Joining Those Popcorn Grannies

Hello dear patient crochet friends (and other friends who don't crochet but are happy to scroll down to the latter part of the blog post for the other stuff that isn't wool related).

I've finally got around to doing you a little How To Join Popcorn Granny Squares Tutorial, and here it is for you.  As usual, the crochet terminology is USA, so if you work in UK stitches, just amend accordingly and it should all go swimmingly.

First of all, take two of your squares and join them evenly, corner to corner with the good sides facing in.  On my grannies there are two stitches per corner, try and match these up.

Push your hook through the corner stitch (this will be the left stitch of the two corner stitches as you look at them), and pull a loop of wool through.

Wrap your yarn around your hook again and pull it through the first loop on your hook.

Take your hook out of the loop, yes - don't worry it's quite safe, and pull on the loop to make it a little larger with your fingers.  Next, feed the short tail end of yarn through it and tug on the ball of wool end to make a secure knot.

Once the knot is firmly in place and you're happy it's not all going to unravel, wrap the yarn around your hook:

Push your hook underneath the two stitch loops on each square that lay on the outside, wrap your yarn around your hook and pull through another loop (2 on hook).

As per a slip stitch, pull the second loop through the first loop; one loop left on hook:

Push your hook through the next stitch, through the two outside loops of the stitches and pull a loop through...

Continue in this way, slip stitching along to the end of the row.

At this point, you can carry on around the corner, adding another square, or cast off in your usual way, sewing in your ends.

The front looks something like this when you join at the back, but you can also join on the front if you wish to have colourful strips running through your work, and instead use SC instead of SS if you prefer.  Just put the backs together at the beginning instead of the good sides facing.

As usual, I hope my tutorial makes sense, please do holler if you think I've missed an important bit out or if there is something you don't quite understand and i'll try my best to help.

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For those of you who have just joined us and skipped the tutorial; 'Hello!'

Well we've had some wonderfully bright, sunny days of late.  The moors close to our home look gloriously wild and vast at the moment...

And to say it's almost November, things still look decidedly Septemberish to me, very green wouldn't you say!

This time of year is all about crunchy walks in the woods, big blue skies and cascades of crimson, gold and lemon yellow leaves.  It's also about cosying up in nice scarves, warm socks, eating roast dinners and lighting candles as the darkness draws itself in ever earlier...it's starting a new crochet project (I caved in and bought Rowan Cocoon ~ more about that next time) and re-designing my note card collections.

Oh my, I am so happy with these...

Both sets of cards feature five of my most popular artworks, the choice of cards have been updated with some newer work and the boxes redesigned completely.  The only thing I haven't changed is the price, which is still £7.50 per box with free P&P to UK Mainland customers.

These boxes of cards would make a really nice gift for someone, or for yourself (why not!), and are available in my gallery shop here where you can have a look at the card images that come with each set.

They will also be available in my Etsy and Folksy shops within the next day or two.

Although it's still only October I'm finding myself rather busy with all things Christmas, so it's left little time for me to work on anything else!  I think I could do with advertising for a Little Helper.  

I did try engaging my three year old in a spot of leaflet printing the other day, and for a time she was delightedly making neat piles of freshly printed paper...but she got rather bored (after about six) and started pulling the leaflets through the printer before they'd actually finished printing...I discovered it before too many were ruined but needless to say, she was swiftly put onto house building duties in the lego department while I tidied up the mess.

Well, I must make an effort to visit Blogland now, as this last week I've hardly had the chance and I miss my little roamings and readings.  Do forgive me, life is rather full at times and the nice bits have to be shoved firmly to the bottom of the pile while the Important Stuff is dealt with.

Welcome also to some new followers, please do drop in and say Hello if you have the time, it's always lovely to hear from you!

Sending love and hot mugs of spicy pumpkin soup;  have a glowing and spooky Halloween weekend!

Much love, Julia x x x

A Lovely Dream

Im delighted to be able to show you my painting 'A Lovely Dream' which I completed today. It is another in the Little Red series, which seems to be building a momentum all of its own as more new ideas for where I can take it descend on me (usually as Im nodding off or cooking tea or doing something mundane when Im nowhere near a sketch book!)

As some of you may already know, Little Red has derived from several sketch drawings of my girl Carys, and for those of you who don't know, my little child is a flame haired, half Welsh firecracker of a tot who inspires me deeply on a daily basis - it seemed natural to include her in my work, and so from the earliest doodles she evolved to this little character, who has a dog, Bo, who has a bird, Dudie, and several other companions to be making an appearance along the way (including the gaggle of fabulous fat geese again).

I already have some ideas for my next painting, but for now Im doing alot of doodling
to get it just right before I put it onto canvas and I'll post some pics of the work in progress, probably next week :)

Well then, I think its time for a cuppa!! :)

Im finding this character work to be very fulfilling. It seems to have turned on a tap for me somewhere in the deepest reaches of my mind and for the first time in an age I am not stuck for new material. I remember many times wanting to paint something, and spending hours dabbling and messing and not really producing anything at all. The emptiness that I felt at those times was profound, and I think its because I was still searching for something that really made me tick. I would like to think that this is it.

Im going to be submitting this picture into a national competition run by an artists magazine. Well, you never know do you?

Im also promising myself an hour or so of crocheting later this evening as the past few days have seen me in a whirl of activity updating websites and general businessy type stuff for the other half and I feel a little bit worn at the edges, a sort of feeling you get when you don't switch off very easily because you're so absorbed in the task at hand.

Practising listening to my little old bod - its demanding a nice bath, preferably with something lovely from Lush and some serious R&R with perhaps the enticing prospect of an iced glass of Limoncello (ooh do try this if you havent, its an italian liquer made from lemons and its like drinking sunshine! Sublime!!!)

Is it summer yet with you? We are still dodging torrential downpours in between wearing sunshades and shedding cardigans as the weather still cant decide what to do. The hens over on the allotment across the road seem equally perturbed by the inclement conditions, ducking in and out of their little hut in mild bewilderment I think!! :)

My sister is coming to visit tomorrow, staying for the weekend and I have much to do to prepare a little birthday bash for a Certain-Little-Someone who turns 2 next week. A day out with her small cousins, Aunt, Uncle, Nannie-Mum & Grandad Joe (and us of course) is planned for sunday, as is a picnic complete with birthday treats and cake!!

Wishing you all a serendipitous bank holiday weekend, hope the sun shines for you - if not, dodge the drops and have fun regardless!

Love J xxx (off to get the long awaited cuppa :)

Having Your Cake and Eating It !

Aha! A sneaky little peek at what Ive been working on - this is a little teeny weeny part of a painting called 'A Lovely Dream' and its still not finished despite 5 hours painting today (ah bliss indeed!). I am sitting typing with acrylic paint all over my hands, for me, painting is the equivalent to several hours at a day spa - it removes me completely from my normal world, I have no concept of time and Im able to lose myself for hours, becoming wonderfully absent minded and forgetting to eat etc!


So, today was a gift of a painting day, and talking of art I would love to pop in a mention about a little sale my fellow artist and friend Niki Jackson is having at her Etsy shop... I hope she wont mind, but Ive borrowed a picture of her gorgeous art to show off here - Niki works with mixed media to create whimsical yet thought provoking art. If you are curious to see more, you can check her out here.

This is one of Niki's art pieces - one of my favourites! :)


Anyway...yesterday saw a rather wet day descend upon our little house, and me and the tot were moved to do a spot of baking. Our first recipie being Cumberland Dream Cake which I had picked up on a postcard from Lucy's of Ambleside
This shop, for those of you have never had the good fortune to have ever visited, is an aladdins cave of deli-licious goodies. It is also a bistro, it is a cooking school - Lucy's is, in a word 'heaven'...anyway, I digress - this little postcard had the recipie of a fabulous little tray bake we nibbled upon with relish during our stay in the lakes, and after 2 years of the said card languishing in the front of a Nigella book, it finally got a testing yesterday and both me and little C declared it very nice indeed (and if you are a fan of walnuts, coconut and sticky sugary goodness with a crispy top then you would too).


The baking frenzy did not stop there. No, we moved on to make a vanilla sponge cake, with vanilla buttercream and (going into Enid Blyton mode here) lashings of Bonne Maman apricot jam in the middle. The tot was in her element licking spoons of cake mixture and the bowl of left over buttercream as I made the decision to be a bit more creative with my icing sugar sprinkling for the top (a quick dusting normally does the trick) and I made a little template out of a bit of card and it turned out like this!

Oh, we could hardly wait to finish our tea before slicing big wedges for afters! I feel a slice coming on right now, with a big mug of hot tea - very necessary after a morning of painting I think!! :)


Well, it seems as if I never stop doesn't it? Indeed I don't - well not at the moment anyway. Yesterday afternoon, mid baking, I had an appointment with a lovely man called Pete who owns a little cafe and who wanted to have a look at my art print cards. We had a chat and he said he would be very happy to stock my cards for me! I was delighted!! The cafe is in a very scenic area, popular with walkers and cyclists and people coming off the Woodhead Pass (one of the main routes over the penines to Manchester) and its often incredibly busy. He also expressed an interest in having a few pictures too, so thats something else to be thinking about!

This is a long post isnt it?

A little while ago I looked out the kitchen window at the pouring rain, and guess what I saw? It made my day - Mamma Duck and Seven little Babies swimming furiously against the swell (river's gone up quite a few inches and is boistrous and brown instead of shallow and calm). They looked like little brown pom-poms, all in a line - just delightful! :)

Im off to get that cuppa and cake, Ive rambled long enough!!

Sending love to you each, for a smashing weekend.


See you soon
J x