By Helen

March's flower of the month, continued…

Where had I got to?  Oh yes, crocheting the Daffodil’s trumpet.  I switched colours and began to play.  After a few attempts with different stiches, settled upon a happy combination of doubles, trebles with picot to make the rufflely end…

After crocheting the picot into each of the trebles, I had something with that (I think) resembles a Daffodil’s trumpet…

I sewed the crochet parts together and, ta-dah…

A crochet Daffodil!  I played about with colour, and came up with a few different crocheted Daffodils, Narcissus and other Daffodil inspired flowers…

I have to say I am really pleased with how these looked. I know that I have only three crochet flower of the month, the Snowdrop in January, the Rose in February, but I think that this is my best yet. 

I can’t wait for next months…

March’s flower of the month…

For the past few days I have walked home from work around the City Walls  just so that I can see the Daffodils zinging in the sunshine...

They surround the mount that Cliffords Tower stands on…

They look so lovely: they just had to become March’s flower of the month.  I gathered together Daffodil coloured yarns, and started to crochet.  I began with crocheting the petals…

So far this is what I have got…

I’m pretty pleased with them.  Now I just need to work out how to crochet the trumpet…

Note: I should point out, to any plants people, that I am using the term Daffodil quite generically for all of these happy, cheerful flowers, and am quite aware that some of them are in fact are Narcissi and some are just going to be a product of my imagination:-)

wonderful day out, in York...

Yesterday Si and I had a wonderful day out in, our home city of, York.  We went around York's Open Studios... 

It is an annual event, usually for two weekends, where York artists are invited to open their studios, so that people can wonder round and have a look at lots and lots of different artists works.  A truly inspiring thing to do. 

My highlights included an amazing quilter Alison Bramley who really has turned quilting into an art form, producing contempoary wall hangings depicting a variety of subjects. 

We visited two fabulous textile artists Sandra Middleton and Carol Coleman who kindly shared the same venue, which saved our tired feet.  Their styles are very different, but both equally talented and inspirational.  They made be relies that I really, really, reaLLY, REALLY want to give machine embroidery a try.

My favourite studio had to be that of painter Lesley Seeger.  Lesley's work is so colourful, so zingy, so energetic, you need to see it.

The studios are open today and then again next weekend.  So go on, grab a brochure, download a map, put on a pair of comfy shoes and go and visit some studios.  There really is something for everyone.  You cannot fail, but to be inspired...

crochet for the Spring equinox…

Spring is definitely here!  We have passed the Spring equinox, the day when day and night are the same length as each other, and now our days are longer than our nights.  The equinox is any time between the 20^th and 22^nd March, depending on what source you read. 

I thought that I would crochet something for the occasion.   I could have crocheted something Spring related, but I am saving that one up.  I decided to crochet something that mirrors the equal length of day and night…

These were inspired by the two-colour spiral pattern in Melody Giffiths’ 201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas.  The pattern was easy to follow (as all of Melody’s tend to be) the only tricky bit was taking the crochet hook out of one colour to continue working with the next…

Should have thought about that a little harder before starting, and popped a safety-pin in the loop which came off the hook.  Never-the-less I am pleased with the results…

Now I just need to work out what to do with them.  I think that I will make them into a decoration for the window.

crocheting tiny blocks, an update…

Do you remember the crochet tiny blocks that distracted me, a few days ago, while I was having my stash Spring sort out?  Well things didn’t go quite to plan.

Remember that I mentioned that they were quite addictive to crochet?  So small, so quick to make.  I managed to make lots of them, all tiny, all regimented blocks, all in different tones of similar colours, all using up the odd ends of my stash.  All was going well.  I decided to turn them in to a cushion cover.  Either make 120 (yes 120) of them, for a pillow shaped cushion or make a Granny Square concoction out of them.  I don’t think I would have enough left over yarn for 120 tiny blocks: and the idea was to use up my stash, not buy more yarn.  So I decided to go with the Granny Square concoction idea, so I set about joining them together…

And working them into a Granny Square…

So, what was the problem?  I hear you ask. 

Quite simple.  I don’t like them!  To make it worse I don’t know why I don’t like them.  I like the colours.  I like (no love) Granny Squares.  I like making them.  I don’t even mind weaving in the ends.  Okay weaving in 120 ends may have tested my resolve.  In theory I should like what I am making.  I don’t.  I guess this will be put back in my stash draw, until the next big sort-out.  By the time that clear out comes along, I might have fallen back in love with this project.  So, until them…

crocheting tiny blocks…

With Spring comes the inevitable (or at least my inevitable) need to tidy and sort out.  I decided to tackle my yarn stash.  So far it is not going well: I am far too distracted by all those half-finished crochet projects that I keep coming across and the odd ends of yarns that I have kept just in case.  Just in case of what exactly; I am not sure. 

I decided to start to use up some of those odd ends of yarn (see there was a reason for keeping them) and crochet these tiny little blocks…

And so the tidying stopped, in favour of crochet!  These tiny blocks are quite addictive, you come across yarn and you think I’ll just make one more.  Then the same thing happens again and again and again.  I am not sure what I am going to make the tiny crochet blocks in to: but I am going to try really hard not to pop them away until the next big sort out!  I will let you know…

out in the garden…

We’ve done it.  For the first time this year, we have spent a delightful few hours out in the garden.  My goodness, did it need our attention.  I am soooo embarrassed about the state it what in, after a Winter of neglect, I can’t quite bring myself to share an image of it.  You will just have to take my word for it.  The neglect issue was compounded by the fact that the local moggies saw our garden as their bathroom of choice.  Now I LOVE moggies, really I do, but I did rather feel that I was going to war.  Helen v’s moggies.

The first battle was in my herb garden.  The herbs had lost to the snow, frost, ice and moggies so everything came out…

Si came up with the idea of creating a low rockery.  He was thinking that; stone meant less soil for moggy digging, it gave structure to the bed and gave us channels to plant in.  You know what he was right...

He then set about creating these mushroom like things, out of wood and old cds…

Perfect!  They stop the moggies from digging and will eventually be replaced by plants once the warmer weather truly arrives.  For now they are doing their job: plus they do look quite funky…

 

 Helen 1 Moggies 0

Note:

If any neighbours are reading this: please know I do love all moggies and they are all very welcome to visit the garden anytime they wish.  I just want to enjoy it as well as them ;-)

one of the ugliest cakes I have made…

It is official: I have made one of the ugliest cakes that I have ever seen.  It all started out with very good intentions.  Christmas food is finally eaten, the last slice of cake gone, the last of the biscuits away.  That means I can return to baking, without the nagging feeling of you should be finishing this.

After a happy hour browsing through, my staple, How to be a Domestic Goddess (which I have to say I rather think I am already) I settled upon a Marzipan Fruit Cake.  Perfect!  Nigella even says that it is her favourite fruit cake in the entire world.  I would beg to differ: but that is only because she hasn't tried one made to my Grandma’s recipe.  Nigella's recipe sounds promising and, best of all, I get to use up all stuff left over from Christmas.  Christmas truly has finished.   So I kind of follow Nigella’s recipe, substituting here and there with whatever I find in the store cupboard…

A day later (yes a day: you have to freeze the marzipan overnight) voila…

The ugliest cake I have ever made.  It looks nothing like Nigella’s, but I did make so many substitutions that, perhaps, I shouldn’t be surprised.  It was also the strangest mixture to work with…

We weren’t able to follow Nigella’s advice to leave it for a week to mature, we dived straight in.   And you know what?  It tasted a whole lot better than it looked!

a quick crochet project (from a few weeks ago)…

Time seems to have run away with me this week, and I don’t really know how we got to Sunday.  A Sunday in March!  I haven’t spent much hooky time this week: I guess we all have weeks like that?  This was partly because I was waiting for some yarn to arrive.  I had vastly underestimated the amount of yarn I would need for a crochet project that I am working on at the moment: fortunately the yarn blends in colour so dye lot doesn’t matter too much.  And partly because life has simply got in the way! 

So I thought that I would share with you a crochet project, which I worked up a few weeks ago…

The pattern for the little birdy , is from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24.  The pattern is great, as most things by Lucy tend to be, easy to follow, takes very little yarn and is started and finished in an easy couple of hours.

I made a second…

I decided to leave the dangly legs off the project.  I have made them as pram toys for two brand new babies.  I thought that the dangly legs had too much chew potential and the chance of yckiness was high!

Looking out of the window the weather seems to have turned back to cool and wet.  The perfect excuses (not that one should be needed) to spend to serious time with the hook this afternoon…

spring has sprung…

Wow, doesn’t it really feel like Spring today?  The sun is shining; I was woken up with the birds chirping, even here in the middle of the city.  And best of all, colour is coming back to the world, as tiny little flowers show themselves to us, after their long winter sleep...

This tiny pale yellow flower, gives me an idea for a crochet project, that I am looking forward to starting this weekend...

Si's fingers don't normally look quite this bad.  He had just finished working in the garden, I can't wait to show you what he has been up to, when he came across this...

I love the way that leaf buds start to uncoil themselves, stretching Winter away.  I just wish I had taken a less blurry photograph...

I love the colours here...

It all just makes your heart sing: I think that I love this time of year almost as much as Autumn.