It's Autumn

Hello,

autumn is well and truly here now with misty mornings, cold evenings and of course those gorgeous colours of gold, russet and copper as the trees change colour and the leaves fall. In this part of the world we have been having gloriously sunny days which made for a fabulous autumn break for last week's school holiday. Whilst N and I weren't able to go away the gorgeous weather meant we had lovely days out enjoying the countryside, National Trust visits, picking brambles and crab apples in the hedgerows and of course tea and scones in the afternoon including finally trying a clootie scone at the Robert Burns Museum in Alloway. If you are ever in this neck of the woods I really recommend the museum cafe.

I digress. Long days coming home happily tired to cosy up in the warmth indoors in the evening meant my thoughts naturally turned to more seasonal crochet ideas. This time of year means creating warm and cosy items and of course stocking fillers and presents for the end of the year including sometimes the stockings themselves. So it was that I found myself, curled up with a cup of tea, going through my stash of yarns looking to see what autumnal colours I had to play with and I pulled out these.

I know there isn't any green in this selection but with the purple beeches and heather around as well as the golden and flaming leaves on the trees and the rose hips in the hedgerow somehow to me these colours say autumn.

This is the grey/lilac/purple merino lace I had wanted to use for a while, I took this photo on a sunny afternoon in the garden before I sat in the sunshine and wound it into a ball. It's the same yarn as I used for my summer shawl. I wanted to try something completely different so for the first time I had a go at tunisian crochet. Tunisian uses a long hook which looks like a knitting needle only with a hook at the end.

This pattern is a tunisian lace stitch. I really like the stitch pattern but I'm not sure it's right for this yarn, perhaps a lacier pattern would show the colour variations of the yarn more? What do you think?

I can't wait to start using this gorgeous yarn too, I think it's going to be an infinity scarf.

Last but not least I'm making a teddy to join in with Anne at Crochet Between Worlds who is making teddies for refugee children, I'm using a Nicki Trench pattern and this is one of the legs.

Anne has very kindly posted a teddy pattern on her blog for people to use, please do go and have a look at her gorgeous teddies.

Til next time,

Hx

Paisley and Diamond Crochet

Hello, I've had an unplanned break from both blogging and crochet recently so it's been a while since my last post, I'd like to say thank you for all the lovely comments you left for me while I wasn't around. I have only managed a few minutes here and there with my hook over the past weeks so I didn't get my second summer cushion finished before sliding gently into autumn, however I thought you might like to see what I have managed to do so far and I'll finish it to use next year. I had started with the pink Paisley motifs I showed you before.

These motifs are smaller than the ones I made for the previous cushion, measuring only 6.5 x 3.5 cm. We have had some lovely September days here so when I could I went outside to enjoy the warm sunshine before the temperature dropped in the evening. Though I haven't had a lot of time to crochet I have enjoyed seeing these bright colours in the sunshine as I hooked up motifs in spare moments.

I knew I wanted to use both the pink and green this time and I also wanted a completely different design. I played about with the pink and green picturing different designs before choosing diamonds to go with the Paisley motifs and edging them in yellow.

 I decided to have a deep border running along the bottom of the cushion this time with a narrow border along the top. I've been making it up as I go along which makes it all the more fun.

This design was inspired by a photograph of a sari which had a beautiful pattern along the bottom, though the actual motifs, colours and design I chose for the cushion are completely different.

Although my progress has been slow I've enjoyed putting these bright colours together, a last piece of summer before turning my thoughts to autumn. Have you noticed the different feel in the air recently? I'm lucky enough to live in a quiet location and often think this time of year sounds different too. The slide into autumn feels gentle this year, it will soon be time to cosy up indoors and I've already started thinking of making gifts for the end of the year, but not quite yet.

Til next time.

Hx