When All Around You Are Losing Theirs ... Crochet!

Well, I won't lie, it's been a difficult summer.

Whilst my reason for having a blog is still a little fuzzy around the edges, I know here is not the place to elaborate fully.  I will stress though that my little family and I are all well.  We have been taught a lesson in life and now face a slightly different future to the one we had envisaged.  I'm not a great one for telling all, to my detriment I think.  Maybe I will one day; I'm so very tired of taking everyone's shit on the chin.

Suffice to say, my blog - and yours - continue to give me an enormous amount of pleasure.  Thank you so much.

Anyway, onto brighter things ..!  I've done far less in the garden than I'd hoped this summer.  It's looking very definitely tatty.  I've neglected the dead-heading and my watering has been a tad sporadic.  Hey ho, there's always next year!

Thank heavens for supermarket flowers to bring the outside in ...

How pretty are these asters?

They're sitting in the kitchen in all their pinkness and the joy they've given far exceeds the £2.99 price tag!  It's true what they say, "I'd rather have flowers on my table than diamonds around my neck".

There's been definite therapeutic hooky action.  A little iPhone cosy (the colours in the photos look a little washed out, sorry) in Sirdar Smiley Stripes and half-trebles 'in the round' which took less than an hour ...

I've also dipped my toe in the Pinterest puddle!  I'm exercising a little caution at the mo, it has the potential to be quite addictive me thinks!  Completely in love and inspired by a new-to-me blog and this pattern, a glimpse of my current scarf work in progress ...



The yellow frill is taking FOREVER.  Each stitch has three, four or five trebles in it.

I'm going to cover it in little clutches of brightly-coloured roses.

The green is a new Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo shade called 'Groovy Green' and I think it is possibly one of the most gorgeous yarn colours I've ever come across.

We've actually had a lovely relaxing bank holiday weekend despite the awful weather ...

We've been shopping - the nice browsy kind with the odd school necessity thrown in - and D treated me to a new Pip Studio towel ...

My kind Mum In Law took us out for a wonderful Sunday lunch yesterday, we've watched films and pottered.

(Ooh, I've just had to break off to peer through the window ... our next door neighbours have just come home from hospital with their brand new baby!!!  Sooooo sweet.)

Where was I?  Ah yes, I've also been going through some of my photos.  My little laptop is positively groaning under the pressure of so many of them.  I took this of D on our holiday in Spain ...

I just love it.  He's so engrossed in his book, he barely takes his eyes off it to slug his beer and certainly doesn't notice me taking a picture.  Plus he is wearing his new glasses.  It's still quite a novelty to see him in them ... is it normal to fancy your hubby like mad in specs?

The Blondies are back to school on Thursday and, to be quite honest, we're all looking forward to the return of routine.

Anyway, a little chatty catch-up and a hint of an explanation as to why I've been a little elusive.

Hope you've all had a super bank holiday weekend and that August has treated you kindly.  Here's to a serene September ...

Hx

Fridge

There are two new additions to the front of our fridge freezer.

A rainy day gift for me from Blondie Daughter ...

(Ahhh, if only it was real.)

And this hair ...

Me: "Why is there a hair attached to the fridge?"

BD: "I pulled it out of my head.  It's special and I want to keep it forever.  It's my very first brown hair!"

I felt a little sad.  I don't want to have to rename her Mousy Daughter.

We had lots of garlic mash for supper tonight.  It's a sad indictment of the British summer that I'm craving winter food in August.

Thank you so much for all your crochet cushion compliments.  You're lovely you are.

Hx

Spanish Ripples ♥

(Warning - this post contains excessive amounts of colour!)

Remember the glimpse of something hooky in my last post?

Well ... those few coloursome ripples became my Spanish Ripple Cushion!!!

Come and see ...

I took, on holiday, a bag of my favourite Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK and set about making ripples following Lucy at Attic 24's Neat Ripple Pattern.  What a thoroughly soothing pattern it is too once you get into the rhythm.  Sitting on the sun-drenched balcony, overlooking the Mediterranean, a glass of wine to hand (seriously), I rippled my way through first one side and then the other.

Lucy actually backed her cushion with a thrifted sweater so I had to call on my own rusty initiative when it came to joining my two crocheted sides together.

After a few aborted attempts at one thing or another (and some really FILTHY words), I ended up double crocheting up the sides of each (two sets of two for each colour and four at each corner) and creating a sort of half ripple (combination of doubles, half trebles and trebles) along the bottom and top to 'straighten' the edges.  This was then followed by trebling all the way around ...

I then joined the two panels together by creating a double crochet seam ...



I'm soooo happy with how it looks.

The finished product?  Ta-doodly-da ...

My Spanish Ripple Cushion!  Do you like it?

It's so wonderfully squashy and, if I bury my face in it, I can still smell the factor 15 ... aaaahhhh.

Happy days.

Hx