When life gives you (a garden full of) mint…make mojitos.

 

I have been neglectful lately.  Of my blog and of crocheting in general.  I have lost my crojo!  I hope to regain it soon but suspect it can be found somewhere in mid-September when both boys are in school.

However before my creativity went on its Summer-long vacation I did have a creative surge and I actually had a go at writing a crochet pattern, which was inspired by an invitation to a friend’s greenhouse-warming party and a little cocktail I knocked up in honour of the occasion.

For me the colour of spring is GREEN.  I love to see my garden waking up after its winter sleep. Tiny buds emerge on the fruit trees, the grass looks less muddy and more zingy, the pine woods surrounding my village look less ominous and more inviting in the spring sunshine than the winter grey.  So my cocktail was inspired by GREEN, not least because the mint was rampaging below my rose bushes and apple tree, and because I was celebrating a greenhouse.

Behold the Greenhouse Fizz:

It’s my take on a mojito style gin cocktail and incorporates the late spring and early summer flavours of elderflower and mint.  And there’s also some lime in there because…GREEN!

Of course what every greenhouse needs, apart from a floor that has been well and truly christened with a sprinkling of elderflower, gin and soda water, is something that will remain after the party buzz has disappeared, and will hopefully provide a bit of colour in those dormant winter months so for a gift that would last longer than the cocktail I designed some bunting inspired by the lime and elderflower in my cocktail.

And here it is, hanging in my own greenhouse before going to its new home.

I’ve had a go at writing down the pattern and the following pdf includes the cocktail, the bunting pattern, and a photo tutorial for the bunting.  If you have a go and find any errors please let me know.  If you have any questions please ask.  Hopefully the pattern is easy to follow, and if it isn’t then the photo tutorial will help.

greenhousefizz

Cheers!

Hooking a rainbow

I have a thing about rainbows and the harmoniousness (is that a word?) of the colour wheel. I love how the colours merge in different proportions to give us so many different colours and shades and tones. If somebody places a colour in the wrong position it makes me itch. If I’m handed a pile of brightly coloured objects I’ll order them in colour spectrum order often without realising. I have Compulsive Rainbow Order.

I also love the symbolism of rainbows – they are full of hope and promise and joy. And I love coming up with and crocheting rainbow colour schemes.

Here are some of my favourite rainbow projects.

This is my baby rainbow colour palette.

I loved making this blanket for my friend’s baby girl. I was inspired by some circle in square babette blankets that a couple of friends had made but as I had not been crocheting very long I was a bit overwhelmed with the mathematics of joining different sized squares so I decided to go with equally sized squares instead. I chose stylecraft special dk yarn because for an acrylic yarn it is really lovely to crochet with, it’s washable at 40C, and the range of colours were great. Though at the time of crocheting the green and orange palette were a bit more limited. If I were to do this now I think I would swap the spring green for pistachio though I think I would keep the apricot/shrimp combo. I used a 4mm hook.

This is my pattern for my Squaring the Circle Square (in UK terms). I’m not saying I invented it as the circle increase is standard but I was very proud of myself for working out how to square the circle and I tried lots of stitch combinations before I was happy with round 4.

Rd1: Colour A. In a magic circle or ch4 ring – ch-3, 15 tr (16 stitches)

Rd2: Colour B. 2tr into each stitch (32 stitches)

Rd3: Colour C. 2 tr in first stitch, 1 tr in next and repeat pattern around the circle (48 stitches)

Rd4: Colour A. Into each stitch from previous round work a stitch: tr, htr, htr, dc, dc, dc, dc, dc, htr, htr, tr. The next stitch is a corner, into this stitch work [tr, dtr, ch2, dtr, tr]. Repeat this 3 times. (60 stitches, 15 on each side, not including the ch-2 spaces in the corners)

Rd5: Tr in each stitch, in ch-2 space work [2tr, ch2, 2tr]. (76 stitches, 19 on each side, not including the ch-2 spaces in the corners)

At the end of rd 5 my square measures 11cm or almost 4.5”

I used a continuous join as you go method to join my squares together based on this Baby Love Brand tutorial.  I  found her tutorial and links really easy to follow and I love this way of joining granny squares when you want quite a solid looking fabric.

I love the colours and texture in these rainbow bright blankets.

The ripple was made for my nephew and the wave was made for his cousin. Almost matching blankets for two beautiful boys. I used both the wave and the ripple patterns from this book and though I loved how the ripple pattern worked up I was losing the will to crochet by the end so this is probably the only ripple blanket I will ever make. Rippling is not for me!

Just looking at the joyful rainbow-ness of these pictures makes me smile and leads me quite nicely onto a small tadaaaa moment…yes the vintage rainbow stripy bag is now finished!

The pattern is the Attic24 Crochet Bag and the flowers are the  Crochet Flowers and Leaves  pattern.  Just look at how adorable the flowers are. I used the same colour to make the centre and the first set of petals before changing and doing the smaller petals in a contrasting colour. I love how well it’s worked out. I really love the simple flower shape on this bag so didn’t add the leaves.

I cannot wait to take my beautiful bag on its first trip to evening crochet club on Friday and have packed up one of my current WiPs ready to go.

Everything fits canny.

And I mean EVERYTHING…phew!

The Call of the WiP – or the colours made me do it!

I have a problem. I am a chronic starter. I’m very good at it. I have ten lovely crochet projects that I have written in my crochet project book. I have only finished two of them. And when I say finished I mean I’ve sort of finished one for now but I know I want to add something else to it later. The completely finished one is something I made in collaboration with an amazing crochet group that I’m part of and I’ll tell you all about that some other time. I am hoping that by blogging about my WiPs (work in progress) it will help focus me to finish them.

You see I get entranced by a stitch pattern, or the excitement of a CAL (crochet along), or some wonderful new yarn, or (most frequently) a colour combination I need to try, and it was the colours that made me start the Attic 24 stripy bag last week. I needed to make something in this vintage rainbow palette I’d dreamed up.

I’ve used stylecraft special dk in claret, tomato, mustard (oh I am in love with this mustard colour at the moment), cypress, storm blue and violet, on a 3mm hook and so far I’ve not deviated from Lucy Attic’s pattern. The parchment I’ve used to help the colours sing has meant that 14 rounds were the perfect number for the bag base and I’m currently working on the sides, though I intend to do 26 rounds instead of her suggested 24 before starting that lovely scalloped top. Because I’m using dk and a smaller hook I’m hoping that my bag will be big enough to hold some yarn, my fab planning book, and a bottle of wine for the next time I go to evening crochet club. I am best when working with a deadline so this bag needs to be finished by a week tomorrow so I can take it out and try it out for size. (Please let the wine fit, please let the wine fit.)  Hopefully I will make it…