Making the Seasons :: August

Hellooooooo, and welcome to my little Attic space, it's been a bit quiet here of late but all is well and I'm happy to be back. I've got so much to share with you too, this month has whizzed past like a super-whizzy thing and I can hardly believe that here we are on the cusp of a new school year already. Although it's still Summer (it is, it is, it is), I've noticed that the light is different all of a sudden, and our days are very noticeably shrinking. There's been an ever-so-slight crispness to the air, a delicate wisp of autumn every so often which I mostly try and ignore (summer, summer, summer!) but I can't deny that seasonal change is on it's way.

When I was thinking of my August Making the Seasons project a few weeks ago, I immediately felt like making something very obviously summery. I wondered about trying to do something with shells and seaglass, but I couldn't quite get my brain to come up with anything creative that wasn't too faffy or demanding. I've been very very low in mental energy just lately, which has made me want to stay firmly ensconced within my creative comfort zone. And that means crochet. Of course! If in doubt, a hook and yarn will always satisfy my creative urges, it never fails to lift my spirits and make me happy.

With the shortening days and my continuing erratic sleep patterns, I've been getting up very early most mornings whilst it's still dark. Fairy lights and candles (and coffee) are making these dark, quiet starts to the day feel rather nice and I've not minded it in the slightest. So it seems fitting that for this month I decided to have a go at crocheting some glass jar candle lantern covers. I'm sure you know the sort of thing I mean, there are a tonne of pretty images online. They are usually quite delicate and lacy, with pretty holey patterns to let the candle light shine through.

As I still had seaglass on my mind, I chose three soft, summery beach glass shades for my lanterns. This is Stylecraft Classique cotton in the lighter 4ply weight - the colours are Soft Lime, Peppermint and Sky Blue. And I used a 3mm hook.

I am lucky enough to have the sort of neighbours who will willingly rootle through their cupboards and present me with half eaten out-of-date condiments when I ask quite casually if they have any spare jars knocking about. As you can see from the above photo, the jars I managed to round up are smaller than the average jam jar - these ones contained mustard, sweet chili jam and pesto at one time and worked especially well for this project.

 

I didn't even contemplate designing my own pattern for this as I knew for a fact that there were already some lovely crochet patterns online that I could use. I settled on a simple design by Icelandic blogger Ólöf Lilja - you can find an English version of the pattern HERE. Please note that the pattern is written using US crochet terms.

 

 

Crocheting with 4ply yarn takes some getting used to, it felt ever so slightly fiddly at first but I soon got used to the smaller hook and more delicate stitches. 

I love the ease of this pattern which is worked from the bottom up using simple stitches. You have to be prepared to adjust and adapt the pattern depending on your yarn, tension and size of jar, but on the whole crochet is pretty forgiving and even cotton 4ply has enough stretch in it to allow it to ease when you need it to.

I ended up changing the original pattern and instead of using double-treble stitches, I made shorter treble stitches instead. This made my lantern slightly less holey, but I'm really happy with the results. I also had trouble reading the instructions to create the top part (the bit which goes around the neck of the jar), I just couldn't for the life of me understand what I was supposed to be doing. So I made up my own instructions, working rows of double crochet, then finishing with a last round of crab stitch.

I was able to crochet the whole cover without having the jar inside - you do need to check if the neck of the cover is going to stretch enough to fit over the jar! This is really important!! The first cover I made, the top edge was too small/tight and no matter how many bad words I said I just couldn't get the jar to magically squeeze inside. So I frogged all the dc rows then re-made the top part adding in more stitches, checking it as I went along. Happy to say it worked out fine the second time.

I've got some sweet peas on my table in a small ink bottle at the moment, and it occurred to me that they would look fabulous sitting inside a little bit of hooky. They do look sweet don't they?

But no time to faff with the floral booty - I've got more jars to cover in hooky goodness!

The littlest jar cover was very quick to make, and it was very much easier to get the top edge to fit this time as I knew what to do and how to check it as I went along. 

The third jar (an old mustard jar) has curved sides and a small bottom (sounds delightful!) so I had to alter the starting circle to make it smaller but other than that I followed the exact same pattern. The crochet happily stretched to accommodate the curves of the jar so there was no need to alter the pattern at all.

I whipped these jar covers up in a few hours, such a satisfying little project from start to finish. 

I did wonder about adding some extra decoration (I could picture a delicate row of mother of pearl buttons along the top edge), but in the end I decided to keep it simple.

I really LOVE the effect of the crab stitch edging - this is the first time I've ever tried it and I think it gives a beautiful, understated finishing touch.  

Lots of the crochet jar lanterns I saw online were made using white or natural coloured yarn, but I'm so glad I chose colours for mine. During the day they will be unlit on my mantel, and I wanted them to look as pretty and summery as possible.

I couldn't wait to pop come candles inside and light them up - this was pretty much the one and only time when I wished the daylight hours away so that I could see the effect of them lit in the dark!

They look sooooooooo pretty all lit up! They create dancing shadows on the wall behind and a lovely soft glow in the room. I really like the lacy effect way more than I thought I would. I'm usually one for solid and rich colours, but these soft pastel holey things have surprised and delighted me.

I'm so happy with my lanterns! I'm going to search for some scented tealight candles so that I can enjoy some dancing light and fragrance at the darkened ends of the day. 

Did you know that my first Making the Season post was way back in November last year, which makes this the tenth installment? You can read all my previous posts {here}

I absolutely love creating these seasonal makes with my blogging friend Gillian - our creative styles are very different but that's what makes it so exciting for us both. You can find all of Gillian's MTS posts {here}, do pop over and see what she's been up to this month.

And I'll be back very soon to catch you up to date with my Summer comings and goings. Lots to chat about!

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Comments

[Laurie Mowat]

I've covered jars in U.S single crochet to hold pencils and paintbrushes but I stop
at the widest part before the rim, the tricky part. I have always loved these lacy ones but when it comes to adjusting patterns it all goes wrong.
I wish I had your knack for it, yours are absolutely gorgeous and I love the colors! They look so cozy lit up. Here's an odd tip if anyone saves jars and can't get all the label off. Spread a little peanut butter over the spot and let it sit for awhile. The oils make the sticky residue come right off. It sounded a little ''nuts'' to me but it did the job.

[Janette Surtees]

Love these jar covers. I’m going to have a go too.

[Tinke]

<3 <3 <3

[Gillian Roe]

These colours remind me so much of sea glass, and when lit the jars make me think of campfires on the beach. Beach, fires, stoves - it's the perfect late summer feeling and takes me into autumn...sorry, summer... ;-)
xxxx