Crochet. Colour. Craft
It got cold. I know it’s not heavy, wintery frost but I wasn’t expecting any at all. October isn’t usually icy. The change to the garden jogged my memory, I was reminded that I used to write garden blog posts. Over the last few months I have taken a few pictures but not really thought about putting them together with words. Let’s try that today…
Autumn. We bypassed summer, did we!? My outdoor space is in tatters, which is why I’ve not shared much about it recently. I have become most accomplished at being blind to the work that needs to be done; these days I just seek out the pretty.
This is the morning glory that has climbed up the canes intended for sweet peas. Did I mention that I forgot to plant sweet peas? I’d forgotten that a keen gardener must start planting in the autumn and winter to have pretties for the following year. I did plant sweet peas in the end (bought them!!), they just never flowered. Well, I got a single bloom, which is absolutely ridiculous. Still, the morning glory is a beautiful flower and it makes me happy.
And I’ve got alyssum, which was planted from seed. They remind me of the eighties when I was little. Mum planted them in the borders with lobelia. I think that’s why I like them now. I used to pick the petals off lobelia and eat them. I’m not sure they’re counted as edible flowers. But you know, I’m not dead.
Everything has gone wild. The natural look is a good one but when it’s actually neglect …er, I’m not sure one can argue that it’s intentional. Every now and then I make the effort to dig up a dandelion but other stuff, like the nasturtium gets left because it’s lovely. But then it drowns everything and turns to sludge underneath the weight of itself. Any way, I’ll stop with the negative spin (although moaning is brilliant fun). Let’s have a look at the rest of it. What’s good…
I’m still getting veg and other edibles. That’s pretty impressive. We had roast lamb on Sunday, so I picked loads of mint to make sauce. With it we had those beans (the very last of this year’s lot). And I am amazed that it is the courgettes that are the last thing to hang on in there. I’ve got loads in the fridge and I’m tempted to make the 121st cake of the season (courgette cake is the best – try the zucchini bread from Rachel Allen’s Bake).
I went round the garden trying to find summer’s leftover flowers too. It’s slim pickings but they are there. And if they’re not then the vivid blue of slug pellets adds a touch of the exotic.
And in desperate times, one can always try arty shots of random stuff. I thought that peg pic was going to be better than it was. Maybe I should have taken twenty more than the twenty I took. Of pegs!? Pegs!
And there we have it. Another season gone. Another season where I didn’t do what I said I’d do. Whatever, I’m giving myself a pat on the back anyway cos last weekend I planted bulbs.
I’ve done it! All finished. Woot!! I’m so pleased with it. Truly, I love this cosy set. It’s taken a while because I’ve been busy with other things too. The more I do this sort of thing, the quicker I’m surely going to get. And it’s technically still autumn too, so it didn’t take six months afterall! Please pop over to Ravelry or Etsy to buy your PDF copy. And because I’ve worked out how to do it, I’m offering a splendid 20% discount up until 9pm on Sunday (18thdec)!! You’ll need this code: xmastreat The code also gets you a discount on all other items in my Etsy store!! Woohoo.
No silly faces like my last blog post (it’s the pic at the end)! I have very serious, yet… what? wistful? expressions for the real deal. It took a million pictures to get these. I scrutinize every last one to make sure I don’t look like too much of a freak and that the pompom is showing or I’ve got my hand in the right place. It’s possible I need a helper.
I took loads of pictures of it all. I wanted them to be informative as well as good looking. In the patterns themselves there are step-by-step photo’s for any tricky bits. I’ve focussed on the making of the mitts as they have elements where more detail is needed. But there aren’t many tricky bits because the patterns are super easy.
Please do let me know what you think. I’d absolutely love to hear if anyone makes a set. At some point I’ll do some different colour combinations too.I think there are loads of options where the colours will make it look completely different.
Any way, that’s all for this week. I’m going back to present making!
There was lovely autumn sunshine yesterday. I went into the garden in my Hallowe’en get up to take a few pictures. The garden isn’t as exciting to me now but I think I should have a record of what it looks like in a different season.
Autumn is seriously beautiful. The other day I drove back home from the weekly shop through an orange tunnel of trees. Low sun, autumn leaves, winding roads through the woods. There was definitely some magic going on.
I haven’t got much to say today. It was only five minutes in the garden, finding what I liked best about it.
There is one last courgette hanging on. And since I can’t be bothered to tear up the bedraggled runner beans yet, there are still some of those too.
One bed dug over and manured. Nasturtiums are trying their luck. I could salad them up before the frosts, I suppose.
I’m most impressed with the hosta seeds. Pretty! Last year I took some of these and planted them. Nowt happened. Next year I’m really going to look after my hostas. This year so many snails and slugs dined on them, they ended up looking like lace.
That’s it for now. Shock,horror, I have done very little crochet in the last week. We’ve been away for half term and had poorliness. I’ve taken to reading more too, which takes up stitchy time. I’ll try and find a better balance this week.
Ps. I found a couple more dodgy pictures of my little halloween garland.