Colour wheel

Thank heavens it February at last! I don't know about you, but for me, it felt like January was going on forever! I do and I don't like January. I like the post-Christmas feel of a fresh start at the beginning of the month, but by the end I am definitely ready for spring. And this year the weather has been so awful here - even by January standards. Heaps of rain and really cold, though not cold enough for snow.

I'm still working on my crochet blanket - the same one that I've been working on for months. The last couple of weeks have made me desperate to finish it. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but my flat does not have central heating - just those little electric fan heaters in the living and bedrooms. So, the last week or so, it has been freezing, and especially fridge like in the bedroom! So I really want my new blanket finished so that I have a nice big blanket for my bed. 

I've had a lot of fun playing with the colours for this blanket - each square has 3 different colours in it, plus the white that I'm using for the borders. Sometimes I struggle to come up with different combinations of colours that don't use the same colours over and over again. So, I've been trying to mentally match the colours I have in my stash to the colour wheel to help me see combinations that work well together. You can see my colour wheel above - it has just about all the colours I've been using for this blanket.

I probably don't have those colours arranged in exactly the right order, but that's how they flow to me.

Here are a few of the colour combinations that I've found and really liked. I think these are all variants of split-complementary colour combinations. This is where you have two complementary colours (opposite each other on the colour wheel) and then have a second, analogous shade for one of the colours.

You can find some great tips about colour combinations on this blog.

This last colour combination below is an analogous scheme really I think.

 

Well, apart from that the waiting for spring continues! I've been buying flowers to try and cheer myself up during the grim-ness of these final months of winter. Roses again!

I've also treated myself to two pots of hyacinths - one pink and one white, though now I taken the tags out I can't remember which is which. It'll be a nice surprise! All I have to do now is wait for them to bloom, while I carry on waiting for spring!

 

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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May flowers

Hello there, it's nice to be back after more than a week away from blogging. I was away last weekend, and then ill when I got back, and then of course back at work.

But, this weekend is a bank holiday here in the UK, which means a lovely extra day off today! S and I made the most of the long weekend - we went for a stroll around Hampton Court Palace gardens yesterday, and saw some lovely flowers.

Tupips, blossoms and some daffodils still in evidence, though the bluebells are now finally starting to take over from Daffodils, after having an extra long wait to flower because of the cold.

We're hoping to go back to Hampton Court in June - there is a lovely rose garden there - nothing in bloom just yet, but I think it will be glorious in a couple more months, so we're going to try and go back to see the roses.

Of course I have still squeezed in some crochet: some more of the blanket I showed you last time:

It's coming a long nicely and should soon be finished. I'm hoping to post a pattern for the complete blanket including yarn requirements, size, number of motifs made and or course a tutorial for the motif itself.

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Blossom petal wrap

I spent my evenings over the Easter weekend working on a wrap for myself. It has been such a cold spring and I am so tired of having to wear my winter coat still, I thought I needed a nice pastel-coloured spring like scarf to snuggle in. Something that wouldn't look or feel too wintry, but would still keep me warm.

So, the blossom petal wrap was born, so-called because the colour used reminds me of cherry blossoms whenever I look at it (lovely spring like thought - the idea behind my wrap was working before I had even finished it).

These cherry blossoms were blooming quietly away in Wapping on Sunday. The colour really is very similar - that very delicate sort of pink.

The stitch I used also reminds me of flower petals. Its called Iris Stitch, from The essential handbook of crochet stitches. The yarn I used is a 4 ply pure merino wool, with a 4mm hook so that the stitches were quite open, and like the grey scarf I made last week, the finished wrap is soft and drapey. 

To finish the wrap off, I worked a round of double crochet (that's single crochet if you're in the USA) around the edge, just to give it that finished look. I didn't want a fancy edging, I think the main stitch is pretty enough to speak for itself. 

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March

So March is done with now too. With the clocks going forward yesterday we're now officially in British Summertime (at least in theory!)

Before I sat down to do this post and compile pictures for it, I felt as though I hadn't really done very much in March. However, now as I look back at all the projects I have worked on, documented in photos, I can see that once again I have managed to pack quite a lot in.

 I've nearly managed to complete a whole blanket (the cathedral blanket), done some sewing, made a scarf and come up with numerous ideas for other projects!

I also have some ambitious plans for April, to try and challenge myself a little bit. I'll explain more in my next post.

I hope you've all had a Happy Easter, and if you're in the UK, I hope you enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday!

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Spring flowers

It has felt like spring, really, for the first time this year over the weekend and today. The air is softer, the sun is shining and heavy winter coats have been left (probably temporarily, but never mind) at home.

We saw swans in Hyde Park on Saturday.

Also snowdrops (Tennyson called them the fair maid of February - or was it fair maid of spring?), and cherry blossom.

We also have some lovely flowers in the house at the moment:

And last but not least, I spotted some lovely daffodils in Russell Square on my lunch break today:

The day finished with a glorious pink and red sunset, which I could see from the train home and managed to take a quick snap of once I reached my stop:

I hope those of you in the Northern hemisphere all get the chance to enjoy the lovely spring weather soon too!

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Watching the moon set

I can't believe it has been a week already since I was last here. I can't think quite what I have been doing with all my spare time this week! Too much day-dreaming probably.

Still, at least you can crochet and day-dream at the same time - in fact I find that one tends to naturally lead to the other. I'm still working hard on my Something Pretty blanket.

I am completely entranced by these little 3d flowers - they have such a girly vintage vibe to them. The only problem is that they do use up quite a lot of yarn!

I'm so glad to have figured this pattern out finally - I had a little trouble with making the petals at first - I was doing cluster stitch, which I knew wasn't right, as my petals weren't 3d. Finally after trying on and off to work the pattern out since Christmas I had an epiphany (whilst trying to get to sleep one night - I probably even dream about crochet - how sad!) a couple of weeks ago, and it all fell into place. It really is a lovely pattern, thankyou Millie Makes!

I've used 7 different colours to make the flowers for this blanket, and then white for the backgrounds. I don't anticipate that this will be a very large blanket - the cost would become ruinous for one blanket. I'll share more pictures when it's finished.

I am glad it is February. I've been sky watching a lot over the past week. Although its still so dark when I get up that I'm seeing the moon set rather than the sun rise, it has been rather lovely.

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Feeling floral

It has been a glorious spring-type day here - all blue skies, blustery winds and sunshine - very cheery. Sunrise, daytime and sunset have all been gorgeous.

As the snow and ice has finally melted away, I've really been feeling ready for spring - bringing spring flowers inside:

Oh okay, so these are all fake flowers! But I can dream can't I? It would be lovely to be able to have such colourful real flowers around! Sadly I don't have a garden, and even if I did, probably wouldn't have time to make anything grow and of course its the wrong time of year etc. etc....Still pretty though aren't they!

Here are some more fake flowers, but made of something a bit tougher than fabric! These are flower necklaces which I made myself using semi-precious carved flowers bought from a bead shop in Covent Garden. The pink one is rose quartz, but I'm not sure about the blue one - I think possibly its amazonite of some kind. I just threaded them on some ribbon and attached clasps. I think I'll be wearing them a lot this spring, I love them!