miss marie's miscellany

July collage

This year is passing by rather quickly, I can't believe it's the end of another month. There's been lots of crochet, some trips away and a mix of good and bloomin'  awful weather, sounds about right for the good old British summertime!

 

The longest day

The longest day ended with the most brilliant sunset

 

A glorious sky

 

 with rich and vivid colours

 

You have to stop and look at such a beautiful sight

till it's almost gone. 
 
 
 

Hooking Japanese style

Japanese crochet patterns, a recent  and happy discovery. One might think this is problematic, because of the language in which these are written. But the patterns are written in chart form ie there are symbols for each stitch to make a diagram of the finished article. If your Japanese is non-existent like mine, these chart patterns are great, there's no language barrier to understanding them. I first encountered charts in the book  100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield which everyone seemed to be buying a while back when I began crocheting. Many of the patterns in this are written in both chart and more traditional worded pattern form, (interesting to see the two versions side-by-side) and there is a glossary explaining the symbols used. I've dipped into this book a bit, but to be honest, as I was a novice when I bought this, I felt a little daunted by its intricacies; there was much looking but not much doing. 

Fast forward. to earlier this year, with much hooking under my belt, I feel able to cope with something a bit more challenging. I found a fantastic site called Rakuten, well worth a look, as there are some really lovely patterns to download - I think there must be hundreds of them, from simple motifs to delicate lacy cardigans, and even better, they're free. This is what you get, all nice and simple, a page with a chart and pic of the finished article.

 

A few people have enquired about the pattern for my mum's flower scarf, and I found that at this site - click here for the link to it.  

 

So the next natural progression was to buy a Japanese  book. I've seen some beautiful ones at various blogs I like reading, and had a tremendous attack of the 'wanties'! I did some clicking and purchasing on Ebay a couple of weeks ago (at this lovely Ebay store)  and a few days ago a parcel plopped on the doormat containing this.

 
 

The demon wanties have been calmed! What a treat inside, it's beautifully photographed and 'styled' as they say, and there are some very appealing designs, with lots of food for thought.

I particularly liked this design

 

Here's my version.

 

 
 
Cushion or blanket, I'm not sure yet, watch this space!

 

It really has added another dimension to my crochet knowledge finding these patterns and learning to read charts. The fact that they are totally visual has improved my ability to look at a picture of something crocheted, work out what stitches were used and try to devise a pattern myself.  And when using a chart, it's great to think it's possible to translate the characters and symbols into something pretty and colourful. A whole new world of projects to make and enjoy!

March collage

Time for another monthly round-up, is it just me or has March flown past? 

Good stuff; lots of crochet, as well as my recent reveals you can see some new stuff in the photos which I've been trying out and will post about soon, getting started in the garden and some lovely flowers beginning to show themselves, my trip to Aye Write and Creative Stitches 2010, the best green boots ever, so comfortable.......and my giveaway (which I very stupidly forgot to photograph; Jenny did a great job for me!)

Bad stuff; yet more snow at the start of this week......I'm not going moan about it too much but I've really had it with the white stuff, enough is enough! Let's hope April will bring more clement and seasonal weather!

 

 Have a good (and prank-free) day :-)
 

Spring is sprung

Despite the weather forecasters predicting snow this week (?!) the garden is starting spring into action with much greenery and flowers-in-waiting to be seen. In fact, on closer inspection, I find several flowers out already, primulas and azaleas. I went round snapping away yesterday, none of these were anywhere to be seen a couple of weeks ago, and how welcome it is to see daffodils just ready to open their yellow faces to the sun and azaleas with pink frothy petals already in bloom.

 

I've found this winter hard going, so cold and unforgiving, and it cheers my spirits to see all this new growth, time to look forward to lighter and brighter, warmer and sunnier days.  (I hope !) .

Sunny afternoon

Today is the Vernal Equinox, when the day and night are the same length. Officially, the first day of spring. And right on cue it's been a lovely day here, perfect for a spot of gardening. And a bit of relaxing too. 

After quite a bit of digging,weeding and clearing, things are starting to unfurl, raise their heads in to the sunlight and grow.....at last!

It's been a long time coming, with such a long, cold winter, but finally the colour everyone needs is starting to burst through. Good for the soul.

And after all that toil, a chance to enjoy some warmth outside. Lovely to sit with the sun on your face, coffee and mini chocolate brownies and a bit of hooking!

 

Have a great weekend :-)

Hocus crocus

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!
 

 

Weekend bits and pieces

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! 

 

 

Colourful

Primulas, to brighten up Saturday

These flowers never fail to cheer me up;  they're so pretty and such beautiful colours too and spring is definitely on its way when they start appearing.

Happy Saturday, whatever you get up to! 

January collage

The first half of January seems to have been dominated by the snowy, icy weather which was lovely to look at........sometimes! And the results of staying in the house have been much yarny goings-on. Then there was my birthday and my trip to Liverpool. So all in all, a pretty good month to reflect on.