Pumpkins and WOYWW

 It's coming up to my favourite season and I have put the autumn decorations up - the house is looking cosy and all ready for the shorter days (which come round each year far too soon!).  I've been keeping with the theme and found a lovely pumpkin crochet pattern on Etsy, so I've been making pumpkins - some have gone to friends, some have gone into my Folksy shop and a couple of them have found a home amongst my decorations.  I have used up some of my yarn stash, which was the original plan, but of course I had to purchase more and I'm now rather over run with lots of beautiful colours to work my way through!  

I'm joining Sarah over at WOYWW.

I'm also sending love and best wishes to Julia and her husband after the devastating fire that destroyed their business.

Crochet Flowers and WOYWW

 I have several crochet projects on the go at the moment as I'm trying to use up some of my yarn mountain - I simply can't squish another ball into any of my yarn bags!
One of the projects is an autumn coloured scarf made up of these little flowers all of which I'm going to stitch together at the petal tips.  I'm completely out of kilter with the seasons here but it might actually be autumn by the time I finish it! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Desk Wednesday this week.

Winter Crochet and WOYWW

I've had the crochet bag out recently because even if I had the inclination it's too cold to go up to my unheated studio!

So I have been playing about learning some new stitches.  The ones at the back are Woven stitch, Elizabeth stitch and Blanket stitch, and the one on top of them is Lemon Peel stitch.

Below is a close-up of the Lemon Peel stitch - it's very easy to do and just a little bit different - I think this is my new favourite. 

I found the above pattern here, while mooching the internet. It was made as bunting but I think I'm going to use it as a flap on a small make-up bag as a gift for a friend - I shall make it up in a firmer linen yarn and block it so it has a better shape than my sample. 

 Now let's see if my plan gets beyond the thinking stage!

I'm joining up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

A Mossy Teacup

A teacup filled with velvety mossy embroidery.  
It's been sitting on my desk since Spring and at last I've finished it! 

I'm linking up with WOYWW - why not pop over and see what other people have on their desks this week.

Paper Artsy - Niche Challenge

For Paper Artsy I crocheted my own niche!  

I used a nesty brown colour yarn and needle felted over it. 

 I decorated it with lace, beads, feathers, vintage millinery flowers,

moss, moths and a miniature cup and teapot.

Bunting was added - it looked too twee.

Bunting was taken away - the top half looked too bare.

Bunting was added again - still unsure.  
Bunting might be removed again depending on my mood!

I was initially inspired by the beautiful image of a small cart with the bird in it  (on the Paper Artsy blog here) and I planned to make a little nest for a bird, with lots of precious bits collected.  However, as often happens it turned out differently to how I imagined and I ended up with a tea party and not a bird in sight!

Yarn Bombing, Poppies and WOYWW #285

Once again I'm linking up with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - for the last few weeks my desk has been strewn with poppies.  I joined a local Facebook group a couple of months ago and we have all been extremely busy crocheting and knitting poppies to decorate a small park in our village for Remembrance Sunday - we managed to make over 4,000 poppies, of which I'm proud to say 130 were mine!  On Remembrance Sunday the group 'yarn bombed' the park and the poppies were put up along the railings.  They were up for a week and during that time a lot were sold to raise money for the British Legion Poppy Day Appeal.   It's been a roaring success and we even made the news!

    

Our beautifully decorated railings along the park - sadly we've taken the poppies down now and it looks very bare! 

Halloween Gift Tag and WOYWW #283

We are currently living in utter chaos, with the living room being gutted and totally re-done, but this week I managed to do a tiny bit of crafting so I'm joining in with WOYWW.  
My nephews just love Halloween - perhaps it's in the genes as they are half American!   They love anything scary and ghostly, and they always call on us for trick or treat.  I decided to make up a bag of 'grown-up' chocolate for my sister (rather than the eyeballs and gooey brains the boys usually have) - I made a gift tag for it, and also crocheted a little pumpkin brooch for her, so when they all came trick or treating she had a little something for herself!  

I need to get more of the black leaf ribbon - I just love it, but I didn't have enough and it looks a bit sparse on the tag - I would love to have draped it around extravagantly!

Warm and Woolly

It's time for WOYWW again, and this week summer really has disappeared - after last weeks Christmas trees I'm now in woolly scarf mode!  

I found some rather cosy knitting and crochet patterns on the internet and I felt so chilly and miserable over the wet August bank holiday that I dug out my knitting bag and got stuck in!  My newest finds, the little jug and bowl, were sitting on my desk and I noticed how beautifully they matched the wool - what a lucky coincidence!

For anyone interested both lots of wool are Dune by Trendsetter Yarns.

WINTER LANDSCAPES

Winter seems to be well and truly here - we've had several frosty mornings and the woolly jumpers are out!

I used a Kim Klassen texture for this photo of the New Forest - I love the warm, rusty colour of the dead heather at this time of year.

Appropriately, the last two themes for Tag Tuesday have been 'Keeping Warm' and 'Winter Landscape'.

For 'Keeping Warm' I decided to crochet a small panel using different wool and yarns that I have made scarves with over the years.  I love knitting and crochet but I don't do shapes!  I added buttons to give a 'wrapping up warm' feel to the tag - I rather like the natural colours in this and think I might make a real scarf using these same left over yarns.

For the 'Winter Landscape' theme I decided I would carry on crocheting and I made two small trees which I attached to tags - the first tree trunk was stitched using dark grey embroidery thread, and the second was a piece of black satin ribbon - I think the trunk would look better with a thinner ribbon, but unfortunately that is all I had!

I am linking up this week with Colour Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.