Primrose Beresford

A New Little Project

2012-01-23T21:29:00.000Z

I have a few projects on the go at the moment. Most of them need sewing up to finish, and I'm not in a sewing frame of mind.

So to keep me crocheting, a new little project.

Starting with 20 little circles.

All will be revealed soon.

100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet

2012-01-22T19:51:00.000Z

I'm looking for another couple of nice flowers to make crochet brooches for my coats. I like this one below called "pelargonium" and I like the "ruffled rose", and I like the "tea rose".....

...and I love these little rosebuds...and the centifolia rose.

Ooh! I'm going to be busy, and need more coats :)

Crochet Cushion Update

2012-01-21T22:21:00.000Z

I gave the flowers to my mum - and she loved them, but as predicted, didn't care much for the yellow flowers. She has sewn up all the flowers and is a few short for the layout she is doing, so asked me to do some more.

Now that I have made quite a few of them, they only take about 10 minutes each to make.

Flower Blanket

2012-01-20T22:44:00.000Z

I'm thinking of creating a one colour blanket. Most of the decor in my house is very pale, and whilst I love the multi-colour blankets, I'm wondering what a pale one would look like.

Here for inspiration, with added flowers, is a pale blanket from Cute and Easy Crochet:

Cheering up a Winter Coat

2012-01-19T16:08:00.001Z

These little flowers are quite easy to make. Once you have got the hang of it, they are quite addictive.

The way I have sewn this one up is reminiscent of those big huge overblown summer roses. Strange colour for a rose though :) I just wanted something to match this green tweedy coat.

Choosing a Lining for a Crochet Bag

2012-01-18T19:41:00.000Z

It is always necessary to line a crochet bag to be used for shopping or books. If you put something heavier than a lettuce in a bag like this then the handles will stretch. Before you know it, the straps will be on your shoulder and the bag will be knocking the backs of your knees.
So, to prevent this, and to make it look nicer inside, then line it.

Sounds easy, and it is, but the difficult part for me is choosing an appropriate lining. This was the first one I thought of: a delicious ice cream parlour pink polka dot. Almost tempted to use it, but there is barely enough fabric, and I want to use it for something else.

So here's my second choice. Although this matches one of the blues in the bag, and the fabric is a great colour, it is just too blue for the white background of the bag.

Here is the bonkers option. I love this tartan fabric, and bizarrely it goes quite well in a competing clashing way. However, the fabric is 100% wool and a bit stretchy so alas it will not solve my bag knocking knees problem.

So rather boringly, here is what I have decided upon. A piece of blackout blind cotton. It is soft, completely opaque and quite strong without being heavy. Exactly what I need.

Inspirational Interiors with Crochet

2012-01-17T21:09:00.000Z

I've been interested in interiors for ever it seems, and regardless of what is in fashion, the same favorite themes keep popping up over the years. I love pale blue, the colour of sky, like the colour in the photograph above.

I also like pale rooms, pale walls, pale painted furniture, white, grey, cream. The details change a little with fashion, but the basics are the same.

And roses. Now I'm well aware that rose perfume can be a little bit too granny and not enough chic, but I don't care. For me, nothing can beat a big rose perfumed bubble bath - it's a shame I don't have room for a bath in my current tiny bathroom - showers only for me at the moment.

Finally, I love old brass and iron bedsteads, especially in this design, and especially when they are painted.
But most of all I love a crochet blanket. Who could resist sleeping in the bed shown above?

All photographs in this post are from the book shown in the first photograph. Now, I bought this book specifically because it had a crochet blanket on the front cover, and was terribly disappointed to find that the same photo inside the book had been cropped and had lost the blanket. However, this was more than made up for by the other photos in the book.

Crochet Flowers Cushion

2012-01-16T20:15:00.000Z

The little crochet flowers are ready to be sewn up and into a cushion. Here is the first version, all pinks and purples, with white.

I thought that this was too much of a restricted colour scheme so I added yellow, but I prefer the version without yellow.

It's over to my mum now to sew them up and make the cushion, so we'll see which version she prefers.

More Utility Crochet

2012-01-15T21:15:00.000Z

Now, I must warn you, not everyone likes this idea. :)

Mr Prim can't stop laughing when he sees me making these. It is a step too far for him. You're not crocheting Brillo pads again are you, he says, laughing uncontrollably.

For those not in the UK, "Brillo" is a brand name for little wire wool soap filled scouring pads used for dish-washing, particularly for getting the difficult burnt on food off metal grill pans etc.

If you crochet little rounds of natural gardening twine (which feels quite rough to touch), then it makes acceptable little scouring pads.

I prefer to use these, because using steel wool pads and throwing them away after one use, or possibly two, is too extravagant for me. These are cheap as chips and you can launder them if you want to use them more than once.

You will notice that I have just cut the ends, and not sewn them in. I tie a tight knot and then cut. They don't unravel, but if they do, then it doesn't really matter, since you are probably using them only once or twice.

Back tomorrow with prettier crochet :)

Utility Crochet

2012-01-14T21:56:00.000Z

These cotton crocheted squares, about 20 cm square, are useful as both face cloths, and as general cloths in the kitchen. I colour code them so that the kids don't wash their face with a kitchen cloth. I have some I made about a year or so ago, and they are barely showing signs of wear. They shrink a tiny little amount when they are tumble dried but they loosen up again as they are used. I have crocheted similar ones in various stitches, mostly treble stitch, and half treble. These are the first of this pattern, so I will see how these ones work. I prefer to use these to disposable kitchen cloths.

These silver ones are a bit of an experiment. They are not cotton, but a synthetic mixture, and are quite shiny. These will not work as wash cloths. I'm hoping that they will be good polishing cloths for mirrors.

More Uses for Crochet Flowers

2012-01-13T20:49:00.001Z

More Cute and Easy Crochet flowers. I love these, but with a toddler in the house, I don't think that they would stay attached to the curtains for long. They would become an accessory for a fairy or a princess and be dragged around the house.

Not being a tea drinker, I just don't get teapot cosies. I could see this as a spectacular Easter Bonnet though, although on second thoughts....

I think a single flower to brighten up my winter coat :)

Starting the little crochet flowers

2012-01-12T21:34:00.000Z

Here is the flower I have chosen for my Little Crochet Cushion:

And here is my version of it. I reckon I need to make 36.

I'm on number 6, only another 30 to go !

Boden Crochet Cardigan

2012-01-11T20:25:00.000Z

Sometimes you find crochet in unlikely places. Browsing the latest Boden 2012 Spring catalogue which popped through my door, what do I find on page 8 but "Hand Crochet Jacket", available in 3 lovely colours.

Ooh I think, got to get one of those, but then I look at the price: £99. Well, maybe not. I do have a habit of shrinking clothes in the tumble drier.

However, thinking about it again, it would probably take between 10-15 balls to crochet this, at say £5 a ball, so it is not seeming such bad value after all.

And it looks quite reasonable in style, almost like a Chanel inspired jacket. I'm not at all sure about crochet garments generally since I think they look a bit too hippy for my wardrobe, but this one looks quite smart.

We'll see. I'm not exactly rushing to part with £99 for it.

Little Flowers Crochet Cushion

2012-01-10T20:01:00.000Z

My mum clipped this picture of a little cushion made from flowers. She asked me if I could crochet the little flowers for it.

I like little projects like this. It should take only a night or so to crochet the flowers. The boring part for me is sewing in the ends and sewing it together, but my mum says that she is happy to do that.

She asked for pinks and reds, so here is the initial choice. This will be too restricted a palette so once I have done a couple of flowers of each, I'll lay them out and then decide what other colours are needed.

The only problem is that it is behind the 200 Flowers and the crochet bag in the crochet queue.

More Crochet Inspiration - Pale Blanket

2012-01-09T22:08:00.000Z

I'm still continuing with my post a day about crochet, but I don't have much to show you today from my own crochet: first full week back at work, kids back to school, one of them sitting exams, husband away to Europe on business - it has all gone a bit mad here :) So, here, for inspiration, is a pale blanket, also from the fleamarket style book.

Now, I'm not at all sure about whether I would have the patience to do a whole blanket, all in the same colour. I think that this looks very nice, and it would match well with the pale creams and greys colour scheme in my bedroom, but I think on balance I prefer colourful blankets. For me, a lot of the enjoyment in crochet is the colour interaction, in choosing contrasting colours sometimes, nice complementary colours other times, or wild clashing colours.

On balance, I think I'll pass on this one for the moment.

Still continuing to crochet together the 100 Flowers - I'm up to 120 flowers joined together, with another 80 to sew on. Not much to show you in pictures yet.

Crochet Inspiration

2012-01-08T19:45:00.000Z

Here is a crochet blanket from the home of Petra Boase in Norfolk. It is featured in the book "flea market style".

What I like about this blanket is the fact that the colour used to join the squares (white) is also used in the squares. This is something I have never done. I'm going to try this in my next blanket. It makes some of the squares look smaller than the others, and I like that effect.
Another thing I like about this blanket is the wide plain border around the coloured squares. I think that highlights the colour well. I might do that in my flowers blanket if I have enough white wool left.

Library Bag

2012-01-07T22:15:00.000Z

I've finished the crocheting, and the sewing up of the seams.

Now I need to sew in the lining and sew on the handles.

Joining Blocks : Two Different Seams

2012-01-06T22:07:00.000Z

I've used two different seams for the library bag. In both, you hold two blocks together, and double crochet through the edges of both blocks, crocheting them together to create a seam. The difference is in which sides you hold together as you crochet. In the one above, you put one block on top of another, with right sides together, and then crochet them together. This gives a nice flat seam on the right side.

So, the other way is to put the 2 blocks together, wrong sides together, and double crochet the seam. Then you get a raised seam on the right side as in the picture above, and those below.

This makes a nice outline to the seam, to highlight the edges of the bag.

Missing Bruges

2012-01-05T18:54:00.000Z

For three years in a row, we went to Bruges, sometimes more than once a year. One year, we spent over a month there. It is a very picturesque historic town, but best of all, the centre of town is small, and you can walk or cycle around.

Here's a picture of a small fleamarket selling mostly household small goods, pottery, brass items and little pictures. Not really my kind of thing, but still interesting to look at.

Best of all, Bruges has several excellent wool shops. Hmmm....I can feel a wee trip coming on.

Back to crochet tomorrow when I find the USB cable for my camera. Sigh! I am so disorganised.

Granny Bag

2012-01-04T18:54:00.000Z

A new little project to take me away from the 200 Flowers for a few days. Here is a granny bag from the Cute and Easy Crochet book.

I am a big fan of my local library but I'm not so good at remembering to take my books back on time. I don't hide shopping or shoes or anything from Mr Prim, but if he knew how much I spend in a year on library fines... :)

To encourage me to take my books back, I'm making a new library bag to hang on a peg beside my front door. Like the bag here in the book, I'm going to line my bag in fabric. Hopefully, this this will ensure that it doesn't stretch to a metre long when I put my books in.

Will show you my version soon.

Granny Permutations

2012-01-03T11:56:00.000Z

One of the things I like about crochet is the choice of colours. With this blanket I used 17 colours. So for each little flower using 3 choices of colour, the number of permutations is (if I remember my maths correctly) : 17*16*15 = 4080 choices. The problem is that some of these are not pretty, so for example, dark purple, dark blue, mid blue is very dark, and then all 3 palest pinks is too pale. The challenge comes in choosing "nice" choices. Sometimes, I like to make them a bit edgy and clashing, like the blue-orange-blue in the bottom middle of the blue picture. Other times I try for "nice" with for example the blue-pale lilac - lilac in the bottom right of the blue picture.

Another interesting thing is that some people don't like some combinations that I like. I think that adds to the interest of making the choices.

Happy crocheting!

Christmas Book : Cute and Easy Crochet

2012-01-02T10:59:00.000Z

I got this new book for Christmas. Some of the items are a little bit mad, like the beautiful flowery teapot cosy, but they are done in such lovely colours you can't help like them.

Look at this lovely quilt, done in muted grey with pale pinks and lilacs. It does not look to be a complicated pattern, but the colours make it something special.

Here's another mad idea - a knitted pavlova. It looks good but I'm not sure I have room in my life for a knitted pavlova.

Photography in this book is very nice. Here are two teddies sitting on an old iron bed. Overall, there are more patterns in this book I would make than not make, which is good for a crochet book.

Crochet 365 : A Post a Day 2012

2012-01-01T23:12:00.000Z

Happy New Crochet Year.

Starting today, I'm planning to post every day in 2012. Hopefully I won't run out of words.

Here is an update on my latest project - the 100 Flowers in the Snow blanket. I decided that the 100 Flowers was too small, so I've been busy over Christmas crocheting the centres for another 100 flowers. Here they are laid out by colour. Colours in this picture are not so good in this light - it has been very dark in Edinburgh today so I'll take some nice daylight pictures tomorrow if it is brighter.

Wishing you a year of happy crocheting in 2012.

100 Flowers in the Snow and it is Snowing

2011-12-10T10:33:00.000Z

Last night I finished joining together all of the 100 Flowers in the Snow.

Woke up this morning to this, the first snow of the year.

Here's a picture of the complete blanket laid out on the rug:

And here is the back to give an indication of the number of ends that need to be sewn in on a blanket of this type.You can see where I have started to do this already.It will take a couple of nights of movie watching to finish this.

I'm not sure at the moment whether to make this bigger - it is about half the size needed for a single bed. I might just leave it this size. Can't decide :)

Best Crochet Snowflake

2011-12-09T08:36:00.000Z

This is the best crochet snowflake ever. There are lots of lovely crochet snowflake patterns out there, but most of them are made in very fine crochet thread, and beautiful as they are, they would take me a week to make.

This one takes a few minutes to make, and the pattern is easy. I make several of these each year. This year: red, to match my lovely fake tree :) I decided that at £10 a foot for a real one plus £12.50 for a log stand, I would economise with a £19.99 fake one from B&Q. I'm not really really sure that I like it, but its cheery and does the job.

The free snowflake patten is here.

They also make great parcel decoration for Christmas presents.

How to crochet a tiny flower

2011-12-07T07:31:00.000Z

It took me longer to crochet two tiny flowers for my new gloves than it took me to crochet the gloves.

I experimented with various people's patterns for small flowers, and in the end, none of them were small enough, so I made this up myself.

The ones I chose are the smallest ones in the bottom of the picture above. Here's how to make them.
Make a magic loop and into it do 10 double crochets (US single crochet).
Join up this round with a slip stitch.
(Now if you hate a magic loop, then don't worry. Just do a little chain 4 and join it with a slip stitch, and into that little loop do your 10 double crochets).

Then for the next round, notice that you have 10 double crochets, and you are making a flower with 5 petals, so each petal uses up 2 of those double crochet spaces from the first round. So, here goes:
double, half treble, double in the first space
then slip stitch into the next space
then start again with double, half treble, double into the next space
then slip stitch into the next space
then keep going like this until you have 5 petals, and slip to first chain to join.

When you are sewing on the flowers, put the glove on your hand first before positioning the flower. The flower is not in the middle of the glove and the easiest way to get it looking good is to try it on first.

Have fun!

How to make the easiest crochet gloves

2011-12-06T10:39:00.000Z

Here's how to make the easiest crochet gloves on the planet.

I make these every year. Every year, up here in Edinburgh, when it starts to get cold, I'm on the Brora website choosing myself a few pairs. Then reality sets in, and I decide that I'm not in an income bracket that can spend £150 on gloves. So I decide to make them. Here's last year's stripey ones since stripey clothing seemed to be trendy last year. Last year's stripey easiest gloves

So, looking for something a little more grown up this year, to match my black Boden coat with the yellow buttons, I choose a black Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, with a mustard yellow trim.

I feel like Laura in the Little House on the Prairie. I think my favourite bit of the story was when they used to go to the store to choose fabric for their dresses, and Laura having brown hair always got the pink trim, whilst Mary with her blond hair wore blue. Anyway, I digress....

This first stage may involve a little experimenting. You need to work out how wide to make them. No - don't give up now, it is not difficult, and I'm here to help.

If you don't want to measure, then copy mine. As I mentioned last year, I have quite large hands with long fingers, so you will have to scale down if you are more normal than me.

Using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino or a similar yarn, and a size 6 mm hook, I cast on 25 stitches for my "large" size hands. If you take a medium glove, then 23 stitches, and 21 stitches for little petite hands.

Now, change to a 5mm hook.

The reason I cast on a with a bigger hook than the rest of the work is to make sure that the first row is not too tight and doesn't pinch when the gloves are worn.

So, now with that 5mm hook, do 3 extra chains, and then do a half treble (UK) or half double (US) into each of the next 24 chain stitches to the end, giving 25 stitches across.

If you don't know how to do a half treble(UK) (half double as you US based crocheters call it), then don't panic. It is easy. Pretend you are doing a treble (UK) or double (US), then stop when you get to 4 stitches on the hook - and then pull the yarn through all. Here's a little picture of the step you get to in a half treble when you have the 4 stitches on the hook. So from here, just pull that hook through all of those stitches in one go, leaving you with just one stitch on the hook.

That's it, easy. If it stresses you to do a half treble (double) then don't bother: do a normal treble (double). The glove will not be as dense, but it will still be nice (and you will finish it quicker).

Do a couple of rows and then measure them against your fingers. I like mine to be a little loose on the fingers, and to come up to about half way between the first and second finger joints, like this:

If you don't like the width, then go back to your first chain and add or remove a few stitches. This is the end of the measuring, experimental bit.

( I did two rows of mustard at each end to get the yellow trim. You don't need to do this if you don't like it. You could work them all in one colour).

So now, this is the bit where you get a film on, and really Miss Marple is the only one to crochet to :)
Open a box of chocolates, put your feet up, and keep going, crocheting back and forwards till you reach the right length.

Now a tip here. If like me you get a bit carried away watching Marple (only kidding!) then you may get to the end and realise that you have dropped or added a stitch, and that your lovely rectangle is more triangle than rectangle. I have done this so many times! So at the end of each row, just take a quick break and count back along that row making sure you still have the same number of stitches as in the first row.

Continue until the work measures the correct length for you. What do you mean? Correct length! I hear you say. Don't worry - you know how long you like gloves. For me, they go from between the first and second finger joints down to about 2-3 inches below the bend in my wrist. You might like them shorter. Don't make them much longer though, since there is no shaping in these, and unless you have arms like Betty Spaghetti they are going to be too tight on the arms.

Make another one. Oh no! Don't make me watch another movie, and eat another box of chocolates!

The sew them up, and Enjoy.

I added a little flower to each of mine. Instructions in the next post.

Getting a Straight Crochet Square

2011-10-31T21:46:00.000Z

This is the pattern I see a lot on the internet - the edging is all done in treble crochet. I've crocheted this up just to demonstrate what I mean. Look at the straight outer edges - they bulge a little in the middle. I'm not happy with this. When it is joined, it will bulge in an ugly way, and the bulges will be magnified at the outer edges of the blanket, giving a wavy, scalloped effect, rather than a straight edge.

Here's an improvement, using trebles in the middle of the outer edge, and extra long trebles for the corners. It has straightened up: the edges no longer bulge, and this would join up nicely, but in my opinion it will give too much white between the flowers. Another reason for not choosing this is that I don't really like doing the long trebles.

So here is the final version which as you can see is also straight edged, but has reduced in size.

So, this is the one, with trebles in the corners, and half trebles in the middles.

100 Flowers in the Snow

2011-10-30T09:22:00.000Z

Or 93 Flowers in the Snow to date. Need to do a handful more and finish off sewing in the ends.

Change to URL

2011-10-24T07:17:00.000+01:00

Morning
I've changed to www.primroseberesford.com.

You should be re-directed. Please point your bookmarks in my new direction.

Apologies if you are inconvenienced.

Thank you so much.

Back soon with more crochet related news. The flowers in the snow blanket is progressing well. I just need to buy the "snow" now. I'm very picky about what colour of white to get, so have been unable to choose so far :) It is not holding back progress though, since I have approximately 600 wool ends to stil sew in.

Bright Flowers Crochet Blanket

2011-10-19T16:56:00.000+01:00

Here we are - in progress. I like to lay it out on the carpet, like this, so that I can judge what other colour combinations I need to add. I'm thinking that there is too much hot pink and purple here. I need to add more blue. Also considering adding in some green if I can find a good green. I'm intending to join these all together with white, for the traditional - flowers in the snow - look, so I have not added white yet. I might add in some grey or black later. Still a long way to go.

Permutations

2011-10-18T16:34:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I like a colour combination so much that I make all permutations.I'm obsessed with not having 2 of the same square in a blanket. These rounds will be squared off when joined together.

Other times, the colour combination will not work for all permutations. This dark purple, dark blue, violet combination only works for me when the dark colours are not next to each other. So, only 2 permutations are possible here.

Crochet Colours

2011-10-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

This kitchen island, made entirely of Lego is from Maison Francaise, September 2009 edition.

20,000 pieces of lego, 7 days to construct, and cost about 1000 euros. I showed this to my husband, and instead of saying "madness" there was that wicked glint in his eye. I said - if you had 1000 euros to spare would you? - "yeah" - we both said at the same time :)

I reckon that the choosing of the colours, and colour placement would be a lot like choosing the colours when making a blanket. You know when you've done, say lilac, purple, then do you choose pink, or do you choose yellow? I think that one of the best things about crochet in multi-colour is that interaction of colours. Would be very similar I think making this.

Not so sure what my postman would say when I got the required 53 boxes of lego delivered? Or what my boss would say when I asked for a week off work to play with Lego :)

Choosing Colours

2011-10-11T18:17:00.000+01:00

I always find choosing colours very traumatic. Some wool ranges are better than others, but often you find that the colours in the range just don't seem to go with each other. So for example, there might be a nice pastel yellow, pink and blue, but the only green is a completely luminous glow in the dark acid colour.

What I try to do is choose pinks - blues - purples then, I make the best of the rest.
For each of : pinks, purples and blues, I try to pick a pale pastel, then a mid colour, and then a bright. So for the pinks I'll choose a baby pink, a rose pink, and then a hotter pink. That usually works. Then I check that the pales all match, the mids all match, and the darks all match. So for example, I check that the baby blue, the baby pink and the baby purple look ok together.

Then its on to trauma territory, because I hate yellow, but know that it tends to make other colours sing. So I choose the least worst yellow - usually a mid tone if they have it.

I find that the worst colours are the greens. Green is my favourite colour, but there are usually very few greens in a range. Mostly the greens are a dark earthy sage colour. I'll take that if there is nothing else, but try to find a mid green if there is one.

Red I love, but often find that the red in a range clashes horribly with the hottest pink. Sometimes I'll take it, sometimes not.

Then I look at the other colours, and see if they tone in with what I have already - I might choose a hotter orange, but never peach since peach is my worst ever colour (worse than yellow).

Then the base colours - I never use black. I sometimes take a soft grey if it tones in. I usually prefer a cream to a white, so long as it is not yellow toned.

The pictures are Rowan DK wool, one of the better ranges for having colours that match each other. It is expensive though.

Off on a work trip till the end of the week to Cambridge. Hoping I can sneak out at lunch to find a wool shop, but suspect we will be having working lunches, sigh :)

Little Flowers Cushion

2011-10-10T11:48:00.002+01:00

Just found this in a bag in the linen cupboard when I was tidying up. I forgot that I made this cushion front earlier in the year. It is made from Rowan DK wool: lovely colours, but quite expensive so I don't use it much.

Now I need to sew in the ends and sew it onto a cushion cover.

edited to add:

I'm particularly bad at keeping the sleeves around wool, but from memory the colours used were :
008 Marine (mid blue)
044 Frost (pale blue)
046 Tudor Rose (pale pink)
042 Dahlia (mid pink)
037 Port (burgandy pink)
002 Shale (grey)
019 Avocado (green)
036 Kiss (red)
013 Enamel (cream)

Summer Squares Blanket

2011-10-09T15:04:00.000+01:00

After having advised all travellers to travel as lightly as possible, to pack their possessions into the littlest bag possible. After having packed the car to drive to France for the summer holiday. Small car, 2 kids, 2 adults = one very full car.

Then on my way to pick my husband up at work, to start the journey, I just had to stop at a wool shop for a little look.

I came out of the wool shop, happy with myself, whistling tunelessly, bag in each hand, containing 20 large 100g balls of wool ....oops....literally no room in car at all. I mean... at all.

Youngest child travels to France with feet propped up on case...

Here's the result.

The edges are straight in real life, but today when I took these pictures, it was windy and starting to rain. I held the blanket down with pebbles and my foot, but the edges still look a bit wibbly.

I used 11 colours plus 4 balls of blue for the outline, then zipped round 10 times with odd wool for the border. All of the squares are different, but each one contains all 11 colours.

Bring Me Sunshine

2011-10-08T12:25:00.000+01:00

It is feeling a bit end of summer here; end of season, like a 1950s holiday camp packing up at the end of summer.

The bunting on the shed is looking a bit forlorn and droopy in the grey light.

A few shells lie scattered around from beach trips.

And there is a little pile of beach stones at the front door.

There's only one thing for it.... Get out the wool odds and ends.... it is time for a new blanket.

Not having completely given up on summer, this one is for the backseat of my pale blue VW Beetle for little winter trips to the beach.

I'll race along the beach, in the cold north Edinburgh wind - "bracing" they call it - and then dive back into my beetle to watch the waves, with a cup of coffee from my thermos and a digestive biscuit or two to nibble on.

p.s. I don't actually own a pale blue Beetle, but we can all dream can't we? :)

Christmas Books: Kevin McCloud's 43 Principles of Home

2011-01-12T15:14:00.000Z

Here is my final Christmas Book, by Kevin McCloud of UK Channel 4's Grand Designs (amongst other things).

I thought that this was going to be a lightweight, "eye candy" kind of book, but I was wrong. Pictures are good, but are few and far between.

He is very interested in "good" design and architecture, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book is heavily into sustainability.

Here are some of the pictures from the book.

If you saw Grand Designs then you will recognise this next picture as the home of Ben, the charcoal maker. Ben lives in a wood in Suffolk, coppicing and tending the forest and making charcoal. Previously he lived in a variety of temporary caravans and tent-like treehouses, but eventually he got almost unheard of planning permission to build a house in the wood. He cannot sell the house or pass it on, and if he stops working the wood, he has to demolish the house.

Grand Designs has many very expensive houses built to huge budgets. Turns out though that this is Kevin's favourite. In the TV show, Kevin asks Ben about the price of the house, and claims that it is a very cheap house because the budget is only something like £23K. Ben replies something like - that is a LOT of money for me. He gets friends to help him build the house, paying them in hospitality and sustainable building skills training. When Kevin goes back to visit him a year or so later, the house is complete, and a wife and little baby have arrived in the wood. Everyone loves this house, and it is easy to see why.

All in all, a great book, but not if you are looking just for eye candy.

Cornishware Crochet

2011-01-11T20:54:00.000Z

A "Cornishware" crochet pot for a little avocado seed.

Although this colour scheme is new, I make these little pots a lot. They are also good as little vases made by covering jam jars. This one has a plant pot in it, so I've wrapped it in a poly bag to keep the water in.

The "pattern" is the following:

All in DC (UK), SC (US), each round is joined up with a slip stitch to the first stitch of the round. Make a flat circle like this:

Magic loop to start (or chain 4 if you prefer and slip stitch together into a little loop).
Round1: 6 DC
Round2: 2 DC into each stitch from the previous round (so you have 12 stitches).
Round3: repeat: 2 DC, DC, all the way round (18 stitches)

You are trying to get the size of the base. If you need to make it bigger:
Round4: repeat 2 DC, DC, DC all the way round
Round5: repeat 2 DC, DC, DC,DC all the way round

(you see the pattern here - add another DC each round)

Then when it is big enough, start making each round just DC all the way round, joining with a slip stitch at the end of the round.

To make the "Cornishware" alternate colours every 3 rows.

Now I just need to figure out how to make the "Domino" Cornishware pattern - a little more difficult I think, lol.

Crochet Ball Chain

2011-01-10T12:59:00.000Z

My house is looking really plain now that the decorations are down. Here in the north of the UK, there is generally not much light in the winter so a few pops of colour to cheer us up work well.

I've very happy with the new blankets. Not sure where they will end up, but they are on a chair beside the fireplace today.

Here are the little crochet balls, threaded on a piece of wool, with a crochet chain at each end to tie on. They are quite fiddly to make, so this week, I have only made a little chain, but I like how they cheer up the fireplace.

Homemakerstales asked me whether I used Farrow and Ball paint. I've used "Blackened" for the fireplace , which was previously orange pine, and "Pavillion Gray" for the cupboard in the top picture. I've yet to use F and B wall paints but look forward to choosing some when I'm ready to paint the walls.

Vintage Granny Square and Vintage Granny Spiral

2011-01-09T10:32:00.000Z

Here is the first Armstrong's blanket: the vintage granny square. The colour combinations are truly shocking, but it has been made well, in complete squares with each square finished off before the other one began, and all of the ends sewn in. Here is a close up showing the colour in its full glory.

And here is the vintage granny spiral. Not a square after all. The person who made this was not that skilled: they just crocheted round and round till they ran out of wool or felt like changing colour. The ends are not joined but knotted and cut (aaarggh!) but it is a nice looking blanket anyway and it hasn't fallen apart yet so I'm sure it will be fine.

There is a lot of green and grey in this blanket, but that is accidentally exactly what I need for where it is going to go.

Here it is hanging on the line outside in the snow. You can see the large green square. I suspect whoever made it thought that they would make a plain green and grey blanket and was surprised that they ran out of wool so quickly. These blankets do take a lot of wool.

Armstongs: Vintage Clothing Emporium

2011-01-08T21:11:00.000Z

Armstrongs is an Edinburgh Institution: Armstrongs Vintage Clothing Emporium. This is the Newington Branch, the smaller of the two I visit. Haven't been there for a while - they were getting a bit expensive, and I got fed up with them. But after being worn down by chain store high street homogeneous clothing, I have returned.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, and in my forties, I'm aware of not looking too studenty, so don't buy nearly as much here as I used to. Well worth a visit if you are in Edinburgh. Their Grassmarket shop is much bigger than this one. Be warned though - it truly is second hand/vintage, and you have to be careful about what you buy.

Here hanging on the railings outside the shop is my bag containing 2 crochet blankets and a little blue spotty 1960's shift dress. Crochet blankets: £12 and £8. You know that IKEA sale advert where the woman in the car goes "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" - that's what I was doing in the shop when I saw them (except mercifully with my sound turned off!). Little blue dress £16. It does have a little stain on the shoulder but I thought I'd risk it - it will probably wash out, and if not, I'll make more bunting.

I've never actually bought a crochet blanket before, but when I saw them, I just couldn't resist. I've seen similar "vintage" blankets for sale in Cath Kidston for 40-60+ pounds before, and wanted to buy them but coudn't bring myself to pay that much.

So, to whoever crocheted them, don't worry, your blankets have gone to a very good home. Once they are washed, I'll post some pictures of them in all their clashing colourfulness.

Little Crochet Balls Pattern

2011-01-07T23:22:00.000Z

Pattern is not mine - found in lots of different places - I found mine here

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-crochet-japanese-amigurumi-ball-224139/

Start with a magic loop (or a little chain of 4).
Each round is joined with a slip stitch to the start of the round.
Round 1: 6 double crochet (I'm using UK terms here - if you are in the US it is single crochet)
Round 2: 2 DC in each stitch, repeat all the way round till you have 12 stitches
Round 3: 2 DC in first stitch, 1 DC in next, repeat till end, when you have 18 stitches
Rounds 4,5,6: DC in each of the 18 stitches

Then you should have a little mini beanie hat. We are going to start to decrease next. It is inside out at the moment, so you need to turn it and put some stuffing in soon. You decide when. I usually wait another round or 2. I stuffed mine with cotton wool, but I think that you should really stuff with some toy stuffing, but I'm making do with what I have.

Round 7: DC 2 together, DC, repeat until end, when you will have 12 stitches. Don't forget to turn and put in stuffing. This is probably your last chance.
Round 8: DC 2 together all the way round, you will have 6 stitches.
Round 9: DC 2 together, leaving 3 stitches, which you can finish off, and poke the end through the ball and finish off.

This picture shows the scale. They are made with double knitting wool, the little ones with a 5.5 hook (I) and the big one with a 6.5mm hook (K) and two strands held together. Tension and size are not important though. This is ideal to use up any old bits of wool.

Three made so far, a lot more to go.

Enjoy your weekend. It has started to snow again here in Edinburgh, so with any luck I might get snowed in and have to spend the weekend crocheting.

Christmas Books : Farrow and Ball Living with Colour

2011-01-06T18:58:00.000Z

My mum says "You cannot just get books for Christmas". What is "just" about books? I say. If I could only ever buy one thing, it would be books.

Here is one of the latest, from the paint manufacturer Farrow and Ball, a UK paint maker who make eco (expensive) paints.

Look at this lovely belfast sink. One day I might get my Belfast Sink plumbed in. I've only owned it since 1996, unplumbed in, after all.

And talking of books: a big coffee, a box of chocolates, and I could happily sit in that chair for a day or three.

I've been looking for a big station clock like that for years. The hunt goes on.

And look at this lovely patchwork - makes me want to go get my sewing machine out of the attic. I love that zig-zag pattern.

And a lovely wood burning stove.

This is my dream bedroom - books, a high bed and a stripey blanket. I've always liked a little room, like a cabin on a ship.

The book overall has some delightful pictures, but if I have any criticism it is that most of the rooms look too rich to really get ideas from. Most of the rooms are very large and contain lots of expensive furniture and accessories. It is not really "crafty" enough for my make do and mend philosophy. Lots of nice pictures though.

Mini Crochet Bunting

2011-01-05T08:00:00.002Z

You can never have too much bunting in my opinion. Here is my mini crochet bunting, made this afternoon.

The "pattern" if you can call it that is very easy. Chain 2, double crochet twice into the first loop of the chain. That is your first row. Turn it round, chain 1, then double into the hole at the base of the chain1 you just did. The double along to the end, doing an extra double in the end. That is all there is to the pattern - once you get over the first row, its chain1, double in the same chain, then double across and make an extra double in the last chain.

Then sew in the ends, always a bit boring, and chain them together. I did - chain 11 - then single crochet across the top of the first bunting, then chain 5 in between then join on the next one until they are all attached.

Here is a close up, and check out the big green pepper - £1.50 in my local charity shop. I saw it on the shelf, and shouted to my long suffering sister. "I'M GETTING THAT". I was so excited - I think the woman in the shop thought I was a bit demented. As my dad says "You hide your intelligence well". "Thank-you very much" I say.. Hmmm. Maybe it wasn't a compliment :)

Christmas Books : Kirstie's Homemade Home

2011-01-04T12:14:00.000Z

New Christmas books on my desk - Kirstie's Homemade Home is a favourite. It had mixed reviews on Amazon, but I've enjoyed reading it.

I love that yellow Cornishware milk jug on the back cover.

The book starts off by describing her approach to decorating of individual rooms. Here is a picture of someone's dresser in their kitchen. Look at that woolly bunting! I'd like a dresser in my kitchen but my kitchen is the smallest in the world, so I have a little shelving unit instead.

And here is a picture of her very individual Sittingroom in her Cornish house. I was a bit disappointed to read elsewhere that this is not really a family home: she rents it out, but otherwise it is very nice.

The book then goes on to give an overview and easy examples of various crafts. Here are some little lavendar bags:

And here is an introduction to Mosaic tiling - this is Kaffe Fassett's front door - that mosaic is fantastic.

The crochet pages are not very inspiring - practical, but dull colours. She makes a little storage box, but she makes it flat and then sews it all up which is not the easiest way to do this. Also, she says to use hessian string, which is not really a beginner's yarn - it is extremely tiring on the hands to crochet with.

All in all though, her speaking voice comes through in the book, and it is an easy read, with at least a few good ideas for everyone.

Cornishware and Le Parfait Jars

2011-01-03T18:48:00.000Z

Our kitchen is being remodelled at the moment. Mr Prim is patching in a few new cabinets and upgrading the worksurfaces. It is looking great so far. I'm a big fan of storage jars, and have been buying these Le Parfait jars in John Lewis for some time. They are good quality, good value, made in France, and you can buy replacement parts, so with care they last forever.

So imagine my horror when I went shopping for more today, only to find that they have been replaced by some Made in China inferior quality copy, selling for what I believe is more expensive than the originals. Now, I may be Mrs Prim, but I'm not quiet when I'm annoyed. "LOOK AT THIS RUBBISH!" I hollered to Mr Prim, who tried to pretend he was not with me. "MY (note "my") JARS HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY SOME CHEAP COPY AND THEY ARE MORE EXPENSIVE". Enough of the uppercase - I'm sure you get the picture. I've nothing personally against China, and I am not racist. It is the replacement of a good quality product with tat that I am against. It is not as if John Lewis are now selling them cheaper. They are buying in a cheap copy, selling it expensive, and keeping the money. Maybe good business sense if no-one notices.

Another casaulty of this race to the bottom has been my favourite Cornishware. The new management say that it is no longer economical to make them in the UK, so they make them in China. What they mean is simply that they can make a bigger profit by making a cheap copy in China, and hope that no-one notices.

I don't like being made a mug of and I'm not paying a premium price for something that used to be made by craftspeople that is now made in a factory possibly by children, and the original owner just pockets the money, and doesn't seem to have any pride in what they are selling.

Oooh - what a negative post today, rant over :).

Here's a picture of a nice little tree I bought today in the bargain bucket, reduced because it is no longer Christmas. He makes a very nice air freshener - my kitchen truly is Pine Fresh.

Second Day of the Year

2011-01-02T19:51:00.000Z

The little ducks on the frozen pond needed some bread and leftover sausage rolls, so the grandfather and grandchildren obliged.

We walked in the woods but the paths were very iced over so it wasn't a long walk - just enough to get a bit of fresh air in the lungs.

And on the way home, we spotted this grey Heron in the burn. It normally lives in the pond, but must have migrated up to the woods because of the ice.

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T17:20:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you, and Best Wishes for 2011.

We are here in Pitlochry in the heart of Scotland, in Highand Perthshire. The snow is melting on the hills above Pitlochry but it is still very cold and there is not much light here at this time of year : by 4pm it will already be dark.

Look, the High Street seems quite busy and there are no cars: it is Pitlochry Street Party.

Scottish Country Dancing to music from the band in the temporary bandstand and the Vale of Atholl pipe band, complete with bagpipes.

Soup, sausages, popcorn and soup served up by local businesses with the donations going to charity.

Bathroom is Finished

2010-11-30T07:33:00.000Z

After almost five years between houses, living in rented accommodation, it is great to have a white bathroom. If you've ever rented, you will probably know what I mean. In our previous house, there was a carpet in the bathroom which had seen better days. If I'd owned the house, it would have been ripped out immediately, but because it was rented, it had to be nursed along.

We're a bit campervan mad in our house. This picture is a framed tea-towel: a very inexpensive way of getting a picture since tea-towels come in the most weird and wonderful designs. I've noticed that price inflation on prints seems to be running away with itself. I'm happy to support local artists, but I'm not paying £20 for a non-original print which has just been run off on a laser printer.

The absolute best thing about this bathroom is the smell. No more mouldy carpets, and dampness in the bathroom cabinets. This bathroom smells of my home made soap. Here are a few hearts of it, sitting in the first basket I made. Basket weaving is a bit like crochet in its repetitiveness. I went on a one day course to learn it. Technique is easy to understand but difficult to master, and get the "stitches" even. Evidence above: the wonky basket.

On the shelf here are a couple of crochet face-cloths. Other people use these in the kitchen but I find that they are soft enough for face washing. Must be made in pure cotton: chain enough stitches for the size required (about a normal facecloth) and then row after row of whatever you prefer - treble

for these. Sometimes I finish them with a scallop or picot edge, but these are plain.

Brrrrrr.....

2010-11-28T20:05:00.000Z

I'm wearing 3 holey cardigans; the heating is at max; the cats are asleep along the tops of radiators; Mr Frosty smiles at us through the window.
"Can I bring Mr Frosty in?", says the toddler, "He's cold!".

I've been trying to knit again. I tried knitting gloves last year using double pointed needles, and after a few reverses back over the stitches I'd just knitted, I gave up.
"What are you knitting?", said the woman in the wool shop,as I bought a huge amount of wool for a blanket."I can't knit! - it is much too stressful!", I shouted, and then as she took a step back from me with a "nutter!" look in her eyes, I calmly said "I crochet."

So after trying out circular needles this weekend to try to knit gloves again, all I can say is that enough is enough. I'll go nuts if I try to knit again - too much can go wrong all at once - whole rows falling off the needles. At least with crochet, you can only go one stitch wrong at a time. So never again. I crochet only from now on

First Christmas Decorations are Up

2010-11-21T14:21:00.005Z

I'll have to whisper this in case Santa hears and sends my presents back to the North Pole - I hate putting up Christmas decorations. Everyone else is keen to "get the decorations up" but after they've put the 100th ball on the tree, their enthusiasm starts to slow, and I end up adding red bauble, red bauble, silver bauble....ad infinitum it seems.

So this year I have a plan. I'm sneaking the decorations up one or two at a time. Here are the first - a little wooden heart with a Santa brought home recently by my Mum from Germany.

And here's a simple home made one, seen here hanging on its bird friends who sit on my desk. It is a little cut out of cardboard bird made from instructions in Country Living. Really, it is very simple - cut out a bird shape from cardboard - best if you have any tame children to draw it for you - then you can claim the imperfections as "charming" rather than just a rubbish bird shape.
Then make a little horizontal slit where wings attach to body, and poke a little folded up fan of paper through. Then tie on something to hang it up with. Make it as fancy or plain as time and finances allow.

I Spy a Wooden Floor

2010-11-21T14:19:00.016Z

Now, my dad should know better by now: "Don't dare rip up that good carpet!", he said.
Hmmm. He would have been better saying "That carpet is disgusting - old fashioned and dirty - get it ripped out immediately!" I never do what I'm told.

Now look away if you have a sensitive disposition - here is my old carpet. Perfectly nice when installed sometime in the 1980's around the time of the first Royal Wedding.

I spy under the carpet a rather nice wooden floor.

So, here I am decorating the livingroom. Stripping wallpaper is evil work, especially when the paper was vinyl, and it is essentially a top layer of stretchy plastic. It seems to create a very gloopy sticky papier mache. You can tell what I've decided to do with the carpet by the fact there are no dust-sheets down.

Beginner's Crochet Wristwarmers

2010-11-21T14:09:00.006Z

So, you have a wool bag of old scraps of wool, little balls of wool too small to make anything. What can you make?

Something to keep your hands warm.

Here are my new wristwarmers. The "pattern" is so simple, that a complete crochet beginner could do this. I'd like a cashmere pair of these from Brora, but at £40-£50 pounds, I'm scared I'd lose them, so each winter, I make a few pairs of these.

Last year I did have cashmere home-made ones, lime-olive, as I call the colour - about the same colour as the pale green in these new ones. In Bruges, I washed them, and horror - tumble dried them - they made good pan scourers after that. Moral of the story - don't use unfamililar tumble driers.

Now, as Mr Prim likes to point out, I do have unnaturaly long fingers, so I don't want you to make them the same size as mine, because it is likely that they would be too big. I'll explain how you can make them the right size for you.

These ones, took 44g of wool. I know that because I weighed them on my kitchen scales. So a 50g ball of wool should make 1 pair. I used Rowan double knit wool.

I used a 5mm hook and cast on 30 stitches, but as I've said, I have unnatural hands. To make them your size, make a crochet chain which fits snugly around your hand between your knuckle joint and the first joint on your finger. You want to make sure that the bit of the glove which sits at the top of your hand is quite snug. Too tight and it will be annoying, and too loose and it will flap around. So make it snug but not too tight, and then chain another 2.

My initial chain was 28 plus 2 = 30, so the next row was 28 crochet stitches. If you want me to guess an "average" female hand, I'd say 25 plus 2.

The beauty of these wristwarmers is that all you are doing is crocheting a rectangle. You can use any crochet stitch you fancy. I used a half treble, but you could use double, treble, a shell stitch, like my ill-fated Bruges cashmere ones, or anything else which takes your fancy. You can make them in huge biggy wool (but they'll make your hands look huge) or you can make them in a very fine ply (which will take forever). Just make an initial pair in any old wool you have, so that you can see if you like them.

So you have your 28 stitches, or whatever is right for you, and you just keep going up, until you have the right length for your hand. Just keep counting the number of stitches in the row now and again. I crochet a lot, and I still make pyramid shapes when my concentration lapses, and I forget to count. Here's another wristwarmer, ready to be sewn up, just to give you an idea of the shape you are looking for.

Once they reach the correct length, sew in the ends which is tedious if you have made colour change ones like me, and then turn the crochet right sides together, into a glove shaped tube, and sew up, leaving about a 4 cm gap for the thumb-hole.
You can get a bit fancy,and do a single or double crochet round the thumb hole, or round the top and bottom. You could do a fancy border if you know how to do that.

Really, the beauty of this "pattern" is that you just make it up as you go along.

The Big Granny gets bigger and then smaller

2010-11-01T20:19:00.006Z

The big granny was just a little bit too small for my double size bed. It just covered the bed plus another few inches on each side. That looks ok in photographs but in practice, in the morning I often find it bunched in the middle of the bed. It needs more of an overhang.

Problem One with the big granny is that the wool is quite expensive. Each round is currently costing about £4 and it can only get worse as the big granny gets bigger.

Problem Two with the big granny is that I finished it with 3 rounds of red, and now that I want to make it bigger, I should really rip out 2 rounds of red, and then start again with single colour rounds. I've almost put two new complete rounds of lilac on, and they don't look right, so off the come. Four rounds coming off.

Problem Three is that I have only red and lilac now, so need to get at least another 2 or 3 colours - shhhh - don't tell Mr Prim :) As my teenage daughter says "You don't actually NEED more wool! You just WANT it." Hmmm. How can I argue with that?

Where were all the Spooks?

2010-11-01T06:53:00.002Z

What happened to all the spooks and witches this year? We bought in lots of little spooky sweets, put the pumpkin on the doorstep to show we were spook friendly, and waited, and waited.....
Nothing! No spooks! No witches!

Concrete Heart

2010-10-11T22:29:00.005+01:00

The previous owners left a concrete heart shaped planter on the doorstep. It was planted with pink flowers which are not really me - but perfect for "Hens and Chickens" and stones collected from the beach in Aldeburgh late this summer.

Decorating the Kitchen

2010-10-10T16:04:00.002+01:00

In my day job, I'm a software project manager. We follow a fairly new kind of software development which is a bit like prototyping, so that we design a bit, code a bit, show it to the customer, see if they like it, then design a wee bit more, etc etc. That's a bit like how I decorate. I've never been one of these people who get someone in, and design a complete room at once. My rooms evolve gradually with gradual decorating.

So, in the kitchen, I've taken off the wallpaper - thick foamy brown wipe clean fake tile effect - "windmill wallpaper", Mr Primrose and I call it, after the same design but augmented with windmills in our old 2 up 2 down in Lancashire. I always hope to find secret messages under the wallpaper, but only got "W/M", "20-->" etc in this kitchen. My mum found pre-war newspapers under carpets in her house, and amazingly she said that when she once helped her auntie strip 12 layers of wallpaper in her flat, the final layer was newspaper. But nothing like that here.

So, the first stage is that the wallpaper is off, the walls are painted pure brilliant white. The clock is up on the wall, and the bunting is up. My dad plumbed in the dishwasher for me and apart from a massive flood covering the kitchen with 3 inches of water, literally 2 seconds after he had said "That's it, ready! Not a drip!", things are going well. After trying to justify to my dad why I needed to have a stainless steel Smeg dishwasher, and failing miserably to justify it, we went to B&Q and bought a bargain £150 dishwasher off the shelf.

Next stage is to plumb is to plumb in the belfast sink I've owned since 1996 and brought with me on 6 house moves - these things weigh a ton, and the Pickfords guys just look at me with a swear in their eyes and a "you're joking!" when they have to move it. Mr Prim won't let me spend £36 on a unit for the belfast sink, so I have to wait till he carpenters the old one (i.e. saws it in half). Yes, everything we do is on the cheap!

More later with pictures when I get broadband on Tuesday (hopefully - fingers crossed). It is BT though and they seem terminally confused - instead of 5A Out Street Name, we have been getting bills for "5A Bournemouth Telephone Exchange" for the last 5 years - I kid you not!

After 5 Years of Procrastination, I've Moved

2010-10-10T15:48:00.002+01:00

Yes, 5 years of procrastination, reading property papers and scouring online, I have at last managed to not only choose a house but get a mortgage for it and move in. This is my 23rd house move since I left home at 17, and most definately the worst move ever. Mortgages are a complete nighmare to get at the moment, even if you have a 100% perfect credit rating like we do - doesn't mean we have money - just that we are well-behaved financially. We secured our mortgage funding with literally days to go.

So, we moved in 2 weeks ago, and the house still looks like a scene from the "before" in "How Clean is Your House?", where some poor unfortunates live with hundreds of un-opened boxes. There is not a room in this house which is organised. In my mind, it's a lovely house, all grey and cream loveliness, but in reality it is a disorganised mess. And don't even think about the wallpaper and carpets. The lovely couple we bought the house off were 87. They have maintained it very well but you know what the carpets and wallpaper are like without me having to tell you - its "granny house" flowers and stripes.

The old couple lived here for 40 years, bringing up 5 children in this house, and they must have liked it because they didn't want to leave. They only moved because they couldn't manage the stairs, and have moved literally yards away into a retirement flat along the road. Problem is that the front door and garage door are painted the most disgusting pinky-red and I am itching to paint it, but they are only just along the road, so I don't want to start visibily ripping the place up yet.

Rowan Summer Crochet: Hydra

2010-07-06T08:41:00.006+01:00

Can you spy it in the trees? Yes, at long last, I have actually managed to crochet a garment I would not be embarassed to wear. This is the Hydra pattern from Rowan's new Summer Crochet book, apparently their first book dedicated to crochet. This is great for crochet freaks like me. I don't really want to spend money on a knitting book that just happens to have one or two crochet patterns in it.

This is crocheted in 2 parts, front and back, and then the neck and sleeve bands are crocheted on once the tank top is sewn up.

The initial band is a bit of a killer to crochet. It is done on a 2.5 hook, which if you're used to using 5s or 6s for blankets, seems awfully small. It is not difficult, just never ending. However, once you've got over that hurdle, then it is easy and fast, just treble, chain, treble, chain, all up the body.

The neck and armhole shaping need care in counting, but if I can manage it anyone can, lol.

The neck band is quite plain, but the arm bands are a delight, and really make the tank top into something a bit special.

Little White Crochet Blanket and a New Dotty Project

2010-07-05T19:59:00.010+01:00

Here's where I am so far with the little white crochet blanket, and I have to admit that I'm not really enjoying it. With the stripey blankets, there is always the excitement of adding a new colour and seeing how it interacts with the previous colours.

I think I'll persevere with this, but I need to take a break from it. It does have a great crunchy texture, and I think it is going to look great on my white bedlinen.

So I phoned my mum, and asked her if she could go down to the pound shop and get me a ball of blue wool, so that I could experiment. "A ball of blue plastic wool?" she said. Hmmm, lol, not everyone is buying into the use of this cheap acrylic wool.

Here's the idea I have: a spotty pattern - will let you know how it goes.

House Hunting and New Wool

2010-06-29T22:23:00.003+01:00

I'm back after a couple of weeks away, house hunting. We had an offer accepted on a house, and I'd even started packing boxes, maybe a bit too prematurely. The survey came back and was bad: new electrics required, plumbing very old and a bit suspect, damp in the bathroom, floorboards and joists rotted though, and worst of all, the deal breaker: a new roof required. Problem was that it was already at the top of our budget.

Oh well! Start again.

In the meantime, I've got some new wool, a white synthetic, bought for £1 a ball at the pound shop. Yuk! Yuk! I can hear you thinking. And I have to admit, I wasn't convinced at first, but it is crocheting up really nicely: all white vintage stripe, except there aren't any stripes.

Worst of all, I've lost the charger for my camera, and cannot take any pictures at the moment, which has put me off blogging.

Back soon with some white stripe pictures, and some pictures of the newly finished, and not at all bad, crochet vest top.

Sunday: No Cost Conservatory Makeover

2010-06-01T22:22:00.013+01:00

On Sunday, we interspersed playing in the garden in the heat, with a no-cost makeover of my mum's conservatory using things we found in the house and shed.

Previously it contained heavy, flowery, rather dated 1980's style curtains, green painted furniture, and a lot of boot room/porch junk, like scarves, hats, coats, vases, etc. Although it is on the side of the house, my mum's house like lots of Scottish houses faces its back to the wind and rain, and you have to go round the back to get in the front door, if you know what I mean. So people tend to come in the side conservatory, and leave their coats and things there.
So, here's what we did: "Mum?", I said tactfully, "Do those curtains have white linings? Maybe they'd be nice hung up on their own. They'd look like white cotton curtains". And after bleaching, they seem to be quite nice. Here they are:

Just outside the window, sheltering from the inevitable rain we had later, in the woodpile, you can spy a little white chair. These were previously green. I painted them with some white paint, and I think they look nice now. The old pine in the picture is a bench at the table, which is actually an old church pew.

Here are the chairs perched out in the woodpile. I had to paint them with gloss, because that is all that was available, and it is quite a smelly paint, so we left the chairs outside for a couple of days.

Then, while the paint was drying and the curtains were bleaching, we took some photos around the garden:

and put them in old clip frames to hang on the conservatory wall

above an old blue plant pot, waiting for a new plant to fill it,

above an old cupboard, that used to belong to my gran. She probably bought it in the 1930's. It wasn't an expensive piece of furniture, so we painted it a nice soft cream, using emulsion. It will need an eggshell top coat eventually, but we were 30 miles from the nearest paint shop, and trying not to spend any money. The little cupboard now contains all the hats, scarves etc that were lying around.
The little label is a wooden sign of my mum's saying something like "leave room for the angels to dance in your garden".

Saturday at the Beach and some Crochet

2010-05-30T07:27:00.011+01:00

We were in Northumberland on Saturday. Went to the beach at Boulmer, walked along the sand, collecting my favourite shells : little limpet shells, and then we into the lifeboat station for a cup of coffee. They were having a little coffee morning, with delicious home-made cakes. "Go in there", an old guy on the beach shouted to us "The Victoria Sponge is delicious". And it was.

I noticed a lot of grey: The skies were pretty much grey all day, and it was not warm, but despite that, I seem to have caught the sun from my little walk on the beach. When I say "caught the sun", it is not that I go brown, just that my freckles join up.

The buildings in Boulmer are lovely old grey stone, weathered by the sea. It is a real fishing village,with the boats hauled out of the sea by tractors sitting on the sand.

I finished the back of my little crochet jumper. It is looking ok, and I am happy with it. To be honest, I'm not sure about crochet clothing, so we'll see how it goes. The pattern is quite difficult at the edges. It is probably obvious to other people, but the "treble in next but one chain space" seems to be confusing my brain, lol.

A Little Whitewashed Shed in a Flower Garden

2010-05-22T21:40:00.008+01:00

We had this little shed delivered this week, and in the unexpected heat of an Edinburgh Saturday, we put it together and painted it. It is perched rather haphazardly on the grass here, but has now been moved to the pathway at the back of the house, where it will look after lots of little scooters and bikes and keep them out of harm's way of the rain. It is a "budget" shed from one of the DIY superstores, but I think it looks rather nice painted this soft white. I can see a little row of them, all different colours, with numbers on them, like little beach huts.

Just above the shed you can see the first rhodedhendrons of the season. Ours seem to be very late flowering this year. Here's a long distance shot - with the shed moved away - just look at the mess the blossom has made, lol. My 2 year old squeals with delight when it "rains flowers".
Here are some rhodedhendrons in a local garden, of this beautiful old stone house (not my house). These pink ones are so brightly coloured, they almost look artificial.

I'll take some more pictures of mine later this month when they have flowered. This house we live in and adore is not ours, but a rented house. We are truly lucky to live here with this flowering garden.

Little Snapshots of Edinburgh

2010-05-19T10:51:00.008+01:00

A day off work. In the middle of the week. Children in nursery/school. Luxury. I'm almost never on my own for a whole day, and I confess that I am at something of a loss. So, a little trip to the library first - always a treat (I am easily pleased, lol). I get to park in Victoria Street, a double decker street - perhaps one of the most beautiful streets in the city. Above the pastel painted lower buildings lies another street, essentially a big balcony. Yesterday was a bright sunny day, and I was in work, and today its a bit grey and not at all good for taking pictures.

Victoria Street is home to the delightful K1 wool shop - it stocks only good wool: alpacas, wools, fair trade wools and I could easily spend a fortune here. Thank goodness it was closed, but I just have to say that it was awfully nice of them to paint it in my favourite Aga Blue colour.

Down at the bottom of Victoria Street in The Grassmarket, two British style icons sit close together: a red telephone box and a blue Dr Who police box.

Crossing the lovely cobbled road, I avert my gaze from the Vintage Emporium: Armstrongs, another Edinburgh institution. It looks like a little shop but is a very long narrow shop containing billions...billions of lovely vintage items. Want a vintage velvet jacket - they have a hundred to chose from etc. Although open, luckily for the old wallet, my parking ticket is about to run out - two pounds to park for one hour! I head home for a cup of tea.

Crochet Cardigans - A Never Ending Saga

2010-05-17T20:12:00.015+01:00

Crochet clothing - maybe a step too far? Much as I love my crochet blankets, there are only so many a girl needs: I think I have 8 and one unfinished at the moment, although I may have forgotten one or two, lol.
So, I've been thinking about crochet clothes. I like a holiday project, so last summer in France, I made not one but two crochet cardigans from a free pattern on Ravelry. However, they were a BIG disappointment. The first one, in Debbie Bliss cashmerino, bobbled a lot when I first wore it, and then shrunk in the wash, and the second, even though the same pattern, came out a funny shape. I threw them both into textile recycling in disgust, so don't have any pictures.
Then, last year on my autumn holiday in lovely Alnwick, I started to make this shrug, from some absolutely lovely Rowan DK blackest black wool, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to join the motifs together and a google search revealed that other people might be having the same trouble. So, another disaster.

The, another holiday, another crochet cardigan. Bruges this time, and bored with the summer granny squares blanket, I decided to make it into a cardigan. Hmmm - nice colours, but far too bright to be worn as a garment on my 40 year old body. What was I thinking? I might try to make it into a bag, lol.

For the price of these 4 cardigans worth of wool plus £20 for a crochet book, I could have bought a very nice cashmere cardigan at the droolingly beautiful local shop Brora.

But don't get me started on cashmere. I bought two cashmere cardigans at John Lewis at Christmas time. One lasted 2 weeks before it accidentally got washed in a normal wash and shrunk to doll size (and I'm nowhere near doll size, lol), and the other developed holes in it after 2 months. I suspect that JL cashmere is just chain store rubbish and to get decent quality I would have to go to Brora, but I'm on a spending freeze, and could never justify a week's food shopping on a cardigan anyway.

So, I'm back here again, hacked off with my holey cashmere, and hoping that I can crochet something. I decided to start with a very simple pattern, and to use EXACTLY the right wool. I'm terrible for substituting wool and hoping that it will turn out. The pattern is from the lovely Rowan Summer Crochet which my mum bought for me: Rowan's first dedicated crochet book, and I have high hopes for it.

So I'm making it in the correct wool, even the correct colour, but all the same colour, rather than the highlights of blue etc. Time will tell.

UFOs

2010-05-03T19:41:00.007+01:00

Not as in "unidentified flying object", but as in "unfinished objects". I've been decluttering, and recycling some UFOs. Half balls of wool not matching anything else, little pices of ribbon I kept just in case, some odd bits of fabric to make into something. I've taken 3 bags of decent fabric to the charity shop, and put the rest in the fabric recycling bank. I feel much better now, but guilty about all the money I must have spent on it.

I read in a decluttering book once, cannot exactly remember the woman's name: "Dawna" something, a lovely American or Canadian woman. She was on British TV, helping people to declutter their homes. She was very nice with it, not at all judgemental, and some of the houses were real tips, with people verging on mental problems, all because of too much stuff. She helped them through it and the results were amazing. But I digress - what I remember is that in one of her books she spoke about a good friend, who tragically was dying of cancer, and Dawna and her talked of this friend being Dawna's angel of unfinished objects. Then when Dawna was helping her friend's husband clear out her clothes after she died, they found all of her friend's UFOs which Dawna took to keep and finish. It was a sad story but just highlighted for me the fact that lots of us crafty people have just too many UFOs on the go at once. So here is my list of UFOs I'm going to try to finish before I start any more projects:
1. Finally! finish sewing in the ends on the big granny, and the big granny squares. It doesn't stop me using them but come on Prim, it's just not right!
2. Finish the vintage pink stripe which was supposed to be my mum's 2009 Christmas present. She is very patient.
3. Sew together the patchwork square quilt I was making for my youngest daughter's cot. She is now 2 and out of her cot, but maybe I can make it into a bed size quilt.
4. Finish making the white flowers quilt.
5. There must be others I've forgotten about...

Painting Thrifted Furniture

2010-04-25T12:53:00.007+01:00

Here are the colours I have chosen. The tabletop here is in "Pavillion Grey" and the little pot pourri bowl is in "Mouse's Back". I bought the table (actually a little music cabinet holding my stereo) in a second hand shop about five years ago. It was originally a lovely rich mahogancy with walnut inlay, but it didn't fit into my house at all, so it has been hiding up the back of the boxroom for years. I was going to throw it out, but since coming back from the lovely Bruges house, I decided to paint it. So four coats of paint later, and here it is.

The little bowl belongs to my sister. She found it recently in a second hand shop. It is a nice shape but it was a hideous bile yellow green colour, so I painted it. It painted up nicely since it is a stoneware pottery. I did offer it back to her but she said to keep it since it looks nice in my house - nice sister.
I have still to find handles for this cupboard: I think I might have some somewhere in the shed, so I will go hunting for them later.

The paint is from Farrow and Ball. The cupboard was sanded down, then 2 coats of undercoat/primer, then 2 coats of the eggshell.

Painted Furniture Inspiration

2010-04-22T21:20:00.005+01:00

Our rented holiday house in Bruges had the most lovely light airy feel to it. It was a 4 storey traditional townhouse, probably several hundred years old, but decorated in a modern cleanlined style. What I particularly liked was the painted furniture. Here in the bedroom at the top of the house is a little painted desk. If you look closely you can spy my latest crochet project.

And here in the same room is a little wardrobe finished in the same lovely soft grey colour. Now these pieces of furniture are not grand or especially expensive looking. I think they probably started life as the orangey pine most of us have had in our houses at some time. But don't they look nice all painted up.

Here in the bedroom on the first floor is a lovely wooden painted bed. The dark walls are not really to my taste, but they do set off the painted white furniture beautifully.

So, you can guess what happened. I came home, and my house looks shabby. Mismatched colours of painted furniture, red here, blue there, compete with pine and oak and mahogany furniture. It just looks so cluttered and mismatched. The green velvet chesterfield and the gold velvet chaise in my living room just look too colourful.

So, before you can say "Farrow and Ball", I'm off looking for grey paint. I would never have imagined that it is so difficult to choose grey paint. There are green greys, blue greys, steel greys. Yikes - I've chosen 242 by F&B plus the lovely named "Mouse's back". Pictures to follow.

In Bruges - Easter Decorations

2010-04-21T19:31:00.013+01:00

This is the fourth time we have visited Bruges at Easter. It feels like a second home. People ask us if we have family here, if we have a house here, but no, we are just visitors. We have no connection to Bruges, other than we all love it.

At Easter time, the people of Bruges seem to decorate. It is not just commercial decoration in shop windows, but the city itself seems to sprout eggs and chickens.

Here are some delightful chickens, or is it "hens" - I'm never sure, lol. These are decorating the upstairs windows of a pub down a little side street.

And here is a close up of the little hens. They look a bit like papier mache to me. I like the fact that they are a bit wibbly looking, and I like the expressions on their faces - it looks as though they are chatting to each other.

Here's a little egg in a wicker circular wreath, draped around a lamp.

We cycled around a corner in an ordinary street in Bruges, and spied - an egg tree.

And finally, there is the commercial face of Easter in Bruges, lest we forget, a 1m high chocolate bunny. My dentist will be pleased to know that I left it where it was, in the shop window.

Bruges Easter

2010-03-28T08:45:00.007+01:00

Doing final packing now for an Easter trip to Bruges. Will be back in a couple of weeks, hopefully with some nice pictures.

Wool Tightly Wound into Little Balls

2010-03-23T13:02:00.004Z

When I'm going on holiday I worry about the wierdest things. Not "Will the hotel be ok", nor "Have the children packed enough warm clothes". I worry about whether I will have enough wool with me. Yes, holidays have seen me frantically roaming a number of European cities now, searching for a wool shop. "STOP! A WOOLSHOP!" I shriek, while the family cower in the back of the car. Getting out of the car in 90 degree heat to go running into a wool shop. Even if you haven't been there, I am sure you are with me in sentiment.

With this in mind, I've wound my granny blanket wool into little balls. It is amazing how small a 50g ball of wool becomes when wound up like this. Ready to fit into a little corner of my suitcase.

Preview of New Blanket in Progress

2010-03-23T12:42:00.009Z

I love the look of granny square blankets, but have (almost) no patience for the sewing in of the thread ends. I am forcing myself to sew in the ends before I sew each block on to its neighbour. Total progress so far - about 30 blocks made, and only 6 sewn together. Shall I sew in a few ends? I ask myself, or shall I crochet another block. "Crochet another block" wins most of the time. Here are the six sewn together sofar.

And, here are some of the blocks waiting patiently in the queue to be sewn up. Here, let me present to you "ThePurples".

and their cousins "The Greens":

More Spring Inspiration

2010-03-21T21:46:00.002Z

Spikes of Monkey Puzzle tree beginning to cheer up again after being shrouded in snow.

A re-found object - shells and stones on a string, next to the monkey puzzle. No real purpose other than to look pretty and remind us of the beach.

And finally: beautifully white snowdrops.

A Little Bit of Sunshine

2010-03-21T21:21:00.002Z

At last, a little bit of sunshine. We went up to Perthshire today, 70 or so miles north of our home in Edinburgh. In my parents' garden, a few spring flowers are starting to bloom and a little bit of green pokes up here and there.

WIP Big Squares

2010-03-16T08:07:00.001Z

Just need to sew more ends in on this single bed size.

Pink Grannie Vintage Stripe

2010-03-15T14:01:00.005Z

Pink because of the predominance of pink. Grannie because that is who it is for, rather than it being a Granny. Vintage Stripe because that is the pattern. This is a MAMMOTH blanket - about 7 feet across, designed to fit a big double with lots of overhang. It is a pet hate of mine about blankets, that they are not wide enough for the bed and they leave you cold at the edges.

This is made in a similar wool to the Teenage Vintage Stripe and the Teenage Ripple, but it is from a different manufacturer. It is mostly pinks, lilacs, purples, blues, with a little bit of green, and a lot of white. I find that the key to most crochet blankets is to add a lot of white, since it highlights all of the colour nicely.

Not so Vintage Vintage Stripe

2010-03-15T00:01:00.007Z

This is the first copy of the vintage blanket I have. It is done in a mixture of wool, cotton, wool/nylon, which you're not supposed to do, but if seems to wash ok.

In many ways this is my favourite blanket, except for it being small. I guess it is a lapghan, which always makes me think "What kind of a dog is that?". It is about 3 feet square.

Vintage Vintage Stripe

2010-03-14T23:48:00.005Z

This is the original Vintage Stripe, which I have duplicated. It belonged to my grandmother and was made for her, about 20 or 30 years ago, my mum thinks, by someone unknown, maybe her home help. It was at my mum's house under a cat, but I rescued it, and as possession is 9/10ths of the law, it is mine now, (at least for a while).

It is made in what appears to be 3 ply wool in a nylon/acrylic. Most of the wool is self-coloured but some is variagated.

The pattern is easy. It is basically treble/treble into the spaces of the row before, with a scallop trim border around the finished blanket. The tricky part was the right number of trebles at either end of a row to get exactly the same number as the row before. There were a few pyramid shapes before I mastered it.

Teenage Vintage Stripe

2010-03-14T23:41:00.006Z

This is a single bed size companion to the Teenage Ripple. It is not perhaps captured here, but it is shockingly bright, especially when twinned with the ripple. Made in the same wool, but slightly different colour scheme. It took about 2000g of wool to make this, and a lot of time. I don't mind too much the zipping back and forth, but absolutely hate the sewing in of ends.

Teenage Ripple

2010-03-14T23:34:00.005Z

Daughter number one, the teenager, has 2 large single bed size blankets. This one, a ripple, in 100% acrylic was not made by me, but by my mum. It resides in the teenager's room where at least one cat can be found magnetised on to it at all times. Despite this, and a year of use, it washes and tumble dries up nicely. It matches well with the black and red colour scheme of the teenage room.

Little Baby Ripple

2010-03-14T23:22:00.004Z

This was the first blanket I made: a pram size ripple blanket. It is made in superwash 100% wool, the same as the wool for the Big Granny. It does indeed wash superbly - this little blanket has easily been washed, and tumble dried 10 times in the last 2 years, yet it still retains its lovely bright colours.

Big Granny Crochet Blanket

2010-03-14T17:35:00.009Z

I've been waiting for a bit of sunshine to take pictures of my blankets. My house is very dark - it would really benefit from a lot of white paint, but unfortunately it is a rental so I'm not allowed to paint. It makes taking photographs indoors very challenging in the winter especially. So, this Saturday, with the appearance of a bit of blue sky, I dragged my blankets out into the garden to photograph them. I started out with a white sheet on the ground which you can see though some of the photos, but it proved too small for many of the blankets.

Here is the first one, the Big Granny I made last summer. It is an extremely easy crochet pattern. All you need to know how to do is to chain, and treble crochet. You make a little granny and keep going, until she is the size you want. This is a great blanket for a beginner. Some people change colour mid-round if they run out, but I'm strict about going all the way round in one colour. The last round took about 75g of wool and I reckon that this large 6' across version took about 40 balls of 50g superwash 100% wool at around £3.50 each. That's a lot of money for me, and I wouldn't have bought it all at once, but buying a couple of balls here and there doesn't seem as expensive.

I see this pattern in a lot of vintage blankets, so it must have been pretty popular in the 70s.

Curtains for a Zebra Lover

2010-03-11T23:01:00.005Z

Daughter number one, the teenager, hates flowery, vintage "old stuff" with a passion. Visits to my favourite junk shops, result in the normally good natured teenager turning into an arms-folded, eyes rolling, "how long are you going to be" person. Not for her a lovely Cath Kidston duvet, and painted vintage furniture. Black - Red - IKEA just about sums it up. That's ok. That's her style and I have to admit it looks rather good, but just not my style. So after she swapped bedrooms so that daughter number two, the toddler, could have her old room, she was left with my lovely green toile curtains. When can I get rid of those green things - she shouted, pointing a finger at them. What colour would you like my darling - I said - or something like that. BLACK! Here's the compromise: zebra print. And best of all they cost only the price of a few sewing supplies. I made them from a king sized duvet cut in half, and attached on to the existing curtain linings. And I think, that for black, they look rather nice. Only problem is that as you can see from the edge, my sewing machine has gone a bit wonky - something to do with the stitch tension. I will have to study the manual and see what I can find out.

New Flower Blanket

2010-03-11T22:37:00.004Z

This blanket is everywhere. I first saw it in one of my housey books - Bazaar Style - or something like it. Easy, I thought. I can easily make that. Not so fast! Much pulling out of hair later. I tried out the pattern at Yvestown. Nice try but it didn't work - fitting the circular flower shape into the square - the pattern was not quite right. I see a lot made like this though, and the edges are slightly rounded, but like Jane at Posy, it just did not quite look right. It was a bit bunched up. Eventually, after much searching, I found the perfect pattern at priscillascrochet.net. The key to it is to hdc, dc, triple crochet from the centre to edge of the round after the flower. This makes the square quite square, and not at all out of shape, like the tr, tr, tr pattern I see elsewhere.

I experimented with a puff stitch centre, then with a normal treble cluster (that is what is in the picture above ), and then I tried various sizes of hook. I started to make it up, in a 100% acrylic wool - very nice colours, but somehow, it didn't look right. It was a bit too shiny.

So after much bleating on my part, daughter number one and her dad go out to John Lewis and get me a present - some wool: 100% wool. Ah bliss. I'm so easily pleased. No designer clothes for me. No expensive perfume. Just a few balls of wool, and I'm happy, oh, all week. Here are the first few squares:

I'm going on holiday in a couple of weeks and know from experience that I will squish too few clothes into a tiny bag, so that I have space in my case for 20 balls of wool. I know that I am a lost cause.

Is it Spring Yet?

2010-03-02T19:59:00.009Z

I normally find January and February to be boring months. Not this year. Nothing boring about the entire family having two stomach bugs, and then two colds. Throw in a toddler starting nursery, a teenager choosing their exam subjects, a husband working away from home, and a full-time job. Not a chance I could have been bored this year. Far too busy. I knew it was a bit too much to try to blog every day as well!

Our house is very dark even in the summer. It's not a "light and bright" house. It is surrounded by big walls and trees, and the windows are small. The hall carpets are dark red and the walls are in need of some paint. There's not much we can do about it because it is not our house and we are not allowed to decorate.

But I'm now on a mission, to try to lighten it up. I've taken down the heavy curtains to let what light there is in. This weekend I washed down all the walls in the hall, with carpet shampoo. "With carpet shampoo?" I hear myself ask. It was all I had in the way of detergent and it was surprisingly effective at brightening up the walls.

I've also got quite a lot of painted furniture, that I've painted various colours: lime green, turquoise, Cath Kidston red, cream. It looked good at the time, but now it's just a mish-mash, so I'm on a mission to paint it all in a lovely vintage white/cream. Started with a mirror frame at the weekend, and it is looking pretty nice. More next weekend since I have to wait until my husband comes back. It is practically impossible to paint with a little toddler around, who likes to test if the paint is dry.

Wooleater Cushion Cover

2010-02-07T21:08:00.006Z

Unbelieavably, we've just had another stomach bug: 3 weeks ago, we all had novovirus, and now sick again with another bug - I don't remember these bugs having this frequency when I was a child. So it has been a tricky week with lots of thought of blogging but no action.

On a nice note, I have a new little project, a little green cushion cover. It is done in the simplest of crochet stiches - double UK or single US - but I like the texture this gives. It does make it a bit of a wooleater though. I bought the wool in Valognes in Northern France last summer. Only a true woolie could understand the possibility of shreiking "STOP! I see a WOOL SHOP!" whilst driving in the height of the summer heat, but there you are. Using all of my powers of school french lessons: "Huit, non, neuf s'il vous plait madame" I said with certaintly, not having a clue what I was going to make with 9 balls of green wool. I started a cardigan, but it didn't turn out ok, and I'm not 100% convinced that crochet clothes look ok, so I frogged it. Nice frog green it is too, lol. I'm happy with the cushion so far. Once it is finished it is going to snuggle up on the sofa next to a little green french fabric cushion, a toile de jouy - I like the connection, wool bought in france plus french toile design fabric.

I have some tartan and gingham fabric for another couple of projects I want to start soon - green tartan curtains for the master bedroom and red curtains for the toddler's room. Plus gingham for pillowcases, since it seems to go with everything. I hung a piece of the green fabric over the curtain pole just to see what it looked like and I'm pleased with the look, so as soon as I remember where I put the green thread I bought a while ago, I'll start. I buy fabric, and it takes me months to cut into it, to work out exactly what to make, but once I decide to start I'm usually ok.

Bye for now,
Primrose.

A Zoo Day and Second Hand Books

2010-01-30T20:00:00.014Z

I guess that a lot of families, "make plans for the weekend". Not us! We never much seem to plan what we're doing, just wander through the weekend, taking it as we find it.

Yesterday found us at the zoo. We are very fortunate to live a mile from Edinburgh Zoo, home to many endangered species. Edinburgh Zoo is on a hill in the middle of the city. In the penguin picture you can see how close the houses in the background are - just a stone wall separates their gardens from the zoo. It would be nice to live there, so close to the penguins, and be able to see them from your bedroom window, maybe with binoculars, or night vision binoculars even, lol.

The penguins are always a favourite at the zoo. They have a large enclosure, with a long, deep pond. At one end there is a viewing hut packed full of info on penguins - if you crouch down in front of the window, you are at penguin level. In the middle there is a pedestrian walkway over the pond, so that you can look down and see them swimming, swooping and diving from one end of the pool to the other. Sometimes a group of penguins dive into the water together and swim up and down the pond, very fast, together, swooping and diving. At the other end, you can walk down the hill and there are viewing windows, into the pond like the ones you get in some competition swimming pools, so that you can see the penguins flying underwater.

Edinburgh participates in breeding programmes, to help out species like the Koala Bear, now sadly threatened in its homeland. Edinburgh is fortunate to have two koalas in residence at the moment - "Teddy! Teddy" shouted the toddler.

I drive my husband crazy with my book-mania. Many a midnight has seen me wailing about not having anything to read, like an alcoholic needing a drink - I've got NOTHING to read - I shout. Fairly unlikely I think in a house with literally thousands of books, but there you go, and the long suffering lives-with-a-bookaholic husband goes with me to the late night supermarket to get me a book or two. So, just-in-case I need a book or two, I say, and ever mindful that I'm not allowed to buy anything unless it is thrifted, as they say in the US, or second-hand as we say here, I popped into my favourite bookshop. Shelter is a UK charity which helps the homeless and their local bookshop is excellent. Ten minutes, and five pounds later, and I'm out, clutching an F.Scott Fitzgerald, and a V.S.Naipaul, and a Spike Milligan for my dad.

Holidays and Frugality

2010-01-25T22:23:00.004Z

I'm planning a trip to Paris and Brugge at Easter. "That's not very frugal", I hear you say, "How can you do that when you are supposed to be saving money?"

Frugality means different things to different people. I've lived on a very small income before, when I was a student, and when I was just starting out in my career, and also when I was made redundant a while ago, so I know what it means to have to count every penny just to be able to scrape by and pay for essentials like food and heating.

Now, I am very lucky in that I have a little bit of disposable income, which I have because I'm careful about what I spend money on. I'm happy to take sandwiches to work every day and would not dream of doing what my colleagues do and spend pounds every day at the coffee van. I have holes in my socks and I wear my clothes until they fall to bits.

I do this so that I can spend what little extra I have on the things which are important to me. One of those is being able to travel. I'm not a globetrotter. I don't go on expensive beach or ski holidays. What I enjoy is visiting Europe. We've had some great, cheap Euro holidays in the past, the cheapest and probably the best was when we back-packed between campsites in Northern Belgium with our then 8 year old daughter. Doesn't sound much, but we had never been to Belgium before and we got to experience a different culture, and best of all, it was a very cheap holiday.

So I'm planning a week at Easter in Paris first for a couple of days, and then on to Brugge, where we have rented a house with my parents and sister.

My only regret about visiting Brugge when on the Dottie angel challenge is that I will be able to look only, not buy in the excellent Dille & Kamille shop, which sells household goods, kitchenwares, baskets etc. Seen here - the shop with the plants outside. It is a bit like Habitat used to be 20 years ago, and well worth a visit if you are in Belgium. I shall look, but not buy.

Decluttering Weekend

2010-01-25T21:48:00.005Z

Busy, busy weekend, and apart from a couple of little trips out, once to the library to stock up on craft books and once to do some grocery shopping, I spent the whole weekend at home.

There's nothing more satisfying than tidying out a room, forget cleaning it for the moment, just going through items, working out if I need them. If I don't, are they good enough for a charity shop, or should I recycle them? Is there something else I can make out of this. The Blue Peter spirit: What can I make out of this? Could someone else make good use of this?

We have lots of reasons for holding on to things when they have past their usefulness. Maybe we were brought up not to waste, and if feels wrong to throw things out. Maybe we're keeping something until it becomes useful - until some clothing fits, or until we time to pursue that hobby we haven't looked at for years. Am I really going to take up windsurfing again, when I barely find time to myself these days to sit quietly for 10 minutes with a coffee and not have someone shout "MUM!". And if I do find time, and I go windsurfing, will I want to use my 10 years out of date kit, or will I just spend a few pounds extra hiring something up to date? The latter I expect.

Books are especially difficult to throw out, especially academic books reminding us of things we studied at school or college, but being honest with myself, am I really going to go back and look at an old maths textbook from 10 years ago? With books I find that I try to justify keeping them, saying that they will be useful for my daughters. And some of them are, have been useful, and will be useful - but these are the classics - Brave New World, Day of the Triffids and other much loved and read and re-read again books. Let's face it, my daughter is not going to pick up some trashy novel in 10 years and have the same taste in books, and she's not going to be interested in a 20 year old diet book. I've recently taken a couple of hundred books out, and given them to charity. They were contemporary paperbacks and books of the moment, which will be saleable in the charity shop I gave them to, but I would never have re-read and they wouldn't have been read by anyone in my family. They were just taking up space in my already too small home.

I think that the main reason, if I'm honest, that I find it difficult to throw things out, is that it reminds me of how much money I wasted on the item. how much I didn't need it in the first place, and how indiscriminate I have been with purchases in the past. Did I really need that toy for my daughter that cost £40 and was like others she had, and didn't particularly play with? So, it is not fair now for me to clutter up her bedroom with it, when she didn't really want it in the first place, and will not play with it now 5 years later.

decluttering my house helps me not to spend money, since it makes me a bit sick to realise how much money I've wasted in the past, and reminds me not to spend on similar items in the future. It is also fairly tiring, and if you're at home decluttering, you can't be out shopping, lol.

And the main thing really, the best part, is that decluttering just feels so good. Not only does your house look bigger, cleaner, even if you haven't cleaned, but you get to feel good about giving, probably in a lot of cases, fairly valuable things to charity, in the hope that someone, somewhere can make use of it, and the charity can raise some money for a good cause.

Early Spring Cleaning

2010-01-20T20:49:00.003Z

I'm sure you're nothing like me. I'm sure that you don't have to wade through half full bags of raisins, a packet of sushi rice you bought 2 years ago, and various bottles, jars and packets spilling contents, every time you try to find out whether you have a can of tomatoes in the provisions cupboard, only to finally find way at the back of the cupboard 6 tins of out of date tomatoes.

I'm sure you're nothing like me, and that your cupboard is perfectly organised, all food in-date, packets emptied into storage jars, and that you know where everything is.

That's why I'm going to try to be more like you, and I've just spent the last 2 hours cleaning out my kitchen cupboards.

I want to try to do a food menu and budget each week, and I just could not get my head around that when my cupboards were in such a mess.

Can't post a boring picture of tins of peas, so here's a picture of the rhododendrons just coming into flower in my garden.

More Snow on the Way

2010-01-19T23:10:00.004Z

More snow on the way for us, yipee! I love snow. We don't get it often enough, and even although it becomes a bit of a nuisance, it is lovely for a while. Here is a picture taken Up North at Christmas of just the biggest icicle I've ever seen.

Over on Luisa's blog: http://www.danceinmygarden.blogspot.com/ she is donating her first etsy sale of the year to Haiti. Please buy if you can. I'm afraid that I can't at the moment but what I am doing is looking out everything I can think of and donating that to Oxfam in the hope that they can make a few pounds for Haiti or another very worthwhile cause.

Little House on the Prairie

2010-01-17T23:36:00.004Z

Galloping horses on the end of the bed, covered wagons on the pillowcases. I'm sure to dream of Little House on the Prairie tonight, which along with "The Waltons" was my favourite TV show
when I was little.

New orange penguins from the charity shop on the bedside table. "Why?", my daughter asks, "do you always buy orange penguins?" "Because I love them", I say, and that is good enough reason for me.

It has been a very difficult, sicky week, with my entire family sick with a stomach bug. I feel as though the washing machine has been going non-stop for days now, but at least now I have matching pillowcases, lol.

New Big Granny

2010-01-17T03:01:00.004Z

Like many people, worldwide it seems, I've had a particularly nasty tummy bug this week, so haven't been at my most productive to say the least.

Have finally finished the big granny square, except for a couple of stray loose ends to weave in. Its an addictive pattern and very easy. You start off small, and just keep going, adding rounds until the square is big enough. Calling it a pattern is a bit grand: if you can do a little granny square, you can do this. By the end of this, my big granny measures about 5 feet across, and is taking just over a 50g ball of wool for each new round. What I like about patterns like this which change colour every round, or in the case of the ripple or vintage stripe: change each row, is how the colours interact.

And no, the unmatched pillowcase is not a homage to 1980's "pairs" of unmatched socks, one blue, one red. It is simply the fact that I am now completely out of clean bedlinen, having changed all 4 beds I'd guess maybe 2 billion times this week, lol.

Toxic Information and Penguin Birthday Parties

2010-01-13T13:49:00.008Z

There's just too much bad news around. I don't think that in itself is a new thing. Bad news has always sold newspapers. When did I change from being someone who bought a paper every week or so, and listened to the news if it happened to be on while I was in the room, to being the person I am now.

I read four national news sites and one local site, sometimes "checking the news" every few hours, or even more. Sometimes if I'm crocheting or browsing the web in a room with a television, I leave the news programme on, and it spins round and I realise I'm listening to the same news as an hour ago. I think that it is the result of September 11th - the images of that horrible day are seered into the minds of so many. And I think because of that I have to "check the news" just in case I need "to do something". You see, at 3am, that "do something" becomes "fleeing the city with my children" or some other unlikely scenario, that plays itself over and over in my head. I wasn't even there and that is the long term effect on me: I hate to think of the trauma of people who were directly involved.

There are several things I've seen or heard in news programmes or seen on news websites, or even read in fiction books that have stayed in my head for a long time, some maybe forever, and they're not very positive. I could really have lived my life without seeing or hearing them. I'm not going to give examples or go into detail because then they would be in your head, but I'm sure you have your own examples.

I'm not advocating an ostrich stick your head in the sand approach either. It is impossible not to hear of any big events, but so many of the news items we hear about, I can personally do nothing about.

I don't want to get philosophical about the reasons : I've just come to the realisation that there is too much bad news getting into my head, so I'm going to try to stop watching TV news and browsing newspaper websites, and buying those paperbacks in the supermarket which always have a gruesome death or incident on the back cover to draw you in. That should save me: I would guess - yikes £100 a year - considering all the times I'm buying my groceries and I just have to have a book, and they're cheap so might as well get two. I'm not an unhappy person, but surely all this bad news must take its toll - no more.

So in a completely unrelated kind of way, here's a picture of two gorrillas turning up for the baby penguin's party on the back of reindeers :) Otherwise known as : Don't buy lots of expensive toys - a box of plastic animals can have hours of fun playing with children of all ages.

Another great way I have found of keeping a toddler busy for free, is to let them play in the sink. All little kids love this, and will happily splash around in a bubble enfested sink with whisks and measuring spoons and funnels for ages, whilst Mummy sits with her feet up on a chair watching, eating a big cream bun and drinking a coffee (in my dreams). Just make sure they can't turn the hot tap on and don't take your eye off them in case they fall in and drown, or more likely: try to eat the bubbles. Health and Safety advice courtesy of my dad who always likes to remind us of all eventualities.

Frugal Living - Cleaning Cloths

2010-01-12T00:25:00.005Z

What am I doing? I thought, as I made a list of things to buy at the supermarket, including cleaning cloths, and a list of things to do, including taking old clothes to supermarket rag bank.

When did I become so susceptible to marketing that I would throw away old clothes which could be easily turned into cleaning cloths. Then I would waste time and money buying packaged cleaning cloths from the supermarket. And, if I'm being honest with myself, although I think I reuse them by throwing them in the washing machine, they fall to bits after a couple of washes and get thrown away. I buy about one packet of cloths a month, so that's about £25 a year I can save: not much in the grand scheme of things, but every little counts.

And then I read the packaging on the ready made cloths : "Made in China" and I got really annoyed with myself for buying these. I've nothing against the Chinese - the ones I know through work are hard working, decent people, just trying to make a living for themselves and their families. But what am I doing spending my money and time buying something which has been shipped from the other side of the planet when I already have a free solution in my own home. I should know better than that.

So, I've spent the last couple of hours, whilst watching TV, sorting through the clothes I was going to put in the clothing bank. Anything which looks new and good enough to wear, goes to the charity shop, hoping that it will be of use to someone. Anything else: stained, torn, or too many washes, gets put into the rag recycling.

Many of us will remember our mothers and grandmothers having a rag bag for cloths. Ours was in the bottom of the clothes drying cupboard and contained a not very exotic mixture of old pants, vests and shirts which had seen better days. A call for a cloth resulted in someone running upstairs, fishing about behind the boiler, and then trying to rip something resembling a cloth from an old piece of clothing. If you were lucky, you would find something which had been ripped up a bit before since it was difficult to start a new tear.

I've folded my new cloths up nice and neatly (won't stay like that for long, lol) and put them in a little basket under the sink. Now when I reach for a cloth, I'm reminded of clothes my kids used to wear, which is nice.

I realise that it is a bit obsessive to cut them up like this, and it is something my mother would never have done. However in our house, laundry just doesn't seem to be the organised affair you see on TV, and I don't want to see my kids wearing something I previously used as a wash cloth and then threw in the laundry. Best to cut them up to look more like cloths, and less like clothes.

Frugal 2010

2010-01-11T22:55:00.003Z

Like many families, we're worried about the credit crunch and what it might mean for us. Already hubby has lost his job, but thankfully found another. I work for a large corporation and know due to past experience that the axe can fall with little warning.

We're very fortunate to both have jobs at the moment, and I know that a lot of others are not so lucky, but it doesn't pay to be complacent.

Because of this, we've decided to try to live as frugally as possible this year.

Vintage Stripe Blanket

2009-04-18T13:12:00.004+01:00

The little copied vintage stripe is finished except for crocheting in the ends and adding a shell border, I think. I decided to use up all the spare wool I had so it is a mixture of Rowan DK pure wool and cotton, mostly the wool. I find the cotton quite tiring to crochet. It is not stretchy in the same way that wool is, so it strains the fingers a bit to crochet it.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. It is a nice pattern to crochet. Not too many ends to crochet in - unlike the granny squares - and it goes quickly, zipping along from one side to the next.

The pattern is easy - I'll post it once I can work out how to write it down.

Big Granny Squares for a Baby

2009-03-20T11:30:00.006Z

Whew! Finally finished the big granny squares. I blocked them on a spare single mattress dragged out of the cupboard - laid a beach towel on it, and dragged the whole lot on top of the chesterfield sofa in the living room. Having a bit flat arm all the way round, it was ideal for holding the mattress. Big groans from the family when they couldn't get a seat to watch telly. Oh well.

The big grannies are a little bit squint even after blocking. I think that the bigger they get the more little flaws are magnified. Anyway, I'm pleased with the result and I think it is going to look good on the baby bed.

Now for the boring bit - sewing in the ends and sewing them all together. Nothing that a good film on telly and a couple of gin and tonics can't cure!