things that have made me happy lately...

This is a post about colour really. I realised some time ago that there is something about colour that cheers me enormously and I find I seek it out in everyday things now.

Especially at this time of year, when my working days mean I see precious little daylight and the skies are so often grey. And it has to be said that my little house is not the brightest place - typical Victorian terrace, with a limited amount of natural light, particularly in the middle room where I don't think I have managed more than an hour or two without switching the light on!

So, these are some of the things I have been enjoying to brighten the days up a bit!

I think I'm having a bit of a 'red' phase just now - have always thought it was a warm colour and have got a bit more red in my life again! This bowl was a Christmas present from a friend...

I have promised myself fresh flowers every week (not as extravagant as it sounds, seem to always be some going cheap at the end of the day), although these were a gift...

And this reduced bunch of carnations I stretched over two rooms! Some on my living room mantlepiece...

And a few on my kitchen windowsill with my little tealight lanterns...

Of necessity, I had to get a few more mugs and these two were calling my name...

The only tough bit is spots or stripes today?!!

These stripes were a delicious bargain too...

It is a little bright spot in the one room that still Remains to be Sorted! If you turn to the left of the stripy basket you see this lot...

Ugh! Trouble is I don't have much furniture in this room, so can't tidy it away yet - work in progress!!

One thing I have noticed being back in the city is that you miss the big skies with beautiful sunrises and sunsets so I couldn't help myself from quickly snapping this when I was out in the car one evening...

It was absolutely pouring but the sky was the most amazing colour and lit up the banks of cloud.

I finally finished my big ripple blanket, which is full of colourful stripes...

The lighting doesn't really make the colours seem true but there's no getting away from that fact that it is bright! I decided to go for just a simple edging in the end (thanks to those out there who commented when I was pondering 'to edge or not to edge?') and I think it does somehow tie it together . 

I did a row of 2 treble clusters, followed by a row of half trebles and then Lucy's bobble edging which I really like as it gives a nice firm edge without being over fussy.

So the finished article, in situ, so to speak...

Now it's confession time... I do like this blanket. It is colourful and cheerful and certainly very snuggly and warm. It is a decent size and I like that about it. But...if I'm completely honest, I don't like the look of it on my bed as much as I thought I would... Maybe its that it doesn't quite go with the stripy quilt cover I have? Maybe it's because it has taken me a whole year to make (pretty much to the day I think!) and this year has been a bit of a challenging one (does anyone else think emotions get a bit tangled up in the yarn? or is that just me?!) I don't know, but I think I prefer this one on my bed...

I know it's a bit wonky but I think this is my most favourite blanket and I love seeing it there; so the daisy blanket wins on the bed front and the ripple is in grabbing reach in case I feel cold...

And now, looking at pictures of my bed has suddenly made me feel a bit weary! So, think that's enough colour for now - I'm off to try to get some sleep!

Til next time

Sx

family fun and...finished daisy blanket!!!

This weekend has been a mixed one. 

I was at work Good Friday & Easter Saturday. Now, I don't mind doing my share of the bank holidays - after all, healthcare is not a Monday to Friday thing - and I don't really mind too much that I invariably am late away (what should have been a 7 1/2 hr day Friday turned into 12hrs) - such is the unpredictability of working in the NHS. But I did have to bite my tongue when R kept saying how lovely it has been to have a 4 day weekend (I haven't!) and to have a 3 day week this week (I haven't! I'm in next Friday too! Wedding or not!). In fact, for me, I always just very slightly, very selfishly, resent the fact that bank holiday Mondays erode my week as Monday is my day off (to myself usually!!!) so to me last week was a long one and this week is the same as normal - 4 long days, Mon to Fri.

But...I do realise that's a bit churlish! And we did do lovely things on Sunday and Monday.

Glorious sunshine and unseasonally warm temperatures meant we were able to have the first barbecue of the year on Easter Sunday. What a treat to be able to eat outside in April - and it really not be 'just a bit chilly but we'll stick it out anyway 'cos we've said we're having a barbecue'!

We had long cool glasses of Pimms in the garden, with salads, barbecued stuffed peppers and Jamie's barbecued belly pork. I'm not much of a meat eater, but this was easy and delicious and every bit as good as a big roast dinner.

We moved the conservatory furniture out onto the grass, spread out our festival Pimms blanket and a few cushions and just chilled. 

My Mum gave me gardening tips (she is much more knowledgeable than I am) and we spotted this single tulip that has appeared from somewhere...

I love its pointy petals and almost black centre.

We were quite a houseful with Mum, my younger sister and brother-in-law and 3 small nephews, plus R and I, our 3 boys and one girlfriend. It was so nice to have all our boys together with their cousins as the older they get, the harder it seems to be to achieve that now.

Oldest and youngest cousins having 'a moment' - my youngest nephew, 8 months, and my eldest son, 22 years - lovely boys both!

The excitement of the Easter egg hunt was a bit beyond this little one - how snuggly is he?!!! He just dozed while his 4 and 6 year old brothers raced round the garden hunting for treasure (not all chocolate - we also had bubbles, bouncy balls and chicks!) hidden by their almost as excited big cousins. Even having put the chocolate eggs in the freezer for a couple of hours, there was something of a time pressure to hide and find them before they melted! About 5 are still out there somewhere...we think...no-one thought to count them before they were hidden!!

Then today we headed up to the coast, where we got a bit of a shock as it was about 10C cooler! The breeze was blowing straight off the North Sea...

All the flags on the seafront were flying straight out and we had to do an emergency shop for something warmer to wear before heading for fabulous fish and chips on the seafront.

And then my final excitement of the weekend is this...

Ta Dah!!!! I finally finished my daisy blanket! I started this blanket on 15th January with no real plan about what would go where other than that I would keep to a few colours and that all the squares would have a daisy as a centerpiece. 

For the record, it is about (I haven't measured it!) 3 feet by 6 feet, made almost entirely of Stylecraft Special DK, 100% acrylic; one ball each of white, raspberry, meadow, sunshine and cloud blue and two of aster (the deeper blue). The lilac was a ball I had left over from another project which I can't remember the name of - also an acrylic yarn and similar to the Stylecraft lavender I think. At about £1.65 a ball I don't think you could call this an extravagant blanket.

I edged each square with a row of dc in aster and sewed them all together with just a simple slip stitch. The border has a row of half treble in aster, a row of dc in sunshine, bobble stitch in white, 2 half treble clusters in meadow green, trebles in lilac, half trebles in raspberry, trebles in cloud blue, dc in aster then (finally!) a simple shell edging in aster. I had several goes at different edgings but they all seemed a bit fussy and too much somehow, so went for something simple in the end.

It has turned out warm and snuggly and I'm really pleased with it but, as I said a couple of posts ago, it has been a bit of a learning process!

• Probably best to do a bit of planning!!! It doesn't show too much on the line but this is a bit of a wonky blanket! You can see how wonky in the folded pictures - it is impossible to get it to fold neatly as the edges are all slightly different lengths! I think the problem was that the yarn makes such stretchy squares (especially the bigger ones) that it was easy to 'persuade them' together when I was sewing them up and although I thought it was reasonably square, when I came to d the edge I realised it wasn't! Were I to do something similar again I think I would be a bit more careful to count the edge stitches to even them up as these were the basis for the border.
• I should have written what I did down as I went along! There is a bit of variety in the exact stitches I used as I kept forgetting exactly what I'd done! Probably didn't help the sizing issue! 
• The final edging is just slightly curled up - perhaps I should have worked it just into the back loop of the row before? 
• If I'm entirely honest (and at risk of sounding a yarn snob...) I'm not sure I am truly fond of acrylic yarn. I love the colours and it is thick and warm but I did not enjoy working with it as much as the cottons and merinos I've used before. I find it a bit 'squeaky' and hard going on my hands. But...it is infinitely more affordable and, as I don't wish to be restricted to one project every 10 years (!) acrylic is likely to remain the yarn of choice for now!

But overall...I'm really happy with it! 

So now I just have to decide what next? Do I go back to the Big Ripple (abandoned in favour of daisies)? I should finish the socks - making very slow progress with these! But probably I need to first finish and get posted my pile of squares for Sarah London's Crochet a Rainbow project - I hope I'm not going to be too late with them!

Happy making, whatever it is...til next time

Sx

loving daisies!

Very quick post, 'cos it is ridiculous o'clock and I really should be in bed as I have to get up for work tomorrow!

I am nearly there with my daisy blanket! I have started the border so expect a Finished! post anytime soon! This blanket has been a bit of a learning curve so it is far from perfect but I am still happy with my happy daisies - hence the new blog header...

The garden is really moving on a-pace now...

This was taken early yesterday morning before the day brightened up a bit - the daffodils have finished and the leaves are coming on almost all of the trees now. That little splash of white near the greenhouse is a Spirea that my mum gave me that she says is called "Bridal Wreath". I should really take a closer pic because it is beautiful this year.

Enough for now, bed beckons, just a few more daisy pics...!

Yum!

Til next time, 

Sx

daisy blanket update...

Yesterday, I was mostly... hooking and baking!

Well... sort of anyway. I woke at silly o'clock - I'm a bit rubbish at sleeping at the best of times but for some reason yesterday I was awake at 5 (which was really 4, of course! Do you do this too? spend the entire day after the clocks have changed thinking in 'yesterday's time' or 'today's time'?!!).

Came down for a cup of tea at 6 and watched a bit of the Grand Prix with B. Have never really been into motor sports but since he came home from uni have kind of got sucked in! Much more tactical than I ever realised and its nice to share it with him. Plus it gave me an excuse to do a bit of early morning crochet!

My daisies are growing now and I am at that point where I just want it to be finished! Its not that I'm fed up with it - I am love, love, loving it - but I can't wait to see it finished; really looking forward to doing the border! Does that sound a bit mad?

Of course, I couldn't ignore the boring jobs for ever and then spent pretty much all morning trying to juggle money from one account to another so that I can cover all the bills this month. I do know that on the scale of things we are pretty fortunate - we both have jobs etc etc but I can't believe that 24 years into marriage we still struggle if we try to do anything other than the day to day stuff! We have no savings (not for want of trying) and so every time there is a big bill or an unexpected expense we are scraping the barrel again. I keep being reminded I have just been away and yes that was an unusual expense, but I did do it as cheaply as possible - cheap flights, cheap accommodation, next to no spending money, cheap time of year... Its not as though we have ever had annual big holidays or anything. We have just never been able to do it. Seems every time we begin to get straight we have to spend money on the car, or the boys, or the house... Last month should have just been my holiday (which believe me was an essential!!) most of which I paid for a while ago anyway - then the boiler packed up (£198), I had to have 2 tyres (£70), had to pay for gas refill (£230 - LPG, outrageously expensive downside of living in the sticks) plus extra driving lessons (an eye watering £21 per hour! please God let him pass next time!!!) and an extra driving test (£62). End result? Come payday - virtually everything is spent already and we are scrimping til the next one! Good job my boys will eat lentils...

Anyway, this wasn't intended to be a moan - just that after getting all that lot straight I decided I needed to sit and have some quality hooking time! So I did! A bit decadent but I spent most of the afternoon rattling off daisies! 

I've been hooking a few, fitting them into place and then sewing them up so it feels as though it grows in fits and starts, but it is big enough now to be really cosy on your lap!

I am loving making this blanket. There is something quite challenging about the randomness of it - because, of course, its not really 'random' in the true sense, as it has been quite a puzzle at times to get it to fit together. I deliberately didn't plan ahead as I wanted to just see what evolved but I found at the beginning that I was inadvertently stretching some squares as I sewed them in. So its not the most even of blankets - some of the squares look a little 'squished' and some a bit elongated - but overall I don't think it matters. It just looks 'homemade-y' to me - which is fine!

What I am trying to do now though is make a pile of different sized and coloured daisy squares, then lay them out so that I keep the edges more or less in line. Otherwise I thought I might end up with a very tricky edge to put a border on!!

I had to take it upstairs to take the photos, partly to try and get some better natural light and also because I wanted to see how I was doing for size laid out on the bed.

What do you think?! I'm aiming for big enough for a single bed so I reckon I'm about 2/3 of the way there? Plus the border. Yay!

I had to stop as I was running out of the deep blue so decamped to the kitchen for a bit of a baking session. It ended up being a bit of a cobbled bake as the cupboards were a bit sparse for ingredients (have been for a badly needed shop today!) but one lemon drizzle cake, a dozen pecan and coffee muffins and a tray of toffee oat slices later and the whole house smelt yummy.

Lemon drizzle is a bit of an old favourite - basic ingredients made delicious by a bit of sugar and lemon juice!

The coffee and pecan muffins started off intending to be coffee and walnut but in the absence of walnuts... and they are not bad at all!!

The toffee oat slices were an attempt to make an alternative to flapjacks (I always make flapjacks!!!) and were basically an oat, sugar, flour (gluten free in this case) and butter crumble with a layer of caramel in the middle. Seriously, not one for the waistline but boys seem to need to put away shed loads of calories just to keep going and given that half of the tin had gone before I could take a photo, I guess they are ok!  The only problem is that they are a bit crumbly so not quite the lunchbox snack I'd had in mind - back to good old flapjacks for that I think!

When I sat down again in the evening I didn't quite know what to do with my hands - couldn't make any more daisies, couldn't face more granny squares for Sarah London's appeal ( I am up to 12 so far & I will do some more but I do find plain grannies just a bit tedious after a while...), don't really want to do any more of my big ripple til I've finished the daisy blanket as I'd pinched some of the colours... 

I don't really enjoy the TV much, there's the odd thing I don't mind watching but there's very little on that makes me want to fully turn all my attention to it so I prefer to be in the room with whoever's watching doing a bit of crochet or something. At Christmas I was given this book...

...and this yarn...

The colours are gorgeous so, partly inspired by Alice (and her Mum!) I thought I'd have a go at some socks with it. This is my first attempt at knitting socks and although there are some really lovely patterns in the book, the instructions are a bit vague and all the needle and wool recommendations are American so this may be a bit hit and miss!

You knit both socks at once on circular needles so its a bit fiddly to begin with and it feels as though the yarns are going to get completely tangled but I'm making a bit of headway now and loving the way this yarn knits up. Its Stylecraft Life DK in 'Volcano' and is a wool/acrylic mix. Although it says it is DK it feels a bit finer than the acrylic DK I've been crocheting with and I'm using a smaller needle. I have already found that the pattern doesn't quite work for this yarn - if I'd kept increasing as I was suppose to I'd have ended up with two small hats I think! So it might all get tricky when I get to the heel, I may have to make it up when I get to that bit! The plus of this method is that you do end up with two socks the same - whether mine will even remotely fit remains to be seen!

I'm hoping they'll at least be house-worthy! But I suspect not up to Alice's Mum's standard!!

Will let you know how I get on!

Sx

  

treats...

Well, I haven't written a whole chapter of the dissertation, as I promised myself, but I have made a bit of progress so I have allowed myself a bit of escape time. Time for a little WIP update I thought...

At least one of the WIPs...as usual I've got several on the go and spare time seems to be against me at the moment so not getting there fast! This daisy blanket has turned into a real 'make it up as you go along' project and I'm quite enjoying the organic nature of it actually. I decided early on that there weren't really any 'rules' with this one - other than that I have restricted myself to these 7 colours and am edging each block with that lovely summer sky blue. I have deliberately made different sizes of squares and am just fitting them together as I go in a jigsaw-like fashion. The only problem I'm finding is that its not always easy to keep a straight edge so this may not be the most even shaped blanket ever! Never mind - may have to rename it Rustic Daisy Blanket? Think 'rustic' probably means you can get away with a bit rough round the edges?!!! I'm still loving the daisies - this feels like a cheerful flower patch to me. Haven't quite decided how big to go - I'd quite like to make it big enough to cover a single bed, or the end of a double or just for good-sized snuggling... So a way to go yet!!! 

Other escapist treats this week...

Another trip to the theatre! This is a bit unusual for me - much as I love to go and see live shows (of pretty much any sort - theatre, music, comedy - all a bit more magical at a live venue) my NHS salary does not usually run to more than the odd visit. Hairspray a couple of weeks ago was a belated birthday treat from a friend and last night we went to see Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors courtesy of my Mum for son 1's birthday. I know Shakespeare is not everyone's cup of tea but I have always loved it - I love the rhythm of the words and the fact that something written so long ago can still be highly entertaining and relevant today. The stories are just that - stories - and were written for mass entertainment in the way that we watch films and TV today (only in my view much more interactive). The company we saw last night were Propeller - an all male company who are faithful to the original text but present it in a refreshing way. They are currently touring with Richard III & Comedy of Errors and it was really fantastic - I can't think of many things I could go to with my late 60's Mum, my 17 and 22 year old sons and we could all come out having laughed so much our faces were aching! If you like Shakespeare (or have never given it a go!) and Propeller come your way, give them a look - it was worth the trip out!

Sadly, back to reality with a serious thud today... ridiculously busy at work and I'm in all over the weekend but am counting the days to my week in Morocco! Off to Marrakech in 8 days time!!! Can't wait!!!

One more photo I thought I'd share - this is Basil, one of our 13 year old brother and sister pair of moggies. He's looking a bit serious in this photo but actually is the daftest cat - he loves to get up on shoulders, especially No 1 son's and will just drape himself there if he's allowed. He's had his share of 'health issues' over the years - hence the rather battle scarred nose - and has probably used a few of his lives up but seems to keep going and is impossible not to love!

Til next time then,

Sx

dizzy about daisies...

I have developed something of an obsession...

My unintentional foray into daisies has quite distracted me from the big ripple (and at least a bit from the wretched leg) and definitely from the long list of 'Other' things I should have spent my Sunday doing!

I realise now I had been a bit of an eejit - having spent some time fiddling around trying to get my daisy circle right (and feeling very pleased with myself too!), I got stuck trying to turn my 12 cluster circle into a square. Several attempts and several lots of frogging later I turned to Attic 24 for inspiration and discovered ... hexagons - my daisy circles are the basis of Lucy's hexagons! I am pretty sure I've read this pattern before so guess the look of it had lodged somewhere in the recesses of my brain - so now not feeling so clever at all as not only could I have saved myself alot of puzzling (although in all honesty, I quite enjoyed it!) but I wasn't really trying to make hexagons!

Thought I'd give it a go and see whether this felt like the look I was going for:

Mmmm...well, I do like the hexagons, and at some point I think I might have to deliberately give them a go, but what I had in my head was really a fixation with making that circle a square, so I kept fiddling and eventually...

Now if I have absorbed this from one of the lovely blogs out there, then I apologise right now, but it feels as though I am making this blanket up as it goes along. 'Another blanket?!' was the rather bemused cry from my collective house of men but it just felt the right thing to do and I am enjoying this little daisy mania just now.

It's a bit like a puzzle - I decided to do fairly random sizes and fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

I'm quite in love with these daisies and today have added another 9 smaller squares around the big one! I am a little worried that my asymmetry might end up with some fudging somewhere along the way but as I am going to run out of yarn well before payday, this is going to be a problem for some time in the dim and distant future. I couldn't quite stick to my single edging colour though - the raspberry pink is such a gorgeous colour and I have always been a sucker for a bit of lilac (age about 10 I had lilac walls and 'emperor purple' painted bedroom furniture! No idea what happened to the bookcase my mum spent ages painting!).

To appease the harrumphing from himself, I baked cakes today - always guaranteed to make me feel like I'm being a 'proper' mum and to please the masses. Flapjacks, brownies and the oddest chocolate cake from Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking which I have looked at for ages and wondered about. It is made with almost a can of coca-cola - not something we usually have in the house but post-Christmas/New Year we still have all sorts of things I would sooner were gone so seemed a good time to give it a go. Surprisingly good...seemed the general verdict! Flapjacks are a bit of a staple in our house - gluten free (son 1 was diagnosed with Coeliacs disease 20 years ago, but thankfully can now eat oats) and easily portable for lunches. Only problem being the chances of these cakes lasting a weeks' lunches looks pretty remote...

Perhaps I'll have to squeeze another bake in mid-week - such a shame I'm back to work this week...

Sx

daisies and distractions...

I woke up this morning with 'An Idea'...just a little one, I think prompted by a couple of things...firstly, one of the stylecraft colours was jumping out of the bag of yarn at me and although I love it as a colour (bright, buttercup yellow-gold - in fact, my kitchen is painted this colour), it just felt 'not quite right' for my big ripple blanket.

It doesn't show very well in this photo, the light has been so dull and grey here again today, but believe me this is one bright yellow and I already have one quite zingy yellow in there.

Plus...I realise I have the concentration span of a two year old, and where I can happily sit and ripple a few rows of an evening after work as kind of rhythmic 'therapy', being confined to barracks and pretty much stuck on the sofa with my dodgy leg up has meant that I could legitimately sit and crochet for several hours. Great! (I thought) but much as I like the satisfying row by row progress of the ripple, I got b-o-r-e-d, to the point at which I kept making stupid mistakes in the counting and having to frog and redo bits yesterday.

So, this morning I decided to activate my brain cells and try to work out a pattern for a daisy - I already had the bright yellow-gold for the centre, and found a bit of white yarn lurking in the bottom of my bag. I think this yarn was baby yarn that I knitted a bobbly hat which all three of my boys wore as newborns so must have been lurking for 22 years or so (I am a terrible hoarder...).

The end result was a daisy circle!

I am ridiculously pleased with myself for this little circle! What do you think?! 

I have faithfully copied other people's patterns before and worked out designs from photos but this is my first stab at working something out for myself and it was surprisingly gratifying to do!

I didn't get what I wanted straight off...

I tried a simple granny square first, but although the colours were right, it didn't feel like a daisy to me - wrong shaped petals and just Not Right. Several attempts with different numbers of stitches ensued and I had Not Quite Flat, Not Quite a Circle (twice!) before getting to just what I had in mind. This feels a cheerful little circle to me - I love most flowers but particularly like the simplicity of things like daffodils, primroses, daisies - all those natural, unpretentious blooms that just brighten things up without needing to be nurtured. I love the daisies in the grass in the summer - a view not quite shared by himself, who has that peculiar male obsession with the grass being just Green.

Anyway, 17 and 20 year old sons (T & S) humoured me by dutifully agreeing that my final attempt was the most daisy-like and I happily proceeded to work a little pile of daisies.

This little pile was very quick to work and worked their brightening magic on me. I don't quite know what to do with them yet...I will certainly do a few more and thought about making them into squares all edged in the same colour (maybe blue?), perhaps for a cushion, perhaps another blanket? The boys tell me we don't need any more cushions or blankets...but I hardly think thats the point! I'm sure I can find a home for something somewhere. If anyone is reading this, let me know what you think...I'd love to know if you like the daisies as much as I do!

The daisies did provide considerable distraction today - I have been going a bit stir crazy the last few days - it has been sooo grey I have had to keep the lights on all day (hence the photos on the windowsill!). I am really not very good at prolonged inactivity and am torn between wanting to do as I'm told and just rest the leg in the hope that it heals quickly, or just seeing what I can manage! 

As another reprieve from the boredom, S took me to the coast today! I did feel a bit like the elderly granny being taken out for an airing - we parked as close as possible to the sea and I walked all of about 20 yards (and had to concede that the leg is not ready for slopes yet!). Very frustrating not to be able to walk along the beach but it was good to be out in the fresh air just for a short while, even if it was a bit blowy and bleak.

I do love the seaside at all times of year, but especially in the winter when the power of the waves is really evident. Much of this section of the beach is covered in broken sea defences which are pounded constantly by the crashing waves. Not pretty, but definitely dramatic.

I should say thanks to The Quince Tree for helpful hint about using BigHugeLabs.com for putting together the photo samplers - I have been having fun playing with their 'toys'! (I haven't yet worked out how to add a link from here - sorry!).

One more thing I must just show you - the finished wrist-warmers for my friend P:

I hope she likes them!

And I have been better friends with my big ripple again today, which for the record now has 17 rows! Will post progress pics at some point.

So, enough for today...it has got very late and I should really be getting some sleep!

Sx