Taking inspiration

Sometimes you see a colour combination or idea that looks so lovely that you are simply inspired to make something similar - straightaway - and this is what happened when I saw Julie's "Me Old China Blankie".  The colours were just delightful together and it kept calling to me.

So on Saturday I HAD to go to the wool shop - despite the fact that there were plenty of other things I should have been doing and I had plenty of empty days this week when I could go.  I just couldn't wait any longer - I NEEDED new wool.  My candlepower sock could wait.  The Granny Stripe blanket that I had started a few months ago was forgotten.  I was going to make something new and woolly.

But I didn't want to COPY Julie exactly.  I wanted to see if I could pull together some colours using her basic selection of 10 as a guide.  I also wanted to use slightly less luxurious wool because I know any blanket in the Locket house will get a very rough life and we have a problem with moths so using super-gorgeous yarn would be soul-destroying if the pesky moths got to it.

So I went for King Cole's Merino DK which had a lovely palette of colours and Dot and I had a happy half hour selecting, rejecting, re-selecting and finally agreeing on 9 shades with one Sirdar Country Style in deep pink.  Jacqui and Louise in the shop were really helpful and patient and gave lots of good advice without which I would have definitely ended up with the wrong colours.

I started hooking as soon as I got home and have managed to do some each day and now have 15 squares.

But I have a dilemma which I hope you can help with..............

Should I do the squares as they are here with all the different colours on the final round?

Or should I add a cream border to each one which will make the joining much neater?

I'm not sure because adding the cream completely changes the look of the blanket making it more like this one which I love..........but is it too cream?

Decisions, decisions!

Lucy x

P.S. sorry about the terrible photos - I really hate my new camera - colours just don't work on it and it is very frustrating.

The big Four-O

The consolation for turning 40 was obviously the fabulous presents I received which included beautiful scarves, perfume, notebooks, a bucket-barbecue and picnic rug, earrings, a Cath Kidston wallet........

 

............Colonsay inspired goodies and a handmade clay tile from Daisy............

 

 ..............my beautiful Cath Kidston tapestry from Dot and some dinosaur decorations with Colonsay pebbles from Fred...............

..........some lovely "home" decorations.........

 

  

...............a beautiful cushion, purse, bracelet and corsage from the fabulous Mrs Moogs........

  

  

..........and my very own wool-winder and swift!

 

But one very special birthday present went on a very special journey to reach me in time for my birthday..........

 

....you may recognise the little bird drawn on the envelope..........

....Yes! It's a parcel from the one and only Silverpebble containing a super-special commission from Mr Locket and the Little Lockets.  

Emma had contacted Mr L to say that the present would be posted in time for my birthday but when she realised that we were actually going on holiday before it could arrive she did the necessary detective work to contact the lady in charge of the post office on the island to arrange for it to be posted to me at Kiloran Bay Cottage, Colonsay!

So I expect you are interested to see what was inside???

A special Emma Pebble box of course!

And inside that?

My very own, specially-designed-for-me, Silverpebble necklace with a seagull, bucket and spade, sandcastle, shells and sea-glass - and I LOVE it!  I wear it all the time and always get complimented on what a unique piece of jewellery I have.  I don't have Emma's skill in photography but I think you can still see how stunning it is!

So turning 40 wasn't all that bad really! ;o)

Colonsay

We finally got to go on our long awaited holiday to the Scottish island of Colonsay.  To say I was a little bit excited about this holiday is definitely an understatement.  I can't remember having been as excited about a holiday for a very long time.  Unfortunately this made it very hard for the actual holiday to live up to my excessively high expectations but we did have a lovely time.


Our cottage was quite small and very cold, but lovely - and we spent a lot of time playing cards (albeit sometimes wrapped in blankets), reading, knitting and eating lots of naughty things.  Oh yes! I ate LOTS of naughty things - bread, jam, cheese, salami, pizza, crisps, sausages, burgers, and lots and lots of cake! (more about cake later........)  The diet really took a very welcome holiday but even after having a curry once we'd come home I managed to only put 3 1/2 lbs on over a week and a half of being very bad indeed!

The beach next to the cottage was beautiful - known as the best beach on the island and there were two ways down from the cottage.

The first was along the little road

and the second was more "cross-country" and involved a steep climb up the rocks - but the route had been signposted by some previous visitors..........

There was a little stream to cross to get onto the beach itself and sometimes we used the stepping stones but other times we just waded through.

We took the children on as many walks as we could get them to go on (not many!).  I think they were rather put off by the epic walk we did at the beginning of the week to visit an isolated beach - along with half the other holiday makers it seemed!

But by far their favourite activity was visiting "our" beach

- especially if they could run and jump in the sea in all their clothes...........

next year I'm going to look into getting wetsuits!

The cows enjoyed the beach too.

Another top activity was visiting "the cake house"......... Daisy was very excited to be nearly there..........

Okay, she was actually jokingly running to meet Fred but the cake house was at the end of this bit of road.

There were a couple of signs saying "Cakes for Sale" and when you approached the cottage there was this sign gaffer-taped to the door.........

..........so we opened the door and found this HUGE box FULL of the most delicious cake along with a box nearly as full of money!

We had a barbecue one evening with the children wrapped up against the cold and the midges (although fortunately we weren't really bothered by midges actually biting us - I don't think it was warm enough for them)

I also celebrated my 40th birthday while we were away and had a lovely day with lovely presents - including a very special one that was posted to me on the island.............

...but you'll have to wait until another day to see what was inside (as I haven't taken a good enough picture of it yet and it really deserves to be photographed well)

...........and I even had homemade cake and a card from the family staying in the cottage next to ours - such a kind thought.

So we had a lovely holiday - I just wish we had been there longer - and after all my weeks of searching for the perfect sock knitting pattern to take with me I wish I'd taken a different one as ended up ripping it out on the ferry home!