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Blowing away the cobwebs

I realised I had been stuck inside for days and days and really needed to get out for some fresh air and a bit of meandering to blow away the cobwebs.  My son is still poorly with tonsilitis (which is a real grot bag) so he stayed home with his Dad whilst me and my daughter took ourselves on a walk, with the lovely Crumble of course who decided it wasn't too cold for a dip!

Crumble will always take to the water if there is the slightest chance of it.  He was taught this when he was a puppy by his Great Aunt Rosie who was an elderly Golden Retriever who also loved the water and would come and stay with us from time to time.  He plunged in without even a gasp, the river was quite high and I always worry that he will be washed away and I will have to be one of those dog owners that you read about who gets swept away to their doom because they foolishly went in the water to rescue their dog.  But how do you not?

There were real signs of life outside too.  Patches of lovely snowdrops just beginning to bloom confirming that it's all ok, it will be warm again soon and spring flowers will be on their way.  A return of some colour when everything is so stick brown, although there were some amazing Dogwoods in red and lime green to break up the "stickyness".  

I am thinking of New York today and the snowstorm they are having.  When we were there in October we had the most amazing weather but I have also been there in February when it was the coldest place I have ever been on this earth! Sadly we are not due to have any snow down in Wiltshire which is a shame for this northern lass. Growing up in Cumbria, snow was an annual event and not at all newsworthy. Now it seems as soon as anywhere has any snow it becomes a news item.

Well January has been a long slow month and I shall be glad to move on from it and pick up a bit of pace with life again.  Get out more, do more, see more things.  I'm done with the Winter.

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Softly, softly

This week has been soft and slow as we have succumbed to feeling poorly with days off school. It has enforced its own pace upon us which has been reminiscent of the pre-school days when you could just snuggle up for no reason in the mid afternoon and read books - complete with funny voices. I know when you are in those days they seem endless and sometimes frustrating. But when they are gone they are gone forever and school life takes over in such a powerful way. Everyone's life becomes about school not just those who have to go. Your working day, week and year is dictated by the school routine, the costumes they need, the trips to be paid for, the homework to be completed, the when and where of holidays. Knowing the next time you will get a cheap holiday is when they have left home! I think we will be seeing the week out at home as little improvement has been made on the health front. There will be more stories, more baking - cheese scones just cannot be beaten! And the newly discovered but non-photogenic butterscotch pudding - who knew, what a texture, it's just so puddingy! I decided on a project for my dusty pink alpaca - a chevron lace scarf. I am finding it slow going and the wool is tricky with the 2.5 mm hook but I am very happy with the look of it and the slow and soft nature of it suits my week entirely.

Crochet shawl

I have been making this shawl for the last few weeks.  It is in Simply Crochet Magazine No 26.  I had wanted it in time for the cold weather and I have just made it - it was so cold last night!

Of course I didn't make it quite the same as they did.  They advised to join the hexagons as you went along but I am not keen on that method and I found it left a messy join so I decided to make them individually and join them at the end.  So I laid them all out and took time to arrange them beautifully ready for the joining.  But then...

I turned my back for 2 minutes and when I came back there was Maude.  Why do they always sit on your projects?  There's a whole house to be sitting around in.  Sofas, chairs, blankets, dark corners, airing cupboards, you name it - we have options here.  But no.  Bang in the middle of it too! I decided to remain calm and carried on...

I was glad I did because I am really pleased with it.  I am particularly pleased with the colours which are different to the pattern suggestion.

The pattern suggests Sylecraft Senses Lace which is a 4ply and then you were to double it up and use a 5mm hook.  I decided to keep things simple and went for the Stylecraft Special Aran which does not need doubling up and uses a 5mm hook.

For the main hexagon colour I chose Silver - 3 balls - as you can see that is all I have left of it after joining etc so it was a good use of the yarn.  Then Meadow (green) for the centre of each flower.  The flower colours I chose were: Cloud Blue, Aspen, Plum, Pomegranate and Fondant.  I hadn't seen the colours in the flesh and just ordered them online but I wasn't disappointed and I think they work really well together.

I am not one of life's great finishers so to complete this leaves me with a great feeling of satisfaction - and hopefully warmth!  I shall wear it in bed like a little old lady, reading my book with a cup of tea!

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Crochet wips

I thought I would take a look at my current wips.  There aren't as many as I thought.  I think it's because the other million and a half are still in my head! This (above) is some teacosies which I am still enjoying making.  Ahh the colours - the joy, the possibilities!

This is the shawl from Simply Crochet magazine which is all complete and ends tied in and everything - just need to join the hexagons.  It did say to join as you go but I find that method messy and unsatisfying so I'm doing it my own way!

I want to get on with this one a bit more and get it finished but it still needs a lot of work.  Thankfully the weekend beckons - plenty of time for crochet!

 

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Birthdays

So, it was my birthday!  I had such a lovely day.  I wasn't really looking forward to it in the sense that I felt that I had kind of outgrown them.  I remember as a child asking my dad what he wanted for his birthday and he said he didn't really mind.  I just couldn't understand this!  He explained that the older you get the less you are bothered by things like birthdays.  I think I might be there. 

Having said that I did have a truly lovely day.  It began in bed with a hot cross bun and a cup of tea and presents and snuggles.  The presents were good, really good but nothing beats a morning snuggle. Nothing.

I got a gorgeous scarf, soft, snuggly and great colours - what more could you ask from a scarf?

This was recently televised on the BBC and I did watch some of the episodes but I am not generally great at keeping up with TV shows!  So now I have the book which I am delighted to have.  I grew up living near Chester and the Zoo was a regular day out for me.  It was also one of the few things you could do for a January birthday as it was open all year round.  I remember a monkey throwing some weed out of the moat at me once on my birthday and it stuck on my cardigan!

My friend bought me this - so luxurious!  And inside some body lotion and handcream and the most beautiful soap...

Too pretty to use of course!  

So, all the fours - forty-four.  The year only just begun but already gathering some speed it feels. Where do these days go?  I mustn't let them run away with me.

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Unicorns I love them...

I can at last show pictures of the Unicorn cushions that I made for my daughter's birthday.  She turned thirteen at the weekend.  I'm trying hard not to think about that fact and that she may only be here with me for another five years.  Make the most of it, make the most of it...

Anyway she loves Unicorns - who doesn't?  So I set out to make her some cushions for her bed.

I am so pleased with them.  It's been a long time since I did any patchwork and I didn't plan it out extensively before I started, I just went for it and it paid off!  More importantly she loves them too and thought I had bought them (high praise!)

The green unicorn fabric is Heather Ross Far Far Away and the purple is by Timeless Treasures.  

After presents were opened we all enjoyed a delicious breakfast...

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The Life Changing Magic of Tidying

I have been hearing things about a book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.  I haven't bought it yet but have read about it and watched a women on Youtube trying to implement it.

Marie Kondo is an expert in tidying and helps her clients to declutter their lives by getting them to get rid of anything that does not bring them 'joy'.  

I am a hoarder.  I am not a terrible hoarder like you see on the TV where the Council have to come round and have a chat whilst standing knee deep in goodness knows what in the hallway.  But I have kept things that I don't need.  Mainly I have kept things from my childhood.  I have moved a lot in my life although this has stopped since having the children.  But in every move I have taken with me items that I could do without.  Toys and books mainly but also a mouse pincushion!

How have these things survived these moves?  When you lose so much stuff along the way how come a pincushion has survived?  How come the Mother Goose book (at the top of the page) survived?  I don't read it.  I didn't even remember I had it until the other day when I decided to implement the Marie Kondo system on my book collection, and there it was.  As soon as I saw it I had a reaction.  An emotional reaction.  I took it down from the shelf and started to look at it.  You see it was a personalised book with my name and the names of friends and family and places inserted into the story along the way to make it seem like a book about me.  And this was why the book had survived.  It was imbued with a strong sense of nostalgia, I felt like I couldn't throw it away because it had been created for me, it was about me.

Except it didn't bring me joy.  I realised when I was looking at it that it made me feel sad.  I understood what Marie Kondo's book was all about.  She says that after implementing her method many of her clients go on to make other great changes in their lives - they start businesses, they divorce their husbands, they make a fresh start.  The reason being that they now have the headspace to do these things once all the clutter has gone.  Because most of the clutter is emotional baggage just hanging around and you cart it from house to house and wonder why you can't move on.

So the book had to go.

The first three pages were very sad and the tears came.  

But then there was relief.  And it felt good.

Two large bags of books have now gone to the Charity shop and I know I will never miss them.  I just feel lighter and more positive.  

But what about the mouse?

Well he gets to stay :)

Yarn and sparkles!

So there I was the other day, just sat there having my daily cry when there was a knock at the door - of course!  I hurriedly wiped away my tears - although it still looked as though some awful thing had befallen me - and answered the door.

And there it was.  The parcel I had been waiting for.  

I had ordered it at the very last minute on New Years Eve just before their special offer expired.  I mean I had been coveting it for weeks but for some reason I just had to eek it out until the final minutes of expiry.  

I was NOT disappointed!  I haven't ordered wool online before because I do like to see what I'm getting - I like to touch it see it in the flesh and I just love all that wool stacked up in a wool shop.  I love it as much as I love haberdashery.

This was the main reason for the order.  The Drops Alpaca was on offer and a friend of mine had received the most beautiful Alpaca scarf for Christmas and this got me thinking that maybe I should make myself one.  I haven't settled on a pattern yet and I've no idea if this is enough but I loved the colour and was excited to see it in the flesh.  Plus who could resist that happy Alpaca on the wrapper?

I also bought this - just as a random purchase really and to avoid having to pay postage I thought I may as well spend it on some yarn.  I have absolutely no ideas for this yet but again I love the colour and the feel and I'm glad I was a bit adventurous.  Any ideas for what to make with this?

The rest of the order is some Stylecraft Aran to make a shawl with but more on that another time.

All of this excitement had taken my mind off my daily cry.  I love that - one minute you are sitting alone quietly sobbing and the next you have your own wool shop laid out before you.  To  top it all, when I turned around this was happening in the corner...

Sparkles!

Meanwhile in Ron's world...

nothing much had changed.

 

Snowdrop garland pattern

The New Year is well and truly here.  Today both of the children are back at school and it feels as if January is definately underway.  It was so dark and damp here this morning that I feel in need of sharing my recently made Snowdrop inspired garland.  

Having seen the first signs of Snowdrops on our Stourhead walk it made me yearn for a little of that fresh spring green colour, that first glimmer of hope that we are moving forward into the year.  Also, it was a great use of my ribbon which I have had for ages (I think from Hobbycraft) but couldn't find the right thing to do with it.

So here is the pattern:

The large flower

Round 1

Ch 4, join with a sl st to form a ring.

3ch (counts as a tr), 11tr into the ring.  Join with a sl st to top of beginning 3ch.  12 tr.

Fasten off.

Round 2

Join new colour in any st.

3ch (counts as a tr) 1tr in same sp.  

1ch, 3tr in each st around. 

Sl st to join the round.

Round 3

Join new colour in any 1ch sp.

3ch (counts as tr), 2tr in same sp.

1ch, 3tr in each 1ch sp around.

Sl st to join the round.

Fasten off.

Round 4

Join new colour in any 1ch sp.

4ch, sl st to next 1 ch sp around.

Sl st to join the round.  

Do not fasten off.

Round 5

5ch, sl st to first sl st around.

Sl st to join the round.

Fasten off and sew in the ends.

The colours I am using are Stylecraft Special DK in Parchment and the aptly named Spring Green.  I am also using a white which is not Stylecraft but something I already had lying around. 

So now the smaller flower:

Round 1

Ch 8.  Sl st to join the ring.

Ch3 (counts as a tr), 17 tr into the ring.  

Sl st to top of ch3 to join.

Fasten off. 18 tr.

Round 2

Join new colour in any tr.

Ch3 (counts as tr), 1tr in the same st, ch2, skip 1tr.

2tr in next st, ch2, skip 1 tr around.

Sl st in the first tr to join.

Fasten off.

Round 3

Join new colour in any ch2 sp.

Ch1 (does not count as a st),

1dc, 3tr, 1dc in each ch2 sp around.

Sl st in the first dc to join.

Fasten off and sew in the ends.

I then threaded mine onto ribbon which I love the effect of but of course you could crochet a chain to attach the flowers to.

I hope that all makes sense.  It is such a contrast to be looking at these simple colours after all the vibrancy of Christmas.  It's like a clean slate.

Of couse no photo opportunity is complete without one of the animals sneaking in there for a bit of attention.  If I'm looking at something, Crumble likes to make sure that it's him!

 

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Christmas was wonderful.  So calm, so relaxed.  It was the best one I can ever remember.  It was just the four of us for most of it but lovely friends dropped by along the way and shared a meal and a glass of wine.  

Christmas Eve is always my favorite and this year we went to the Christingle service at the local Church. We had dropped by in the morning to help make the Christingles - all 120 of them!  It was a lovely morning, everyone finding their place in the production line without any amount of organising and the job was done in no time.  There was coffee and biscuits and all the left over sweets you could eat.  

We returned at 4pm for the service which was very beautiful.   All the lights in the Church were turned off as we lit the Christingles and sang Away in a Manger - it always makes me cry.  We finished with the very jolly 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' and we were on our way.  It was just getting dark as we left the Church and the streets of our town were all sparkly with Christmas lights.  

Christmas morning was joyful and laid back.  Presents were opened at leisure with cups of tea and warm pastries.  Ron here did not enjoy his Christmas collar and it had to be removed shortly after this was taken!

We eventually ventured out some time after Boxing Day to Stourhead for a bracing walk.  It was freezing and a bit wet but we stopped for a warm by the fire and some mulled wine, hot chocolate and a four finger Kit Kat and were soon restored.

There were signs of Snowdrops along the way.  The promise of something green and new - an unknown adventure ahead for all of us.

We often don't end the year in the same way that we began and we can never foresee what the year ahead will hold.  Each year leaves its mark in some way, sometimes felt deeply, other times barely noticed, but all together they add up to a whole lifetime.

So many hopes and dreams are conjured up for today and tomorrow as we put one year to bed and meet the next with great expectation.  I wish you all a Happy New Year.

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