Happy things

Enjoying having colour in my home at the moment. When I saw these orange roses in a shop I knew they would look brilliant in my turquoise vase..

Single blooms in bright vases look pretty next to my Chagal picture...

Enjoying some stripey crochet - my current work in progress!

Happy weekend all!

Seeing in 2014 with bright colours

It's nearly two weeks into the New Year already. This time of the year can be a little....dark. I mean that literally, not philosophically! It's difficult when there's not much daylight, or sunshine for that matter! At the moment here it gets light at about 7.30 am and dark again at about 4.30. Still, I like to think it's a hopeful time of the year. Every day we gain about 4 minutes of daylight, so we're creeping a little closer to spring all the time. One way to try and brighten the days is colourful flowers! Like these gerberas which I've had on my window ledge the last couple of weeks.

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This winter has been a little different for me, as I'm living on my own for the first time. It's been exciting and scary all at the same time, but overall it's been a good experience so far. I find the winter months are good months to plan and think about what you want from the year ahead. Traditionally in the Northern Hemisphere autumn and winter are introspective months. They kind of have to be since the weather here doesn't make you feel like doing much outside!

So, with a new home I've been doing a lot of planning and thinking about how to make my little nest as snug and happy as possible. Of course for me that means a lot of thinking about what I want to crochet and knit for my living room and bedroom.

So that's what I've been doing since Christmas! 

One of the first things I found I needed to make (almost as soon as I got hold of a coffee table for my living room!), were some table mats and coasters. The sofa which I have in my living room is a lovely teal colour, and I'd already decided I wanted to try use that as a basis for a colour scheme in that room. Two other colours which I think work well with teal are turquoise and bright pink. As it happens I had some turquoise and teal cotton yarn in may stash so I decided to use that to make some mats. The bright pink will follow later in some other way!

I had a request for a pattern for these mats when I posted the pictures on Instagram the other week. I just made these up as I went along really, and I haven't had a chance to try and write down a pattern yet. However, I will try at some point soon. The problem is, I think a chart would be by far the best way for making a pattern for these, but I'm not sure I can write a neat enough chart by hand for anyone else to follow! I'll keep you posted anyway.

Stay warm until next time!

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Colour play

It has been wild and windy here! Our house was without power for about 7 hours on Monday, the day of the big storm. Suddenly being without electricity makes you realise how much you depend on it - for everything from boiling a kettle to heating water to shower or bath in!

Actually, I kind of liked not having electricity for a little while! It was nice to have no distractions and be forced to fall back on more traditional methods of entertainment, such as reading (and crochet of course). Though I probably would have taken a different view if the power outage had lasted until dark - as my other half said "crochet by candlelight - very exciting"! Exciting it may have been, but I'm sure it would have been bad for my eyes.

We were lucky to have our power back the same day - I know some people who were still without power on Tuesday afternoon/evening.

Perhaps my liking for not having electricity relates to a general need I'm feeling lately to try and slow life down. I feel a bit like I'm on a merry-go-round at the moment. I'm trying to cram so much into the days that the hours just fly by, and it leaves me feeling a little dizzy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm loving everything I'm doing at the moment - work and study. It's just that some times I find myself at one of the regular points in my routine feeling like it's only been about a minute since I was doing the same thing the day before!

Do you ever feel like that? Is it a side effect of modern life? I think it must be.

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Well, continuing with my attempt at a slow pace of life here, I've spent some time over the last couple of days playing around with the colours for my starburst squares, rolling ends into nice neat little balls, not hurrying the process, but just enjoying. 

In the photo above you can see the colours I'm using. I was going to try and tell you what make and shade each colour was, but I've completely gotten mixed up with trying to work it out now! Maybe I'll try again when I've finished the blanket.

I've made around 90 of these little squares now, and have started sewing them together.

I find working in batches make the process flow a little more smoothly, so I've been working the first two rounds on a batch of circles, then the third and finally the white edging.

Tonight I'm starting the stitching together process - I have to say it looks pretty good so far!

Stay warm

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Sunshine cushion

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post. This week has gone so fast, and to be honest I have just been plain lazy about posting! In my last post I said that I might have a completed cushion cover to share with you - well, I do!

Here is the cushion made with my latest motif design. I'm calling this motif the sunshine motif. I'm quite pleased with the way this cushion turned out, and I loved working with all these colours!

I think this cushion has a South American feel to it. Something about all the colours together and the sunburst element of the motif. Can anyone else see that?

I also made a button closure for this cushion - I do love that on a crochet cushion, I think it gives such a nice finishing touch! 

I would love to share this pattern with you - I'm actually mulling over the purchase of crochet chart software. I think this would be much better than writing out patterns long-hand, which, let's face it, is a bit of a chore!

Well, I think you have probably had enough of the cushion for now! As Autumn is approaching here with the start of September I've been turning my thoughts to knitwear. More soon!

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Colour therapy

Brrr, it is chilly here, I am really grateful for our fire!

The last few days, I have been on a colour detox (sort of!). Not the kind of detox where you abstain from colour altogether, but the kind where you just let your imagination go, take inspiration from all kinds of places and try not to restrict yourself - just go with what feels and looks right to you in the moment rather than aiming for something specific. So maybe that's a colour retox then!

This all started I guess back in October. I bought a big batch of Stylecraft Special DK yarn in many bright colours and started playing. I then bought some more and because of the difficulties of ordering yarn when you can only see it online, ended up with lots of colours that I loved, but which didn't really work together. There then began a period of colour frustration where I could only use some of my lovely yarns together, whilst wanting to use all of them! I then moved into a stage of acceptance - I just worked with colours which I liked together, and accepted that the other lovely new colours I had would have to stay on the backburner for a bit. It was during the acceptance period that my colour therapy throw was born! (and yes, before you start to wonder, I am being facetious in my talk of colour therapy - I don't take it that seriously I promise!)

I'll tell you more about this throw when it's finished. I really want to talk about the project ideas currently on the backburner which have had time to develop as I worked on this throw. You can see the colours above are all quite bright, saturated hues - purples, pinks, blue, turqoise and green are all featured. The other colours which I felt didn't go with those used here were softer, more neutral colours. I had stashed away a biscuit colour, lovely old rose colour and some grape and plum shades.

Whilst I worked with my bright colours I had time to think about what I could do with these more muted shades, and the idea for a vintage, shabby chic, neutral colour palette throw slowly emerged. After a lot of browsing around on Pinterest for inspiration (you can see the colour inspiration board I have been building here), I began to realise that I had colour palettes for not one, but possible 2 throws in mind. One with old rose, blush pink, biscuit and cream tones, and one with lavender, lilac, grey and off white tones. My working title for these is 'vintage pastel throw' at the moment. Today I took the plunge and ordered yarn in shades that I think will work. I can't wait for the delivery to arrive!

Looking on Pinterest and working with the bright colours I already have also reminded me how much I like frosted candy coloured shades together too - you can see some of this appearing in the colour therapy throw above - I'm talking about sugar pink, baby blue, violet and peppermint which you can see on the outer rounds in the picture above.

Watch this space - more on the plans for my vintage pastel throw soon!