Thursday, 17 October 2013

Crochet and a calm workspace






I am really enjoying making this scarf...........it makes up quickly and neatly, and both joining as I go, and sewing in the ends as I go, means once it's finished it's done.


I ran out of white yarn yesterday and a quick trip to my nearest yarn shop (Hobbycraft 5 mins away) soon sorted that. I had also run out of a teal colour, and ended up buying these three lovely wool mixes - well, it was buy two get one free, how could I not?!


So I chose the teal, a pale duck egg blue/green, and a gorgeous soft, pale limey yellow - a sort of celery leaf colour, not dissimilar to Farrow and Ball Pale Hound, which I am very tempted to use on some of my kitchen cupboards.

The pretty note pad I picked up from John Lewis.




On the strength of having a crochet work in progress, I am joining in Chrissie Crafts and Ladybird Diaries Bloomin Crochet-a-long!  Click on the button in the sidebar or on the links above to check it out, join in and see the gorgeous crochet projects others are working on!

My sewing room tidy-up is nearly finished now, and I am loving crocheting in this calm workspace




Oddments of lace and trims I wrapped round some old business cards.....




various ribbons, trims and a Kaffe Fassett jelly roll......

vintage lace edgings from old tablecloths and some vintage buttons below






I still need to paint both these shelves( housing cushions) to match, probably just in white....although another tall Billy bookshelf in white to match the one we bought last week for this same room (see previous post) would be even better, and provide even more storage!



 ......and I need to make a curtain to go around the cutting table to hide all the baskets and bags of fabric underneath.....


Last Friday we fought our way through the torrential rain, floods and crowds to see Crosby, Stills and Nash in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, arriving with only 10 minutes to spare (due to a last minute change in travel plans when we found the main road linking to the M25 at a complete standstill, meaning a rush to the nearest station!).


We had great seats, nearly dead centre in the arena 16 rows back - perfect!

Most of the audience were of a certain age, and there was even the occasional whiff of TCP............rather than that other, more potent, smell which would have been present back in the day, masked by the ubiquitous pachouli oil.......


apologies for the poor photos but I couldn't see to set my camera properly, so just had to point and shoot and hope for the best..... sadly hubby is hopeless with his i-phone camera


but it gives you an idea......

When they played "Winchester Cathedral" ( which was amazing ) it started with playing the organ, which was lit up dramatically - it was very atmospheric.


the whole concert was quite poignant, taking us back to our younger and more carefree days with our lives ahead of us and life seemed like one long party.........

Our friend had last seen CSN live in Toronto in 1974!

The guys themselves were incredible - as talented as ever, one in his late 60s and the other two in their early 70's, they rocked the night away..........Our House,  Love the one you're with, Teach your Children........lots of old favourites and many new songs too......they are still creating and performing new songs........they seemed to really love the evening.

They played from 8 til gone 11, no support band, and just one 15 minute break.

Hats off to CSN. 
We, and they I think, had a ball!



Friday, 11 October 2013

Still on a crochet roll.........






This is the latest project I'm working on, a lacy scarf. 

After searching for a simple lacy motif in my crochet books, I ended up making up my own design to achieve what I had in mind. And after a little trial and error I ended up with a round of trebles into a 6 chain ring in a colour ( with a couple of chains in between) then a second round of double treble clusters in white, joining as I went. 

I shall be in a hurry to finish this now as last week I ordered a couple of crochet books by Nicki Trench, and the first one, Cute and Easy Crochet, has now arrived to tempt me into starting more new projects before finishing this one!



I want to make some of these pretty lacy gloves, for Bella and for myself.......

photo from Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crochet

And we really need a cafetiere cover..........

photo from Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crochet

oh, and of course some of these cute covers for jam jars........

photo from Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crochet

oh, oh and I MUST have one of these for all my crochet hooks................

photo from Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crochet

It's a gorgeous book, full of inspiring projects and divided into three sections, so there's plenty of projects to make whether you are a beginner, or expert, or just wanting to improve or try new things. 

I loved Nicki Trench's patchwork book A Passion for Quilting that I bought earlier this year, and which inspired me to make Bella's quilt, and I'm loving this book too.

Can't wait for the other one, Cute and Easy Crochet with Flowers, to arrive - and I bet I'll find the perfect flower that I could have used for my scarf!

Check out Nicki's blog here.

photo from Nicki Trench Cute and Easy Crochet

But,  before making any of these tempting projects, I shall be strong-willed and finish this scarf first.

Really I will.


This week I have also been having a bit of a sort out in my sewing room ( which is usually an absolute mess ) and a new Billy bookcase from Ikea has helped re-gain some order and provide some extra storage.

 This white bookshelf now contains a lot of my stash next to an existing shelf full of vintage cushions ready to sell

 to the right of the door are cushions pads and more cushions

 my sewing table is now under the eaves

 and my cutting/laying out/ironing table under the window (still covered in "stuff" that I'm sorting)
Under this table are baskets and bags full of vintage linens and laces, blankets, recycled work shirts, etc etc...all waiting to be transformed into something new and useful........

and then at some point the room needs redecorating...note the wallpaper border.....and the splodgy window that my thoughtful husband started to prime thinking I would paint it..........but I just want to get back in here and sew! 

 So I am happy to gaze upon a bit of order for once!

 washed vintage linens and laces

 washed vintage embroidered linens... I still have bags and baskets full to launder......

 vintage French linens, tickings and antique european grain sacks and mangle cloths.......

 vintage floral linens and barkcloths.......

 various vintage fabrics from all over the world.....the US. Switzerland, France and the UK

 and more modern and new fabrics....blues, greens and yellows.....

ginghams, checks and stripes...... 

 reds, pinks and purples........

but there is STILL a load more sewing "stuff" tripping us up the landing whilst awaiting a new place in my sewing room - boxes of ribbons and trims, embroidery cottons, etc etc - so that's what I'll be doing this weekend, trying to cram it all in without losing the new sense of order and space that I created!

But first, tonight, a trip to London's Royal Albert Hall to see Crosby, Stills and Nash - a real blast from the past! Little bit before my time to be honest, but not for hubby and his friend, but I should recognise quite a few songs as I was teen in the 70s, and I well remember and love Marrakesh Express and Teach your Children! 


Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post - they were so much appreciated!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Playing Hooky - a Crochet Scarf

 

 

 

 

 

 
It's been quite a while since I've had a "ta dah!" moment with a crochet project!

The turn in the weather has fired my enthusiasm for some crochet, and as usual one project on the go is not enough.

So the cushions I mentioned in my last post have been abandoned for the moment in favour of the scarf I mentioned in same post.

As usual I threw myself into crocheting my chosen shape, a hexy, without much thought other than to produce as many of them as I could in as short a space of time, using yarn (DK) in my stash in the colours that took my fancy. (I used 2 shades of peachy-pink, an apple green, 2 shades of teal-coloured yarns (one flecked) and a darker green).

Oh how I regretted that lack of planning later when sat on the floor painstakingly joining the bloomin' things!

If only I had looked on Pinterest earlier, and seen the many, many, photos and lovely clear instructions for JOINING AS YOU GO.
Ironically I was looking for ideas on how to join the hexies other than using the slip stitching method, thinking I could maybe try something different, when I saw join as you go - talk about rubbing my face in it.........

Yep, I could have saved myself not only the trouble of crocheting the shapes together, which, although using the relatively quick and neat method of slip stitching, looks pretty naff when you have multiple coloured motifs. But I could also have had a scarf that looked as good on the back as the front. And try as carefully as I might, the even more laborious weaving in the ends (which I did as I went after joining a motif) has still resulted in the odd fluffy cut end being seen.

So the back of the scarf isn't exactly perfect. Better not seen.

Anyway. Lesson learnt for next time.

I am still pretty pleased with the cheerful result, although my family are more than a little sceptical and view my masterpiece as being somewhat "naff" rather than the fun, arty little bobble-trimmed scarf that I try to convince myself it to be after all my hard work. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

So after crocheting numerous little hexies, which soon stacked up pretty quickly, (about 10 mins a hexy) it started life like this - but then I decided I didn't like the apple green trim, so ripped it all out.

 

 
So then we had the plain, naked scarf again.

 


 

But it somehow looked unfinished

 
So I tried again adding an edge in a different colour this time.

For anyone wondering how I got this far with my scarf, I used a motif from Crochet Adorned by Linda Permann.


I made her Flower Hexagon using a 4mm hook........


and then added her Picot Flowers edging in teal to the finished scarf - after crocheting a row of single crochet all the way round the edge of the scarf, I went straight to row 2.(the pattern is for edging to attach)


So the final scarf has a flirty little fun bobble trim which goes all over the place (which was the sort of effect I was after to soften the shapes)



And here we have a few poor photos of me trying to take a picture wearing my "creation" in various different ways.....

over the shoulder.......

 
 why is it so hard to get a clear photo of oneself?????
over both shoulders.......

 
Clearer....worn hanging down

 
 
over the shoulders again ......

 

 

So there we have it.
A finished article for once - for me that's an achievement in itself!

What are you making at the moment?




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