By Helen

crochet bunting…

Over the bank holiday weekend, York was lovely and sunny, perfect weather for been outdoors in the garden.  For me it was an indulgent weekend, I have been sooooooo busy lately that I needed to just chill and do not-a-lot, while Si got on with some chopping back the plants and building his rabbit-hutch (sorry woodshed, which looks remarkably like a rabbit-hutch – he has assured me that we are NOT getting a rabbit) I sat and crocheted.  It was a good thing that I indulged in some serious hooky time, because when I looked up from finishing off my jumper: Si had given the Cotoneaster a rather server undercut.   The undercut did leave the perfect hanging space for my crochet bunting…

It cheers the wall up, and adds some much needed colour to the space.  The butting was a really easy crochet project, made up of seven granny-triangles...

They were really quick to crochet and then joined together with a simple chain.  The bunting was both started and finished in a couple of hours. What could be better…

Hope you had a lovely l-o-n-g bank holiday weekend?

 xxx

pure inspiration (part two)…

I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d share some more of the picis that I took, while I was at the Alnwick Garden.  You can never have too many flowers, right?  So following on from pure inspiration here comes part two…

Simply stunning.  Inspiration at every turn.  Ideas whirling around my head of all the flowers which I want to crochet and all the fabric flowers that can be made.  I hope you are as inspired..?

Ps – I haven’t found the time to crochet you a flower of the month, this month – hope you don’t mind all the picis of the real thing instead?  Back to crochet for next month…

 

xxx

pure inspiration…

A few weeks ago Si and I spent a long weekend in beautiful Northumberland.  While we were in Northumberland we decided to visit Alnwick Garden.  I cannot tell you how amazing the garden is, words just don’t describe it.  So I thought I’d share with you some of the stunning flowers we saw…

I hope you agree: simply stunning.  There was inspiration at every turn.  I came home with ideas whirling around my head of all the flowers which I want to crochet and all the fabric flowers that can be made.  I hope you are as inspired..?

crochet: lazy, daisy, bunting…

Coming back from holiday, I am getting back into the routine of everyday life; work, rest and play.  To be honest getting back into it hasn’t been too bad: maybe it is because the sun is still shining, maybe it is the thought of the lovely friends I’ll be catching-up with in the coming weeks or may be it is because our next holiday doesn’t seem all that far away.  I thought I’d get back into the routine of blogging crochet and share with you my pattern for lazy, daisy bunting.  It is a pattern I have been working on for a long, long, long  time: but I finally settled on it just in time for York’s last Yarnbomb.

I used some lovely yarn by Rico Design, called creative fliz!  It is a merino yarn, really thick and chunky.  Any chunky yarn will do:  I was drawn to this practically yarn because of the colours…

The ball band recommends you use a 8mm hook: but I decided to use a 4.5mm hook – so the bunting didn’t droop when it was hung out.

Here’s how to crochet the daisy…

2ch…

Working into the 2^nd ch from hook…

Crochet 9tr…

ss to join…

Finish off and change colour (if you want to), *9ch…

ss into next tr*…

Repeat *-* until you have crocheted your petals…

Finish off and weave in your ends.  Crochet as many lazy daisies as you like: then join together using a long crocheted chain, catching the petals, with a double crochet, as you go along…

Hang, make a cup-of-tea and enjoy your lazy, daisy bunting....

Notes:

• Uk crochet terms have been used
• Sorry about the blurriness of the last image: not sure what happened! 

on our holidays…

 

It seems like a long time since I last posted to you.  We’ve been away on our summer jollies.  We’ve been somewhere with beautiful blue sky and seas…

We’ve been somewhere with beautiful long deserted sandy beaches…

Any ideas where we’ve been?  No, ok I keep on with the clues.  We’ve been somewhere where castles dominate the skyline, making amazing silhouettes…

With the long sandy beaches and the blue sea and sky we could have been anywhere, some far flung island.  The castles are the give-away, that we stayed much much closer to home.  We’ve been to Northumberland.  Just a couple of hours up the A1, from York and you arrive at one of the most wonderful, relaxing places I know. 

I feel like I have had a proper holiday, a long relaxing, chilled out break. Our days were filled with late breakfasts, slow walks around castles and gardens, long leisurely evening meals followed by long walks along the beach: with the occasional pause for afternoon tea…

I have come home truly refreshed.  I can’t wait to share with you some of the picis that I took at the Alnwick Garden (I took soooooo many: but don’t worry I wont bore you with them all) I think that I will remain inspired for a good few months to come. 

 Ps – back to crochet for the next post…

Pps - Happy, hapPY, HAPPY, Yorkshire Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!