Hello July!

It's now technically what I think of as 'high summer' here in the UK. Wimbledon is on, we're all eating strawberries and cream (yes really, it's not just a cliche!) and the sun is (gasp) actually shining!

I am really going to try for a more positive, one-day-at-a-time approach to life from now on. The last couple of months have not been easy for me. I often feel bad for any complaints I make about my life on here, realising that I really am so lucky on the whole. However, recently I have been dealing with what I can only describe as buried problems which are of many (many) years standing. Although they aren't of anywhere near the magnitude of troubles that I know some of the lovely people reading this have faced and do face in life, they have been difficult for me to deal with.

The last few weeks I have really started to feel that I can conquer these things though. Thank you to those of you who responded to my recent post here. I'm still trying to push forward with these ideals in my life, and it's lovely to know that some of this strikes a chord with other people too.

I think its good to focus on appreciating what you have in life and look at the beauty in small every day things. The roses in the pictures above are an example I guess. They were taken in Hampton Court Palace rose garden on my recent holiday. Like any flower, they bloom for a while, but don't last forever. You have to take the time to stop and see how wonderful these things are in the moment, because those moments will never come again, and you may not realise how wonderful they actually were until they have passed you by and are gone forever.

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So, enough introspection and on to the main purpose of this post, which is actually an update on one of my major crochet projects of the moment.

This is my progress so far on the Erika Knight Patchwork throw which I started in the middle of May (it feels like ages ago now!)

I'm really pleased with the way it's coming along, and although it's a big woolly blanket, and far too warm for this time of year, the colours just scream summer to me.

It's been a joy to make. However, I think I may have to set it aside for now as I'm really about to run out of yarn.

I'd like to make this a really big blanket in the end, so I think I will wait a few more weeks until I can get some more yarn, and then carry on with it, rather than doing my usual process of making it as big as I can with what I have and then finishing off. I have a lot of single bed size blankets, and I'd really like a nice generous double bed size blanket! So, I'm going to try and make this that blanket!

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Communication breakdown

Annoyingly my internet connection is temporarily out of action while our service provider "upgrades" our broadband.  Not sure why upgrade should necessitate broadband outage for nearly a week! Seems counterintuitive to me - surely upgrade should result in improved service rather than no service! 

Well anyway,  the lack of connection is the reason for my lack of blogging this week.  I'm posting this from my phone so please excuse typos! 

I had a nice time visiting London's Loop yesterday and bought some skeins of Madeleine Tosh sock yarn.

I'm working on turning some of this into a lovely scarf ready for autumn

Well that's all for now, I'll be back when my internet connection permits!

♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

Lonely tree shawl

Hello everyone! I'm back from a lovely week of holiday with S. We were lucky with the weather and had some lovely days out. What more could you ask for from a holiday in England in the summer!

Well, I'm not going to share my holiday snaps just yet. Instead I wanted to tell you about the fun I have had making the lovely Lonely Tree Shawl, a pattern for a triangular shawl by SoftSweater, aka Silvia Bo Bilvia. The pattern is available from SoftSweater's Ravely store for those of you who are interested.

This was my first triangular shawl, well my first attempt to knit any kind of shawl actually!

I really enjoyed the process of knitting this - in fact I think it has me hooked on shawl knitting! I've discovered that there are many gorgeous knitted shawl patterns available online, so I already have my next pattern lined up - all I need is the yarn (and oh, it's such a hardship for me to go and buy yarn!!).

The shawl came out a little smaller than intended in the pattern I think - the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, and I used a sport weight (Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk). I worked a few extra rows, and I'm pretty happy with the size my shawl finished up at. It's not massive, but it still goes comfortably round my neck and will make a sweet summer accesory to keep the chill off!

If you like the look of this lovely pattern, you might be interested to check out some other shawl patterns - I've been trawling the web all week looking for the prettiest that I can find. I've collected them on Pinterest - stop by and have a look if you have time, there are some lovely patterns out there!

Next time I'll try and post a catch up on my various crochet projects...also maybe a post with some holiday snaps soon!

Take care until then.

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Yellow roses

Hello world and fellow bloggers and crafters, I am back. It has been another busy couple of weeks, resulting in my not having the time or energy to post (some evenings, I haven't even had energy to craft).

Well, I'm heading off for a week's holiday next week, so this is a quick catch up post before I go. I don't have a great deal to report on the craft front - just that I have been enjoying making the Rowan T shirt pattern 'Kos' from this month's Simply Crochet.

It's a long time since I have attempted to crochet a garment, but this time I think I have got the hang of it!

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In general in life, I am realising lately that you can not control every situation you are in - sometimes things will happen and you just have to figure out what to do as you go along. You can never plan for every eventuality, and you should never hold back from trying to realise your dreams just because you are afraid that things won't work out.

To anyone reading this, wherever you are, whatever you're doing I hope you have the courage to chase you dreams, and find happiness!

So hears to making dreams come true and going for what you want in life!

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Lazy Sunday

I think I may have developed a split personality when it comes to crochet. I love making things in bright colours and using lots of different colours together, but I also love a more restrained colour palette and choice and the more vintage vibe that you seem to get when working with one colour, but in a more complex stitch.

 I spent my crochet time yesterday working on the Erika Knight hexagon blanket I'm making, and spent today playing working on another pastel toned blanket!

I started working on this blanket at the start of May, but have only worked on it sporadically since then, so progress has been slow.

Do you remember my Cathedral Blanket? Well this project is going to be a pastel version of that, with pale cream seaming instead of black.

I'm using far fewer colours (about 8 different shades) and I think I will arrange the colours at random rather than having them in order like I did for the Cathedral Blanket.

Whilst working on this I've also been daydreaming about making more pastel coloured cushion covers with mother of pearl button fastenings - hence my not being able to resist getting out my button collection and playing in these pictures!

I was also tempted this afternoon to try out a starburst stitch. I haven't tried this kind of stitch for a while because the last time I tried, a few years ago, I couldn't seem to get the hang of it.

This piece is at a very early stage - its quite time consuming to do, but I love the result - it looks beautiful in the ivory yarn, and has such as lovely vintage feel to it. I think its the sort of thing a Victorian or Edwardian lady would use! I'm not sure quite what this piece will be yet, but it's only quite a small sample, so it will probably end up being a jewellery case or similar. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

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Doily fun!

Inspired by some of the lovely crochet doilies and matts that I have seen on other blogs, such as By Haafner and AnaZard Atelier, I've wanted to have a go at my own crochet doily for a while now.

I finally got around to it this week. I spent Bank Holiday Monday doily making!

I wanted a soft, vintage style look, so I used some pastel colours - very pale pink, ivory, pale lilac and a sort of steel blue-green colour.

The yarns used are all mercerised cotton - I think it's ideal for this sort of project, where you want it to be hard wearing but still look pretty.

These doilies are my own design, using a stitch similar to the one I used for my blossom petal scarf at the beginning of April, but working in the round instead of course.

What do you think? Would you like to have a pattern for this? I'm a little worried about trying to write a pattern for something like this out long-hand - I'd rather do a chart, but I'm not sure how to go about that either!

Does anyone have a tool or piece of software they use to produce crochet charts for motifs in the round? Please let me know if you do!

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Patchwork throw, by Erika Knight

So, last week, or maybe the week before (time flies, even when you're not having fun apparently!) I gave you a sneek peek of my latest colour crochet project, and promised more details!

I've made quite a lot more progress since the last time I mentioned this project.

The pattern is the Patchwork Throw, from Erika Knight's book Essential Crochet.

I love this book, its almost the first book I bought when I was learning to crochet a few years ago. I've tried to make this throw before but things got in the way.

Firstly my lack of skill - my motifs all kept coming out slightly different sizes! Looking back I don't think I had understood the pattern instructions properly!

The pattern also recommends a mercerised cotton yarn - Rowan Cotton Glace. When I tried to make this before, I went with that recommendation. However, much as I love mercerised yarn for small crochet projects such as bags, doilies etc, I just didn't feel the love when it came to trying to make a throw. I don't know why but I just prefer 'wooliness' in my throws!

Well, this time I am determined not to be defeated. I have bought a big stash of colourful yarn (probably a little heavy on the purple as usual) and have been hooking away my woolly hexagons and loving it!

So far I have about 80 motifs I think, but still a long way to go - the pattern calls for nearly 300! Hmm, not sure I will make it that far before my attention span (and my purse) give out! 

I am determined to complete a proper size blanket though - watch this space!

Actually I have a back-log of posts related to various craft projects at the moment, so maybe another post tomorrow if I get time!

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Bank Holiday sunshine

It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK again, which means another long weekend! I've spent most of it up until today out and about in London. Today has been my day at home to prepare for the week ahead.

I made a trip to Liberty's - perhaps I'll tell you why in my next post, but yes it had to do with a craft purchase!

Whilst there I couldn't resist taking some snaps of the lovely flower display which can always be found outside the Marlborough Street entrance. It's usually especially gorgeous at this time of year!

As you can see, there were roses, hydrangeas and lilacs aplenty! I'm particularly entranced by lilacs at the moment - they're just coming into flower here now - I just love the colour and all the tiny little flowers.

We also took a trip down to Richmond in Surrey - I love Richmond and its romantic looking old cottages and gorgeous park land. Only in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine being able to afford living there unfortunately!

That's all for now, just a little post to share with you the loveliness of a spring day in England!

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Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging (but not craft!)

Any regular visitors to this blog know that I usually aim to post about once a week. However, I don't like to post if I feel like I don't really have anything to say, or anything new to share with you.

I think I mentioned on a recent post that I had been having some tough times in the last few weeks. Well, that made me feel like I just didn't have the energy to post. But, I'm lucky enough to have some tremendously supportive people in my life and I'm already feeling much better. As I have probably said many times before here, I always find crochet and knitting to be a soothing distraction from whatever is troubling me.

So, as well as finishing my pastel throw I have been working on a new hexagon blanket. I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll save full details for another time. The pictures above show a sneak peek!

On Sunday, I finally managed to finish my pastel hexagon throw, and posted a pattern for this, which some of you may have seen already. Some of you lovely readers have been kind enough to post some very positive comments already. Thank you so much for those comments - they really do mean a lot to me. It feels great to know that other people can get enjoyment and inspiration from the things I post here. 

Comments are aso great, as they make you feel part of a community - and that was really why I started blogging!

Now, my lack of energy and stress has sadly also meant that I haven't stopped by any of my own favourite blogs for a while. Well, I'm going to try and remedy that today! I have a lovely day off work today, though so look out, I may be stopping by your blog and leaving you an admiring comment or two!

One final word - I wanted to share with you the glorious, gorgeous yarn bundle that has just arrived in the post!

 

Stay happy, and keep on crocheting!

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