Seven Sunny Days in Suffolk

Hello......... Last week we closed up the summerhouse and trundled off to Suffolk.  I love this little corner of the world and have visited it so many time over the past twenty years it's like visiting a old friend.

As you know my health and energy levels have been pretty poor this year, so one of the first things we did was visit Dunwich heath, it's one of my favourite places, so we wanted to go while I still had some energy.

This year we visited the National Trust's part of the heath, as they have a tramper, that less able visitors can borrow, which enables you to get right out onto the heath and in amongst the glorious heather.

It's a little bumpy but there are wide sandy paths that you mean you can go exploring.

Wonderful things to see and wildlife to spot, the heath is situated next to the rspb reserve at Minsmere, (where Spring watch comes from) and we saw so many birds, insects and bunnies out enjoying the heath.

After being coped up in the house it was just wonderful to take in all the views

and as for the heather  wow, we caught it at it's very best I think.

Now in case anyone is interested the Trampers are free to borrow, but you do have to phone and book in advance, (we phoned in the morning and went in the afternoon).  

They do give you a little bit of training but they are fairly easy to use once you get the hang of them.

Now I knew there were going to be some days when I would not be well enough to leave the cottage so I took lots of supplies along, for rest days

I did however make it to the beach for the first time in a year

so wonderful to feel the sand between my toes and lie in the warm sunshine, a luxury for me as the medication for Lyme disease makes me allergic to sunlight so if I go away I always have a treatment break.

So it was lovely to sit in the sunshine with my crochet.

Another short trip I managed was a drive out in the car to Snape Maltings,

Where we saw the traditional sailing barges,

and on the way home I snapped a quick pic of the 'house in the clouds'

Lots of resting gave me time to read my holiday book, and it was lovely to just lie and read, without any enforced pacing, normally when I follow my pacing program to help manage my energy I can only read for ten minutes a day, but as I was on holiday I decided to relax this, so while everyone else was out having fun I was keeping myself entertained with DVD's and my book.

Now no trip to Suffolk would be complete without a visit to Southwold, although I did find it scarily busy with so much traffic up in the town. It was my last trip out for the holiday as by then I had used up all my spoons

So the last few days of the trip were spent resting up in the cottage, although I did manage a short outing to the village duck pond.  So that's about it, what can I say the weather was perfect and Suffolk is so lovely.

But after a busy week both my nephew doggie and I were completely wiped out and in need of a good rest.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork July

Hello.......... patchwork time again

July was quite a busy month here, lots of get together's with friends, for birthday's, a wedding and even a spot of garden table decorating, which of course took a bit of a toll on my health, that's the nature of ME/Lyme disease there is always a price to pay for spending too many spoons (spoon theory), there was of course a little bit of crochet though........

While I was inside recovering, out in the garden summer was in full bloom. 

Well not much else to say about July it seems such a long time ago now, I really must get better at posting the patchworks on time

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Work in progress Wednesday

Hello.......... I thought I'd do a bit of a WIP Wednesday post as a bit of a catch up, as well lets face it I've been a bit rubbish at posting lately.

In my defence I didn't really have too much to share as energy levels are low and pain has been high and to top it all off this happened, I have no idea why !!! but the knuckle on my little finger came up all red and swollen and that kind of put pay to any crochet for a while, how I missed the yarn.  I'm guessing it's related to the Lyme disease as I'm currently off my antibiotics so lots of my joints have been playing up, but a red and angry looking joints is a new thing here. 

Any road mustn't grumble as of yesterday the hooks been back in my hand.

So a little catch up on the fingerless gloves, well it was all going so well and I was following along with the pattern for the thumb rows, until I hit a snag, as you can see I have teeny tiny hands and well the gloves are turning out to be just too big. So after much huffy and puffy and lamenting my tiny hands, it's time for plan b, just need to figure out what that is, as I adore these pretty gloves.

I'm still plodding along with my rainbow drops wheelchair blanket, which is coming along just fine.

Now it's confession time, as you may know I already have many ongoing blankets on the go eek, well I just thought I'd try to see if I could make one of the flower hexi's, from 'Cute and Easy Crochet with flowers'  That was my plan until oops I accidentally bought some yarn in colours that would be just perfect for this make.......

Well that's about it, hopefully once the Summer's over I'll be around a little bit more.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Wrist Warmers

Hello....... This week I've started a little yarny prep for Autumn, don't panic  I'm sure there is still much more summer to come, it's just with my limited energy it take me a while to finish a project.  

So I decided to make myself some Wrist warmers as I tend to get very cold hands stuck in bed not being able to move about too much.

So I had a hunt about online and found a beautiful pattern for some lacy fingerless gloves 'Here'

over on Henk's blog.  The pattern is free and has been very kindly translated into lots of different languages, so super helpful.  

I also splurged a little and treated myself to some very luxurious yarn it's Orielle by Lousie Harding, and it's baby alpaca, (how cute must they look)  I'm using the white which has a lovely delicate golden sparkle running through, (well you know me and sparkle, it just has to be done)  I have to tell you I was torn colour wise as there was most gorgeous aqua colour that I fell in love with, but I decided to be sensible and go with the white as it matches my winter hat and will go with more of the clothes I own, although, depending on how well this make goes I might not be able to resist making me another pair.

Now I have to tell you that this took a lot of concentration for me, but in no time at all I had the beginnings of my wrist warmers and so far they were looking pretty much like the pattern

Energy levels low and brain fog high, I've been working on them two rows at a time but I'm pretty sure for a fit and healthy crocheter you could probably make a pair in a weekend.

 As for me and my two rows at a time plan well so far so good, I still have to keep checking the pattern to know where I am and can you see as a memory aid I'm using a pretty peg to know what row I'm on (I'd be lost without it)

Oh but I'm loving this yarn it's soooo soft and wonderful to work with, I'm also loving how my wrist warmer are looking so far, aren't they pretty ?

I'll keep you posted as to how I go and hopefully before the Autumn I'll have a Ta-Dah for you, just got to get past the thumb hole first !!!

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork June

Hello............. Sorry for disappearing off again, I'm just not sure where the time is going at the moment and as always there is not much spare energy for getting things done around here.

Any road, let's do a little bit of catching up with some patchworks from June, it all seems so long ago now.  Looking back there was a fair amount of crochet in June, granny squares a mandala and some crocheted coasters I made as a little yarny gift, you can read more about these makes over in Junes blog archive if you want too.

There was also some dodgy health stuff, that left me feeling very tired, but I did make it out to visit a local castle gardens and of course the knicker bunting went up in the local library !!!

Out in the garden it was roses galore, how I love it when they all start to bloom, plus the summer bedding, and some new fuchsias for the wall planters, despite it being such a mild winter we lost all but one of the fuchsias we had over the winter, not quite sure why as they have been happily flowering away on the wall for many a year !!!

Well that's about it for now.......... Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Rainbow Drops Blanket

Hello.......... I've only gone and done it again, yes I've started yet another blanket even though I'm still yet to finished one.

In my defence, it's because of this stunning yarn from 'Three Violet Buttons' that I received as a birthday gift last year, I've been saving it since then for the perfect project originally I was thinking poncho or shawl, but in the end I opted for a small lap blanket that I can use when I'm out in the wheelchair.

The yarn is called ' Pretty Pumpkin' and is the softest merino, at first the colours kept reminding me of refresher sweets, until my friend 'M' at craft club the other day said no the colours are like 'Rainbow drops' do you remember them, the coloured popcorn like treat.

I spent a lot of time agonising over what colour to put with this pretty yarn, cream or beige but in the end I opted for this silver colour, it's also a merino yarn Super Soft Lana Gatto in Mercury.

I started off my soon to be giant granny square with a few rounds of silver

and then it was onto the wonderful colour, in such pretty sweetie tones.

In order to really see the beautiful colour changes I'm spacing each colour row, with two of the silver to really make the colour pop, well hopefully that's whats happening.

The rounds of repetitive trebles are a little bit addictive and it's easy to get lost in them while watching tv or listening to music.

So much so my blanket is growing fast, it is however quite yarn hungry and I have already got through three balls of the silver and have just had to order some more.

I'm hoping to make the colourful yarn go as far as possible so I'm now starting to add additional rows of the silver between the colour rows, so that the colour gradually fades out across the blanket, I'm  making the design up as I go so fingers crossed this works out and looks ok, only time will tell.

So here's where I'm up to so far......... 

How I'm loving the colours pink, purple, orange, green then pink again how it's makes my heart sing and hopefully the silver is the perfect backdrop to balance out all that wonderful colour.

Happy crafting

Clare xx

Crocheted Heart Card

Hello....... A couple of weeks ago, two of my good friends got married, so I decided to make them a wedding card.

After a bit of pondering I decided that yarny hearts were the only way to go, I wanted to make a little charm that could be removed from the card and then perhaps used as a Christmas decoration, to remember the day.  

So off I went to cyberspace in search of the perfect heart, I found the pattern for the above heart 'here' and as it turned out it was the perfect size for my card.

I also made this little cutie, using Lucy over at Attic24 tweeny tiny heart pattern, at first my plan was to used both hearts on the card, but in the end it just looked a little bulky, as you can see I crocheted both my hearts in twinkle sparkly yarn, in silver and a silver/blue.

and you know what I'm like for a bit of sparkle !!! I just couldn't resist blinging them up a bit.

For the larger silver heart I made a little charm, threading beads, sequins, and gems onto a piece of crochet cotton, before securing it by

stitching it in place on the heart, I also threaded a couple of beads onto the hanging thread.

I then found this pretty silver doily in my stash and went about blinging that up too, with pearls and sparkles

As I mentioned earlier I wanted the heart to be detachable, so it could be used as a decoration, so I simply attached it to the card with a sticky spot.

I wanted to make my card look a little rustic, so I used a plain cardboard blank and added some larger pearl to the corner, before adding a greeting to help hold the hanging threads in place.

Ta-dah

One handmade yarny wedding card with added sparkle.

Sorry I've not been around much recently I've been struggling with my energy levels again,  I did however have a wonderful time celebrating at the wedding party.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx