Lovelies in my Garden

Today has been such a nice day I thought I’d share a few photos of things in bloom so I can look back at them in gloomy November.
The day started with a lovely surprise I won a blog giveaway today over at Doris’s blog why not hop on over and see her lovely blog Crocheting in Georgia.

Doris I hope you don’t mind I borrowed your bumble bee to shout out THANK YOU.
My Himalayan blue poppies in bloom, the colour is just spectacular.
  

A bit of an old rhododendron but again what gorgeous fuchsia pink.
It’s all very nice and manicured but the white’ish tree/shrub to the right of the huge conifer is getting straggly. It’s actually heather gone completely mad and it’s trying to take over on the crochet clootie tree so action needs to be taken.
I don’t know the correct name for these maybe Amanda from Eight By Six Gardening blog will pop along and tell me. Something in the daisy family I think. If anyone else knows please feel free to let me know. 


I thought these photo’s I took were really atmospheric and eerie. Yes some very necessary pruning taking place with a very fume ridden chainsaw. Not exactly environmentally friendly – it’s OK the wrists that needed slapping have been.

Clootie Tree Update & New Ribbons

A massive thank you to Anjie at PomPomEmporium for sending fabulous 3 dimensional ribbons for The Clootie Tree. These are great and will add a new dimension to the tree. I had an email this week from a lovely lady in North Carolina USA this week and she and her daughter are going to crochet more ribbons making the Clootie tree truly communal and diverse.
If you feel you can contribute please email me at the sunroomuk@googlemail.com
Anjie was also very generous and sent me one of her sublime organza flower brooches. Check it out below.


Thank you Anjie :-)

This is a new pattern I was working on today which I will publish in the next few days photographed on top of a new ‘Bag for Life’ string bag I’ve just completed.

Clootie tree looking good.

Crochet Clootie Tree in Flower

To learn more click the following links - Clootie Tree - Crochet Gardening  and The history of the Clootie Tree.
Clootie Tree update March, 2010
To contribute crochet ribbons to the crochet clootie tree please email me at thesunroomuk@googlemail.com

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2010 in Crochet.

Okay everyone I’ve been trying to think of various ways to celebrate International Women’s Day 2010. I had thought about giveaways etc but will be doing that next month as it’s my birthday then and it’s always more pleasurable to give than receive.
So to mark International Women’s Day 2010 I’ve decided to have a different type of giveaway a more spiritual and altruistic form of giving. I’m going to make all your wishes come true :-) All that you need to do is leave a comment, wish, dream, prayer or affirmation and choose a colour. I will then crochet a ribbon for your wish etc in the colour you have chosen. I will then add your ribbon to my clootie tree to blow in the wind I will be creating these ribbons throughout March.
You can find out about the history and meanings of a clootie tree here.
 
The day is an official holiday in Afghanistan,^[5] Armenia,^[6] Azerbaijan,^[7] Belarus,^[8] Burkina Faso,^[9] Cambodia,^[10] China (for women only),^[11] Croatia,^{[citation needed]} Cuba,^{[citation needed]} Georgia, Guinea-Bissau,^[5] Eritrea,^[5] Kazakhstan,^[12] Kyrgyzstan, Laos,^[13] Madagascar (for women only),^[14] Moldova,^[15] Mongolia,^[16] Montenegro,^{[citation needed]}, Nepal (for women only),^[5], Russia,^[5] Serbia,^{[citation needed]} Tajikistan,^[5] Turkmenistan,^[5] Uganda,^[5] Ukraine,^[5] Uzbekistan,^[5] Vietnam,^{[citation needed]} and Zambia.^[17]
In some countries, such as Cameroon^[18] or Romania,^{[citation needed]} the day is not a public holiday, but is widely observed nonetheless.
On this day it is customary for men to give the women in their lives - mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters, colleagues, etc - flowers and small gifts. In some countries (such as Romania) it is also observed as an equivalent of Mother's Day, where children also give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union celebrations of IWD were abandoned in Armenia. Instead April 7 was introduced as state holiday of ‘Beauty and Motherhood.’ The new holiday immediately got popular among Armenians, as it commemorates one of the main holidays of Armenian Church, Annunciation. However, people still kept celebrating IWD on March 8 as well. Public discussion held on the topic of two ‘Women’s Days’ in Armenia resulted in the recognition of the so called ‘Women’s Month’ which is the period between March 8 and April 7.
In Italy, to celebrate the day, men give yellow mimosas to women.^[19][20] Yellow mimosas and chocolate are also one of the most common March 8 presents in Russia and Albania.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Serbia the custom of giving women flowers still prevails. Women sometimes get gifts from their employers too. Schoolchildren often bring gifts for their teachers as well.
In countries like Portugal it is usual, at the night of 8 March, for groups of women celebrate in "women-only" dinners and parties.^{[citation needed]}
In India, IWD holds a lot of significance. Many celebrations are held during the day.
In Pakistan working women in formal and informal sectors celebrate International Women's Day every year to commemorate their ongoing struggle for due rights, despite facing many cultural and religious restrictions. Some women working for change in society use IWM to help the movement for women's rights. In Poland, for instance, every International Women's Day includes large feminist demonstrations in major cities.^[21]
In 1975, which had been designated as International Women’s Year, the United Nations gave official sanction to and began sponsoring International Women's Day.
The 2005 Congress (conference) of the British Trades Union Congress overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for IWD to be designated a public holiday in the United Kingdom.
Since 2005 International Women's Day has been celebrated in Montevideo, either on the principal street, 18 de Julio, or alternatively through one of its neighbourhoods. The event has attracted much publicity due to a group of female drummers, La Melaza, who have performed each year.^[22]
Today many events are held by women's groups around the world. The UK based Marketing company, Aurora hosts a free worldwide register of IWD local events^[23] so that women and the media can locate local activity. Many governments and organizations around the world support IWD.
There is a map of IWD events available at this location, for women's groups around the world.^[24]

Wednesday Night Project 170210 – The History of The Cloutie Clootie Tree.

Rag trees, clootie wells, and raggedy bushes are English, Scottish, and Irish names for special places with a mystical reputation. People visit in the hope of healing and good fortune and tie a piece of cloth on a particular tree or bush near a well or source of water. Often the tree is a hawthorn (aka whitethorn or maytree).
There are many, many places in the world with a tradition of attaching cloth to special trees as a ritual for good luck, good health, or as a votive offering. Wishing wells and sacred springs of water are widespread too.
A Wish Tree is an individual tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. By tradition, believers make votive offerings in order to gain from that nature spirit, saint or goddess fulfillment of a wish.
I first discovered these trees when visiting The Samye Ling Centre, Eskdalemuir, Scotland.


Cloutie Tree
As you enter the peace garden from Johnstone House there is a Cloutie tree with colourful cloths tied to its branches.  It is both a Scottish and Tibetan custom to make a wish and then tie a coloured ribbon to the tree.  As the cloth fades the wish is carried off by the elements and hopefully one day comes true.  People are welcome to take a coloured ribbon from the black container beneath the tree, make a small donation in the box and then tie a ribbon to the tree.
My crochet clootie tree. If anyone would like to contribute a crocheted ribbon to the tree please email me at thesunroomuk@googlemail.com

The Green Shoots of Rocket

Hi Everyone,

No I didn’t say green shoots of recovery but rocket. After my gardening frenzy at the weekend I realised how negligent I had been in terms of growing things this year. This seems absurd to me now given I have a big area for vegetables and a greenhouse, shame on me. Anyway as some form of last minute gesture I decided to plant lots of green things to see us through the winter. So on Saturday I planted rocket seeds which we love in our house, children being the exception.

Rocket is so easy to grow – seeds planted Saturday and already sprouted this morning (Wednesday) – hurrah.

I have started the seeds on the kitchen windowsill and they will continue to grow there, or outside or in the greenhouse well into winter.

Rocket being harvested – hopefully me in a few weeks time.

Yesterday we actually got some sunshine again, a rare occurrence at this moment in time. I decided then to plant some perpetual spinach which will hopefully germinate in the coming days. This plant will continue to grow well through winter as leaves are picked off for use it will grow and grow again. By next spring we’ll all be Popeye!

Next up I’m intending to plant garlic in the greenhouse for planting out in spring. I am also going to sew lettuce for salad leaves through the winter. Anyway all the hyperactivity in the garden at the weekend pruning, shaping, trimming and chopping has left me with aching blistered hands. This hasn’t exactly been conducive to crocheting my current rag rug. The 15mm crochet hook doesn’t sit with ease in my hand.

As ever I have gone off on a variety of creative tangents. Firstly a new healing, comfort – prayer shawl.

Whoa well my healing prayer shawl is now finished which is great as it means I can get on with completing one of the other various WIP’s (work’s in progress). I will write up this pattern later and hopefully post it on the blog tonight – I will write the pattern in both US and UK terms. I have already blogged about prayer shawls here http://goodtimesithinkso.blogspot.com/2009/08/vegetarian-haggis.html

I made this healing shawl up as I had made one a couple of weeks ago and forgot to photograph it prior to sending it off to the recipient. The Prayer shawl was warmly welcomed and has been used extensively in the recuperation post major surgery and ultimately a life changing experience. It delights me to think that it may have brought comfort in a time of need. The lady that I gave it to has used it in a traditional way, around the shoulders, but also upon her lap. The comfort of stroking a textured shawl is reassuring in itself.

This is a good basic pattern to have in your armoury let’s face it we never know what life is going to throw at us, our loved ones and our friends and neighbours. I chose a very textured loop yarn as in my opinion texture is an important aspect of any shawl. The loop yarn that I used is a green and teal mixture and crocheted up to look very earthy. I’m pleased with the end result and hope that some of you too will like it.

As previously mentioned a good starting place for detailed information is http://www.shawlministry.com/

According to this resource the symbolic meaning of the colours I have used is as follows.

Green – Earth, Healing, Prosperity, Fertility, Clarity, Sympathy, Hope, Renewal, Health, Balance, Confidence, Abundance, Growth, Life.

Mentally and physically relaxing.

Teal – Trustworthy, Devotion.

How wonderful to think that my healing shawl could be imbued with these qualities. Regardless these qualities are symbolized by the colour choice. So choose your yarn according to the beneficiaries needs.

I spent a large part of yesterday preparing fabrics for the ongoing rag rug and again this probably hasn’t helped my aching hands. I also made the decision to write up my pattern for my spiral scarf except this one is a knitted version of my crocheted one.

I am hoping to get the scarf complete tomorrow.

I had better post this so that I can get on. More photographs to be taken, a scarf to be completed and a pattern to be documented.

Again have a great day.

Bags, Bolero's and Bits

Heatwaves et. al. well not in this part of the world. Here we have overcast skies and very little sunshine. I don't suppose I should complain as it means more time for finishing projects, photographing and blogging.

My first item that was completed last Friday and it is my version of a vintage bolero. I took inspiration from a vintage pattern titled 'Bolero without the Ravel'. I have modified the pattern and had to guess needle sizes etc. The bolero was knitted in 100% DK wool with 6mm needles throughout. The original pattern quoted 'Beehive' knitting needles size 0. I couldn't find a conversion chart so spent a while trying different sizes to obtain the correct tension.




I'm quite pleased with the overall shape but would like to embellish the collar area with fun knitted roses or flowers. I haven't found the desired colour of lipstick fuchsia pink yarn yet but will post a photo once completed finally.



Blocking on the ironing board - why don't we have blocking boards in the UK ?

Crochet Bag

The beginning......

The first rounds......................

The handles and flowers for finishing off ................

Still on day one and growing nicely.

Finally complete and all sewn up.

Although I used 4mm hook and DK yarn the result isn't as tight as I would like. It never ceases to amaze me how 20 different double knitting yarns can have such differing widths and finishes.

Never mind it still makes the perfect stash bag and I feel has a beauty all of it's own. I love the colour mix.

I took my lead/inspiration from Lucy's blog at Attic 24, my bag ended up so large that I had to decrease in the final few rows.

Finally the bottom of the bag which is equally as pretty as the rest.

Next up the cushion, again inspired by the Attic 24 blog. I have been meaning to do something 'wavy' for quite a while and this made perfect sense. The pattern is quick and fluid and could be applied to numerous projects - scarves, blankets, sofa throws and baby blankets etc.

We have the local village show coming up shortly and one of the competition categories is a scarf in any medium, so this will fit the bill nicely.

The cushion in progress - here it looks like a scarf. Again completed in DK yarn on a 4mm hook.

Other WIP's (works in progress)

There are too numerous to mention but the garden is always an ongoing WIP at this time of year. Everything is growing so rapidly and it seems the grass grows overnight. We are exceptionally lucky to have three distinct gardens with the same quantity of maintenance and work to complete.

And so the work begins .......... thankfully my other half started to trim this shrub. The bees just love it and hang about there until after dusk. I didn't want to disturb the bumble bees and so it became a 'him' job.

No signs of activity here but it was so sunny I thought it was a nice picture.

This is our very special wishing tree which merits a post in itself. We tie ribbons to the tree and make wishes each time we do. We also encourage all visitors to do the same. This type of tree is also known as a 'clootie' tree in Scotland and further explanation will follow.

One of many perfect hosta in the garden.

I really should have divided them all in early spring but the weather wasn't great and I was probably distracted crocheting or knitting.

More signs of progress - there is definitely a wheel barrow in this photo which indicates some work having taken place in the garden. I took this photograph late last week at about 6pm whilst bringing the laundry in.

And finally it's cake time

Our version of Sunday afternoon cake made by our master chef Aidy-P aged 11. I was meant to make the cake but was taken over and sidelined by the little persons enthusiasm. We had a fair amount of debate about if the nuts should be included in the cake. He finally conceded and I was allowed to decorate 'half' of the cake with pecans.

A sterling effort and very tasty to boot.

Coffee and Pecan cake.