wildlife by hot tea ::

etsy's facebook page brought this awesome video, of street art made using yarn and stencils, to my attention this morning, it's so fabulous I thought I'd share it with you ::

WILDLIFE from Hot Tea on Vimeo.

It certainly brightened my, very early, very grey, morning.

this moment ::

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

granny square cookies ::

aren't these are amazing?!

You can see the tutorial on the sugar and meringue blog.

crochet: granny bunting (a pattern) ::

Originally posted on my typepad blog last summer.

As promised here is my granny bunting pattern. I'm quite excited but also a little nervous posting the pattern as I've never done this before!

My sister successfully completed her bunting in 2 and a half hours and didn't ring me once, she normally rings me for pattern reading advice regularly but was under strict instructions to try and work it all out for herself this time!! I'm afraid I don't have a photo of hers to share with you, but I will attempt to get hold of one soon.

For the pink bunting I used four different shades of pink and alternated them throughout the pattern so each triangle is different, of course you could simply have each triangle the same or even just use one, two or three different colours. For the brightly coloured bunting, which was my first attempt, I used 8 different colours alternating them throughout, really you could use a little or as many as you like!

If you already know how to do a granny square this should be a breeze but if you don't I hope I've written the instructions clear enough that it won't matter.

If you do attempt your own granny bunting I would love to know how you got on and please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

The pattern, in all it's glory, is below.

Granny Square Bunting:

This is written in british crochet terms, you can see a good table for stitch conversions from british to american terms here.

What you need:

4 x 50g balls of double knit weight yarn in 4 different colours.

1 x 50g ball of double knit weight yarn in white.

4mm crochet hook.

Foundation Chain:

Leave a long end, make 3 chains and join to first chain with slip stitch.

Round 1:

3ch, 2tr in to ring *2ch, 3tr into ring, repeat from * once more, 2ch, join with slip stitch to 3^rd chain of first 3 chain.

Break off yarn.

Round 2:

Join new yarn at any 2 chain corner space, 3ch, 2tr,2ch,3tr in same 2 chain corner space, *1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr in to next 2 chain space, repeat from * once more, 1ch, join with slip stitch to 3^rd chain of first 3 chain.

Break off yarn.

Round 3:

Join new yarn at any 2 chain corner space, 3 ch, 2tr, 2ch, 3tr in same 2 chain corner space *1 ch, 3tr into next one chain space, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr in to next 2 chain space, repeat from * once more, 1 ch, 3tr into next one chain space, 1ch, join with slip stitch to 3^rd chain of first 3 chain.

Break off yarn.

Round 4:

Join new yarn at any 2 chain corner space, 3 ch, 2tr, 2ch, 3tr in same 2 chain corner space *1 ch, 3tr into next 1 chain space, 1 ch, 3tr into next 1 chain space 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr in to next 2 chain space, repeat from * once more, 1 ch, 3tr into next 1 chain space, 1ch, 3tr into next 1 chain space 1ch, join with slip stitch to 3^rd chain of first 3 chain.

Break off yarn.

Make 6 triangles, or more or less depending on the size of bunting you wish to make, you could also add extra rounds if you wanted bigger traingles. Using 6 triangles and the edging method detailed below creates a bunting length of 65 inches(which fits perfectly over my fireplace as a quick reference for you!).

Edging:

I used white for the edging but you can use which ever colour you like! Note that you only edge two sides of each triangle on the first trip across them and then edge the tops on your return. You could, of course, add more or less chains between triangles if you wanted them further spread or closer together.

Chain 41

3tr in corner space of first triangle, * 1ch, 3tr in next one chain space repeat from * until you reach the next 2 chain corner space.

1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr in 2 chain corner space, * 1ch, 3tr in next one chain space repeat from * until you reach the next 2 chain corner space.

3tr in 2 chain corner space.

Chain 22.

Repeat for all triangles.

After going around edge of last triangle chain 41 instead of 22.

Turn, slip stitch across 40 of the chains, 1ch, 3tr into corner space of triangle, * 1ch, 3tr into next chain space, repeat from * to end of triangle.

Chain 1 miss first chain the slip stitch across next 20 chains, leaving one chain at the end unworked.

Work across the top of each triangle as above.

Slip stitch across final 40 chains at end, break off yarn and weave in ends.

in the garden ::

• sunflowers (brightening the view from the kitchen sink and adding joy to washing up time!)
• new flushes of strawberry blooms
• a dragonfly (please excuse the washing in the background, this was the closest I could get to it)
• basil, lots and lots of basil filling the greenhouse with an intoxicatingly glorious scent
• kale, succeding in not being devoured by pigeons, hurah!
• the first tomato (a good week earlier than last year!)

allotmenting ::

I have to admit, I have not been a very good allotmenter of late. Before we headed off on holiday, I went down with my mum, who helped with a little weeding and planting some potatoes. Then I didn't make it back down there again until this week, nearly 4 weeks had passed!

Fortunately everything (surprisingly) was still growing, along with a whole lot of weeds, of course.

So this week I have been mostly weeding and dreaming of how wonderful it can all be if I just manage to make it down every other day at least. I want it to work I really really do, I just need to find the motivation to get myself there and digging and planning.

So far growing I have ::

• peas
• borlotti beans
• runner beans
• french beans
• chard
• beetroot
• radishes
• purple sprouting broccoli (really this is just the bedraggled stems left by the pigeons)
• potatoes
• nasturtiums

I have dug and planted less than a quarter of the plot, so there is so much more to do and more to grow.

Mostly now I'm just going to concentrate on getting beds ready for next year, but I do plan to fit in a few more autumn/winter crops. I have a few seeds sown at home for transplanting including ::

• cauliflower (3 varieties)
• leeks (2 varieties)
• cabbages
• kale
• sweet william

and I hope to sow a few root crops in the next couple of weeks.

I'm finding the toughest hurdle the distance from my house, it's a 30 minute walk to the allotment, although now I have a lovely bike to take me there which should help a lot, I don't yet have a helmet for Milo so until then I'll need to walk whenever I have Milo with me. Also not being able to drive means that getting important things down there, such as compost and bits to build beds with is virtually impossible.

Fingers crossed that from now on though I shall be better and more committed and this time next year will have a fabulous vegetable plot bursting with goodies!

hello flower ::

the first of my sunflowers opened up this morning, a fabulously bright start to an otherwise dreary grey day.

this weekend ::

we headed over to Oxford for Cowley Road Carnival and Fiesta in the Park.

It was lots and lots of fun, though I dropped a fairly tired toddler off at nursery this morning, he had an awesome time and was so incredibly well behaved despite such a lack of sleep.

There was lots of music and dancing for this little boy, plus huge ice creams and great people to hang out with.

This amazing wicker man is the design of an 8 year old and will go up in flames on bonfire night. It's truly magnificent. You can read more about it here.

Another fabulous structure on show was this button tree, I can't find any information on it, which is fairly frustrating, but it is super amazing!

The procession was great, everyone taking part had so much effort in. Milo loved the giants and especially one big 'dancing bird', which he followed around for hours after the procession had finished.

It was a very very happy weekend indeed.

this moment ::

Inspired by SouleMama

In her words...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.