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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Comments

[Charlotte.]

Very enjoyable as we really don’t have change of seasons that are so dramatic. Do hope your family is all feeling better and on the mend.

[Annie Brodrick]

I really enjoy visiting with you through your posts on your blog Lucy. You started me on my crochet journey in the Autumn 5 years ago & I have enjoyed every minute of it! Thank you for inspiring me to pick up my 1st crochet hook and ball of yarn, it has been such a lovely journey. 🍁🍂🐑

[Sparkle]

The glizty gold pattern on your candle matches the underside of your toadstool! It's just perfect! :) Thanks for sharing your world with the world, you brighten my days!

[Lynne Stankard]

Lovely post Lucy - all those lovely pics! Don't tell me you didn't have slices of thickly buttered Parkin with the fireworks? I miss the days of great big bonfires and everyone putting potatoes in the ashes to bake and all the boys running round with bangers and rip-raps scaring us girls to death! Yes, and the smell of it all priceless.

[Joy Teale]

I am so loving those sweet pea colours.

[CJ]

The farm shop looks wonderful, I love places like that. I'm glad it was a nice relaxing half term. It was good here too, except I had terrible tooth pain. Had the tooth extracted today though, so I am hoping that's the end of that. I'm looking forward to some real food! I shall look forward to seeing your toadstool, the first one is absolutely amazing, a thing of beauty. CJ xx

[Winwick Mum]

For the first time that I can remember, we didn't buy fireworks this year but there were plenty around for us to enjoy watching. Sparklers do have that special nostalgic smell, don't they? I think I missed the sparklers more than the fireworks, if I'm honest! xx

[Hedy]

I’ve so enjoyed reading your posts. Your life is calm and wonderful compared to so many. Love your colors in the pictures, just up my alley (an American term for ok).

[Angela- Southern USA]

I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to autumn, ours has been so short here this year, summer hanging on too long (intense heat & humidity)fingers-crossed it will last a bit longer. Love the latest hoop art! I have a few that I hang on the walls inside, and love them hanging that way as much as twirling in the wind outside. Here's to more slow lazy days. xxxxxxxxxx

[Mary W]

I love the gathering of colored yarn balls. It shouts a happy, floral, warm, summery nap. So excited to see what is forming inside your head and out through your fingers.

[HOLLEY DOWNS]

I love reading your blog...you have such a sweet and calming post and I really appreciate it. I would love to request that you teach us how to do the felted bowl that I saw on a previous post. TFS your creative talents with all of us!

[kazzy]

such a heart warming post~ just how a half term with family should be. I love the toadstool make, how precious. I have a thing for toadstools, i seem to have one on nearly every shelf and seem to always appear in my illustrations to. Isn't that just magical when the fire works light the dark sky~ I think im still a child at heart because i so enjoy it. We have a hill top garden and it looks down towards the little town next to Dartmoor, devon and all the little gardens below we could see with sparklers and whizzing bangs of sparkly light, filling the sky with glitter. We head to a village in cornwall set by a river, but for some reason the fireworks are later this year there and will be this saturady. looking forward to that. Love the yarny mandala! colours are beautiful. And the Autumnal photographs, cheered up my grey outlook its raining heavy here in devon. x

[Cristina Vasile]

Love all your posts , i m happy that you are well . God bless you dear !Wish you best . Kisses :-*

[Laurel]

It occurred to me reading this that you could make seasonal mandala hoops and change them out (if you were short of things to do haaa!).
Also, I am absolutely besotted with that paper mushroom you made, it is beautiful.

[Marijke]

Your lovely autumnal post just gave me a relaxing coffee break. Thanks. I always love it when you let us have a peek iinto your world and your creative mind.
I wish you could blow some of your wet and windy weather our way (the Netherlands). Our garden and I would be ever so grateful.

[Vanessa]

I'm actually really rather liking Autumn this year. It's felt quite sleepy. I think because October was really rather warm, it highlighted (for me) Autumns yawning.

I'm pottering along sewing up the million blankets I decided to make at once, but I've been trying to take it gently in between the stresses of other stuff going on in my life. It's also Birthday season here in my patch which always panics me a little as I seem to miss the Christmas build up because of it. I hope J is doing well. We've had those kind of scares. It really does make you focus on family and self care.

Like you, I adore the smell of fireworks and sparklers. Such memories of childhood associated with them!

It definitely is candle lighting season isn't it? I've got a lemon poppyseed one that I light in the kitchen and within 5 minutes the whole kitchen smells like you've been baking. I make a coffee just to mix the fresh coffee smell in! ha ha! what about a crochet cover for your candle if you don't like the gold? I adore your mushroom. I rubbishly missed the craftpod box. gah! xxxxx

[Elise]

I just love reading your blog! I live in the US but have English and Irish roots and live vicariously through your stories and photos!

[Carolyn Dietrich]

Your comment about Autumn changing into winter reminded me a poem I wrote years ago:

Autumn, tossing her flaming tresses
Holds Winter an arm’s length away.
Until, overcome by his chilling persistence
She succumbs to his numbing embrace.

You share yourself on your blog, which I love, so I thought I would share this with you.

[Susan]

I do love slow, lazy school breaks, they're perfect for helping everyone recharge the batteries. The colours of your mandala are gorgeous too. xx Susan

[Jo McGee]

Hi, Lucy Thank you for the post it has warmed my cockles. Oh I miss the UK so much at this time of year the events and changes that Autumn brings. Here in Australia it is warming up but I am trying to find all the joy in nature around, but i love seeing your fireworks and colours which i miss so much. Thx Lucy Love Jo (the lassie who stopped you in the street and mentioned your red coat and little woolie a few winters back) xxx

[Ariadne Desarro]

Ahhh, lovely post!

[Green Girl Gardener]

That should be *never participated! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Green Girl Gardener]

Love the sweetpea colours. I’ve participated in a CAL before but I think I’ll give it a go 😁 xx.

[Ruth]

Looking forward to the Sweet Pea blanket. I think you encapsulate autumn beautifully x

[Susan]

I very much enjoyed this post!