Lesley Stanfield? They are absolutely brilliant and I can highly recommend them if you like creating decorative bits of nature. I find the patterns a bit on the tricky side to decipher, but with the combination of written pattern, graphic chart and photos it's usually possible to fudge it enough to make a passable go of it.

Earlier in the week I set myself up at the dining table for a creative butterfly-making session, all giddy at the prospect of getting to play with my colourful cotton yarns. On the right hand side the yarn is Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK (50g balls) and on the left are the dinky little Ricorumi balls (25g) that I bought for mandala making. Frothy chocolate dusted coffee and I was ready to hook up a whole swarm of pretty winged critters.

Drank the coffee whilst browsing through the books, trying to decide which butterfly to attempt first. The patterns made my head swim, so I popped outside for a bit of a breather and when I came back in, a new ball of fluff had been added to the pile. Cheeky little kitty.

My first attempt was a Large White butterfly which looked gorgeous in the book. The designer had managed to create the look of veins running up the wings by very cleverly using double-treble front and back post stitches (uh-huh, dtr post stitches). This was not at all easy to execute and I got into a right old mess with it. I kept getting muddled up with the wrong side and right side, and the front and the back post business just got the better of me. I made one (rubbish) wing and am sorry to tell you that it flew right off my hook and straight into the bin...whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Onto the next try.................

Second attempt was the yellow Brimstone, and I managed a bit better with this one. I liked it because there was no turning (all the stitches were made in a long line into a foundation chain) so there was no confusion with trying to work out wrong side and right side. Some of the stitches were seriously tall though (quadruple-trebles) which made the wings look a bit holey and loopy but I like the overall shape of them.

On the same page as the Brimstone was a Golden Haristreak which I decided to make using blue yarn instead. This one was made in two parts which were then stitched together and my brain quite liked the way this one was designed. I could see the logic in the shaping and how to make each wing, and I crocheted it up with no problem.

I decided to add a little bit of decorative stitching around the outer edge of the wings - it occurred to me that butterfly wings are just crying out for little itty bits of decorative stitching. You could really go to town making them look as pretty as possible with all sorts of embroidery stitches.

So one abandoned wing in the bin and two butterflies complete (and actually looking like butterflies) and I was on a roll.

I need to make more! 

A quick flick through the book again - oooooo I LOVE the Peacock butterfly, but that's a knitted pattern and so not within my capabilities at all. Hmmm.....what about the Camberwell Beauty? That looks pretty and I like the shape of the wings very much. Lets give it a go!

This was another pattern where you had to work each wing in turn, making short rows back and forth using different stitch heights to shape the wings. A little picot to add some detail on the wing edge - very nice.

Second upper wing now, a mirror image of the first.....

.....wait a minute that doesn't look right, what happened there? The second wing is upsidedown? OK, no worries, I'll just pull it out and start the second wing again.

NOooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! The second time I tried, I ended up with exactly the same upsidedown issue, so I'm sorry but wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, into the bin it flies. There will be no Camberwell Beauty in my swarm.

What's next?

A Red Admiral, yes I think I can do this.

Yay!!!! It has four wings that look like wings should!

I had to fudge the black crochet edging quite a bit, making it up more than reading the pattern, but overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

When I looked on my nifty butterfly identification chart, I saw that the crochet version wasn't quite as accurate as it should be. Red Admirals have white patterning on their wings which make them very distinctive, so I decided to add a little bit of white stitching.

There, that's better - the white detail made all the difference. I love my Red Admiral!

Three butterflies on my table, and a day or two goes by. I sit myself down for another making session and decide to attempt an Orange Tip this time.....

Similar to the second butterfly I made, this one starts out as one line of stitches and I like this method. 

It didn't take me very long at all to make this lovely butterfly, and I was amazed at how real it looked. I saw a few orange tip butterflies a few weeks back when we were walking up in the Yorkshire Dales, and had remembered how vivid those little  flashes of orange and black are in real life.

I felt really inspired by this little butterfly, so decided to be brave and attempt something of my own from scratch.

I chose to make a Small Tortoiseshell as this is one of my best favourite butterflies and the ones we see most often fluttering around our butterfly bush. I used my nifty guide to learn the shape of the wings, and set to work. This was crochet on the fly and I didn't write a single thing down - I worked fast and concentrated hard, trying my best to create those symmetrical and beautifully shaped wings. After a lot of effort, I made something that actually looked really rather butterflyish, and I felt elated!

One of the reasons I wanted to try creating the Small Tortoiseshell was because of the patterns on the wings which I love so much. This was quite fiddly to do, but I worked the stitching slowly and methodically, one wing at a time until it was finished.....

.....ta-dah!!!!!!!!! An Attic24 original Small Tortoiseshell, which will most likely remain an original one of a kind. I can't think that I would ever want to try and do that again to be honest, it really was a bit of a labour of love.

The last butterfly I made was in two shades of blue, inspired by the Holly Blue male on my chart. This is another pattern designed by me, and this time I did make some notes as I was crocheting and shaping the wings. I still need to tweak it a little more, but I'm going to try and write the pattern up if I can. I fancy it would make a lovely little brooch and it would really make me happy to be able to make butterfly brooches in a whole rainbow of colours.

 So there you have it - the results of my butterfly making week. It's not a lot to show for what feels like a massive amount of expended brain power, but oh I do SO love them!!

I had a think about what I might like to actually do with these butterflies of mine - a mobile perhaps? A set of brooches? Stitch them to a summer wreath, or make a butterfly mandala?

I haven't had quite enough time to give the end result much thought to be honest, as it's been very blankety around here during the past week. 

But what I have really enjoyed doing is having a play with them, gosh, I had the MOST fun with this today! I often think that faffing and photographing handmade things is as much fun (if not more so) than the actual making process. I took a lot of photos - loads and loads of them - so here are just a few....

Ahhh........so lovely. Butterflies are incredibly joyful aren't they? The sight of them always makes me happy.

I have an idea that I'd like to create some sort of a picture with my crochet butterflies, kind of a nod to the rather old fashioned Victorian collectors displays found in natural history museums and old houses. I'll have a look for a suitable frame next time I'm out and about. I'm rather weirdly excited about this idea.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been up to this week with my hook and yarn - there may very well be more yarny butterfly business coming next week, I really want to work out that pattern to share with you.

In the meantime, I want to show you images from my virtual collection of Totally Inspirational butterfly-inspired art....

This is the incredible work of paper artist Kate Kato who works under the name "Kasasagi Designs". Kate makes delicate and very life like insects and plants using a combination of stitching and paper sculpting. The detail in her work is astounding and I love to see her beautiful compositions pop up on Instagram. I love all her work but her butterflies are especially appealing.

This is another crush of mine - the work of crochet artist Kate Jenkins. Yes, these insects are all crocheted!

I would love love love to see these crochet and embellished butterflies in real life, to really examine all their intricate detail right up close....but for now I'm just quietly swooning over the amazingness of them.

And lastly, I just stumbled across these beauties a few days ago on Pinterest whilst on a search for yarny butterfly inspiration. Aren't they gorgeous? These are also crocheted, but on a very different scale to the ones above - they are huge!

This Small Tortoiseshell butterfly isn't small at all and measures 28 x 20 cm.  I am completely smitten by it. Designed and made by Dutch designer MieksCreaties, you can actually buy the patterns to make all the different butterflies .....oh I am so so tempted! I really hate deciphering crochet patterns, but these crazy-beautiful things are calling my name. 

I think that's about all I've got to say about crochet butterflies for now - my mind is already wandering ahead to August and wondering what seasonal delights will ignite my creativity next month. Funny thing - I just typed moth instead of month, I think I've got winged insects on the brain!

Please do pop over and say hello to Gillian - her July Making the Seasons post is delicious and is making my mouth water! 

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Summer Ripple Blankets :: A Double Ta-dah!

Hellooooo!! Thank you so much for joining me here in the Attic as I leap about celebrating the fact that my first ever bloggy-blanket has reached the grand old age of  t e n. I do enjoy pondering on these milestones, especially when I've been feeling quite nostalgic and retrospective of late. It's possible that all this examining of memories is entirely hormone-driven, but nevertheless I'm enjoying my frequent trips down memory lane and the lengthy spells of reminiscing that come over me these days.

I passed by my ten year blog birthday back in March, but there is something about celebrating an actual physical thing that makes it more tangible somehow. The blanket in question was the second ever blanket I crocheted (the first was a granny square blanket), and the first ever blanket I shared on my blog back in the summer of 2008. It holds a special place in my heart as it was my first attempt at reading and interpreting a written pattern, which I have to say I found ridiculously hard (I still do to be honest). I found myself struggling my way through this ripple pattern, discovering that it didn't really make much sense to me the way it was written, which in turn inspired me to re-work it for my brain to understand it a bit better.

And so began my journey into the realms of designing and creating my own patterns, born out of necessity when I realised I hated the mental struggle and frustration that came with trying to work out other people's patterns. By sharing all this on my blog, I quickly realised that I wasn't alone with the pattern-struggle, and that there were many of you out there who were newbie hookers sat on your lonesome like me, trying to work things out and desperately needing more guidance. We folks are Visual Learners, and it's pictures with plain English sentences that we need, not a whole jumble of abbreviated patterny gobbledegook! I've spent the past ten years creating patterns written in long-winded sentences with oodles of pictures, in the hope that I might inspire someone to make something marvelous when they might otherwise have given up. I wanted to create the next best thing to having me sit right next to you, helping you along as you learn the ways of the hook, which is the very thing I craved when I was starting out. I really want EVERYONE to experience the joy of making blankets, it's that simple.

When I was starting to think about writing this post I went delving through my photo archives to find pictures of my first ever ripple blanket in the making.....yes, I know.....yet another nostalgia trip, but an entirely necessary one. I know I've often said before how crochet blankets are such terrific Guardians of Memories, and this is so, so true. I can look at the above photo and remember so much about the time, even though it was ten years ago. I remember that I was sat up in the Attic widow seat on a warm summer's evening after the Little People (then aged 4 and 5) were tucked up asleep in bed. I remember it was a Tuesday evening because I could hear the sound of the church bells ringing, and I was so happy and content sitting quietly working my ripple stitches.

Another vivid memory caught up in the stitches of this blanket, this time a Dorset holiday picnic one. I remember how baking hot it was as I sat and crocheted with a sea view while the Little People ran themselves ragged in the early afternoon. I remember that I was crocheting the penultimate stripe of my blanket, and I had that slightly sinking feeling that I just didn't want the blanket to end. I felt like I could ripple along forever and never tire of it. I feel like that about all my blankets (possibly not the fiddlesome Sweet Flower Granny blanket which drove me wild with it's faffiness, I was really happy when that came to an end). 

As I still have this blanket and still use it for the best kind of snuggling (well it does contain cashmere), all those happy summer memories stay wrapped around me. I remember the time in my life when I was Mum to two small Little People, and this is precious indeed when the aforementioned Little People are actually rather large and teenage shaped now.

Over the years, I've been asked so many times about the yarn I used for this blanket. I made it without an inkling that anybody might wish to know the colours I crocheted with so I kept no record, wrote nothing down. I remember the brand of the rather expensive yarn that I had chosen - it was Rowan Cashsoft DK with an odd ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, both of which have now been discontinued. I used 11 colours in my original ripple blanket, a rather odd mix of soft, pale summery shades mixed with a few bright zingy ones which bring it all to life. 

In the years following the making of my first ripple blanket, it has continued to be seen  through the archives of my blog, and through the pages of Pinterest and Flickr (does anyone still use Flickr? I was an avid user at one time, in the days before Instagram and Pinterest existed). During this time, the one thing I've been asked over and over again is about the colours I used.

"I want to make a blanket just like the one you made, please can you help me choose the colours?"

There is not a lot that I enjoy more than a creative colour challenge, so earlier this year, back in the depths of winter, I pondered on the idea of re-creating the original ripple colour palette using alternative yarns, in celebration of a whole decade of blanket making. It was slightly tricky as I only had the above photo to go by - the original blanket has faded quite a bit since I first made it, so when I was choosing my new colours I tried to stay true to the original look.....

......and this is what I came up with.

I initially put together the yarn on the right, which is my blankety-favourite Stylecraft Special DK. I stayed true to the original and only picked out 11 colours, which meant that four of them were doubled up to make 15 x 100g balls in total. 

The yarn on the left is King Cole Cottonsoft DK which is a yarn I've wanted to try using for a long time. I have a good friend who makes almost all her blankets using this yarn, so I've been able to see and feel the crochet fabric it produces first hand. It is sooooooo lovely! It's a soft, pure cotton yarn and the only thing that had put me off using it in the past was the more limited choice of colours compared to the Stylecraft yarn I've become used to. However, for this particular blanket project the colours happened to be pretty perfect, so I made the decision to give it a try.

I'll list out the colours for you, please do forgive the sideways photos! I don't know why but Typepad has refused to let me turn them the right way round, so I've had no choice but to show them to you sideways. I've listed the colours according to the way you are seeing the photo though, so as not to confuse you!

15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK (11 shades)

Left column, top to bottom :

 ♥ Wisteria x 1 ♥ Blush x 2 ♥ Spice x 1 ♥ Pomegranate x 1 ♥

Middle column, top to bottom :

♥ Duck Egg x 2 ♥ Cloud Blue x 1 ♥ Storm Blue x 1 ♥ Sage x 1 ♥

Right column, top to bottom :

♥ Clematis x 2 ♥ Lavender x 1 ♥ Pistachio x 2 ♥

15 x 100g balls of King Cole Cottonsoft DK (11 shades)

Left column, top to bottom :

 ♥ Lavender x 1 ♥ Apricot x 2 ♥ Orange x 1 ♥ Coral x 1 ♥

Middle column, top to bottom :

♥ Violet x 1 ♥ Cloud x 1 ♥ Mint x 2 ♥ Sky x 1 ♥

Right column , top to bottom :

♥ Rose Petal x 2 ♥ Apple x 1 ♥ Sage x 2 ♥

Lets look at these colours again - what do you make of them? I absolutely ADORE them, they are everything that makes my summer-loving heart happy. They are bright and soft, zingy and harmonious, just the essence of pure summer to me. I look at them and think of slightly sun-faded deckchair stripes, fizzy sherbet sweets and fruity ice cream. They are beach and childhood and summer and home to me. They are carefree days and sunshine, picnics and relaxation, everything happy,  joyful and nostalgic that I feel in my heart when I think of Summers past.  Quite simply - they make me happy right down to my toes.

I began with the Stylecraft blanket first as that kept me cosily inside my comfort zone when it came to playing with the colours. For various reasons I wasn't able to re-create the original blanket with the colours in the exact same order, but I really wanted to keep it as close as possible. I wanted it to have the same feel but not necessarily be an exact replica. I started out in late February, hot on the heels of the Woodland Ripple which was lovely actually - making this very summery blanket in the depths of winter was such a tonic!

The Neat Ripple pattern is probably one of the most addictive patterns I've ever come across. There is something about the gentle, repetitive counting and the soothing rhythm that totally sucks you in and makes it almost impossible to put it down. Just one more row.......

.....one more row, oh but I really want to see how this next colour looks so maybe just one more......! Yes, it really is like that. If you've ever crocheted a ripple blanket (and if not, why ever haven't you?) I'm sure you know what I'm on about. It's pure creative therapy, top notch, grade A feel-good. 

Crocheting in winter has some lovely perks, that's for sure. Sitting next to an open fire whilst warming your toes and hooking a few rows is one of my greatest cold weather pleasures. As is snuggling up in bed on a Sunday morning with a few ripples to keep you company whilst you sip your morning coffee and contemplate the day ahead. 

And as with every single ripple blanket I've made over the years, I never want it to end. Luckily for me, as soon as I'd finished the Stylecraft Summer ripple blanket, I was able to move straight onto the Cottonsoft version. A never ending, joyful journey of mountains and valleys, riding those ripples of colour. Happy, happy, happy me!!!

By the time I was ready to begin the Cottonsoft blanket it was mid May, and crochet activity was no longer by the fireside or snuggled in bed (well actually, yes I did still crochet in bed, just with less snuggly layers). 

The weather had heated up considerably and crochet became an al fresco activity for me as we jaunted through the heat of an early summer.

I continued to be obsessed with making these ripples, falling more in love with the colours and the idea of capturing the memories of a (for once) hot summer in these stitches. I crocheted at Coopers Cafe twice a week when we had our knit and natter sessions......

....and I crocheted in the pub with friends. Rippling with a gin and tonic to hand is absolutely heavenly and reaches very high on my personal pleasure-o-meter.

I crocheted at my studio table.....

....and I crocheted at my dining table.

I hooked and rippled and immersed myself completely in these glorious summer colours.

I have to say that crocheting with cotton yarn in the heat of the summer that we are having has been a complete revelation. This yarn was absolutely made with summer sunshine in mind and feels really wonderful in your hands no matter how warm the weather. This isn't a shiny, slippery type of cotton yarn, but it is exceptionally soft and smooth which makes it a joy to work with. I found that my hands never felt sweaty or "squeaky" when I was hooking with it, even when I felt ever so hot in my skin. 

When I decided to use cotton yarn to make a blanket, I had no idea that we were heading for one of our hottest summers on record. Now I'm not somebody who ditches the crochet in warm weather, no way, it's not possible because I'm an obsessive crochet addict and need to feed my addiction every single day of the year. But I really do feel like I hit the jackpot when I picked this yarn to work with during this particular summer. It has been so, so nice! Just lovely in every way. 

It's not at all easy to describe the qualities of how a yarn feels and looks, I'm just now finding that out. But maybe a few pictures can help to show you what I'm talking about. For those of you who have used Stylecraft Special for making blankets, you will know very well how soft and warm it feels. It's not a fluffy yarn really, and yet compared to the Cottonsoft it certainly looks and feels more fluffy and fibre-y. You can see in the above photo that the Cottonsoft is a smooth, slightly silky looking yarn (not to be confused with shiny, it's not shiny). What you can't see from the photo is how it feels - it is so, so soft! It doesn't feel slippery or silky when you touch it, it just feels unbelievably soft. But oh, it's silky to crochet with! It slips and glides on the hook like a dream and I love love love it for that. But best of all....just like the Stylecraft yarn, the Cottonsoft is NON SPLITTY - a very, very important thing for us crocheters. Splitty yarn is an absolute no-go for me, honestly, life is too short for that nonsense.

Lets try and get a closer look....

Stylecraft Special DK on the left and King Cole Cottonsoft DK on the right.

Both of these yarns are truly lovely to to work with, and make absolutely gorgeous blankets.  

Making two blankets together (well one after the other, but I think of them as being together) has been a lot of work in terms of hours that I've spent with a hook in my hand. Hear me complaining? Not ever!!!! It's been so much fun playing with the summery colours and now that they are finished I get to experience the pleasure of using the blankets for years to come. They will forever remind me of the Summer of '18 when our weather was fabulous and so much sunny time was spent enjoying the outdoors. I've got picnic plans for these blankets (I've already enjoyed an outdoor snooze tucked up under the Cottonsoft ripple) and will be taking them to Dorset with me a little later on this Summer, for the pure pleasure of being able to see them with a summery coastal backdrop.

As you would expect for any sort of celebratory ta-dah type event, I have taken a shed load of photos. Heaps of them. I'm now pondering over how to show them to you without giving you Blanket Blindness. 

Are you ready for this?

Lets start with the Stylecraft Special Summer Ripple.........

.......ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you enjoy that ripple feast?

Do you love the way the colours dance together? Aren't they beautiful?!

As you know, I've already written a full tutorial to help you get to grips with the Neat Ripple pattern, as well as a separate tutorial which explains how to turn the ripple pattern into an actual blanket (which includes instructions for filling in the rippled edges and working the border). Here are the links for those >>

NEAT RIPPLE STITCH PATTERN

RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

What I also want to remind you of is the hook size, blanket size and tension stuff - all this is explained in the blanket know-how tute, but as this was written for Stylecraft yarn it's important to write it again because the Cottonsoft Blanket is different to the Stylecraft blanket.

STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK SUMMER RIPPLE

YARN PACK at WOOL WAREHOUSE (includes full colour printed pattern)

Finished blanket size : 120cm x 180cm (single bed size)

Hook size : recommended size is 4 mm for Stylecraft yarn.

You can go up or down depending on  personal tension. I'm a tight crocheter so I used a 5 mm hook to create the starting foundation chain (to keep it from pulling too tight and making a rainbow!), then switched to a 4.5 mm for the ripples. I would highly recommend using a bigger hook size to make the foundation chain.

Starting chain (a multiple of 14, plus 3) : chain 213

Number of stripes : 84.

Make the first and last stripe the same colour so that you can easily follow my border instructions.

Here is the stripe order I used. If you buy a Summer Ripple yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a full colour printed pattern which includes this info.

SUMMER RIPPLE (STYLECRAFT) STRIPE ORDER
1. storm blue	31. pistachio	61. pomegranate
2. duck egg	32. blush	62. clematis
3. clematis	33. clematis	63. wisteria
4. pomegranate	34. pomegranate	64. spice
5. blush	35. sage	65. lavender
6. lavender	36. duck egg	66. storm blue
7. pistachio	37. pistachio	67. cloud blue
8. cloud blue	38. clematis	68. clematis
9. sage	39. cloud blue	69. pisatchio
10. wisteria	40. blush	70. sage
11. spice	41. wisteria	71. duck egg
12. blush	42. spice	72. lavender
13. lavender	43. pistachio	73. blush
14. clematis	44. duck egg	74. spice
15. pistachio	45. storm blue	75. wisteria
16. duck egg	46. wisteria	76. duck egg
17. cloud blue	47. blush	77. sage
18. storm blue	48. pistachio	78. pistachio
19. pistachio	49. lavender	79. duck egg
20. blush	50. clematis	80. clematis
21. duck egg	51. pomegranate	81. pomegranate
22. clematis	52. lavender	82. blush
23. wisteria	53. blush	83. duck egg
24. pomegranate	54. spice	84. storm blue
25. spice	55. sage
26. pistachio	56. pistachio
27. sage	57. cloud blue	Border
28. cloud blue	58. blush	1. Storm Blue
29. clematis	59. duck egg	2. Pistachio
30. duck egg	60. wisteria	3. Blush

 

So now I'm thinking that you might like to see some more of the the Cottonsoft blanket?

Ok.......more blankety gorgeousness coming up...........

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

I would dearly love you to be able to put your hand into your screen and give this blanket a  good squish. It feels delicious! It's cool and soft to the touch and has a beautiful drapey weightiness to it which makes it feel cosy when it's wrapped around you.  I've made cotton blankets before (my famous hexagon blanket was made using Rowan Handknit cotton DK, and my first ever granny square blanket was made using a mercerised cotton) but they've felt very, very heavy and I've ended up using them as furniture throws rather than snuggle blankets. The Cottonsoft blanket feels different, and it has occurred to me recently that this yarn would be absolutely perfect for making baby blankets. 

So here is the information stuff for you - a reminder of the pattern links ::

NEAT RIPPLE STITCH PATTERN

RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

....and the important sizing info for the Cottonsoft yarn.......

KING COLE COTTONSOFT DK SUMMER RIPPLE

YARN PACK at WOOL WAREHOUSE (includes full colour printed pattern)

Finished blanket size : 120cm x 170cm (single bed size, very slightly smaller than the Stylecraft version)

Hook size : recommended size is 3.5 mm for the Cottonsoft yarn.

You can go up or down depending on  personal tension. I'm a tight crocheter so I used a 4.5 mm hook to create the starting foundation chain (to keep it from pulling too tight and making a rainbow!), then switched to a 4mm for the ripples. I would highly recommend using a bigger hook size to make the foundation chain.

PLEASE NOTE !! The Cottonsoft yarn handles very differently to the Stylecraft yarn, and needs a smaller hook size to stop the whole thing becoming too flopsy. Just half a millimetre in hook size can make a huge difference to the finished size and feel of your crochet. Also - even with changing down a hook size, the Cottonosoft yarn still works up bigger than Stylecraft, yes, it's true!! So the starting chain and the number of stripes is reduced accordingly.

Starting chain (a multiple of 14, plus 3) : chain 199

Number of stripes : 73.

Make the first and last stripe the same colour so that you can easily follow my border instructions.

Here is the stripe order I used. If you buy a Summer Ripple yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a full colour printed pattern which includes this info.

SUMMER RIPPLE (COTTONSOFT) STRIPE ORDER
1. cloud	31. mint	61. sage
2. mint	32. sage	62. mint
3. rose petal	33. rose petal	63. apricot
4. coral	34.v iolet	64. coral
5. apricot	35. sky	65. rose petal
6. sage	36. lavender	66. mint
7. sky	37. orange	67. apple
8. apple	38. apricot	68. apricot
9. lavender	39. sage	69. violet
10. apricot	40. mint	70. sage
11. orange	41. cloud	71. orange
12. rose petal	42. lavender	72. apricot
13. violet	43. apricot	73. cloud
14. sage	44. coral
15. mint	45. violet
16. sky	46. sky	Border
17. rose petal	47. apple	1. cloud
18. lavender	48. rose petal	2. mint
19. coral	49. sage	3. rose petal
20. orange	50. orange
21. sage	51. apricot
22. apple	52. mint
23. cloud	53. lavender
24. rose petal	54. sage
25. mint	55. rose petal
26. apple	56. sky
27. apricot	57. apricot
28. rose petal	58. mint
29. coral	59. rose petal
30. apple	60. violet

I hope you've enjoyed sharing this double blanket journey of mine, it feels as if it's been quite epic in my mind, but probably that's just me feeling aaaaaaaaaaall the emotions about it all. I am so unbelievably grateful for the way that crochet found me at a time in my life (almost eleven years ago) when I so desperately needed it. It has honestly changed me in ways that I never even dreamed of.

I will always be a maker of blankets, and I am absolutely fine with that. I love all sorts of different types of crochet (I've got something fun to show you tomorrow!), but blanket making is my true pleasure, my obsession, my absolute passion. It feeds my creativity in a way that I can't imagine living without.

And best of all,  I love to be able to share it with the world at large - ten years on and I am still as in love with blogging as ever. I get such a buzz out of sharing my creative endeavours and belonging to this wonderful, nurturing community of ours. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey, I appreciate you more than I can say.

Here are the links all in one place for you >>

♥ NEAT RIPPLE PATTERN

♥ RIPPLE BLANKET KNOW-HOW

♥ STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK SUMMER YARN PACK

♥ KING COLE COTTONSOFT DK SUMMER YARN PACK

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Summer Snippets {one}

☀ It's the start of the long six week summer break here, and just as I did last year I thought it'd be nice to share some little snippets of life as we pootle gently through our days. I woke up late this morning completely disorientated, not knowing what day of the week it was or what on earth I was supposed to be doing. It was a blissful feeling when my brain finally woke up and I realised I could take my time and nothing much was needed of me for a while. I adore this feeling so much! It's relief mixed with an overwhelming sense of calm. All is well, it's the summer holidays and we will be operating on a completely different schedule for the foreseeable. Yippeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

☀ Summer holidays for me generally means a lot of juggling. As with most mums of school age children, I'm used to multi-tasking and mixing my parenting with work commitments, and this summer holds a fair amount of both for me. I'm cracking on with lots of Yarndale stuff, working on the content for the printed brochure as well as the big Creative Community project that I organise each year. I designed and made these little "treasure bowls" last week as a project for the Yarndale brochure - they are made from pure wool which means I can put them into the washing machine and felt them.......so much fun! I'll show you more in a separate post as I've got another felting project on the go right now too. 

☀ Luckily for us our allotment is only a couple of minutes walk from our back door so we are easily able to nip up most days and check on our small but precious crops. These are my minuscule, super-dwarf beans which I am so in love with - they are ever so cute! Despite their diminutive size they are starting to deliver us some delicious beans and I couldn't be happier. it's like having a row of really well behaved little children all performing over and above what is expected of them. Gold star award for the teensy bean plants, top of the class.

☀ The sweet peas aren't producing a whole lot of flowers to be honest, and look a bit on the spindly side. I have a feeling I forgot to pinch out the growing tips at the seedling stage, so the plants never bushed out like I expected them to. Ah well, I'm happy to be picking small posies each week which are scented to perfection, even if there isn't the abundance I was hoping for.

☀ Our small tenty green house is working out really well and keeping our plants nicely protected from the winds that whip across our sloping hillside plot. We've got cucumbers, tomatoes and chilies growing in here and I love seeing how well they are doing.

☀ This was yesterday's harvest, gathered with a great deal of happy enthusiasm by myself and Little B. We had to carry out a fair bit of adventurous hacking to get to the teensy raspberries through the riot of brambles in the overgrown soft fruit bed. It was rather painful and our haul was a little on the small side, but still, the excitement was unrelentingly high. I let Little B eat the raspberries with some greek yoghurt and honey and he said they were super-yummy. And check out my cucumbers, how good do they look?! So proud of my veggie babies.

☀ I'm working on the printed patterns for my new Summer Ripple blankets this week, which is quite hard going. Taking step-by-step photographs as I create the borders and writing up the patterns isn't nearly as enjoyable as the hooky itself which has been hugely pleasurable. But I'm making good progress and hope that everything will be ready to go by the end of this week. Maybe even Thursday.

And in other news, I know I am late to this particular party but I've just discovered frozen smoothie packs at the supermarket. Wow, they are brilliant! They nestle in the freezer between the massive selection of lollies and ice creams and the bags of ice cubes, so you have to kind of know to go and look there for them. There isn't a huge choice in Morrisons, but the above concoction was made from a Red Smoothie pack (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and mango), blended with a dollop of greek yoghurt and some milk. Yum yum yum, sooooooooo good. The Little People are ecstatic that I'm willingly offering to make these for them without thee need for begging or nagging on their part. 

We've had this multi purpose blender for almost a year now (it's a NutriPro 1200) and it's fantastic for general blitzing jobs in the kitchen (making breadcrumbs, chopping nuts, blitzing soup, making curry paste, hummus, dips etc) but I've never been bothered to make smoothies with it. However, it really is the bees knees when it comes to blending chunks of frozen stuff, I've been very impressed. 

☀ The curious mixture above came out of the Green Smoothie pack and consists of frozen kale, banana and mango. And in case you're wondering what that bitty sawdusty stuff is, well, that's lemongrass. Took me a while to actually read the packet and work out why everything was covered in sawdust. I divided the pack up into individual bags so that I can easily make up one smoothie at a time (that isn't all kale and no fruit)  - it gets mixed with apple juice and water to produce this.........

.....mmmmmmmmmm. It looks a bit overly health conscious, but actually tastes delicious. Little B couldn't be persuaded though, he took one slurp and said it made his tummy hurt and could he please stick to the pink one. Guess I'll be the one drinking the kale smoothies then.

☀ A photo of our Big Chair, just because I love it so. It's an oversized chair-and-a-half that we inherited from J's parents who were throwing it out and it fits an adult and willing small child quite nicely for film watching and snuggling. I change the blankets over regularly as they get a lot of wear and tear on this chair, and I'm really enjoying the bright pop of colour that the Sunny Granny Stripe is delivering right now. In case you were wondering about the cushion, that's the Water Lily cushion I made last year using Stylecraft Batik yarn (see here for yarn and pattern details). It's grown on me considerably since I first made it, and I do appreciate the more subtle colouring set against the exuberance of all my blankets.

☀ The Big Chair is where I sit when I can't sleep and come downstairs in the very early hours of the morning. I'm generally a good sound sleeper, but due (I suspect) to my hormones, I'm having some very disrupted nights just lately. I wake at 3am feeling as if someone lit a fire under me, and then find it almost impossible to get back to sleep again. I feel anxious and a little panicky, with a racing heartbeat and a mind that refuses to switch down a gear. I've learnt not to struggle with this any more, and instead of tossing and turning I get up quietly, come downstairs, make a cup of tea, sit quietly with the cat and read or crochet a little until the rest of the household wakes up. I was surprised when I got up yesterday morning to see that it was still dark at 4am. So I switched on my my fairy lights and lit some candles, and waited for the sun to wake up. It was so peaceful as I yawned my way through those darkened early hours of the day.

☀ Little B - so very, very happy to be on his summer break home from school. His happiness radiated out of him today as he loafed about listening to music, playing with his lego and watching insane cartoons on Netflix. He played outside too, kicking a ball around with his friends on the street and riding his bike up and down and up and down. The start of the summer holidays always feels so light and joyful, with endless days stretching ahead to be enjoyed and filled with good things. Oh, I'm hopeful for many Good Things. Always hopeful, that's me.

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Summer Plodding

✿ a walk to the farm shop on my own one morning last week, just because I didn't feel like going home. I bought a bar of my favourite chocolate and a take away milky coffee, then walked back through the park to my favourite bench to sit in the sun and consume the aforementioned refreshments.  It was a small window of relaxation in my busy week that I would probably have forgotten about if I hadn't just come across the above photo of my bench view. These are the same cherry trees that I photographed in this post back in May - in fact if you look at the 2nd to last photo in that post you'll see my favourite bench right there under the trees.

✿ pegging out the laundry and having a little tussle with the clematis. It's flowering beautifully this year whilst attempting to grow it's way along my washing line. I've decided to leave it be and peg around it as best as I can.

✿ A Sunday morning walk along the river - this is Linton Falls looking incredibly dry and depleted (you can see this same spot in my November post when the river was in full flow). 

✿ the heatwave continues here in he UK, with temperatures reaching 29°C (this is around 84°F which I know isn't at all hot for many of you in other parts of the world, but it is for us Brits!). I love the hot weather (love love love it) but it sure looks like hard work for those wearing a woolly fleece.

✿ plodding along the riverside, listening to the banter going back and forth between J and Little B. It was just the three of us on this Sunday morning as the two Teens were both off doing other things.

✿ a little bit wowed by this enormous tree fungus, it was as big as a stack of dinner plates. Somehow I always associate fungus with the Autumn season, but this summer-loving one was seriously impressive.

✿ love love loving a continuous succession of summer posies in various jugs and bottles on my table. Sweet peas, cosmos, lavender and lady's mantle looking unbelievably pretty. I've got sweet peas growing at the allotment and in a large pot in the back yard too - I can't say they are really producing an abundance of flowers just yet, but there are enough for me to pick small posies every week. I've got a little bottle of flowers beside my bed at the moment too, which makes me so happy.

✿ a family jaunt out on Saturday to the RHS gardens near Harrogate where it was all very beautiful, sunshiny and refined. In complete contrast to the calm, serene surroundings our youngest child decided to behave like a wild thing.  

✿ luckily there are parts of the gardens that are very suitable for wild-child behaviour, thank goodness for the open grassy slopes (roly-polys galore) and the woodland play areas (cue much wild running). I think all that restrained behaviour on the terrace at Betty's tearoom (not to mention the sugary drink and cookie that was consumed on said terrace) simply needed an outlet. It was simultaneously worrying and inspiring watching that child deal with his excess energy.

✿ the last time we came to HC was many years ago when I was carrying Little B inside my tummy and it was Autumn time then. The gardens are an absolute delight in the height of summer, I was on visual overload for a while.

✿ I adored this wild flower meadow planted next to the kitchen garden, it was humming with bees and was such a feast for the eyes and the soul.

✿ there was so much about the gardens that I enjoyed - the alpine house, the kitchen garden, the ginomrous terracota pots overflowing with summer flowers, the willow sculptures....it was all very, very lovely. I wish I'd taken more photos, especially of the kitchen garden which was totally inspirational and made me wish for more time and energy to give to our allotment plot.

✿ J and I have been walking in the countryside every chance we get and I have so enjoyed being out and about making the most of the weather and the summer season. On Sunday all three of our offspring happened to be busy with friends so we took ourselves off to Bolton Abbey and walked the whole length and breadth of the estate. From Barden Bridge at one end down to the Abbey at the other end, crossing back and forth over the three river bridges in a big loop. I think it was around 7 or 8 miles in total and was such a lovely walk.

✿ at the start of this week we had our first proper downpour of rain in almost two months. A muggy grey day of low cloud and light drizzle, followed by heavy rainfall in the evening. The air smelt amazing and was the very definition of the word petrichor. It was just the most calming and relaxing thing to be sat quietly in bed with the window wide open, listening to the sound of the rain falling.

✿ keeping up the watering regime at the allotment has been a struggle in this dry hot weather but we are plodding on with it. Our small number of crops are hanging on in there, some doing better than others. The spinach gave up early on and bolted, but we have high hopes for cucumbers and tomatoes which are looking very promising growing in the shelter of a small plastic tenty-type greenhouse thingy. I planted a row of dwarf beans and they are the smallest bean plants I have ever seen, barely reaching above my ankles. However, they are producing flowers and beans..........and yesterday I harvested the grand total of nine beans which was very exciting in a rather small, modest way. We ate them for dinner, sharing them out two each which was a bit of a joke but the Little People made the appropriate enthusiastic noises to keep me happy. Bless 'em. In case you were wondering, I added shop-bought sugar snap peas to the 2-bean offering so it wasn't quite as desperate as it sounds. 

✿ been playing with sweet peas this week, arranging them, faffing with them, photographing them and just plain enjoying their colourful beauty, like you do. 

✿ I really want to have a go at designing a crochet sweet pea flower so that I can make some to twine around a Summer wreath.  They are very three-dimensional flowers so I've found it hard in the past to look at photos of them and work out how the petal construction might work. But having the real thing to look at makes it very much easier, and the colours are really inspiring me and my summer loving heart. 

✿ not homegrown potatoes, but the mint is growing exuberantly in one of my many back yard pots. Yesterday's dinner offering was the nine allotment green beans (with added sugar snap peas), salmon filet marinated in olive oil/lemon/honey/garlic then pan fried, and baby new potatoes tossed in butter and fresh mint. It was light, tasty and utterly summery. I hope the Little People look back on their childhood family meals and remember how blinkin' good they were. I cook from scratch with fresh ingredients most nights, and having the five of us all sit down at the table to eat our evening meal together is one of the true highlights of my day. I may be totally rubbish at housework in general, but I do always try my bestest to do a good job with the food thing.

✿ a little bit of after dinner hooky in the back yard, crocheting the last run of ripples on this gorgeous summer cotton blanket. I think I've only got around 6 stripes left to make, then it's onto the border. I'm so looking forward to telling you more about the yarn (which I've totally fallen in love with) and the two summer blankets that I've been steadily plodding away with since February. Not long to wait now.....I'm really pretty flipping excited to share, it drives me a bit bonkers to keep things under wraps for any length of time. I'll be feeling a whole load better once this is all out there, I can't wait!!!

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The Heat of Summer

In the heat of the Summer, J and I are making time to walk up and down the hot, dry hills and dales. It takes a certain amount of determination to take on a 7 mile hike in hot summer temperatures, climbing dusty tracks up steep, steep hills for the pleasure of a sweeping view. But we have absolutely loved the walks we've done in recent weeks - the weather has been stunning and I've so enjoyed spending this time outdoors stretching my muscles and soaking in all this sunshine we are being blessed with.

The above photo was taken a couple weeks ago as we climbed high above the picturesque village of Kettlewell. Gosh, it was a long steep climb and it was hot, hot, hot on this gorgeous summer morning.

We stopped beside the river to eat a picnic lunch and rest our weary feet and I was so glad to sit down for a while. When we walk in the Dales we are usually following  a circular route - sometimes we manage to complete the walk before we flop down and have something to eat, but often we like to pack a simple picnic and eat along the way. I do love the actual walking bit of a hike, but I enjoy our picnics with a scenic view the most. When I say our picnics are simple, they really are just that, but I love them so much! We buy individual pork pies from a local shop (either the farm shop or the butcher, so they are very, very good and freshly made pork pies), then take along a punnet of cherry tomatoes to go with the pie. Some fresh fruit (on this walk it was a bag of cherries from the farm shop) and some good dark chocolate. In winter we have a flask of coffee too, but summer walking just requires bottles of cold water. You may not know, but Skipton is rather famous for it's quality pork pies and we even have an award winning "celebrated pork pie establishment" in town (Stanforths) which has used the same recipe for more than 80 years. There - true local pie facts from the Attic!!

The rivers and reservoirs are very very low at the moment here in North Yorkshire as we've had very little rain during the past couple of months. But despite the lack of water the countryside is still looking green and beautiful which I'm grateful for. 

As well as the hill walking, the hot summer weather has drawn us to the riverside on a few occasions just recently. We've parked the car at Bolton Abbey and settled ourselves into some comfy camping chairs in the dappled shade of a tree for a few hours. When we are out and about during a school day we are constantly aware of the clock, so these peaceful riverside visits do have a time limit imposed on them. They give us just a couple of slow afternoon hours to sit, relax, daydream, read, crochet, ponder and chat before the school run calls us back into our parental routine. But oh, these hours do feel precious!

I'm working hard on my summer ripple blankets at the moment (yes, that's blanketS - there are two of them). I'm hoping that all being well with the good folks that produce the yarny balls, there will be new Summery yarn packs coming at the end of this month. Working on two blankets at once has meant a lot of crochet time over the past few months, but you will not in any way hear me complaining about that. I fall more deeply in love with crochet every day, and it's ability to be portable, sociable and all round fit-in-able makes it the perfect hand made package in my opinion. Add to that the fact that it has grade A therapeutic properties and you get a beautiful handmade blanket at the end of all that creative feel-good, well, it's just all-round amazing.

In total contrast to quiet riverside moments and parental routine, on Friday I hopped on a train and took myself off to Manchester for twenty four hours of not being a parent. It was an absolutely brilliant trip and I loved every minute of it. Manchester was my student city and I lived, studied and worked there for eight years in the late 80's and early 90's. It's where J and I met, and although it's changed a lot over the years, it's still a very exciting, vibrant and energetic city to experience for a short while. My Friday jaunt consisted of a fabulous lunch here, brilliant browsing here and here and afternoon tea and cake in a beautiful little cafe whose name I can't remember. The highlight of the day was an early evening ride in a lift up to the 23rd floor where we were treated to a window seat and bubbles in Cloud23 bar. I felt so far removed from my normal everyday self as I sat laughing and chatting in this luxurious setting, it was completely fabulous! The whole trip was made extra special by the  gorgeous friends I was spending time with - Christine and Emma, you are both wonderful, and I loved every second of our Manchester jaunt.

Back home from the city on Saturday, and this hot summer weather shows no signs of slowing down. I am love love loving it, honestly, I was made for weather like this. The sunshine, heat and blue skies energise me and make me happy in a way that cloudy grey just cannot do. I'm such a happy summer-loving bunny at the moment! I continue to tend to my back yard pots, watering them every day and enjoying the flowers and greenery very very much. I'm waiting patiently for my sweet peas and jasmine to flower, and my weeny yellow courgette babies to grow to an edible size. All is well in my little outdoor space (currently draped with laundry blowing in the breeze), and I am so grateful for the ease of it.

Back to the business of summer crochet, and here we have a small rainbow circle of pure happiness. This is all Little B's work, and I shall resist the temptation to squeal loudly in a fit of motherly pride. He doesn't crochet a lot, but every so often he seems to hit a period of complete and utter boredom, then sees me happily content with my hook and wants a slice of yarny pleasure for himself. He's a fast learner with a mathematical brain, so once we'd established the general idea of using  increases to create a circle, he was away with the idea and needed very little assistance from me. He is currently asking to be taught the ripple, so we shall see what that brings forth.  

I am enjoying the almost daily pleasure of pegging, un-pegging, folding and stacking sun-dried laundry from my back yard washing lines. The pile of whites always feels especially pleasing somehow after a stint of direct sunshine noticeably brightens up their whiteness. The Little People aren't so fond of the crispness of their air-dried clothes (they prefer the softness brought about by the tumble drier), but me? I'm super-happy with it all. Nothing beats the smell of sun dried cotton and if I had the inclination (and maybe a maid) I would wash my bedding every single day just so I could experience the joy of sleeping in freshly laundered, sun-kissed egyptian cotton every night.

It's so often the little things that make me happy, and these days I am full of gratitude for the simple fact of being able to turn on a tap and have great tasting, clean fresh cold water to drink on these hot days. I have to tell you that growing up in Dorset I really disliked the taste of the tap water (it's very, very chalky), and that Yorkshire tap water honestly tastes delicious to me. I've taken to using a 700ml drinking vessel which I love cos it's so easy to add handfuls of ice and slices of stuff without trying to squidge it all through the top of a bottle. My current favourite water additions are cucumber and lime slices with a few sprigs of fresh mint. Lots of ice. Give it a good shake so the mint bruises and releases it's cooling flavour and drink, drink, drink. I figure that if I drink at least two of these a day then I'm doing OK at staying reasonably hydrated.

Yesterday was a slow, delicious kind of a day, a day for pootling and pottering and leaving the car parked at the curb. After dropping Little B at school, J and I walked a few miles around the neighbourhood and through the woodland, taking the high paths through the trees that we wouldn't usually walk with the Little People. We stopped off in town for a quick coffee (outdoor seating, it felt just like being on the continent) before heading to the market, baker and supermarket. We've stopped taking the car for a weekly supermarket shopping trip, trying out the idea of shopping locally on foot as part of our daily routine. We've been trying to use the market more (a whole paper bag of cherries for £1!), the butcher, baker and of course the farm shop. 

We decided on the spur of the moment to take our lunch up to the park to eat, and afterwards to spend a few hours relaxing there. I had my crochet ripples (of course) and J was reading some news articles on his phone. We chatted about this and that, and after a while I found myself almost powerless to keep my eyes open. So I gave in and lay down on the blanket, drifting gently into the most delicious and unexpected afternoon snooze imaginable. It was so utterly peaceful and just what I didn't know I desperately needed. I didn't sleep for long, maybe 20 minutes or so, but I woke up feeling refreshed and full of summer joy. I've been fighting off a light summer cold as well as hayfever the past week or so, and I think I just needed that extra bit of shut eye. Later on, I was thinking back to the afternoon and the extra sleep I'd had, and I felt so grateful for the freedom of my days. I appreciate my freedom more than I'm able to put into words.

On the whole, these hot summer days have been pretty cloudless, but occasionally there is a gathering of wispy, feathery-light cirrus clouds overhead. These are definitely warm weather clouds and I just love the way they look against the blue of the summer sky.

Although we've passed the Summer Solstice and our days are now getting shorter (sob), they still feel pretty long and gloriously light-filled. We head to the allotment in the evenings to water the plants, when the sun is slanting low and everything is warm and mellow. 

I picked my first sweet pea flowers from the plot at the weekend, yipppeeeee!!!! It was a modest little bunch but I know that the more you pick, the more will grow so I'm hopeful for more sweet bunches as the summer goes on. The scent of them blew me away, they smell absolutely incredible. Even J was impressed and he normally can't stand smelly flowers. I've got them in a jug on my table with some lavender and cosmos and they look so pretty and full of summer vibes. 

I wonder if this post seems rather long and rambly to you, I feel as if I've waffled quite a bit haha! Needless to say, this hasn't been a planned post by any means, it's simply a collection of photos that capture the way my days are slowly unfolding at this time of year, and the rather random train of thoughts that surface as I look at them. I hope you've enjoyed your visit, I do so love chatting to you all!

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