My Attic24 bower bird is finished!

Last Saturday I was very very lucky to be able to take the last place at Lucy’s bower bird workshop in her studio in Skipton. This week I’ve been working on the bower for the bird to sit in and the pretty decorations to make its perch lovely.

Last Sunday and Monday I finished the cover for the ring then crocheted teeny tiny flowers in odd moments during the week. I loved the teeny tiny hearts and will definitely be making more of them, as a garland perhaps.

Yesterday I had set myself the horrible job of doing some clearing and cleaning in the garage. My garage has been a pain in my you-know-what for years now. Its a double garage and until my son passed his test in April, we only had one car. That empty space was like a magnet to various friends who wanted stuff stored ‘just for a few weeks’, which then turned into months and even years. I was glad to help them out, but there is a limit…

More recently it was the very sad receiver of all the contents of my mum’s house that I brought back here after she died to sort through carefully, throwing what needed to go, recycling and freecycling what was still useful but that I couldn’t absorb. And keeping the treasures that I couldn’t bear to part with.

As we now have two cars, the space needs to still be space. But no, its now full of my daughter’s stuff from uni as she is spending next year in the USA.

Some crochet relaxation

After spending six hours sorting, tidying, organising and cleaning, I could do no more. After a lovely shower, clean clothes, a spray or two of luscious perfume, I needed some  me-time and soul recovery therapy. I was too tired to start a new project with paper beads, but I felt like sitting down and finishing my Attic24 bower bird.

I love being able to finish something. I have plenty of projects lying about half finished or even just started, but the bower bird is very special. Plus I wanted to be able to display it. Or him, not it anymore.

Saturday was a great storm day here and at about 3pm, it was so dark that my solar patio lights came on. Electrical storm followed with a river of rain, but I was blissfully tucked up in my lounge, sewing on the flowers, finishing my hearts and, to my very great delight, putting some beads and buttons in the mix.

The grand reveal: my Attic24 bower bird

Here he is. He is not perfect but I think he is lovely. I put a lot of effort into him and he stretched my crochet comfort zone, and then some.

The pictures don’t capture him perfectly and the light has been a bit dire, but I am very pleased that my bower bird is perched where he belongs, fitting in very well with the duck egg blue and soft vintage pink colour scheme in my lounge.

A bower bird learning curve

Although I am thrilled with the way he has turned out, doing this project has pushed me well out of my crochet comfort zone. I have never attempted to crochet a 3D object before and although the stitch used was mainly double crochet (UK term – single crochet in USA and other places), it was tricky. Now that the bower bird tutorial is available at Attic24 thanks to the massive effort by Lucy and hours and hours of work, I want to do another one.

I realise that I have made quite a few errors that I want to remove next time. I didn’t do the stitching up very well and my embroidery could be better. I didn’t take away the little samples of the same wool from the workshop to do the flowers and hearts. Instead of the lovely Debbie Bliss cashmerino, I used up scraps from my workbox, mainly the Special DK from Stylecraft. This is good yarn and I matched the colours, but it could have been better.

Sewing the decorations on the bower was very tricky but I was in such a rush to finish it, I didn’t check the tutorial. Looking at it today on Lucy’s blog, there is a lot of guidance and I should have looked there first. Impatience is not a virtue!

Even so, it was a great pleasure to do the bower bird with Lucy as a tutor and I will treasure this little bird as a creative effort but also as a reminder of some very happy memories 🙂