Colour Crush: Mustard

I love the advent of Spring. The sunshine pours into the house again, with that pure, fresh light that has been missing since September. Living in a small terrace on a narrow street, our little north-east facing house misses that light in the colder months. So when the light is back again I'm filled with hope and that feeling that summer is soon, very nearly soon. Until then, I have colour. Colour is the most inspiring thing to me. 

And for those who know me 'IRL' (in real life) and even over on Instagram, I'm known as 'Lady Mustard'. Some might regard it as an autumn colour, but for me it works all year around.

Mustard for crafting...

The knitting needles and thread are vintage (from my nana's sewing box), the bow brooch is made from Rowan Handknit Cotton in Ochre, Drops Paris cotton aran in Mustard (isn't this the most perfect mustard yarn?), Clover Soft Touch hook, Fabric- Japanese double gauze from The Village Haberdashery and those beautiful vintage barkcloth buttons from Folly & Glee

Mustard for wearing...

THE mustard dress, tights and cardigan from Primark years ago, purse made in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and 1940s felt posy brooch by Hen House Handmade

And even mustard on the walls!

After two and a half years we finally got around to decorating our bedroom. Me and the Mr couldn't decide whether to decorate my way (Cath Kidston) or his way (Sherlock Holmes) so we compromised with mid-century modern. Just like the downstairs of the house! We painted this main wall in Crown Vintage Mean Mustard, and accessorised with my handmade cushions and new Orla Kiely bedding from TK Maxx. The other three walls are a soft pigeon grey- Crown Vintage Easy Rider- and we have huge posters from our favourite movies- Breakfast at Tiffany's and North by Northwest. The prints above the bed are from Woop Studio. I re-covered the Ikea lampshades with my favourite Sanderson Dandelion Clocks fabric and we installed a super duper retro Ikea lamp on the ceiling. I'm still searching for the perfect fabric for a roman blind. The crochet cushions are of course my own work! The longwave stitch cushion was made for 500 Crochet Blocks, and the granny circle was a recent make using Drops Paris yarn and Whitney from The Purl Bee's pattern. 

In my basket at the moment I have more projects in mustard lurking, biding their time until the moment when I can do some selfish hooky. For now I'm fully immersed in my projects for Simply Crochet. 

What are your colour crushes? I have many more to share over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I have set up an ode to mustard over on Pinterest...

xxx

Cherry Blossom Beret

For me, Spring means new life. And much of that new life and growth can be found in the garden. I particularly LOVE cherry blossom, magnolia blossom and that heady scented apple blossom that can be found lining the avenues of my home town in the spring time. Of course, we haven't had any of that yet, so I've made do with a new hat design. With a flower bursting from its centre, and made in cherry red, I called it Cherry Blossom- and its pattern is in the brand new issue of Inside Crochet magazine.

 And so is a little mention of 500 Crochet Blocks!

 This pattern was a particularly tricky one to write, and so I decided to share it with an audience of serious crocheters, as well as you guys here.

 The styling is gorgeous, so Spring-like and fresh.

I hope you love it and will go out and buy the magazine- it's worth every penny and is packed with some amazing patterns. I particularly recommend it to those who like to come up with their own patterns and stitches- there is a guide to pattern writing and reading, and some beautiful things to make for the kiddiwinks. 

Happy hooking everyone!

It may be winter outside...

...but in my heart it's Spring! After the longest month EVER (janurary), February has flown by. Thank goodness. I'm sick of winter, absolutely had enough. It's been soooooo cold in my little corner, snow flurries and biting winds and grey, dull days. But there is something about the light that is changing. It even smells different outside. I know many have said it, but spring is on the way. I've been out of action for a week or so, with a poorly finger (that ended me up in a&e on saturday- meh). So knitting has stopped, and crochet has slowed WAY down. 

i've been making the most of the changing seasons, enjoying the heady scent of the hyacinths and the light that now fills the living room most of the day. i've been polishing my crafty soul and picking up my hook when the whim takes me, rather than committing myself to too much. i'm making a couple of baby bits for friends who are popping sprogs out all over the place. when i've finished these little projects i can get on with making stuff for my own bump, which is due to make its debut in only 12 weeks time. we've been busy trying to have a massive clear out and furniture shuffle before we start on the nursery. then basically it's a matter of the application of lots of Annie Sloan chalk paint and some vintage wallpapers from the Little Teawagon shop. And of course some handmade goods by moi! 

I've been completely overwhelmed by the response the book has got over on Instagram, thank you all so much for all your lovely comments and encouragement. I still very nervous about it- nothing in this world is perfect and there is bound to be some mistakes despite the hard work of our pattern consultant Carol Meldrum. Out of 500 blocks there is bound to be something wrong! So if you get stuck with anything or there are any glaring errors please let me know then Hannah and I can check it out and make sure any future editions are improved. The competition to win a signed copy is still open tonight until midnight so there is still a chance to win!

Hope you're all enjoying the changing seasons- hope March brings some sunshine and happiness. 

Happy hooking 

xxx

Snapshots of Easter

Hello! Dearie me, my blogging had been rather poor of late, hasn't it? Sometimes just life gets in the way. Constant deadlines, a series of annoying little illnesses and a pervading feeling of toddler mess has prevented me from having anything very real to blog about. But, I have been plodding on, having forgotten about Easter until it was almost upon me. I didn't even put up my usual Easter decorations, trying (and usually failing) to make an 'easter tree' with twigs and a jug.

So I dabbled with a few easter crafts, and took some pictures with my real camera, rather than the snapshots from my iPhone I have been sharing lately (you can find me on Instagram, incidentally). I finally got around to crocheting these delightful little egg cosies from Nicki Trench's book Cute & Easy Crochet. Either my eggs are huge or my crochet is tiny because they wouldn't quite fit on the eggs!

So I switched to a 4mm hook, worked an extra row before decreasing and they now snugly fit around the lovely East Anglian free range eggs. The yarn (L-R) is Rowan Pure Wool DK in: Honey (Discontinued), Parsley, Kiss, Clay, Pier, Tudor rose. All have trim in Enamel, with East of India ribbon 'handles'.

I also tried making macarons on Saturday, using the recipe in the Tesco 'Real Food' magazine. As you can see, they came out quite nicely, but ENORMOUS! I will try using a smaller template next time. But I got to grips (literally) with my piping bag, and conquered my fear of meringues. I might even try it again some day!

I'm now at week six of my #grannyaday project, which I began on March 1st. So that's 43 squares altogether!

The time has flown by, and I think I'm about halfway through my stash now, so I reckon on another 43 squares before working a lovely granny border. I've been weaving in my ends (mostly!) and joining the squares on-the-go, so I don't have a huge, tedious job at the end. Do you love it? I LOVE IT! I am loving this easy project, textural pattern and luxurious, light wool. Beautiful.

My other yarn progress: the back piece of a cropped cardigan I am making from the Sirdar escape DK I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year. The pattern I am knitting is a vintage one, and I plan to customise the finished cardi with some fabulous buttons (perhaps the covermount buttons from Mollie Makes issue 13), some lace trim and a Liberty tana lawn pocket. Yes, I am excited about knitting a cardigan! My stepgrandmother, Nia, is a lovely lady. She has wonderful manners, is a great conversationist and a handy crafter. She taught me and my sister to knit many, many years ago, then we went and forgot it. She and my grandfather are moving house soon, so I am the lucky recipient of some of her trash/treasure. Including lots of vintage (and I mean 1930s) knitting patterns, and masses of yarn. Some good, some bad. And also this:

When Nia said those words "Would you like the Ercol table" my little granny heart skipped a beat. Of course I said yes, and took delivery of the little beaut on Wednesday. At the moment it is up in the spare room, though it'd look so lovely in the lounge. Sadly our front room is a main thoroughfare and also toddler stomping ground, so it'll remain upstairs until I clear a special place down here for it. Alongside this free treasure in the picture are some more free treasures: a futon from my other grandmother (luckily I am the only one who has ever slept on it prior to my ownership), and you spy there a mirror, rescued from potential skipdom by our dear friend Damo. I've painted it white for this house, and am waiting for a day of 'hanging' so it can be put up, along with those lovely printing/ hot metal/ letter trays there.

I've also taken some time for reading over the Easter weekend. Mollie Makes arrived on Saturday, so I sat down with a cuppa (in my latest Cath Kidston mug) and some jolly nice reading. I also was given the Little Paris Kitchen cookbook by my beloved for an Easter present. Can't wait to cook some French stuff! I drool looking at the pages- reblouchon cheese, lardons, rabbit, liver salad! NOM! Not one for vegetarians I'm afraid.

And that's it. Quite a lot acheived in the last week, now I look at it. I have a couple of room makeovers to reveal soon, as well as soon news I am absolutely BURSTING to tell you, but I must contain myself for now. On Friday I'm going to Selina Lake's book launch event for Homespun Style, and plan to make a few Homespun-style purchases. Hope to see some of you there!

xxx

The Joys of Spring

I have them. Oh yes. Every blossom-filled tree against a pale blue, hazy sky just fills my heart with happiness and the excitement of the summer ahead.

Here are some blossom images from last week...