Lullaby Lodge

Gosh, what a busy day I have had today.  I spent a couple of hours this morning at the allotment.  It was the most glorious sunny day here in Berkshire, not a cloud in the sky.  Then home to cook Sunday Lunch, Roast chicken with all the trimmings... and then after lunch I went to our local monthly craft fair.  Pudding Cup Art Market. By this afternoon sadly the sun was disappearing and the temperature had dropped considerably, so sensibly everyone at the market had their stalls inside in the warm.  I love perusing craft fairs and especially love to stop and chat to the crafters about their wares.  I am always fascinated to hear about how things are made.  Especially crafts that I know nothing about... This stall caught my eye as I walked in.  They were displaying the most beautiful glass jewellery. Another table had some really cute ornaments made from Fimo clay. More hanging decorations... These super cute doggy face cloths.  What an ingenious ide

Over the summer holidays, The Gilmore Girls came out on Netflix and I spent many an afternoon hanging out with Lorelai and Rory.  It's nice easy viewing, perfect to watch while indulging in some afternoon hooky.   Having very eclectic tastes myself I love the style of Lorelai's house.  I particularly love the crochet blanket you can see in some of the episodes, draped across her sofa.  It's a beautiful pale duck egg colour (this just happens to be my most favourite colour). I decided that I wanted to try and create something similar.  First I needed some yarn.  I discovered that Woolcraft New Fashion DK had added some new colours to their range and one of them just happened to be Duck Egg.  So I ordered some right away.  I use Woolcraft yarn a lot and particularly like it for blankets.  It's a bit thicker than some DK yarns and has a really soft almost fluffy texture.  It makes lovely squishy blankets and has a good choice of colours.   I searched th

I can't get over the weather we have been having lately and it's almost November.  We are spending a well earned weekend away by the seaside... Just look at those skies!  The beach here at Camber is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  It stretches for miles.  The sea a distant patch of blue on the horizon while the tide is out. Meandering streams and pools remind you just how far it's travelled and the glorious sun glistens and sparkles on the water. Little T is in his element.  Splashing in the water, sailing his Frisbee along the fast current of the streams, chasing after it laughing and giggling. There was of course digging and castle building... and collecting pebbles for mummy. We treated ourselves to a Full English at a beach cafe with steaming mugs of tea.  Then back to our chalet... for some pebbly hooky! Bye for now... Catherine x

Hello everyone, I would just like to share with you how I made the sock yarn baubles from my   previous post .  This is my first time writing a pattern and some lovely people over on Ravelry have been testing it for me.  You can find the test page here.    I use US terminology (I know I'm from the UK but American terminology just makes more sense!).   You will need   sock yarn (small ammounts)  3.5mm hook sewing needle 60mm plastic bauble ribbon for hanging stitch marker Stitches used sc  single crochet sc2tog  single crochet 2 together Round 1 Starting with a  magic loop  work 6 sc into the loop, place marker in the last stitch pull tight Do not join we will be working in a spiral Round 2 starting in the first sc from previous round work 2 sc into each stitch around (12 stitches) Remember to move your stitch marker up at the end of each round Round 3  [2 sc into the first stitch, sc into the next stitch] repeat around (18 sti

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  I have been busy using up the left over sock yarn that I used to make my crochet coin purses.  You can read about them in my blog post  here . So I thought my left over wool would be great to crochet over some Christmas baubles.   What! Christmas decorations already?  I know some of you may be thinking this, but in our house it's never too early for Christmas.  We love everything about Christmas and this time of year is always spent getting ready making home made decorations, baking, shopping and countless other Christmasy things... Every year I make some new decorations for the tree and every year little T makes some for his tree too.  Here's what I made. The yarn is Drops Fabel and has lots of lovely colour combinations to choose from.  Drops yarn is always a pleasure to work with and is extremely reasonable.  To be honest it's the only real wool yarn I can afford to use, being on a tight bud

"Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?" In her eagerness she did not realise how queer the words would sound and that they were not the ones that she had meant to say.  Mr Craven looked quite startled. "Earth!" he repeated.  "What do you mean?" "To plant seeds in - to make things grow - to see them come alive." The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett As a child I read this book many times.  The Secret Garden always invoked feelings of magic and mystery, of old dead things coming back to life and of birds and woodland creatures.  This is the kind of garden I have always dreamed of having.  The garden that has lived in my imagination, hiding, waiting, patiently for it's chance to become more than just a dream.   Living in a small flat as we do.  We do not have a garden.  Not any kind of garden at all... and this is something I have longed for, for many years.  Particularly now that I

Aren't the mornings and evenings getting chilli now?  I was enjoying a peaceful evening to myself on Sunday.  Relaxing on the sofa and indulging in an episode of Poldark, thinking just that.   What I need is a cosy blanket and a hot water bottle.  Well there are plenty of blankets in this house.  Blanket making is a bit of an obsession of mine... But you can never have too many blankets right?  I have a hot water bottle too, but it is very much lacking in the cosy department. See very plain, very boring... What it needs is a nice crochet cover for ultimate cosiness.  I have plenty of DK yarn in my stash, lot's of Stylecraft Special and lot's of Woolcraft New Fashion DK.  These are my two favourite acrylic yarns to work with and are both very reasonably priced.  Now, which colours to choose.... so many choices... Then it struck me how pretty the fabric on my pyjamas was and I just so happened to have similar colours in my stash.  I went with silver, mint, c