Attic24

Twelve Days of Christmas Felt Ornaments

Two weeks ago on a very bright and sunny Thursday afternoon I had a couple of very special visitors arrive at the Studio. It wasn't a surprise as I had been expecting them, and oh it was so good to see them looking all smiley-happy and ready for some serious colour therapy and crafty time. Well, that's to say one of the visitors came carrying a bag of craft supplies - the other one came with muddy paws and a lolling tongue, but seemed happy to nose about my studio emptying out my bin and generally sniffing out every nook and cranny. Would you like to know who it was?

Some of you may very well be familiar with her, especially if you are on Instagram and know of a certain Little Box of Crochet - yes, it was none other than Amanda Bloom and her beautiful canine companion Honey. Amanda and I have been friends for a good few years and it's always a pleasure to get together and chat about all things colour and crochet. But two weeks ago, we had hatched a crafty plan and it didn't involve yarn or crochet - gasp!!!! What on earth???!!!

I'd invited Amanda to come and join me in a little bit of a felt fest, and oh boy, did she deliver on the felt front - just LOOOOOOOK at that delicious stack of gorgeous felty lovliness that came out of her bag!!!! We'd decided to have a little bit of a SAL (stitch-a-long) and Amanda had certainly come prepared. The above stack was all part of a truly scrumptious kit of supplies that she'd bought, especially designed to make and stitch these beautiful Christmas decorations.........

photo credit : Larissa Holland : mmmcrafts

...........these are the Twelve Days of Christmas Ornaments designed by Larissa Holland who writes on her blog mmmcrafts. I can tell you it was absolutely love at first sight when I saw these on Instagram a few months ago, oh I fell hard and fast. Aren't they utterly charming????

Larissa sells the patterns as downloadable PDF files via her Etsy shop - you can buy them individually, or in bundles of three, six or twelve (I think, I'll need to check that). They are quite expensive, but they are amazingly well written patterns. Each decoration comes as a twelve page document with detailed instructions and lots of pictures, including a full scale pattern page which you can print off onto a special sticky interface thingy - I'll explain more about that in a bit.

You have an option to purchase complete felt/thread kits to make all of these ornaments but this wasn't something I really needed. You see, I already have the above stack of beautiful wool blend felt which I bought a few years ago from the fabulous Paper and String.

Sarah's felt is a 40/60% wool-viscose blend and comes in sixty lush colours. It's very reasonably priced and I can highly recommend it if you fancy a bit of making and stitching.

You can also purchase a set of swatch cards from Paper and String, and if you are into colour then these in themselves are a pure hit of happiness. I love them so much, and confess I've spent rather a lot of time gazing at them. If you want to have a go a making the 12 days of Christmas ornaments with your own felt and threads, it's perfectly possible to use the many photos on mmmcrafts listing for the patterns to guide you in your colour choices.

You will probably know that I have also spent this year building up a fair collection of embroidery threads, thanks to my cross stitch obsession.

So with felt and threads to hand and the patterns printed out and prepared, I was all ready to get busy stitching with Amanda.

Now I want to tell you about the sticky printable interface stuff - it's from the US and I was able to order it on Amazon. It's got a ridiculously over complicated name - it's called "PRINTABLE Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy Stablizer", don't try and say that in a hurry! Basically, its a sheet of thin sticky interface that will dissolve in water - the sticky stuff is on a backing and comes as an A4 sheet, meaning (and this is the magic) that you can put it in an inkjet printer and print a design right onto the surface. No tracing! And it's sticky, meaning you can simply cut out the shape, peel off the backing paper, stick it straight onto your felt and stitch right through it. How about that? It really speeds up the whole process and you can be ready to stitch very quickly.......

....this was Amanda and me on a Friday at Coopers Cafe bar, joining in with my knitty and crochet friends who were very curious to see me stitching instead of hooking for a change.

The embroidery stitches that Larissa uses in these ornaments are very simple (back stitch, running stitch and french knots) and the charm is in the colours she uses and the beautiful folk-inspired designs. 

I am an absolute sucker for french knots, I pretty much think I could sit and stitch them all day long. Using the sticky stuff with the pattern printed on it makes the embroidery a doddle, as every stitch is marked for you so you know exactly what you are doing. The only downside is that it's quite tough pulling the needle in and out of the sticky - the needle certainly doesn't glide in and out of the felt and you have to "work" the stitches quite hard. But on the upside, the felt is kept taught and the stitches come out even and neat, so I guess the ups outweigh the downs.

Mid afternoon and essential refreshments were delivered to our table to keep us going with the *arduous* task of stitching.

 This is Amanda and me both embroidering our partridge wings, me ooooohing over the french knots (again) on the left, and Amanda stitching neat pink back stitches on the right. We had such a lovely chatty time of it - a whole day of stitching to our hearts content, interspersed with coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and cake. I can totally recommend partnering up with a crafty buddy, it's so much fun! We weren't able to finish our partridge and pear in the time that we had, but we each continued to stitch later on in the evening, sending photos to each other via text message.

It's a lovely moment when you get to soak away the sticky-solvy. It's very easy to do - just immerse the felt pieces into some tepid water for a few minutes and you'll see the solvy stuff almost immediately begin to dissolve and lift away. You can use your fingers to gently rub away any bits that stay stuck around the stitches, but honestly it's all very easy and trouble free. I so enjoyed seeing my colourful embroidery revealed against the colours of the felt - stitching onto the white solvy stuff you don't get to appreciate all the colour combo's until after it's all done.

The only thing you have to note is this :: WOOL FELT MUST BE PRE-WASHED BEFORE YOU STITCH!!! This is very important as it surprised me how much shrinkage there was. It doesn't take much to do - a quick soak in some tepid water in the basin, then roll up in a towel to absorb excess water and leave to air dry. But please do not be tempted to skip this step.

The printed pattern includes very detailed instructions for assembling the pieces and stitching it all up. I thought this bit might be tedious (lots of weeny whip stitching) but actually it was very soothing to work all those small, neat stitches.

I stitched and stuffed my pear first and was hugely pleased with how it turned out. 

The partridge was a little more complex as it required a pipe cleaner inserted into the plume. This meant I had to venture into the Cupboards of Doom to try and locate a suitable pipe cleaner, and that was all rather time consuming and stressy. But eventually all was stuffed and stitched and I could admire my handiwork...............

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

I'm really rather ridiculously pleased with my efforts!!

I still need to find some silver thread to hang them (more exploration into the Doom-filled Cupboards), but essentially that's the First Day of Christmas all wrapped up.

On a roll, I immediately selected colours to make the second ornament in the series which is the Turtle Dove. I chose pinky purples and blues, and a handful of vibrant threads to decorate.

I relished my quiet stitching time, a rare Saturday morning when everyone else was occupied doing their own thing and I was free to sit and indulge in the gentle rhythm of needle and thread.

This is how my turtle dove looks now the sticky solvy has been washed away - I love the colours I chose and am really looking forward to seeing it come together.

During this past week I've been insanely busy with all things Sweet Pea, and so my ornaments are sitting waiting patiently for me to come back to them. After I've stitched up the Turtle Dove I've got the French Hen to make (I bought a bundle of three patterns), and I can't wait to see them all finished and hung on the Christmas tree. I knew when I started that this would be a long term project - it might take me years to complete the set, but isn't that just the nicest thing? I'll have lots of memories stitched into them, and hopefully the Little People will have memories of them too.

You see, the loveliest thing happened at the weekend. While I was sat finishing up my stitching, Little B and Little Lady began to hover around the table watching me, asking questions, taking an interest in my felt, my threads, my stitching. And that lead to them both embarking on some felt stitching themselves, oh it was soooooooooooo good!!! I loved every single nano-second of that together stitching time with the three of us sat around the table. I'll show you very soon what they made (need to encourage Little B to finish!). I will forever remember that time.

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Here are the links/info for you all in one place, should you find your fingers itching to get stitching!

⭐Mmmcrafts (ornament info and resources)

⭐Mmmcrafts ornament patterns on Etsy (lots of lovely images/colour inspiration)

⭐Mmmcrafts on Instagram (you can also search the hashtag #twelvedaysornaments for lots of inspiration)

⭐Paper and String (for wool felt supplies and LOTS of gorgeous stitchy goodies. Ribbon and buttons, just saying)

⭐Printable sticky solvy stuff on Amazon (you can make the ornaments without this, but it is bloomin' great stuff).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Pea Blanket CAL :: Introduction

If you've been visiting with me over the years then you will be very familiar with my love for home grown summer flowers, and you will know that I love love love having a small posy in a little jug on my table. It's such a joyful, cherished part of my summertime and I never get over the happiness that home grown flowers bring.

I don't always manage to have sweet peas every year as I'm ridiculously disorganized and very rarely manage to plant seeds at the right time. This year I predictably missed the seed sowing, so I splashed out and bought ready grown sweet pea seedlings which were delivered through the post. Honestly, you wouldn't think it possible to send a parcel containing baby plants through the post would you? But it is miraculous and the plants arrive beautifully wrapped in tissue paper so that both the precious roots and the delicate shoots are perfectly protected, super healthy and ready to grow, grow, grow. 

Due to the very, very hot summer weather, my allotment sweet peas didn't really grow in glorious abundance. However, there were enough flowers to give me a small posy every week through the summer months. In fact, I picked the very last bunch on 22nd October, so they lasted really well and oh, I did enjoy them! So so much.  

I decided early on in the year that I'd like to make a blanket inspired by the colours of sweet peas. So In the middle of July, I persuaded the family to accompany me to the Royal Horticultural gardens at Harlow Carr (near Harrogate) in search of some floral inspiration. The gardens are an absolute delight, and I loved seeing the abundance of sweet peas growing in the flower beds. However, there was an extra special reason for me to visit on that hot, sunny Saturday in mid July - I was there to view the National Sweet Pea Show. Yes, these showy floral events do exist, and they are very, very strange!! By strange, I mean they are super-formal and highly competitive and totally not what I expected.........let me show you.......................

See what I mean? Formality, with a capital F. Hugely competitive too, crikey, you could fair feel the tension in the air as so may top sweet pea growers from all over the UK fought to win with their blooms.

I somehow expected the flower colours to be mixed and I found the rigid segregation very uneasy on the eye. It was all rather prim and proper, and I found myself feeling rather sorry for the sweet peas, forced to stand to attention in their competition-grade green vases. I wanted to hug them all together and put them into some roomy jugs so that they could mingle with their different coloured neighbours, breathe out and relax!

Despite the formality, the flowers themselves were really spectacular. I spent a long time admiring them, sticking my nose into the blooms and inhaling (I was the only person there who did this - nobody else seemed to be bothered), and gazing at the huge variety of colour.

I love that even the soft pastel colours of sweet peas seem to look bold somehow, like they are shouting their gladness for the summer season.

I came out of the show feeling very inspired, and although it wasn't quite my style (give me a mixed posy in a jug any day) I certainly felt uplifted by all the glorious floral colour.

The very, very, very best thing about the sweet pea show was the fact that you could buy mixed bunches to take home. They were displayed in big buckets outside, and the ladies who were selling them for £2 a bunch were extremely lovely. They chatted to me about all the names of each different variety, and were obviously so passionate about their flowers, it made my heart swell. 

I bought three big bunches to bring home, and oh my giddy aunt, they were utterly, utterly beautiful. I just couldn't stop looking at them, playing with them, sniffing them and photographing them. It was a sensory summer overload!

I love sweet peas for their scent most of all, but this year I began to pay special attention to the huge variety of colour found in those fragrant petals. I'm not especially a lover of pale pastels, but the vibrancy of these sweet peas totally amazed me. Yes there were creamy white flowers and the palest of soft pinks, but there were also stunningly bright magenta and hot pink shades, and the most beautiful deep bluey-violet colours  too. 

When the pastels are mixed with the brights, something magical happens - the resulting medley of colour is like a pure hit of nostalgic summertime. It's warm sunny days and happy childhood memories, lazy afternoons in the garden and bare toes in cool grass. It's sweet and slow, warm and delightful. Total summer feel-good in those colours!

My ideas for a sweet pea blanket began to spin and twirl once I started playing with the flowers. I am endlessly inspired by the seasons and sweet peas are the epitome of Summer. They also hold many layers of childhood memories for me as my Mum adored sweet peas and grew them every year. 

It was hugely satisfying having real living flowers to guide me in my colour choices - there are thousands of sweet pea photos on the internet and I already had seeds packets and plant catalogues to refer to. But in my experience, nothing beats getting up close and personal with the essence of ones inspiration! 

In the end, the floral colours came together very easily as the range of Stylecraft Special DK contains lots of really beautiful pinks and purples to choose from. My biggest deliberation was over the greens and I faffed with them for ages. I ended up going up to the allotment and cutting some stems and leaves to bring home so that I could see the variation of greens in real life. I also tried very hard to get the overall balance of the colour palette right - by that I mean the balance between the greenery and the petals, and also the balance between the very pale colours and the deeper tones.

I think I've managed to create a very harmonious colour palette which will work really well when translated into a striped blanket design. And it's so impossibly pretty to look at, don't you think?

This palette of colours is certainly very easy on the eye and very uplifting (like a bright, warm summers day) and I'm certain that as these yarn colours begin to transition into crochet stripes, those summer vibes will be flowing. I can't wait!!

As is usual for my blankets, I've chose fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Sweet Pea blanket

Top row, left to right...

🌸 violet 🌸 cypress 🌸 candyfloss 🌸 magenta 🌸 plum 🌸 

Middle row, left to right...

🌸 lavender 🌸 meadow 🌸 soft peach 🌸 blush 🌸 fuchsia purple 🌸

Bottom row, left to right...

🌸 wisteria 🌸 pistachio 🌸 cream 🌸 clematis 🌸 pomegranate 🌸 

You can find the Sweet Pea yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse...

❧🌸SWEET PEA YARN PACK🌸❧

 

When it came to designing the pattern for my Sweet Pea blanket, I knew that I wanted stripes. I love love love making stripy blankets, they are so rhythmic and soothing to work on, and the way that you can play with colours in a stripe order is irresistible for the likes of me. I sampled all sorts of different types of shell patterns (I was thinking about the shape of the flower petals) before settling on something remarkably simple......

....this is my new pattern called the Trellis Stripe, and is a very simple combination of small stacked shells (representing the climbing sweet pea flowers) and neat lines of trebles (representing the trellis). The pattern was inspired by my allotment sweet peas (in the photo below), which I grew up a rather rustic, cobbled together trellis made out of bamboo canes and string. 

My home made trellis looked a bit messy and rather flimsy, but it worked a treat and managed to last through the whole of the summer until a storm swept through in October and blew the whole lot to the ground.

This stitch pattern is a doddle to work, and I've designed it especially with beginner crocheters in mind. Once you've worked the first two set-up rows, every row is the same and uses only one stitch (a UK treble crochet / US double crochet), making the pattern easy to memorise and hook. These breezy treble rows are relaxing, fast and highly addictive, and the resulting crochet fabric is soft and lightly textured. It also has the advantage of looking the same on both sides (so there isn't really a right and wrong side) and having straight edges (no lumps or bumps to try and hide). I'm so happy with it!

I'll be sharing the pattern here on my blog at the start of the CAL on Friday 4th January. I'll also be making my usual photo-heavy tutorial to give you step by step guidance for working the Trellis Stripe. I hope you like it as much as I do.

During the past few months I've spent a long time working with the sweet pea colours and playing with different stripe variations. I've made sooooooooo many samples (including a third of a whole blanket which I had to abandon when it just didn't feel right), and after much deliberation I've come up with two different stripe options. I'll be telling you more about this when the CAL begins in January - they are both extremely lovely, and I can't wait to show you more.

Sadly, sweet pea season is over now in the Northern hemisphere, and I admit to being rather jealous when I hear about those of you on the other side of the world just beginning to look forward to your flowers blooming. I've got oodles of photos to refer to though, and of course my bag of yarn which is like sweet pea summer heaven. 

I'm so excited to begin on the Sweet Pea blanket journey - it'll be like having a soft wave of summer to carry us through the cold grey months of winter, oh I can't wait!!!!

❧🌸SWEET PEA YARN PACK🌸❧

Those of you who've joined in with my Crochet-A-Longs in previous years will know that alongside my yarn colours, there is often something sticky to share with you too.......................

............I'm talking about planner stickers!!!!!!!! Yippeeeee for pretty sticky things!!!! My lovely friend Rachel of EllieBethDesignsUK has designed the most beautiful sticker sheet to help you plan and celebrate the Sweet Pea CAL. There are countdown stickers and stickers for the weekly installments as well as lots of crochet and floral pretties.

Even the stripes down the left hand side are a big long sticker too (like beautiful washi tape), and oh the colours are just perfect and totally sweet-pea-ish. If you don't have a planner, you can use these stickers on a calendar or in a diary.

You can find this lovely sheet of Sweet Pea stickers online {here}

Rachel is also a crocheter herself, and is part of a fabulous online community who are known as #plannerswhohook !! To celebrate this, Rachel has created a special edition "Big Book of Stickerating" dedicated to crochet and yarn - trust me when I say it is FABuLouS!!!! The book contains six sheets of colourful stickers - you can see lots more pictures online {here}

If you fancy treating yourself or buying as gifts for hooky sticker-loving friends, you can use the code SWEETPEA at the checkout and receive 15% discount off all planner stickers. All planner stickers can be found at ElliebethDeisgnsUK. 

*discount code is one use per person.

❧🌸SWEET PEA YARN PACK🌸❧

I am absolutely smitten with these yarn colours and the way they look all together, and I'm so so excited for the blanket to begin. Just a reminder that there is no need to sign up for this CAL - it's all very relaxed here in the Attic so all you need to do is gather your yarn together and join in when the pattern is released in the New Year.

I'll be writing more about the CAL a little closer to the time (just over five weeks until the CAL starts), but here is a quick round-up of information for you :

♥ The Attic24 SWEET PEA CAL will will run for 8 weeks in total, beginning on Friday 4th January - that'll be the day when the pattern will be published here on my blog and I'll give you all the information you need to get started. I'll then give weekly updates every Friday throughout January and February 2019 so that we can make the most of weekend hooky time.

♥ There will be a full picture tutorial here on my blog for the new Trellis Stripe pattern. Each week I'll share the colour stripe order for the two different versions of the Sweet Pea blanket I'm making.

♥ The SWEET PEA YARN PACK contains 15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK and is enough to make one blanket/throw. There is no printed pattern included in this pack, all pattern info will be here on my blog, with updates every Friday throughout January and February 2019. 

♥ The Sweet Pea blanket will measure approx. 120cm x 175cm. You will need two packs if you wish to make a larger/double bed size blanket. I'll give starting chain/pattern guidance for those of you wishing to make larger (or smaller) blankets.

 I really hope these colours inspire you to create a beautiful blanket for your home or to give to someone special. 

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ps a note about my yarn packs - I am thrilled to be working with Wool Warehouse who do an absolutely amazing job of enabling crocheters all over the world to join me in my ongoing colourful blanket making. I earn a commission on all the Attic24 yarn packs sold through Wool Warehouse, and I am truly grateful to everyone who supports me in this way. Thank you so much. xxx

EDIT TO ADD >> Wednesday >> Thank you so so much to everyone who bought a Sweet Pea yarn pack yesterday, I am so happy to have you join me on this colourful blanket journey in January.
Yarn packs all sold out within 6 hours yesterday which was a total surprise and unprecedented. More yarn is on its way and will be in the shop again by Friday. You can sign up on the Wool Warehouse website (on the sweet pea yarn page) for an email notification and as soon as the new packs are available you'll know. Thank you so much xxx

 

Winter is Near

I really don't think we have very much Autumn left here now as nearly all the leaves have gone from the trees and the temperature has suddenly plummeted. Today I've been cold right down to my bones and it definitely feels like winter is near.  

Our days continue to shorten and often we are walking home from school as the sun dips down below the horizon. It's just over four weeks until the Winter Solstice - I can't help but count down the days until this turning point in our seasonal calendar which I love to celebrate.....bring on all the greenery, candles and extra minutes of daylight!

It's not often that I'm out and about after dark, but every so often there is a need to make an evening dash to the supermarket for something or another (we'd run out of bread on this occasion, and the Little People had put in a plea for some ice cream while I was at it). I love seeing the old mill building all lit up, casting golden, glowing reflections into the canal as I dash across the bridge.

Winter must be near because the potted hyacinth bulbs have arrived in the supermarket, making me very happy indeed. I decided last year that Festive Bulbs would be a feature of my Christmas mantel, and I'm so looking forward to the flowers arriving during the next month or so. These small, seasonal pleasures are so important to me, they guide me gently through the year bringing about a soothing sort of daily rhythm and oodles of comfort and joy.

I've had hyacinths indoors every November since moving to this house (my first bloggy hyacinths in 2008) and they always bring a whiff of winter with them when they first arrive. Incidentally, I'm sorry about the weird angle of the above photo, it looks as if everything is about to tip forward and crash onto the hearth, but I promise you all is safe and stable here in the Attic. I think I just had a lean on myself yesterday afternoon, gosh yesterday was a super tiring day for some reason. 

We continue to worship our fireplace - another seasonal pleasure which delivers untold hours of comfort. I'm in charge of the fire here, always. I relish the job, even the messy cleaning out of the ash and burnt out debri makes me happy because I know a new fire will be happening again very soon. J is rubbish at making the fire (seriously, he is just far too stingy with the kindling - lighting a good fire needs a precise and generous arrangement of fuel I tell you). I love having an open fire so so much.

Last week I had the absolute toe curling pleasure of playing with the above pile of felty gorgeousness. This is my beloved stack of wool-blend felt (40% wool content, it's really rather lovely and can be found here and here), and I'll be showing you what I was up to very soon. If you are veeeeeeeeeeeeery curious as to what I was up to and cannot possibly wait for me to spill the creative beans, you might like to go and peek here for a clue).............oh yeah, I know you are going to go peek and gasp and understand instantly how I was powerless to resist. More soon.

Behind the scenes, I'm working hard (I use the word working very loosely here) on my Sweet Pea blanket which I will be running as a CAL (crochet-a-long) at the start of 2019. I've been thinking back over my previous CAL's as this will be the fifth year for me doing my annual winter blanket. Do you remember them all?

Shown above there is Woodland (2018), and Moorland (2017). Before that there was the Sunny Log Cabin (2015) and the Cosy Stripe (2014). I can truly say that I love each and every blanket of mine - they all hold so many precious memories of time and place, and each colour palette is special to me for so many different reasons. I design my blankets with a great deal of emotion, and there is always a story/memory that is real and heart felt behind each one. I hope you feel it too.

Yesterday I shared the above sneaky peek on social media......oh there is so much excitement brewing for these pretty Sweet Pea colours! I'm just waiting to finalise things with my friends at Wool Warehouse but we are almost there....I'm giddy with it all, honestly, I am pretty much bouncing off the walls at the prospect of setting off on a new colour-filled crochet journey. This time of year is made for crochet blankets in gorgeous colours, such a huge amount of welcome winter feel-good. I can't wait!

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Autumn Decorating

I'm sat here thinking how long and slow my days seem to feel at the moment and I'm also sat here thinking that I don't mind this slowness one little bit. Slow seems to be exactly the right pace for late Autumn as our daylight hours get smaller and smaller and we instinctively begin to hibernate just a little bit. 

On Saturday I decided that I was in the mood to get gluey again and it was time to make some progress on a second paper mushroom sculpture. Seems a bit odd to publicly acknowledge the weirdness that is my life sometimes, but I'm trusting that you know me well enough by now to accept my quirks. When the Creative Urge strikes, it must not be ignored! I did really enjoy the process of making the first mushroom (shown above - you can read about it {here}), even with the complete fiddlyness of it.

The second one I made from the off cut bits left over from the first one, and it's about half the size. I didn't have another pipe cleaner so I simply rolled up a piece of paper to form a tube shape and glued layers of tissue paper over that to make the stem.

My best favourite bit of doing these mushroom comes right at the end when you brew up a very strong cup of tea and paint it over the mushroom cap. It's bizarrely satisfying and really does make the paper look like it isn't actually paper at all. It's a little bit of hocus pocus magic I think, and the end results are subtle but rather extraordinary. And it's all made from paper! And glue (lots of glue) and tea. Amazing.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I had an idea to hand make a little garden for my 'shrooms to live in. Inspired by the work of paper sculptor Kate Kato, I decided to incorporate some butterflies with a bit of moss to create something of a miniature Autumn diorama for my mantel. 

I went in search on Amazon for "paper butterflies" and settled on these vintage-inspired beauties.........what do you think? Aren't they gorgeous?

I really like how they are already mostly cut out so there is minimal labour involved in freeing up the ones you need.

I chose two smallish ones in Autumn colours and used a hot glue gun to stick them to some very thin copper wire.

I had an idea that the wire would allow the butterflies to flutter around the mushrooms somehow.

I used a plastic jar lid (from an empty jar of Nutella) which I covered in little bits of glued newspaper painted with green watercolour. I was able to hot-glue my mushrooms and copper wired butterflies to the base of the lid, then fill in the spaces with some dried moss, a couple of tiny dried leaves and a very small pheasants feather from my treasured collection of found feathers.

It all sounds a bit ridiculous when I write it down, but all in all the whole thing came together in quite a pleasing way to say how modest the materials are........

 ......ta-dah!!! I am quietly, secretly happy with my efforts, although you are the first to see them. I didn't feel confident in showing my creation to the family (they are used to my strange ways, but this is a slightly elevated level of strangeness I think) so I waited until nobody was looking and placed it quietly on the mantel amongst the rest of the Autumnal goings on. They remain un-noticed as far as I can tell, and I'm quite OK with that. I notice them every day and they do make me absurdly happy. Paper and glue!! And tea. And wire. And moss. Hooray for making things out of simple every day materials.

Last week I unpacked my "Autumn Decoration Bag" and was so pleased to be reunited with last year's makes. The delightful stitched toadstool hoop was part of last year's Autumn Craftpod box, and became the inspiration behind my Making The Seasons year.

As well as some pretty Autumnal postcards and a collection of motley looking pine cones, my Autumn Decoration bag contained the crochet pumpkins and garland that I made last year. Oh, it was so GOOD to see these again, better than unpacking Christmas decorations!! If you missed these last year, or fancy making your own Autumn collection of hooky goodness, you can find free patterns and colour info on my blog >>

{CROCHET PUMPKINS}

{AUTUMN GARLAND}

The Autumn Garland was made using oddments of yarn from my Woodland yarn pack - it was such a lovely way for me to play with the colours and celebrate Autumn in the months before my Woodland Crochet-A-Long began last year.

I'm really loving my Autumn mantel - I know it's only a month before Christmas will take over this surface, but I'm going to thoroughly enjoy every day of it.  

Awww.......paper mushrooms and butterflies, soooooooo  good for the soul!

Before I go and sit by the fireside, here are a few photos from our Long Walk Home from town this morning. Instead of cutting through the cobbled alleyway and heading home by the quickest route possible, we strolled to the top of town and walked around the bottom of the castle instead. I often used to do this when Little B was very little, to give him some extra fresh air and exercise on the way home from nursery.

After a day of damp grey cloud and rain yesterday, it was delightful to take in the low mellow sunlight dancing in the leaves.

I hope that you are enjoying the season you're in, whether it's Autumn or Spring where you are.....I hope your days are mellow and golden and that you are finding plenty of little seasonal pleasures to celebrate.

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Ticking Along

❉ It was our half term week last week and we spent our days being as slow, lazy and uneventful as possible, which was rather blissful following the last few weeks of underlying stress. We pottered and pootled, idled and lounged, and occasionally we got dressed and ventured out into the cool damp Autumn.

❉ We walked a little in our local neighbourhood, visiting the shops for food supplies and stopping in at our favourite cafes for the comfort of a hot milky drink.

❉ The farm shop is especially good at celebrating the seasons throughout the year with it's plants, flowers, produce and decorations, and there is always a lovely display of some sorts in the front entrance. Last week it was all about the pumpkins as we prepared to celebrate Halloween. 

❉ I love the flower section of the farm shop best of all (although the bakery also makes me swoon) - at one time when I was much younger I had dreams of becoming a florist, well, that's to say I loved the idea of faffing with flowers and calling it a job. I occasionally buy single stems from here when something especially appeals (eucalyptus stems are a favourite), but it's quite a pricey way to acquire flowers for the home. Pretty though, isn't it?

❉ On Friday I sat for a few hours in the cafe with my yarny friends and finished attaching my latest mandala to it's hoop. I really really love the serene colours in this mandala, they came together quite by accident and remind me a little of my Harmony blanket colours (blues and purples with a dash of pink and green). I followed the Bougainvillea Doily pattern by Zelna Olivier using around a dozen colours of Stylecraft Cotton Classique DK. I added two additional rounds to make it the right size for attaching to a 45cm hoop and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I've got it hanging against the blue/grey wall in my studio at the moment and it looks especially lovely against that colour.

❉ Sampling for my Sweet Pea blanket continues, and I've been working on the colour order for the stripes during the past few weeks. It takes slow, consistent time and effort to work through this part of the design process, but I absolutely love love love doing it. I spend hours and hours (literally) crocheting up a series of thin stripes to represent the whole blanket, getting a feel for how the colours like to play with each other and how my floral colour story is choosing to tell itself. The above photo is the result of the first sample being all wrong - sometimes I keep the wrong ones as a reference and sometimes I decide to pull it all apart and start again from scratch.

Yesterday I finished sample number four and it made my heart skip a beat, so I think I'm pretty much there with it - so happy about that! I've been doing the nitty gritty sampling too  - weighing out yarn and working tension samples so that I can gauge how many stitches, how many pattern repeats, how many rows etc. It's all good fun and makes me ridiculously excited for the blanket journey to actually begin. Sweet Pea yarn packs will be available in about four weeks I think, the week commencing 3rd December. Bring it on, I can't WAIT!

❉ On Monday the Little People returned to school and J and I went to have a leisurely, unhurried coffee followed by a trip to purchase a modest box of fireworks for the evenings entertainment (for those not in the UK, we light fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th November). It was the usual fun - as you know we don't actually have a garden so we make do by using a flower pot filled with earth on the wall of our back yard. Fortunately the fireworks were just the right level of noise and crackle to entertain the Little Peeps without being too scary dangerous - there were only a few which made us run for cover!

❉ The sparklers were a hit, ahhh, so nostalgic! I love the smell of them, they instantly transport me way back in time to my own childhood. We had fun prancing about in the back street with our neighbours, the Little People dancing and twirling and lighting up the night.

❉ It's been very stormy today, wet, grey and howling. The trees are clinging on to their leaves but I feel sure there will be bare branches before long. It's that strange time when the seasons are merging - still Autumn but with the edge of Winter making itself felt. I don't mind it too much, but the low light levels are hard going I have to say.

❉  I bought a new candle on Monday, oh it smells soooooo good! It's Orange & Star Anise and just right for these cold, dark Autumn evenings - warm, fruity and comforting without being too Christmassy. I'm not mad keen on the gold patterned glass jar, but I'm loving the scent so much that I'm willing to overlook the glitz.

In other news, I've started making a smaller companion paper toadstool to go with the one above that I made last week. I've gathered some moss (real moss which I'm air drying), some thin copper wire and some gorgeous paper butterflies to create something of a mini Autumn sculpture thingy. I am stalling with the sticking of all the little toadstool gills though, I need to really be in the mood to get all gummed up with glue.

❉ And so the days are ticking along, a sweet combination of creative energy and slow, nothing-much days, of gentle parenting and the juggling of yarn and time and responsibilities. It's all good, more than good actually, and I am so grateful that I can say that and feel it too.

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