Run Home to Crochet

Run Home to Crochet

Wednesday 24 June 2015

Weekend in London - Days 1 and 2

Hello there - a couple of weeks ago my family and I had a weekend in London.  We travelled up in two separate parties - three of us went during the morning to go shopping in Oxford Street, whilst the other three were in school and at work and they travelled up later in the day.

 
Marble Arch

 
 
Selfridges
 
 
 
Oxford Street then head off down Regent Street

 
 
I couldn't resist a snap of these little beauties in Hamley's window
 
 
Then on to Liberty - WOW - WOW - WOW
 
 
 
The entrance ..... 
 
Come on inside and take a look round with me
 
 
 
look at the colours and the patterns
 
 
 
beautiful patchwork
 
 
 
 
 I spelt my name with pretty fabric letters
 
 
I love this wreath (but not as much as my Winter wreath)!!!
 
 
 
paper decorations
 
 
 
 
 
We travelled on buses and the underground to West Ham station which is where we were staying, checked into our hotel and then waited for the others to arrive
 
************
Saturday morning found myself and hubby catching the train from Stratford station just one stop down the line to Mile End for me to do my 9 am usual Saturday morning parkrun (hubby didn't run but came to keep me company) we were up bright and early and it was a lovely morning, so I did my 5k run around Mile End park which was two laps around and alongside the canal.  It was a lovely friendly atmosphere and a great start to my day.
 
Once I had showered and breakfasted we then went into London.  We had a show booked "The Play that Goes Wrong" at the Duchess Theatre near Covent Garden, so we headed there to collect our tickets and I was snapping bits that caught my eye as we strolled along in the sunshine
 
 
 
this sign really tickled me
 
 
our tickets were collected so on we went around Covent Garden

 
 
 
OOOOoohhh - a shop with my name on
 
 
 
How is he hanging there?
 
 
AND how did the do that???!!!
 
 
A Mr Bean lookalike - he was hilarious!
 
 
and so off to the show - which was brilliant - if ever you get the chance to go it will certainly put a smile on your face and it was great all round family fun
 
***  SO ONTO LEICESTER SQUARE  ***
 
 
OOOOoohhh we went in here for tea and no we didn't choose wisely!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
we had a wander up and down here and then we finally ended up here .....
 
 
where we met up with some friends and had a lovely meal
 
Thanks for popping by and I hope you enjoyed days one and two and will pop back another time for day three (which was the best day of all)
 
Xx Joy Xx
 
PS  In case you thought I hadn't done any knitting or crochet whilst we were away, of course I did, I took chunky wool and big fat needles as this wasn't too much to concentrate on whilst travelling. The following weekend was my youngest grandsons birthday and I made him these ....
 
 
he wears them lots too!!! (which is great for a 13 year old to do)

Wednesday 10 June 2015

My Winter Wreath

Hello there - On the 15th January, Lucy at Attic24 posted on her blog that she was going to be making a Winter Wreath. Oh that sounded lovely - so I followed her posts with interest.  The Winter Wreath was to be Lucy's fifth wreath.  I have in the past made her Christmas Wreath - so I watched her blog daily for updates and patterns for this current project she was going to be working on.  She chose her colours, she sorted her flat backed 32cm polystyrene "half round" ring.  She made a crochet chain and then worked in stripy rows until her work would fit round the circumference of the polystyrene ring, leaving long dangly ends when she changed colours to be able to sew it into place with those long dangly ends to keep the back neat.

 
Well I was up with Lucy, as I already had this half round ring covered.  Lucy made the distinction between land and sky (I didn't as mine was already covered) - and over the next two months Lucy would make her bits and pieces of foliage, leaves, balls/berries, pine cones, snowflakes and she shared the patterns and what she was up to with us. 
 
Finally on the 9th March there was a Lucy Ta-dah moment and she shared her wreath with us
 
IMG_9579
 
 
Now isn't that just absolutely gorgeous and are you as much in LOVE with it as I am!
 
and so
 
 
I started to assemble "my Winter wreath" with all the bits and bobs that Lucy had shown us how to make and I got this far and this is how it has stayed
 
 This has sat on my lounge floor since 12th March and finally on the 29th May (that's 11 weeks later) I decided that I didn't like it, that I wasn't going to finish it - I didn't really think about it for too long and decided quite quickly that the colours of the covered wreath that I so cleverly thought would be ok - JUST WEREN'T!!!
 
 
So that's it .... take everything off and pop them all into the box
 
 Right then the next plan was to see exactly what I had made so far and what I needed to make to finish it once and for all
 
 
ok - I had a polystyrene half flat ring which was not 32cm but 25 cm, so next find the right colours for land and sky
 
parma violet, storm, denim, cloud, meadow, mocha
 
 
 so off I go and start crocheting (in the proper colours) land and sky!
 
 
once I had reached the required length to fit round my ring, I started to sew my crochet into place using those long dangly ends to join it together and then you end up with a nice neat fitting woolly coat for your wreath base
 
 
Ooooohhh yes - that's better - land and sky
 
 
Lucy has 32 little leaves - I had 29 - perhaps I should make 1 more - see here
 
 
Lucy had 9 fern leaves - I had 4 - ok I should make some more of those then! - see here
 
 
Lucy had 4 Little Pine Cones - I had 3 - nah I'll stick with 3 - see here
 
 
weeny little balls x 18 - I had 13 - perhaps I should make five more - see here
 
 
Hellebore x 3 - and yeah I have 3 too - see here
 
 
Dangly bits x 3 hanging from the bottom - I have 2 - so I should make 1 more - these are made by crocheting a chain and then working two trebles into each chain and they will just curl around
 
* S N O W F L A K E S * SNOWFLAKES * S N O W F L A K E S *
 
Snowflakes x 9 - oh dear I don't have any - better get busy with those then - patterns from this book
 
 
ok I am getting there - some snowflakes (done) - more fern leaves (done)
 
 
you need to get one of these (to sew on the back of your woolly wreath to hang it up!!
 
and finally
  
 
One of these little fellas - oh I only have half of him done - so perhaps I should finish him
can you see what the "little fella" is???
 
 
Here he is nestling in the holly bush (I will need to bring him indoors)
pattern by Little Conkers available to purchase/download here
 
 
So this week my crochet hook has been out to finish up the bits that I was missing
robin, snowflakes, fern leaves, leaf and curly bit
 
 (remember my half flat ring isn't as big as Lucy's, so I don't need quite so many bits and bobs)
Lucy had 82 individual bits to make up her wreath
 
I have finished up with a total of 66 lovely woolly bits to assemble onto my wreath
 
 
Lucy also got some extra little sparkly bits to add - so here are mine
 
 
OOOOOhhhh - 3rd June and starting to pin my woolly lovelies into place
 
I am a bit nervous
 
 5th June all sewn on and ready to hang into place on my lounge door
 
and now here is Joy's Ta-dah moment!!
 
 
I  A B S O L U T E L Y  L O V E  J O Y ' S  W R E A T H
 
I hope you have liked my wreath journey and thanks for popping by
 
Xx Joy Xx
 
PS If you would like to see Lucy's other wreaths - then pop on over to Attic24 and take a peek!!
 
 
Joy's Christmas wreath
 
LOVE  LOVE  LOVE my Winter Wreath more!!!