Attic24

Wintry Springtime

Last week was the second half of our stay-at-home Easter holiday and honestly it's been the nicest time. I can't get over the difference in the general ambience of the house when the Little People are home and on holiday as opposed to home but home schooling. The reality is that they're spending the vast majority of the time in their bedrooms absorbed in their own pursuits whether it's school work or leisure time, but somehow the air feels lighter around here when it's the latter. I am definitely waaaaaaay more relaxed when we are officially in holiday mode that's for sure.

The week was lazy and we did very little of note other than our usual local pottering. We had a cold, breezy walk at Bolton Abbey one morning, ending with hot take-out drinks slurped in the car because it was just too chilly to actually sit outside. We had a trip to a nearby retail park to visit a DIY chain store for the first time in over a year, and my goodness it felt strange. I had almost forgotten what real out-and-about shopping feels like. The purpose of the trip was to purchase a tin of paint so that Little Lady could create one sage green wall in her all-white bedroom. She had a very clear idea about what she wanted and picked a particular shade of green from the two thousand shades that you can get specially mixed up by the magic paint-mixer machine. She was so sure about it we didn't bother with a tester or anything sensible like that, and fortunately it was a resounding success. She is now on a mission to amass a collection of houseplants for her bedroom, and I must say I'm really enjoying watching her find her own style and recognising so, so much of my younger self in her. 

One of the things I managed to do last week was to pop into Coopers Café (where I have my studio) to collect my mail. I've not been there since October, and I'd been meaning to go and collect a couple of packages that I knew were waiting for me as well as the monthly crochet magazines that get sent there. Of course the café is closed because of this never ending lockdown situation so it was a bit strange being there when it was so quiet and calm. I've not been able to use my studio since the first lockdown in March 2020, and I've really, really missed my precious space.

Anyhow, one of the packages was from a lovely lady who lives fairly local to me and reads my blog. As well as some beautiful and very thoughtful gifts, she had packaged me up a stack of old magazines to read and I was so happy to receive them. As you know I adore magazines and even better when they are passed on once they've been read so that the pleasure can be spread a little further. Do you know this magazine, "the simple things"? I've come across if before but it's not one that I've ever bought myself - oh, I've clearly been missing out! What an absolute delight this magazine is! You can take a little peek inside some previous issues online to get a feel for the content ((here)) - the photography and styling is stunning, and I really love the overall message which promotes slow living and celebrating life's simple pleasures. 

I spent some blissful hours across a few afternoons snuggled up with the kitty, drinking in the articles, recipes, musings, photographs and seasonal feel good in these pages and I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you are reading this Rosie, thank you SO MUCH for this gift which really did make me very happy. And....I've still got three magazines left to read, which I'm saving for this coming weekend, I can't wait (they are summer issues, my fave). Magazine heaven.

We continued to walk in the woods pretty much every day, and I was happy to see that the willow Huntress was wearing a new skirt. She's been looking a little unkempt over the winter with most of her bottom half missing, so Anna must've been called in to restore her dignity. Actually, as I was looking up Anna's website just now, I decided to write her a quick email telling her how much happiness her willow sculptures bring to my daily woodland walking experience. I think it's a wonderful thing to practice gratitude, but even better to express that gratitude to the people that contribute to the goodness of our days.

The woodland is very slowly beginning to wake after it's winter sleep and every day I search for signs of green things happening. 

The wild garlic carpet continues to grow, and I continue to observe it and love it just a bit more every day. That vibrant green is really uplifting when everything else around it is still so brown. I finally managed to collect some to bring home and cook with this week and made some pesto and also some soup which were both really good. I'll share my recipes here on my blog in the next day or so as I like to have a record of these things for future me, I know I'll be glad of it next year when wild garlic season comes round again.

It's been a cold start to April here in Atticland with temperatures remaining firmly in the single digits and falling to below freezing at night. On the positive side we've been treated to many bright clear days and I've really appreciated the undiluted amount of sunlight that has filtered through to my brain. I've spent quite a bit of time outdoors either walking, sitting and chatting with friends or pottering in my front gardening and I feel so good for it - I'm definitely happier outdoors than in at the moment.

On Sunday we woke up to an unexpected winter white out, and the shock was real. It's not unheard of for us to have a final snowy surprise around Easter time (my very first Easter here was spent making a snowman instead of the easter egg hunt I'd planned) but it was still a shock to the system. Every year I tell myself that the Spring Equinox does not actually mean spring weather for us here in the north of England so that I don't expect anything warm and springlike until May rolls around.

At around 8.30 I took myself off for a morning stroll through the park, just to experience the uniqueness of April Snow.

It really was beautiful out there.

The sky was an incredible, intense shade of blue, and the treetops looked gorgeous with their dusting of powdery snow.

The poor flowers though, oh my goodness, they looked so forlorn. The blackthorn blossom that I've been admiring in the meadow was literally encapsulated in ice.

Every time I walk in the winter meadow I think of my blanket and try and remember what the colours of summer look like. Some days, the meadow is so far from summery that I have trouble believing that the flowers will ever return. The buttercups should start to bloom golden at the end of May which is only six weeks away from now......nature honestly blows my mind sometimes.

Monday was the last day of the holidays for us here, and on Tuesday the two Littlest Peeps were finally back to school.

Yaaaayyyyy-hahahaaaahhhhhaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trying not to cheer too loudly when they are in ear shot, but you know it feels like so bloomin' long since we had any sort of normal school routine around here (Little B has only been in school for two weeks since the start of the year). For the first time in an age I set my alarm for a 6am wake-up on Tuesday, my goodness, that was a shock to the system. But it felt good, like a bit of a reset and I felt ready to embrace this new season of routine.

After a leisurely coffee and some quiet time to slowly come around to the day, I was out the door and into the park by 7:04 for my brisk wake-up walk. I recently listened to a podcast called "just one thing" with Michael Mosley which sets out to explore ways in which you can easily improve your health and wellbeing by adopting small daily habits. Episode two was all about the benefits of taking an early morning walk (I'm waaay ahead of the game there Michael), with the idea that getting out into the daylight within 2 hours of waking can have a very positive effect on our bodies. It strengthens our natural circadian rhythm (or something like that), and helps us to sleep well at night as well as boosting our mood. 

Well I can certainly say that this routine of taking a brisk 10-15 minute walk at around 7am feels marvellous and I am all for it. Having said that, I'm not one hundred percent sure if I would feel the same doing it in the rain....hmmm, most likely not. As I mentioned earlier, although the weather recently has mainly been blinkin' freezing, the crisp dry air and bright sunshine has made it feel very energising.

My walk takes me up the hill, down through the park, then a short stretch along the canal before the steep hill climb back to home. I deliberately walk at a fast pace to get my circulation going and warm my muscles up because I do a short 20 minute workout as soon as I get back home. I really do love the way it makes me feel to do this and can highly recommend it. 

Longer daylight hours have opened up the possibility for evening walks again, and last week I took a few evening strolls with Little Lady.

We mainly like to head through the woods then a slog up to the top of the huge grassy hill where we can catch the very last rays of sunshine. The above photo was taken at 7:46pm, such beautiful, golden glowy light at that time of day which really lifts the spirits.

Two other things of note last week - number one, I had my first covid vaccination on Friday which was something of a relief. I faired pretty well afterwards with just a bit of a headache and the overwhelming desire to lay down and sleep at a moments notice but other than that (and a very, very sore arm) I was fine. I know I'm really looking forward to the time when all this is behind us and life begins to return to some sort of normal again. I'm so tired of covid-19 taking up valuable brain space. 

Number two, I started my new blanket, oh, happy day! I will definitely be sharing it with you once it's well under way, but in the meantime, I figured you might enjoy a little bit of a teaser re the inspiration behind the colours. 

Greenery and pinecones, bright berries, orange slices and spices, also mulled wine and gingerbread cookies (why didn't I have those to hand when I needed them?) Winter solstice vibes and festive flavours - a celebration of the Yuletide season. Can't wait to show you more!

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May End

Last week it was half term and I tell you we were all so ready for a change of pace and a break from routine. I'm sure it's the same in every household with school age children, that deep-down need for some respite from the clock watching and the nagging that comes with trying to get the offspring ready for the day and out the door on time.

On top of the usual school stuff we're in the midst of GCSE exams with The Teen, so the slight ease up last week was especially welcome for him, and for me too. I'm trying really hard to trust in his very laid back approach, trying my level best not to keep questioning his commitment or the amount of time he's spent revising. 

All will be well, I'm sure. 

So last week was all about laid back relaxation, which I'm happy to say that we all rather excel at here. However for me personally, I would have dearly loved a trip to the coast in amongst all the laid-backness, I'm feeling a strong emotional pull to be beside the sea at the moment. But when I put the idea forward to the family I was met with a complete lack of interest or understanding. I even offered to down-grade my expectations to a day trip to the West coast instead of an overnight stay on my favourite East coast, but nobody wanted to go and I have to be honest, it broke my heart a little. My Little People are growing up so fast, and most of the time I absolutely love to see their independent and strong spirits thriving. But every so often, oh I do so long to have them little again, when trips to the seaside would be met with such joy and enthusiasm.

Once I got over my disappointment and realised that we wouldn't be going anywhere at all, I settled down into our home space and made the most of the warm sunny days. We did some more to Little B's bedroom which is still an ongoing thing, and we had a bit of a clear out of rubbish in the cellar and the back yard which was very therapeutic. We bought bags of compost and I refilled all my back yard pots before planting them up with some colourful annuals. We worked at the allotment, cutting back overgrown pathways, weeding the main growing beds and preparing to plant out various little pots of veggies and herbs that we've collected from kinds friends and the garden centre. I saw an idea on Pinterest for creating a trellis for sweet peas out of bamboo canes and twine, and that's going to be my next project. I've already got the seedlings waiting patiently to put down their roots into deeper soil - gosh my to-do list really is humongous. 

As well as all the Doing, there was plenty of idling for us all and I guess that's the whole point of these short one week holidays at home. To rest, recharge, and to seek out the little things that make us deep-down happy. I spent lots of time in my back yard, either crocheting or reading, or sometimes (especially first thing in the morning) just sipping coffee and listening to the birds.  My reading was all about drinking in the May and June magazine issues which I had been saving especially for this week of down-time. These are my most favourite issues of the whole year (well this it my favourite time of year in general) and they did not disappoint. Such a lot of visual happiness in those pages, all light, fresh, summery colours to inspire and bring on the happy vibes. Just lovely in a dreamy, slightly unreal kind of a way.

Although I had hoped for some days out last week, in the end we didn't venture further than where we could walk. We walked in the woods, walked to the farm shop and we spent quite a lot of time at the park. 

One evening I took Little B with me on one of my regular buttercup appreciation walks, and on the way there he'd asked me how many buttercups there were in the meadow. I told him to guess how many he thought, to which he answered "maybe around two hundred?" His face was a picture when he saw the true scale of the meadow, it really is breathtaking and his wide astonished eyes reflected it perfectly.

I love the light at this time of year, most especially at the end of the day. I love that a walk in the park at 8pm feels so special when the sun is low and golden and night time still feels a long way off.

Last week I picked my crochet banner back up, and after a few weeks break from it I know straight away what I needed to do for the border. During the school holidays we try and keep our Creative Coopers group going on a Friday morning at the cafe, and I think I appreciate those happy hours even more during the holidays than I do during term time. It's just a fabulous way to round up the week and I dearly love spending time with my creative friends and any visitors who happen to drop in to join us. 

Once I'd finished the 6 border rounds it was time to stitch on the letters. This didn't go smoothly, in fact, it was probably the hardest part of the whole project and took for EVER to complete. My fingers protested at all that stitching (I used back stitch around the outer edge of each letter, so it was very labour intensive), but I stuck with it and am so so happy with the outcome. I'm crocheting an additional piece all along the top now so that I can insert a piece of wooden dowel for hanging purposes, but I promise to show you very soon when it's all done.

So that was the end of May, and although I'm a little sorry that my most favourite month is over for another year, it's been absolutely spectacular. I've never known a month to have so much continuous sunshine and so little rain and I've loved every minute of it. I've loved the abundant greenery and the flowers (how can you not love a month that contains blossom, bluebells, wild garlic, cow parsley and buttercups?!) and most of all I've loved the length of these warm golden days.

Here's hoping that June is just as lovely all round!

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Festive Crochet Decorations

These days I don't tend to do very much commission work for magazines, but every so often I get asked and if the idea fits with me at the time then I do enjoy the challenge. Sometimes I'm asked to write, sometimes there's a design brief and sometimes it's a combination of the two.

A few months ago I worked on a feature for Crochet Now magazine with my Stylecraft Blogstars hat on. I was given some fun interview questions which were quite the challenge as the required word count was minuscule and you all know how very wordy I generally am. When there are questions about yarn, crochet and colour my over excited word count goes into overdrive - I did my best to be concise.

The other part of the feature was to design a crochet pattern which had to fit in another very small space on the page. The brief was very open, and simply asked me to come up with a "scrap busting" project suitable for a late November/December date. I keep a box of Stylecraft Special yarn oddments in my studio which are small quantities left over from my blanket making. They are perfect for small decorative projects, and often just playing with the colours can spark off all sorts of ideas.

Inspired by the timing of the magazine, I decided to make something festive, and found myself getting very excited about the idea of incorporating some sparkly bits. I dug out my modest stash of colourful sequins and little silver beads and spent a ridiculous amount of time just messing about with them. Colourful sequins are just so pleasing in every way possible, don't you think? Which reminds me that {these} are high high on my lust list right now.....I am currently trying to convince myself that it's good to occasionally indulge in something totally unnecessary but very wantable all the same. I am worth it, no?

Anyhow.....getting back to the crochet......

.....once I got over the sequin-induced giddiness, I had a huge amount of fun designing and making some  very cute little decs out of my yarny oddments. 

I loved playing with the colour combinations and embellishing the centres with sequins and beads to add a little bit more of a festive glimmer. 

These decorations are fun and fast to make, with just five simple little rounds of crochet (the fifth round joins two circles together so they are double sided decorations). I added a tassel to a couple of the decorations, which was a great way to deal with all the tail ends - instead of darning them in, I simply gathered them all together at the bottom edge, tied them in a knot and neatly trimmed the ends.

Now I usually opt for the full-on approach when it comes to choosing a festive colour palette, going for rich jewel shades inspired by sequins and chocolates. However, I have to admit that the lure of red and white was fun to explore too, and I love how the two-tone decs turned out. 

I ended up with quite a tight turn around for this project as my deadline was unexpectedly brought forward at the last moment. So I didn't have time to take many photos of my decs before I had to package them up and send them to the lovely Crochet Now team. Mind you, I needn't have worried.......

....the above photo was the professional photo-shoot one sent to me by the magazine, and I think they did a terrific job of making my little crochet decs look very festive indeed.

The magazine with my pattern in is Issue 22 and out in the shops right now - you can see more of the projects in this issue on the Crochet Now website.

I have to say I'm very taken with Brian the Brown Bear who is the cover star of this issue, he looks so kind of peed off somehow but in a really cutesome way! The magazine comes with a full kit so that you can bring Brian to life in your own home - the yarn is a gorgeous, silky 4ply, and the kit even comes with stuffing and Brian's cute/grumpy eyes and nose. I want to give him a hug and tell him it's all going to be OK.

It's a strange thing to see one's own face sitting on the page of a magazine, and I have never gotten used to it. It's a curious mix of pride and embarrassment, but overall I do enjoy working with crochet magazines. This is mainly because the people who make the magazines happen are an amazingly dedicated, hard working, friendly and all round lovely bunch. 

Whilst I was making these decorations and pondering on the whole idea of festive colours, I thought it would be fun to put a little bit of a colour palette together, much as I did when I made my pumpkins in the autumn.

Stylecraft Special DK, from left to right, as follows ::

✵ Lapis ✵ Empire ✵ Turquoise ✵ Kelly Green ✵ Grass ✵ Gold ✵

✵ Spice ✵ Lipstick ✵ Plum ✵ Magenta ✵ Fuchsia ✵

These jewel-brights are very much the essence of Christmas for me - I would love to know whether anyone else shares my love of bright Christmas colours, or whether you are more in the Scandi red-and-white camp, or maybe a frosty silver-and-white lover? Or perhaps it's the vintage pastels which make you swoon? Do tell me what colours make you giddy for Christmas?!

Speaking of yarny Christmas colours, have you noticed that there is a bit of a crochet christmas bauble craze happening on social media at the moment? You can read more on Kathryn's blog Crafternoon Treats, which has lots of colour inspiration and pattern links. 

You can also find patterns for other little Christmassy things here on my blog, if you fancy a bit of festive hookery in the weeks leading up to the big day ::

✵Christmas Baubles✵ and ✵Stars✵

✵Holly Leaves✵

✵Snowflakes✵

✵Little Lacy Stars✵

✵✵✵HAVE FUN!!!!✵✵✵

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Ginger Spiced Leaf Biscuits

We did some baking yesterday, Little B and I. I found myself (not for the first time) completely inspired by a little square photo I recently came across on Instagram. I'm kicking myself now as I didn't make a note of who the photo belonged to, and it was one of those beautifully styled, magazine-worthy photos that I am a sucker for. However, the lovely lady who took the beautiful photo did happen to mention where she found the recipe, and lo and behold it was an issue of Country Living UK magazine from two years ago. Ah-ha, I thought, I have a pile of magazines that is surely more than two years old, so off I went to dig it out. It was from November 2015 if you have a similar two-year old pile of magazines, an Autumn classic.

The recipe was simple (sugar, butter, golden syrup, flour, bicarb and ginger), so I pootled into the interweb to search for some suitable leaf shaped cutters. Plenty to be found on Amazon, so I went for a full set of 7 shapes as I have a feeling that leaf biscuits will definitely be a Favourite Thing in our household. One thing to mention about the general purchasing of biscuit cutters is to check the dimensions carefully. The cutters in the tin I bought were smaller than I anticipated, and although I was initially a bit disappointed when they arrived, they actually made the cutest little perfectly sized biscuits. 

Baking with children is loads of fun and really adds a certain element of glee to the whole proceedings. Little B is a full-force child and goes at everything with enthusiasm and energy, so it was easy to get caught up with his genuine delight in weighing out ingredients and mixing them all together. 

The mixture starts out quite dry and crumbly (there is a LOT of flour, great clouds of it in fact), and for a while it feels like it isn't going to work out.

We found it best to roll up sleeves (or in Little B's case, to remove clothes altogether) and get stuck in with your hands. You need to persuade the crumbs to turn into a workable cookie dough, and the warmth from hands does this brilliantly. 

The quantity of ingredients (which I'll give you at the end of this post) makes a lot of dough. We ended up halving it and shaping into two balls before putting it into the fridge to chill. Yes, you do need to allow time for the dough to go cold before you can get going with the rolling pin, so if you are baking with Little People you may want to prepare them in advance for the  pause in activity. 

We made the dough in the late morning, and made the biscuits in the mid afternoon. We took everything out of the kitchen and onto the dining table so that we had plenty of room to work, spreading out a length of greaseproof paper so that we could easily roll out the dough. 

Using cookie cutters is such fun! So pleasing to create those little shapes, then adding the details with a metal skewer. Little B absolutely loved doing it and I had to resist the urge to fight him off and do it all myself. 

We used half of the dough and made around 36 leaves in total which spread across two baking trays. The other half of the dough is still in the fridge and I think we shall make gingerbread men with it today.

I couldn't wait to see how the leaves would turn out, and luckily the baking time is very short. The recipe suggested 8-10 minutes, and I settled on 8.5 minutes with my hot oven. The secret is to take them out when they have just turned a very light golden colour (they will be darker on the underside) and still quite soft as they harden when they cool. I much prefer soft, slightly chewy gingerbread as opposed to the rock hard, brittle version. 

I was so delighted that the markings we made looked even better once the biscuits were baked - oh, so very leafy and pleasing to look at! Now I did ponder on trying to style my photo in the manner of the swoony images we see all the time on Instagram. I would need a co-ordinating cloth (made of linen probably), some real autumn leaves and maybe a little jar of autumn foliage and berries. Possibly an earthenware mug of tea. Maybe a candle. 

In the end, I found I just could. Not. Be. Bothered. I desperately wanted to eat the biscuits and I had eager children to ward off too. So I'm afraid the above photo is the best I could do. Incidentally, isn't the original magazine page photo rather lovely?

So I can tell you that these biscuits are visually very, very pleasing to look at. They are seasonal and cute and photogenic.

Taste wise??? Well, the Little People think they are amaaaaaaaaaazing. They seriously went mad for these little treats and I had to step in and limit their scoffing. My verdict - lovely gingeryness without being too overpowering, nice soft texture but possibly a teensy bit on the dry side. However............

.........when dunked into a fresh mug of hot milky coffee, oh-my-goodness, these little leafy morsels are transformed. Coffee-soaked ginger biscuits are absolutely the bees knees. 

I allowed Little Lady to give it a try (she likes the taste of coffee) and she agreed with me that the coffee soaking really turned these biscuits into a very, very yummy treat.

If you fancy giving these biscuits a go, you can click on the above photo and it should pop up in a new window so that you can read it a little better. If I was making the biscuits again, I would simply halve the quantities.

Country Living Magazine remains one of my all time favourites, and I so look forward to it's seasonal inspiration every month. It's a real delight, and a treat that I've been enjoying for almost twenty years now. Delicious. 

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Designing and Writing

 

A little while ago I contributed to an article for Simply Crochet magazine which was all about yarnbombing. After the magazine was published, I came across a question on the Simply Crochet facebook page asking me whether I'd mentioned the article here on my blog or whether I'd intentionally kept it quiet. It made me stop and think about the things I do which don't always get shared on my blog, especially in recent months when I've been kept quite busy with various designing and writing commissions. But to answer the question, no, no, I really don't keep these things quiet on purpose! Mostly it's simply a timing thing - the world of magazines has a way of working which is quite different from the way I like to write and share on my blog. Commisssion work for magazines happens many months in advance of publication, whereas here in the Attic I like to share things pretty much as and when they happen. As you know, I have an atrocious memory and often by the time a magazine comes into the shops I've forgotten all about the work I might have done four or five months previously. 

Anyhoooo.....I thought perhaps it might be good to have a little catch-up sesh and share a few things that I've been up to "behind the scenes" so to speak. The magazine in the photo above is Simply Crochet issue sixty, which was out last month and no longer current. I'm so sorry I am late to tell you about it as it's a fab issue with some great projects in, but you can still get a hold of it as a back issue, or as a digital download. You can find all info about SC issue 60 {here}

I was asked back in February if I would like to work on a design for a Simply Crochet magazine summer collection, and I answered yes straight away. Back then in the depths of winter I found the idea of working on a summer project hugely appealing, especially as I was asked to choose the colour palette as well as designing a pattern.  I chose the above 7 shades of Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK, responding to the brief which had asked for "something summery and fun". In the above picture, the colours I chose (from left to right) are :

Azure : Sky Blue : Soft Lime : Wisteria : Shell Pink : Fondant : Hot Pink

There are six crochet projects (by six different designers) in the summer collection, all using this beautiful soft colour palette. From dragonflies and pebbles, to a whole amazing tee-pee....

.....these makes are all about having some creative fun and adding a bit of hooky decoration to your outside space.

My contribution was a mandala hoop, and I just love the way the team at Simply Crochet styled and photographed it for the magazine page. 

Designing and making my Boho Chic Mandala was really, really enjoyable, and I consider myself extremely fortunate (almost beyond words) that I get to do this and call it Work. Lucky, lucky me. I am so grateful for my crochet and colour addiction and all that it brings to my life!

You might possibly recognise the centre of this mandala - I started out by making the first five rounds of my Happy Flower, then continued to add enough rounds to form a 35 cm circle.

A 35 cm crochet circle should stretch quite happily to fit a 45 cm hoop - this stretching out of the crochet as you attach it to the hoop transforms the design, opening out the stitches to create a lovely neat, taut finish.

When I've made this size of mandala before, I've attached the crochet to child-sized hula hoops, you know, those brightly coloured plastic ones you can get (see my blog post here). But I've since discovered that you can  buy lightweight plastic-coated metal hoops which are very much thinner than hula hoops, making them much easier to crochet around. They come in various different sizes, from teensy 10 cm ones up to the 45 cm one that I've used here. If you are looking online for these hoops (eg on Amazon UK) , you need to search for "metal craft ring" - they are sold for making things like dream catchers I think. 

I just love the way this pattern turned out, and I've got a second mandala in progress which is crocheted in much brighter colours, more like my previous mandala hoops. I must remember to dig it out and finish it - in fact I've got a couple of large mandalas which are half way done, so I'll be finishing them off very soon and attaching them to hoops ready for this year's outdoor display at Yarndale.

Talking of Yarndale, as I mentioned at the start of this post, issue 60 of Simply crochet magazine also contains a really great article all about the joys of yarnbombing. I was interviewed for this write up (with my Yarndale hat on) and it's really interesting to read about the inspiration and motivation behind some other amazing community yarn bomb projects.

I also contributed to a beautifully written article all about choosing colours for crochet projects which you can find in Simply Crochet magazine issue 59. Again, I did this interview months ago now, and it had slipped my mind until recently. 

I don't know - sometimes I confess I feel a little bit uneasy about sharing these things, as I don't want it to seem like I am shouting out about myself or trying to sell or promote anything, does that make sense? I enjoy writing and designing very much, and although mostly I keep things contained here in the Attic, occasionally it feels rather good to see my words and images out there in print. 

Oh, what do we have here then? Something else crocheted in a pretty palette of summery cottons! I designed these little heart key rings as my contribution to this year's Yarndale brochure (you might remember the owls from last year?). I used five shades of Classique Cotton > Sunflower : Shrimp : Fondant : Sky Blue : Soft Lime (aren't the colours pretty?!)

These are quick and easy to hook up - I made two hearts then crocheted them together around the edge in a contrasting colour, adding a small hanging loop at the top. The little flower is crocheted separately and stitched on.

I love designing and making small decorative things as I think it's always great to have a stash of patterns that you can pull out when you need to whip up a last minute little crochet gift. If you are coming to Yarndale, the pattern for these hearts will be in the brochure which is given to all visitors. 

And finally before I leave you in peace, a quick shout out for the British Knitting & Crochet Awards. As per usual I'm very late in putting this on my blog as the voting closes today (30th August)....typical me! These awards are a great recognition within the industry, and to be nominated is considered an honour. This year I have 4 nominations (yes, four!) which I am so happy about!

★ Favourite Crochet Blog
★ Favourite crochet Designer
★ Best Website (for WoolWarehouse/Attic24)
★ Best ready-to-use kits (for WoolWarehouse/Attic24)

also Yarndale has been nominated in 
★ Best Knitting Show Event

Votes are open to both UK and Worldwide peeps this year (although only UK residents will be eligible for the yarny part of the prize draw). It's worth mentioning that you don't have to vote in all the categories (especially regional ones which may well mean nothing to you) - only categories with an asterisk* require an imput. So if you'd like to give it a go, I'd be very grateful - click on the image above, or go {here}. Closes midnight 30th August.

As ever, I am so thankful for you all, for your ongoing visits to the Attic and for the kind words you write to me. I appreciate it very very much xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Prettifications

Something that I've always found just a teensy bit irritating is the way that magazines are out of sinc with real life months. So for example, the magazines that land on your doormat in early March are labelled April and are full of chit chat about things happening a whole month away. I am really, really not that person who can get giddy for Christmas at the start of November, or think about Easter a whole month in advance. I am much more of a Here and Now girl, living in the moment and just about able to think a week ahead at the most.

My current solution is to stash my two favourite seasonal magazines when they arrive, leaving them wrapped in their plastic so I'm not tempted to peek. I place them gently on top of my teetering to-do pile which sits precariously on my desk just to the right of my computer and I leave them for a good few weeks until I feel ready for them. It takes some doing, it's not easy to leave them alone, but I find that the very act of waiting gives me a bizarre amount of pleasure during the three weeks that they sit there staring at me.

This week I finally felt ready to think about Spring (it was the Spring Equinox that nudged me) and with Easter happening this weekend I thought it would be a good time to take a walk in Magazine Wonderland. First up is April Country Living, one of my most beloved indulgences (I've been a faithful subscriber since 1998).

Summer magazines are my most favourite, but Spring comes a close second best.

I am such a sucker for these nature-inspired styling photos, they are always so inspirational and make me want to jump up instantly and do something to prettify my home for the season.

There are always some lovely little decorative ideas and easy makes in these 'Seasonal Styling' sections....

.....oh those butterfly eggs!! So simple, but oh so pretty and majorly appealing (the butterflies are temporary tattoos, so clever! Filing that idea away for another time).

These are the 'Seasonal Looks' pages from April Country Homes magazine. I adore these particular pages every month and spend an age scouring the images and taking in every single detail. There is always a small-print section at the end which is essentially a huge long shopping list, telling you where you can buy every item and how much it costs.

The interiors are of course completely over-styled, over-thought and more than a little bit fake....

....but it doesn't stop me swooning over the gorgeousness of it all.

If I work at zooming my mind outwards and away from every minute detail in these images, it's possible to get an overall feel for the season by taking in just the colours. It's a very useful exercise for me as a lot of what I do in crochet is inspired by seasonal colours, and I really enjoy the challenge of seeing images in this way. Try it for yourself - see what colours come to you from the above photos, and focus on how they make you feel. They are light and dreamy, dusky pale pinks and soft duck egg blues, chalky whites and soft greys but there are pops of bright colour too (that mustardy-lime colour, wowsers). They make me feel relaxed and happy, and inspired too.

Here in my own home, things are much the same as they always are at this time of year. Colours aren't so much soft and dreamy as bright and breezy here in the Attic.

I fetched down the Easter Box from the Attic Eaves on Monday, I had Little B home from school with a rocket-like temperature so he was my willing assistant. I'd quite forgotten about the Mini Chicklets from last year {pattern on my blog}, it was surprisingly lovely to see them again.

I've got fancy daffodils on my table this week, all flouncy and twiddly in the centres. The deep orange is a really stunning colour, but the best thing about these daffs is the scent - oh I wish you could smell them! The essence of Spring right there in my jug. I've been sat at the table a lot this week (fighting the low grade stress that arrives with a poorly, feverish child), writing lists in my planner and quietly knitting my sock whilst breathing in the scent of these lovely flowers. It's been peaceful, in an oddly stressy kind of a way. By the way, Little B is back at school today, still a  bit wobbly but at least his body is no longer on fire. Thank goodness our Easter Holidays start tomorrow (yipppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee).

Little B and I set to work with Easterifying the mantel on Monday, the Spring version of my Christmas efforts. It's a rather shambolic, haphazard approach to be honest, a weeny bit chaotic (hang ALL the decorations, fill EVERY single branch!) but I love, love, love it. 

Most of the felt Easter decorations are as old as Little Man (13), I bought the funny little felt birds and painted wooden eggs from eBay and made the felt flowers. You can just about see that the little crochet blossom flowers are back on my twigs for Spring, I made them four years ago {pattern in this post}.

In the Easter Box there was an assortment of little decorations made by the Little People over the years, so sweet to see them all again. Funny little paper chicks, decorated eggs, things stuck with glitter, and this cute little Easter Basket made by Little B when he was a tiny toddler at playgroup. The knitted sheep in the pink knitted woolly jumper there, well she was hand knitted, by ME. Yes Me!!!! I knitted a little sheep!! More about that particular adventure with the sticks coming soon, I bet you can't wait eh? Baaaaaaaaa!

Other seasonal goodness this week has included buttery toasted Hot Cross buns (essential stress relief you understand)....

....and the finishing up of my Cupcake blanket. Finished, it is indeedy, and I do love that the colours are very In Season and just right for March. And April.

I shall be taking it to Dorset with me next week, with my fingers crossed for good weather and good photographic opportunities.

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 ps the Cupcake yarn pack will be available from my shop at Wool Warehouse on Monday 18th April. As always, I'll be sharing a full ta-dah moment here on my blog which will include a tutorial for the new Linen Stitch edging as well as the full colour sequence for the cupcake stripes. Not long to wait :)

 

 

 

 

 

Snowdrop Appreciation

On Monday morning I woke up feeling just a smidgeon brighter that I have done in quite a while. So after the school drop off I decided to try and manage a short walk, just a gentle stroll up the high street, past the castle.......

....and on past the small sheep field. All of a sudden the sun broke through the clouds and I was so happy to see those shafts of soft light making their way to me through the trees, oh so welcome on this rather cold, gloomy February morning. I carried on walking, slowly, slowly, only a gentle hill but my body doesn't really allow me to do hills at the moment. Shuffle, shuffle, not too much further.....

....destination Snowdrop!

I love visiting this little patch every Winter, it's a small wild area where the very edge of the woods meets the road into the top of town.

Snowdrops are such unusual little flowers when you stop to look closely at them, and the effect of them carpeting the leafy ground in the depths of winter is stunning.

Truthfully, I would loved to have picked a few little sweet flowers to bring home with me. I could picture them all dainty in a teeny tiny little glass jar, nodding their sweet white heads and bringing me oodles of pleasure. But I know these are naughty thoughts and so I made myself content with capturing them on my camera.

I loitered around the wild patch at the side of the road, at the edge of the woods for quite a while, walking this way and that, pointing my camera, trying to capture the beauty of snowdrops-in-the-sunshine. I leaned over the fence, crouched down and stuck my arms through the fence. And then I straightened up and stood very still for a while, working out how my body was feeling, trying to decide what to do. Turn around and head back down into town? Or walk onwards and follow the pathway into the woodland?

I turned my back on the pavement and chose the muddy pathway, following this gloriously mossy stone wall which forms the top boundary of the woodland.

I am completely, crushingly in love with moss, and when I see it growing so joyfully over every standing-still brown thing, my heart honestly feels like it might implode with gladness. These vibrant green mounds take the edge off the pervading brown-ness of the winter woodland, they are just so full of life! I love it when moss shoots up these ultra-cute little things (what are they? Moss flowers? Moss seedheads? I want to know all about mossy goings on!), well I love those little shooty-up things most of all.

Ahh, here is the waterfall in the middle of the woodland - please note that I appear to be up above it rather than down beside it on the path there like I normally am. That would be because I managed to get myself completely lost following the mossy path, neglecting to turn at the point where I should have turned. I walked on and on and on, and it was raining, and my beloved red boots became caked in mud. I do not possess any sense of direction, the place in my brain where there should be a logical compass is just an empty space. I think I walked around the edge of the soggy woodland for about an hour until eventually, I ended up at a point that I recognised. It was waaaaay off the pathway that I should have been on, but at least it was familiar and I was able to descend  down the steep bank and pretend that I was never, ever lost at all. Just taking the scenic route.

I was very, very tired by this point, my legs had decided to mimic the tree trunks and turn themselves into lumps of wood.

But it had been such a lovely little unplanned walk, and the memories of the snowdrop carpet and mossy walls and tumbling water stayed with  me as I made my way slowly home.

The homeward route from the woods conveniently goes right past the local Bakery which has a brass door handle in he shape of a croissant. I decided that the only treatment for Wooden Leg Syndrome is a soft iced bun popped into a paper bag, and carried carefully home so that it can accompany a mug of steaming hot coffee. It worked a treat. Whilst I was sipping my coffee and scoffing my bun, I thought about the snowdrops all over again, and it reminded me about the calendar that hangs next to my desk....

....this lovely calendar was a free gift last year with one of my favourite magazines - Country Home and Interiors. I've been a subscriber to this magazine for almost a decade, and I can tell you that in recent years it has consistently provided me with a huge amount of inspirational, seasonal visual pleasure. The free annual calendar has also given me a lot of pleasure over the years - those of you who've been visiting me here for a while may remember my years of "Calendar Posts" where each month I would share seasonal images from my various calendars? The Country Homes calendar was always known as the Bossy Calendar, as each image was usually accompanied by a command to do something or other. It did used to make me laugh.

This year, the theme is country flowers, and I thoroughly approve of charting the months in this way. How lovely! The photos are beautiful, and the text for each month is as charmingly bossy as ever.

So here we have January, which features the humble snowdrop and the following command >

"At the start of the year, bring bunches of velvety white snowdrops inside from the garden to display alongside glowing candlelight."

Oh, ok then! Excepting that I don't have  bunches of snowdrops growing in my garden. I don't have a garden which grows bunches of anything really. And I couldn't bring myself to steal even one single stem of a snowdrop from the wild patch at the edge of the woods. I shall just have to make do with pictures instead.....

....these beautiful pages are from last months Country Living magazine (Feb).

Oh just look at those delightful mossy pots! I really wish I had some mossy posts and pretty snowdrops of my own.

These sweet little flowers fill me with delight, and even though the colours on these pages are very pale and muted, they are just so right for this time of year. I do love a spot of seasonal colour.

I was inspired to have a little play with my yarn pegs and channel some inner winter snowdrop vibes. Mmmm...very restful and calming, wouldn't you say? A pretty Winter palette for January.

Mind you, seeing as we are now into February, I'll have to think up something floral and Februaryish to share with you now. You never know, I might even obey the Bossy Calendar this month, there is an instruction to go and look for paperwhite narcissus.......

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Magazine Styling :: Spring Inspiration

Right now my Creative Mind is absolutely chockablock full to bursting, in fact it's absolutely bloomin' rammed to the brink up there in my busy thinking-place. It's a bit of a strange sensation, kind of stressy and exhilarating all at the same time. I am forever grateful that (so far) my Creative Mind is in good health and consequently I am never ever short of ideas. They tumble and run and spin and whirl pretty much all day long and sometimes even hold wild boogies in my head at night too. I haven't yet experienced a creative block, or a drought. Waterfalls and floods are more common though, and right now it's positively raging a monsoon up there in my Creative Mind. Well yes, you get the picture. And that's one of the reasons I continue to adore writing my blog - it's such a wonderful way to deal with aspects of my overactive creative thinking and I truly value having this space as a way to sort it all out a bit. The very act of uploading photos and writing out ideas and feelings and thoughts and plans is extremely useful, and I'm sure that's why I remain blockage-free.

Just recently I have been immersing myself in the visual treats of the season and indulging in a bit of a Spring-fest. I have been a devoted lover of home/lifestyle magazines for almost twenty years now, and month after month they never fail to deliver a welcome dose of seasonal feel-good, along with a dash of escapism and a heap load of inspiration.

My two must-haves each month are Country Living (UK) and Country Homes and Interiors. They are both fabulous magazines, consistently inspirational and uplifting, with gorgeous photography and beautifully creative styling. But what I love most about these magazines is the very seasonal bias they have. I am more than a little bit in love with seasonal living, with styling, decorating, celebrating, living and eating according to the time of year. And these two magazines embrace this idea incredibly well.

Summer is my most favourite season of the lot, and I've written about my love of Summer magazines before here on my blog. As the years go by I am learning to love all seasons and appreciate the good in each, but there is no way I would ever love Winter more than Summer, it just isn't happening. Spring though - well Spring is a pretty wonderful time of the year and the March and April magazines have proven to be very inspiring this year.

It helps that Easter is in Spring, and I do love Easter very much. I love the chocolate aspect (!) but also the abundance of decorative opportunities which in many ways I prefer to Christmas.

These few Easter images pleased me enormously (from April issue of CH&I)....

 ...."Vintage Easter" is a very pretty thing indeed, don't you think?

Often when I browse my way dreamily through these pages, it's not necessarily the actual subject matter that I'm tuning into, but the colours. As my mind is on a bit of a colour-obsessed mission most days, I find that I am always, always absorbing and taking note of colour combinations. It's like the ColourSeek button in my brain is permanently switched on, I just cannot seem to see the world in any other way.

Oh these pages!!!!!!!!! Sooooooo pretty and heart-lifting and so perfectly capturing the essence of Spring! 

I am such a sucker for pretty styling and one of my most favourite stylists is the talented Selena Lake. Interestingly, as soon as I clapped eyes on these images I just knew they were Selena's work (she has a very recognisable style) and yup, I was right.

She has a way of mixing vintage with pretty pastel colours which is quite quirky and I love the overall effect. Very easy on the eye, very charming and always inspiring. The above picture makes me want to go immediately and de-clutter my Shelves of Doom just so I could have a go at styling them prettily for Easter. I want my shelves to look like that!

These pages are all from a magazine I picked up in the supermarket last week called "Prima Makes" (issue 6). This is a bi-monthly magazine heavily inspired by the seasons (love love!) and full of creative ideas for home and garden.

The ideas are often beautifully simple and do-able, with many of the makes aimed at mums-with-children. It also covers a wide variety of crafts, from simple paper makes to stitching, knitting, crochet, and baking. It encourages you to get busy creating beautiful, seasonal little decorations for your home, and delivers a real surge of creative energy. I want to plant up a pretty tea cup and make a little paper village! Little B - do you want to help me make little felt trees and cut out some pretty butterflies? Shall we make this happen? I think that next week during our stay-home holiday time we may well have some very busy little fingers and I am pretty excited to see what we can come up with.

Oh cute! Maybe we might be inspired to crack open the box of coloured felt and stitch up some sweet little Easter critters! The above photo has given me some wonderful colour ideas too - I'm looking at limey green and pale pink and sky blue with a dash of egg-yolk orange and soft butter yellow - mmmmmmmm - delicious! 

So do you decorate for Easter or Spring in your home? Are you inspired to create a pretty little seasonal something for a shelf or table? Tell me your creative plans, I'd love to know if your minds are as busy as mine?!

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Valentine Sweet Heart

Hello! I thought it would be nice to share a colourful bit of crochet with you today, something bright and cheerful and a just a teensy bit unnecessary. I mean, I'm fairly sure there is no real pressing need for you to drop everything and make a decorative little hangy thing, but then again, it might be just the ticket for these dull, grey January days. I am all for a pretty little bit of creativity that brings happiness and colour to a small corner of the room, this sort of crochet is good for the soul.

I designed this project for Simply Crochet magazine last year as a celebration for Valentines Day, and I've had it hanging in my studio ever since. It's a very simple little project but a joyful one - the idea for it came to me in a flash one morning and I hooked it up in a whizz of excitement - the simplicity of it pleased me very much!

I used yarns that I already had sat on my shelves for this project, but this is a fabulous stash buster as you only need the smallest scraps of left overs. You can mix any colours that tickle your fancy (I've gone for five candy-brights, with two shades of green for the leaves). Any sort of yarn will do, it doesn't have to be cotton. Thickness wise, I think slightly finer yarns work best for small decorative projects. I've used Drops Muskat (a mercerised cotton) with a 3mm hook. If you're using something like Stylecraft Special DK, try dropping to a 3.5mm hook to make the flowers nice and neat.

You will need 18 x 10mm buttons and some sewing thread for stitching the buttons to the flowers.

As you can see from the above picture, you'll also need 4 x 12" pipe cleaners to form the heart shaped base (this is a true DIY project), so raid your kids craft drawer, or find them online {Amazon}. The colour of the pipe cleaners doesn't really matter - I used green and brown ones as a kind of a nod to twiggy things, but they should be pretty much invisible by the time you've smothered them in flowers.

And lastly, you will need sticky glue - I used a hot glue gun for speed and ease, but strong white glue would work (PVA) or you could always stitch the flowers around the pipe cleaner shape if that suits you better.

You will need to make 18 flowers in total, and 12 leaves.

I'm writing in UK crochet terms.

FLOWERS (make 18)

:: Round 1 :: Chain 2, 6 dc in 2nd chain from hook, slip stitch to first dc [6 stitches].

:: Round 2 :: in each stitch, work the following :: (slip stitch, chain 2, 1 tr, chain 2, slip stitch), making 6 petals in total. Fasten off and darn in ends.

LEAVES (make 12)

:: First side :: Chain 6, 1 dc in 2nd chain from hook, 1 htr in next chain, 2 htr in next chain, 1 htr in next chain, 1 dc in next chain.

Chain 2, slip stitch in 2nd chain from hook (picot point made)

:: Second side :: Work on the opposite side of the foundation chain in remaining loops to mirror the first side as follows :: (1 dc in next stitch, 1 htr in next stitch, 2 htr in next stitch, 1 htr in next stitch, 1 dc in next stitch). Slip stitch into loop at end of foundation chain. Fasten off, leaving a 20cm tail end to use for stitching the leaves to the flowers.

Making the heart shape out of pipe cleaners is reasonably straight forward, I didn't take any photos of this in progress but I'll talk you through it as best as I can.

Take 2 pipe cleaners and lay them side by side. Twist one pipe cleaner around the other to form a double-stranded length. Repeat this with the other two pipe cleaners so that you have two double-stranded lengths.

Put your two lengths together and twist tightly together at the bottom to form the bottom point of your heart, Now bend both lengths outwards and shape the pipe cleaners into a symmetrical heart shape. Twist the top ends together tightly to form the inner point of the heart. You might need to perform a little bit of light bending to make your heart shape sit flat. It does eventually work out even if it seems very wobbly at the start, just keep going, gently bending it until you're happy with the shape.

Now make up the flowers and leaves - first job is to stitch a little button in the centre of each flower using sewing thread.

Now take your flowers and place them around your heart shape until you are happy with the colour arrangement. There should be a flower sitting neatly at each point of the heart, with eight flowers spaced evenly around each side.

You need to stitch your leaves in place now, using the tail end of green yarn that you left at the end of each leaf. First, stitch two leaves to the underside of the two flowers sitting at the heart points. Then stitch the remaining 8 leaves on the underside of every alternate flower around, making sure the leaves point outwards.

Before you glue the flowers in place, attach a loop of yarn to the top of your heart for hanging.

Using the image above as a guide, stick your flowers to your pipe cleaner heart using a hot glue gun or strong fabric/craft glue. Start by attaching flowers at the two points of the heart (with double leaves pointing downwards), then work your way evenly from the bottom upwards, alternating non-leaf flowers with leaf-flowers (leaves pointing outwards).

And that's it - simples! Now all you need to do is find somewhere to hang your floral heart so that it can deliver maximum pleasure and joy.

Awww, I do think it looks rather sweet, not just for Valentines Day but for all year round.  A little celebration of Hooky Love!

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Those of you who have a Yarndale Calendar will be enjoying this colourful heart image for the twenty eight days of February this year, a bright spot in a grey month.

I hope you enjoy this project - go and dig into your scraps and you'll be hooking up some sweet little flowers and leaves in no time. Have fun!

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Summer Bunting

Back in March I was thinking about the monthly column I write for Simply Crochet magazine, wondering what would be a good subject to write about for early summer. I was thinking summery thoughts, dreaming of the sea, salty sea breezes and that joyful feeling of freedom that comes with being on holiday. And then I thought of bunting. I thought of how the streets of my home town in Dorset are always strung with bunting during the summer to welcome visitors, and how the same thing also happens here in my Yorkshire home town. It is such a cheerful and nostalgic sight, and a string of homemade bunting carries those same feelings of happy cheer and childhood nostalgia for me.

So I happily wrote about crochet bunting and garlands for the magazine, and then thought how much fun it would be to make up a little bit of summer bunting in my favourite shades of coastal blues. Perhaps I might even share it with the readers of Simply Crochet magazine, inspire them to hook up a little bit of fluttery summery decoration for themselves?

To keep things simple, I chose just four colours to work with, using my favourite Stylecraft Special DK :: Petrol :: Turquoise :: Denim :: Cloud Blue

I came up with a neat little triangle worked in four quick rounds, the last round being a simple edging to pretty it up a bit. I made 12 triangles, then strung them together with three rows of crochet to make quite a thick decorative band running along the top.

To finish it off nicely, I stitched on some spotty buttons

Ta-dah!!!!! I love the simplicity of this decoration, it is unusual for me to be so minimal with my colour palette (!) but I really enjoyed immersing myself in these summer blues.

Now then, I debated long and hard about sharing this next bit with you, it is not that pretty! You have to first understand that a string of bunting is a devilishly difficult thing to photograph. It is long, and floppy, and the backdrop takes a lot of consideration. I confess that I failed miserably. Would you like to see my pitiful attempts?

I tried outside first. However, my backyard is currently looking very sad and scruffy, and not that great for a photo shoot. Plus my neighbours cat Bert insisted on coming in for a nosey and would not leave even when I asked him nicely.

I had a bit of better luck inside, hanging it across my mantel. The finished string measures 135cm, and it was actually a pretty good fit across my old fireplace, but of course it ended up right at the bottom of the picture.

Luckily, I was able to send my bunting to the lovely peeps at Simply Crochet who do things the Professional Way. I asked Tanya if she could take some "behind the scenes" pictures to show me, as I was reaaaaaaally curious to see how it would be styled. I had imagined my bunting hanging in a beautiful little white washed summer house, or maybe a cute retro beach hut? Or how about a wonderful light-filled little boys room, with blue gingham bedding and vintage wooden boats? Oh yes, my creative mind overflowed with all sorts of ideas!!!

When the pictures came back, I laughed and laughed. How fanciful I had been!

Of course, these things simply take place in a carefully staged, professionally lit photographic studio. No summer houses or beach huts or gorgeous houses.

There is also a fair amount of technical computer wizardry involved too, something else that I would fail miserably with no doubt. But the finished result? Well..................

............just gorgeous!

This is how it will appear on the printed page, and I think the team at Simply Crochet did a terrific job. My Summer Blues Bunting pattern will appear in issue 19, which will be in the UK shops on Thursday 29th May.

So. What next? Well.....when I originally designed the bunting in shades of blue, I had been thinking of the sea. But part way through making it, I realised that it would make a terrific decoration for a little boy's bedroom don't you think? It would make a great gift to welcome a new baby boy into the world, or to decorate a toddlers bedroom. I then got curious about how this pattern would turn out if it was worked up shades of pink? We can't have the boys taking over, now can we?!

So I chose fours new colours of Stylecraft Special DK ::

Clematis :: Fondant :: Magenta :: Raspberry

Oh so pretty! They took me instantly to a summer garden full of roses and clematis and raspberries and sweet peas.......

These colours were a joy to work....

... and as with the blue bunting, I finished the string off with some pretty spotty buttons.

Love how it turned out. Super pretty, and perfect for little girls (or big girls, come to think of it)

I am continuing to work with the lovely peeps at Wool Warehouse which is giving me a great deal of pleasure I have to say. The team there are so friendly and enthusiastic about all that they do, it's bloomin' marvellous to chat and plan and get all giddy with folks who love colours and yarn *almost* as much as I do! You can find all the Attic24 colour packs and buttons and things HERE on their website, it's looking very cheerful on that page I have to say!

As you know, any excuse to play with colour and yarn and I am right there in a jiffy. This week I've been in my element, faffing about with my yarn balls, planning and playing and scheming in full, glorious colour.

I wanted to have a play with other colour combinations for my bunting, to see how I could bring different sets together. I know that choosing successful colour combinations can seem like an impossible task to some, and yes it can be very hard to get it right especially if you are doing it via a computer screen. So, just for the pure pleasure of doing it, here is what I have come up with......

:: pomegranate :: spice :: petrol :: meadow ::

This is quite a feisty combo, kind of hot and spicy and rich.

 

:: pomegranate :: spice :: gold :: meadow ::

Taking out the deep petrol colour and replacing it with rich gold gives a lighter feel, but still full of rich, warm tones.

 

 

 

And here's how those two triangles came out.

Next I went for some prettier, more mellow tones..

:: pale rose :: grape :: gold :: camel ::

These colours remind me of sunshine and fragrant summer flowers.

Now taking out the gold and adding in the richness of the pomegranate..

:: pomegranate :: camel :: pale rose :: grape ::

And here's how the triangles turned out. I love these colours, they are soft and warm and mellow.

Ooooooooo! Now there's a lovely palette! I can picture a cushion coming together in those pretty summer colours :)

Some rich, earthy colours coming into play now ::

:: copper :: magenta :: mocha :: raspberry ::

Then changing out the earth colours to add some water!

:: denim :: raspberry :: petrol :: grape ::

Oh yes, I really love these ones too. The one on the right (with the blues) is maybe a touch too dark, perhaps I would lift out the petrol and put a lighter blue in there instead.

Do you like these colours all together? I think they are absolutely WoNdErFuL and the instant I looked at this photograph I wanted to go grab my hook and start making granny squares with them. I can see a big granny blanket right there in those colours, it would be so beautiful! All sort of rich and mellow and warm and spicy! Can you see it? Can you imagine it? Oh the possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaanyyyyyhow.....maybe there is a new blanket idea germinating there, but for now, back to the bunting. I really adore these colours, they aren't my usual palette of clear brights, but there is still a brightness there. I'd say "rich" is a more appropriate word.

I think I will make six more and string them together to add some rich, spicy colour to a little corner of my home.

I am really enjoying working with Wool Warehouse on various yarny projects and am thrilled to be earning a small commission on each sale of the blue and pink yarn packs mentioned earlier in this post. There is 400g of yarn in each of these packs, so you could make shed loads of bunting, or maybe even a small baby blanket or cushion with the leftovers!

I think the pink pack would also make a beautiful Blooming Flower cushion (like a giant rose)...

 

...and how about a ripple-stripe cushion with the blue pack? Perfect for making and gifting a little handmade goodness, or creating a little something for yourself to remind you of summer days.

You can find all Attic24 yarn packs right here.

I am also loving the designing and writing work that I'm currently doing for Simply Crochet magazine, but I would like to reassure you that the magazine doesn't in any way ask me (or pay me) to promote it here on my blog. I write about it every so often cos I love chatting about my creative journey and thought it would be fun to share some colour-love with you. I hope you might feel inspired to go grab some balls and hook yourself a little string of summer colour!

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Yarndale 2013 :: The Yarn Bombing

Keeping On

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

Festive Wreath Beginnings