Ombre Blues

You might remember that I started a Ripple Blanket for Miss E.F.

I have not found it easy to get the ombre, graded effect she seemed to like. There has been much unpicking or ‘frogging’ as they say in the crochet world.

This is my fourth attempt.

Stylecraft Special DK and a 4.5mm hook

9 rows of Midnight, 1 row of French Navy, 2 rows Midnight, 2 rows French Navy,

1 row Midnight, 8 rows Franch Navy, 1 row Royal, 2 rows French Navy, 2 rows Royal, 1 row French Navy, 8 rows Royal

The next colour to be introduced next is Lapis.

I hope it works!

 

 

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A Week of flowers: Silly Saturday

I bought these sandals in May and they really cheer me up to look at them now.

They are fun and very silly because they are not easy to walk in!

Brightening up Winter with Cathy and her Week of Flowers.

Strictly Silly Saturday

I have just had a landmark birthday.

And knowing how much I love to dance, my daughter threw a ‘Strictly Come  70’ birthday party for me.

Strictly Come Dancing is a very popular TV dancing show here in the UK.

This is me in my Rosa Bloom outfit flanked by my sisters. The one on the left came as Claudia Wrinkleman (Claudia Winkleman is one of the presenters of the show)

This is me and my wonderful kids – always up for a party!All the grandchildren came as well as lots of friends -it really was the most wonderful party. I feel truly blessed.

 

 

Blooming bollard

Look!!! Such a splendid use for some of my abandoned floral experiments!

The Snail of Happiness

My Welsh dragon crochet is proving very popular, so I wanted to quickly produce a cover for the second bollard outside the shop. The “sock” is pretty straightforward now I have created a pattern and I managed to find some suitable leftover yarn in fairly neutral colours. However, embellishments take much longer. Fortunately, my appeal a few months ago for items with which to decorate the shop meant that I had a bag of crochet flowers from Sandra (Wild Daffodil) just waiting to be used. Small amounts of scrap green yarn were all I needed for the chain stitch stems and here it is:

Oh, bollards!

I will probably make a snail to go on top of it eventually, but I’m pretty happy with it for now. So, big thanks to Sandra, without whom I would still be crocheting flowers.

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Sacred Space for a Wedding Present

At last I can post photos of Sacred Space – a free pattern by Helen Shrimpton, which comes with a video tutorial.

I made it as a Wedding Present for my niece.

In 2017 I made Lucy’s Moorland Blanket for her.

Sacred Space is made with a 4.5mm hook in Stylecraft Special DK in Sage, Storm, Duck Egg, Cream, Petrol

Part One

Round 1,2: Sage

3, 4. Storm.        5,6, 7. Sage

8, 9, 10, 11 Duck Egg

12, 13 Cream

14, 15, 16 Sage

17, Storm

18 Sage ; 19 Storm ; 20 Sage ; 21 Storm

22 Sage ; 23 Storm ; 24 Sage ; 25 Storm

26 Sage

27, 28, 29, 30, Storm

Part Two

31, 32 Sage.           33, 34 Storm

35 Duck Egg.       36, 37, 38 Cream

39, 40, 41 Sage

42, 43, 44 Storm

45 Sage

Part 3

46, 47, 48 Petrol       49, 50 Sage

51 Duck Egg.            52, 53 Storm

54, 55 Sage

Part 4

56 – 63 Petrol

64 Storm ; 65 Sage ; 66 Storm

Part 5

67 Sage        68, 69 Storm

70 Duck Egg

71, 72, 73 Storm

74 Petrol

75, 76, 77 Cream

Part 6

78 – 82 Storm

83 Sage ; 84 Storm ; 85 Sage ; 86 Storm ; 87 Sage ; 88 Storm

89, 90 Duck Egg

Part 7

91, 92, 93 Sage

94, 95 Duck Egg

96 Sage        97, 98, 99 Storm

100 Sage

Part 8

101, 102 Storm

103, 104 Petrol

105 Duck Egg

106, 107 Storm

108 Sage

Part 9

109 Cream

110, 111, Sage

112 Petrol

113 Storm

114 Sage

It certainly was a joy to make.

You can rely on Helen Shrimpton’s patterns to work out well.

Silly Saturday: Viva La Frida

Shoes from Irregular Choice.

Actually it was Fantastically Fun Frida Friday yesterday.

My lovely daughter took me to a Frida Kahlo inspired High Tea and Store6 in Dorchester, Dorset.

It was an early Mother’s Day present.

Floral headbands made by me with artificial flowers from Hobbycraft.

Photo tutorial to follow. I have put a quick tutorial on my Instagram page.

I even went for the Monobrow this time

We were very silly and had the best fun

Our last Frida inpsired outing was 5 years ago for my 65th birthday.

Have you been silly this week?

A Song for Saturday

 

In a Vase on Monday

Joining in with Cathy’s wonderful group of gardeners for In a Vase on Monday

I have a few very confused little wallflowers in the garden. They are a variety that are supposed to flower in Spring and again in Autumn, but having looked quite pathetic all year, they are flowering now. Also in the tin ‘vase’ are some viburnum,  equally confused hebe, and some fennel fronds.

The containers are re-used items of household waste.
Last week I included my experimental ‘moss-on-a-plate’ and my cousin who lives in the Netherlands told me that Moss-on-a-plate is a thing. I Googled it and yes, lots of inspiring images came up. This spurred me on to make some more.

I managed to find some tiny fern plants in my garden. I just love all the shapes and textures of the moss and how it creates a little world of its own.

The Higgidy Pie dish was filled with grit and sandy compost

I used a torn brown paper bag to cover the plastic edges and a piece of rotting wood with moss on it, which I found in my rotting wood pile. Then I added some broken terracotta pot, a couple of tiny primrose plants, a celandine and a piece of lichen – all found in my garden.

I wondered where to keep the dishes, to give them the best chance of surviving and have put them in my new potting shed.

It went up in October and has very little in it so far. It smells all lovely and new and I need a few more shelves and hooks in there. I am sure Cathy would have filled it with cuttings and seed trays by now, but, being a fair-weather gardener, I am happy to gaze at it and enjoy its newness until I get a burst of enthusiasm for the garden again.

Do you like to find things in your garden or nearby hedgerows to put in a vase at this time of year? If so, pop over to Rambling in the Garden for some delightful inspiration.

Twinkle

Sending love and gratitude to all who visit this tiny corner of Blogland.

Wishing you a bright and twinkly time, now and in the coming year.

❤

 

Silent Sunday: Uppark House

Uppark House

Scrap Happy: Wooden Ladder

I saw an old wooden ladder lying at the back of my daughter’s woodshed.

They said I could have it as we, in the UK, are no longer able to use wooden ladders for their intended purpose – health and safety.

So …..

It is now above my woodburner as a drying rack for clothes in the Winter and a place to dry herbs and flowers and hang crochet mandalas in the Summer.

This is it in its raw state, before I treated it for woodworm and waxed and oiled it. The brackets are not the ones I wanted – I had to grab Dave, the local handiman, between jobs when he could put it up for me, so these were the only brackets I could get locally on that day.

He told me that you can treat woodworm with White Spirit, so I took the ladder down again and painted on lashings of the stuff – the ladder soaked up the White Spirit like a sponge and I gave it 3 generous treatments. Later on I found a small can of woodworm treament at the back of a cupboard and treated it with that as well.

I knew the wood would need feeding but when I tried wax and oil on the bit of ladder that had been cut off, the wood went very dark. So I Lime Waxed it first.

You brush the wood, going with the grain, with a wire brush, then rub in the Lime Wax with wire wool. After Liming it I gave the whole ladder and the rusty bits two coats of the Finishing Oil.

(Those are Marmoleum floor samples under the oil – as far as I can tell Marmoleum is one of the most environmentally friendly flooring material one can get here in UK – let me know if you know otherwise. I am going to go for the Turquoise one on top for most of the ground floor in my house – I am so fed up with carpets!)

Ta Dah!

I am thrilled with it – it actually makes the room feel taller and larger.

The wonderful rusty spring on the left is a present from a friend who knows my love of rusty old items. Her son now farms the farm where my Dad grew up, and she found it there and knew I would love it even more because of the connection. What a kind thought – Lucky me!! It is GORGEOUS – so big and heavy.

The woodburner is all ready to go: to heat water, cook delicious stews and dry clothes. Making that space as multi-functional as possible in true Permaculture style!

I haven’t lit a fire yet as it has been so mild here, but I am sure it won’t be too long.

I am joining Kate for her monthly Scrap Happy gathering – pop on over and see how others have been using up their scraps.

A favourite place

In April

and on the last day of the Summer Holidays (this week) with the boys

a wonderful place to cool off

and build on happy memories in a favourite place.

A Comfort Book

This is such an inspiring post about another sort of Stitchbook, that I just had to repost it so that I can share it with you, but also so that I can find it again easily myself. Thank you so much Margaret for this wonderful idea.

thecraftycreek

Ever had an idea and just run with it…

A friend who is going through difficult times at the moment recently posted on facebook that she had heard about comfort boxes, the idea being that friends and family wrote something nice about you and when you’re feeling low you can read the comments for a pick-me-up. Lots of people wrote comments.

I suddenly had the idea that if you made a little fabric book with pockets in, you could put messages in there and carry it with you, a little book of comfort.

I felt it needed some words running through it and chose a poem from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. I selected some variegated thread and stitched the lines of the poem with simple back-stitch.

The pages sort of came together as I went along, finding fabrics that worked as I stitched. My friend has very different…

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Flexacube pattern published

I just had to share this genius pattern from Rainbow Junkie!

Rainbow Junkie

You may remember that when I made this for my daughter.

I didn’t think that the pattern I had bought worked as well for crochet as perhaps it did for knitting. It might have been better if I had some foam cubes but the cube edge size was twice as big as I wanted, which I didn’t like either, so I had done a lot of adapting.

https://rainbowjunkiecorner.wordpress.com/2020/08/24/you-win-some-you-lose-some/

Later I made her this based on my own ideas

and knew that eventually I would create my own pattern.

https://rainbowjunkiecorner.wordpress.com/2020/09/14/my-cubey-twisty-thing/

Well I have been working hard to put together a pattern for the style of cube I made but that also gave the possibility for people to choose their own colours.

I had a few small wooden cubes and here you can see the two demo cubes I made

that were stuck together with sticky tape and embellished with bits of…

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Silent Sunday

How to quickly access WP Classic Editor

Saturday Saunter

This scene is from a walk I did with a friend and her dogs on Thursday, just over and mile from my house. (click on the photo to see it larger)

We have done the walk many times, but we both just had to stop and soak in the view which seemed particularly beautiful in the September sunshine. We both remarked on how lucky we are and how we never take for granted that we live in a beautiful and relatively safe part of the world.

My heart is with anyone affected by wildfires at the moment, all those in California and  particularly Cee, who has been evacuated from her home.

❤  Stay safe friends wherever you are  ❤

Textile Tuesday: Stitchbook progress so far

The year of Stitchbook Collective is nearly over. What a well timed, fabulous course of workshops it has been! Just one more delicious box to come winging its way to me from Yorkshire and Helen Birmingham of Untangled Threads.

Would you like to see progress so far?

Although there is a slight sadness that this project is drawing to a close, there is also excitement going into Year 2!!

There are about 65 of us who are embarking on Year 2 which is in a different format – quarterly instead of monthly. I am very excited about this and it feels so good to continue in the community of supportive stitchers that has built up over the last year.

Helen is also starting a new Year 1, which I highly recommend.

And

The Workshop boxes are still available from her Shop.

Are you working on any textile related projects at the mo? Leave a link in the comments if you would like to share them with us.

Happy Stitching!

Spidery Social Saturday

A wonderful afternoon on a socially distanced walk with my granchildren, my daughter and daughter-in-law.

I have loved lockdown as a long-running creative retreat, but today recharged my batteries in a way that meant more than I realised it would.

O Happy day!

Sand Circles

Today I learnt a friend and unique artist has died.

I am sad beyond words. I need no sympathy because that belongs to his family and closer friends. I just want to celebrate his talent and his art.

Marc created this wonderful ceremonial expression of connection – a magical time on Mwnt beach. One of those people casting moving shadows is me.

Here is the post I wrote about it.

And another when I went with my cousin to Mwnt beach for a New Year’s Sand Circle.

~

Sand Circles