Meandering in May

Hello there!
In May in France we have several national holidays, well at least three. This year, two of them came together on 8th and 9th and I've taken today off too, so that means a very, very long weekend of five days!

We'd planned to do some furniture shopping and assembling. But the car is in bad need of repair and can't be used, so we've had to put the new furniture off for another day. Instead, I've been doing a little bit of crochet, some cooking and tidying up, but the best thing is that the weather has been sunny (at least for part of the time). So we went off for a wander.

I so love to see these bright yellow fields, they look so gorgeous against the blue sky.

A bit further down the path and the view changes. Can you see there's still some snow on the mountains?

I love the contrast of the thick ridged bark and the delicate leaves and dandelions. 

And these new leaves were calling out for me to take their picture. Rebirth. 

I took this one by accident as I was walking along. I like it.

And last of all, the green carpet of leaves and flowers. We had a lovely time. Pity it's raining again today. 

May Day cushion

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a great Labour Day yesterday. Here in France it is a national holiday so I didn't go to work, but I did finish off some crochet work. And here's the result, my May Day cushion! (scroll down for the pattern).

Isn't it just lovely? It was one of those things - I bought the yarn in a sale, then saw a similar cushion on one of the blogs I read, and realised I just HAD to make a cushion with that yarn!

I didn't follow exactly the same pattern as Heather on Pink Milk, who joined her rounds with a slipstitch. I just made two simple hdc circles and crocheted them together with a shell border. Like Heather, I did use the lovely May rose from Attic24 to decorate my cushion.  My cushion is also quite big, so the central rose does look a bit small. But I love it anyway. We needed  new cushion and I think it looks particularly nice on my armchair.

Here's how I made it:

1. Start with a magic circle and 6 sc.
2. 2 hdc in each stitch.
3. *1 hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st, rep from * to end. (it's a good idea to use a stitch marker on the first stitch throughout)
4. * 1 hdc in next 2 sts, 2 hdc in next st, rep from * to end.
5. * 1 hdc in next 3 sts, 2 hdc in next st, rep from * to end.
6. * 1 hdc in next 4 sts, 2 hdc in next st, rep from * to end.

Continue the pattern, increasing the number of single hdc in between each set of 2 hdc until you reach the required diameter for your cushion.

Then make a May rose from the cute and easy pattern by Lucy at Attic24, and sew it to the centre of one of the circles.

You can use a cushion pad you have bought or upcycled, or you could make your own. I made mine from an old sheet and filled it with polyfil. It's 40 cm across and the final row of my crochet circle has 20 hdc in between each 2 hdc. Make sure your cushion pad is washable, as the cover isn't removeable.

For the border, I did the following:

* slip stitch in first st, 5 dc in next st, slip stitch in next stitch, repeat from * to end.

Remember to put your cushion pad in place while you still have room for it! If you have a very fat cushion pad as I did, you'll have to do quite an amount of the border with the pad in situ.

To finish, sew in the ends and you're done!

Granny ripple Ta daaah!

Some early followers of my blog, and I mean REALLY early followers, may remember me talking about  starting this blanket ages and ages and ages ago. It's so long ago that I cannot find the original post. I've been making it on and off for well over a year. And the good news is: It's done! Finished! 

This is a really easy pattern and goes very quickly (believe it or not). The reason I took so long was that I've been sidetracked by lots of other little projects, but if I'd worked solely on the blanket it would have probably taken me three months at most. Anyway, it's now finished and has gone to its new owner. I made it with Schachenmayr nomotta Bravo yarn, it's 100% acrylic but very soft and not at all scratchy. 

Here's the pattern if you want to try it http://thelazyhobbyhopper.blogspot.fr/2011/08/how-to-crochet-granny-ripple.html.

I took the photo on the stairs because it was the easiest way to see the whole blanket but the blanket is single bed size. And please ignore that loose thread. I did weave it shortly after taking the pic.

Here's Zippy!

Isn't he fun?  Zippy has been on the go for quite a while and at last I got around to finishing him! No pattern yet but I might be able to remember how I made him. He wasn't too complicated. And he's so, so cuddly.

My flapjacks recipe

For me, flapjacks are such an English treat. I have images of Quaker oats, golden syrup and good English butter. And tea, of course. You can't eat them without a steaming cup of tea. 

Luckily, and despite living in France, I always keep a can of Lyles Golden Syrup in my supply cupboard. The organic oats I buy for porridge are probably better than Quaker, and French butter is almost as good as its English counterpart. The resulting flapjacks are crispy, sweet and buttery. They're best if your let them go completely cold before eating them, though more than half of the ones I made were consumed while still warm. They aren't for dieters but they are sooooo delicious. And so even easy a (supervised) child could make them. 

Here's the recipe. Simple and quick.

Ingredients

125g salted butter

125g soft brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

350g rolled oats

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the sugar and golden syrup. Heat until it just starts to boil, then add it to a mixing bowl where you'll have placed the rolled oats.

Using a wooden spoon, mix well until all the oats are covered with the syrupy mixture. 

Press into a shallow baking tray and bake at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes or until golden.

While it's still warm, mark into squares with a wooden or heat-proof spatula. Leave to cool completely before eating (if you can wait that long!)

Recommneded: Drink with tea poured from a real a teapot.

Fun with photos

While I was planning to buy a new camera, one of the options that existed on the more expensive cameras I looked at (but didn't buy) was a gadget that meant you could obtain a black and white photo with just a bit of colour. For example, one red strawberry....

or why not one pink bunny...

Well as you can see, I didn't need the more expensive camera. I found PicMonkey!

Abby on While She Naps has a great tutorial on how to achieve these fun effects. Enjoy!

Spring at last?

I don't know if where you live it has been quite so cold and grey as it has been here. It felt as if winter had been around for months and months. And I was quite ill this winter, with a bad cough and cold that kept coming and going, and coming back again, and a horrible week with a very sore back.

But enough whingeing. Today I went out to the market, as I usually do on a Saturday morning, and the sun was shining! The sky was blue! It even felt a tiny weeny bit warm. Yay! The mountains I can see from our flat are still capped with snow, but with a beautiful blue sky above them. It's amazing how much a sunny sky can lift your spirits!

Here's something else that made me feel happy. Lovely, cute baby goats.

"Hmm what a tasty post"

This one kept jumping on its mum's back. It was so funny.

"There's only room for one"

On the crochet front, I'm desperately trying to finish off some crochet gifts that I'll be taking to England in April. Hoping to show them to you very soon!

I hope Spring has started to show its pretty face wherever you are. Keep smiling!