A Little Woolly Sheep

Hello Lovelies,

I imagine almost all, if not all of you, know of the crochet guru and all round lovely lady Lucy and her blog Attic 24.

Lucy is one of the organisers of a yearly yarn festival in Yorkshire called Yarndale.

One of the things that makes this event so special is that the organisers always invite yarny types to join in with the fun and create a little something that will be displayed on the weekend. 

In the past I have made the Bunting, and a Mandala

This year they have come up with a cute Knitted or Crochet sheep. It's such an adorable pattern, I just had to have a go at the crochet version.

The pattern called for Double Knitting weight yarn...which should preferably be wool. Hummmm...wool. It's not a thing I have much of, being a big fan of Stylecraft Special acrylic yarn, for it's economy, wash-ability and softness.

Then I remembered I had some thrifted tapestry wool in my stash...would that do?.....

I had a fancy to make a black sheep, but the nearest colour in the bag was this steely grey, well that could work......



Normally I'm happy to sit by my desktop and work at my desk, but on Saturday it was just so hot I was very glad of the printable PDF which made it easy to work in the garden......



As with all Lucy's patterns it was very well written and easy to follow. Soon I had a nose....

 Then a whole head...love those wonky ears....

It quickly became apparent though, that there is not much yardage on a tapestry wool skein and crocheting uses it up at an alarming rate. I had two skeins of the grey, but still needed to make sheepy's body in a contrasting colour to end up with 4 grey legs.........

This is my messy outdoor creating space. Oh I had so much fun. I had clean forgotten the joy of a quick, decorative bit of crochet ......

Here is my completed sheep. She's a very rare breed..a banded midland. You only see them in gardens with giant toadstools :0)..........

 I was really pleased with how the stiff tapestry wool and the 3.5mm hook made her firm and her little legs stood her up easily.

These Yarndale sheep have clothes too...how sweet. So now it was time to choose a colour for her coat. Or a few colours so I did not run out.....

 Pretty pinks and a soft peach.

The coat, like the sheep's body, was simply made in rows. Then sewn together at either end... and a neat single crochet trim added to the bottom......

Next it was time to add a little embellishment. Yikes. My embroidery skills are bad, but I managed a (rather wonky) lazy daisy flower and a french knot....go me :0)

Then I popped on her coat and added a flower from some trim I had in my sewing box....Ta-Dah...

With her legs disappearing into the grass she reminded me of Dougal from a favourite childhood T.V. programme of mine. The Magic Roundabout.

Oh, don't listen Sheepy, I know you have lovely legs and are much cuter :0)......

I'm sure there will be a huge flock of these sheep at Yarndale, and won't they look sweet all together

To make this project even better they will be auctioned off to raise money for a very worthy cause at the end of the weekend

You have till the 9th of September if you fancy joining in Lovelies. All the details and Patterns are HERE .
I think I will have to make another to keep for myself too :0)

Jacquie x

Family, Flowers......and Crochet

Hello Lovelies, how are you? 

This last week of the school spring term has been extra busy. There seems to have been loads of  homework for my boys to complete. I'm always so proud of the effort all my boys put into their school work.

 Here eldest was using my coloured pencils to draw a Gaudi Dragon........

 He spent AGES on it and I know he doesn't get the same pleasure from drawing that I do....so I admired his dedication.

 How I would love to take us all on a trip to Barcelona to see all the fabulous  Gaudi Architecture 

The weather has been so mixed this week. Spring is here, but the wind and rain has been terrible at times. Last weekend I took the boys to the tennis courts to get some fresh air, but it was so blustery we had to give up after a while.........

There's been lots of rain and the garden flowers seem to be loving that..........

The hyacinths have never looked so blue..........

It's all thanks to the longer days of course. And now the clocks have gone back the sun doesn't set till after 7pm....yay!

 Back indoors I've been inspired to pick up my hook again!

 How could I resist Lucy's Mini Chicklets.........

 This photo makes me smile, The wreath ( which is admittedly looking a little saggy these days) was made, and blogged way back in 2010, using an  Attic 24 tutorial HERE .....I still love it.

Five whole years later that lovely lady is still generously sharing the wonderful crochet her creative brain designs.

How cute are these little guys............

And they were such fun to make. A clear, simple pattern, with lots of little touches to make them special.

I'm not great at embroidery, but I had to try  and create the sweet little flowers in their tummies.....

I loved making these as little gifts for friends this Easter..........

I particularly loved how this chap turned out. He's made with Stylecraft Sherbert....but I like to think of it as Duck Egg blue :0)

Sending warm wishes for a Happy Easter to all you Lovelies. I do hope you have a fun and relaxing time.
Jacquie x

Yorkshire and Yarndale :: Part 4

Hello Lovelies,
It's taking me a while to get around to these posts, but two weeks after that great weekend I'm determined to record the rest of our visit. Here's some of what Mum and I got up to on the Sunday.....

The day was rather dull, so after breakfast we decided to head back into Skipton for a look around and to see how the day developed.

I loved this towns pretty cobbled streets and individual shops...........

Even the cake shop had got the yarny bug............Knitting was celebrated.........

and even crochet :0)............

Look at those moulds for crochet flowers....brilliant.

It was around 10.30am and the shops were only just beginning to open. It was quiet inside the delightful Craven Court shopping centre............

We were happy to window shop and these traditionally printed cards made us smile..........

Derdlab Press

As the charity shops opened up we enjoyed a browse......OH LOOK, we even spotted Bert in the Oxfam shop............

He looked even better in real life.

As we wandered back to the car more shops were opening.........including this one in Craven Court.........

I made a small purchase here.

I couldn't resist as this little metal hook was one of the many things  I had loved and admired in Lucy's studio :0)

As the day was still dull by late morning we decided to head for the next town, and specifically somewhere that Mum brought my brother and I to explore LOADS when we were small............

Cliffe Castle 

As kids we mostly loved the outdoor spaces here.... the park lands, greenhouses and pets corner.

This "Castle" is really   an imposing house. It was owned by a fabulously wealthy Victorian textile manufacturing family, most notably Henry Isaac Butterfield. Today the building looks a little odd, with it's flat roofs and strange proportions.......

I never thought it looked beautiful.

 Nowadays, with that wonderful resource....t'internet..... it's easy to discover what it actually looked like in it's heyday.......WOW............

source

The outside may have lost much of  it's impact, but..... through lots of restoration work....the interior is once again stunning...........

All the beautiful details in this hallway were amazing.

And through those interesting old doors was THIS.......DOUBLE WOW............

I could sort of remember this space from my childhood......but I'm sure it never seemed as stunning.

Just inside the entrance is the only remaining conservatory........a wonderful, light filled space...........

Mum can remember when the castle  was just an empty shell in the 1950's.
When I was a child many of the rooms were sparsely furnished and used as art galleries , or filled with displays of military uniforms.

Now some of the remaining original spaces have been restored to their Victorian glory.............

I loved this room and was impressed by the attention to detail............

Here you can see what the rooms would have looked like in their original state..........

These chandeliers are very accurate replicas...........

This room houses cases full of taxidermy which I could remember well......what I couldn't recall was the beautiful vaulted ceiling...........

I guess I just never looked up!

Part of the house is  an interesting museum of local industry..........





I was interested by the loom of the last hand-loom weaver in the local area, who lived very close to where I grew up...........

you can read a bit about him HERE

and I really liked this display of vintage dresses in another part of the building..........

But the part of the house I was most looking forward to seeing again was the octagonal gallery.

When I was about fourteen years old our visits to Cliffe Castle had died down. I expect I was just like my own fourteen year olds are today.........reluctant to do things with their parents!

Mum brought me here as she knew I had an interest in sewing. I can still clearly recall entering this space to find it filled with marvellous patchwork quilts...........

They were  early American quilts with wonderful names like Flying geese, Wedding Rings, School House, Lone Star, Bear Paw and ( my all time favourite ) Log Cabin

I loved the colourful fabrics, but more than that I loved discovering the whole tradition of making quilts. A group of women working together on one piece, often using the tiniest scraps of otherwise useless fabric to create a practical and beautiful heirloom.......wonderful.

Do take a look at THIS pinterest board of antique quilts for a flavour of these  designs.

That visit triggered a lifelong love of patchwork.

On this visit there were no quilts on display, but I did love the artwork we saw........like THIS and THIS and THIS

There are so many more photos and stories I could share of Cliffe Castle, but I'm afraid this post would  never end!

It really is a wonderful and FREE museum, left to the town by the generosity of this Keighley man, who went on to become Lord Mayor of London......

Sir Bracewell Smith

It was amazing to visit again with Mum, after all these years, and to see it looking so well maintained and even improved on what I remembered.


Jacquie x

p.s. I've also made a little Flickr gallery of Cliffe Castle photos HERE

Yarndale and Yorkshire :: Part 2

Hello lovelies,

Thank you for all your kind comments on my first Yarndale post.

After walking through the park, with all it's colourful lamp posts and yarny bikes, we arrived at the first of the bunting......yay, it was lovely to see it still looking so wonderful again one year on.........

It looked great strung between trees

and even better hanging on dry stone walls...........

in rainbow solids...........

and happy multicolours............

 have you noticed anything different about the bunting this year? 

Soon we were at the top of the hill looking down on the auction mart.....all those green roofs nestled in the trees..........

It looked busy, with lots of cars and a row of mini buses. I love the one red bus and the one orange tree in this photo.

At this point we realised this was probably not the easiest route for Jones's family....but her hubby did a great job of gently bouncing their pushchair down the wide steps, and  baby Jones....the cutest eight month old boy...... giggled that wonderful baby laugh all the way down.......

We were getting closer now and I was happy to see the wonderful lettered bunting that quite a few clever people sent Lucy last year (and once again  I wished I that thought to do the same )..........

The path down is surrounded by fields of sheep and beautiful views...........

Yay, I was looking for this bunting..........

How I love it.....( remember I even included it in my drawing of the first Yarndale HERE)

Our little group was organised  and we had all brought a picnic. So we sat under under this crochet bunting and the crochet balls, and enjoyed a sociable half an hour, chatting and eating in this lovely spot...........

Baby Jones was so good, and he just loved looking up at the colourful bunting. Just as we stood up to leave I turned around and saw my bunny triangle..........

Jones kindly took this photo of me , I do look happy don't I............

Inside the Auction mart the mass bunting display was just as wonderful as I remembered it.......

and just as hard to take a decent photo of.

Worked out what's different yet?

well all the five thousand and something triangles have been crocheted together into strings, rather than just threaded onto tape like they were last year......don't they look wonderful.

We had to smile when we saw this lady in her granny square trousers.........

don't they look fab.

And look at these egg cosies.........

In the main body of the auction mart there were so many stalls selling all things yarny............

Love that owl.

It was not just crochet. This lady was "rug hooking".............

I just loved the wonderful yarny pictures this technique produced, which were framed or made into cushions...........

You can see more at their website HERE

Another pretty thing that caught my eye was this printers tray full of colourful yarn and little bits of haberdashery............in was on the Skein Queen stand.............

Spot the tiny owl?

This was another yummy display on a stand full of all things felt............

We all loved the sweet jars full of felt balls.............

 sorry I can't remember what company this was.

Yarndale felt much less crowded this year. I think it was just as busy, but better arranged. It felt less cramped and better spaced out.

It was lovely to see the sheep again............

And we had to smile at this stall...............

this was the sign on the outside :0).........

Happily some other alpacas were able to attend..........

They were in a quiet corner near some open doors so they could get some cool air...........

and we could glimpse the gorgeous view and a Yarndale double decker bus.

After we had admired this knitted cow it was time to head into the Knit n Natter lounge........

Where there were pretty mandalas to admire..............

and Lucy's latest blanket to swoon over...............

Isn't it gorgeous..........I love the hands stroking it in this photo. Ripples are so soft and drapey aren't they.

These beauties were on the Wool Warehouse stand, where you could buy Lucy's yarn packs to make them...............

And here's the lovely lady herself............

admiring those crochet trousers.

and signing their owners back!............

She's our own crochet super star :0)

and you couldn't wish to meet a nicer person.

While chatting with Lucy she told us that all the bunting triangles had been crocheted together by ONE PERSON! It had taken her from January until now to  complete....what an achievement.

I am in awe of Lucy's power to inspire and engage people.....and all her hard work.

 I did love seeing a lovely version of my owl on this ladies belt.........

It was huge and I loved it's floppy ear tufts and flappy wings.....it had real personality.

Above our heads whilst we chatted were the gorgeous starflower mandalas Lucy made and crocheted into hola hoops....such a clever idea. Lucy's are the three you can see around the edge, the big centre one is by Hannapat of Cosmos and Cotton

Mine's there too,  I only sent it to the attic the week before last. Lucy managed to squeeze in the time to crochet it onto the hoop somehow....bless her.

I really loved this one by Hannapat, hanging in the doorway to the Knit n Natter lounge.....gently twirling away.........

Free Pattern HERE

And in this photo you can see the view from that doorway.......to the Mandala Wheels for Yarndale.....

Were you wondering about those? Yes here they are in all their multicoloured glory. Arn't they something to behold............

Lucy attached them to this raised walkway and they stretched the whole width of the auction mart..........

If I'm totally honest at the time I thought the busy background detracted from their impact, but looking at these photos I think they do look wonderful against the grey metal in this functional, almost industrial setting............

The pinks really pop don't they.

We wandered under the mandalas into the workshop area,
Here there was lots of concentration while these ladies tried to master Latvian knitting....

The results look amazing once you have learnt.

This was tab rug making...........

it looked a lot easier to master and great fun.

This was the other end of the mandala display............

and here Jones found her pretty pink, white and blue mandala surrounded by other beauties..........

So many lovely creations generously donated by  creative people from around the world..........

They certainly added to the Yarndale magic.

And for me the day was even more enjoyable than last year as I had such lovely company to spent it with. Thank you for sharing the day with me Jo and Jones.

Jacquie x