A gift for my mum today (Mother's Day here in the UK), a scarf of crocheted flowers.
Well, you can never have too many flowers and I thought this would be pretty and useful for these spring days with a cool nip in the air. These are good colours for Mum, it really suits her!
It's ages since I was able to post some gratuitous flower photos, but finally, things are happening in the garden. I love crocuses, especially these purple ones; the petals of these have such a gorgeous lustre.
It's cheering to think that this is the start of things growing and blooming, that soon, what is now dormant and uncared for, will be a feast of colour and scent. It's time to make plans, sow seeds, tidy up, ready for the coming months. Exciting!
Fantastic blue skies and sunshine yesterday; perfect drying weather, it seems like forever since I was able to do so....... long may it continue!
The weather has taken an upward turn, the temperature has risen, so happy days. Friday evening started with this amazing sunset sky
Then I went off to hear one of my literary heroes, William Boyd, at the Aye Write festival here in Glasgow at the Mitchell Library
WB is an engaging and warm orator, natural, warm and witty, and totally at home in front of an audience. It was a fascinating evening with a description into how his novels are conceived, researched and crafted, some readings from his latest book Ordinary Thunderstorms and a Q&A; one of the questions posed was about the particular difficulties of transferring a long novel to the small screen, especially one's own work, and WB told us that his novel (and my favourite of his books) Any Human Heart is just about to start filming in a TV adaptation, to be shown this autumn. I, for one, can't wait to see how such an epic novel of a long and full life will translate to the screen. All wonderfully interesting and entertaining - I'm so glad I was there.
Saturday, I put on my crafty hat and went to the Creative Stitches show at the SECC. I enjoyed much of the exhibits, and there were some lovely wools. But it was a bit of an effort to get round as there was lots of pushing and shoving - if anyone is familiar with the comedy show The Mighty Boosh, there's an episode called Nanageddon, when all the elderly ladies in the vicinity become possessed by an evil demon and go on the rampage, and I was reminded of this with increasing regularity as it got busier and wool-frenzy took hold. I left before it got really nasty! However, I didn't come away empty-handed (of course not!) I bought some lovely wool from the New Lanark Organic wool shop
and a pack of 10 balls of Rowan Alpaca in beautiful purple
and this lovely book
I think I'll be making something purple from this book soon, so watch this space!
Today brought an invitation from my sister to go the cinema, so off we duly went, armed with our 3D specs to see Alice in Wonderland. The plot of the film is an amalgam of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and Jabberwocky, so if you are a purist, you may not like it. But I did, it looked so beautiful, wonderful sets and costumes, and the sombre, slightly spooky mood and sense of unease suited the reworking of the story. I liked Anne Hathaway's White Queen (like a crazed Nigella Lawson) and Stephen Fry's voice for the Cheshire Cat, all persuasive plummy purring! Well worth seeing if you like your films with a dark twist.
That's all I had time for!
There's been a little retail therapy going on here. A girl needs some new things for spring!
Firstly some new boots, which I've been eying up here for a while - now they're mine!
I think it was love at first sight!
And this bag was too good to miss; ideal for all my wool and crochet bits and pieces.
Shades of Cath Kidston, but it was a snip from Primark for £6 (and thanks to Lucy at The Antidote for the tip-off). I have managed to get an enormous amount of wool, notebook, 3 little pouches with hooks, pins, needles etc, and the latest WIP in here and there's still room for more. Brilliant!
Time for another reflection, this time on the shortest month of the year. It's been cold and snowy again but there've been a few fleeting signs of spring, lots of crochet, a good trip to York and interesting work. But I am looking forward to March. Better weather, flowers starting to grow and bloom, longer days,bring it on!
It's Monday and March 1st already and there are nice things to show from today and the weekend.
Green shoots appearing in the garden; despite the cold, spring is on its way and I found myself out pottering in the garden yesterday for the first time this year
A peek at what I'm making just now.
Finding these in trouser pocket about to go in the washing machine! Happy days!
Lemon, sunflower seed and blueberry muffin with coffee
Some views of the hills surrounding Glasgow which I took this morning when I was in the north of the city.
Looking north - I think this hill is called the Sleeping Giant, today he has a snowy blanket!
Looking south, at the cranes at the Govan shipyards and to the Ayrshire hills
And after day upon day of unrelenting grey, the sky is so blue today
Happy Monday,whatever it brings you :-)
I've christened my latest crochet cushion cover, Granny Apple Blossom because
a) the pinks and greens reminded me of apple blossom
and
b) it's 2 big granny squares sewn together.
I hadn't made a granny square for ages, and started one about a week ago. I chose pink and green because they look so good together and after all the recent cold wintry weather, I felt a need for the colours of spring. Here's a list of the wools I used.
All lovely to work with and they worked well together, despite being different brands. I kept on making round after round until it was quite large and perfect for a cushion.
A bit of a delay ensued with completion as I faffed around with making the second side. Firstly I tried an old sweater backing, but it looked awful. Then I tried rows of half treble crochet in the same colours, but it just didn't look right either and had to be frogged. Eventually I realised that another granny square was the best idea, keeping things simple.
Some flower buttons to fasten
and there is is, finished!
Pretty and cheery on a cold snowy day, but I'm sure it will be just as good on a sunny spring or summer day!
I've been away for a little break. Can you guess where from the pictures I took from the train window?
Leaving Glasgow Central
It's a bit grey and murky as we head east
Past Edinburgh and the sun comes out
passing through Berwick-on- Tweed
and Durham
Nearly there, have you guessed yet?
That's right, it's York!
The Minster is stunning
It was great to wander round and enjoy the unique atmosphere
so much history
so many beautiful and very old buildings
One day was sunny and springlike
The next day freezing fog and chilled to the bone cold
No matter, that's the best excuse for a day of shopping and cafe visiting anyone could ever need!
and to cap it all, I found the best button shop I've ever visited
Back home now, with the plastic put firmly away and cake off the menu for the time being!
Remember the blue and green WIP I showed you a glimpse of recently? It was a blanket for my friend and her new baby boy and I finally finished it off at the weekend.
I'm pleased with how it's turned out, in fact I'm delighted. I found the pattern at the Lion Brand website, and tweaked it a bit; I used 6 colours, instead of 2
made 12 squares instead of 9
and added a border of half treble rows in each of the colours used.
It was delivered on Saturday afternoon and they loved it!
A lovely present for a very cute little boy!
I am Marie, a musician who likes to take photographs and write about what I'm making, reading and enjoying.
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