By Helen

crochet blanket for September and beyond…

It’s  September.  I love September!  I said it last year: I said it the year before, and yes – I will say it again next year.  I love the last hazy days for Summer as the year turns towards Autumn.  I love the thought of the colours changing, the early morning mists and dusky evenings.  I love this time of year.  I have spent the last week, thinking about my Autumn / Winter crochet project.  Inevitably I will have more than one crochet on the go over the next few months: a girl needs variety!  My main crochet project is going to be a biggy: a long term project that will grow slowly as-and-when the mood takes me.  I am going to be crocheting a Lucy blanket: as in Lucy from Attic24.   I ordered my yarn from Wool Warehouse, to my absolute delight a massive box arrived the very next day, full of yarn…

I have to confess I was a little unsure about the some of the colours, they are not what I would normally choose, but I love how Lucy puts her colours together: so I trust that the finished blanket will be great.  I decided that I needed to take a super organised approach to crocheting the blanket and sort out my colours.  Putting the colours in order took a lot of thinking about.  At one point, I have over thought the whole project and was very close to giving up before I started.  Then with one last attempt I found a combination that I was happy with (I think)…

With my first colour (Stylecraft DK Special – Clematis) in hand I started crocheting a chain, long enough to cover a double bed (I hope).  I would love to tell you how many chains I crocheted: but the truth is I lost count.  I crocheted somewhere between 250 and 300 chains…

The blanket is going to be a crochet granny-stripe blanket, so I set about crocheting my first row of treble clusters…

I decided to crochet straight into the chains, rather than crocheting a proper foundation chain.  Why?  Well the thought of crocheting a foundation row of 250 – 300 chains, really put me off.  When the blanket is finished I am going to edge it: any foundation row would be hidden, so no point in doing one!  Right? 

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

crochet flower for July…

Gosh it is hot!  Here in the UK we are officially having a heat-wave.  I have to confess I am being a bit British about the whole thing; keeping cool and not doing more than I need to.  Maybe I am being sensible rather than British (though I have moaned that I am toooooo hot).  I do prefer cooler weather, I prefer months that end with ber (September, October, November and December), I prefer months that have r’s in them, if I am very honest I prefer the snow.   I do love seasons; how the weather, the garden and moods change through the year.  The weather made last week’s Yarnbomb very hot but very well attended.  Did you stop my contribution?  No, never mind, here’s a close up of one of the flowers that I crocheted…

I am writing up the pattern, and I’ll share that with you very soon.  For now it is back to doing very little and keeping cool.

Enjoy the sunshine…

yarnbomb York…

Remember that I mentioned that there was a yarnbomb in York?  Well it was last Saturday, at Rowntree Park, and it was even better than the last yarnbomb.  I thought that I’d share with you some of the memories…

Hope you like them? 

Ps – did you spot my contribution? 

yarnbomb York: next Saturday…

A very quick post to let you know that there will be a yarnbomb in York, next Saturday – 13^th July.  The yarnbomb will take place in Rowntree Park: as part of the park’s birthday celebrations.  People have been working hard to knit, crochet and stitch for the event…

You can bring along work to yarnbomb on Saturday, or there will be chance to sit in the park and make something there and then.  See you Saturday…

For more information have a look at Hippy Stitch's blog

July in an English city garden…

What a difference a week makes?  The sun has finally come out, and with last week’s rain the garden has really taken off.  It has been a long, long, while since I blogged about my garden, that I thought I’d share it with you today.  We still have the on-going issue with the neighbourhood cats, but it is getting better, a lot better, the garden is still full of Si’s CDs on sticks which work brilliantly!  Before we go on, I should explain, that when I say garden – technically it is a yard.  I live in a city terrace, so the yards were originally, functional: that hasn’t stopped us treating the yard as a garden. 

Looking out of our bedroom window, the view isn’t bad.  I love how the plants are taking over and the wall between us and next-door is beginning to blur…

Sweet Woodruff: one of my favourite plants. It grows everywhere, especially in shade, and has the prettiest star shaped flower…

Pots and posts full of flowers…

One of my pots is my herb-garden, perfect for picking of adding to summer suppers…

Bursts of colour everywhere…

Buds waiting to burst into flower…

Looking back towards the house, I am very very proud of my small space…