Midsummer moments

This time of the year is always special for me as its when both my children were born. My daughter on the 12th September and my son on the 12th August, almost three years later. So its birthday time and this year I was pleased that my lovely son chose to come home and spend a few days chilling out and we enjoyed a lovely and relaxing week.

Since he has been at uni, he’s been cooking and his treat for me on his 19th birthday (he insisted!) was to make francesinha, a Portuguese speciality, which we ate outside in the garden as the 12th was a warm, sunny and perfect evening. It was delicious – pork cooked in a rich tomato sauce and then sandwiched between bread with salami and cheese before being grilled with more cheese on top and then smothered in the tomato sauce. I’ve never had it before and it was not exactly good for the waistline but it was perfectly cooked and a real treat. He even bought me my favourite tipple – New Zealand white wine.

The 12th was also the night of the meteor shower and it was a really clear night here, so at 1am we were outside, lying on the picnic blanket in the middle of the lawn enjoying the show. We saw some stunners! I think I may have seen a couple of shooting starts in the whole of my life but that night I saw LOADS. And the were so big and bright. My daughter couldn’t join us but we messaged and she was watching the meteors from a night out at an open air screening of Romeo and Juliet in London. Very atmospheric!

I tried to get a meteor photo but they were just too quick…

I’ve been doing a few more crochet projects this week in between day job work and enjoying the best of the summer that we’ve had. Having a garden is one of the great pleasures of my life, even though it takes some time to care for, the benefits of being able to relax in my own bit of green space is priceless. Funny how drink is usually involved…

10,000 followers on Instagram

The 12th of August was also a special day in my IG world. I only started posting to Instagram regularly around the New Year this year and I’m amazed that I reached and passed 10,000 followers that day. Its still a real surprise to me that I’ve ended up doing so much crafting and playing with yarn and that it appeals to other people. Very pleased and full of thanks – it really is so nice to interact with and be inspired by so many people all over the world. I chose these five photos as my favourite highlights… Bottom left is me (center) flanked by Heather (The Patchwork Heart) on the left and Lucy (Attic24) on the right. My moment in the presence of crochet Royalty!

Starting something new…

Well, a few things. Last week I finished my crochet bunting that I’ve been working on for a while and finished and posted the UK version of the cluster stitch bag so I was looking forward to some projects that I’ve had in mind for a while. Its very frustrating that there aren’t more hours in the day – its amazing to see the output of some fellow IGers who crochet, some who seem to make entire blankets in only a week. I can’t go at that pace and I have more ideas than my hook can cope with.

This week I’ve been working on a new project for The Crafternooners group on Facebook. It involves ripples and daisies and is in colours that I wouldn’t normally go for. I just thought they looked so fresh and summery and simple, I couldn’t resist.

The tadah! moment isn’t far away – this has been a really quick project to make and I’m really pleased with how its looking. The yarn I’m using is Deramores own brand acrylic DK – Studio DK – and I am very pleased with how it works up. The stitch definition is great and the yarn is so soft and easy to use. I’ve got nearly all the colours now and spent a bit of faffing time putting together my own shade card. Its not as neat as the Stylecraft one – and someone commented and said it was very ‘Blue Peter’ – but its really useful and I might just do this with some of the other ranges of yarn as I start using them.

Crochet tutorials in progress

Today I have a whole day to myself and I’m working on crochet tutorials to be released in the next couple of days. The light yesterday was terrible and I couldn’t even take any reasonable photos, never mind attempt a video but today its sunny and perfect. But if you look in the bottom left corner of this photo of my workstation you will see a naughty little face. What is it about cats that they always want to sit exactly where you don’t want them to be?

He is eyeing the crochet on the table with intent and I just managed to shoo him away from the idea of jumping all over what I was doing…

You might also notice my new scissors on the table on the left of the ripple. These arrived this morning from Australia and were a bit of a treat to myself after I saw them on eBay. I’d been looking for a nice pair of scissors for a while and these were very reasonable – under £12 including the postage from down under! I also couldn’t resist the hand selfie because my new nail colour really made my day too!

And finally…

Just before I go and get on with more photos and video takes for my crochet tutorial day, I just wanted to add a sneaky peak of another new project I started this week. I’m very excited about this as I’ve learned a whole new crochet technique and I’ve been working with a lovely lady from the Bagalong Facebook group who is based in Greece. We’ve been collaborating via Facebook messenger and its been fantastic! Social media is great for being able to work with fellow crocheters in other countries – who would  have imagined this even five years ago? Makes you wonder what we will all be up to in another five years!

I’ll be posting more pics this week but this is a prototype project and I may have to make a second one to do some tutorials so it could take a few weeks before we can do this as a crochet along project 🙂