I took Mr Year to Barcelona. It was a surprise present for a significant birthday.
Delicious churros, an incredible final score, and a great flea market. I sadly did not come home with the tiny furniture or the pink typewriter but the much more baggage allowance-friendly box of colouring pencils.
Spanish names for colours are very beautiful. Amarillo cromo.
I am going to keep little hands away from these.
Ah the English climate.
As I write: a cool, sticky day. The sky a greyish shade of rainy sports day. What to wear? Not too hot, not too cold. Layers layers layers.
Why, a tank top of course!
A couple of years ago I taught myself to read Japanese crochet symbols and made this tank top in Alpaca wool for my older daughter Eva.
Reader, I am sorry to report that that top is no more. Unless you are a doll. Yes, it was put on a hot wash. And not by me. I will say no more.
The thing is, it was a really quick pattern, and had enough going on not to get too boring. So, I made it again in a kind of deep space blue with intergalactic silver threads I bought in the sales:
I made another, this time more a sleeveless cardigan than a tank top:
The wool was a lovely merino wool mix also bought in the sales. I found this pattern on Ravelry to base the shape on. Such a great pattern for a cardigan on there: you just start with the circumference of a neck then do a simple formula to work out the rest.
It's the same author as this cardigan, with my own amendments.
The weatherman says it will be barbecue weather this weekend. Can I, dare I, believe?
You can now follow me on Instagram if you like. Click my new widget: look, it's up there on your right.
This week's offerings:
1. Hairbands. Made from an old H&M blouse and some Liberty tana lawn from the stash. A nice excuse to fire up my overlocker. I traced the shape from an existing hairband, cut two pieces and used some thicker material to line the middle. At the same time the audiobook of Alice in Wonderland has been on heavy rotation round the house. Alan Bennett's voice is a thing of rare beauty.
2. A work-in-progress blocking on the ironing board. Quite excited about this one. Blocking is the very satisfying moment at the end of a crochet project, when the crumpled up bit of wool fabric becomes fluid and smooth. I used to do a complicated move involving a towel and a large cutting mat to create a blocking board. Then I realised that the ironing board did the trick brilliantly.
If you are interested there is a great blocking tutorial here.
3. A jellyfish made of rick rack, felt and some buttons. Her (of course she is a her) name is Jellina. I think it suits her.
Felt: the best craft material in the world. Discuss.
4. The shop became a shop again! We got the awning down and held a children's art sale for Comic Relief. On sale were greetings cards - blank for your own message - and canvases.
It was all the big girl's idea. She raised a small fortune thanks to a winning combination of very loud sales patter - thereby making her impossible to ignore - and cuteness.
The Lille braderie: one beautiful city, two million people, several tonnes of stuff and nine very over-excited women.
The happy marriage of a car boot sale, a flea market, and a vintage fair, all on the scale of Glastonbury.
It was hard to remain calm. So we didn't.
And bought lots of penguins instead.
My pupils dilated, my suitcase filled and my bank account emptied. What a weekend.
