Hello my friends, and welcome to this humble blog post which is the first of thirty-one offerings I'll be posting throughout the month of October. Yup, it's time for #blogtober2021, a daily blog fest where you get to visit me each and every day (only if you'd like to of course) for some colourful snippets of Attic life. I hope some of you may remember that I did Blogtober for the first time last year and absolutely loved it, although it has to be said it is a pretty big challenge to keep up with. You can read my Blogtober 2020 round-up post ((here)), and if you fancy a jig through all of last year's October posts, then Day One is ((here)) - you can then follow them in order.
As per usual, no plans have been made for blogtober this year, none whatsoever. I am simply not a planner, and am much happier going with the flow day to day and hoping for the best. So there won't be any themes and I won't be following any prompts, you will just be getting a string of spontaneous images and words which I hope will spring forth at the end of each day.
Today being Friday I woke up feeling very happy, knowing that I would be spending the morning at Coopers café in the company of good friends. Since the schools returned in September we've been back to our twice weekly creative sessions at the café and I am so grateful for these times, and for the real life yarny friends I am lucky enough to have in my life.
I wanted to show you the start of this beautiful blanket that my friend Sue is making, isn't it a beauty? She's using my Yuletide square pattern with her own choice of colours in Stylecraft Belissima yarn.
The above photo could very well be me (frothy coffee and a crochet blanket on the go), but nope, it's my friend Sarah who is busy crocheting her own Yuletide blanket. It gives me a tremendous amount of pleasure to see my designs being created, it really does make my heart squeeeeeze with joy. Yuletide yarn packs continue to be in high demand and have been out of stock this week - a yarn delivery came into the Warehouse this afternoon so if you've been waiting there are now a small quantity of Yuletide kits in my shop, with more coming in next week I think.
I've had a few questions lately about my studio room at the café, so I thought I should tell you what's happening. I'm still working from home at the moment as last summer my studio room was needed to provide additional seating for the café. I packed up everything except for my yarn shelves which I was able to leave in situ and this lovely room is currently being used by café customers (I hope they enjoy my colourful yarn shelves while they eat). We hold our creative social sessions in the bigger room next door as we always have done, but I really miss my working space, I miss it a hellava lot. I'm not sure if I'll be able to have it back again in the future, but I'm keeping everything crossed.
In the meantime, I'm just about managing to work ok from home although I find it very, very frustrating. We eat our evening meal at the dining table each day, so whatever I'm working on has to be cleared up and packed away. I find this often really disrupts the flow of my work, especially when I'm designing or working on samples, but there isn't a lot I can do about it at the moment. I'm lucky to have the shelves and a built in cupboard for storage, but it doesn't stop me wishing I had my own working space at home.
This afternoon I needed to pop to the supermarket which meant a stroll along the canal. I'm still adjusting to the absence of the school run in my life so I often find myself "needing" to go to the shops which gives me a reason to walk this way.
I love it when you see plants or flowers growing out of stone walls, and this one caught my eye this afternoon. I think it's a silver ragwort which is a wild flower, and I just thought it looked so pretty growing happily in this wall beside the canal.
Talking of pretty, my sweet peas are still flowering in the yarden and make me smile every single day. I'll be sorry when the cold weather takes them away, but for now I'll continue to enjoy the the sight and smell of them.
I hope that something pretty has caught your eye today and made your heart happy!
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So glad that you are back with your blog,living in a borough of London brings your country walks a bit nearer, also love your inspirational crochet projects I dip into them all the time.🌼🌼🌼
Posted by: Christine Whiting | October 01, 2021 at 10:01 PM
Thank you for this to look forward to at a time when the days are drawing in and the flowers fading. I know it's a lot of work for you but my husband has several hospital appointments and a pending operation so it's good to escape to your world.
Posted by: Geeha | October 01, 2021 at 09:57 PM