By Helen

crochet jumper…

Way, way, way back in May, I started crocheting myself a jumper.  I have actually crocheted myself four jumpers: three of which I don’t like, and will be recycled into something else.  The fourth, I have to say, I am just-so, ever-so, a-teeeeennnnny bit proud of.  I had to share it with you ready for the tah-dah moment?  Here we go…

From the front…

Close-ups of the pattern detail…

Doesn’t look too bad on either…

I would love to share the pattern I followed, but in true crochet tradition: I didn’t really follow a pattern.  I started with good intentions, and I followed a pattern for six-teen (yes six-teen) whole rows.  The pattern I “followed” was in Simply Crochet, a few months ago: a very pretty pattern for a bolero, by the talented Ruth Maddock . The issue was that I was “following” a pattern for a bolero, but wanted to crochet a jumper.  Do you see what I mean?  I had no choice, but to improvise! That said, the six-teen rows of the pattern which I did follow, where brilliantly written.  They gave the jumper the shape: as you crocheted from the top down. 

I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the jumper.  I’ve crocheted something that I would actually wear: this is quite an achievement.  More than that: I’ve crocheted myself something, which if I saw in a shop – I would buy.  I love crochet :-)

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Ps – enjoy Yarndale, if you’re going…

cute crochet collar…

How that Spring is definitely here, I decide to bravely go outside without a coat:  relying on just my cardi to keep me warm.  I found a lovely bright red cardigan, in a really soft yarn, in a local charity shop for just £2.50.  It was love at first sight: it had to be bought.  The cardi looked great: but I thought that it could do with a little-something, just to make it something really special.  It needs a cute crochet collar.  A friend gave me a pattern written by the very talented Nicky Hale, for Arabella, the cutest little crochet collar I had ever seen.  The pattern is bri-lli-ant!  So well written and with a clear chart.  After a couple of hours crochet, I was ready to attach the collar to the cardi.  I was sooooo pleased with the result.  Are you ready for a ta-dah moment?  Here goes…

Not bad for £2.50, the end of a ball of King Cole Bamboo Cotton and a couple of hours!

second blogversary…

Wow!  I can't quite believe it, but it is almost two years since I started my little blog.  Two years!  I thought I was doing well to get to one year: but here I am two years on.   I have to say that I love, loVE, LOVE blogging to you all: and a MASSIVE thank you, to you, for calling by and reading what I have to say and looking at all the picis that I share with you (I know sometimes there is a lot), thank you!  I love this world of creating and sharing, that I am part of: and it is only possible because of people like you.  I thought that it would be a good time to look back over the last twelve months, and celebrate some of the highlights.  Here goes...

1. Discovering Mollie Makes I am now a complete and utter convert.  I love this magazine, if you haven't discovered it yet - you REALLY should!

2. Lots of brilliant things happened in May, especially seeing the blossom on the trees (I am witting that pattern up for you and will share it with you next month).  I think my very favourite thing was seeing my friend's little girl I in her crochet festival hat...

3. Crochet hair clips, you would not believe how much wear I have had out of these...

4. Lots of great things happened in July: if I had to choose just one thing then it would be my crochet Sunflowers ( if you want to have a go at crocheting them the pattern for the Sunflower is HERE)...

5.  Discovering the sudden revival of friendship bracelets which I hope will continue this summer: as I have something very exciting to share with you about friendship bracelets very, very soon!

6.  September saw the chaos of the start of remodeling our home, this meant spending lots of time out of the house, so that the builders could get-on-with-it, this meant spending lots of time in my favourite shop Ramshambles. Tis a hard life!

7. The building work chaos continued into October, but I did find a little bit of crochet time ready for Halloween...

8. November saw Christmas come early as I crocheted samples for a course I was running in York.  There will be more classes in , and near, York very soon.  Look out for them!

9. December meant Christmas; where I tried to wish you all the best in all the different languages of people who I know are reading my blog.  Sorry if I missed your language, let me know so I can include you ALL next time.

10. January was a brilliant start, to what is turning out to be a brilliant year!  I loved sharing my crochet Hellebore with you...

11. By February our back room was finally finished after finding the most perfect table. Now I have somewhere to blog from, somewhere for my sewing machine, somewhere to craft, oh, and somewhere to eat! 

12. March another brillaint month: despite of, or because of, the cold.  I loved the way my fabric flower sampler tured out...

13. This brings us full-circle, back to today.  My favourite thing in April?  Well that has to be my wreath made up of crochet Daffodils which reminds us that Spring is REALLY here...

So, there it is, another year on.  Once again a massive thank you to all of you for calling by, please do keep checking-in as I have lots of exciting thing happening this year and I can't wait to share them with you!

Love Helen

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wonderful, wintery, Winchester…

Sorry that there hasn’t been a post this week: Si and I have been away.  We’ve had a wonderful week in Winchester.  Winchester is the most loveliest of cities: and could even give York a running for my top city award.  Everything about our holiday was fab-u-lous : the hotel, the food, even the weather.  The weather was perfect mooching weather: cold, crisp and clear.  This meant lots of wondering around looking at the beautiful city; punctuated with visits to coffee-shops for winter warm-ups!  I took lots and lots and lots of picis, so I thought I’d share with you just a few of the highlights…

Wonderful Winchester by night…

Healthy holiday breakfasts, thanks to the amazing Café Monde…

Like everywhere, Winchester had soooo much rain that the Cathedral Crypt was flooded, making the sculpture by Antony Gormley looked even more impressive…

Beautiful stained glass by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones…

A quick visit to the amazing artist studios and craft shop, at the Colour Factory…

A day trip to Salisbury Cathedral…

Everything about Winchester was perfect, even their street bollards…

If you are ever near Winchester I would recommend that you visit, after you have visited York, of course!

facing my baking demons: loaf cakes…

It is ages since I have blogged about baking.  This is not because I haven’t baked: I have, it is just I have had so many other things to tell you about, blogging about baking took a back-seat.  This is going to change: this year I am facing up to my baking demon – the loaf cake.  I am a good baker, I bake great cakes (even if they are not the prettiest things), Si says so, friends and family say so: but I can’t bake loaf cakes.  Give me a recipe for a round cake or a square cake, everything is fine.  Give me a recipe for a loaf cake and the end result will be nothing short of disastrous.  Every loaf cake I have ever baked has collapse into an interesting V shape.  Think deep valley here, running down the middle of the cake.  I have no idea why: if any of you know why this happens, please, let me know.   So this year, right here, right now, I am going to tackle my issues with loaf cakes: and you are coming along with me…

I have the king of baking: Paul Holywood’s How To Bake in support…

I have a picture, so I know exactly what I am aiming for…

And, I AM going to following his instructions to the letter.  No deviations, no thinking well if I just add this.  Are you ready?  Good.

9.45 – Start the cake.  Gather together all ingredients and weigh them out very very accurately. 

9.50 – Everything is ready to go, first job to beat (does he mean cream?  sorry no deviating) the sugar and butter together.  This can take up to ten minutes.  Ten minutes!!

9.53 – Seven minutes of creaming (sorry beating) to go.  My arm hurts!

10.03 – Adding in the lemon curd.  Yuuuummmmmm lemon curd.  Resisting the urge to eat the lemon curd.  Is adding one table spoon of lemon curd, really enough?  Right, no deviating: stick to the recipe.  It’s just I really like lemons; I like my lemons to be so tart that your face hurts when you taste them. 

10.10 – Ready for the oven…

10.30 – Half way through cooking.  Resisting the temptation to open the oven door.  I don’t want it collapsing on me. 

10.50  - It should be ready!

10.51 – It is ready.  Out of the oven.  It looks like the one in Paul’s picture. I have been here before.  Normally in the next ten minutes is when the valley shaping starts to happen.  Figures-crossed while I make the drizzle.

10.58 – It hasn’t collapsed, yet, so I am going to carefully pour over the drizzle: still hoping for the best.   Looking good…

Yep, I think that this is going to be ok…

Here’s to my next adventure into baking loaf cakes…

Happy baking: it is the perfect weekend for it...

crochets heart: happy Valentine’s day…

Happy Valentine’s day!  What better way to celebrate than crocheting lots and lots of hearts…

The pattern I followed (yes followed) is from the first issue of Simply Crochet , it is a really easy pattern to follow; and in no time at all you have gorgeous hearts to hang on your doors…

Or layer together to for extra decoration (soooooo much better than last years)…

I think that I might turn mine into bunting, like I did with my tiny hearts way back when. 

Whatever you do with your heart today, treat it well and spoil yourself!  You deserve it.     

simply crochet…

I have a confession; I have a bad magazine problem: I love magazines.  Hello, my name is Helen I am addicted to magazine.  I have to limit myself two a month: Mollie Makes  and Country Living – otherwise things could get out of hand.  Country Living is on subscription – so technically I am only actually buying one per month.  You can imagine my excitement when I saw an advertisement for a new magazine (brought to us by the lovely people who bring us Mollie Makes) one devoted entirely to crochet...

 I don’t normally buy crochet magazines, as I find them quite stifling: I gave-up on Inside Crochet not long after my May posting last year.  I prefer to look through crochet stitch books and take inspiration from them and then apply the stitches to crochet different projects from instinct and imagination.  But I thought (strictly in the interests of research) I would give Simply Crochet  a try.   I am glad that I did, the magazine is full of really great projects to crochet…

It is full of interviews, ideas reviews and inspiration.   There was something for everyone one, really great clear instructions for those just getting started with crochet and more challenging patterns for those with a little more experience.  The biggest problem is knowing where to start, I want to crochet the hearts and flowers, and would definitely love to give the snuggle-up blanket a try, then there is the gorgeous oh-so simple, but oh-so effective, magical circle scarf.  I think that I might just start with the Lovables…

Soooo cute!  Will Simply Crochet become magazine number three?  Well I will have to get a few issues, just to make my mind up!   Don’t tell Si…

crochet happy feet…

Back in Mollie Makes issue nineteen, there was the most wonderful pattern for crocheting granny square slippers.  The idea was so simple, that I just had to crochet them.  I thought that I would start small so I crocheted I (who I'd crocheted hats and other stuff for) a pair…

See those happy, smug, feet in crochet slippers…

I used quite dark yarn, so that they would keep (relatively) clean: hoping her Mum would appreciate that and what little girl doesn’t love purples?  They were perfect for using up left over yearn, as the granny squares I crocheted were tiny, just two rounds…

I only had to crochet twelve granny squares to make the slippers…

Double crochet was used to join them together, no sewing – genius!  The colours shown in Mollie Makes, were brilliantly put together…

A big, biG, BIG thank you to the very talented Stephanie Gohr for designing these – I can’t wait to try out more of your patterns.

 I am very very tempted to buy some yarn to crochet myself a cheerful pair.  But Si has asked me to crochet him a pair.  I can’t wait: this is the first time he has ever asked me to crochet him anything, despite repeated offers.  So I must make a start.  Making size nines, will take slightly longer than those for I – who is two.  I’ll let you know how I get on!

a celebration of 2012….

As 2012 comes to an end, I thought that I would share with you, and celebrate,  some of my highlights form 2012, what a busy year it has been…

In January I started my New Year’s resolution, to crochet a different flower each month – something I hope to continue in 2013.  

In February the weather turned cold: and it snowed and snowed and snowed.  I love snow; nothing else can change the appearance, sound, smell and feel of your surroundings quite so well as snow.

With March came the promise of Spring, with golden Daffodils cheering-up much of York.  I just had to crochet a Daffodil…

In April I celebrated my first Blogversary.  A whole year of sharing all of my crocheting and crafting with you.  Thank-you for sticking with me!

May was a busy crochet month.  Crocheting May blossom and festival hats for my little friend I.

June saw crochet to the rescue with a quick fix for my hair…

I was sooooo very proud of July’s crochet flower of the month; I had to share it with you again.  It still makes me smile of dull rainy days!  The crochet pattern for it is here!

In August I was in for a real treat, making beautiful faabric flowers.  I hope to make bunches of these next year…

September saw Si and I start to get the house ready for re-modelling.  It also saw me fall in love with the most perfect yarn for crocheting flower brooches.  And I introduced you all to my favourite yarn shop. 

Crochet in October was given over to going out, to let the builders get on with finishing our home.  I did manage to sneak in a bit of Halloween hooky time…

Christmas started really early, in November, as I crocheted lots and lots of samples for my Crochet for Christmas course.

In December I found the cutest Christmas trees to crochet, and hung them proudly in by nearly finished home…

Yep, it has been quite a year, all good!  See you in the New Year for lots more crocheting and crafting! 

it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

I’m beginning to feel all Christmassy!  I have to admit it has taken a while this year: normally I am super excited in early November and by this point I am desperate to put the decorations up.  This hasn’t happened this year: I think that it is because I feel like I’ve lost a month to building work, so still have some catching-up to do.   Today, I am beginning to feel Christmas brewing-up inside me.  Christmas cards are made and posted.  Christmas presents have been bought: and will be wrapped at the weekend.  Christmas cakes were made in October (thanks to a strange family superstition which means Christmas cakes must be made before Halloween).  I am going to hear one of my favourite singers, Kate Rusby, singing Christmas songs.   And I have put up my first Christmas decorations.  Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas….

Last year I crocheted a Christmas tree, by stacking up Starflakes.  This year I found a really cute crochet pattern, on Ravelry, by the super talented Carol Bancroft…

The pattern is very easy to follow.  You can crochet a Christmas tree in less than twenty-minutes and in an afternoon you have tree bunting.  What’s not to love?