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Sunday 26 August 2012

Bundled in Blankets and Crocheted in Colour

This morning we squidged through the mud and shuffled through the ground cover leaves to find ourselves a possie in the spring sunshine, down in the back garden where the fantails flit & other (borrowed) sun-baskers happily emerge from the bushes.
 We haven't been able to mow (or should I say, Rob hasn't) the back lawn for an absolute age due to an over abundance of the wet stuff. Looking more like a meadow just now, but the self-sown primulas are happy & my largely neglected orchid has managed to produce four pretty flower spikes..
Why ever are orchids called spikes & other things are called sprays, I wonder?
 The tentative advent of spring was so welcome & embraceable we drove out to Havelock North yesterday morning, on a whim...& found the most magical place to walk and picnic!
 Plum blossom is always so eager & fragile & passes all too soon.
 Back home, I found some more in our own garden.
Isn't it so fresh & bright?!
 We had more rain earlier in the week & keeping picnic inspirations firmly in mind, we decided to gather all of our vintage blankets from everywhere they have been hiding & sort them in to piles.
 Some are needing some care & repair (master of the blanket stitch!)
 Many have delightful, story telling labels..

 Some people have a blanket folding gift..& others do not!
 Eventually we sorted out a perfect picnic pile.
 Some are personal favourites, of the boy variety.
What do you think..this seemed like a good idea for bundling up blankets & whisking off on an adventure?
 We fiddled around with colours & combinations of picnicinalia..it was fun.
I found the blue English china in St Vinnys. There were 16 pieces in all, for $10.
I like the plain pastel blue & pleasing shape of the cups.
 I love this tiffin tin...it's going to be very handy I'm sure.
 I'm not very good at being a girl.
I'm forever getting grubby & doing silly things with my clothes, like getting green paint on my sweet pink (op shop) top, when re-painting the fruit sign!
There is a pocket either side so I made these teeny tiny hearts from Lucy's Attic24 pattern & I think they've managed to save the day..who knows what I'll manage tomorrow!
 When I made my crocheted wreath a week or too ago I ended up making lots of pretty crocheted flowers. I have kept going & made enough to encircle this lovely old tapestry. I have attached it to some nice thick vintage green blanket & made it in to a cushion.

 I have also made a few more jam jar covers & many, many thanks to Bev at Kainga Happenings, we now have an interpretation of the chart that I started out with.

 Crochet Jam Jar Cover

Start with a loop. 
Round 1. 8 double crochet into loop. Slip stitch together to close round.
Round 2. 3 chain, 1 treble. “ 2 chain, 2 trebles together, 2 chain”  Continue to end repeating “2 chain, 2 trebles together, 2 chain.”  Slip stitch into top of the 1st 3 chain.
Round 3. Slip stitch across to the 1st treble of round 2, 3 chain, 1 treble,  one chain, one treble. 1 treble into the two trebles together of previous round.  Continue on with “1 treble, 1 chain, 1 treble.”  Slip stitch across to the first 3 chains. You will have 24 trebles.
Round 4. 3 chain, 2 treble, “1 chain, 5 treble.” Repeat “1 chain, 5trebles 7 times.” 1 chain, 2 trebles. Slip stitch to top of first 3 chains.  You will have a total of 40 trebles.
Round 5. 3 chain, 3 trebles, 1 chain.  “7 trebles, 1 chain, 7 trebles.” Repeat “7 trebles, 1 chain, 7 trebles.” 7 times. 1 chain, 3 trebles. Slip stitch across to top of 1st 3  chains. You will have a total of 56 trebles.
Round 6. 3 chain, 1 chain, 1 treble, 1 chain, 1 treble.  Repeat until end. Slip stitch across to top of first 3 chain. You will have a total of 32 trebles.
Round 7. 3 chain, 3 trebles into the 1st treble. Double crochet into the next treble. 4 trebles into the next treble. Continue around to end.  Slip stitch to the top of 1st 3 chain.  17 patterns on final round.
(Round 7. on actual pattern. 3 chain, double crochet, 4 trebles on next treble together. Total 16 pattern on final round.)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I have figured out better how I actually made mine...a little bit made up as I went along, I think & I like it so here it is too:


1. Centre: 3 ch sl st = O
2. 2 ch sc into circle x 7 = 8
3. 3 htr 3 ch x 8 = 8 sets (24 htrs)
4. 4 ch, 2 htr between each htr cluster, 1 htr in gap, 1 ch repeat
5. 1 htr all way around= 40
6. 1 htr 2ch 1 htr...
7. sl st to next gap, 3 ch, 2 tr, 1 htr, 1 ch 1 dc 1ch, 1 htr 2 tr 1 htr...sl st to close.
Weave in ends & thread ribbon through the 6th round.

Hope that all makes enough sense.
Have a lovely week dear ones.
MUCH
 ♥♥♥♥♥

10 comments:

  1. Lovely and glorious images of flowers, gardens, blankets and crochet. Thanks for sharing the patterns.
    Anne xx

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  2. Oh, I LOVE all the pink loveliness here today, Gathering Katie!
    Your picnic blankets are elegant and abundant! Does Rob really do the blanket stitch?
    Your white kitty looks happy about springtime.
    You have been crocheting like a true pro. I'm inspired!
    Sending love your way!

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  3. What a wonderful white cat!

    It has been extra wet here also and our lawn is quite high too. Is that a Monarch? How I miss them from my years in the US. Butterflies are sparse here this season also due to rain. Those blankets are so pretty, I just adore them - ALL! x

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  4. Oh Catherine
    you've weaved your magical fairy wand again with this sweet post.
    that's the most delicious collection of blankets - and I love your idea of the picnics.!!!!
    What perfect blossom trees - I still remember blossom week in Hawkes Bay!

    I've decided I must be dyslexic when it comes to crochet. I'm dying to make some little flowers - violets. But for the life of me I couldn't make out that initial round to get started. I looked at a couple of utube thingys - but they just went too fast - any helpful advice...... please help me get started.....

    much love
    Shane

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  5. Hello Catherine,

    That is such a sweet photo of your husband with the blankets. The labels are so interesting, no Made in China in sight!!!! Glad to be able to help with the crochet.

    Happy days.
    Bev.xoxo

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  6. A wonderful stash of blankets Catherine perfect for picnics.

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  7. The lids- oh thank you thank you for the lids!! Look at all this sunshine after rain. It's still summer here, I supoose, and we're having stormy rain after sunshine!

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  8. Oh I LOVE a white cat; wish I had one but haven't had for a few years now. Love the ones I've got though -LOL-.
    The crochet covers are cute as buttons; well done!

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  9. Hello Catherine, a beautiful pastel themed post :-) I adore your blanket collection - such beautiful colours/patterns. That is a lovely picture of Rob "mending" them too - actually rather love your suitcase of wool in the background also! !
    Your tiffin tin is adorable as is your thermos & the scallop bunting - such a picnicy theme you have there.
    I just think your cushion with the old tapestry is amazing - have an old tapestry I very nearly put in the Op Shop bag so may have to go fish it out again & have a rethink.
    I regret to admit my crochet is NOT coming along nicely.
    Hope your week brings you some sunshine my dear. Take care, Love/hugs, Julie Xox

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  10. I wish our home was surrounded by blossom trees! Our landlady rang last week to ask if we'd like to buy this place which we've rented for 12 or so years now. It's a rundown shoebox of a house but it has a decent amount of land (for suburban AK, that is) and I can envision all the trees we could plant... *sigh*

    The butterfly photo reminds me of the monarch we tried to rescue just the other day. It was lying injured in the path of the lawnmower so I gently coaxed it onto my hand, which I thought was incredibly brave of me because I am a totally wuss about bugs - even beautiful ones. :P Though as soon as it's little legs began making their way up my arm I freaked and ushered it onto a plant.

    Gosh, I look at the photos of your picnic set up and I can feel sunshine and smell spring flowers and taste bacon & egg pie. It's such a beautiful whimsical venture you've started on here, I really look forward to hearing how it pans out! Fastening the blankets with those leather belts is BRILLIANT by the way.

    Regarding websites and the likes... If you decide Weebly's not working out, please please take up my offer! I would be so honoured to set up and host it free of charge - you'd only need pay for domain name registration (approx $15 per year). I use Wordpress which is an incredibly popular & flexible Content Management System, is an excellent platform for Search Engine Optimisation and of course you can easily log in and write up your own site updates, add new pages, run an image gallery to show off your gorgeous picnic props etc. So once the site is set up and looking beautiful, it's ready for you to update with ongoing content without needing to know html.

    If my attempts to convince you have failed and you still prefer Weebly, please make sure you optimise your site for SEO! I can email you the SEO pointers I've put together for my clients if you like, just email me design@infinitemonkey.co.nz :)

    Oh last thing - can't wait to show my mum your jam jar covers. I harped on about them to her a few weeks back and now that she's staying over at the moment I can show them to her in the morning. Give her some inspiration - she needs a new project to try out! :D

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So lovely of you to leave a comment. Thank you!! So sorry if you've tried to leave one & it hasn't worked. You are welcome to email me at catherine@sunshinevintage.nz instead, if you'd like to, much love Catherine♥

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