January Nature

I've got a non-yarny post for you lovelies today.

Fridays are my BIG shop day, I usually take my Mother-in-law along as she doesn't drive . One of her favourite subjects is the weather...suppose I talk about it quite a lot too, hopefully not in a boring way ?!

Well, today I made a comment about the days getting longer and she quoted one of her favourite weather sayings... " as the days lenghten the cold strengthens" Have you ever heard this saying ? I must admit I used to think she was just saying it to annoy me ( sorry MIL ).
This year though ,it didn't, and we got to talking about other similar sayings she could remember from her youth. I'm finding it actually quite interesting .

I came home and asked Mr google what he knew, with the idea of printing off something to show my MIL. I found a nice site here.

But better than that, something on another page jogged my memory about this ......

I found this last year, in the very bookshop I mentioned in my last post.
It's the sister book to the more famous " Country diary of an Edwardian lady" I remember when that book was published in the eighties, it became hugely popular. Spawning loads of merchandise . I seem to remember bedding and crockery sporting the beautiful illustrations from the book.
It didn't do much for me at the time.

Now, though ,I love these books. They have stunning paintings of British nature. " Nature Notes " is from 1905.
The lady behind them is Edith Holden, you can read more about her here.
The book is organised into months.This is her January painting ....

I think it's so lovely.Here are some other illustrations from this month....

Birds( gold crested wrens, do we still have those ?),Ivy and my fave ..berries.

In the pages there are also Edith's thoughts on the Nature around her . Not to mention poems and folk-lore sayings like...........

(Remember you click on the image to make it bigger.)

Result :0)
 I'll be taking this to show my MIL tomorrow and I plan to share each month with you lovelies as the year progresses...you're in for a treat.

This afternoon the sun peeped through and I was inspired ,by this book ,to set out to school a bit early and stop to see what January nature I could find. By the time I got to the fields the clouds were blocking out the sun, bother, I thought . But actually the brooding sky was stunning......

The countryside did look pretty bleak , with bare hedges and trees , but beautiful,none the less.........

I managed to find some colour, Ivy , like Edith, and this stunning Lichen...

I'll be back soon with crochet goodness , but I hope you enjoyed this little nature interlude :0)
Have a great weekend .
Jacquie x

My Wednesday

Hello Lovelies , thank you all so much for the kind comments about my flowers, you are the best.

How's your week been going? Today was a busy work day for me ,but yesterday was different.
I always have a million jobs to do around the house.But time time off in the week is such a lovely luxury, I can't bear to spend all day doing boring jobs.
No Wednesday generally consists of a couple of hours of housework ( I can actually get a lot done in a relatively short time if I don't get distracted! ).
Next came a little crochet time, I'm sewing in the ends on these.........

This is going to be another cushion cover in some of my fave Kath'esque colours.I think I'm working such bright, springlike colours as an antidote to the grey weather we have been having this week.
The inspiration for this project is definitely bloggy. Mostly from here and here.

I've recently had a rethink about the way a sew in the ends on my work.
On my circle blanket I simply caught the previous rows end under the next row , which saves a lot of time ,but looks messy on the back .....

And,I've found lots of little ends are starting to appear on the right side of my blanket too, which drives me crazy.
So this is my 2011 modification....... I make sure I leave a longish end of yarn at the start and end of a colour( about 6 to 8 inches )

Next I tie the end from the beginning of a round to the one at the end, using a reef knot , you know , right over left then left over right. Sometimes I add a third knot for luck :0)

Then I use a sharp needle to sew in the ends....

I'm hoping this is better than a blunt needle as it goes through the yarn , not just between the strands.
I go one way ....

Then back the other way...

And only snip off the little end I cannot weave in .....

What does everyone else do ? I'd love to here your method.

Next on Yesterdays agenda was a trip out with my Mum . Our favourite place to visit is a local market town. It's not the closest shopping to us, but we don't care for the big city, and the journey there is so picturesque . Lots of my favourite countryside shots  like this.....

and this.........

(both taken last spring)
have been taken on this route. I love driving along these quiet lanes , stopping here and there ,to admire and capture the view .Yesterday was another grey day so sadly not good for taking pictures.

Once we get there I generally have a little list of items I need to purchase on these trips , you know , boring stuff . Yesterday it was, cough medicine, fruit , light bulbs and envelopes :0)

Once this was done we got on with the more enjoyable bits. A pot of tea and something to nibble in the charity bookshop / cafe.
I think these are a great idea, it's so nice to peruse a few books whilst you have your drink . ...

This week I found a lovely Ladybird book on astronomy , ideal for the master BM who's quite into stargazing at the moment, you can see it next to my teacake,I bought this book .
I also enjoyed looking at a Kaffe Fassett book, then popped it back.........

I'm not sue why ,but sadly I haven't found a crochet book here for ages. Maybe because it's so popular ?

Next we took in a few regular charity shops, I was very good this week and I didn't buy anything , probably because I had already treated myself to a couple of balls of yarn . More about that and my latest project next time :0)

Have a great Friday .

Jacquie x

Crochet this weekend

Hello lovelies , hope your weekend has gone well. Mine's just flown,as usual.
At least we saw the sun :0)

After I posted about my new books on Friday I was determined to make something from them to share with you all.

I was particularly keen to make the Gazania from my"Crochet Bouquet" book....

Things didn't go well ! Do you get days like that, when you really struggle with something that's not that difficult?

I must have pulled that flippin flower back about half a dozen times. I'm sure it wasn't the pattern , just my brain !! That didn't stop me wishing I had a nice photo tutorial though (a picture's worth a thousand words, and all that :0))

On days like this, it's best to walk away and leave it till you're more rested, except that's not what I did. I just kept going , determined to have something to show for what seemed like hours of work !
Would you like to see what I ended up with ?? This .....

I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out in the end. The centre is all wrong , hence the little flowers to hide my mistakes ...

It's in my conservatory and looks O.K. with my embroidery hoop picture. I like the fact they are on the same backing material.....

I'm pleased to say things got better on Saturday. Determined to enjoy making something from one of my new books, I made a little Pansy...

That took quite a bit of concentration but I love how it turned out and I've made three so far.

Some other crochet on my coffee table is a couple of squares for Sue. The fantastic SIBOL project (run by the lovely Sue )is a great cause. You crochet 6" squares and Sue crochets them together into blankets for the elderly. It's been ages since I sent my first few.

These days SIBOL has lots of challenges , so one of my squares( the striped one ) is for a Jan Eaton blanket, which uses only squares from her" 200 crochet blocks" book. The other lovely pattern is" circle of friends "and that's an online pattern , available here. .....

Sue was my first follower and also helped my with the technical aspects of blogging , so it's great to be able to send her these.

I'll leave you lovelies with a picture of todays sunset. This was taken at 4pm and it didn't get dark till about 4.30. The days are getting longer , yaaaay :0).....

Hope you have a good week and time for some crafting.
Jacquie x

New Crochet Books

Hello Lovelies , It's properly dark , cold and grey here today.

Luckily I have a few pictures taken earlier this week I can share with you.
As you know I love the Internet for crochet inspiration and free patterns. Crochet pattern Central is a great resource , Ravelry is amazing .Not to mention all the lovely blogs I'm addicted to :0)
Why would I need to buy a book to get crochet inspiration and projects ?

Welllll....I know I don't need them but there is something about a book that is so satisfying . So ,despite having a few titles already, I ordered a couple more last week. A little post Christmas treat to myself.

After seeing Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman featured on several blogs I got the wanties...And you know how it is with online shopping, they always tempt you with those " you might also like" pictures.
As they only cost just over a tenner for both , with free postage , I didn't feel too naughty. Soooo, I ended up ordering these lovelies..........

First Beyond the square....I love the fact that it's hard backed and ring bound, so practical...

There are some great motifs in here all grouped into different shapes. Love this square......

And these more unusual shapes...

The second book I got , Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson is a paperback ,but gosh I love this book .Can't wait to give these gorgeous flowers a try........

Not sure what I will use them for just yet, but I'm sure inspiration will come....

There are so many stunning ,life like flowers as well as more abstract ones. And an added bonus , foliage patterns too........

Ooooh , think I will go and get my hook , and see what I can make before 3.30pm when the boys come home . It's great weather to cosy up in a comfy chair with a good book :0)

Jacquie x

Crochet flower picture tutorial

Hello Lovelies
Here is my little tutorial , as promised :0)

Firstly I need to explain a couple of things . I've written this pattern out using U.S. terms as it's the easiest for me these days.

Here's a quick conversion guide :-
U.S. single(SC) = U.K. double
U.S. double(DC) = U.K. treble
U.S. half double (HDC) = U.K. half treble

Secondly about the yarn choice . Of course that's completely up to you , I just think a project like this looks better using a non - woolly type of yarn.You know , not fluffy . Cotton would be ideal , I used this as it's got a nice sheen and I loved the blue ....

Patons Smoothie , which is actually acrylic.

Got all that! great, so here goes....

First chain 6 and join with a slip stitch to form a ring.....

Round 1.Chain 1 and then make 16 single crochet into the ring. That's quite a few so you will need to keep pushing your stitches backwards as you go...

Join with a slip stitch into the first single crochet.....

Round 2 Next chain 6 ( this is equivalent to 1 DC , chain 3)....

*Skip 1 SC in round 1 , then DC in next SC ,chain 3 , repeat from* six times more ....

Slip stitch into third chain of 6 chain at beginning of round....

As you can see you have a little circle with 8 spokes and also 8 spaces between them . This is where you work the next round.....

Round 3 chain 1 , then into the first space work *1SC, 1 HDC,3 DC,1HDC,1SC......

Repeat from * into next 3 chain space and in each space around.Join with a slip stitch into initial 1 chain of round 3....

Next , don't finish off but chain your flowers stem. Mine is 10 chain but you can make yours as long or short as you like .....

To make the leaves Chain 7.....

In the second chain from your hook , I've marked it with a needle , SC...

in the next chain HDC, and in the next chain DC...

Next chain HDC, next chain SC ,in the final chain slip stitch and finish off...

Sew in the ends on the leaves and flower and you've done.

I mounted mine onto rough " watercolour" paper using tiny bits of double sided sticky tape . Then I popped it in a frame ...

Simple yet so effective , hope you agree .
If you give this a go I'd love to see the results :0)
Have fun and do let me know if anything isn't clear .
Jacquie x