Snapshots - December 2016

 Welcome to December in photos! It's the end of the year, the start of summer, and the middle of Christmas. I'd been working on this crochet tree skirt, and as soon as I finished it I put the tree up. I got a white tree this year and I'm so glad I did! It's a full sized tree and I took it out of the box to have a look at it. My two little helpers materialised and were ever so fascinated... and I realised that it wouldn't even last an hour before it lay in tatters on the floor! Fortunately I was able to take just the top part of the tree and put it in the stand on top of the hall table. And there it has remained safe and unmolested by cats.

 I used all my pink ornaments and realised I needed more, many more. As always, when you go to the shops with a specific colour of ornament in mind you can't find anything, so I decided to crochet little ornament covers. They turned out really well. I will need to make a whole lot more whenever that time comes that I can have the full tree up!

 Pink, white and silver... my favourite Christmas (and any other time) colour combo!

 Another thing I love about Christmas is setting up little displays around the house. Whether temporary (until you eat the mince pies) or more permanent (with fairy lights for grey evenings).

 It is summer though, and there are lots of beautiful roses to photograph.

 The garden has been just gorgeous this month. The grass has grown in, and there are poppies, dahlias, lavatera and roses in shades of soft pink and lavender.

The lavender borders are full, framing the potager, glasshouse and flower gardens.

 This is a gorgeous cupcake made of soap which I gave as gifts to my workmates. It was coconut and lime flavour and smelled as good as it looked!

 After Christmas I spent a few days in Timaru catching up with family and friends. Then my holiday at home began! I've got so many fun projects lined up for myself starting with dyeing yarn. I tried three different coloured skeins and it will be fun to see how these work up. I also finished my Vanilla Latte socks, with my first batch of hand dyed yarn! I really enjoyed working on them and watching the colourway develop.

Here's a shot of the summer mantel, with a bit of Christmas mixed in. I later mixed in some Christmas lilies when they came into bloom... lovely!

 And this is my top nine photos from the year on Instagram. Happy new year to you all!

xxx

Snapshots - September 2016

 Hi again! It's been a wee while hasn't it? Poor little blog, I had somewhat forgotten you (although I've still been compiling the photos). I keep thinking I'll do it this week, perhaps tonight, but then I pick up knitting or crochet and open up YouTube and the night disappears. Gentle inquiries from family members have reminded me that others read here occasionally, so I'm making a bit effort this week to bring things up to date!

And so we begin back in September, still in that transitional phase between winter and spring, where the light is bright and hard and contrasty, and you still need candles in the evening.

 I finished my In The Yarn Garden cushion. I had put it aside for a little while as something about it wasn't making me feel the joy. I realised that it was the size - it was going to be quite big for a cushion, much bigger than my other couch cushions, and it just wouldn't work for me. So I decided that instead of working a separate back piece and joining them, I'd put some extra rounds on the front piece to enlarge it a bit, and then fold it envelope style and join at the back. That worked well and it was the perfect size. I added tassels to the corners for extra drama and I now call it my boudoir pillow. I made a second cushion from my original back piece, but I cheated and sewed it on the front of an existing cushion cover! So basically I got two for the price of one... gotta love that.

 Spring blooms! I always love getting out my glass bottle collection and filling them with tiny blooms and blossoms. I used hellebores, anemones, stocks, spring stars, osteospermums, and my favourite foliage Jacob's Ladder.

 I had a week off work too, to work on the garden of course! I dug a new bed lining the back lawn, and I had some trees and shrubs to put in. Naturally the weather was iffy for at least half the week. But I did get to enjoy the first blossoms of the season on the almond trees, along with the first tulips (also the first tulips I've ever grown - but not the last!), and at last a flower on a market-purchased hellebore (bottom left) that is perhaps the most striking hellebore I've seen. Now to try breeding it with a double...!

 

Here are a couple of videos from my phone... I haven't tried adding a video here before so I hope this works!

 When I wasn't gardening I was crocheting, and I even organised my yarn stash into a chest of drawers (right). It JUST holds everything. On the left is my Jack and Lydia project bag, which is big enough to hold several balls of yarn plus a few smaller project bags for things like socks. It's helping keep my work station (the couch) much tidier!

 Here's another project I completed quite quickly, a crochet capelet! I just love this and it's perfect for chilly mornings. The pattern is called Chanson en Crochet and you can find it on Ravelry. Make sure you print the errata as well, as it's fairly complex! I found it a lot of fun to make with all the different lace patterns, and it became lovely and drapey when blocked.

I found these pretty gold metal candle holders at Kmart so I redid the mantelpiece with lots of glass and light metal (and lights). I really love it and for once I don't feel the need to redo it!

And I started knitting another sock (my second pair). Will they fit better than the first? Stay tuned to find out!

Here's a video showing the new bit of garden I created (with furry help of course)

See you soon for October's update!

Snapshots - July 2016

 Hello again and welcome to my July recap told through snapshots from my phone! At the start of the month I was busy with my Jack and Lydia project basket. I'd made all the squares for the sides and finished up with a large multicoloured granny for the bottom of the bag. Possibly a waste of time since it won't be seen, but enjoyable all the same! Then one cold and drizzly morning, I sat inside with the sewing machine and whizzed up lining squares, of interfacing covered with a pretty floral print cotton. I even made pockets. And after that I carefully hand sewed each lining inside the square (not as tedious as it sounds, since I watched lots of awesome crafty podcasts while I did it). The sewing was the hardest part of the whole project - crocheting the squares was fun and easy, and joining them will be a breeze. Oh, yes I did say "will be"... I have a really terrible habit of getting a project finished to at least 90%, so close that I can almost see the finish line, and then losing interest and moving on to something else. So here at the end of the month, these pretty squares are still sitting in a stack, just waiting for me to join them all together and make the handles. It will be so quick and easy, and yet I am not remotely interested in doing it right now. Oh well.

I wanted to practice my knitting some more, so I knitted a very basic square in stockinette. This was going to be sewn up in the shape of a toy bunny, according to something I saw on Pinterest. The knitting itself went well even though the yarn (a chenille from my stash) turned out not  to be the easiest to work with (there's absolutely no give in chenille!) but I didn't really measure, and when I came to sew the bunny it turned out to be a lot bigger than I had thought. And just like that I didn't like it any more! So that's two project fails in one month... not a great start!

Weatherwise it's been cold and frosty, but aside from that pretty settled. A lot of the country has been having rain and/or storms, but it all seems to have been going around us here in Christchurch. Most weekends I've been able to get outside and work for a few hours doing a bit of cutting back and tidying, and I got my garlic planted.

I also finished planting and weed matting the front garden. I'll do a proper photographic tour in spring when it's all filled in a bit. But to sum it up, there is a climbing rose planted next to the arch (it's one I took as a cutting, and I may or may not keep it depending on the colour.) I also have some star jasmine cuttings to plant on the other side, but they are very slow growing, hence the rose. The maple tree in the terracotta pot is probably temporary until I find a better small tree. There are three rose bushes, a snowberry bush, a small rhododendron and some peonies in the bed. A penstemon in the middle and a camellia that I transplanted from the back garden.

I'm looking forward to seeing it all filled in a bit! I'm also pleased to call it finished for now, so I can move around to the back garden and the new bed that's been dug there... hopefully I'll have more of an update for you on that next month.

Early in the month I became aware of a crochet along being hosted by Charlotta of In The Yarn Garden. I've always admired Charlotta's work so I ordered some yarn from Wool Warehouse. It's a mixture of Drops cotton Love You 6, Love You 7 and Safran. I'm using a 3.25 mm hook.

The project turned out to be a cushion cover, and a new part was released each week. I worked fast to keep up so I could share my progress on Instagram, and here is my progress over the month.

Here are Podrick and Ini looking all sweet. In fact they had tired themselves out after being complete monsters! They woke me up early by jumping all over the bed and ultimately knocking over a lamp. Then all morning they chased and fought and jumped on each other, clawed furniture, knocked the things I was working on off the table. I tried shutting them outside and they sat outside the screen door and scratched it. Then I heard odd bangs at the door and when I looked outside, one of them was climbing the screen door! Honestly... children! I got ready to go out and that was when they decided it was nap time.

I also had another lovely yarn club delivery from Little Woollie. This is Cascade 220 Superwash, a DK wool. Another great stash enhancement!

July flowers are some of my favourites. Pretty pretty camellias and hellebores.

It's always magical to see a butterfly on a warm winter's day.

I contributed some squares for #Jennysblanketofhugs - a project being organised by Kate at Just Pootling. This is a blanket to show love and support for Jenny, daughter of Amanda (Little Box of Crochet) while she undergoes radiotherapy treatment.

I also made myself a hat as the one I have is too itchy! This is just a cheap acrylic but it doesn't make me itch so it's a win. The pattern is Hyde Park Hat.

That's it from me this month! See you at the end of August with the next edition.

Snapshots - May 2016

Hi again, here we are at the end of May to go through the month in snapshots. The weather this month was unusually mild and even summery, and it was lovely and often quite hot to be outside. We took plenty of strolls around the garden looking at things. I thought about the work ahead, to do when the weather is a bit cooler and the growing season has stopped, and the cats chased things and climbed trees.

It's really been a beautiful end to the season. There are autumn leaves and colour everywhere, and the last of the roses to be picked and admired.

There's also been plenty of crochet this month. I got some Circlepuff Squares completed! (Still plenty to go.)

Some more gorgeous autumn scenery... left, the fernery at the Timaru Botanic Gardens, right, Queen Elizabeth rose in my front garden.

Kitten pics! The boys continue to grow and be adorable.

It's time for bringing in leaves and seedheads and making autumn arrangements.

Some more of the month's crochet. I painted my blocking board and used it to block Circlepuff Squares. I also made and blocked more Jan Eaton squares.

I guess I didn't have enough projects on the go, so I started a new one. These squares are Jack and Lydia from the Sophie's Universe blanket pattern. I'm absolutely dying to make a Sophie one day, but in the meantime these squares were perfect for this project, which will be a project bag. A simple cube with a square for each side and some handles on top, and each square will be different aside from the central motifs. So they have been a lot of fun to work on, mixing and matching colours and stitches for each round.

Also in this collage is some autumn garden beauty - camellia Elfin Rose, and brilliant blue viburnum Davidii berries.

The cosmos has finished in the front garden, and its seed heads have been picked clean by finches. It's time to clear out this new bed in the front, so I can plant it up properly. I really did enjoy the sense of enclosure created by the bushy cosmos, so I'll definitely try to create a screen with shrubs, but I hope to keep it from getting too dense like it has along the fence line. We've just chopped out some shrubs and trees that were past their expiry date, so I have room for quite a bit of new planting and I'm excited! But more about that next month :)

For a few years now I've had it in the back of my mind that I would like to learn to knit socks. Hopefully, this will be the year that it happens! I've been following the YouTube podcast Crafternoon Treats, and the host Kathryn is in the similar position of being a crocheter wanting to learn to knit. She recommended the Linus shawl pattern as being a good one to start with. So I found the pattern and ordered some yarn and needles, and I've been knitting away, very clumsily at first! I'll go into my knitting more in another post. This yarn is from Wool Warehouse in the UK, and I really hope I like sock knitting as I have a good stash here! Even with postage and the exchange rate, it was cheaper and a much better selection than we can get here in NZ, so I'll be ordering from there again.

I had another piece of happy mail at the end of the month - a beautiful ATC from my talented friend Mayumi in Japan. It's been handpainted and stencilled with the lovely pansy design. I love the vintage style of it and had great fun laying out this wreath to photograph!

It's been a pretty good month really - good weather, plenty of craft and pretty things. Let's hope June is filled with more of the same.

Circlepuff Square Crochet Pattern

Circlepuff Square crochet pattern - US terms

Round 1: make 16 tr in magic ring.
Round 2: join next colour between 2 tr. Ch 2, make puff stitch in same sp (*yarn over, insert hook* 4 times - 5 loops on hook. Yarn over and pull yarn through all 5 loops - puff stitch made.) Ch 2, puff stitch between next 2 tr. Continue around - 16 puff stitches.
Round 3: join next colour in a ch 2 space. Ch 2 and make 16 puff stitches as in round 2 - but yarn over 5 times for each stitch, and ch 3 between puffs.
Round 4: join next colour in a ch 2 space. Ch 4, 2 tr in same sp. 3 dc in next sp. 3 hdc in next sp. 3 dc in next sp. 3 tr, ch  2, 3 tr n next sp (corner made). Continue around, finishing with 3 tr, ch 2 in same sp you started in.

Tips for puff stitch: pull your hook up a little each time you yarn over to keep the yarn fairly loose, so it is easier to pull through on the last yarn over. Try not to wiggle the hook too much as you pull through so it doesn't catch the loops.
When sewing in the ends, give a good tug on the end from the beginning of the round as this makes the ch2 at the start as small as possible.

Snapshots from April 2016

Hi all, here is the update from the month of April! Weather wise it was a perfect late summer month. If daylight savings didn't end right at the start of the month and the dark evenings start creeping in, you wouldn't realise it was autumn! Ok, well looking around the garden might give you a clue. All the late summer favourites are there... dahlias, cosmos, hollyhocks... but berries and seed heads are also starting to appear, marking the seasonal transition.

I bought three packs of tulips from The Warehouse - they had a great selection this year. I planted up a couple of pots to go outside the front door, and I'll put a few amongst my spring bulb selection lining the driveway.

The beautiful weather lent itself to sitting on the deck relaxing at wine o'clock. Even when it rained (which only happened a couple of times) it was beautiful. The downside of course is that everything is very dry, and I find it hard to keep the garden well watered when I don't have that extra time in the evening to do it.

Kitten pics! Podrick often appears out of nowhere and flops himself down on me for a cuddle. In the above left picture, he is reclining on my left hand which was holding a book open. And in the above right pic, he flopped on top of my crochet. Luckily we all agree that kitten cuddles are much more important than anything else you could possibly be doing!

Inigo (left) and Podrick (right).

This month I crocheted a sock! I lost track of how many attempts it took... four? Five? But at last I made one that I could get on my foot. The really funny thing is, when I made Sock #2 to match I somehow miscounted the stitches even though I thought I had them right, and when I tried to put it on, it was significantly smaller than Sock #1. Hilarious! I may try again at some stage, as I really want to be able to make wearable socks. Apparently the type of yarn affects the stretch factor though... so practising with cheap acrylic may not have been the best idea.

In other crochet news, I worked on the last colourway for my Circlepuff Squares blanket. The next step is to add the grey to make them square.

Here is a square being formed! And a shot of a particularly pretty moonrise one evening.

Oh, I also made a new pair of fingerless gloves. But they are currently stalled because I'm trying to come up with some embroidery designs for them. And I made this little poppy for Anzac day.

At the end of the month, the garden is looking full and floriferous! The first camellias are blooming, accompanied by the last roses, and even a late flush of clematis. I need to soak it in because winter is coming... but surely it's still very far away?