Well my lovelies, the observant among you might have noticed that I haven’t been here in blogland in a long, long, l-o-n-g time. I have decided to close my blog; for a number of reasons which all make a lot of sense to me. When I close my blog, hopefully, it won’t disappear, so you’ll be able to look back at my journey. I not stopping crocheting, makings, workshopping or designing, and you will still be able to follow my journey: I really hope you will.
It is a beautiful world. Today frost has taken hold and made the world shiny and sparkly! I love this time of the year. All of the photos that I am about to share with you, were taken by the River Ouse in York. All of the photos that I am about to share with you, were taken within twenty minutes’ walk of my front door. I don’t have the words to express how blessed I feel. I don’t have the words to express the emotions that I was feeling as I took a walk this morning. Despite all the bad that it going on in the world today, it is still a very beautiful place to be…
Hello! It has been a while! I’ve been busy, busy, busy working in my real-life job and lots and lots of making: I’ve been making flowers for a lovely lady’s bridesmaids! The wedding is tomorrow: so I’ll share some pictures of those makes very soon. I’ve also been working on something for you! As the weather, here is York, is turning distinctly chilly I thought I’d crochet a scarf and share the pattern with you. It’s a short scarf (although you clever people can easily make it longer) perfect for chilly evenings and under jackets…
I’ve used some beautiful camel sock yarn (50% silk and 50% baby camel) from Truly Hooked and used a 4mm hook for a loose open feel. The scarf used all of one 100g/400m skein, so if you decide to make the scarf longer, you will need more than one skein…
[instructions without pictures can be found at the end of this post]
Row one: ch 270. Turn…
Row two: dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc into each st. Turn...
HINT: I would suggest working into the ch as in the image below, for a really neat foundation…
Row three: 3ch, 1tr in next st, *1ch, skip st, 1tr in next 2 sts**…
Repeat *-* to end. Turn…
Row four: 3ch, 1tr in next st. **2tr in ch sp, 1ch, 2tr in ch sp*. Repeat ** - ** to end. Turn…
Repeat row three and four, until the scarf is the width you would like. When crocheting the last row, don’t do a chain between the trebles.
Last row: 1ch, dc in ch sp, dc in tr, dc between each ch…
Have you visited Provence? No, neither have I. I would love, love, love to visit the area and see the beautiful fields of lavender stretching out for miles and miles. I would love, love, love to hear the hum of the bees as they go about their work in the lavender fields. I would love, love, love to take a deep breath and inhale the intoxicating lavender perfume. One day…
Have you visited Yorkshire? I am lucky enough to love in York, the centre of Yorkshire, the city is stunningly beautiful and so is the surround country-side. Last week Si and me hired a car (we have been car-free since last November) and went to the stunning Yorkshire Lavender. As soon as we stepped out of the car, the smell of lavender hit you in waves. I wish I could let you smell what we smelt. I took lots of photographs so you can see the loveliness of what we saw…
All colours of lavender…
Harvest time…
Sculpture punctuating the landscape…
Not the only ones enjoying the lavender…
Yes, lots of lovely lavender…
Ok, it isn’t Provence: it is Yorkshire and it is well worth a visit, a visit for the senses and for inspiration.
Wow! It has been a busy few months. Regular readers will know that I have been trying really hard, over the last few months, to slow down and reconnect with my making. It is beginning to work! I’m still working (in the real world) full-time but this may change soon, as my work contract comes to an end. In the creative world, I have been just as busy, with my makes going to a certain three day fair in September (more about that very soon), a crochet workshop in September and lots of Christmas fairs to start getting ready for. Yes, it has been busy! Last week I took some time out and treated myself at The British Wool Show. I was the first time that I had visited The British Wool Show, despite it been just four miles from my home. It was brilliant. Even the free shuttle bus from York had been yarnbombed…
There wasn’t the same amount of stalls that you would expect at Yarndale or the The Knitting and Stitching Show, but the quality of what was there sure made up for the quantity…
Very soon, I had spent all of my money: I take cash to places like this so that I don’t have to explain myself too much!
I bought the most beautiful yarn from; Midwinter Yarns, Truly Hooked andYarn Garden and two stunning brooches from Flet by Bridget. I have ideas whirling around my mind as to what to do with the yarn, I’ll share these with you very soon…
Where do you get the inspiration for your makes? Like a lot of you, I get a lot of my inspiration from plants, flowers and Mother Nature. Often, my inspiration is found just a few feet from my backdoor! At the moment, I live in a small terrace house a stones-throw from the centre of York, with a lovely, lovely, garden. Purists would say that, technically, my garden is a yard, and I guess it is…but to me it is my small, perfectly-formed, garden. My garden is my place of calm, green-ness and inspiration. I love it…
Lavender welcomes you in to my home…
Along with a colourful, hanging basket (if any of you know the name of this plant, please let me know)…
More hanging baskets and pots in the back…
Tomatoes…
Lettuce and rocket and other green leaves…
More pots...
All, no more than 30 seconds from my door! I hope that you have your own green space?
I’d love to see pictures of them. Why not tag them to my Facebook page HERE of Instagram HERE
Hello Lovelies! It has been an absolute age, since I wrote a crochet pattern. I have been soooo busy in my other life; crochet has taken a bit of a back-seat: I am trying so hard to right this situation, so please, please, bear with me. Last week I finally sat down, crochet hook and yarn in hand, and wrote a crochet pattern. The crochet pattern has been mulling around in my head for a very, very, long time. It started way-back when, when I crocheted my rose wreath and it finally developed into the pattern, that I am going to share with you now.
You will need; yarn and crochet hook (appropriate to the yarn that you are using), a needle and scissors. For those of you who want to, there is a copy and paste version of this pattern at the bottom of this post.
The pattern is written so that you can crochet three different size roses…
Ready? Good.
Start by crocheting either 53 (39 or 23) ch…
Working into the 5th ch from the hook…
1tr…
*1ch, miss 1ch, 1tr into next ch*...
Repeat *-* until end…
3ch, 4tr, 1dc into chsp...
**into next chsp, 1dc, 5tr, 1dc** …
Repeat **-** until end, finished off leaving a long tail…
Coil the rose together and secure, using the tail and stitching together…
Crochet lots of roses and make yourself a beautiful bunch of roses or attach them to a wreath.
If you’ve enjoyed crocheting my rose, I’d love to see your work. You can follow me on Facebook HERE or on Instagram HERE or on Ravelry HERE
Enjoy!
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Start by crocheting either 53 (39 or 23) ch
Working into the 5th ch from the hook, 1tr
1ch, miss 1ch, 1tr into next ch
Repeat *-* until end
3ch, 4tr, 1dc into chsp
**into next chsp, 1dc, 5tr, 1dc**
Repeat **-** until end
finished off leaving a long tail
Coil the rose together and secure, using the tail and stitching together
Well, dear readers, things have changed again! In my world, outside of byhelen land, I have three months’ work which I wasn’t expecting: I will carry on juggling crafting, crochet and all things creative alongside the day job. In my reconnecting with crafting and generally slowing down, the balls will be in the air a little longer, but I have a plan. To help with my reconnecting with crochet, I’m going to follow a crochet along! Yes, dear friends, I hang my head in shame, it has been a while since I have crocheted. Recently I stumbled along an amazing crochet blog In the Yarn Garden by the incredibly talented Charlotta. So, you can imagen my excitement, when Charlotta announced a crochet along. Over the next month Charlotta will publish parts of her crochet pattern, so that we can slowly, slowly, crochet ourselves something lovely. Today, my yarn arrived…
I’ve substituted Charlotta’s recommended yarn, with trusty-old Stylecraft the yarn which Charlotta is going to use is only available in her home country of Sweden.
If you want to crochet along with Charlotta you can follow her blog HERE or on Facebook HERE or on Ravelry HERE. The first part of the crochet along is published on the 1st July, so there is still time to order your yarn!
I’ve not been here in blog-land for a while, because Si and I popped up to Northumberland for a few days holiday. We were really lucky to have lots of lovey sunshine and I am happy to report that we did nothing, expect walk and walk and walk along the sea-shore and in beautiful gardens…
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