Blue bunting for Blaire

Lovely title, no? Sadly (purely for alliterative purposes) her name isn't actually Blaire. It's a hilarious in-joke between me and one other friend when my olde Nokia 3310 (remember them?? T'was the height of sophistication at the time) autocorrected her real name to Blaire. (Obviously, it's totally impossible to guess what her real name is.) I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone called Blaire in real life.

Anyway. Back to the point, and some lovely (I think) bunting. Pics:

Unusually clutter-free mantelpiece. No, I'm not keen on the flowery stuff either. But LOOK AT THE BUNTING!

Close-up. Stylecraft DK in petrol, turquoise, cloud blue and denim. But you knew that anyway, right?

One more pic for luck....

If it looks familiar, it's because it was in Simply Crochet and is Attic24's Summer bunting pattern, which you can read about here. See how I am challenging gender stereotypes by doing blue for a girl. Or, also because I just prefer blue...

I got my buttons from the lovely Stephanie at Berry Nice Crafts. I believe Wool Warehouse are doing an Attic bundle of the four balls plus buttons Berry's are cheaper

I haven't seen the bunting in situ yet, as Blaire lives not that close to me in the big, big city. But I think it was a success...

Goodbye Alison

Today I went to a funeral. I'm lucky (?) enough that this was only the eighth funeral I've ever been to in 40+ years.

It was for one of the mums at school. Her son is the same age as my first born, my DS (and she was a year younger than me). So although we were friendly rather than good friends, it hit hard, thinking of my children in the same circumstances, being left without a mum.

She died of multiple myeloma - a cancer that has highest incidence rates among people who are:
- over 75
- male 
- black
- living in deprived areas. 

She was none of those, and it was less than six months from diagnosis until she died. Looking at the stats, the number of women in the UK who were diagnosed with this type of cancer between 2009-2011 numbers... 13. In a population of what, 65 million. 

I'm still wondering to what extent the tears that I cried (there were lots, but I'm a big crier) were for her, to what extent they were for her children, and to what extent they were to do with me, my losses, my feelings and thoughts. 

Anyway, I wanted to do something, so I made a heart, based on the Attic 24 heart. 

It isn't my best effort. I'm not being modest - I made a similar one for my mum and it was better. But here it is:

Front side. The main body is Drops Paris in turquoise, and the flower and petals/wings (there are two, honest) is a variegated cotton yarn, but I don't have the brand anymore.

Back side. The one I did for my mum was blank on the back, but I've added an 'A' for Alison here in the same variegated yarn - the pattern for the A is from Moogly alphabet. 















I hope it brings her parents some comfort. 

Goodbye Alison.  

Strawberry flower pattern

As this is my first ever, pattern, I didn't realise you couldn't just put all the details in Ravelry and had to link it elsewhere!

So here it is:

PATTERN

Ch = chain 
S/s = slip stitch 
DC = double crochet (single crochet in US terms)

Round 1: In yellow, either chain 3 and s/s to join, or use a magic loop. 
Round 2: ch1, then 10 dc into the loop. S/s to first dc - 10 dcs. Fasten off yellow.

Round 3: In white, join in any of the dc stitches. Ch3, then 4 tr in the same stitch. S/s into the next stitch. 
Five trebles into the next stitch, s/s into the next one. 
Repeat until you end up with five petals. S/s behind the first ch of the ch3 to join. Fasten off.

Round 4: In green, join behind the flower in a vertical stitch of the yellow dcs from round 2, between two petals. Ch5, then s/s into the second chain from the hook. Dc into the next stitch, then s/s into each of the next two. 
Ch1, s/s into a vertical stitch that’s between the next two petals. 
Repeat around until you have 5 tendrils, roughly between each petal. 
Ch1 and s/s join to the bottom of the first tendril. 
Cast off leaving a long tail, so you can just anchor each tendril to the back of the petals (so the stitches aren’t visible from the front). This will keep them in place and stop them moving about.

I hope you like it - let me know if there are any issues please, and I'll try to edit it.

Why I love crochet

So, I was hooking away at this rainbow square below in a spare five minutes today (it's for a group blanket, themed for Sochi - hence the subtle protest of rainbow colours),

when DH said, 'You really like your crochet don't you?!'

Which has got me thinking. Why do I like crochet so much? What is it about it?





I think the reasons are several:

- It scratches the creative itch. I'm not an artist (although I do also love crafting with the kids, now that they're mostly past that age where you have to sit on your hands to stop yourself from grabbing the paintbrush or colouring pens out of their chubby little hands because they're just not doing it right) but I think there's something primal and basic about creating. I have a theory: I am suspicious of people who say they don't like music, or stories, or art full stop because these things are universal across all cultures. The variety of all of them is huge, so I find it hard to understand why you wouldn't be able to find some type of art/book/music that does resonate with you. 
So I think creating is in that genre - perhaps not quite so universal, but in the zone. But why crochet rather than some other artistic expression? Well that leads onto the next few reasons...

- You can work something up really quickly. I made a hat in just over an hour the other day let's ignore the fact that I've since frogged it as it was too big

which was immensely satisfying. Blanket squares are just perfect for my short attention span - I can knock one of those out in less than an hour. Brilliant.





- I'm not bad at this crochet lark. I'll never be Attic24, or Little Tin Bird, or the Royal Sisters, but I can usually follow a pattern and make some pretty good-looking stuff.

Not your taste? To be honest, it's not my usual kind of thing either - but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It was a birthday present for my mum, so probably utterly misjudged as she's a leopard print, sequins and diamonds sort of person, but she also has everything she ever wants, so I went for the personal touch. Which leads on to...





- I suppose it's the egotist in me, but I love seeing one of my squares in the WoollyHugs galleries and going, 'I made that!!'. This year I've made infinity scarves like this

for friends, and some rose brooches. I hope they like them - one didn't even realise that I'd made it rather than bought it - and it seems so much more personal and intimate. Which is not to say that I'll be foisting my handmade creations on everyone for evermore, but it's nice to have that option.






- It's fun challenging myself with new patterns and new ideas. A Valentine's Day yarnbomb you say? On it. 

SUCH FUN!!







Those are the main reasons anyway. Oh, and the fact that it's tactile that yarn stuff, and playing with colour combinations is quite fun. 

And.... here be dragons!