Eastern Jewels Blanket

Hello.......... I have a exciting post to share with you today, something very new for the summerhouse.

Yes I've actually ordered a colour pack and I'm going to follow a pattern and stick to it hopefully.  When I saw this little beauty by Janie Crow in the Eastern Jewels Colourway created by Lucia Dunn back in October I came down with a case of the wanties, yes I needed some Eastern Jewels in my life. 

So when some friends suggested we have a very slow crochet along I just couldn't resist ordering the kit.  The colours just make my heart sing.  I'm making the blanket with a group of friends with Chronic Illnesses, so I'm hoping I will be able to keep up, with one square a week, although I've found that difficult some weeks.

Now although I've fallen very much in love with the look of the finished blanket, some of the colours are proving a bit of a challenge for me, as they are quite different from the summerhouse's usual colour palette.  I've never made anything where I didn't pick my own colours before eek.

I felt quite happy with week one just the Tomato round gave me a bit of a wobble.

Week two was just perfect soft gentle colours.

In week three I had to confront my fear of Mustard, eek in fact I just couldn't face calling it mustard and spent the week calling it saffron ha ha whatever gets you through.

In the end I didn't mind it so much with the duck egg toning things down, so clever in a million years I would never have put these colours together.

Now as for week four, I just had to imagine I was in a Moroccan Spice market to get me through.

Week five was interesting too with Sage, Vintage Peach and Tomato in the mix.  I'm definitely broadening my colour horizons.

So at the end of the first month this is what I had, my exotic Persian Tiles

Week six had me on much happier ground, even with Saffron Mustard, the colours say Springtime to me and make my heart sing, my favourite weeks so far. Reminds me of one of my favouirte flower combo Yellow Roses and Purple Iris.

So there we have it, my colourful adventure for 2018.  A huge thank you to Janie Crow for the original Persian Tiles pattern and Lucia Dunn for this amazing colour way.  I can't wait to get onto the Mandalas.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

Seaside Pebble Blanket: Attic24 Cosy CAL

Hello..... I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but I can resist no longer so I'm joining in with Lucy's  Attic 24 Cosy CAL.  I have so much on the go already and lots of gifts still to make for Christmas but after seeing, 'Selma's' gorgeous Scandinavian  style version of the blanket on Lucy post on Sunday, I could resist no more.

In all honesty I fell a little bit in love with all the natural tones of her blanket, who am I kidding I came down with a serious case of the wanties that had me hopping over to Dermores as quick as a flash to get me some yarn.

Now my blankets going to be a little bit different I'm calling it 'The Seaside Pebble' as that's my inspiration, we have a shingle beach here at the 'summerhouse by the sea' and I'm hoping to be able to capture it in blanket form, so as well as Selma lovely mix of Stylecraft Special DK in

• Parchment
• Silver 
• Stone
• White 
• Cream

I'm adding in, some additional colours.

• Cloud Blue
• Sherbet

(which is my all time favourite colour of all the stylecraft yarns.)

Also in the blanket mix is a bit of sparkle (I always love the pebbles with the sparkles in at the beach  the best !!) so I'm using James C Brett Twinkle in

• White
• Silver

So there it is, my Seaside Pebble mix, blue skies and sea, pebbles, driftwood a hint of lovely sea glass. I've taken Lucy's tip for selecting colours, I didn't have any lovely wooden pegs, so I've wound my yarn around pieces of cardboard, which I'm loving the look of, it so driftwood like.

Seeing as my craft time is so limited due to my illness, I think it's going to take me a while to make this, so I'm going to crochet along with everyone at Attic 24 for as long as I can but I foresee I'm going to be plodding on with this blanket way after most people have finished but hey ho, that's fine after all I love nothing better than being beside the Seaside, so I think this blanket is going to be just perfect for Summerhouse.

 Here a sneaky peak of where I'm up to so far.  I'm a little bit hooked on this blanket but I've had to stop for now as my arms aching so much it feels like it might fall off.

I've already finished my book for the month so instead I've been indulging in a bit of lovely craft magaziness.

Joining in the yarn along with Ginny

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

Yarn love

Hello........ So when I went to the craft store last week I found myself struck down with a serious case of the wanties.  No sooner had I spotted this Rico Creative Reflection I just knew I had to have it in my life. Even though I'm on a bit of a yarn ban.

I mean just look at the wonderful colours and the sparkle, it was just to hard to resist, even though at the time I had no idea what I was going to use it for, It just had had had to be mine.

When I got home I had a little look around online for suggestions of what to make and I found several knitting patterns but nothing suitably hooky, this posed a problem as I'm not the worlds best knitter, I just find it so slow and arm aching, as regular reader will know as I've had the same Cushion on my needles since my blog began February 2013

I wanted to make a scarf for me that was kind of lacy and pretty, maybe a flower, then inspiration struck and I remembered I'd seen a gorgeous flat flower earlier in the year, that would be just perfect, thankfully I loved it so much I'd even bookmarked (phew)

and here it is, the pattern comes from 'Emma's' wonderful blog and even better there is a fab tutorial explaining how to make the flowers.

So I set to work making wonderfully sparkly, wispy, lacy flowers. I'm using a 3.5 mm hook and the yarn is a joy to work with, such wonderful colour and  a really soft a mix of virgin wool, acrylic, sparkle and in my opinion fairy dust.

Really the photo's do it no justice.

I originally planned on making a scarf although I'm not sure how I will put it all together yet, my mind is a whirl with possibilities, from 'ooh it would make a lovely shawl' to 'what about a 'flowery poncho' as you can see I'm a bit smitten with this project.

Who can blame me though, don't they look lovely nestled together.

Joining in with Ginny's 'Yarn Along'

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

One Year

Hello......... Thanks for stopping by, yes today here at the Summerhouse was are celebrating, yes it's one year today since I started the blog.  Look even the sun has come out after yet another storm last night to help celebrate. I find it hard to believe it's been  a year already. 

Yep a blogiversary, one whole years worth of Summerhouse ramblings, let loose on the world.

So we are putting the metaphorical bunting up today and looking back at what a enjoyable escape this blogging business has been. Over the year I've made so many lovely friends and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who had popped by the Summerhouse over the past year, and said hello. It really has meant a lot.

I've found writing the blog such a wonderful escape, as some of you know I suffer from a Chronic illness that means I'm mostly house bound and spend a lot of time stuck in bed,  so writing this blog has been a real tonic and a access to the outside world.

In fact one of the reasons I decided to start writing this blog was to try and help with a new and scary symptom I developed.  Yes toward the end of 2012 I noticed that I was losing the ability to write and spell, I would be writing something and read it back to find I'd randomly missed out word, or written the wrong word completely, plus my spelling had gone to pot. So off I went for a scary MRI as suddenly losing these skills is not a everyday thing. 

So my answer  to all this was 'use it or lose it' so I decided to start writing this blog.  To try and make my brain work. So I apologise if sometimes there are lots of errors in my posts, I read and re read them so many times correcting the mistakes but I'm sure sometime they slip through.  As for this fab fun new symptom, no one really knows, it's another  part of the wacky world ME/Lyme disease.

Any road onwards, today we are celebrating

aww here she is, she's a bit of a fine old  Vinatge lady,  is my lovely summerhouse she over 40 years old now with a tale of her own which you can read more about 'here' . (Ssh don't tell anyone but I think that's pretty old for a shed)

So it's been a year of flowers from the garden

Crochet

Paper cafts 

Flowers

Stitching and

Summerhouse living,

and my biggest achievement for the year has to be my wreaths, as a newbie crocheter I've learnt so much making them over the past year. So this year it's onwards and upwards to my first blanket.

Now I was planning on doing another summerhouse giveaway to celebrate but I've just not been well enough this year to get it all organised so the plan is I'll be doing one later in the year when hopefully my health has picked up a bit.

Thanks again for all support and friendship over the past year it really is appreciated. I still find it hard to believe sometimes that so many people are stopping by, so I thank you again.

Until next time have a wonderful weekend.

Clare xx

As for the seaside bunting pictured above well I be telling you all about it next time.

Shoots

Hello........ With yet more icy rain lashing against the windows I've decided to try and find the positive, yes it's all going to turn out OK because there are signs of the Spring to come, we have Shoots.  

I've had enough of the rain now and for certain the washed out Summerhouse garden has had enough too. It's no wonder I always love to have bulbs inside the house this time of year.

We have mini Tulip shoots..........

The story of these is, I wanted to get some Tulips at the weekend but by the time we got to the shop they had sold out. So I guess everyone had the same idea as me. I was not to be stopped in my Tulip mission though, just a little delayed. 

As I found this lovely little pail of mini tulips reduced to the bargain price of £1.99, I think I like the thought of growing my own even better, as they will last for longer and a surprise awaits me as to what colour they will be.

The mini Iris shoots are growing too

Just look how much bigger they are from last week.

We also have Amaryllis shoots this is supposed to be a pastel 'Apple Blossom' so I'm looking forward to seeing what the flowers are like.

Out in the garden:

Nature is trying her very best, just look there is still so much colour to be found out in the Summerhouse garden.  We still have some summer flowers trying there best Marigolds, Roses, Fuchsia and Geraniums. Winter Jasmine, Holly and red berries and Ivy are to be found and the hope of Spring with Polyanthus, the Camellia in bud and bulbs coming up everywhere, even the night scented Jasmine is in bud, lets hope the frosts doesn't knock them off.

There are also some shoots of hope for a very ongoing WIP, I've been making my Purple Leave Cushion for nearly a year now, yep you heard me right! It seems a never ending  project that  keeps being put on hold. Partly as I'm so easily distracted by other makes and also as I struggle a bit with knitting I find it much more painful on my joints and muscles.  

This week I've picked it up again and have made a few more leaves.  You can read more about this make 'here' .This year I'm really trying not to start anything new until I finished some WIP's

As for my Spring time throw I've only managed another two squares this week but I'll get there.

  The year in books : January

I have however finished something, January's book 'The Colour' by Rose Tremain, I'm not entirely sure what I think of this book. I loved the main storyline and central character Harriet but her husbands character, there is nothing at all to endear you to him and as for some of the subplot's I found them a little scattered,  never really meeting up with the main plot. This is not a book with many happy endings. Being a writer of Folk songs I thought this story would be right up my street with a strong female character set against the backdrop of the 1860's New Zealand gold rush , but all in all it's left me a little undecided.

Has anyone else read it? what did you make of it?

So here's February book ready and waiting on my bedside table,  it's 'Earthly Joys' by Philippa Gregory. Join in with  circle of pines, year in books

Joining in with Ginny's 'yarn along' and Nicoles KCCO so why not check out what everyones been making.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Dorset: part two

Hello.......... so it's back to The New Forrest we go. We  stopped off at Rufus Stone for a little look around, with such lovely tree all about.

The Stone marks the place where King William 2nd  died when a arrow bounced off a Oak tree that once stood here, nearby lots of Oaks are still growing that are probably descended from that tree. So after that slice of 'Horrible History' let go back to the forrest.

We didn't see any animals in this part of the Forrest, but as we were driving away we did spot a few deer from the car.  Alas no unicorns, that my nephew 'L' and I had been on the look out for !!

Already some sign of Autumn, although most of the leaves are yet to start turning so I suspect these Beech leaves are from last year.

Just look how green and lovely the trees still are, I took a little while trying to select the perfect tree, that was in need of a hug.

Until I found just the one.

There was just enough time for a little bit more leaf gazing before we all piled back into the car.  

How I'd love to be well enough to go for a nice long walk in the Forrest, but alas for now with late stage Lyme disease that's just not possible.  It was lovely just to be there though, after being stuck  in bed so ill since the beginning of August.  I'm paying for my weekend away now, but at least I have some wonderful memories to keep me company while I try to rest up and recover.

On the way back we stopped off at Highcliffe for a ice cream, sadly the mists that we plaguing us all weekend obscured the view a bit, the double chocolate chip ice cream however was divine.

While away I did manage a little bit of crafting I took some yarns and hooks and made these crocheted stars for the wintertime wreath I'm making.  The pattern comes from 'this'   blog, I made them using a selection of different yarns and hooks.

As for my holiday reading I took along the latest copy of Molllie Makes magazine which was kind of appropriate as there was a article about a the new book 'Vantastic' which looks like a fabulous colourful read.

As for the music I've been listening to, well I hit shuffle and the album it picked today was 'The Be good Tanyas' China Town. Just perfect

Yarning along with Ginny, 'here'

Clare xx