Coastal Crochet Coasters

 Since the end of last week I’ve followed a daily Crochet A Long hosted by Coastal Crochet Making crochet coasters.  I posted my mine as I’ve made them on Instagram.  I have a small collection of cotton yarns for crochet in a small fabric bowl, which are a mix of Schepjes, Rico and Sirdar Happy.  I have found the Rico a bit coarse to crochet with and the Schepjes (the small yarn balls) quite smooth but a little thinner, but between them got a nice colour combination to make the coasters.

The first was this Octagonal one, quite an easy to follow pattern

The second was a bit more challenging, working in the round and changing colours

Day 3 was this little starfish one. I’ve made a star shape before for my Christmas Advent wreath from last year so that was easy

Day 4 was a seaside scene for this square coaster

And lastly for day 5 was this lovely scalloped coaster, which I made in pastel ice cream colours (well, when at the beach you have to have ice cream!)

The whole collection together 

With the recent rainy and windy days of autumn, it’s good to enjoy the last days of summer.  This was a really fun little CAL.

It’s Been a While....

 I’ve not been up to much so there’s not been to much to share.  A little bit of hand sewing here and there was punctuated by making a fabric jug following the West Country Embroiderers Zoom meeting last week.

There was a pattern and instructions beforehand, which I prepared prior to the meeting and I went on to sew together afterwards.  Inside hides a jam jar to display the fake flowers.  I would have liked to have used Bondaweb to attach the outside fabric to the pelmet Vilene but in its absence I used fabric glue pen to hold the fabric in place and while I sewed the seams they were held together with binding clips.  

I’ve been reading a lot recently.  With the Townswomen’s Guild book group recently restarting I read The Miniaturist by Jessica Burton, which was a bit slow for me but became a lot more interesting about halfway through to the point I could not put it down.  I then found on Facebook that a book by Tracy Chevalier called A Single Thread was on offer as an e-book for just 99p, so bought this through Apple Books (it’s also available through Amazon’s Kindle app). This is a really good book which takes a real location, Winchester Cathedral and one of the characters, was a real person and building a story around them. This was another can’t put down read and really enjoyed this book. I’ve got another week and a bit until the next TG book group so I must find something else to read in the meantime. If there’s been a good thing to come out of these times, it has made me make time to read.  

Last week David and I went to Kingston Lacy, the local NT house and gardens near Wimborne.  We reckoned it would be good to take in the Autumn colour as the Acers there turn some lovely shades as they lose their leaves and we were not disappointed.

To think that just in a couple of weeks these trees will be bare.

Progress is being made on my cardigan (second sleeve in progress) and the Aria blanket (I’ve now started the border).  More about those in another post.

October and a Trip Away

 

The photo above is of one of the Dahlias in a display at The Vyne, a National Trust property near Basingstoke at the beginning of last month, on one of our days out.  As it’s autumn places are getting a little quieter and making it easier to get out an about now, so we planned a short break of a couple of nights in Liskeard, north Cornwall and booked a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan.  Due to the rain we thought this would be a disaster,  but rebooked the afternoon and the rain eased and there was even some sunshine.

Above is a distant view to Mevagissy and the sea (though it merges into the grey of the sky!)

The Mud Maiden with a all her greenery.

Walking through the Jungle on a boardwalk which surrounds the area and below David and I tackled the rope bridge.  The feeling wasn’t so strange walking across, but felt wobbly for a few seconds after getting of it.

It did turn out to be a really good afternoon, even if the day didn’t start as well as we hoped, isn’t that always the way?

We spent some time in Liskeard town as we had another venue booked to visit on our way home.  It’s only a little town, but with a few interesting shops.  I added to my fabric stash at Painters, which we previously knew as an arts and crafts shop, but there are changes afoot and the business is on the move and only sell fabric and yarn.  Here’s my modest purchases

(Ignore the black fabric, my friend gave me this sheep fabric the week before).  Some green fabric, a bit of purple Kaffe, and (I surprised myself with this) 3 quarters of Tula Pink fabric from different ranges.

We were aware of a few crocheted and knitted items in some shops, like the crochet sausages in the butcher’s shop, or the large key in the shoe repairer’s shop and a knitted bookworm in a bookshop. Until we came to an empty shop on a corner of a street that had crocheted Mandalas in the windows. Here’s just a selection, but there is a lot of reflection.

The display is organised by 3 Bags Full. A local group who organise an annual yarn festival in the town, every October and would have been on the weekend on 17th and 18th.  Along with other exhibitions held this year, this one will also be online, but they took over this former florist’s shop to ‘yarn bomb’ it.  The large mandalas are made over hula hoops and the small ones cover old CDs. We thought it was really brilliant.

Pop over to the link above to 3 Bags Full and you will be yarnbombing from other years.

From Liskeard we headed North before going home to Knightshayes a National Trust property near Tiverton, which is a bit north of where we’d normally travel to get back to Dorset, but not too much out of our way. We did get caught in showers, but not too much, so a gentle walk around the grounds and woodland. It is one of the few places that has opened the house since lockdown as it can operate a one way system and it is a Victorian house built in the Gothic style popular at the time.

This is the stables, used for the visitor centre

The the house, the photos had to be lightened because if was so cloudy and dull.  Although photos could be taken with flash and I couldn’t resist the medieval style ceiling in the main reception room.

Outside I liked the gate near beside the house, which looked rusty, with flowers and leaves.

So that was our trip away.  Back home again and catching up things, like the blog, and thinking this may be the last time this year we have a break, but not the last time we go for days out I hope.